SPOKANE, Wash. (AP)—Three cleanup workers who were hailed as heroes after finding a live bomb along the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane said they later lost their jobs after supervisors questioned their handling of the situation.

The men were employed by Labor Ready and working under contract for the Spokane Public Facilities District when they found a backpack containing the bomb about an hour before the scheduled start of the Jan. 17 parade.

They alerted police, who were able to defuse the bomb.

BOMBING SUSPECT ARRESTED—Kevin William Harpham, who has ties to a White supremacist organization, was arrested March 9, on charges that he left a bomb along a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade route in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/KXLY 4 News)

by Laurie Kellman
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP)—The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee is pressing forward with his public examination of Muslim extremism in America, pointing to his first, tense hearing on the subject as a step toward desensitizing a taboo topic and rooting out terrorists on U.S. soil.

"There's an elephant in the room and nobody wants to talk about it. We talked about it today," Peter King said after the four-hour, emotion-filled session March 10.

CONTROVERSIAL HEARING—Zuleyha Ozonder, Hashi Shafi and Zuhmer Ahmed watch a hearing on the "radicalization" of U.S. Muslims, chaired by Rep. Peter King of the House Homeland Security Committee in Washington, from Minneapolis, March 10.

by Ayana Jones
The Philadelphia Tribune

(NNPA)—The NAACP has been criticized for not including Black newspapers in a recent advertising campaign.

The NAACP inserted its 42nd NAACP Image Awards Magazine in the Philadelphia Daily News, however the advertisement was not included in The Philadelphia Tribune and other markets (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Texas, New York, New Jersey and Chicago).

OUTSTANDING PICTURE—Tyler Perry accepts the award for outstanding motion picture for the movie "For Colored Girls," from Angela Bassett at the 42nd NAACP Image Awards on March 4, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Week of March 19-25

March 19

1620—The first Black child born in America, William Tucker, was probably born on this date in Jamestown, Va. However, some controversy surrounds the exact date. What we know for sure is that he was the son of two of the first Africans brought to America as indentured servants in August 1619—Anthony (Antonio) and Isabella. We also know he was baptized on Jan. 3, 1624. Further, there is debate as to whether his last name was actually “Tucker.” It seems that many historians simply assumed that the child was given the last name of the man on whose plantation his parents worked. While this would later become the practice on many plantations, there is no documentation that Anthony and Isabella actually gave their son the last name of Tucker.

NAT KING COLE