For years, Virginia man Thomas Haynesworth (pictured) told authorities that the court system got it all wrong: He didn't rape anybody and should be freed. And for more than two decades, Haynesworth languished in prison.

But thanks to DNA evidence and the Innocence Project, Haynesworth, 46, has won his freedom after 27 years behind bars.

Virginia Attorney General Ken T. Cuccinelli II and two prosecutors announced this week that DNA evidence points to another man in the rapes of five women in the mid-1980s.

Haynesworth was an 18-year-old high school dropout on a shopping errand for his mother, when he was stopped and questioned by police. He didn't have a criminal record, but five women identified him as their attacker.

He was convicted of three attacks.

In the disco music galaxy filled with superstars like Donna Summer, Diana Ross and Evelyn 'Champagne' King, it wasn't easy for female singers who weren't part of that musical royalty to make their mark.

But Loleatta Holloway did.

Her booming vocals featured on the infectious 1980's hit 'Love Sensation' kept the dance floors packed and showed off a voice trained in a gospel church from an early age.

Unfortunately, Holloway, 64, died this week after falling into a coma.

Finally, Haiti may soon learn who will attempt to lead the country from its troubles: a dancehall singer or a former first lady.

Voting has begun in the presidential runoff election, pitting singer Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly (pictured left) against ex–first lady Mirlande Manigat (pictured). No matter who wins, the besieged island-nation faces a very long road back to any semblance of stability.

Reports of the problems that plagued the last round of voting, such as closed polling stations, damaged ballots and untrained poll workers, were repeated this weekend. Luckily, the wide-scale violence of last year's election was avoided for the most part, so the election is being hailed as a success.

Talk about having low expectations.

According to prosecutors, Massachusetts man Michael Jacques is a racist.

The election of Barack Obama as president reportedly upset Jacques and his buddies so much that they allegedly burned down a predominately black church.

The trial begins on Monday, according to authorities.

Politically speaking, America's Republican stronghold is the deep South, where vast suburbs surrounding cities like Atlanta, Dallas, Richmond and Charlotte are decidedly white and often politically conservative.

But population trends -- revealed in the last U.S. census -- show blacks and Latinos moving in to southern suburbs in high numbers, which threaten the notion of Republicans enjoying a safe harbor in southern states for much longer.

Census estimates show a 58 percent increase in the number of blacks who moved to the suburbs, compared to 41 percent for the rest of the country. This increase is up 52 percent from 2000.

BET Networks Chair and CEO Debra L. Lee is joining President Barack Obama's management advisory board designed to improve the relationships and interactions between private business and federal government.

In bringing Lee to the board that will have its first meeting at the White House on Friday, the president has tapped a savvy and well-respected business leader who has been able to expand her reach beyond the world of black business to represent some of the world's largest corporations.

Earlier this week, Eastman Kodak announced that Lee, a South Carolina native, wouldn't stand for re-election to her seat on the company's board of directors where she served for 12 years. Lee will continue to serve as an Eastman Kodak director until May.

Does anyone remember who served as America's first "black" president before President Barack Obama earned the title?

It was none other than William Jefferson Clinton, also known as Slick Willie, who was hailed by poet Toni Morrison and others as our nation's first leader to be mistreated because of his "blackness."

(Morrison defined "blackness" as single-parenthood, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. What would we have said if Newt Gingrich had made the same observation? But that's another blog.)

Well, it looks like Clinton is abandoning his black constituency in Harlem with word that his nonprofit William J. Clinton Foundation is moving most of its offices from Harlem to Water Street in Lower Manhattan.

But I wouldn't get too shook up over the move, Harlem.

British reggae singer Smiley Culture, who used word play and vocal banter to highlight the strains between young black men and police officers in his most popular songs, died during a police raid on his home.

Police said the singer, whose real name was David Emmanuel, killed himself when he plunged a knife into his own chest after police officers surrounded his home.

The sad irony is that Culture's best known song was named 'Police Officer' and rose to number 12 on the British music charts. The catchy tune based on his real-life experiences describes how Culture was caught with pot but escaped arrest after the police officer realized he was a popular singer.

It won't get him his job back as Washington D.C. mayor.

But Adrian M. Fenty won't face charges in the investigation surrounding how he gave out millions of dollars in city contracts for parks and recreation services as mayor two years ago.

But two of Fenty's close friends who did work for the city may have some serious legal problems ahead.

The report written by the D.C. City Council and investigated by the Trout Cacheris law firm questioned the financial ties between a firm doing city work and another company overseeing the city's bidding process -- both run by close Fenty associates.

Workers from sub-Saharan Africa are coming under attack from fighters seeking to overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. The workers are being mistaken for mercenaries fighting on behalf of the government.

Witnesses say that dozens of black laborers have been killed and scores of others have gone into hiding because anti-government protesters have formed gangs to hunt the workers down.

This is truly a terrible time for the workers, who leave behind the poverty and government corruption of their home nations in search of better employment opportunities mostly in the oil industry to the north.

More than one million black African migrants work in Libya.