National News - Page 113

What does Richard Branson’s historic space flight mean for the future of space travel?

By Tom Yun   In the wake of British billionaire Richard Branson’s historic journey to the edge of space on Sunday, astronomers are heralding this achievement as a significant step forward when it comes to making space exploration more accessible. The 71-year-old founder of Virgin Galactic isn’t the first civilian to visit space. However, he is the first to make that journey with a commercial spaceflight company. He made the successful journey on Sunday. “Well, it’s definitely a notable day for the business of space and space tourism. While we’ve had private individuals who’ve gone to space before, it’s always

Charlottesville removes Lewis and Clark statue featuring Sacagawea along with Confederate statues

By Amir Vera, Artemis Moshtaghian and Elizabeth Joseph A Lewis and Clark statue featuring Sacagawea (also spelled Sacajawea), a famous Native American woman, was taken down in Charlottesville, Virginia, making it the third statue to be taken down in the city. The statue was of two White men — Meriwether Lewis and William Clark — and Sacagawea, who was depicted tracking, according to historians. Those against the statue have said Sacagawea appears to be cowering, according tot The Daily Progress newspaper. “It was a very offensive statue, and not only did it delineate me as a Native American, it delineated our women

With 5 kids shot in 2 months, community begs for halt to gun violence

By Marielle Mohs North Minneapolis community and church leaders gathered Sunday afternoon along Emerson and 33rd avenues — just one block from where a 3-year-old child was shot playing outside Friday night — to demand and beg for the gun violence to end. The child is hospitalized in serious condition but is expected to survive. However, that 3-year-old adds to a list of four other kids, under the age of 10, who have been shot in the area by stray gunfire in the last two months. Two of them have died. Bishop Harding Smith, of the Spiritual Church of God,

Biden administration urging state and local governments to use Covid relief funding to address uptick in violent crime

By Betsy Klein The White House is encouraging state and local governments to use funding from the Covid relief package passed earlier this year to address a summer rise in violent crime as pandemic restrictions loosen nationwide. The administration’s strategy to combat crime, a White House memo obtained by CNN said, “uses the American Rescue Plan’s $350 billion in financial support and clear guidance to provide state, local, territorial, and tribal governments the money they need to put more police officers on the beat — including hiring above pre-pandemic levels in communities experiencing an increase in gun violence associated with the pandemic — as well

‘We’ll do this work as long as it takes’: Thompson readies for political fight leading Jan. 6 investigation

By Lauren Fox, Jeremy Herb, Annie Grayer and Ryan Nobles House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson avoids making too many promises when it comes to his new select committee to investigate the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol. But the Mississippi Democrat is sure on one thing: He isn’t going to let the pressure of an election cut his investigation short, even if that takes it well into next year. “I would say that we’ll do this work as long as it takes to complete it. Flexibility is important, if we run into significant resistance, then obviously it will take

First African American to win the National Spelling Bee gets offer of full LSU scholarship

By Theresa Waldrop Zaila Avant-garde, the teenager who this week became the first African American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee, has earned yet another honor: an offer of a full scholarship to Louisiana State University. “Your academic performance reflected scholarship first! You modeled intellectual excellence,” LSU President William F. Tate IV tweeted Saturday. “@LSU_Honors awaits. I write to offer you a full scholarship to attend LSU. Here for you!,” Tate wrote. The 14-year-old from Harvey, Louisiana, told CNN earlier this week, though, that she hopes to play basketball at Harvard University. That would be before a career at NASA,

Why Al Sharpton and Ben Crump are taking up the case of a White teen killed by police

By Emma Tucker and Christina Carrega The Rev. Al Sharpton and Ben Crump are taking up their first case involving a White person who was killed after being shot during an encounter with a police officer. The civil rights leader and the high-profile attorney, who Sharpton has dubbed “Black America’s Attorney general,” deemed the police shooting of 17-year-old Hunter Brittain “one of the most significant” cases in the fight to push Congress for landmark police reform legislation. Attorneys Crump and Devon Jacob, along with Sharpton and representatives from the NAACP, were invited to attend Brittain’s memorial on Tuesday at Beebe High School in Beebe, Arkansas. Brittain

TSA found 70 guns at checkpoints over July 4th weekend

By Gregory Wallace and Pete Muntean The number of guns found at airport checkpoints nationwide this year is fast approaching the number caught in all of 2020, officials say, and the uptick is slowing down screening lines as masses of passengers return to air travel. In the first six months of this year, Transportation Security Administration officers have found almost 3,000 firearms, spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez told CNN. In 2020, when air travel was depressed, officers found 3,257 firearms. In 2019, officers found 4,432 guns. Over the July Fourth weekend alone, officers caught 70 guns at airport checkpoints, and 62 were loaded, Rodriguez

Pfizer says it’s time for a Covid booster; FDA and CDC say not so fast

By Maggie Fox Drugmaker Pfizer said Thursday it is seeing waning immunity from its coronavirus vaccine and says it is picking up its efforts to develop a booster dose that will protect people from variants. Pfizer said it would soon publish data about a third dose of vaccine and submit it to the US Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency and other regulators. The company specified it would seek FDA emergency use authorization for a booster dose in August. But in an unusual move, two top federal agencies said Americans don’t need boosters yet and said it was not

Louisiana teen becomes the first African American contestant to win National Spelling Bee

By Kevin Dotson and Christina Maxouris We have a W-I-N-N-E-R! Zaila Avant-garde, a 14-year-old from New Orleans, Louisiana, won the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday, becoming the first African American contestant to win in 93 editions of the competition. The only Black winner before was Jody-Anne Maxwell, representing Jamaica in 1998. Zaila triumphed after correctly spelling murraya — a type of tree — to clinch the championship. To get there, the teen had to navigate her way through words like “querimonious,” “solidungulate,” and “Nepeta,” a word the teen had to reset on, and let out a joyous jump after her

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