Comment on Lightning blasts, topples cross from atop south Minneapolis church

The Douglas County school board unanimously approved a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies after hearing parents and educators express support for the new class during a meeting Tuesday evening. The Board of Education’s decision came after President Christy Williams initially delayed the vote during a Nov. 19 meeting, saying at the time that she hadn’t had enough time to review the course — which had drawn concerns from community members — and make sure it aligned with Douglas County School District’s equity policy. Williams said at the time that she had heard from community members who were concerned the course would teach students critical race theory, which is an academic concept that racism runs through American institutions, such as the legal and education systems. “A lot of people have talked about the course that was banned from certain states,” Williams said, referencing the fact that the African American studies course has been barred in Florida, where teachings on race have been restricted. “I can say now after researching and understanding that that has been revised and modified and doesn’t include some of the controversial topics that were in there initially,” she added. The seven-member school board must approve all courses taught in the district.

A company that wants to extract gold from piles of decades-old mining waste outside Leadville no longer plans to use cyanide in its processes after hearing concerns from locals about the toxic chemical. CJK Milling will instead use a different process to separate the gold from 1.2 million tons of tailings left over from historic mining in the area, the company announced Monday.

Maria Callas (1923-1977) is often hailed as one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century. She’s best known for her performances in the operas Medea, Tosca and La Traviata, and when TIME put her on the cover of the Oct. 29, 1956, issue, the magazine dubbed her “the undisputed queen of the world’s opera.” But Maria, the Netflix biopic starring Angelina Jolie as Callas out today (Dec.11) does not take place at the height of her career.

Elton John has no address. Visitors to his home are given three names: the name of a house, the name of a hill, and the name of a town, which is near Windsor, as in Windsor Castle, where King Charles III lives. Admission is granted via a big iron gate that swings silently open to a crunchy driveway, a small turreted gatehouse, a pond with geese, hedgerows, wordless men with wheelbarrows and Wellingtons and, after a little walking, a three-story red-brick Georgian compound.

Catastrophic floods across Europe, Asia and parts of the U. S. in recent months have drawn public attention to how vulnerable cities and towns are often impacted by hurricanes and severe storms. After flood waters devastated Valencia, Spain in early November, King Felipe, Queen Letitia and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited to view the damage.

Dear Eric: My wife and I married two years ago. We were both widowed after long happy marriages and feel blessed that we have found each other. When our first spouses died, they were each interred in different local cemeteries. In each case, the headstones include each surviving spouse’s name, birth year and, of course, no death year (yet!).