Twenty-nine-year-old Brandon Smith spends most of his time driving for Uber and Lyft, but the independent journalist’s relentless fight to make the video of Laquan McDonald’s death public is changing Chicago history. The unarmed black teen was shot 16 times by a white police officer. Now that officer is charged with first-degree murder. Also, Kobe Bryant announces his retirement from the NBA in the Players’ Tribune, ExxonMobile takes on Columbia University journalism students, claiming their reporting – on a potentially unethical business practice – was unethical, and why Christopher Kimball is leaving ‘America’s Test Kitchen.’ From the Missouri School of Journalism professors Amy Simons, Earnest Perry and Mike McKean: Views of the News.