As the Mayor of the City of Newark, Cory Booker has a lot to say about the now popular term of leaning in and how it plays into his city’s efforts to improve the lives of African-Americans in New Jersey’s largest city.

I recently had the opportunity to attend the third annual African-American media breakfast with the Mayor. This event serves to give the media access to the Mayor and hear about city issues while detailing how it’s becoming a national example of urban transformation.

“I’m leaning in. I’m a resident of this city. I’m leaning in on exercising my power and control by doing everything in my ability to change outcomes.”

- Mayor Cory A. Booker

WASHINGTON – Whites had an average wealth of $632,000 in 2010 while Blacks had about $98,000 and Hispanics had $110,000, according to a recent study by the Urban Institute.

“Such great wealth disparities help explain why many middle-income blacks and Hispanics haven’t seen much improvement in their relative economic status and, in fact, are at greater risk of sliding backwards,” the report says.

Blacks start out at a disadvantage.

The New York attorney general’s office is looking into reports of wage theft violations within the state’s fast food industry, department officials confirmed on Thursday. The news of their investigation broke on the same day that Fast Food Forward, a workers’ group dedicated to organizing New York fast food workers, released a report alleging widespread wage theft within the industry.

Recently, thousands of people gathered in Washington D.C. in front of the Capitol to demand comprehensive immigration reform which includes a pathway to citizenship and a cessation of the indiscriminate criminalization of undocumented immigrants. ColorOfChange.org preceded this action by launching a campaign last month aimed at widening the discourse around immigration reform, calling on the Senate’s “Gang of 8″ to end the criminalization of our communities and write immigration reform that protects the rights of all immigrants.

There is solid support among African-Americans for immigration reform, as a new poll shows that more than two-thirds of the black community  favor providing a path to citizenship for immigrants.

The poll, done by Lake Research Partners, revealed that 66 percent of the more than 800 African- Americans questioned are in favor of a path to citizenship for immigrants currently in the country, including the 11 million undocumented immigrants targeted by the bipartisan bill currently under consideration by the Senate.

This week, New York City is defending itself against a lawsuit that claims its controversial "stop and frisk" policy is used to illegally detain and search people on the basis of race. The subject of an ongoing trial, the suit also argues that the weak justifications given by NYPD officers for most stop-and-frisks fail to meet the constitutional burden for search and seizure. We put together this explainer and some charts to help you make sense of what's going on.

By Bertha Lewis, President of the Black Institute and Daisy Chung, Executive Director of Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York

Can we really say that the issue of paid sick leave has been resolved when hundreds of thousands of workers aren’t covered? We don’t think so! 

A few weeks ago, a final agreement on the paid sick days legislation was made between the NYC Paid Sick Days Coalition and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. While a City Council vote is still required to make it into law, as of last week, the issue was slated to be voted on in the Council, where the bill has veto-proof majority support. 

As the debate over a new immigration bill preoccupies Washington, a quieter debate over the use of the term “illegal immigrant” has stirred up the country’s newsrooms.

This month, The Associated Press announced it would eliminate the use of “illegal immigrant” entirely. The news agency wrote, “Except in direct quotes essential to the story, use ‘illegal’ only to refer to an action, not a person: illegal immigration, but not illegal immigrant.”

On Tuesday, The New York Times updated its policies on how it uses the phrase “illegal immigrant” in its coverage. The newspaper did not go as far as The Associated Press, and it will continue to allow the phrase to be used for “someone who enters, lives in or works in the United States without proper legal authorization.” But it encourages reporters and editors to “consider alternatives when appropriate to explain the specific circumstances of the person in question, or to focus on actions.”

President and Founder of The Black Institute, Bertha Lewis stands alongside Senator Bill Perkins, Councilman Charles Barron and Marvin Bing in demanding justice and vindication for "The Central Park Five"! 

New York City is poised to mandate that thousands of companies provide paid time off for sick employees, bolstering a national movement that has been resisted by wary business leaders.