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Juanes

WASHINGTON — Reality star and activist Kim Kardashian West has returned to the White House to speak at an event promoting efforts to help those leaving prison return to the workforce.

Kardashian West, who has been advocating for criminal justice reform issues, tweeted a video of herself en route to the event Thursday afternoon.

“I am heading to the White House to speak at the second chance hiring and reentry event,” she said, adding in another tweet that she was “honored to be a part of the announcement that the administration and the private sector are stepping up to create opportunities for these men and women to succeed once home.”

Kardashian West has been to the White House several times to discuss criminal justice reform issues and successfully lobbied President Donald Trump to pardon Alice Marie Johnson, who was serving life without parole for drug offenses.

White House officials have been working to make sure that prisoners released early because of the passage of the First Step Act have the tools and jobs they need to successfully adjust to life outside prison.

More than 1,000 federal inmates have had their sentences reduced because of the legislation, according to a recent report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

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NEW YORK — Colombian rocker-activist Juanes has been named the 2019 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year.

The academy will honor the 23-time Latin Grammy Award winner and two-time Grammy Award winner on Nov. 13 at the MGM Grand Convention Center in Las Vegas, on the eve of the Latin Grammys.

Juanes made his debut in 2000 with “Fijate Bien.” Since then, he has sold more than 20 million records. He recently released a single “Querer Mejor,” featuring Alessia Cara. It will be included in his next album.

Mexican rock band Mana won the same award last year. Past honorees include Shakira, Plácido Domingo, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Alejandro Sanz and Julio Iglesias.

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WASHINGTON — The street outside of NASA's headquarters has been renamed “Hidden Figures Way” to honor the African American women who served as “human computers” in the effort to send humans to the moon.

News outlets report dignitaries gathered Wednesday in Washington, D.C., to unveil the new street sign, including district officials, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and others.

“Hidden Figures” author Margot Lee Shetterly and the families of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson also attended. Shetterly's 2016 book details the women's struggles as they crunched numbers at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., in the pre-computer age. Johnson is now 100 years old and is the last of the three women still living.

Cruz sponsored the Hidden Figures Way Designation Act.

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