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  • Nashville Prosecutor Fired Over Female Sterilization in Plea Deals

    A prosecutor in Nashville, Tenn., was fired after reports emerged that he had demanded that women involved in some plea negotiations undergo sterilization, the Associated Press reports. Brian Holmgren, a former Davidson County assistant district attorney, told AP on Wednesday that he had been fired. He declined to say why he was dismissed, and officials…

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  • She Got Game: ESPN’s Jemele Hill Is the Queen of Sports Talk

    When people see ESPN personality Jemele Hill sitting among a sea of male prognosticators, effortlessly spewing her valued opinions on current and compelling sports topics, not everyone may agree with her—but you have to respect her gangsta.  Although she was raised humbly in crime-ridden Detroit at a time when poverty was protocol, jobs were leaving…

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  • MLK’s Radicalism Speaks to Contemporary Protests

    The 47th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination should inspire us all to reimagine this political revolutionary’s final act as a statesman and civil rights leader. In the afterglow of the March on Washington and the Selma-to-Montgomery march, King became a pillar of fire, rejecting the course of political moderation and social…

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  • Watch: The Rock Nails Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ During Lip-Synching Battle With Jimmy Fallon

    Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson knew every single word of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”—which is saying a lot, considering the Rock’s whole persona. As a onetime wrestler and now movie star, he is the antithesis of the young woman’s anthem. But that didn’t stop the Rock during his lip-synching battle on the premiere of Lip…

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  • McDonald’s Workers: $1 Raise Is Insulting; We Want $15 Per Hour

    Despite all the hoopla, many workers at McDonald’s feel insulted by the restaurant chain’s announced increase in wages $1 above the federal minimum wage, especially since that policy applies only to people working at company-owned restaurants, Forbes reports. That means that for the 90 percent of McDonald’s employees who work at franchise locations, their wages…

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  • Am I Related to Members of Jesse James’ Outlaw Gang?

    I’d like to know if I am related to the Younger brothers who ran with Old West outlaw Jesse James and his brothers in the James-Younger gang. According to family lore, we are related to them.  I only know of their family being from Yazoo City, Miss., which is where my mother (Ida Mae Younger)…

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  • Being Too Scared to Reveal You Have an STD Is No Excuse for Ruining Someone Else’s Life

    I started talking to this guy and he was great—everything I could ask for and more. There’s just one problem: I have a sexually transmitted disease, and I was completely embarrassed and scared to tell him, especially after the way I have been treated in the past. I kept it to myself and continued to…

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  • Nigeria Hits the Reset Button 

    The outcome of the Nigerian election and the thus-far peaceful reaction to it is the most hopeful news out of Africa’s largest country in years. For the first time in Nigeria’s history, an incumbent head of state has been defeated at the ballot box. On May 29, when President-elect Muhammadu Buhari is sworn in, Nigeria…

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  • Islamist Gunmen Storm Kenyan University; at Least 140 Dead

    Gunmen stormed onto a college campus in Kenya right before dawn Thursday and began shooting students and taking hostages, CNN reports. Islamist terrorist group al-Shabab, based in Somalia, took responsibility for the attack, which claimed at least 140 lives. Students at Garrisa University College who witnessed the attack described how the attackers killed students based…

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  • Mass. Inmates Shoveled Snow in Freezing Weather Without Gloves or Boots for $3 to $4 a Day

    During the winter, a public transportation agency in Massachusetts paid inmates approximately $3 to $4 a day to shovel snow—without the appropriate weather gear—including on days when the temperature dropped to the single digits, ThinkProgress reports. After getting wind of reports that inmates had endured freezing workdays after being assigned to help with the Massachusetts…

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