Page 7 - Ras Smith News Today

Protesters walked the streets of Minneapolis over the weekend calling for justice for Amir Locke, who was fatally shot by police last Wednesday. Beyond accountability at the city level, some demonstrators urge state lawmakers to take comprehensive action. Locke, a Black man, was shot by a Minneapolis SWAT team while sleeping on a couch. ...

Protesters are staging weekly vigils around a facility in a northwest Washington town that they say is a short-term holding facility for immigration law enforcement. The organization Community to Community Development, or C2C, discovered the facility - an unmarked building in Ferndale - through public records and testimony from community members. Liz Darrow, legislative advocate with C2C, said in January, they believe a restaurant worker from Bellingham was taken to the building before being...

For Ras Smith, running for governor "exposed a drastic disconnect between the current political system and the people."

Art Hackett proposes a "secret weapon" that could help a Democratic candidate for governor in Iowa.

Unless things change dramatically, Kim Reynolds will be able to use most of her war chest to help down-ballot Iowa Republicans.

Register columnist: Community groups say that extreme bills and incendiary words are fueling a growth of threats and physical acts against them.

Smith was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 2016 and is serving his third term representing an area of Black Hawk County. He is a founding member of

Iowa policymakers are debating a number of politically divisive issues, and as the legislative process plays out, they are being urged to avoid rhetoric faith leaders argue intertwines with extremism. This week, the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa sent a letter to the governor and state lawmakers asking them to be better role models, suggesting language stoking extremism will harm democracy. The letter cited recent incidents the group said intersect with divineness seen around the state. ...

KNIA/KRLS news director: Unless Democratic elites can demonstrate some capacity for change, Republicans will win Iowa, because theyve earned it.

Ellen Goodmann Miller: We must become self-aware of the prejudice and racism we perpetuate through our own systems of leadership.