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President Barack Obama has chosen Deputy Education Secretary John King Jr. to succeed Arne Duncan to oversee the Education Department. According to NBC New York, King, formerly New York State commissioner of education, was not nominated by the president for his new position, a move that would have required confirmation by the Republican-run Senate. Instead,…

Updated Wednesday, Oct. 7, 6 p.m. EDT: Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, issued a statement about the incident, noting that the girl is Asian, not white, as was reported by various media. The archdiocese also indicated that in addition to the African-American boy, a white boy was also suspended in the incident.…

Texas mom Roni Dean-Burren took to YouTube to call out book publishing giant McGraw-Hill after she opened her son’s World Geography textbook and noticed a slight change in history, ABC 13 reports. In the section titled, “Patterns of Immigration,” Dean-Burren noticed that the trans-Atlantic slave trade was considered immigration and that slaves were referred to as…

The mother of the Oregon mass shooter reportedly shuttled her son to shooting ranges and stockpiled weapons at home out of fear of stricter gun laws, according to the New York Daily News. The mother, Laurel Harper, a nurse who shared an apartment with her son Chris Harper Mercer, 26,  “spoke openly about her love…

Zephyrhills, Fla., Police Chief David Shears announced Friday that he has fired an officer after observing body-cam footage of him tasing a black man whose hands were raised in surrender as he stood inside the door of his home, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Calling it the “right thing,” Shears said he fired Tim Claussen…

White supremacy is more of a threat to the safety of Americans than Muslim extremism, Complex reports. Nearly twice as many people have been killed in the U.S. by white supremacists and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims since Sept. 11, 2001, the report says, citing research reported in June by the New York…

In an effort to reduce racial profiling and the use of excessive force by law-enforcement officers, Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed new bills that require officers to collect demographic data on people they stop, according to the Los Angeles Times. One of the measures, known as A.B. 953, requires police officers to collect…

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary on Saturday.  It’s unclear how the first couple celebrated the event, which over their past seven years in the White House has been interrupted by presidential campaigns, debates and threats of a government shutdown. Indeed, they have won the hearts of Americans…

As investigators piece together events leading up to Thursday’s mass shooting at an Oregon community college, a disturbing portrait emerges of the 26-year-old gunman. In information gleaned from social media accounts associated with an email address for Chris Harper Mercer, who officials say gunned down nine people at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., police…

For years Kimber Edwards, sentenced to death in his ex-wife’s murder in 2000, proclaimed that he did not hire anyone to carry out a killing. Now someone has finally listened. Democratic Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Friday commuted Edwards’ death sentence to life in prison after a newspaper reported that the man convicted of carrying…