culture
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Not Enough Drugs Entered Inmate’s Veins in Botched Okla. Execution
Updated Friday, May 2, 2014, 2 p.m. EDT: President Barack Obama called the botched exeuction “deeply troubling” while at a White House press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, NBC News reports. Obama said that the mishandled execution raised “significant questions about how the death penalty is being applied” in the nation, adding that he…
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Report: Donald Sterling Fighting Cancer
Los Angeles Clippers’ scorned owner, Donald Sterling, has reportedly been battling prostate for years, the New York Post reports. Sources told the news site that they were surprised at how well his fight was going. “They thought he would die two years ago,” one source told the Post. “People have been predicting his imminent demise.…
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NBA Owners Plan to Move Quickly to Boot Clippers Owner
Only two days after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver brought the hammer down on Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for racist remarks captured during a taped conversation that was leaked to TMZ, NBA owners held their first meeting in a bid to end Sterling’s ownership of the team. The league’s 10-member advisory/finance committee held a…
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Meek Mill Loses Case Against Philadelphia Police Over Traffic Stop
On Halloween night 2012, police pulled over a Range Rover moving through the streets of North Philadelphia. Inside the vehicle were Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill and three members of his entourage—an Atlantic Records executive, an off-duty police officer and the rapper’s cousin—all of whom were headed to catch a flight to Atlanta to launch Mill’s…
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Los Angeles NAACP President Resigns Amid Sterling Scandal
The president of the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP, Leon Jenkins, resigned Thursday, amid continued fallout from a decision to award embattled LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling and a report posted on The Root chronicling a history of Jenkins’ misdeeds since his days of being a judge in Detroit during the 1980s. In a…
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Girl’s Shooting In Alleged Facebook Dispute Puts Spotlight Back on Chicago Crime
Just as Chicago lawmakers were beginning to breathe a small sigh of relief at the city’s dwindling crime rate, a 14-year-old South Side girl was shot and killed by classmates in a rivalry over a boy. Police arrested another 14-year-old girl and charged her with first-degree murder in the stunning execution-style shooting death of 14-year-old…
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Belle Director Wanted to Make a Different Type of Drama
When you think of Jane Austen-type dramas, you don’t think of black heroines, but a new film hitting theaters on Friday wants to change that. Belle is a period piece with all the beautiful costumes and grand English homes, but it features a biracial star, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and is helmed by a black director, Amma…
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Are You a 2-Minute Man? You’re Not Alone
It will take you longer to read this article than it takes nearly half of all men to finish having sex. And this is a fairly short article. But consider this: If a man and a woman start having sex right now, the man will either be asleep or smoking a cigarette by the time…
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Nigerian Schoolgirl Abductions: Here’s What We Know
On April 15, more than 200 Nigerian girls were kidnapped from their school in the town of Chibok. The Islamic militant group Boko Haram has been blamed for the incident. Since the kidnapping, details have been mired in controversy. With so much conflicting information, it is hard to keep the facts straight. Here is what…
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Report: Award to Sterling Wasn’t the First Questionable Move for LA’s NAACP President
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Michigan Citizen. Leon Jenkins, the Los Angeles branch NAACP president who awarded LA Clippers basketball team owner Donald Sterling with a Lifetime Achievement award among other commendations, lived, worked and won notoriety in Detroit. Jenkins was a 36th District Court judge between 1984 and 1987. During that…