news

  • Report: HBCU Students Are Burdened With Higher Loan Debt Than Non-HBCU Peers

    Students who graduate from historically black colleges and universities graduate with substantially higher debt than their peers at non-HBCUs, according to a new report published by the United Negro College Fund on Tuesday. “Fewer Resources, More Debt: Loan Debt Burdens Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities” (pdf), released by UNCF’s Frederick D. Patterson Research…

  • Entire Police Force in Small Ind. Town Quits in Protest of Town Council

    The entire police force in a small Indiana town resigned this week amid allegations that the town’s leadership has acted inappropriately. Bunker Hill, Ind., 75 miles north of Indianapolis, has a population of 900 residents and is the hometown of radio and TV talk show host Tavis Smiley. NBC News reports that the town’s marshal…

  • Craig Sager, Veteran Sports Reporter and King of the Fancy Suits, Dead at 65

    Craig Sager, the veteran sports broadcaster known for his colorful, flashy suits and quick-witted sideline banter at NBA basketball games, died Thursday at the age of 65. Sager, who spent four decades as a reporter for Turner Broadcasting, died after a long and public battle with cancer that, as Shaun Powell notes for NBA.com, transformed…

  • Dylann Roof Found Guilty in Charleston, SC, Church Shooting 

    A federal jury has found white supremacist Dylann Roof guilty of the racially charged massacre of nine black parishioners at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., the Associated Press reports. According to the newswire, the jury reached its verdict after less than two hours of deliberations, convicting the 22-year-old of federal…

  • Former Milwaukee Cop Charged With 1st-Degree Reckless Homicide in Fatal Shooting of Sylville Smith 

    Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm has charged former Police Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown with first-degree reckless homicide in the fatal shooting of Sylville Smith, a 23-year-old black man, the Associated Press reports. According to the newswire, Chisholm didn’t officially announce the charge, but it showed up in online court records that also showed that Heaggan-Brown made…

  • White High School Students Held Up Trump Sign, Turned Backs as Black Basketball Team Introduced

    A Missouri school district is apologizing for the “unsportsmanlike” and “insensitive” behavior of its white students after one of them held up a Trump sign while the rest of them turned their backs as a black basketball team was introduced at a Monday night game, Fox News reports. As the site notes, the controversial incident…

  • Md. Teacher Asked Students to Write 'Fun' Slave Song During Lesson on Frederick Douglass

    A Howard County, Md., high school English teacher was briefly placed on administrative leave last week after instructing students to write a “fun” slave song during a lesson on the famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the Baltimore Sun reports. According to the report, Howard County Superintendent Renee Foose put the Mount Hebron High School teacher on…

  • Photo of Injured Teen Working at Chick-fil-A Sparks Viral GoFundMe Campaign 

    A GoFundMe campaign for one Indiana teen has gone viral after a supporter snapped a picture of him sporting a neck brace and a sling while still working the counter at an Avon, Ind., Chick-fil-A. According to the New York Post, Jakeem Tyler, a student at Avon High School, was not expected to be working…

  • Report: Black Lives Matter Website the Target of More Than 100 DDoS Attacks 

    The official Black Lives Matter website was the target of more than 100 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)  attacks over a six-month period in 2016, according to a report released on Wednesday. Deflect Labs provides DDoS protection to the Black Lives Matter website, and in a report published today, the company said that from April 29 to…

  • #PhilandoCastile: Cop's Attorneys Say Castile 'Substantially' Responsible for His Own Death 

    Attorneys representing the Minnesota police officer who killed Philando Castile during a traffic stop in July are claiming that Castile was negligent in his own death and are asking for the charges to be dropped. Court documents filed Wednesday and obtained by the Associated Press charge that Castile was high on marijuana when he was…