Independent panel suggests new names for 9 Army bases
WASHINGTON — An independent commission on Tuesday recommended new names for nine Army posts that now commemorate Confederate officers.
The recommendations are the latest step in a broader effort by the military to confront racial injustice. And for the first time, Army bases would be named after Black soldiers and women.
Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, is the only base that wouldn’t be named after a person, as it would be known as Fort Liberty.
Fort Gordon in Georgia would get the most wellknown name — commemorating President Dwight Eisenhower, who led Allied forces in Europe in World War II.
Other proposed renamings would honor lesser-known heroes, including several who received the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award.
Fort Polk, in Louisiana, would be renamed for Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a Black Medal of Honor recipient who served in the Army in World War I.
Fort Pickett in Virginia, would be named after Tech Sgt. Van Barfoot, a Medal of Honor recipient who served in World War II.
Fort Rucker in Alabama would be renamed for Chief Warrant Officer Michael Novosel, a Medal of Honor recipient who served in World War II and Vietnam.
Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia would be renamed after Mary Edwards Walker, a doctor who treated soldiers in the Civil War and later received a Medal of Honor.
Fort Hood, Texas, would be renamed in honor of Gen. Richard Cavazos, who served in the Korean War, received the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest military award, and became the Army’s first Hispanic four-star general.
Fort Benning, Georgia, would be named after a married couple: Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, who served in Vietnam and received the Distinguished Service Cross, and his wife Julia, who prompted the creation of teams that do in-person notifications of military casualties.
And Fort Lee, Virginia, would get a hyphenated name — Fort Gregg-Adams — and is the only one that would commemorate someone still alive: Lt. Gen. Arthur J. Gregg, known as a logistics leader. Lt. Col. Charity Adams — the other half of the name — led the first female Black unit of the Army deployed in World War II.
A final report is due to Congress by Oct. 1.
Psaki’s new assignment:
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki has officially landed at MSNBC, where she is expected to make appearances on the network’s cable and streaming programs as well as host a new original show.
The program, set to debut in the first quarter of 2023, will “bring together her unique perspective from behind the podium and her deep experience in the highest levels of government and presidential politics,” the network said in a statement Tuesday.
Psaki will also appear on NBC and during MSNBC’s primetime special election programming throughout the midterms and 2024 presidential election.
The organizers of a “We Build the Wall” campaign to raise money for a wall along the U.S. southern border lied to donors by saying all their money would fund the wall
Border wall fraud trial:
when they were actually pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars, a prosecutor told a jury at the start of a criminal trial Tuesday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe directed the attention of jurors to defendant Timothy Shea, who sat alone facing charges after two other defendants recently pleaded guilty in the case and a fourth defendant, Steve Bannon, was pardoned by President Donald Trump hours before he completed his four-year term last year.
Moe said Shea, of Castle Rock, Colorado, and his “partners in crime” beginning in December 2018 duped hundreds of thousands of people into believing that they would not pocket any money that was raised because 100% of donations went to building the wall.
WHO chief reappointed:
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was reappointed to a second five-year term on
Tuesday by the U.N. health agency’s member countries.
No other candidate challenged Tedros for the post amid the ongoing difficulties of responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
Tedros, a former government minister from Ethiopia, has directed WHO throughout its management of the global response to COVID-19 and withstood occasionally withering criticism over its multiple missteps.
He is the first African to lead the agency and the only director-general not qualified as a medical doctor.
He is also the first WHO leader not to be supported by their home country: Ethiopia has previously accused Tedros of “misconduct” after his sharp criticism of the war and humanitarian crisis there and raised concerns about his leadership on Tuesday.
Deadly Brazil shootout:
Police in Rio de Janeiro raided the Vila Cruzeiro favela before dawn Tuesday,
setting off a fierce firefight that authorities said killed more than 20 people.
The operation was aimed at locating and arresting criminal leaders, some from other states, police said in a statement.
By late Tuesday, 21 corpses had arrived at the hospital and seven people were receiving treatment for injuries, the state’s health secretariat said in an emailed statement.
That makes the incident one of Rio’s deadliest police operations in recent history. It comes one year after a raid of the Jacarezinho favela that left 28 people dead, prompting claims of abuse and summary executions.
The episode sparked protests and also reignited debate over the proper use of police force in Rio, where a common local saying is, “A good criminal is a dead criminal.”
Murder hornet traps: Scientists will set about 1,000 traps this year in their quest to wipe out the Asian giant
hornet in Washington, the state Department of Agriculture said Tuesday.
Scientists believe the hornets, first detected in the Pacific Northwest state in 2019, are confined in Whatcom County, which is located on the Canadian border north of Seattle.
“We are doing pretty good right now,” said SvenErik Spichiger, who is leading the fight to eradicate the hornets for the state agency. “We know about where the nests are located.”
The insects are the world’s largest hornets, with queens reaching up to 2 inches long. They are considered invasive in North America for their ability to kill other bee and hornet species, thus the nickname “murder hornets.”
Hornets caught in traps help scientists find the location of nests. The state eradicated three nests last year, all near the town of Blaine, Washington, and there have been no confirmed reports of Asian giant hornet nests so far this year, Spichiger said.