Daily News Recap (4-6-15)

Compiled by Holly Henrichsen
Assistant Web Content Manager

New information is now being released regarding the Garissa University College massacre, including details that the Kenyan government had been informed that there would be an attack on a Garissa University prior to the attack with no indication of which university. According to CNN, soon after the alarm sounded during last weeks massacre, the Kenyan rapid response team was stuck in the town Nairobi for hours arranging transportation. Authorities also confirmed that one of the attackers is the son of a government chief in northern Kenya.
-Taylor Zavala

Kenyan fighter jets have bombed al-Shabab bases in Somalia after the Garissa University College massacre. According to BBC News, this is Kenya’s first response to the al-Shabab assault that resulted in 148 people dead at Garissa University last week. Fighter jets targeted and destroyed two camps in the Gedo region used by al-Shabab to cross into Kenya. The bombings are said to be part of their continued process against al-Shabab.
-Allie Ibarra

A North Carolina State Judge ruled today that prosecutors can seek the death penalty for the man charged with killing three Muslim college students. According to USA Today, Craig Stephen Hicks is charged with three counts of murder for the February 10 killings of three UNC Chapel Hill students, who were shot in a condominium complex at the edge of Chapel Hill. Police claim Hicks was motivated by a dispute over parking spaces. Hicks lived in the same complex as Deah Barakat, one of the slain students.
-Joe Teagle

Ferguson voters will head to the polls tomorrow with intentions to transform the city’s political fabric and put as many as three African Americans on the city council for the first time in the city’s history. According to USA Today, if a black candidate in Ward 1 wins her race, it will be the first time that African Americans make up half of the six council members in a city where two-thirds of the residents are black. One sitting council member not up for re-election is black, and two black candidates are seeking the Ward 3 council seat. In the weeks after Michael Brown’s death, demonstrators saw an opportunity to channel the city’s unrest into civic activism. Voting rights advocates set up shop at a burned-out gas station at the epicenter of protests and other groups set up voter registration stations across the city. Between August 2014 and this month, about 500 people registered to vote, an increase of less than 4%. No matter the outcome, Ferguson is poised to alter its history.
-Eryka Villarreal