Daily News Feed 4.29.08

Verdict in Sean Bell Case Draws a Peaceful Protest
The circle of people was thin but spread wide, looping an intersection in the heart of Harlem on Sunday and blocking long lines of cars and buses in four directions. In the middle of the circle stood a cluster of angry people, and in that cluster stood a young man with a bullhorn and a question. “Why isn’t everyone else out here with us?” the man, Robert Cuffy, 22, asked. The circle of people, roughly 150 strong, stared back. It was two days after a judge acquitted three New York City detectives in the shooting death of Sean Bell, who died on the morning of his wedding day 17 months ago after the detectives fired a total of 50 bullets at his car. (Continue Reading…)

Obama on Rev. Wright: ‘He Does Not Speak for Me’
Sen. Barack Obama wants everyone to know that he is not the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and that the talkative Wright does not speak for him. On a day when his longtime pastor at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ seemed to pop up every five minutes in the mainstream media and the blogosphere, Obama emphasized the distance between them. “I have said before and I will repeat again that some of the comments that Reverend Wright have made offend me and I understand why they’ve offended the American people,” Obama said in a brief airport tarmac press conference in Wilmington, N.C. (Continue Reading…)

The Game, Fellow Rappers Sound Off for Sean Bell
The Game isn’t playing with this one. In light of the shooting death of 23-year-old Sean Bell and the subsequent acquittal last week of the NYPD officers who fired the fatal shots, the SoCal-bred rapper has penned a musical response that in no uncertain terms lets us know where he stands. “911 Is a Joke,” which doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to the issue of police brutality, is set to debut tomorrow on the Game’s website. (Continue Reading…)

One Month on, Zimbabwe Still in the Dark on Presidential Poll
A month after Zimbabweans took to the polls to pick a president, the outcome of the vote is still not in sight as the United Nations prepared on Tuesday to discuss the Zimbabwe impasse. Suggestions by the country’s electoral body that results of the March 29 presidential vote could be out later this week after the completion of a partial recount of ballots have been met with scepticism in some quarters. (Continue Reading…)

Cartoons of a Racist Past Lurk on YouTube
Among the millions of clips on the video-sharing Web site YouTube are 11 racially offensive Warner Brothers cartoons that have not been shown in an authorized release since 1968. Some of the cartoons were removed on April 16. A message saying the cartoons were no longer available because of a copyright claim by Warner appeared in their place. By evening the messages disappeared, and some of the cartoons were back. Representatives for YouTube and Warner would not confirm whether the companies had tried to remove the cartoons. (Continue Reading…)