CNN – National

By Scottie Andrew, CNN Despite perfecting the coconut-and-caramel combo of Samoas and the chocolate-covered breath mint that is a Thin Mint, it took decades before the bakers behind Girl Scout Cookies brought us their own version of a fudgy brownie. It’s ironic, considering that an entire rank of young scouts are known as Brownies. But

By Jason Hanna, CNN A line drive struck Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Chris Bassitt in the face Tuesday in Chicago, dropping him to his knees for several minutes before he was carted off the field on his way to a hospital. White Sox outfielder Brian Goodwin hit a pitch right back at Bassitt in the

By Melissa Alonso and Joe Sutton, CNN Quinnipiac University officials are cracking down on students who have not met the university deadline for providing their Covid-19 vaccine information with fines and suspension of Wi-Fi access. On Monday, officials at the Hamden, Connecticut, university emailed 600 students who had not submitted their vaccination status before the

By Eric Levenson, CNN John Gotti. Whitey Bulger. R. Kelly? The disgraced R&B singer’s federal trial begins Wednesday in New York as he is accused of racketeering, a charge famously applied to mob leaders like Gotti and Bulger. Robert Sylvester Kelly, 54, faces a bevy of accusations: one count of racketeering with 14 underlying acts,

By Sonia Moghe, CNN The R&B singer R. Kelly was a “predator” who used his celebrity status to lure victims to be abused, a prosecutor said in opening statements of his federal trial in New York Wednesday, calling him the center of a criminal enterprise that operated for decades. “This case is about a predator,”

By Lauren M. Johnson, CNN Only one school district in Utah has so far approved a mask mandate for students. The Grand County School District Commissioners voted Tuesday in favor of the mandate that requires masks for 30 days starting on Thursday, the first day of school for grades K-6. At the meeting, the public

By Lauren M. Johnson, CNN Detectives in California have made an arrest in a 40-year-old unsolved killing after using modern DNA technology to test evidence from the case file. Sonia Carmen Herok Stone was a 30-year-old single mother living with her daughter in Monterey County when she was killed in 1981. She had worked as

By Leyla Santiago and Mallory Simon, CNN Florida’s State Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday at an emergency meeting to recommend investigations into two school districts whose mask mandates defy Gov. Ron DeSantis. The board authorized the state education commissioner “to take all legal steps” against Alachua and Broward counties for requiring people in their

By Steve Almasy, CNN Trenton Dale, who has driven a school bus in Atlanta for 23 years, loves his job. “To see the kids grow up and graduate, I mean, that’s the most beautiful sight you will see,” he told CNN affiliate WXIA earlier this month. But Dale, like other bus drivers across the country,

By Christina Carrega, CNN A licensed pharmacist was arrested in Chicago on Tuesday for allegedly selling dozens of authentic Covid-19 vaccination cards on eBay, the Justice Department said in a news release. Tangtang Zhao, 34, allegedly sold 125 Covid-19 vaccination cards from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to 11 different buyers for

By Gregory Lemos and Steve Almasy, CNN A 13-year-old Mississippi girl has died just one day after testing positive for coronavirus, according to Smith County School District Superintendent Nick Hillman. The girl wasn’t feeling well last Thursday and her mother kept her home, Hillman said. The teenager tested positive Friday and was taken to a

By Ben Burnstein, CNN The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan is particularly disheartening to Americans who fought there. Across 20 years of combat, almost 800,000 troops deployed to the war zone — many of them more than once. Images of the American withdrawal and questions about the war’s legacy now aggravate long-held frustrations that have been