Welcome back to Robertson’s Reportings! Democrats in Congress are pushing for a bill that would make Washington, D.C. the 51st state; however, there is only a small likelihood that Republicans in the Senate will allow this to be passed. The bill would create the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, giving D.C. two senators and a voting representative in the House. This measure was approved by the House by 232 to 180 last year, but it did not get enough votes in the Senate. The main argument for D.C. becoming a state is that citizens in the district do not have full citizenship rights because they do not have representation in Congress.

This week, there have been more riots as a result of police shootings that killed two African Americans. In a shooting in Ohio, a sixteen-year-old girl named Ma’Khia Bryant was killed by a police officer responding to the scene where the girl was attacking another girl with a knife. Attempting to save the girl from being stabbed, the police officer shot and killed Bryant. One neighbor claimed that, seeing the events unfold, the police officer had no choice but to shoot, but there is still retaliation to the police officer’s actions. Lebron James Tweeted a picture of the police officer involved, captioning it with “YOU’RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY” with an hourglass emoji next to those threatening words. Instead of waiting for the facts to come out and being rational, he chose to react to violence with more violence. For these reasons, James faced backlash and removed his Tweet. More information will be released by the police in the coming days about the incident.

The other shooting took place in North Carolina while an officer was serving a search warrant for Andrew Brown Junior. He had a history of drug charges and a misdemeanor drug possession conviction, and as he was trying to flee the scene, police officers shot at him and his car, killing him. Many details about the shooting are unknown, so the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is taking over to find more details.

In Oklahoma, a cockfighting ring was busted. Cockfighting has been banned in Oklahoma for 20 years, but 34 roosters and cockfighting equipment were seized from the scene. The Animal Wellness Action and Animal Wellness Foundation claimed that Oklahoma could be the cockfighting capital of America, despite this bloody sport being banned in all 50 states.

See you next time on Robertson’s Reportings, coverage you can count on!

Photo Credits: Western Advocate