It’s a timeless adage: If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all. But Republican congressional staffer Elizabeth Lauten apparently never got that memo. She formally resigned on Monday after her comments about Malia and Sasha Obama went viral. Lauten, previously the communications director for Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.), came under fire this weekend…

A Houston pastor faces criticism after refusing to bury a 93-year-old woman who had been a member of his church for more than 50 years, reports KRIV. Barbara Day says that she feels insulted by the way the pastor, Walter F. Houston, responded to her request to bury her mother, Olivia Blair. “It was like…

Chants of “We ready! We coming!” could be heard in front of Washington, D.C.’s Office of Police Complaints Tuesday afternoon. Led by members of the Washington, D.C., chapter of Black Youth Project 100—an organization dedicated to creating justice for all black people—youth protesters gathered in various locations around D.C. in response to the Darren Wilson…

On Wednesday, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison appeared on The Colbert Report. With her thoughtful and acerbic wit, she successfully broke down race and racism in our society. Morrison and host Stephen Colbert jokingly agreed that since President Barack Obama was an admirer of hers, they could consider calling the Obamacare health insurance…

A California man may be headed to prison based solely on his rap CD, reports ABC 10 News. Along with 14 other alleged gang members, San Diego-based Brandon Duncan, better known as rapper Tiny Doo, is facing attempted-murder charges in a “gang conspiracy” involving nine local shootings since 2013, according to ABC 10 News. But…

The New England Patriots are in hot water after tweeting out a message containing the n-word, according to the New York Daily News. The football team’s Twitter campaign to highlight its one-millionth follower caused a social media PR disaster because the winner’s Twitter account contained the n-word. The Patriots’ account posted a picture with a…

Youth activists held a silent protest Nov. 13 during a meeting of the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva, reports the Straits Times. Members of Chicago’s We Charge Genocide raised their fists in unison and displayed photos of victims of police brutality while the U.S. government’s delegation responded to charges of police brutality before…

Members of Jackie Robinson West, the beloved Chicago Little League team that made national news this summer, have visited the White House, the Chicago Tribune reports. The Jackie Robinson West team became a national sensation by reaching the Little League World Series championship game. The team lost to Seoul Little League of South Korea, but…

Police say the Philadelphia woman abducted from a Germantown, Pa., street Nov. 2 made smart decisions to lead the authorities to her, ABC News reports. Carlesha Freeland-Gaither’s kidnapping was caught by nearby security cameras. Her cellphone was found on the street near the scene of her abduction, and police think she discarded it deliberately to…

A Republican National Committee spokesman is not happy with the NAACP. Raffi Williams, who has served as the RNC’s deputy press secretary for nearly two years, called out the civil rights organization for not mentioning the historic wins of Republicans Mia Love and Sen. Tim Scott in the midterm elections on Tuesday. Love, from Utah,…