A Baltimore Circuit judge convicted Officer Michael O’Sullivan of perjury Thursday for lying about a criminal case and misconduct in office. O’Sullivan, 44, testified under oath that he had seen Yusuf Smith ditch a handgun while running from officers on The Alameda in May 2018. Prosecutors, however, said they checked body camera footage and discovered O’Sullivan couldn’t have seen what he testified to in court. A grand jury indicted him on charges of misdemeanor perjury and misconduct in May. He was suspended with pay at the time. An officer since 2000, Sullivan last worked in North Baltimore. He remains suspended from the department, a police spokeswoman said Thursday. O’Sullivan made $112,

John Witherspoon, an actor-comedian who for decades made audiences laugh in TV shows and films, including the hit Friday feature franchise, died suddenly at his home today. He was 77. “It is with the deepest sorrow that we can confirm our beloved husband and father, John Witherspoon, one of the hardest working men in show business, died today at his home in Sherman Oaks at the age of 77,” Witherspoon’s family said in a statement to Deadline. “He is survived by his wife Angela, and his sons JD, Alexander, and a large family. We are all in shock, please give us a minute for a moment in privacy and we will celebrate his life and his work together. John used to say ‘I’m no big deal’, but he was

John Conyers Jr., an advocate of liberal causes for five decades and the longest-serving African-American in the history of Congress, has died. He was 90. His death was confirmed by a family spokeswoman, Holly Baird. Mr. Conyers, a Democrat, resigned in 2017 after accusations of unwelcome sexual advances by two women. His lawyers denied the accusations, but both Paul Ryan, a Republican and then the Speaker of the House, and Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader at the time and the current Speaker, found the complaints credible and demanded that he step down. Mr. Conyers was the only member of the House Judiciary Committee to participate in impeachment inquiries against both Presidents Ri

The Princeton Theological Seminary says it will set aside some $27million to fund scholarships as well as 'cross-cultural' changes to its curriculum as a way of 'repenting for its past ties to slavery,' the school announced. The theological institution's board of trustees unanimously endorsed a reparations plan last week. The initiative came about after students pressured the Presbyterian school to offer reparations. In October 2018, the seminary published a report that included the findings of a two-year historical audit examining its connection to the African slave trade. The report found that the school did not own slaves and the school's building was not built by slave labor. But the sem

Two executives of a now-defunct meatpacking company pleaded guilty to selling more than $1 million dollars worth of adulterated and uninspected beef to the federal prison system, the Department of Justice announced. Jeffrey Neal Smith and Derrick Martinez, president and operations manager of West Texas Provisions, respectively, admitted to contaminating and mislabeling approximately 775,000 pounds of meat that were then distributed to 32 prisons in 18 states. Specifically, Smith and Martinez sold products that they falsely claimed had been inspected by the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) between October 2016 and August 2017. They also cut ground b

Michael Jordan opened a clinic in Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday to serve people who are uninsured and underinsured. The NBA legend and Charlotte Hornets owner cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the Michael Jordan Family Medical Clinic. Two years ago, Jordan made a $7 million donation to Novant Health to build the state-of-the-art facility in Charlotte's west side, as well as a second facility that has yet to open. In his speech, Jordan praised his hometown of Charlotte and said the clinic is about making an "impact" that will be paid forward in the city. "The money is not an issue for me, it's the commitment to be able to make a difference and make an impact..." he said. The clin

(CNN) Oprah Winfrey stunned a predominantly-female audience in Charlotte by announcing she would donate $1.15 million to help minority students attend and succeed in college. Winfrey was speaking at the 17th annual Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Luncheon, where the United Negro College Fund was hoping to raise $1 million for North Carolina students. After the video screen showed that $1.15 million had been raised, Winfrey announced: "So here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to match that number!" The crowd erupted in cheers, screams of joy and applause. The donation doubled the total raised to $2.3 million, vastly exceeding the organization's fundraising goals. Winfrey has long campaigned for

Music artist and actress Queen Latifah is among the honorees being recognized by Harvard University this year for their contributions to black history and culture. Harvard is set to award the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal to Queen Latifah and six other recipients on Oct. 22, according to the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Other honorees include poet and educator Elizabeth Alexander, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Lonnie Bunch III, poet Rita Dove, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television Sheila Johnson, artist Kerry James Marshall and Robert Smith, founder, chairman, and chief executive of Vista Equity Partners. The award is

A new bulletproof memorial to slain civil rights icon Emmett Till was unveiled Saturday in Mississippi after previous historical markers were repeatedly vandalized. The new 500-pound reinforced steel sign, placed at the spot where the 14-year-old's body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, has a bulletproof-glass front, according to Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center. The sign will be open to the public but also protected by a gate and surveillance cameras, according to the memorial’s commission. About 100 people, including members of Till's family, attended the rededication ceremony, Weems said. "Our community for 50 years was silent around what happ

Representative Elijah Cummings, of Baltimore, died early Thursday at the age of 68, his office said. Cummings passed away at Johns Hopkins Hospital at 2:45 a.m. from "complications concerning longstanding health challenges," his office said. He hadn't returned to work after having a medical procedure that he said would only keep him away for about a week, The Baltimore Sun noted. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, the chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party and Cummings' wife, said in a statement that Cummings was "an honorable man who proudly served his district and the nation with dignity, integrity, compassion, and humility." "He worked until his last breath because he believed our democracy

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Friday that would eliminate private, for-profit prisons, including those used for immigration detention, by 2028. Starting on Jan. 2020, the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation won't be able to enter into or renew a contract with a private, for-profit prison to incarcerate people. Operating a private immigration detention facility and incarcerating people in for-profit prisons will be prohibited after Jan. 2028, according to the newly signed law. "During my inaugural address, I vowed to end private prisons, because they contribute to over-incarceration, including those that incarcerate California inmates and those that detain imm

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Montgomery, a city where more than half the population is black and known as the birthplace of the civil rights movement, elected an African American to the highest position in municipal government for the first time in its 200-year history. Steven Reed, the Montgomery County probate judge, on Tuesday, beat television station owner David Woods in a runoff, gaining 32,918 votes to Woods' 16,010 votes, according to incomplete, unofficial returns. Reed will be sworn in on Nov. 12. Reed was the first African American elected as the county's probate judge in 2012. In 2015, he was the first probate judge in Alabama to issue same-sex marriage licenses. "This election has never be

NEW ORLEANS - Saints defensive star Demario Davis says he's won his fight against an NFL fine over his "Man of God" headband. Davis announced on social media that he got word from his agent that he'd won his appeal. The league fined Davis after week 3 for the headband, which league officials decided constituted a uniform violation. The announcement of the $7,017 fine angered fans, prompting an outpouring of support for Davis, who swore to keep wearing the headband despite the fine. Davis says he plans to take the money that would have gone toward the fine and donate it to St. Dominic Hospital in his home state of Mississippi. Via Twitter he made an announcement: We’ve raised $30,000 from hea

A key witness in Amber Guyger's murder trial was shot and killed Friday evening at an apartment complex near Dallas' Medical District, authorities said. Joshua Brown, a neighbor of Botham Jean's and Guyger at the South Side Flats apartments, was slain about 10:30 p.m. in the 4600 block of Cedar Springs Road. Brown, 28, lived across the hall from Jean and testified about the night he was killed. Dallas County prosecutor Jason Hermus, the lead prosecutor in the Guyger case, said Saturday that Brown stood up at a time when others won't say what they know. "He bravely came forward to testify when others wouldn't, " Hermus said. "If we had more people like him, we would have a better world." On F

A Dallas County jury convicted fired officer Amber Guyger of murder for fatally shooting Botham Jean in his apartment last year. Cheers broke out in the hallway outside the courtroom after the verdict was announced. Jurors will now resume deliberating to decide Guyger’s punishment. In Texas, murder carries a punishment of five to 99 years or life in prison. The charge is not eligible for probation. Guyger, 31, fatally shot 26-year-old Jean in his apartment last year. She had said she mistook his apartment for her own and thought Jean was a burglar. She is the first Dallas officer convicted of murder since the 1970s. Jurors began deliberating Monday after the prosecution and Guyger's defense

(CNN) Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce further staked her claim as one of the greatest female sprinters of all time by storming to victory in the women's 100 meters final at the World Championships in Doha. The Jamaican blew away a world-class field in a time of 10.71 seconds to claim her fourth world championship title in the discipline and eighth world title overall. Sunday's victory came two years after Fraser-Pryce gave birth to her son, Zyon. "My secret is just staying humble and just know who you are as a person and athlete and just continue to work hard," the 32-year-old said after her victory, where she was joined on the track by Zyon. "It's a wonderful feeling having my son witnessing this.

Los Angeles (CNN) Shawn Pleasants has the kind of resume that would attract the attention of any job recruiter: high school valedictorian, an economics major from Yale University, Wall Street banking jobs, small business entrepreneur. But a few wrong turns in life 10 years ago left him homeless, and today he's living underneath a tarp in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles. He's been told before that a smart and capable person like him should not be in this situation."But I'm like, should anybody be here? Who should, then?" Pleasants said. Trump administration officials came to Los Angeles to examine the homelessness crisis. The President, who clashes with California politicians on a number

(CNN) New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance's office has subpoenaed eight years of President Donald Trump's tax returns from Mazars USA, the longtime accounting firm to Trump and the Trump Organization, as part of its investigation into hush-money payments, according to a person familiar with the matter. The subpoena marks a new escalation in the large-scale effort to obtain the President's tax returns, a battle that has largely played out in courts as the Trump administration has continued to stand its ground against efforts to secure any of Trump's financial information. Trump has claimed that ongoing IRS audits have stopped him from making his tax returns public, even though audit

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the signing of the Fair Play to Pay Act on Monday, a bill that will allow a college athlete to profit off their name, image, and likeness. Newsom filmed the signing of the bill on LeBron James' UNINTERRUPTED platform: The governor said: "[The NCAA is] a little panicked because they recognize they're vulnerable. People are hitting this, not just in California, but all across the country because the gig's up. Billions and billions of dollars—$14-plus billion—goes to these universities, go to these colleges. Billion-plus revenue to the NCAA themselves. And the actual product, the folks that are putting their lives on the line, putting everything on the