National News - Page 94

The Monument Lighting celebrates its 50th anniversary this week

By Rachel Menitoff The Monument Lighting is making a comeback after taking a year-long hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The annual event is a tradition in Baltimore, which marks the unofficial start of the holiday season. This year marks the lighting’s 50th anniversary. It involves hanging thousands of Christmas lights – 8,400 to be exact – from the Washington Monument in the historic Mount Vernon neighborhood, starting at the monument’s base and going all the way up. “Other cities can light a tree, but Baltimore has to do things its own way,” said Mike Evitts, senior vice president of

As officials prep for Omicron, US hospitals are still battling severe Delta variant infections

By Travis Caldwell, While researchers gather more information on the Omicron variant detected in at least 20 countries and territories, the present reality is that the Delta variant is still spreading across the US and putting a strain on already over-taxed health care systems. In Michigan, Covid-19 hospitalizations are matching highs last seen in April 2020, shortly after the onset of the pandemic. At least nine hospitals are reporting 100% patient capacity as of Monday, according to state health data. Michigan is currently one of several Midwest states that are seeing the highest rates of infection in the US, including Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to data

Carrie Meek, trailblazing Black former congresswoman, dies at 95

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By Paul LeBlanc and Sarah Fortinsky, Former Rep. Carrie Meek, who broke barriers throughout her winding political career as the daughter of a sharecropper and granddaughter of a slave, died Sunday in her Miami home. She was 95. Meek’s death came after a “long illness,” family spokesperson Adam Sharon said in a statement describing the late Florida Democrat’s “trailblazing” life and legacy. Her children Lucia Davis-Raiford, Sheila Davis Kinui, and retired Rep. Kendrick B. Meek of Florida provided a statement about her legacy to CNN. It read: “Carrie Meek was our family matriarch who fulfilled this role for the entire

Vaccine mandate for some health care workers blocked in 10 states

By Tierney Sneed A federal judge in Missouri issued an order Monday partially blocking the Biden administration from implementing a vaccine mandate for certain health care workers. The judge’s order, which covers the 10 states that brought the case, played down the effectiveness of the vaccines and said that the “public would suffer little, if any, harm from maintaining the ‘status quo’ through the litigation of this case.” The mandate came out of the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It covers certain health care staff at providers that participate in Medicare and Medicaid, and

There is no conceivable justification for defense’s treatment of Ahmaud Arbery

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By Jill Filipovic Even after the rise and resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the elections of a Black president and Vice President and several years of racial reckoning over state violence against Black men and women, if you want it’s still plain to see how far some parts of the US haven’t come on race. Just look at the trial of Travis McMichael, William “Roddie” Bryan and Travis’s father Gregory McMichael for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. The details of the case are themselves stunning. According to his family, Arbery — a runner — was out for a jog. Two

A new Covid-19 variant with high number of mutations sparks travel bans and worries scientists

By David McKenzie, Ghazi Balkiz and Ivana Kottasová, The discovery of a new and potentially more transmissible coronavirus variant by South African health authorities has sparked a forceful reaction across the world with a number of countries banning travelers from several southern African countries. The newly identified variant, currently known as B.1.1.529, appears to be spreading rapidly in parts of South Africa and scientists are concerned that its unusually high number of mutations could make it more transmissible and result in immune evasion. It has so far been detected in South Africa, Botswana, Hong Kong and Belgium. “Initially it looked like some cluster outbreaks,

Thanksgiving travelers set pandemic record with more than 2.3 million in the air, TSA says

By Pete Muntean and Gregory Wallace, Thanksgiving travelers have set a new pandemic-era air travel record in the United States. The Transportation Security Administration says it screened 2.3 million people (2,311,978) at airports across the country on Wednesday, making it the busiest day at security checkpoints since March 2020. The number is 88% of the traffic (2,624,250) on the equivalent Wednesday in 2019, before the pandemic. And it is more than twice the number of people (1,070,967) TSA screened on this day last year. Wednesday is the seventh consecutive day the TSA screened more than 2 million passengers.   Goal:

Prosecutors in the trial of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers explain why they had faith in the jury despite its racial makeup

By Amir Vera and Chris Boyette, Prosecutors in the trial of three White men convicted in Ahmaud Arbery’s killing were not concerned about the racial makeup of the jury, attorneys told CNN Wednesday. Linda Dunikoski, Cobb County senior assistant district attorney, told CNN’s Jim Acosta that after jurors were selected, her team “realized that we had very, very smart, very intelligent, honest jurors who were going to do their job which is to seek the truth.” “We felt that putting up our case, it doesn’t matter whether they were Black or White, that putting up our case that this jury would hear the

Biden nominates ‘history-making’ Shalanda Young and Nani Coloretti to lead budget agency

By Kate Sullivan, President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced his nomination of Shalanda Young to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget and Nani Coloretti to serve as deputy director, putting two women of color at the helm of a critical agency in his administration. If confirmed by the Senate, Young would be the first Black woman to hold the top post. Coloretti would be one of the highest-ranking Asian American women in the administration. “Today, it’s my honor to nominate two extraordinary history-making women to lead the Office of Management and Budget,” Biden said in a video. OMB

Bidens greet troops at US Coast Guard Station Brant Point on Thanksgiving Day

By Betsy Klein, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden stopped by the US Coast Guard Station Brant Point Thursday, meeting with US troops stationed there as well as troops around the world virtually as they expressed their gratitude on the Thanksgiving holiday. After about an hour inside the Coast Guard station, the Bidens walked outside to greet about 20 servicemembers in uniform, the President wishing them a happy Thanksgiving, handing out challenge coins, and posing for a group photo. “I’m not joking when I say I’m thankful for these guys, thankful to them, and I mean that from the bottom of

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