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CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: A court hearing connected to the Boston marathon terror bombings.
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That is our lead story today.
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Hello, everyone, welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. My name is Carl Azuz.
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Back in April, two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston marathon.
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Three people were killed, at least 264 others were injured.
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The suspects are brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
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They are also accused of killing a campus police officer in the days following the bombing.
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Tamerlan was killed in the shootout with police.
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Dzhokhar was arrested and charged with multiple crimes,
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but yesterday`s court hearing was for two other people.
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Dias Kadyrbayev, in the middle of this photo, and Azamat Tazhayakov to his left.
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They are friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
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They have been charged with obstructing justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
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They weren`t involved in the actual bombing.
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Authorities say they took items from Tsarnaev`s dorm room after the bombing, in order to hide them from investigators.
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Yesterday`s hearing was an arraignment, when defendants are called to court to respond to the charges against them.
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It only lasted four minutes.
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The two defendants heard the charges against them, entered pleas of not guilty, and were led back out of the court.
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Some survivors of a Florida sinkhole are saying a security guard saved lives.
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It`s part of a resort near Disneyworld, crumbled into the ground Sunday night.
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This is how Richard Shanley reacted.
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RICHARD SHANLEY, SECURITY GUARD: I went door to door, just beating on the doors, trying to get people out, and making sure they were safe.
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I went floor to floor, got everybody out, and at the time I got done, I really didn`t think about it.
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I just got them out and then got out myself.
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AZUZ: Everyone in the building made it out safely, no injuries, but that`s not always how things work out with sinkholes.
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Here`s CNN`s John Berman.
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JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That`s what a sinkhole sounds like, swallowing the summer bay resort early Monday morning.
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The 60-foot wide crater in Claremont, Florida, just the latest incident in this year`s string of sinkholes across the country.
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In July, 60-year-old Pamela Knox plummeted into a nearly 20-foot sinkhole, while driving on a busy Toledo, Ohio street.
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But some have not been so lucky.
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In February, a sinkhole opened up underneath a suburban Tampa home,
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killing 36-year-old Jeff Bush, who was sleeping in his bedroom.
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This is how sinkholes are formed.
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A cavity slowly develops in the limestone bedrock.
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Over time, it widens, eventually breaking the surface.
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Then, the clay and sand above collapse into the hole, swallowing everything in its path.
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Repairs can be costly.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See if you can ID me.
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I`m part of the U.S. government whose members serve lifetime terms.
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I`ve had 112 total members.
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Right now I have nine.
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Some of my famous alumni include Thurgood Marshall, Sandra Day O`Connor, and William Taft.
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I`m the U.S. Supreme Court, the top of the U.S. judicial branch of government.
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AZUZ: The U.S. Supreme Court is responsible for interpreting laws.
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The nine justices, one chief and eight associate justices, rule on whether or not laws and government actions violate the U.S. Constitution.
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The decision that the Supreme Court justices make can have a direct impact on our lives.
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Today we are checking out some of the court`s rulings from its most recent session.
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It`s a part of our week-long look back at summer news stories.
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AZUZ: The U.S. Supreme Court starts its annual session in October,
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but some of the court`s decisions don`t come out until late June or July,
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after most of you started your summer break.
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So here is a quick recap of some of the bigger rulings from the most recent Supreme Court session.
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First up, a case that focused on whether colleges and universities can take a prospective student`s race into account when making admission decisions.
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The majority of Supreme Court justices ruled that schools can use race in the admissions process,
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but only in limited ways that must stand up against a close legal review.
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The justices said those standards were not applied correctly by lower courts in this particular case.
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So it was sent back to a lower court for further review.
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Next, a case about the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
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It was designed to give African-Americans equal voting access.
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Part of the law said certain states and counties had to get the federal government`s approval
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before making any changes to voting laws or regulations.
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Five of the Supreme Court justices declared that rule is unconstitutional.
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Congress must now revise the law, but states and counties can change their laws without getting the U.S. government`s permission.
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And finally, two Supreme Court cases on the issue of same-sex marriage.
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Both of these decisions were 5-4 rulings.
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In the first case, the majority of justices found that same-sex couples who were married legally
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had the same right to the same federal benefits as heterosexual couples.
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The other case had to do with same-sex marriage in California.
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It was legal there until a ban, called Proposition 8, was passed by voters.
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A lawsuit let a lower court to declare Proposition 8 unconstitutional.
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruling upheld that decision,
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clearing the way for gay and lesbian couples to start getting married again in California.
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The Supreme Court`s ruling only applies to California.
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The court did not offer a decision about same-sex marriage that would apply to all 50 states.
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AZUZ: You`ve seen some of the new stuff we have in our show this year.
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Teachers, this applies to our website too.
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When you go to cnnstudentnews.com, click on the box that says, "teaching tools."
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Every day, that`s where you`ll find the transcript of our program, our enhanced daily curriculum with the media literacy question of the day.
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We`ve got a printable version of the curriculum too.
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Plus, our downloadable maps and a place for new teachers to comment on the day`s show.
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It`s a one-stop shop for all the great free resources you expect from us.
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Check it out. CNNstudentnews.com.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s time for the shoutout.
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About how fast is the speed of sound?
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If you think you know it, then shout it out.
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Is it around 250, 580, 760 or 1,500 miles per hour?
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You`ve got three seconds, go.
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At sea level, the speed of sound is about 760 miles per hour.
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That is your answer and that`s your shoutout.
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AZUZ: There are vehicles, like some fighter jets, that travel faster than the speed of sound.
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But most folks, you and I, don`t have access to them.
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A billionaire who is involved in private space travel and electric cars wants to change that.
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These are designs for something called the Hyperloop.
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Elon Musk, a billionaire, says it can get from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 30 minutes.
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It would move at around the speed of sound, using electric motors and air pressure to zip back and forth through a tube.
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Musk admits there are challenges, but the idea has people talking.
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ELON MUSK, BILLIONAIRE: It`s a cross between a Concord, a rail gun, and an air hockey table.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It sounds like something out of the cartoon show, "The Jetsons."
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A space age method of transport that some say can get you from New York to LA in less than an hour.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sort of like an enclosed tube, and we just blast air through that,
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kind of like, you know, those old-school mail systems where they stuff the package up and it gets sucked up,
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and it`s going to be launched out of this rail gun, boom, you`re off. 600 miles per hour.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s either a visionary, or he`s barking mad, what he`s come up with.
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But the core of this is a tube that would be on pillars from Los Angeles to San Francisco,
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and inside there would be capsule cars that would be rocketed forward.
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Elon Musk basically says that this is the way of the future.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a voice that is needed to move us forward.
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Somebody that says, you know, these old ways aren`t working.
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Old transit is kind of boring, it`s inefficient. Why don`t we leapfrog all that with something radical.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has his way, you will be able to do this in another 7 to 10 years.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t think we`re going to be seeing this really any time soon.
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I think there are other technologies that could dramatically change the way we travel that are going to be available far sooner than anything like this.
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Autonomous vehicles, commonly called self- driving cars, or driverless cars.
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You have a number of companies such as Google, Volkswagen and Bosch (ph).
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But in the real world, there will be challenges.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re going to have some serious not in my backyard problems.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To reduce the resistance and the friction, the air would be pumped from the front to the bottom of the capsule,
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which would essentially cause it to float on compressed air, so just think of an air hockey table, and that is the kind of effect that you get there.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So I am imagining my face, I go, ooh, is this going to be something I want to ride on?
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think so. Because in a controlled environment, speed itself does not actually impact human health.
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AZUZ: Well, the Hyperloop might sound as unbelievable as a car that drives across the water.
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There it is. Amazing amphibious automobiles.
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They certainly made some waves as they came floating down the Chicago River last week.
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Look like cars, but move like jetskis.
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That`s because they are jetskis. They just have a car`s body on top.
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The fakeout might deserve some chassis-tisement (ph), but it was all a marketing stunt anyway, so don`t let it drive you nuts.
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After all, it was a wheelie (ph) clever scheme.
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Time for us to take a break. We`ll be back tomorrow. For CNN STUDENT NEWS, I am Carl Azuz.
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END