Local
Veterans and community members unite to revitalize West Atlanta communities
According to AJC a service project took place on June 9-14 with the goal to “revitalize parks, playgrounds, sports facilities and community gardens” in several Atlanta Neighborhoods including, Vine City, English Avenue and Castleberry Hill. The project brought together the efforts of over 100 military veterans with the nonprofit organization The Mission Continues and Westside Atlanta community leaders. Those that volunteered built a cookout area, a space for play equipment and an outdoor shed. They also created an outdoor classroom, a victory garden and shade pavilion, a pathway winding up a steep hillside, building a chicken coop and renovations to the garden area.
National
Supreme Court decision prohibits laws that ban sex offenders from using the internet
The Supreme Court decided that a convicted sex offender can’t be barred from getting on the internet. According to The Washington Times, the decision was a result of a North Carolina law that had prohibited sex offender from logging onto social media. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion saying that this law is an infringement on the first amendment. “By prohibiting sex offenders from using those websites, North Carolina with one broad stroke bars access to what for many are the principal sources for knowing current events, checking ads for employment, speaking and listening in the modern public square, and otherwise exploring the vast realms of human thought and knowledge,” he wrote. However Kennedy does believe the activities that sex offenders partake in should be monitored such as “contacting a minor or using a website to gather information about a minor.”
Global
Man drives a van into a crowd of Muslim pedestrians in North London
On Sunday June 18, a van driver plowed into a group of pedestrians near a mosque in north London. One man died and 10 people were injured, 8 of which are hospitalized and all were Muslim. According to CNN. The driver was identified as a forty-seven year old white male named Darren Osborne, a resident of Cardiff in Wales. Osborne was apprehended on site after the public tackled him to the ground. Police believes that only one man was in the van and home searches are currently being done in Cardiff, Wales. On arrest Osborne was charged with attempted murder, but the charge was upgraded to preparation or instigation of terrorism, including murder. British Prime Minister Theresa May said the attack was directed at Muslims.
