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Radio Host Fired for McDonald's-Boycott Call?
It was a no-brainer for 21-year-old Jentri Casaberry when he recently took time off from work at a McDonald’s on Chicago’s South Side to tend to the bedside of his prematurely born son, Nyeem. He was glad he did. The child died at 9:15 p.m. CDT on July 13 at the University of Chicago Hospital,…
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Debt Talks Continue, Backup Plans Readied
Amid a cloud of uncertainty over reaching a debt-ceiling deal, President Barack Obama met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the Oval Office late Sunday, according to the Hill. Only Democratic leaders were invited to the 6 p.m. meeting, according to the Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.…
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White House Debt Talks End After 50 Minutes
The Huffington Post is reporting that a meeting between the president and leaders of Congress over the spiraling debt ceiling ended with an agreement that it is “urgent to find a path forward this weekend.” “Staffers were set to work through the weekend, in hopes of crafting a compromise that could avert the United States…
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Harlem Sewage Spill Opens Old Wounds
Last week’s fire at New York City’s North River Wastewater Treatment Plant and subsequent sewage spill highlights just one of a vast number of reasons no one wanted it built in Harlem in the first place. Fire broke out in the engine room of the hulking plant, raging for more than three hours and discharging…
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Smiley: Poverty Tour to Put Heat on Politicos
A White House conference on poverty? That is one possible outcome that broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Princeton professor Cornel West hope will come out of their 15-city bus tour, they told The Root. The tour, announced this week on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, will travel from Minnesota to Alabama to Tennessee to underscore the plight…
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Exclusive: Sharpton on Black Journalists
Pointing out that he and MSNBC have not yet consummated a deal, the Rev. Al Sharpton responded to black journalists questioning his credentials for an MSNBC hosting gig in an exclusive interview with The Root. Sharpton emphatically stated that he is an advocate, not a journalist. If he accepts the offer, he said, it would…
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New Questions in UConn Prodigy Flap
The plot thickens. Autum Ashante, the 13-year-old prodigy from the Bronx, N.Y., became the focus of a rallying call within the media when it was announced this summer that the University of Connecticut had accepted and then rescinded her admissions. Calls for her reinstatement flooded cyberspace. And an alumna this week floated a petition for…
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Ebony Founder Gets Postage Stamp
John H. Johnson, the late entrepreneur and pioneering publisher of Ebony, Jet and other magazines, will be featured in the U.S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage stamp series in 2012. He joins a long line of distinguished leaders featured in the series, including Malcolm X, Roy Wilkins and Thurgood Marshall. “We are proud to immortalize John…
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Blogger Wants Shirley Sherrod Suit Tossed
Calling Shirley Sherrod’s lawsuit an attempt to dampen free speech, lawyers for conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart have asked a federal court to throw out her case, according to the Associated Press. Ahem. Sherrod’s case dampens free speech? Let’s review the reason for the suit in the first place. Last year, Sherrod resigned under pressure from…
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Defense Rests in Serial Killer Trial
It is an impertinent question, but it has to be asked: Who would an accused serial killer call to testify in his defense? Apparently that is what accused Ohio serial killer Anthony Sowell’s lawyers asked themselves and decided to punt. They rested their case on Tuesday without calling a single witness, according to Reuters. Sowell,…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
