Three years ago Heather Ellis, a college student, went shopping for her mother at a Wal-Mart in rural Missouri. Now she soon faces trial for felonies involving assaulting police officers and receiving threats from the Klu Klux Klan.

Read about her story here

Sean Bell’s family is still demanding justice. Two years undercover cops shot to death 23-year-old Sean Bell outside of a Queens, N.Y., nightclub on his wedding day eve, members of his family finally met with federal prosecutors. Bell died when cops fired on the unarmed groom and two friends in a haze of 50 bullets. The officers who fired on the three men were acquitted of criminal charges. “Justice was never served in this case,” family attorney Michael Hardy told Newsday. “We still want justice for Sean.” The family has been pressing the U.S. Justice Department to bring civil rights charges against the officers. Following their meeting with federal prosecutors on Tuesday, the family now believes that it is possible.  In a statement, the Rev. Al Sharpton said he believes today’s meeting is “a sign that the federal government has begun to seriously look into the egregious denial of the civil rights of Sean Bell, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield.” Bell’s family felt the same way. Bell’s family. “Sean had a life ahead of him,” fiancée Nicole Paultre Bell told reporters. “This has given us hope.”

Republicans said they will not support it until an energy bill has been passed

The move to seek justice for Civil Rights Era lynching victims came to a screeching halt Monday as Republican members of the U.S. Senate said they will not support any legislation until they can get a vote on an energy bill. The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act would give the U.S. Justice Department $10 million per year to prosecute those responsible for killing Blacks and supporters of civil rights initiatives. In addition, the bill called for $3.5 to aid local law-enforcement agencies involved in the investigations. The bill was among about three dozen pieces of legislation aimed at helping mentally ill people, homeless youths, stroke victims and child-porn prosecutors. Leading the charge against the measure was Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, who consistently fights new spending measures. He was joined by 39 colleagues. The 52 votes in favor were eight short of the number needed to force a final vote on the bill bundle. Democrats argue that the Republicans want to keep the money on hand for the war in Iraq. “History will tell whether this is a setback or a setup for ultimate victory of the Till bill,” Alvin Sykes of Kansas City, president of the Emmett Till Justice Campaign and drafter of the bill, told The Clarion Ledger newspaper in Mississippi. “Every justice-seeking American should be calling and e-mailing their U.S. senators, strongly urging the passage of the bill.” The “Till bill” is named after Emmett Till, the Black teen from Chicago who was kidnapped and brutally beaten before being shot to death by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi in 1955. Why do you think the bill didn’t pass?