culture
-
Indiana Woman Admits to Selling Baby for Sex
An Indiana woman is admitting to allowing a man from her community to “buy” a baby eight times and being in the room for all the encounters, except the last one, the Sun-Times Media Wire reports. Natisha Hillard, a 25-year-old from Gary, Ind., pleaded guilty in a U.S. District Court in Hammond to her crimes.…
-
33 Weddings, Robots, a Goofy Hat and Major Snubs: Must Be the Grammys
This year’s 56th Annual Grammy Awards show was filled with head-scratchers, from Pharrell’s hat to a mass wedding officiated by Queen Latifiah to robots winning best album and song and then being unable to deliver an acceptance speech because they are nonverbal futuristic machines. The biggest head-scratcher of them all was a Compton, Calif.-raised rapper,…
-
Maryland Mall Shooter Revealed, Motive Still Unknown
On Saturday morning, instead of heading off to Dunkin’ Donuts where he was supposed to open the store, Darion Marcus Aguilar, 19, whom neighbors describe as a quiet, skinny teenager who loved skateboarding, got in a cab with a pump-action, pistol-grip Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun hidden from sight and a backpack filled with homemade explosives and…
-
This Is What It’s Like to Be a Black Female NFL Agent
Editor’s note: With this article we introduce a new column: My Thing Is, a place for The Root’s readers and contributors to reveal their personal narratives. Want to tell your story? Send pitches to MyThingIs@theroot.com. I’m a 5-foot-4, 130-pound woman who loves her stilettos and pastel suits—especially pink ones. What do I know about football?…
-
Usher Flies to Panama to Meet With Justin Bieber
R&B crooner Usher flew to Panama in an effort to have a sit-down with imperiled pop star Justin Bieber, TMZ reports. The 19-year-old singer’s mother, Pattie Mallette, his manager, Scooter Braun, and close friends Ryan Good and Ryan Butler were also reportedly on hand in Nitro City, a resort in Punta Chame, Panama, the report…
-
Ride Along Cruisin’ at No. 1
Ride Along cruised to the No. 1 spot at the box office for the second weekend in a row, earning $21.2 million and leaving its competitors the dust, the Daily News reported Sunday. The Universal Pictures buddy comedy, co-starring Kevin Hart and Ice Cube, zoomed past the week’s lone new release, the monster thriller I,…
-
Iowa GOP Drops Contractor Behind Racially Tinged Facebook Post
A social media contractor is said to be out of a job after an offensive flowchart appeared briefly Friday on the website of the Iowa Republican Party, the Daily Beast reports. A.J. Spiker, the party’s chairman, told the Daily Beast in a statement that the contractor responsible for posting the flowchart, “Is Someone a Racist?”…
-
Elementary School Principal Placed on Leave for Using N-Word
Here we go again. A school district in Washington state has suspended an elementary school principal after a group of fifth-graders claimed that she used the n-word during play rehearsal last week. Poulsbo Elementary School Principal Claudia Alves has been placed on a leave of absence while the district investigates the incident, North Kitsap County…
-
The 2014 Grammy Awards: Top 5 Things to Watch For
LL Cool J., who has hosted the Grammys for the last two years, is back again. Um, yay? Anyway we have a list of five things to look out for during the show, which starts at 8 p.m. EST on CBS, including a performance by hip-hop’s biggest couple, Beyoncé and Jay Z. The event will…
-
White Supremacist Pleads to Reduced Charges After Terrorizing Neighbors With Guns
When 29-year-old Kynan Dutton joined forces with Craig Cobb, 62, late last year, they planned to set up a whites-only community in Leith, N.D. But those plans fell by the wayside after the two men were arrested and charged with felony terrorizing, following confrontations with other residents, reports say. Now Dutton, who is being released…