Spencer, who became a veterinarian later in life, died Monday at a hospital in Richmond, Va., after a years-long battle with cancer, family spokesperson Sandra Jones said.
As Dee, Spencer was the smahttps://www.npr.org/2025/08/12/nx-s1-5500593/danielle-spencer-who-played-little-sister-dee-on-whats-happening-dies-at-60rter, more serious younger sister who offered a steady stream of deadpan roasts of big brother Roger "Raj" Thomas and his friends Dwayne Nelson and Freddie "Rerun" Stubbs.
"Ooh, I'm gonna tell mama," would become Dee's catchphrase.
The show, set in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts and among the first on television to focus on the lives of Black teenagers, was based on the movie Cooley High and ran on ABC from 1976 to 1979. It had a long legacy thanks to its memorable characters, including the geeky Raj, the catchphrase-spouting Dwayne, the red-bereted dancing phenom Rerun, and Dee with her eye-rolls and icy stare.
The DC national guard will begin deploying on the city’s streets Tuesday night, the White House confirmed to the Guardian, a day after Donald Trump ordered their arrival and took control of the city’s police force, calling Washington DC a “lawless” city, despite official crime statistics saying otherwise. A White House official told the Washington Post that the national guard is expected to “begin being on the streets starting tonight”. Defense officials said a small number of the roughly 800 guard members planned for the mission had already been mobilized by Tuesday afternoon, with more expected to arrive in the coming days.
California governor Gavin Newsom says the state will draw new electoral maps after Donald Trump “missed” a deadline on Tuesday night in an ongoing redistricting battle between Democratic and Republican states.
The closely watched New York mayoral and governor’s races appear to be forming into shapes that will bring little comfort to centrist Democrats, with elections happening in November this year in New York City and the gubernatorial vote a year later.
Small bands of Russian soldiers thrust deeper into eastern Ukraine on Tuesday ahead of a summit this week between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump, which European Union states fear could end in peace terms imposed on an unlawfully shrunken Ukraine.
Emergency crews are responding to a train derailment on Aug. 12 in north central Texas that left multiple cars carrying possible hazardous materials off the track and ignited grass fires in the area, officials said.
Palestinians have held funerals for the five Al Jazeera journalists killed by Israel in Gaza, as protesters rallied around the world, including London, Berlin, Tunis and Ramallah, to denounce the targeted attack.
Russia is preparing its troops for new offensives instead of getting ready to stop the war in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, ahead of talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday. “[Putin] is certainly not getting ready for a ceasefire and war end,” the Ukrainian president said in his nightly address. He added, without providing specifics, that Russia was moving its troops for new operations on Ukrainian soil. “There is no sign that the Russians have received signals to prepare for a postwar situation.”
