For the record: In a recent story about sex education, I mentioned that Sen. Hillary Clinton "has received the endorsement of all the women’s rights groups, including NOW and NARAL." Actually, NARAL has not endorsed anyone for president giving equal credence to the candidacies of Sen. Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama. They both received a 100 percent rating from the organization on their pro-choice stances. Sorry about the error!

The Truth About Racial Disparities: There is still ongoing buzz about Obama's uplifting speech on race, but the non-partisan think tank, the Urban Institute, actually released stats on racial disparities in the country:

• Housing discrimination against blacks persists today, although it dropped significantly during the 1990s. For example, in 2000, black homebuyers experienced discrimination 17 percent of the time they asked about homes advertised for sale, down from 29 percent in 1989. And black renters faced discrimination in 22 percent of their inquiries, down from 26 percent a decade earlier.
• Blacks are much more likely than whites to live in high-poverty neighborhoods. In the Washington, D.C., region, for example, blacks were more than twice as likely as whites to live in high-poverty neighborhoods in 2003.
• Minority neighborhoods, even in the suburbs, generally have lower house values than comparable white neighborhoods, which means a lower property tax base to fund public schools and more limited opportunities for wealth accumulation from rising home values.
• Residential segregation distances minority jobseekers from areas of employment growth and opportunity. Although many minorities now live in the suburbs, these generally are not the neighborhoods that offer the most promising job prospects.
• In Washington, D.C., blacks were considerably more likely to get a subprime home purchase loan than whites (15.4 percent vs. 1.8 percent) in 2004. Rates for subprime refinancing loans were also higher for blacks than whites (17.3 percent vs. 3.2 percent).
• In 2006, the national median household income was $48,201. Broken down by race, the median income was $52,423 for whites and $31,969 for blacks.

Puzzling BPN Letter: Here is one of those unusual Berkeley Parents Network letters:

My brother-in-law's wife, who is 34 years-old, just found out that she was adopted. She's angry and confused and, unfortunately, her mom, who is her adopted mom, and my mother-in-law, are telling her not to vent to her bio mother. Her adopted mom is now announcing to the world that her daughter is now her ''adopted'' daughter, which simply pains me greatly as I see this woman is so much pain. I'm wondering if there's any book any one can recommend that I can give to her. She of course will need to go to therapy to deal with her issues but if anyone can offer any other sort of advice that would be great. I don't want to be another one in the way but I would love to help her in any way I can but I just don't know how. I simply hate seeing her in so much pain.
anon

At 34, this woman is only a few years older than me. I can't imagine not being told of your adoptive status in the '80s and '90s. Does this sort of thing still happen?

What else is in the news? Have a good weekend all!