National News - Page 126

‘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

Biden has canceled $1.5 billion in student debt for victims of for-profit school fraud

By Katie Lobosco The Department of Education has canceled a total of $1.5 billion in student loan debt for nearly 92,000 students, who were victims of for-profit college fraud, since President Joe Biden took office. The current administration has been taking steps to address the backlog of more than 100,000 forgiveness claims left over from the Trump administration. In its latest move, the Department of Education said Friday that it is canceling about $55.6 million, approving claims from 1,800 borrowers who attended either the now-defunct Westwood College, Marinello Schools of Beauty or the Court Reporting Institute. The announcement comes a month after

Tokyo Olympics will be held under a state of emergency as Japan mulls opening ceremony fan ban

By Junko Ogura, Chie Kobayashi and Nectar Gan The pandemic-delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics will take place under a coronavirus state of emergency, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshide Suga confirmed Thursday. Speaking at the start of the government’s Covid-19 task force meeting, Suga said he had decided to declare a new state of emergency for the capital from July 12 to August 22 — covering the 16 days of the embattled Games in its entirety. “The number of infected cases in the area including Tokyo has been increasing since the end of last month,” Suga said. “The number of severe cases and bed occupancy rate

The Surfside community gathers for a memorial as search efforts turn from rescue to recovery

By Madeline Holcombe and Paul Vercammen At the edge of the rubble from a condo building collapse in the Miami-Dade area, first responders, officials, faith leaders and journalists hung their heads for a moment of silence Wednesday evening, honoring those who lost their lives under the debris. The memorial was held after Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced that the search effort is transitioning from rescue to recovery. The decision was made after determining “the viability of life in the rubble” was low, Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said. The mayor said the death toll stands at 54, with 86

Haitian Americans say they are soul-searching after the assassination of Haiti’s president

By Madeline Holcombe The assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise has many Haitian-American community leaders fearing what may come next. “There are very real fears about whether or not violence in the streets will ensue,” said Vania Andre, publisher of the Haitian Times, an influential newspaper for the Haitian diaspora in the US. The attackers stormed Moise’s home at around 1 a.m. Wednesday and fatally wounded the head of state, according to acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who described the assassination as a “heinous, inhumane and barbaric act.” Haiti’s first lady, Martine Moise, was shot in the attack and was evacuated to a

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