From the New York Times: FDNY Commissioner Salvatore Cassano defended his efforts to recruit minority candidates in court on Tuesday, saying the department has measurably increased its number of black applicants while rebuilding its ranks a decade after the losses from 9/11.

A judge ordered Cassano to appear in court, amid litigation in which the city was found to have discriminated against minority candidates through the statistical effects of two prior entrance exams, in 1999 and 2002.

Cassano said that of the 16,825 people who have applied so far to take the exam, 15.2% were black. That figure, he said, was almost twice the percentage of blacks who applied during the same time period for the last test, which was given in 2007. Read the entire article here.