Rody Alvarado, a Guatemalan immigrant, sought asylum in the United States to escape abuse by her partner. New Policy Permits Asylum for Battered Women Obama recently passed a policy that allows domestically abused women to gain US asylum if they can show that they are treated by their abuser as little more than property, domestic abuse is widely tolerated in their country and they could not find protection in their home or other institutions in their home country. NC Passes Racial Justice Act The Racial Justice Act was passed in North Carolina by a 61-54 vote. The Act allows defendants to contest a death penalty sentence if they can prove that race was an underlying factor in the jury’s decision to seek, or impose, the death penalty. Report Highlights Racial Disparities in Iowa Health Coverage Iowa Citizen Action Network, a part of Health Care for America Now, released a report today titled “Unequal Lives: Health Care Discrimination Harms Communities of Color in Iowa" that tries to explain how legislation currently being considered by Congress would help erase racial disparities in health.