News Briefs

The boards of trustees of America Media and of the Saint Thomas More Chapel and Center at Yale University announced on May 21 that Philip J. Metres III, poet, essayist and professor of English at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the $25,000 George W. Hunt, S.J., Prize for Excellence in Journalism, Arts & Letters. • Nebraska lawmakers passed a bill on May 20 to abolish the death penalty—replacing it with a sentence of life in prison—by a margin big enough to override a threatened veto by Gov. Pete Ricketts. • On May 19 the city council of Los Angeles voted to raise the minimum wage from $9 to $15 over the next five years. • Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Philippines, was elected the new president of Caritas Internationalis at the confederation’s 20th general assembly in Rome on May 14. • Cyprian Davis, O.S.B., a chronicler of the history of African-American Catholics, died on May 18 at the age of 84. • Indonesian and Malaysian officials, responding to fierce international criticism, have agreed to reverse a policy of forcing Rohingya Muslim “boat people” back to sea and will offer temporary refuge to thousands fleeing persecution in Myanmar.