Despite a warning from the Justice Department, Florida officials move ahead with a voter-roll purge; CUNY unveils plans to introduce Jewish minority label; and more.
Federal Judge Opposes Florida Voter-Registration Rules; State Moves Forward With Plans to Purge Voter Rolls
A federal judge ordered Florida to stop enforcing several voter-registration requirements that were enacted after a law was passed in 2011 to tighten election rules, The New York Times reported.
The judge on Thursday banned a rule that required third-party voter-registration groups to submit completed forms within 48 hours or face fines. He also opposed a provision that opens volunteers to possible felony charges if they register ineligible voters--even if they do it unknowingly.
State officials announced their intent to continue purging suspected noncitizens from the voter-registration rolls, despite a letter from the Justice Department warning them that the list of names was disproportionately people of color, The Huffington Post reports.
CUNY to Introduce Jewish-Minority Label for Faculty
The City University of New York introduced a racial category to designate its Jewish faculty as "White/Jewish," a plan discussed in its diversity-action plan. Although CUNY officials say that some faculty members had requested the label, other faculty members spoke out against the idea, saying that mixing religion with race would only add complications.
Read more here.
Report: Black Drivers in Missouri Are Stopped More Often
Black drivers in Missouri are 72 percent more likely to be stopped than white drivers, a new report shows, and minorities overall are stopped more often than their white cohort, details that one advocate calls "telling." Joplin officials, however, maintain that the data lack analysis and, while a cause for concern, does not necessarily equate to racial profiling.
Latin Americans Drink Less Alcohol Than People in U.S., Europe
Latin Americans consume on average about 5.5 liters of pure alcohol (about 315 cans of beer) per person, per year, Univision reported on Friday. Annually, consumers in the United States and Europe average 9.4 liters and 13 liters respectively, according to findings in a survey by the Latin American Faculty for Social Sciences.
Read more here.
Gen-Xers Less Conservative, Less Religious
People born between 1965 and 1972 are becoming less religiously affiliated and Republican as they have aged, one of the biggest surveys of American religiosity show. The Washington Post reported on Friday that the percentage of Generation-Xers who call themselves Christian dropped 10 percent between 1990 and 2008. In 1990, when Gen-Xers were in their late teens and early 20s, 85 percent said they were Christian. That number fell to 75 percent in 2008.
Read more here.
From The Atlantic Wire
Monday's Top 5 Columns: Juliette Kayyem in The Boston Globe on women and column writing.
This article is part of our Next America: Communities project, which is supported by a grant from Emerson Collective.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.