FARAI CHIDEYA, host: From NPR News, this is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Farai Chideya.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: Well, have you ever wanted to know how to blog? The geeks are here to rescue you. And I happen to be one of those geeks talking to two of my colleagues coming up about that and cheap or free technology - how to get it. We also speak with Adam Beach, the star of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee."</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: But first let's kick things off with headlines. Today, we start in Washington, where Congress quietly passed the first hike in the minimum wage in a decade. It will go up more than $2 over the next two years from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour. Democrats attached the hike to the new funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: This was a bitter pill for both sides of the aisle. Democrats had to give up on a push for a troop withdrawal deadline, and Republicans, including the president, have resisted a minimum wage hike for years. Roughly five and a half million workers currently earn less than $7.25 an hour.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: And since we'll be talking about the Black Blogosphere a little bit later, we thought we'd pull this tech headline from today's Washington Post. It reports that venture capitalist Fred Wilson declared bankruptcy. No, that's not financial bankruptcy. He is doing just fine in that department. We are talking email bankruptcy.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: Wilson is not alone, according to the Post. A growing number of Americans are feeling too connected to the world. Their mailboxes pile up with unanswered emails, the guilt builds up, movers and shakers like Wilson throw up their hands, delete everything and start all over again. So the next time you send an email, some cultural analysts say you might want to put the mouse down and just pick up the phone.
Farai Chideya scans the day's headlines for news affecting black life and culture. Friday's stories include passage of the first federal minimum-wage increase in a decade, and a Washington Post story about e-mail-swamped executives declaring a light-hearted, nonfinancial bankruptcy.