Free Republic

Republican voters on Tuesday ousted a top elections official in Arizona’s most populous county who angered conservatives by defending the state’s voting system against false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, according to The Associated Press. The results as of early Wednesday showed that the official, Stephen Richer, had lost his primary re-election bid for Maricopa County recorder to State Representative Justin Heap, a right-wing challenger buoyed by conservative voters’ distrust in elections and mail-in voting.

CHICAGO — Ever since he was a child actor growing up in a show-business family, Jussie Smollett’s life blended activism with the make-believe worlds of television and movies. ..." He spoke of his mother’s closeness with the Black Panthers and prominent civil-rights leaders, and how she had encouraged Mr. Smollett and his brothers and sisters to create art and live out their beliefs. ..." For Mr. Smollett, arts and activism were intertwined throughout his childhood. His parents met while campaigning for civil rights in the Bay Area of California, and his mother had worked with the founders of the Black...

A week has passed since J.J. Vicari huddled underneath a desk while gunshots exploded in the classroom next door. Now, he is thinking about guns. Not about tightening gun laws, as President Obama urged after nine people were killed at the community college here. But about buying one for himself. “It’s opened my eyes,” said Mr. Vicari, 19. “I want to have a gun in the house to protect myself, to protect the people I’m with. I’m sure I’ll have a normal life and never have to go through anything like this, but I want to be sure.” Mr. Obama...

They were four words that became the national rallying cry of a new civil rights movement: “Hands up, don’t shoot.” Protesters chanted it, arms raised, in cities across the country in solidarity for Michael Brown, the black teenager who some witnesses said was surrendering when he was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. The slogan was embraced by members of Congress, recording artists and football players with the St. Louis Rams. It inspired posters and songs, T-shirts and new advocacy groups, a powerful distillation of simmering anger over police violence and racial injustice in Ferguson...