Author: Milton Fernandez

U.S. President Joe Biden designated a new national monument Tuesday to memorialize the racist 1950s lynching of Emmett Till, and challenged Americans to confront their dark history or risk repeating the past. “We should know about our country. We should know everything,” Biden said at a White House ceremony attended by lawmakers and Till family members, including the last surviving witness to his abduction, prior to torture and murder. The monument honors Till, a 14-year-old Black boy snatched by white men in 1955 after he allegedly whistled at a white shopkeeper’s wife in Mississippi. It also honors his mother Mamie…

A Mississippi environmental regulator has denied claims that the state agency he leads discriminated against the capital city of Jackson in its distribution of federal funds for wastewater treatment. In a recently unearthed letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Executive Director Christopher Wells wrote that the NAACP has “failed to allege a single fact to support” its argument that the agency discriminated against Jackson. He said he believed the ongoing civil rights investigation into the matter was politically motivated. “Jackson received a loan for every completed application it submitted,” Wells wrote. “And, because the…

State offices remained open in Mississippi during the Juneteenth federal holiday, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans, almost two months after officials closed state offices to celebrate the Confederate Memorial Day state holiday on April 24. Shuwaski Young, a Democratic candidate for secretary of state, criticized the decision in a Juneteenth statement. “In Mississippi, Confederate Memorial Day and Confederate Heritage Month are recognized by the governor and statewide offices are closed—even though these so-called holidays are not federal holidays,” he said. “But on Juneteenth, a federal holiday, statewide offices remained open today. Not closing all state offices on Juneteenth…

Alexei Orohovsky, a 16-year-old who grew up in Hattiesburg, won a gold medal in the 12th USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson. Orohovsky received the medal in the Junior Males category at the USA IBC Awards Gala Friday night at Thalia Mara Hall. “I am truly honored to have been awarded the gold medal when there are so many deserving dancers,” said Orohovsky. “This has been the most incredible experience, and I am so thankful to everyone that helped me get to where I am. It is a dream come true!” USA IBC announced the list of 14 finalists on Thursday…

Pearl police are investigating after shots were fired during a carnival at the Outlets of Mississippi. According to police, there were several fights at the carnival on Saturday, June 24. During the fights, someone fired a gun into the air. Police said no one was injured, and the incident was not a shootout. Police cleared the area with the assistance of Rankin County deputies. No arrests have been made at this time. Pearl Mayor Jake Windham spoke to officials with the Outlets and asked the carnival hours be shortened significantly or canceled. He said Pearl police will be in the…

Renters be warned: competition in the New York City market is red-hot again (if it even went down) as the spring inventory fails to keep up with demand. A new report out Monday from rental listing platform StreetEasy found Brooklyn to be the most competitive borough among renters. Average listings received nearly 100% more inquiries last month compared with listings back in March 2019, according to the site’s Market Report. Citywide, that average hovers around 70%. What’s driving interest in Brooklyn? The increase in new housing could be part of it. StreetEasy found that three out of every five new developments…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —Lawmakers in California’s Democratic super-majority state Legislature are divided when it comes to enhancing prison time and penalties for fentanyl dealers, an issue highlighted Thursday in a special hearing on fentanyl-related bills. Thursday’s special hearing in the Assembly Public Safety Committee was prompted by mounting pressure on the committee that is stacked with progressive Democrats. The committee’s chairman, Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, earlier this year announced he would not hear any more fentanyl-related proposals, which were written by moderate Democrats and Republicans, in order to have a hearing on the issue later this summer. Jones-Sawyer faced backlash from a…

According to the US Secretary of State, “there will be territories for which Ukraine is determined to fight, and there may be territories that they may decide to return in another way.” WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken argues that Kyiv may try to return some territories not on the battlefield, but in other ways. “I think that there will be territories in Ukraine that Ukraine is determined to fight for, and there may be territories that they may decide to return in another way,” he said Thursday during a hearing in the appropriations committee in the House of…

Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Holdings PLC (LSE:OCTP, OTCQB:OCTHF) (OCTP) said it has submitted a Phase 1 trial application for its lead programme (OCT461201) to the UK Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Wales Research Ethics Committee (REC), in what the company described as a “milestone” as it moves from a pre-clinical stage to a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company. The combined clinical trials application, which was made in preparation for a review meeting to be held on 11 January 2023, follows the successful completion of the company’s pre-clinical work on OCT461201 under its £2.6mln contract research agreement with Evotec subsidiary Aptuit…

Frankfurt, Brussels, London (15/12 – 40). Shortly after being re-elected in Kazakhstan’s presidential snap election on November 20, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev held a series of state visits to Russia and the European countries, building partnership, advocating peace and cooperation, and cementing Kazakhstan’s position as the new diplomatic center between East, West and Asia. President Tokayev has called for peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia during the Collective Security Council session of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) on November 23 in Yerevan, Armenia. The meeting gathered Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko,…