National News - Page 157

Keechant Sewell Named First Black Woman NYPD Commissioner

By Peter Nickeas, When Keechant Sewell became the first Black woman to oversee Nassau County’s detective division 15 months ago, she said she hoped to “inspire service.” Sewell had come a long way. She spent her early years in public housing in Queens and started her law enforcement career on patrol just over the border on Long Island where she became a school resource officer and a police liaison to a shelter for troubled teens. “What I’ve been able to accomplish, I hope it inspires women, young girls, men — anyone who wants to be an officer and be able

Black Farmers Face USDA Loan Bias, Fight for Land and Aid

By Chandelis Duster and Janie Boschma, Texas cattle rancher Deydra Steans quit her teaching job three years ago to help save her family’s farming operations. She was prepared for the strenuous task of herding animals. Steans, 41, usually begins her day at 7 a.m. with her 68-year-old father, Elvin Steans. The pair talk over breakfast and a cup of coffee and then head out onto their ranch to feed cattle. She often drives the skid steer, a subcompact tractor that is used for a variety of farm tasks such as clearing brush and digging holes, across the 220-acre property. Some

DOJ Asks Supreme Court to Reinstate Health Worker Mandate

By Ariane de Vogue and Tierney Sneed, The Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow a vaccine mandate aimed at certain extra health care workers to go into effect nationwide, marking the first time the justices have been asked to weigh in on a federal mandate the Biden administration put in place in order to get more Americans vaccinated in the midst of a surge of the Delta and Omicron coronavirus variants. So far, lower courts have blocked the health care worker mandate from being enforced in about half the country. The vaccine policy in question was rolled out by

Biden Awards Medal of Honor to Three Heroic Army Soldiers

By Maegan Vazquez, President Joe Biden bestowed the Medal of Honor, the most prestigious decoration in the US military, to three Army soldiers on Thursday afternoon. The medal was awarded posthumously to Army Sergeant First Class Alwyn Cashe and Army Sergeant First Class Christopher Celiz, as well as Army Master Sergeant Earl D. Plumlee. “Each of you know what it is to stare down danger and summon strength in the face of a moment of trial. We’re grateful for all that you three have done,” Biden said during the ceremony in the White House East Room. Cashe, while on fire and exposed to enemy gunfire as

Omicron Surge Threatens U.S. Winter Amid Rising Infections

By Stephen Collinson, The Omicron winter is coming. The ravenously infectious variant expected to become the dominant strain of Covid-19 in the US within weeks threatens to deal another blow to the morale and resolve of a nation already reeling under an assault by its viral Delta cousin. “It’s here now and it’s spreading and it’s going to increase,” President Joe Biden warned Thursday, girding for another battle with a pathogen that is defining his presidency and further clouding Democratic hopes for the 2022 midterm elections. “For the unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death for the unvaccinated — for themselves, their families

Banksy Sells T-Shirts to Support Colston Statue Protesters

By Jeevan Ravindran, British graffiti artist Banksy has announced that he will be selling T-shirts to help those charged with pulling down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Anti-racist protesters toppled the statue in the city of Bristol in southwest England on June 7, 2020, during a demonstration in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in the US. The protesters tied rope around the bronze statue of Colston and pulled it down from its plinth. They then took it to Bristol Harbour and threw it into the River

Breonna Taylor Case: Firing of Officer Cosgrove Upheld

By Amir Vera and Evan Simko-Bednarski A review board upheld the termination of the former police detective who fired the shot that killed Breonna Taylor last year in Louisville, Kentucky. The Louisville Metro Police Merit Board backed the decision to fire Myles Cosgrove by a 5-2 vote on Wednesday, a decision that arrived after several days of hearings. The Louisville Metro Police Department terminated Cosgrove in January for use of deadly force for firing 16 rounds into Taylor’s home and failing to activate his body camera, according to a copy of his termination letter. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Cosgrove fired the shot that killed

Feminist Icon bell hooks Dies at 69 After Illness

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By Leah Asmelash, Bell Hooks — the beloved poet, author, feminist and professor — has died, announced Berea College, the university at which she taught, on Wednesday. She was 69. “Berea College is deeply saddened about the death of bell hooks, Distinguished Professor in Residence in Appalachian Studies, prodigious author, public intellectual and one of the country’s foremost feminist scholars,” the college wrote. hooks passed away in her home after an “extended illness,” according to Berea College. Known for her writing on race, gender and sexuality, hooks published more than 30 books over the course of her lifetime, including 1981’s “Ain’t

Keechant Sewell Named NYPD’s First Female Police Chief

By Emma Tucker, For the first time in the New York Police Department’s 176-year history, a woman will become police commissioner of the nation’s largest police force — leading an agency tasked with combating police misconduct and the recent rise in violent crime, while raising the stakes for departments around the country. New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams on Wednesday formally named Keechant Sewell, the Nassau County chief of detectives, as the city’s first female police commissioner. Sewell, who will be the NYPD’s third Black commissioner and the first non-white male in more than 30 years, will take the reins of an agency that

New COVID Mandates Return Amid Rising U.S. Case Numbers

By Theresa Waldrop, It has been exactly a year since the first Covid-19 vaccination shots, but rising case numbers and hospitalizations are leading cities and states to introduce new mandates and restrictions. In California, masks will be required in indoor public settings for a month starting Wednesday. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul last week announced a new, temporary indoor mask mandate that went into effect Monday. It requires everyone in the state to wear a mask in all indoor public spaces unless businesses implement a vaccine requirement. It will be in place until at least January 15. Starting January 3, you will need

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