Controversy over a high school senior, the periodic table, the 1999 hit “Back That Azz Up” by rapper Juvenile, and a Georgia high school yearbook reached a head Tuesday after a student used periodic elements to spell out a funny message in her yearbook quote. Paris Gray, the senior class vice president at Mundy’s Mill…

The Oakland, Calif., teen who made national headlines after he was accepted to several of the nation’s top colleges is reaping all of the rewards from his success. Akintunde Ahmad, who will be attending Yale University in the fall, has already done the newspaper circuit and was a guest on Ellen DeGeneres’ show last month,…

Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, who was involved in a domestic dispute that included video footage of Rice dragging an unconscious woman from an elevator, will avoid jail time as long as he completes a pretrial intervention program, ESPN reports. Rice was accepted into the program Tuesday, and as long Rice attends the program…

Two men whose pants were sagging low enough to show their boxers were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after a security guard at a South Carolina Waffle House told them to pull their pants up or leave the restaurant. According to the Smoking Gun, Andrew Gehring and Donovan Johnson, both 22, became belligerent and…

The divorce proceedings involving owner Donald Sterling and the Los Angeles Clippers were officially set in motion Monday when the NBA charged the embattled owner with “damaging the league and its teams with his racist comments,” the Associated Press reports.  Sterling has less than 10 days to respond to charges and then a hearing will…

Editor’s note: The Root has not been able to independently confirm that any researchers coined the term “hood disease.” The CBS station in San Francisco that originally reported this story has removed references to “hood disease” from its online report. It has been widely reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others…

The 82-year-old police commissioner who was overheard calling President Obama the N-word and would later refuse to apologize citing that the president meets all of his criteria for being called such, has resigned amid heavy political pressure and national outrage, The Washington Post reports. Police officials confirmed to the Post that Robert Copeland turned in…

According to a new documentary set to air on the BBC, Nat King Cole’s white Hollywood neighbors terrorized the singer and his family with racist and hate-filled acts, including killing their dog and burning the n-word onto their lawn, The Independent reports. Nat King Cole: Afraid of the Dark reveals the hostility that the Cole…

After a bit of a scandal that involved a keynote speaker invite and a rescinding of said invitation, paralyzed football player Eric LeGrand delivered an impassioned commencement speech to his fellow Rutgers graduates Sunday, the Associated Press reports. LeGrand, who suffered an injury during a 2010 game that left him paralyzed, took to Twitter a…

Rihanna’s wristband caused a chain reaction that raised over $80,000 for the Los Angeles Police Department. Last week at a Los Angeles Clippers game, the pop princess, who was wearing an LAPD wristband, just happened to be seated next to Los Angeles Police Commission President Steve Soboroff, who of course wanted to take a selfie…