by Valerie Bauman

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)—They’ve been called Oreos, traitors and Uncle Toms, and are used to having to defend their values. Now Black conservatives are really taking heat for their involvement in the mostly white tea party movement—and for having the audacity to oppose the policies of the nation’s first Black president.

RUNNING FOR OFFICE— In this Feb. 10 photo, Fox News political analyst Angela McGlowan announces at the Tupelo, Miss., City Hall, that she is running for the 1st Congressional District as a Republican.

“I’ve been told I hate myself. I’ve been called an Uncle Tom. I’ve been told I’m a spook at the door,” said Timothy F. Johnson, chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a group of Black conservatives who support free market principles and limited government.

by Dorie Turner

ATLANTA (AP)—For parents and politicians hungry for better schools, the idea of paying teachers more if their students perform better can seem as basic as adding two and two or spelling “cat.”

ELIGIBLE FOR MERIT BONUSES—Trenise Duvernay talks to Miracle Lee, left, and Danny Dinet, center, as she teaches fourth grade math class at the Alice M. Harte Charter School in New Orleans April 7.

Yet just a handful of schools and districts around the country use such strategies. In some states, the idea is effectively illegal.

That could all be changing as the federal government wields billions of dollars in grants to lure states and school districts to try the idea. The money is persuading lawmakers around the country, while highlighting the complex problems surrounding pay-for-performance systems.

by Marcia Dunn

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)—Discovery and seven astronauts headed for a rendezvous with the International Space Station after a pre-dawn liftoff Monday on one of the last missions for NASA’s shuttle program.

WOMEN ON THE RISE— Three female astronauts of the space shuttle Discovery crew, from left, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, mission specialist Stephanie Wilson and mission specialist Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, leave the Operations and Checkout building on their way to board the shuttle on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., April 5.

The launch—the last one scheduled in darkness for NASA’s fading shuttle program—helped set a record for the most women in space at the same time. Three women are aboard Discovery, and another is already at the space station, making for an unprecedented foursome.

(AP)—Stephanie Wilson is one of only a handful of Black women to fly in space.

Wilson, 43, grew up in Pittsfield, Mass., torn between whether to pursue a career in astronomy or engineering. She chose the latter, went to Harvard University and worked on the Titan IV rocket. Following graduate school, she joined Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in 1992, working on NASA’s Jupiter-exploring Galileo probe. That’s when she met the first Black woman in space, Mae Jemison, who encouraged her in her pursuits.