“We did something that is long overdue,” President Biden said on Saturday.Kenny Holston for The New York Times
“A $1 trillion infrastructure bill is heading to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
With nearly $600 billion in new federal aid to improve highways, bridges, dams, public transit, rail, ports, airports, water quality and broadband over 10 years, the legislation is a once-in-a-generation chance to overhaul the nation’s public works system. This is where the states want billions spent.
The bill also designates $47 billion for climate resilience, the largest amount of money ever spent by the U.S. to prepare the nation to withstand the effects of climate change.
But still in limbo on Capitol Hill is a second, larger bill — the $1.85 trillion social welfare and climate change legislation. A deal finally materialized on Friday when the Congressional Black Caucus proposed passing the infrastructure bill immediately and holding a separate vote on the social bill in mid-November. Here’s who crossed party lines.
Biden cast the victory as critical to putting Americans to work on long-neglected projects and central to his strategy for competing with China.” Read more at New York Times
Climate activists marching through central Glasgow.Andrew Testa for The New York Times
“Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in Glasgow to call for urgent climate action.
According to organizers, more than 100,000 people poured into the streets of the host city of the climate talks, which are heading into their second and final week. The protests brought into focus the gender and generation gap at the Glasgow talks: Those with the power to make decisions are mostly old and male. Those who are angriest about the pace of climate action are mostly young and female.
What makes the climate movement’s generational divide so pointed is that world leaders have been meeting and talking about the need to address climate change since before most of the protesters were born, with few results.” Read more at New York Times
A federal appeals panel issued a temporary stay on President Biden’s vaccine mandate for large employers.Meridith Kohut for The New York Times
“A federal appeals court in Louisiana temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s Covid vaccine mandate for large companies.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a temporary stay to a group of businesses, religious groups and several states who argued that the administration had overstepped its authority when it directed big businesses to require their employees to be vaccinated by January. The judges cited ‘grave statutory and constitutional issues with the mandate.’
Despite signs that the economy is improving and the virus is waning, many Americans seem stuck in a pandemic hangover of pessimism. The malaise helped fuel a backlash against Democrats at the polls last week.
Starting tomorrow, foreign travelers will be allowed to enter the U.S., as long as they are vaccinated, for the first time in 18 months. Here’s what visitors need to know and how to prepare for the holiday travel season.” Read more at New York Times
Day 2 of the Astroworld music festival was canceled after eight people died on Friday night.Annie Mulligan for The New York Times
“Officials in Houston are investigating what led to a crowd surge at a music festival that left eight people dead on Friday night.
Hundreds were injured when the crowd began pushing toward the front of the stage during a performance by the rapper Travis Scott. Panic and then desperation spread through the crowd of 50,000 mostly young people. The eight people who died ranged in ages from 14 to 27, according to city officials.
The crush of the crowd was so intense that it left no room to move, those who attended the Astroworld music festival said. ‘It was like hell,’ a 17-year-old concertgoer said. ‘Everybody was just in the back, trying to rush to the front.’” Read more at New York Times
Former President Donald Trump in early January.Pete Marovich for The New York Times
“An Atlanta district attorney’s criminal investigation into election interference by Donald Trump and his allies is heating up.
The prosecutor, Fani Willis of Fulton County, is said to be moving toward convening a special grand jury. Willis opened her inquiry in February and her office has been consulting with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. But her progress has been slowed in part by the delays in the panel’s fact gathering.
Her inquiry is seen by legal experts as potentially perilous for the former president. In January, Trump asked Georgia’s secretary of state to reverse the state’s election result.
Separately, the F.B.I. searched the home of the Project Veritas’s founder as part of a continuing inquiry into the theft of a diary from President Biden’s daughter.” Read more at New York Times
“At least 98 people were killed when a tanker truck exploded Friday night after a crash in the capital of Sierra Leone.
Many of the victims were motorcycle riders and taxi drivers who had been trying to collect leaked fuel at the time of the blast, in the Wellington area of the capital, Freetown, according to an official from the country’s disaster management agency. A witness to the explosion’s aftermath said it had also killed people nearby outside buildings and in vehicles.
The death toll may rise, the official, Mohamed Lamrana Bah, said, because more people were taken to hospitals in critical condition, though he could not specify a number.” Read more at Boston Globe
“The entire student body of a Pennsylvania junior-senior high school has been barred from attending classmates’ hockey games after some students chanted sexually explicit vulgarities at a visiting team’s goalie — the team’s only female player.
During a hockey game last week between the Armstrong River Hawks and the Mars Fighting Planets, a number of Armstrong Junior-Senior High School students began chanting “inappropriateand abusive language” at the Mars goalie, according to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League. On Thursday, the league announced that Armstrong students would be prohibited from attending games for the remainder of the season, including during the playoffs.” Read more at New York Times
Police officers shot Cedric Mifflin during a stop in 2017 after they pulled him over for not wearing a seatbelt.Kenny Holston for The New York Times
“A seatbelt ticket. A cracked taillight. A broken headlight.
These minor offenses resulted in the deaths of unarmed motorists at the hands of police officers. In a Times investigation of traffic stops that left more than 400 people dead over the past five years, the police justified the shootings by arguing that the vehicle was a weapon.
In about 250 cases, The Times found that police officers had fired into vehicles that they claimed posed a threat. Relative to the population, Black motorists were overrepresented among those killed.
Over the past five years, nine officers have been fatally run over, pinned or dragged by drivers in vehicles. But in many instances, local police officers, state troopers and sheriff’s deputies put themselves at risk. Some officers who fatally shot motorists didn’t appear to be in any jeopardy at all, The Times investigation showed.” Read more at New York Times
Runners cross the Verrazano Narrows Bridge during the 2019 marathon.Benjamin Norman for The New York Times
“Runners — all 30,000 of you — take your marks.
The 50th running of the New York City Marathon gets underway this morning, a year after the competition was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The 26.2-mile race begins on Staten Island and loops through Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx before ending in Central Park in Manhattan. The first competitors start racing at 8 a.m.
Among the star runners will be Kenenisa Bekele, arguably the greatest distance runner ever, and Molly Seidel, an Olympic bronze medalist and crowd favorite.” Read more at New York Times
“All in the Family debuted 50 years ago and was the most popular show on television for years. The groundbreaking series tackled discussions of racism, women's rights, the Vietnam War, homosexuality, rape and more. As part of our continuing 50 Years Of NPR series, here's a look back at the show's continuing influence.” Read more at NPR