Happy Thursday, Panthers! Tomorrow is a professional learning day for teachers, so the students have the day off. While you are enjoying the free day, take a second to read this week’s KICs. This week we have Kenya’s death toll nearly doubling after intense floods, an Alabama man who was set for death row now having life in prison without parole, Georgia’s vacant Congressional seat heading to runoff, and the Supreme Court’s ruling over tariffs motivating Trump to take a new plan of action.
World – Kenya death tolls nearly doubles after intense floods
The death toll in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and elsewhere, nearly doubled to 42 deaths after heavy floods. Intense rains on Friday started the floods causing people to drown and washing away vehicles.
Emergency workers from different agencies are conducting search and rescue operations across the country. The multi-agency response teams are trying to retrieve all the bodies of the victims. In addition, 172 swept away cars have been recovered.
Scientists say that global warming is worsening floods and droughts across Africa. A study shows that climate change has made devastating rains twice as likely as before.
National – Alabama man, set for death row, gets life in prison without parole instead
In Alabama, a 75-year-old man was on death row headed toward his execution this week. Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton was part of a group that is at fault for killing a man in 1991.
As the date for his execution came closer, he and his family were begging for mercy. Burton is now in a wheelchair due to health conditions, has been diagnosed with a mental disorder, and claims to have changed much in his decade of prison time. The actual murderer, who pulled the trigger on a man, was originally sentenced to death row but was deemed life in prison with no chance of parole in 2014.
Burton’s punishment was not lightened until today. Today, Burton was also approved for a life sentence without parole, with Alabama Governor granting him this freedom.
State – Georgia’s vacant Congressional seat headed to runoff
Following former sitting Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation from Congress, a special election was held for the seat as Georgia’s House of Representative. However, neither Democratic candidate Shawn Harris nor Republican candidate Clay Fuller obtained a majority vote to earn the seat.
During the election President Trump has been endorsing Fuller as Greene’s replacement. The enforcement was not enough to get him to the majority with the 14-candidate field being made of nine other Republican candidates. Trump later congratulated Fuller for getting such a high percentage of votes despite there being so many other Republican options.
Harris will begin fighting an uphill battle with the majority Republican district even as he ended the polls with a lead in votes. It is predicted that more Democrats will come to the ballots as they have done in previous special elections.
Politics – Supreme Court’s ruling over tariffs motivates Trump to seek new path
Earlier this week, the Trump administration opened a new trade investigation into foreign manufacturing. This effort comes after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s previous use of tariffs.
Trump and his team made it clear that they are seeking to replace the hundreds of billions of lost revenue by using different laws to establish new tariffs. Trump’s administration is starting investigations under Section 301 and the Trade Act of 1974. These investigations could lead to new import taxes and could possibly cause a return of the drama that impacted the economy last year.
There are also timeline pressures for the administration to complete its investigations. The administration has imposed 10% tariffs on foreign-made goods under the 1974 Trade Act but those expire after 150 days on July 24.