National News - Page 64

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins will be the first Black woman to spend months in space

By Rina Torchinsky After a successful launch Wednesday morning, Jessica Watkins and her crewmembers onboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule are well on their way to a months-long space trip. The mission is notable for more than just their lengthy stay aboard the International Space Station. Watkins, who is 33, is making history as the first Black woman to live and work on the ISS for an extended mission. Watkins and her team on the Crew-4 mission are planning to spend five to six months on the outpost. She’s also one of the astronauts tapped for NASA’s next program called

ā€˜Great signā€™ or ā€˜very unfortunateā€™? Black Lives Matter supporters split over $6M purchase

ByĀ Randi RichardsonĀ andĀ Claretta Bellamy When Kulia Petzoldt first learned of George Floydā€™s death in 2020, she and her teenage daughter ventured to Lake Merritt in Oakland, California, to protest alongside a mass of people demanding justice. Petzoldt, who is white, said growing up around different cultures and having friends who were Black made her feel more conscious of the racial discrimination Black people faced. The Black Lives Matter movement solidified that awareness. ā€œWe canā€™t just do nothing,ā€ Petzoldt, 42, said, ā€œand particularly those of us who are sort of protected by society.ā€ Beyond protesting, Petzoldt and millions of others donated a

Saving the planet is a business opportunity for some Black entrepreneurs

ByĀ Curtis Bunn As a child growing up in Richmond, California, the future held one of two possibilities in Darrell Jobeā€™s young mind: play for the NFL or become a microbiologist. But at 13, everything changed when he became homeless, dropped out of school and joined a gang. That he celebrates Earth Day on Friday as the owner of Vericool, which produces environmentally safe packaging products, speaks to his unpredictable journey. He says it also speaks to his never-wavering interest in protecting the earth, even after heā€™s served short stints in prison. ā€œI love animals and if you do, you care

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins celebrates ā€˜milestoneā€™ for diversity in space industry

By CharĀ Adams andĀ Donna M. Owens NASA astronautĀ Jessica WatkinsĀ will join a small yet groundbreaking list Saturday when she becomes the fifth Black woman to go to space and the first Black woman to serve aboard the International Space Station. Watkinsā€™ mission has drawn praise from diversity and inclusion experts, but it shows just how far Black women still have to go in the white, male-dominated profession. ā€œYou know thereā€™s not enough of us. Women are underrepresented in science, although itā€™s getting better in some ways,ā€ said Mae Jemison, who made her own headlines in 1992 when she became the first Black

City of Nashville to Make Juneteenth a Paid Holiday

By Rashad Grove Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced plans to sign an executive order to make Juneteenth a paid holiday for city employees, theĀ Associated Press reports. On Tuesday, the Metro Civil Service Commission (CSC) approved the measure to recognize Juneteenth as ā€œa formal Metro holiday for all civil service status employees,ā€Ā  according to a press release. Cooperā€™s signed executive order will extend the holiday to all Metro employees as well as non-civil service status employees. Earlier this year, aĀ bi-partisan effortĀ proposal to make Juneteenth an official statewide paid holiday was shot down in the GOP-controlled General Assembly. To offset the cost

Majority of Black Americans say race shapes identity

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By Associated Press A majority of Black Americans say being Black is central to how they think about themselves and shape their identities, even as many have diverse experiences and come from various backgrounds, according to a new report by Pew Research Center. About three-quarters of Black people said so despite where they come from, their economic status or educational backgrounds. Overall, 14 percent say being Black is only somewhat important to their identity and 9 percent say it has little to no impact, highlighting the diversity of thought among Black Americans, which include U.S.-born Black people and Black immigrants,

Harris pushes to make Black maternal health a national priority

ByĀ Donna M. Owens In December, Vice President Kamala Harris hosted the first federal Maternal Health Day of Action at the White House, where she issued a call to improve health outcomes for parents and infants in the U.S. Months later, she is still using the vice presidential bully pulpit to push for policy and structural changes aimed at saving lives. ā€œIn our nation, we are looking at the fact that more women are facing death because of childbirth than in any other developed nation,ā€ Harris told journalists during a call on Thursday during Black Maternal Health Week. ā€œWe are looking

Black Lives Matter leaders condemn allegations of mismanaged funds

By Char Adams Patrisse Cullors and Melina Abdullah defended BLM’s decision to buy a $6 million home in California amid concerns about the organization’s finances. Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement are dismissingĀ  allegations that they mismanaged millions of dollars after a scathingĀ New York MagazineĀ report revealed that they had purchased a $6 million home in Southern California with donated funds. Patrisse Cullors, co-founder and former executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, and Melina Abdullah, co-founder of BLM Los Angeles and co-director of BLM Grassroots, spoke to reporters Monday during a closed roundtable discussion, dismissing recent

National Urban League says the state of Black America is grim

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By The Associated Press The National Urban League released its annual report on the State of Black America on Tuesday, and its findings are grim. This yearā€™s Equality Index shows Black people still get only 73.9 percent of the American pie white people enjoy. While Black people have made economic and health gains, theyā€™ve slipped farther behind whites in education, social justice and civic engagement since this index was launched in 2005. A compendium of average outcomes by race in many aspects of life, it shows just how hard it is for people of color to overcome systemic racism, the

Black homes are often undervalued. Black appraisers are fighting to change that

By Curtis Burn After 21 years as a residential appraiser, Sanedria Potter still gets incredulous looks when she shows up at a home to do her job. ā€œYouā€™reĀ the appraiser?ā€ sheā€™s asked. Potter smiles to herself, understanding sheā€™s an anomaly in her industry. Ninety-eight percent of home appraisers are white, according to theĀ Bureau of Labor Statistics. As far as Potter is concerned, the lack of people of color in the industry is at the very root of home appraisal bias, which a Brookings InstitutionĀ reportĀ last year said created a 23 percent devaluation of homes in Black neighborhoods, adding up to $156 billion

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