Page 23 - Florida Sentinel 3-13-20

National
Fulton County Schools Closed Due To Positive Test For Coronavirus
ATLANTA -- Fulton County Schools held a press confer- ence Monday afternoon to dis- cuss the closing of all schools on Tuesday after an employee was diagnosed with coron- avirus.
Dr. Mike Looney, Super- intendent of Fulton County Schools, said the person was an itinerant teacher at Bear Creek Middle School and Woodland Middle School. The teacher fell ill during their shift at Bear Creek Middle School last Friday and 911 was called. The employee is currently hos-
pitalized.
Looney, the teacher had "a lot of contact with students they serve and with additional staff
member
The district said it will work
with the Department of Health to help identify the names and contact information of every- one in which the teacher had contact. The district immedi- ately closed three schools on Monday -- Bear Creek Middle School, Woodland Middle School and Creekside High School. Creekside was closed because of its proximity to the middle schools, because the schools often share staff mem- bers, and since families often have students in both schools.
According to
Stocks Plunge Amid Coronavirus Panic In Worst Day Since 2008
Stocks took their worst one-day beating on Wall Street since the global finan- cial crisis of 2008 as a col- lapse in oil prices Monday combined with mounting alarm over what the coron- avirus could do to the world economy.
Elsewhere around the world, Ireland went so far as to cancel St. Patrick’s Day pa- rades, and Israel ordered all visitors quarantined just weeks before Passover and Easter, one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
In the U. S., a cruise ship with a cluster of coronavirus
cases that forced it to idle off the California coast for days docked at Oakland as officials prepared to start bringing passengers to military bases for quarantine or return them to their home countries. The Grand Princess had more than 3,500 people aboard, 21 of them infected.
The market was also dragged down by another, in- tertwined development: Oil prices plunged nearly 25% after Russia refused to roll back production in response to virus-depressed demand and Saudi Arabia signaled it will ramp up its own output.
‘Because Of You, I Have No Bounds’: NASA Pioneer Katherine Johnson Remembered At Memorial Service
Rev. Brian Blount didn’t know what Katherine Goble Johnson had accomplished at NASA Langley Research Center when he started as pastor at Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church in 1981.
At 24, he was nervous to be in one of his first leadership roles. But Johnson, a pioneering mathematician in the era of Jim Crow who helped take American astronauts to the moon, treated him like he’d been preaching for decades.
“She honored me the way she should have been honored when she was first starting out,” said Blount, now president of Union Presbyterian Seminary in Rich- mond.
Over 700 people gathered Sat- urday morning at the Hampton University Convocation Center to celebrate the life of Johnson — a mathematical genius, an African American hero, a faith-
ASHLAND, La. — A Louisiana woman was arrested on drug charges after police de- termined the $5,000 cash she used to post an inmate’s bail had a “strong odor of mari-
juana.”
Authorities began investigat-
ing Stormy Lynn Parfait, 33, on Friday, shortly after she showed up at the Ashland jail to pay the bond fee for an inmate being held there on drug charges, the Terrebonne Parish
KATHERINE JOHNSON
ful church leader, a loving mother and a trusted confidant. “Grandma, because of you, our world will forever be unlim- ited," said Michael Moore,
Johnson’s grandson.
"And because of you, I have
no bounds.”
Johnson’s death Feb. 24 at
the age of 101 at The Hidenwood retirement community in New-
Sheriff’s Office said in a state- ment obtained by news outlets. After catching a whiff of the cash, a detective searched her car while she was still at the jail and found nearly $40,000 more inside, along with about 100 Klonopin pills and a food stamp card that wasn’t regis- tered to Parfait, according to
the sheriff’s statement. Investigators found hundreds
of additional pills and cash as well as marijuana, cocaine and
port News drew national atten- tion. Her obituary ran on the front page of The New York Times: “NASA’s Shining Star, Undiscovered for Decades.”
Her family received an out- pouring of tributes; some were read by Carver Presbyterian clerk of session Robin Rattley during the service.
Former President Barack Obama, who awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, called her a “hero to millions” in a letter to her fam- ily. First Lady Melania Trump said she “took our na- tion to remarkable heights.”
Friends and family traveled from across the country to the Peninsula for two days of public memorials. Public viewings were held Friday in southeast New- port News, including one at Carver Presbyterian before a ceremony held by her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.
paraphernalia, during a search of Parfait’s home later, news outlets reported. Four unat- tended children there were turned over to a relative.
Parfait was charged with multiple counts of possession with intent to distribute drugs, four counts of illegal use of a controlled drug in the presence of persons under 17, taking con- traband to or into a correctional institution and other related charges, authorities said.
Police Jail Woman Who Paid Bail With Marijuana-Scented Cash
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