Local Government
Illinois again leads the nation in exonerations
For the fifth consecutive year, Illinois led the nation in exonerations in 2022 among 26 states and the District of Columbia and in cases prosecuted in federal courts, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. The total number of exonerations during the year was 228, with Illinois leading the nation with 126 of those studied,…
Read MoreAmo has enough ammo to win the Democratic Primary in Rhode Island
Former White House aide Gabe Amo won the special election in the Democratic primary for Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District on Tuesday, and he may be the first African to represent the state in its history. Amo, a former staffer in the Obama and Biden administrations, will go up against political newcomer, Republican Gerry Leonard, in…
Read MoreGunman looking to kill Blacks murders three in Jacksonville
By Frederick H. Lowe A White gunman with swastikas painted on his Glock pistol and on his AR-15 rifle, who wanted to kill “Niggers,†shot and killed two Black men and one Black woman in a racially motivated shooting Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida. During a Sunday news conference, Sheriff T. K. Waters identified the shooter…
Read MoreJudge rules against survivors of the Tulsa Massacre
An Oklahoma judge rejected demands for reparations resulting from the 1920 Tulsa Massacre in which more than 300 Blacks were killed, and hundreds were left homeless following an attack led by Whites of the Greenwood Neighborhood, also known as Black Wall Street. The lawsuit was brought by a Black man and two Black Women over…
Read MoreYusef Salaam of the Central Park Five wins the New York primary to represent Harlem
Yusef Salaam, who seven years in prison for a crime he did not commit, declared himself the winner of the New York City primary to represent Harlem in the city council. As of Wednesday, Salaam won 50.1 percent of the vote, although mail-end ballots remain to be counted. New York has a ranked voting system,…
Read MoreParalyzed New Haven man receives a record $45 million settlement in a police brutality lawsuit
Richard “Randy ” Cox, who was riding without seatbelts in the back of a police van, was paralyzed when he was thrown into a metal partition following a sudden stop, received on Friday a settlement of $45 million in what Benjamin Crump, his attorney, said was the largest national settlement in a police brutality case.…
Read MoreBlack male drivers are police targets
A national survey of 577 traffic stops of Black male drivers by 200 police officers has found that the first 45 words spoken during the first 30 seconds to the drivers by the cops predictably determine the outcome of the traffic stop, according to the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study found…
Read MoreBlack women state’s attorneys are being forced out
Two progressive Black women state’s attorneys in St. Louis and Chicago have either thrown in the towel or have been forced to retire early. Kimberly M. Gardner, 48, is the circuit attorney for the city of St. Louis, Missouri, until she resigned early Thursday. She will remain in office until June 1, although Republicans are attempting to push her out early. Kimberly…
Read MoreAn 85-year-old White man shoots and wounds a boy who rang the wrong doorbell to pick up his two brothers
Demonstrators stormed the home of a White man in Kansas City, Missouri, who shot and seriously wounded a Black teenager who went to the wrong house to pick up his twin brothers. The gunman shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl in the head and arm. Yarl was found near the yard of the mistaken house by a…
Read MoreJustin Jones is reinstated
By a majority vote of 36 to zero, Justin Jones was reinstated to his House seat that Tennessee Republicans had taken away from him last week. They had expelled Jones and Justin Pearson, both young Black male lawmakers, from the State Senate for violating the Senate’s decorum by using bullhorns to speak from the well…
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