A construction crew in Winston-Salem, North Carolina was preparing to take down a Confederate statue Tuesday morning, which was a rare move in a state where such monuments are largely protected by law.

Winston-Salem had more leeway than most North Carolina cities because the old courthouse property where the statue resided had passed into private hands. A 2015 North Carolina law all but prohibits the permanent removal of Confederate statues from public land.

Resolving the fate of the statues has been complicated by a 2015 state monuments law that forbids relocation of Confederate monuments on public land unless narrow circumstances are met.

Following the Ethiopian plane crash Sunday, some airlines cited worried customers for grounding the Boeing 737 Max 8, as experts chased details on why the plane crashed. It is the same style aircraft as the Indonesian crash last October.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it expects Boeing will soon complete improvements to an automated anti-stall system suspected of contributing to the deadly crash, and update training requirements and related flight crew manuals.

The U.S.-based Boeing, however, has said it has no reason to pull the popular aircraft from the skies, and it does not intend to issue new recommendations about the aircraft to customers.

Safety experts have cautioned against drawing too many comparisons too soon with that Lion Air crash of the same model that killed 189 people in Indonesia.

TommieMedia’s columnist Kayla Mayer discusses prison reform and the First Step act signed by President Trump last December. She argues that while the First Step Act is a positive step in the right direction, more work needs to be done to continue improving inmate conditions.

Maddie Peters can be reached at pete9542@stthomas.edu.