Daily News Feed 4.14.2010/Vocab: Bloviate

Wednesday Apr 14, 2010 – by Clutch

Idris Elba calls for British TV to be more diverse
“If you look at American television, it is nothing to see a cast that is multi-racial. So we shouldn’t shy away from demanding more diversity on British TV. Only because it reflects the culture we live in,” said the English actor, who also guest-starred as a no-nonsense corporate VP on the U.S. version of “The Office.”

Elba, pointed to his new project, the BBC crime series “Luther,” as an example of how diversity can be built into the scripts of British shows. Elba stars as a brilliant but dangerously violent London murder detective. The actor also took on associate producer duties for the project, which will premiere on BBC One this Spring. (Continue Reading…)

African American Expected to be named Commander in Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) — The senior U.S. general in Iraq since 2008, Gen. Ray Odierno, will be succeeded by a leading Pentagon general at the end of the summer, military officials said Monday. His replacement is Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, the staff director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the officials said.

Military officials spoke about the change on condition of anonymity because the announcement has not been made.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrel said Defense Secretary Robert Gates has not yet made a recommendation to the White House for Odierno’s successor. (Continue Reading…)

Miss. county school ordered to comply with desegregation order
A federal judge Tuesday ordered a rural county in southwestern Mississippi to stop segregating its schools by grouping African American students into all-black classrooms and allowing white students to transfer to the county’s only majority-white school, the U.S. Justice Department announced.

The order, issued by Senior Judge Tom S. Lee of the U.S. District Court of Southern Mississippi, came after Justice Department civil rights division lawyers moved to enforce a 1970 desegregation case against the state and Walthall County. (Continue Reading…)

Newsrooms Continue to Cut Black Journalists from Their Ranks
McDonald’s to sponsor Black Family Reunion
Abuse charge against Catholic priest roils Kenya
Study: Latino Immigration Causes Problems in Black Community
Black empowerment law delayed in Zimbabwe

Bloviate \BLOH-vee-ayt\, verb;

1. To speak or write at length in a pompous or boastful manner.

Anyone who has ever spent an idle morning watching the Washington talk shows has probably wondered: how did these people become entitled to earn six-figure salaries bloviating about the week’s headlines?

–Robert Worth, “Quick! The Index!”, New York Times, June 3, 2001