While President Barack Obama has garnered mostly praise for his remarks on race and George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the death of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Tavis Smiley, talk show host and frequent critic of the president, offered a different take. He criticized the president for taking too long to address the verdict, tweeting, “Took POTUS…

During a brief segment on her MSNBC show on Saturday, Melissa Harris-Perry and reporter Kristen Welker paid tribute to longtime White House journalist Helen Thomas, who passed away at the age 92. Thomas began covering the White House in 1961 when John F. Kennedy was president and served until her retirement in 2010. Before her…

A Michigan county circuit judge on Friday ordered that Detroit’s federal bankruptcy filing be withdrawn because the governor and the city’s emergency manager violated the state constitution, according to the Detroit News. The state has appealed the order.  Ingham County Circuit Judge Rosemary Aquilina urged Gov. Rick Snyder to read certain sections of Michigan’s constitution,…

Iran’s foreign ministry entered the growing debate surrounding George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of the unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Friday, criticizing the verdict and America for widespread racial discrimination, the Washington Times reports. “The acquittal of the murderer of the teenage African American once again clearly demonstrated the unwritten, but systematic racial…

In a piece at Truthdig, columnist Richard Reeves explores the intersection of race and American pop culture through the lens of George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Reeves argues that the shooting stemmed, in part, from Florida’s arcane concealed-weapons law. … What happened was a crime and the acquitted shooter, Zimmerman,…

The Washington Post‘s Eugene Robinson says that although the nation should talk honestly about unresolved racial issues, President Obama is likely the wrong candidate to lead the discussion, because some people see him as threatening. The need for what diplomats call a “full and frank exchange of views” is obvious. Many Americans don’t even agree…

In an interview with WKYC, Charles Ramsey, the Cleveland man who rose to fame after discovering three women who had been missing since their teens, disputes a report by the Daily Mail that he is broke and homeless. He told the station why he moved out of his apartment near suspected kidnapper Ariel Castro and…

Chicago Public Schools will lay off more than 2,000 employees — more than 1,000 of them teachers — as a result of a $1 billion budget deficit, officials said on Thursday, according to the Chicago Tribune. Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis accused school officials of lying “to parents, employees and the public about keeping…

The Associated Press is reporting that on Thursday, Detroit became the largest city in the U.S. to file for bankruptcy, after the state-appointed emergency manager filed for Chapter 9 protection. The filing, which had been feared for months, put the city on an uncertain path that could mean laying off municipal employees, selling off assets,…

Update: Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton did a tour of the network morning shows on Thursday, expressing shock and disbelief that a jury acquitted George Zimmerman in the shooting death of their unarmed 17-year-old son, ABC News reports. It was the first time they’ve appeared in public since the verdict was announced on Saturday. On…