culture

A white police officer from suburban Detroit is out of a job after she was caught on tape violently hacking off a young hairdresser’s weave during an arrest in November, the Daily News reports. Bernadette Najor was fired from the Warren Police Department in Warren, Mich., after the incident, the News says. Najor reportedly had…

Wal-Mart lowered its fourth-quarter profit expectations, the New York Times reports, citing cuts to food stamps and an especially harsh winter. Charles M. Holley Jr., the company’s chief financial officer, said that despite a fairly decent holiday season, the impact from reductions to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food-stamps program, was “greater than…

Singer Sam Cooke wrote one of the most profound songs of the 1960s, but it wasn’t an easy decision for him, NPR’s Arun Rath reports. Rolling Stone now calls “A Change Is Gonna Come” one of the greatest songs of all time, but in 1964 its political message was a risky maneuver. Cooke had worked hard…

When Khadijah Muhammad showed up for her waitress job at Cheddar’s restaurant in Knoxville, Tenn., on Jan. 23, her electricity was going to be shut off, but she focused on serving her clients, the Daily News reports. So it seemed like a miracle when an unidentified family left a tip of $1,075 for a meal…

The Harlem Fine Arts Show is in its fifth year, and it is visual artist Synthia Saint James’ first time showing at the annual event. “This was the first opportunity I had a chance to do so,” Saint James said from her Los Angeles home during a phone interview with HFAS. “I really wished that…

The Super Bowl has contributed its fair share of defining moments to football history, but it also lends itself to some pretty epic failures. Here are some memorable examples from recent years.  1. Janet Jackson’s Wardrobe Malfunction Carolina Panthers vs. New England Patriots  Ten years ago an estimated 140 million people watched as Justin Timberlake…

Just in time for Black History Month, archivists at Arizona State University announced that they have discovered what may possibly be the only known recording of speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made at the school and a Phoenix church in June 1964, the Associated Press said Friday. Mary Scanlon found the tapes last year…

Natasha Stewart, 40, told a jury she was only trying to help someone who felt insecure about her body. But prosecutors said her so-called help led to a woman’s death. Stewart, of suburban Memphis, Tenn., was found guilty of culpable negligence manslaughter Friday by a jury in Jackson, Miss., the Associated Press reports. The verdict…

A foundation to oversee the competitive process to select President Barack Obama’s library and museum was launched Friday, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. A site could be selected as soon as 2015. Contenders are said to include land in Hawaii, the tropical paradise of the president’s boyhood, and Chicago, where he came of age politically. Obama’s…

Kanye West appears to be off the hook for now. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office rejected a battery case against the rapper because he had reached a civil settlement with the alleged 18-year-old victim and there were no significant injuries documented after the altercation, the Associated Press reports. The incident occurred on Jan.…