culture
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Shoppers Smash Window of Hot Car to Save Kids While Mom Got Haircut
Two kids stuck in a hot Jeep on a 90-degree day with the windows up, crying. Shoppers in Katy, Texas, saw the situation and didn’t wait for this scene to turn any more tragic: They began trying to break the Jeep’s window with their hands in order to free the little boy and girl whose…
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Police to Press Charges in Virginia Target Shoplifting Case
The Leesburg Police Department in Virginia announced Monday that it will be looking to press charges against an alleged shoplifter involved in a controversial Target case that may have led to a security guard being fired after he reported the incident, the Washington Post reports. According to the report, the police had been waiting on…
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Olympic Legend Alice Coachman Dies at 90
Alice Coachman, the Olympic legend who shattered ceilings and the status quo when she became the first black woman to win a gold medal at the games, earning the medal for her 5-foot-6-1/8-inch high jump, has died in her hometown of Albany, Ga., at the age of 90, the New York Times reports. Coachman had…
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Tupac Musical Holler if Ya Hear Me Silenced on Broadway After 6 Weeks
In the end it may have been too much for Holler if Ya Hear Me to carry. The Tupac musical was supposed to be a bridge between the gritty streets of hip-hop and the highbrow Broadway scene. Holler opened to lukewarm reviews, struggled to find an audience, and after some 38 performances and 17 previews…
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Tracy Morgan Speaks for the 1st Time Since Accident: ‘I’m OK. I Feel Strong’
Looks like Tracy Morgan will be back to his old tricks in no time. Morgan spoke out for the first time since a Wal-Mart truck crashed into his limousine, killing his good friend and mentor, James “Uncle Jimmy Mack” McNair, and leaving him hospitalized with a broken nose, broken femur, cracked ribs and a broken…
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Get on Up: The Pain of Playing James Brown
“You’re seeing a movie about a genius,” Chadwick Boseman says of Get on Up: The James Brown Story. He’d know this better than anyone, as the man tasked to bring the icon to life—and that feat requires a genius quality all its own. Boseman sits down with The Root’s social media editor, Terron Moore, to explain all the fear,…
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Va. Target Security Guard Fired for Turning in Shoplifter?
It was a matter of routine … at least that’s what 29-year-old Dallas Northington, a former Target security guard, thought. The young father, who worked at a Leesburg, Va., Target, allegedly caught the same man on surveillance shoplifting on two separate occasions. So he called in the local police, filed a report and gave them…
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Va. Man Claims ‘Kingdom of North Sudan’ to Make Daughter Princess
When Jeremiah Heaton’s daughter asked last winter if she could be a real princess, he said yes. As it turns out, Heaton, who isn’t big on false promises, wasn’t just saying that to appease his daughter. He set out to make his daughter’s dream come true by laying claim to an unclaimed 800-square-mile section of…
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Anti-Apartheid Novelist Nadine Gordimer Dead at 90
South African author Nadine Gordimer, known for her unflinching look at apartheid in her works, died Monday in Johannesburg at the age of 90, the New York Times reports. The 1991 Nobel laureate reportedly did not have her sights set on the heavy oppression that ruled her country in her youth, but she soon realized…
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Family of Man Fatally Shot by Undercover NYPD Cop Settles for $2M
The family of Shem Walker, an unarmed Army veteran who was killed by a New York City undercover detective in 2009, has settled with the city for $2.25 million, according to the New York Daily News. The 49-year-old man was killed in a July 11, 2009, altercation with the detective, who appeared to be loitering…