Renowned former neurosurgeon Ben Carson has formally announced his presidential campaign in a bid to win the Republican nomination in 2016, the Associated Press reports. Carson has never held public office and, as AP notes, is expected to be the only well-recognized African American to put his hat in the ring for the Republican presidential…

Updated Friday, May 1, 1:30 p.m. EDT: Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced during a brief press conference that five of the six officers charged in Freddie Gray’s death were in custody: We know that the vast majority [of the department] serve our city with pride, with courage, with honor and with distinction. But to those of…

Allen Bullock, the 18-year-old seen in photos smashing in a police car with a traffic cone, turned himself in after being encouraged by his parents. But now he is being held on $500,000 bail, an amount his parents cannot afford, The Guardian reports.  Bullock faces charges of rioting and malicious destruction of property, among other…

While media attention has quickly zoomed in on the burning of Baltimore, and as discussions focus on the “bad actors” and “thugs” who were destroying property and, allegedly, targeting police, there is another side of Baltimore that has been studiously overlooked, as a majority of protesters continue to do good for and by their community. …

Virginia’s Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office now prohibits the use of Tasers at its jail after a mentally ill inmate died after being shocked four times while being prepared for medical transport, WUSA 9 reports. Natasha McKenna, 37, was shocked several times while she was restrained and stopped breathing, according to WUSA. According to the report,…

May 2010 was the beginning of Kalief Browder’s three-year horror story inside Rikers Island, the notorious jail complex in New York City. He had been arrested in the Bronx for allegedly stealing a backpack, a crime that he insisted he didn’t commit. Browder, then 16, spent the next three years of his life in the…

Updated Thursday, April 23, 3:45 p.m. EDT: Shortly after Loretta Lynch’s confirmation for the position of attorney general was announced, President Barack Obama released a statement declaring that America “will be better off” for the decision: Loretta has spent her life fighting for the fair and equal justice that is the foundation of our democracy.…

The streets of Baltimore were flooded with residents Tuesday protesting the police force in the name of Freddie Gray, the young man who died from a severe spinal injury while in police custody, the Daily Mail reports. Also Tuesday, the Justice Department announced its own civil rights investigation into Gray’s death as police officials released…

Loretta Lynch, President Barack Obama’s pick to succeed Attorney General Eric Holder, will get a confirmation vote in the coming days. The Senate announced a deal Tuesday on the anti-human-trafficking bill that sparked the stalemate, the Washington Post reports. “I’m glad we can now say there is a bipartisan proposal that will allow us to…

The charges against the Chicago police officer involved in the 2012 shooting death of 22-year-old Rekia Boyd have been dismissed, WLS reports. A Cook County judge ruled that there was no evidence of reckless conduct, which would be necessary to move forward with the involuntary manslaughter charge, prompting the dismissal, the news station reports. Dante…