National News at a Glance

True-Blue Liberals Turn Race in Ohio Into 2020 Proxy Test

Since the election of President Donald Trump, certain conflicts have been inevitable for a Democratic Party asking itself how to win again: liberal or moderate candidates? Populist or pragmatist? Establishment or insurgent? But in the May 8 Democratic primary in Ohio between Richard Cordray and Dennis Kucinich a more basic tension has consumed the collective left: Who has the truest claim to progressivism in 2018, when both gubernatorial candidates can credibly grab at the label? Is it better to be liberal on guns (Kucinich, a former congressman and presidential candidate) or the bane of the banks (Cordray, a former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)?

In Fire-Scorched Oklahoma, Help Comes One Bale at a Time

The hay began arriving before the fires were out, stacked on pickup trucks and strapped onto semitrailers. For ranchers whose grazing land was destroyed by wildfires that tore across western Oklahoma this month, the bales were an economic lifeline, a way to feed cattle marooned on grassless patches of charred red soil. The hay was also free, provided not by lawmakers in Washington or Oklahoma City, but mostly by strangers in other corners of rural America. "If we waited on the government, we wouldn’t have it,” said Leo Hale, a local business owner who volunteered for 12-hour shifts distributing hay at the Vici rodeo grounds.

A Lynching Memorial Forces a Reckoning for a Nation, and a Newspaper

A memorial that opened last week in Montgomery, Alabama, honoring lynching victims aims to force a reckoning with one of the United States’ worst atrocities. As the city’s largest newspaper, The Montgomery Advertiser, covered the opening, it had its own reckoning. In a news article and an editorial, The Advertiser admitted its coverage of lynchings over many decades was careless, dismissive and dehumanizing in its treatment of the black victims and portrayed them as criminals who got what was coming to them. The Advertiser’s self-examination marked an important acknowledgment of the role the press played in perpetuating the mob violence unleashed on African-Americans for decades after slavery was abolished.

Fire Kills 3 in Close-Knit Queens Village Community

Everyone on a quiet stretch of 211th Street, in the Queens Village neighborhood in New York, knew the Kainth family. Their children played together, birthdays and weddings were shared occasions. But five minutes before midnight Saturday, a fire ripped through the home shared that night by four generations of the Kainth family. The blaze killed three occupants and critically injured three others, including an 8-year-old girl, authorities said. In all, firefighters removed 11 people from charred home. All 11 were taken to hospitals, where three were pronounced dead, an 82-year-old woman, an 87-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman, police said. Their identities were not immediately released.

Girl Dies and Mother Is Shot After Attacking Officers, Police Say

A woman who called the police to her home in Westchester County, New York, on Saturday was desperate. The police officers who arrived at the home in Mamaroneck found a 2-year-old girl unconscious and tried unsuccessfully to revive her, police said. The girl’s mother, who was wielding a knife, attacked two of the officers, authorities said. One of the officers shot the woman after Tasers failed to stop her, Sgt. Sandra DiRuzza of the Village of Mamaroneck Police Department said in a statement. The police did not identify the woman or her daughter. Police said preliminary investigations indicated that the officers “acted within departmental guidelines and training.”

Old Tappan Zee Bridge Gets New Life as Artificial Reef

In its next life, the New York's old Tappan Zee Bridge is going to the fishes. Chunks of concrete and steel that held the 3-mile span aloft over the Hudson River for decades will be scattered among a half-dozen artificial reefs off Long Island. The first bargeload of the Tappan Zee’s remains will be carried to its watery grave this week. By recycling the Tappan Zee, the state has not only found an affordable way to dispose of some of its massive parts, but is also significantly expanding a state-managed artificial reef program that aims to increase the diversity of marine life, promote recreational fishing and bolster economic development.