Minorities

California's high school exit exam is keeping disproportionate numbers of girls and non-whites from graduating, even when they are just as capable as white boys, according to a study released Tuesday. It also found that the exam, which became a graduation requirement in 2007, has "had no positive effect on student achievement."

Latino and Asian growth in the Inland Empire and other outlying areas is slowing while such traditional gateways as Los Angeles are experiencing a "mini-rebound" in their minority population, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data. Los Angeles County, for instance, saw a net gain of nearly 70,000 Latinos last year, a 1.5% increase in that population after two years of near-flat growth. In contrast, the Latino growth rate in Riverside County dropped by nearly half to 3.

The Obama administration, signaling a sharp departure from more than 20 years of federal policy, urged Congress on Wednesday to close the gap in prison sentences given to those convicted of dealing crack versus powdered cocaine. Assistant Atty. Gen. Lanny Breuer said the mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines are so inherently unfair that they have undermined trust in the country's judicial institutions, particularly among minorities who bear the brunt of the law.

It is 8:30 a.m. on a Sunday. Along streets of grimy stucco bungalows with bougainvillea, American flags and "Beware of Dog" signs on chain-link fences, a couple of residents are hosing down lawns. It ought to be quiet, but it's not. Behind the garden walls of Astor Avenue, there's a chugging and a hissing and a clanking and a squeaking. Two yellow locomotives, hooked to cars piled high with metal containers, idle on the track of the Union Pacific. Their stacks spew gray plumes of smoke.

About half of California's low-income households have no Internet access, the California Emerging Technology Fund says, creating a gap that the nonprofit is hoping to close with its $1.5-million Get Connected campaign debuting in Boyle Heights today. Financial constraints and a misunderstanding of technology are the major factors causing this "digital divide," said Sunne Wright McPeak, the fund's chief executive.

If trophies were handed out for promoting diversity in nationally televised award programs, CBS' telecast of the Primetime Emmy Awards would not stand much of a chance to win. On a night dedicated to spotlighting the television industry's best and brightest, it was difficult to see many people of color onstage during the three-hour ceremony. Few minorities were represented as nominees in Sunday night's telecast. Only one individual nominee of color received an award, Shohreh Aghdashloo for supporting actress in a movie or miniseries for HBO's "House of Saddam."

A prominent civil rights leader has told the Democratic National Committee that refusing to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan would disenfranchise both states' minority communities. In a Feb. 8 letter to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond expressed "great concern at the prospect that millions of voters in Michigan and Florida could ultimately have their votes completely discounted."

Although the overall U.S. abortion rate is at its lowest level since 1974, the drop has been far more dramatic for whites than for African Americans, who in 2004 had abortions at five times the rate of white women, according to a report released Monday. The abortion rate for Latinas was about three times that of whites.

In a small classroom inside an industrial park in Torrance, veteran TV engineer Jaime Hernandez is dispensing some practical advice to his eager students. Look at the subject. Frame the shot. Check the focus. Above all, be consistent. "I had a student who was always going after the spectacular shot," Hernandez said. "I told him, 'Just give me something I can use. Just give me a base hit, not a home run every time.'

The integration of Southern California's suburban communities continued apace into the second half of the decade, driven by steadily growing numbers of Latinos and Asians moving into middle-class neighborhoods, according to detailed census data released Monday. Overall, the white population in the five-county region appears to have leveled off after a notable decline in the 1990s. Other groups continued to expand across the region, with the Asian population seeing the greatest increase.