Denied jobs, blacks in Iowa test new bias theory

National News

In this Feb. 10, 2012 photo, Des Moines lawyer Thomas Newkirk looks over files from a class-action lawsuit that tests the theory of "implicit bias" against blacks in Iowa state government, in Des Moines, Iowa. After years of litigation, a judge will soon decide whether to grant thousands of black employees and job applicants monetary damages for hiring practices used by every agency of Iowa state government that they say has disadvantaged them for decades. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

More from this Slideshow

0 of 0

Denied jobs, bla... In this Feb. 10, 2012 photo, Des Moines lawyer Thomas Newkirk looks over files from a class-action lawsuit that tests the theory of "implicit bias" against blacks in Iowa state government, in Des Moines, Iowa. After years of litigation, a judge will soon decide whether to grant thousands of black employees and job applicants monetary damages for hiring practices used by every agency of Iowa state government that they say has disadvantaged them for decades. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Deal trims maxim... In this Feb. 13, 2012 photo, Daniel Thomas DeChynne, center, of Vancouver, holds his resume while waiting in line during a job fair held by Nation Career Fair, in Portland, Ore. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell to the lowest point in almost four years last week, the latest signal that the job market is steadily improving. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Mardi Gras means... Revelers with the Mystic Stripers toss trinkets to the crowds gathered on Royal Street in Mobile, Ala., Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. The pre-Lenten blowout continues along the Gulf Coast culminating in Fat Tuesday celebrations Feb. 21. Tourism leaders estimate more than a million visitors pour into the Mobile area each Mardi Gras season to watch the festivities. (AP Photo/Mobile Register, G.M. Andrews) MAGS OUT; NO SALES
US lacks a champ... FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 16, 2012 file photo, Mohammed Morsi speaks at a press conference in Cairo, Egypt. The leader of Egypt's largest Islamist party says U.S. threats to cut aid over a spat about nonprofit groups operating in the country are out of line and could imperil the peace deal with Israel. Mohammed Morsi, the leader of the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, Freedom and Justice Party, said the hundreds of millions of dollars Egypt gets every year from the U.S. are part of its commitment to the 1979 peace deal with Israel. (AP Photo/Mohammed Abu Zaid, File)
US gangs are a f... Forensic workers begin the process of identifying bodies of inmates killed in a prison fire at the morgue in Tegucigalpa, Honduras Thursday Feb. 16, 2012. Hundreds of bodies of inmates that died in a fire at the jailhouse in Comayagua began arriving to the capital city for identification. (AP Photo/Fernando Antonio)
Mountain man sca... In this undated photo provided by the Iron County Sheriff's Office in January, a man is seen walking past a cabin in the remote southern Utah wildness near Zion National Park. Authorities believe the man in the photo, captured by a motion-triggered surveillance camera sometime in December, is a suspect responsible for more than two dozen cabin burglaries over the past five years. (AP Photo/Iron County Sheriff)
Times correspond... FILE - In this April 12, 2010 file photo, Anthony Shadid, winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting with The Washington Post, poses for a portrait at the Watson Institute for International Studies, on the campus of Brown University, in Providence, R.I. The New York Times said Shadid died Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, apparently of an asthma attack, while on assignment in Syria. He was 43. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
Chinese leader w... Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping talks with Rick Kimberley, right, as they sit in the cab of a John Deere tractor while touring his family farm, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, in Maxwell, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, Pool)
Congress moves t... House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, talks about an accord on the payroll tax cut negotiations, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Tensions with Ir... Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., right, accompanied by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., lead a bi-partisan group of senators in supporting President Obama's sanctions against Iran for pursuing nuclear weapons, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Suspected gunman... A firefighter aims a hose as SWAT policemen point their guns toward a burning house where authorities say at least three people were shot and wounded Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, in east Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mike Meadows)
Analysis: A quie... House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, talks about an accord on the payroll tax cut negotiations, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Ohio couple get ... Monica Hussing, center is handcuffed after being sentenced to eight years in prison on involuntary manslaughter charges in Cleveland Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. Their son, Willie Robinson, died from Hodgkin lymphoma in 2008. Prosecutors say he had begged his parents to take him to see a doctor but was rejected. Hussing's attorney is John Luskin, left. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
Ariz. officer sc... This undated photo provided by the Scottsdale, Ariz., Police Dept. shows Scottsdale Police Officer James Peters. Peters was one of several Scottsdale police officers called to a home in the Phoenix suburb on Tuesday night, Feb. 14, after neighbors reported a man holding a baby was threatening them with a handgun, Chief Alan Rodbell said. Peters shot and killed Loxas, who was holding his grandson at the time. For Officer Peters it is his seventh officer involved shooting since 2002, six of them being fatal. Police department spokesman Sgt. Mark Clark said investigators were looking into Peters' decision to shoot Loxas on Tuesday and why officers felt threatened or believed he was a threat to the child. (AP Photo/Scottsdale Police Department)
Making weight ke... FILE - In this June 25, 2011 file photo, Marlen Esparza, right, of Houston, Tex., is declared the winner of the women's 112-pound title fight over Tyrieshia Douglas, left, of Baltimore, Md., at the U.S. Boxing National Championship in Colorado Springs, Colo. Esparza nearly exploded with joy when she first learned her sport had been admitted to the London Olympics. The six-time national champions excitement cooled a bit when she learned the Olympic invitation came with a catch: The petite 106-pound fighter would have to gain 6 pounds to compete against bigger, stronger women.(AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)
Suspects in teac... Michael Keith Spell, one of two suspects charged with aggravated kidnapping in the disappearance of 43-year-old Sherry Arnold of Sidney, Mont., appears at a hearing in the Williams County Courthouse in Williston N.D. on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012. District Judge David Nelson ordered the extradition of Spell and Lester Van Waters Jr. to Montana for trial. (AP Photo/Elijah Nouvelage)
Justice Breyer r... FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2011 file photo, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer in Richmond, Va. A Supreme Court spokeswoman says Breyer was robbed last week by a machete-wielding intruder at his vacation home in the West Indies. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
Trial starts for... FILE - In this undated photo provided by Townsville Coroners Court, Gabe Watson, left, and his then-fiancee, Tina, pose on their engagement. Jury selection will begin Monday, Feb. 13, 2012 in the trial of Watson, who is accused of drowning his newlywed bride Tina Thomas Watson during a scuba dive in Australia just days after their wedding in October 2003. (AP Photo/Townsville Coroners Court, File) EDITORIAL USE ONLY
AP Exclusive: Il... FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2011 file photo, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn speaks with reporters in his office at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. A commission created by Quinn nearly two years ago to investigate claims of police torture by former Chicago police Lt. Jon Burge and his men is quietly falling apart, an apparent victim of the states budget mess. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)
Kerrey declines ... FILE - In this Oct. 9, 2008 file photo, former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey speaks during a healthcare debate in Lincoln, Neb. The former one-term Nebraska governor and two-term U.S. senator said Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012 that he won't seek the Democratic nomination for Nebraska Senate seat he formerly held to replace U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Obama: US has 'v... FILE- In this April, 9, 2007, file photo Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaks at a ceremony in Iran's nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, 300 kms 186 (miles) south of capital Tehran, Iran. For the first time in nearly two decades of escalating tensions over the Iranian nuclear program, it appears that world leaders are genuinely concerned that an Israeli military attack on the Islamic Republic could be imminent, an action that many fear might trigger war, terrorism and global economic havoc. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian, File)
Obama says his p... President Barack Obama gestures while speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
NATO ministers c... Defense Secretary Leon Panetta answers questions from members of the traveling press after concluding a day of NATO Ministers of Defense meetings at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
Solution to crum... House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., left, and the committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Nick Rahall D-W.Va., listen during the committee's markup hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Clinton urges Bu... This undated artist rendering provided by NASA shows NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft. NASA announced Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012 that new findings from IBEX reveal the space just outside the solar system looks different than within the solar system. (AP Photo/NASA)