Justice

July 22, 2016 - A multimillion-dollar settlement has been reached in a lawsuit over a Missouri community's jailing of poor people unable to pay court fines and fees. Similar lawsuits have been filed over debtors' prisons in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.

July 21, 2016 - The Missouri man who killed three law enforcement officers and injured three others in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this week was an adherent of a violent, extremist, anti-government ideology rooted in white supremacy but that in recent years has spawned a black nationalist strain that's attracting African Americans.

July 15, 2016 - Last week's shooting deaths of five police officers at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Dallas have led to calls for new state and federal hate-crime legislation stiffening penalties for attacks on police officers. But critics of such laws contend they could deter efforts to protect against identity-based crimes and stifle calls for police accountability.

July 15, 2016 - In different ways, members of the South's small but fast-growing Asian-American community are demonstrating unity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

July 15, 2016 - This week North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a bill that blocks public access to footage from body cameras worn by police. The state joins others across the South that have taken similar action.

July 14, 2016 - Alton Sterling was shot to death by police outside a Baton Rouge convenience store while selling CDs to get by. With a felony conviction on his record, Sterling faced significant employment barriers — but efforts are underway in Louisiana and elsewhere to dismantle at least some of them through so-called "ban the box" laws.

July 12, 2016 - The Baton Rouge Police Department, under fire for a militarized response to protests over last week's police shooting of Alton Sterling, is among the Louisiana law enforcement agencies that got surplus military gear through the Defense Department's 1033 program.