Obama Raps With Students, Avoids Trump as Subject

Former President Obama made his first major post-White House appearance on Monday, speaking with hopeful students about organizing and activism, but avoided any discussion about his successor in office, Donald Trump. During a chat with a group of young people on a stage at the University of Chicago, Obama discussed voting, political gerrymandering and civil dialogues. But the 45th president did not come up as a topic of conversation although the event comes just days before the finish of Trump’s first 100 days in office. He also talked about helping to ready the next generation for leadership. “The most important single thing I can do is to help…prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton and take their own crack at changing the world,” he said.

Serena Williams Rises Back to No. 1 in Tennis — Despite Not Playing

Serena Williams, who just last week announced her pregnancy on social media, has briefly risen back to no. 1 in World Tennis Association rankings, although she has not played a match since January. Thanks to a calendar quirk, Williams moved up one spot Monday from No. 2, swapping places with Angelique Kerber. She moved down because the women’s clay-court tournament in Stuttgart, Germany, was played a week earlier last year. So Kerber, a two-time defending champion at that event, lost the rankings points she earned there and can’t replace them until the end of this year’s tournament. Kerber can reclaim the top ranking by winning two matches in Stuttgart. Williams hasn’t competed since winning her Open era-record 23rd Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open at the end of January. She was pregnant at the time.

Two Dead in Dallas Murder-Suicide

A Dallas man shot his supervisor to death, then killed himself on Monday, police say, in an office building that was filled with workers who had to be evacuated. Police were alerted to the incident about 10:45 a.m. and an officer shot through a glass door to access the office where the shooting was taking place. It was unclear what circumstance brought the shooting about. Both the assailant and victim remain unidentified pending notification of relatives. Randy Blankenbaker, Dallas police assistant chief of investigations, says there were witnesses to the shooting in a meeting room who were not injured.

Arkansas Men Scheduled for Execution Fear Undue Pain

Arkansas is set to perform the state’s first double execution since 2000, but the two condemned men say they could be subject to excruciating pain due to their health problems. Jack Jones and Marcel Williams, both sentenced to die by lethal injection for murder, say their medical conditions — which include obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure — could complicate their executions. They are scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. and 8:15 p.m., Monday, respectively. A federal judge has denied stays for both men. They would be the second and third inmates executed by Arkansas this month. A fourth execution is set for Thursday. Arkansas initially wanted to execute eight men before a drug used to sedate the inmates expires Sunday, but four other inmates have won stays. Arkansas executed Ledell Lee last Thursday.


With Reporting by AP.