Vilsack says USDA will follow much advice stemming from study of its bad civil-rights history

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, right, announced that his department would adhere to many of the recommendations found in an independent, "two-year study that looked at USDA's history of discrimination and its ongoing civil-rights failings," Krissah Thompson of The Washington Post reports. The more than 200 recommendations include "suggestions that the agency's chief diversity officer monitor hiring, that farm service officials be required to "thoroughly" explain reasons for denying loans to minorities and women, and that the USDA mount public relations efforts to change the agency's reputation by emphasizing its focus on diversity," Thompson added. (Associated Press photo by Charlie Neibergall)

Since 2009, Vilsack has offered settlements on many "decades-old discrimination claims by Hispanic, female, black and Native American farmers" and has reduced the number of pending equal-employment complaints to 461, which agency officials told Thompson is the lowest ever. But Vilsack's attempt to rectify the situation and start a "zero tolerance" policy leaves many wondering if discrimination in USDA is really going away, she writes. (Read more)