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How does vaccination for kids change Thanksgiving? An expert weighs in

By Katia Hetter, As children ages 5 to 11 years old began receiving the Covid-19 vaccine last week, families across the country have been breathing a great sigh of relief. Their younger kids will soon be much better protected against the coronavirus. But will it be in time for Thanksgiving? Will we be able to get together more easily because more kids are vaccinated? What precautions should we take? What if travel is required? And what about the kids who are too young to be vaccinated? I spoke with our expert, CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, who is an emergency physician

Even Democrats are now admitting ‘Defund the Police’ was a massive mistake

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, On Tuesday, a proposal to fundamentally restructure the Minneapolis police department in the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020 was soundly defeated, a setback that even many Democrats acknowledged could be laid at the feet of the “defund the police” movement that some within the party embraced last summer. “I think allowing this moniker, ‘Defund the police,’ to ever get out there, was not a good thing,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) told The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel on Thursday. That’s a remarkable turnaround from how politicians — in and out of Minnesota — acted in the immediate aftermath

‘We’re not just somebody to look at.’ Sidelined groups complain of racial tokenism at COP26 climate talks

By Ivana Kottasová, There’s a small desk right at the back of the largest room at the COP26 conference in Glasgow. It sits well behind the rows of seats reserved for world leaders and international organizations, right underneath a huge EXIT sign, behind observing journalists. The label on the desk reads “Indigenous Peoples Organizations.” The United Nations Conference of the Parties, or COP, is supposed to be an inclusive forum on climate, bringing together global leaders, NGOs, activists and civil society groups. The UK, which is hosting the summit in Scotland, promised “the most inclusive COP ever.” But to some of the

‘A great lion with a big heart’: Former presidents and dignitaries pay tribute to Powell

By Veronica Stracqualursi, Gen. Colin Powell was remembered Friday as a patriotic statesman who served his country in peace and war at a funeral service that was marked not only by its reverence for the former secretary of state but by a bipartisan attendance of former presidents and dignitaries who paid tribute to the late giant of Washington. While much was made of his leadership and life of public service in tributes to Powell, friends and family shared personal anecdotes and mourned him as a family man and “a great lion with a big heart.” Powell died on October 18 from complications from Covid-19 at

DOJ opens environmental justice probe of Alabama health departments, the first under 1964 law

By Christina Carrega, The US Department of Justice has launched an investigation into whether the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Lowndes County Health Department have put Black residents at a higher risk of disease by failing to properly rid their communities of raw sewage. This is the first environmental justice investigation the Justice Department has conducted under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits recipients of federal funding from engaging in discrimination. Lowndes County is between Selma and Montgomery. Residents of the area, historically called “The Black Belt,” are predominately Black and have a median income

123 years later, a North Carolina Black man killed in a massacre receives a funeral

By Delano Massey, Daniel Shepherd and Theresa Waldrop, Joshua Halsey was murdered in the November 1898 massacre of Black people in Wilmington, North Carolina, by White supremacists. On Saturday, 123 years later, Halsey was honored with a funeral. Halsey’s unmarked grave is the first identified of the victims — thought to be more than 100 by the Third Person Project, a historical research group. There could be as many as 250 victims, John Jeremiah Sullivan, who worked with the project, told CNN. It was the tireless efforts by the project to locate the unmarked graves and no small amount of

North Carolina GOP-controlled legislature approves congressional map

By Kelly Mena, North Carolina’s GOP-controlled state legislature on Thursday approved the state’s new congressional maps, which have boundaries likely to give Republicans an advantage there for the next decade. The state gained a 14th congressional seat after the 2020 census. Ten of the 14 seats will lean Republican, according to the non-partisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project. Republicans currently hold eight of 13 seats. In North Carolina, the legislature is responsible for redistricting, and it doesn’t need approval from the governor for the maps to become law. That means Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is unable to veto the maps. State House Rep. Destin

Officer who responded to Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting testifies what he saw when he arrived on the scene

By Dakin Andone, Christina Maxouris and Devon M. Sayers, Prosecutors in the trial of three White men charged with the killing of Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery called their first witness on Friday, a police officer, after opening statements by the state and defense attorneys. Glynn County Police Officer William Duggan testified he responded to the scene after finishing an off-duty job because he was nearby. He told the prosecution that he found a Black male on the ground and saw other people nearby, who he later identified as the defendants. The officer testified that based on what he observed, he felt Arbery was dead

White House chief of staff ‘confident’ Biden’s administration’s vaccine mandate for private businesses will be upheld

By Jasmine Wright White House chief of staff Ron Klain said he was confident the courts will uphold the validity of the Biden administration’s new vaccine rules that apply to private businesses with 100 or more employees, certain health care workers and federal contractors, after a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the requirements on Saturday. “I’m quite confident that when this finally gets fully adjudicated, not just a temporary order, the validity of this requirement will be upheld,” Klain told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.” “It’s common sense … If OSHA can tell people to wear a hard hat on the job,

Hotly contested elections shake up local school boards

By Katie Lobosco, After a year of contentious debates over mask mandates, social distancing rules and curriculums regarding race, new candidates challenged incumbent school board members Tuesday in elections across the country. Usually elected and unpaid, members of school boards found themselves on the front line of Covid politics and culture wars. Protests have erupted, shining a national spotlight on local boards that in the past dealt with less controversial decisions about district budgets and staffing. After months of contentious interactions, the National School Boards Association in October asked the federal government to help look into threats against school board members and educators — a

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