No stranger to controversy, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, left, reacquainted herself on August 10, 2010, when she spit out the n-word 11 times while speaking to a black caller. The next day, she apologized on her Web site and read the apology on air. “I was attempting to make a philosophical point, and I articulated the…

Truthout reports that the U.S. Defense Department forced Guantánamo Bay detainees to take dangerously high doses of the anti-malarial drug mefloquine even though they didn’t have malaria symptoms, a move that one doctor called “pharmacologic waterboarding.” Too much of the drug can cause seizures, hallucinations and suicidal thoughts. Army Reserve Major Montgomery Granger, who was…

Many New Orleanians are feeling less patriotic these days after the experience of navigating government red tape to access any resources for rebuilding after the storm. Five years after Katrina, some families still live in trailers with the hope of rehabilitating their homes one day. Originally built in 1941 and expanded in 1955, much of…

Another one In Michigan, not Louisiana. Almost 20,000 barrels of oil flowed into the Kalamazoo River when a pipe ruptured in southern Michigan on July 26. Enbridge, the Canadian company operating the pipeline, said more than 10,000 barrels had been removed so far. But an official from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency predicted the cleanup…

Hello Brooklyn How you doin’? Where you goin’? Can I come to? —Jay-Z feat. Lil Wayne PHOTOS BY ROBEL KASSA/PARADIGM84 Sometimes I feel like my only friend Is the city I live in, is beautiful Brooklyn —Mos Def Now I’ve come home to finish finish my Brooklyn Blues —Barry Manilow Peep the style and the…

Resting with cigarettes and rum in Lawton, a neighborhood in the southeast outskirts of Havana. The flag mural belongs to the international community arts project “Muraleando.” Professional folkloric dancer practising in the La Rampa sidewalks (23rd Street, El Vedado). A painful daily trip through Obispo boulevard in Old Havana, collecting objects from the street. In the overpopulated, poorer city…

Shirley Sherrod was a victim of one of the fastest rushes to judgment ever — followed by a rush to redress — in two whirlwind days. A deceptively edited video hit the Internet that appeared to show the USDA staffer at a NAACP event, admitting to racism against a white farmer. The NAACP immediately denounced…

Race-Bending Practice: The spray tan Although pale skin was once considered ideal among people of European descent — it showed that you had enough wealth to avoid a tan from laboring under the hot sun — these days there’s nothing like a deep tan to show that you have the wealth and leisure time to…

Race-Bending Practice: The spray tan Although pale skin was once considered ideal among people of European descent — it showed that you had enough wealth to avoid a tan from laboring under the hot sun — these days there’s nothing like a deep tan to show that you have the wealth and leisure time to…