The recent shooting in Santa Barbara is a red flag in a sea of red flags: gun violence is America’s version of the African tragedy. Since 2006, there has been one mass killing nearly every two weeks in the United States, with 75 percent being committed by the use of a firearm. Firearm sales have set records every single year since President Obama has been in office; there have been four times as many firearms purchased as babies have been born in the U.S.

For the record the Google search yielded 513,000 results in 0.27 seconds. That's a lot of Maya Angelou to choose from even for the most Angelou-ignorant. Once when a legend died, the problem was what to say if you hated him. But to have an opinion, good or bad, about a legendary literary figure you had to read her. Now for instant and innocuous insight you can just Google her. Once you faked sorrow. Now you fake familiarity.

One fiscal argument for augmenting local food networks is to reduce the tremendous costs that fuel and labor add to shipping produce from distant sites, whether in urban areas like Detroit or rural regions of the country such as Alaska. “In some of our isolated villages in Alaska, families are having to choose between the price of heating oil and food,” reported Dave Monture, technical assistance specialist for the Intertribal Agriculture Council. He said the cost of milk in some areas has risen to $20 a gallon. 

One of the United States' most prolific and beloved authors and poets has died at the age of 86. Maya Angelou was a Renaissance woman whose life inspired six autobiographies, including her internationally celebrated first memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  Angelou was found unresponsive in her Winston-Salem, N.C., home. Her death comes just days after she canceled an appearance in which she was to be honored at the Major League Baseball Beacon Awards luncheon in Houston.

Sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education, schools are still both separate and unequal. Community and civil rights groups say they’ve identified a key force that’s aggravated the inequity: school closures. On May 14, on the same week the nation recognized the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark school desegregation ruling, the civil rights group Advancement Project and the national community group network Journey for Justice Alliance filed three federal complaints with the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Justice.

The ghost of Jawarharlal Nehru could well be an uninvited guest at the banquet marking the swearing in of Narendra Modi. Yesterday marked Modi's first official day as the 15th prime minister of India. It will also mark the 50th death anniversary of Jawarharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister.The ghost of Nehru might be a little rueful. Had his great-grandson managed to lead the Congress to victory in the elections this month, yesterday might have seen a very different kind of commemoration of Nehru's death anniversary.

The commencement tempest this year has taken place at three schools: Rutgers, Smith, and Haverford. At each, students simply have spoken out against the selection of speakers that were foisted on their graduation ceremonies by college administrators or wealthy trustees. And at each, the invited speakers themselves withdrew after students leveled their criticism. 

Stallworth's Klan investigation ended after about seven months because he was so good at his job that "the local organizer had the idea that they needed someone who was a resident of Colorado Springs to assume the duties," he says. "They took a vote at one of their meetings, and by unanimous vote they had determined that they wanted Ron Stallworth to become the new local organizer because he was a 'loyal and dedicated Klansman.' "

Biderman is the founder and spokesperson for Ashley Madison, a website built to facilitate marital affairs, which is banned in South Korea and Singapore. A Toronto native with a degree in economics and a background as a sports attorney in the United States, Biderman comes off as extremely typical. He has a wife and two kids, and maintains that he is in a monogamous relationship-- and adds that there hasn’t been one interview where he has not had to answer that question. 

Wells Fargo, which has been the largest small business lender for the last 11 years, also announced their goal of lending $100 billion to small business by 2018. Wong said that this is an aggregate goal for all businesses, South Asian and otherwise, but that Wells Fargo has resources meant specifically for Asian business owners. “We host several financial seminars and workshops, across the Wells Fargo footprint, that partner specifically with Asian chamber associations and trade associations,” said Wong.