Urban gun violence is edging ever closer to President Barack Obama’s Chicago home. Last week, 15-year-old Cornelius German was shot and killed in a backyard about four blocks from Obama’s house. Police said it’s likely that German’s death was gang-related. Days after his murder, no arrests have been made – and nobody’s talking. A few […]

CHICAGO (AP) — A 15-year-old boy was shot and killed in a backyard about four blocks from President Barack Obama‘s Chicago home, police said Tuesday. Cornelius German of Chicago was found unresponsive around 9:40 p.m. Monday. He had been shot in the back and was pronounced dead at the scene on the city’s South Side, […]

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First Lady Michelle Obama invited the family of slain teenager Hadiya Pendleton to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. According to the Chicago Sun Times, Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton and her 10-year-old son Nathaniel Pendleton were invited to the famous event which happens on April 1. 15-year-old Hadiya  was shot and killed on January 25, 2013 […]

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Bigger Thomas is back, and he’s nastier than ever. Actually, Bigger never went anywhere. It’s just that, from time to time, his real-world manifestations go way over the line. Take, for instance, those three Bigger Thomases that stripped and whipped that poor brother in Newark, N.J. last summer. For purposes of this account, I’ll call […]

President Barack Obama has a bold plan for uplifting black America and the White House wants African Americans to know it. Sitting inside the White House, I listened to Valarie Jarrett, the president’s senior adviser, speak passionately about Obama’s ambitious goal to rehabilitate 20 poor communities across the country where black people have struggled for […]

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A Republican senator from Illinois said Thursday he had asked permission from the mother of slain Chicago teen Hadiya Pendleton to name his gun-safety legislation after the girl. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill) said in a statement that he met with some Illinois families who lost loved ones to gun violence and asked the permission of […]

President Barack Obama has adopted a new style of governing for his second term in the White House: Get with the program – or get out of the way. It’s a refreshing change from his conciliatory approach to Congress in previous years. And it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Obama is using […]

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CHICAGO (AP) — A judge has ordered two gang members held without bail in the death of a 15-year-old Chicago honor student. Cook County Judge Israel Desierto on Tuesday ordered 18-year-old Michael Ward and 20-year-old Kenneth Williams held. The two men are charged with first-degree murder in the Jan. 29 death of Hadiya Pendleton. The […]

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CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago police say two gang members charged in the death of a 15-year-old honor student mistook her and her friends for members of a rival gang and attacked the group in retaliation for a shooting that injured one of the men over the summer. Hadiya Pendleton died after being shot in a […]

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House official says the parents of a Chicago teenager slain just days after performing during President Barack Obama’s inauguration will attend his State of the Union speech. Hadiya Pendleton, 15, was shot to death Jan. 29 in a park close to the Obama’s Chicago home. Police say a gunman hopped […]

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CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago police say they hope murder charges will be filed soon in the shooting death of a 15-year-old Chicago girl who performed at events for President Barack Obama‘s inauguration. Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy says he hopes prosecutors file charges Monday in the death of Hadiya Pendleton. Police say they took two men […]

First Lady Michelle Obama walks softly and carries a big stick. She mourned the death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton Saturday and also highlighted gun violence in America without uttering a single word at the funeral. And it was the right thing to do. Obama paid her respects to Pendleton inside a packed church on Chicago’s […]