National News - Page 60

More police isn’t the answer after Texas shooting, experts say

By Char Adams The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District in Texas has its own police department, complete with four officers, a detective and security staff who patrol the campus and its entrances. This didn’t prevent a gunman from killing 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School last week. Despite this inability to stop the shooter’s hour-long siege, the attack has renewed demands to increase police presence in schools as a solution to shooting incidents. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, continued the pattern when he called for more armed school police, describing them as “the most effective tool for keeping kids safe.” However, experts

Minneapolis renames intersection to honor George Floyd

By Associated Press The intersection where George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police officers was renamed in his honor Wednesday, among a series of events to remember a man whose killing forced America to confront racial injustice. Floyd’s brother Terrence was among family members to attend as a commemorative street sign marked the corner of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue as “George Perry Floyd Square” on the two-year anniversary of his death. Floyd thanked hundreds of people who turned out to honor his brother, singing songs as they marched a block-long stretch to finish at the intersection. The renaming was followed

Black-Owned Company City Fresh Foods Inks Historic Contract With Boston Public Schools

By Brandee Sanders Black founders are making strides in the realm of business while simultaneously evoking transformative change in their communities. According to Boston 25 News, the Black-owned company City Fresh Foods has inked a historic deal with Boston Public Schools. When it comes to the distribution of city contracts throughout the country, Black business owners are often locked out of opportunities. The Boston Globe reported Black and Latinx-founded businesses landed a mere 1.2 percent of the $2.1 billion in contracts allocated to companies in the professional goods and construction industries over five years. The $17 million contract awarded to City Fresh Foods marks the

Black Buffalo determined to rebuild while dealing with grief and sorrow

By Curtis Bunn Local leaders call on Mayor Byron Brown to commit to fixing concerns that have been amplified by the killing of 10 Black people at a Tops supermarket. The national media has packed up and moved on to the next mass shooting in America. But residents on the eastside of Buffalo, where 85 percent of the population is Black, are still grieving — while also trying to figure out how to rebuild. “This isn’t one of those situations where we can just go on with our daily lives,” said Jillian Hanesworth, Buffalo’s first poet laureate and a social justice

Ben Crump Plans Lawsuit Against Buffalo Mass Shooter’s Parents & Gun Manufacturer

By Keenan Higgins America is going through a rough period at the moment as we collectively try to wrap our heads around two separate mass shootings that took place recently in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas, respectively. Regarding the Tops supermarket tragedy where 18-year-old Payton Gendron gunned down 10 people, most of them Black, power attorney Ben Crump has now entered the mix and set his eyes on suing everyone involved, including the gun manufacturer and even the shooter’s parents. Crump held a press conference outside the Antioch Baptist Church in Buffalo, going on record by stating, “We absolutely intend on going after the

Amanda Gorman writes poem after school shooting in Uvalde, Texas

By Claretta Bellamy The poet Amanda Gorman used the power of words to illustrate the harsh reality of living in the U.S. amid the onslaught of mass shootings: “The truth is, one nation under guns.” After the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday that left at least 19 children and two teachers dead, Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate, took to social media to call for an end to gun violence. Shortly after the shooting, the 24-year-old shared a poem on Twitter that she had written in light of the news. Schools scared to death. The truth is, one

Can’t Miss Alabama: Patriotic festivities honor the fallen on Memorial Day

By Shirley Jackson Alabama State Veterans Memorial Cemetery The Alabama State Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Spanish Fort will honor the nation’s veterans by hosting a Memorial Day program Monday, May 30. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. Retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Cathleen E. De La Graza  will deliver the keynote address. With the highest degree of dignity and respect, the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs will honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. The state veterans cemetery will conduct a wreath-laying ceremony and folding of an American flag, then have a moment of silence followed by a rifle

NRA convention in Houston met with fiery protest co-organized by Black Lives Matter

By Claretta Bellamy and Mike Hixenbaugh Houston’s 90-degree weather could not stop crowds of people from protesting outside the National Rifle Association’s 151st annual convention on Friday, just days after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, killed at least 19 children and two teachers. The hourslong protest — which was organized by Black Lives Matter Houston, Fiel Houston, Indivisible Houston and the Harris County Democratic Party — was held across the street from the George R. Brown Convention Center, with calls for stricter gun control laws as the nation grapples with the shooting at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday. Mass shootings at a Buffalo supermarket in a predominantly

Memorial Day: Holiday Created By (Former) Slaves

By Brittany Ireland Did you know that the earliest traces of the ever popular “Memorial Day” holiday began with former slaves more than 150 years ago? It’s no secret that hundreds of thousands of Black soldiers and laborers served in Union armies. Following the American Civil War, in 1865, a group of slaves worked together to dig up 257 dead Union soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave nearly a month after the battle. Condemned to a life of oppression and inhumanity, the former slaves wanted to honor and properly bury the soldiers who fought and died for

Vice President Harris announces $500 million in rebates for low-emission school buses

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday visited a school in Fairfax, Virginia to announce the $500 million 2022 Clean School Bus Rebates program intended to help school districts purchase buses with low or zero carbon emissions. “Yellow school buses are our nation’s largest form of mass transit. Every day in our country more than 25 million children ride to and from school on our nation’s fleet of school buses,” Harris said. Harris said that 95 percent of these buses run on diesel fuel, “a poison” that can cause headaches, nausea and worsen respiratory conditions. “If your child rides the bus

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