Hip hop mogul Jay-Z has released a scathing response to politicians who criticized the rapper and his superstar wife Beyoncé for spending their fifth wedding anniversary in Cuba. Scandal erupted in the past few days after the pair were photographed dining at local Cuban restaurants and touring historic sites in the country, which has been under U.S. sanctions for more than a half-century. On April 11, Jay-Z ...

Income inequality—long a social reality in America—may be permanent, a new study by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., suggests. The study reveals continuing opulence for a few top-earners and an ever-slimmer slice of the economic pie for the rest. And the inequality gap in Michigan is wider than in many other states. ...

The Michigan Court of Appeals released an opinion April 3 affirming a lower court ruling in Duncan et. al. v. State of Michigan, allowing the case to move forward in Ingham County Circuit Court and denying again the state’s efforts to have the case dismissed. In the Duncan case, plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit from three counties asked the court to declare that failures in Michigan’s public defense sys ...

Like thousands of Black college students, Bethanie Fisher, a psychology major at Howard University, depended heavily on the Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) program that allows parents to borrow the full amount of college tuition and fees. During, the 2007-08 school year, an estimated 33 percent of undergraduate students that earned degrees at Historically Black Colleges and Universities receiv ...

Rev. Amos Brown, pastor of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco and Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the National Black Church Initiative in Washington, D.C., are brothers of the cloth. Though they share a love for Christ and the Bible, they do not share the same views on same sex marriage, an issue now before the U.S. Supreme Court. ...

The University of Detroit Mercy is partnering with the Michigan Virtual University to help UDM education students learn to teach online. Both undergraduate and graduate students can enroll this summer in Advanced Instructional Tech-nology/Teaching in the Virtual Environment. The program, which resembles a student-teaching experience, is an introductory course focused on online instruction. Students will hel ...

President Barack Obama talks with Rachel Robinson, widow of famed baseball player Jackie Robinson, before the “42” movie screening depicting the struggles and victory of Robinson’s life and baseball career. Robinson family members and cast and crew attended the screening in the Family Theater at the White House on April 2. “42” opens in theaters April 12. ...

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has announced it will investigate complaints filed against Detroit Public Schools and the State of Michigan. Helen Moore, of Keep The Vote/No Takeover, filed a Title VI complaint last year alleging the state of Michigan, through its statewide school district, discriminated against Black and Latino students and parents. Moore says low-income dis ...

Romulus Mayor Alan Lambert’s home was raided March 25 in what investigators are calling an ongoing investigation of public corruption. The corruption case is said to involve top Romulus city officials and may have connection to other departments. Michigan State Police Lt. Michael Shaw released a statement stating that after troopers questioned Lambert, they searched the Mario Ann Court residence. “He has be ...

Some of Michigan’s private colleges are pushing for more racial and ethnic diversity, but not actively seeking more religious diversity. Colleges like Hope, Calvin, University of Detroit Mercy, Albion, Cornerstone and Concordia that are affiliated with denominations of Christianity are reaching out to minorities in recruitment. Yet, religious diversity is not a goal. Hope College professor of religion Barry ...