DETROIT (AP) -- A federal appeals court has struck down Michigan's ban on the consideration of race and gender in university admissions.

NEW YORK (AP) --One hundred years ago, Samuel J. Battle was sworn in as the New York Police Department's first black officer. Today, the majority of the police officers at the nation's largest department are minorities—and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says it is this diversity that makes the NYPD so effective.

Looking for a college bargain? Try any of nine University of Puerto Rico campuses, where annual tuition hovers at or below $2,000.
Counting pennies? Avoid Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, a private school where tuition, fees and room and board exceeds $50,000, making it one of the five most expensive schools on a new U.S. Department of Education guide to college costs.

NEW YORK (AP) -- MSNBC suspended political analyst Mark Halperin for an off-color remark about President Barack Obama on "Morning Joe" Thursday.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A catastrophic flood emptied New Orleans of much of its black youth. Powerful social forces may be doing a similar thing to places like Harlem and Chicago's South Side. Over the past decade, the inner-city neighborhoods that have served for generations as citadels of African-American life and culture have been steadily draining of black children.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate abandoned plans for a July 4 break as time dwindled for lawmakers to strike a compromise on avoiding a government default and reducing mammoth federal deficits. In a challenge to President Barack Obama, the chamber's top Republican invited him to the Capitol to discuss the impasse with GOP lawmakers.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- One in every 20 federal prisoners could be eligible for early release under a potential sentencing change for inmates convicted of crack cocaine offenses that will be voted on Thursday.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Hundreds of New York City teachers recruited from Jamaica, Trinidad and other Caribbean countries a decade ago say city officials have not followed through on promises to help them obtain U.S. citizenship.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With jobs and federal aid at stake, dozens of U.S. cities are lining up to contest their 2010 census counts as too low.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A former New Orleans police officer spent a grueling day first walking the prosecution through his versions of the events on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina that left two citizens shot dead and four wounded, and then sparring with defense attorneys over his testimony.