Culture

October 11, 2007 - Danielle Super, a student at Smyrna High in suburban Nashville, Tenn., is suing her school district for denying her the right to wear to class a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Free the Jena Six," the Associated Press reports.

October 5, 2007 - A new Amnesty International report on death by lethal injection urges doctors and nurses not to participate in state-ordered executions in breach of their ethical oath to do no harm. It also examines the legal and ethical implications of lethal injection.

October 3, 2007 - Indiana rocker John Mellencamp has been in the studio working with producer T Bone Burnett on a new album.

September 20, 2007 - UPDATE: A cross-post of this has ignited some fierce debate over at Daily Kos; see also Pam Spaulding's valuable take on why the progressive blogosphere is MIA on the Jena 6.

September 20, 2007 - Today, thousands have gathered in Jena, Louisiana to support the "Jena 6" -- African-American youths facing decades of jail time for a schoolyard fight.

September 19, 2007 - Clicking through various TV news shows last night, I caught a number of reports about Andrew Meyer, the University of Florida telecommunications student and reputed prankster who was Tasered for behaving disruptively during the question-and-answer segment of a campus lecture by U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).

September 15, 2007 - Yet another update on the Jena 6: Today a state appeals court threw out the aggravated battery conviction of Mychal Bell, one of the half-dozen black teens facing unusually serious charges for the beating of a white schoolmate amid escalating racial tensions in a small Louisiana town.