race

Michigan state Rep. Cynthia Johnson, a Black Democratic lawmaker who faced lynching threats and harassment following an Oversight Committee hearing last week where she leveled fierce criticism against President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, has been punished by House Republican leaders for a video she posted to Facebook on Tuesday. Republicans say that's because in the video she appears to threaten supporters of the president.

Johnson has been stripped of her committee assignments, including her position on the House Oversight Committee.

The death of Casey Goodson, a Black man killed Friday by a Franklin County sheriff's deputy in Columbus, Ohio, has been ruled a homicide, according to a statement from Franklin County Coroner Dr. Anahi Ortiz.

The preliminary findings come five days after Goodson, 23, was shot under disputed circumstances. Law enforcement officials said a sheriff's deputy saw Goodson driving with a gun, but have not said Goodson was armed when he was shot. Goodson's family says he was shot outside his house.

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday it is joining the investigation into the death of 23-year-old Casey Goodson, a Black man who was shot and killed by law enforcement in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday.

U.S. Attorney David DeVillers of the Southern District of Ohio said the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department and the FBI, along with the Columbus Division of Police, are all investigating the case.

Updated at 4:02 p.m. ET

Authorities in Ohio have identified a longtime Franklin County sheriff's deputy as the law enforcement officer who shot and killed a Black man in Columbus last Friday.

Law enforcement said the man was waving a gun while driving. His family said he was shot while carrying a bag of sandwiches outside his house.

The sheriff's office said the deputy who fired the shots, Jason Meade, a 17-year veteran of the force, was assigned full time to a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force at the time of the incident.

The largest and most influential arts advocacy and service organization in the country has responded to sharp criticism over its lack of diversity and commitment to help arts groups lead by and for people of color. Americans For The Arts (which is also one of NPR's financial supporters) conceded that the steps they've taken towards "racial and cultural equity" "have not been enough."

AFTA serves the arts sector in a variety of ways including lobbying Congress, conducting surveys of the sector, training, panels and the like.

A Wisconsin court commissioner overseeing the case of a teenager accused of killing two people and injuring a third during protests in Kenosha, Wis., this summer, has denied defense attorneys' request to dismiss two of the six charges facing Kyle Ritttenhouse.

During a preliminary hearing conducted via video link Thursday, Kenosha County Circuit Court Commissioner Loren Keating also said he found enough evidence that support the charges against Rittenhouse, 17, for the case to proceed to trial.

For Walter Fleming, an enrolled member of the Kickapoo tribe in Kansas, Thanksgiving will be difficult this year because so many Native Americans have died from COVID-19.

"Particularly because it's been among our elders, the grieving is gonna be that much more," Fleming said. "These are the cultural guardians."

Fleming is a professor of Native American studies at Montana State University, who observes the holiday. He says it's a chance for people to come together, feast and celebrate.