culture

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…

A Nashville, Tenn., man who has 22 children by 14 women has landed in hot water after failing to pay child support. He is being sued in what may be one of the city’s costliest child-support cases, according to the Huffington Post, which cites a report by CBS affiliate WTVF. In an interview outside court,…

The Huffington Post is reporting that a 911 operator in Texas has been fired after allegedly making a series of racist remarks on her Facebook page. In Facebook posts that only her friends could see, 911 operator April Sims, 23, apparently compared black people to “animals” and said she could “count on one hand” those…

Serena Williams has handily defeated Maria Sharapova to secure her second French Open title, 11 years to the day after she beat her older sister, Venus, to win her first in 2002, USA Today reports. Top-seeded Williams beat No. 2 Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-4 to secure her second French Open title, 11 years to the…

The Associated Press is reporting that prosecutors have recommended to a judge that former Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. serve four years in prison, following his guilty plea earlier this year on criminal charges that he engaged in a scheme to spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal items. The government suggested an 18-month sentence…

In a piece for xoJane, S.E. Smith breaks down why the actions of Ellen Sturtz — the woman now infamously known as the first lady’s heckler — were uncouth. You don’t interrupt while the adults are talking, folks. You just don’t. You do not attend an event with the express intent of interrupting it, being…