newsmakers

newsmakers

Fox News hires MLK’s niece as commentator

NEW YORK

Fox News Channel says it has hired Alveda King, a niece of the late civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., as a commentator for the network.

Alveda King, director of African-American Outreach at Priests for Life, is an anti-abortion activist who has clashed politically with some of her uncle’s former associates.

She spoke at a 2010 rally in Washington organized by conservative commentator Glenn Beck.

She has said she has been a Democrat and Republican, but now considers herself a Christian.

George Clooney’s wife to lecture at Columbia

NEW YORK

George Clooney’s wife is joining the faculty of Columbia University as a visiting lecturer.

Columbia announced Friday lawyer Amal Clooney will lecture on human rights this spring. She also will serve as a senior fellow with its law school’s Human Rights Institute.

Clooney served as a senior adviser to Kofi Annan when Annan was the U.N.’s envoy on Syria. She also represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in extradition proceedings.

The Clooneys married in September. They’re based in London, but he’s filming “Money Monster” with Julia Roberts in New York this spring. Jodie Foster is directing.

Bar owner found guilty in singer’s death

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

A Nashville bar owner was convicted of second-degree murder Friday for the fatal shooting of a country singer-songwriter.

Chris Ferrell had told jurors that he shot Wayne Mills in November 2013 in self-defense. But Nashville jurors sided with prosecutors who argued that Ferrell intended to kill Mills when he shot him after a heated argument at his now-defunct bar. Ferrell will be sentenced April 10.

Mills toured for more than 15 years as the lead singer of the Wayne Mills Band. Country music stars Jamey Johnson and Blake Shelton, as well as American Idol winner Taylor Hicks, all opened for the band in their early careers.

Associated Press