National News - Page 78

This Texas high school principal was put on administrative leave after being accused of promoting critical race theory

By Nicole Chavez, A Texas high school principal who found himself in the middle of a controversy over critical race theory was placed on paid administrative leave this week. James Whitfield, principal of Colleyville Heritage High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, was placed on leave Monday, a month after a community member at a school board meeting publicly accused him of having “extreme views on race” and called for him to be fired. The decision to place Whitfield on administrative leave was not a result of the complaints made by community members against him, the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District said in

Robert E. Lee statue in Virginia’s capital will come down Wednesday, officials say

By Deanna Hackney, Chandelis Duster and Veronica Stracqualursi, A 12-ton statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that sits on the historic Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, is set to be taken down Wednesday, state officials said Monday. Gov. Ralph Northam announced his intention to remove the Confederate statue, which is the largest remaining in the US, in June 2020, amid nationwide protests for racial justice, but was challenged in court. A group of Richmond residents sued, arguing that an 1890 deed and an 1889 General Assembly joint resolution prohibits the governor from directing the removal of a state monument from state property. Another lawsuit brought

Like Washington and Jefferson, he championed liberty. Unlike the founders, he freed his slaves

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By Eliott C. McLaughlin, It was 230 years ago Sunday that Robert Carter III, the patriarch of one of the wealthiest families in Virginia, quietly walked into a Northumberland County courthouse and delivered an airtight legal document announcing his intention to free, or manumit, more than 500 slaves. He titled it the “deed of gift.” It was, by far, experts say, the largest liberation of Black people before the Emancipation Proclamation more than seven decades later. On September 5, 1791, when Carter delivered his deed, slavery was an institution, a key engine of the new country’s economy. But many slaveholders — including founding fathers

White House toils amid multiple crises on Labor Day

Analysis by Stephen Collinson There is no rest for an under-pressure White House this Labor Day as President Joe Biden tackles health, economic and legislative challenges that deepened on his watch and are beginning to erode his political standing. A worsening Covid-19 pandemic, with the added concern of the impact of the Delta variant on kids, the fallout from the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and new concerns over job growth are weighing on the administration after a tough summer. New complications over passing the President’s sweeping infrastructure and social program, and a shocking move by Texas to all but outlaw abortion are exacerbating an extraordinary menu of crises. On Afghanistan and

Biden set to travel to Louisiana to survey damage from Hurricane Ida

By Maegan Vazquez President Joe Biden is headed to Louisiana on Friday to survey damage from Hurricane Ida, after almost a week of the deadly storm ravaging the eastern half of the United States. The White House has said Biden would survey storm damage and meet with state and local officials. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that the President would travel to New Orleans and is expected to meet with Louisiana Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, among other officials. Since the Category 4 Hurricane plowed through the Gulf Coast over the weekend, there have been at least five

Senate passes bill to provide assistance to Americans returning from Afghanistan

By Clare Foran and Ali Zaslav, The Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would provide temporary assistance to American citizens who have returned from Afghanistan. The bill would set aside up to $10 million for each fiscal year during fiscal years 2021 and 2022 to provide emergency repatriation assistance to affected individuals. Vice President Kamala Harris came to the Senate to preside over the bill’s passage on Tuesday. The bill was approved by unanimous consent during the Senate’s August recess when the chamber came into session for a quick pro-forma session where no other business was conducted. The bill has

Black Americans are being priced out of the pandemic housing boom

By Chauncey Alcorn Everett Benyard thought he was finally in a strong enough financial position to purchase his first home earlier this year. He’d saved money by living with his parents for a time and secured a higher-paying job in 2020. But the 30-year-old San Diego corrections officer has struggled to compete in one of the country’s hottest real estate markets, where the median home price on single-family houses reached $860,000 in July, according to the California Association of Realtors. “I was just getting outbid, outbid big,” Benyard told CNN Business during a recent phone interview. “I went and saw many different places. … I would go

Three doses of Covid-19 vaccine are likely needed for full protection, Fauci says

By Travis Caldwell, With the latest Covid-19 surge upending American life yet again, an official rollout of booster doses could begin within weeks pending FDA authorization. And it’s likely that three doses of the vaccine are needed for full protection, Dr. Anthony Fauci said. He cited two Israeli-based studies that showed a decrease in infections among people who got a third or booster shot. There was good reason to believe that a third dose “will actually be durable, and if it is durable, then you’re going to have very likely a three-dose regimen being the routine regimen,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy

Texans fear the dire consequences of new laws targeting people of color

By Nicole Chavez, An abortion fund that helps hundreds of women in the southernmost region of Texas each year has stopped answering its hotline after one of the strictest bans in the nation went into effect this week. “Our very existence is a risk. The fact that we exist as an organization puts us at risk (of civil lawsuits),” said Zeana Zamora, executive director of Frontera Fund. The group helps people in the Rio Grande Valley — an impoverished region that is mostly Mexican American — access abortion care. The new abortion law along with laws concerning public education and proposed legislation restricting voting

Grand jury indicts police officers and paramedics in 2019 death of Elijah McClain

By Eric Levenson and Stella Chan, A Colorado grand jury indicted three police officers and two paramedics involved in the August 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who was stopped by police while walking home from a store, placed in a carotid hold and then injected with ketamine, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced Wednesday. Aurora Police officers Randy Roedema and Nathan Woodyard, former officer Jason Rosenblatt and Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec were each indicted on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide as part of a 32-count indictment. In addition, Roedema and

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