• Readers in the New York area looking to break into the fashion industry and hear advice from blacks at the top of their game in the fashion world? Check out a panel discussion Sunday featuring Jay Alexander, Selita Ebanks, and Tia Williams (of Shake Your Beauty fame and, um, my mother's womb), among others. Ticket sales go toward Designers for Darfur. [TL]

• Say goodbye to the black middle class? [BET]

• At least Jay-Z know who wears the performing-pants in his relationship. [HHDX]

• Among others, the granite industry is pissed that the statue for the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial will be Chinese made. But will it be an excellent statue? That's all I want to know. [BG]

• Feds will "investigate" possible racism at a Louisiana public works department decorated with a bull whip, a noose, and a dart board with the bullseye replaced by a picture of a black man's eye. Umm, yeah. Investigate that. [AP]