culture
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Food Stamp Benefit Cuts Start Today
On Friday, a boost from the federal stimulus package is set to expire, which will cut the “food stamp” program by $5 billion dollars nationally. More than 47 million Americans — or 1 in 7 — will see a decrease in their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, reports CBS News. The amount could get…
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Football Field Turned Organic Farm at HBCU
In Texas, where football is king, Paul Quinn College President Michael Sorrell chose to cut the school’s football program, Yahoo Sports reports. The sports department and upkeep was draining the budget of the small HBCU, which is located seven miles outside of downtown Dallas. Sorrell, a Root100 alum and president of the school since 2007, had to make the unpopular…
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New York Bus Driver Saves Woman's Life
A Buffalo, N.Y. school bus driver risked his life to save a woman he didn’t know. Darnell Barton, 37, was driving a bus full of high school students along a parkway when he saw woman standing on the ledge, “leaning out over the traffic below,” The Buffalo News, reports. That is when Barton stopped the bus…
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Obamacare Site Accepts Help From Google Expert
Healthcare.gov, the troubled website that launched Oct. 1 and has been heavily criticized for its lack of functionality since then, is getting help from some industry heavyweights. Google, Oracle and several other tech companies are giving much-needed support by lending dozens of computer engineers and programmers to the plagued website, according to Bloomberg News. About 8.6…
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Dawson Mayor Chris Wright Shot in Robbery
Chris Wright, the young, charismatic mayor of Dawson, Ga., was shot last night in what news channel Fox 31 is calling a robbery attempt outside his home Friday morning. Wright was transported to the hospital, where Jessae Goshae, a friend of Wright’s, told the news station that the 23-year-old mayor had been shot multiple times in the leg but…
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Let's Celebrate Howard University
Is it Howard University’s job to pave the way for its own obsolescence? That’s one of the questions The Atlantic‘s Ta-Nehisi Coates explores as he takes a colorful trip down memory lane at his alma mater and laments the challenges that HBCUs now face. His son is 13 years old and just starting to think…
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Sanford Bans Neighborhood-Watch Guns
The city of Sanford, Fla., is now prohibiting its civilian neighborhood-watch team from carrying firearms on patrol, following the 2012 incident in which then-neighborhood-watch leader George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, Yahoo! News reports. This change of rules is aimed at preventing another such incident — which shook the state…
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Feds Open Investigation Into Kendrick Johnson's Death
The parents of Kendrick Johnson, the teen who was found dead and wedged inside a rolled-up gym mat in his Georgia high school, got one step closer to getting some answers. Michael Moore, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, announced on Thursday that he is committed to finding out the truth behind…