New England Sun-Times

By Carey Gillam   (Reuters) - A U.S. probe found systemic racial bias and unconstitutional policing that targeted blacks in Ferguson, Missouri, but cleared a white officer there in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager in August, the Justice Department said on Wednesday. The report said police in the St. Louis suburb issued almost all of its traffic citations to blacks as it tried to raise revenue through fines and court fees. Police also targeted blacks for arrests, many on dubious grounds, and spread racist jokes through emails, said the report that was compiled after Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was unarmed. The killing touched off a national debate on race, led to months of street protests and amplified long-standing complaints in Ferguson and around the country of police harassment and mistreatment of minorities. "This emphasis on revenue has compromised the institutional character of ...

By MICHELLE R. SMITH and JENNIFER McDERMOTT Associated Press Former House Speaker Gordon Fox has agreed to plead guilty to charges of bribery, wire fraud and filing a false tax return following an investigation that included a dramatic federal raid on the Statehouse, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday. The details from the court documents bring an end to nearly a year of speculation about what the FBI, Internal Revenue Service and state police were investigating when they raided Fox's home and Statehouse office March 21, 2014. A change-of-plea hearing is scheduled for noon in U.S. District Court in Providence. Fox is accused of receiving $52,500 in cash and checks in 2008 to help grant a liquor license to a bar near Brown University when he served as vice chairman of the board of licenses for the city of Providence. He's also accused of making about 28 interbank transfers totaling $108,000, taking the money from his campaign account and usi...

There are many factors which determine the cost of a postal money order. The amount for which the money order is purchased will have a direct impact on the amount of money that a person needs to spend in order to purchase this universally-accepted method of payment. Currently, money orders which cost $500 or less will cost $1.25. Money orders which are for $501 to $1000 will cost $1.65. This does not include insurance or tracking on the item itself. A military issued money order will only cost 35¢. This is advantageous to military families who are constantly moving and need to be able to provide a secure payment method for their needs. A money order is often good for up to one year after the original purchase. The carbon copy is also beneficial for people who want to have proof that they made the purchase. People also need to keep in mind that a money order which is purchased for international goods and services may often cost more for customers to utilize. These types of purch...

By Andrew LaSane   Image via Whitney Plantation on Facebook As tourist attractions, plantations in the South that use to run on slave labor are very strange places to explore (take it from someone who took field trips to a few of them during grade school). Despite good intentions by those who offer educational tours and programming at the historic sites, it's hard to admire gardens, pet animals, and learn about slavery in a place where people were kept and forced to work. There is one plantation in Louisiana that has a different approach to teaching about the past because, besides the fact that it still has the word "plantation" in the name, it is has been converted into the first plantation museum in America to focus on slavery. Image via Whitney Plantation on  Facebook     According to the New York Times , the Whitney Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana (which was used as a backdrop for scenes in Quentin Tar...

Britain is being sued with France and the Netherlands by 14 Caribbean countries demanding what could be hundreds of billions of pounds in reparations for slavery. Around 175 years after Britain freed its last slaves in the West Indies, an alliance of Caribbean nations is demanding to be repaid for the 'awful', lingering legacy of the Atlantic slave trade. Caricom, a group of 12 former British colonies together with the former French colony Haiti and the Dutch-held Suriname, believes the European governments should pay – and the UK in particular. Legal action: Britain, France and the Netherlands are being sued by 14 Caribbean countries for what could be billions of pounds in reparations for slavery, illustrated here in this 1861 drawing of a chain gang 'Awful legacy': In a speech at United Nations General Assembly last month (above), Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gons...

By Lakshmi Sandhana A woman's severed head awaits a new body, in the 1962 film The Brain That Wouldn't Die Transplanting a human head onto a donor body may sound like the stuff of science fiction comics, but not to Italian doctor Sergio Canavero. He has not only published a paper describing the operation in detail, but also believes that the surgery could be a reality as early as 2017. Canavero, Director of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, initially highlighted the idea in 2013, stating his belief that the technology to successfully join two severed spinal cords existed. Since then he's worked out the details, describing the operation in his recent paper, as the Gemini spinal cord fusion protocol (GEMINI GCF). To carry out the transplant, a state of hypothermia is first induced in both the head to be transplanted and the donor body, to help the cells stay alive without oxyg...

While listening to your music library in iTunes, do you get annoyed by gaps of silence between songs? If you're wondering how to configure iTunes to smoothly fade songs in and out, then this short tutorial will show you how. Crossfading involves slowly decreasing the volume of one song and increasing the volume of the next song at the same time. This overlap creates a smooth transition between the two songs and enhances you listening experience - this technique is used extensively by DJ's. If you like listening to continuous non-stop music, then mix like a DJ and use crossfading. Difficulty: Easy Time Required: iTunes crossfading configuration time - 2 minutes max. Here's How: Setting up Crossfading On the iTunes main screen, click the Edit menu tab and choose Preferences . Click on the Playback tab to see the option for crossfading. Now, put a check in the box next to the Crossfade Songs option. You can use the sliderbar to a...