Tuesday, March 16 top stories

It is Tuesday, March 16. Here are today’s top stories.

Moderna announced it would start testing its vaccine on children ages 6 months up to 12 years. The trials will involve almost 7,000 children in the U.S. and Canada. Moderna is the first U.S. vaccine maker to test its vaccine on infants. A Moderna official said they hope to find the appropriate dose because children often need lower doses than adults.

U.S. Representative Deb Haaland was confirmed by the Senate yesterday in a 51-40 vote to become the Secretary of the Interior. She is the first Native American person to lead a cabinet agency. She is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe in New Mexico. She will oversee policies on 500 million acres of federal and tribal land and programs that impact Native and indigenous populations. Reuters explained that Haaland will have a key role in President Biden’s plans to combat climate change.

AP News reported that in Israel, archaeologists announced discoveries about 80 new pieces of ancient Dead Sea Scroll fragments with Greek text of the Old Testament books of Zechariah and Nahum. Experts say they date back from the 3rd century B.C. to the 1st century A.D. Archaeologists believe the scrolls were hidden when Jewish groups revolted against Roman Emperor Hadrian almost 1,900 years ago. A researcher said the text of the new scrolls had differences from the Septuagint, a translation of the Hebrew Bible to Greek, and that the discoveries help them understand how the “Biblical text came into its traditional Hebrew form.”

The FAA announced yesterday that it would extend its zero-tolerance policy on unruly passengers and those who refuse to wear a mask on flights. The FAA said airlines have reported over 500 cases of bad behavior since December, and that many of the cases involved those who protested face masks. The strict policies were implemented a week after the January 6 attack on the Capitol and penalties range from fines to jail time. Now the zero-tolerance policies are extended.

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The New York Times reported that the “last living man of the Juma people in Brazil” has died of the coronavirus. The man’s name is Aruká Juma and he was between 86 to 90 years old. The Juma people was an Amazon tribe that had 15,000 people in it in the 1700’s, but was decimated by colonizers, rubber tappers, loggers, and miners. There were several reported massacres. Juma was the last fluent speaker of the tribe’s language, and now the tribe is considered extinct.

In southern Florida, a small airplane with two people in it crashed into a SUV on a residential street on Monday night. Two people on the plane and a young boy in the SUV were killed. The mother of the boy, who was driving the SUV, survived and was hospitalized. There is a Ring doorbell video that shows the moment the plane crashed into the SUV, leading to an explosion and flames. News reports said the plane had mechanical issues and clipped a power line before crashing.

In Idaho, first responders saved two people in a pickup truck that was dangling off a bridge above a 100-feet deep gorge. The pickup was hauling a 30-foot camper trailer when it somehow got off the bridge with the camper remaining on the road. There were safety chains between the truck and the camper. First responders secured the pickup with additional chains, then crews with cranes and rope were able to rappel down and pull out the two people and their two small dogs.

ABC News reported that in northwest Florida, a mother, Laura Rose Carroll, and her 17-year-old daughter were arrested and accused of hacking into a high school’s online voting system for its Homecoming Queen last October. The mother was the assistant principal at a nearby elementary school and her daughter was voted Tate High School’s Homecoming queen. However the Florida Department of Law Enforcement started an investigation after they received a tip that there were 117 votes that came from a single IP address in a very short period of time. The investigation found 246 votes that came from Carroll’s cell phone and computers. Her daughter was jailed in a juvenile detention center.

That’s all the top stories for today. Check out our other videos See you tomorrow and stay with the light.

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Wellness/moderna-announces-vaccine-trials-children-young-months/story?id=76485128

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-interior-haaland/deb-haaland-becomes-first-ever-native-american-u-s-cabinet-secretary-idUSKBN2B72SO

https://apnews.com/article/new-dead-sea-scrolls-israel-19844d3eb208190914182e78d9d79aac

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/15/faa-will-keep-zero-tolerance-policy-on-unruly-airline-passengers-as-cases-surge.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/world/the-last-living-man-of-the-juma-people-in-brazil-has-died-from-covid-19.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/03/16/florida-plane-crash-ring-doorbell-camera-capture-crash-into-suv/4713884001/

https://apnews.com/article/idaho-c28ac682de2c366036f98d85723bd5bb

https://abcnews.go.com/US/mother-daughter-arrested-allegedly-casting-hundreds-fraudulent-homecoming/story?id=76484142