'Nobody kill anybody': Baltimore activist hopes for homicide-free weekend

Baltimore activist Erricka Bridgeford's message is simple: Nobody kill anybody for 72 hours.

That's a lot to ask for in a city on pace to record its highest annual homicide toll, a place still reeling from the racially-charged riots that followed the 2015 death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police.

So Bridgeford and other community leaders have been hitting the streets of West Baltimore, urging drug dealers and gang members to put their guns down from Friday through Sunday.

"This is about a culture shift," she said. "It's about helping people realize they have a choice in their decision-making. Not just about committing violence but about feeling hopeless that there's nothing we can do about the level of violence in our communities."

With 208 homicides so far this year -- compared with 318 for all of 2016, according to a tally by The Baltimore Sun -- and police-community relations stretched thin, some residents doubt the ceasefire will be successful. Others see it as a way to start taking back control of crime-plagued neighborhoods.

Read more: 'Nobody kill anybody': Baltimore hopes for homicide-free weekend

Sen. Booker acts to prevent Trump from firing special counsel

U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Lindsey Graham moved Thursday to prevent President Donald Trump from dismissing special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible ties between his campaign and Russia.

Booker (D-N.J.), who has called for an independent outside investigation, and Graham (R-S.C.), who did not endorse the Republican presidential nominee after his own campaign for the White House fizzled, introduced legislation to block such a move.

The Special Counsel Independence Protection Act would let the attorney general remove the special only after asking a federal court to rule that there was "misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or other good cause for removal."

A look at the controversy surrounding President Donald Trump and whether his campaign colluded with Russia.

"A special counsel's duty is to follow the facts and the law wherever that leads," Booker said. "They should never be subjected to interference or intimidation because of where an investigation takes them."

The lawmakers acted amid criticism by Trump leveled against his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who recused him from any involvement in the probe after it was disclosed that he met with the Russian ambassador during the campaign after telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had no such contacts.

Read more: Booker acts to prevent Trump from firing special counsel

Stephen King: Why couldn't Roland the Gunslinger be black

There has been a minor bit of controversy that Idris Elba was cast as what many believe to be a white character known as Roland the Gunslinger in the upcoming Dark Tower movie. Stephen King, the author of The Dark Tower series doesn't seem to have a problem with it all and wonders why couldn't the gunslinger be black. Read the statement King made to CinemaBlend on this below:

What I said in a tweet, after all of that discussion started, was that I didn't care what color he was, so long as he could command the screen, draw fast and shoot straight. It doesn't make any difference to me. I don't even really see people when I'm writing. If I'm writing about a character, I'm behind their eyes. Unless they walk by a mirror or something, I don't even really see what they look like.

What really sort of made it an issue, in my mind, when they cast Idris as Roland was... all of those books were illustrated, to start with. And in all of those pictures, Roland is a white guy. I never thought about that one way or another. But obviously that became part of the mindset.

But you know, it's weird, isn't it? Why shouldn't he be black? Why couldn't it be a black guy to do this? You know what's weirder than that? You see this show Game of Thrones? About Westeros? They're all British! Westeros is basically England, right! And nobody ever questions that. [Laughs] To me, the idea that a black man would play Roland is minor, compared to that.

Statement from Congressional Black Caucus Chairman on DOJ Plans to Attack Affirmative Action

Today, the Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Congressman Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.), issued the following statement on Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to attack affirmative action efforts on college and university campuses:

“Attorney General Sessions continues to show us again and again who he is and what he is about.

“In January of this year, the CBC expressed grave concerns about the nomination of then Senator Sessions to the post of attorney general because of his decades-long record of hostility to civil rights and equality issues. The New York Times report that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is planning to use tax payer funds to expand its current assault on communities of color is more proof that our concerns were well-founded. In fact, with each passing day of the Trump Administration, the CBC’s worst fears about Attorney General Sessions are quickly becoming reality.

“Instead of standing up for himself to a president who called him ‘very weak’ and ‘beleaguered,’ Attorney General Sessions has chosen to pick on minority students who are in pursuit of a college education, opportunity, and the American Dream. In doing so, he’s appealing to the lowest common denominator in our country, people who wrongly believe that minority students who benefit from efforts to promote diversity and equality are ignorant, undeserving, and unqualified.

“Also, in doing so, he is re-litigating last year’s Supreme Court ruling upholding decades of precedent in favor of affirmative action in higher education. His re-litigation of settled law promotes the false narrative that efforts to ensure more people of color have access to higher education is a war on white people. It also chills diversity and equality efforts in higher education by intimidating the academic community.

“In Fisher v. University of Texas, the Supreme Court held that colleges and universities had a ‘lawful’ and ‘compelling interest’ in including racial diversity as a part of their mission because of the ‘educational benefits that flow from student body diversity.’ The court also held that race could be considered along with merit-based criteria in admissions decisions. Now, Attorney General Sessions wants to turn back the clock to the darker days in our history when minority students couldn’t get into the schools of their choice because of racist admissions practices.

“In addition to this attack on Affirmative Action, Attorney General Sessions has taken steps to increase voter suppression, promote private prisons, revive the failed war on drugs, and incentivize mass incarceration, which hurts families and communities. The CBC is strongly opposed to these efforts and will continue to push back on DOJ’s obvious attempts to limit the rights of communities of color.”

John Conyers statement on Trump Administration Plans to attack affirmative action

Representatives Bobby Scott (VA-03) and John Conyers, Jr. (MI-13), the ranking members of the House Committees on Education and the Workforce and the Judiciary, respectively, issued the following statement after reports surfaced that the Department of Justice plans to attack and undermine affirmative action programs in colleges and universities.

“While we cannot comment on the veracity of this alleged memo, we are deeply concerned by news reports that the Department of Justice intends to challenge the application of affirmative action programs in colleges and universities. What is already clear is the Trump Administration’s public record of attacking civil rights protections on multiple fronts.

“As ranking members, we led 86 Members of the House in an amicus brief in support of affirmative action programs in higher education. We were one of nearly 70 organizations to take the same position, including retired Chiefs of Staff of our nation’s Armed Services, leading Fortune 500 companies, academics, 19 state governors, the faith community and many others. The position that we took was ultimately affirmed by the Supreme Court – the consideration of race and ethnicity to achieve diversity in admissions is a constitutional and is a compelling state interest that can be achieved through narrowly tailored means.

“Whether it is the Department of Justice’s decision to examine the use of consent decrees with state and local police departments, which are designed to reduce instances of police brutality and discriminatory treatment; Attorney General Session’s decision to return to the harsh application of mandatory minimum sentences which have been proven to be racially discriminatory and counterproductive to reducing crime; the White House’s so-called election integrity commission which purports to “solve” voter fraud while requesting the most personal data of the Nation’s 200 million registered voters; or efforts to weaken the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) – agencies charged with the enforcement of employment nondiscrimination laws, the Trump administration has not wasted any opportunity to roll back existing civil rights protections for underrepresented minorities.

“Further, the Administration’s reactionary efforts were signaled in the White House’s proposed budget to which reduces or eliminated funding tied to the enforcement of federal civil rights laws. The Trump Administration’s budget undermines the constitutional promise of Brown v. Board of Education by cutting federal funding to support public schools that serve our nation’s poorest students. It proposes elimination of the environmental justice program, gutting the primary tool to examine and address the impact of environmental policies and decisions on communities of color, low-income and tribal communities. And proving the adage “any rights without remedies are no rights at all,” the President’s budget proposes eliminating federal funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) that provides civil legal aid for low income Americans to help them have their day in court.

“These actions, already on the record, provide a clear, yet unsettling picture of this Administration’s hostile view of the federal government’s role in protecting civil rights.”