There is much contention as Confederate monuments and flags on state capital grounds come down around the United States. Those who support these flags/monuments say they want them to stay in place to honor the men from the South who fought and died in the Civil War. If they want to honor these men then maybe they should remember the thoughts of one of the Confederacy's best generals, Robert E. Lee who thought the flag should no longer be flown after the war ended. Learn more in the video below.
Nelsan Ellis, who played sassy short-order cook Lafayette Reynolds on HBO's True Blood, has died at 39 of complications from heart failure.
His manager, Emily Gerson Saines, confirmed his death on Saturday to USA TODAY.
"He was a great talent, and his words and presence will be forever missed," she said in a statement.
While he also had roles on CBS' Elementary and worked in films like The Help, Secretariat, the James Brown biopic Get On and The Soloist, to fans of True Blood, he will always be Lafayette.
The Illinois-born actor so impressed the producers and fans of the HBO supernatural drama with his performance that the TV version of Lafayette escaped the early death the character was dealt in Charlaine Harris' books.
"A great talent gone too soon," Harris lamented on Twitter. "Such a shock."
True Blood marked Ellis' second HBO project. He also appeared in 2005's Emmy-winning Warm Springs, in which his character tended to the polio-stricken Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Kenneth Branagh).
The network issued a statement noting, "Nelsan was a long-time member of the HBO family whose groundbreaking portrayal of Lafayette will be remembered fondly within the overall legacy of True Blood. Nelsan will be dearly missed by his fans and all of us at HBO."
President Donald Trump has nominated Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Jerome Adams to serve as the next US Surgeon General.
Adams known for his previous work on substance abuse. He has garnered a reputation as a public health professional who looked to community models for fighting addiction and other scourges.
Adams is also an anesthesiologist and an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Indiana University School of Medicine and has sat on committees of various professional organizations.
He began serving as the Indiana State Health Commissioner in 2014 under then-governor Mike Pence.
Florida police said on Friday that a newly surfaced video shows that tennis star Venus Williams was acting lawfully when she drove her sports utility vehicle into an intersection before a fatal crash with another car on June 9.
Jerome Barson, 78, who was a passenger in a sedan that collided with the vehicle Williams was driving, was fatally injured. His family filed a wrongful death suit against Williams last week.
A statement from the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department said a video, taken from the entrance to the gated community where Williams lives, indicates she acted lawfully in entering the intersection before the crash.
The statement said the video showed that a car not involved in the collision stalled Williams' progress, causing her to linger in the intersection. When the traffic light changed, an approaching car driven by Barson's wife, Linda, collided with Williams' vehicle.
The initial traffic report said Williams, 37, was at fault for failing to yield the right of way to Barson. But on Friday, Major Paul Rogers of the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department said a fuller investigation began after Barson's death on June 22.
He said police have not made a final determination of fault in the investigation.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker asked NJ state officials to reject any request from President Donald Trump's voter fraud commission for information about New Jersey voter rolls.
He said comments by Robert Giles, director of New Jersey's division of elections, didn't go far enough.
"I am alarmed by the purpose of this commission: to look into a nonexistent problem of widespread voter fraud as a guise to collect data that is likely to be used to suppress legal voting in future elections and to provide President Trump's outlandish and laughable claim that he actually won the popular vote with some appearance of legitimacy," Booker said.
Booker (D-N.J.) earlier called Trump's campaign comments about voter fraud "a blatant lie" and the commission "a thinly veiled voter suppression effort."
His latest comments came in a letter to Dennis Robinson, serving as acting secretary of state since Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno has recused herself from all election-related issues while running for governor.
Booker acted after Giles rejected the commission's request for information that went beyond names, addresses and birth dates to include last four digits of Social Security numbers, voting history, felony convictions, military service and registrations in other states.
New Jersey was one of 46 states that rejected the request in all or in part.
