http://youtu.be/o54n7HXwOhc I am not Michael Brown. I am a blonde, middle-aged, middle class white woman. I have committed the very same crimes and transgressions that Michael Brown is alleged to have committed. When I was 18, I smoked pot and shoplifted. Much more recently and on multiple occasions, I have

  UPDATE: Anger grows, police chief urges calm: The three-week trial ended quickly and decisively Monday with jurors rejecting second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter charges against Manuel Ramos and involuntary manslaughter and excessive force charges against Jay Cicinelli. Both former officers lowered their heads and Cicinelli’s attorney, Mark Schwartz, pounded

A picture of my paternal grandpa, in his heroic cowboy days. I wrote the following diary exactly one year ago. I never posted it, probably because I wasn’t yet prepared to share it. I forgot all about it until I was reminded of it by wendydavis’ wonderful diary about grandparents.

Who doesn’t want to kick in a few bucks for a shiny, new, neoliberal war featuring drones that play The Lumineers?

http://youtu.be/vQ5EEdEehm8 Singer/songwriter Mac Davis wrote “In the Ghetto” about his childhood friend in Lubbock, Texas. In an interview, Mac said, “I grew up with a little boy who lived in the ghetto… And it was a part of town I could never understand why my little buddy had to live

UPDATE: Dorner’s body has been positively identified. Sources also acknowledge that highly flammable “hot gas” canisters were used, which caused the cabin to catch fire. So it was the canisters, not the cops, that set the fire. They’re still saying that the fire was not set deliberately, although I don’t

Here is the liveblog from various reporters in the vicinity and here is live video from KCAL/CBS in LA. Conflicting reports say that Christopher Dorner may have been involved in a home invasion in which he tied up a couple, one escaped and was able to call police; other versions

This story continues to unfold so quickly that it’s impossible to put up a diary that remains accurate for any length of time. Instead, this is going to be a summary of the story so far and then some links. A massive manhunt is taking place in Southern California for

A protest at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland. Flickr photo courtesy of Michael Mees. Updated to add: Fruitvale just won both the Grand Jury Prize (“the big enchilada, as the announcer said) and the Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic film at the Sundance Awards! On Democracy Now this morning,

On Sunday night, my last hopes were dashed. Neither of my two football teams made the playoffs. If I drank eggnog, I’d be crying in it. Being an NFL fan has become an exercise in futility, hypocrisy and denial. It’s hard to imagine life without football. I went to junior