Mar 22, 2019

Charlottesville schools closed over race-based online threats

The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee led to clashes among protesters in August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Public schools in Charlottesville, Virginia, closed Thursday and Friday after reports of racially based online threats, per ABC News.

Details: Police arrested a 17-year-old in connection to the hostile statements, who allegedly posted intimidating remarks on "ethnic cleansing" on 4Chan, an anonymous message board, Buzzfeed reports. Police received alerts on Wednesday and the minor will be charged with a felony and one misdemeanor.

Flashback: The intimidations come almost 2 years after the Unite the Right rally at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The rally centered around the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Heather Heyer was killed during the protests of the rally.

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Orion Rummler

House passes bill to make lynching a federal hate crime

Photo: Aaron P. Bauer-Griffin/GC Images via Getty Images

The House voted 410-4 on Wednesday to pass legislation to designate lynching as a federal hate crime.

Why it matters: Congress has tried and failed for over 100 years to pass measures to make lynching a federal crime.

Go deeper35 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Kim Hart

This year's census may be the toughest count yet

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

Community leaders are concerned that historically hard-to-count residents will be even harder to count in this year's census, thanks to technological hurdles and increased distrust in government.

Why it matters: The census — which will count more than 330 million people this year — determines how $1.5 trillion in federal funding gets allocated across state and local governments. Inaccurate counts mean that communities don't get their fair share of those dollars.

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Axios

Live updates: Coronavirus spreads to Latin America

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens.

Brazil confirmed the first novel coronavirus case in Latin America Wednesday — a 61-year-old that tested positive after returning from a visit to northern Italy, the epicenter of Europe's outbreak.

The big picture: COVID-19 has killed more than 2,700 people and infected over 81,000 others. By Wednesday morning, South Korea had the most cases outside China, with 1,261 infections. Europe's biggest outbreak is in Italy, where 374 cases have been confirmed.

Go deeperUpdated 2 hours ago - Health