News in :90 – Dec. 13, 2019

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg said she was surprised and honored Wednesday to be named Time’s youngest “Person of the Year”, while adding that others in the global movement she helped inspire deserve to share the accolade.

Thunberg said the youth climate movement, which has staged repeated worldwide protests attended by hundreds of thousands of people, has managed to spread awareness about the need to urgently emissions and help those already affected by global warming.

Thunberg said the experience of the past 15 months, going from solo-protestor outside the Swedish parliament to speaking in front of the world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, had changed her.

Thunberg says, “I think life is much more meaningful now that I have something to do that has an impact.”

The House Judiciary Committee is expected to approve articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Friday after abruptly shutting down a 14-hour session late Thursday following a marathon slog through Republican amendments aimed at killing the charges.

After working through two days of hearings, Democrats on the committee didn’t want to be forced into late-hour voting, a dark-of-night session that could later be used politically against them.

Trump is only the fourth U.S. president to face impeachment proceedings and the first to be running for reelection at the same time.

The House is expected to vote on the articles next week, in the days before Christmas. That would send the impeachment effort to the Senate for a 2020 trial.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese joined St. Thomas students in communication and journalism adjunct professor Doug DeGrood’s writing for strategic communication course Thursday, Dec. 12.

Students presented a communications campaign to Hebda, who was accompanied by Bishop Andrew Cozzens and Tom Halden, communications director of the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese.

The purpose of the campaign is to increase engagement and membership in the Catholic Church. The students — Mackenzie Hunter, Julia Gennaro, Jenny Henry and John Bouchard — prepared a new logo and brand for the Church as well as billboard advertisements and social media content.

Brooklyn Madden can be reached at madd8810@stthomas.edu