In another manifestation of desperate Haitian people losing hope, earthquake survivors are abandoning their children. Aid workers in Haiti believe that so many children, of all ages, and babies are being found alone outside of clinics, hospitals, orphanages and garbage heaps because hopeless parents believe the only chance for their children is to be "rescued" by aid agencies.

The catastrophic earthquake that left at least 1.3 million of Haiti's 9 million people homeless was the final push over the edge for families that could barely afford to feed their children before. A 4-day-old baby girl was left in a cardboard box outside a hospital. Toddlers are being found alone in hospital waiting rooms. Outside a private clinic, volunteers discovered a 3-year-old holding a bag of carefully-folded underwear.

What they won't teach you on 'Lock Up Raw' is that your religious beliefs can get you held in long-term solitary confinement; particularly if devotion to your religious teachings prohibit you from cutting your hair. Virginian inmate, Rastafarian Kendall Gibson knows this policy very well. He's been held in solitary confinement for 10 years, and unless he cuts his hair, Mr. Gibson (and others like him) will not be joining "gen pop" anytime soon.

For more than 10 years [Kendall Gibson] has lived in segregation at the Greensville Correctional Center, spending at least 23 hours every day in a cell the size of a gas station bathroom. In a temporary home for the worst of the worst - inmates too violent or disruptive to live among the rest of society's outcasts - he has been a permanent fixture.

When the students of Compton High School learned about the racially derogatory "Compton Cookout" party on the campus of UC San Diego, they were understandably outraged. A group of them got together and wrote to UCSD, challenging the institution's role in creating a negative racial climate and letting administrators know that just because there are fewer resources in Compton, it doesn't diminish the students' work.

High school students in Compton were upset in February when they heard that a group of UC San Diego students had mocked their hometown by holding a "Compton Cookout" party and inviting guests to come as "ghetto chicks" and gangsters.

Hearing that billions of dollars in aid has been pledged to help Haiti rebuild might help us sleep better, but those headlines don't tell the full story. Despite money pouring into the country, many Haitians concentrated in the largest, post-earthquake tent communities have little or no access to money and services. The residents of Avenue Poupelard in Port-au-Prince tell the story.

Avenue Poupelard provides a less encouraging picture of the reach of aid, services and information than that found in official situation reports. [ ] With the large-scale food distribution winding down, many families are subsisting on rice bought from street vendors. But several women said the free food was never easy to get, anyway; the man dispensing ration cards on Avenue Poupelard demanded sex or money in exchange.

Haitian Judge Bernard Saint-Vil, has dismissed the kidnapping and criminal association charges against the 10 American missionaries who had been detained for trying to move a busload of children out of Haiti to the Dominican Republic just after the Jan. 12th earthquake.

Unfortunately for Laura Silsby, though, the woman who led the Idaho-based group, the judge refused to drop another charge against her for organizing the effort to transport the 33 children to an orphanage (that she claimed) the Baptists were setting up in the Dominican Republic.

Silsby faces up to three years in prison if convicted on the remaining charge, the "organization of irregular trips," from a 1980 statute restricting travel out of Haiti signed by then-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier. Source

Promising increased fiscal discipline and increased funding for law enforcement, Steve Benjamin won a runoff election on Tuesday to become the first black mayor of Columbia, S.C. Benjamin's message motivated voters, who showed up to vote in record-setting numbers:

An unexpected 2,000 more voters turned out Tuesday than the record-setting 17,137 who voted April 6. Thirty-one percent of registered voters, or 19,427 people, cast ballots.

Benjamin, an attorney, defeated District 4 Councilman Kirkman Finlay, whose campaign was built around his warning that the city's budget was in crisis and that the only way to save it was to shrink local government to a more manageable size.

But Benjamin promised city voters more than a balanced budget, and some voters were clinging to that promise Tuesday.

Many will celebrate Earth Day by making a special effort to be a little kinder to our planet. It's chic to tell everyone that on this day you rode a bike instead of driving or picked up some trash on the beach or even, finally, made a commitment to forgo paper and plastic in favor of reusable cloth grocery bags. And, really, each of these efforts helps in the battle to preserve Mother Earth.

But for those on the front lines of the environmental justice movement, fighting against pollution is a life or death endeavor that goes on 24/7. And many of the social justice warriors on the environmental frontier come from the communities most poisoned by fumes and waste spilling from industrial compounds.

Far be it from me to criticize any effort to bring teens into a positive spiritual environment, but I'll admit that I was surprised to see that Bible-publishing powerhouse Zondervan had crafted a Bible designed to appeal to black youngster that starts with the lyrics of 'Lift Every Voice and Sing.' From Christianbook.com:

Our Heritage and Faith Holy Bible for African-American Teens in the New International Version helps teens understand their heritage and enables them to identify and interact with Scripture. Focusing on the traditions of the African-American church, the 106 pages of articles and essays help teens come to know the roots of their lives, their forms of worship and their faith in God. Photos and illustrations are included on tip-in pages to enhance the teen's experience of learning about their heritage. Ideal for teens ages 13–16.

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Harry K. Thomas Jr. (in the dark suit) has taken his post as the new United States Ambassador to the Philippines. Mr. Thomas is the first black envoy to the Philippines, and he arrives at his new post with a formidable resume:

Ambassador Thomas served most recently as a Special Assistant to the Secretary and Executive Secretary of the State Department.

He joined the Foreign Service in 1984, and served as Director for South Asia at the National Security Council in the White House from 2001 to 2002. He served as United States Ambassador to Bangladesh from 2003 to 2005. His other postings include: New Delhi, India; Harare, Zimbabwe; Kaduna, Nigeria; and Lima, Peru.

Time-outs are out the door at one central Texas school district. Temple, like many other school districts, banned corporal punishment, but paddling was reinstated last May in response to popular demand -- from parents.

Although most U.S. school districts have banned corporal punishment, Texas doesn't seem to believe in sparing the rod. Of the estimated 225,000 students spanked in schools in 2006, the latest available figures, nearly one-fourth, were from Texas.

But Temple is unusual in that after banning the practice, the school district revived it last May at the request of parents, who were nostalgic for the orderly schools of yesteryear.

Without it, there weren't any consequences for students, according to Steve Wright, Temple's school board president. (Source: Associated Press)