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https://wcfcourier.com/entertainment/razzies-rescind-worst-performance-award-for-bruce-willis/article_afa0823d-4fe4-59ed-bdf1-3db0bae31db0.html
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The Razzie Awards are now canceling their 2021 special category for Worst Performance by Bruce Willis despite initially defending their decision to move forward with the dubious award.
"After much thought and consideration, the Razzies have made the decision to rescind the Razzie Award given to Bruce Willis, due to his recently disclosed diagnosis," Razzies co-founders said in a statement to the Wrap on Thursday.
The "Die Hard" star's family announced Wednesday that the veteran actor would be stepping away from the big screen following a diagnosis of aphasia, a cognitive disorder that impairs a person's ability to speak and understand others.
The swift change of heart comes after the Golden Raspberry Awards, which recognize the worst of cinema, faced backlash for an insensitive tweet in the wake of Willis' retirement announcement.
"The Razzies are truly sorry for #BruceWillis diagnosed condition," the organization tweeted Wednesday. "Perhaps this explains why he wanted to go out with a bang in 2021. Our best wishes to Bruce and family."
Bruce Willis poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Glass" in London on Jan. 9, 2019.
Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP
In February, the Razzies created a standalone category for Willis after he appeared in eight movies last year.
Photos: Bruce Willis through the years
Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis, co-stars of ABC's "Moonlighting," are shown during the Emmy Awards telecast in Los Angeles, Sept. 20, 1986. (AP Photo)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cybill Shepard and Bruce Willis laugh as they hold their Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Feb. 1, 1987. (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon)
LENNOX MCLENDON
Bruce Willis of ABC's "Moonlighting," reacts after accepting the Emmy award for best actor in a drama series, Sept. 21, 1987, at the 39th Annual Emmy Awards in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
NICK UT
Actor Bruce Willis and his wife, actress Demi Moore, arrive at the 61st annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles, Ca., on March 29, 1989. (AP Photo)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Actors Bruce Willis and his wife Demi Moore, center, and mother, Marlene Willis arrive at the premier of his latest film "Die Hard II" in Los Angeles on July 2, 1990. (AP Photo/Kevrok Djansezian)
KEVROK DJANSEZIAN
Bruce Willis; Arnold Schwarzenegger, center, and Sylvester Stallone pose for photographers at the opening of Planet Hollywood restaurant and nightclub in New York, Oct. 23, 1991. The three Hollywood stars and three other investors are the owners of the mid-town Manhattan entertainment complex. (AP Photo/Malcolm Clarke)
Malcolm Clarke
First lady Barbara Bush, actor Bruce Willis, center, and President Bush's son Neil Bush enjoy a light moment on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 1992 in Houston during the Republican National Convention in the Houston Astrodome. (AP Photo/Marcy Nighswander)
Marcy Nighswander
Hollywood action stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, right, imprint their hands in cement during the opening ceremony of the Planet Hollywood restaurant at London's Piccadilly Circus, May 17, 1993. (AP Photo/Albert Ferreira)
ALBERT FERREIRA
Actors Bruce Willis, left, and Samuel L. Jackson pose for photographers at Planet Hollywood in New York, May 15, 1995, for the premiere party for the film, "Die Hard With A Vengeance," starring Willis and Jackson. (AP Photo/Paul Hurschmann)
PAUL HURSCHMANN
American actor Bruce Willis, left, and his wife, actress Demi Moore, pose during their visit at the new Planet Hollywood restaurant on the Champs Elysees Ave. in Paris, France, on Aug. 31, 1995. (AP Photo/Patric Picot)
PATRIC PICOT
Actor Bruce Willis, left, gets a little harmonica help from country singer Clint Black, right, while performing with his blues band Saturday, June 22, 1996, during the grand opening bash for the Planet Hollywood in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Christopher Berkey)
CHRISTOPHER BERKEY
Bruce Willis, one of the stars of the new film "The Jackal," and his wife, actress Demi Moore, pose for photographers at the world premiere of the film, Monday, Nov. 10, 1997, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
CHRIS PIZZELLO
Actor Bruce Willis performs a skit making reference to former President George Bush's parachute jump during a gala to mark the birthday's of Mr. and Mrs. Bush on Thursday, June 10, 1999, in Houston. The former president's 75th birthday is Saturday. Barbara Bush's 74th was on Tuesday. Proceeds from the gala will establish the George and Barbara Bush Endowment for Innovative Cancer Research to support research at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
DAVID J. PHILLIP
Movie star Bruce Willis plays harmonica before a concert in the Taal Afar airfield, 460 kms (280 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2003, (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
MISHA JAPARIDZE
Bruce Willis, one of the stars of the new film "The Whole Ten Yards," is distracted by his daughter, Tallulah, as he is interviewed at the premiere of the film Wednesday, April 7, 2004, at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
CHRIS PIZZELLO
Actor Bruce Willis poses with his daughters Rumer, left, Tallulah Belle, center, and Scout LaRue as they arrive for the premiere of "Ocean's Twelve," at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2004. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
KEVORK DJANSEZIAN
American movie star Bruce Willis smiles after receiving the Arts and Letters Award at the French Culture Ministry in Paris, Wednesday, April 13, 2005. Created in 1957, the award is to honor individuals who have distinguished themselves in an artistic or literary field. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
FRANCOIS MORI
U.S. movie stars Bruce Willis, Goldie Hawn and Geraldine Chaplin, in front from left, and German pop singer Sarah Connor, in background, pose after the Golden Camera medias awarding ceremony in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday night, Feb. 9, 2005. The annual award is given by German Axel Springer publishing company. (AP Photo/Jan Bauer)
JAN BAUER
Actor Bruce Willis poses in the snow on a terrace at the Regency Hotel in New York on Feb. 12, 2006. Willis stars as over-the-hill NYPD detective Jack Mosley in the new cop movie 16 Blocks. (AP Photo/Jim Cooper)
JIM COOPER
Singer Avril Lavigne, left, and actor Bruce Willis present the award for Favorite Movie Actress at the Kids' Choice Awards, Saturday, April 1, 2006, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
MARK J. TERRILL
Actor Bruce Willis holds a plaque commemorating the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame he received in the Hollywood Section of Los Angeles, Monday, Oct. 16, 2006. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
MATT SAYLES
U.S. actor Bruce Willis poses for the photographers during a photo call for his new movie 'Die Hard 4.0' in Berlin, Germany, Monday, June 18, 2007. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
MICHAEL SOHN
Actor Bruce Willis stands with some of the items that he is donating from his movie, "Die Hard 4.0" after they were added to the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Wednesday, June 27, 2007, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Jacquelyn Martin
Actors Bruce Willis, left, and Sylvester Stallone ride motorcycles after an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman outside the Ed Sullivan Theater, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)
Evan Agostini
Bruce Willis poses with fans at the premiere of "The House Bunny" in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008. His daughter, Rumer, is in the cast.(AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
Matt Sayles
Bruce Willis speaks onstage at the UNICEF Ball honoring producer Jerry Weintraub in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
Matt Sayles
Actor Bruce Willis attends the premiere of "Cop Out" in New York, on Monday, Feb. 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer)
Peter Kramer
Bruce Willis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone at Lionsgate's World Premiere of "THE EXPENDABLES" sponsored by Belstaff on August 03, 2010 at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Invision/AP Images)
Eric Charbonneau
Bruce Willis arrives with his wife Emma Heming for the Golden Globe Awards Sunday, Jan. 16, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
Matt Sayles
Actors Bill Murray, left, and Bruce Willis pose during a photo call for Moonrise Kingdom at the 65th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
Joel Ryan
Bruce Willis, left, and Dwayne Johnson, cast members in "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," pose together at the Los Angeles premiere of the film at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Thursday, March 28, 2013 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Chris Pizzello
FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, U.S. actor Bruce Willis, left, and British actress Emma Heming arrive for the British premiere of the film, "A Good Day To Die Hard," at a central London cinema. (Photo by Jonathan Short/Invision/AP, File)
Jonathan Short
U.S. actor Bruce Willis poses during a photo call for his new movie "R.E.D.2" in Munich, southern Germany, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Matthias Schrader
Actor Bruce Willis arrives for at the 21st Annual EIF Revlon Run/Walk for Women on Saturday, May 10, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Chris Pizzello
FILE - In this Nov. 10, 2014 file photo, Bruce Willis attends the 2014 Glamour Women of the Year Awards at Carnegie Hall in New York. Willis will make his Broadway debut this fall in a stage adaptation of Stephen King’s novel “Misery.” Producers said Wednesday, March 4, 2015, the "Die Hard" star will star opposite Elizabeth Marvel in the story of a murderous fan united with her beloved romance novelist. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Evan Agostini
Bruce Willis, left, and Laurie Metcalf appear on stage at the opening night curtain call of "Misery" on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015, in New York. (Photo by Greg Allen/Invision/AP)
Greg Allen
Actor Bruce Willis poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Glass', in London, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)
Vianney Le Caer
Actor Bruce Willis smiles after taking batting practice before a baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Milwaukee Brewers, Wednesday, May 15, 2019, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Matt Slocum
FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 11, 2019, file photo, Bruce Willis attends the "Motherless Brooklyn" premiere during the 57th New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
Charles Sykes
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WASHINGTON (AP) — When the end of the COVID-19 pandemic comes, it could create major disruptions for a cumbersome U.S. health care system made more generous, flexible and up-to-date technologically through a raft of temporary emergency measures.
Winding down those policies could begin as early as the summer. That could force an estimated 15 million Medicaid recipients to find new sources of coverage, require congressional action to preserve broad telehealth access for Medicare enrollees, and scramble special COVID-19 rules and payment policies for hospitals, doctors and insurers. There are also questions about how emergency use approvals for COVID-19 treatments will be handled.
The array of issues is tied to the coronavirus public health emergency first declared more than two years ago and periodically renewed since then. It's set to end April 16 and the expectation is that the Biden administration will extend it through mid-July. Some would like a longer off-ramp.
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Transitions don't bode well for the complex U.S. health care system, with its mix of private and government insurance and its labyrinth of policies and procedures. Health care chaos, if it breaks out, could create midterm election headaches for Democrats and Republicans alike.
“The flexibilities granted through the public health emergency have helped people stay covered and get access to care, so moving forward the key question is how to build on what has been a success and not lose ground,” said Juliette Cubanski, a Medicare expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, who has been researching potential consequences of winding down the pandemic emergency.
MEDICAID CHURN
Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people, is covering about 79 million people, a record partly due to the pandemic.
But the nonpartisan Urban Institute think tank estimates that about 15 million people could lose Medicaid when the public health emergency ends, at a rate of at least 1 million per month.
Congress increased federal Medicaid payments to states because of COVID-19, but it also required states to keep people on the rolls during the health emergency. In normal times states routinely disenroll Medicaid recipients whose incomes rise beyond certain levels, or for other life changes affecting eligibility. That process will switch on again when the emergency ends, and some states are eager to move forward.
Virtually all of those losing Medicaid are expected to be eligible for some other source of coverage, either through employers, the Affordable Care Act or — for kids — the Children's Health Insurance Program.
But that's not going to happen automatically, said Matthew Buettgens, lead researcher on the Urban Institute study. Cost and lack of awareness about options could get in the way.
People dropped from Medicaid may not realize they can pick up taxpayer-subsidized ACA coverage. Medicaid is usually free, so people offered workplace insurance could find the premiums too high.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” said Buettgens. “The uncertainty is real.”
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, is advising states to take it slow and connect Medicaid recipients who are disenrolled with other potential coverage. The agency will keep an eye on states' accuracy in making eligibility decisions. Biden officials want coverage shifts, not losses.
“We are focused on making sure we hold on to the gains in coverage we have made under the Biden-Harris administration,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “We are at the strongest point in our history and we are going make sure that we hold on to the coverage gains.”
ACA coverage — or “Obamacare” — is an option for many who would lose Medicaid. But it will be less affordable if congressional Democrats fail to extend generous financial assistance called for in President Joe Biden's social legislation. Democrats stalling the bill would face blame.
Republicans in mostly Southern states that have refused to expand Medicaid are also vulnerable. In those states, it can be very difficult for low-income adults to get coverage and more people could wind up uninsured.
State Medicaid officials don't want to be the scapegoats. “Medicaid has done its job,” said Matt Salo, head of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. “We have looked out for physical, mental and behavioral health needs. As we come out of this emergency, we are supposed to right-size the program.”
TELEHEALTH STATIC
Millions of Americans discovered telehealth in 2020 when coronavirus shutdowns led to the suspension of routine medical consultations. In-person visits are again the norm, but telehealth has shown its usefulness and gained broader acceptance.
The end of the public health emergency would jeopardize telehealth access for millions enrolled in traditional Medicare. Restrictions predating COVID-19 limit telehealth mainly to rural residents, in part to mitigate against health care fraud. Congress has given itself 151 days after the end of the public health emergency to come up with new rules.
“If there are no changes to the law after that, most Medicare beneficiaries will lose access to coverage for telehealth,” the Kaiser Foundation's Cubanski said.
A major exception applies to enrollees in private Medicare Advantage plans, which generally do cover telehealth. However, nearly 6 in 10 Medicare enrollees are in the traditional fee-for-service program.
TESTS, VACCINES, TREATMENTS, PAYMENTS & PROCEDURES
Widespread access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments rests on legal authority connected to the public health emergency.
One example is the Biden administration's requirement for insurers to cover up to eight free at-home COVID-19 tests per month.
An area that's particularly murky is what happens to tests, treatments and vaccines covered under emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.
Some experts say emergency use approvals last only through the duration of the public health emergency. Others say it's not as simple as that, because a different federal emergency statute also applies to vaccines, tests and treatments. There's no clear direction yet from health officials.
The FDA has granted full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for those 16 and older and Moderna's for those 18 and older, so their continued use would not be affected.
But hospitals could take a financial hit. Currently Medicare pays them 20% more for the care of COVID-19 patients. That's only for the duration of the emergency.
And Medicare enrollees would have more hoops to jump through to be approved for rehab in a nursing home. A suspended Medicare rule requiring a prior three-day hospital stay would come back into effect.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra recently told The Associated Press that his department is committed to giving “ample notice” when it ends the public health emergency.
“We want to make sure we’re not putting in a detrimental position Americans who still need our help,” Becerra said. “The one that people are really worried about is Medicaid.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Trump's 8-hour gap: Minute-by-minute during Jan. 6 riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lot is known about the few hours that shook American democracy to the core. The defeated president’s incendiary speech, the march by an angry crowd to the U.S. Capitol, the breaking in, the beating of cops, the “hang Mike Pence” threats, the lawmakers running for their lives, the shooting death of rioter Ashli Babbitt. All of that chaos unfolded over about eight hours on one day: Jan. 6, 2021.
But for all that is known about the day, piecing together the words and actions of Donald Trump over that time has proved no easy task, even though a president's movements and communications are closely monitored.
There’s a gap in the official White House phone notations given to the House committee investigating Jan. 6 — from about 11 a.m. to about 7 p.m., according to two people familiar with the congressional investigation into the riot. Details may still turn up; the former president was known to use various cell phones and often bypassed the White House switchboard, placing calls directly.
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And over the past four-plus months a lot has surfaced about what Trump did do and say on Jan. 6 — in texts, tweets, videos, calls and other conversations.
The following account is based on testimony, timelines and eyewitness reporting gathered by The Associated Press and The Washington Post and CBS News, and from officials and people familiar with the events who spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity.
Russians leaving Chernobyl as fighting rages elsewhere
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops handed control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and began leaving the heavily contaminated site more than a month after taking it over, authorities said Thursday, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
Ukraine's state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received “significant doses" of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. But there was no independent confirmation of that.
The withdrawal took place amid growing indications the Kremlin is using talk of de-escalation in Ukraine as cover while regrouping, resupplying its forces and redeploying them for a stepped-up offensive in the eastern part of the country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is seeing “a buildup of Russian forces for new strikes on the Donbas, and we are preparing for that.”
Meanwhile, a convoy of buses headed to Mariupol in another bid to evacuate people from the besieged port city after the Russian military agreed to a limited cease-fire in the area. And a new round of talks was scheduled for Friday, five weeks into the war that has left thousands dead and driven 4 million Ukrainians from the country.
As Russia sees tech brain drain, other nations hope to gain
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Russia’s tech workers are looking for safer and more secure professional pastures.
By one estimate, up to 70,000 computer specialists, spooked by a sudden frost in the business and political climate, have bolted the country since Russia invaded Ukraine five weeks ago. Many more are expected to follow.
For some countries, Russia’s loss is being seen as their potential gain and an opportunity to bring fresh expertise to their own high-tech industries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has noticed the brain drain even in the throes of a war that, according to the U.N. refugee agency, has caused more than 4 million people to flee Ukraine and displaced millions more within the country.
This week, Putin reacted to the exodus of tech professionals by approving legislation to eliminate income taxes between now and 2024 for individuals who work for information technology companies.
Biden oil move aims to cut gas prices 'fairly significantly'
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve for six months, a bid to control energy prices that have spiked after the United States and allies imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The president said it was not known how much gasoline prices could decline as a result of his move, but he suggested it might be “anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon.” Gas is averaging about $4.23 a gallon, compared with $2.87 a year ago, according to AAA.
“The bottom line is if we want lower gas prices we need to have more oil supply right now,” Biden said. “This is a moment of consequence and peril for the world, and pain at the pump for American families.”
The president also wants Congress to impose financial penalties on oil and gas companies that lease public lands but are not producing. He said he will invoke the Defense Production Act to encourage the mining of critical minerals for batteries in electric vehicles, part of a broader push to shift toward cleaner energy sources and reduce the use of fossil fuels.
The actions show that oil remains a vulnerability for the U.S. Higher prices have hurt Biden’s approval domestically and added billions of oil-export dollars to the Russian government as it wages war on Ukraine.
Scientists finally finish decoding entire human genome
Scientists say they have finally assembled the full genetic blueprint for human life, adding the missing pieces to a puzzle nearly completed two decades ago.
An international team described the first-ever sequencing of a complete human genome – the set of instructions to build and sustain a human being – in research published Thursday in the journal Science. The previous effort, celebrated across the world, was incomplete because DNA sequencing technologies of the day weren't able to read certain parts of it. Even after updates, it was missing about 8% of the genome.
“Some of the genes that make us uniquely human were actually in this ‘dark matter of the genome’ and they were totally missed,” said Evan Eichler, a University of Washington researcher who participated in the current effort and the original Human Genome Project. “It took 20-plus years, but we finally got it done.”
Many — including Eichler's own students — thought it had been finished already. “I was teaching them, and they said, 'Wait a minute. Isn’t this like the sixth time you guys have declared victory? I said, ’No, this time we really, really did it!”
Scientists said this full picture of the genome will give humanity a greater understanding of our evolution and biology while also opening the door to medical discoveries in areas like aging, neurodegenerative conditions, cancer and heart disease.
Early results show Amazon workers in Alabama rejecting union
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon workers in Alabama appear to have rejected a union bid in a tight race, according to early results. But outstanding challenged votes could change the outcome.
In New York, union supporters have the edge in a count that will continue Friday morning.
Warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, voted 993 to 875 against forming a union. The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees the election, said that 416 challenged votes could potentially overturn that result. A hearing has not yet been set to decide if any the challenged votes will be counted, but it is expected in the next few weeks.
“This is just the beginning and we will continue to fight,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which is organizing the union drive in Bessemer, at a Thursday press conference.
The close election marks a sharp contrast to last year, when Amazon workers overwhelmingly rejected the union.
California reparations plan advances movement, advocates say
DETROIT (AP) — In the long debate over whether Black Americans should be granted reparations for the atrocity and injustices of slavery and racism, California took a big step this week toward becoming the first U.S. state to make some form of restitution a reality.
The state's reparations task force tackled the divisive issue of which Black residents should be eligible — it narrowly decided in favor of limiting compensation to the descendants of free and enslaved Black people who were in the U.S. in the 19th century.
Whether Tuesday's vote by the task force spurs other states and cities to advance their own proposals, and whether they adopt California’s still controversial standard for who would benefit, remains to be seen. Some veteran reparations advocates disagree strongly with proposals to limiting eligibility to only Black people who can prove they have enslaved ancestors, while excluding those who cannot and leaving out victims of other historic injustices, such as redlining and mass incarceration.
Still, one advocate noted California's move is a step that could lend momentum to stalled reparation proposals elsewhere in the U.S.
“It’s precipitated a debate and it will influence communities,” said Ron Daniels, president of The Institute of the Black World 21st Century and administrator of the National African American Reparations Commission, an advocacy group of scholars and activists.
LGBTQ groups sue Florida over so-called 'Don't Say Gay' law
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Gay rights advocates sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday to block a new law that forbids classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.
The law has catapulted Florida and DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, to the forefront of the country's culture wars. Critics call it the “ Don't Say Gay ” law and argue that its true intent is to marginalize LGBTQ people and their families.
The challenge filed in federal court in Tallahassee on behalf of Equality Florida and Family Equality alleges that the law violates the constitutionally protected rights of free speech, equal protection and due process of students and families.
“This effort to control young minds through state censorship — and to demean LGBTQ lives by denying their reality — is a grave abuse of power,” the lawsuit says.
“The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that LGBTQ people and their families are at home in our constitutional order. The State of Florida has no right to declare them outcasts, or to treat their allies as outlaws, by punishing schools where someone dares to affirm their identity and dignity,” the lawsuit says.
South Carolina's Aliyah Boston wins AP player of the year
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Aliyah Boston has dominated women's college basketball on both ends of the court this season.
The junior forward helped South Carolina go wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team in the country, putting up an SEC-record 27 consecutive double-doubles, and she has helped put the Gamecocks two wins away from the program's second national championship.
Boston was honored as The Associated Press women's basketball player of the year on Thursday. She is the second player from South Carolina to be recognized with the award, joining former Gamecocks great A'ja Wilson.
“Not often do you get the complete package. I think this recognition is for what she was able to do on both sides of the ball,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “The player of the year is usually for offensive-minded people who think that when you put the ball in the hole, you should be bestowed the player of the year. She’s the full package. Every single day.”
Boston received 23 votes from the 30-member national media panel that votes weekly for the AP Top 25. Iowa's Caitlin Clark received six votes and Baylor's NaLyssa Smith got one.
Grammy Awards set sights on Las Vegas for first time
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Grammys might be missing stars like Drake, The Weeknd and Kanye West as a performer, but the biggest night in music could still shine bright on the Las Vegas Strip.
The ceremony relocated to Las Vegas for the first-time ever with several artists who could have epic nights including Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Jon Batiste. The awards shifted from Los Angeles because of the rising COVID-19 cases and omicron variant in January. Sunday's show will air live beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern on CBS and the Paramount+ streaming service.
Host Trevor Noah calls Las Vegas a “perfect place to have a celebration” with fans at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Last year, the Grammys had a music festival vibe with parts of the show held outdoors in an intimate in-person setting with music artists mixed with pre-taped performances.
Noah expects an entertaining show with several performers set to hit the stage including Rodrigo, Eilish, Lil Nas X, Jack Harlow, Brandi Carlile, Batiste, Silk Sonic, H.E.R., Chris Stapleton, Leslie Odom Jr. and Brothers Osborne. He said the awards will be a celebration of the music industry coming back to life.
“There’s an element of this (show) that’s like a music camp,” Noah said. "I think it’s going to bring a different energy, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Bipartisan $10 billion Covid-19 aid package deal struck 'in principle'
Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney said Thursday that Republicans have struck an "agreement in principle" with Democrats on a $10 billion package to help US efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, a breakthrough that could pave the way for new funds to help the United States' response efforts amid growing fears that critical resources are being depleted.
Romney, the lead GOP negotiator, told reporters the plan is "entirely balanced by offsets." He said the bill text still needs to be drafted and there needs to be a cost estimate from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office before the Senate can vote on the matter. Read more here:
When the end of the COVID-19 pandemic comes, it could create major disruptions for a cumbersome U.S. health care system made more generous, flexible and up-to-date technologically through a raft of temporary emergency measures.
Winding down those policies could begin as early as the summer. That could force an estimated 15 million Medicaid recipients to find new sources of coverage, require congressional action to preserve broad telehealth access for Medicare enrollees, and scramble special COVID-19 rules and payment policies for hospitals, doctors and insurers. There are also questions about how emergency use approvals for COVID-19 treatments will be handled. Read more here:
The federal government's emergency rental assistance program helped prevent more than one million evictions last year.
An estimated 1.36 million renters avoided an eviction filing in 2021 as a result of the government's unprecedented $46.5 billion rent relief program and other protections, according to a recent analysis by Princeton University's Eviction Lab published earlier this month. Read more here:
Mental health of US teens declined during pandemic
Mental health concerns among high school students in the United States were exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to survey results published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There have been significant increases in high school students reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, considering suicide or attempting suicide over the past decade -- and findings from the new CDC survey suggest youth mental health was even worse during the pandemic. Read more here:
A former Montana Tech football player who admitted raping two women in Butte will do no prison time and could get the crime expunged from his record if he stays out of trouble and meets other requirements for six years.
The Texas teen was behind the wheel earlier this week when a tornado flipped his red pickup truck. He drove away. Video shot by a storm chaser went viral.
Tyre Sampson, 14, was 6 feet, 5 inches tall and over 300 pounds. Lawyers for his family want to know if the park was negligent in allowing someone his size on the ride.
His father and stepmother said they’re learning disturbing details about Tyre Sampson's final moments. “What I’m hearing is his friend was talking to him. He was like … ‘The thing’s not pushing down, you know what I’m saying? And if I don’t make it through then tell my mom and dad I love ’em.’”
The mother of a West High School junior wants her daughter, who has Down syndrome, to complete her senior year, while the district is citing policy that says the soon-to-be 19-year-old is too old.
Things to know today: The fallout from Will Smith's slap of Chris Rock at Oscars; Zelenskyy's latest plea; slowly falling gas prices. Get caught up this Monday morning.
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https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/california-records-1st-woman-to-sign-bill-into-state-law/article_28c553b8-bf29-5ec6-a3d7-92d2ae10974c.html
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — For the first time in California's 171-year history, a woman has signed a bill into state law.
Gov. Gavin Newsom normally signs the laws in California, but he left the state on Wednesday night for a family vacation in Central and South America. State law requires Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis to act as governor until he returns.
The Legislature on Thursday morning passed a bill to extend a law preventing some renters from being evicted until the end of June. The bill had to be signed into law on Thursday because the old law was set to expire and tens of thousands of renters could have been evicted starting Friday.
It ended up being an historic moment for the nation's most populous state, which despite its reputation as the the country's progressive powerhouse has never elected a woman as governor.
“It was very humbling. And I did feel that sense of history,” said Kounalakis, who also signed a separate bill relating to elections on Thursday. “For many years women have been writing legislation ... but no woman has ever signed a bill into law. And it felt like a moment in history that we should recognize as important.”
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California has elected plenty of women to other offices. Voters elected two women to the U.S. Senate in 1992 with Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, with Boxer retiring in 2017 and Feinstein still serving. California's power was on display during President Joe Biden's recent State of the Union address, when a pair of California women sat behind him — Vice President Kamala Harris, who was elected attorney general and U.S. senator in California, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco in Congress since 1987.
Historically, women don't run for governor at the same rate as they do other offices, according to Jean Sinzdak, associate director of the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University. She said women usually make up about 25% of gubernatorial candidates nationwide. It's one reason there have been just 45 women who served as governors in U.S. history.
“People have these kind of unconscious biases, even against women in the executive position when they are the boss,” said Kim Nalder, professor of political science at California State University, Sacramento. “When they are members of a legislature they are members of a group. That plays into the positive stereotypes people have about women being good at collaboration.”
California is one of 19 states that have never elected a woman as governor. That likely won't change this year as Newsom is favored to win reelection. But it could change in 2026 when Newsom can't run again because of term limits.
California has four women elected to statewide office now while 38 women are in the Legislature — both all-time highs. Along with Kounalakis, Treasurer Fiona Ma, Controller Betty Yee, Secretary of State Shirley Weber and state Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins all could run for governor in 2026.
Kounalakis said any woman with a statewide platform should be thinking about running for governor — including herself. But with that election more than four and a half years away, she wasn't ready to commit to running for the office just yet.
“I think that what's important is that the women who could have a chance at being elected governor think about how we honor each other's abilities, because there is plenty of pressure for women to not help each other, when in fact the way that we'll see a women governor in the future is because women help one another,” Kounalakis said.
Newsom is scheduled to return to the state on April 12.
“The governor could have changed his plans. But he’s extremely supportive of elevating people around him, particularly those from underrepresented groups,” Kounalakis said. “And I am very grateful to him for helping to make this happen.”
This story has been corrected to fix two inaccurate spellings of Kounalakis' last name.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/driver-in-shoot-out-chase-with-buffalo-police-arraigned/article_a5b28166-6650-560e-bb92-1b6e0e674fd0.html
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BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A driver who engaged Buffalo police in a lengthy gunfight, striking and injuring three officers during a haphazard chase that spanned the city, pleaded not guilty Thursday to attempted murder.
Kente Bell, 28, was arraigned from his hospital room, where he is recovering from several gunshot wounds sustained during Tuesday's chase and a final hail of gunfire as it ended in front of a police station at a Buffalo intersection.
Bell was shot in his neck, arm, leg and hand and underwent surgery at Erie County Medical Center, where he appeared before a judge after regaining consciousness, said Erie County District Attorney John Flynn, who offered dramatic new details of the events.
“You have a high-speed chase... you've got a guy firing out the driver's side window. You've got blockades, you've got speed on highways, a girl jumping out of the car,” he said at a news conference.
Bell is accused of fleeing two police officers who approached his parked vehicle after noticing its tinted windows around 6 p.m. Tuesday, Flynn said. He cooperated at first but did not get out of the car because he was partially paralyzed in a 2012 shooting and uses medical equipment to walk, the prosecutor said.
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When it appeared there was an issue with his registration, Bell drove off. Armed with an illegal handgun with an extended magazine of ammunition, he fired on police as they pursued him through city neighborhoods and on highways for more than 20 minutes, Flynn said.
Early in the chase, before shots were fired, the passenger exited the moving vehicle.
“He was making a turn and had slowed down at some point. She opened the front passenger door and jumped out of the car while it was moving and ended up rolling on the ground and hit up against a pole of some kind,” he said, “like right out of a movie.”
“She was obviously freaking out probably, to say the least, and wanted to have nothing to do with this," Flynn said.
In the minutes that followed, Bell drove through a police barricade, entered and exited highways and drove wildly through several Buffalo neighborhoods, briefly entering the suburb of Cheektowaga, before turning back toward Buffalo with police officers radioing his route to each other and warning of the danger.
“They’re still shooting. Multiple officers hit!” an officer is heard shouting in a transmission captured by Broadcastify.com.
Three police officers were struck in separate vehicles. All are recovering.
By the time it was over, nine police vehicles were damaged by gunfire, Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.
Investigators have yet to determine how many shots were fired by Bell, or how many officers fired their weapons, Flynn said.
Bell is due to appear before a county judge at the hospital Friday for an alleged probation violation related to a 2020 illegal firearms charge in the town of Amherst. While on probation, he was prohibited from carrying a weapon.
The attorney who represented Bell at Thursday's arraignment did not return a call seeking comment on his behalf.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/march-set-another-record-for-most-tornadoes-in-march-may-be-sign-of-more-disastrous/article_f7a3795f-2bb6-5670-be47-b332c37361fc.html
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It's the second year in a row the country has endured a record number of tornadoes in March, solidifying a trend toward more severe weather earlier in the year and raising questions among scientists, who've historically seen such weather peak from April to early June.
Meanwhile, more severe storms happening further east in the country could mean more disastrous and deadly tornado outbreaks are possible.
"Our future projections of how severe weather may change in the future are really showing two things," Victor Gensini, an associate professor at Northern Illinois University and one of the country's top tornado experts, told CNN. "They kind of show an earlier start to the severe weather season — so more severe weather in February, more severe weather in March — and then also sort of this eastward increase."
Severe weather season is changing
At least 219 tornadoes have been reported in March, according to the Storm Prediction Center, the highest tally since records began in 1950. There are typically around 80 tornadoes in March.
In March 2021, 191 tornadoes were reported across the country. 2017 was also an extraordinary March for tornadoes, with 187, the third-most.
A major factor contributing to the earlier strike of severe weather is that the Pacific Ocean is currently in a strong La Niña, a pattern known for cooler-than-average ocean temperatures around the equator.
"If you look back through history, some of our greatest or most significant tornado seasons in history have been associated with a La Niña," Gensini said.
The active jet stream along the southern tier of the United States — a consequence of La Niña — along with "bath water" temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, have created an ideal environment in the Mid-South and Southeast for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, Gensini said.
These changes call into question the Great Plains nickname of "tornado alley." The drying out of the region makes the atmosphere less favorable for severe weather and will push storms out of that traditional area, Gensini said.
However, "Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, will still get plenty of tornadoes every year," he noted.
'It means more disasters'
As a result of this shift, more disastrous and deadly tornado outbreaks are possible.
"As you get east of the Mississippi River, the population density rapidly increases. We essentially have more targets to hit on the dartboard," Gensini said.
People are also just more vulnerable in those regions, which increases their risk.
"We have a significant number of mobile homes that are dispersed across the landscape in the Mid-South and Southeast -- way different than anywhere else in the United States," Gensini added, noting that a car or mobile home is the most dangerous place to be during a tornado.
An earlier tornado season also means fewer daylight hours, which means more tornadoes could come while it's dark. In Jackson, Mississippi, for example, there are fewer than 12 daylight hours per day in March, compared to 14 hours per day in May.
"If you're having tornadoes at night, that's a very special type of vulnerability, where you may be sleeping. And if you don't have a way to receive a warning, you know, you could easily become an injury or fatality," Gensini said.
As severe weather seasons shift, being weather aware — and having multiple ways to receive weather alerts — becomes even more important. And people should be prepared for more dangerous storms in February and March, Gensini said.
"I would expect that trend to continue," he said. "And that is certainly what our climate models suggest as well."
Photos: See tornadoes' deadly destruction over the years
May 22, 2011: Joplin, Missouri
April 2011: Southeastern U.S.
Feb. 5, 2008: 'Super Tuesday' outbreak
April 2014: Southeast and Midwest
May 20, 2013: Moore, Oklahoma
March 18, 1925: Missouri, Illinois and Indiana
May 11, 1953: Waco, Texas
Nov. 6, 2005: Evansville, Indiana
May 10, 2008: Southwest Missouri
May 25, 2008: Iowa
Feb. 29, 2012: Illinois
Feb. 11, 2009: Oklahoma
April 28, 2011: Virginia
June 8, 1984: Barneveld, Wisconsin
May 1955: Udall, Kansas
March 2, 2012: Indiana
October 2013: Nebraska
May 4, 2003: Missouri
June 11, 2008: Iowa
July 8, 2014: Upstate New York
Dec. 10-11, 2021: Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio Valley, southern US
A former Montana Tech football player who admitted raping two women in Butte will do no prison time and could get the crime expunged from his record if he stays out of trouble and meets other requirements for six years.
The Texas teen was behind the wheel earlier this week when a tornado flipped his red pickup truck. He drove away. Video shot by a storm chaser went viral.
Tyre Sampson, 14, was 6 feet, 5 inches tall and over 300 pounds. Lawyers for his family want to know if the park was negligent in allowing someone his size on the ride.
His father and stepmother said they’re learning disturbing details about Tyre Sampson's final moments. “What I’m hearing is his friend was talking to him. He was like … ‘The thing’s not pushing down, you know what I’m saying? And if I don’t make it through then tell my mom and dad I love ’em.’”
The mother of a West High School junior wants her daughter, who has Down syndrome, to complete her senior year, while the district is citing policy that says the soon-to-be 19-year-old is too old.
Things to know today: The fallout from Will Smith's slap of Chris Rock at Oscars; Zelenskyy's latest plea; slowly falling gas prices. Get caught up this Monday morning.
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https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/police-mom-who-blamed-toddlers-death-on-road-rage-arrested/article_21795851-481e-5107-903e-cc420fcdcb80.html
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DALLAS (AP) — A Texas woman who said her 3-year-old son was killed in a road-rage shooting has been arrested on a child endangerment charge, police said Thursday.
Lacravivonne Monique Washington, 26, kept a handgun in her sport utility vehicle where it was accessible to her children, ages 2-4, who were unrestrained, according to a Dallas police affidavit.
The investigation began Monday when Washington brought her son Jalexus Washington to Medical City of Dallas hospital with a gunshot wound to the head. The child died, and the mother told police that he had been shot by an unknown person in a road-rage shooting.
Investigators found no evidence of a road-rage shooting at the location the mother specified. But they did find a handgun in the glove compartment of Washington’s vehicle, which had no child restraints, the affidavit said.
In a follow-up interview, Washington told police that her children were climbing back and forth from the back seat to the front when she heard two gunshots and found her son wounded, according to the affidavit.
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An autopsy revealed that the boy had powder burns around his wound. That indicated that he had been shot at very close range and ruled out a road-rage shooting, the affidavit stated.
Washington could be sentenced to up to two years in state jail if convicted. She was in Dallas County Jail Thursday with a bond set at $25,000. Court records list no attorney for her.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/police-officer-kills-man-who-armed-himself-while-in-custody/article_74655ad1-d42c-5247-847a-3e3dd5799c17.html
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MIAMI (AP) — A Florida police officer fatally shot a man who was able to arm himself after being arrested Thursday, officials said.
The shooting occurred shortly before noon at a western Miami-Dade home, according to a police news release.
Miami-Dade police officers had been assisting Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Marshals Service when they took a 53-year-old man into custody, police said. The man complained of feeling ill, and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded to evaluate him. During the evaluation, the man somehow armed himself, and shots were fired, officials said.
The man died at the scene. No other injuries were reported.
The shooting is being investigated by state police officials.
Police didn't immediately release the names or races of the dead man or the officer who shot him.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/police-student-kills-peer-at-south-carolina-middle-school/article_267e99cc-be92-5423-92af-700eaf6ee196.html
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GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — A 12-year-old student was shot and killed Thursday by another 12-year-old student inside their South Carolina middle school, authorities said.
The shooter was found hiding under a deck at a home not far from Tanglewood Middle School in Greenville about an hour after the shooting and was still armed, Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis said.
The boy is charged with murder, possession of a firearm at a school and possession of a weapon by someone under 18. He was taken to a juvenile prison in Columbia, Lewis said.
“He was hiding. He's a young man, probably didn't understand the consequences of what had just happened,” the sheriff said at a news conference. “I don't think he knew what to do, honestly, except for to leave the school.”
The boys knew each other, but the sheriff said investigators are still trying to figure out what led to the shooting in a front part of the school and how the boy got the gun.
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No one else was injured in the shooting.
The family of the boy killed released a statement saying he was Jamari Cortez Bonaparte Jackson and asking people to respect their privacy as they grieve.
“We are all devastated by today’s tragedy. We love Jamari dearly,” the family said in a statement released by community justice group Fighting Injustice Together.
A police officer at the school called in the shooting and requested emergency backup around 12:30 p.m. and more than 200 deputies and other law enforcement officers rushed to the school, Lewis said.
Helicopter footage from WYFF-TV showed dozens of officers walking around outside the school with more than two dozen buses lined up. Some students were slowly boarding the buses.
Everyone on campus, including teachers, were taken to a nearby church.
Greenville County Schools Superintendent Burke Royster said he doesn't have any idea how the gun ended up at school and a student killed.
“I'm not sure after a full and thorough law enforcement investigation anyone will really know what was going through the mind of that young person who took this rash act,” Royster said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://wcfcourier.com/news/science/disputed-school-admissions-policy-okd-pending-appeal/article_3236f285-dde3-5f23-a82a-2a4d102c5f34.html
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ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court has granted a request from a northern Virginia school system to continue using a challenged admissions policy at a highly selective high school while it appeals a ruling that found the policy discriminates against Asian American students.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a ruling Thursday that Fairfax County Public Schools can continue to use its new admissions policy at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton rejected the new policy in a February ruling, saying that impermissible “racial balancing” was at its core. Commonly known as “TJ,” the prestigious school near the nation’s capital is often ranked as one of the best public high schools in the country.
Earlier this month, Hilton also rejected a request from the school system to delay the implementation of his ruling. But the 4th Circuit, in a 3-2 ruling, said the school board had met the legal requirements for a suspension of Hilton's order while its appeal is pending.
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The 4th Circuit panel agreed with school officials who argued that because the selection process for the incoming freshman class is well underway, implementing Hilton's ruling now would throw the process into chaos.
Judge Toby Heytens wrote that he has “grave doubts” about Hilton's conclusions "regarding both disparate impact and discriminatory purpose” of the new admissions policy.
“In my view, appellant Fairfax County School Board is likely to succeed in its appeal,” Heytens wrote.
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Allison Jones Rushing said putting Hilton's ruling on hold while the school board appeals his decision is not in the public interest. Jones said any logistical difficulties or inconvenience associated with changing the admissions policy at this late date “simply do not outweigh the infringement of constitutional rights.”
“And everyone — even temporarily frustrated applicants and their families — ultimately benefits from a public-school admissions process not tainted by unconstitutional discrimination,” Rushing wrote.
The case has been closely watched as courts continue to evaluate the role that racial considerations can play when deciding who should be admitted to a particular school. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a similar case alleging that Harvard University discriminates against Asian Americans in its admissions process.
Fairfield County Public Schools said the order from the 4th Circuit allows the school board to continue with the current application process to select the Class of 2026 this spring.
“For the 2,500+ students in this application pool, this means the race blind process set out by the School Board in October 2020 will remain in place as an appeal challenging the February court decision plays out,” the board said in a news release.
The parents’ group Coalition for TJ, which filed the lawsuit, said the 4th Circuit judges have made a “grave error” in allowing the school system to continue to use its new admissions process.
“If the judges’ decision stands, we would see Fairfax County Public Schools usher in a second class of students to America’s No. 1 public high school through an unconstitutional race-based admissions process,” the coalition said in a statement.
For decades, Black and Hispanic students have been woefully underrepresented in the student body. After criticism over its lack of diversity, the school board scrapped a standardized test that had been at the heart of the admissions process and opted instead for a process that sets aside slots at each of the county’s middle schools. It also includes “experience factors” like socioeconomic background.
The parents’ group argued in its lawsuit that Asian Americans, who constituted more than 70% of the student body, were unfairly targeted in the new policy.
The school’s current freshman class, which was admitted under the new policy, saw a significantly different racial makeup. Black students increased from 1% to 7%; Hispanic representation increased from 3% to 11%. Asian American representation decreased from 73% to 54%.
The school system has insisted that its new policies are race neutral, and the panel evaluating applicants is not even aware of applicants’ race as it conducts its reviews.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://wcfcourier.com/people/caitlyn-jenner-joins-fox-news-as-a-contributor/article_d1096149-35f4-52d1-9f33-61aa844ec95f.html
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Caitlyn Jenner has joined Fox News as a contributor.
The 72-year-old reality star - who was born as Bruce Jenner and became known for winning Olympic gold in Decathlon during the 1976 games in Montreal before transitioning into a woman whilst starring on 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' - is "humbled" to become part of the news network and to be able to "speak directly" to Americans.
In a tweet, she said: "I am humbled by this unique opportunity to speak directly to @FoxNews millions of viewers about a range of issues that are important to the American people."
The former Republican candidate - who ran as a replacement candidate for Gavin Newsom in the state of California but lost out with only 1% of the vote - is thought to be a "tremendous asset” for the news channel because of her "inspirational journey" and impact on the LGBTQ+ community.
Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement: "Caitlyn’s story is an inspiration to us all. She is a trailblazer in the LGBTQ+ community and her illustrious career spans a variety of fields that will be a tremendous asset for our audience. She will offer commentary and analysis across Fox News Channel programming and various Fox News Media platforms."
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Caitlyn - who has daughters Kylie, 24, and Kendall, 26, from former marriage to Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner, as well as Burt and Cassandra with first wife Chrystie Scott and Brandon and Brody with second spouse Linda Thompson - is set to make her first appearance on the broadcaster as a guest on Sean Hannity’s programme on Thursday (31.03.22).
This article originally ran on celebretainment.com.
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https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/education/west-high-students-stage-walkout-to-protest-transgender-athlete-ban/article_11892598-0330-5b12-9e3d-7b0748988022.html
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Waterloo West High School freshman Allison Wallsteadt speaks to students as they participate in a walkout Thursday in response to the signing of bill HF 2416 by Gov. Kim Reynolds in early March.
Chris Zoeller
Waterloo West High School students participate in a walkout Thursday in response to the signing of bill HF 2416 by Gov. Kim Reynolds in early March.
Chris Zoeller
Waterloo West High School students participate in a walkout Thursday in response to the signing of bill HF 2416 by Gov. Kim Reynolds in early March.
Chris Zoeller
Waterloo West High School students participate in a walkout Thursday in response to the signing of bill HF 2416 by Gov. Kim Reynolds in early March.
Chris Zoeller
Waterloo West High School students participate in a walkout Thursday in response to the signing of bill HF 2416 by Gov. Kim Reynolds in early March.
WATERLOO — About 100 students walked out of West High School on Thursday afternoon to protest a new law requiring athletes to participate on sports teams that correspond to their biological gender.
Under House File 2416, signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds on March 3, transgender athletes can't join a team for the sex with which they identify. The law particularly emphasizes that only biological females may participate in girls' and women's sports at schools, colleges and universities in Iowa.
Shortly before 1:15 p.m., students began trickling out of the building and gathered on the north side of the school. Several carried signs with messages like "Support trans athletes," "It's okay to be gay," "Gay is not a bad word" and "Being yourself and doing what you love should not be illegal."
Freshman Perceus Batista-Pedro, a member of West's gay-straight alliance, addressed the crowd using a bullhorn.
"I organized this protest because I'm angry," she said, recounting Reynolds' signing of the bill on transgender athletes. "That bill is discriminatory, benefits nobody and hurts everybody.
"None of them deserves that," she said of the ban. "You want to play sports, what's so bad about that? ... This horrible bill says it is in place for the fairness of sports."
Batista-Pedro particularly objected to the inclusion of students below the college level, where she said sports are intended "to teach kids skills, give them social connections." Transgender students, she added, want the same opportunities that everybody else has for that.
Organizers chose Thursday for the walkout because it was International Transgender Day of Visibility, which has been marked annually since 2009.
Batista-Pedro said there have been an "astronomical" number of anti-LGBTQ bills going through state legislatures across the country this year. She noted that during 2021 "375 trans people were murdered, and those were only the ones reported."
That was the number reported Nov. 11 by Transgender Europe's Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide research project's annual report.
"The reality that we face, many of us are discriminated against at school, at home, at jobs," said Batista-Pedro. "We want to be ourselves."
A series of other students spoke, their words cheered by those in attendance. Some speakers emphasized the importance of standing up for transgender students even if you don't identify as a member of that group.
"Everyone who is participating is participating to make change in transgender lives," said freshman Allison Wallsteadt.
Students spoke for most of the class period they had walked out of and then chanted "Protect trans youth!" They filed back into the school through the main entrance in time for the next class period.
Waterloo Community Schools spokeswoman Akwi Nji said participants in the student-organized, student-led protest will be counted absent for the period they were out of class, as has been done in similar situations.
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FIRST Robotics Competition - 1
More than 2,000 high school students on 45 teams from seven states compete during the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
Cedar Falls High School Team 525 members Sean Radke, Mila Haynes and Kylie Buchholz run their robot in competition on Friday during the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
The Waterloo Unity 4 Tech team, featuring East an West High students, runs their robot in competition on Friday during the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
Cedar Falls High School Team 525 members Mila Haynes, Sean Radke and Kylie Buchholz trade high fives before running their robot in competition on Friday during the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
Cedar Falls High School Team 525 members Ethan Strohm, Sean Radke and Mila Haynes load up their robot between matches on Friday during the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
Cedar Falls High School Team 525 members Sean Radke, Mila Haynes and Kylie Buchholz run their robot in competition on Friday during the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
The Columbus Catholic robotics team The Coded Collective celebrates after a strong finish during a match on Friday at the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
FIRST Robotics Competition at McLeod Center and UNI-Dome - 3/25/22
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FIRST Robotics Competition - 1
More than 2,000 high school students on 45 teams from seven states compete during the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
CHRIS ZOELLER Courier Staff Photographer
FIRST Robotics Competition - 2
More than 2,000 high school students on 45 teams from seven states compete during the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
FIRST Robotics Competition - 3
Cedar Falls High School Team 525 members Sean Radke, Mila Haynes and Kylie Buchholz run their robot in competition on Friday during the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
CHRIS ZOELLER Courier Staff Photographer
FIRST Robotics Competition - 4
The Waterloo Unity 4 Tech team, featuring East an West High students, runs their robot in competition on Friday during the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
FIRST Robotics Competition - 5
Cedar Falls High School Team 525 members Mila Haynes, Sean Radke and Kylie Buchholz trade high fives before running their robot in competition on Friday during the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
CHRIS ZOELLER Courier Staff Photographer
FIRST Robotics Competition - 6
Cedar Falls High School Team 525 members Ethan Strohm, Sean Radke and Mila Haynes load up their robot between matches on Friday during the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
CHRIS ZOELLER Courier Staff Photographer
FIRST Robotics Competition - 7
Cedar Falls High School Team 525 members Sean Radke, Mila Haynes and Kylie Buchholz run their robot in competition on Friday during the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
CHRIS ZOELLER Courier Staff Photographer
FIRST Robotics Competition - 8
The Columbus Catholic robotics team The Coded Collective celebrates after a strong finish during a match on Friday at the FIRST Robotics Competition at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
I cover local schools and higher education for The Courier, where I’ve been a reporter for the past two decades. I’m a Minnesota native and have previously worked for newspapers there and in Illinois.
Waterloo West High School freshman Allison Wallsteadt speaks to students as they participate in a walkout Thursday in response to the signing of bill HF 2416 by Gov. Kim Reynolds in early March.
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These are some trending topics for today, March 31.
Morbius
Struggling with a rare blood disorder, Dr. M ‘copters into Costa Rica to subject himself to a caveful of vampire bats. His research suggests a blend of human and bat DNA will cure him, and he’ll be able to save his similarly afflicted childhood friend nicknamed “Milo” (played by Matt Smith of “Doctor Who”) as he promised him years earlier.
“Morbius,” a Sony Pictures release slated for theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 for “intense sequences of violence, some frightening images, and brief strong language.” Running time: 104 minutes. Apparently not worth the watch?
Caitlyn Jenner
Caitlyn Jenner has joined Fox News as a contributor.
The 72-year-old reality star - who was born as Bruce Jenner and became known for winning Olympic gold in Decathlon during the 1976 games in Montreal before transitioning into a woman whilst starring on 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' - is "humbled" to become part of the news network and to be able to "speak directly" to Americans.
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In a tweet, she said: "I am humbled by this unique opportunity to speak directly to @FoxNews millions of viewers about a range of issues that are important to the American people." Learn more about it here:
Severe storms in the south, massive fires in Tennessee
A line of severe storms packing isolated tornadoes and high winds ripped across the Deep South overnight — killing at least two in the Florida Panhandle, toppling trees and power lines and leaving homes and businesses damaged as the vast weather front raced across several states.
In Florida, the Washington County Sheriff's Office said Thursday morning that two were killed and two injured when a tornado touched down in the western Florida Panhandle.
Firefighters, meanwhile, have been trying to get handle on a wildfire spreading near Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, amid mandatory evacuations as winds whipped up ahead of the approaching storm front. Read all about today's wild weather here:
Bobby Wagner
Linebacker Bobby Wagner agreed to a five-year deal Thursday to join his hometown Los Angeles Rams.
The Super Bowl champions outmaneuvered several suitors for Wagner, one of the NFL's top inside linebackers after his decade with the Seattle Seahawks. ESPN reported Wagner's deal contains $50 million guaranteed and could be worth up to $65 million.
The Seahawks released the six-time All-Pro anchor of their defense on March 9. Read about it here:
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Linebacker Bobby Wagner agreed to a five-year deal Thursday to join his hometown Los Angeles Rams.
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Check out more trending topics here:
Trans Day of Visibility
The Biden administration is marking the International Transgender Day of Visibility on Thursday with a series of measures in support of transgender Americans as they face efforts to curb their rights across the country.
Chernobyl
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops handed control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and left the heavily contaminated site early Friday, more than a month after taking it over, Ukrainian authorities said, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
Bruce Willis
The Razzies canceled a 2021 special category for Worst Performance by Bruce Willis despite initially defending a decision to move forward with it.
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This morning's top headlines: Thursday, March 31
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve for six months, a bid to control energy prices that have spiked after the United States and allies imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops handed control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and left the heavily contaminated site early Friday, more than a month after taking it over, Ukrainian authorities said, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden marked Transgender Day of Visibility on Thursday by denouncing “hateful bills” being passed at the state level as the White House played host to “Jeopardy!” champion Amy Schneider, the first openly transgender winner on the popular quiz show.
A line of severe storms packing isolated tornadoes and high winds ripped across the Deep South overnight — killing at least two in the Florida Panhandle, toppling trees and power lines and leaving homes and businesses damaged as the vast weather front raced across several states.
Defense attorneys quickly rested their case Thursday after one of four men charged with plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer repeatedly said “absolutely not” when asked if he had agreed to abduct her before the 2020 election.
OCEAN CITY, Md. (AP) — Two crewmembers rescued from the midweek crash of a U.S. Navy aircraft in Eastern Shore waters near the Virginia-Maryland line have non-life-threatening injuries and remain hospitalized, authorities said Thursday.
BOSTON (AP) — Chris Rock received several standing ovations before he told one joke Wednesday at his first comedy show since Will Smith slapped him in the face onstage at the Oscars.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Wednesday said that Will Smith was asked to leave Sunday's Oscar ceremony after hitting Chris Rock but refused to do so.
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Christian Pulisic walked across the field with a towel draped around his head, angry after another U.S. defeat.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Bruce Arians unexpectedly retired as coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a stunning move Wednesday night that the 69-year-old who guided the team to its second Super Bowl title says is not related to health.
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LEBANON, Pa. (AP) — One officer was killed and two others were shot Thursday in Pennsylvania while responding to a domestic disturbance call, Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello said.
Police officers went to a home in the city at about 3:30 p.m. for the disturbance call when gunfire broke out and officers radioed in they were hit, Capello said at a brief news conference.
All three officers were taken to hospitals. One of them has been pronounced dead. A second is in critical condition, but is stable, and a third was in stable condition, Capello said.
The suspect, a 34-year-old man, was killed in the shooting, Lebanon Police Chief Todd Breiner said.
The slain officer's name is being withheld pending notification of extended family members.
Police did not release further details.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — For the first time in California's 171-year history, a woman has signed a bill into state law.
Gov. Gavin Newsom normally signs the laws in California, but he left the state on Wednesday night for a family vacation in Central and South America. State law requires Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis to act as governor until he returns.
The Legislature on Thursday morning passed a bill to extend a law preventing some renters from being evicted until the end of June. The bill had to be signed into law on Thursday because the old law was set to expire and tens of thousands of renters could have been evicted starting Friday.
It ended up being an historic moment for the nation's most populous state, which has a reputation as a progressive powerhouse but has never elected a woman governor.
“It was very humbling. And I did feel that sense of history,” said Kounalakis, who also signed a separate bill relating to elections on Thursday. “For many years women have been writing legislation ... but no woman has ever signed a bill into law. And it felt like a moment in history that we should recognize as important.”
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California has elected plenty of women to other statewide offices.
In 1992 voters sent two Democratic women to the U.S. Senate. Dianne Feinstein still is serving while Barbara Boxer retired in 2017 and was replaced by Kamala Harris, who previously was state attorney general and now is vice president.
California's female power was on display during President Joe Biden's recent State of the Union address, when Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sat behind him. Pelosi has represented San Francisco in Congress since 1987.
Kounalakis, a former president of a real estate development company who served as ambassador to Hungary under President Barack Obama, is California's first female lieutenant governor. She was elected in 2018 and replaced Newsom.
The state’s No. 2 executive has limited power. She casts tie-breaking votes in the state Senate and serves as a University of California regent, among other posts. Those who hold the office sometimes use the post to boost name recognition for future statewide campaigns — as Newsom did.
Historically, women don't run for governor at the same rate as they do other offices, according to Jean Sinzdak, associate director of the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University. She said women usually make up about 25% of gubernatorial candidates nationwide. It's one reason there have been just 45 women who served as governors in U.S. history.
“People have these kind of unconscious biases, even against women in the executive position when they are the boss,” said Kim Nalder, professor of political science at California State University, Sacramento. “When they are members of a legislature they are members of a group. That plays into the positive stereotypes people have about women being good at collaboration.”
California is one of 19 states that have never elected a woman as governor. That likely won't change this year as Newsom is favored to win reelection. But it could change in 2026 when Newsom can't run again because of term limits.
California has four women elected to statewide office now while 38 women are in the Legislature — both all-time highs. Along with Kounalakis, Treasurer Fiona Ma, Controller Betty Yee, Secretary of State Shirley Weber and state Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins all could run for governor in 2026.
Kounalakis said any woman with a statewide platform should be thinking about running for governor — including herself. But with that election more than four and a half years away, she wasn't ready to commit to running for the office just yet.
“I think that what's important is that the women who could have a chance at being elected governor think about how we honor each other's abilities, because there is plenty of pressure for women to not help each other, when in fact the way that we'll see a women governor in the future is because women help one another,” Kounalakis said.
Newsom is scheduled to return to the state on April 12.
“The governor could have changed his plans. But he’s extremely supportive of elevating people around him, particularly those from underrepresented groups,” Kounalakis said. “And I am very grateful to him for helping to make this happen.”
This story has been corrected to fix two inaccurate spellings of Kounalakis' last name.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon workers in Alabama appear to have rejected a union bid in a tight race, according to early results on Thursday. But outstanding challenged votes could change the outcome.
In New York, union supporters have the edge in a count that will continue Friday morning.
Warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, voted 993 to 875 against forming a union. The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees the election, said that 416 challenged votes could potentially overturn that result. A hearing to go through the challenged ballots will occur in the next few days.
Meanwhile, in a separate union election in Staten Island, New York, the nascent Amazon Labor Union is leading by more than 350 votes out of about 2,670 tallied.
The close election in Bessemer marks a sharp contrast to last year, when Amazon workers overwhelmingly rejected the union.
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“This is just the beginning and we will continue to fight,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which is organizing the union drive in Bessemer, at a Thursday press conference. “Regardless of the final outcome, workers have shown what is possible. They have helped ignite a movement.”
Appelbaum said RWDSU will be filing objections to how Amazon handled the election but declined to be specific. He also took the opportunity to lash out at current labor laws, which he believes are rigged against unions and favor of corporations.
“It should not be so difficult to organize a union in the United States," he said.
If a majority of Amazon workers votes yes in either Bessemer or Staten Island, it would mark the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the company's history. Organizers have faced an uphill battle against the nation’s second-largest private employer, which is making every effort to keep unions out.
In New York, the ALU has led the charge to form a union along with Chris Smalls, a fired Amazon employee who now heads the fledging group. Turnout for the in-person election was unclear but Smalls was hopeful of victory.
“To be leading in Day One and be up a couple hundred against a trillion dollar company, this is the best feeling in the world,” Smalls said after the conclusion of Thursday’s counting.
While Smalls’ attention has been focused on securing victory in New York, similar efforts in Alabama also weighed heavily.
“I’m not too sure what’s going in Alabama right now, but I know that the sky’s the limit if you can organize any warehouse,” he said, noting that the vote in Alabama could well end up differently. “I hope that they’re successful. I don’t know what’s going on yet, but we know we show our support and solidarity with them.”
The warehouse in Staten Island employs more than 8,300 workers, who pack and ship supplies to customers based mostly in the Northeast. A labor win there was considered difficult, but organizers believe their grassroots approach is more relatable to workers and could help them overcome where established unions have failed in the past.
John Logan, director of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University, said the early vote counts in New York has been “shocking.” ALU has no backing from an established union and is powered by former and current warehouse workers. The group had also filed for a union election after getting support from about 30% of the facility's workforce, a much lower percentage than what unions usually seek.
“I don’t think that many people thought that the Amazon Labor Union had much of a chance of winning at all,” Logan said. “And I think we’re likely to see more of those (approaches) going forward.”
Though RWDSU is currently lagging behind with challenged ballots outstanding, Logan said that election was also remarkable because the union has made a good effort narrowing its margin from last year’s election.
After a crushing defeat last year, when a majority of workers voted against forming a union, RWDSU is hoping for a different outcome in the Bessemer election, in which mail-in ballots were sent to 6,100 workers in early February. Federal labor officials scrapped the results of the first election there and ordered a re-do after ruling Amazon tainted the election process.
The RWDSU said election there had a turnout rate of about 39% this year, much smaller than last year. Appelbaum blamed the low numbers on high turnover — he believes thousands of people who worked for Amazon in January and were on the official list to be eligible to vote either quit or were fired. He also believes that an in-person election, which the RWDSU had asked for, would have made a difference
Amazon has pushed back hard in both elections. The retail giant held mandatory meetings, where workers were told unions are a bad idea. The company also launched an anti-union website targeting workers and placed English and Spanish posters across the Staten Island facility urging them to reject the union. In Bessemer, Amazon has made some changes to but still kept a controversial U.S. Postal Service mailbox that was key in the NLRB’s decision to invalidate last year’s vote.
Both labor fights faced unique challenges. Alabama, for instance, is a right-to-work state that prohibits a company and a union from signing a contract that requires workers to pay dues to the union that represents them.
The mostly Black workforce at the Amazon facility, which opened in 2020, mirrors the Bessemer population of more than 70% Black residents, according to the latest U.S. Census data.
Pro-union workers say they want better working conditions, longer breaks and higher wages. Regular full-time employees at the Bessemer facility earn at least $15.80 an hour, higher than the estimated $14.55 per hour on average in the city. That figure is based on an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual median household income for Bessemer of $30,284, which could include more than one worker.
The ALU said they don’t have a demographic breakdown of the warehouse workers on Staten Island and Amazon declined to provide the information to The Associated Press, citing the union vote. Internal records leaked to The New York Times from 2019 showed more than 60% of the hourly associates at the facility were Black or Latino, while most of managers were white or Asian.
Amazon workers there are seeking longer breaks, paid time off for injured employees and an hourly wage of $30, up from a minimum of just over $18 per hour offered by the company. The estimated average wage for the borough is $41 per hour, according to a similar U.S. Census Bureau analysis of Staten Island’s $85,381 median household income.
A spokesperson for Amazon said the company invests in wages and benefits, such as health care, 401(k) plans and a prepaid college tuition program to help grow workers’ careers.
“As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”
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Associated Press staff writers Tali Arbel and Bobby Caina Calvan in New York contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Russians leave Chernobyl site as fighting rages elsewhere
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops handed control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and left the heavily contaminated site early Friday, more than a month after taking it over, Ukrainian authorities said, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
Ukraine's state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received “significant doses" of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. But there was no independent confirmation of that.
The withdrawal took place amid growing indications the Kremlin is using talk of de-escalation in Ukraine as cover while regrouping, resupplying its forces and redeploying them for a stepped-up offensive in the eastern part of the country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian withdrawals from the north and center of the country were just a military tactic and that the forces are building up for new powerful attacks in the southeast.
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“We know their intentions,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation. “We know that they are moving away from those areas where we hit them in order to focus on other, very important ones where it may be difficult for us.”
As Russia sees tech brain drain, other nations hope to gain
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Russia’s tech workers are looking for safer and more secure professional pastures.
By one estimate, up to 70,000 computer specialists, spooked by a sudden frost in the business and political climate, have bolted the country since Russia invaded Ukraine five weeks ago. Many more are expected to follow.
For some countries, Russia’s loss is being seen as their potential gain and an opportunity to bring fresh expertise to their own high-tech industries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has noticed the brain drain even in the throes of a war that, according to the U.N. refugee agency, has caused more than 4 million people to flee Ukraine and displaced millions more within the country.
This week, Putin reacted to the exodus of tech professionals by approving legislation to eliminate income taxes between now and 2024 for individuals who work for information technology companies.
Trump's 8-hour gap: Minute-by-minute during Jan. 6 riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lot is known about the few hours that shook American democracy to the core. The defeated president’s incendiary speech, the march by an angry crowd to the U.S. Capitol, the breaking in, the beating of cops, the “hang Mike Pence” threats, the lawmakers running for their lives, the shooting death of rioter Ashli Babbitt. All of that chaos unfolded over about eight hours on one day: Jan. 6, 2021.
But for all that is known about the day, piecing together the words and actions of Donald Trump over that time has proved no easy task, even though a president's movements and communications are closely monitored.
There’s a gap in the official White House phone notations given to the House committee investigating Jan. 6 — from about 11 a.m. to about 7 p.m., according to two people familiar with the congressional investigation into the riot. Details may still turn up; the former president was known to use various cell phones and often bypassed the White House switchboard, placing calls directly.
And over the past four-plus months a lot has surfaced about what Trump did do and say on Jan. 6 — in texts, tweets, videos, calls and other conversations.
The following account is based on testimony, timelines and eyewitness reporting gathered by The Associated Press and The Washington Post and CBS News, and from officials and people familiar with the events who spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity.
Biden oil move aims to cut gas prices 'fairly significantly'
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve for six months, a bid to control energy prices that have spiked after the United States and allies imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The president said it was not known how much gasoline prices could decline as a result of his move, but he suggested it might be “anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon.” Gas is averaging about $4.23 a gallon, compared with $2.87 a year ago, according to AAA.
“The bottom line is if we want lower gas prices we need to have more oil supply right now,” Biden said. “This is a moment of consequence and peril for the world, and pain at the pump for American families.”
The president also wants Congress to impose financial penalties on oil and gas companies that lease public lands but are not producing. He said he will invoke the Defense Production Act to encourage the mining of critical minerals for batteries in electric vehicles, part of a broader push to shift toward cleaner energy sources and reduce the use of fossil fuels.
The actions show that oil remains a vulnerability for the U.S. Higher prices have hurt Biden’s approval domestically and added billions of oil-export dollars to the Russian government as it wages war on Ukraine.
Report: US military must do more to avoid civilian deaths
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military needs to adjust its planning, training, targeting and use of weapons in order to better avoid widespread civilian deaths and damage such as the devastating 2017 battle to liberate the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State militants, a new RAND report said Thursday.
The report requested by the Pentagon reflects criticism of the military's airstrike campaign that, according to some estimates, killed more than 1,600 civilians in Raqqa, as the U.S.-led coalition worked to destroy the Islamic State caliphate that wrested control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the report, which lays out a series of recommendations to improve military procedures and strategy, will be used as the department develops its own broader plan to reduce civlian harm.
“No other military works as hard as we do to mitigate civilian harm, and yet we still cause it,” said Kirby. ”We're going to continue to try to learn from past issues.”
RAND concluded that the battle for Raqqa provided important lessons.
Scientists finally finish decoding entire human genome
Scientists say they have finally assembled the full genetic blueprint for human life, adding the missing pieces to a puzzle nearly completed two decades ago.
An international team described the first-ever sequencing of a complete human genome – the set of instructions to build and sustain a human being – in research published Thursday in the journal Science. The previous effort, celebrated across the world, was incomplete because DNA sequencing technologies of the day weren't able to read certain parts of it. Even after updates, it was missing about 8% of the genome.
“Some of the genes that make us uniquely human were actually in this ‘dark matter of the genome’ and they were totally missed,” said Evan Eichler, a University of Washington researcher who participated in the current effort and the original Human Genome Project. “It took 20-plus years, but we finally got it done.”
Many — including Eichler's own students — thought it had been finished already. “I was teaching them, and they said, 'Wait a minute. Isn’t this like the sixth time you guys have declared victory? I said, ’No, this time we really, really did it!”
Scientists said this full picture of the genome will give humanity a greater understanding of our evolution and biology while also opening the door to medical discoveries in areas like aging, neurodegenerative conditions, cancer and heart disease.
Amazon staff reject union in Alabama, lean toward it in NYC
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon workers in Alabama appear to have rejected a union bid in a tight race, according to early results on Thursday. But outstanding challenged votes could change the outcome.
In New York, union supporters have the edge in a count that will continue Friday morning.
Warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, voted 993 to 875 against forming a union. The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees the election, said that 416 challenged votes could potentially overturn that result. A hearing to go through the challenged ballots will occur in the next few days.
Meanwhile, in a separate union election in Staten Island, New York, the nascent Amazon Labor Union is leading by more than 350 votes out of about 2,670 tallied.
The close election in Bessemer marks a sharp contrast to last year, when Amazon workers overwhelmingly rejected the union.
California reparations plan advances movement, advocates say
DETROIT (AP) — In the long debate over whether Black Americans should be granted reparations for the atrocity and injustices of slavery and racism, California took a big step this week toward becoming the first U.S. state to make some form of restitution a reality.
The state's reparations task force tackled the divisive issue of which Black residents should be eligible — it narrowly decided in favor of limiting compensation to the descendants of free and enslaved Black people who were in the U.S. in the 19th century.
Whether Tuesday's vote by the task force spurs other states and cities to advance their own proposals, and whether they adopt California’s still controversial standard for who would benefit, remains to be seen. Some veteran reparations advocates disagree strongly with proposals to limiting eligibility to only Black people who can prove they have enslaved ancestors, while excluding those who cannot and leaving out victims of other historic injustices, such as redlining and mass incarceration.
Still, one advocate noted California's move is a step that could lend momentum to stalled reparation proposals elsewhere in the U.S.
“It’s precipitated a debate and it will influence communities,” said Ron Daniels, president of The Institute of the Black World 21st Century and administrator of the National African American Reparations Commission, an advocacy group of scholars and activists.
Oscars producer says police offered to arrest Will Smith
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oscars producer Will Packer said Los Angeles police were ready to arrest Will Smith after Smith slapped Chris Rock on the Academy Awards stage.
“They were saying, you know, this is battery, was a word they used in that moment," Packer said in a clip released by ABC News Thursday night of an interview he gave to “Good Morning America.” “They said we will go get him. We are prepared. We’re prepared to get him right now. You can press charges, we can arrest him. They were laying out the options.”
But Packer said Rock was “very dismissive” of the idea.
“He was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m fine,” Packer said. "And even to the point where I said, ‘Rock, let them finish.’ The LAPD officers finished laying out what his options were and they said, ‘Would you like us to take any action?’ And he said no.”
The LAPD said in a statement after Sunday night's ceremony that they were aware of the incident, and that Rock had declined to file a police report. The department declined comment Thursday on Packer's interview, a longer version of which will air on Friday morning.
South Carolina's Aliyah Boston wins AP player of the year
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Aliyah Boston dominated women's college basketball on both ends of the court this season.
The junior forward helped South Carolina go wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team in the country, putting up an SEC-record 27 consecutive double-doubles, and she has helped put the Gamecocks two wins away from the program's second national championship.
Boston was honored as The Associated Press women's basketball player of the year on Thursday. She is the second player from South Carolina to be recognized with the award, joining former Gamecocks great A'ja Wilson.
“Not often do you get the complete package. I think this recognition is for what she was able to do on both sides of the ball,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “The player of the year is usually for offensive-minded people who think that when you put the ball in the hole, you should be bestowed the player of the year. She’s the full package. Every single day.”
Boston's parents and aunt as well as the entire South Carolina team were in the audience of the ceremony that also honored AP Coach of the Year Kim Mulkey.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey refused to say Thursday if transgender people actually exist, twice dodging direct questions on the subject just a day after he signed legislation limiting transgender rights.
The Republican worked instead to defend his signatures on bills that bar transgender girls and women from playing on girls high school and women's college sports teams and barring gender affirming surgery for anyone under age 18.
When specifically asked if he believed that there “are really transgender people,” the governor paused for several seconds before answering.
“I’m going to ask you to read the legislation and to see that the legislation that we passed was in the spirit of fairness to protect girls sports in competitive situations,” Ducey said, referring to the new law that targets transgender girls who want to play on girls sports teams. “That’s what the legislation is intended to do, and that’s what it does.”
Asked again if he believed there are “actual transgender people,” he again answered slowly and carefully.
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“I ... am going to respect everyone, and I’m going to respect everyone’s rights. And I’m going to protect female sports. And that’s what the legislation does,” Ducey said.
Ducey's response was “appalling,” according to the Arizona director of the Human Rights Campaign, a national civil rights group that advocates for equality for LGBTQ people. The organization worked to ensure families and transgender young people came to the Capitol to testify against the bills as the Republican-led House and Senate considered them this session.
“It's quite shocking that he can't even address trans people or even say that he thinks they exist,” Bridget Sharpe said.
Wednesday's signing of the two transgender bills and a third that bars abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy and is currently unconstitutional put Ducey right in the middle of two top issues national Republicans are highlighting in the runup to November's midterm elections.
Ducey also signed election legislation that minority Democrats said amounted to voter suppression by requiring longtime Arizonans to be thrown off the voter rolls if they did not prove their citizenship and residence location.
The governor leads the Republican Governors Association, which is charged with helping elect GOP chief executives in U.S. states. He in is the last year of his second term as Arizona governor and term limits bar him from seeking reelection.
The top Democrat in the state House, Rep. Reginald Bolding, called Wednesday “probably one of the darkest days we've seen in the history of Arizona."
“With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Ducey has hurled Arizona backwards to its ugliest past,” Bolding said Wednesday. “And today, he put in jeopardy pregnant people, transgender youth in danger and curtailed voting rights for people of color.”
Social conservative groups and the Arizona Republican Party praised Ducey's action. The Center for Arizona Policy, whose president shepherded the abortion and women's sports bills through the Legislature, called it a victory.
"Thank you, Governor Ducey, for taking a bold stand for women athletes, vulnerable children, and the unborn by putting your signature on (the bills) in the face of intense opposition from activists," Center for Arizona Policy president Cathi Herrod said in a news release she posted on Twitter.
She said the legislation protects the unborn, ensures a level playing field for female athletes and shows that “Arizona will do everything it can to protect vulnerable children struggling with gender confusion” by enacting the surgery ban.
Ducey said the surgery ban protects children from irreversible decisions.
“These are permanent surgeries of reassignment that are irreversible, and those discussions can happen once adulthood is reached,” he said.
The American Civil Liberties Association has vowed to sue over the surgery ban. U.S. Supreme Court precedent currently says women have a constitutional right to abortion until about 24 weeks of pregnancy, although it is considering whether to uphold a 15-week ban enacted in Mississippi and may overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision enshrining a woman's right to choose.
Arizona joins 13 other states in enacting laws preventing transgender girls and women from playing on girls teams. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed a transgender sports ban in his state, saying it would harm transgender girls, but the Legislature overrode the veto. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb also vetoed a sports bill, but lawmakers hope to override his action as well.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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BRIGHTON, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado couple face felony charges in connection with the fentanyl death of their 1-year-old child, whom prosecutors say died after ingesting enough of the extremely lethal drug to kill an adult.
Alonzo Montoya, 31, and Nicole Casias, 30, of the Denver suburb of Brighton were charged with child abuse resulting in death and distribution of a controlled substance in connection with the girl's death on Jan. 2, the 17th Judicial District's Office said in a statement Thursday.
It said the Adams County Coroner had determined that the child died after ingesting fentanyl and that Montoya and Casias “participated in illicit drug activity” in the child's presence at home before and after her death.
Montoya was being held on $250,000 bail at the Adams County Jail. Bail was set at $100,000 for Casias. A status hearing for both was set for Monday.
Telephone and email messages seeking comment from Casias' attorney, Rachel Lanzen, were not immediately returned. Montoya was being represented by the public defender's office, which doesn't comment on pending cases.
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Court records that would provide details on the accusations weren't immediately available from the county district court. Christopher Hopper, a district attorney's spokesman, said he could not provide additional information.
Fentanyl is an unpredictable and powerful synthetic painkiller blamed for driving an increase in fatal drug overdoses. It’s 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former minor league pitcher ran a major league illegal sports betting operation in California that used other former pro athletes to take bets and took wagers from players still in the game, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Wayne Nix, who threw for Oakland Athletics farm teams, used his connections to recruit three former Major League Baseball players and a former pro football player as fellow bookies, prosecutors said.
The MLB began looking into the matter when it learned of it Thursday, but was unaware any of those involved other than Nix, a spokesman said.
Court records offered no names of the players who worked for Nix or those who placed bets with his business, but they provide a glimpse of the kind of money being wagered, earned and lost.
A professional football player paid Nix $245,000 for gambling losses in 2016. An MLB coach paid $4,000 in losses that same year. It was not disclosed if either bet on their own games or their own sports.
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MLB prohibits players from betting on baseball or gambling illegally on sports. They can bet on other sports if it’s legal. The National Football League policy bars all personnel from betting on football games.
A Los Angeles check cashing business that has agreed to plead guilty to failing to prevent money laundering in the scheme cashed over $18 million in checks from two single bettors, prosecutors said.
One client wagered $5 million on the Super Bowl but it was not revealed if that gambit paid off.
Sports betting is legal in 30 states, but not in California. However, voters will have a chance to legalize it at the polls in November.
Nix, 45, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to run an illegal gambling operation and faces up to eight years in prison. He also admitted he failed to report $1.4 million in income in 2017 and 2018. He has agreed to pay back taxes and interest of $1.25 million and forfeit $1.3 million seized from bank accounts.
Nix began the sports bookmaking business about 20 years ago after his six-year minor league career — with stops in Arizona, Texas and California — ended, prosecutors said.
His client list was created from contacts he had made in the sports world and included current and former pro athletes. The agents he hired helped expand that clientele.
The operation eventually began using a Costa Rican business, Sand Island Sports, to create accounts where bets could be placed and tracked and credit limits set, prosecutors said. Bets were placed online or through a call center, though Nix paid winners and kept most of the money from losing bets.
Those who exceeded credit limits were shut off, though exceptions were made, according to court documents.
A sports broadcaster's account was reactivated in February 2019 after he told Nix he was refinancing his home mortgage to pay off his gambling debts.
In September 2019, Nix increased the credit limit to a baseball player with debts so he could make additional bets.
In November, 2019, Nix's partner, Edon Kagasoff, told a business manager for a professional basketball player that he would increase the maximum wager he could place to $25,000 per NBA game.
Kagasoff, 44, faces the same conspiracy charge as Nix. He also agreed to plead guilty and forfeit over $3 million in funds seized from his home and bank accounts.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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The Ukrainian government said Russian forces blocked 45 buses that had been sent to evacuate civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol, and only 631 people were able to get out of the city in private cars.
Twelve Ukrainian trucks were able to deliver humanitarian supplies to Mariupol, but the supplies were seized by Russian troops, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said late Thursday.
According to Ukrainian officials, tens of thousands of people have made it out of Mariupol in recent weeks along humanitarian corridors, reducing the prewar population of 430,000 to about 100,000 by last week.
Vereshchuk said about 45,000 Mariupol residents have been forcefully deported to Russia and areas of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Heavy fighting rages near Kyiv as Russia appears to regroup
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— Kremlin decree says foreign currency can still buy natural gas
— As Russia sees tech brain drain, other nations hope to gain
— Ukraine refugees encouraged to find work as exodus slows
— Ukrainians in US mobilize to help expected refugees
— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
LVIV, Ukraine — The last Russian troops left the Chernobyl nuclear plant early Friday, according to the Ukrainian government agency responsible for the exclusion zone around the plant.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Russian troops who dug trenches in the forest were exposed to radiation, but that could not be confirmed.
The Ukrainian nuclear operator company Energoatom said Thursday that Russian troops were headed toward Ukraine’s border with Belarus.
Energoatom said that the Russian military was also preparing to leave Slavutych, a nearby city where power plant workers live.
LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after Russian troops withdrew from the north and center of the country, the situation has been heating up in the southeast where Russian forces are building up for new powerful attacks.
In his nighttime video address to the nation Thursday, Zelenskyy said it was heartening for all Ukrainians to see Russian troops retreating from north of Kyiv, from around the northern town of Chernihiv and from Sumy in the northeast. By he urged Ukrainians not to let up, saying the withdrawal was just a Russian tactic.
Zelenskyy said he spoke Thursday with European Council President Charles Michel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while his adviser spoke with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
“We need more support from our partners right now when Russian troops are concentrating additional forces in certain areas,” Zelenskyy said.
WASHINGTON — The top-ranking Ukrainian Catholic cleric in the United States warned Thursday that religious minorities in the Eastern European country stand to be “crushed” if Moscow gains control, as fighting raged on more than a month after the Russian invasion began.
Archbishop Borys Gudziak said groups at risk include Catholics, Muslims and Orthodox who have broken away from the patriarch of Moscow.
Gudziak also cited reports that Russian forces have damaged two Holocaust memorials and Moscow’s false portrayal of Ukraine as a “Nazi” state although Ukraine overwhelmingly elected a Jewish president in Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“What is at stake for the people of faith is their freedom to practice their faith,” Gudziak said during an online panel discussion on the war, hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University.
Gudziak is head of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and president of Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine. He also oversees external relations for the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says an initial half-dozen shipments of weapons and other security assistance have reached Ukraine as part of the $800 million package of aid that President Joe Biden approved on March 16.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that the shipments included Javelin anti-tank weapons, Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, body armor, medical supplies and other material. He said the 100 Switchblade armed drones that Biden approved as part of the package have not yet been delivered.
Kirby said the $800 million in assistance is likely to be fully delivered within about two weeks. It also includes Mi-17 helicopters, small arms, ammunition, vehicles, secure communications systems, and satellite imagery and analysis capability.
Separately, Kirby said U.S. troops are not training Ukrainian troops in Poland but are acting as liaisons with Ukrainian personnel who cross the border into Poland to take possession of U.S. security assistance. He noted that the standard U.S. military training mission that had existed in Ukraine for years was suspended shortly before Russia invaded.
DOHA, Qatar — A video showing the head of Ukrainian soccer wearing an armored vest on the streets of Kyiv brought the impact of Russia’s war into the FIFA Congress.
Andriy Pavelko used a recorded message to the gathering in Qatar on Thursday to talk about the deaths of footballers even as the sport “has taken a back seat in our country.”
The gathering in Doha featured delegates from Russia, including Alexey Sorokin, the chief executive of Russia’s 2018 World Cup organizing committee.
Russia won’t be in the draw for the World Cup on Friday after being disqualified from playing internationally by FIFA over the war. Ukraine can still qualify but its playoff semifinal against Scotland has been postponed until June with the hope the team will be in a position to return to the field by then.
LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s ombudsperson says that at least one person has been killed and four others have been wounded in the Russian shelling of a humanitarian convoy.
Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova said those who came under the shelling on Thursday were volunteers accompanying a convoy of buses sent to the northern city of Chernihiv to evacuate residents.
She said that the Russian forces besieging Chernihiv have made it impossible to evacuate civilians from the city that has been cut from food, water and other supplies.
The Russian shelling continued two days after Moscow announced it would scale back military operations around Kyiv and Chernihiv.
BERLIN — The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has been informed by Ukraine that the Russian forces which were in control of the Chernobyl nuclear plant have “in writing, transferred control” of the facility to Ukrainian personnel.
Ukraine said three convoys of Russian forces have already left the site toward Belarus, while the remaining troops were presumed to be preparing to leave, the agency said Thursday.
The IAEA added that it was in close consultations with Ukrainian authorities on sending a first assistance and support mission to Chernobyl in the next few days.
The agency said it has not been able to confirm reports of Russian forces receiving high doses of radiation while being inside the exclusion zone of the now-closed plant, but is seeking further information in order to provide an independent assessment of the situation.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his offer to host a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders during a telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A statement from Erdogan’s office said the Turkish president also told Zelenskyy Thursday that a meeting between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators who met in Istanbul earlier this week had given “a meaningful impetus” to efforts to end the fighting.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s delegation laid out a framework under which the country would declare itself neutral and its security would be guaranteed by an array of nations, including Turkey.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a joint news conference with a top Turkish Cypriot official that Erdogan also is expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said there’s “no clear evidence” that Vladimir Putin is scaling back military operations around Kyiv and suggested that the Russian president may have ordered some of his advisers fired or placed under house arrest.
Biden told reporters that “there’s some indication” that Putin has taken those steps against some of his advisers. He added, “But I don’t want to put too much stock in that at this time because we don’t have that much hard evidence.”
The White House on Wednesday released unclassified intelligence findings that Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing.
The president made the comments after formally announcing that the U.S. would release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve in hopes of easing surging gasoline prices.
Biden also reiterated that his administration remains skeptical that Russia will scale back operations around Kyiv as Moscow announced earlier this week.
Russian forces continued to shell Kyiv suburbs Thursday, two days after the Kremlin announced it would significantly scale back operations near both the capital and the northern city of Chernihiv.
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine says the United Nations and its partners have delivered supplies for thousands of people in the country’s northeast but have been unable to reach some encircled cities in the south.
Osnat Lubrani said Thursday that food rations from the humanitarian organization People in Need and the U.N. World Food Program will benefit nearly 6,000 people in Sumy and areas including Trostianets and Okhtyrka.
In addition, she said, basic household items including blankets and kettles from the U.N. refugee agency will support 1,500 people and sanitation kits will help 6,000 people with hygiene and drinking water.
Lubrani said medical supplies and trauma kits from the U.N. World Health Organization will treat 150 patients needing intensive care for serious injuries while other medical supplies will support 10,000 people for three months.
Shei said the U.N.-facilitated humanitarian notification system with Ukraine and Russia enabled safe passage for the convoy to Sumy on Thursday “but this is clearly not enough.” Efforts over the past month to reach Mauripol, Kherson and other encircled cities in the south have been unsuccessful because of safety concerns.
BERLIN — The U.N. nuclear watchdog says its director-general has arrived in Russia’s Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad for talks with senior Russian officials.
The International Atomic Energy Agency didn’t specify in a tweet whom exactly Rafael Mariano Grossi will meet on Friday or give further details of his agenda.
He arrived in Kaliningrad Thursday following a visit to Ukraine, where he visited a nuclear power plant and conferred with the energy minister and other officials on efforts to ensure the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.
Ukraine has 15 active nuclear reactors at four plants -- one of which, at Zaporizhzhia, is under the Russian military’s control.
GENEVA — A team with the International Committee of the Red Cross has arrived in a Ukraine-held city where staff are preparing to take civilians out of the beleaguered port city of Mariupol.
Julien Lerisson, deputy director of operations for the ICRC, said Thursday that the team assembling in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, has medicines, food, water, hygiene items and other essentials.
He said the organization has high-level agreement for the mission but is focused on making sure “the order trickles down the chain of command,” allowing the team to enter and leave Mariupol safely.
The Russian military has said it committed to a cease-fire along the route from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian authorities have said 45 buses would be sent to collect citizens and provide resources to those who remain.
Lucile Marbeau, a staff member with the ICRC team hoping to enter Mariupol, said on Thursday: “We’re here because really, we hope to be able to facilitate safe passage for civilians desperately wanting to flee Mariupol.”
LONDON — Britain’s defense minister says Ukraine’s international allies have agreed to send more military equipment, including artillery ammunition and armored vehicles.
U.K. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace held a conference call Thursday with defense ministers from more than 35 countries, including the United States, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.
Wallace said that as a result “there will be more lethal aid going into Ukraine.” He said that would include “more long-range artillery, ammunition predominantly,” to help counter Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine’s cities.
Wallace said Ukraine was “also looking for armoured vehicles of some types, not tanks necessarily, but certainly protective vehicles.”
He said allies were also “looking to see what more we can do” to help Ukraine defend its coastline.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has sanctioned an employee of a state-affiliated Russian defense firm that developed malicious software that was used to target the energy sector.
The Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned Evgeny Viktorovich Gladkikh. He was one of four Russians charged in Justice Department indictments unsealed last week that alleged the hacking by Russia of critical infrastructure around the globe, including in the U.S. energy and aviation sectors.
Among the thousands of computers targeted in some 135 countries were of a Saudi petro-chemical plant where the hackers overrode safety controls.
That hack is singled out in a Treasury Department release announcing sanctions against Gladikh and several other employees of the research firm. In total, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that it was designating 21 entities and 13 individuals, including in the aerospace, marine and electronics sectors.
LVIV, Ukraine — Russian troops were leaving the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and heading towards Ukraine’s border with Belarus, the Ukrainian nuclear operator company said Thursday.
The operator, Energoatom, said that the Russian military was also preparing to leave Slavutych, a nearby city where power plant workers live.
Energoatom also said reports were confirmed that the Russians dug trenches in the Red Forest, the 10-square-kilometer (nearly four-square-mile) area surrounding the Chernobyl plant within the Exclusion Zone, and received “significant doses of radiation.”
The Russian troops “panicked at the first sign of illness,” which “showed up very quickly,” and began to prepare to leave, the operator said. The claim couldn’t be independently verified.
Energoatom said the Russians have signed a document confirming the handover of the Chernobyl plant and stating that the plant’s administration doesn’t have any complaints about the Russian troops who were “guarding” the facility.
LONDON — The head of Britain’s military says Russian President Vladimir Putin has “already lost” in Ukraine and is weaker than he was before the invasion.
Adm. Tony Radakin at a think-tank seminar Thursday in London said Moscow’s aim to “take the whole of Ukraine” fell apart. He added that the coming weeks “will continue to be very difficult” for Ukraine.
“But in many ways, Putin has already lost,” he said. “Far from being the far-sighted manipulator of events that he would have us believe, Putin has damaged himself through a series of catastrophic misjudgements.”
Radakin also said there was “disquiet” at all levels of Russia’s military about the campaign, from troops who were not told they were invading Ukraine up to senior commanders.
Western officials say Putin’s small inner circle is not giving him the true picture of the war, and his isolation may have contributed to miscalculating the strength of resistance Russian troops would meet.
BERLIN — The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe expressed regret Thursday at Russia’s decision to veto the extension of its observer mission in Ukraine.
The OSCE’s special monitoring mission has been present in Ukraine since 2014, when fighting between Ukrainians and Russia-backed separatists broke out in the country’s eastern regions after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, who holds the OSCE rotating chair, said the observers had played a “crucial role by providing objective information on the security and humanitarian situation on the ground and relentlessly working to ease the effects of the conflict on the civilian population” in Ukraine for the past eight year.
The Vienna-based body’s secretary general, Helga Maria Schmid, expressed gratitude to the mission’s members, several of whom were wounded or killed over the years.
BERLIN — Germany’s economy minister says Europe should impose additional sanctions on Russia to prevent what he described as a “barbaric” war in Ukraine.
Robert Habeck said he discussed what further measures could be taken with his French counterpart during a bilateral meeting in Berlin on Thursday.
“The last package (of sanctions) doesn’t need to be the final one, it should not be the final one,” he told reporters, adding that he and French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire had “identified additional points that could be included in a (sanctions) package.”
Habeck declined to elaborate on what those points might be.
Speaking ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on new rules requiring countries to pay for Russia’s natural gas sales in rubles, Habeck insisted that contracts would be adhered to. These stipulate payment in euros or dollars.
BERLIN — The Austrian and German leaders have underlined their rejection of a halt to Russian energy deliveries at this point.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer noted that several central and eastern European countries depend to one extent or another on Russian gas deliveries.
He and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz argued that existing sanctions already are having a significant effect and said they need time to switch to new providers and renewable energy sources.
Nehammer said that “sanctions only make sense … when they hit those they are supposed to hit, and don’t weaken those who carry out sanctions.”
ROME — A Kremlin decree says “unfriendly countries” can continue to pay for natural gas in foreign currency through a Russian bank that will convert the money into rubles.
The decree published Thursday by state media came a day after the leaders of Italy and Germany said they received assurances from President Vladimir Putin.
Putin talked tougher, saying Russia will start accepting ruble payments starting Friday for Western countries that imposed sanctions over its conflict with Ukraine. He said contracts will be stopped if buyers don’t sign up to the new conditions, including opening ruble accounts in Russian banks.
European leaders had rejected paying for deliveries in rubles, saying it would undermine sanctions imposed because of the war in Ukraine.
The decree Putin signed and published by state news agency RIA Novosti says a designated bank will open two accounts for each buyer, one in foreign currency and one in rubles. The buyers will pay in foreign currency and authorize the bank to sell that currency for rubles, which are placed in the second account, where the gas is formally purchased.
ROME — Italy’s leader is urging Europe to “cultivate all available land” as a partial remedy to reductions in agricultural imports, especially of Russian grain, due to the war in Ukraine.
Premier Mario Draghi told reporters on Thursday that under existing agricultural practices in the European Union 10% of land is purposely left fallow, but that must now change as European countries search for ways to reduce dependency on farm imports.
It’s not clear whether Ukraine, one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, maize and sunflower oil, might be able to salvage any of this planting season.
Meanwhile, Draghi noted that Western Europe will be looking to food producers like Canada, the United States and Argentina to help make up the shortfall of imports from Ukraine and Russia.
STOCKHOLM — The deputy director of Sweden’s Military Intelligence and Security agency says Russia has made “a strategic miscalculation when invading Ukraine.”
Daniel Olsson said the invasion of Ukraine “has shown that the Russian leadership is ready to take great risks, larger than previously taken.”
The government agency’s analysis suggested a likely “a western containment of Russia,” including reducing trade in Russian energy.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The owner of a downtown Los Angeles building where an explosion injured 12 firefighters has been allowed to enter a judicial diversion program that allows him to avoid jail time and potentially have all charges dismissed.
A court commissioner on Wednesday granted the diversion request for Steve Sungho Lee. He and his companies must pay more than $125,000 in investigative fees, make sure the property meets fire and building codes and arranging for Fire Department training.
Lee owned a commercial building on East Boyd Street in the city's Toy District that caught fire on May 16, 2020. Firefighters had to run for their lives when a ball of flames shot out the building and scorched a fire truck across the street.
Firefighters inside the building had to run through a wall of flames he estimated as 30 feet (9 meters) high and wide, and those on the roof scrambled down a ladder that was engulfed in fire.
Fire officials said the building was a warehouse for Smoke Tokes, a wholesale distributor of supplies for smoking and vaping products including butane hash oil, a concentrated cannabis extract that can be eaten, smoked or vaped. Highly flammable butane is used in the manufacturing process.
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Most of the injured firefighters still haven't returned to work and one, Capt. Victor Aguirre, was hospitalized for more than two months and all of his fingers had to be partially amputated, according to a lawsuit he filed against the building and business owners.
Aguirre alleged that the area contained “hundreds of illegally and improperly stored butane canisters and thousands of illegally and improperly stored nitrous oxide cylinders.”
A fire department report concluded that the blaze, which spread to a nearby building, was fueled by an “excessive quantity” of the containers.
Investigators from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives concluded that the fire started under a storage rack in the building and that a worker with a lit cigarette was seen in the area. The cause of the fire was ruled accidental.
However, city prosecutors filed more than 300 misdemeanor charges of violating fire and safety codes against Lee, his companies and owners of businesses in the building and nearby properties. That included more than 160 counts against Lee and his companies.
If Lee meets all conditions of his judicial diversion program for two years, the charges will be dismissed.
“Mr. Lee will be deemed by law to have never been charged," said his attorney, Blair Berk. “The exhaustive federal investigation of the tragic fire objectively concluded that the cause was accidental, and there was no finding of any wrongdoing by Mr. Lee or his companies.”
City Attorney Mike Feuer opposed diversion for Lee, noting the severity of the fire, the injuries suffered by the firefighters and Lee's alleged failure “to take steps which could have mitigated the extent of the blaze."
The owners of Smoke Tokes and another business, Green Buddha, agreed in November 2020 to pay $139,000 each to cover investigative costs and to move out of the building. Charges against them were later dismissed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oscars producer Will Packer said Los Angeles police were ready to arrest Will Smith after Smith slapped Chris Rock on the Academy Awards stage.
“They were saying, you know, this is battery, was a word they used in that moment," Packer said in a clip released by ABC News Thursday night of an interview he gave to “Good Morning America.” “They said we will go get him. We are prepared. We’re prepared to get him right now. You can press charges, we can arrest him. They were laying out the options.”
But Packer said Rock was “very dismissive” of the idea.
“He was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m fine,” Packer said. "And even to the point where I said, ‘Rock, let them finish.’ The LAPD officers finished laying out what his options were and they said, ‘Would you like us to take any action?’ And he said no.”
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The LAPD said in a statement after Sunday night's ceremony that they were aware of the incident, and that Rock had declined to file a police report. The department declined comment Thursday on Packer's interview, a longer version of which will air on Friday morning.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences met Wednesday to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Smith for violations against the group’s standards of conduct. Smith could be suspended, expelled or otherwise sanctioned.
The academy said in a statement that “Mr. Smith’s actions at the 94th Oscars were a deeply shocking, traumatic event to witness in-person and on television."
Without giving specifics, the academy said Smith was asked to leave the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre, but refused to do so.
Smith strode from his front row seat on to the stage and slapped Rock after a joke Rock made about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, when he was on stage to present the Oscar for best documentary.
On Monday, Smith issued an apology to Rock, the academy and to viewers, saying “I was out of line and I was wrong.”
The academy said Smith has the opportunity to defend himself in a written response before the board meets again on April 18.
Rock publicly addressed the incident for the first time, but only briefly, at the beginning of a standup show Wednesday night in Boston, where he was greeted by a thunderous standing ovation. He said “I’m still kind of processing what happened.”
Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/mental-health-awareness-breakfast-is-may-13/article_1af7758f-aef1-5ef2-adcb-af7361b69c3e.html
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WATERLOO -- UnityPoint Health–Black Hawk-Grundy Mental Health Center, in partnership with the Allen Foundation, will host a Mental Health Awareness Breakfast May 13.
The event is from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at Bien VenU Event Center in Cedar Falls. Proceeds will benefit mental health services in the Cedar Valley at a time when the center has seen significant increases in depression, grief, loss and other mental health conditions.
Keynote speaker is Susan Rolinger, the sister of Matthew Rolinger, who battled an addiction to methamphetamine before losing his life last year.
Tickets are $50 each or $350 for a table of eight. Corporate sponsorships are also available. Contact the Allen Foundation at (319) 274-6710 for more information, or visit unitypoint.org/breakfast to purchase tickets online and learn more about the event.
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https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/1-officer-killed-2-others-hurt-in-pennsylvania-shooting/article_9936515a-e8e9-5170-8793-c5f2a18acd40.html
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LEBANON, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania police officer was killed and two others injured Thursday during a shooting that occurred while responding to a domestic disturbance call, Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello said.
Police officers went to a home in the city at about 3:30 p.m. for the disturbance call. Nearly an hour later gunfire broke out and officers radioed in they were hit, Capello said at a brief news conference.
All three officers were taken to hospitals. One of them has been pronounced dead. A second was in critical condition, but stable, and a third was in stable condition, Capello said.
“This is an extremely difficult moment for everyone,” Capello said.
The suspect, a 34-year-old man from Lebanon, was killed in the shooting, Lebanon Police Chief Todd Breiner said.
“As one can imagine, it's clearly a traumatic event,” Breiner said. “Our guys are strong, but we're human and we have families.”
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Lebanon resident Angelo Gonzalez, 17, was working at a pizzeria down the road from the shooting when he said he saw “cop car after cop car flying down the street.”
“Then we heard something and weren’t sure what it was and the street filled up with cops and ambulance in a matter of 15 min,” Gonzalez said in a text message.
The slain officer's name is being withheld pending notification of extended family members.
Police did not release further details.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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March 25-31, 2022
This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published by Associated Press photographers in Asia and Pacific.
The gallery was curated by AP photo editor Shuji Kajiyama in Tokyo.
Follow AP visual journalism:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews
AP Images on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Images
AP Images blog: http://apimagesblog.com
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) — The nation’s oldest active park ranger is hanging up her Smokey hat at the age of 100.
Betty Reid Soskin retired Thursday after more than 15 years at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California, the National Park Service announced.
Soskin “spent her last day providing an interpretive program to the public and visiting with coworkers," a Park Service statement said.
She led tours at the park and museum honoring the women who worked in factories during wartime and shared her own experience as a Black woman during the conflict. She worked for the U.S. Air Force in 1942 but quit after learning that “she was employed only because her superiors believed she was white," according to a Park Service biography.
“Being a primary source in the sharing of that history – my history – and giving shape to a new national park has been exciting and fulfilling,” Soskin said in the Park Service statement. “It has proven to bring meaning to my final years.”
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Soskin won a temporary Park Service position at the age of 84 and became a permanent Park Service employee in 2011. She celebrated her 100th birthday last September.
“Betty has made a profound impact on the National Park Service and the way we carry out our mission,” Director Chuck Sams said. “Her efforts remind us that we must seek out and give space for all perspectives so that we can tell a more full and inclusive history of our nation.”
Soskin was born Betty Charbonnet in Detroit in 1921 but recalled surviving the devastating Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 while living with her Creole family in New Orleans, according to the Park Service biography.
Her family then moved to Oakland, California, and Soskin remained in the San Francisco Bay Area, where in 1945 she and her first husband founded one of the first Black-owned record stores in the area, the biography said.
She also was a civil rights activist and took part in meetings to develop a general management plan for the Home Front park. She has received several honors.
She was named California Woman of the Year in 1995.
In 2015, Soskin received a presidential coin from President Barack Obama after she lit the National Christmas tree at the White House.
In June 2016, she was awakened in her home by a robber who punched her repeatedly in the face, dragged her out of her bedroom and beat her before making off with the coin and other items. Soskin, then 94, recovered and returned to work just weeks after the attack. The coin was replaced.
Soskin also was honored with entry into the Congressional Record. Glamour Magazine named her woman of the year in 2018.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Russians leave Chernobyl site as fighting rages elsewhere
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops handed control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and left the heavily contaminated site early Friday, more than a month after taking it over, Ukrainian authorities said, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
Ukraine's state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received “significant doses" of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. But there was no independent confirmation of that.
The withdrawal took place amid growing indications the Kremlin is using talk of de-escalation in Ukraine as cover while regrouping, resupplying its forces and redeploying them for a stepped-up offensive in the eastern part of the country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian withdrawals from the north and center of the country were just a military tactic and that the forces are building up for new powerful attacks in the southeast.
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“We know their intentions,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation. “We know that they are moving away from those areas where we hit them in order to focus on other, very important ones where it may be difficult for us.”
Live updates | Ukrainian generals stripped of military rank
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he has stripped two generals of their military rank.
Zelenskyy said “something prevented them from determining where their homeland was” and they “violated their military oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people.”
According to Zelenskyy, one of the generals had headed internal security at the SBU, the main intelligence agency.
He said the other general had been the SBU head in the Kherson region, the first major city to fall to the Russians.
Zelenskyy didn’t say anything about the fates of the two generals other than them being stripped of their rank.
Trump's 8-hour gap: Minute-by-minute during Jan. 6 riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lot is known about the few hours that shook American democracy to the core. The defeated president’s incendiary speech, the march by an angry crowd to the U.S. Capitol, the breaking in, the beating of cops, the “hang Mike Pence” threats, the lawmakers running for their lives, the shooting death of rioter Ashli Babbitt. All of that chaos unfolded over about eight hours on one day: Jan. 6, 2021.
But for all that is known about the day, piecing together the words and actions of Donald Trump over that time has proved no easy task, even though a president's movements and communications are closely monitored.
There’s a gap in the official White House phone notations given to the House committee investigating Jan. 6 — from about 11 a.m. to about 7 p.m., according to two people familiar with the congressional investigation into the riot. Details may still turn up; the former president was known to use various cell phones and often bypassed the White House switchboard, placing calls directly.
And over the past four-plus months a lot has surfaced about what Trump did do and say on Jan. 6 — in texts, tweets, videos, calls and other conversations.
The following account is based on testimony, timelines and eyewitness reporting gathered by The Associated Press and The Washington Post and CBS News, and from officials and people familiar with the events who spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity.
Biden oil move aims to cut gas prices 'fairly significantly'
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve for six months, a bid to control energy prices that have spiked after the United States and allies imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The president said it was not known how much gasoline prices could decline as a result of his move, but he suggested it might be “anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon.” Gas is averaging about $4.23 a gallon, compared with $2.87 a year ago, according to AAA.
“The bottom line is if we want lower gas prices we need to have more oil supply right now,” Biden said. “This is a moment of consequence and peril for the world, and pain at the pump for American families.”
The president also wants Congress to impose financial penalties on oil and gas companies that lease public lands but are not producing. He said he will invoke the Defense Production Act to encourage the mining of critical minerals for batteries in electric vehicles, part of a broader push to shift toward cleaner energy sources and reduce the use of fossil fuels.
The actions show that oil remains a vulnerability for the U.S. Higher prices have hurt Biden’s approval domestically and added billions of oil-export dollars to the Russian government as it wages war on Ukraine.
Report: US military must do more to avoid civilian deaths
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military needs to adjust its planning, training, targeting and use of weapons in order to better avoid widespread civilian deaths and damage such as the devastating 2017 battle to liberate the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State militants, a new RAND report said Thursday.
The report requested by the Pentagon reflects criticism of the military's airstrike campaign that, according to some estimates, killed more than 1,600 civilians in Raqqa, as the U.S.-led coalition worked to destroy the Islamic State caliphate that wrested control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the report, which lays out a series of recommendations to improve military procedures and strategy, will be used as the department develops its own broader plan to reduce civlian harm.
“No other military works as hard as we do to mitigate civilian harm, and yet we still cause it,” said Kirby. ”We're going to continue to try to learn from past issues.”
RAND concluded that the battle for Raqqa provided important lessons.
Scientists finally finish decoding entire human genome
Scientists say they have finally assembled the full genetic blueprint for human life, adding the missing pieces to a puzzle nearly completed two decades ago.
An international team described the first-ever sequencing of a complete human genome – the set of instructions to build and sustain a human being – in research published Thursday in the journal Science. The previous effort, celebrated across the world, was incomplete because DNA sequencing technologies of the day weren't able to read certain parts of it. Even after updates, it was missing about 8% of the genome.
“Some of the genes that make us uniquely human were actually in this ‘dark matter of the genome’ and they were totally missed,” said Evan Eichler, a University of Washington researcher who participated in the current effort and the original Human Genome Project. “It took 20-plus years, but we finally got it done.”
Many — including Eichler's own students — thought it had been finished already. “I was teaching them, and they said, 'Wait a minute. Isn’t this like the sixth time you guys have declared victory? I said, ’No, this time we really, really did it!”
Scientists said this full picture of the genome will give humanity a greater understanding of our evolution and biology while also opening the door to medical discoveries in areas like aging, neurodegenerative conditions, cancer and heart disease.
Amazon staff reject union in Alabama, lean toward it in NYC
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon workers in Alabama appear to have rejected a union bid in a tight race, according to early results on Thursday. But outstanding challenged votes could change the outcome.
In New York, union supporters have the edge in a count that will continue Friday morning.
Warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, voted 993 to 875 against forming a union. The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees the election, said that 416 challenged votes could potentially overturn that result. A hearing to go through the challenged ballots will occur in the next few days.
Meanwhile, in a separate union election in Staten Island, New York, the nascent Amazon Labor Union is leading by more than 350 votes out of about 2,670 tallied.
The close election in Bessemer marks a sharp contrast to last year, when Amazon workers overwhelmingly rejected the union.
California reparations plan advances movement, advocates say
DETROIT (AP) — In the long debate over whether Black Americans should be granted reparations for the atrocity and injustices of slavery and racism, California took a big step this week toward becoming the first U.S. state to make some form of restitution a reality.
The state's reparations task force tackled the divisive issue of which Black residents should be eligible — it narrowly decided in favor of limiting compensation to the descendants of free and enslaved Black people who were in the U.S. in the 19th century.
Whether Tuesday's vote by the task force spurs other states and cities to advance their own proposals, and whether they adopt California’s still controversial standard for who would benefit, remains to be seen. Some veteran reparations advocates disagree strongly with proposals to limiting eligibility to only Black people who can prove they have enslaved ancestors, while excluding those who cannot and leaving out victims of other historic injustices, such as redlining and mass incarceration.
Still, one advocate noted California's move is a step that could lend momentum to stalled reparation proposals elsewhere in the U.S.
“It’s precipitated a debate and it will influence communities,” said Ron Daniels, president of The Institute of the Black World 21st Century and administrator of the National African American Reparations Commission, an advocacy group of scholars and activists.
Oscars producer says police offered to arrest Will Smith
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oscars producer Will Packer said Los Angeles police were ready to arrest Will Smith after Smith slapped Chris Rock on the Academy Awards stage.
“They were saying, you know, this is battery, was a word they used in that moment," Packer said in a clip released by ABC News Thursday night of an interview he gave to “Good Morning America.” “They said we will go get him. We are prepared. We’re prepared to get him right now. You can press charges, we can arrest him. They were laying out the options.”
But Packer said Rock was “very dismissive” of the idea.
“He was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m fine,” Packer said. "And even to the point where I said, ‘Rock, let them finish.’ The LAPD officers finished laying out what his options were and they said, ‘Would you like us to take any action?’ And he said no.”
The LAPD said in a statement after Sunday night's ceremony that they were aware of the incident, and that Rock had declined to file a police report. The department declined comment Thursday on Packer's interview, a longer version of which will air on Friday morning.
South Carolina's Aliyah Boston wins AP player of the year
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Aliyah Boston dominated women's college basketball on both ends of the court this season.
The junior forward helped South Carolina go wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team in the country, putting up an SEC-record 27 consecutive double-doubles, and she has helped put the Gamecocks two wins away from the program's second national championship.
Boston was honored as The Associated Press women's basketball player of the year on Thursday. She is the second player from South Carolina to be recognized with the award, joining former Gamecocks great A'ja Wilson.
“Not often do you get the complete package. I think this recognition is for what she was able to do on both sides of the ball,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “The player of the year is usually for offensive-minded people who think that when you put the ball in the hole, you should be bestowed the player of the year. She’s the full package. Every single day.”
Boston's parents and aunt as well as the entire South Carolina team were in the audience of the ceremony that also honored AP Coach of the Year Kim Mulkey.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Russians leave Chernobyl site as fighting rages elsewhere
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops handed control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and left the heavily contaminated site early Friday, more than a month after taking it over, Ukrainian authorities said, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
Ukraine's state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received “significant doses" of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. But there was no independent confirmation of that.
The withdrawal took place amid growing indications the Kremlin is using talk of de-escalation in Ukraine as cover while regrouping, resupplying its forces and redeploying them for a stepped-up offensive in the eastern part of the country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian withdrawals from the north and center of the country were just a military tactic and that the forces are building up for new powerful attacks in the southeast.
People are also reading…
“We know their intentions,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation. “We know that they are moving away from those areas where we hit them in order to focus on other, very important ones where it may be difficult for us.”
Live updates | Australia sending armored vehicles to Ukraine
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that his country will be sending armored Bushmaster vehicles to Ukraine to help in its war against Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy specifically asked for them during a video appeal to Australian lawmakers for more aid.
Zelenskyy addressed the Australian Parliament on Thursday and asked for the Australian-manufactured four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Morrison told reporters the vehicles will be flown over on Boeing C-17 Globemaster transport planes, but he didn’t specify how many Bushmaster vehicles would be sent or when.
“We’re not just sending our prayers, we are sending our guns, we’re sending our munitions, we’re sending our humanitarian aid, we’re sending all of this, our body armor, all of these things and we’re going to be sending our armored vehicles, our Bushmasters as well,” Morrison said.
Trump's 8-hour gap: Minute-by-minute during Jan. 6 riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lot is known about the few hours that shook American democracy to the core. The defeated president’s incendiary speech, the march by an angry crowd to the U.S. Capitol, the breaking in, the beating of cops, the “hang Mike Pence” threats, the lawmakers running for their lives, the shooting death of rioter Ashli Babbitt. All of that chaos unfolded over about eight hours on one day: Jan. 6, 2021.
But for all that is known about the day, piecing together the words and actions of Donald Trump over that time has proved no easy task, even though a president's movements and communications are closely monitored.
There’s a gap in the official White House phone notations given to the House committee investigating Jan. 6 — from about 11 a.m. to about 7 p.m., according to two people familiar with the congressional investigation into the riot. Details may still turn up; the former president was known to use various cell phones and often bypassed the White House switchboard, placing calls directly.
And over the past four-plus months a lot has surfaced about what Trump did do and say on Jan. 6 — in texts, tweets, videos, calls and other conversations.
The following account is based on testimony, timelines and eyewitness reporting gathered by The Associated Press and The Washington Post and CBS News, and from officials and people familiar with the events who spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity.
Biden oil move aims to cut gas prices 'fairly significantly'
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve for six months, a bid to control energy prices that have spiked after the United States and allies imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The president said it was not known how much gasoline prices could decline as a result of his move, but he suggested it might be “anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon.” Gas is averaging about $4.23 a gallon, compared with $2.87 a year ago, according to AAA.
“The bottom line is if we want lower gas prices we need to have more oil supply right now,” Biden said. “This is a moment of consequence and peril for the world, and pain at the pump for American families.”
The president also wants Congress to impose financial penalties on oil and gas companies that lease public lands but are not producing. He said he will invoke the Defense Production Act to encourage the mining of critical minerals for batteries in electric vehicles, part of a broader push to shift toward cleaner energy sources and reduce the use of fossil fuels.
The actions show that oil remains a vulnerability for the U.S. Higher prices have hurt Biden’s approval domestically and added billions of oil-export dollars to the Russian government as it wages war on Ukraine.
Report: US military must do more to avoid civilian deaths
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military needs to adjust its planning, training, targeting and use of weapons in order to better avoid widespread civilian deaths and damage such as the devastating 2017 battle to liberate the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State militants, a new RAND report said Thursday.
The report requested by the Pentagon reflects criticism of the military's airstrike campaign that, according to some estimates, killed more than 1,600 civilians in Raqqa, as the U.S.-led coalition worked to destroy the Islamic State caliphate that wrested control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the report, which lays out a series of recommendations to improve military procedures and strategy, will be used as the department develops its own broader plan to reduce civlian harm.
“No other military works as hard as we do to mitigate civilian harm, and yet we still cause it,” said Kirby. ”We're going to continue to try to learn from past issues.”
RAND concluded that the battle for Raqqa provided important lessons.
Scientists finally finish decoding entire human genome
Scientists say they have finally assembled the full genetic blueprint for human life, adding the missing pieces to a puzzle nearly completed two decades ago.
An international team described the first-ever sequencing of a complete human genome – the set of instructions to build and sustain a human being – in research published Thursday in the journal Science. The previous effort, celebrated across the world, was incomplete because DNA sequencing technologies of the day weren't able to read certain parts of it. Even after updates, it was missing about 8% of the genome.
“Some of the genes that make us uniquely human were actually in this ‘dark matter of the genome’ and they were totally missed,” said Evan Eichler, a University of Washington researcher who participated in the current effort and the original Human Genome Project. “It took 20-plus years, but we finally got it done.”
Many — including Eichler's own students — thought it had been finished already. “I was teaching them, and they said, 'Wait a minute. Isn’t this like the sixth time you guys have declared victory? I said, ’No, this time we really, really did it!”
Scientists said this full picture of the genome will give humanity a greater understanding of our evolution and biology while also opening the door to medical discoveries in areas like aging, neurodegenerative conditions, cancer and heart disease.
Amazon staff reject union in Alabama, lean toward it in NYC
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon workers in Alabama appear to have rejected a union bid in a tight race, according to early results on Thursday. But outstanding challenged votes could change the outcome.
In New York, union supporters have the edge in a count that will continue Friday morning.
Warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, voted 993 to 875 against forming a union. The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees the election, said that 416 challenged votes could potentially overturn that result. A hearing to go through the challenged ballots will occur in the next few days.
Meanwhile, in a separate union election in Staten Island, New York, the nascent Amazon Labor Union is leading by more than 350 votes out of about 2,670 tallied.
The close election in Bessemer marks a sharp contrast to last year, when Amazon workers overwhelmingly rejected the union.
California reparations plan advances movement, advocates say
DETROIT (AP) — In the long debate over whether Black Americans should be granted reparations for the atrocity and injustices of slavery and racism, California took a big step this week toward becoming the first U.S. state to make some form of restitution a reality.
The state's reparations task force tackled the divisive issue of which Black residents should be eligible — it narrowly decided in favor of limiting compensation to the descendants of free and enslaved Black people who were in the U.S. in the 19th century.
Whether Tuesday's vote by the task force spurs other states and cities to advance their own proposals, and whether they adopt California’s still controversial standard for who would benefit, remains to be seen. Some veteran reparations advocates disagree strongly with proposals to limiting eligibility to only Black people who can prove they have enslaved ancestors, while excluding those who cannot and leaving out victims of other historic injustices, such as redlining and mass incarceration.
Still, one advocate noted California's move is a step that could lend momentum to stalled reparation proposals elsewhere in the U.S.
“It’s precipitated a debate and it will influence communities,” said Ron Daniels, president of The Institute of the Black World 21st Century and administrator of the National African American Reparations Commission, an advocacy group of scholars and activists.
Oscars producer says police offered to arrest Will Smith
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oscars producer Will Packer said Los Angeles police were ready to arrest Will Smith after Smith slapped Chris Rock on the Academy Awards stage.
“They were saying, you know, this is battery, was a word they used in that moment," Packer said in a clip released by ABC News Thursday night of an interview he gave to “Good Morning America.” “They said we will go get him. We are prepared. We’re prepared to get him right now. You can press charges, we can arrest him. They were laying out the options.”
But Packer said Rock was “very dismissive” of the idea.
“He was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m fine,” Packer said. "And even to the point where I said, ‘Rock, let them finish.’ The LAPD officers finished laying out what his options were and they said, ‘Would you like us to take any action?’ And he said no.”
The LAPD said in a statement after Sunday night's ceremony that they were aware of the incident, and that Rock had declined to file a police report. The department declined comment Thursday on Packer's interview, a longer version of which will air on Friday morning.
South Carolina's Aliyah Boston wins AP player of the year
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Aliyah Boston dominated women's college basketball on both ends of the court this season.
The junior forward helped South Carolina go wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team in the country, putting up an SEC-record 27 consecutive double-doubles, and she has helped put the Gamecocks two wins away from the program's second national championship.
Boston was honored as The Associated Press women's basketball player of the year on Thursday. She is the second player from South Carolina to be recognized with the award, joining former Gamecocks great A'ja Wilson.
“Not often do you get the complete package. I think this recognition is for what she was able to do on both sides of the ball,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “The player of the year is usually for offensive-minded people who think that when you put the ball in the hole, you should be bestowed the player of the year. She’s the full package. Every single day.”
Boston's parents and aunt as well as the entire South Carolina team were in the audience of the ceremony that also honored AP Coach of the Year Kim Mulkey.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — When Texas Gov. Greg Abbott put in motion abuse investigations into the parents of some transgender kids, child welfare supervisor Randa Mulanax said what happened next strayed from normal protocols.
There was unusual secrecy, with texts and emails discouraged. Allegations about trans kids received elevated status. In Texas, fewer than three in 10 child welfare investigations end with findings that harm likely occurred — classified as “reason to believe” — but the changes looked to Mulanax like these cases would be predetermined from the start.
“It was my understanding that they wanted to be found ‘reason to believe,'” Mulanax told The Associated Press in her first interview since leaving the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, where she worked for six years until quitting last month. “That’s why we were having to figure out a way to staff it up and see how we go about it, since it doesn’t match our policy right now."
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As early as Friday, the Texas Supreme Court could decide whether the state can resume at least nine investigations into the parents of transgender children. They are the first to fall on the radar of child welfare authorities since Texas' Republican governor in February directed the state to begin handling reports of gender-confirming care for kids as child abuse — the first such order issued in the U.S.
The court fight in Texas comes as Republicans across the country are leaning into policies aimed at transgender Americans, most prominently through bans on transgender athletes on girls sports teams. But Texas is the only state where a GOP governor has greenlighted abuse cases against the parents of transgender children, which several current and departing Texas child welfare workers say was rushed into action and has sunk already low morale at their troubled state agency even deeper.
It is unclear how many Texas child welfare investigators — who are tasked with carrying out Abbott's directive — have quit in protest. Mulanax is one of at least two state Child Protective Services workers who are leaving and added their names this week to a court brief that urged Texas' justices to keep the investigations sidelined. Five other investigators who remain at the agency also signed on.
Abbott's instructions to Texas child welfare officials takes aim at treatments for children that include puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, declined comment Thursday, citing the ongoing lawsuit.
“We’re being so closely monitored on those type of cases that you wouldn’t be able to just say, ‘Oh, nothing to see,’" said Shelby McCowen, a child welfare investigator who called the directive the ‘last straw’ and is quitting after less than a year at the agency.
Texas completed more than 157,000 child welfare investigations in the last fiscal year, according to state data. McCowen said the cases involving parents of transgender families were drawing the same attention as child death investigations, and like Mulanax, said instructions were given not to discuss the cases through state emails or phones — only on personal devices, or face-to-face.
The cases were to be referred to as “special assignments” rather than using a case name or number, according to McCowen. She said upper managers told investigators a survey would be sent out internally to address questions about the directive, but none ever arrived.
“I don’t know how many times they go into the cases, but we’re told that if we get one of these cases, the documentation has to be almost instant because it’s being monitored," she said.
Abbott’s directive goes against the nation’s largest medical groups, including the American Medical Association, which have opposed Republican-backed restrictions filed in statehouses nationwide. On Thursday, President Joe Biden marked Transgender Day of Visibility by denouncing such legislation, saying “the onslaught of anti-transgender state laws attacking you and your families is simply wrong.”
In pressing that the investigations in Texas be allowed to continue, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office wrote that “if DFPS cannot investigate possible child abuse, children may be harmed — perhaps irreversibly — in the interim.”
Mulanax said if the investigations were to resume, she considers it unlikely that any children would be removed from their homes around Texas' biggest cities, which are controlled by Democrats and where some county officials have already said they would reject such cases.
But in the event of a finding of harm, Mulanax said, putting in place what are usually other safety plans don't make sense to her either. She said those options typically include required parental supervision or services such as therapy, which Mulanax said some of the families might already be doing.
“It was just a complete betrayal of the department,” she said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/labor-groups-close-in-on-amazon-in-two-tight-union-elections/article_714bb7f8-7904-5e13-a857-a550b183de9f.html
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NEW YORK (AP) — Labor organizers always knew it would be tough to convince Amazon workers to unionize. But a surprisingly strong early showing in a New York election and a still-uncertain outcome in an Alabama election are giving them hope.
In Staten Island, New York, 1,518 warehouse workers have so far voted “yes” to forming a union while 1,154 have voted “no,” according to an early tally Thursday evening by the National Labor Relations Board, which is overseeing both elections. Ballots will continue to be counted Friday morning.
Meanwhile, Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, appear to have rejected a union bid but outstanding challenged ballots could change the outcome. The votes were 993-to-875 against the union. A hearing to review 416 challenged ballots is expected to begin in the next few days.
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If a majority of Amazon workers ultimately votes yes in either Staten Island or Bessemer, it would mark the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the company’s history. Organizers have faced an uphill battle against the nation’s second-largest private employer, which is making every effort to keep unions out.
John Logan, director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University, said the early vote counts in New York have been “shocking.” The nascent Amazon Labor Union, which is leading the charge on Staten Island, has no backing from an established union and is powered by former and current warehouse workers.
“I don’t think that many people thought that the Amazon Labor Union had much of a chance of winning at all,” Logan said. “And I think we’re likely to see more of those (approaches) going forward.”
After a crushing defeat last year in Bessemer, when a majority of workers voted against forming a union, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union got a second chance to organize another campaign when the NLRB ordered a do-over after determining that Amazon tainted the first election.
Though RWDSU is currently lagging in the latest election, Logan said the early results were still remarkable because the union has made a good effort narrowing its margin from last year.
Stuart Appelbaum, president of the RWDSU, said on Thursday that the union would be filing objections to how Amazon handled the election in Bessemer but declined to specify. He also took the opportunity to lash out at current labor laws, which he believes are rigged against unions and favor corporations.
“It should not be so difficult to organize a union in the United States," he said.
Chris Smalls, a fired Amazon employee who has been leading the ALU in its fight on Staten Island, remains hopeful of victory.
“To be leading in Day One and be up a couple hundred against a trillion dollar company, this is the best feeling in the world,” Smalls said after the conclusion of Thursday’s counting.
While Smalls’ attention has been focused on securing victory in New York, the efforts in Alabama also weighed heavily.
“I’m not too sure what’s going in Alabama right now, but I know that the sky’s the limit if you can organize any warehouse,” he said, noting that the vote in Alabama could well end up differently. “I hope that they’re successful. I don’t know what’s going on yet, but we know we show our support and solidarity with them.”
Amazon has pushed back hard in the lead-up to both elections. The retail giant held mandatory meetings, where workers were told unions are a bad idea. The company also launched an anti-union website targeting workers and placed English and Spanish posters across the Staten Island facility urging them to reject the union. In Bessemer, Amazon has made some changes to but still kept a controversial U.S. Postal Service mailbox that was key in the NLRB’s decision to invalidate last year’s vote.
In a filing released on Thursday, Amazon disclosed it spent about $4.2 million last year on labor consultants, which organizers say the retailer routinely solicits to persuade workers not to unionize. It’s unclear how much it spent on such services in 2022.
Both labor fights faced unique challenges. Alabama, for instance, is a right-to-work state that prohibits a company and a union from signing a contract that requires workers to pay dues to the union that represents them.
The mostly Black workforce at the Amazon facility, which opened in 2020, mirrors the Bessemer population of more than 70% Black residents, according to the latest U.S. Census data.
Pro-union workers say they want better working conditions, longer breaks and higher wages. Regular full-time employees at the Bessemer facility earn at least $15.80 an hour, higher than the estimated $14.55 per hour on average in the city. That figure is based on an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual median household income for Bessemer of $30,284, which could include more than one worker.
The ALU said they don’t have a demographic breakdown of the warehouse workers on Staten Island and Amazon declined to provide the information to The Associated Press, citing the union vote. Internal records leaked to The New York Times from 2019 showed more than 60% of the hourly associates at the facility were Black or Latino, while most of managers were white or Asian.
Amazon workers there are seeking longer breaks, paid time off for injured employees and an hourly wage of $30, up from a minimum of just over $18 per hour offered by the company. The estimated average wage for the borough is $41 per hour, according to a similar U.S. Census Bureau analysis of Staten Island’s $85,381 median household income.
A spokesperson for Amazon said the company invests in wages and benefits, such as health care, 401(k) plans and a prepaid college tuition program to help grow workers’ careers.
“As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”
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Associated Press staff writers Tali Arbel and Bobby Caina Calvan in New York contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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A jury has awarded $504,000 to a one-legged San Francisco jail inmate who was taken from his wheelchair and forced to hop to a cell.
The federal jury awarded damages on Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by Vincent Bell against the city.
Bell, 40, was one of six people charged with taking part in the 2012 murder of a man who was beaten and shot. He's accused of providing the gun used by the alleged shooter and is awaiting trial.
Bell, who had one leg surgically removed, was being held at the jail in January 2018 when he was ordered moved to a smaller, padded “safety cell" because a guard said he had cursed her and was dangerous.
Guards said Bell resisted and put pads on his cell door to block them from entering. But a federal judge who refused to dismiss his suit last year said a video showed him waiting quietly in his wheelchair when they arrived, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
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Bell was taken out of his wheelchair, handcuffed and told to hop to the cell 64 feet (19.5 meters) away. He fell on the way and was carried face-down to the cell, where he was stripped and held for 20 hours, the judge said.
The jury found that a guard, sheriff's Sgt. Yvette Williams, used excessive force and that the Sheriff's Office violated Bell's rights under federal disability laws by failing to properly train its staff.
The verdict should send the city “a very clear message ... that it must accommodate persons with disabilities and that deputies do not get to supplant their personal judgment for the judgment of medical professionals in the jail,” EmilyRose Johns, a lawyer for Bell, told the Chronicle on Thursday.
The city attorney's office remains “adamant that the sheriff's deputies acted reasonably and appropriately when placing and transporting" Bell, who had a history of hiding weapons in his wheelchair, spokesperson Jen Kwart said.
Bell was charged in connection with the December 2012 death of Stephen Reid, 26, who had recently arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area from Georgia.
Prosecutors said Bell, another man and two women stormed into a home on San Bruno Avenue and beat, gagged and hog-tied Reid and an 18-year-old woman, then put them in an SUV where Reid was shot before dumping both on a street. Reid died at a hospital. Authorities say the victims knew their alleged attackers.
Four people pleaded guilty to various charges in the case. The alleged shooter, Montrail Brackens of Oakland, has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/pennsylvania-policeman-killed-2-officers-hurt-in-shooting/article_9936515a-e8e9-5170-8793-c5f2a18acd40.html
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LEBANON, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania police officer was killed and two officers were injured Thursday during a shooting while responding to a domestic disturbance, Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello said.
Police went to a home in the city at about 3:30 p.m. for the disturbance call. Nearly an hour later gunfire broke out and officers radioed they were hit, Capello said at a brief news conference.
All three Lebanon City Police Department officers were taken to hospitals. One of them has been pronounced dead. A second was in critical condition, but stable, and a third was in stable condition, Capello said.
“This is an extremely difficult moment for everyone,” Capello said.
The suspect, a 34-year-old man from Lebanon, was killed in the shooting, Lebanon Police Chief Todd Breiner said.
“As one can imagine, it's clearly a traumatic event,” Breiner said. “Our guys are strong, but we're human and we have families.”
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Lebanon resident Angelo Gonzalez, 17, was working at a pizzeria down the road from the shooting when he said he saw “cop car after cop car flying down the street.”
“Then we heard something and weren’t sure what it was and the street filled up with cops and ambulance in a matter of 15 min,” Gonzalez said in a text message.
The slain officer's name is being withheld pending notification of extended family members.
Police did not release further details.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://wcfcourier.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/another-solid-month-of-us-hiring-expected-despite-obstacles/article_5f84c9c7-76a6-5181-a652-04a007cf8efe.html
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Defying a pandemic and supply chain disruptions, the U.S. economy has cranked out more than 400,000 jobs every month for nearly a year — a blazing winning streak in wildly uncertain times.
And despite surging inflation, the hiring wave likely continued last month in the face of yet another jolt: Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has unsettled the economic outlook and catapulted gasoline prices to painful levels.
Economists surveyed by the data firm FactSet expect the Labor Department’s jobs report for March to show that employers added 478,000 jobs and that the unemployment rate dipped from 3.8% to 3.7%. That would mark the lowest unemployment rate since just before the pandemic struck two years ago, when joblessness reached a 50-year low of 3.5%.
The government will issue the March jobs report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Friday.
“With the war in Ukraine, economic uncertainty rising and surging energy prices, we may see a modest slowdown in hiring in March,’’ said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at the jobs website Glassdoor. “However, employer demand remains strong, which should sustain a healthy level of hiring.''
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The booming U.S. job market reflects a robust rebound from the brief but devastating coronavirus recession, which wiped out 22 million jobs in March and April 2020 as businesses shut down or cut hours and Americans stayed home to avoid infection.
But the recovery has been swift. Fueled by generous federal aid, savings amassed during the pandemic and ultra-low borrowing rates engineered by the Federal Reserve, U.S. consumers have spent so fast that many factories, warehouses, shipping companies and ports have failed to keep pace with their customer demand. Supply chains have snarled, forcing up prices.
As the pandemic has eased, consumers have been broadening their spending beyond goods to services, such as health care, travel and entertainment, which they had long avoided during the worst of the pandemic. The result: Inflation is running at 40-year highs, causing hardships for many lower-income households that face sharp increases for such necessities as food, gasoline and rent.
It’s unclear whether the economy can maintain its momentum of the past year. The government relief checks are gone. The Fed raised its benchmark short-term interest rate two weeks ago and will likely keep raising it well into next year. Those rate hikes will result in more expensive loans for many consumers and businesses.
Inflation has also eroded consumers’ spending power: Hourly pay, adjusted for higher consumer prices, fell 2.6% in February from a year earlier — the 11th straight month in which inflation has outpaced year-over-year wage growth. According to AAA, average gasoline prices, at $4.23 a gallon, are up a dizzying 47% from a year ago.
Squeezed by inflation, some consumers are paring their spending. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that consumer spending rose just 0.2%% in February — and fell 0.4% when adjusted for inflation — down from a 2.7% increase in January.
Still, the job market has kept hurtling ahead. Employers posted a near-record 11.3 million positions in February. Nearly 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs, a sign of confidence that they could find something better.
“We’re still seeing a very tight labor market,’’ said Karen Fichuk, CEO of the staffing company Randstad North America, who noted that the United States now has a record 1.7 job openings for every unemployed person.
Even so, so many jobs were lost in 2020 that the economy still remains more than 2 million shy of the number it had just before the pandemic struck. Over the past year, employers have added an average of 556,000 jobs a month. At that pace — no guarantee to continue — the nation would recover all the jobs lost to the pandemic by June. (That still wouldn't include all the additional hiring that would have been done over the past two years under normal circumstances.)
Brighter job prospects are beginning to draw back into the labor force people who had remained on the sidelines because of health concerns, difficulty finding or affording daycare, generous unemployment benefits that have now expired or other reasons.
Over the past year, 3.6 million people have joined the U.S. labor force, meaning they now either have a job or are looking for one. But their ranks are still nearly 600,000 short of where they stood in February 2020, just before the pandemic slammed into the economy.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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