Dorothy Abernathy, regional media director of The Associated Press, shares 10 things you need to know Wednesday, March 1, 2017. Look for full stories on these late-breaking news items and much more in West Virginia newspapers.
1. TRUMP HERALDS ‘NEW CHAPTER OF AMERICAN GREATNESS’
The president, addressing Congress for the first time, calls for overhauling the nation’s health care system and significantly boosting military spending.
2. PRESIDENT SALUTES WIDOW OF SLAIN SEAL IN EMOTIONAL MOMENT
The widow of William “Ryan” Owens, who was killed in Yemen, is saluted by Trump and applauded by Congress.
3. REVISED TRAVEL ORDER SPARES IRAQ
Trump’s new immigration order will remove Iraq from the list of countries whose citizens face a temporary U.S. travel ban, U.S. officials say.
4. SUSPECTS IN NORTH KOREAN’S KILLING CHARGED WITH MURDER
Prosecutors lodge formal charges against two young women accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of North Korea’s leader.
5. WHAT’S CAUSING MIGRANT CRISIS IN AFRICA
More than half a million refugees have fled South Sudan amid civil war and warnings of genocide.
6. ‘SENSE OF HUMANITY DRIVES ME TO COME HERE’
A small group of former addicts is trying to help drug users in Afghanistan, a country where addiction rates are among the highest in the world.
7. WHERE TWISTERS ARE SPREADING HAVOC
Tornadoes in the upper Midwest and northern Arkansas kill at least two people as a spring-like storm system poses a risk to 45 million people.
8. BIG EASY CELEBRATES FAT TUESDAY
After a day of parades, blaring marching bands, elaborate costumes and crowds screaming for beads, another Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans is over.
9. HOW WALDORF IS REGAINING ITS WONDER
The word “grand” matched no hotel in the world better than New York’s Waldorf Astoria — a bastion of gilded splendor now closing for massive renovations.
10. MUMPS THE WORD: FRESH OUTBREAK IN NHL
So far, players in Vancouver and Minnesota have fallen ill in the second such outbreak of the highly contagious disease in the league in a little over two years.
