3 years since the pandemic wrecked attendance, kids still aren’t showing up to school By some estimates, chronic absenteeism doubled during the pandemic. Now, about halfway through the most “normal” school year since 2020, the situation hasn’t improved in many places. Read more on NPR

Zandra Flemister blazed a tough trail in the Secret Service. Now she’s getting credit Flemister, who died last week, was the first Black woman to serve as a special agent in the 1970s, but was forced out by racial discrimination. She spent the next three decades in the foreign service. Read more on NPR

In the Murdaugh murder trial, defense and prosecution make their closing arguments The judge is expected to finally put the case in the jury’s hands, more than a month after the trial began on Jan. 25. Alex Murdaugh is charged in the murders of his wife and son in South Carolina. Read more on NPR