By Jill Nelson
The Haitian earthquake crisis will be remembered as the moment in which the technology and platforms that enable social networking were used and transformed by ordinary citizens—the period when Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other social networking sites became agents of change, and technology transcended commercialism, politics, personality, and trivia.

By Chinyere Osuala
Just Food, a non-profit organization that advocates a just and sustainable food system in New York City, hosted a site visit on Tuesday to the Farm at Miller’s Crossing in Hudson, N.Y. to bring staff, volunteers, and clients of inner-city emergency food organizations in touch with the farms that provide them with fresh fruits and vegetables, weekly, through Just Food’s Fresh Food For All Program.

By Beryl Satter
In the 1950s, speculators combed white neighborhoods, purchasing property from whites and then reselling them to blacks—at double to quadruple market value. Even worse, they sold these overpriced properties “on contract,” that is, on the installment plan. Black buyers made a down payment and were responsible for taxes, insurance, maintenance, and interest, but could lose the property if they missed even one payment. They were forced to accept such brutal terms, since in Chicago as nationally, most banks refused to loan to them; if they wanted to buy at all, they had to buy from speculators.

By The Editors
John Payton vigorously defended Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s fitness to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday in a charged debate with conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan on the MSNBC program “Hardball with Chris Matthews.”

By The Editors
President Obama will nominate Jacqueline A. Berrien, Associate Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), to be the new Chair of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

By The Editors
The U.S. Supreme Court today declared that the nation’s laws banning discrimination in lending can and should be enforced by all levels of government, not just federal agencies.

By John Shearer
Ella and May grew up worlds apart. Ella, 60 and single, spent her early years in Greenwich Connecticut and was a runner up in the Miss Black America beauty pageant. May, 40, started life on Chicago’s South Side. Ella went to Smith College. May was a gang-banger who somehow managed to get by.