Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you so much for joining us today. Todays Education Brain trust is called from brown to fisher, increasing racial diversity to improve Educational Equity. I am melanie newman, the chief Public Engagement and Communications Strategist for the nacp Legal Defense fund, the organization i am proud to say i work for and that is responsible for brown and fisher. So i want to give a little bit of hello . Oh. I want to give sorry. I want to give a little bit of background about myself. I am, ive been with the Legal Defense fund since march of this year but worked in the Obama Administration and on the hill for quite some time. But this issue and the reason i am happy to be here with all of you today is personal to me. I am originally from new orleans but also went to school in selma, alabama. Which im sure all of you are familiar with. My father, dr. Norwood, was the first black School Superintendent in selma, alabama [applause] thank you. And when he in 1987
Set in. If you were a Cherry Blossom youd be frozen by now. Absolutely. Reporter many of the blossoms had hit what is called the puffy white stage. Those petals are already wilting and turning brown. How is it pretty of like this. Reporter temperatures dropped below 24 degrees for a more than five hour stretch overnight. That has the backer service predicting damage to 90 of the blossoms. And we still have two more icy nights to go. It is very sad. You can see they were trying to bloom and then its just not going to happen. Reporter now the horticulturists have been taking cuttings from some of the trees that have been slower to develop like this one. Theyre going to take those branches inside, see if they can force them to bloom and then some time in the next 24 to 48 hours well know blossoms, these slower developing blossoms have been protected inside their kind of woody buds. Live at the tidal basin, bruce leshan, wusa9. Breaking our hearts, bruce. All right. More than three quarter
And if they really protect you. Plus to the rescue. One of the remarkable efforts to save the earths most endangered species. Theres no mistake tonight that iraq is in the throes of a civil war. The violence brutal and bar ba barbaric, the world is watching. The white house is watching and tonight, president obama is taking steps to safeguard americans at the u. S. Embassy in baghdad. Ordering 750 troops back ting baghdad. And talking with a foe, iran, on how to deal with this quickly unfolding crisis. Mike viqueria reports. The crisis has come to this secretary of state john kerry says the country is willing to work with iran to turn back rebel gains in iraq. I think we are open to any constructive process here that could minimize the violence, hold iraq together, the integrity of the country, and eliminate the presence of outside terrorist forces, that are ripping it apart. For now, that does not include military cooperation with iran. This as the pentagon sends more war ships to the
Cameras and on twitter calling me hateful, dumb, a lightweight. Some of your friends have suggested you expected better of me and im not sure why youd expect anything other than fairness and facts first. We know you get a lot of your news from tv. Several of your friends and supporters have told me you watch this show, so since i have this platform, id like to speak to you personally right now. I feel compelled to do that after this latest controversy with the widow of sergeant la David Johnson. Your tweet this morning essentially called her a liar. Mr. Trump, please stop it. Please stop. Think of what Sergeant Johnson would want. You are putting his widow in the terrible position of having to fight for her dignity when she should be concentrating on taking care of herself, her health, her two children, and the one on the way. I want you to listen to what Myesha Johnson said this morning. The president said that he knew what he signed up for but it hurts anyways. And i was it made me c