When Mike Robertson got a call from a fellow DJ Tom Brown about splitting a new six-hour per night gig at the 941 Saloon on Liberty Avenue, it sounded like a nice job, and it would certainly help with the expenses of having a new baby on the way. So the two went to meet the owner to firm up the details of the job—and things went from good to bad.

SPINNING—DJ Brotha Mike, who spins discs at the New Amsterdam in Lawrenceville, said he was denied a gig at the 941 Saloon on Liberty Avenue in February because he is Black.

“I thought it was pretty much just a formality,” said Robertson. “The owner’s girlfriend had recommended us because she’d heard both of us down at New Amsterdam. But when we sat down with the owner, she gets up and calls Tom way to talk. And when he comes back he said, ‘She doesn’t want you because she thinks you’ll bring in the wrong crowd.’ He said she’d had an incident with some rowdy Black patrons a few months earlier—so we weren’t hired because of my presence.”

NEW YORK (AP)—Remember how shocking it was six months ago when Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” to the president?

Suddenly, that outburst seems positively genteel.

STAYING THE COURSE— House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., holds a large gavel as she walks through the Cannon Rotunda after a Democratic Caucus, along with, from left: Reps. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., John Lewis, D-Ga., and John Larson, D-Conn., on March 21 on Capitol Hill in Washington.

From the “N-word” and anti-gay slurs being leveled at congressmen by protesters right outside the Capitol, to a shout of “baby killer!” within the chamber itself, to veiled and not-so-veiled threats online, the weekend saw an explosion of stunningly ugly discourse.

What is going on? Is our political culture sinking ever lower?

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh recently announced the closing of four predominantly African-American schools. The four institutions in the Hill District, Wilkinsburg and Homewood will be reconfigured into two new institutions beginning in the fall 2010 school year.

“It’s kind of the reality of the situation that we’re in here, the declining demographics of the city,” said Father Carmen D’Amico, pastor of Saint Benedict the Moor School. “There’s less and less school-aged children and more and more competition so we’re all competing for a dwindling number of students. I think the consolidation of the schools is a good thing.”

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—By the time 9-year-old Jabari Sanders called 911, his mom was already giving birth to his little brother in the bathroom of their home.

“The baby’s coming now!” Jabari told the dispatcher as his mom screamed in the background.

So the woman on the other end of the line talked the 9-year-old and his 11-year-old sister through the ordeal, telling them to towel off the baby and tie its umbilical cord with a string while they waited for paramedics. Their father, Geoffrey Sanders, called the calm kids “super heroes.”

PROUD FAMILY—This March 16 picture shows the Sanders family, from left: Alana, Faith, 11, Geoffrey, newborn Joseph, Jabari, 9, and Janelle, 2, in Fremont, Calif. Jabari and Faith helped their mother Alana deliver Joseph at home March 9.