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LGBTQ+ community, people of color in the crosshairs of banned book movement
Students in one Pennsylvania school district were not allowed to read a biography of the first Black President, Barack Obama. In some Tennessee classrooms, a nonfiction comic book about the atrocities of the Holocaust is banned. And one school district in Wisconsin banned from libraries a picture book about a gay rights activist who was […]
Independent autopsy shows Lyoya was shot by officer, gun was likely pressed to his head
Attorneys for the Patrick Lyoya family released Tuesday the findings of an independent autopsy performed by a world-renowned forensic pathology expert, Werner Spitz. Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Black man, was fatally shot in the back of the head by a white Grand Rapids police officer on April 4. The Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD) released […]
‘A moment that feels all too sickeningly familiar’
After the Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD) released Wednesday several videos showing an unnamed officer fatally shooting Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Black immigrant, on April 4, state leaders and activists have shared their condolences and calls for change. “Patrick Lyoya immigrated to the United States from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to pursue the […]
Grand Rapids protesters call for justice after police officer fatally shot Lyoya
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Grand Rapids this week after a Grand Rapids police officer fatally shot Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Black man, earlier this month. “It has been a tough situation and a traumatizing situation,” said Jimmy Barwan, Lyoya’s older brother, who was present at the peaceful protests Tuesday and Wednesday. […]
Grand Rapids police release videos showing Black man shot in the head, killed by officer
Warning: This story includes the videos released by the police. Some of the footage is graphic. Nine days after a Grand Rapids police officer shot and killed Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Black man, the Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD) released several videos showing the officer shot Lyoya in the head. The four videos released Wednesday […]
Biden lays out a ‘fund the police’ budget plan
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is requesting billions in its fiscal 2023 budget from Congress to fund police departments, despite progressive Democrats’ calls for some of that spending to be reallocated to social services. President Joe Biden’s budget request to Congress unveiled Monday asks for $30 billion for state and local governments to add more […]
‘My heart couldn’t take it’: Two years into the pandemic in Michigan, a focus on healing
Molly Nixon’s heart couldn’t take it anymore. The day she decided to leave her job as a nurse at Mercy Health in Muskegon, she dissolved into tears because she knew the three COVID-19 patients she was caring for that day were going to die. “I’d briefly met my three patients, and there was the realization […]
GOP state Senate hopeful tells crowd ‘be prepared to lock and load’ at the polls
GOP gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley told a crowd of supporters over the weekend that if election workers see something they “don’t like happening with the machine,” they should “unplug it from the wall.” He also said that he wants a “50-50” partisan division of election workers. Kelley, who was at the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection […]
Column: A Christmas letter to the undiscovered country
Phil, You’ve been away for a good long while so here’s a Christmas letter to catch you up on all the news you’ve missed. So much has changed. Time steals like a shadow over the living, rendering us all Henry Adams at history’s eclipse. There’s much I want to share, because you could have helped make sense […]
Jury finds McMichaels, Bryan guilty of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder
A nearly all-white jury in a Glynn County courtroom Wednesday afternoon convicted three white men of murder in the death of Ahmaud Arbery as the 25-year-old Black jogger ran through their neighborhood in February 2020. Travis McMichael, seen all over the world in a viral video that shows him firing a shotgun into Arbery at close range, […]