It can take close to a day to get from Manhattan to the Clinton Correctional Center in upstate Dannemora, New York. I vividly remember the long journey nearly a decade later, riding in a small prop plane, boarding a bus, hopping a ferry and then renting a car – all in order to have a face-to-face interview with Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of Malcolm X.

We’d become pen pals through his attorney months before, and he’d regularly send me long, hand-written letters that sometimes included cherished photos of the grandfather he’d never met but clearly idolized in every way. I’d decided to visit him so I could return his precious family photos and discuss what he thought the future might hold for him once he was released from prison.

The surveillance photos show the backpack of a man in a black stocking cap growing ever fuller as he proceeded from ATM to ATM, starting at 4:31 p.m. on Feb. 19 with three withdrawals totaling $2,409 at the Bank of America at Broadway and West 86th Street in Manhattan.

The man, identified by federal prosecutors as Jose Familla Reyes, drew no particular attention from the other customers in the photos. None could have imagined it was part of what investigators are saying is one of the biggest bank heists ever, as the suspect made three more withdrawals totaling the same amount at 5:10 p.m. at another B of A, at Broadway and West 72nd Street, and then again 18 minutes later at another branch eight blocks further downtown.

In Northwest Washington, D.C., the intersection of mostly white gentrifiers and mostly black locals isn’t a sandwich shop or a dive bar. It’s Target. And while new and old residents alike have mixed feelings about the neighborhood’s rapidly changing face, any resentment spares the big box store.

The two-floor Target, which anchors a massive shopping center at 14th and Irving Streets, serves both the area’s longtime black residents and its young professionals who can’t quite afford consumer staples from higher-end outlets. According to store manager Matt Roy, the Columbia Heights location has the company’s second-highest sales of ethnic hair care supplies.

In February former Massey Energy executive David Hughart stood in a courtroom in Beckley, West Virginia and pleaded guilty to obstructing the work of federal safety inspectors. Massey’s chairman and CEO Donald Blankenship, the most powerful coal baron in the history of the American coal industry, ran the company with an iron fist in an iron glove. He had control over even the smallest detail and most likely would have told his subordinate what to do. Despite that, if events transpired the way they almost always have in the history of coal and power in Appalachia, Blankenship would not be touched or his name even mentioned in the criminal proceedings.

And then an extraordinary thing happened. Judge Irene Berger asked Hughart who had ordered him to give miners advance word of inspectors. "The chief executive officer," Hughart replied.

Bangladesh Building Collapse - 2013

With more than 1,000 people dead, the eight-story garment factory collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh is an almost unparalleled tragedy. But Friday, 17 days after the disaster, a miracle emerged from the rubble. As onlookers cheered, workers pulled a survivor from the wreckage. Identified only as “Reshma,” the woman is in good condition after reportedly surviving on little more than water and dried fruit.

Since the first reports that Malcolm Shabazz had been killed, there has been a series of confusing accounts, and there are sure to be more as his death is investigated.

The latest reports from Talking Points Memo confirms the State Department’s report that a U.S. citizen was killed in Mexico on Thursday.  While the State Department did not disclose the victim’s name, noted activist Terrie Williams, a close associate of the Shabazz family, told the Amsterdam News it was Shabazz who was killed.

The rash of hate crimes following the Boston Marathon bombings reminds us of the major challenges religious minorities face in this country. Last week a taxi passenger in Northern Virginia verbally and physically attacked his driver for being “a fucking Muslim.” The victim, Mohamed Salim, who served with the U.S. Army in Iraq and currently serves as an Army Reservist, was left with a fractured jaw. This week in California, an 81-year-old Sikh man was brutally assaulted with a steel pipe in a suspected hate crime, from which he suffered a fractured jaw, punctured lung, and head injuries.

While the police investigate whether or not to charge the attackers with hate crimes, politicians and community leaders continue to explore ways to minimize hate-biased violence and facilitate the integration of diverse communities in modern America. The U.S. military has an opportunity to contribute in this regard by opening its doors to various religious minorities, many of whom remain marginalized.