Author: Reporter

NAACP joins other civil rights groups with public warning to tourists about Florida’s hostile laws

The NAACP issued a travel advisory for Florida, joining two other civil rights groups in warning potential tourists that recent laws and policies championed by Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida lawmakers are “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.” The NAACP, long an advocate for Black Americans, joined the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a Latino civil rights organization, and Equality Florida, a gay rights advocacy group, in issuing travel advisories for the Sunshine State, where tourism is one of the state’s largest job sectors. The warning approved on May 20 by the...

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Uvalde Grieves: Criminal investigation into police response continues one year after school shooting

A criminal investigation in Texas over the hesitant police response to the Robb Elementary School shooting is still ongoing, as May 24 marks one year since a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers inside a fourth-grade classroom in Uvalde. The continuing probe underlines the lasting fallout over Texas’ deadliest school shooting and how the days after the attack were marred by authorities giving inaccurate and conflicting accounts about efforts made to stop a teenage gunman armed with an AR-style rifle. The investigation has run parallel to a new wave of public anger in the U.S. over gun violence,...

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As mass killings become mainstream more Americans seek how to memorialize the anniversaries of death

On a September day that he knew would be hard, 51-year-old Damone Presley marked the occasion with barbecue and balloons. He was commemorating the one-year anniversary of the day in 2021 that his daughter and her three friends were fatally shot in Minnesota by a man who left their bodies in an abandoned SUV in a Wisconsin cornfield. Presley gathered 50 friends to celebrate the life of his daughter, Nitosha Flug-Presley, who was 30 when she died. He went big on the anniversary because he felt sure that’s what his daughter would have wanted. “She would always do stuff...

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Federal judge hesitates to shut down pipeline in plea with Wisconsin tribe to work with oil company

A federal judge signaled on May 18 he will not force an energy company to shut down an oil pipeline in northern Wisconsin, despite arguments from a Native American tribe that the line is at immediate risk of being exposed by erosion and rupturing on reservation land. The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa asked U.S. District Judge William Conley last week to issue an emergency ruling forcing Enbridge to shut down the Line 5 pipeline after large chunks of riverbank running alongside it were washed away. But Conley voiced frustration with the tribe at the hearing for...

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Charm offensive: President Zelenskyy’s diplomatic tour highlights stark international isolation of Putin

While the world awaits Ukraine’s spring battlefield offensive, its leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has launched a diplomatic one. In the span of a week, he has dashed to Italy, the Vatican, Germany, France, Britain, and Japan to shore up support for defending his country. On May 19, he was in Saudi Arabia to meet with Arab leaders, some of whom are allies with Moscow. President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, was in the southern Russian city of Pyatigorsk, chairing a meeting with local officials, sitting at a large table at a distance from the other attendees. The Russian president has faced unprecedented...

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Why Ukraine’s spring offensive has yet to begin even with summer rapidly approaching

For months, Western allies have shipped billions of dollars worth of weapons systems and ammunition to Ukraine with an urgency to get the supplies to Kyiv in time for an anticipated spring counteroffensive. Summer is now just around the corner. While Russia and Ukraine are focused on an intense battle for Bakhmut, the Ukrainian spring offensive has yet to begin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently said it has been delayed because his country lacks enough Western weapons to succeed without suffering too many casualties. Weather and training are playing a role too, officials and defense experts say. Officials insist...

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