| YOUR MORNING NEWS ROUNDUP |
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| Good morning, Arizona. Here’s what our reporters are working on and what you should know before you start your day. |
| Memorial Day drivers rejoice. The Arizona Department of Transportation has announced no major highway closures in the Phoenix area this weekend. |
| Without that added burden of construction-induced congestion, travelers can focus a little more on Memorial Day weekend festivitiesinstead of just worrying about making it to those festivities on time. |
| ➤ Arizona State University President Michael Crow said ASU’s athletic department debt of more than $300 million has been “eliminated.“ |
| ➤ The Phoenix Suns will work out USC guard Bronny James, the son of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, ahead of the 2024 NBA Draft, according to a report. |
| ➤ Today, you can expect it to be sunny with a high near 91 degrees. Expect it to be clear at night with a low near 68 degrees. Get the full forecast here. |
Cosplayers cosplaying all the cosplay
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| Jenna Williams and Michael Williams cosplay the Grady Twins from “The Shining” during Phoenix Fan Fusion at the Convention Center on May 24, 2024, in downtown Phoenix.
Patrick Breen/The Republic |
| 2024 Phoenix Fan Fusion roars on at the Phoenix Convention Center in downtown this weekend. |
| Here are just some of the events on this date in the past. |
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On this day in 1787, the Constitutional Convention began in Philadelphia with delegates from states meeting in what is now Independence Hall. They decided against simply amending the Articles of Confederation, opting to work through the coming months on what became the Constitution, signed in September of 1787. |
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In 1955, an F5 tornado hit Udall, Kansas, leaving just one habitable structure in the town. The storm killed 80 people across two Kansas counties. |
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In 1961, President John Kennedy proposed to Congress what became the Apollo space program: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” The space race against the Soviet Union was viewed as a proxy to the Cold War, with Kennedy saying in his speech that people around the world were captivated by it, and it could sway their “determination of which road they should take” in what he characterized as a battle “between freedom and tyranny.” |
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In 1977, the sci-fi film “Star Wars” was released in just a few dozen theaters. It caught on, however, and soon spread to a wide release. The film became so popular that more than 40 theaters kept “Star Wars” playing for a year or longer. |
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In 1986, in an effort to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness, Hands Across America attempted to link people hand-in-hand from coast to coast, with each participant encouraged to make a donation. Though the human chain was broken in many places along the way, the event raised more than $36.4 million. |
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In 2020, with a police officer kneeling on his neck and back for more than nine minutes, George Floyd died in Minneapolis, spurring widespread protests with demonstrators declaring, “Black lives matter.” The white officer, Derek Chauvin, was convicted the following year of murdering Floyd and sentenced to 15 years in prison and 7 1/2 years of parole. Later that year, he pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges and was sentenced to 21 years in prison. |
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| Sinema said the vote proved what many Americans believe: “that senators come here for political games, not to deliver results.” |
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Female artists opened up their undead lives to show off all the ways their heritage has influenced how they thrive under a pale moonlight. |
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Galán-Woods was a Republican while the party opposed abortion, stalled climate action and backed S.B. 1070. She explains why. |
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From Dick Van Dyke to Star Wars to perfect-in-pink Barbie cosplay, Phoenix Fan Fusion is the place to be on Memorial Day weekend. Here’s the latest. |
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Air France’s new Phoenix-Paris flight took off for the first time on May 23. The flight will operate three days a week to Charles de Gaulle Airport. |
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