In The News
Since protests erupted over the death of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old African American man shot to death by a Caucasian police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, police clad in riot gear have unleashed tear gas and smoke bombs to try to control demonstrators.
The law enforcement response to the protest has been labeled overly combative, even militaristic – and lawmakers are now concerned that the situation is emblematic of a more pervasive problem.
WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and two other Congress members called Thursday for a congressional hearing into reports of police misuse of force in Ferguson, Mo.
Cohen and the other lawmakers sent a letter to Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, asking for the panel to hold hearings into the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager in the St. Louis suburb and the response to the protests in the aftermath of the killing.
Memphis City Council members Harold Collins and Myron Lowery Tuesday stood in the parking lot turned construction zone where the Memphis Health Center is expanding on E.H. Crump Boulevard near Danny Thomas.
“I was a patient at this facility as a kid,” said Collins, 51. “When your father is a cabdriver and your mother never worked out of the house, you can’t go to a pediatric service provider somewhere else. You’ve got to come where it’s free.”
Members of the U.S. Congress are losing patience with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In a sharply worded letter, Democrats and Republicans who've led House efforts to advance U.S.-Turkish relations warned Erdogan last week about what they considered to be his anti-Semitic comments. They told him he risked damaging ties between the United States and Turkey.
Turkey has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel for its military operations in Gaza. Erdogan has accused the Jewish state of "barbarism surpassing Hitler."
For two days, the main theme on Capitol Hill, at least for Democrats, has been voting rights.
Dozens gathered in the rotunda on Tuesday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King and commemorate the Civil Rights Act. The Senate held a detailed hearing Wednesday morning about a proposal to update the Voting Rights Act, and congressional Democrats took the stage on the Capitol lawn in the afternoon to demanding they be given a vote on the issue.