news
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Colin Kaepernick Voted Most Courageous Player by 49ers
San Francisco 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who defied professional football’s usual fear of confronting racial unrest, was voted the 49ers’ most courageous and inspirational player by his teammates, the NFL club announced Friday, the New York Daily News reports. Kaepernick, who knelt during the national anthem in protest against police brutality this season, was…
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Donna Brazile Says Obama Response to Russia ‘Insufficient’
Donna Brazile, interim chairperson of the Democratic National Committee, said that the Obama administration’s retaliatory measures against Russia for hacking Democratic groups are “insufficient,” according to The Hill. Brazile and the DNC definitely have skin in this game, since it was DNC emails that were hacked and released, forcing DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign,…
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19 States Will Increase Minimum Wage in 2017
Indeed, 2017 will be a great reprieve for many who are happy to see 2016 go, and it will be especially sweet for some of America’s lowest-paid hourly workers. Nineteen states will ring in the year with an increase in the minimum wage. Increasingly, states have had to step in where the federal government has…
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Black Billionaire Will Pay for Education of Kidnapped Chibok Girls
An African-American billionaire has offered to sponsor the education of 24 girls from the Chibok, Nigeria, community, including the 21 girls who were released from Boko Haram captivity in October, reports Forbes. Private-equity titan Robert Smith will pay for the young women to attend American University of Nigeria in Yola and will pay for tuition,…
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Obama Cuts Guantanamo Population to 40 Prisoners
As part of what seems like a whirlwind of activity in the last few weeks of his presidency, President Barack Obama has told Congress that he plans to resettle as many as 19 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to the Chicago Tribune.The outlet reports that despite this move, about 40 inmates will remain at…
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Cop Who Killed Walter Scott to Be Retried for Murder in 2017
The former North Charleston, S.C., police officer charged in the murder of motorist Walter Scott will be retried March 1, reports CNN. A state judge declared a mistrial in the case earlier this month after jurors could not unanimously reach a decision to convict Michael Slager. Although Slager was caught lying about the April 4,…
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Study: Levels of Child Lead Exposure in Oakland, Calif., More Dangerous Than in Flint, Mich.
According to a new report from Reuters, children in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, Calif., are being exposed to lead at levels more dangerous than in Flint, Mich. Flint made headlines in the last year for lead contamination in the city water supply, but according to the study, the lead contamination in Oakland is coming…
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Amazon Echo and the Data It Contains at Center of Ark. Murder Investigation
Amazon’s Echo personal-assistant device is in the news this week because police in Arkansas want to use its data in a murder investigation. Court documents show that in November 2015, James A. Bates of Bentonville, Ark., had two friends over his home to watch an Arizona Razorbacks game, and the next morning, one of the…
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Black Lives Matter Activist Faces Restraining Order From L.A. Police Commissioner
The president of the Los Angeles Police Commission filed a request for a temporary restraining order against a prominent member of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. Matt M. Johnson, who has been president of the police commission since September 2015, said that he feared for his life and the safety of his family, and he…