National News - Page 43

Florida teachers are worried new policies could get them fired — or even criminally charged

By Janelle Griffith As the start of the school year approaches in Florida, some teachers say chaos and confusion have marked the days leading up to reopening as they navigate how to teach under new state policies. Teachers say they are going into classrooms less confident about their lesson plans, confused about changes to state laws and on high alert that once-benign instructions could now get them fired or charged with felonies. “I don’t know how to approach the year,” said Richard Judd, a social studies teacher at Nova High School in Broward County. “There’s a lot of different ways you can get in

Fani Willis Is the Most Important Black Woman In America Right Now

By Keith Reed It might seem odd–difficult or even a tinge disrespectful–to put into words a consideration of how significant any one Black woman might be to the rest of the country right now. We are, after all, in a space where Black women at large are having a moment: income and wealth gaps persist, reproductive rights are under attack and misogyny is ever present and yet Black women are creating businesses at a faster rate than any other group, ascending in politics and remaining the arbiters of not just the culture but of culture writ large. But no disrespect is meant at

How Much Was Race a Factor in Alabama Boat Brawl?

By Jessica Washington After a massive riverfront brawl in Montgomery, Ala., put his city in the spotlight, the city’s mayor is stepping into the fray. “Justice will be served,” said Montgomery Mayor Steven L. Reedin a statement on Sunday. The question is what, exactly, does justice look like in the context of what appears to at least partially a racially-motivated brawl in a deep southern city in 2023? For folks who missed the viral video over the weekend, the footage appears to show a group of white boaters attacking a Black riverboat worker. From local reporting, he apparently told the

Harris is in Chicago Friday to keynote Everytown for Gun Safety’s conference

By Lynn Sweet When Vice President Kamala Harris is in Chicago on Friday to headline the Everytown for Gun Safety conference, she will hold, before she speaks, an off-the-books private meeting with a small group of young gun violence prevention activists. Unreported until now, Harris — who has youth voter turnout in her portfolio — has been conducting listening sessions across the country to better understand the issues youths care about, that is, the 18- to 25-year-old Gen Zers and the up-to 29-year-old millennials.These meetings — Friday marks her 14th — are not on the daily schedule the White House

DNA of enslaved iron workers in Maryland reveals links to over 40,000 relatives

Not far from Camp David, the U.S. presidential retreat in Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland, lies the remnants of an iron forge called Catoctin Furnace founded in the late 18th century, an important site for understanding the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in early U.S. history. The site now also is providing unique insight into African American history thanks to research involving DNA obtained from the remains of 27 individuals buried in a cemetery for enslaved people at Catoctin Furnace. The study reveals the ancestry of some of the enslaved people who toiled there in the decades after the nation’s

“Everything is on the Table” as Georgia Lawmakers Consider Lifting Hospital Construction Limits

By Jill Nolin Georgia lawmakers from the House and Senate are putting the state’s system to restrict hospital and other health care services under a microscope this summer. Both chambers have set up study committees to examine Georgia’s certificate of need program during the legislative off-season after Lt. Gov. Burt Jones came up short in his push to ease restrictions during his first session presiding over the state Senate. A bill that would have exempted most rural hospitals from the certificate of need process cleared the Senate earlier this year with a 42-13 vote but stalled in the House. It

Tulsa Massacre survivors appeal dismissed case to the Oklahoma Supreme Court

By Claretta Bellamy A group of descendants and survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre filed an appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday, requesting it to pick up a case that a lower court dismissed last month. The group is calling for reparations for the century-old attack on the city’s prosperous Black neighborhood, nicknamed “Black Wall Street.” Lawyers representing the Tulsa survivors announced the appeal in a news conference Monday in front of the Oklahoma Judicial Center in Oklahoma City, stating that the lower court wrongly dismissed the case last month. “We stand on the shoulders of so many,” said Damario Solomon-Simmons,

Mississippi cannot strip convicts of right to vote, federal appeals court rules

A divided federal appeals court on Friday ruled that Mississippi cannot strip the right to vote from thousands of convicts after they complete their sentences, calling that a “cruel and unusual punishment” that disproportionately affected Black people. A 2-1 panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals faulted a provision of Mississippi’s state constitution that mandates lifetime disenfranchisement for people convicted of a set of crimes including murder, rape and theft. Siding with a group of convicts who sued in 2018 to regain their right to vote, U.S. Circuit Judge James Dennis wrote that the state’s policy violated the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth

Tennessee Democrats expelled by GOP over protests win back their seats

By Adam Edelman The two Democratic state representatives in Tennessee who were expelled by Republicans in April for protesting in support of gun safety on the chamber floor won elections Thursday night for their old seats, The Associated Press projected. Justin Jones won his election for his state House seat in Nashville, and Justin J. Pearson won his race in Memphis, according to AP projections. Jones defeated Republican Laura Nelson, while Pearson won his race against independent candidate Jeff Johnston. Both lawmakers had been reinstated by local government officials shortly after their expulsion in April, but they still had to run for their old seats

Ozempic and Wegovy maker courts prominent Black leaders to get Medicare’s favor

By Rachana Pradhan Pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk has turned to influential Black Americans in pursuit of what would be a lucrative victory: having Medicare cover a new class of weight loss drugs, including the company’s highly sought Wegovy, which can cost patients more than $1,000 a month. During a conference of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation last fall — a jampacked gathering featuring prominent Black lawmakers and President Joe Biden — Novo Nordisk sponsored a panel discussion on obesity for which it selected the moderator and panelists, company spokesperson Nicole Ferreira said. The foundation is a nonprofit affiliated with the Congressional Black

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