Oakland Riots July 2010

There were riots in Oakland, CA last night. As described by photographer Thomas Hawk:

Last night protesters in Oakland, CA rioted after a Los Angeles jury convicted former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle of Involuntary Manslaughter. Mehserle, a whilte police officer, had been on trial for a highly visible shooting of black Oscar Grant in the back during a 2009 New Year’s Day incident at the Fruitvale BART station.

You can see Hawk's coverage of the riots and see his Flickr photo stream.

Always Scout

Guardian.co.uk has extensive coverage of the 50th Anniversary of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

On The Huffington Post, there is an excerpt from Anna Quindlen's new book, Scout, Atticus and Boo:

It's still always about Scout to me because there really aren't that many of those girls. There were hardly any of those girls in our real life, and there aren't that many of them in books. So you store them up as a hedge against the attempts of the world to make you into something else.

Scout is totally real and totally imperfect, and she has the best two words in the book and two of the best words that have ever been put into any book by any writer: "Hey, Boo." There are moments in books that make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, and "Hey, Boo" is one of those moments.