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Brief fire causes evacuation but no injuries at historic Detroit college building

By The Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — A fire on Wednesday caused the evacuation of a historic building owned by Wayne State University in Detroit.

Video from TV stations showed thick rolling clouds of black smoke near the top of the 14-story Maccabees Building, a nearly century-old building designed by Albert Kahn, along Woodward Avenue, just north of downtown.

The fire on the 11th floor was contained, Wayne State said on social media, and no injuries were reported. Authorities said it likely began in the heating and cooling system.

Wayne State has owned the building for more than 20 years and has offices there, including the Computer Science Department and African American Studies. But it is not generally known as a place for classes.

The Maccabees was the home of early radio and TV studios, including radio broadcasts of “The Lone Ranger,” starting in the 1930s, and “The Green Hornet.”

Texas public schools see first non-pandemic enrollment drop in decades

By The Associated Press
Roughly 76,000 fewer students enrolled in Texas public schools this academic year — the first non-pandemic decline in nearly four decades — with Hispanic students accounting for the overwhelming majority of the loss, according to a report released Monday. The policy research group Texas 2036 analyzed the state’s enrollment data and projected that about 100,000 fewer students would attend public schools by the end of the current decade. However, some projections show the number growing by nearly half a million over that time. Hispanic students accounted for 81% of this school year’s enrollment drop, Texas 2036 found. Students learning English and those from low-income families experienced some of the sharpest declines. Over the past year, federal and state leaders increased anti-immigration rhetoric, in some cases detaining Texas students and prompting fear across communities. Meanwhile, the rate of Texas families having children has declined in recent years. Districts have lost students to other schooling options, with more families expected to opt out of their public neighborhood campuses as the state launches school vouchers later this year.
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