Top 5 Live-WURD Monday November 9
1. Black football players at Missouri: We’ll sit out until system president resigns
Black football players at the University of Missouri have joined calls demanding the ouster of the president of the state’s four-campus university system over alleged inaction against racism on campus.
About 30 players made their thoughts known Saturday night in a tweet posted by Missouri’s Legion of Black Collegians.
“The athletes of color on the University of Missouri football team truly believe “Injustice Anywhere is a threat to Justice Everywhere,” read the tweet. “We will no longer participate in any football related activities until President Tim Wolfe resigns or is removed due to his negligence toward marginalized students’ experience.”
The players’ move is the latest salvo in a spiraling debate over the experiences of African-American students at Missouri, who have complained of inaction on the part of school leaders in dealing with racism on the overwhelmingly white campus.
Black student leaders have complained of students openly using racial slurs and other incidents. In August, someone used feces to draw a swastika, drawing condemnation from black and Jewish student organizations.
2. Battle Joined Over Kane’s Future
Even as state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane questions their authority, the seven members of a special state Senate panel considering her fate are facing an unusual challenge.
They must decide whether, for the first time, the Senate and the governor should remove an elected official: Pennsylvania’s top law enforcement officer.
The group is made up of four Republicans and three Democrats, selected by leaders from both parties in the GOP-controlled upper chamber. Three are lawyers.
The plan is for the panel to have a series of public hearings over the coming month, starting Monday, to explore one issue: whether Kane is able to keep serving as attorney general even though her law license has been suspended.
The state Supreme Court pulled her license, effective Oct. 22, after she was charged with perjury and other crimes. Prosecutors in Montgomery County say Kane illegally leaked confidential grand jury material in a bid to plant a newspaper story to embarrass a critic and later lied about it under oath.
3. Police: Couple slain in Fairmount Park were dating
Homicide detectives were continuing their investigation Saturday into the shooting deaths of a man and woman discovered inside an SUV on Friday afternoon in East Fairmount Park.
Police said that based on interviews with family members, the two – a 25-year-old African American man and a 32-year-old Hispanic woman – evidently had been dating.
Maintenance workers removing trash from a gazebo on the grounds of the Lemon Hill Mansion in East Fairmount Park found the grisly scene while checking on a white Toyota Sequoia parked on the grass about 2:40 p.m. Friday.
Peering inside the vehicle, the workers saw the man and woman sprawled across the backseat, each with multiple gunshot wounds to the head. The man was unclothed, according to police.
Detectives ruled out a murder-suicide but must solve several puzzling details. No gun was found at the scene, but the back window had been shot out from inside the vehicle.
Family members at the scene would not speak to reporters but told police they had been conducting a search for the man for about a day.
4. Neighbors wary of Temple’s stadium plan
Temple University wants to build a football stadium on West Norris Street.
Temple owns the land, a large tract on the northwest corner of campus currently used for athletics.
Excitement, indignation, and resignation greet the proposed 35,000-seat stadium.
“It’s a waste of money, but money talks,” said Daniel Briley, 69, a lifelong resident. “They’re going to do it anyway. What I have to say, it doesn’t mean anything.”
A Temple spokesman said the school has constant dialogue with nearby residents.
Judith Robinson, a Realtor and community leader, is organizing neighbors. She is worried decisions will be made without community input.
No residents, she stressed, will be displaced if a stadium is built.
But there are concerns such as parking, traffic, trash, noise, and light that come from having a stadium as a next-door neighbor.
“I don’t see anything wrong with having a great institution in our community,” Robinson said. “We should look at the benefits in that. But we still have an issue for some of the homeowners closer to Broad Street.”
5. Officers arrested in shooting death of 6-year-old boy in Louisiana
Two police officers in Louisiana are facing murder charges after a 6-year-old boy was shot to death in the front seat of his father’s vehicle, authorities said.
The shooting happened on a dead-end street at the end of a Tuesday night chase in Marksville, a town of about 5,500 about 90 miles northwest of Baton Rouge.
It’s unclear why officers pursued or why shots were fired, since investigators say there were no outstanding warrants against the father, Chris Few, and that no firearm was found in his vehicle.
Jeremy Mardis was hit by five bullets as the officers pursued his father’s car, according to CNN affiliate WAFB. His father was hospitalized with gunshot wounds and listed in critical condition.
“We took some of the body cam footage. I’m not gonna talk about it, but I’m gonna tell you this — it is the most disturbing thing I’ve seen and I will leave it at that,” State Police Col. Michael Edmonson said at a news conference. “That little boy was buckled into the front seat of that vehicle and that is how he died.”
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Solomon Jones is an Essence bestselling author and award-winning columnist. He is the creator and editor of Solomonjones.com and morning host on 900 am WURD radio. Click here to learn more about Solomon
