For several decades Dee has been a pillar in the African-American community as an actress, poet and playwright known around the world. Starting her career in several appearances on Broadway, she first received national recognition for her role in the 1950 film “The Jackie Robinson Story”.

Since then, her career has touched all forms of media and spanned eight decades, including classic films such as A Raisin in the Sun. The Academy Award nominee and Grammy award winner is recognized as helping pave the way for black actors and filmmakers, but also for her activism.

During the tumultuous 1960s, she and her late husband, Ossie Davis, were directly involved in the Civil Rights Movement and became well-known as activists who fought for racial equality.

From The New York Times:

Her own perspective was shaped by her decades of work as an activist, including marching with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement. “As a nation we are growing some thick skin over some basic tenets that are in danger of being lost to us,” she said in the interview. “Our democracy is getting threadbare.”

Her concerns range from a war being waged without a Congressional declaration to the David and Goliath struggles of independent merchants who are pitted against corporate giants.

“You’re not supposed to go into business with the sole purpose of putting your neighbor out of business,” she said. “This is not the United States of Corporate America.”

The forum is scheduled for March 8 and will be moderated by Mordean Taylor-Archer, U of L Vice Provost for Diversity & International Affairs inside the Chao Auditorium located on the lower level of the university library. Doors open at 10:45 am.

The forum, entitled “Do Words Matter in Political Discourse? A Community Discussion,” will be hosted at the University of Louisville, Monday, Jan. 24, and will include political science professor Jasmine Farrier in a serious conversation about the state of political rhetoric.

Both Grayson and Yarmuth are close friends and colleagues of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head after a lone gunman opened fire in an area where she was meeting with constituents. The rampage killed six people, including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge, with 12 others injured.

Just days before she was attacked, Congresswoman Giffords corresponded with Grayson about toning down the fiery language around politics. Yarmuth and Giffords are friends who collaborated and met weekly as members of the Congress’ 2006 class.

Although there is continued speculation about alleged shooter’s motivations, both Grayson and Yarmuth have called attention to the rising temperature of the country’s political rhetoric.

The event begins at noon inside Bigelow Hall, Miller Information Technology Center and is open to the public. It will be moderated by U of L spokesman Mark Hebert, who will take questions from attendees. The doors open at 11:30 a.m. with seating available on a first-come, first-served basis.

University of Louisville Vice President for Business Affairs Larry Owsley told a group of students yesterday that he had converted six restrooms to gender neutral as part of an agreement he made with leaders from commonGround and the Office for LGBT Services last fall.

From TransGriot:

Two new buildings, the Duthie Center and the Center for Predictive Medicine, will also include gender neutral restrooms. “I’ve committed to including gender neutral restrooms in all new construction,” Owsley said.

The new restrooms are on both campuses: Dental school, first floor (two restrooms); Humanities, third floor (two restrooms); and the Law School, second floor near Cox Lounge (two restrooms). They are all single-stall, private restrooms that were updated by changing signs.

Students met with Owsley before Pride Week 2009 to ask for the additional restrooms and explain the importance of safe spaces for people who are gender non-conforming or transgender.

“Bathrooms are often the places where harassment is most encountered. And when someone whose gender expression is even a little bit different from their genetic identity steps into a seemingly exclusive male/female-only space, it sets them up for personal attacks. That gets eliminated with gender-neutral restrooms,” said student Evelyn Avery.

Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3) announced $2.95 million in federal funding he secured in the FY2010 budget for three research initiatives at the University of Louisville.  At a press conference at the University’s new downtown Clinical and Translational Research Building, Congressman Yarmuth joined U of L President Dr. James Ramsey and researchers from each of the impacted programs.

“These investments will help researchers right here in Louisville accomplish goals of national significance while solidifying our community’s position as a world-class research center,” said Congressman Yarmuth. “I am very pleased to have secured this funding that will ensure Louisville is a place where innovation thrives and drives economic growth.” [Press Release]

With help from supposedly anti-earmark Sen. Mitch “Beaker-Face” McConnell, who jointly secured two-thirds of these earmarks wth Yarmuth, the University of Louisville is slated to research a whole slew of cool new shit, namely:

• Only a Flesh Wound: In order to help The Troops avoid what is commonly known as “dying,” $1.6 million will be devoted to “evaluating whether special medicines and nutrients taken before an injury occurs can enhance the body’s ability to resist injury, trauma and hemorrhage; testing a unique topical compound to protect against infection; [and] investigating new approaches (both novel techniques and drugs) toward improving tissue health and thus reduce the likelihood of shock.”
• Dude, Where’s My Tank?: “To help the U.S. Department of Defense adopt new, improved techniques and technologies for logistics, UofL engineering experts will focus on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). These technologies, combined with sophisticated modeling and algorithms, will help military decision-  makers manage logistics in “real time” enhancing their ability to respond to constantly changing situations.” Price tag: $1 million. (Plus the tacit involvement of Sen. Jim Bunning, whom will use this technology to keep from getting lost at WalMart)
• Being John Belski: Lastly, $350,000 will be employed to “raise all the components of the new atmospheric science program at the University of Louisville to the standards set by the American  Meteorological Society. It gives UofL students and faculty an exciting range of new research and training opportunities in weather and climate.”

This assumption is empirically false; the study — conducted by the University of Louisville, no less — destroys any political argument that ultimately prohibits felons from voting. Titled “Estimating the Impact of Kentucky’s Felon Disenfranchisement Policy on 2008 Presidential and Senatorial Elections,” the survey administered mock ballots to a sample of 425 former felons spread cross 11 randomly selected Kentucky counties to determine whether lawmakers’ fears were true. The result?  Except in a few rare instances (i.e. the 2000 presidential election, for obvious/sad reasons), the votes of former felons don’t significantly alter the outcomes of elections one way or the other.

Here’s the study’s conclusion (bold emphasis mine):

What is there to fear from granting this right to felons who have completed supervision and their term of punishment? As this study shows, political fears are unfounded, the results of nearly all elections are unlikely to have been changed, and restoration of voting rights carries with it important, positive correlates for former felons.