DEVOS IS ASKED AGAIN ABOUT STRUGGLING SCHOOLS
While attending a robotics competition in her home state of Michigan this past week, Education Secretary Betsy Devos was asked by a reporter if she planned to visit some of the struggling schools in the area — the same question that journalist Lesley Stahl asked her during a “60 Minutes” interview a month ago. Her answer then — “Maybe I should” — was highly criticized.
Her answer Friday was more resolute. “I’m not making any school visits today,” Devos told WDIV Local 4 News reporter Priya Mann, who had asked if Devos would visit Detroit public schools, some of which were near the event’s location.
A staff member interjected when Mann asked another question, saying Devos would answer more questions later.
She spent a lot of time with students from Detroit and Ann Arbor, but media reports also say she did not answer reporters’ questions about the current state of education in Michigan, where more than three dozen schools, the majority of which were in Detroit, faced threats of closure last year because of low test scores. Dozens more Detroit schools were later added to the list of underperforming schools.
Struggle to recover from hurrican reignites calls for Puerto Rico’s statehood, independence. Talk of independence feels distant to Puerto Ricans still recovering seven months after Hurricane Maria, the worst natural disaster to strike their tropical island.
But what Puerto Rico is to the United States has everything to do with why power restoration has been slow, why millions in federal dollars for reconstruction have yet to be disbursed and why so many felt disrespected when President Donald Trump shot paper towels like 3-pointers into a crowd of storm survivors.
The humanitarian crisis created by Hurricane Maria has added fuel to an ongoing power struggle for the island’s future: Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and his New Progressive Party advocate statehood as the solution to Puerto Rico’s second-class status. His opponents call for greater autonomy from the United States and, for some, eventual independence.
Missing Oregon trucker emerges from wilderness after four days.
LA GRANDE, trucker who was missing for four days in a snow-covered part of Oregon after his GPS mapping device sent him up the wrong road walked 36 miles and emerged safely Saturday from a remote and rugged region of the state.
Jacob Cartwright, 22, showed up near the town of La Grande, where an intensive search involving aircraft had been taking place since he went missing Tuesday.
Cartwright was being evaluated in an emergency room but appeared OK, said nursing supervisor Danita Thamert at Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande, in eastern Oregon.
“He looks to be pretty good,” she said. “He’s a big boy. He kept moving and stayed warm enough. So it doesn’t look like he’s going to have too many injuries.”
New York hosts one of biggest U.S. tributes to Sikh culture.
» New York is hosting NEW YORK
one of the biggest tributes to Sikh culture in America — a parade down Madison Avenue capped by a sea of turbans.
The Saturday afternoon gathering of thousands of ethnic Sikhs is officially called a “meditation celebration.”
But it’s mostly a boisterous walk to live music, with participants wearing the stylish, multicolored clothing of their culture. On the sidelines of the annual event, vendors offer homemade Indian food.
The Sikh religion started more than 500 years ago in India’s Punjab region. Many left after a 1984 genocide.
In New York, Sikhs are most visible in the borough of Queens.
— Denver Post wire services