TODAY'S TALKING POINTS 11-03-07

TODAY'S TALKING POINTS

The president took bold action against criminal background checks. There are more than 12 million ex-felons in the U.S., and it’s not exactly easy for them to find jobs, thanks to criminal background checks that stifle opportunities. But President Barack Obama called on federal employers to “ban the box” (read: Drop the whole criminal offense reporting thing until later in the application process.) This means a lot more people could have a better shot at landing a job post-prison.

The Supreme Court tackled racial discrimination in jury selection. Timothy Tyrone Foster, a black man, was sentenced to death in 1987 by an all-white jury for molesting and killing a 79-year-old widow in Rome, Georgia. SCOTUS is considering if racial bias had something to do with jury selection in this particular case, but the problem isn’t isolated. A Houston County, Alabama, study showed that between 2005 and 2009, prosecutors eliminated 80% of black people qualified for jury service in death penalty cases, resulting in a lot more all-white juries than you’d expect for a county that’s 27% black. The Supreme Court will hand down its ruling next summer.

Federal education officials made a decision on the rights of transgender students that's the first of its kind. After a Chicago high school district barred a trans student from having full access to the girls' locker room, authorities noted that that's called discrimination, and clarified federal rules on locker room access.

The Vatican arrested two advisers accused of leaking documents. All is not quiet on the Roman front as the pope steels himself in preparation for two books expected to be released later this week that could reveal inside corruption and seriously damage the Holy See’s street cred. Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and Francesca Chaouqui were both arrested after a lengthy investigation.

A new study found that people with a disability are way more likely to face employment discrimination. When Rutgers University and Syracuse University researchers reached out to accounting firms with cover letters — some of which revealed the applicant had a disability and some did not — they found that candidates with a disability were 26% less likely to be considered for the job. While the findings unfortunately were what the researchers expected, they were shocked by how significant the results were (paywall).

Adele's "Hello" became the first single to sell a million downloads in one week. The singer beat out rapper Flo Rida, who held the previous record with 636,000 downloads. This was after Adele dethroned Taylor Swift as the queen of the Internet by getting more Vevo views within 24 hours of her video release.

Amazon is opening its first physical book store. The online book seller willnow have a permanent location in Seattle, but it's not quite as traditional as you might think. Amazon will use online customer data to decide which books to sell, and in-store prices will match online prices.