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Chicago Police Have Been Compiling Dossiers on People Who Speak at Police Board Meetings
Why would the Chicago Police Department be running background checks on people who sign up to speak at public meetings of the city’s police disciplinary panel? That is what many people want to know after a public records request conducted by the Chicago Tribune revealed that since January 2018, CPD has collected information on at…
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Kamala Harris Is Seeking to Decriminalize Cannabis at the Federal Level
Although 35 states in the union plus the District of Columbia have either legalized, decriminalized or made cannabis accessible for medicinal purposes, it is still illegal at the federal level. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is seeking to change that by introducing a bill that would decriminalize the possession of cannabis overall. As Vox reports, the…
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Trump Administration Seeks to Literally Take Food Out of Poor People’s Mouths
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 36 million Americans were receiving an average of $121 monthly in food stamps as of April of this year. If the Trump administration has its way, that number will be cut by at least 3 million when proposed new regulations are released on Tuesday. Bloomberg reports that the…
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Whodunit? As Feds Scan DMV Records Using Facial Recognition Software and More Cities Use the Technology, Racial Bias Could Be a Problem
When you go to your local DMV office and stand in front of the camera to take as decent a photo as possible, you probably aren’t thinking about the possibility that said photo will come up in a facial-recognition search used by government agencies. If this is a concern you never had before, you should…
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Cyntoia Brown Documentary in the Works at Netflix
Cyntoia Brown was just 16 years old in 2004 when she was arrested and charged with the murder of 43-year-old Johnny Allen. She was tried as an adult and sentenced to life in prison. In January 2019, former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam granted Brown clemency and commuted her sentence. Brown, who is now 30, will…
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Iranian President Says White House Is ‘Afflicted by Mental Retardation’ as Trump Announces Sanctions
The Trump presidency has definitely lowered the bar as far as expectations when it comes to our world leaders and the person sitting in our country’s highest office. Trump alone has managed to destroy the notion that the president of the United States is knowledgeable about the world—including knowing the names of leaders of the…
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Secret Service Agent Claims He Was Targeted While on Duty by Park Police Because He’s Black
A retired former Secret Service agent has filed a federal lawsuit accusing two Park Police officers in the D.C. metro area of stopping him and detaining him because he is black. The Washington Post reports that according to testimony he gave in a deposition, Nathaniel Hicks was on duty and pulled over on the side…
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Auntie Who? Ava DuVernay Sets Some Boundaries and Sparks Major Debate—and The Root Digs In
So, it seems we owe Ava DuVernay an apology. Last Friday, when we ran her picture (along with buddy and co-producer Oprah Winfrey) above an article titled “Aunties Know Best? Data Suggests Single, Childless Women Are the ‘Happiest Population Subgroup,’” we never dreamed she’d consider it an insult. (After all, it got an overwhelmingly positive…
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To Protect and Serve or to Terrorize Children? Sacramento Police Department Under Fire Again
In the 14 months that have passed since Officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet gunned down 22-year-old Stephon Clark in the backyard of his grandparents’ home, the Sacramento Police Department has not managed to stay out of the headlines with negative news stories. Chief Daniel Hahn was purported to be ushering in a new day…
