Author: Reporter

Violence and mass shootings often surge in the summer months, especially around the Fourth of July, historically one of the deadliest days of the year. A flurry of shootings around the holiday a year ago left more than a dozen people dead and over 60 wounded. Just two years ago, another mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade left seven people dead near Chicago. The mother of a 10-year-old boy left paralyzed by the attack said in July that her family would not go to this year’s parade, which returned for the first time since the shooting. “I...

Wrecking equipment began demolishing the building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where a gunman’s rampage in 2018 ended with 17 people dead. As the rumble of destruction echoed, people in the community were determined to explain exactly why ripping the building down was so meaningful, and so crucial. From former student Bryan Lequerique: “It’s something that we all need. It’s time to bring an end to this very hurtful chapter in everyone’s lives.” And Eric Garner, a broadcasting and film teacher, said: “For 6½ years we have been looking at this monument to mass murder...

With eleventh-hour guidance from the state, Maine gun retailers on August 9 began requiring a three-day wait period for gun purchases under one of the new safety laws adopted following the state’s deadliest mass shooting. It is an example that Wisconsin could follow. Wisconsin could consider implementing a mandatory waiting period for gun purchases, similar to Maine’s new 72-hour waiting period, as part of broader gun safety reforms. Maine joined a dozen other states with similar laws, requiring that buyers wait 72 hours to complete a purchase and retrieve a weapon. The law is among several gun-related bills adopted...

The Library of Congress unveiled an eclectic new exhibit in June drawing on the institution’s vast historical archives, designed to make the library a more popular and accessible destination for visitors and tourists. “Collecting Memories” — which opens to the public on June 13 — is an intensely curated exhibit that brings together items as varied as ancient Hebrew religious texts, the contents of President Abraham Lincoln’s pockets when he was assassinated in 1865, the first sketches of Spider-Man and videos of Carlos Santana in concert. “These items are an expression of our collective history,” said Carla Hayden, the...

Exploring the cosmos makes for happy employees, federal workers like to work from home like everyone else, and an agency that has struggled with low morale is showing improvement. Those were some of the highlights of a survey released in May of more than a million federal workers. In a city that revolves around the federal government, the annual Best Places to Work survey is a closely watched annual event worthy of bragging rights — provided you were one of the agencies such as NASA or the Government Accountability Office that topped the survey. The survey used information from...