culture

The Ferguson, Mo., police officer who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in early August is wrapping up negotiations with city officials to resign, CNN reports. According to CNN’s sources, Darren Wilson has insisted that he did not commit any wrongdoing in the Aug. 9 shooting. The negotiations over his resignation are centered on whether…

A Lawrenceville, Va., high school is trying to protect its principal against accusations that he was throwing up gang signs in a photo taken with students, WRIC reports. Brunswick High School Principal Warren Bell can be seen in the sharply criticized photo, making a hand gesture while standing next to five students, who were also…

To the casual observer, Jason Brown had it all. At one point the former NFL center had a five-year, $37 million contract with the St. Louis Rams—but then one day he decided to walk away from it all, CBS News reports. “My agent told me, ‘You’re making the biggest mistake of your life,’ ” Brown…

The New York City Police Department is calling the shooting of an unarmed 28-year-old man by a rookie officer an “accident,” emphasizing that the victim was “a total innocent,” the New York Times reports. According to the report, Akai Gurley was shot in a stairwell in the borough of Brooklyn late Thursday night, reportedly without…

A Kentucky fire chief is under scrutiny after a shocking video showed him apparently refusing to assist a black family after a traffic accident and laughing while saying, “We ain’t taking no n—gers here,” WDRB reports. In the video, reportedly recorded on the body camera of a county sheriff’s deputy and obtained by WDRB, Southeast…

Updated Fri., Nov. 21, 11:45 p.m. EST: Dan Handler, better known as Lemony Snicket, issued yet another apology on Friday for a joke he made while hosting the National Book Awards ceremony about black author Jaqueline Woodson being allergic to watermelon. In his new apology, as a gesture of good intentions, Handler donated $10,000 to We…

Updated Friday, Nov. 21, 11:20 a.m. EST: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder promoted the Justice Department’s new guidelines for law enforcement on how to maintain order during First Amendment-protected events on Friday, saying that they “minimize needless confrontation.”   “The Justice Department encourages law-enforcement officials, in every jurisdiction, to work with the communities they serve to…

Myron May, the Florida State University alumnus who has been identified as the gunman behind Thursday’s shooting at the school, was dealing with financial troubles and experiencing paranoia that the government was spying on him, officials reported Thursday, according to USA Today. He had apparently recently quit his job as a prosecutor at the district…