National-World

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN Anju Tomar drove south down I-65, wondering if she was making a big mistake. She traveled often for work, but had never done something like this — driving across the country, during a pandemic, to meet a man she’d first spoken with for a few hours the night before on

By Alaa Elassar, CNN A Kansas teacher is suing her school district superintendent, board members and principal after being suspended for not using a student’s preferred name. Pamela Ricard, who teaches math at Fort Riley Middle School, says she refuses to use the preferred names and pronouns of transgender and nonbinary students because it violates

By Peter Nickeas, CNN An outside review of Minneapolis’ response to protests in the spring of 2020, following the murder of George Floyd by a city police officer, found widespread chaos and poor communication among city leaders that contributed to an unorganized police response to violent unrest that later spread across the country. The mayor’s

By Rebekah Riess, CNN The Louisiana State Police has hired an outside consultant to conduct a “comprehensive top-to-bottom assessment” of the agency following the 2019 death of Ronald Greene while in the custody. The consultant, The Bowman Group, which specializes in police reform and accountability, will assess “the policies, procedures, practices, culture, and training” of

By Jay Croft, CNN Customs and Border Protection officers in Philadelphia recently made a series of slimy discoveries — some 300 leeches sent from Bulgaria and bound for points across the US. The bloodsuckers were busted as they came across in nine jars, over six air cargo shipments between February 19 and 25. They were

By Brynn Gingras and Faith Karimi, CNN Hours before Russia started bombarding Ukraine, Olesya Ostafieva’s family and friends had thrown her a surprise baby shower in the capital of Kyiv. Heart-shaped pink and white balloons floated around her 25th-floor apartment on February 23, the night of the party. At nearly nine months pregnant with her

By Amanda Musa, CNN A 32-year-old man has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of a couple last weekend in Daytona Beach, Florida, police said. Jean R. Macean is accused of killing Terry Aultman, 48, and Brenda Aultman, 55, whose bodies were found early Sunday morning with multiple stab wounds,

By Faith Karimi, CNN Dan Fischer has always found solace in the ocean. As a child, he loved going to the beach and riding bikes along the coastline with his father, Karl Fischer. So when he lost his dad to pancreatic cancer and his dog of 15 years, Rudy, died shortly afterward, he turned to

By Jay Croft, CNN A North Carolina college student won a nice 19th birthday gift after buying her first lottery ticket: $100,000. Laniah Ashley, a freshman at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, was back home in Clinton for spring break. While out with her grandparents for Chinese food on her birthday Wednesday, she bought

By Natasha Chen and Aya Elamroussi, CNN Friends and loved ones of Stanford University star soccer player Katie Meyer, who died by suicide earlier this month, will pay their respects at a memorial service on Saturday. Meyer, who helped secure the 2019 NCAA women’s soccer championship for her school, was found dead in her dorm