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Jamie Kalven (born 1948) is an American journalist, author, human rights activist, and community organizer based in Chicago, Illinois. He founded the Invisible Institute, a non-profit journalism organization based in Chicago's South Side. Kalven has been referred to as a "guerrilla journalist" by Chicago journalist Studs Terkel. His work in the city has included reporting on police misconduct and poor conditions of public housing. Kalven won a landmark court case – Kalven v. City of Chicago – which held that police misconduct records are public information under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Thereafter, the Institute became a hub for information related to police misconduct in Chicago. In the aftermath of the 2014 murder of Laquan McDonald by a police officer, Kalven received accolades for obtaining a copy of an autopsy report showing that McDonald had been shot 16 times execution-style, contradicting official reports of a single gunshot wound. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Front cover of "Maple Leaf Rag" (1899)

... that the actress Lottie Williams was one of the cakewalk dancers depicted on the front cover of the sheet music for Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" (pictured)?
... that the 1974 conference Transvestism and Transsexualism in Modern Society in Leeds became an early platform for the emergence of terms such as "gender alignment" and "trans.people"?
... that both Thackeray and Longfellow bought paintings by Fanny Steers?
... that Samoa House was the first fale (traditional Samoan house) built outside of Samoa?
... that as a high schooler in 2018, Logan O'Hoppe caught a home-run ball at Yankee Stadium hit by visiting player Manny Machado and was televised throwing it back on the field?
... that Lana Del Rey, who is known as an alt-pop artist, will release her first official country album, Lasso, this year?
... that Patricia Grace did not intend for her novel Potiki, about the impact of land development on an indigenous community, to be seen as political?
... that in the 1934 German referendum, some areas recorded more votes than there were eligible voters?

In the news

Luís Montenegro

In Portugal, the Democratic Alliance (leader Luís Montenegro pictured) wins the most seats in a snap legislative election.
At the Academy Awards, Oppenheimer wins seven awards, including Best Picture.
Japanese manga artist Akira Toriyama, author of Dragon Ball, dies at the age of 68.
Sweden becomes the thirty-second member state of NATO.

On this day

March 16: Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires

Cap badge of the Royal Welch Fusiliers

934 – Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period: Chinese general Meng Zhixiang proclaimed himself emperor and established Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.
1689 – The Royal Welch Fusiliers (cap badge pictured), one of the oldest line-infantry regiments of the British Army, was founded.
1819 – The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York, the first savings bank in New York City, was incorporated.
1984 – William Buckley, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, was kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists.
1988 – Michael Stone, an Ulster loyalist, attacked the funeral of three Provisional IRA members, killing three attendees and injuring at least sixty others.

Alaric Alexander Watts (b. 1797)
Don Blasingame (b. 1932)
Virginia Randolph (d. 1958)
Jean Bellette (d. 1991)

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Today's featured picture

The bombing of Gaza is an ongoing aerial bombardment campaign on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Air Force during the Israel–Hamas war. During the bombing, which began on 7 October 2023 after a Hamas-led attack on Israel, airstrikes have damaged Palestinian mosques, schools, hospitals, refugee camps, and civilian infrastructure. The campaign has been compared to other major historical bombing campaigns, including the bombings of Dresden and Tokyo during World War II. This photograph shows damage following an Israeli airstrike on the neighborhood of Rimal in Gaza City on 9 October 2023.

Photograph credit: Wafa / APAimages

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