The Department of Justice has put out a call for Ebonics translators to help monitor, translate, and transcribe the secretly recorded conversations of subjects of narcotics investigations, according to documents released by The Smoking Gun. The DOJ wants to hire up to nine people to work with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta field division. Ebonics is considered one of 114 different "common" and "exotic" languages for which prospective contractors must be able to provide linguists; Ebonics is listed as a “common language” spoken solely in the U.S. more ›

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg signed Executive Order 120, which requires all city services to offer their services in Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and French Creole--the top languages spoke in the city aside from English. The agencies and services must hire coordinators to developer a "Language Access policy" and provide interpretation services and translations of essential public documents. Mayor Bloomberg told reporters yesterday, noting 25% of residents do not speak English as their primary language, "No other place on earth can claim such incredible diversity. It is New York City's greatest historic strength. " more ›