(NEW YORK) — Three wildlife researchers were killed in a helicopter crash in West Texas while they were conducting an aerial survey, officials said.
Wildlife biologist Dewey Stockbridge, fish and wildlife technician Brandon White and state wildlife veterinarian Dr. Bob Dittmar were researching desert bighorn sheep in Black Gap Wildlife Management Area in Brewster County on Saturday when their helicopter crashed, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a statement.
The pilot, a private contractor, survived the incident and was rushed to an El Paso hospital, the agency said. His condition was unknown as of Sunday evening.
Carter Smith, the TPWD executive director, said in a statement the three researchers spent years documenting and studying the state’s wildlife.
“No words can begin to express the depth of sadness we feel for the loss of our colleagues in this tragic accident,” he said in a statement. “Wildlife conservation in Texas lost three of its finest as they so honorably and dutifully carried out their calling to help survey, monitor and protect the bighorns of their beloved west Texas mountains.”
Gov. Greg Abbott asked Texans to remember the researchers in their thoughts.
“Our hearts ache today for those who died in this tragic accident,” he said in a statement.
The Texas Department of Public Safety, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Texas Game Wardens are investigating the crash.
Courtesy Leesa KellyBy DEENA ZARU and ARIELLE MITROPOULOS, ABC News
(MINNEAPOLIS) — As protests over the police killing of George Floyd spread across all 50 states, Black Lives Matter art popped up on walls, streets, signs and thousands of boarded up businesses that have been shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The murals and graffiti by protesters and professional artists tell a story of pain and resistance — expressions that will become historical artifacts from the largest civil rights movement in U.S. history.
But in some cases, the art has already been destroyed or taken down.
A Black Lives Matter painting calling for an end to racism was vandalized in Fayetteville, North Carolina; a Black Lives Matter painting outside Trump Tower in New York City was defaced with buckets of black paint as the vandals shouted “all lives matter;” a 140-foot colorful mural in Spokane, Washington was vandalized with splashes of white paint and in Lansing, Michigan and Brownsville, Texas artists worked to restore defaced murals of George Floyd. Moreover, as businesses opened up across the country, art-covered plywood started to disappear.
But in Minneapolis where Floyd was killed, local activists have launched efforts to preserve the art and keep it in the community.
How art inspired a movement
As video of a police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly 8 minutes went viral, Minneapolis native and activist Kenda Zeller-Smith tried to avoid the images.
“I don’t really watch those videos anymore only because I feel like they are very detrimental to my mental health and my emotional well-being,” she told ABC News. “I felt really afraid and scared, but at the same time, I wasn’t processing my emotions … I just feel like I was numb and I wasn’t I wasn’t able to emotionally feel much.”
Similarly, for activist Leesa Kelly, who has been working with Zellner-Smith on the “save the boards” effort, Floyd’s killing was “a really intense, and a really devastating experience.”
Protesting daily took a toll on her physical and mental health.
“I would have days where I couldn’t get out of bed,” Kelly told ABC News.
But a few days later as Zellner-Smith drove to work, a piece of new protest art caught her eye and the emotions it elicited allowed her to experience a “really powerful” and “uplifting” moment.
“It wasn’t a big, colorful piece it was something more just straight to the point. And I remember that was like the first time, you know, in my car that I felt something — like really felt something that wasn’t these weird kind of gray area emotions,” she said.
“I felt like we’ve been hurt and I felt like people this time get it, like it’s not just Black people that are watching this video and being like this has happened again and again and again,” she added. “This time everyone has heard and it’s our city is heard.”
When Zellner-Smith got to work and shared her experience, one of her co-workers mentioned that she noticed that some new Black Lives Matter art created amid the protests had already been taken down.
It was then that she felt a sense of urgency and created an Instagram account to “save the boards.”
Meanwhile, seeking other ways to support the protest and keenly aware of the power of visual art, Kelly said that she also became intrigued by the idea of preserving the murals honoring Floyd.
Kelly launched her own project, “Memorialize the Movement,” and has since connected with Zellner-Smith to join efforts in saving the art.
“[These] beautiful elaborate murals have been an expression of grief. It’s been a way for Black people to cope with what’s happening, and to express their pain, their anger and the hope that they have for a better America, for a better Minneapolis,” Kelly said.
Keeping the art in the community
Over the past couple of months, Zellner-Smith has been working with other activists to track down artists and convince businesses to donate the art instead of getting rid of it. She has been picking up the plywood art in a truck and has so far, collected more than 40 pieces in a warehouse. Zellner-Smith hopes to find a home for the pieces — one that would keep them in Minneapolis and accessible to the city’s Black community.
“I feel like that art just deserves to be here and serve as a reminder of our power as a community,” she said, adding that it’s important to preserve all forms of expression and not just the “pretty” art because the authentic messages of expression were the pieces that “really started my healing process.”
Meanwhile, Kelly said she has collected 30-40 boards, which make up six or seven large murals.
She said that she felt it was critical for history to be recorded and documented through these murals for people to be able to visualize what had happened, and thus gain a deeper and better understanding of these historically significant demonstrations against systemic racism.
The artwork speaks to the severity of the situation, Kelly continued, and therefore, “we need the story told in a way that people will absorb it. But not in a way that makes them feel comfortable, they don’t need to feel comfortable. They need to know what’s happening.”
Zellner-Smith and Kelly’s long-term plans for the plywood murals is still in the works. They, alongside several other organizations, and activists across Minneapolis, are working to find a long-term solution to exhibit and preserve the art permanently.
But both women stressed the importance of the art remaining accessible to the Black community in Minneapolis.
“If all of a sudden this stuff disappears, and it goes into these spaces, you know, that are generally predominantly white spaces, or these institutions, it takes away from the people that don’t have access to get over there,” Zellner-Smith said.
“Our pain, our suffering and our healing is not something to be bought, and it’s not something to be put on display for others outside of the community,” she added. “… I didn’t want people to be coming to pay or not pay, but to look at something that is a really raw, real and current representation of our pain and our trauma.”
Kelly said that she reached out to the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery, the only Black-owned and operated museum in Minnesota, to see if they would be willing to host an exhibit of the murals, and “tell the story the way that it needs to be told, which is really honest and really raw and told by Black people.”
“This is something we’re still facing every single day. And so we need to tell that story in a way that makes people understand that this is an ongoing issue, and it needs a solution,” Kelly said.
(NEW YORK) — The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced that they will stop using nicknames of celestial bodies that are culturally insensitive.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Aug. 5, NASA said that it had become clear that certain cosmic nicknames were not only insensitive but actively harmful and that they were taking these initial steps to address systemic discrimination and inequality in all aspects of the field.
“As an initial step, NASA will no longer refer to planetary nebula NGC 2392, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star that is blowing off its outer layers at the end of its life, as the ‘Eskimo Nebula,’” NASA said in the statement. “’Eskimo’ is widely viewed as a colonial term with a racist history, imposed on the indigenous people of Arctic regions. Most official documents have moved away from its use.”
NASA also said that they would stop referring to a distant galaxy as the “Siamese Twins Galaxy.”
“NASA will also no longer use the term ‘Siamese Twins Galaxy’ to refer to NGC 4567 and NGC 4568, a pair of spiral galaxies found in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster,” the statement from NASA said. “Moving forward, NASA will use only the official, International Astronomical Union designations in cases where nicknames are inappropriate.”
“Siamese twins” is an antiquated term that references a pair of Siamese-American conjoined twins in the 1800s who regularly appeared in what was known as “freak shows” at the time.
Nicknames are often given to celestial bodies and are often referred to by them rather than their official names, such as Barnard 33, also known as “the Horsehead Nebula” because of how it looks.
But NASA said these “seemingly innocuous” nicknames can be harmful and ultimately take away from the science.
“I support our ongoing reevaluation of the names by which we refer to astronomical objects,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters, Washington. “Our goal is that all names are aligned with our values of diversity and inclusion, and we’ll proactively work with the scientific community to help ensure that. Science is for everyone, and every facet of our work needs to reflect that value.”
Going forward, NASA said that they will be working with diversity, inclusion and equity experts to provide advice and guidance for designated nicknames.
“These nicknames and terms may have historical or culture connotations that are objectionable or unwelcoming, and NASA is strongly committed to addressing them,” said Stephen T. Shih, associate administrator for Diversity and Equal Opportunity at NASA Headquarters. “Science depends on diverse contributions, and benefits everyone, so this means we must make it inclusive.”
There has been a cultural reckoning in the months after the death of George Floyd at the hands of four police officers in Minneapolis and NASA is the latest organization to join the likes of an ever-growing list — alongside the likes of the Washington Football Team, musical groups “The Chicks” and “Lady A,” and food products such as Aunt Jemima, Mrs. Butterworth’s and Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream who announced it was dropping the brand “Eskimo Pie” after a century — in examining the power of names.
Jefferson County, MS Sheriff’s Office via FacebookBY: IVAN PEREIRA, ABC NEWS
(NEW YORK) — Three men have been arrested in connection with the murder of a Mississippi Highway Patrol officer while he was moonlighting as a postal worker.
Lt. Troy Morris, 58, was working his second job for the USPS and driving a postal truck early Friday morning when he called highway patrol and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office to notify them of a flat tire, police said.
“We dispatched a deputy who arrived a short time later and found Mr. Morris had been shot to death inside his truck,” Jefferson County Sheriff James Bailey told reporters.
Morris had been a 27-year veteran with the force, according to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. Sean Tindell, the Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner said in a statement he was in contact with Morris’s family and they have received an outpouring of support from around the state including Gov. Tate Reeves.
On Saturday, Treyon Washington, 24, Damion Whittley, 25, and Cdarrius Norman, 17, were arrested and charged with murder in connection to Morris’ death.
Washington was arrested in Jefferson County while Whittley and Norman were taken into custody in New Orleans.
There were no signs of theft from the truck, according to investigators. Norman and Whittley are awaiting extradition back to Mississippi, investigators said.
The investigation is ongoing, according to investigators.
“While we are pleased with the progress of this investigation, we realize there is much work left to be done,” Col. Randy Ginn of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol said in a statement.
DC Police Department via TwitterBY: IVAN PEREIRA, ABC NEWS
(WAHINGTON) — A 17-year-old was killed and an off-duty police officer was “struggling for her life,” after they, and many others, were shot during a large gathering in southeast Washington D.C. early Sunday morning, police said.
The incident took place at 33rd Street and Dubois Place at around 12:30 a.m. where over 100 people had gathered, D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham told reporters at a news conference. During the gathering, a dispute broke out and “multiple weapons were produced,” by at least three individuals and they opened fire into the crowd, Newsham said.
In total, 21 people were shot, 11 of whom were women and two of whom were teens, police said. One of the teens, Christopher Brown, 17, was pronounced dead, according to Newsham.
The chief said that the injured off-duty D.C. police officer was transported to the hospital in very serious condition.
“She is struggling for her life right now,” he said.
The D.C. Fire Department said nine of the victims transported to hospitals suffered serious to critical wounds.
Two injured persons who were found outside of the gathering and taken to hospitals may have been linked to the shooting, officials said. One was picked up from a location away from the gathering while another came to a firehouse, a D.C. Fire spokesperson said.
“Sadly several people who have no regard for human life opened fire at what had been people together, enjoying themselves,” Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters.
Newsham said there were officers in the vicinity of the gathering, which violated the city’s ban on large crowds, but they were unable to control the gathering or break it up.
Investigators are still searching for clues and witnesses and did not immediately have a motive, according to Newsham.
georgeclerk/iStockBy IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News
