In the news
■ Nadeam Nahas, formerly assistant facilities director in Cohasset, Mass., is facing charges after a routine inspection found electrical wires, duct work and numerous computers in a remote crawl space at a local school, and the setup was determined to be a cryptocurrency mining operation.
■ Robby Stuteville, superintendent of Rising Star Independent School District in Texas, resigned after a third-grader found his gun in a school bathroom.
■ Kweisi Mfume, a congressman from Baltimore, said “it’s never too late to undo the wrongs of the past if we have a clear and renewed vision for the future” as a $2 million grant was committed to reconnecting Black neighborhoods disrupted by a “Highway to Nowhere.”
■ Kshama Sawant of the Seattle City Council, who’s Indian American, cited “hundreds of gut-wrenching stories … showing us that caste discrimination is very real” in the city as the council voted 6-1 to add caste to local anti-discrimination laws.
■ Henrik Urdal of the Peace Research Institute Oslo noted that 2023 is the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as he cited human-rights activists as his favorites for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, but the names of the 343 nominees are top-secret.
■ Manuel Abud of the Latin Recording Academy said “what better place to hold them than Andalusia” in Spain as the Latin Grammy Awards gala emigrates from the U.S.
■ Monika Hohlmeier, chair of the European Parliament’s budget control committee, called for more transparency and flexibility but told Spanish authorities she’s impressed they’re making the most of pandemic recovery funds, finding no evidence of deceit or fraud in the country’s handling of its $33 billion allotment.
■ Vern Holaday, town board chairman in Alamo, Nev., where many of the 1,100 residents are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, assured “it’s not like there’s going to be a bar in every corner in town” after the county endorsed repealing the prohibition on beer, wine and liquor sales.
■ John Hamm, Alabama corrections commissioner, told lawmakers that staffing remains the top issue for the troubled prison system and he’s open to suggestions, noting that a court order “says we are going to hire X number of security staff,” but “I don’t know how we are going to make them come to work.”