Jewish center shooting suspect Frazier Glenn Miller has a long history with hate groups and the shootings will be treated as hate crimes. But Jews have come a long way ‘in finding full acceptance in society,’ a report says.
Westboro Baptist Church, which pickets military funerals to preach against homosexuality, has excommunicated ailing founder Fred Phelps, according to reports.
She quit her job, sold her possessions, including her home, and dedicated her resources, energy and time to New Orleans’ most neglected youths.
Pete Seeger, who died Monday, recorded 100 albums and is widely credited as a mentor to many in the folk tradition. Here are reflections from others in the music world.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder wants to spend $350 million in state money to help shield pensioners and Detroit’s art collection from the city’s bankruptcy. But details are sparse.
Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley wants to kill a voter-approved streetcar project already underway, which he says will save money. If that happens, Uncle Sam wants a $44.9 million refund.
Detroit, the largest US city to file for federal bankruptcy, ‘no longer has the resources to provide its residents with basic services,’ the judge ruled, saying it could seek to trim public pensions.
NSA Washington march: Anti-secrecy activists marched in front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Saturday, protesting NSA spying. US citizens and world leaders are rattled at reports of vast surveillance of phone and Internet communications.
The second phase of a federal civil trial involving BP began Monday. The company faces Clean Water Act fines ranging anywhere between $2.7 billion to $18 billion for the Gulf oil spill.
At a closed summit in Detroit, US officials pledged $300 million to help the nation’s largest-ever bankrupt city invest in infrastructure, public safety and transit, and begin eradicating blight.
A county judge who had ruled in favor of unions – and against Wisconsin’s collective-bargaining law – this week refused to issue a broad injunction before the state Supreme Court rules.
Chicago has already paid out about $85 million to compensate victims of police abuse, and it has set aside $27 million for 2013 alone. ‘This is not who we are,’ Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.
For 2014, the AFL-CIO is targeting Republican governors in Florida, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, which have signed bills curbing union rights. But big-spending GOP ‘super PACs’ could stand in the way.
Detroit’s emergency financial manager has broad discretion to decide what to sell or lease during bankruptcy, including a world-class municipal museum and its masterworks.
A federal judge gave a same-sex couple married in Maryland but living in Ohio, which has banned gay marriage, the right to some marriage benefits. Similar lawsuits are expected to follow.
State officials say they hope that Detroit will emerge from bankruptcy by September 2014, but labor unions and bondholders are gearing up for what is more likely to be a prolonged legal battle.
The Detroit bankruptcy filing, which follows a decades-long decline in city finances that led to $18 billion in debt, sets the stage for a showdown with 43 public sector unions facing a drastic cut in pensions.
Last year, Midwest farmers struggled with drought; this year, it’s heavy rain and sodden farmlands, which have pushed back the planting season. By contrast, farmers in the South worry about too little rain.
A Chinese firm says it’s seizing on the explosion in the population of invasive Asian carp, which environmentalists say threatens the Great Lakes, and will open a fishery dedicated to its export.
Chicago’s Gangster Disciples have more than 18,000 members, and Sen. Mark Kirk wants them all in jail to curb gun violence. But critics say mass incarceration isn’t the answer.
By Mark Guarino
April 15, 2014