Although African-American households are in less debt today than they were in 2008, during the Great Recession, they still face unique financial strain and more severe consequences from their credit card debt, according to a new report (pdf) by the NAACP and Demos, a public policy organization. The report, “The Challenge of Credit Card Debt…

A Texas middle school principal has been placed on paid administrative leave for allegedly forbidding the entire school to speak Spanish in order to prevent “disruptions,” KHOU reports. According to the news site, students at Hempstead Middle School have accused Principal Amy Lacey of telling them over the intercom on Nov. 12 that they could…

Charges will be dropped against the three Rochester, N.Y., teens who were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct while waiting for a school bus to take them to a basketball game. According to USA Today, on Tuesday Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley refused to prosecute the case. “After reviewing the facts associated with these…

Memphis, Tenn., officials have pitched the idea of an African-American historical trail to the City Council, the Associated Press reports. The trail, which would be dedicated to black leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., would include new monuments around the downtown area, according to the AP. Housing and Community Development Director Robert Lipscomb reportedly…

The mayor and police department of Miami Gardens, Fla., have been slapped with a federal civil rights lawsuit for police abuse and racial profiling, particularly against African Americans, Reuters reports. According to the report, Ali Amin Saleh, the owner of a convenience store in the predominantly black suburb, is leading the lawsuit’s 11 plaintiffs. His…

A dive team had gone to the sunken tugboat to retrieve bodies. What they found, 100 feet down at the bottom of the Atlantic, was a lone survivor in an air bubble in the sunken vessel. The diver saw a hand, which, he assumed, was that of a corpse, but when a diver reached out…

A woman has been formally charged with murder for shooting another woman at a Iron Bowl party in Hoover, Ala., on Saturday, WBRC reports. The 28-year-old suspect, Adrian Laroze Briskey, allegedly shot Michelle Lacette Shepherd, 36, with a small handgun in a parking lot after what was allegedly an argument over Auburn’s last-second victory over…

It’s been a week since David Cornell Bennett Jr. was taken into custody, but charges have not yet been filed against the 22-year-old, who is being held on a $5 million bond, the Associated Press reports. Bennett was arrested on Nov. 26 at gunpoint in connection with the deaths of a young Kansas mother and…

Three white male students have slapped a black female Minneapolis Community and Technical College professor with a racial-discrimination complaint, causing the professor to be formally reprimanded by school officials for creating a “hostile learning environment,” Salon reports. Shannon Gibney was teaching her class, Introduction to Mass Communication, when the students reportedly reacted in a hostile…

You may remember Elle France Beauty Editor Jeanne Deroo, who infamously wore blackface a few weeks ago, complete with an Afro wig. Well, Deroo has since come forward to apologize, via Twitter, International Business Times reports. “I realise how much the fact of painting oneself brown is an offensive act. I didn’t realise the seriousness…