Two men facing multiple charges in the shooting death of an Indianapolis pastor’s pregnant wife pleaded not guilty Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune reports.  The pair, 18-year-old Larry Taylor Jr. and 21-year-old Jalen Watson, reportedly did not say much during the hearing, answering the judge’s questions about whether they understood the charges they faced, but saying…

Thomas Burke, who is set to become the chief of the Farrell, Pa., Police Department on Jan. 1, gave a public apology on Monday for using the n-word in an email sent out earlier this year, WKBN reports.  Burke, who is white, issued his formal apology on Monday in the rotunda of the city’s municipal…

The white Chicago police officer who shot a black teen 16 times in a fatal encounter that was caught on video has been charged with first-degree murder, multiple sources report. According to Reuters, local newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times, are both reporting that murder charges were filed Tuesday against Officer Jason Van Dyke,…

Students at Michigan’s Calvin College were greeted by fresh snow Monday morning, only for the winter wonderland to be marred by “white power” scrawled into the fresh snow on several cars on campus, Talking Points Memo reports. College President Michael K. Le Roy on social media slammed the messages, calling them “hateful, racialized and profane.”…

Attorneys representing 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, the boy who was arrested after bringing a homemade clock to his Dallas-area school, have sent letters to the school district and the city in which it’s located, indicating that Ahmed was publicly mistreated and demanding $15 million in damages, the Associated Press reports.  A law firm representing the boy,…

The Portland, Ore., Police Bureau Central Precinct’s Bias Crimes Unit is investigating the alleged assault of a black college student Friday night by three white males, the Portland Tribune reports.  The 26-year-old told officers that the college-age white men used racial slurs while they attacked him around 9 p.m. near the campus swimming pool. The…

A Texas man who was reportedly severely beaten by three police officers in San Antonio last May is now paralyzed following surgery to repair his spine, KENS 5 reports. Roger Carlos, 43, was left paralyzed following complications from his Nov. 3 surgery. He had undergone multiple surgeries on his neck and upper spine to help…

The life and works of tech entrepreneur Hank Williams, who worked tirelessly to champion diversity in the ever-growing technology field, is to be celebrated Saturday at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City at 9 a.m. Williams, 50, died Sunday following a battle with pneumonia and myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, which left…

A Miami mother is looking for answers, and Miami-Dade police are looking for suspects, in the shooting death of a Miami teenager walking home from school, CBS Miami reports.  Johnny Lubin Jr., a 15-year-old freshman at Miami Northwestern Senior High, was walking home when he was shot twice around 4 p.m. Wednesday. “This juvenile was…

Photos of Harvard Law School’s black professors hanging up at the school were apparently targeted by an unidentified vandal early Thursday, and now the incident is being investigated as a hate crime, according to law-school Dean Martha Minow, WCVB reports.  Black tape was reportedly placed over the pictures of black professors—apparently only the black professors—outside…