Tumult in Tennessee, Jamie Foxx recovers, Missouri GOP votes to defund state's libraries
Tumult in Tennessee, Jamie Foxx recovers, Missouri GOP votes to defund state's libraries
Friday, April 14, 2023.
What I’m Reading
The events in the Tennessee statehouse surrounding the expulsions of state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson may have shocked some, but not Natalie Allison, who covered the state legislature for years as a reporter at The Tennessean.
“[For] those who have closely watched the chamber in recent years, the events were of little surprise. The place has been defined by partisan vitriol, pique, scandal, racism and Olympic-level pettiness for years. I know. I covered it,” said Allison, who’s now over at POLITICO. Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson have both since been reinstated to their seats.
No One Should Be That Shocked by What’s Happening in Tennessee, POLITICO
For The Atlantic, Nina Li Coomes writes about one of the best characters on the hit show “Abbott Elementary,” the janitor Mr. Johnson, and how vital he is to the success of the television series.
Not Just the Janitor of Abbott Elementary, The Atlantic
Kobe Bryant died alongside their best friends, their friends’ parents and another coach in 2020. But his “little Mambas” are still playing basketball and have kept moving forward for those they lost, Michael Lee writes for The Washington Post.
Kobe Bryant’s ‘little Mambas’ are still playing, for him and each other, The Washington Post
For The Cut, Tembe Denton-Hurst describes the double standards in professionalism and why it doesn’t matter how Black women behave.
“Black women are taught to be twice as good, but we learn that we have to be thrice as cunning and four times as strategic if we want to get anywhere. We very rarely stumble on success,” she wrote.
It Doesn’t Matter If We Behave, The Cut
What’s In The News
Federal prosecutors announced they will not file criminal charges in the death of Shanquella Robinson, who was killed nearly six months ago in Cabo…
Lance Reddick's attorney is contesting the actor's official cause of death, saying he was "the most physically fit person I’ve ever known”...
New York Times columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom wrote about why she keeps her eyes — and her mind — on the South…
The Guardian published an incredible project visualizing the city of Manchester's growth and its connections to the slave trade and the cotton belt in America…
From my colleague Taiyler Mitchell: The #StopCopCity movement has united Black, Indigenous, environmental and abolitionist activists in Atlanta to fight against an enormous police training facility that they say will militarize police and endanger the community. Dr. Bernice King has also penned a letter about the facility…
In TIME: “Between January 1, 2021, and December. 31, 2022, federal, state, and local government officials introduced 563 anti-critical race theory measures. Nearly half were enacted or adopted”...
Sonny Rollins, an American treasure who is one of the most influential musicians in jazz, has long held a private passion for writing. His biographer unearthed the artist’s secret literary life for TIDAL Magazine…
An estimated 245,000 children in the United States have lost one or both parents to COVID-19. Few states are addressing the crisis…
The Republican billionaire who lavished Justice Clarence Thomas with free trips on his private plane and yacht collects Hitler artifacts and has a signed copy of Mein Kampf…
Less than 24 hours after a jury found an Army sergeant guilty of shooting and killing a protester, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he would pardon the convicted killer as soon as a request "hits my desk"...
North Dakota GOP senators voted to increase their own meal reimbursements 10 days after voting against a bill to expand free school lunches for low-income students…
6% of journalists covering crime are Black. Sports journalism is 82% white. Take a look at a new analysis of a Pew Research Center survey of working U.S.-based journalists…
Senate Democrats are calling on the Justice Department to launch a federal investigation into the expulsions of two Tennessee lawmakers to determine if any constitutional or federal civil rights laws were violated. Here’s the letter…
The potential loss of conch in the Bahamas reflects the threat overfishing poses around the world to traditional foods…
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the “Heartbeat Protection Act," which reduces Florida’s 15-week abortion ban to six weeks…
Popular livestreamer DJ Akademiks is the latest rap media figure to drift into conservative talking points, Andre Gee writes for Rolling Stone…
"Missouri House Republicans voted to defund all of the state’s public libraries, in a proposed $45.6 billion state budget that will soon move to a vote in the GOP-controlled state Senate…”
The family of famed Broadway playwright Lorraine Hansberry says Chicago’s racist policies seized their land. Now they’re seeking reparations…
What’s Happening
A mother said her two children were kidnapped from a DC public school after staff failed to properly check the identification of a woman who claimed to be a parent to the kids. The woman later used the kids as leverage to contact their father…
The thousands who were mobilized by George Floyd’s murder need a place to debate strategy and stay engaged. Hammer & Hope, a new magazine, is aiming to be a home for the Black left…
Jamie Foxx’s daughter, Corinne, issued a statement revealing that the actor is recovering after a "medical complication”...
Mo’Nique is suing Paramount and CBS, seeking what she says are unpaid royalties from her sitcom “The Parkers”...
Ziggy Marley, son of Reggae legend Bob Marley, is calling for all of Jamaica’s beaches to be made accessible to local people…
Here we go again! Con artist Billy McFarland says a Fyre Fest II is in the works, even though there was never a first…
Queen Latifah is the first female rapper to be selected for the National Recording Registry…
A new Virginia state law will designate historic site signs IDing "Green Book" locations and businesses that accepted Black patrons in the segregated South…
Actor Marsai Martin talked with Women’s Health about her laparoscopic surgery to remove her grapefruit-sized ovarian cyst, in hopes of providing others with information…
Throughout the ’80s, the Bay Area’s hip-hop scene was struggling for a distinct identity. Here’s a really great piece on how the region found its sound…
A new bill proposed in California is aiming to create an “Ebony alert” — a public alert system for missing Black children and young women…
In The New Yorker: “Pinky Cole’s Atlanta-based burger chain Slutty Vegan is valued at a hundred million dollars. Can racy branding take vegan food mainstream?”
Trina had an NPR Tiny Desk Concert!
Rihanna shares a sweet Easter photo of her son…
The Texas Southern University Cheerleading Team made history as the first HBCU to win a national title at the National Cheerleaders Association College National Championship…
The home of University of Southern California’s track and field will now be known as Allyson Felix Field…
South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott has taken his biggest step so far toward running for president in 2024…
Billy Porter is set to play James Baldwin in an upcoming biopic based on the life of the legendary novelist…
Tiger Woods, who looked to be in serious pain at the Masters on Saturday, withdrew before play resumed at Augusta National Golf Club…
What I’m Watching
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 1 minute and 39 seconds…
“Bone Black: Midwives vs. The South,” a documentary about the dark history and erasure of Black birth workers in the South, premieres on April 16 at 10 pm EST on BET…
New York University is hosting a virtual event: Centering Voices: The Crisis of Black Maternal Health. Tune in on April 25 at 6:30 pm EST…
Author Clint Smith joined The Stacks podcast to talk about his new poetry collection and how parenting has changed his life…
LAist editor Aaricka Washington went on the How to LA podcast to talk about how Black women have founded literary spaces in Los Angeles that offer more than just books but also community...
Karen Hunter and Greg Carr discuss the figures who were ousted from state legislatures decades before Justin Jones and Justin Pearson…
After a little confusion, an NPR Tiny Desk starring Juvenile is on the way…
“Chevalier,” starring Kelvin Harrison Jr. as composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, is headed to theaters on April 21…
WNBA star Brittney Griner is working on a memoir about her experience of being incarcerated in Russia, scheduled for spring 2024…