Jim D. Adkisson allegedly shot to death two people and seriously wounded five others. Knoxville , Tenn. , Police are trying to determine whether to charge a madman with a hate crime who busted into a church and blasted away, killing two people and leaving five others in serious or critical condition. People scurried under pews or ran from the church as 58-year-old Jim D. Adkisson began firing, witnesses said. But Greg McKendry, 60, who was killed in the melee, is being hailed as a hero because “he stood in front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us,” Barbara Kemper, a member of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, told The Associated Press. Also killed was Linda Kreager, 61, died at the University of Tennessee Medical Centre a few hours after the shooting, a city spokesman told AP. Witnesses said that many of the 200 congregants, who had gathered at the church watch a play, pounced on Adkisson and detained him until the police arrived. Kemper told police that said that the alleged shooter shouted before he fired his shotgun. “It was hateful words. He was saying hateful things,” she said, refusing to repeat what the gunman said. Adkission’s motivation is unknown. The church, which promotes social progressive work and desegregation, among what many would consider liberal issues, has provided sanctuary for political refugees, fed the homeless and founded a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, AP reports, citing the church Web site. The FBI is assisting with the investigation, in case it is deemed a hate crime, according to AP.  Watch the video below.

Critics say N.C.’s death penalty is racially wrong

The state of North Carolina might have to start executing people again before lawmakers agree to allow an examination of the lopsided way the death penalty is administered to Blacks and Whites. The North Carolina chapter of the NAACP has been enlisting the help of Democrats in the state legislature to get a measure passed that would force judges and juries to pay attention to statistics showing that far more African Americans are put to death than Whites. Ever since last year, when the state Medical Board adopted ethics rules barring doctors from participating in executions, North Carolina has put all executions on hold. But in a strange twist, many political observers believe that the only way to get the Republican members of the legislature to agree that the racial disparity should be addressed, Democrats must first agree to adopt a measure that would override the ethics rules banning executions. That idea is not sitting too well with William Barber, president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, who believes that the statistics bill “should stand alone. This is about people dying simply because of their race.”

B.B. King gets his own radio show

The man widely recognized as “King of the Blues” – B.B. King – will get a long-deserved forum to spread his brand of music and stories about artists and his life as a musician. The 82-year-old Mississippi native, who spent many years in Memphis, will begin hosting his own show on XM Radio in September, the satellite station announced Monday. “I love the blues and am looking forward to sharing my passion, stories and my favorite music with all the folks who listen to XM, one of the few places where the vibrant sounds of the blues still thrive,” King said in a statement. XM also noted that it will change the name of its blues channel from “Bluesville” to “B.B. King’s Bluesville.”

Gunmen blast man in FEMA trailer
Somebody rolled up on the trailer of a Hurricane Katrina victim Tuesday morning and blasted it with automatic weapons, killing the 39-year-old man who lay asleep inside, according to New Orleans Police. The Times Picayune reported that “unknown gunmen toting AK-47 opened fire on the exterior of a FEMA trailer in Gentilly … murdering a man….” The deceased man was idenfited as Terrence Vine, who “was in bed when the gunmen sprayed his trailer with bullets, several of which struck his body.” Garry Flot, an NOPD spokesman, told the newspaper that a dispatcher received a “shots fired” call and emergency workers arrived later, finding the exterior of Vine’s trailer riddled with bullet holes.