CNN – National

By Kiely Westhoff, CNN Laura Kavanagh, who became the first female commissioner of the Fire Department of New York Thursday, hopes her appointment will pave the way for other women to hold the role in the future. “This moment — me being first — only matters if I am not the last,” said Kavanagh. Having

By Melissa Alonso, CNN The Miami Beach City Commission on Wednesday voted unanimously to prohibit discriminatory practices “based on the texture or style of a person’s hair,” according to a news release. The new ordinance bans discrimination based on a person’s hair when seeking housing, employment, public services, funding or use of facilities across the

By Laura Ly and Eric Levenson, CNN A Massachusetts man was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the murder of Vanessa Marcotte, a 27-year-old Google employee who was killed after she went for a walk in 2016, prosecutors announced Wednesday. Angelo Colon-Ortiz, 36, of Worcester, won’t be eligible for parole for at

By Leah Asmelash, CNN Five years ago, a single hashtag sent waves across the world: #MeToo. News of sexual harassment and assault allegations against ubiquitous Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein had just broken. In its wake, countless people came forward with stories of sexual abuse — accusing high-profile men from former president George H. W. Bush

By Zoe Sottile, CNN A Tuesday court ruling has cleared the way for Richmond, Virginia, to remove its last-standing Confederate statue. The statue, standing at the intersection of the city’s Hermitage Road and Laburnum Avenue, depicts A.P. Hill, a Confederate general killed during the Third Battle of Petersburg in the American Civil War. The statue

By Dakin Andone, Shimon Prokupecz and Matthew J. Friedman, CNN In the face of calls for his resignation by victims’ relatives and a major newspaper, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw is not stepping down, saying at a meeting of the agency’s oversight board Thursday that his officers “did not fail the

By Alexandra Meeks, CNN If you’re planning on hitting the streets this Halloween weekend, check your local forecast to make sure the weather won’t spook your plans. While most of the country should be pretty fright-free, there will be some pockets of slightly scary skies in the Pacific Northwest and the Deep South. Here’s what

By Justin Gamble and Dalila-Johari Paul, CNN Four years after a synagogue attack that forever changed her life, Andrea Wedner hopes to inspire the next generation to root out antisemitism amid continued reports of anti-Jewish bigotry. For weeks, Andrea and her husband, Ron Wedner, have been working with students at the Community Day School in

By Nouran Salahieh and Rebekah Riess, CNN The AR-15-style rifle used in the deadly St. Louis school shooting had been taken from the shooter’s possession during an interaction with police about a week before the attack, and it’s unclear how he got it back, police say. The gunman, 19-year-old Orlando Harris, opened fire on Monday,

By Andy Rose and Amanda Jackson, CNN Several people were injured Wednesday at an amusement park in Branson, Missouri, after sections of a train ride derailed from the track, the park said. Six guests and one employee were transported by ambulance to get medical treatment, the Silver Dollar City theme park said in a statement

By Andy Rose, CNN A Tulsa, Oklahoma, police supervisor was placed on administrative duty Thursday after an audio recording revealed the sergeant making inappropriate comments about police brutality protesters during a training session. The comments were made earlier this month during a Citizens Police Academy meeting, where residents can learn more about policing operations and

By Amy Simonson and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN The Department of Justice will not pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against two former Charleston, South Carolina, sheriff’s deputies for their involvement in the in-custody death of Jamal Sutherland, the agency announced Wednesday. Sutherland, 31, died in January 2021 after deputies “forcibly extracted him from his cell”

By Amanda Watts, Andi Babineau and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN The Environmental Protection Agency is recommending that Louisiana health and environmental officials consider relocating students from an elementary school near a chemical plant after the federal agency found the children may be exposed to harmful levels of toxins, according to a letter obtained by CNN. In

By Elizabeth Wolfe and Amanda Musa, CNN After a diver found what appeared to be a human bone in Lake Mead, the park searched the area and uncovered more human remains, the National Park Service confirmed Wednesday. The diver, who is a private business operator at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, found the bone

By Melissa Alonso and Amy Simonson, CNN An Arkansas man is in the hospital — but expected to recover — after he was engulfed by a fireball when he was tased by state police while wearing a backpack with a gallon of gasoline inside, according to a news release from Arkansas State Police. Around 1:18