The online editorial staff comprises Betsy Shirley, Jenna Barnett, Josiah R. Daniels, Mitchell Atencio, Heather Brady, Kierra Bennning, and Zachary Lee.
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Paul Ryan and White House Agree to Puerto Rico Debt Deal
Photo via Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock
Speaker Paul Ryan has struck a compromise deal with the Department of Treasury to help Puerto Rico restructure its debt and establish a financial oversight board.
6 Priests and a Youth Minister Accused of Abuse in Seattle Archdiocese
Image via Larry Mundy/Shutterstock.com
These accusations suggest evidence of a coverup on the part of the Seattle Archdiocese, wrote KIRO7 reporter Dave Wagner, who first broke the story on his Facebook page.
But "the Seattle Archdiocese maintains it is trying to atone for the sins of the past."
Supreme Court Sends Contraception Case Back to Lower Courts
Photo via M DOGAN / Shutterstock
The Supreme Court decided on May 16 to defer to lower courts any decision regarding the Affordable Care Act's birth control mandate.
Weekly Wrap 5.13.16: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week
1. Why White People Don’t Use White Emoji
Light-skin-tone symbols are used far less often in the U.S. than their darker counterparts. Does shame explain the disparity?
2. The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign Policy Guru
“People construct their own sense of source and credibility now. They elect who they’re going to believe.” The untold story of the wannabe-fiction writer who became President Obama’s mouthpiece to the world.
Obama Administration to Schools: Let Trans Students Choose Their Bathroom
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Image via U.S. Mission Geneva / Eric Bridiers / Flickr
This new guidance from the Obama administration seeks to limit discrimination, harassment, and violence transgender students face, and restricts anything the school might do to question a transgender student's identity.
WATCH: This Moving Video Asks, ‘Who Is Vincent Chin?’
Screenshot via NBC News / Youtube.com
“I think it’s unfortunate that a lot of Asian Americans don’t know who Vincent Chin is,” one of the respondents says. Make that even more Americans, of every heritage.
More Than 500 LGBTQI Clergy Stand in Solidarity With Their Methodist Colleagues
Photo via Olga Besnard / Shutterstock
Christian leaders across denominations are lifting their voices in affirmation of their LGBTQI colleagues.
Zimmerman to Auction Gun That Killed Trayvon Martin
Image via Seminole County Florida
George Zimmerman, acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, 2012, now claims he will auction the gun that took Trayvon Martin’s life.
Former neighborhood watch volunteer Zimmerman listed the weapon at gunbroker.com, promoting the sale as "your opportunity to own a piece of American history."
#StarringJohnCho Protests Hollywood's Asian Diversity Problem
John Cho with Harold & Kumar co-star Kal Penn. Image via DFree / Shutterstock.com
Hollywood, take notice.
The silver screen has been looking pretty white, and even those films that have more diverse casts haven’t been getting the recognition many think that they deserve, as #OscarsSoWhite can attest.
White House Announces First-Ever Presidential Visit to Hiroshima
Image via Drop of Light / Shutterstock.com
The White House announced May 10 that President Obama will travel to Hiroshima, Japan, reports The New York Times.
This will be the first time a sitting U.S. president has visited the city where the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb at the end of World War II.
Obama at Howard University: 'We Must Expand Our Moral Imaginations'
Screenshot via The White House / Youtube.com
President Obama delivered a commencement address on May 7 at Howard University, one of the nation’s premier historically black colleges.
In his speech, sprinkling jokes throughout, Obama encouraged the graduates to be proud of their achievement and hopeful about their future, but he also offered them some of his wisdom about how to change the world.
More Than 100 UMC Pastors Come Out as LGBTQI in Lead Up to General Conference
Image via Elvert Barnes/Flickr
"Dear church, our prayers are with you, with all of us, in the coming days. May we all be surprised by the Spirit who continues to breathe new life in unexpected ways."
North Carolina Governor Sues Federal Government in Defense of Bathroom Bill
Image via Kanok Sulaiman / Shutterstock.com
Facing a Justice Department deadline to throw out the “bathroom bill,” Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina has instead filed suit against the federal government, reports NBC News.
Study: Only 27 Percent of Adults Support the Message of Black Lives Matter
Photo via Stephen Melkisethian / Flickr
A new study from Barna paints a bleak picture of racial tension in the United States.
Weekly Wrap 5.6.16: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week
1. Paid Leave Is Good for Babies, Women, Families, Businesses, and America. Here’s Why.
This Mother’s Day, how about skipping the flowers and giving new parents something they really need?
Russell Moore offers an important message in his New York Times op-ed: “If Jesus is alive — and I believe that he is — he will keep his promise and build his church. But he never promises to do that solely with white, suburban institutional evangelicalism. The question is whether evangelicals will be on the right side of Jesus.”
3. Toddlers Have Shot More People in the U.S. Than Muslim Terrorists Have This Year
Go home, America, you’re drunk. [For lots of reasons, if we’re being honest, but COME ON.]
Department of Justice: North Carolina 'Bathroom Bill' Violates Federal Civil Rights Act
Photo via YouTube / Office of Governor Pat McCrory
The department is giving North Carolina until May 9 to confirm that the state "will not comply with or implement HB2."
4 Arrested in Murder of Indigenous Honduran Activist Berta Cáceres; Family Raises Concerns
Image via Daniel Cima / Flickr
Cáceres' family and other activists fear the Honduran government may be too close to interests that persecuted Berta to properly investigate the murder.
Pastor, Dragged From Car and Pepper Sprayed, Accuses Chicago Police Officers of Assault
Image via CBS Chicago
Video of the incident, showing officers pepper spraying and dragging her as they laughed, was released April 28.
Obama to Make Stonewall Inn First-Ever National Monument to Gay Rights Struggle
Image via Jason Pier in DC / flickr.com
President Obama will designate Stonewall Inn and some of the surrounding Greenwich Village neighborhood as a national monument, the first to memorialize the struggle for gay liberation, reports The New York Times.
In his second inaugural address, Obama lifted up the gay rights activism at Stonewall along with the women’s suffrage convention at Seneca Falls and the civil rights march in Selma.
New Study Highlights What You Didn’t Know About Race and College Debt
Image via hxdbzxy / Shutterstock.com
The presidential campaign has raised visibility on the heavy loads of debt carried by college students, but researchers just discovered something that people haven’t been talking about: the racial gap in college debt.
A new study in Children and Youth Services Review concludes that even when controlling for differences in socioeconomic status, black and Hispanic students face the prospect of more debt than white students do.