CNN – National

By Carma Hassan, Deidre McPhillips and Eric Levenson, CNN Math and reading scores for 9-year-olds in the US fell between 2020 and 2022 by a level not seen in decades, a foreboding sign of the state of American education two years after the Covid-19 pandemic began. The results were part of the National Assessment of

By Amanda Jackson, CNN A 4-year-old took a loaded handgun Wednesday to his South Texas elementary school, and his father has been arrested after the incident prompted a lockdown, officials said. School administrators at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Corpus Christi learned a student had a weapon on campus around 9 a.m., according to

By Travis Caldwell, Andy Rose and Omar Jimenez, CNN The state of Texas, which for several months has bussed thousands of newly arrived migrants at the US-Mexico border to New York City and Washington, DC, has set a new metropolitan area as a destination: Chicago. Undocumented migrants on board a charter bus from Texas arrived

By Amanda Musa, Dakin Andone and Michelle Watson, CNN Police in Columbus, Ohio, have released body camera video that shows a police officer serving a felony warrant fatally shooting an unarmed Black man in bed. Donovan Lewis, 20, died Tuesday after being shot by Police Officer Ricky Anderson, a 30-year veteran with the Columbus Division

By Nouran Salahieh, Jason Hanna and Amir Vera, CNN As Mississippi’s capital city entered a fourth day on Thursday with little or no water flowing from faucets, authorities were scrambling to get a failing water treatment plant plagued by decades of deferred maintenance back online. The problem — which comes on top of a boil-water

By Nicki Brown, CNN A Louisville, Kentucky, corrections officer has been terminated after “disparaging” the Louisville Metro Police Department and referencing the death of Breonna Taylor in a video, the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections said in a statement. The officer, Turhan Knight, was terminated August 25 after the department’s director, Jerry Collins, viewed the

By Andy Rose, CNN The University of North Dakota is working to repatriate human remains and sacred artifacts taken from Indigenous communities, UND President Andrew Armacost said Wednesday at a news conference. More than 250 boxes of items were discovered in March, but university officials have not publicized the find until now at the request

By Meron Moges-Gerbi, CNN A Black South Dakota teen feels he has no choice but to switch schools after refusing to cut his hair, his mother said. Last week, high school freshman Braxton Schafer was facing the possibility of expulsion over the length of his hair, his mother, Toni Schafer, told CNN. But the school

By Gabe Cohen, CNN When the bell rings at Casa Grande Union High School, more than seventy sophomores pile into Stacy Brady’s biology class. The rural school district outside Phoenix can’t find enough certified teachers, especially for math and science, so 13 classes are doubled up, with several holding more than 70 students. Some of

By Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN A California school district is vowing to reform its discipline practices after a federal investigation revealed it was giving harsher punishment to Black students compared to White students who displayed similar behavior. Officials from the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights say the Victor Valley Union High School District

By Zoe Sottile, CNN Interstate 55 in Tennessee was left covered in Alfredo sauce and one person was injured after an eighteen-wheeler crashed into a wall on Tuesday afternoon, according to police. Officers responded to the crash at I-55 and McLemore at around 4:30 p.m., the Memphis Police Department told CNN in a statement. One

By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN Atlanta-area District Attorney Fani Willis is unabashed in using rap lyrics to help prosecute her cases, repeatedly defending the practice in recent months. It’s a tactic hip-hop artists have decried as a racist double standard for years. In May, following the arrests of Atlanta’s Young Thug and Gunna, a 56-count

By Zoe Sottile, CNN The director at a wildlife park in Florida lost his hand after being bitten by one of his own alligators last week, according to the facility. It was his second serious alligator-related injury in 10 years. Greg Graziani, wildlife director of Florida Gator Gardens in Venus, Florida, was “seriously injured during

By Amir Vera, Jason Hanna and Nouran Salahieh, CNN As Mississippi’s capital faces a third day without reliable water service Wednesday — pushing some residents to stand in long lines for bottled water and keeping schools and businesses closed — the mayor says he hopes water service can be restored this week. The problem came

By Aya Elamroussi, CNN New York City lawmakers are still determining which parts of the famed Times Square tourist area will be considered a “gun-free zone” as a new state law limiting where firearms can be legally carried in public is set to go into effect Thursday. The law was signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul

By Andi Babineau and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN A man has been arrested in connection with the shooting of three Dutch soldiers outside an Indianapolis hotel Saturday that left one soldier dead and two others wounded, police said. Shamar Duncan, 22, was taken into custody by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Tuesday afternoon, the department said

By Scott Glover and Curt Devine The number of shootings involving automatic weapons in the US has skyrocketed in recent years, suggesting a troubling resurgence in the use of machine guns by criminals, according to an analysis provided exclusively to CNN. Incidents of machine gun fire have exploded by about 1,400% from 2019 through last

By Virginia Langmaid, CNN A Black pastor in Alabama says he was arrested while watering his neighbor’s flowers — and his attorney has called the incident “irrational, irresponsible, and illegal.” In police body camera footage from May and released last week, an officer is seen approaching the man, Michael Jennings, who tells the officer he

By Theresa Waldrop, CNN Most people in the United States take it for granted that when you turn on a faucet, you get potable water. People in Jackson, Mississippi, are now coping with what happens when there’s no water to drink, cook with, bathe or even flush a toilet. Mississippi’s capital city has long had

By Zoe Sottile, CNN Just around a month ago, a ticket for the second-largest Mega Millions jackpot ever was sold, netting the winner close to $1.34 billion. There’s just one problem: The winner hasn’t picked up their gargantuan prize yet. The ticket was purchased from a Speedway gas station in Des Plaines, around a 20-mile

By Zoe Sottile, CNN One woman died and two others were hospitalized after they were served dishwashing liquid instead of juice at their California assisted living facility on Sunday night, officials said. Police responded to Atria Park, an assisted living facility in San Mateo, on a report that a resident had been poisoned. Three residents

By Stella Chan, CNN Police in central California say they are treating the early August disappearance of 22-year-old Jolissa Fuentes, last seen leaving a convenience store, as a criminal matter. On the night of August 6, Fuentes attended a family gathering and went home in the overnight hours to grab some belongings, said Selma Police

By Melissa Alonso and Zoe Sottile, CNN An 11-year-old boy died after he fell into the water and was swept into a storm drain during a flash flood in northwest Arkansas Monday evening, according to police. An adult who tried to save the boy also was swept into the drain and was rescued, officials said.

By Zoe Sottile, CNN A shipment of baby wipes at the US-Mexico border turned out to be something quite different: $11.8 million worth of cocaine. US Customs and Border Protection officers seized the narcotics Friday at the Colombia-Solidarity Bridge, according to a Monday news release. The bridge connects Texas and the Mexican state of Nuevo

By Amanda Watts, CNN A brick column at Lewis & Clark College in Oregon collapsed Monday, killing one student and injuring two others while they were lying in hammocks, according to Portland Fire and Rescue. Lewis & Clark officials in a statement called the incident a “tragic accident.” According to the private college’s academic calendar,

By Chris Boyette, Rebekah Riess and Zoe Sottile, CNN A train conductor was killed in a train derailment in El Paso, Texas, late Monday night, officials said. Two train cars derailed, damaging a backyard shed, a fence, and a gas meter and leading to the evacuation of about 50 people from nearby homes, according to

By Amir Vera, Jason Hanna and Nouran Salahieh, CNN Recent torrential rain coupled with years of water system issues have resulted in a crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, where the city doesn’t have enough water to fight fires, flush toilets or even hand out to residents in need. Jackson’s main water treatment facility began failing Monday,

By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN As shoppers at a grocery in Bend, Oregon, meandered down aisles and considered produce choices Sunday night, a 20-year-old gunman burst into the Safeway store and began firing, killing two people and injuring at least two others. Police responded to the Forum Shopping Center around 7 p.m., authorities said. Rushing in,

By Amanda Musa, CNN Dean “Diz” Laird, the only known Navy ace to shoot down both German and Japanese planes during World War II, has died, his daughter told CNN on Monday. He was 101. Andrea Laird said her father died by her side in Walnut Creek, California, on August 10. In June, according to

By Amy Simonson and Dave Alsup, CNN A series of home invasions over more than four years targeted high-profile celebrities and wealthy homeowners around the Atlanta area, including Mariah Carey and Atlanta Falcons player Calvin Ridley. On Monday, 26 alleged gang members were indicted on criminal charges related to the home invasions, along with kidnappings,

By Taylor Romine, CNN A Houston-based oil company and two subsidiaries have agreed to plead guilty to violating the federal Clean Water Act and pay a $7.1 million criminal fine after their pipeline leaked about 25,000 gallons of crude oil across the coast of Southern California, prosecutors say. The US Attorney’s Office of the Central

CNN Library Here is a look at the life of civil rights activist Julian Bond. Personal Birth date: January 14, 1940 Death date: August 15, 2015 Birth place: Nashville, Tennessee Birth name: Horace Julian Bond Father: Horace Mann Bond, educator Mother: Julia (Washington) Bond, librarian Marriages: Pamela Sue Horowitz (March 17, 1990-August 15, 2015, his

By Michelle Watson and Theresa Waldrop, CNN With the school year starting Monday, almost two dozen schools in the Baltimore City Public School system are dismissing early a few days this week because they have no air conditioning. The Baltimore area is expected to hit 93 degrees Monday, with the heat index reaching triple digits

By Amir Vera, Joe Sutton, Eric Levenson and Ashley Killough, CNN With the new school year in Uvalde, Texas, just over a week away, Superintendent Hal Harrell gave an update Monday night on new security measures across the district in the wake of the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School, including the hiring of

By Liam Reilly and Sarah Diab, CNN A Dutch soldier died in Indianapolis on Sunday night after he and two others were wounded in a weekend shooting at a hotel there, the Dutch Ministry of Defense said in a statement. The soldier, a member of the Dutch Commando Corps, was identified as Simmie Poetsema, according

By Chris Boyette and Artemis Moshtaghian, CNN A man accused of randomly shooting four people in four separate shootings Sunday morning was arrested after a person close to him reported him to police, authorities said Monday. “Yesterday I made a plea to family and friends of the shooter to turn him in. It didn’t seem

By Liam Reilly, CNN The Columbus, Ohio, teacher’s union voted Sunday to ratify an agreement with Columbus City Schools, which will allow students to return to in-person learning Monday after a dayslong strike over classroom conditions and teacher pay. A majority of members of the teachers’ union, Columbus Education Association, voted to accept the agreement,

By Amir Vera, Tina Burnside, Caroll Alvarado and Hannah Sarisohn, CNN One of the victims fought to disarm the suspected gunman during Sunday’s fatal shooting at a Safeway grocery store in Bend, Oregon, according to police spokeswoman Sheila Miller. Two people were killed, police said. They were identified as Glenn Edward Bennett, 84, a customer

By Rashard Rose and Theresa Waldrop, CNN Nearly two decades after a serial sniper spree that terrorized the Washington, DC, area and left 10 people dead, a Maryland appeals court ruled that Lee Boyd Malvo, who was convicted for his role in the shootings, must be resentenced. Malvo was 17 years old when the crimes

By Amir Vera and Homero De la Fuente, CNN A player on the Duke University women’s volleyball team says Brigham Young University officials in Utah did not act quick enough to stop the racist harassment she and other Black players were subject to during a Friday game. Rachel Richardson, a sophomore outside hitter for Duke,

By Dakin Andone and Michelle Watson, CNN A wildfire burning in southwest Oregon has grown to 8,404 acres, according to a Sunday update by fire officials, nearly double the acreage the blaze had consumed a day prior. Approximately 740 personnel are now battling the Rum Creek fire after officials from the Northwest 13 Incident Management

By Zoe Sottile and Sara Smart, CNN Bystanders had an up-close and personal encounter with an alligator in Philadelphia’s Love Park. But the reptile isn’t a wild beast: It’s the emotional support animal of a Philadelphia man who runs several social media accounts documenting his loving relationship with Wally the alligator. Several visitors to the

By Tina Burnside, CNN Three people are hospitalized after a shooting at a Sikh temple in Stockton, California, police said. The shooting happened during an event at the temple around 6:42 p.m. (9:42 p.m. ET) Saturday, Stockton police spokesperson Joseph Silva said. The three male victims — ages 32, 28 and 27 — were taken

By Zenebou Sylla, CNN Police are searching for at least one gunman after a shooting at the Coney Island boardwalk in New York City killed one man and injured four others Saturday night. According to a news release by the New York Police Department, officers responded to a call of multiple people shot just before

By Andrew Torgan, CNN If you’ve been seeing the phrase “quiet quitting” lately and wondered what it means, you’re not alone. At first glance, you’d think it refers to an employee who leaves a little yellow “goodbye” note on their desk one day and never returns. What it really means is a bit more complicated

By John Blake, CNN “You are more powerful than you think.” That’s the title of one of Eric Liu’s most popular books, but it’s also a theme that runs throughout the work of the author and activist. He’s spent much of his life trying to persuade people that “democracy still works, and is worth believing

By Jacquelyne Germain, CNN As Howard University students returned to campus on Monday for the start of the fall semester, the university received two bomb threats just months after the school and other historically Black colleges and universities had to lock down or postpone classes because of similar threats. Early Friday morning, two on-campus residence

By Liam Reilly, CNN Three Royal Netherlands Army soldiers were wounded in a shooting outside an Indianapolis hotel early Saturday, authorities said. The soldiers, members of the Dutch Commando Corps, were in Indiana as part of a training exercise, the Dutch Ministry of Defense said in a news release. Officers responded to a Hampton Inn

By Stephanie Elam, CNN The pretty, cloudless blue skies over perfectly manicured lawns represent an ugly reality for California’s Las Virgenes Municipal Water District as it grapples with the historic megadrought ravaging the American West. Despite a lack of any measurable rain in months, the carpet of lush, green grass likely means homeowners are either

By Nouran Salahieh and Paradise Afshar, CNN With Mississippi’s Pearl River now expected to crest earlier than originally forecast, threatening to flood streets and creep into homes within the next 48 hours, some Jackson residents are being told to flee. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba urged residents to “get out now,” during a news conference

By Zoe Sottile, CNN An adorable baby white rhino was born at the San Diego Zoo — and conservationists hope his birth might signal good news for his endangered cousins. The unnamed rhino calf was born on August 6th to first-time mother Livia and father J Gregory, according to a news release from the San

By Matt Foster, CNN Brigham Young University issued an apology on Saturday for racist comments made by a fan during a women’s volleyball match between BYU and Duke at the Utah university on Friday evening. The godmother of Duke volleyball player Rachel Richardson said in a tweet that Richardson, who is Black, was called racial

By Homero De la Fuente, Nouran Salahieh and Stella Chan, CNN NFL rookie punter Matt Araiza has been released from the Buffalo Bills days after he and two other football players were accused in a lawsuit of gang raping a then-17-year-old girl during an off-campus party at San Diego State University last year. “This afternoon,

By Zoe Sottile, CNN It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… an oral rabies vaccine, dropped from the sky. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has initiated its annual oral rabies vaccine distribution, a project that will continue through October. The project is focused on preventing the spread of raccoon rabies from the eastern United States

By Jay Croft, CNN Police have arrested a suspect in connection with the assault and robbery earlier this week of an off-duty officer in the Bronx, the New York Police Department said in a news release Friday. At this point, police are only charging the suspect in connection with the officer’s assault, but they say

By Samantha Beech and Zenebou Sylla, CNN Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has enacted a state of energy emergency following an electrical fire at a BP refinery in Indiana that threatens to disrupt fuel supply, the governor’s office said Saturday. The executive order issued by Whitmer lifts hours-of-service rules for the transport of gasoline and diesel

Zenebou Sylla, CNN Texas has bused nearly 9,000 asylum seekers to New York City and Washington, DC in recent months, as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s effort to highlight his criticism of the Biden administration’s immigration policies. In a statement Friday, Abbott’s office said Texas has bused more than 7,400 migrants to DC since April

By Jason Hanna and Rebekah Riess, CNN A southwestern Oregon wildfire burning since mid-August spread rapidly from Friday to Saturday thanks to strong winds, more then tripling its total burned acreage in one day and prompting evacuation orders, fire officials said. The Rum Creek Fire, about a 50-mile drive northwest of Medford, has burned 4,319

By Zoe Sottile, CNN In just around 46 hours, the Artemis I rocket is set to take off for an uncrewed flight around the moon — and NASA is counting down the minutes. The countdown officially started at 9:53 a.m. on Saturday, according to a tweet from NASA’s Artemis account. The countdown started once the

By Zoe Sottile, CNN A millennia-old Egyptian artifact was found in a shipment to the port at Memphis, Tennessee, officials say. US Customs and Border Protection officers discovered the artifact on August 17, according to a news release published Thursday. It had been shipped to Memphis, Tennessee from Europe, officials confirmed. Customs officers collaborated with

By Zoe Sottile, CNN After years of lobbying by advocates, Anaheim finally designated its Arab-American enclave as “Little Arabia” on Tuesday. In a statement, Anaheim’s spokeswoman told CNN the city plans to follow up the designation with in-depth research. “The Little Arabia designation recognizes an area of our city we’ve always celebrated as part of

By Geneva Sands, CNN Online documents attributed to the suspect in the Buffalo, New York, supermarket mass shooting have the potential to inspire copycats and “will likely” enhance the capabilities of potential mass shooters, federal authorities warned in an intelligence bulletin this week. “The alleged attacker prioritized creating a comprehensive ‘how-to’ guide for future attackers,

By Peter Nickeas, CNN After the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School, a state commission investigating the attack in Colorado offered a recommendation that would go on to be widely adopted by police agencies across the United States: “Law enforcement policy and training should emphasize that the highest priority of law enforcement officers, after

By Aya Elamroussi and Andy Rose, CNN Two school districts in Oklahoma will remain under a downgraded accreditation status after they were accused of violating a state law that bars certain types of teachings on race and gender, despite educators’ calls on Thursday to lift the punishment they say is hurting teachers and students. The

By Emma Tucker and JiMin Lee, CNN Americans across the country are sharing their mixed reactions to President Joe Biden’s decision to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt for millions of borrowers. Biden announced in August that borrowers who hold loans with the Department of Education and make less than $125,000 annually are

By Jacquelyne Germain, CNN Mikiko Galpin still feels the impact of being sexually assaulted by someone he thought he could trust — and the tough decisions he was forced to make after multiple pregnancy scares. When Roe v. Wade was overturned in June, it was a sad and heavy moment for the 29-year-old transgender man.

By Laura Ly, CNN A union representing about 2,000 Philadelphia School District employees said Friday it has averted a strike by reaching a tentative contract agreement just three days before the start of the school year. In a news release, local 32BJ SEIU officials said the new deal achieves “historic” wage increases, millions of dollars

By Hannah Sarisohn, CNN A Ring doorbell camera captured the attempted abduction of a 6-year-old girl from the front of her house Tuesday in Hamilton, Ohio, according to court documents and the security camera footage obtained by CNN. The video shows the girl standing next to a garbage can at the curb of a front

By Alta Spells, CNN Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday suspended four Broward County School Board members based on recommendations from a statewide grand jury looking into events surrounding the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School four years ago. “It is my duty to suspend people from office when there is clear evidence

By Justin Gamble, CNN A new alert system has been launched in Maryland to notify Black leaders and clergy about credible threats or hate crimes. The Emmett Till Alerts system — named in honor of the 14-year-old Black teen who was murdered in 1955, after a White woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, claimed Till whistled at

By Stella Chan, CNN Three current or former San Diego State University football players, including the Buffalo Bills’ newly drafted punter Matthew Araiza, are accused of gang-raping a then-17-year-old girl at a Halloween party last year, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the attorney for the plaintiff identified in court documents as Jane Doe.

By Ray Sanchez and Melissa Alonso, CNN A pregnant Louisiana woman who alleges she was denied an abortion despite the fetus being diagnosed with a fatal condition says other women should not have to experience her plight. Nancy Davis said she is planning to get an abortion in another state after a Louisiana hospital allegedly

By Taylor Romine and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN A former inmate who alleges her newborn died in the hospital after staff at a California jail was slow to respond to her medical emergency — including stopping at Starbucks as they drove her to the hospital — has been approved to receive a $480,000 settlement in her

By Faith Karimi, CNN After more than three decades of questions and grief, Tamika Reyes finally knows who killed her mother. Anna Kane was 26 when her body was found on October 23, 1988, in a wooded area near Reading, Pennsylvania, with baling twine around her neck. An investigation revealed she’d been strangled elsewhere and