State Laws Sought on Human Trafficking
Alabama has seen a hand­ful of high-profile cases of human trafficking within state lines in recent years -- from a 2007 raid on a brothel at an Albertville mo­bile home to the arrest last year of a Florence man charged with coercing a mi­nor...

Alabama woman to get Congressional Gold Medal for WWII service
An Alabama woman who test piloted American warplanes in the 1940s is headed to Washington, D.C., to be honored with other women for their World War Two military service. Mary Helen Foster of Northport will receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the...

Local Opportunities
Metropolitan Birmingham Services for the Homeless: Support MBSH by eating at California Pizza Kitchen at the Summit on Tuesday, March 16.  Twenty percent of your meal price will be donated to MBSH.  The donations will go to Project Homeless...

Hoping for a Bigelow Breakthrough
Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win the best director Oscar, was only the fourth female film-maker to be nominated in the category. She joined a select list featuring Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2004), Jane Campion for The Piano (1994)...

Multiracial No Longer Boxed in by the Census
Jennifer Harvey was raised by her white mother and white stepfather in what she calls "a Caucasian world." Harvey never met her father but she knew he was black and Cuban. That made her Hispanic, white and black. "Blacks think I'm black," she says....

Commentary: The 'N -word' Isn't The Issue
The recent firing of an adjunct art instructor by Towson University because the instructor used a racial slur raises many important issues related to race and the power of language, political correctness, and the over-reliance by state universities...

Awarenss Rises But Women Still Lag in Pay
Companies in the United States, Spain, Canada and Finland lead the world in employing the largest numbers of women from entry level to senior management, according to a report published Monday by the World Economic Forum. Yet the report also found...

Rape Risk Rises in Cambodia says Amnesty International
Human rights organisations in Cambodia have called for the government to tackle the rising incidence of rape. A report by Amnesty International says victims have limited access to justice, medical services and counselling. It claims that rape cases...

Being Gay in Uganda: One Couple's Story
Pepe Julian Onziema looks great in a suit. Tall and lanky, she doesn't slouch to hide her height and doesn't apologize for her boyish figure. Or for anything else. She's got at least 10 suits: pinstripes, white linen, black, gray, navy and others....