Good morning Her Campus! With a break-neck news cycle, there is no possible way for you to stay on top of every story that comes across your feeds—we’re all only human, after all.
But, life comes at you fast. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this quick and dirty guide to stories you might’ve been sleeping on (like, literally. It’s early.)
1 Person Is Dead After an Engine on a Southwest Flight Exploded Midair
One person was killed Tuesday morning on a Southwest Airlines flight from New York Laguardia Airport to Dallas when one of the plane’s engines exploded midair, the New York Times reports. The engine exploded around a half-hour into the flight, shattering a window and prompting the plane to make an emergency landing. One woman was partially sucked outside the plane upon impact and was hit with shrapnel from the engine, requiring flight attendants and passengers to attempt to treat her serious injuries as the plane made its emergency landing.
“I think, like most passengers, I thought I was going to die,” Matt Tranchin, a passenger on the flight, told the Times. “It’s a wild experience. It’s not a couple minutes of freaking out and frantically saying goodbye; it’s 25 minutes of sustained fear that this was the end.”
Authorities later confirmed that one person, identified as Jennifer Riordan from Albuquerque, New Mexico, had died in the accident and seven others were being treated for injuries.
In air traffic control audio from the Southwest flight that had an engine failure, a pilot is heard saying, “Not fire, not fire, but part of it’s missing. They said there’s a hole and, uh, someone went out.” https://t.co/Cp8l1mlqlR pic.twitter.com/XkNmmuHHsO
— CNN (@CNN) April 17, 2018
Washington D.C. May Lower the Voting Age to 16
Legislation has been introduced into the Washington, D.C. council to lower the voting age to 16 in the nation’s capital, according to USA Today. Charles Allen, the council member responsible for the measure, says he was inspired by the young people who recently protested in D.C. as part of the March for Our Lives. Because D.C. is treated like a state in presidential elections, it would effectively become the first state to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote for the next president. The legislation reportedly has the support of seven of 13 members of the D.C. council, which says it plans to hold a vote on the matter before the end of the year.
HUGE: the @washingtonpost Ed Board comes out in favor of lowering voting age to 16 in D.C.https://t.co/7jpgnJWtTH
— Josh Douglas (@JoshuaADouglas) April 14, 2018
On May 29, Starbucks Will Close 8,000 Stores for Racial-Bias Training
In the wake of an incident over the weekend in which one Starbucks location in Philadelphia called the police to arrest two black men who were merely sitting in the store waiting for their friend, Starbucks has announced that it will close 8,000 of its locations on May 29 in order to host racial-bias training for over 175,000 employees.
“I’ve spent the last few days in Philadelphia with my leadership team listening to the community, learning what we did wrong and the steps we need to take to fix it,” Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said in a statement to CNN. “While this is not limited to Starbucks, we’re committed to being a part of the solution. Closing our stores for racial bias training is just one step in a journey that requires dedication from every level of our company and partnerships in our local communities.”
On 5/29, we’ll close US company-owned stores to conduct racial-bias training to address implicit bias & prevent discrimination. We’re taking a hard look at who we are as a company. We’re ashamed & recognize that racial bias is a problem we must address. https://t.co/xIYc75BJPj
— Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) April 17, 2018
What to look out for…
Happy 39th Birthday to the always #relatable Kourtney Kardashian!