Minorities

After years of catch-up, multiculturalism seemed primed for the major leagues of prime-time network TV when the culturally diverse "Heroes" and "Ugly Betty" zoomed to hit status in the 2006-07 season. Executives charged with increasing diversity in front of and behind the cameras at the four major networks say the coming season demonstrates their continued commitment, since most new series contain minorities in prominent roles.

Lewis Hamilton drove home his point to the planet Sunday: He is not just Formula One's first black driver, but its best and most brilliant rookie ever. Winning the Canadian Grand Prix with ease, Hamilton, a 22-year-old Briton, became the first driver of African descent to win a major automobile race, ever, anywhere. Taking sole possession of the world championship points lead, Hamilton hurtled on, relentlessly, toward becoming a Tiger Woods on wheels.

To combat rising rates of syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea, Los Angeles County officials will launch a public health campaign today that uses drink coasters, murals, sidewalk chalk art and other unconventional approaches to advertise the need to get tested. The bilingual campaign is aimed at gay and bisexual men, African American women and Latinas, the groups most affected by the increase in sexually transmitted diseases, said Dr.

When the nurse asked Erica Rangel-Baez if she would be willing to donate her son's organs, Rangel-Baez prayed to know what to do. Just days earlier, 9-year-old Frankie Hernandez was perfectly healthy, an outstanding baseball player. But on a Sunday afternoon in 2005, he walked into his family's house in Arleta, clutching his head and complaining of a headache so fierce he needed to go to the hospital. Halfway to the hospital, he stopped breathing.

Frustrated by the assumption that all Asian American youths are well represented at UC schools, a coalition of Pacific Islander and Asian students at UCLA is pushing for the university to expand its demographic categories to highlight low numbers in some of those communities in hopes of boosting enrollment and outreach programs. Advocates are collecting signatures to petition legislators and the Board of Regents this fall to change how the university system collects admissions data.

More seniors are passing the state's high school exit exam, but failure rates among poor and minority students remain disproportionately high, and dropouts are not counted in the state's numbers, the state Department of Education said Thursday. As of May, the pass rate for the class of 2007 was 93.3%, a 2.1 percentage point increase over the class of 2006 for that period. The pass rate also was higher for some lower-scoring groups, including African American students, who saw a gain of 4.

In his first formal speech to administrators, Los Angeles Schools Supt. David L. Brewer told principals and managers Friday that they must change both themselves and a pervasive culture of "low expectations for brown and black children," adding that they would receive mandatory leadership training and support but also would be held accountable for student achievement.

Minority borrowers received higher-cost mortgages more frequently than whites when they refinanced their homes last year, continuing a trend of racial disparities in home-loan rates, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. African Americans received high-cost loans 52.8% of the time when they refinanced home loans last year, versus 49.3% in 2005, the Fed said in a report. Latino borrowers received high-cost refinancings 37.7% of the time, up from 33.8% in 2005. The rate for white borrowers was 25.

A PBS video previewing the network's Republican presidential candidates forum, set to air tonight from a historically black university, asks, "Can the party of Abraham Lincoln win the hearts and minds of all Americans?" But none of the GOP's top White House contenders will show up to answer the question, each citing a scheduling conflict.

Race relations are taking a starring role in several new culturally-tinged series this fall. Fox's "K-Ville," ABC's "Cavemen," CBS' "Cane," and the CW's "Aliens in America" and "Life Is Wild" couldn't be more different in incorporating cultural flavor. "Cane" examines the criminal dealings of a loving Cuban family, while "Aliens in America" is a satirical look at the prejudice that greets the arrival of a Pakistani student in a small town.