The RaceWire Beat – 12.08.06 New Orleans to Raze Public Housing Despite an outcry of protest, many public housing units closed since Katrina are to be demolished. Why So Many Black Women Are Behind Bars Black female inmates outnumber white female inmates three to one, and their punishments don’t always fit their crimes. Suit By Iraqis and Afghans Claims Rumsfeld Ordered Torture As Donald Rumsfeld prepares to leave his job as secretary of Defense, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is seeking to hold him responsible for what it says was widespread torture carried out at his direction. Court Ruling Gives Latinos OK to Sue Over At-Large Elections A state appeals court has reinstated a 2002 California voting-rights law that allows minorities to sue cities, counties and school districts that elect their governing bodies at large, rather than by district, in areas where voting divides along racial lines. Mel Gibson’s ‘Apocalypto’ Doesn’t Do Justice to Mayan Civilization Mel Gibson’s new film doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of the Mayan Civilization, instead it shows, what we today would call savagery. The RaceWire Beat is a digest of the day’s top news stories on race and politics collected by the staff at ColorLines magazine.