Evening Edition: Donna Douglas, ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ star, is dead

The most important stories of the day  •  Fri., Jan. 2, 2015 View in your Web browser

U.S. imposes sanctions on N. Korea following attack on Sony The Obama administration imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Friday, the first known U.S. response since authorities concluded the repressive government was behind the cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.  Read full article »

Hinckley won’t face murder charge in death of James Brady, prosecutors say

Federal prosecutors said they will not charge John W. Hinckley Jr. with murder in the shooting of President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary in a 1981 assassination attempt, even though a medical examiner concluded his August death was caused by the old wounds.  Read full article »

A cop in Ukraine said he was detaining me because I was black. I appreciated it.

I was already homeless — unknowingly a victim of housing discrimination — when my plane touched down in Kiev, Ukraine in the summer of 2009. I was traveling on a Fulbright grant to research the lives of biracial Ukrainians, and was eager to explore how the Slavic country could produce native people who looked like me, a young black man from Detroit. A local real estate agent had promised several months earlier to secure an apartment for me before my arrival.  I took a taxi from the airport to meet him. Wearing a warm, wide smile, Sergei extended his hand and welcomed me. Then he explained why his apartment search had failed: “Your skin color has been causing us a lot of problems.”  Read full article »

HarperCollins omits Israel from maps for Mideast schools, citing ‘local preferences’

Well, that didn’t go over well.For months, publishing giant HarperCollins has been selling an atlas it says was “developed specifically for schools in the Middle East.” It trumpets the work as providing students an “in-depth coverage of the region and its issues.” Its stated goals include helping kids understand the “relationship between the social and physical environment, the region’s challenges [and] its socio-economic development.”  Read full article »

Donna Douglas, ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ star, is dead

NEW YORK — Donna Douglas, who played the buxom tomboy Elly May Clampett on the hit 1960s sitcom “The Beverly Hillbillies,” has died.Douglas, who was 82, died Thursday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she lived, her niece, Charlene Smith, said. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer, Smith said.  Read full article »

Washington Redskins are the victims of top-down organizational dysfunction

An NFL player’s chief commodity and source of earnings is his body, and he has only so many bone-breaking efforts contained in it. Would you invest your savings in a company run by Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen? No, you wouldn’t. Of course not. So why would the players? This is what is wrong with Washington’s football club, why there are so many losses and whiffed tackles. It’s very basic and purely transactional. There is a gnawing doubt inside the club whether the effort is worth it.  Read full article »

Jim Rome tweets his take on marching bands, then tweets apology for his take on marching bands

Hey, guys! I just wanted to make sure you didn’t miss this Thursday night tweet from Jim Rome, who had some thoughts about Being Cool:That moment @jimrome became public enemy #1 of bands across the world. You messed with the wrong dorks. #MarchOnRomepic.twitter.com/Q6BBYD8ios  Read full article »