Azia: Hey guys, I am Azia Celestino, and it is Wednesday, February 1. We begin today with President Donald Trump. Last night, he gave his first primetime speech to the nation,putting forward his choice for the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump: Judge Gorsuch, the podium, sir, is yours.
Azia: The president announced he was nominating Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court.
Judge Neil Gorsuch: I pledge that if I am confirmed, I will do all my powers permit to be a faithful servant of the Constitution and laws of this great country.
Azia: Gorsuch graduated from Columbia University, Harvard Law School and earned his doctorate from Oxford University. He served in President George W. Bush's Justice Department.
Trump's pick still has to be confirmed by the Senate, and some Democrats say they will block him since Republicans blocked their nominee. Last year, Antonin Scalia — a conservative justice — died, leaving an opening on the court.President Obama nominated someone for the job, but theSenate refused to hold a confirmation hearing. Instead, the Republican-controlled Senate waited the 10 months until a new president was in the White House.
Currently, the Supreme Court looks like this, with four liberal-leaning justices,three conservative-leaning justices and one closer to the middle.But if Trump’s nominee is confirmed by the Senate, this would add more power to the conservative’s side at four.That could mean more support for conservative policies, like moves to restrict or outlaw abortion.
But constitutional expert Trevor Burrus doesn't believe the pick will shift the court's balance.
Trevor Burrus: At least, we’ll be getting back to having an actual, functioning court, where five votes can, you know, be had and 5-4 decisions can be made. But no, it's not going to make any huge difference.
Azia: Next up today, a big change for the Boy Scouts of America. For a century the Boy Scouts of America has used the gender listed on a kid's birth certificate, only accepting those who were born male.
But Monday night the organization changed its 100-year-old policy, stating: "Starting today, we will accept and register youth in the Cub and Boy Scout programs based on the gender identity indicated on the application." It means that a child who was born a girl,but now identifies as a boy, will be admitted into the Scouts. The GirlScouts have accepted transgender girls for years.
All right, coming up, we are kicking off Black History Month with some true pioneers.
Azia: Okay now, February is Black History Month, and Emily is here as we honor the accomplishments of black Americans.
Emily: Yeah,Azia, and today we are hearing from five African-American trailblazers. Each person broke down barriers with their achievements. Take a look.
Bob Johnson: A pioneer has to be a risk taker.
Michelle Howard: You're gonna have to learn to be self-sufficient.
Emily: Five pioneers with five different stories, all who made history breaking color barriers.
Ernest Green: I'm Ernest Green, and I'm one-ninth of the Little Rock Nine.
Emily: In the 1950s white and black students weren’t allowed to go to school together, but the Supreme Court changed that.
Green: This was a period in which change was beginning to occur, change in terms of race and race relations.
Emily: And in 1957 nine black students bravely attended an all-white school for the first time in Little Rock,Arkansas, with the help of the National Guard.
Green: I mean, it was all no-nonsensemilitary, Jeeps in front, Jeeps behind, soldiers with bayonets. We marched up the steps, and I turned to Terrence Roberts, who was one of the nine, and said, "Well, I guess we're gonna get into school today."
It was something I'll never forget. It's a great feeling to have played a role, the nine of us, to be able to turn around to our children, to our grandchildren, to other students, and have them applaud what we did — to understand that, symbolically, all of this has made this country, I think, a better place.
Mae Jemison: I'm Mae Jemison, and I'm the first woman of color in the world to go into space.
Growing up in the 1960s, it was really sort of impossible not to imagine yourself in space, at least for me. I thought it was wrong — I thought it was ridiculous — thatwomen weren't involved. I never doubted myself as a little girl. For me the fault was within the system. It was not within me.
I even remember a time when I thought, "Gosh, what'll happen with the alien sees this capsule and the only thing they see going up are white males? What are they gonna think about the world and about Earth?"
You know, when we look at this country, so much of what we've done has been from contributions of everyday people. It's been contributions of people who have been downtrodden. It's been contributions of people who actually were in privileged positions but saw that they needed to do something better. That's the history. That's what we need to understand.
Johnson: I'm Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television.
Why was there a need for BET? African-Americans didn't have a television voice to allow them to share their dreams and their stories. BET was the first African-American company publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1991.
And one of the things that I am most proud of, of anything I've ever accomplished, that in business I've created more African-American multimillionaires than anybody in this country who's African-American,
Howard: I'm Admiral Michelle J. Howard, and I command U.S. Naval Forces Europe, U.S. Naval Forces Africa and J.F.C. Naples.
When I was 12 andI saw this documentary on the service academy, I thought, "Oh, that's what I want to do." And I talked to my older brother, and he said, "Well, you can't do that. The service academies are closed to women."
SoI went to talk to my mother. And she said, "No, your brother's right.” And then she said, "Well, wait. Wait. You're young. You're just 12. You might change your mind. But if you still want to go to a service academy when you get older, and then, if you're rejected, we'll sue the government."
To be a leader of any organization, you should understand the benefits of diversity. The homogeneous teams have different strengths, but if you really want to soar, you’ll probably build a diverse team.
Eric Holder: I'm Eric Holder. I was the attorney general of the United States from 2009 to 2015.
I was the first African-American attorney general. But I was also a black man who grew up in this country. And I certainly was profiled on the New Jersey Thruway as a young man, pulled over for — on two occasions — for reasons that were purely almost harassment.
I remember thinking to myself, you know, "Never think that because of your education, your training, that your position — in the eyes of some people, you're just another black guy.” But I also felt a responsibility to those who would follow, to make sure that I did the job in such a way that their path to the job might be easier than mine was.
Emily: These pioneers persevered, helping pave the way for future generations to come.Emily Reppert, Channel One News.
Azia: And we've got more iconic figures in African-American history. The list is up at ChannelOne.com.
All right, coming up, the future is fast.
Azia: Okay guys, Tomis here to help us get your geek on.
Tom: That is right, Azia. Imagine a world without traffic, going from place to place in record time. What do you think about that?
Azia: Game changer.
Tom: That would definitely solve some major road rage problems. Well, these students are working on making high-speed travel a reality. Check it out.
Teen: It's really amazing,like, we're competing withthe best universities in the world.
Tom: Students from around the world showed off their engineering marvels in the first ever Hyperloop Competition in California.
Teen: Our pod has, like, no air in front of it. Yeah,less air friction, so we're gonna be really fast!
Tom: The goal? To find the best design for Tesla and SpaceXCEOElon Musk's invention: the Hyperloop. It is a futuristic system that would move cargo and passengers through tubes on a cushion of air at almost supersonic speeds — basically, in a vacuum. It could travel roughly 400 miles, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, in about 30 minutes.
Elon Musk: I find holes in the ground exciting,and that's really key to a lot of technologies: road tunnels, Hyperloop tunnels, train tunnels.
Tom: The competition began with 1,700 entries. After a year of designing, building and passing more than 100 engineering tests, the three finalists? MIT and universities in the Netherlands and Germany.
And many in Los Angeles, a city known for terrible traffic, are on board with Musk's revolutionary vision that could change the way we travel in the future.
Mayor Eric Garcetti: We want to be there in Los Angeles right with him, and so your Los Angeles MTA is excited to partner and see what we can do.
Tom: An invention that has people around the world saying…
Garcetti: So this is what the future looks like!
Tom: Tom Hanson,Channel One News.
Azia: Way cool.
All right, guys, that is all for now. We will see you back here tomorrow.
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