Commentaries/Opinions

The failure to convict Michael Dunn for shooting Jordan Davis to death in the course of an argument over whether the 17-year-old and his friends were playing their car stereo too loudly illustrates that, as a practical matter, hot-blooded murder is often perfectly legal under Florida law – and that of many other states as well.

American politics began taking a nasty turn in the post-Reagan years. From the late 1960s, Kevin Phillips, the American historian, had identified trends that he predicted would lead to a Republican majority at the federal level.

A black neighborhood in Portland, Oregon rejected plans to build a Trader Joe’s, fearing that the store would result in further gentrification and residents being priced out.

The lynching and disbarring of civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart, who because she has terminal cancer was recently released from prison after serving four years of a 10-year sentence, is a window into the collapse of the American legal system.

It was a proud day for this Raleigh native. On Saturday, a crowd of riled-up citizens the North Carolina NAACP estimated to be upwards of 80,000—the largest such gathering in the South since the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march—headed to the state capitol to protest the extremist policies of North Carolina’s GOP-controlled legislature.

Invariably, around February of each year, coinciding with Black History Month, you’ll hear people asking, “Why isn’t there a white history month?”

“Haiti is too rich to be poor”. This seemingly contradictory statement uttered by a well-known Haitian educator the night before our departure echoed repeatedly in my mind as I flew back to the USA after a brief but eventful visit to Haiti in mid-February, 2014.

Under the current law, someone caught with a joint in Washington, D.C., can be arrested and jailed for six months. But on Tuesday, the District council voted overwhelmingly for a bill that would eliminate criminal penalties for possessing a small amount of the drug.