Ben Carson dismisses idea anti-voter fraud measures racist

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Wednesday dismissed the idea restrictive anti-voter fraud requirements could be racist, echoing the position of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach – a champion of such measures who has called accusations of racism a personal insult.

“I’ve made it my personal project, every time I visit a country outside the U.S. to ask what do they do to ensure the integrity of voting? There’s not one single country anywhere – first world, second world, it doesn’t matter – that doesn’t have official requirements for voting,” Carson said.

“My question to those people who say we’re racist because we apply those standards: Are all the other countries of the world racist? I don’t think so. Voting is an important thing. Obviously, you want to make sure that it’s done by the appropriate people.”

Read more: Ben Carson, GOP presidential candidate, dismisses idea anti-voter fraud measures racist

Bernie Sanders keeps promise made in private to Sandra Bland’s mother

In an era when every moment is tweeted and politicized, Bernie Sanders elected not to capitalize on a meaningful meeting with the mother of Sandra Bland.

The chance encounter reportedly took place at East Street Café, a Thai restaurant at Union Station in Washington, D.C., five days before the first Democratic presidential debate.

The Rev. Hannah Adair Bonner, a pastor at St. John’s Church in downtown Houston, wrote in her blog about noticing the Vermont senator at another table while she was eating dinner with Geneva Reed-Veal, whose daughter became a face of the Black Lives Matter campaign following her death in police custody in July.

The pastor said she approached Sanders and asked if he would like to meet Reed-Veal and told him their group had asked if he would take a picture with them.

“He did not impose upon Ms. Geneva to ask for a picture of his own. He did not use the moment as an opportunity to promote his campaign,” she wrote. “He took no record; he made no statement. He did not try to turn it into a publicity stunt.”,/p>

Bonner, who is a Black Lives Matter activist, said she was impressed by everyone’s sincerity during the serendipitous moment.

The Democratic presidential candidate told Reed-Veal that the death of her daughter was inexcusable and promised he would continue to “say her name.” At the debate on Oct. 13 in Las Vegas, Sanders stayed true to his word when answering a question submitted by a law student through Facebook: “Do black lives matter, or do all lives matter?”

Read more: Bernie Sanders keeps promise made in private to Sandra Bland’s mother

EBONY editor-in-chief Speaks on the Controversial Cosby Cover

Kierna Mayo, editor-in-chief of EBONY, sits down with Don Lemon to talk about the controversial Cosby cover, and why we have to have this discussion now. Watch that interview below.

MLK Monument Planned for Georgia's Stone Mountain

Planning is underway to place a Liberty Bell replica atop Stone Mountain near Atlanta as a memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that recalls a famous line from his "I Have a Dream" speech, officials say.

The planned tribute to the late civil rights activist would broaden the story told by the Georgia state park, long home to a giant carving of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, said Bill Stephens, chief executive of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association.

"Two years ago, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's speech, a small group of Georgia's civil rights leaders met atop the mountain to ring a bell," Stephens said in an email to journalists. "This began thought and discussions which evolved into the present concept of a Freedom Bell."

Read more: Monument to Honor Martin Luther King Jr. Planned for Georgia's Stone Mountain

Cleveland 'serial killer' indicted in deaths of four people

A Cleveland truck driver the Cuyahoga County prosecutor labeled a "serial killer" was indicted Tuesday on murder and other charges in the deaths of three people this year and one in 1997.

Robert Rembert Jr., 45, faces 25 felony charges of aggravated murder, rape, aggravated robbery and gross abuse of a corpse.

He is charged in the 1997 death of Rena Payne, and the deaths of Kimberley Hall, his cousin Jerry Rembert and Morgan Nietzel, all of whom died this year.

The indictment brings the total of deaths linked to Rembert to five. He was convicted of manslaughter in a 1997 killing.

Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said in a news release that Rembert is a "serial killer" and that Rembert's activities as a trucker are still being investigated.

Read more: Cleveland 'serial killer' indicted in deaths of four people