Authorities in Kenosha County, Wis., are recommending criminal charges be filed against a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Parkside student who confessed to what initially appeared to be hate crimes.

Khalilah N. Ford of Louisville, Ky., “confessed Friday evening when presented with evidence pointing to her involvement,” Kenosha County Sheriff Sgt. Bill Beth said in a statement released Monday afternoon.

The young woman’s confession came two days after a string of rubber bands – apparently intended to appear as a noose – was found in a common area of a dormitory on the university campus in Kenosha. ( continue to full post… )

A noose and two written threats directed at African-American students are triggering concern and an investigation on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside at the beginning of Black History Month.

A black female student found a noose made of rubber bands in a common area in her dormitory on the campus in Kenosha on Wednesday and later received a threatening note, WISN-TV, the ABC affiliate in Milwaukee, reported today.

After the initial threatening note and noose were discovered, “fliers were found listing several black students by name, (saying) that they would die in two days,” radio station WTAQ reported. ( continue to full post… )

After a four-year legal battle, a black Baptist church in South Carolina now is the legal owner of a building housing the infamous Redneck Shop, which operates a Ku Klux Klan museum and sells KKK and other racist clothing.

The Rev. David Kennedy, a long-time civil rights activist and pastor of New Beginnings Baptist Church in Laurens, S.C., told Hatewatch today he can’t wait to turn the racist landmark “into a place of diversity.”

“I don’t want that business there,” Kennedy said. “When our church takes over in full, that’s when that business will end. Basically, we just think it’s a matter of time – but soon.” ( continue to full post… )

Saying Kevin W. Harpham hasn’t accepted responsibility for planting a potentially deadly bomb along the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day unity march in Spokane, Wash., a federal judge on Tuesday sentenced the white supremacist to 32 years in prison.

“I’m distressed that you’re not the least bit apologetic or accepted responsibility,” U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush told the 37-year-old racist bomb builder. “Kevin Harpham,” the judge continued, “you’ve made a terrible mistake by letting your racist prejudices control your actions.”

The federal judge handed down the 32-year prison term after Harpham attempted to withdraw two guilty pleas he entered in September as part of a plea deal to avoid spending his entire life in prison. Under the deal, he faced a sentencing range of 27 to 32 years, and the judge gave him the maximum. ( continue to full post… )

Now that he has a whole lot of time on his hands, self-described prophet Warren Jeffs is claiming to be the “mouthpiece” of an angry God. And judging from the sound of things, there’s going to hell to pay for daring to lock up the racist cult leader for raping a 12-year-old “celestial” child bride and other crimes.

In a series of eight biblically themed “revelations,” written between Aug. 18 and Nov. 12, Jeffs predicts widespread catastrophe and divine vengeance for a nation “fully ripening in iniquity.” Earthquakes will rock Arizona, tidal waves will smack Seattle, “melting fire” will roll across Idaho, and devastating storms will wreak havoc everywhere else, the convicted sex criminal predicts. ( continue to full post… )

The FBI undercover tapes of four North Georgia militiamen arrested Tuesday offer an extraordinary glimpse of the terrorism the group is accused of planning. Details of how they allegedly intended to commit mass murder with deadly ricin, carry out assassinations of officials, and bomb government buildings abound in government affidavits that directly quote the men talking to undercover informants.

But there’s one thing the affidavits don’t tell you: What did these four elderly Georgians allegedly hope to accomplish? About as close as you get to an answer is this cryptic quote from the alleged ringleader, 73-year-old Frederick W. Thomas: “When it comes to saving the Constitution, that means some people gotta die.”

Although the group is not mentioned in the court papers, the organization the men belonged to is certainly the Georgia Militia, which on its Web page identifies one of the accused terrorists, Dan Roberts, 67, as a contact. And the Georgia Militia is one of the hardest line such groups around, going far beyond most militias’ hatred of the federal government to traffic in open racism and anti-Semitism. ( continue to full post… )

Two white supremacists arrested after a West Coast “vicious, wild reign of terror” were heading to California to “kill more Jews” after allegedly committing four murders, newly filed court documents say.

David “Joey” Pedersen, a 31-year-old white supremacist recently released from an Oregon prison, and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Holly Ann Grigsby, are each charged with two counts of aggravated first-degree murder in the documents filed in Snohomish County.  The charges are related to the Sept. 26 murders of Pedersen’s father, David “Red” Pedersen, 56, and his wife, Leslie “DeeDee” Pedersen, 69, the suspect’s stepmother, in Everett, Wash. ( continue to full post… )

White supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed Wednesday evening for the infamous dragging death slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas.

The University of Montana’s Native American Center in Missoula was targeted with a racist sticker on a building earlier this week. The sticker listed a website for a white supremacist group, the Montana Creators. Missoula residents also found racist flyers on their cars Monday morning.

The Battle Creek, Mich., Police Department’s Gang Suppression Unit is investigating vandalism on several homes. Vandals left racial and anti-gay slurs, swastikas, and the letters KKK on the homes, using black spray paint.  They also sprayed the letters of a street gang on some of the homes, however officials do not think the vandalism is gang-related.

Two men have been charged with attempted murder and two women with complicity to commit attempted murder in the alleged attack on a gay man in Harlan County, Ky., last April. The County’s Commonwealth Attorney plans to pursue the case as a hate crime.

An African pastor in Concord, N.H., said a hate-filled message was written on his home in black marker. Two other homes in the neighborhood, also occupied by African immigrants, were targeted. Each message referred to the families as “subhuman” and said the victims were getting a free ride. Concord is a major hub for the International Resettlement Program, which places refugees seeking political asylum in American communities.

Residents of a Sand Springs, Okla., neighborhood say they were shocked when they woke up Sunday morning to fliers in their yards from the United White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The literature said the group does not burn crosses or lynch people and urged flier recipients to “Support your local Klan.”

The Harris County, Texas, District Attorney plans to prosecute the case of a self-proclaimed white supremacist accused of beating a black man at a downtown Houston bus stop last month as a hate crime. According to a local activist, this is the first time charges have been upgraded to a hate crime in Harris County.
Brooklyn, N.Y., police are investigating an alleged hate crime after discovering two swastikas in the lobby of a Williamsburg neighborhood apartment building earlier this week.

Two psychologists testified this week that a Santa Maria, Calif., parolee charged with trying to murder a local waiter a year ago is mentally incompetent to stand trial. Curtis Martin allegedly asked a waiter at a Denny’s Restaurant if he was gay and when the victim answered that he was, Martin stabbed him twice.

Anthony Weston, one of three men charged with hate crimes in the beating of two Mexican citizens, has pleaded guilty and is expected to receive probation in exchange for his testimony against the other two defendants. Prosecutors say the three men attacked their victims outside a bar in San Francisco last November while yelling “white power.”

Ricky L. Hawkins was indicted on aggravated assault and civil rights intimidation charges for allegedly hitting a black man with a baseball bat in Lake City, Tenn., in 2010. Authorities said Hawkins, who is white, was shouting racial epithets at his victim when he was arrested and later told them that he was angry because the victim had dated a woman Hawkins was going out with. Hawkins reportedly had tattoos associated with the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations group.