CNN – National

By Kiely Westhoff, CNN A union representing about 2,000 School District of Philadelphia employees voted to authorize a strike on Saturday, just over one week before school starts, the union announced in a press release. 32BJ SEIU, the union, voted to strike if it does not have a new contract by August 31, the date

By Paradise Afshar and Christina Maxouris, CNN Washington state’s King County, which includes Seattle, declared monkeypox a public health emergency Friday, with more than 270 recorded cases, according to a proclamation from county executive Dow Constantine. The proclamation, which went into effect immediately, will help boost local health officials’ response efforts to the outbreak, including

By Isa Kaufman Geballe, Kiely Westhoff and Samantha Beech, CNN Two men were shot and killed by police in Knox County, Ohio, after the local emergency management agency earlier notified residents to shelter in place, according to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office. Around 9 a.m. Saturday, two men were killed following a call over a

By Emma Tucker Colorado-based Epicurean Butter is recalling hundreds of “Wegmans Lemon Dill Finishing Butter” tubs due to potential bacterial contamination, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Epicurean Butter said in an announcement it was recalling its 3.5-ounce tubs after being alerted by its frozen dill supplier, SubHerb Farms, that a dozen

By Emma Tucker, CNN An all-Black female crew operated an American Airlines flight from Dallas to Phoenix in honor of Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to earn a pilot’s license in 1921. The airline hosted the Bessie Coleman Aviation All-Stars tour this week to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Coleman performing the first public

By Andy Rose, CNN Dallas rapper Trapboy Freddy was arrested on a federal gun possession warrant Wednesday at his home — where police said a tiger cub was seized. Trapboy Freddy was arrested on one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, said Chayna Humphrey, a spokesperson with the Bureau of Alcohol,

By Rebekah Riess and Zoe Sottile, CNN A woman hiking with a group of friends in the Columbia River Gorge outside Portland, Oregon, died on Friday after falling approximately 100 feet and suffering a head injury, say officials. Deputies from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and firefighters from the Corbett Fire District responded to a

By Chuck Johnston and Zoe Sottile, CNN Eight students were injured after their school bus crashed on Friday in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, says the school district. The bus was carrying students from New Heights Middle School and Jefferson Elementary School when it crashed at 4:00 p.m. in the Jefferson area, according to a Facebook

By Laura Studley and Zoe Sottile, CNN Officials have identified four people killed in the McKinney Fire in California as residents of the same community. Kathleen Shoopman, 73, Charles Kays, 79, Judith Kays, 82, and John Cogan, 76, were all residents of Klamath River, the Siskiyou County Sheriff said in a tweet on Friday. Officials

By Wayne Sterling and Zoe Sottile, CNN The injured Little League player who fractured his skull after falling from his bunk bed on Monday continues to face challenges in his recovery, including swelling which may block his vision. Doctors told the parents swelling in 12-year-old Easton “Tank” Oliverson’s face has increased, according to an Instagram

By Zoe Sottile, CNN If you see a squirrel splayed on its belly, you might be worried for the critter’s welfare. But don’t worry: It’s just “splooting,” as officials say — and it’s perfectly healthy. The term splooting exploded on the internet shortly after the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation posted about

By Zoe Sottile and Tina Burnside, CNN A partial foot inside a shoe was found floating in one of the deepest hot springs in Yellowstone Park, prompting an investigation by the National Park Service. An employee made the discovery Tuesday, according to a statement from Morgan Warthin, public affairs officer for Yellowstone National Park. The

By Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN Samson Williams was working in the mortgage lending industry in 2014 when a colleague convinced him to invest in cryptocurrency. At the time, Williams didn’t know much about cryptocurrency but decided to invest a little more than $200 to see where it would get him. “No one knew what it

By Paradise Afshar, CNN A 25-year-old wildland firefighter was killed after being struck by a tree while battling the Rum Creek Fire in Oregon, officials said Friday, marking the second fire personnel death in the state this month. Logan Taylor of Talent, Oregon, was critically injured Thursday, according to a joint statement from the Oregon

By Dakin Andone, CNN Oklahoma will soon begin executing death row inmates at a pace of about one man per month, with plans to put to death 25 prisoners over the next two years despite cries by critics and experts who point not only to outstanding questions of the mental fitness or possible innocence of

By Caroll Alvarado, CNN Uber driver Fritz Sam is being hailed a “hero” by the company’s CEO after he sprang into action and helped evacuate residents from a burning building in New York City. Sam was driving his passenger, Jemimah Wei, through Brooklyn to the airport around 8 a.m. on Wednesday when they came across

By Chuck Johnston, CNN A county NAACP chapter in northern Alabama is calling for the resignation of a school board member and local Republican Party chairman, who says his sharing on social media of a GOP elephant logo that included KKK imagery was unintended. The Facebook page of the Lawrence County Republican Party had included

By Yenny Sanchez, CNN US Customs and Border Protection officers in Ohio seized three shipments of counterfeit watches and jewelry worth an estimated street value of nearly $7 million, officials said. The officers intercepted the shipments from Hong Kong in Cincinnati, CBP said in a news release earlier this month. They contained more than 800

By Amanda Musa, CNN A pregnant woman in Louisiana alleges that she was denied an abortion despite the fetus being diagnosed with a fatal condition. At about 10 weeks, Nancy Davis’ baby was diagnosed with acrania, a rare congenital disorder in which a fetus’ skull does not form inside of the womb, according to a

By Paradise Afshar, CNN A Utah judge granted a preliminary injunction Friday allowing transgender girls to compete on girls’ teams, but they will not be automatically eligible to play. The decision “will allow transgender girls to compete on girls’ teams only when it is fair, as confidentially determined by a legislature-created commission,” according to the

By Jade Gordon, CNN The city council in Vincent, Alabama, voted to abolish its police department on Thursday, at least temporarily, two months after one of the officers sent a text message containing racist language to a colleague. The council had previously voted to dissolve the three-member police department over the texts that were sent

By Claudia Dominguez and Sharif Paget, CNN A massive boatyard in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts on Friday filled the skies above Buzzard’s Bay with black smoke and damaged dozens of boats and cars as well as several structures, CNN affiliate WCVB reported. “We had a tremendous amount of fire in the main building and surrounding buildings,” Mattapoisett

By Paul Vercammen, CNN Doreen Jansen looked at the brown hills from her Thousand Oaks home. “My plants are suffering,” Jansen said. “The animals, coyotes, rattlesnakes; they are all out in droves. It’s dry and unusually hot.” The signs of drought are everywhere here, from the shrinking lakes to the deathly drained color of trees

By Chuck Johnston, CNN Eighty-five suspects were arrested and over $12.8 million in drugs were confiscated in a two-year undercover drug trafficking investigation, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said on Friday. The investigation entitled, “Operation Flying Ice,” stemmed from a September 2020 search warrant in Winter Haven, Florida, that netted just one pound of methamphetamine.

By Jennifer Henderson, CNN Two Ohio fraternity members have been sentenced in the hazing death of Bowling Green State University student Stone Foltz. Jacob Krinn and Troy Henricksen were sentenced to 42 days in jail, followed by 28 days of house arrest, and placed on two years of probation with conditions, according to a release

By Justin Gamble and Virginia Langmaid, CNN A Maryland couple has sued a local real estate appraiser and an online mortgage loan provider, alleging that the housing appraisal they received was unfairly low due to their race, in violation of the Fair Housing Act, after a second appraisal returned a result nearly $300,000 higher. Nathan

By Zoe Sottile, CNN An alligator blocking his doorstep was no obstacle for one Texas dad making sure his daughter got to her first day of middle school on time. Mike Trinh, who owns and operates a seafood restaurant in Houston, thought his youngest daughter Caitlyn was joking when she told him there was an

By Devon M. Sayers, Alta Spells and Chuck Johnston, CNN A suspect is in custody who is suspected of defacing the city’s rainbow crosswalks with swastikas on two separate occasions, according to TaSheena Brown, spokeswoman with the Atlanta Police Department. According to police, investigators went to an apartment of the suspect and tried to make

By Rebekah Riess, CNN Texas school districts have begun receiving donated posters and framed copies of the national motto, “In God We Trust,” that they will now be required to display in accordance with a new state law. The law says a public elementary or secondary school or an institution of higher education “must” display

By Jason Kravarik, Natasha Chen and Cheri Mossburg, CNN Vanessa Bryant, widow of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, broke down at times Friday as she testified that she experiences panic attacks and anxiety over the possibility of seeing photos from the 2020 helicopter crash that killed her husband, their teenage daughter and seven others. On the

By Jay Croft and Amanda Watts, CNN A woman was struck and killed by lightning Thursday while picking up her child from school in central Florida, police said. Lightning also struck the child, who was taken to a hospital for treatment. The incident occurred at Keeth Elementary School in Winter Springs, about 15 miles north

By Jason Hanna, Jason Carroll and Carolyn Sung, CNN After just this week fracturing his skull in a fall from a bunk bed, Easton “Tank” Oliverson understandably will miss his team’s opening game Friday at the Little League World Series. But, oh, did that 12-year-old still want to play. “When he asked what day it

Essay by Dana Bash, CNN In the weeks leading up to Chanukah last year, my then-10-year-old son told me that he thought he wanted a Jewish star necklace. It was a rather soft ask, so I quietly let it go. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the idea of him wearing

By Andy Rose and Aya Elamroussi, CNN A ban on teachers displaying Pride materials in classrooms or writing their pronouns in email signatures will remain in place in a Wisconsin public school district following a contentious board meeting during which parents and students criticized the policy. The prohibition is based on Kettle Moraine School District’s

By Hannah Sarisohn and Omar Jimenez, CNN A Chicago police sergeant was charged Thursday with felony official misconduct and aggravated battery six weeks after video surfaced showing him holding a 14-year-old boy in the prone position with his knee while he was off-duty in Park Ridge, Illinois, according to Park Ridge police. Michael Vitellaro, 49,

By Stephanie Elam and Mike Valerio, CNN More than 4 million people facing Southern California’s prolonged drought have been asked to suspend outdoor watering for 15 days next month as officials work to fix a leak in a 36-mile “critical imported water pipeline” from the Colorado River. The restriction is set to start September 6

By Aya Elamroussi, CNN The remains of a 23-year-old from Utah who was killed during a bombing mission in World War II have been identified, a federal agency said Thursday. Elvin L. Phillips, who was a sergeant for the US Army Air Forces, was a gunner on board an aircraft that crashed north of Bucharest,

By Sonia Moghe, CNN Twenty years after she denied to a grand jury that R. Kelly had sex with her as a girl and recorded some of their encounters, the now-grown woman took the stand Thursday to reverse her testimony. Speaking in federal court in Chicago under the pseudonym Jane, the 37-year-old only looked at

By Elizabeth Wolfe, Amy Simonson and Rob Frehse, CNN Three men have been indicted in the beating death of imprisoned Boston gangster and convicted murderer James “Whitey” Bulger, prosecutors announced Thursday. Fotios “Freddy” Geas, 55, Paul “Pauly” DeCologero, 48, and Sean McKinnon, 36, were charged Wednesday with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death

By Nouran Salahieh, Natasha Chen and Jason Kravarik, CNN Christopher Chester, who lost his wife and daughter in the helicopter crash that also killed Kobe Bryant and six others, took the stand Thursday, testifying he lives in fear that the graphic photos taken of his loved ones’ bodies may resurface one day. “I’m fearful all

By Amir Vera and Zenebou Sylla, CNN A third Black woman has been arrested and charged for making “anti-White” statements in connection with the beating of a White woman in New York, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz. Jahnaiya Williams, 19, was charged with assault as a hate crime and faces other charges, a

By Kiely Westhoff and Emma Tucker, CNN Two men and a teenage girl wanted in connection with an attempted robbery and fatal assault of a New York taxi driver have been arrested, according to a New York Police Department spokesperson. The men turned themselves into police Wednesday on allegations of assault and other crimes, and

By Laura Studley and Tina Burnside, CNN Three people were killed after two planes crashed mid-air over the Watsonville Municipal Airport in California on Thursday afternoon, according to Mayor Eduardo Montesino. A single-engine Cessna 152 and a twin-engine Cessna 340 collided during their final decent, according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration. One

By Amir Vera, Jason Carroll, Carolyn Sung and Matt Foster, CNN Easton “Tank” Oliverson is expected to make a full recovery after falling from a bunk bed and fracturing his skull, according to doctors at Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital in Danville, Pennsylvania. Easton, 12, was set to play in the Little League World Series

By AJ Willingham, CNN Life would be much more simple with a few directions. A status bar, for instance, to remind you to take care of yourself. Perhaps a few clues about other people’s intentions. Oh, and it wouldn’t hurt to have a place to experiment with it all, free from real-world consequences and the

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN Shila rushes into the living room when she hears her nephew scream. He’s just stepped on a staple that was jutting out of the damp floor in their Maryland apartment, and his toe is bleeding. “The floor is very dangerous,” Shila tells CNN as she tries to comfort the 2-year-old

By Rebekah Riess and Holly Yan, CNN A brain-eating amoeba typically found in freshwater lakes and rivers may have killed a child in what would be Nebraska’s first known death from the parasite, health officials said. The child, whose age was not disclosed, died this week in Douglas County, its health department said. The child

By Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN Amber Escudero-Kontostathis is the only survivor of a deadly lightning strike outside the White House earlier this month, and despite going through something so life-changing and suffering nerve damage, she said she’s recovering quickly. Escudero-Kontostathis, 28, and three other victims were riding out a thunderstorm underneath a tree in Lafayette Park

By Nicki Brown, Jason Hanna and Holly Yan, CNN The man accused of stabbing award-winning author Salman Rushdie and injuring another speaker on stage in New York state last week pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault. Hadi Matar, 24, of New Jersey, made the plea in a courtroom

By Scottie Andrew, CNN The Hawaii most tourists see is one of azure waters and towering resorts, of “aloha” and “ohana” and hula. But as it exists now, the powerful tourism industry dictates the lives of Native Hawaiians, often for the worse, said Kyle Kajihiro, a lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa and

By Paradise Afshar and Kacey Cherry, CNN A man accused of killing at least two Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will remain in custody as he awaits trial, a judge ruled Wednesday. Muhammad Syed, 51, faces murder charges in the killings of Aftab Hussein, 41, and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, which police say occurred

By Amir Vera and Taylor Romine, CNN Frederick Woods was 24 years old in 1976 when he and two other men kidnapped a bus full of children in northern California in what would become the largest mass kidnapping in US history. Now 70, Woods is set to become a free man after he was granted

By Nouran Salahieh and Jason Kravarik, CNN In court Wednesday, a Los Angeles County fire captain denied using photos from the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others as a “party trick” when he showed the images during an awards ceremony cocktail hour. Fire Captain Tony Imbrenda’s testimony was part of a federal

By Taylor Romine and Amir Vera, CNN The cause of death of actress Anne Heche was ruled an accident Wednesday by the Los Angeles County Department of the Medical Examiner-Coroner. Heche’s car crashed into a Los Angeles home and erupted into flames on August 5. After the accident, Heche experienced a “severe anoxic brain injury,”

By Sonia Moghe, CNN The girl allegedly seen in multiple child pornography tapes from the late 1990s having sex with R. Kelly is expected to testify the singer had sex with her when she was 14 and recorded some of their hundreds of sexual encounters, prosecutors said at the start of Kelly and two associates’

By Amanda Watts, CNN An “irate parent” was arrested after she boarded a Georgia school bus and discharged a can of pepper spray — exposing two dozen students onboard, according to the Glynn County Schools. A school bus was picking up students in Brunswick, Georgia, on Tuesday morning when the parent of a Goodyear Elementary

By Brad Parks, CNN Former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane, who was sentenced last month to two and a half years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, has been ordered to report to the Federal Correctional Institution Englewood in Colorado on August 30, according to a judgment order filed Tuesday. US District Judge

By Chris Boyette, CNN A tour plane carrying six French tourists and a pilot crashed into Lake Powell in Utah Saturday, killing two people and injuring five others, officials said. Witnesses called the National Park Service Dispatch to report the crash around 5:20 p.m., the Kane County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Monday. The

By Rebekah Riess, CNN A Wisconsin man was arrested and charged in the 1992 killings of two people after his DNA was obtained during a traffic stop last month and matched evidence from the crime scene, according to a criminal complaint. Tony G. Haase, 51, faces two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in connection to

By Jason Hanna and Aya Elamroussi, CNN With temperatures in parts of California expected to exceed 100 degrees Wednesday, Golden State residents are being asked to conserve electricity to ensure the power grid isn’t pushed over the edge. The manager of 80% of the state’s power grid — the California Independent System Operator — issued

By Kevin Dotson, Amir Vera and Matt Foster, CNN The 12-year-old player in the Little League World Series who fell from a bunk bed is no longer under sedation and even received a supportive video message Wednesday from his favorite Major League Baseball player, according to an Instagram account set-up to provide updates on his

By Amir Vera and Jamiel Lynch, CNN The co-pilot who fell to his death after getting off an aircraft mid-flight in North Carolina may have been sick and was described as “visibly upset” prior to exiting the plane without a parachute, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation and Safety Board. Two people

By Jason Kravarik and Nouran Salahieh, CNN Deputies responding to the helicopter crash that killed basketball star Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others had no authority to take photos of the crash scene, a Los Angeles County Sheriff captain said in court Tuesday. The testimony was part of a federal civil lawsuit brought

By David Williams, Caroll Alvarado and Jamiel Lynch, CNN A group of high school football players in northern Georgia jumped out of their cars while on the way to school to help free an injured woman who was trapped after a wreck. Treyvon Adams, 16, was driving to school Friday morning with his teammates Antwion

By Mark Morales, CNN A 40-year-old man was indicted Tuesday for allegedly stabbing two homeless men while they slept in separate incidents, killing one of them. Trevon Murphy is charged with one count of murder in the second degree, one count of attempted murder in the second degree and one count of assault in the

By Justin Gamble, CNN A Black firefighter in upstate New York alleges a commanding officer pressured him to attend a private party in July that contained racist imagery. Jerrod Jones, a 14-year veteran of the Rochester Fire Department, filed a notice of claim August 11 saying the private party occurred in a Rochester home in

By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN More human skeletal remains were discovered at Lake Mead’s Swim Beach area Monday night, officials said, marking the third time authorities have reported finding remains at the beach amid the lake’s rapidly receding shoreline. So far this year, authorities have recovered human remains at the lake five times, three of which

By Jason Hanna, CNN Oklahoma’s governor on Tuesday ordered that the scheduled September execution of death row inmate Richard Glossip be delayed until December — a move that Glossip’s attorneys, who argue he’s innocent, say will allow an appellate court to consider a new hearing. This is the fourth time Glossip has received a stay

By Raja Razek, CNN The brother of a US service member killed in a terrorist attack outside Afghanistan’s Kabul airport in August of last year has died by suicide, according to his mother Shana Chappell. “The ripple effect! I lost two sons in less than one year, both of them in the month of August!”

By Amir Vera, CNN The fate of the Uvalde school district’s police chief could be decided next week now that the school board has rescheduled a meeting to consider firing Pete Arredondo for August 24, the district announced Tuesday. Arredondo was placed on unpaid leave following his highly criticized handling of the May 24 massacre

By Sonia Moghe, CNN A jury has been selected and sworn in for the Chicago federal child pornography and obstruction trial for R. Kelly and two of his former associates, Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown. The jury is made up of four men and eight women. There are six alternate jurors, five women and one man.

By Virginia Langmaid, CNN A civil and human rights advocacy organization has filed suit against officials in Lexington, Mississippi following alleged racist and homophobic remarks from a now-fired police chief, and what plaintiffs allege is targeting behavior from the police department. The suit was filed “to demand protection for Lexington’s largely Black population from the

By Amanda Watts and Jason Hanna, CNN A 10-year-old boy had part of his leg amputated after a shark bit him while he was snorkeling off the Florida Keys over the weekend, his family says. Jameson Reeder Jr. was bitten by a shark on Saturday, and authorities were called to Looe Key reef to help