DCentric

Good morning, DCentric readers. Are you ready for the week? Well, there is a lot of news to catch up on before it officially starts. Check out what we’re reading below:

Class, not race, seems to be D.C.’s great divider In case you didn’t know, class matters — surprise! According to a new Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation poll, Washingtonians seem to be more divided along class lines rather than racial ones. Wealthy whites and wealthy blacks have more similar outlooks when it comes to neighborhoods and the future of the city than wealthy blacks do with poor blacks. One of the major exceptions is with the economy; wealthy blacks feel much more insecure about their economic stability than wealthy whites do. (The Washington Post)

Government alters Secure Communities deportations Secure Communities was intended to deport convicted felons, but there are holes — numerous cases have been documented in which illegal immigrants who were victims of domestic abuse, witnesses of crimes or who had committed minor infractions were also deported. Now, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has released new regulations. Immigrations officers are now not supposed to deport criminal witnesses or victims, and “particular care will be taken to ensure that victims of domestic abuse are not being deported after reporting abuse to police.” Critics still say the program hurts community policing because it makes the immigrant community distrustful of police. (Los Angeles Times)

Study: Diversity, Local Reporting Suffering Minority ownership of television stations and the number of minority journalists has declined, according to a new Federal Communications Commission report. The study concluded that new media provides greater access and allows those traditionally shut out by mainstream media to bypass gatekeepers. Still, one commissioner pointed out, “Diversity of viewpoint, diversity in ownership, diversity in who and what we see on TV, and diversity in who runs the companies — all these are worse in media than in most other American industries.” (The Maynard Institute)

Five myths about Americans in prison Answers to questions such as why our crime rate has dropped, why our prison population is larger than decades ago and why there’s a class and racial disparity in prison sentencing. (Washington Post)

D.C. court: Muslim security guard fired for praying on the job should get benefits A D.C. government office security guard was fired from his job because he put his gun away in order to pray during Ramadan. Now, the District’s highest court has ruled that although his termination may have been merited, he deserves unemployment benefits. (Washington Examiner )