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Fallout continues from college admissions scandal
Colleges and companies moved swiftly this week to distance themselves from employees swept up in a nationwide college admissions scheme, many of them coaches accused of taking bribes as well as prominent parents accused of angling to get their children into top schools by portraying them as recruited athletes.
Pope Francis draws crowds, gives hope during historic visit
Pope Francis dove into some of the United States’ thorniest political debates during his historic six-day visit by urging the world’s wealthiest nation to welcome immigrants, end homelessness and do more to address climate change. Sometimes his political messages were blunt, like when he pleaded before the U.S. Congress for Americans to end “hostility” toward immigrants. Other times, they were more subtle, like the climate-conscious pope’s decision to ride around in a tiny Fiat rather than a gas-guzzling SUV.
Unsung civil rights pioneer Gloria Richardson dies at 99
Gloria Richardson, an influential yet largely unsung civil rights pioneer whose determination not to back down while protesting racial inequality was captured in a photograph as she pushed away the bayonet of a National Guardsman, has died. She was 99.
Grieving with Pittsburgh
Families of the 11 people killed in the synagogue massacre Saturday begin to bury the dead amid a national outpouring of support
Pittsburgh’s Jewish community began burying its dead following Saturday’s synagogue massacre. Funeral services were held Tuesday for a beloved family doctor, a pillar of the congregation, and two middle-aged brothers known as the Rosenthal “boys.”
Federal court blocks Trump’s travel ban
The fate of President Trump’s order to ban travelers from six predominantly Muslim nations, blocked by federal courts, soon may be in the hands of the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court, where the president’s appointee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, could help settle the matter.
William F. Brown, co-creator of ‘The Wiz,’ dies at 91
William F. Brown, an author and illustrator who was best known for writing the book of the Tony Award-winning 1975 musical “The Wiz,” died Sunday, June 23, 2019, at a hospital in Norwalk, Conn. He was 91.
Youngkin rolls back diversity, inclusion efforts in education, calling them ‘divisive concepts’
Gov. Glenn A. Youngkin’s administration has rescinded a series of policies, memos and other resources related to diversity, equity and inclusion that it characterized as “discriminatory and divisive concepts” in the state’s public education system.
Afghan evacuees mark first U.S. Ramadan with gratitude, agony
Sitting cross-legged on the floor as his wife and six children laid plates of fruit on a red cloth in front of him, Wolayat Khan Samadzoi watched through the open balcony door for the sliver of the new moon to appear in the cloudless New Mexico sky, where the sun had set beyond a desert mountain.
Faith group opposes Trump on voting data request
A national network of progressive faith organizations is rallying support for officials in Virginia and 43 other states and the District of Columbia who have rebuffed a Trump administration effort to collect detailed personal information on voters as part of a probe of alleged voter fraud.
Winston-Salem removes Confederate statue from old courthouse
The city of Winston-Salem, N.C., removed a Confederate statue Tuesday from the grounds of an old courthouse, drawing applause from onlookers for the rare move in a state where such monuments are largely protected by law.
World Series winners visit White House
The World Series champion Washington Nationals were honored at the White House on Monday, although more than a half-dozen players skipped the ceremony on the South Lawn.
Obamas choose 2 African-American artists for official presidential portraits
Artist Kehinde Wiley, known for his large, edgy paintings of top music and hip-hop performers such as Michael Jackson, LL Cool J, Notorious B.I.G., Ice T and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, has been commissioned to paint the official presidential portrait of former President Obama for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
Sweet
Michael Jordan’s ‘Last Dance’ shoes sold for millions
Sotheby’s auction house announced April 11 that a pair of Air Jordans worn by Michael Jordan during his final championship run with the Chicago Bulls has sold at auction for $2.2 million, surpassing the record for the most valuable sneakers ever sold, reports CBS News.
Henrietta Lacks estate sues company using her ‘stolen’ cells
COLLEGE PARK, Md. The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued a biotechnology company on Monday, accusing it of sell- ing cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took from the Black woman in 1951 without her knowledge or consent as part of “a racially unjust medical system.”
50th anniversary: Obama to call for restoration of 1965 Voting Rights Act
With the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, congressional Democrats are commemorating the landmark law with events across the country — from the steps of the U.S. Capitol to the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama.
Families want answers in latest police shootings in Va. and N.C.
Families in North Carolina and Virginia are still demanding answers from law enforcement authorities fol- lowing separate shootings by sheriff’s departments that left one man dead and another fighting for his life in intensive care.
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, ‘conscience of the world,’ dies at 87
Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner whose memories of persecution and teachings on tolerance made him one of the world’s most revered moral voices, has died at 87. “My husband was a fighter,” Marion Wiesel said in a statement. “He fought for the memory of the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, and he fought for Israel. He waged countless battles for innocent victims regardless of ethnicity or creed.”
Couple trying to save James Weldon Johnson cabin
A New Jersey couple is working to preserve a crumbling hilltop cabin in western Massachusetts where noted African-American author, educator and songwriter James Weldon Johnson wrote one of his most famous works.
U.S. greets pope
Pope Francis urged the United States to help tackle climate change and touched on other divisive U.S. political issues such as immigration and economic inequality on his first visit to the world’s richest nation. In a speech Wednesday on the White House South Lawn, the Argentine pontiff — known as “The People’s Pope” — lauded President Obama’s efforts to reduce air pollution, months after Pope Francis made the environment one of his top issues by issuing a landmark encyclical letter to the church.
