culture

New York magazine‘s Maureen O’Connor says that Michelle Obama may be smart in not meeting with China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan, who is visiting the U.S. this week with her husband, Xi Jinping. The military-propaganda singer reportedly sang in praise of the Chinese army after its crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989.  “Michelle Obama of…

The Daily News is reporting that a Connecticut man enraged that his pregnant girlfriend wouldn’t get an abortion allegedly hired a hitman to kill her, according to court documents. Carlton Bryan, 21, was riding with Shamari Jenkins, who was four months pregnant, when she was fatally shot April 29 while driving in Hartford’s North End,…

Updated Sunday, June 9, 1:30 p.m. EDT: Family visits Nelson Mandela while South Africans pray for his health, according to the Associated Press. There was no official update on the 94-year-old former president and anti-apartheid leader after his second night in the hospital. His condition was described as “serious but stable” on Saturday. Earlier: Former…

The Philadelphia crane operator, who was wanted in connection with a building collapse that killed six people last week, has turned himself in to police, according to The Inquirer. Sean Benschop, 43, who surrendered on Saturday, refused to give a statement on his role in Wednesday’s collapse, according to The Inquirer. He is scheduled to…

Updated Sunday, June, 9, 11:15 a.m. EDT: The Santa Monica gunman’s first victims were family, according to USA Today. The man accused of killing four people during a rampage before being killed by police was identified by multiple media outlets on Sunday as John Zawahri, whose victims included his father and brother. Additional reports show…

Police authorities say that the car of second-grade teacher Terrilynn Monette, who disappeared March 2 after a night out celebrating her Teacher of the Year nomination, was pulled from a New Orleans bayou on Saturday and that a decomposed body was inside, the Associated Press reports. Police couldn’t immediately say whether the body was that…

In a piece at The Guardian, Harvard University scholar Caroline Elkins checks in on the Mau Mau’s stunning legal victory against the United Kingdom for the systematic violence it committed during the group’s struggle for independence. On Thursday nearly 200 elderly Kikuyu people travelled from their rural homesteads and sat before the British high commissioner…

Kanye West’s popularity is the result of his fan base and album sales, writes the Huffington Post’s Kia Makarechi, who examines the uproar surrounding his forthcoming studio release, Yeezus, which includes the song “I Am a God.” He argues that any outrage over the artist’s soaring ego should be directed at his fans.  “Yeezus,” Kanye West’s sixth…

Children’s Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman suggests in a piece at the Huffington Post that we look at violence in America as a public health crisis rather than a crime problem in light of the spate of recent mass shootings. … What if we look for promising practices and expanded the ones that work…

The Associated Press is reporting that popular Newark Mayor Cory Booker formally declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate on Saturday, saying, “We need someone in the United States Senate who’s actually had to work on difficult problems, who’s had to find people jobs.” He is hoping to fill the seat of U.S. Sen. Frank…