National News - Page 76

Students fight back against a book ban that has a Pennsylvania community divided

By Evan McMorris-Santoro, Linh Tran, Sahar Akbarzai and Mirna Alsharif, Students in a southern Pennsylvania school district are battling the latest example of panic spreading over how history and race are taught in schools across the US. “I don’t think a moral compass will let you ban books about equality and loving each other,” Central York High School senior Christina Ellis told CNN. Ellis is among the students protesting a book ban in York, Pennsylvania, and questions whether the officials who decided to remove certain reading materials from the curriculum even read the resources they deem controversial. She was joined

The FBI has a responsibility to Simone Biles — and all women and girls

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 By Kara Alaimo Olympic gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman and former college champion Maggie Nichols on Wednesday offered devastating testimony, sometimes through their tears, to the Senate Judiciary Committee about how USA Gymnastics, their sport’s governing body, and the FBI, America’s principal federal law enforcement agency, mishandled investigations into convicted sexual abuser Larry Nassar. The former USA Gymnastics team doctor was accused of violating more than 200 victims and is now serving a prison sentence of 40 to 175 years. The gymnasts’ words were gut-wrenching to hear, both because of the deep suffering they described and because it was clear

FAMU repeats as nation’s highest ranked public HBCU by U.S. News & World Report

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By Byron Dobson Florida A&M University moved up 13 slots – from 117 to 104 – among the nation’s top national public universities, according to U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges 2022” guidebook released Monday. The landing places FAMU as the highest-ranking public historically black college or university in the country for the third consecutive year. Additionally, FAMU now stands alone as the highest-ranked public HBCU at No. 7 among the publication’s ranking of the Top 10 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, public or private. “Moving up 13 places is a testament to our focus on student success and

Local health departments planning for potential Covid-19 booster rollout, but there is still ‘some confusion’

By Jacqueline Howard, It’s not clear if or when boosters doses of Covid-19 vaccines will be OK’d for fully vaccinated people in the United States, but state and local health departments across the United States are moving ahead with plans for a potential rollout next week. Last month, US health officials announced plans for booster doses of Covid-19 vaccine to be offered starting the week of September 20, subject to sign-off from the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those conversations are getting underway this week, including a key meeting of FDA

Florida woman pleads guilty to threatening to kill Vice President Harris

By Christina Carrega, A Miami nurse has pleaded guilty for threatening to kill Vice President Kamala Harris, the Justice Department announced. Niviane Petit Phelps, 39, pleaded guilty on Friday to a six-count indictment, including charges of threats against the vice president. Phelps is scheduled for sentencing on November 19. She faces up to five years in federal prison. Phelps admitted during a plea hearing in district court in Florida that she sent her husband, who was in prison, a 30-second video of herself threatening to kill Harris in February. Prosecutors said the videos show Phelps making threats and screaming curse words. She

Justice Department limits use of chokeholds and ‘no-knock’ warrants

By Christina Carrega and Peter Nickeas, Federal law enforcement officers will be banned from using neck restraints during arrests and using no-knock entries while executing warrants except in rare cases, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Both the neck restraints and no-knock warrants have resulted in high-profile in-custody deaths in recent years that have spurred calls for those techniques to be banned outright. The DOJ’s policy change Tuesday bans both chokeholds and “carotid restraints” except in cases where officers are authorized to use deadly force. In those cases, an agent would still be able to apply pressure to someone’s neck or carotid artery to restrict

Expect a bumpy ride this week when FDA advisers consider Covid-19 booster shots

By Elizabeth Cohen, Last December, when advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration met to consider whether the agency should authorize Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, it was generally understood that the answer would be yes. Nine months later, those advisers are meeting to discuss booster shots, and the situation is very different. It won’t be a slam dunk. When this advisory committee meets on Friday, it will be presented with dueling data, some of it suggesting there’s a need for boosters, but other pieces of data suggesting there is no such need. The advisers will also likely debate the very

More than half of Americans support vaccine mandates for workplaces, classrooms and sporting events

By Ariel Edwards-Levy and Jennifer Agiesta, Americans have grown more supportive of coronavirus vaccine mandates for workers, students, and in everyday public life, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. The shift comes amid renewed worries about the pandemic and a continued partisan divide over the efforts to combat it. The public is split about evenly, 51% to 49%, on whether requiring proof of vaccination for everyday activities is an acceptable way to increase the vaccination rate, or an unacceptable infringement on personal rights. But there’s greater backing for requiring vaccines in many specific instances. More than half of Americans

Black, Hispanic people miss out on Covid-19 testing and vaccinations

By Deidre McPhillips, Black and Hispanic people in the United States are more likely to catch Covid-19, and they’re more likely to be hospitalized or even die of it. But both groups are still missing out on testing and vaccination in many states, according to new data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and shared exclusively with CNN. Data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that Black and Hispanic people are at least twice as likely to die of Covid-19 as non-Hispanic White people and nearly three times more likely to be hospitalized. Both Black and Hispanic

Demonstrators gather on Georgia college campuses to protest lack of mask mandates

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By Steve Almasy and Kiely Westhoff, A weeklong series of protests has begun on some of the biggest college campuses in Georgia, a state where less than 50% of residents are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and the governor has left mask mandates to local officials. The protesters are demanding mask mandates at all Georgia state-funded universities, with demonstrations scheduled to take place at 17 campuses, according to the Georgia chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). “The one thing we want to achieve is an immediate mask mandate,” Georgia Conference AAUP President Matthew Boedy said. In late July, system officials

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