By MIKE SCHNEIDER (Associated Press)

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Students in a Florida school district will be reading only excerpts from William Shakespeare’s plays for class rather than the full texts under redesigned curriculum guides developed, in part, to take into consideration the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” laws.

The changes to the Hillsborough County Public Schools’ curriculum guides were made with Florida’s new laws prohibiting classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in mind. Other reasons included revised state standards and an effort to get students to read a wide variety of books for new state exams, the school district said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

Several Shakespeare plays use suggestive puns and innuendo, and it is implied that the protagonists have had premarital sex in “Romeo and Juliet.” Shakespeare’s books will be available for checkout at media centers at schools, said the district, which covers the Tampa area.

“First and foremost, we have not excluded Shakespeare from our high school curriculum. Students will still have the physical books to read excerpts in class,” the statement said. “Curriculum guides are continually reviewed and refined throughout the year to align with state standards and current law.”

The decision in Tampa is the latest fallout from laws passed by Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature and championed by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis over the past two years.

In Lake County, outside Orlando, the school district reversed a decision, made in response to the legislation, to restrict access to a popular children’s book about a male penguin couple hatching a chick. The School Board of Lake County and Florida education officials last week asked a federal judge to toss out a First Amendment lawsuit that students and the authors of “And Tango Makes Three” filed in June. Their complaint challenged the restrictions and Florida’s new laws.

The lawsuit is moot because age restrictions on “And Tango Makes Three” were lifted following a Florida Department of Education memo that said the new law applied only to classroom instruction and not school libraries, according to motions filed Friday by Florida education officials and school board members.

“And Tango Makes Three” recounts the true story of two male penguins who were devoted to each other at the Central Park Zoo in New York. A zookeeper who saw them building a nest and trying to incubate an egg-shaped rock gave them an egg from a different penguin pair with two eggs after they were having difficulty hatching more than one egg at a time. The chick cared for by the male penguins was named Tango.

The book is listed among the 100 most subjected to censorship efforts over the past decade, as compiled by the American Library Association.

The “Don’t Say Gay” legislation has been at the center of a fight between Disney and DeSantis, who is running to be the 2024 GOP presidential nominee and has made the culture wars a driving force of his campaign. DeSantis and Republican lawmakers took over control of the district after Disney publicly opposed the legislation.

The College Board has refused to alter its Advanced Placement psychology course to comply with Florida’s new laws, even though it includes content on gender and sexual orientation. The College Board said last week that it hoped Florida teachers would be able to teach the full course.

With students preparing to return to school this week in many school districts, it remained unclear whether any modifications to the course would be expected to comply with Florida’s rules.

___

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP

By BECKY BOHRER and MARK THIESSEN (Associated Press)

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The gray, two-story home with white trim toppled and slid, crashing into the river below as rushing waters carried off a bobbing chunk of its roof. Next door, a condo building teetered on the edge of the bank, its foundation already having fallen away as erosion undercut it.

The destruction came over the weekend as a glacial dam burst in Alaska’s capital, swelling the levels of the Mendenhall River to an unprecedented degree. The bursting of such snow-and-ice dams is a phenomenon called a jökuhlaup, and while it’s relatively little-known in the U.S., researchers say such glacial floods could threaten about 15 million people around the world.

“We sat down there and were just watching it, and all of a sudden trees started to fall in,” Amanda Arra, whose house continued hanging precariously over the river bank Monday, told the Juneau Empire. “And that’s when I started to get concerned. Tree after tree after tree.”

The flooding in Juneau came from a side basin of the awe-inspiring Mendenhall Glacier, which acts as a dam for the rain and melted snow that collect in the basin during the spring and summer. Eventually, the water gushed out from under the glacier and into Mendenhall Lake, from which it flowed down the Mendenhall River.

Water released from the basin has caused sporadic flooding since 2011. But typically, the water releases more slowly, over a number of days, said Eran Hood, a University of Alaska Southeast professor of environmental science.

Saturday’s event was astonishing because the water gushed so quickly, raising the river’s flows to about 1 1/2 times the highest previously recorded — so much that it washed away sensors that researchers had placed to study the glacial outburst phenomenon.

“The flows were just way beyond what anything in the river could withstand,” Hood said.

Two homes were completely lost and a third partially so, Robert Barr, Juneau’s deputy city manager, said Monday. There were no reports of injuries or fatalities.

Eight buildings, including those that fell into the water, have been condemned, but some might be able to be salvaged by substantial repairs or bank stabilization, he said. Others suffered lesser damage.

While climate change is melting the Mendenhall and other glaciers around the world, its relationship to such floods is complicated, scientists say.

The basin where the rain and meltwater collect was formerly covered by the Suicide Glacier, which used to flow into the Mendenhall Glacier, contributing ice to it. But the Suicide Glacier has retreated as the climate warms, leaving a lake in the basin dammed by the Mendenhall.

While that part can be linked to climate change, the unpredictable ways that those waters can burst through the ice dams and create floods downstream is not, they said.

“Climate change caused the phenomenon, but not the individual floods,” Hood said.

The variability in the timing and volume of such floods makes it hard to prepare for them, said Celeste Labedz, an environmental seismologist at the University of Calgary.

More than half of the people at risk from glacial outburst floods are in just four countries — India, Pakistan, Peru and China, according to a study published this year in Nature Communications.

One of the more devastating such events killed up to 6,000 people in Peru in 1941. A 2020 glacial lake outburst flood in British Columbia, Canada, caused a surge of water about 330 feet (100 meters) high, but no one was hurt.

Because the ground along the Mendenhall River is largely made up of loose glacial deposits, it’s especially susceptible to erosion, Hood said. The damage could have been much worse if the flood coincided with heavy rains, he said.

Chris and Bob Winter built their house about 50 feet (15.2 meters) off the Mendenhall River in 1981. It flooded for the first time in 2014, an event that prompted them to raise their house 3 feet. It flooded again on Saturday with about 3 inches of standing water, enough to soak the carpets, subflooring and drywall.

“You just got to rip it all out,” Chris Winter said. “I just don’t know what’s going to happen, but we can’t live in our house right now.”

She said her biggest concern is that they are both in their mid-70s and will probably have to move south at some point.

“We raised our family, and they’re gone and nobody’s in Juneau,” she said. “And I don’t know that we’ll be able to sell it.”

___

Thiessen reported from Anchorage. Associated Press writer Gene Johnson in Seattle and researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report.

By ANDREW DALTON AP | Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge sentenced rapper Tory Lanez to 10 years in prison Tuesday for shooting and wounding hip-hop superstar Megan Thee Stallion.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Herriford handed down the sentence to the 31-year-old Lanez, who was convicted in December of three felonies: assault with a semiautomatic firearm; having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.

The sentence brings an end to a dramatic trial that created a cultural firestorm in the hip-hop community, churning up issues including the reluctance of Black victims to speak to police, gender politics in hip-hop, online toxicity, protecting Black women and the ramifications of misogynoir, a particular brand of misogyny Black women experience.

Herriford said it was “difficult to reconcile” the kind, charitable person and good father many people described Lanez as being during the sentencing hearing with the person who fired the gun at Megan.

“Sometimes good people do bad things,” Herriford said. “Actions have consequences, and there are no winners in this case.”

Megan testified that Lanez fired the gun at the back of her feet and shouted for her to dance as she walked away from an SUV in which they had been riding in July 2020, after leaving a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home. She had to have surgery to remove bullet fragments.

“Since I was viciously shot by the defendant, I have not experienced a single day of peace,” Megan said in a statement read by a prosecutor on Monday. “Slowly but surely, I’m healing and coming back, but I will never be the same.”

Lanez asked Herriford for mercy just before the judge delivered his sentence. Lanez requested either probation or a minimal prison sentence.

“If I could turn back the series of events that night and change them,” I would, Lanez continued. “The victim was my friend. The victim is someone I still care for to this day.”

He added, “Everythig I did wrong that night, I take full responsibility for.”

Before the sentencing, Lanez’s father, Sonstar Peterson, choked back tears as he talked about how the rapper’s mother died when he was 11, just days after she first showed symptoms of the rare blood disorder that would lead to her death.

“I don’t think anybody ever gets over that,” he said of their youngest child, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson. “But his music became his outlet.”

Lanez began releasing mixtapes in 2009 and saw a steady rise in popularity, moving on to major-label albums. His last two reached the top 10 on Billboard’s charts.

Megan Thee Stallion, now 28, was already a major rising star at the time of the shooting, and her prominence has surged since. Born Megan Pete, she won a Grammy for best new artist in 2021, and she had No. 1 singles with “Savage,” featuring Beyoncé, and as a guest on Cardi B’s “WAP.”

The elder Peterson, who is a Christian minister, was one of several people who gave statements on Lanez’s character and charitable giving — as did the mother of Lanez’s young son, who spoke in court about his qualities as a father. Dozens more wrote letters to Herriford, including rapper Iggy Azalea, who asked the judge to hand down a sentence that was “transformative, not life-destroying.”

Herriford said Lanez’s son, who is about 6 years old, also sent in a handwritten letter, but the judge did not describe it further.

Lanez’s family and supporters have packed the courtroom; during the trial, they contended his prosecution was unjustly brought on by Megan and powerful figures in music. After the verdict was read in December, Lanez’s father denounced the “wicked system” that led to his son’s conviction; on Monday, Sonstar Peterson apologized to Herriford for the outburst.

Lanez has been jailed since his conviction. A chaplain from Los Angeles County jail said Monday in court that Lanez has led daily prayer groups that have eased tensions in the protective custody unit where he has been held.

Herriford denied a motion from Lanez’s defense attorneys for a new trial on May 9. Such motions immediately following a conviction are common and rarely succeed. Attorneys for Lanez had argued that there was insufficient evidence to convict him, and some of the evidence presented to jurors should not have been allowed.

The lawyers argued Megan’s testimony that Lanez urged her not to go to police because he was on parole and would be in serious trouble was both untrue and an improper allowance of prior bad acts. And they said DNA evidence that prosecutors used to argue Lanez was the likely shooter fell well short of industry standards.

Lawyers for Lanez had said in a sentencing memo that he should get only probation and be released from jail to enter a residential substance abuse program. They plan to appeal the conviction.

Herriford found earlier Monday that Megan was an especially vulnerable victim when she was shot, but that Lanez was not especially cruel or callous in firing at her.

“She has permanent scarring, physically,” Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott said in court. “And she certainly will have emotional scarring for the rest of her life.”

Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts Tuesday as local emergency shelters fill up with an ever-increasing number of migrants arriving from other countries and surging housing costs hurt residents already here.

Healey is the latest governor to turn to emergency action to respond to migrants fleeing unstable conditions in their home countries. The Massachusetts Democrat also paired the declaration with a full-throated appeal to the federal government for funding and expediting work authorizations for migrants, which she said was a primary driver of the emergency.

At a press conference inside the State House with shelter providers, faith leaders, and other advocates, Healey said the emergency declaration directs local officials to utilize “all means necessary” to secure housing, shelter, and health and human services to address the “humanitarian crisis.”

“These families include newborns, very young children, and expecting mothers. It’s more families than our state has ever served, exponentially more than our state has ever served in our emergency assistance program,” Healey said. “These numbers are being driven by a surge of new arrivals in our country who have been through some of the hardest journeys imaginable.”

A steady stream of migrant families arriving in Massachusetts over the past year has put a strain on the state’s emergency shelter system. As space dwindled, the Healey administration turned to everything from hotels and motels to college dorms and military bases to house people.

A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said 5,550 families were in state shelters as of Monday morning — 1,887 in hotels, 3,546 in permanent shelter, 62 at Joint Base Cape Cod, and 55 in a college dorm in Quincy.

The numbers cover more than just newly-arrived migrants, the spokesperson said, though the administration estimates that just over one-third of sheltered families are new arrivals. Healey said the data points are 80% higher than one year ago and represent more than 20,000 people.

Shelter providers have stepped up over the past year to bring online thousands of shelter units with help from the state, said Father Bill’s and MainSpring President John Yazwinski.

“But the demand continues,” he said. “And now we need a change in approach if we’re going to meet the unique and varied needs of our both extremely low-income Massachusetts residents, as well as our newly arriving families.”

As part of her appeal to federal officials, Healey sent a letter Tuesday to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that said “burdensome barriers” to work authorizations for newly-arrived migrants is one of the main drivers of the crisis in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts “has stepped up to address what sadly has been a federal crisis of inaction that is many years in the making,” Healey said.

“But we can no longer do this alone,” Healey wrote in the letter. “We need federal partnership, federal funding, and urgent federal action to meet this moment and to continue to serve some of our most vulnerable families.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Healey said speeding up work authorizations would help Massachusetts businesses at a time when they are encountering “significant labor shortages.” Congress “has simply failed to act” on work authorizations, Healey said, and wait times stretch from several months to several years.

“We know there are employers around this state, across industries, who are looking for that workforce. It’s also a talented workforce,” she said.

The last time Massachusetts was in a state of emergency was from March 10, 2020 through May 11 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A state of emergency was also declared in September 2018 for the Merrimack Valley gas explosion.

Healey would not say how long she expects the new state of emergency to last, only telling reporters that “we’ll do whatever is necessary.”

A governor is granted the power to issue a proclamation “setting forth a state of emergency” in the event or imminent threat of a natural or man-made disaster under a 1950 law that has been updated over the years.

Massachusetts is also a right-to-shelter state, which means eligible families have immediate access under a 1983 law to housing options. Healey said she was not considering lifting that law and does not “have the authority to end right to shelter in the state.”

Republican state Rep. Peter Durant, who is running for a central Massachusetts Senate seat, called for a repeal of the law, arguing the state has become a “magnet” for migrants.

Healey is not alone in taking emergency action over immigration woes. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an executive order in May that allowed for the mobilization of the National Guard as the state prepared for an increase in newly-arrived migrants.

The lead-up to the state of emergency saw the Healey administration open two welcome centers in Allston and Quincy this summer to help families find temporary and longer-term shelter as well as basic necessities.

Healey administration officials have also turned to a lengthy list of hotels and motels — more than 40 as of Tuesday — in 80-plus municipalities to house people on a temporary, emergency basis. The cost of those state contracts is unclear but could run into the millions.

Local nonprofits have also sought to recruit private residents to briefly house migrant families in their homes or apartments. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll urged those with an extra room in their home to consider hosting a family.

“Safe housing and shelter is our most pressing need,” Driscoll said.

Three North Carolina residents — including one from the Outer Banks — died from Vibrio vulnificus infections in July 2023. That is a monthly record, according to a North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson.

Vibrio is naturally occurring in warm seawater and in brackish water — a mix of fresh and salt water, such as in estuaries and salt marshes — according to a July 28 state health department news release announcing the deaths and urging caution when entering North Carolina or other East Coast waters.

Two of the three deaths followed scratches exposed to brackish water in North Carolina and another East Coast state, the release said. The third case also had brackish water exposure in North Carolina, and that individual also consumed personally-caught seafood that was not shared nor commercially distributed, according to the release.

“No links have been identified between the cases or the areas where they were likely exposed to Vibrio, and public health investigations are ongoing,” the release said.

“Three deaths in one month had not been previously reported,” state Health and Human Services spokesperson Kelly Haight Connor said in an Aug. 1 email.

The department is not releasing further information about the people who died due to privacy concerns, Connor said.

Four days before the state’s press release, the Dare County Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the death of an Outer Banks resident from Vibrio, the county’s first reported Vibrio death since July 1, 2017.

The county department was notified of a confirmed Vibrio case July 20 and learned of that person’s death July 24, Dare County Director of Public Health Sheila Davies said in a July 24 email.

Family members of Nags Head resident Michael “Mike” Gard, 71, believe he was Dare County’s Vibrio death, but they do not yet have confirmation or a death certificate for him.

Davies in her email would neither confirm nor deny that it was Gard, since names are protected health information.

“It has to be, because of the timing,” opined Gard’s niece, Michelle Halfin. “I pray to God that it is him. I don’t want another family to have to go through this.”

Gard died the afternoon of Friday, July 21, after his girlfriend, Elaine Piddington, said he scratched himself Sunday, July 16, on a crab pot he was moving with her by boat south of Colington Island in Buzzard Bay, which is part of the Albemarle Sound — a body of brackish water.

A retired paramedic of almost 15 years, Halfin said the way the infection on his leg looked just one day after he scratched it and how quickly “something was attacking his body to make him shut down that fast” also leads her to think Vibrio took her uncle.

According to a 2015 article on Vibrio vulnificus published online on the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine, the “pervasive” and “opportunistic” bacterium can metabolize in oxygenated or nonoxygenated environments and can cause “rapid septicemia,” which is poisoning of the blood.

Halfin said Gard called her Monday evening after having scratched himself 24 hours prior, and she advised him to go to the hospital immediately for a tetanus shot. He went to Outer Banks Health in Nags Head and was discharged that night with a diagnosis of “cellulitis” after receiving a tetanus shot, oral pain medicine and antibiotics. Just 36 hours after his wound, he was “septic” and had to be flown by helicopter to the hospital in Greenville, North Carolina, she said.

“He was in multisystem organ failure when he got there Tuesday,” Halfin said.

She said the family has Gard’s ashes but not his medical records nor his most recent testing results. She and her uncle, Gard’s older brother, JT Gard, each said on Aug. 7 that the family is still waiting on the state medical examiner, with an unspecified timeline, for his death certificate.

They were informed the state was taking over, and “instead of the doctor signing the death certificate, the examiner’s going to do it,” JT Gard said.

Since 2019, eight of the 47 reported Vibrio vulnificus cases in North Carolina residents have been fatal, including the three this July, according to the state health agency’s news release.

While the release called Vibrio cases “rare,” with most reported in the warmest months of June through September, it noted that reports of Vibrio infections associated with brackish water contact have been increasing over the past few decades.

The geographic range of waters associated with infection is “spreading north along the East Coast of the U.S. due to increasing water temperatures,” and more Vibrio cases are expected “as climate change increases water temperatures,” according to the release.

Recommendations to help reduce people’s chances of exposure and infection include staying out of seawater and brackish water, including wading at the beach, if one has a wound, including from a recent surgery, piercing or tattoo.

The health agency also recommends covering wounds with waterproof bandages if they could come in contact with saltwater, brackish water or raw or undercooked seafood; getting out of the water if any wound is sustained; thoroughly washing wounds with soap and water after contact with saltwater, brackish water or raw seafood; and cooking all shellfish to an internal temperature of at least 145 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds.

Vibrio is “the leading cause of seafood-related deaths in the United States,” according to the 2015 National Library of Medicine article on the bacterium.

Connor stressed that “all warm brackish and salt water poses a risk of infection” and said that people should contact a health care provider if they see signs of a skin infection or other symptoms, such as diarrhea, stomach pain, vomiting, nausea, fever or chills, after contact with brackish water or seawater.

By David Matthews, New York Daily News

Taylor Swift and SZA are the top nominees for the upcoming MTV Video Music Awards.

Swift leads the pack with eight total nominations as she looks to win her first-ever Song of the Year award for “Anti-Hero” off her acclaimed 2022 album “Midnights.” The hit is also nominated for Best Pop Song, while its music video has earned nods for Best Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Editing and Video of the Year.

The “Lavender Haze” singer is also nominated for Artist of the Year, along with Beyoncé, Doja Cat, KAROL G, Nicki Minaj and Shakira.

SZA is next up with six nominations. Her hit “Kill Bill” is nominated for Video of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Direction, Best Art Direction and Best Editing. She’s also nominated in the Best R&B category for “Shirt.”

Doja Cat, Kim Petras, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Olivia Rodrigo and Sam Smith are all tied with five nominations.

BLACKPINK, Diddy and Shakira have four.

Bad Bunny, who won Artist of the Year in 2022, earned three nominations.

LOOK BACK: VMAs 2022: Top show moments

This year’s show will also feature 35 first-time nominees across its categories, including Petras, Ice Spice and boygenius.

Fans will be able to vote on 14 gender-neutral categories through Friday, Sept. 1, while voting for Best New Artist will continue into the show.

The award show will once again return to the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. and air live on Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. ET.

No host or performers have yet to be announced.

In May, the MTV Movie & TV Awards changed radically after host Drew Barrymore dropped out to support the Writers Guild of America strike, leaving the show to rely on pre-taped bits. Minjaj, LL Cool J and Jack Harlow shared hosting duties last year.

By Jason Howland, Mayo Clinic News Network

People who have cancer might have the disease treated with several therapies, including chemotherapy and radiation. Radiation therapy, which more than half of all people with cancer receive as part of their treatment, uses high-powered energy beams, such as X-rays or protons, to kill cancer cells.

Some patients may be nervous about receiving radiation therapy.

In this Mayo Clinic Minute, Dr. Jennifer L. Peterson, a radiation oncologist, helps clear up some of the misconceptions about what often is an important part of a person’s cancer treatment.

Radiation therapy can play a valuable role in a person’s cancer treatment plan. But Dr. Peterson wants to dispel a few myths.

“There are many misconceptions when a patient hears the word radiation. One of the most common is that radiation is going to make me sick,” she says.

She says side effects from radiation are dependent on what part of the body is being treated and how much radiation is used. Those side effects can include hair loss, skin irritation, sore throat, nausea or diarrhea.

“And we work through those as we work the patient through treatment. But, in general, it’s very well tolerated, and most patients can continue with their normal activities throughout the course of treatment,” says Dr. Peterson.

Another misconception is the radiation is going to cause another cancer.

“The risk of developing a second cancer from radiation is exceedingly low. That’s a long-term risk, something that could happen decades down the road, but the ability of the radiation to treat the current tumor or the current problem far exceeds that risk,” says Dr. Peterson.

The bottom line is that modern methods of radiation therapy are precise. They target the beams directly at the cancer while protecting the rest of the body from high doses of radiation.

___

©2023 Mayo Clinic News Network. Visit newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Some brands are more popular than others. For instance, Fjallraven backpacks are so on-trend at the moment that it’s rare to walk down the street without spotting someone wearing one. Older elementary school students are more likely to care about brands than younger ones, but the fact remains — if you want a trendy backpack, brand matters.

Sportswear brands like Nike and Adidas never go completely out of style, so they’re safe choices if you’re not sure what’s popular right now. The same goes for Eastpak and JanSport backpacks, which are enduringly popular. Vans is a fun brand for kids into skating or alternative style.

You can find school backpacks in practically every solid hue and color combination imaginable. Some kids prefer single-color backpacks or those with mixed block colors, such as a red body, blue front pocket and green side pockets.

Other kids may prefer prints that make their backpacks stand out. Tie-dye is currently a hugely trendy print, thanks to a resurgence of ’90s and early 2000s fashion. However, you’ll have countless other options to choose from, including color gradients, animal print, camo and floral prints. It’s a good idea to consult your child before buying, unless you’re certain what they’d like best.

[ Fjallraven Kanken Mini Classic Backpack ]

This mini version of the iconic Fjallraven Kanken backpack is great for kids who don’t have a huge amount to carry. Measuring approximately 11 inches tall and 8 inches wide, it comes in many colors, including plum and black with rainbow straps.

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[ Nike Kids’ Classic Backpack ]

Available in either solid black or solid pink with a Nike logo, this is an understated choice for kids who want something basic and stylish. The shoulder straps are well-padded and easy to adjust.

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[ Puma Kids’ Meridian Backpack ]

Kids will easily stay organized with this backpack, thanks to the array of pockets and compartments offered. It comes in three color combinations: black and silver, gray and yellow and red and camo.

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[  ]

Simple and stylish, this is a perfect backpack for kids who want to look effortlessly trendy. It’s not too large but still roomy enough to fit folders, pencil cases, lunch bags and so on, and there are ample pockets to stay organized.

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[]

Super light and compact, this is a great backpack for first- and second-graders. The prints offered range from understated, such as stripes and galaxy prints, to fun animal themes, such as dinosaurs and sea creatures.

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[ JanSport Big Student Backpack ]

Just right for older elementary school students, this is a bag that will see them through into middle school. It’s roomy, with space for a 15-inch laptop plus plenty of books and other school essentials. Additionally, it includes large pockets and compartments.

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[ Adidas Back to School Creator 2 Backpack ]

Spacious but not oversized, this backpack is suitable for kids in third grade and up. You can choose from a range of cool designs, including a rose pink and onyx gray gradient print and a stonewashed rainbow print.

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[ Vans Old Skool III Backpack ]

This Vans backpack is a great choice for young skaters or kids who like bags with clean, timeless profiles. This one comes in a range of solid colors and prints, including a classic red checkerboard print and a black tie-dye print.

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[ Eastpak Padded Pak’r Backpack ]

With its classic design and spacious interior, this Eastpak backpack is a practical choice for older elementary schoolers. It comes in several solid colors and prints, including blue, pink and palm leaf print.

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PORTSMOUTH — A retired Portsmouth judge and former state delegate has been charged with a misdemeanor sex offense for an incident alleged to have happened in June at a local country club.

William S. “Billy” Moore — a well-liked and respected judge who retired in 2014 — is charged with one count of sexual battery, according to an arrest warrant filed July 24 in Portsmouth District Court. The crime is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

The alleged victim in the case went to a magistrate last month to file a criminal complaint against him, according to court documents. She wrote that she’d approached Moore at the bar of the Elizabeth Manor Country Club on the evening of June 29 to talk to him about playing the card game bridge with his wife the next day.

“As I approached him he took my hand and put it on his genitals,” the woman wrote. “I snatched my hand away and walked away.”

The Virginian-Pilot is not naming the woman because she’s the victim of an alleged sex crime. She didn’t return a phone message seeking more information. Moore’s attorney, Warren Kozak, also didn’t respond to messages seeking comment, and Moore didn’t immediately answer an email sent by The Pilot.

Court records show the magistrate signed an arrest warrant for Moore on July 5, the same day the alleged victim filed her complaint. The document, however, indicates a summons wasn’t served on him until July 20. The judge’s address appears to have been redacted from the arrest warrant and criminal complaint with white-out tape, and his date of birth was not filled in on either record.

According to an online profile, Moore began his legal career in 1974 as a prosecutor and went into private practice five years later. In 1983, he was elected delegate of the 79th District of Virginia and served in that role for 14 years. He served as a Portsmouth Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judge for 15 years, and as a Circuit Court judge for seven years before stepping down in 2014.

Since his retirement from the bench, Moore has frequently filled in for other judges while they’re away and also has worked as a mediator.

Jane Harper, [email protected]

A new office dedicated to all things related to internships has opened in the Webb Center at Old Dominion University.

“We own the space from A to Z in trying to help connect students with opportunities,” said Barbara Blake Gonzalez, executive director of the centralized and streamlined Monarch Internship and Co-Op Office.

The office is also responsible for developing, maintaining and coordinating placement for internship and co-op partnerships with employers, she said.

“We are here to support existing good work, and then, we’re here to create new programming where it is needed and required,” she said.

After extensive data mining last year, the university’s 2023-2028 strategic plan, Forward-Focused: Where Innovation Meets Possibilities, was established to include internship and work-based learning opportunities, she said. ODU established a goal of having 100% of students participate in work-based learning before graduation by 2027.

Brian Payne, vice provost for academic affairs, said in a news release that ODU President Brian O. Hemphill saw the need to do things differently in order to better prepare students and serve the community.

Blake Gonzalez, formerly the chief administrative officer of the Strome College of Business’ Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy, was selected to lead the initiative based on her strong research background focused on workforce development, wage and leadership gaps, brain drain and regional economic analysis.

Excited and passionate about the initiative, she said it’s a new way of thinking about how undergraduates, graduates and students who are lifelong learners and certificate seekers are connected to internships, externships, co-ops and practicums to provide work-based learning.

“We’re here to envision that pipeline for students so that when they leave their time at Old Dominion University, they have the knowledge, skills and abilities that are going to empower them to be the best that they can be,” Blake Gonzalez said.

One of those interested employers is the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts.

Charlie Arroyo, administrative coordinator of the nonprofit, said the center is trying to build up its community engagement within Hampton Roads and is eager to look into the possibility of developing an internship program.

“Partnering with ODU will give us that opportunity to reach a younger generation and provide thoughtful insight to any students that come into the center,” she said.

Arroyo said the center’s focus is on public administration to start, but will eventually move into other areas.

“We want to find the right students who are passionate about nonprofits and the arts,” she said.

The Monarch Internship and Co-Op Office will also work with academic departments to expand the work-based learning curriculum and respond to community feedback seeking stronger internship partnerships.

Still in its early stages, Blake Gonzalez said the office will collaborate on best practices and start a series of internal stakeholder meetings to guide the future policy.

“We’re here to help look at barriers and figure out creative solutions so that when our students leave their time off this campus, they are prepared to go wherever they want to go,” she said. “I’ve got high hopes for what we can accomplish.”

To contact the Monarch Internship and Co-Op Office, call 757-683-JOBS or email [email protected].

Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, [email protected]