BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- At least four times in the last 21/2 years, Keith Bardwell says he refused to marry interracial couples while serving as a Louisiana justice of the peace. He said from his experience and discussions, he had concluded that blacks and whites do not readily accept offspring of such relationships, so the children end up suffering. His latest rebuff to a bride and groom of different races turned out to be his last.

CLEVELAND (AP) -- For the past few years, neighbors assumed the foul smell enveloping their street corner had been coming from a brick building where workers churned out sausage and head cheese ...

The New York Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition is mobilizing to gather in front of the U.S. Department of Justice Nov. 12 as petitions will be delivered to Attorney General Eric Holder, asking for a civil rights review into the Philadelphia activist's case.
The petition delivery will follow an Oct. 30 meeting in New York that aimed to mobilize a national and international movement to free the political prisoner, held on death row for the past 28 years.

The family of Oscar Grant, III, residents, community activists, religious and civic leaders have expressed disappointment that an Alameda County, Calif., judge granted a change of venue in the trial of a former transit officer who shot and killed the 22-year-old unarmed passenger in Oakland.

Because of a trip to Walmart three years ago, Heather Ellis is now fighting for her life. The 24-year-old former college student is facing felony charges that could get her up to 15 years in prison after being arrested for an incident that stemmed from her cutting a line at a Walmart in Kennet, Mo.

Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested several members of a radical Sunni Islam group in the U.S., killing one of its leaders at a shootout in a Michigan warehouse, the U.S. attorney's office said.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Hurricane Katrina gave Ned Sublette a dramatic coda -- and title -- for his memoir. "The Year Before the Flood" documents the last year New Orleans and its thriving music scene were still fully intact before the city was nearly washed off the face of the Earth.

CHICAGO (AP) – Rickets, a vitamin deficiency disorder common in developing countries, is making a comeback in the United States. Almost 90 percent of Black children and 80 percent of Hispanic kids could be vitamin D deficient, the most recent national analysis suggests...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Time growing short, Democratic leaders in Congress are still grappling with divisive issues as they try to achieve President Barack Obama's ambitious goal of passing legislation to remake the U.S. health care system by year's end. Both House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are expected to make key decisions this week in hopes the long-delayed health care bills can come to a vote in early November.

An outraged Louisiana couple filed a federal lawsuit Oct. 20 against a local official's decision to deny them a marriage license because they are of different races.