Educators fired for posting about Charlie Kirk’s death sue to take back their jobs
After dozens of educational systems have both fired and suspended employees from working over their posts on social media in relation to Charlie Kirk’s assassination, employees have sought aid from federal courts to sue and get their jobs back, according to NBC News.
Among many, one former Ball State University staff member is suing the Indiana school’s president after being fired for posting on commentary on Facebook: “Charlie Kirk’s death is a reflection of the violence, fear and hatred he sowed. It does not excuse his death AND it’s a sad truth.”
Immediately following Kirk’s death, Vice President JD Vance and other notable Republicans encouraged citizens to report people who speak poorly on or mock Kirk’s assassination, to their employers.
The lawsuits represent some of the first actions employees have taken to defy the campaign led by conservative influencers and Republican lawmakers.
Many believe that some of these firings infringed on First Amendment rights, as Civil liberties groups warn about the legal challenges that could follow.
Camp Mystic announces plans to reopen next summer with a new memorial after 27 were kill from flooding
According to NBC News, owners confirmed that Camp Mystic, the girls-only camp in the Texas Hill Country where 27 campers and counselors lost their lives to horrendous flooding in July, has announced its partial reopening for the summer of 2026.
The area of the camp that remained undamaged from floodwaters will be reopening, the owners said in a letter to Camp Mystic families, some of whom criticized the nearly century-old facility over its safety measures and lack of preparation following the tragedy.
Cici Steward, whose 8-year-old daughter Cile is still deemed missing, said, “the truth is, Camp Mystic failed our daughters.”
“For my family, these months have felt like an eternity. For the camp, it seems like nothing more than a brief pause before business as usual,” Steward said in a statement to The New York Times.
Camp Mystic also announced the building of a memorial to honor those who were killed in the flooding, leaving some parents troubled as they were “not consulted about and did not approve this memorial,” Blake Bonner, the father of Lila Bonner, 9, who died in the flood, said.
Fossil of a new carnivorous dinosaur species discovered by paleontologists
According to ABC News, Paleontologists in Argentina have identified a new predatory dinosaur from its fossil that contained a crocodile bone in the dinosaur’s mouth.
This newly discovered species is referred to as Joaquinraptor casali, which belongs to the megaraptoran family of theropods, characterized by their “elongated skulls, powerful forearms and large claws,” according to a paper published in Nature Communications.
The preserved fossils of J. Casali were uncovered in Lago Colhué Huapi Formation in Patagonia, Argentina and included most of the skull, vertebrae, ribs and fore and hind limbs.
Scientists hypothesized that the crocodile bone contained in the dinosaur’s mouth provides further proof that J. Casali may have been the highest ranking predator in the region.
The specific individual found was estimated to have lived between 66 million and 70 million years ago, indicating that it was one of the most recently surviving dinosaurs of this species, according to Nature Communications’ paper.
