Here are a few of the stories I have for tonight.
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Murder charges filed against officers in Black man’s death
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Navigation error sends NASA’s Mars helicopter on wild ride
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‘Couldn’t stay quiet’: Capitol cop’s mom wants Jan. 6 probe
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Auditors find no fraud in disputed New Hampshire election
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‘Belarusian journalists are unsafe and constantly under attack’
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US says it will not rejoin Open Skies treaty with Russia
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‘Green’ investments must triple by 2030, report urges
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Biden to seek record $6 trillion for 2022 federal budget: NYT
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Grounded In Love: Man Finds 2.2-Carat Diamond For Engagement Ring
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FL Veteran Builds Movement To Clean Abandoned Gravestones
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A Never-Before-Documented Flower Blooms on One of World’s Rarest Trees, Hopeful Sign For a Comeback
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The Bridge repair still has my interest. This a phase 1. Phase 2 is to replace the beam.
AP News
Murder charges filed against officers in Black man’s death
The Washington state attorney general on Thursday charged two Tacoma police officers with murder and one with manslaughter in the death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who died after repeatedly telling them he couldn’t breathe as he was being restrained.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed charges of second-degree murder against Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins, and first-degree manslaughter against Timothy Rankine.
Witnesses reported seeing Burbank and Collins, who are both white, attack Ellis without provocation, according to a probable cause statement filed in Pierce County Superior Court. Rankine, who is described as Asian in court documents, is accused of putting pressure on Ellis’ back as he said he couldn’t breathe.
Genetically modified salmon head to US dinner plates
The inaugural harvest of genetically modified salmon began this week after the pandemic delayed the sale of the first such altered animal to be cleared for human consumption in the United States, company officials said.
Several tons of salmon, engineered by biotech company AquaBounty Technologies Inc., will now head to restaurants and away-from-home dining services — where labeling as genetically engineered is not required — in the Midwest and along the East Coast, company CEO Sylvia Wulf said.
Thus far, the only customer to announce it is selling the salmon is Samuels and Son Seafood, a Philadelphia-based seafood distributor.
Navigation error sends NASA’s Mars helicopter on wild ride
A navigation timing error sent NASA’s little Mars helicopter on a wild, lurching ride, its first major problem since it took to the Martian skies last month.
The experimental helicopter, named Ingenuity, managed to land safely, officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported Thursday.
The trouble cropped up about a minute into the helicopter’s sixth test flight last Saturday at an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters). One of the numerous pictures taken by an on-board camera did not register in the navigation system, throwing the entire timing sequence off and confusing the craft about its location.
Biden to GOP: ‘Don’t get in the way’ of infrastructure plan
President Joe Biden on Thursday warned naysayers in Congress not to “get in the way” of his big infrastructure plans as the White House panned a counteroffer from Republican senators to tap unused COVID-19 relief for a more modest investment in roads, highways and other traditional public works projects.
After touring a manufacturing technology center at a community college in Cleveland, Biden held up a card with the names of Republicans lawmakers who had rejected his coronavirus aid bill in Washington but later promoted its assistance when they were back home in front of voters. He warned them not to play similar games as he pushes this next legislative priority in Congress.
“I’m not going to embarrass anyone, but I have here a list,” he said. “If you’re going to take credit for what we’ve done,” he continued, “don’t get in the way of what we need to do.”
Census Bureau’s use of ‘synthetic data’ worries researchers
First came the “noise” — small errors the U.S. Census Bureau decided to introduce into the 2020 census data to protect participants’ privacy. Now the bureau is looking into “synthetic data,” manipulating the numbers widely used for economic and demographic research, to obscure the identities of people who provided information.
The moves have some researchers up in arms, worried that the statistical agency could sacrifice accuracy in its zeal to protect privacy.
Census Bureau statisticians disclosed at a virtual conference last week that over the next three years they will work toward developing a method to create “synthetic data” for files on individuals and homes that already are devoid of personalized information. These files, known as American Community Survey microdata, are used by researchers to create customized tables tailored to their research.
‘Couldn’t stay quiet’: Capitol cop’s mom wants Jan. 6 probe
Brian Sicknick’s family wants to uncover every detail about the Jan. 6 insurrection by pro-Trump rioters, when the Capitol Police officer collapsed and later died. They can’t understand why lawmakers do not.
Sicknick was one of the on-duty officers badly outnumbered by the mob who stormed the building, smashing windows and breaking through barriers. He was sprayed with a chemical, collapsed and later had a stroke and died. Two other officers took their own lives in the days afterward, and dozens more were hurt — including one officer who had a heart attack and others who suffered traumatic brain injuries and permanent disabilities. Some may never return to the job.
“He was just there for our country,” his mother Gladys said. “He just was doing his job and he got caught up. It’s very sad.”
Auditors find no fraud in disputed New Hampshire election
There is no evidence of fraud or political bias in a controversial New Hampshire election where a recount and audit has drawn the interest of former President Donald Trump, auditors concluded Thursday.
Rather, auditors investigating the election in the town of Windham believe a folding machine used by the town to try to accommodate the numbers of absentee ballots in the November election is responsible for mistakenly adding to vote counts for candidates in four legislative seats.
“We found no evidence of fraud or political bias,” Mark Lindeman, one of the three auditors and the acting co-director of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, said. “I have heard no one actually articulate a credible hypothesis of how fraud could account for what we found.”
Al Jazeera News
‘Belarusian journalists are unsafe and constantly under attack’
On Sunday, Belarusian authorities detained journalist Roman Protasevich and his partner Sofia Sapega after President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the plane they had been travelling on to divert to Minsk.
Until November last year, Protasevich managed the Telegram channel, Nexta, which played a crucial role in organising opposition protests following a disputed election last August that handed Lukashenko victory.
With two million followers, the channel became a popular communications tool for getting past authorities.
According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, Protasevich’s detention is part of a larger crackdown on the independent press in Belarus.
US attorney general expands resources to combat hate crimes
United States Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday directed the Justice Department to expand funding to states and municipalities to help track and investigate hate crimes, and ordered prosecutors to step up both criminal and civil investigations into hate incidents.
In a memo to Justice Department employees, Garland said that Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta will assign someone to coordinate and serve as a central “hub” on hate crimes by working with prosecutors, law enforcement and community groups to ensure there are adequate resources to investigate and track hate crimes.
“Hate crimes and other bias-related incidents instill fear across entire communities and undermine the principles upon which our democracy stands,” Garland said in his memo.
US says it will not rejoin Open Skies treaty with Russia
The United States told Russia on Thursday it will not rejoin the Open Skies arms control pact, which allows unarmed surveillance flights over member countries, a US official reportedly said.
Citing unnamed US officials, The Associated Press reported that Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told the Russians that the Biden administration had decided not to re-enter the treaty, which had allowed surveillance flights over military facilities in both countries before President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact.
Thursday’s decision means only one major arms control treaty between the nuclear powers – the New START treaty – will remain in place. Trump had done nothing to extend New START, which would have expired earlier this year, but after taking office, the Biden administration moved quickly to extend it for five years and opened a review into Trump’s Open Skies Treaty withdrawal.
‘Green’ investments must triple by 2030, report urges
Investments in nature-based solutions must triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2050, a new report urges, warning of irreversible damage to economies, the planet and humanity if the status quo remains unchanged.
The State of Finance for Nature Report warns that public and private investment must triple to $350bn by 2030 from the current $133bn – or face a $4.1 trillion gap by 2050.
“It’s doable but it’s not being done,” Teresa Hartmann, one of the report’s co-authors and the climate and nature lead at the World Economic Forum, told Al Jazeera.
United States President Joe Biden will seek $6 trillion in federal spending for the 2022 fiscal year, taking the nation to its highest sustained levels of federal spending since World War II, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
Documents obtained by the newspaper show the Democratic president’s first budget request calls for federal government spending to rise to $8.2 trillion by 2031.
The deficit will run above $1.3 trillion throughout the next decade, first hitting $1.8 trillion in 2022 before tapering off, according to The New York Times.
Patch.com
$500 Apiece Paid To Almost 100 Students Who Improved Their GPAs
It pays to have good grades. Literally. Eighty-eight Pinellas County students were recently paid $500 apiece for increasing their GPAs by the end of the school year, WTSP reported.
Boca Ciega High School and Lakewood High School ninth-graders were among the almost 100 students who each received a cash prize for better grades, the TV station reported. This was achieved through the "Paid for Grades" program, a non-profit organization that helps students bring up their grades with tutoring and other educational resources.
Students who successfully complete the program receive a cash-reward, the organization said on its website. A Boca Ciega student had a .8 GPA at the start of the school year, and through the program pulled it up to a 3.5 GPA, the TV station reported.
Grounded In Love: Man Finds 2.2-Carat Diamond For Engagement Ring
Christian Liden's trip to some of the most beautiful places in America is spectacular even without the precious gems he's been picking up along the way.
They aren't catching the 26-year-old Poulsbo, Washington, man's eye from a cookie-cutter lighted display counter found in any mall in any city in the United States.
Liden is mining for them — grounding his love for his future wife in every search, in a manner of speaking.
His 2,000-mile journey, which began five years ago when he panned for gold in his home state of Washington, is the culmination of a dream he's kept alive since he was a middle schooler.
FL Veteran Builds Movement To Clean Abandoned Gravestones
It all started as a personal journey to connect with American history and bond with his daughter.
Trae Zipperer just wanted to travel the country with his daughter, sightseeing and visiting historical sites, cemeteries, battlefields, museums and national parks. Anything that had a little bit of history to it.
What came from that family trip was something he never imagined: a national movement to clean and repair all abandoned veterans' gravestones in small community and church cemeteries across the country. He estimates that there are between 6 and 7 million such headstones that have been ignored for decades.
Royal Caribbean Plans Test Cruise From Miami After CDC Approval
The Royal Caribbean cruise line has been granted permission from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to launch a simulated cruise in preparation for the return of cruising after the COVID-19 pandemic brought the industry to a standstill last year.
A voyage onboard the Freedom of the Seas to test the company's COVID-19 protocols has been approved for June 20-22, according to a letter from the Department of Health and Human Services that Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley shared on Facebook.
"After 15 months and so much work by so many during very challenging times," Bayley wrote on Facebook.
Good News Network
A Never-Before-Documented Flower Blooms on One of World’s Rarest Trees, Hopeful Sign For a Comeback
In a greenhouse in Missouri, a tree listed as critically endangered produced a flower which had never been recorded before by science in the perfect metaphor for the species’ chances of survival.
The botanists caring for it believe there’s no question they can save the tree since collecting pollen from this flower, as they can now cross-pollinate its thirty-strong sapling neighbors to restore genetic diversity.
Karomia gigas is a member of the mint family, and is also related to oregano, rosemary, and thyme. It grows wild only in East-Central Africa, in Tanzania, and in the past in Kenya. It’s so unknown there’s no common name for it in English, Swahili, or any other African language.