- For academics, historians and activists, the past year has been tumultuous in advocating the teaching of Black history in the United States. Despite last year proclaiming February as National Black History Month, President Donald Trump started his second term by claiming some African American history lessons are meant to indoctrinate people into hating the country. […]
- With the eyes of a nation fixed on the unrest in Minneapolis, the events haven’t left local journalists overmatched. Over the past month, the Minnesota Star Tribune has broken stories, including the identity of the immigration enforcement officer who shot Renee Good, and produced a variety of informative and instructive pieces. Richard Tsong-Taatarii’s photo of […]
- CLINTON, La. (AP) — A 6-year-old and four other people were wounded when gunfire erupted during a small-town parade Saturday in Louisiana, sending people in the crowd fleeing for cover, authorities said. East Feliciana Parish Sheriff Jeff Travis told reporters the shooting happened shortly after the midday start of the Mardi Gras in the Country […]
- ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump said the U.S. was beginning to talk with Cuban leaders as his administration is putting greater pressure on the communist-run island and cutting off key oil supplies. The Republican president made the comment to reporters on Saturday night as he was flying to Florida. It comes […]
- NEW YORK (AP) — From tech titans to Wall Street power brokers and foreign dignitaries, a who’s who of powerful men make appearances in the huge trove of documents released Friday by the Justice Department in connection with its investigations of Jeffrey Epstein. Many have denied having close ties to the late financier, or at […]
- Black history centennial channels angst over anti-DEI climate into education, free resources
on February 1, 2026 at 5:18 amFor academics, historians and activists, the past year has been tumultuous in advocating the teaching of Black history in the United States. Despite last year proclaiming February as National Black History Month, President Donald Trump started his second term by claiming some African American history lessons are meant to indoctrinate people into hating the country. The administration has dismantled Black history at national parks, most recently removing an exhibit on slavery in Philadelphia last month. Black history advocates see these acts and their chilling effect as scary and unprecedented. “States and cities are nervous about retribution from the White House,” said DeRay Mckesson, a longtime activist and executive director of Campaign Zero, an organization focused on police reform. “So even the good people are just quieter now.” In the 100th year since the nation’s earliest observances of Black History Month — which began when scholar Carter G. Woodson pioneered the first Negro History Week — celebrations will go on. The current political climate has energized civil rights organizations, artists and academics to engage young people on a full telling of America’s story. There are hundreds of lectures, teach-ins and even new books — from nonfiction to a graphic novel — to mark the milestone. “This is why we are working with more than 150 teachers around the country on a Black History Month curriculum to just ensure that young people continue to learn about Black history in a way that is intentional and thoughtful,” Mckesson said about a campaign his organization has launched with the Afro Charities organization and leading Black scholars to expand access to educational materials. About three years ago, Angélique Roché, a journalist and adjunct professor at Xavier University of Louisiana, accepted a “once-in-a-lifetime” invitation to be the writer for a graphic novel retelling of the story of Opal Lee, “grandmother of Juneteenth.” Lee, who will also turn 100 this year, is largely credited for getting federal recognition of the June 19 holiday commemorating the day when enslaved people in Texas learned they were emancipated. Under Trump, however, Juneteenth is no longer a free-admission day at national parks. Juneteenth helped usher in the first generation of Black Americans who, like Woodson, was born free. “First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth,” the graphic novel, comes out Tuesday. It is the culmination of Roché’s assiduous archival research, phone chats and visits to Texas to see Lee and her granddaughter, Dione Sims. “There is nothing ‘indoctrinating’ about facts that are based on primary sources that are highly researched,” said Roché, who hopes the book makes it into libraries and classrooms. “At the end of the day, what the story should actually tell people is that we’re far more alike than we are different.” While Lee is the main character, Roché used the novel as a chance to put attention on lesser known historical figures like William “Gooseneck Bill” McDonald, Texas’ first Black millionaire, and Opal Lee’s mother, Mattie Broadous Flake. She hopes this format will inspire young people to follow Lee and her mantra — “make yourself a committee of one.” “It doesn’t mean don’t work with other people,” Roché said. “Don’t wait for other people to make the changes you wanna see.” When Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders were issued last year, Jarvis Givens, a professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard, was thousands of miles away teaching in London, where Black History Month is celebrated in October. He had already been contemplating writing a book for the centennial. Watching Trump’s “attack” cemented the idea, Givens said. “I wanted to kind of devote my time while on leave to writing a book that would honor the legacy that gave us Black History Month,” Givens said. The result is “I’ll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month,” a book with four in-depth essays that comes out Tuesday. The title is a line from the 1920s poem “The Creation” by James Weldon Johnson, whose most famous poem, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” is known as the “Black National Anthem.” Givens examines important themes in Black history and clarifies misconceptions around them. The book and the research Givens dug up will tie into a “living history campaign” with Campaign Zero and Afro Charities, Mckesson said. The goal is to teach what Woodson believed — younger generations can become historians who can discern fact from fiction. “When I grew up, the preservation of history was a historian’s job,” Mckesson said, adding his group’s campaign will teach young students how to record history. Born in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents, Woodson was among the first generation of Black Americans not assigned to bondage at birth. He grew up believing that education was a way to self-empowerment, said Robert Trent Vinson, director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. The second Black man to earn a doctorate at Harvard University — W. E. B. Du Bois was the first — Woodson was disillusioned by how Black history was dismissed. He saw that the memories and culture of less educated Black people were no less valuable, Vinson said. When Woodson established Negro History Week in 1926, he was in an era where popular stereotypes like blackface and minstrelsy were filling in for actual knowledge of the Black experience, according to Vinson. This sparked the creation of Black history clubs and Woodson began inserting historical lessons “on the sly” in publications like the “Journal of Negro History” and the “Negro History Bulletin.” “Outside the formal school structure, they’re having a separate school like in churches or in study groups,” Vinson said. “Or they’re sharing it with parents and saying, ‘you teach your young people this history.’ So, Woodson is creating a whole educational space outside the formal university.” In 1976, for the week’s 50th anniversary, President Gerald Ford issued a message recognizing it as an entire month. There was pushback then over the gains the Civil Rights Movement had made, Givens said. As for today’s backlash over Black and African American studies, Vinson believes Woodson would not be surprised. But, he would see it as a sign “you’re on the right track.” “There’s a level of what he called ‘fugitivity,’ of sharing this knowledge and being strategic about it,” Vinson said. “There are other times like in this moment, Black History Month, where you can be more out and assertive, but be strategic about how you spread the information.” Resistance to teaching Black history is something that seems to occur every generation, Mckesson said. “We will go back to normalcy. We’ve seen these backlashes before,” Mckesson said. “And when I think about the informal networks of Black people who have always resisted, I think that is happening today.” ___ Tang reported from Phoenix. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- In Minneapolis, all-encompassing immigration story tests a newsroom in midst of digital transition
on February 1, 2026 at 5:18 amWith the eyes of a nation fixed on the unrest in Minneapolis, the events haven’t left local journalists overmatched. Over the past month, the Minnesota Star Tribune has broken stories, including the identity of the immigration enforcement officer who shot Renee Good, and produced a variety of informative and instructive pieces. Richard Tsong-Taatarii’s photo of a prone demonstrator sprayed point-blank with a chemical irritant quickly became a defining image. The ICE actions have changed how the outlet presents the news. At a time when many regional newspapers have become hollowed-out shells due to the decline in journalism as a business, the Star Tribune has kept staffing relatively steady under billionaire Glen Taylor, who has owned it since 2014. It rebranded itself from the Minneapolis Star Tribune and committed itself to a digital transformation. It was ready for its moment. “If you hadn’t invested in the newsroom, you wouldn’t be able to react in that way,” said Steve Grove, publisher and chief executive. The Star Tribune hasn’t operated in a vacuum. Minneapolis has a robust journalism tradition, particularly on public radio and television. Sahan Journal, a digital newsroom focusing on immigrants and diverse communities, has also distinguished itself covering President Donald Trump’s immigration efforts and the public response. “The whole ecosystem is pretty darn good,” said Kathleen Hennessey, senior vice president and editor of the Star Tribune, “and I think people are seeing that now.” While national outlets have made their presence felt, strong local teams offer advantages in such stories. The Star Tribune’s Josie Albertson-Grove was one of the first journalists on the scene after ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot dead on Jan. 24. She lives about a block away, and her knowledge of the neighborhood and its people helped to reconstruct what happened. Journalists with kids in school learned about ICE efforts to target areas where children gather by hearing chatter among friends. While covering a beat like public safety can carry baggage, Star Tribune reporter Liz Sawyer developed sources that helped her, along with colleagues Andy Mannix and Sarah Nelson, report on who shot Good. Besides those contacts, the staff simply knows Minnesota better than outsiders, Hennessey said. “This is a place with a really, really long and entrenched tradition of activism, and a place with really deep social networks and neighborhood networks,” she said. “People mobilize quickly and passionately, and they’re noisy about it. That’s definitely been part of the story.” A Signal chat tipped Tsong-Taatarii about a demonstration growing raucous on Jan. 21. Upon arriving, he focused his lens on one protester knocked to the ground, leaving the photographer perfectly placed for his richly-detailed shot. Two officers hold the man face-down with arms on his back, while a third unleashes a chemical from a canister inches from his face. The bright yellow liquid streams onto his cheek and splatters onto the pavement. What some have called the sadistic cruelty involved in the episode outraged many who saw the photo. “I was just trying to document and present the evidence and let people decide for themselves,” Tsong-Taatarii said. In one enterprising story, the Star Tribune’s Christopher Magan and Jeff Hargarten identified 240 of an estimated 3,000 immigrants rounded up in Minnesota, finding 80% had felony convictions but nearly all had been through the court system, been punished and were no longer sought by police. Hargarten and Jake Steinberg collaborated on a study of how the size of the federal force compared with that of local police. Columnist Laura Yuen wrote that her 80-year-old parents have begun carrying their passports when they leave their suburban townhouse, part of the “quiet, pervasive fear” in the Twin Cities. Yuen downloaded her own passport to carry on her phone. “A document that once made me proud of all the places I’ve traveled is now a badge to prove I belong,” she wrote. A piece by Kim Hyatt and Louis Krauss detailed the health consequences of chemical irritants used by law enforcement — or thought to be used, since questions about what specifically was deployed went unanswered. “I really think they’ve done a commendable job,” said Scott Libin, a veteran television newsman and journalism professor at the University of Minnesota. He praised the Star Tribune’s story about the criminal backgrounds of immigrants as thorough and dispassionate. Since Hennessey, a former Associated Press editor, began her job last May, the Star Tribune has experienced a run of big stories, including the shooting of two state lawmakers and a gunman opening fire at a Catholic school in Minneapolis. And, of course, “we have a newsroom that still has muscle memory from George Floyd ” in 2020, Grove said. News compelled fundamental shifts in the way the Star Tribune operates. Like some national outlets, it has rearranged staff to cover the story aggressively through a continuously updated live blog on its website, offered free to readers. There’s also a greater emphasis on video, with the Star Tribune doing forensic studies on footage from the Pretti and Good shootings, something few local newsrooms are equipped to do. Traffic to its website has gone up 50 percent, paid subscriptions have increased and the company is getting thousands of dollars in donations from across the country, Grove said. “People have changed the way that they consume news,” Hennessey said. “We see that readers are coming back. You know, they’re not just waking up in the morning, reading the site and then forgetting about us all day long. They’re coming back a couple of times a day to check in on what’s new.” Most people in the newsroom are contributing to the story, including the Star Tribune’s food and culture team, and its outdoor reporters. “There are no normal beats anymore,” Albertson-Grove said. Under Grove, a former Google executive, the Star Tribune has attempted a digital-first transition, turning over about 20% of its staff in two years. The paper shut its Minneapolis printing plant in December, laying off 125 people, and moving print operations to Iowa. “We face every single headwind that every local news organization in the country does,” Grove said. “But we do feel fortunate that we’re the largest newsroom in the Midwest and it’s part of the reason we’re able to do this now.” As a reporter, Sawyer says the public response to the outlet’s work, sharing stories and images, has lifted her spirits. Readers see it as public service journalism. Still, she could use a break. She and her husband, Star Tribune photographer Aaron Lavinsky, have a baby daughter and make sure to stagger their coverage. They can’t both be tear-gassed or arrested at the same time; who makes the daycare pickup? “I think both residents and journalists in this town are running on fumes,” she said. “We’re tired of being in the international spotlight and it’s never for something positive. People are trying their best to get through this moment with grace.” ___ David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Shooting at Louisiana parade leaves 5 people wounded, including 6-year-old , sheriff says
on February 1, 2026 at 4:18 amCLINTON, La. (AP) — A 6-year-old and four other people were wounded when gunfire erupted during a small-town parade Saturday in Louisiana, sending people in the crowd fleeing for cover, authorities said. East Feliciana Parish Sheriff Jeff Travis told reporters the shooting happened shortly after the midday start of the Mardi Gras in the Country Parade in Clinton, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Baton Rouge. Investigators are trying to piece together what happened, why and who was responsible, but those answers weren’t immediately clear even with extra law enforcement on hand at the time to help with the parade, he said. Travis said three people in the area who had firearms were taken into custody but that it wasn’t clear whether they were involved in the shooting. Gov. Jeff Landry reacted to the shooting in a post on the social platform X, calling it “absolutely horrific and unacceptable” and urging people to pray for the victims. Details about them and their conditions weren’t immediately released. But Chief Criminal Deputy Bill Cox from the sheriff’s office told The Advocate that everyone was expected to survive. The sheriff’s office asked for anyone with photos or video of the shooting or nearby areas to share those with investigators. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Trump says US is ‘starting to talk to Cuba’ as he moves to cut its oil supplies
on February 1, 2026 at 4:18 amABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump said the U.S. was beginning to talk with Cuban leaders as his administration is putting greater pressure on the communist-run island and cutting off key oil supplies. The Republican president made the comment to reporters on Saturday night as he was flying to Florida. It comes in the wake of his moves in recent weeks to cut off supplies of oil from Venezuela and Mexico, which he suggested Saturday would force Cuba to the negotiating table. His goals with Cuba remain unclear, but Trump has turned more of his attention toward the island after his administration in early January captured Venezuela’s then-President Nicolás Maduro and has been more aggressive in confronting nations that are adversaries of the U.S. Trump has predicted that the Cuban government is ready to fall. He did not offer any details on Saturday about what level of outreach his administration has had with Cuba recently or when, but simply said, “We’re starting to talk to Cuba.” His recent moves to cut off its oil supplies have squeezed the island. This past week, Trump signed an executive order to impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba. The move put pressure on Mexico, which Cuba became dependent on for oil after Trump halted oil shipments from Venezuela in the wake of Maduro’s ouster. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum warned that it could cause a humanitarian crisis. She said on Friday that she would seek alternatives to continue helping Cuba. “It doesn’t have to be a humanitarian crisis. I think they probably would come to us and want to make a deal,” Trump said Saturday. “So Cuba would be free again.” He predicted they would make some sort of deal with Cuba and said, “I think, you know, we’ll be kind.” ___ Price reported from Washington. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- From Elon Musk to the former Prince Andrew, a who’s who of powerful men are named in Epstein files
on February 1, 2026 at 12:18 amNEW YORK (AP) — From tech titans to Wall Street power brokers and foreign dignitaries, a who’s who of powerful men make appearances in the huge trove of documents released Friday by the Justice Department in connection with its investigations of Jeffrey Epstein. Many have denied having close ties to the late financier, or at least having anything to do with his alleged sexual abuse of girls and young women that led to his arrest on sex trafficking charges. None have been charged with a crime connected to the investigation. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019. Yet some of them maintained friendships with Epstein, or developed them anew, even after he became known as a predator of young girls and registered sex offender. Here’s a primer on some of the notable names in the Epstein files: The man formerly known as Britain’s Prince Andrew has long been dogged by questions about his relationship with Epstein, including allegations from the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre that she was trafficked by Epstein and instructed to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor when she was 17. The former prince has repeatedly denied that it happened, but his brother, King Charles III, still stripped him of his royal titles late last year, including the right to be called a prince and the Duke of York. Mountbatten-Windsor’s name appears at least several hundred times in Friday’s document release, including in Epstein’s private emails. Among the correspondence is an invitation for Epstein to dine at Buckingham Palace, Epstein’s offer to introduce Mountbatten-Windsor to a 26-year-old Russian woman, and photos that appear to show Mountbatten-Windsor kneeling over an unidentified woman lying on the floor. The billionaire Tesla founder turns up at least a few times in Friday’s document release, notably in email exchanges in 2012 and 2013 in which he discussed visiting Epstein’s infamous Caribbean island compound. But it’s not immediately clear if the island visits took place. Spokespersons for Musk’s companies, Tesla and X, didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Friday or Saturday. Musk has maintained that he repeatedly turned down the disgraced financier’s overtures. “Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED,” he posted on X in 2025. The billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, a global conglomerate, exchanged numerous emails with Epstein in the years after he pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from a minor and agreed to register as a sex offender in Florida in 2008. In a 2013 exchange, Branson invited Epstein to his own private Caribbean island, which regularly hosts large conferences, charity events and business meetings. “Any time you’re in the area would love to see you,” he wrote. “As long as you bring your harem!” In another message that year, he suggested Epstein rehabilitate his image by convincing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to tell the public how Epstein had “been a brilliant adviser to him” and had “more than learnt your lesson and have done nothing that’s against the law since.” The company stressed in a statement Saturday that there was no wrongdoing on Branson’s part and that any dealings with Epstein were “limited to group or business settings” more than a decade ago. Branson also declined a charitable donation and decided not to meet or speak with him again after his team “uncovered serious allegations,” the company said. “Had they had the full picture and information, there would have been no contact whatsoever,” the statement reads. “Richard believes that Epstein’s actions were abhorrent and supports the right to justice for his many victims.” The New York Giants co-owner is mentioned more than 400 times in the files released Friday. Correspondence between the two shows Epstein offered to connect Tisch to numerous women over the years. In one 2013 email exchange with the subject line “Ukrainian girl,” Epstein encouraged Tisch to contact a particular woman, whose physical beauty he praised in crude terms. “Pro or civilian?” Tisch asked in reply. Tisch, a scion of a powerful New York family that founded the Loews Corporation, has acknowledged knowing Epstein but denied ever going to his infamous Caribbean island. “We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments,” said Tisch, who also won an Academy Award in 1994 for producing “Forrest Gump.” “As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.” The president of the committee for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles exchanged flirty emails with Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, Friday’s document release shows. In a 2003 exchange, Wasserman wrote to Maxwell: “I think of you all the time. So, what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?” In another, Maxwell asks whether it will be foggy enough during an upcoming visit “so that you can float naked down the beach and no one can see you unless they are close up?” Wasserman released a statement Saturday saying he never had a personal or business relationship with Epstein and that he regretted the correspondence with Maxwell, which he said came “long before her horrific crimes came to light.” Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and abuse of minors. The former Israeli prime minister and his wife turn up frequently in the documents released Friday, showing they stayed in regular contact with Epstein for years, including well after his 2008 guilty plea for sex crimes in Florida. Among the correspondence are plans for a 2017 stay at Epstein’s New York residence. Other missives discuss mundane logistics for other visits, meetings and phone calls with Epstein. Barak has acknowledged regularly visiting Epstein on his trips to New York and flying on his private plane, but maintains he never observed any inappropriate behavior or parties. Barak served as Israel’s prime minister from 1999 to 2001 and later served as its defense minister. President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island with his family on at least one occasion, records released Friday show. That appears to contradict prior statements he’s made claiming he cut ties with the disgraced financier, who he’s called “gross,” decades ago. But emails show Lutnick and his wife accepted an invitation to Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands in December 2012 and planned to arrive by yacht with their children. The former chairman of Newmark, a major commercial real estate firm, also had drinks on another occasion in 2011 with Epstein and corresponded with him about the construction of a building across the street from both of their homes. The Commerce Department, in a statement, said Lutnick had “limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.” The billionaire Google co-founder made plans to meet with Epstein and Maxwell at his townhouse in New York years before he was publicly accused of sexually abusing underage girls, emails show. In one exchange in 2003, Maxwell invited him to join her at a screening of the Renee Zellweger film “Down with Love” in New York. She followed up a few weeks later to invite him to a “happily casual and relaxed” dinner at Epstein’s house. Brin offered to bring along Google’s then-CEO Eric Schmidt. Spokespersons for Google didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday. The one-time adviser to Trump exchanged hundreds of friendly texts with Epstein, some sent months before his 2019 arrest and jailhouse suicide. The two discussed politics, travel and a documentary Bannon was said to be planning that would help salvage Epstein’s reputation. One 2018 exchange, for example, focused on Trump’s threats at the time to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. In a 2019 message, Bannon asked Epstein if he could supply his plane to pick him up in Rome. Bannon hasn’t responded to emails seeking comment. A national security adviser to the Slovakian prime minister, Lajcak resigned Saturday after his past communications with Epstein appeared in Friday’s document release. Opposition parties and a nationalist partner in Fico’s governing coalition had called for him to step down. Lajcak, a former Slovak foreign minister and a onetime president of the U.N. General Assembly, has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but was photographed meeting with Epstein in the years between his initial release from jail and his subsequent indictment in 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He said his correspondence with Epstein were part of his diplomatic duties. ___ Associated Press journalists from around the world contributed to this report. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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