A 24-year-old Alabama man has pleaded guilty to participating in a 2009 cross-burning with a former Klu Klux Klan leader, Talking Points Memo reports. Thomas Windell Smith was charged with conspiring “to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate African American persons in Alabama,” according to court documents. “This defendant not only committed a federal crime, but…

New York’s top retailers agreed to an anti-profiling policy on Monday, hoping to recover from the damage dealt by various apparent racial-profiling scandals, the New York Post reports. Barneys New York and Macy’s, the two stores at the center of the “shopping while black” controversy, have agreed to carry the “Customers’ Bill of Rights” in stores…

A black fashion student was allegedly attacked by a gang of more than a dozen Hasidic men while walking through a Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood after a night of partying, the Daily News reports. Taj Patterson was headed home on Dec. 1 when, he claims, he was surrounded by the Orthodox Jewish men, who began assaulting…

The Mormon Church is setting the record straight on past wrongs, issuing what the Associated Press calls its “most comprehensive explanation” about excluding black people from priesthood and other controversial practices. “The Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects…

Lamar Odom, the former Lakers and Clippers forward and the husband of Khloe Kardashian, was sentenced to three years of probation and three months of alcohol-abuse treatment, following a “no contest” plea on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports. The basketball player must also pay almost $2,000 in fines. Odom was arrested in late August…

George Zimmerman’s girlfriend is now changing her tune, asking a judge to lift the order blocking her from seeing him, and asking for charges to be dropped. According to CNN, Samantha Scheibe wants the court order lifted so the couple can “talk and be together.” “I am not afraid of George in any manner, and…

The New Mexico State police officer who shot at a minivan full of children during a traffic stop in October, has been fired, the Associated Press reports. Officer Elias Montoya was fired on Friday after an internal investigation and disciplinary hearing. According to the AP, he plans to appeal. New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said…

Here’s an interesting holiday-gift idea: a children’s coloring book inspired by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and his policies. Missouri publisher Really Big Coloring Books describes the U.S. Senator “Ted” Cruz to the Future “comic coloring activity book” as “a non-partisan, fact-driven view of how Texas Sen. Rafael Edward ‘Ted’ Cruz became a U.S. senator and…