National News - Page 105

New study reveals deep divide in how Americans view the nation’s progress toward racial equality

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By Nicquel Terry Ellis The United States is deeply divided in how Americans view the nation’s progress toward racial equality and much of the division is reflected in the differing beliefs of people of color and White people, according to a new study released Thursday by the Pew Research Center. The study surveyed more than 10,000 adults in July on several questions related to the public’s attention to slavery and racism, whether more needs to be done to achieve equal rights in the country and if White people benefit from privilege over Black people. Pew found that 75% of Black

First major US city announces it will mandate proof of full vaccinations for certain indoor activities

By Amir Vera and Cheri Mossburg San Francisco became the the first major US city to mandate proof of full vaccinations for certain indoor activities Thursday. City residents age 12 and older will now be required to show proof they have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to enter indoor restaurants, bars, gyms and theaters, as well as large event spaces with at least 1,000 people, according to an announcement from Mayor London Breed. The new mandate is scheduled to go into effect August 20. “We know that for our city to bounce back from the pandemic and thrive,

Census release shows America is more diverse and more multiracial than ever

By Janie Boschma, Daniel Wolfe, Priya Krishnakumar, Christopher Hickey, Meghna Maharishi, Renée Rigdon, John Keefe and David Wright The United States is more diverse and more multiracial than ever before, according to new 2020 Census data released on Thursday. “Our analysis of the 2020 Census results show that the US population is much more multiracial, and more racially and ethnically diverse than what we measured in the past,” said Nicholas Jones, the director and senior advisor of race and ethnic research and outreach in the US Census Bureau’s population division. People of color represented 43% of the total US population

FDA authorizes additional Covid-19 vaccine doses for certain immunocompromised people

By Jacqueline Howard The US Food and Drug Administration authorized an additional Covid-19 vaccine dose for certain immunocompromised people on Thursday. The FDA amended the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines to allow for an additional dose for certain people with compromised immune systems. That group includes “specifically, solid organ transplant recipients or those who are diagnosed with conditions that are considered to have an equivalent level of immunocompromise,” the agency wrote in a statement Thursday. “The country has entered yet another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the FDA is especially cognizant that immunocompromised people

Historic African American school being moved to Faust Historic Village

By STEPHANIE BAUMER The only surviving log African American school in St. Louis County is being moved to Faust Historic Village. African School House #4 was built on Wild Horse Creek Road in Chesterfield around 1894. While it was being constructed, Chesterfield school directors sent students to the neighboring Hilltown district and paid for nine months of schooling. It is unknown how long the school was fully operational but a photograph from 1931 shows 23 students outside of the building. Nine of those students went on the serve in World War II and are buried in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.

Eviction moratoriums aren’t enough to rescue millions of Americans behind on rent

By Chauncey Alcorn Shanta Matthews and her family were three months behind on rent last week and were preparing to be booted from their two-bedroom condo in Charleston, South Carolina, when they got a last-minute reprieve from the federal government. US health officials issued a new eviction moratorium on August 3, temporarily barring landlords from removing tenants in regions with substantial or high Covid-19 transmission rates, (which applies to most of the country). For a moment, Matthews, a 41-year-old mother of two, breathed a sigh of relief. The ban on evictions bought her and her fiancé, Karel Williams, more time

School mask debate in Tennessee grows heated as local board requires masks in elementary schools

By Rebekah Riess Heated arguments spilled out into the parking lot Tuesday night after a school board in a suburban Tennessee county approved a temporary requirement for masks in elementary schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As debates over masks in US schools have reemerged as the academic year begins, the Board of Education in Williamson County, just south of Nashville, approved the mask requirement for elementary school students, staff and visitors inside all buildings and on buses beginning Thursday and ending September 21, according to information from the school district. With the highly contagious Delta variant, Covid-19 cases and

Atlanta mother alleges Black students were assigned to elementary school classes based on race

By Rebekah Riess and Gregory Lemos A mother in Atlanta has filed a civil rights complaint with the US Department of Education alleging her children’s elementary school placed Black students in separate classrooms from their peers based on their race. Kila Posey, the mother two Black children enrolled in Mary Lin Elementary School in Atlanta, said some classes in that school “had been formulated, in part, based upon race of the students” during the 2020-21 academic year, according to the complaint provided by her attorney Sharese Shields. Posey said the principal assigned two teachers’ classes as the “Black classes,” and

Thousands of Mississippi students are quarantining just as the school year gets underway

By Madeline Holcombe and Hannah Sarisohn More than 4,400 students in Mississippi are quarantining after being exposed to Covid-19 in the first weeks of the school year, according to data from the state’s department of health. The department tracked student and staff Covid-19 exposure and positive cases by individual schools and counties from August 2 through August 6, and officials said 43 out of Mississippi’s 82 counties submitted reporting. Mississippi is one of 46 states in the US seeing a surge in cases, which is alarming experts as students return to school. Vaccines have not yet been approved for kids

FDA expected to authorize Covid-19 vaccine booster shots for some immunocompromised people within the next 48 hours

By Kaitlan Collins and John Bonifield The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce within the next 48 hours that it is authorizing Covid-19 vaccine booster shots for some people who are immunocompromised, according to a source familiar with the discussions. This would be a third shot of the current two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. That announcement could slide, the source cautioned, but this is the current timing. “The FDA is closely monitoring data as it becomes available from studies administering an additional dose of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines to immunocompromised individuals,” an FDA spokesperson told CNN. “The

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