culture
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NFL Hires Ex-FBI Director to Investigate Ray Rice Case
On Wednesday the NFL announced that a former FBI director would investigate how NFL officials and league management handled evidence involving former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice’s assault of his wife, Janay Rice, when she was his fiancee. The move comes after reports that the NFL was sent video footage as far back…
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Accused Shoplifter Uses Wal-Mart Motorized Wheelchair Cart to Take Off With Goods
Shirley Mae Mason had finished her alleged shoplifting on Monday at Wal-Mart but didn’t have a ride. She also “didn’t feel like walking,” so the 46-year-old reportedly took $600 worth of clothing, along with a $1,200 motorized wheelchair shopping cart, and started making her way home, the Smoking Gun reports. Police picked up the Michigan…
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Contractors Who Witnessed Michael Brown Shooting Say the Teen Had His Hands Up
Two contractors have come forward with their own details surrounding Michael Brown’s fatal shooting in early August in Ferguson, Mo., corroborating other witness reports that insisted the teen had his hands up in surrender before he was killed by police Officer Darren Wilson, CNN reports. In exclusive video obtained by CNN, taken by an unknown…
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Actor Terry Crews Relives Childhood of Domestic Violence With Ray Rice Scandal
As video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee unconscious continues to spark discussion about domestic abuse, actor and former NFL player Terry Crews weighed in on the scandal, recalling the violence of his own childhood, Entertainment Tonight reports. The Brooklyn Nine-Nine star has always been open about the abuse his mother faced at the hands…
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Ebola Relief Workers: US, We Want Your Aid, Not Your Troops
The U.S., United Kingdom, European Union and the Gates Foundation are all donating money and resources to help curb the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, but aid workers on the ground have one main concern with the strings attached to America’s aid: The U.S. wants to dispatch a security detail to accompany the health care…
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Mike Tyson Goes Mike Tyson on a Reporter After ‘Convicted Rapist’ Remark
There’s a harrowing moment in Mike Tyson’s one-man stage play, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, when he describes how he was accused of, tried for and eventually convicted of raping 18-year-old Desiree Washington in 1992. He talks—sensitively—about how he wasn’t the first person Washington had accused of rape and how his agent at the time, Don King, hired…
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If We Want Diverse Books, We Need Diverse MFA Programs
Recently, in the New Yorker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz described his experience in his Master of Fine Arts in creative writing program: His first year, he almost dropped out because it “was too white.” States Diaz: “I was a person of color in a workshop whose theory of reality did not include my most fundamental…
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Ray Rice Video Sent to NFL in April, Law-Enforcement Official Says
Whether someone at the NFL before this week saw the full video in which Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punched his then-fiancee, Janay Palmer, unconscious on an elevator is still up for debate. However, the league allegedly had access to the damning footage. According to the Associated Press, a law-enforcement official has come forward…
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Jersey of Bengals Player Whose Daughter Is Battling Cancer Becomes Fastest Seller
Devon Still needed some good news. The Cincinnati Bengals rookie’s daughter, Leah, has been battling stage 4 cancer at the same time he was battling to make the team. Last week Still was cut, but when the organization learned of his situation, they signed him back to the practice squad. He was on the team,…
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Ferguson Residents Demand Answers From City Council in Heated Open Meeting
It was a tense, fiery City Council meeting on Tuesday at the Greater Grace Church in Ferguson, Mo., as residents came to air their grievances and demand answers, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. According to the report, more than 600 residents came to the meeting, where they continued to voice their demands for change in…