UF, facing lawsuit, opens door for white nationalist to speak — but at new date

The University of Florida on Friday cleared the way for white nationalist Richard Spencer to speak on the Gainesville campus — but at a new date yet to be determined. The move, announced Friday, came as the university faced a First Amendment lawsuit over a controversial event originally planned for Sept. 12 that could set up the small college town as the next potential free-speech showdown between racist groups and the protesters who show up to oppose them. In a letter to Gainesville-based la…
See all stories on this topic

The Latest on the aftermath of a violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia (all times local): 6:05 p.m. A judge in Virginia says he will decide later whether a lawsuit over Charlottesville’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. can proceed to trial. After a hearing Friday, Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Richard E. Moore said he may have a decision within two to three weeks. Controversy over the statue sparked an Aug. 12 “Unite the Right” rally t…
See all stories on this topic

Tens of thousands more people have crossed by boat and on foot into Bangladesh in the last 24 hours as they flee violence in western Myanmar, the UNHCR said Saturday. Both Myanmar’s security officials and insurgents from the Rohingya ethnic minority are accusing each other of burning down villages and committing atrocities in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. The military has said nearly 400 people, most of them insurgents, have died in armed clashes. The violence has triggered a flood of refugees cross…
See all stories on this topic

The mayor of a Louisiana town where 30 to 60 black people were killed 130 years ago is calling for a moment of silence in November to honor those victims. Thibodaux (TIB-uh-doh) Mayor Tommy Eschete (ESH-tay) plans to give a proclamation Tuesday that will declare Nov. 23 “1887 Commemoration Day” to a descendant of one of the victims of the violence. The Louisiana 1887 Memorial Committee says the mayor will present the proclamation to Sylvester Jackson. It says the city condemns the violence and …
See all stories on this topic

Unarmed protesters are raising concerns that armed militia members who have been attending rallies at an upscale shopping and dining district in Kansas City might eventually spark violence. The Kansas City Star reports that the militia has shown up several times this summer at the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain on the Country Club Plaza. The militia is part of the Three Percenters movement, which gets its name from the belief that just 3 percent of colonists rose up to fight the British. Local …
See all stories on this topic