NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
Obama library: U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey on Tuesday gave the green light to a lawsuit filed by a parks-advocacy group that aims to stop for good the delayed construction of former President Barack Obama’s $500 million presidential library in a Chicago park beside Lake Michigan. Some supporters of the project fear the lawsuit filed by Protect Our Parks could force Obama — who launched his political career in Chicago — to build the Obama Presidential Center elsewhere. In the 2018 lawsuit, Protect Our Parks accused city officials of manipulating the approval process and tinkering with legislation to skirt long-standing laws designed to ensure residents have unobstructed access to lakeside parks. The library was originally slated to open in 2021.
Ginsburg returns: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is back on the Supreme Court bench, eight weeks after surgery for lung cancer. The 85-yearold justice walked unassisted to her seat beside Chief Justice John Roberts when the court began its public session Tuesday. Ginsburg wore her customary black robe and ornamental collar.
No strike: Nearly a year to the day after West Virginia teachers lined streets with picket signs and packed the state Capitol, they did it again Tuesday over education legislation that they view as lacking their input and as retaliation for last year’s strike. But this time the walkout was only hours old when lawmakers acted. The West Virginia House of Delegates effectively killed the bill that among other things, would have created the state’s first charter schools and allowed education savings accounts for parents to pay for private school. The 2018 walkout in West Virginia launched the national movement that included teachers’ strikes in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona, Washington state, and more recently, Los Angeles and Denver. Teachers in Oakland have authorized a strike starting Thursday.
KKK advocate: A small Alabama newspaper is advocating for the resurgence of America’s most feared white supremacist terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan. An editorial published last week by The Democrat-Reporter of Linden, Ala., begins with the line: “Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again.” The editorial says Democrats and “Democrats in the Republican Party” are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama, so the Klan should raid the “gated communities” where they live. The editor and publisher of the paper, Goodloe Sutton, said he stands by his opinion. Ride rescue: Police say more than a dozen people trapped on a ride at SeaWorld in San Diego have been rescued. San Diego police tell FOX5 News that around six gondolas stopped functioning Monday night after a big gust of wind tripped a circuit breaker on “Bayside Skyride.” Sixteen people were trapped — some of them in gondolas suspended above water — before being rescued.