::THE SLICE REPORT WITH MONA AUSTIN

By Mona Austin When a soldier dies in battle over seas , their remains are returned to their families.  The remains of a war-torn flag were returned to the American family on Thursday at the White House.  The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte and a Dutch collector presented the flag to Pres. Donald Trump in an East Room ceremony75 years after Normandy. The tattered, 48-star flag was  turned over to the Smithsonian Museum of American History for future display.  Its battle scars included frayed edges and a hole in the middle that is believed to be a bullet hole from a German machine gun. It had flown on the stern of a Navy ship carrying the first U.S. troops to Normandy, France, on D-Day during World War II and was donated to the United States  by a Dutch businessman and collector.   “It is my honor to welcome this great American flag back home,” Trump said on receiving the gift. Rutte expressed gratitude for  U.S. force...

It was a long journey for Lonnie Bunch, the visionary behind the African American Museum of History and Culture.  Daily people from all over the world experience the embodiment  of his dedication and passion when they visit the museum, the reward for hard work.  Today his hard work has paid off once again.  Just three years after opening the African American Museum in Washington, DC, during the 400th documented year of slavery in the U.S., history has come full circle.  The Smithsonian Regents have selected Bunch to head the Institution. The Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents announced today it elected Lonnie G. Bunch III, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, as the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian, effective June 16. Bunch is the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in September 2016. He oversees the nation’s largest and most comp...