BOSTON (AP)—Marie Evans recalled she was 9-years-old when she first started getting free cigarettes in the Boston housing project where she lived.

At first, she traded them for candy, but she said she started smoking them herself at age 13. Four decades later, Evans died of lung cancer.

MARIE EVANS Age 10

by Russell Conteras

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. (AP)—He’s the most famous son of this quiet mountain hamlet in western Massachusetts. But until recently, people looking for signs of W.E.B. Du Bois’ life and legacy in Great Barrington would have had a hard time finding them.

NATIVE SON—A mural in downtown Great Barrington, Mass., honors African-American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois. As the town prepares to celebrate it’s 250th birthday, Du Bois, one of its most famous and controversial native sons, is being included in it’s history and promotional material. (AP Photo/Shana Sureck)

For decades since Du Bois’ death in Ghana in 1963, the civil rights activist and scholar has drawn praise for his writings but scorn from residents upset that he joined the Communist Party, became a citizen of Ghana and often criticized the U.S. over race relations.

(AP)—Is President Barack Obama willing to risk Slurpee brainfreeze as he grapples with political gridlock?

A strange but real possibility.

The president’s campaign-trail attack on Republicans as Slurpee-sipping do-nothings boomeranged on him the day after the GOP won the House majority in last week’s midterm elections. He was asked if he would have likely House Speaker John Boehner over for the slushy 7-11 staple, and the White House meeting next week with Congressional leaders was jokingly dubbed the “Slurpee Summit.”

ICONIC DRINK—This Nov. 10 photo shows Slurpees at a 7-11 in Concord, N.H. No word yet on whether the nation’s most powerful elected officials will actually be sipping Goji Berry Cherry Slurpees when discussing tax cuts on Nov. 18. (AP Photo/Larry Crow)

NNPA—Election Day victories for two Black Republicans raise a rare question in the House of Representatives in the 112th Congress: How will two African-American members of the Grand Old Party interact with the Congressional Black Caucus?

Fourteen Black Republicans ran for Congress in the Nov. 2 mid-term elections but, after all the votes were counted, only Tim Scott, a South Carolina businessman, and Allen West, a Florida-based Army veteran of the Iraq War, will take seats. They are the first African-American Republicans to be elected to Congress since 1995.

So far, West has said he wants to be part of the CBC, while Scott is still undecided and is leaning toward not participating.