Tennessee Black Voter project sues Tennessee county over invalid voter registrations

A group representing black voters is suing the election commission in Tennessee's largest county, which includes Memphis, after thousands of registrations were deemed invalid by the commission.

The Tennessee Black Voter Project filed a lawsuit Monday in Shelby County Chancery Court asking a judge to allow the group to inspect voter registration forms that the county's Election Commission has rejected.

Groups including the Black Voter Project submitted more than 36,000 registrations to the Election Commission in Shelby County. But the commission said about 55 percent of them were invalid because they were incomplete, were duplicates from previously registered voters or had come from convicted felons.

The group wants to inspect records detailing why the applications were rejected.

Read more: Group sues Tennessee county over invalid voter registrations.

Chicago postal worker Kierra Coles is missing

Kierra Coles, a 27-year-old pregnant U.S. postal worker has been reported missing after last being seen Oct. 2 on Chicago's South Side.

Coles, was last seen on surveillance video in her neighborhood at near 81st and Vernon on the city's South Side. She called sick into work, but was seen on video dressed for work and walking past her vehicle.

Coles is about three months pregnant and has a boyfriend.

Coles is about 5-foot-4, weighs about 125 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes. Police said she has a tattoo of a heart on her right hand and another that says, "Lucky Libra" on her back.

Anyone with information is asked to call 911, Chicago Police Special Victim Unit at 312-747-8274 (Case# JB-462998) or the Postal Inspection Service at 877-876-2455 (Case# 2693502-WPV).

[SOURCE: ABC CHICAGO]

Donna Brazile's new book: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics

The four most powerful African American women in politics Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, and Minyon Moore share the story of their friendship and how it has changed politics in America.

The lives of black women in American politics are remarkably absent from the shelves of bookstores and libraries. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics is a sweeping view of American history from the vantage points of four women who have lived and worked behind the scenes in politics for over thirty years―Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, and Minyon Moore―a group of women who call themselves The Colored Girls. Like many people who have spent their careers in public service, they view their lives in four-year waves where presidential campaigns and elections have been common threads. For most of the Colored Girls, their story starts with Jesse Jackson’s first campaign for president. From there, they went on to work on the presidential campaigns of Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Over the years, they’ve filled many roles: in the corporate world, on campaigns, in unions, in churches, in their own businesses and in the White House. Through all of this, they’ve worked with those who have shaped our country’s history―US Presidents such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, well-known political figures such as Terry McAuliffe and Howard Dean, and legendary activists and historical figures such as Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, and Betty Shabazz.

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics is filled with personal stories that bring to life heroic figures we all know and introduce us to some of those who’ve worked behind the scenes but are still hidden. Whatever their perch, the Colored Girls are always focused on the larger goal of “hurrying history” so that every American ― regardless of race, gender or religious background ― can have a seat at the table. This is their story.

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Newark's Shakur Stevenson moves to 9-0 with first round knockout

Blue-chip featherweight prospect Shakur Stevenson, a 2016 U.S. Olympic silver medalist, scored three knockdowns in a spectacular first-round knockout performance against battle-tested veteran Viorel Simion in the co-feature of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card headlined by the Terence Crawford-Jose Benavidez Jr. welterweight title fight.

Watch the highlights below:

Officer who murdered Tamir Rice withdraws application to small police department in Ohio

The police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland four years ago has withdrawn his application to a police department in eastern Ohio, CNN affiliate WTOV-TV reported, citing the department's police chief.

Timothy Loehmann was hired by the police department in Bellaire, a small town on the Ohio River, about 65 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. Bellaire Police Chief Richard "Dick" Flanagan told WTOV on Wednesday that Loehmann called him saying he was "rescinding his application here at the Bellaire Police Department."

"I had accepted his withdrawal from the Bellaire Police Department," Flanagan said. "He proceeded to tell me that he wanted to pursue the legal end of what's going on there in Cleveland and he just doesn't have the time to travel back and forth."

Flanagan said Loehmann was never sworn in and was still in the training process.

"Everyone assumes he was automatically hired -- no, there is a process," he said. "He did not receive one dime. He was not on the schedule."

The announcement of Loehmann's hiring caused an intense reaction from the community, WTOV reported. Flanagan said that at one point, the department received more than 200 calls between 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. "Our own citizens here in town were not able to get police, EMS or fire service because they couldn't get through anywhere," he said.

While Flanagan originally said that everyone deserved a second chance and that he stood behind the hiring of Loehmann, he told WTOV on Wednesday that he believes the withdrawal is personal and he supports the decision.

"I think he did the right thing by stepping down, not putting the citizens here in town in jeopardy," he said. "In this job you have to make split-second decisions, you have to see things you don't want to see, you have to do things you don't want to do, you have to say things you don't want to say. We're not supermen -- we just wear a uniform and enforce the laws."

[SOURCE: CNN]