National News - Page 156

2020 Census Shows US More Diverse and 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 OKs Third COVID-19 Vaccine Dose for Immunocompromised

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

Last Black Log School in St. Louis County to Be Restored

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.

SC Renters Face Eviction Crisis Despite Federal Moratorium

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

Tennessee School Board Passes Temporary Elementary Mask Rule

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 Mom Alleges Black Students Segregated by School

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

Over 4,400 Mississippi Students Quarantined for Covid

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 to Authorize Covid Booster Shots for Immunocompromised

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

Black Realtor, Clients Detained by Police in Mix-Up

By Dakin Andone and Raja Razek A Black realtor was showing a house to a Black man and his 15-year-old son in a Michigan suburb last week when they looked outside and saw police officers surrounding the property with their guns drawn. “I knew once they surrounded the home they were preparing for a standoff,” the father, Roy Thorne, told CNN’s Don Lemon Friday. “And so my instincts told me we need to get out of here, we need to get to where they can see that we’re not a threat.” A neighbor had called authorities, saying a suspect arrested

Louisiana Adds Civil Rights Trail Marker in Baton Rouge

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By Leah Asmelash The Louisiana Civil Rights Trail is steadily growing after officials in the state unveiled a fourth marker this week honoring a historic march against anti-Black violence. The new marker, unveiled on Monday, is in Young Park in Baton Rouge — marking the 105-mile march from Bogalusa to Baton Rouge. The march, known as the Bogalusa Civil Rights March, took place in 1967, four years after the March on Washington. Started by activist A.Z. Young, the 10-day march was a protest against the general treatment of Black Americans, following years of harassment by the KKK in Louisiana. Monday’s unveiling ceremony

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