WASHINGTON (AP)—According to data released March 24, African-Americans in search of wider spaces increasingly left big cities such as Detroit, Chicago and New York for the suburbs, typically in the South. Both Michigan and Illinois had their first declines in the Black population since statehood as many of their residents opted for warmer climates in the suburbs of places such as Atlanta, Dallas and Houston.

Hispanics accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase over the last decade, exceeding estimates in most states as they crossed a new census milestone: 50 million, or 1 in 6 Americans.

NO EASY ANSWERS— Detroit Mayor Dave Bing answers questions from reporters during a news conference about the census count March 22, in Detroit. Hammered by the auto industry's slump, Detroit saw its population plummet 25 percent over the past decade. (AP Photo/Detroit News, Clarence Tabb Jr.)

NEW YORK (AP)—There’s a new author in the White House: Michelle Obama.

The first lady has signed with the Crown Publishing Group for a book about healthy eating and the garden she started on the South Lawn of the White House. The book, currently untitled, is scheduled to come out in April 2012. Crown announced Wednesday that Obama received no advance and will donate all proceeds to a charity or charities to be determined.

FIRST GARDENER—First Lady Michelle Obama talks with her gardening partner as she participates in the third planting of the White House kitchen garden with local school children at the White House, March 16, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo)

The first lady has been an advocate for locally grown food and last year started an anti-obesity campaign, “Let’s Move!”

by Bob Johnson

ABBEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Nearly 70 years after Recy Taylor was raped by a gang of White men, leaders of the rural southeast Alabama community where it happened apologized Monday, acknowledging that her attackers escaped prosecution because of racism and an investigation bungled by police.

GOOD FIRST STEP—Recy Taylor, now 91, is seen her home in Winter Haven, Fla. Black and White leaders from a rural southeast Alabama community apologized March 21, to relatives of Taylor, who was raped in 1944 by a gang of White men. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)

“It is apparent that the system failed you in 1944,” Henry County probate judge and commission chairwoman JoAnn Smith told several of Taylor’s relatives at a news conference at the county courthouse.

Taylor, 91, lives in Florida and did not attend the news conference. Family members said she was in poor health and was not up to traveling to Abbeville or speaking with reporters. But her 74-year-old brother Robert Corbitt, who still lives in town, was front and center and said he would relay the apology to his sister.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP)—An Oregon school bus driver fired after he refused to remove a Confederate battle flag from his pickup truck has filed a federal lawsuit to get his job back.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Medford on March 16 against First Student Inc., the school bus contractor that fired Ken Webber earlier this month.

FIRED FROM JOB—This March 2, 2011 file photo shows school bus driver Ken Webber, 28, at his home in Medford, Ore. (AP Photo/The Medford Mail Tribune, Bob Pennell)

The lawsuit claims Webber’s First Amendment rights to free speech were violated, and demands he be reinstated with back pay.

Webber has said that the flag—emblazoned with the word “Redneck”—is an expression of his cultural identity, and in no way a statement of racism or political beliefs.

The superintendent of the Phoenix-Talent School District had demanded the flag be removed from the bus yard, which is on school property, because it violated a policy about displaying symbols that could be offensive to minorities.