news
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Local Non-Profit Helps Los Angeles High School Students ‘Get Lit’
A Los Angeles-based nonprofit is helping local high school students to learn to love and appreciate poetry, and recently turned a group of them into published poets. Get Lit, founded in 2006 by Diane Luby Lane, is an organization that brings poetry into schools and “fuses classic and spoken word poetry to increase teen literacy…
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Judge Rules Cosby Civil Deposition Testimony Can Be Used in Criminal Trial
Prosecutors in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial next year will be able to use testimony he gave during depositions for an accuser’s lawsuit, a judge ruled Monday. Attorneys for Cosby, 78, claim that he only agreed to testify in the 2005 lawsuit brought by Andrea Constand because a prior prosecutor had promised him that he…
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Muslim NYPD Officer Speaks Out About Being Target of Weekend Hate Attack
A Muslim New York City police officer who was allegedly a victim of a hate crime over the weekend spoke with reporters Monday about her experience. Officer Aml Elsokary said in the press conference, covered by CBS New York, that crimes like this will not be tolerated. “I have faith that Allah is going to…
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#WalterScott: Prosecutor Insists, ‘We Will Try Michael Slager Again’
In a statement released Monday afternoon, Charleston County, S.C., prosecutor Scarlett A. Wilson said that she will retry former South Carolina Police Officer Michael Slager, 35, for the murder of 50-year-old Walter Scott. Wilson issued her statement soon after a jury deadlocked, for the second time, on whether or not the white police officer was guilty of shooting a fleeing,…
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Mistrial in Murder Case Against Cop Who Fatally Shot Walter Scott
A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case against now-former North Charleston, S.C., Police Officer Michael Slager, charged with fatally shooting an unarmed black man as the man ran away from him. According to ABC News, the jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision, with many reports speculating that there was one…
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NC Gov. Pat McCrory Concedes Super-Close Race
For nearly four weeks, North Carolina governor’s race had been too close to call. On Monday, incumbent Pat McCrory conceded, clearing the way for Democrat Roy Cooper to be declared the winner. “Despite continued questions that should be answered regarding the voting process, I personally believe that the majority of our citizens have spoken, and…
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Trump Nominates Ben Carson for HUD Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Dr. Ben Carson, the former Republican presidential candidate, to be the next secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Trump’s transition team announced Monday. “I am thrilled to nominate Dr. Ben Carson as our next secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,” Trump said in…
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Black People 3 Times as Likely to Die in Police Chases: Report
In a first-of-its-kind investigation, USA Today found that black people in the U.S. have been killed in police chases at a rate nearly three times higher than anyone else. The rub is that this included both those fleeing law enforcement and innocent bystanders. The outlet was able to thoroughly and meticulously illustrate yet another example of…
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Fidel Castro’s Last Wish: No Monuments or Memorials in My Name
Cuban President Raúl Castro said Saturday that Cuba will not name any streets or erect an public monuments in honor of his brother Fidel, in keeping with the former leader’s expressed desires, reports The Guardian. During the last stop on Fidel’s funeral procession, which began in Havana and ended in the eastern city of Santiago’s…