British hip-hop artist M.I.A.'s obscene gesture in the Super Bowl halftime show is prompting apologies from NBC and the NFL. But it isn't immediately registering as a moment that viewers latched on to. Read the complete article
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Singer David Peaston, who had a string of R&B hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, has died, his family said Thursday. Read the complete article
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Author and activist Maya Angelou hopes for a time when Black History Month will no longer be needed to explain the contributions of African-Americans. Read the complete article
The title of “Round & Round Together” was inspired by the fact that it was the park’s merry-go-round that little Sharon rode that fateful afternoon. In the book, the author seamlessly interweaves eyewitness accounts of the long effort to desegregate Gwynn Oak with descriptions of what was simultaneously transpiring elsewhere around the country in the Civil Rights Movement. Read the complete article
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- African-American opera pioneer Camilla Williams has died in Bloomington. She was 92. Read the complete article
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- After defending more than 60 people charged with capital murder and getting three men off Alabama's death row, attorney Richard Jaffe wants to get people talking about the death penalty and what he believes are its flaws. Read the complete article
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- The chaos of Nigeria's largest city of Lagos gets boiled down to prose as a narrator notes "how unpretty" its sprawl looks, with "its unplanned houses sprouting like weeds." Another author describes the madness of the commute, how six roads meet and "there is no traffic light." Read the complete article
NEW YORK (AP) -- The race for the best original song Oscar is a slim one with two songs up for the honor, a first for the Academy Awards. Read the complete article
NEW YORK (AP) -- Aretha Franklin won't be getting fitted for a wedding gown after all: She's called off her engagement. A statement released Monday by her representative said Franklin's wedding to Willie Wilkerson wasn't going to happen. Read the complete article
In real life, little about James was as genteel as that song. The platinum blonde's first hit was a saucy R&B number about sex, and she was known as a hell-raiser who had tempestuous relationships with her family, her men and the music industry. Then she spent years battling a drug addiction that she admitted sapped away at her great talents. Read the complete article
