(The Root) — Beginning on Wednesday, most health insurance plans will have to offer a broad array of women’s preventive health services — most notably coverage of birth control — at no up-front cost to patients. The changes are thanks to the Affordable Care Act, and although they’re being challenged legally, Health and Human Services…

When Joseph Ross checked into a Sharonville, Fla., hotel room last Friday evening and turned on the TV, he says he got a shock when he saw the text on the screen: “Hello N——er.” He suspects that whoever was responsible arranged for the message to appear during the city’s Macy’s Jazz festival, an event attended…

TMZ is reporting that, according to a representative of Cuba Gooding Jr., the actor met with New Orleans police regarding an incident in that city Tuesday night in which he was accused of shoving a female bartender. Earlier on Wednesday, there was reportedly a warrant for his arrest for misdemeanor battery, but according to the…

Robin Roberts will begin her medical leave from Good Morning America sooner than originally expected. The host, who was already scheduled to go on leave from the show to undergo a blood and bone marrow transplant to treat a disorder that was a side effect of her breast-cancer treatment, announced during the first hour of…

Thirty-one-year-old Jonah Lehrer, a New Yorker staff writer and author, has resigned from his post at the magazine after admitting that he fabricated quotes from legendary musician Bob Dylan in his book, Imagine. Jayson Blair, a former reporter for the New York Times who resigned nine years ago after his own fabrications precipitated the end…

When it comes to black, Latina and Native American women earning computer science degrees, the numbers aren’t looking too good: In 2009 they were roughly 5 percent of new graduates. These days, just 1-in-10 people working in science and tech fields are women of color, ColorLines reports. Add to that the fact that students of color…