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Guatemala City airport closed as abrasive volcanic ash coats planes

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-23/guatemala-city-airport-closed-as-volcanic-ash-coats-planes

A shift in wind blew ash from an eruption at the Pacaya volcano over Guatemala City on Tuesday, and authorities closed the airport as ash coated runways and parked planes. The 8,373-foot volcano, just 30 miles south of Guatemala’s capital, has been active since early February. Civil Aviation Director Francis Argueta did not say how long the closure would last. Volcanic ash is highly abrasive and can damage airplane engines and other mechanical devices. Tourists frequently hike up to visit Pacaya’s peak, but those trips have been temporarily canceled. Pacaya has a clear view of the nearby Volcano of Fire, which erupted in 2018, emitting a fast-moving avalanche of lava that killed at least 110 people and left about 200 missing. Pacaya had an explosive blast in 2010 that killed a reporter and two local people.

After the scars of 'Fresh Off the Boat,' Eddie Huang took control on 'Boogie'

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-03-23/eddie-huang-boogie-fresh-off-the-boat

Eddie Huang, the author, restaurateur and TV host whose memoir chronicling life as an immigrant kid in the ’90s was adapted into the hit ABC sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat,” would’ve taken the fast lane to moviemaking had such a path existed. Instead, after minoring in film in college and hustling in and out of careers in law, streetwear and assorted other pursuits, he started knocking down walls his way. “It was never a viable thing to tell Asian American stories until I broke through with [the Taiwanese bun shop] Baohaus,” said Huang, 39, who makes his feature directorial debut with the recent release “Boogie,” the New York City-set tale of a Chinese American hoop star with NBA dreams. “You can’t walk in with an Asian American memoir or movie. No one believes in it, no one wants to do it — but they do believe that we’re good at cooking and kung fu.” He started telling the story of his own cultural roots by serving up Taiwanese bao to hungry New Yorkers, “but the goal was always to leverage the success and intention into film in some way.” Huang’s 2013 book, “Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir” — loosely adapted into a historic ABC sitcom that debuted in 2015 and that starred Hudson Yang as a young Eddie, with Randall Park and Constance Wu as his parents — opened a new door. “People came to me for recipe books and I was like, ‘I don’t want to write a recipe book. I don’t even have an interest in being a chef,’” said Huang. “I did it because that was the only place I felt as an Asian American you could tell your story without somebody standing over you.” “Boogie,” written during a time of self-doubt after a public split with the network show, a self-described heartbreak and behind-the-scenes friction on his Vice travel series “Huang’s World,” tells the coming-of-age story of Alfred “Boogie” Chin (played by newcomer Taylor Takahashi), a high school basketball phenom struggling to chart his own destiny amid a volatile home life, a romance with a classmate (Taylour Paige) and the often-conflicting pressures of his bicultural identity. It wasn’t easy for Huang to push his writing and feature directing debut to the finish line. Only weeks before filming began, he persuaded producers to cast Takahashi, his assistant at the time, as the lead in the movie. When another actor dropped out during production, rising rapper Bashar “Pop Smoke” Jackson nailed an on-the-court audition and came aboard to play Boogie’s rival Monk just four months before Jackson’s death at age 20. Like Takahashi, Jackson had no previous acting experience, but the two brought authentic emotion to a world seldom depicted onscreen, said Huang, whose next focus is a slate of film and television projects “telling stories from the margins” through his production company, Color Correct. “I hope that other people are inspired to do that so we don’t see the same faces all the time and give people a chance.” Huang spoke via video chat ahead of the release of “Boogie,” which is now in theaters and will be available on PVOD on Friday. This conversation also took place before the Atlanta-area shootings on March 16 that left eight people dead, mostly Asian women, increasing the national conversation about violence against Asian Americans. I always felt like one of the best ways to get to know people was to watch them play basketball... — Eddie Huang “Boogie” is fictional but contains shades of your own experiences. What made you want to tell this story about a basketball player and his relationships? I always felt like one of the best ways to get to know people was to watch them play basketball, so basketball has always been this thing within which I’ve studied humanity. Even when I wasn’t getting along with my father, basketball was something we could do. I would never really yell back at my dad. I never raised my hand back to my dad despite a lot of crazy stuff going on in my house. But I could take it out on him playing basketball. I couldn’t beat him until I was 18, and he still remembers it: It’s one of his best and also worst memories. I didn’t go to class much in college; I would just play ball, then I came home and I washed up my dad. I remember beating him and just leaving the ball on the floor and walking away. I think he could tell I was really mad at him for a long time, and because of Asian values and respect and the things that I respect and believe in, I was never going to raise a hand to him. But if I had a chance to beat him at something, I was going to do it and do it pretty mercilessly. And that was our relationship. A pretty loaded game of one-on-one. Yeah! I remember a bartender at a bar once when I was 12 or 13, my dad went to the bathroom and he was like, “It’s interesting: Whoever your dad says he likes, you cheer against them.” That’s also part of the reason people are like, “You’re from Orlando. You’re not a Magic fan?” My dad was a rabid Magic fan. So I chose the Knicks. If you can tell a lot about a person by the way they play, what kind of player are you on the court? I’m gonna go with Taylor Takahashi’s description: I’m a high-IQ player and very unselfish on offense. ... I’m our enforcer. I’m the smallest guy on the floor, but I’m the toughest one. If another team is picking on us or pushing us around, I’m usually the first one to push them back. That’s just me. I don’t like being picked on, and as an Asian playing basketball, people always come for you first. You started writing this five years ago, in 2016. Where were you at in life that Boogie was the character that materialized out of your experiences and your imagination? When I was writing “Fresh Off the Boat” [the memoir], I was much more brash and extremely confident — it was like, “Nothing’s going to stop me,” and that’s kind of what got me here. But my experience on “Fresh Off the Boat” [the television series] really beat me down, Hollywood beat me down, and even “Huang’s World”…when Vice became a TV channel, there was a lot of friction and politics with taking this beautiful thing that was very real and honest and insane on the internet without the pressure of making television. There were executives from goofy shows coming in, telling us what to do, and I was probably the most vocal person, per usual, about it. I got arrested shooting our Sicily episode, which ended up being one of our best episodes, but when we were in jail, the producer of that episode wanted us to give up the footage. I was like, “I refuse.” And the rest of the crew agreed with me. That was the chasm between the new guys coming into Vice and the old ones. I remember crying at work ... and I went home that day and I started writing “Boogie.” — Eddie Huang We had a bit of a mutiny. Once we got out of jail, we were like, “We don’t want to work with this producer anymore.” I took over the shoot, but I got home and I was suspended. I thought I lost that show, and that show really meant the world to me. It meant more to me than “Fresh Off the Boat” ever did. I remember crying at work. ... And I went home that day and I started writing “Boogie.” I think Boogie is a much more complex and interesting character, because I wrote it in that moment of sadness and questioning myself, not so confident that I was actually going to bounce back. I think a lot of those emotions are in the film. What were you questioning at that time? I was questioning if I’d ever get the boulder up the mountain. If I was ever going to get to tell this Asian American immigrant story in the medium of film or television and have it be as real and truthful and genuine as “Fresh Off the Boat” [the memoir] or as Baohaus was. It felt like this chasm I could not close. You fight for something for so long and you get so close and it gets taken away, or you feel hoodwinked like I did on “Fresh Off the Boat” [the TV series], and it just wears on you. I think I finally learned to be more vulnerable. I was able to tell people, “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get this done.” And I think that humanity I found in myself really changed me and the way I tell stories. Most people don’t experience those kinds of revelations as publicly as you have. How do you reflect on how you have changed over the years? As an immigrant in this country, especially as an Asian man, we’re pretty emasculated. You want to be tough, and you don’t want to show weakness. So I think when you see Baohaus and “Fresh Off the Boat” [the memoir], it’s very defiant. It’s very, “I’m gonna run through that wall.” Because we don’t get to make stuff and still be vulnerable and be weaker, you know? Criterion’s filled with stories of white people that get to be weak and tell their story, but we’ve pretty much got “Minari.” When you say weak, do you mean emotionally vulnerable? Yeah, emotionally vulnerable. I think I was always like, “Nah, block it out. You’ve got to run through that wall.” And a lot of people I looked up to were like that too, they kept that toughness up. I had a heartbreak. A relationship went wrong around the same time. Everything in my life crashed down in that period around 2015, and I realized it wasn’t about pushing the boulder up the mountain or winning or accomplishing this stuff. It was about being in my actual feelings and being honest with myself about how I felt. “I don’t care if this gets made or doesn’t get made, f— it, I’m just going to write how I actually feel.” I think I learned to tap into that vulnerability. It was a big change. What were the challenges of getting this movie made? Not just to bring Focus on board but to get your first film as a writer and director greenlighted? Focus believed in it from the beginning. They were the only ones that believed in it. We went all around town. Nobody raised their hand. Everyone was like, “We’re interested in you. We love what you did with ‘Fresh Off the Boat.’ This feels a little less easy.” It was like, “You want to come back with something with an all-Asian cast? You want to give Awkwafina a call?” Nobody wanted this. I fought to get somebody to sign onto this, but once I was at Focus, there wasn’t that much fighting. I do a lot of explaining about my culture and a lot of explaining about downtown New York culture, or Black or Latino culture, and I end up having to explain stuff. But that’s part of the job, and I accept that. And to be honest, I don’t complain about that. That is my journey and that is my experience. I had a lot of good partners at Focus who wanted to understand my journey and wanted to get in my head, and once I allowed them into my head and I wasn’t scared of explaining, things really took off. Let’s talk about cultural specificity. Boogie is written as a Chinese Taiwanese American kid. How important was it to portray this specific identity in the story? It’s important so people know that these customs and the way we do things is not just Asian American, it’s specific to Chinese Taiwanese people. Taylor’s Japanese, but he was my assistant for eight months and he picked up a lot of those values and customs, because if you come to my house, we’re going to do it my way. He lived with me for a while, and he’s seen how I do things, like pouring the tea [for elders]. He was around when I would cook for my parents. So he knew it and he was able to represent that. It’s like how Bruce Lee was able to teach Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Chinese culture and kung fu. I was able to teach our specific stuff to Taylor, and Taylor was able to represent that, and I thought that was very beautiful. Before casting Taylor, did you try to cast the character of Boogie authentically? I think I did cast authentically. I’m going to honestly say that. I did. There’s also a part of me that is uniquely my value system and culture that I formulated in America that’s very inspired and influenced by participating in Black culture and Latino culture and Caribbean culture and people I grew up with. And Taylor lives that life as well, because so many of his friends he knows from playing basketball in Oakland. We saw a lot of the Taiwanese Chinese kids that auditioned. You could tell they were more “Boba Asian.” They weren’t living that intersectional life that brought me and Taylor to some of these neighborhoods at times, and it’s hard to teach that to people. The scene I had a lot of kids audition for was the gym scene, where the Boogie character is pulling up on [Paige’s character] Eleanor for the first time. If you don’t do it correctly, it feels like it’s a bad AAVE [African American vernacular English] voice. I saw a lot of those auditions and thought, “Nah, this kid doesn’t have friends like Richie [played by Jorge Lendeborg Jr.], and he’s never pulled up on a girl like Eleanor.” No matter what I tell him, this is going to feel wrong. But Taylor ... I’ve watched Taylor pull up on girls, you know what I mean? So I’m like, “He’s got this.” And that scene was a scene I was scared of putting in the film that [Focus Features Chairman Peter Kujawski] and other execs really fought for, like, “Eddie, you love that scene.” And yeah, it makes Boogie look like an asshole, but that’s part of this character. There’s a scene between Boogie and Eleanor that calls to mind the time in 2015 when you were criticized for comparing the experiences of Asian men to those of Black women. I have no shame about that moment at all, because I said it in very good faith. People started to clip it and play it on a loop, and when it got taken out of context it was like, “Whoa, he just compared being an Asian male to being a Black woman.” And I was like, “Yes, I did.” But Issa Rae [in her 2015 autobiography “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl”] had also just written an article about the statistics on OK Cupid that said the least desirable men were Asian and the least desirable women on OK Cupid were Black women. And I was like, this is bulls—. And that’s why I was comparing it, and I was like, “This is wrong.” In many ways, the stereotypes in America desexualize and emasculate the Asian man and they hypersexualize the Black woman. We know what these stereotypes are and it’s bulls—, because it’s just trying to fragment us and prevent us from being the whole humans that we are. I was saying that using the data from these apps you can see the work of stereotypes and how it is ingrained in our heads. How in a Malcolm Gladwell way, like he talks about in [his book] “Blink,” it affects the choices we make on an everyday basis. And I will stand by that forever, because I was actually sticking up for both communities. In this scene in “Boogie,” Boogie similarly compares his own experiences to Eleanor’s as a Black woman [complaining that Asian Americans are reduced to “beef and broccoli” stereotypes in the mainstream gaze]. Were you referencing the criticisms you received in 2015? I actually was not thinking about anyone from 2015, because I took none of them seriously. I don’t even know if that’s OK to say. I just got caught up in this thing where people twisted what I was saying and my intent. Even when it was twisted, I trusted my African American feminist literature professor from college [Jennifer Henton]. I sent it to her like, “Hey, Dr. Henton. Talk to me. Did I f— up? If you tell me I f— up I will bow, I will apologize, I will do the right thing because I care about this.” And she was like, “No, you’re trying to create solidarity. You’re trying to show connection. And you’re trying to show how the Man is doing the same thing to all of us, which is playing the barbarians against each other and dividing and conquering.” My inspiration for the “beef and broccoli” scene was because when I was writing this, there were Asians protesting affirmative action and saying affirmative action hurts Asians trying to get into college. And I was like, “Yo, think about it. The Black cause, the Black movement for justice and equality in this country, benefits all of us.” And we don’t really pay into that movement many times. For decades, Asian Americans have not been involved in this fight nearly as much as we should have. We’re better off economically. We have more opportunity. So if we have to get dinged up a little bit because of affirmative action that will help our brothers and sisters, I was like, “This is the right thing to do.” Boogie’s in his head and he’s like, “Man, it’s so hard to be Asian in this country” — and it is.... But it is exponentially harder to be Black. — Eddie Huang I think it sucks that we get dinged up and we have to pay in, but that’s our existence here, and I think it’s the right thing to do. That’s where that scene comes from, where Boogie’s in his head and he’s like, “Man, it’s so hard to be Asian in this country” — and it is. It is very hard, and I don’t take anything away from Asians. But it is exponentially harder to be Black. It really is. And I’ve always felt that way. I left “Fresh Off the Boat” [the series] in large part because it was using Black culture to attract viewers, but then Black people weren’t making money from it. There weren’t many Black people on that cast or set at all. And they had me say that line, “Isn’t America great,” and had the kids go to the Beastie Boys show. I was like, “Why can’t they go to a Black artist’s rap show?” Like the actual musicians and rappers you listened to as a kid? Yeah. My first show was Outkast after “Aquemini.” Outkast would have been a great show [for the characters] to go to. It would be a lot easier if I was just all Asian, all the time, but I’m not. Black culture has meant a lot to me, and it’s informed who I am and provided a lot of the answers to things I couldn’t understand or disagreed with, being Asian. A lot of the things our parents said to us or hurt us with, I was like, “There’s no answer for this.” But reading Black literature, listening to Black music, watching Black films, I was like, “No, it’s OK to feel the way I do.” There’s an entire group of people in America that feel this way. California Can Black Americans and Asian Americans make common cause in battling white supremacy? March 23, 2021 “Boogie” is your first move into filmmaking. What’s the vision behind your production company, Color Correct, and the projects you’re focused on next? My feeling post-“Fresh Off the Boat” was there were all these things that were, “Representation, representation, representation,” but it’s different than representation; we need the correct representation. And more than representation, I want us to put humanity first. I think what’s drawn people to projects like “Boogie” are race, identity, social issues, but I hope what keeps them is our humanity, and in watching these stories, seeing a reflection of themselves as well, even if they’re of a different race than the main character or supporting characters. I want to produce with the people I know that are 10 toes down. There’s a lot of money to be made in representation now and I’m like, “Who’s for real?” Because I’ve seen some people that are Asian, but 10 years ago, they had no interest in making Asian stuff. I’m going to stick to the people I know that have been fighting and trying to do this.

Republic of Congo President Sassou N'Guesso declared election winner

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-23/republic-of-congo-president-sassou-nguesso-declared-winner

Election officials in Republic of Congo on Tuesday declared President Denis Sassou N’Guesso the winner of Sunday’s national election, further extending his presidency of more than 36 years in office. The election was marked by the death of his main opponent from COVID-19. The results were announced by Interior Minister Raymond Zephirin Mboulou on national television two days after the vote in this Central African nation often overshadowed by its neighbor with a similar name, Congo. Sassou N’Guesso received 88.5% of ballots cast, according to official results. The top opposition candidate, whose death was announced the day after the election, Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, won 7.8% of the vote. The remaining ballots were split among the five other contenders. Kolelas died in Paris where he had been flown for treatment after falling gravely ill ahead of the election. One of the other candidates, Mathias Dzon, has said he plans to appeal to the Constitutional Court to cancel the official results, citing an article of the constitution “which provides for the cancellation of the ballot when a candidate dies or is unable to vote.” However, the head of the national independent electoral commission said that the article in question does not apply this time. “Kolelas died after the vote in Paris, so Article 70 cannot be evoked in these conditions,” said Henri Bouka, who is also president of the Supreme Court in Congo. Sassou N’Guesso, a former army general, led Republic of Congo from 1979 to 1992, when he placed third in the country’s first democratic elections. After a voluntary exile in France, Sassou N’Guesso came back to power in 1997 after his supporters prevailed in a four-month civil war, and he has now been reelected four times.

Saudi Arabia offers cease-fire proposal to Yemen rebels

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-22/saudi-arabia-offers-cease-fire-plan-to-yemen-rebels

Saudi Arabia on Monday offered a cease-fire proposal to Yemen’s Houthi rebels that includes reopening their country’s main airport, the kingdom’s latest attempt to halt years of fighting in a war that has sparked the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The move comes after the rebels stepped up a campaign of drone and missile attacks on the kingdom’s oil sites, briefly shaking global energy prices amid the coronavirus pandemic. It also comes as Riyadh tries to rehabilitate its image with the U.S. under President Biden. Saudi Arabia has drawn international criticism for airstrikes killing civilians and embargoes exacerbating hunger in a nation on the brink of famine. Whether the plan will take hold remains another question. A unilaterally declared Saudi cease-fire collapsed last year. Fighting rages around the crucial city of Marib and the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes as recently as Sunday targeting Yemen’s capital, Sana. A U.N. mission said another suspected airstrike hit a food-production company in the port city of Hudaydah. “We want the guns to fall completely silent,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told journalists during a televised news conference in Riyadh. “It is up to the Houthis now. We are ready to go today. We hope we can have a cease-fire immediately, but the onus is on the Houthis.” A senior Houthi official, who spoke with the Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the rebels had been aware of the proposal and in direct communication with the Saudis, as well as interlocutors from Oman. However, he said the Saudis needed to do more to see a cease-fire implemented, something reiterated by others in the Iranian-backed rebel group. Saudi Arabia said the plan would be presented both to the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognized government. Both would need to accept the plan for it to move forward, with any timeline likely to be set by U.N. special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the announcement, said U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq. “There is no doubt that every effort must be made to end the conflict and the suffering of the Yemeni people, and the United Nations looks forward to continuing its work with the parties to achieve this goal,” Haq said. He said Griffiths “has been working extensively with the parties to see what can be done to bring them together on the sort of proposals that he made in the Security Council. ... So he will be in touch with the Houthis, as with all parties, to see whether we can go further on this.” Saudi Arabia made two concessions to the Houthis in the plan, while not offering everything the rebels previously wanted. The first involves reopening Sana International Airport, a vital link for Yemen to the outside world that hasn’t seen regular commercial flights since 2015. Officials did not immediately identify what commercial routes they wanted to see resume. The second would see taxes, customs and other fees generated by the Hudaydah port while importing oil put into a joint account of Yemen’s Central Bank. That account would be accessible to the Houthis and Yemen’s recognized government to pay civil servants and fund other programs, officials said. The Saudi government and the Yemeni government it backs have accused the Houthis of stealing those funds in the past. A report this year by a U.N. panel of experts said the Houthis “diverted” about $200 million from that fund. “Only a small portion of the funds were used to pay salaries,” the report said. Whether the Houthis accept the Saudi proposal remains in question. On Friday, Houthi leader Mohammad Ali Houthi proposed a nationwide cease-fire contingent upon Saudi Arabia reopening Sana’s airport to commercial flights and lifting restrictions on cargo shipments to Hudaydah. The port handles most of the country’s vital imports. Both are long-standing demands of the Houthis, who swept into Sana from their northwestern strongholds in September 2014. “There is nothing new about the Saudi initiative,” another senior Houthi official said. “First, the airport and the port must both be opened.” Prince Faisal criticized the Houthis for making “only more and more demands.” “The Houthis must decide whether to put their interests first or ... Iran’s interests first,” the prince said. The Saudi-led coalition entered Yemen’s war in March 2015 as the Houthis threatened to take Yemen’s port city of Aden and completely overrun the country’s internationally recognized government. The Saudis promised that the offensive — the brainchild of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — would be over in short order. Six years later, the fighting rages on. The war has killed some 130,000 people, including more than 13,000 civilians slain in targeted attacks, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. Tens of thousands of children have died of starvation and disease. The conflict also has turned into a regional conflict, with the Saudis using U.S.-made weaponry, and Iran linked to weapons used by the Houthis to target the kingdom. Last week, Griffiths warned that “the war is back in full force.” Hundreds of fighters have been killed in the offensive on Marib, while other once-dormant front lines have seen renewed fighting. Saudi television channels repeatedly show black-and-white drone footage set to dramatic music of bombs dropping on suspected Houthi targets. Yemen’s internationally recognized government praised the Saudi initiative as an effort to “ease the suffering of the Yemeni people.” But in a statement, its Foreign Affairs Ministry also warned that the Houthis had “met all previous initiatives with obstinacy and procrastination” and had “worked to deepen the humanitarian crisis.” Since Biden took office, his administration reversed a decision by former President Trump naming the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, allowing U.S. aid to flow into rebel-held territory. He also ended U.S. support for the Saudis in the war. Biden sent the U.S. envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, to the region to negotiate a political settlement. Lenderking said earlier this month that the Houthis had an unspecified cease-fire proposal before them for a “number of days,” without elaborating. He reportedly met with Houthi officials while on a February trip to Oman, something the State Department has declined to acknowledge. In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said he had spoken to the Saudi foreign minister about the war. Blinken supports efforts “to end the conflict in Yemen, starting with the need for all parties to commit to a cease-fire and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid,” the statement said.

U.K. unveils plan for smaller, more high-tech armed forces

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-22/uk-unveils-plan-for-smaller-more-high-tech-armed-forces

Britain plans to cut the size of its army and boost spending on drones, robots and a new “cyber force” under defense plans announced by the government on Monday. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said the British Army would shrink from 76,500 soldiers to 72,500 by 2025. He said the army hadn’t been at its “established strength” of 82,500 for several years. Wallace said the military would no longer be “overstretched and underequipped” and that new investment in equipment, infrastructure and technology marked “a shift from mass mobilization to information age speed, readiness and relevance for confronting the threats of the future.” Wallace said the armed forces would “no longer be held as a force of last resort but become more present and active around the world.” Britain is the second-biggest military spender in NATO, after the United States. In November, the government announced a 16.5-billion-pound ($23 billion) increase in defense spending over the next four years, focusing on the future battlefields of space and cyber rather than traditional resources such as army troops. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday that the reforms would give the military “the kit now that they will need to make themselves all the more useful, all the more, I’m afraid, lethal, and effective around the world.” “Therefore, all the more valuable to our allies, and all the more deterring to our foes.”

Putin to get coronavirus vaccine shot in Russia on Tuesday

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-22/putin-to-get-coronavirus-vaccine-shot-in-russia-on-tuesday

President Vladimir Putin said he will get a coronavirus vaccine shot on Tuesday, several months after widespread vaccination started in Russia. Kremlin opponents have criticized Putin for not getting vaccinated amid a comparatively slow rollout of the shot in Russia, arguing that his reluctance is contributing to the already extensive hesitance about the vaccine. Russia, where only 4.3% of the 146-million population have received at least one dose, lags behind a number of countries in terms of the vaccination rate. Surveys by Russia’s top independent pollster Levada Center have shown that a number of Russians reluctant to get vaccinated with Sputnik V has grown in recent months — to 62% in February from 58% in December. The Kremlin has said it doesn’t see a connection between Putin not getting vaccinated and public trust in the Russian COVID-19 vaccine. Putin, 68, told a meeting with government officials and vaccine developers on Monday that he will get his shot “tomorrow,” without specifying which coronavirus vaccine out of the three authorized for use in Russia he will take. Russian authorities have given regulatory approval to three domestically developed shots. Sputnik V has been approved last August with much fanfare at home and criticism abroad, because at the time it had only been tested on a few dozen people. But a recent study published in British medical journal the Lancet showed the Sputnik V is 91% effective and appears to prevent inoculated individuals from becoming severely ill with COVID-19, although it’s still unclear if the vaccine can prevent the spread of the disease. Two other Russian vaccines, EpiVacCorona and CoviVac, have also received regulatory approval before completing late-stage trials, which experts say are necessary to ensure their safety and effectiveness in line with established scientific protocol. EpiVacCorona is still undergoing these trials, while CoviVac was to begin them in March. No data on efficacy of these two vaccines have been released. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov also wouldn’t say which one of the three Putin will take on Tuesday, saying only that “all of them are good and reliable.” According to the Russian president, 6.3 million people in Russia have already received at least one shot, and more than 4.3 million have had two doses. Putin said that 60% of Russian adults need to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity, which requires a total of 69.8 million vaccines. As of March 17, around 8.9 million two-dose sets of Sputnik V have been released into circulation in Russia, as well as over 115,000 two-dose sets of EpiVacCorona, the Russian leader said. “Today we can confidently say ... that the Russian vaccines are absolutely reliable and safe,” Putin said. “It is an absolute success of our scientists and specialists.” Putin and his spokesman have been repeatedly asked why the president hasn’t been vaccinated so far. In December, the Russian leader said Sputnik V wasn’t being recommended to people of a certain age, adding that “vaccines have not yet reached people like me.” At the time, the shot was only being offered to people ages 18 to 60, but in less than two weeks after Putin’s remarks Russian health authorities cleared the vaccine for those older than 60. Last month, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported that Putin planned to get vaccinated in the end of the summer or beginning of the fall this year. The newspaper quoted Putin telling Russian media managers at a closed-door meeting that he didn’t want to do it for publicity’s sake in front of cameras and that he had other vaccinations scheduled already. Peskov said Monday he didn’t “expect” Putin’s vaccination on Tuesday “to be a public event.” Russia has been actively marketing Sputnik V abroad, despite the slow rollout at home, in what some analysts see as an effort to score geopolitical points. Dozens of countries have approved the use of Sputnik V and signed deals with Russia to get shipments of the shot. Exporting the vaccines, however, has not been without delays, and questions remained whether Moscow had the capacity to deliver on its promises. In order to boost production, the Russian Direct Investment Fund that bankrolled the vaccine signed agreements with pharmaceutical companies in several countries, including India, South Korea, Brazil, Turkey and most recently Italy. Putin said on Monday such agreements amounted to a total of 700 million vaccines a year. “The geography of using the Russian Sputnik V is actively growing. Even despite deliberate discrediting of our vaccine, various hoaxes and sometimes outright nonsense, more states all around the world express interest in our vaccine,” Putin said. The Russian president took aim at officials in the European Union, some of whom have expressed reluctance about using Sputnik V even though the bloc has been criticized for a slow vaccine rollout. On Sunday, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, who heads the European Commission’s vaccine task force, told French television that the EU “has absolutely no need” for Sputnik V. Putin called the statement “bizarre” and insisted that Russia was “not imposing anything on anyone,” questioning whether European officials protect the interests “some pharmaceutical companies or the interests of citizens of European countries.” Sputnik V hasn’t yet been approved for use in the EU, but the body’s regulator, the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, started a rolling review of the vaccine earlier this month. Some EU nations have decided not to wait for the EMA’s approval, and Hungary became the first EU country to authorize Sputnik V for use last month while Slovakia announced a deal last week to acquire 2 million Sputnik V doses in a move that prompted a political crisis in the country.

Atlanta-area spa shooting victim's husband says police detained him for hours

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-22/shooting-victims-husband-says-police-detained-him-for-hours

A man who survived the shooting that killed his wife at an Atlanta-area massage business last week said police detained him in handcuffs for four hours after the attack. Mario Gonzalez said he was held in a patrol car outside the spa. The revelation, in an interview with Mundo Hispanico, a Spanish-language news website, follows other criticism of Cherokee County officials investigating the March 16 attack, which killed four people. Four others were killed about an hour later at two spas in Atlanta. Gonzalez’s accusation would also mean that he remained detained after police released security video images of the suspected gunman and after authorities captured him 150 miles south of Atlanta. He questioned whether his treatment by authorities was because he’s Mexican. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday. Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white man, is accused of shooting five people, including Gonzalez’s wife, Delaina Ashley Yaun, at the first crime scene near Woodstock, about 30 miles north of Atlanta. One man was wounded. In all, seven of the slain victims were women, six of them of Asian descent. Cherokee sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker was removed as spokesman for the case after telling reporters the day after the shootings that Long had “a really bad day” and “this is what he did.” A Facebook page appearing to belong to Baker promoted a T-shirt with racist language about China and the coronavirus last year. Sheriff Frank Reynolds released a statement acknowledging that some of Baker’s comments stirred “much debate and anger” and said the agency regretted any “heartache” caused by his words. Gonzalez and Yaun, 33, had gotten a babysitter for their infant daughter and went to Youngs Asian Massage to relax. They were in separate rooms inside when the gunman opened fire. Gonzalez heard the gunshots and worried about his wife but was too afraid to open the door, he told Mundo Hispanico in a video interview. Deputies arrived within minutes. Gonzalez said they put him in handcuffs and detained him for about four hours, according to the website. “They had me in the patrol car the whole time they were investigating who was responsible, who exactly did this,” Gonzalez said in the video. During the interview with Mundo Hispanico, Gonzalez showed marks on his wrists from handcuffs. “I don’t know whether it’s because of the law or because I’m Mexican. The simple truth is that they treated me badly,” he said. “Only when they finally confirmed I was her husband did they tell me that she was dead,” he said. “I wanted to know earlier.” Left alone to raise their daughter and his wife’s teenage son, Gonzalez said the shooter took “the most important thing I have in my life.” “He deserves to die, just like the others did,” Gonzalez said. Authorities have said the shooting in Cherokee County happened around 5 p.m., and just after 6:30 p.m. the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook still images from a surveillance camera showing a suspect in the parking lot outside. Reynolds said Long’s family recognized him from those images and gave investigators his cellphone information, which they used to track him. Crisp County Sheriff Billy Hancock said in a video posted on Facebook that night that his deputies and state troopers were notified around 8 p.m. that the suspect was headed their way. Deputies and troopers set up along the interstate and saw the black 2007 Hyundai Tucson around 8:30 p.m. A trooper performed a maneuver that caused the vehicle to spin out of control, and Long was taken into custody.

'Borat,' 'Promising Young Woman' win at Writers Guild Awards

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2021-03-21/borat-promising-young-woman-win-at-writers-guild-awards

Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” was partly improvised and scripted by nine writers, but it still walked away Sunday night with one of the Writers Guild Awards’ top honors, best adapted screenplay. At the guild’s virtual, pre-recorded 73rd annual awards, the biggest winners were a pair of awards-season dark horses. Best original screenplay went to the script for the feminist revenge thriller “Promising Young Woman,” by writer-director Emerald Fennell. The film, which is nominated for five Oscars including best picture, triumphed over Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” along with “Sound of Metal,” “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Palm Springs.” The “Borat” sequel win came over “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “News of the World,” “One Night in Miami” and “The White Tiger.” Due to guild regulations, several of this year’s best-picture nominees at the Academy Awards weren’t nominated, including “Mank,” “Nomadland,” “Minari” and “The Father.” Cohen and his fellow eight credited writers for the film’s screenplay and story accepted the award by Zoom. “Thank you for this incredible award, though I can’t help thinking we won it because 60% of the Writers Guild worked on this movie,” said Cohen. “A film like this is extremely hard to write partly because it stars real people whose behavior is completely unpredictable. Well, apart from Rudy Giuliani who did everything we hoped for.” Awards In their own words: Tony Kushner, Rebecca Hall, Jeymes Samuel and other screenwriters take us on a journey through writing their film scripts. March 6, 2022 Kal Penn hosted the show, streamed privately for invitees, from his living room. He began dressed in a tuxedo and ended in his pajamas. Best documentary screenplay went to the Jamal Khashoggi documentary “The Dissident,” written by director Bryan Fogel and Mark Monroe. The film, which streaming services were too timid to acquire, Fogel has argued, missed out on an Oscar nomination. Other awards included “Ted Lasso” for comedy series; “The Crown” for drama series; “The Great” for episodic comedy; and “Ozark” for episodic drama. The guild’s awards came after the conclusion of a two-year battle with talent agencies over potential conflicts of interest as representatives of film and TV writers. Last month, WME became the final big agency to sign the guild’s agreement over an industry practice known as “packaging.” “Our agency campaign has made us true partners again with our agency representatives,” said David Goodman, president of the WGA West.

Atlanta-area spa shooting victims mourned by families

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-21/slain-spa-workers-and-customers-mourned-by-families

Mothers, grandmothers and a brother. They loved to cook, dance, sing and travel. They worked long hours, sometimes in settings their children little understood. These are the eight people killed by gunfire at three Atlanta-area spas. Seven of the slain were women, and six of them were of Asian descent. Police charged a 21-year-old white man with the killings, saying he was solely responsible for the deadliest U.S. mass shooting since 2019. In the days since the shooting, fuller pictures of almost all the victims have emerged. The exception is 44-year-old Daoyou Feng, an employee at Young’s Asian Massage near Woodstock about whom little is known. Sunday should have seen 63-year-old Yong Ae Yue buying groceries and cooking Korean food for her family. Instead those relatives are mourning her death Tuesday at the Aromatherapy Spa in Atlanta. “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved mother, and words cannot adequately describe our grief,” her sons said in a statement released by attorney BJay Pak. Yue immigrated from South Korea to the United States and was married for a time to Mac Peterson of Columbus, Ga., who once served at the Army’s Ft. Benning in that city. California A gathering in San Francisco called for an end to hate against Asians in wake of shootings in Atlanta. March 20, 2021 “Mom was an amazing woman who loved to introduce our family and friends to her home-cooked Korean food and Korean karaoke,” said Rob Peterson, one of Yue’s sons, who described her as an “amazing woman” in a fundraising appeal. “Will miss joining mom on her weekly Sunday routine to the grocery store and traditional Korean dinner. She was always kind-hearted and willing to help everyone she encountered.” Yue was a licensed massage therapist in Georgia who owned a home in the suburb of Peachtree Corners. Relatives reached there declined to comment. A granddaughter lauds Suncha Kim’s love and mourns that she won’t be able to “watch her children and grandchildren live the life she never got to live.” The 69-year-old Kim was one of three women killed at Gold Spa in Atlanta. Regina Song wrote that her grandmother was born in Seoul and came to the United States speaking little English, working multiple jobs to provide for her husband, son and daughter. “This took immense courage and my grandmother was a fighter,” Song wrote. Family members told the Washington Post that Kim was a Catholic and naturalized American citizen who volunteered her time and helped raised money for various causes. Relatives said Kim won the President’s Volunteer Service Award for her efforts to help feed the homeless in the Washington, D.C., area. “She was pure hearted and the most selfless woman I knew,” her granddaughter wrote. “She represented everything I wanted to be as a woman, without an ounce of hate or bitterness in her heart.” “She never forgot to call me once a week to say ‘Stay strong in life... when you’re happy, I’m happy.’” Soon Chung Park had spent much of her life in New York and northern New Jersey before moving to Atlanta, son-in-law Scott Lee told the New York Times and the Washington Post. In Atlanta, the 74-year-old Park settled in a corridor that included Korean businesses in the Gwinnett County suburb of Duluth. Though she had family members in the New York area, she made a new life here, with 38-year-old Gwangho Lee telling the Daily Beast that he accepted Park’s marriage proposal after the two met in 2017. Park was the day manager at the Gold Spa, cooking for employees. Lee, a ride-hailing service driver, told the Daily Beast he was already on the way to Gold Spa when he got texts about an apparent robbery, and tried to resuscitate Park while a police officer stood by after he arrived. She was described as unusually youthful-looking for her age, fit and active, a former dancer and a hard worker, California If you see someone harassing or being violent toward another person, what are your options to act and intervene safely? Plus more tips on how to be a good ally. March 20, 2021 “She just liked to work,” Scott Lee told The New York Times. ““It wasn’t for the money. She just wanted a little bit of work for her life.” Hyun Jung Grant loved disco and club music, often strutting or moonwalking while doing household chores and jamming with her sons to tunes blasting in the car. The single mother found ways to enjoy herself despite working “almost every day” to support two sons, said the older son, 22-year-old Randy Park. “I learned how to moonwalk because, like, I saw her moonwalking while vacuuming when I was a kid,” Park said. On Tuesday night, Park was at home playing video games when he heard a gunman had opened fire at Gold Spa, where his mother worked. He rushed to the scene and then to a police station to find out more information. But it was through word of mouth that he learned his mother was dead. Her job was a sensitive subject, Park said, noting the stigma often associated with massage businesses. She told her sons that they should tell others she worked doing makeup with her friends. Ultimately, Park said, he didn’t care what she did for work. “She loved me and my brother enough to work for us, to dedicate her whole life,” he said. “That’s enough.” An entrepreneur who built multiple businesses after arriving in the United States knowing little about the country, Xiaojie “Emily” Tan is remembered for being devoted to her work and her family. The 49-year-old owned Young’s Asian Massage, where she was shot dead two days short of her 50th birthday. She leaves a daughter who is a recent University of Georgia graduate, Jami Webb. Tan had been married twice, first to Michael Webb, whom she met in her native city of Nanning, China, according to USA Today. Later, she married Jason Wang. She also owned Wang’s Feet & Body Massage in Kennesaw when she died. “She worked a lot, and she was the kind of lady that she wanted to depend on herself,” Wang told the Washington Post. Tan had earlier worked in and owned a nail salon. Tan frequently visited her mother and other relatives in China. “She’d always say, ‘We family,’” Michael Webb told USA Today. “Even when we got divorced, she’d say that, ‘We family.’ Because that’s how she was.” Paul Andre Michels owned a business installing security systems, a trade he learned after moving to the Atlanta area more than 25 years ago. He’d been talking about switching to a new line of work, but never got the chance. He was fatally shot at Young’s Asian Massage along with three others. “From what I understand, he was at the spa that day doing some work for them,” said Michels’ younger brother, John Michels of Commerce, Mich. Paul Michels also might have been talking with the spa’s owner about how the business operates, his brother said, because he had been thinking about opening a spa himself. “His age caught up to him. You get to a point where you get tired of climbing up and down ladders,” John Michels said. “He was actually looking to start his own massage spa. That’s what he was talking about last year.” Paul Michels grew up in Detroit in a large family where he was the seventh of nine children. His brother John was No. 8. Though they were born 2 1/2 years apart, “he was basically my twin,” John Michels said. Both enlisted in the Army after high school, with Paul joining the infantry. A few years after leaving the military, Paul followed his brother to the Atlanta area in 1995 for a job installing phones and security systems. He also met his wife, Bonnie, and they were married more than 20 years. “He was a good, hardworking man who would do what he could do to help people,” John Michels said. “He’d loan you money if you needed it sometimes. You never went away from his place hungry.” The day before she was killed, Delaina Ashley Yaun dropped by Rita Barron’s boutique to say hello and show photos of her 8-month-old daughter. “She told me, ‘I’m happy. I want another baby,’” said Barron, who had gotten to know the 33-year-old Yaun from eating at Waffle House, where the new mother worked. Yaun and her new husband returned Tuesday to the shopping center where Gabby’s Boutique is, only this time they headed next door to Young’s Asian Massage. They had planned it as a day for Yaun to relax while a relative watched their baby girl. Barron and her husband, Alejandro Acosta, heard gunshots from inside the boutique and later noticed that a bullet had gone through the wall. She called 911, and after police arrived Acosta watched them bring people out of the business, some bleeding and wounded. Among those who walked out was Yaun’s husband, unhurt but distraught. His wife had been killed. “As you can imagine, he’s totally destroyed, without strength, doesn’t want to talk with anybody,” said Acosta, who added that he had spoken twice with Yaun’s husband since the shootings. Family members said Yaun and her husband were first-time customers at Young’s, eager for a chance to unwind. “They’re innocent. They did nothing wrong,” Yaun’s weeping mother, Margaret Rushing, told WAGA-TV. “I just don’t understand why he took my daughter.”

Acclaimed Egyptian feminist Nawal Saadawi dies at age 89

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-21/acclaimed-egyptian-feminist-nawal-saadawi-dies-at-age-89

Nawal Saadawi, a renowned Egyptian feminist, psychiatrist and novelist whose writings stirred controversy for decades in an overwhelming conservative society, died of age-related health problems in Cairo on Sunday, officials said. She was 89. Egypt’s Culture Minister Inas Abdel-Dayem mourned Saadawi’s passing, saying her writings had created a great intellectual movement. Born in October 1931 in a Nile Delta village, just north of Cairo, Saadawi studied medicine at Cairo University and at Columbia University in New York. She worked as a psychiatrist and university lecturer and wrote dozens of books. She was also a regular contributor to Egyptian newspapers. As a fierce advocate for women’s rights in Egypt and the Arab world, her writings focused mainly on feminism, domestic violence against women and religious extremism. She was a vocal opponent of female genital mutilation in Egypt and worldwide. When she published her famous book “Women and Sex” in 1972, she faced a storm of criticism and condemnation from Egypt’s political and religious establishment. She also lost her job at the Health Ministry. She was detained and jailed for two months in 1981 as part of a wide political crackdown waged by then-President Anwar Sadat. While in jail, Saadawi wrote down her experience using toilet paper and a cosmetics pencil, which later became the book “Memoirs From the Women’s Prison.” Saadawi was the founder and head of the Arab Women’s Solidarity Assn. and co-founder of the Arab Assn. for Human Rights. In 2005, she was awarded the Inana International Prize in Belgium, a year after she received the North-South Prize from the Council of Europe. In 2020, Time Magazine named her on their 100 Women of the Year list. Because of her views, Saadawi faced several legal challenges, including accusations of apostasy from Islamists. Saadawi was married three times, and is survived by a daughter and a son.

Few U.S. states require a waiting period to buy a gun, but that may be changing

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-21/gun-waiting-periods-rare-in-us-states-but-more-may-be-coming

Not long before the deadly Atlanta-area shootings spread fear and anger through Asian American communities nationwide, police say, the attacker made a legal purchase: a 9 mm handgun. Within hours, they say, he had killed eight people, seven of them women and six of Asian descent, in a rampage targeting massage businesses. If Georgia had required him to wait before getting a gun, lawmakers and advocates say, he might not have acted on his impulse. “It’s really quick. You walk in, fill out the paperwork, get your background check and walk out with a gun,” said Robyn Thomas, executive director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “If you’re in a state of crisis, personal crisis, you can do a lot of harm fairly quickly.” California Students can sit three feet apart in classrooms, instead of four or six, potentially allowing schools to avoid hybrid, part-time schedules. L.A. Unified will stick with six feet. March 21, 2021 The purchase was a normal transaction at Big Woods Goods, a shop north of Atlanta that complies with federal background-check laws and is cooperating with police, said Matt Kilgo, a lawyer for the store. “There’s no indication there’s anything improper,” he said. The vast majority of states are like Georgia, allowing buyers to walk out of a store with a firearm after a background check that sometimes can take minutes. Waiting periods are required in just 10 states and the District of Columbia, although several states are considering legislation this year to impose them. Gun control advocates say mandating a window of even a couple of days between the purchase of a gun and taking possession can give more time for background checks and create a “cooling off” period for people considering harming themselves or someone else. Studies suggest that waiting periods may help bring down firearm suicide rates by up to 11% and gun homicides by about 17%, according to the Giffords Center. Georgia Democrats plan to introduce legislation that would require people to wait five days between buying a gun and getting it, said Rep. David Wilkerson, who is minority whip in the state House. “I think a waiting period just makes sense,” he said. A 2020 analysis by the Rand Corp., a nonprofit think tank, also found that research links waiting periods to decreased suicide and homicide rates but determined that the effect on mass shootings was inconclusive because the sample size was too small. California has one of the country’s longest waiting periods — 10 days. That did not stop more than 1.1 million people from buying guns last year, which was just shy of the record number sold in 2016. Gun sales nationwide, meanwhile, surged to record levels last year amid pandemic-related uncertainty. Against that backdrop, lawmakers in at least four states — Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont — have proposed creating or expanding waiting periods. New gun laws will not fix deep-seated problems such as racism, misogyny and violence, said Seo Yoon “Yoonie” Yang, a leader with Students Demand Action, a gun violence prevention group. But they can help keep guns out of the hands of people who would do harm in the meantime, she said. “Legislation is practical. Research shows that it works,” she said. “It is change that can happen efficiently and quickly.” In Colorado, Democratic state Rep. Tom Sullivan ran for office after his son, Alex, died along with 11 others when a gunman opened fire in an Aurora movie theater eight years ago. Sullivan said he hoped a waiting period in legislation he was planning to sponsor could help curb domestic violence and suicide. “In Atlanta, imagine if this guy’s parents or somebody else were notified that he was trying to get a firearm. Maybe they could have helped,” he said. “It wouldn’t have hurt anybody to wait ... let it breathe a while. If there’s a problem, let it surface, we’ll sort it out.” Gun rights groups, including the National Rifle Assn., oppose waiting periods. The group points to 2018 federal firearm-tracing data that shows the average time between first retail sale of a gun and involvement in a crime was nearly nine years. They also argue that waiting periods create a delay for people buying legally, while leaving illegal weapons transfers unaffected. “A right delayed is a right denied,” Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb said. Gun control legislation also is making its way through Congress. The Senate is expected to consider a bill to expand background checks, but it faces a difficult road — Democrats would need at least 10 Republican votes to pass it. Although the House approved two bills to strengthen the checks this month, Congress has not passed any major gun control laws since the mid-1990s. In Georgia, the Republican-controlled Legislature may resist new firearms laws before it concludes business at the end of the month. But Wilkerson pointed to recent long-sought victories that once seemed improbable, including passage of a hate crimes law and the likely repeal of a citizen’s arrest law a year after the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man pursued by armed white men while jogging. “You’re going to run into resistance. It doesn’t mean you don’t try,” Wilkerson said. “In tragedy, sometimes we can move forward. This may be the opportunity to look at another tragedy and do something about it.”

Married 66 years, Florida husband and wife die minutes apart of COVID-19

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-21/married-66-years-husband-wife-die-minutes-apart-of-virus

Bill and Esther Ilnisky spent nearly seven decades together as Christian ministers and missionaries, including stints in the Caribbean and Middle East before preaching for 40 years in Florida. They complemented each other — he the bookworm, she outgoing and charismatic. One without the other seemed unthinkable. So when they died minutes apart of COVID-19 this month at a Palm Beach County hospice, it may have been a hidden blessing, their only child, Sarah Milewski, said — even if it was a devastating double loss for her. Her father was 88; her mom, 92. Their 67th wedding anniversary would have been this weekend. “It is so precious, so wonderful, such a heartwarming feeling to know they went together,” Milewski said, then adding, “I miss them.” Bill Ilnisky grew up in Detroit, deciding at 16 to devote his life to God, Milewski said. He headed to Central Bible College, an Assemblies of God school in Springfield, Mo. He preached at nearby churches and needed a piano player. Friends suggested Esther Shabaz, a fellow student from Gary, Ind. They fell in love. Science & Medicine The number of Americans who had been infected with the coronavirus before the holiday surge may have been twice as high as official tallies indicated. “When my dad proposed, he told her, ‘Esther, I can’t promise you wealth, but I can promise you lots of adventure,’ ” Milewski said. “She had a lot, a lot of adventure.” After graduation and their wedding, Bill Ilnisky opened churches in the Midwest. In the late 1950s, the Ilniskys took congregants to Jamaica for a mission, fell in love with the island, and stayed on to run a church in Montego Bay for a decade. It was during that time they adopted Milewski, then 2, from a Miami foster home. In 1969, the family moved from Jamaica to Lebanon, where Bill Ilnisky ministered to college students and taught. His wife started an outreach center and had a Christian rock band. “At that time, Lebanon was an amazing country — gorgeous,” Milewski said. But in 1975, civil war broke out between Christian and Muslim factions, and Beirut, the nation’s capital, became a battleground. Twice, bombs exploded outside their apartment — the first knocking Milewski out of bed, the second slamming her father to the ground. “My mom thought he was dead,” Milewski said. “My mom and I went and hid in the bathroom all night, crying and praying.” The next morning, bullet holes pocked the walls of apartments on every floor except theirs. “We attributed that to prayer,” she said. They fled in 1976 when U.S. Marines evacuated Americans, catching the last plane out. World & Nation Germany resumes use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after European regulators said the shot was not linked with an increased risk of blood clots. Shortly after their return to the States, Bill Ilnisky became pastor at Calvary Temple in West Palm Beach, later renamed Lighthouse Christian Center International. His wife started Esther Network International, aimed at teaching children to pray. Tom Belt, a retired missionary in Oklahoma City, was a teenager at Calvary Temple when the couple arrived. He said Bill Ilnisky’s tales of missionary work whetted his desire to travel. Belt said the Ilniskys “were very accommodating, believed in others and very forgiving.” Bill Ilnisky retired three years ago and, although physically healthy for a late octogenarian, had some dementia. His wife still ran her prayer network and did Zoom calls. When the pandemic hit last year, the couple took precautions, Milewski said. Her mother stayed home and had groceries delivered, but Bill Ilnisky occasionally went out. “He couldn’t take it,” his daughter said. “He needed to be around people.” Sarah Milewski and her husband visited her parents on Valentine’s Day, her mother’s birthday. A few days later, her mom became ill. Not long after, the couple were diagnosed with the virus and hospitalized. Although the prognosis was initially good, the disease overtook them. The decision was made Feb. 27 to put them in hospice. Jacqueline Lopez-Devine, chief clinical officer at Trustbridge hospice, said in her 15 years working with the dying, no couple had arrived together. She said there was no hesitation about putting them in the same room for their final days. Because of the virus, Milewski said her goodbyes through a window, a microphone carrying “I love you” to her parents’ bedside. They looked like they did when sleeping, her father lying on the right side, her mother facing him. He would nod as Milewski spoke; her mom tried to speak but couldn’t. “It was horrible,” Milewski said. At 10:15 a.m. on March 1, Esther Ilnisky died. Fifteen minutes later, her husband followed. “They were always, always together,” Milewski said. “So in sync.”

Myanmar police who defied army seek asylum in India

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-21/fleeing-coup-myanmar-refugees-in-india-seek-asylum

Police officers who defied the Myanmar army’s orders to shoot opponents of the coup and escaped to India are asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government not to send them back but to provide them political asylum on humanitarian grounds. “What we wish is that until and unless the problem is solved in Myanmar, we do not want to go back there,” said one of the men, who has sought refuge in a village in the northeastern state of Mizoram that shares the border with Myanmar. The military crackdown in Myanmar has forced scores of refugees over the border into India. India’s state and federal authorities haven’t given any figures, but some state ministers have said the number of refugees could be in the hundreds. One Indian village has given shelter to 34 police personnel and one firefighter who crossed into India over the last two weeks. Several Myanmar police officers said they fled after defying army orders to shoot opponents of last month’s coup. They spoke to an Associated Press journalist on condition of anonymity because of fears of retribution against family members still in Myanmar. One of the defectors from Myanmar law enforcement who didn’t share her name said Myanmar’s army ordered them to “arrest, beat, torture the protesters” and that they were “always sent to the front whenever there was protest.” World & Nation A Myanmar tycoon with military links has said on state TV that he personally gave more than $500,000 in cash to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi. “So, we have no choice but to leave our country,” she said from an undisclosed location bordering Myanmar. The AP has not been able to independently verify their claims, though images and accounts of the security forces’ crackdown inside Myanmar have shown intensifying violence against civilians. More than 200 people have been killed by security forces since the Feb. 1 military takeover. India’s federal government and the state of Mizoram are at odds over the influx of refugees. Earlier, the Mizoram government had allowed refugees to enter and provided them with food and shelter. But last week, India’s Home Ministry told four Indian states bordering Myanmar, including Mizoram, to take measures to prevent refugees from entering India except on humanitarian grounds. World & Nation More than 2,000 people have been arrested, many in their homes, in a bid to quash resistance to the junta. Two Myanmar officials have died in custody. The ministry said the states were not authorized to accord refugee status to anyone entering from Myanmar, as India is not a signatory to the U.N. Refugee Convention of 1951 or its 1967 Protocol. On Thursday, Mizoram’s top elected official Zoramthanga wrote to Modi and said “India cannot turn a blind eye” to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in his state. Zoramthanga, who uses one name, wrote in the letter that the people of his state, who share ethnic ties with the refugees from Chin communities in Myanmar, “can’t remain indifferent to their plight.” He urged the federal government to review its order and allow refugees into India. Earlier this month, Myanmar asked India to return the police officers who crossed the border. India shares a 1,020-mile border with Myanmarvand is home to thousands of refugees from Myanmar in different states.

Miami Beach imposes curfew amid spring break chaos

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-20/miami-sets-earlier-curfew-after-spring-break-crowds-fights

Officials are imposing an emergency 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew for Miami Beach, Fla., effective immediately, after hard-partying spring break crowds trashed restaurants, brawled in the streets and gathered by the thousands without masks or social distancing, according to authorities. At a news conference, officials blamed overwhelming and out-of-control spring break crowds for the curfew, which was taking effect Saturday night in South Beach, one of the nation’s top party spots. Tourists and hotel guests are being told to stay indoors during curfew hours. It’s unclear how long the curfew will remain in effect, but interim City Manager Raul Aguila told the Miami Herald that he recommended keeping the rules in place through at least April 12. A countywide midnight curfew was already in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “These crowds are in the thousands,” Aguila said. “We’re at capacity.” No pedestrians or vehicles will be allowed to enter the restricted area after 8 p.m., and all businesses in the vicinity must close, Aguila said, reading from a statement released by the city. The curfew came as a prominent bar, the Clevelander South Beach, announced it was temporarily suspending all food and beverage operations until at least Wednesday after crowds crammed Ocean Drive, where street fights broke out. At another restaurant next door, tables and chairs were smashed during a fight, news outlets reported. Local officials and businesses have struggled to balance courting tourists to boost the economy while doing so safely amid the pandemic. Tourism is the Sunshine State’s No. 1 industry, generating more than $91 billion in 2018. Last year, spring break was one of the first big casualties of the pandemic as beaches shut down across Florida when the U.S. went into strict lockdowns. Meanwhile, alarming scenes of college students heedlessly drinking, dancing and getting up close without masks were plastered across social media. Miami tourism officials said billions of dollars were lost during the three-month spring break period last year. The city’s tourism arm just spent $5 million on its biggest national advertising campaign in 20 years. At the same time, local officials banned alcohol from the beach along with all alcohol sales after 10 p.m. in an effort to curb partying. The city even sent text messages to tourists warning, “Vacation Responsibly or Be Arrested.” “Spring break in Miami Beach may be one of the great rites of passage, but only if you plan on following the rules. Otherwise, you might as well just stay home and save yourself the court costs,” the message read. But local officials have struggled to enforce COVID ordinances. Under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida has no statewide mask rules, limits on capacity or other such restrictions.

Prosecutor: Man accused of one murder says he really killed 16

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-20/prosecutor-man-accused-of-1-murder-says-he-really-killed-16

A man charged with beating to death a New Jersey resident he says sexually abused him as a child now claims he has killed a total of 16 people, including his ex-wife and three others found dead near a New Mexico airport, officials said. Authorities have not corroborated his claim. Sean Lannon, 47, said he killed the four whose remains were found in a vehicle and “11 other individuals” in New Mexico, Alec Gutierrez, an assistant prosecutor in Gloucester County, N.J., said at a detention hearing Friday, NJ.com reported. Gutierrez said Lannon had confessed to luring several victims to a home in New Mexico and dismembering some of them. Authorities said in court documents that Lannon made the admission in a phone call to a relative, who told investigators he expressed remorse. Lannon has been charged only with the death in New Jersey, and his lawyer said his client was provoked. He’s been named a person of interest in the four New Mexico slayings. World & Nation Here’s what we know about the victims in the attacks on three Atlanta-area spas that left eight people dead, including six women of Asian descent. March 20, 2021 Police Lt. David Chavez in Lannon’s hometown of Grants, N.M., said authorities had no indication that his claims about 11 other killings were true and that they weren’t aware of any missing-person or homicide reports that would fit his narrative. “Is it possible? Sure, anything’s possible. Is it plausible?” Chavez said. “Unfortunately, we are still investigating that and conducting search warrants for evidentiary value.” It was a twist in a case that spanned the country but had many unanswered questions, including how Lannon was connected to the New Mexico slayings. Officials from the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, several police agencies in New Mexico, and police and prosecutors in New Jersey either didn’t respond to requests for comment Saturday or didn’t immediately have more information. The case began March 5, when the bodies of Lannon’s ex-wife and three other people were found in a vehicle in a parking garage at Albuquerque International Sunport, New Mexico’s largest airport. It’s not clear how they were killed. Police said three of them had been reported missing in January from Grants, about 80 miles west of Albuquerque. The victims were identified as Jennifer Lannon, 39; Matthew Miller, 21; Jesten Mata, 40; and Randal Apostalon, 60. Jennifer Lannon, Miller and Mata were friends, and Apostalon lived out of his car and was known to give rides for money, Grants police said. The bodies were found in Apostalon’s car. “I can understand he [Sean Lannon] stated that, you know, he shot his wife and her boyfriend,” Chavez said. “But Matthew was not her boyfriend, so I don’t know how he became involved.” Jennifer Lannon’s brother, Chris Whitman, told Albuquerque TV station KOB that he was shocked to hear his former brother-in-law claimed responsibility for multiple killings. “They were together for about nine years,” he said, “and it’s just mind-boggling because it’s someone I welcomed into my home and we had Thanksgiving dinner together.” Whitman told outlets that the couple had reconciled after their divorce and that his former brother-in-law left their three children with family in New Jersey and said he planned to find a job and then return to New Mexico to search for Jennifer Lannon. On March 8, three days after the remains were found in New Mexico, the body of Michael Dabkowski was discovered in his New Jersey home, just south of Philadelphia, after a welfare check. Sean Lannon is accused of breaking in and beating the 66-year-old to death with a hammer, according to an affidavit. Lannon told investigators that Dabkowski had sexually abused him as a child and that he had gone to the home to retrieve sexually explicit photos. Dabkowski mentored Lannon and his twin brother through a Big Brothers program in the 1980s, NJ.com reported. A search for Lannon ended with his arrest in St. Louis on March 10. He was driving a car stolen from Dabkowski. In court in New Jersey on Friday, public defender Frank Unger challenged probable cause for the murder charge, arguing that Dabkowski had allowed Lannon into his home and that what followed amounted, at worst, to manslaughter provoked by passion, NJ.com reported. He said Lannon, in trying to take back the photos, didn’t want anyone “to have control over me any longer.” Dabkowski had “documented those sexual assaults, those rapes, by taking pictures of himself with Mr. Lannon in sexually compromised positions,” Unger said. The public defender said Lannon retrieved two hammers from Dabkowski’s garage and gave them to the victim, saying, “You’re going to need these. I don’t want to hurt you.” “I would suggest that this fact alone illustrates this was not purposeful murder. He did not even bring a weapon to the home,” Unger said, arguing that Dabkowski attacked his client and then was killed. Unger wanted the judge to release Lannon before trial, saying he had no prior convictions and was an Army veteran with an honorable discharge. Lannon was born in Massachusetts and spent most of his early years in suburban Philadelphia’s Gloucester County before he was deployed to Germany, Unger said. He has family in southern New Jersey, including his mother and sister. But Gutierrez said Lannon “admitted his efforts to conceal evidence” in killings in New Mexico. The prosecutor added that Lannon had previously spent a week in jail in New Mexico for failing to appear in court. It wasn’t clear what he had been cited with. The judge ordered that Lannon remain behind bars. Unger, an attorney for Sean Lannon’s family and Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region didn’t immediately respond Saturday to messages seeking comment.

Hundreds in Atlanta rally against hate after spa shootings

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-20/hundreds-in-atlanta-rally-against-hate-after-spa-shootings

A diverse crowd gathered Saturday in a park across from the Georgia state Capitol to demand justice for the victims of shootings at massage businesses days earlier and to denounce racism, xenophobia and misogyny. The hundreds of people of all ages and varied racial and ethnic backgrounds who gathered in Liberty Plaza in Atlanta waved signs and cheered for speakers, including U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and Georgia state Rep. Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American to serve in the Georgia House. “I just wanted to drop by to say to my Asian sisters and brothers, we see you, and, more importantly, we are going to stand with you,” Warnock said to loud cheers and against the backdrop of drivers in passing cars honking their horns in support. “We’re all in this thing together.” World & Nation Here’s what we know about the victims in the attacks on three Atlanta-area spas that left eight people dead, including six women of Asian descent. March 20, 2021 Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white man, is accused of killing four people inside two Atlanta spas and four others at a massage business about 25 miles away in suburban Cherokee County. Six of the eight people killed Tuesday were women of Asian descent. Another person also was shot but survived. Investigators have said Long confessed to the slayings but said they weren’t racially motivated. He claimed to have a sex addiction, which caused him to lash out at what he saw as sources of temptation, according to authorities. Police have said they’re still working to establish a motive, including looking into whether the attacks can be classified as hate crimes. Georgia lawmakers last year passed a hate crimes law that allows additional penalties to be imposed for certain offenses when motivated by a victim’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender or disability. A hate crime is not a stand-alone crime under the law, but it can be used to add time to a sentence once someone is convicted of another crime. “No matter how you want to spin it, the facts remain the same. This was an attack on the Asian community,” said Nguyen, who has been a frequent advocate for women and communities of color. She noted that the shooter targeted businesses operated by women of Asian descent. “Let’s join hands with our ally community and demand justice for not only these victims but for all victims of white supremacy,” she said. A couple hundred people gathered in a separate park in the heart of downtown Atlanta and marched together through the streets to join the larger rally, yelling slogans such as “Stop Asian hate” and “We are what America looks like.” Frankie Laguna, 23, who grew up in Atlanta but now lives in Tennessee, was an organizer of that group and told the crowd she was the first person in her family born in the U.S. after her mother came here from Taiwan. “I’m sick of being belittled and hypersexualized and hated for who I am, for something I can’t change,” she said as the group began marching toward the Capitol. She also participated in protests last summer against racial injustice and police brutality. “I’m tired of having to be out here every year to fight the same fight,” she said. Bernard Dong, a 24-year-old student from China at Georgia Tech, said he attended Saturday’s protest to demand rights not just for Asians but for all people of color. “Many times, Asian people are too silent, but times change,” he said. Dong said he was “angry and disgusted” about the shootings, and the violence that persists in 2021 against Asians, people of color and women. Otis Wilson, a 38-year-old Black photographer, said people need to pay attention to the discrimination faced by those of Asian descent. “We went through this last year with the Black community, and we’re not the only ones who go through this,” he said. Camden Hunt, a 28-year-old Black woman, said she first got involved in activism in her native Baltimore. She previously attended protests over the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who suffered a broken neck in police custody in Baltimore in 2015, triggering riots and protests that year. She moved to Atlanta four years ago and got involved in community organizing, last summer pulling together an event to support Black women victimized by police violence. Hunt came to the rally Saturday to “show Black and Asian solidarity.” She said she was heartened by the diverse crowd: “I think it’s amazing. I look out and I see people of all shades and ages and backgrounds.”

Spectators from abroad to be barred from Tokyo Olympics

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2021-03-20/spectators-from-abroad-to-be-barred-from-tokyo-olympics

Spectators from abroad will be barred from the Tokyo Olympics when they open in four months, the IOC and local organizers said Saturday. The decision was announced after an online meeting of the International Olympic Committee, the Japanese government, the Tokyo government, the International Paralympic Committee and local organizers. For the record: 7:19 a.m. March 20, 2021An earlier version of this article said about 1 million tickets are reported to have been sold to fans from outside Japan. About 600,000 such tickets have been sold. The move was expected and rumored for several months. Officials said the risk was too great to admit ticket holders from overseas during a pandemic, an idea strongly opposed by the Japanese public. Japan has attributed about 8,800 deaths to COVID-19 and has controlled the virus better than most countries. “In order to give clarity to ticket holders living overseas and to enable them to adjust their travel plans at this stage, the parties on the Japanese side have come to the conclusion that they will not be able to enter into Japan at the time of the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” the Tokyo organizing committee said in a statement. About 600,000 tickets are reported to have been sold to fans from outside Japan. Organizers have promised refunds, but this will be determined by so-called authorized ticket resellers that handle sales outside Japan. These dealers charge fees of up to 20% above the ticket price. It is not clear if the fees will be refunded. Soccer The U.S. men’s soccer team managed to get the job done in a 1-0 victory over Costa Rica in its CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament opener. “We could wait until the very last moment to decide, except for the spectators,” said Seiko Hashimoto, the president of the organizing committee. “They have to secure accommodations and flights. So we have to decide early otherwise we will cause a lot of inconvenience from them. I know this is a very tough issue.” IOC President Thomas Bach called it a “difficult decision.” “We have to take decisions that may need sacrifice from everybody,” he said. The financial burden of lost ticket sales falls on Japan. The local organizing committee budget called for $800-million income from ticket sales, the third largest income source in the privately finance budget. Any shortfall in the budget will have to be made up by Japanese government entities. Overall, Japan is officially spending $15.4 billion to organize the Olympics. Several government audits say the actual cost may be twice that much. All but $6.7 billion is public money. About 4.45 million tickets were sold to Japan residents. Organizers are expected next month to announce the capacity at venues, which will be filled by local residents. The ban on fans from abroad comes just days before the Olympic torch relay starts Thursday from Fukushima prefecture in northeastern Japan. It will last for 121 days, crisscross Japan with 10,000 runners, and is to end July 23 at the opening ceremony at the National Stadium in Tokyo. The relay will be a test for the Olympics and Paralympics, which will involve 15,400 athletes entering Japan. They will be tested before leaving home, tested upon arrival in Japan, and tested frequently while they reside in a secure “bubble” in the Athletes Village alongside Tokyo Bay. Business A SoCal woman paid $5,400 for tickets to the postponed Tokyo Olympics. The company that sold them is offering only a partial refund. Athletes will not be required to be vaccinated to enter Japan, but many will be. In the midst of Saturday’s meeting, Bach and others were given a reminder about earthquake-prone northeastern Japan — and Japan in general. A strong earthquake shook Tokyo and triggered a tsunami advisory as Bach and others made introductory remarks before the virtual meeting. The strength was put at 7.0 by the U.S. Geological Survey and the location was in northeastern Japan, an area hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami in 2011. “I think the screen is shaking. Have you noticed the screen is shaking,” Tamayo Marukawa, Japan’s Olympic minister, said as she made her presentation from Tokyo talking remotely to Bach visible on a screen in Switzerland. “We’re actually in the midst of an earthquake right now.” Officials there said there were no immediate reports of damage.

U.S., India to expand military engagement, defense ties

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-20/india-us-to-expand-military-engagement-defense-ties

Top defense officials from India and the United States pledged Saturday to expand their military engagement, underscoring the strengthening defense ties between two countries concerned over China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh met in New Delhi and agreed to deepen defense cooperation, intelligence sharing and logistics. “India is an increasingly important partner in rapidly shifting international dynamics. I reaffirm our commitment to a comprehensive forward-looking defense partnership with India as a central pillar of our approach to the Indo-Pacific region,” Austin said. Austin is making the first visit to India by a top member of President Biden’s administration. His visit follows a meeting last week among leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the United States, which together make up the four Indo-Pacific nations known as the Quad. The Quad is seen as a counterweight to China, which critics say is flexing its military muscle in the South China Sea, East China Sea, Taiwan Strait and along its northern border with India. World & Nation China approves plans to exert more power over Hong Kong, compete with the U.S. in technology and bolster Mandarin-language education. China has called the Quad an attempt to contain its ambitions. Austin’s Indian counterpart, Singh, said the talks were focused on “expanding military-to-military engagement.” “We are determined to realize the full potential of comprehensive global strategic partnership,” Singh said. Austin arrived in New Delhi on Friday and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, Modi “outlined his vision for the strategic partnership between the two countries and emphasized the important role of bilateral defense cooperation in India-U.S. ties.” Before the talks Saturday, Austin visited the National War Memorial and was accorded a ceremonial guard of honor. The timing of Austin’s visit, which follows talks between high-ranking U.S. and Chinese officials in Alaska amid a bitter exchange of words, signals the importance Biden places on New Delhi as a security ally. Technology and the Internet Biden plans to implement a rule authored under Trump that gives the Commerce Department authority to ban transactions involving ‘foreign adversaries.’ The U.S. and India have steadily ramped up their military relationship in recent years and signed a string of defense deals and deepened military cooperation. In 2019, the two sides concluded defense deals worth more than $3 billion. Bilateral defense trade increased from near zero in 2008 to $15 billion in 2019. The U.S.-India security partnership enjoys strong bipartisan support in Washington, and it has grown significantly since the early 2000s even though trade agreements have been a sticking point. But in recent years, relations between the countries have been driven by a convergence of interests to counter China. More recently, India drew closer to the U.S. following its months-long military standoff with China along their disputed border in eastern Ladakh, where deadly clashes erupted last year. Tensions between the nuclear-armed Asian giants have eased after the two countries pulled back troops from one area of contention.

Current aide accuses Cuomo of sex harassment, report says

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-19/new-york-times-current-aide-accuses-cuomo-of-sex-harassment

A woman who currently works in the office of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he looked down her shirt and made suggestive remarks to her and another aide, according to a newspaper report published Friday. Alyssa McGrath told the New York Times that Cuomo called her beautiful in Italian, referred to her and her female colleague as “mingle mamas,” asked why she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring and inquired about her divorce. “He has a way of making you feel very comfortable around him, almost like you’re his friend,” McGrath told the newspaper. “But then you walk away from the encounter or conversation, in your head going, ‘I can’t believe I just had that interaction with the governor of New York.’” McGrath is the first current aide to come forward publicly to join mounting allegations of sexual misconduct against Cuomo. His behavior with women is the subject of an investigation overseen by the state’s attorney general and a separate impeachment investigation by the New York Assembly, the state’s lower legislative chamber. McGrath told the New York Times that her female colleague was the same woman the governor is accused of groping in the executive mansion, an allegation that was revealed in a report last week in the Times Union of Albany. That aide hasn’t been identified publicly. McGrath said the woman spoke with her in detail about what happened to her after the Times Union report was published. Cuomo, a Democrat, has repeatedly denied allegations of sexual misconduct. A lawyer for him told the New York Times that Cuomo has used Italian phrases like “ciao bella,” which means “hello, beautiful” in Italian, and greeted men and women alike with hugs and a kiss. “None of this is remarkable, although it may be old-fashioned,” lawyer Rita Glavin said. “He has made clear that he has never made inappropriate advances or inappropriately touched anyone.” McGrath did not accuse the governor of inappropriate touching, but described a time when she was sitting alone with Cuomo for a dictation session when she caught him gazing at her. “I put my head down waiting for him to start speaking, and he didn’t start speaking,” she told the New York Times. “So I looked up to see what was going on. And he was blatantly looking down my shirt.” She said Cuomo then asked, “What’s on your necklace?” Assembly Democratic Speaker Carl Heastie on Friday said the body’s impeachment investigation will examine “all credible allegations” against the governor, including whether he used his office to sexually harass or assault employees. Other subjects under investigation, Heastie said, will include whether Cuomo withheld information on COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes from the public, and his administration’s handling of safety concerns at a newly constructed bridge over the Hudson River. “Your charge is to determine whether evidence exists to support a finding that the governor has engaged in conduct, as governor, that violates the laws of the State of New York and whether such violations constitute serious and corrupt conduct in office that may justify articles of impeachment,” Heastie wrote in a Friday letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Lavine. Other aspects of the investigation, including how long it will take and how public its proceedings or findings will be, are still being determined. The Assembly earlier this week hired the Manhattan law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell to assist with the investigation. The pace of the inquiry has frustrated some lawmakers who want Cuomo out now. “It’s pretty strange to me and I think that we are needing to ask a lot of questions here,” said Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, a Democrat. “With any kind of lack of transparency or lack of access to any process, one has to ask about the motivations and one has to ask: Why?” Meanwhile, polling suggests that while Cuomo’s support slipped following the allegation of groping at the executive mansion, his political base hasn’t abandoned him. A Quinnipiac University poll of 905 registered voters found that while 43% believe he should resign, 36% of women polled said he should quit, and 23% of Democrats wanted him to resign. Among respondents of all political affiliations, 36% said Cuomo should be impeached and removed from office. The poll was conducted before McGrath’s allegations were made public. Cuomo says he never touched anyone inappropriately. He has apologized, though, for what he said were attempts to engage in office banter that he now realizes offended women who worked for him. An attorney for one of Cuomo’s accusers, Charlotte Bennett, has said she won’t cooperate with the Assembly’s inquiry because of questions about potential political interference. Bennett and several other women who have accused Cuomo of harassment have already been interviewed by attorneys working for state Atty. Gen. Letitia James. Federal prosecutors are also scrutinizing whether Cuomo’s administration misled the public or the U.S. Justice Department about COVID-19 fatalities at nursing homes.

Zoos, scientists aim to curb people giving virus to animals

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-19/zoos-scientists-aim-to-curb-people-giving-virus-to-animals

The coughing among the western lowland gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in January was the first warning sign. Soon the fears were confirmed: A troop of gorillas became the first apes known to test positive for the coronavirus. Around the world, many scientists and veterinarians are now racing to protect animals from the coronavirus, often using the same playbook for minimizing disease spread among people. That includes social distancing, health checks and, for some zoo animals, a vaccine. Karen, a 28-year-old orangutan, became the first ape in the world to get a coronavirus vaccine on Jan. 26 at the San Diego Zoo. She has received two shots of a vaccine from Zoetis, a veterinary pharmaceutical company in New Jersey, and has shown no adverse reactions. Since then, nine other primates at the San Diego Zoo have been fully vaccinated: five bonobos and four orangutans. Four more animals — one bonobo and three gorillas — got their first shot this month and will get a second one in April. “I was really convinced that we wanted to get that to protect our other great apes,” said Dr. Nadine Lamberski, the zoo’s wildlife health officer. She said she felt an urgency to act after the eight gorillas fell sick. That virus outbreak was linked to a zookeeper who was infected but had no symptoms. Seven gorillas recovered after a mild cases of sniffles, but one elderly silverback had pneumonia, probably caused by the virus, as well as heart disease. He was put on antibiotics and heart medication, and received an antibody treatment to block the virus from infecting cells. About three dozen zoos across the United States and abroad have put in orders for the Zoetis vaccine, which is formulated to elicit a strong immune response in particular animal species. “We will jump at the opportunity to get the Zoetis vaccine for our own great apes,” said Oakland Zoo’s veterinary director, Dr. Alex Herman, who is ordering 100 doses. Zoetis got a permit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide the doses on an experimental basis to the San Diego Zoo. The company will need to apply for the same permission to provide vaccine to additional zoos. California Nine great apes at the San Diego Zoo are the first non-human primates to receive an experimental COVID-19 vaccine, zoo officials said Thursday. March 4, 2021 Scientists believe the coronavirus probably originated in wild horseshoe bats, before jumping — perhaps through an intermediary species — to humans. Now many researchers worry that humans may unwittingly infect other susceptible species. “Right now, humans are the main vectors of SARS-CoV-2, with consequences for many animal species,” said Arinjay Banerjee, a disease researcher at McMaster University in Canada. Great apes such as gorillas, which share 98% of their DNA with humans, are especially susceptible, as are felines. So far, confirmed coronavirus cases include gorillas, tigers and lions at zoos; domestic cats and dogs; farmed mink and at least one wild mink in Utah. Scientists have also experimentally shown that ferrets, raccoon dogs and white-tailed deer are susceptible, although pigs and cattle are not. “This could be a conservation concern, especially if the virus began to spread in a wild species with extremely reduced populations, like the black-footed ferret,” which is endangered, said Kate Langwig, an infectious disease ecologist at Virginia Tech. Another worry is that virus spread among other species could produce new variants, complicating health authorities’ efforts to curb the pandemic. Science & Medicine A pair of studies in Science examine how coronavirus variants evolve in human hosts and why experts are concerned about relaxing restrictions too soon. March 11, 2021 In Denmark, workers at a mink farm accidentally infected the animals. As the coronavirus spread among the mink, it mutated — and human handlers contracted the new variant. In response, the government ordered millions of mink to be killed. “Mutations happen when there’s a lot of disease transfer going on between animals,” said Dr. Scott Weese, a veterinary microbiologist at the Ontario Veterinary College. Many recommended steps to minimize disease spread to animals are familiar: wearing masks and sanitizing shared equipment, regular health checks, and maintaining physical distance. Since the outbreak, the San Diego Zoo and its safari park north of San Diego have installed more fans at its indoor primate areas to increase air circulation. The staff wears double masks and face shields and limits their time indoors with animals. Scientists and conservationists who monitor wild primates have also adapted their daily routines. “COVID-19 has been a wake-up call for the world about the fact that these viruses can go from wild animals to people, and from people to great apes,” said Dr. Kirsten Gilardi, executive director of Gorilla Doctors, a conservation group that includes field veterinarians who treat wild gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are only about 1,000 wild mountain gorillas, so the threat of coronavirus infection “has changed the way we do our work,” said Felix Ndagijimana, the Rwanda country director for Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, a conservation group. For the last year, field trackers who check on gorillas daily in the rainforest first get a coronavirus test, then stay with other trackers in an encampment for work stints of several weeks. This is to ensure that they don’t pick up the bug by returning to their villages at night. “It was really a big ask of our team, especially during the pandemic. People want to be close to their families, but also keep the gorillas safe,” said Ndagijimana. To date, he said, there have been no coronavirus cases among wild gorillas. California Multiple gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park have tested positive for the virus. It’s believed they contracted it from an asymptomatic staff member. Jan. 11, 2021 While some wild gorillas were vaccinated against measles in the 1980s, there are currently no plans to vaccinate them against the coronavirus. With wild apes, the first choice is always to be as hands-off as possible, said Jean Bosco Noheli, a field veterinarian for Gorilla Doctors in Rwanda. “Let’s focus on other measures we can take first to protect wild gorillas,” he said. But more zoo animals could soon be getting virus shots. “There’s a lot of interest,” said Dr. Sharon Deem, a veterinary epidemiologist at the St. Louis Zoo who is also part of a hazard preparedness group of the Assn. of Zoos & Aquariums, which represents 240 zoos. “I think given how horrible this particular pathogen has been to humans, and that we know it can be transmitted between humans and animals, that there is great interest to use an animal vaccine as soon as it is available,” she said. Larson reported from Washington. Associated Press reporter Terry Chea in Oakland contributed to this report.

Gunmen ambush police convoy near Mexico City, killing 13

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-18/gunmen-ambush-police-convoy-near-mexico-city-killing-13

Gunmen apparently from a drug gang ambushed a police convoy Thursday in central Mexico. killing eight state police officers and five prosecution investigators in a hail of gunfire, authorities said. The massacre of the 13 law enforcement officers in the state of Mexico was the country’s biggest slaying of law enforcement officers since October 2019, when cartel gunmen ambushed and killed 14 state police officers in the neighboring state of Michoacan. The Thursday ambush sparked a huge search for the killers in a rural, gang-plagued area southwest of Mexico City, which is surrounded on three sides by Mexico state. The dead law enforcement officers worked for the state. Though Mexico state contains suburbs of the capital, it also includes lawless mountain and scrub lands like the one where the attack occurred. Rodrigo Martínez Celis, the head of the state Public Safety Department, said soldiers, marines and National Guard troops were combing the area by land and from the air looking for the killers. “The convoy was carrying out patrols in the region, precisely to fight the criminal groups that operate in the area,” Martínez Celis said. “This aggression is an attack on the Mexican government. World & Nation Some 80,000 Mexicans have disappeared in the last 15 years. Many are now thought to be in government custody — among the thousands of corpses that pass through morgues each year without ever being identified and end up in common graves. Feb. 28, 2021 “We will respond with all force,” he added. There was no immediate indication as to what gang or cartel the gunmen might have belonged to. Several operate in the area around Coatepec Harinas, where the attack occurred. The town is near a hot springs resort known as Ixtapan de la Sal, which is popular among Mexico City residents as a weekend getaway. But it is also relatively close to cities including Taxco, where authorities have reported activities by the Guerreros Unidos gang, apparently allied with the Jalisco cartel, and by the Arcelia gang, dominated by the Familia Michoacan crime organization. The attack appears to present a challenge for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has pursued a strategy of not directly confronting drug cartels in an effort to avoid violence.

Students defrauded by for-profit colleges to have federal loans fully erased

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-18/students-who-got-partial-loan-relief-to-see-full-discharge

Thousands of students defrauded by for-profit schools will have their federal loans fully erased, the Biden administration announced Thursday, reversing a Trump administration policy that had given them only partial relief. The change could lead to $1 billion in loans being canceled for 72,000 borrowers, all of whom attended for-profit schools, the Education Department said. “Borrowers deserve a simplified and fair path to relief when they have been harmed by their institution’s misconduct,” said Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “A close review of these claims and the associated evidence showed these borrowers have been harmed, and we will grant them a fresh start from their debt.” The department said it was rescinding the formula used by the Trump administration to determine partial relief and putting in place “a streamlined path to receiving full loan discharges.” The decision applies to students who already had their claims approved and received only partial relief, the department said. A senior department official briefing reporters said the agency was continuing to review both the backlog of claims yet to be decided and those that have been denied. The department described Thursday’s action as “a first step” and said it would be looking at rewriting the regulations down the road. The borrower defense to repayment program allows students to have their federal loans canceled if they were defrauded by their schools. The Obama administration had expanded the program aimed at helping students who attended for-profit colleges such as Corinthian and ITT Technical Institute, which have shut down. But President Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, pulled it back, saying it had become too easy for students to have their loans erased, and revised the program to make it harder for them to get relief, including providing only partial cancellation of the loans. Congress voted to overturn DeVos’ changes last March, but it was vetoed by Trump. The Education Department said a total of 343,331 applications for relief under borrower defense had been received as of Feb. 28. Of those, 61,511 had been approved and borrowers notified. Most of the others had been declared ineligible or were still pending. In addition to having their loans fully canceled, the Biden administration said students who received only partial awards will be reimbursed for any payments made on the loans and have their eligibility for federal student aid reinstated. The department said it also would ask credit bureaus to remove any negative ratings tied to the loans. “Abandoning partial relief is a strong start for a narrow subset of borrowers, but what we need from the Education Department is an overhaul of the current borrower defense process,” said Toby Merrill, director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending, which represents former students at for-profit colleges. “The previous administration turned borrower defense into a total sham that was rigged to deny claims without any true consideration,” Merrill said. “The Biden-Harris administration must now address these failings or else perpetuate a system that is stacked against the very students they are supposed to protect.” Career Education Colleges and Universities, an industry lobbying group, said it had no comment on the Biden administration’s actions. Congress voted to overturn DeVos’ changes last March, but it was vetoed by Trump. Nearly two dozen state attorneys general had sued the Trump administration over its implementation of the borrower defense to repayment program, which allows borrowers to have their loans canceled if their colleges made false claims to get them to enroll. One of the plaintiffs in that suit was California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, who was confirmed Thursday as President Biden’s health secretary. The lawsuit, which was filed in July, argued that DeVos had changed the policy without justification, failed to provide a meaningful process for students to get their loans forgiven and created “arbitrary impediments” for them, including forcing them to prove that their schools knowingly misled them. Sen. Patty Murray, who heads the Senate committee overseeing education, said DeVos used “faulty math” to deny students full relief. Rep. Robert C. Scott (D-Va.), chair of the House Committee on Education and Labor, called it “a nonsensical formula.” “This announcement is life-changing for tens of thousands of people across the country,” Scott said.

Johnny Depp's lawyers seek to appeal libel ruling, citing new Amber Heard evidence

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-18/lawyers-for-johnny-depp-seek-to-appeal-wife-beater-ruling

Lawyers for Johnny Depp told Britain’s Court of Appeal Thursday that the actor’s ex-wife, Amber Heard, did not donate all of her $7-million divorce settlement to charity as she claimed, part of arguments seeking to overturn a ruling that the actor assaulted Heard during the couple’s marriage. The Hollywood star is seeking permission to appeal a High Court ruling in November, when he lost his libel lawsuit against the Sun newspaper for labeling him a “wife beater” in an article. High Court Justice Andrew Nicol ruled that lawyers for Sun publisher News Group Newspapers proved during the trial that the allegations against Depp, made in an April 2018 article, were “substantially true.” The judge ruled that Depp, 57, assaulted Heard on a dozen occasions and put her in fear for her life three times. On Thursday, Depp’s lawyers argued for an appeal based on what they said was fresh evidence that Heard did not donate the entire amount of her $7-million divorce settlement to two charities. Lawyer Andrew Caldecott said the donation claims gave Heard a “considerable boost to her credibility as a person” and that they had “tipped the scales against Mr. Depp from the very beginning.” Entertainment & Arts A British judge rules that a tabloid newspaper did not defame actor Johnny Depp when it called him a ‘wife beater’ in an article two years ago. Nov. 2, 2020 Neither Depp nor Heard was present for Thursday’s hearing in London. The couple divorced in 2016. Caldecott alleged that one of Heard’s supposed charitable beneficiaries, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, wrote to Depp’s business advisor in 2019 to say Heard had not made any donations. Caldecott called Heard’s claims a “calculated and manipulative lie” in written submissions to the judge. “It’s a false plus to her and a false minus to him,” he said Thursday. Caldecott also argued that Nicol, the High Court judge, unfairly rejected evidence unfavorable to Heard during last year’s trial. He said the judge should have placed more importance on recordings in which Heard appeared to admit to assaulting Depp when she was heard saying, “I can’t promise I won’t get physical again.” Her “promise about future conduct suggests that this is not necessarily a one-off,” the lawyer said. During the trial, the judge — and the public — heard lurid accounts from Depp and Heard in which each accused the other of abuse. Entertainment & Arts Johnny Depp’s libel case against a British tabloid that accused him of abusing Amber Heard is wrapping up after three weeks of often-lurid testimony. July 28, 2020 Nicol accepted Heard’s claim that she feared for her life on several occasions, including during what Heard described as a “three-day hostage situation” in Australia in March 2015 while Depp was filming a “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie. The judge found that 12 of the 14 instances of domestic violence cited had occurred and said that was sufficient to rule against Depp in his libel suit against the newspaper. Depp acknowledged wide-ranging drug problems but accused Heard of making up abuse allegations and insisted he was “not a violent person, especially with women.” His lawyers argued that the allegations caused “serious harm” to the actor’s reputation and “significant distress and embarrassment.”

Amid Women's History Month, House passes domestic violence bill

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-17/house-passes-domestic-violence-bill-pushes-issue-to-senate

With a nod to Women’s History Month, the Democratic-led House passed two measures Wednesday, one designed to protect women from domestic violence, the other to remove the deadline for states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act passed 244-172 with 29 Republicans joining Democrats in supporting the legislation. The resolution to repeal the ERA’s ratification deadline passed 222-204. Both measures face a more difficult path in an evenly divided Senate. The White House announced its support earlier Wednesday for reauthorizing VAWA, which aims to reduce domestic and sexual violence and improve the response to it through a variety of grant programs. Many Democratic congresswomen wore all-white outfits to commemorate the day, a nod to the women’s suffrage movement, when marchers would wear white dresses to symbolize the femininity and purity of their cause. Opinion If Biden really wants to support gender equality, he should use his political capital to help enshrine gender equality in the U.S. Constitution. March 10, 2021 President Biden introduced the original Violence Against Women Act in June 1990 when serving as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A subsequent version was eventually included in a sweeping crime bill that President Clinton would sign into law four years later. Congress has reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act three times since. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki called VAWA “one of the president’s proudest accomplishments” and said he is urging the Senate to work in a bipartisan manner so that he can sign the reauthorization bill into law soon. The original bill created the Office on Violence Against Women within the Justice Department, which has awarded more than $9 billion in grants to state and local governments, nonprofits and universities over the years. The grants fund crisis intervention programs, transitional housing and legal assistance to victims, among other programs. Supporters said the reauthorization would also boost spending for training law enforcement and the courts. “This bill leaves no victim behind,” said Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. The legislation also would prohibit people previously convicted of misdemeanor stalking from possessing firearms, a provision that generated opposition from the NRA and resulted in most Republicans voting against the measure in the last Congress. The other measure the House took up Wednesday would remove the deadline for states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, a decades-long effort to amend the Constitution to expressly prohibit discrimination based on sex. Congress initially required the states to ratify it by 1979, a deadline it later extended to 1982. The Justice Department under President Trump said that Congress cannot revive a proposed constitutional amendment after the deadline for its ratification has expired. Supporters would have to start over and follow Article V of the Constitution, which requires support from two-thirds of each chamber of Congress and ratification from three-quarters of the states before an amendment is added to the Constitution. The fight over the Equal Rights Amendment began almost a century ago. The amendment finally passed with the requisite majority in each chamber when President Nixon was serving his first term. Shortly after Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment last year, the archivist of the United States declared he would take no action to certify the amendment’s adoption, citing the Justice Department opinion. Earlier this month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by three Democratic state attorneys general that had sought to force the federal government to recognize Virginia’s vote last year. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove) noted that a champion of the amendment, the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, had said it was time to start anew. “This measure is brazenly unconstitutional,” McClintock said. “If the majority were serious, they would reintroduce the ERA and debate it openly and constitutionally as Ginsburg suggests.” The ERA faced bitter opposition from some conservatives, who say it could be used as a legal tool to fight state efforts to curb abortion. “If ratified, the ERA would be used to codify the right to abortion, undoing pro-life protections and forcing taxpayers to fund abortions,” said Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz). Supporters argued that the Constitution does not guarantee that all the rights it protects are held equally by all citizens without regard to sex. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), the sponsor of the resolution to repeal the ratification deadline, said there is no expiration date on equality. “We demand that we be put into the Constitution,” Speier said. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the Constitution places no deadlines on the process of ratifying constitutional amendments and that Congress clearly has the authority to extend or remove any deadlines it chose to set previously. “We are on the brink of making history,” Nadler said, “and no deadline should stand in the way.”

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has died at 61

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-17/tanzanias-president-john-magufuli-has-died-at-61

President John Magufuli of Tanzania, a COVID-19 skeptic whose populist rule often cast his East African country in a harsh international spotlight, has died. He was 61. Magufuli’s death was announced Wednesday by Vice President Samia Suluhu, who said the president died of heart failure. “Our beloved president passed on at 6 p.m. this evening,” said Suluhu on national television. “All flags will be flown at half-mast for 14 days. It is sad news. The president has had this illness for the past 10 years.” The vice president said that Magufuli died at a hospital in Dar es Salaam, the Indian Ocean port that is Tanzania’s largest city. He had not been seen in public since the end of February and top government officials had denied that he was in ill health even as rumors swirled online that he was sick and possibly incapacitated from illness. Magufuli was one of Africa’s most prominent deniers of COVID-19. He had said last year that Tanzania had eradicated the disease through three days of national prayer. Tanzania has not reported its COVID-19 tallies of confirmed cases and deaths to African health authorities since April 2020. But the number of deaths involving people experiencing breathing problems reportedly grew, and this month the U.S. Embassy warned of a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in Tanzania since January. Days later the presidency announced the death of John Kijazi, Magufuli’s chief secretary. Soon after, the vice president of the semiautonomous island region of Zanzibar was announced. His political party had earlier reported that he had COVID-19. Critics charged that Magufuli’s dismissal of the COVID-19 threat, as well as his refusal to lock down the country as others in the region had done, may have contributed to many unknown deaths.

Biden calls Putin a killer; a day later, Russia recalls its ambassador for consultations

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-17/russia-recalls-its-ambassador-to-the-u-s-for-consultations

Russia is recalling its ambassador to the United States for consultations, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday without citing a specific reason. The move to bring Anatoly Antonov to Moscow comes amid rising tensions with President Biden’s administration, which has imposed sanctions over the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is now in prison. It also comes on the heels of a declassified report from the U.S. national intelligence director’s office that finds President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations to help then-President Trump in November’s presidential election. World & Nation President Biden had his first call with Vladimir Putin, raising concerns about Alexei Navalny’s arrest while pressing Putin on bounties on U.S. troops. Jan. 26, 2021 In a television interview aired Tuesday in the U.S., Biden was asked whether he thought Putin is a killer. He nodded and said, “I do.” Asked about the intelligence report on Putin’s role in election interference, Biden said, “He will pay a price.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova did not cite specific reasons for Antonov’s return but said relations “are in a difficult state, which Washington has brought to a dead end in recent years.” “We are interested in preventing their irreversible degradation, if the Americans are aware of the associated risks,” she added.

Senate confirms Katherine Tai as Biden's top trade envoy

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-17/senate-confirms-katherine-tai-as-bidens-top-trade-envoy

The Senate confirmed Katherine Tai as the top U.S. trade envoy in an overwhelming bipartisan vote on Wednesday. She will be the first Asian American and first woman of color to hold the position. Tai is considered a problem-solving pragmatist, and her nomination by President Biden to be U.S. trade representative drew support from Democrats and Republicans alike. She was confirmed on a 98-0 vote and is the 19th member of Biden’s Cabinet to clear the Senate. A former trade negotiator and congressional staffer, Tai has vowed to work for a U.S. trade policy that benefits ordinary workers, not just big corporations, and to work more closely with America’s allies to confront an increasingly assertive China. In her confirmation hearing, she ducked questions about how she’d handle several politically sensitive questions, such as whether the Biden administration would drop former President Trump’s tariffs on imported steel and aluminum and whether it would revive an Asia-Pacific trade agreement that was negotiated by President Obama but jettisoned by Trump. Fluent in Mandarin, Tai served several years as head of China enforcement at the trade representative’s office. Politics Who are President Biden’s Cabinet members and what are their backgrounds? June 2, 2021 “I know firsthand how critically important it is that we have a strategic and coherent plan for holding China accountable to its promises and effectively competing with its model of state-directed economics,” Tai told senators last month, taking an indirect shot at Trump’s often chaotic approach to negotiations with Beijing. In the biggest trade war since the 1930s, Trump slapped taxes on $360 billion in Chinese imports in a fight over China’s aggressive push — alleged to include cybertheft — to promote its own technology companies and challenge U.S. technological dominance. Biden and his team appear to be in no hurry to reverse Trump’s China tariffs. U.S. legislators and policymakers across the political spectrum have taken an increasingly confrontational line on China, frustrated by its trade practices, crackdown on Hong Kong and aggressive pursuit of territorial claims in the South China Sea. Politics President Biden has his first conversation with President Xi Jinping of China. Feb. 10, 2021 Tai promised to work with U.S. allies to present a united front to Beijing. Rather than coordinating with U.S. allies on trade, Trump sparred with them, putting tariffs on imported steel and aluminum and threatening to target European cars too. At her confirmation hearing, Tai wouldn’t commit to dropping the tax on foreign metals, calling tariffs “a legitimate tool in the trade tool box.” Tai also dodged a question about whether the Biden administration would revive the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pact with 11 Pacific Rim countries. The pact excluded and was meant to isolate China and cement U.S. ties with other Asian countries. Trump called the TPP a job killer and withdrew from it in his first week in office. The pact also faced opposition in Biden’s Democratic Party. Tai last served as the top trade staffer at the House Ways and Means Committee. She handled negotiations with the Trump administration over a revamped North American trade deal. Under pressure from congressional Democrats, Trump’s trade team agreed to strengthen the pact to make it easier for Mexican workers to form independent unions and demand better pay and benefits — decreasing the incentives for U.S. firms to move south of the border to take advantage of cheap labor.

James Levine, conductor who ruled over New York's Metropolitan Opera, dies at 77

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-17/james-levine-who-ruled-over-met-opera-dead-at-age-77

Conductor James Levine, who ruled over New York’s Metropolitan Opera for more than four decades before being eased aside when his health declined and then was fired for sexual improprieties, has died. He was 77. Levine died March 9 in Palm Springs of natural causes, his physician of 17 years, Dr. Len Horovitz, said Wednesday. Levine made his Met debut in 1971 and became one of the signature artists in the company’s century-plus history, conducting 2,552 performances and ruling over its repertoire, orchestra and singers as music or artistic director from 1976 until he was forced out by general manager Peter Gelb in 2016 due to Parkinson’s disease. Entertainment & Arts James Levine has been a conductor in steady decline. Dec. 21, 2017 Levine became music director emeritus and remained head of its young artists program but was suspended on Dec. 3, 2017, after accounts in the New York Post and the New York Times of sexual misconduct dating to the 1960s. He was fired in March 2018 and never conducted again. He had been scheduled to make a comeback performance Jan. 11 in Florence, Italy, but the concert was canceled due to the pandemic.

Trump, in shift, urges supporters to get the COVID-19 vaccine

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-03-16/trump-in-shift-tells-supporters-that-covid-19-vaccination-is-safe

Former President Trump urged people to be vaccinated, saying he would recommend COVID-19 shots to “a lot of people that don’t want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me.” In an interview Tuesday night on Fox News, Trump said that people were free to decide for themselves whether they would be vaccinated. Politics As the U.S. seeks to build herd immunity from the coronavirus, Republicans’ vaccine hesitancy has emerged as a big challenge. Former President Trump hasn’t helped. March 15, 2021 “We have our freedoms and we have to live by that and I agree with that also. But it is a great vaccine. It is a safe vaccine and it is something that works,” he said. Republican opposition to receiving the vaccine is strong. A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 42% of Republicans say they probably or definitely will not get the shot, compared with 17% of Democrats — a 25-point split. Trump rarely promoted vaccination during his presidency, and he did not disclose publicly that he and First Lady Melania Trump got vaccinated near the end of his term in January. But when he appeared Feb. 28 at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, he said, “Everybody, go get your shot.”

Biden says Cuomo should resign if investigation confirms sexual harassment claims

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-16/biden-cuomo-should-resign-if-investigation-confirms-claims

President Biden said Tuesday that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should resign if the state attorney general’s investigation confirms the sexual harassment allegations against him. Biden made the remarks in an interview with ABC News that is scheduled to air Wednesday morning. When asked by anchor George Stephanopoulos, if the investigation confirms the claims of the women, should Cuomo resign, Biden said, “Yes,” adding, “I think he’d probably end up being prosecuted, too.” “It takes a lot of courage to come forward, so the presumption is it should be taken seriously,” Biden said. “And it should be investigated, and that’s what’s underway now.” Cuomo is facing allegations that he sexually harassed or behaved inappropriately toward multiple women, including several former staffers. The former staffers have accused Cuomo of workplace harassment, including demeaning them with pet nicknames or making objectifying remarks about their appearance, subjecting them to unwanted kisses and touches or asking them about their sex lives. Cuomo also faces an allegation that he groped a female staff member under her shirt after summoning her to the governor’s mansion in Albany late last year. He has denied touching any women inappropriately. The three-term governor has rejected calls for his resignation from fellow Democrats, including New York’s two U.S. senators, Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and has asked New Yorkers to await the results of an investigation headed by state Atty. Gen. Letitia James. James last week named a former federal prosecutor, Joon Kim, and employment discrimination attorney Anne Clark to lead the Cuomo investigation. They have full subpoena power and will document their findings in a public report. The sexual harassment investigation is in addition to scrutiny that Cuomo is facing from federal prosecutors who are looking into how his administration handled data on COVID-19 outbreaks at nursing homes.

Kentucky lawmakers advance rare bipartisan bill to expand voting

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-16/kentucky-lawmakers-advance-bipartisan-election-reform-bill

In sharp contrast to bitter partisan battles being waged elsewhere over election laws, Republicans and Democrats in Kentucky were on the verge Tuesday of joining forces to loosen the state’s voting access laws to make limited early voting a fixture. A measure overwhelmingly approved Tuesday in the state Senate would give Kentucky voters three days of no-excuse, early in-person voting — including a Saturday — before election day. But it backed off from the temporary, pandemic-related accommodations made last year that allowed widespread mail-in absentee balloting. The bill also seeks to strengthen election security protections. The legislation passed the Senate by a 33-3 margin, sending it back to the House to consider changes made to it. Republicans dominate both chambers, but Senate Democrats joined in voting for the bill. If it clears the Legislature, it would be sent to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. “If it passes and becomes law, not only will it transform the way in which Kentucky elects its public officials, but also ensure that we have one of the best voter integrity laws in the country,” said Damon Thayer, Republican Senate majority floor leader. Kentucky is accustomed to bare-knuckled partisan fights, but its top elections official noted the mild tone in the state, especially compared with the bitter debates on election law changes in other states. It echoed the tone set before last year’s primaries, when Beshear and Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams hashed out emergency voting measures during the pandemic that helped Kentucky largely avoid the long lines and other problems encountered elsewhere. Politics The Republican and Democratic parties’ battle over voting rights and restrictions threatens to dominate and embitter the country’s politics. March 3, 2021 Adams noted this week that while other states are “trying to make it harder to vote,” Kentucky lawmakers are “improving both voter access and election integrity.” He has called it Kentucky’s “most significant election-reform legislation” in nearly three decades. Across the country, Republicans have introduced a flood of legislation to restrict voting access after President Biden beat former President Trump in November. Many of the proposals target absentee voting after Trump repeatedly made false claims about fraud in mail voting. The Kentucky legislation, by contrast, would relax pre-pandemic voting law to make it easier to vote. It would allow counties to establish vote centers, where any voter in the county could vote regardless of precinct. It would maintain an online portal for Kentuckians to request a mail-in ballot but keep existing restrictions on who can vote by mail. On the election security side, the bill would result in the statewide transition toward universal paper ballots to guarantee a paper audit trail. It enhances the ability of state election officials to remove nonresident voters from voter rolls. It expressly prohibits and penalizes ballot harvesting, the practice of collecting ballots from likely supporters and returning them to election offices. Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit last year, Kentucky prohibited early voting by mail or in person unless a person could not vote on election day because of advanced age, illness, severe disability or temporarily residing out of the county or state. The special pandemic-related election rules Beshear and Adams worked out last year included multiple weeks of early in-person voting, including Saturdays, to prevent a crush of election day voting. Politics The state has the only female-majority legislature in the country. The result is reflected in a number of new laws. March 16, 2021 Republican lawmakers backed away from continuing weeks of early in-person voting for future elections, but they accepted the three days of no-excuse, early in-person voting. Sen. Morgan McGarvey, the chamber’s top-ranking Democrat, said the bill’s expanded voting options didn’t go as far as he wanted but he saw it as a start. “I’d like to see even more voting options included in this bill,” McGarvey said during the Senate debate. “But I do think it’s important for us to codify some of these changes now and they do give the voters more options, and we can continue to work on it.”

Former GOP Rep. Doug Ose enters likely California recall election against Newsom

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-16/former-gop-rep-doug-ose-enters-california-recall-election

Former Republican congressman Doug Ose announced Tuesday he’s entering the recall election aimed at ousting California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a day after the Democratic governor began raising money to defend his seat in a likely election this year. Ose becomes the third established Republican to enter the emerging contest, joining former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and businessman John Cox, who was defeated by Newsom in a landslide in 2018. It’s possible they could eventually be among dozens of candidates. There were 135 on the ballot in the state’s 2003 recall election that removed former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis from office and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. The former congressman said he was ready to work across party lines to reopen schools and businesses in a state upended by the coronavirus, while taking on the long-running homelessness crisis. “Californians are tired of having a governor whose operating themes are hypocrisy, self-interest, half truths and mediocrity,” Ose said in a statement announcing his candidacy. “Newsom sides with unions that close our schools while sending his own kids to private school. He dines in the state’s fanciest restaurants while telling everyone else to stay at home. He lives in a gated mansion while allowing the state’s homeless crisis to spin out of control. Enough is enough,” added Ose, who served in Congress from 1999 to January 2005. California Gov. Gavin Newsom had refused to comment on recall efforts, saying his focus was on reducing coronavirus spread and ensuring Californians were vaccinated. March 15, 2021 On Monday, Newsom launched his campaign with an attack on the senior recall organizers, depicting them as political extremists loyal to former President Trump. Recall organizers said Newsom was attempting to smear an effort that has gathered over 2 million petition signatures statewide to place the proposal on the ballot this year. About 1.5 million signatures are needed for the recall to qualify for the ballot, though hundreds of thousands must still be validated by election officials. The deadline for submitting signatures is Wednesday. In an interview last month, Ose said voters are clamoring for new leadership after Newsom’s wobbly COVID-19 vaccine rollout and long-running coronavirus rules that have closed businesses and public schools. Ose, a businessman from the Sacramento region, said he will run in the recall if it qualifies or, if it doesn’t, challenge Newsom when he is expected to seek a second term in 2022. In interviews Tuesday, the governor kept up his criticism of leaders of the recall drive, telling CNN “we are taking it very seriously.” Newsom also defended his leadership during the pandemic, saying his decision to issue the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order saved “thousands and thousands” of lives. He has also been forced to defend his decision to attend a party with friends and lobbyists at an opulent restaurant while telling residents to stay home. California If the recall campaign’s results hold steady from last month — when state officials reported that almost 84% of the initial signatures were valid — there would be more than enough signatures for an election that could oust Newsom. March 11, 2021 In a Tuesday appearance on “The View,” he said attending the dinner was a one-time mistake. “Of course it was a mistake, and I didn’t shy away from that and never made one prior in that respect and since,” Newsom said. Newsom also has lined up support from national Democrats to defeat the campaign against him, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. It’s probably too early to say how a widening Republican field will affect the likely election. The recall is divided into two parts: First, voters are asked if Newsom should be removed, yes or no. The second question is a list of replacement candidates, should the governor be ousted. So far, no prominent Democrat has entered the recall election. Opinion Seeds of anger at Gov. Gavin Newsom, which existed long before COVID-19, can be traced to the lack of accountability in state government. March 16, 2021 Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney said the emergence of several candidates running on pro-Trump agendas would be an advantage for the incumbent in a state where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1 and Republicans haven’t won a statewide race since 2006. Trump lost California in November by over 5 million votes. “If it’s Newsom versus Trump, then Newsom wins,” Pitney said.

Senate confirms Isabel Guzman to lead Small Business Administration

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-16/senate-confirms-isabel-guzman-to-lead-small-biz-agency

The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved President Biden’s pick to oversee the Small Business Administration, an agency that has seen its portfolio expand in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The vote to confirm Isabel Guzman was 81-17. She is the 18th member of Biden’s Cabinet to win Senate confirmation. Guzman is a former Obama administration SBA official who has headed California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate. In that role, she oversaw efforts to help the state’s small businesses survive the pandemic. “I am confident that I can hit the ground running,” Guzman told senators in her confirmation hearing. The Small Business Administration oversees loan programs to help businesses recover from natural disasters, enhances access to capital through loan guarantees and provides training and technical assistance. Guzman said she would work to ensure money gets into the hands of the small businesses hurt the most by the pandemic and the economic crisis through no fault of their own. “I have every confidence that under Ms. Guzman’s leadership, the SBA will help small business owners hold on to their dreams until our economy comes roaring back,” said Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). Politics Who are President Biden’s Cabinet members and what are their backgrounds? June 2, 2021 Schumer noted that pandemic relief programs overseen by the Small Business Administration will dole out more than $1 trillion to the nation’s small businesses, nonprofits and religious institutions. The largest chunk of that funding will come through the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides low-interest loans that are forgivable if 60% of the loan is spent on payroll and the balance on other qualified expenses. The Government Accountability Office recently placed emergency small business loans on its list of programs considered highly vulnerable to fraud, waste or mismanagement.

Italy court blocks Steve Bannon-linked plans for populist academy

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-16/italy-court-blocks-bannon-linked-plans-for-populist-academy

Italy’s top administrative court has ruled against a conservative think tank affiliated with former White House advisor Steve Bannon over its use of a 13th century hilltop monastery to train future populist leaders, a decision Bannon denounced Tuesday as a politically motivated “joke.” The Council of State ruled that the Culture Ministry was correct in canceling the concession it had given to the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, or Human Dignity Institute. The court found that the institute had lied when it bid for the lease of the monastery in 2017, claiming it had qualifications to run it that “subsequently were shown to be not true.” The ruling overturned an earlier decision by a regional administrative tribunal that had sided with the institute. Buoyed by Donald Trump’s 2016 victory and the rise of nationalist sentiment in Europe, Bannon and the institute had launched plans to establish an academy to train populists and nationalists at the 13th century Trisulti monastery, an abbey surrounded by a forest in the province of Frosinone south of Rome. Bannon had said he would bring in teachers and raise money for the academy, which had been dubbed a “gladiator school” for the alt-right. But local residents objected and ultimately the Culture Ministry, under the leadership of the center-left politician Dario Franceschini, sought to revoke the lease, alleging a host of irregularities that the institute denied and that lower courts rejected. The Council of State, however, found that the institute had misrepresented its legal status and experience in the field of promoting cultural heritage when it originally bid for the concession, fudging requirements of the terms of the Culture Ministry’s tender. In its 40-page ruling, the tribunal said the institute had “obtained an economic advantage (winning the concession of a culturally relevant asset via a process of selection) on the basis of declarations made at the time of the bid that were subsequently shown to be not true.” It determined that the Culture Ministry was right to revoke the lease given the monastery is a part of Italy’s cultural heritage, and that doing so was in the “public interest” given the institute “never showed it truly possessed all the requirements” to maintain the monastery. The center-left leader of the Lazio region, Nicola Zingaretti, hailed the decision. “Steve Bannon and the sovereigntists must leave the Trisulti,” Zingaretti said on Facebook, vowing to work with the Culture Ministry to “return this marvelous place to the people.” The local Catholic bishop also praised the decision, saying the Council of State had done the right thing by returning the monastery “to the people of God and to the entire community.” In a statement reported by the Avvenire newspaper of the Italian bishops conference, Bishop Lorenzo Loppa said the diocese would now work with the community to find a new life for this “monastic jewel,” suggesting it could be used as the headquarters of a foundation. Bannon said Tuesday the court decision was a politically motivated “joke” that was befitting of a developing country. He labeled the Italian government “corrupt, incompetent and broke” and unable to care for the monastery, which he vowed to fight to keep. “We refuse to be stopped by the corrupt bureaucracy that infests Italian government and hurts the Italian people,” Bannon said in a statement, adding that the tribunal decision “brings further shame on Italy’s already-stained judiciary in the eyes of the whole world.” It is unclear, however, what further legal recourse he has. Benjamin Harnwell, founder and president of the institute, had previously argued the institute was being targeted because of its affiliation with Bannon and its support for Italy’s right-wing leader Matteo Salvini and his “heroic blockade of the illegal migration into Italy.” Dignitatis Humanae, which says its goal is to defend the Judeo-Christian foundations of Western civilization, had counted on the high-profile support of conservative American Cardinal Raymond Burke, who was named honorary president of the institute in February 2019. But Burke resigned in June of that year, saying in a statement he was stepping down because the institute had “become more identified with the political program of Mr. Bannon.” It’s the latest setback for Bannon’s efforts to rally the European right wing, after his earlier efforts to court the likes of Salvini and France’s Marine Le Pen ended with the Europeans largely brushing off Bannon. Former President Trump pardoned Bannon, his onetime chief strategist, in his final hours in office after Bannon was indicted on charges he allegedly defrauded thousands of donors who believed their money would help build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Prosecutors in New York say the money instead went to pay a campaign official’s salary and personal expenses.

Spike Lee to head Cannes Film Festival jury

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-03-16/spike-lee-to-head-cannes-film-festival-jury

Spike Lee, who was set to lead last year’s jury for the Cannes Film Festival that was ultimately canceled by the pandemic, will preside over this year’s jury instead. The French Riviera festival on Tuesday announced that Lee will be president of the jury for the 74th Cannes. Usually held in May, this year’s Cannes Film Festival has been delayed by the health crisis. It’s set to take place July 6-17. Lee is the first Black person to head the Cannes jury, which selects one of cinema’s top prizes, the Palme d’Or. Pierre Lescure, president of the festival, praised Lee for his loyalty and spirit. “Throughout the months of uncertainty we’ve just been through, Spike Lee has never stopped encouraging us,” said Lescure in a statement. “This support is finally coming to fruition and we could not have hoped for a more powerful personality to chart our troubled times.” Organizers said preparations “are in full swing” for this year’s Cannes, more details of which will be announced in coming weeks. Selections will be announced in early June. Several of Lee’s films premiered at Cannes, including “Do the Right Thing” in 1989. In 2018, his “BlacKkKlansman” won one of the festival’s top prizes, the Grand Prix.

Will cancer cases rise because the pandemic put screening exams on hold?

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-16/researchers-study-impact-of-pandemic-cancer-screening-pause

John Abraham’s colonoscopy was postponed for several months because of the pandemic. When he finally got it, doctors found a growth too big to be removed safely during the scope exam. He had to wait several weeks for surgery, then several more to learn it had not yet turned cancerous. “I absolutely wonder if I had gotten screened when I was supposed to have, if this would have been different” and surgery could have been avoided, said Abraham, a mortgage banker in Peoria, Ill. Millions of colonoscopies, mammograms, lung scans, Pap tests and other cancer screenings were suspended for several months last spring in the United States and elsewhere as COVID-19 swamped the healthcare system. Now researchers are studying the impact, looking to see how many cancers were missed and whether tumors found since then are more advanced. Already, there are hints of trouble. University of Cincinnati researchers found that when CT scans to check for lung cancer resumed in June, 29% of patients had suspicious nodules versus 8% in prior years. Multiple studies suggest that fewer cancers were diagnosed last year, likely because of less screening. About 75 cancer organizations recently urged a return to pre-pandemic screening levels as soon as safely possible. But tumors take years to develop, and some reports suggest that a few months’ delay in screening for certain types of cancer may not have been as bad as feared. For example, researchers in the Netherlands found that a lapse in that country’s mammography program did not led to more cancers being found at a late stage after screening resumed. The pandemic also bred some creative solutions, such as wider use of tests that can be done at home. In Philadelphia, a large church partnered with local doctors and used its drive-through flu shot program to also pass out stool tests for colon cancer screening. “We’re not afraid to try anything as it relates to health and wellness,” said the Rev. Leroy Miles of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. “The women were encouraging men to get the screening, saying, ‘I got my mammogram.’ And I’m saying, ‘ma’am, you have a colon too.’” California As cervical cancer screenings among Southern California women drop, experts sound the alarm about the ramifications of letting women’s wellness fall by the wayside. Feb. 22, 2021 Screening tests differ in their risks and benefits, and health experts have long debated who should get which ones and how often. The pandemic lapse may serve as a “natural experiment” to see their value in modern times versus what’s known from studies done long ago. Any difference in deaths may not be seen for years, and early detection is only one factor in survival. Treatment also matters and it was hurt by pandemic delays too. Dr. Ned Sharpless, director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, estimates there could be nearly 10,000 excess deaths over the next decade because of delayed detection and treatment of breast and colon cancers. Postponing care “was prudent at one time” because of the risks of COVID-19 exposure, but deferring for too long “may turn one public health crisis into many others,” he wrote in the journal Science. Based on what’s known about breast cancer deaths from past years in the United States, about 10% “could have been prevented if women were getting routine screening,” but 20% to 25% could have been prevented with appropriate treatment, said Dr. Otis Brawley, a Johns Hopkins University professor and former chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. “That’s not to say screening is not important, but many people think that cancer screening saves more lives than it actually does,” Brawley said. A short-term delay may not hurt mortality much if screening resumes quickly, as it needs to do, he said. Some reassuring news came at a recent American Assn. for Cancer Research conference from Sabine Siesling of the Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organization. That country offers women ages 50 to 74 a mammogram every two years but stopped in mid-March because of COVID-19. After it resumed in late summer, results “did not show any shift” to more advanced tumors, she reported. Researchers from Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s Hospital analyzed their screening tests for lung, cervical, colon, prostate and breast cancer. Screening dropped dramatically from March through June but the portion that found cancer or a precancer was higher than usual — suggesting that those who did get screened were at higher risk. When screening returned to near-normal from June to September, the number of potentially “missed” cancers was lower than expected. Science & Medicine A diagnosis of breast cancer is always accompanied by angst and uncertainty. It’s even more fraught when it comes in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. April 12, 2020 When 43-year-old actor Chadwick Boseman died of colon cancer last summer, Miles feared for the 12,000 members of his Philadelphia church. Black people are more likely to die of the disease than other groups, and there was limited access to colonoscopies, which can find and remove growths before they turn cancerous. Miles, who has drawn more than 1,000 church members to other health events, called the University of Pennsylvania and said, “We know how to get people to come if you’re willing and able to set something up.” Dr. Carmen Guerra had a federal grant to increase screening in racially diverse communities and realized that home tests could help. Studies show these tests, which look for blood in stool, help save lives. People put a tiny stool sample in a tube and mail it to a lab or, in this case, use a drop box at the church. If blood is found, the next step is colonoscopy. Doctors passed out kits in the parking lot during a drive-thru flu shot event in October. Church members had to watch a video about colon cancer in advance and register to ensure they qualified for screening. So far, 154 kits have been returned. Stacy Hill was among the 13 who tested positive. The 48-year-old Philadelphia woman had just lost her job and health insurance. Her colonoscopy revealed two growths that, like Abraham’s, were caught before they turned cancerous. “I was shocked,” Hill said. “I’m a proactive-type person so I was glad to know.” The doctors also helped her enroll in Medicaid, “so now I have medical insurance” and can continue getting cancer screenings, she said. The church hopes to offer the home tests again during blood pressure and diabetes screening events this spring.

Ken Kelly, a Black space engineer and L.A. housing advocate, dies at 92

https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2021-03-15/black-space-engineer-housing-advocate-ken-kelly-dies

Kenneth C. Kelly, an early-day electronics engineer whose antenna designs contributed to the race to the moon, made satellite TV and radio possible and helped NASA communicate with Mars rovers and search for extraterrestrials, has died. He was 92. The engineer also worked to erase race barriers in the Navy, California housing and even on the newspaper comics pages. As a Black resident in Los Angeles, his efforts to buy residences in largely white neighborhoods had been repeatedly rebuffed. Kelly was battling Parkinson’s disease when he died Feb. 27, his son Ron Kelly said. Kelly was awarded more than a dozen patents for innovations in radar and antenna technology, work that appears in peer-reviewed journals from 1955 to 1999. His early work at Hughes Aircraft helped create guided missile systems and the ground satellites that tracked the Apollo space missions, he said in an oral history recorded by his family. His two-way antenna designs at Rantec Microwave Systems enabled consumers to have DirecTV and Sirius XM connections, and are featured in the massive Mojave Desert radiotelescopes that search for signs of life in space, according to his son and colleagues at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After many years working on deep space missions through NASA subcontractors, Kelly worked directly for JPL from 1999 until retiring in 2002, helping design robotic antennas for the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, said Joseph Vacchione, who manages the JPL’s antenna test range. Kenneth Kelly, a trailblazing Black electronics engineer in California, has died. He was 92. Kelly designed antennas that contributed to the race to the moon, made satellite TV and radio possible and helped Mars rovers send data back to Earth. https://t.co/b0OwN8ms8U #NASA pic.twitter.com/NMV2xpn28R Kelly appeared in an Associated Press article in 1962 after he moved his family into Gardena, a middle-class suburb that had excluded Black people. To overcome a racist covenant and the repeated refusals of real estate agents, he had to ask a white colleague at Hughes to make the purchase on his behalf. “We have pretty much the same hopes, fears, ambitions, strengths and frailties that have typified all of human existence,” Kelly wrote in a letter to his white neighbors, urging them to set aside “stereotyped notions,” according to the AP story. Kelly and his wife Loretta later moved near Cal State Northridge to be closer to his job and have their children attend better schools. According to the 2017 oral history, the agent wouldn’t sell him the lot, so he had to repeat the demeaning experience of having white friends buy it for him before signing over the mortgage. Kelly became president of the San Fernando Valley Fair Housing Council, testing listings to prove discrimination, lobbying authorities and going to court to prevent whites-only advertising. To do more from the inside, he became a leading Realtor, helping many Black families move into new suburbs in the 1970s. Kelly had another role in promoting racial harmony after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. A white ally of the Kellys on the Fair Housing Council, schoolteacher Harriet Glickman, had been corresponding with cartoonist Charles Schulz, urging him to add a Black character to his comic strip. At the time, Black people were all but invisible in mass media. Letters published by the Charles M. Schulz Museum show the cartoonist was reluctant, fearing the move would seem patronizing to Black people in the wake of King’s death. Glickman recruited Kelly to persuade Schulz otherwise. Kelly urged the cartoonist to treat the Black character as a “supernumerary” — just another member of the Peanuts gang. The character, Franklin, soon appeared on a beach, helping Charlie Brown build a sandcastle. Kelly was born in 1928 in New York City and raised by a single mother who worked as a live-in maid. At 13, Kelly began living in the Harlem YMCA, where he was mentored by older Black men, including photographer Gordon Parks. He tested into Brooklyn Tech high school, then enlisted in the Navy to be trained as an electronics technician. When he was told that he could only be a steward to white officers, he wrote to the chief recruiter and was allowed to take the engineering exam just when President Truman was moving to desegregate the military. “I think I’m a crazy optimist,” Kelly said in his oral history. “I’m definitely the half-full glass person. I meet lots of people who are so pessimistic. I always thought I could.” Kelly’s Navy training helped him excel at Brooklyn Polytechnic College and get a job at Hughes Aircraft in 1953. He later learned that his white colleagues had been polled to see if they would work with a Black man; the few who said they’d quit were told to do so. Kelly and Loretta were members of the Ethical Cultural Society for decades. He also formed a society of Black scientists and engineers who launched science fairs and outreach programs to minority students in Los Angeles, which was booming with Black people fleeing the South in the post-war period. “I think the more contact between the ones who have been successful in what they’re doing and the ones who are several steps down the line, the better,” he said. Kelly felt racism’s sting repeatedly in life but was determined to overcome it. “We have a terrible real history of defeat, horrible conditions, death, rapes, just a hell of a history of Blacks in this country, but I don’t think knowing it is that valuable unless it encourages you do more to beat it somehow, and I think we can,” Kelly said in his oral history. Kelly, who was married three times, is survived by his wife Anne, son Ron, stepson Steve and two grandchildren. He was predeceased by his son David. Warren writes for the Associated Press.

Stocks climb for fifth consecutive day, led by technology shares

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-15/stocks-extend-gains-for-fifth-day-led-by-technology-shares

Stocks shook off an early stumble and closed broadly higher Monday, nudging some of the major U.S. indexes to more all-time highs as the market added to its recent string of gains. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index ended the day up 0.7%, extending its winning streak to a fifth day. Technology companies, airlines, cruise operators and other companies that rely on consumer spending helped lift the market. Bank and energy stocks were the only laggards. Wall Street continues to eye the bond market, where yields pulled back a bit from Friday’s sharp increase. Investors are also focused on the recovery of the U.S. and global economies from the COVID-19 pandemic. The $1.9-trillion aid package for the U.S. economy has lifted investors’ confidence in a strong recovery in the second half of this year, but it has also raised concerns about a potential jump in inflation. President Biden’s pledge to expand vaccine eligibility to all Americans by May 1 should also translate into faster economic growth. Rising interest rates continue to be a key concern for investors after the sudden jump in bond yields over the last month. Rates are not yet at a concerning level, and both the markets and economy can easily digest them, said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist at BMO Wealth Management. “The question ultimately becomes how well markets can digest and stay the course on the idea that these increases are temporary,” he said. “As well as coming to terms with the idea that temporary might be three or four quarters.” The S&P 500 rose 25.60 points to 3,968.94. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 174.82 points, or 0.5%, to 32,953.46. Both indexes set new all-time closing highs, eclipsing the records they set Friday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 139.84 points, or 1.1%, to 13,459.71. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks rose 7.38 points, or 0.3%, to 2,360.17 — another record high. Bond yields ticked down slightly Monday, with the 10-year U.S. Treasury note falling to 1.61% from 1.62% on Friday. The mild drop in yields affected bank stocks the most, as investors have placed big bets that higher yields would translate into banks charging borrowers higher rates. Bank of America shares fell 0.5%, Wells Fargo dropped 0.7% and Citigroup lost 1.3%. Technology stocks, which have been hurt by the rise in bond yields, resumed climbing. Apple rose 2.4%, while Tesla gained 2%. The bond market has pulled tech stocks mostly lower this year because as yields push interest rates higher, they make highflying stocks look expensive. Some economists fear that inflation, which has been dormant over the last decade, could accelerate under the extra demand generated by a surge in government spending. Others disagree, pointing out that there are 9.5 million fewer jobs in the U.S. economy than there were before the pandemic, and arguing that unemployment will keep a lid on inflation. United Airlines surged 8.3%, the biggest gain in the S&P 500, after the Transportation Security Administration said it screened more than 1.3 million people both Friday and Sunday, the most since the coronavirus outbreak devastated travel a year ago. American Airlines shares rose 7.7%. Delta Air Lines gained 2.3%. JetBlue Airways climbed 5.9%. Cruise operators, whose shares have been pummeled over the last year, also had a good day. Carnival gained 4.7%, Royal Caribbean climbed 4.8% and Norwegian Cruise Line added 2.4%. Markets got a mixed message from China. It has led the global recovery, reopening earlier than other countries from coronavirus shutdowns. Retail sales there jumped nearly 36% in January and February from a year earlier. The outsized gain benefited from a flattering comparison with the low level of activity during last year’s shutdowns, ING said. Meanwhile, China’s jobless rate rose to 5.5% from 5.2% a year earlier, possibly affected by coronavirus flare-ups in some areas, analysts said. The Shanghai Stock Exchange fell 1%.

How well do COVID-19 vaccines protect after an organ transplant?

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-15/how-well-do-covid-vaccines-protect-after-organ-transplant

A new study raised questions about how well COVID-19 vaccines protect organ transplant recipients — and what precautions people with suppressed immune systems should take after the shots. Vaccines rev up the immune system to recognize the virus, something that’s harder to do if someone’s immune cells aren’t in good working order. Transplant recipients take powerful immune-suppressing drugs to prevent organ rejection, increasing their risk from the coronavirus — but also excluding them from vaccine studies. Specialists say the shots appear safe for transplant recipients and any protection is better than none. But how much protection do they get? On Monday, researchers at Johns Hopkins University reported a first attempt to find out. They tested 436 people who had received new organs in recent years and were getting the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. A few weeks after the first dose, 17% of the transplant recipients had developed antibodies against the coronavirus, said Dr. Dorry Segev, a Hopkins transplant surgeon who co-authored the study. Segev acknowledged transplant recipients may fare better after the second dose — he plans to check that too — but prior studies show the first shot is enough to kickstart antibody production in just about everybody with a well-functioning immune system. Of most concern, people whose transplant medications include a type called an anti-metabolite were far less likely to respond to the shot than those who don’t require that kind of drug, the team reported in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. California It’s OK to have small, maskless gatherings indoors if everyone is vaccinated, but the CDC still warns against nonessential travel. March 8, 2021 The findings come after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fully vaccinated people can relax some, but not all, of the masking and distancing precautions against the coronavirus. Segev called on the CDC to consider a more nuanced message. “From what we know, transplant patients cannot assume that they are safe after being vaccinated,” Segev said. They may need post-vaccination blood tests to be sure, he added. The CDC didn’t immediately comment. Dr. David Mulligan, Yale University’s chief of transplant surgery and immunology, said Monday’s report is a disappointment but not a surprise, because people with weak immune systems don’t respond as well to other vaccines. Some transplant groups, including the American Society of Transplantation, already have issued cautions about that. Science & Medicine A pair of studies in Science examine how coronavirus variants evolve in human hosts and why experts are concerned about relaxing restrictions too soon. March 11, 2021 Mulligan urged patients to check in with their transplant center for advice. Those waiting for a life-saving organ transplant might be able to get vaccinated first. He said some people who’ve already had a transplant might be good candidates to temporarily cut back on certain immune-suppressing drugs. And the immune-compromised should be sure to get both vaccine doses for the best chance at protection. “Our patients are already calling” for advice, Mulligan said. “Until you’ve had your antibodies checked and you know, boy, I’ve got a vigorous immune response — or we’ve got better data,” the immune-compromised shouldn’t let down their guard against the virus.

Dallas Seavey wins Iditarod, matches most wins by a musher

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-15/dallas-seavey-wins-iditarod-matches-most-wins-by-a-musher

Dallas Seavey on Monday won the pandemic-shortened Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, matching the most wins ever by a musher. Seavey brought his 10 dogs across the finish line near the community of Willow, Alaska, with a healthy lead over the second-place musher, Aaron Burmeister. It was the fifth title for Seavey, who matched the five-win threshold that only one other musher had accomplished. Rick Swenson won his five titles between 1977 and 1991. “It’s a big deal,” Seavey said at the finish line after a race official checked to make sure his sled was complete with a sleeping bag, axe, dog booties and other mandatory gear. His finish was televised statewide. Seavey said he didn’t allow himself to think about a fifth win while on the trail because he didn’t want to jinx it. “That’s huge, man,” he said. “I looked up to the Iditarod champions my whole life, and I’ve dreamed about this my whole life. And now to actually go from that to see it happen — to realize that, that’s pretty cool.” His official winning time was 7 days, 14 hours, 8 minutes and 57 seconds. Seavey previously won four titles in a five-year span, starting in 2012. He last raced in 2017 after Iditarod officials said four of his dogs tested positive for a banned opioid painkiller. At the time, he vehemently denied giving his dogs any painkillers. A year later, the Iditarod reversed course and cleared Seavey of any wrongdoing. But he sat out the race until this year, choosing to compete with his dogs in Europe instead. This year’s Iditarod had a route change and was shortened to about 850 miles because of the pandemic. Mushers started the race near Willow, about 50 miles north of Anchorage. From there, they traveled to the ghost town of Iditarod and then turned back around to finish in Willow. A normal race is about 1,000 miles and takes mushers across the wilds of Alaska from Willow to the finish line in Nome, on the state’s Bering Sea coast. Seavey won just over $40,000 and a snowmobile for winning the world’s premiere sled dog event.

Biden declines to call for Cuomo to resign, awaits probe

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-14/biden-declines-to-call-for-cuomo-to-resign-awaits-probe

President Biden on Sunday passed up an opportunity to join other Democrats calling for the resignation of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is under investigation after multiple allegations of sexual harassment. Asked by a reporter if Cuomo should resign, Biden responded, “I think the investigation is underway and we should see what it brings us.” Biden, who made the comments upon returning to the White House from a weekend at his home in Delaware, had not previously spoken publicly about the allegations against Cuomo. However, his comments reflect the wait-and-see position the White House has taken regarding Cuomo’s future. Politics In Afghanistan, Taliban militants could threaten major cities unless President Biden’s administration can progress on a peace deal by May, top U.S. commanders said. March 14, 2021 On Friday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki would not say whether Biden believes Cuomo should resign. She said every woman who has come forward “deserves to have her voice heard, should be treated with respect and should be able to tell her story.” She has said in past weeks that the president supports the investigation. Several prominent New York Democrats, including Sens. Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have called on Cuomo to step down. The three-term governor has refused to resign and has denied he did what has been alleged. Six women, several of them former members of his staff, have alleged that he sexually harassed or behaved inappropriately toward them. Cuomo has denied touching any women inappropriately. New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James is leading the investigation into the allegations.

Chile becomes Latin America's COVID-19 vaccination champion

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-14/chile-becomes-latin-americas-covid-19-vaccination-champion

After being among the world’s hardest-hit nations with COVID-19, Chile is now near the top among countries at vaccinating its population against the virus. With more than 25% of its people having received at least one shot, the country of 19 million on South America’s Pacific coast is the champion of Latin America, and globally it is just behind Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. That’s a far cry from the beginning of the pandemic, when Chile was criticized over its inability to trace and isolate infected people. So what is the secret to its success? Government officials and health experts say it was the country’s early negotiations with vaccine producers, as well as its past experience with robust vaccination programs, a record praised by the World Health Organization. During the first months of the pandemic, the headlines in Chile were bleak, with the country’s intensive care units almost full and the government unable to control the virus’s spread despite restrictions that included mandatory lockdowns. But another story was developing in parallel that few people knew about, one that had begun months before and would later guarantee Chile fast access to vaccines. Andrés Couve, Chile’s minister of science, told the Associated Press that formal negotiations with vaccine-producing companies started last April, only a month after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. By May, Couve said, a team of experts and officials presented a plan to President Sebastián Piñera, including a road map about how to use the country’s network of trade agreements and its previous contacts with pharmaceutical companies to get vaccines once they were developed. Recommendations included being part of clinical trials. This effort was helped by contacts made months earlier in China. In October 2019, Chilean biochemist Dr. Alexis Kalergis traveled to Beijing with two Chilean colleagues for an international congress on immunology. There, Kalergis met experts from the Chinese pharmaceutical Sinovac Biotech Ltd. Kalergis had already approached Sinovac about working on vaccine research. So when China announced in January 2020 that it had identified a new virus, and within weeks the world saw it spreading around the globe, Kalergis knew he needed to reach out to his colleagues at Sinovac. “Taking advantage of our experience, the contacts and the interest that we expressed … we started conversations with Sinovac,” said Kalergis, director of the Milenio Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at Chile’s Catholic University. He spoke to Sinovac colleagues in January and February 2020, then went to Catholic University Dean Ignacio Sánchez with the details, saying they needed to be passed on to the government. Sánchez approached Chile’s health minister and foreign secretary, urging early negotiations with Sinovac and other pharmaceuticals and for Chile to be part of their clinical trials. The ministers agreed, and the Chilean government began making diplomatic contacts. By June, long before any other country in Latin America, Chile had secured a contract with Sinovac, which agreed to deliver an early batch once the vaccine was authorized, Kalergis said. Rodrigo Yáñez, undersecretary for international economic relations and lead negotiator with companies to get the vaccines, said Chile understood from the beginning that it needed to work with different pharmaceutical companies at the same time. “We looked at different alternatives and didn’t put all the eggs in the same basket,” he said. World & Nation Last year, protests paralyzed Chile. Many in Chile now see similarities in the U.S. upheaval in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. June 15, 2020 Chile was part of a Sinovac clinical trial that started in December and involved 2,300 medical workers. The government has not published its results, saying only that they were good. Trials for vaccines by AstraZeneca, Janssen and the Chinese pharmaceutical CanSino were also done in Chile, and those results also have not been disclosed. Chile received its first vaccine doses in December, some 21,000 from Pfizer, but they were fewer than promised. The country immediately began vaccinating medical workers. By the end of January, Chile received the first 4 million doses from Sinovac and was able to speed up inoculation. Mass vaccination started in February. Chile was administering more than 100,000 shots almost daily since early February, and that more than tripled last week. On Wednesday, it reached a daily global record of 1.3 shots per 100 inhabitants, followed by Israel with 1.04 doses, according to Our World in Data, a collaboration between researchers at the University of Oxford and the nonprofit Global Change Data Lab. No other country in Latin America has had anything near Chile’s success. Brazil, for example, has vaccinated only 4% of its population, and Argentina around 3%, compared to more than 25% in Chile. Health Minister Enrique París said Chile has now secured 35 million doses to vaccinate 15 million people, and it’s already helping other countries. Earlier this month, Chilean authorities donated 20,000 Sinovac doses to Paraguay and the same amount to Ecuador. Chile had “good planning and wisely used the resources it has to make bilateral agreements with some producers,” Jarbas Barbosa, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization, said last week. This is not the first time Chile has conducted a successful vaccination program. Last year, between March and April when the virus was emerging, Chilean authorities vaccinated 8 million people against the flu. Mario Patiño, 75, was among the first to be vaccinated with a Sinovac dose in February at a school in Lo Prado, a poor residential area of Santiago. “Everything was perfect, fast, with an excellent service, well organized,” said Patiño, who was getting his second shot on Saturday. “For me, the vaccine means to be calmer.”

Pelosi pledges swift work on major infrastructure package

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-14/pelosi-pledges-swift-work-on-major-infrastructure-package

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday pledged swift work by Congress on a jobs and infrastructure package that she said would be “fiscally sound” but acknowledged she wasn’t sure whether the next major item on President Biden’s agenda would attract Republican backing. Fresh off a major legislative victory on the $1.9-trillion virus relief package that passed along near-party lines, Democrats face long and tough battles ahead in winning GOP endorsement of the administration’s plans. Road- and bridge-building legislation has a long history of support from both parties as lawmakers aim to deliver on projects back home. But Republicans disagree with Biden’s focus on the environment and the possibility of financing any program with debt after the government has borrowed heavily to address the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. “Building roads and bridges and water supply systems and the rest has always been bipartisan, always been bipartisan, except when they oppose it with a Democratic president, as they did under President Obama, and we had to shrink the package,” said Pelosi (D-Calif.). “But, nonetheless, hopefully, we will have bipartisanship,” she said. Pelosi has directed key Democratic lawmakers to begin working with Republicans on a “big, bold and transformational infrastructure package.” Housing & Homelessness A homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake has become a symbolically fraught case study of the rights to public spaces March 13, 2021 During the presidential campaign, Biden laid the groundwork by proposing $2 trillion in “accelerated” investments to shift to cleaner energy, build half a million charging stations for electric vehicles, support public transit and repair roads and bridges. The plan emphasizes the importance of creating unionized jobs and addressing climate change. The White House originally planned to come out with a plan in February, but more recently hasn’t committed to a timeline. A rollout is likely to slide into April as the administration embarks on a nationwide push over the coming weeks to sell Americans on the benefits of the COVID-19 relief bill. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), chairman of House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, hope to pass a bill out of their committees in May. The package could include policy changes — on green energy and immigration — and even try to make permanent some of the just-passed COVID-19 assistance such as child tax credits. “It is going to be green and it is going to be big,” DeFazio told the Associated Press. Democrats used a fast-track budget process known as reconciliation to approve Biden’s COVID-19 relief plan without Republican support, a strategy that succeeded despite the reservations of some moderates. But work on passing infrastructure legislation in a Senate split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris providing a tiebreaking vote will probably prove more difficult. Moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) recently made clear he would block infrastructure legislation if Republicans weren’t included. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 3 Senate Republican, said he wanted to see bipartisan support for an infrastructure legislation. But he said the House in the last Congress modified a Senate-passed $287-billion bill in a way that Republicans could not accept. “We got it to the House, and what did the House do? They replaced our highway bill with the Green New Deal,” Barrasso said. “So they ignored what we have done in a bipartisan way. If they would take the model that we came up with in the committee in the Senate for highway and transportation, I think that’s a very good start. I talked with the secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, about it, and I think that is the model on which we should move forward on transportation and infrastructure.” On Sunday, Pelosi declined to say whether tax increases would be required for the House legislation, stressing that Congress would explore all options, including generating revenue with something similar to the Obama administration’s Build America bonds. “This is about broadband. It’s about water systems. It’s about mass transit. It’s about good-paying jobs all over the country,” she said. “It’s also about schools and housing and the rest. ... So the goal is to promote good growth, creating good-paying jobs as we protect our planet and are fiscally sound.” Pelosi and Barrasso spoke on ABC’s “This Week.”

Trump should urge his followers to get vaccinated, Fauci says

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-14/fauci-trump-should-urge-his-followers-to-get-vaccinated

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday he wished former President Trump would use his popularity among Republicans to persuade his followers to get the COVID-19 vaccine. In a round of interviews on the morning news shows, the government’s top infectious disease expert lamented polling that showed Trump supporters were more likely to refuse to be vaccinated, saying politics needs to be separated from “commonsense, no-brainer” public health measures. Fauci said it would be a “game changer” for the country’s vaccine efforts if the former president used his “incredible influence” among Republicans. “If he came out and said, ‘Go and get vaccinated. It’s really important for your health, the health of your family and the health of the country,’ it seems absolutely inevitable that the vast majority of people who are his close followers would listen to him,” Fauci told “Fox News Sunday.” There was no immediate comment from the former president’s office Sunday. California Parents expressed concerns, confusion and objections at two rallies, while the teachers union used a virtual town hall format to explain the deal to reopen schools. March 13, 2021 Trump has urged people to get vaccinated, doing so again late last month at a conservative political gathering in Florida. But he hasn’t been among former presidents and other public officials who have been vaccinated on camera to encourage others to get the shot. It was revealed only recently that he was vaccinated in private at the White House before leaving office in January. Trump did not appear in a new public service campaign for the COVID-19 vaccine that included former Presidents Carter, Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama. Polls have shown Republicans joining Black people and other groups in expressing greater skepticism than others about the safety of the vaccine. Fauci said he didn’t understand the resistance. “What is the problem here? This is a vaccine that is going to be lifesaving for millions of people,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He added: “I mean, I just can’t comprehend what the reason for that is when you have a vaccine that’s 94-95% effective and it is very safe. I just don’t get it.” World & Nation More than half a million people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19. Hope is in sight, but devastation remains. Feb. 22, 2021 The number of vaccine doses distributed and administered each day in the U.S. is rising, with more than 2.5 million daily shots on average in the last week. About 1 in 5 Americans have received at least one dose, with about 1 in 9 fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The coronavirus is blamed for over 530,000 deaths in the United States. Deaths and newly confirmed infections per day have tumbled over the past two months. But cases are running at a still-troubling average of about 55,000 a day. Fauci repeatedly warned against pulling back on public health measures too early, saying the virus could come surging back, endangering the goal of getting the country closer to normal by early July. He pointed to Europe as a cautionary tale. Rising virus cases this winter followed rollbacks on restrictions on the continent.

FEMA to help manage unaccompanied minors at U.S.-Mexico border

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-13/fema-to-help-manage-unaccompanied-minors-at-us-mexico-border

The Biden administration is turning to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help managing and caring for record numbers of unaccompanied immigrant children who are streaming into the United States by illegally crossing the border with Mexico. FEMA will support a governmentwide effort over the next three months to safely receive, shelter and transfer minor children who arrive alone at the U.S. southwest border, without a parent or other adult, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said Saturday. Government figures show a growing crisis at the border as hundreds of children illegally enter the U.S. from Mexico daily and are taken into custody. The Homeland Security Department is supposed to process and transfer unaccompanied minor children to the Department of Health and Human Services within three days so that they can be placed with a parent already living in the United States, or other suitable sponsor, until their immigration cases can be resolved. But more children are being held longer at Border Patrol facilities that weren’t designed with their care in mind because long-term shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services have next to no capacity to accommodate them. Children are being apprehended daily at far higher rates than Health and Human Services can release them to parents or sponsors. Politics Just over 50 days into his administration, Biden has won unexpected praise from progressives, with many pointing to sub-Cabinet appointments. March 12, 2021 Mayorkas said FEMA is working with the Health and Human Services Department to “look at every available option to quickly expand physical capacity for appropriate lodging.” “Our goal is to ensure that unaccompanied children are transferred to HHS as quickly as possible, consistent with legal requirements and in the best interest of the children,” Mayorkas said. During a record influx of unaccompanied minors in 2014, the Obama administration also turned to FEMA for help coordinating the governmentwide response. During that crisis, FEMA helped stand up temporary shelters and processing stations on military bases. President Biden has ended the Trump-era practice of expelling immigrant children who cross the border alone, but maintained expulsions of immigrant families and single adults. While his administration has tried to deter immigrants from entering the U.S., many of them believe they have a better chance now that Biden is president. There have also been growing reports of parents sending their children across the border alone while they remain in Mexico or Central America.

Hiking wardrobe hit a plateau? Here's how to level up

https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2021-03-13/best-hiking-clothes-shoes-hats-socks-pants-more

This story is part of our ultimate guide to hiking in L.A. You can buy a print copy at the L.A. Times store. Everyone has a hand in the outdoor clothing scene these days. Don’t be surprised if you see Gucci boots and beanies on the trail. The Italian luxury label collaborated with outdoor clothing giant North Face to create a fashion line. Many hikers won’t be wearing the double Gs, but that doesn’t mean they don’t care about how they look. Here are items that make a different style statement. These lightweight titans can take on the Pacific Crest Trail. Really. Hoka’s new TenNine Hike Gore-Tex ($250, hokaoneone.com) with fat shock-absorbing heels and a wacky look has received positive notices from gear testers. Altra’s sturdy Lone Peak Hiking Boots ($140, altrarunning.com) with a wide toe box and ankle support also go the distance. Of course, if you’re in love with luxe style, check out boots from the North Face x Gucci Collection, featuring both logos ($1,450; bit.ly/NorthFaceXGucci). You aren’t stuck with the baggy look, unless you want to be. Yoga pants and leggings have long made the leap to the trails. Athleta’s Trekkie Hike Pant ($98, athleta.gap.com) looks like traditional trail pants but are made of reinforced ripstop nylon that stretches when you do. Toad & Co., based in Santa Barbara, offers an Earthworks Pant made of cotton, Tencel and spandex that’s moisture-wicking and stylish ($85, toadandco.com). Long-sleeve shirts are must-have protection against harsh Southern California sun. The trick is to find one light enough to protect you without boosting the sweat factor. Mountain Hardwear’s Canyon Long Sleeve Shirt ($65, mountainhardwear.com) with 50 SPF fabric keeps you covered in classic button-down fashion. If that look is too shirt-y, Patagonia makes a lightweight Capilene Cool Daily Hoody ($55, patagonia.com) that blocks the sun and offers 50 SPF protection. Choosing a summer hiking hat is tough. If you like the Lawrence of Arabia look, Sunday Afternoons’ Ultra Adventure Hat protects the back of your neck with a 6-inch flap. It also has sleeves to hold your sunglasses in place ($42, sundayafternoons.com). Prefer the ball-cap look? Fjallraven’s Abisko Hike Lite Cap ($35, fjallraven.com/us/en-us) has a wide brim and sweat-absorbing headband. It’s quick-drying too, no matter how sweaty you get. Good hiking socks are expensive but worth it. Look for breathable fabrics that will keep your feet dry as well as cushioning key areas to keep your feet comfy during long days on the trail. Smartwool’s PhD Pro Hike Crew Socks ($27.95, smartwool.com) comes in different designs and combine merino wool, nylon and elastane to create a warm, breathable sock. They’re also designed to guard against rubbing that could cause blisters. Royal Robbins’ Venture Crew Sock ($22, royalrobbins.com) is unisex, comes in various colors (I like Arctic blue) and adds cushioning to support the arch and back of the ankle. There are no seams on the toes, another way to avoid friction on your boots.

Russian police detain more than 170 at opposition forum in Moscow

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-13/police-detain-participants-in-russian-opposition-forum

Russian police on Saturday detained more than 170 participants in a forum of independent members of municipal councils, an action that comes amid the authorities’ multipronged crackdown on dissent. Police showed up at the gathering in Moscow shortly after it opened, saying that all those present would be detained for taking part in an event organized by “undesirable” groups. A police officer leading the raid said the detainees would be taken to police precincts and charged with administrative violations. OVD-Info, an independent group monitoring arrests and political repression, said that more than 170 participants in the forum were detained. Among them were Ilya Yashin, an opposition politician who leads one of Moscow’s municipal districts; the former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Roizman; and Moscow municipal council member Yulia Galyamina. “Their goal was to scare people away from engaging in politics,” Andrei Pivovarov, a politician who helped organize the forum, said in a video from inside a police van. Pivovarov has played a leading role in Open Russia, a group funded by self-exiled Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Khodorkovsky moved to London after spending 10 years in prison in Russia on charges widely seen as political revenge for challenging President Vladimir Putin’s rule. World & Nation Russian authorities say they are slowing down the speed of uploading photos and videos to Twitter over its failure to remove banned content. A 2015 law introduced criminal punishment for membership in “undesirable” organizations. The government has used the law to ban about 30 groups, including Open Russia. An earlier law obliged nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign funding and engage in activities loosely described as political to register as foreign agents. The laws have been widely criticized as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to stifle dissent, but Russian authorities have described them as a fit response to alleged Western efforts to undermine the country. The police crackdown on Saturday’s forum follows the arrest and imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Navalny, Putin’s most determined political foe, was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation. Last month, Navalny was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for violating the terms of his probation while convalescing in Germany — charges he dismissed as a Kremlin vendetta. His arrest and imprisonment triggered a wave of protests across Russia, to which the authorities responded with a massive crackdown. The government has intensified its crackdown on the opposition ahead of parliamentary elections set for September as the popularity of the main Kremlin-backed party, United Russia, has waned.

U.N. extends its South Sudan peacekeeping force to prevent a return to civil war

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-12/un-mandates-south-sudan-force-to-prevent-return-to-civil-war

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to extend the almost 20,000-member U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, with a mandate “to advance a three-year strategic vision to prevent a return to civil war” and build peace both nationally and locally. The resolution approved by the council also authorizes the mission, known as UNMISS, to “support inclusive and accountable governance and free, fair and peaceful elections.” It demands that all parties to the conflict and armed groups “immediately end the fighting throughout South Sudan.” There were high hopes that South Sudan would have peace and stability after gaining its long-fought independence from Sudan in 2011. But the world’s youngest nation slid into ethnic violence in December 2013, when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, started battling those loyal to Riek Machar, his former vice president who belongs to the Nuer people. Numerous attempts at peace failed, including a deal that saw Machar return as vice president in 2016 — only to flee the country months later amid fresh fighting. Intense international pressure followed a 2018 peace deal, and on Feb. 22, 2020, a coalition government led by Kiir was formed, with Machar as his deputy. But peace still remains elusive. The civil war has killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions, and the death toll keeps rising. The Security Council resolution recognized that the reduction in violence between parties to the peace agreement “and that the permanent cease-fire was upheld in most parts of the country.” But it also strongly condemned all fighting, including increased violence between armed groups in some parts of the country. And it condemned the mobilization of these armed groups by members of the government’s forces and by armed opposition groups. The council demanded that South Sudan’s leaders fully implement the permanent cease-fire, including reconstituting the Transitional National Legislative Assembly and the Council States and initiating “a permanent constitution-making process, with broad-based public consultations.” Council members expressed “grave concern” at ongoing reports of sexual and gender-based violence and demanded that all parties immediately halt all violence and human rights abuses, including rape and other violence against women, and hold those responsible accountable. The resolution expressed alarm at “the dire humanitarian situation, the high levels of food insecurity in the country and likely famine in some areas” and at the 8.3 million South Sudanese in need of humanitarian assistance. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said at a Security Council meeting Thursday on conflict-driven hunger that in South Sudan “chronic sporadic violence, extreme weather and the economic impact of COVID-19 have pushed more than 7 million people into acute food insecurity,” the highest level since the country declared independence from Sudan 10 years ago. Food prices are so high, Guterres said, “that just one plate of rice and beans costs more than 180% of the average daily salary — the equivalent of about $400 here in New York.” World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley told the council Thursday that he visited the country’s western Pibor county in early February and heard in recent days that “in extreme circumstances, mothers are resorting to feeding their children with the skin of dead animals — or even mud.” “This is a desperate situation that calls for urgent attention,” he said. “The local population call 2021 ‘the year of starvation.’ And their suffering is the result of widespread conflict, and the unprecedented floods that came in 2019 and 2020. These people are in the crossfire of conflict while bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.” Robert Mardini, the director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross who visited South Sudan last week, said Wednesday that it is “a forgotten conflict” facing a “humanitarian crisis” made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. The resolution adopted Friday extended the mandate of UNMISS until March 15, 2022. It details the responsibilities of U.N. peacekeepers in protecting civilians, creating conditions to deliver humanitarian aid, supporting the peace process and implementation of the 2020 agreement, and in monitoring, investigating and reporting on human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law.

Inquiry faults Rochester mayor, officials for keeping Daniel Prude death secret

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-12/probe-faults-mayor-officials-for-keeping-prude-death-secret

An investigation into the official response to Daniel Prude’s police suffocation death last year in Rochester, N.Y., is faulting the city’s mayor and former police chief for keeping critical details of the case secret for months and lying to the public about what they knew. The report, commissioned by Rochester’s City Council and made public Friday, said Mayor Lovely Warren lied at a September news conference when she said it wasn’t until August that she learned officers had physically restrained Prude during the March 23, 2020, arrest that led to his death. Warren was told that very day that officers had used physical restraint, the report said, and by mid-April she, then-Police Chief La’Ron Singletary and other officials were aware that Prude had died as a result and that the officers were under criminal investigation. “In the final analysis, the decision not to publicly disclose these facts rested with Mayor Warren, as the elected mayor of the city of Rochester,” said the report, written by New York City-based lawyer Andrew G. Celli Jr. “But Mayor Warren alone is not responsible for the suppression of the circumstances of the Prude arrest and Mr. Prude’s death.” Warren said in a statement that she welcomed the report “because it allows our community to move forward.” “Throughout city government, we have acknowledged our responsibility, recognized that changes are necessary and taken action,” she said, citing various measures on police practices and discipline. In her statement, Warren didn’t address the report’s specific assessments of her own conduct. A special counsel to the city administration disputed claims that Warren had lied. The mayor spoke based on the facts known to her at the time, and if what she said wasn’t true, it was because Singletary had misled her, special counsel Carrie Cohen said. Messages seeking comment were left with Warren’s spokesperson, who was among the officials scrutinized in the investigation, and a lawyer for Singletary. The report said Singletary told the mayor that the officers restrained Prude, but the chief “consistently deemphasized” the role of restraints in his death, and his statements to Warren and other officials didn’t “capture the disturbing tenor of the entire encounter.” Singletary’s characterization “likely impacted” how city officials viewed the matter, the report said. Warren said publicly that Singletary initially told her that Prude’s death was a “drug overdose,” but Friday’s report said he never told her that. Singletary, meanwhile, made “untrue statements by omission” when he failed to correct Warren’s claim during a September news conference that she was not informed that Prude’s death had been ruled a homicide, the report said. It said Singletary told her of the finding on April 13. Additionally, the report said, a city lawyer in August discouraged Warren from publicly disclosing Prude’s arrest or commencing disciplinary action against the officers after she viewed body-camera video of the encounter for the first time. The lawyer incorrectly stated that the city was barred from taking action against the officers while the state attorney general’s office was investigating Prude’s death, the report said. “There are no surprises in there. It confirms most of what I already knew,” said attorney Elliot Shields, who represents Prude’s brother, Joe. “What it shows me on a larger scale is the systemic failures of the city,” he said. The body-camera video, made public by Prude’s family in early September, shows Prude handcuffed and naked with a spit hood over his head as an officer pushes his face against the ground, while another officer presses a knee to his back. The officers held him down for about two minutes until he stopped breathing. He was taken off life support a week later. A grand jury last month declined to indict the officers involved. Lawyers for the seven police officers suspended over Prude’s death have said the officers were strictly following their training that night, employing a restraining technique known as “segmenting.” They claimed Prude’s use of PCP, which caused irrational behavior, was “the root cause” of his death. The Rochester City Council authorized the independent investigation into the handling of Prude’s death within days of the video being made public and voted to give investigators the power to subpoena city departments. Celli, in the report, noted that the decision to inform the public of a significant event “is a policy judgment, and a political one, not a legal one,” and that there are no written rules or standards in Rochester governing the mayor or other officials in such matters. “It is not for the special council investigator to pass judgment on whether the decisions by Rochester officials not to disclose the arrest and death of Daniel Prude were right or wrong,” Celli wrote. “The judges of that question are the citizens of the city of Rochester and the public at large.” The report also confirms that Rochester police commanders urged city officials to hold off on publicly releasing the body-camera video of Prude’s suffocation death because they feared violent unrest if it came out during protests over the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In a June 4 email, Deputy Chief Mark Simmons cited the “current climate” in the city and the nation and advised Singletary to press the city’s lawyers to deny a Prude family lawyer’s public records request for the video of the encounter that led to his death. “We certainly do not want people to misinterpret the officers’ actions and conflate this incident with any recent killings of unarmed Black men by law enforcement nationally,” Simmons wrote. “That would simply be a false narrative, and could create animosity and potentially violent blow back in this community as a result.” “Totally agree,” Singletary replied, according to the emails. Rochester officials released the emails last fall, along with police reports and other documents. Warren fired Singletary and suspended the city lawyer, Corporation Counsel Tim Curtin, and Communications Director Justin Roj without pay for 30 days in response to fallout over the case. Prude’s death sparked several weeks of nightly protests and calls for Warren’s resignation. His family has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the Police Department sought to cover up the facts behind Prude’s death.

Bolivia's former interim president faces arrest on terrorism, sedition chargers

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-12/bolivia-arrest-order-for-former-interim-president-others

Bolivia’s former interim president said Friday she faces an arrest warrant on charges of terrorism and sedition as prosecutors move against officials who backed the ouster of former leader Evo Morales, which his party — now back in power — considers a coup. “The political persecution has begun,” said Jeanine Añez, who headed a conservative administration that took power after Morales resigned in November 2018. Áñez said the governing Movement Toward Socialism party “has decided to return to the style of dictatorships.” The announcement followed warrants issued Thursday for the former head of the armed forces and police, who had urged Morales to resign amid national protests over his reelection, which opponents insisted was fraudulent. Alvaro Coimbra, who served as justice minister under Áñez, said on Twitter that he also faces an arrest warrant and that one of this vice ministers had been arrested. After almost 13 years in the presidency, Morales flew into exile in November 2019 at the urging of police and military leaders, and Áñez, who had been several rungs down the line of succession, took power when those above her also resigned. The interim authorities themselves tried to prosecute Morales and key members of his government, accusing them of rigging an election and of illegally suppressing dissent. But Morales’ party won election again under his chosen successor, Luis Arce, and the former leader has returned home.. The decision to arrest former Gen. William Kaliman and ex-police chief Ivan Calderón was denounced by the independent Permanent Assembly of Human Rights of Bolivia, a group that originally emerged to confront military dictatorships in the 1970s and ’80s. Both allies and foes of Morales allege they were victims of deadly persecution either before or after his ouster. Kaliman and Calderón had said that only Morales’ resignation could pacify the polarized nation. Kaliman, who had been appointed by Morales, was replaced shortly after the leftist departed. Also under investigation is Luis Fernando Camacho, governor-elect of Santa Cruz province, who was a key backer of the effort to remove Morales. Official efforts to question Camacho on Thursday were suspended when a massive array of his followers appeared at the courthouse.

Brazil reaches deal for 10 million shots of Russian COVID-19 vaccine

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-12/brazil-reaches-deal-for-10-million-shots-of-russian-vaccine

Brazil’s federal government said Friday it has reached a deal to purchase 10 million doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, though the shot is yet to be approved by the South American nation’s health agency. The Brazilian Health Ministry said on Twitter that the jabs will be imported by União Química, a company that has lobbied the government to purchase the vaccines, though its own experience is based on other medical products. Brazil’s government expects to receive 400,000 shots in April, 2 million in May and another 7.6 million by June. The ministry said it would also evaluate possible production of the Sputnik V vaccine by União Química plants in Brazil. Brazil has already secured contracts for 200 million vaccine doses, half made by AstraZeneca and half by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac. Russia has sent millions of doses of Sputnik V around the world, even as it vaccinates its own population. Analysts say Russia seeks to bolster its image as a benevolent technological power at a time when COVID-19 jabs are in short supply because richer nations are stockpiling Western-made vaccines. According to Our World in Data, an online research site that compares government statistics, only 5.5% of Brazilians have been vaccinated, and the country is experiencing a deadly second wave of COVID-19, with more than 2,000 registered deaths in each of the last two days. More than 270,000 people have died of the disease in Brazil, with authorities expecting grim weeks in March and April.

El Salvador's president, seen as having an authoritarian streak, is about to tighten grip on power

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-12/el-salvador-awaits-what-president-will-do-with-new-power

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s New Ideas party dominated every aspect of the recent national elections and will take control of Congress and the majority of the country’s municipalities. What remains unclear is what it will do with that power. The new legislature won’t be seated until May, but so far the top priority voiced by the party has been Bukele’s refrain, repeated by New Ideas candidates throughout its campaign: Remove the corrupt. The party’s more specific hints focus on erasing the grip that El Salvador’s traditional parties have held on power for almost three decades. Carolina Recinos, coordinator of Bukele’s Cabinet, said the administration will push “a profound electoral reform” so that political parties don’t run the Supreme Electoral Court. Party candidates also campaigned to loosen their control over the Accounts Court, essentially a national auditor. Bukele has asked Vice President Félix Ulloa to form a commission of lawyers to evaluate proposals for constitutional reforms to be presented to the new Legislative Assembly. New Ideas won 56 of 84 seats in the Assembly, giving Bukele’s party a two-thirds majority. That will let it select the new attorney general, justices for the Supreme Court and a human rights prosecutor — essentially all the key domestic critics of what they see as Bukele’s authoritarian tendencies. The oft-repeated call for ousting corrupt officials has kept Bukele’s popularity extremely high. “I hope that [Bukele] keeps all of his promises, that they strip the deputies of their immunity, that they finish off the shameless,” said María Catalina Espinoza, a 42-year-old homemaker who was grocery shopping in downtown San Salvador this week. “We’re tired of so much corruption.” Bukele leaped from mayor of El Salvador’s capital to the presidency in 2019 by campaigning almost exclusively on rooting out endemic corruption. His rise was made possible by the repeated scandals of the conservative National Republican Alliance and its leftist counterpart, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, or FMLN, where Bukele got his start. Those parties, which had dominated El Salvador’s politics since the end of the 12-year civil war in 1992, had lost credibility in the eyes of the public. But that largely two-party system also had maintained some degree of rigor in El Salvador’s democratic institutions. With Bukele’s allies on the verge of controlling all three branches of government, many fear that system of checks and balances could be in danger. The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, in particular, had blocked some of Bukele’s aggressive lockdown orders it said only the Congress had authority to enact. His party will have the votes to select Supreme Court justices — including the court’s president, who also presides over the Constitutional Chamber. Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, said that although Bukele is a legitimately elected president with solid support, “his authoritarian tendencies and the weakening of any control on his power are reason for great concern.” In February last year, Bukele sent armed troops to surround Congress to pressure lawmakers to pass a loan for security funding. In June, the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber ruled that Bukele’s stay-at-home measure to slow the spread of COVID-19 was unconstitutional. The president lashed out at the justices repeatedly. “The court has just ordered us to murder dozens of thousands of Salvadorans within five days,” he wrote on Twitter. Political analyst Dagoberto Gutiérrez, a former guerrilla commander who signed the 1992 peace accords, said El Salvador urgently needs reforms to the educational, health and tax system and to how its democracy functions. He said Bukele must start “where the people suffer most,” with issues such as unemployment and poverty. That raises the question of whether the administration’s attention to the courts, potential constitutional reforms and stripping opponents of power will satisfy a population with more pressing concerns. The Biden administration already appears to be taking a more wary approach than that of former President Trump, whose focus on slowing migration from Central America led the U.S. to turn a blind eye to issues of corruption and other worrying signs. When Bukele made a trip to Washington after Biden’s inauguration, administration officials declined meetings. Bukele has denied that he sought meetings. Leonor Arteaga, program director at the Due Process of Law Foundation, a regional rule of law organization based in Washington, spoke of both opportunities and dangers facing Bukele during a panel discussion this week. “Nayib Bukele has transformed the Salvadoran electoral landscape by challenging El Salvador’s political institutions and norms, and some change is important and it’s healthy,” Arteaga said. But she warned the power could easily be used “for the purpose of installing a new elite in El Salvador that would use the state and state resources for their own purposes.” She said his broad support will lead to great demands for change, which could be a challenge. “He has the opportunity to make things different because this popular support will not last forever and he should not waste this opportunity to transform El Salvador.”

Multiple members of New York's congressional delegation call on Gov. Cuomo to resign

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-12/multiple-ny-congressional-members-call-on-cuomo-to-resign

Multiple members of New York’s congressional delegation called Friday on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign in the wake of mounting allegations of sexual harassment and an allegation of groping, as well as scrutiny over his administration’s reporting of COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents. The Democratic governor has denied he ever touched anyone inappropriately and has said he’s sorry if he ever made anyone uncomfortable. But a majority of state lawmakers are calling on him to resign, and more than half of the Democrats in New York’s U.S. House delegation agrees. On Friday, U.S. Reps. Jerry Nadler, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman, Mondaire Jones, Nydia Velazquez, Adriano Espaillat, Carolyn Maloney, Grace Meng, Antonio Delgado, Brian Higgins and Yvette Clarke joined Kathleen Rice, who called for Cuomo’s resignation previously. Republicans in New York’s congressional delegation have also called for Cuomo’s resignation, including Nicole Malliotakis, Elise Stefanik, Claudia Tenney and Lee Zeldin. Nadler said Cuomo has lost the confidence of New Yorkers. World & Nation A lawyer for Gov. Andrew Cuomo said she reported a groping allegation to local police after the woman involved declined to press charges herself. March 11, 2021 “The repeated accusations against the governor, and the manner in which he has responded to them, have made it impossible for him to continue to govern at this point,” Nadler said. The delegation also pointed to sweeping criticism of Cuomo for keeping secret how many nursing home residents had died of COVID-19 for months. The governor has claimed his administration had to verify deaths of residents at hospitals, but critics question why that hasn’t held up the release of data in other states. “After two accounts of sexual assault, four accounts of harassment, the Attorney General’s investigation finding the Governor’s admin hid nursing home data from the legislature and public, we agree with the 55+ members of the New York State legislature that the Governor must resign,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. Cuomo’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The governor in recent days has been contacting lawmakers and supporters asking them to refrain from calling for his resignation, and instead support the ongoing investigations. The state Assembly authorized an impeachment investigation of Cuomo on Thursday to determine whether there are grounds for such a move. Politics The two governors were once lauded for pandemic leadership but now are fighting for political survival. March 4, 2021 In weeks past, calls for the governor’s impeachment or resignation have come from Republicans or left-leaning Democrats in New York City. But more Democratic lawmakers from surrounding and upstate communities are now urging the governor to resign as investigations into his conduct continue. Spokespeople for New York’s Democratic U.S. Sens. Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.

Puerto Rico to reopen historic church after long restoration

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-12/puerto-rico-to-reopen-historic-church-after-long-restoration

The construction worker stood on his tiptoes and tried to arrange a crown of thorns on a statue of Jesus while architect Jorge Rigau fired a flurry of directions from beneath the ladder. “Grab it like this and move it just a bit,” he said, motioning with his fingers. “Move it to the right, but don’t lower it.” It was one of the final touches on a detailed restoration of the second oldest surviving Spanish church in the Americas, whose construction had begun by 1532 on land donated by famous explorer Juan Ponce de León and whose base was erected atop an Indigenous settlement. The church was built for a Dominican convent where the renowned Spanish priest Bartolomé de las Casas once lived, served as shelter during an attack by the Indigenous Taínos, became Puerto Rico’s first high school and was damaged by a cannonball during the 1898 Spanish-American War, in which Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S. But the San José Church — surpassed in age only by the Spanish cathedral in the neighboring Dominican Republic — was shuttered in 1996 due to serious deterioration. San Juan’s own cathedral dates to 1521, but the original wooden building was destroyed, and the current structure dates to 1540. The $11-million restoration became a personal project for businessman Ricardo González that took nearly two decades to complete. Many thought it would fail due to funding problems, the lack of an original blueprint to provide guidance and widespread deterioration including termites, pigeon droppings and tree roots that had pierced the church’s Gothic-style nave, whose ribbed vault was once described as “a grand accomplishment rarely seen outside Europe.” González, who is active in the Catholic Church, volunteered to help oversee its reconstruction in the early 2000s with permission from Msgr. Roberto González, the archbishop of San Juan. He figured it would take one year to complete. But as workers probed with radar and laser technology and physically peeled away the church’s layers, they uncovered centuries-old murals and architectural techniques once used by the Romans. Ricardo González realized he faced a deep and lengthy restoration process. “When we started on that, there was no turning back,” he said. In 2009, he founded the Patronage of Monuments of San Juan, Inc. to raise more funds for the project. Donations ranged from a couple of quarters to large amounts given by businesses, nonprofit organizations and wealthy Puerto Ricans. Actor Benicio del Toro joined the pleas for donations as the building was added to the 11 most endangered historic places listed by the U.S. National Trust for Historic Preservation. For years, tourists and locals had all but given up on being able to once again visit the site. On a recent visit to the church, González’s eyes teared up. “Every day I walk through there and get emotional,” he said as he stood on the roof and gestured at the building. “I’ve seen the movie, you know?” It began, he said, with National Park Service experts showing construction workers how to use lime in accordance with the church’s original workmanship. Workers then had to chip away the concrete that covered the walls of the nearly 17,000-square-foot church bit by bit, in tiny sections to avoid damaging what might be below. Later, experts were hired from abroad to restore murals and other art, including armored mermaids painted in the corners of one chapel. The renovation was halted only three times in nearly 20 years: briefly after 2017’s Hurricane Maria, during last year’s pandemic lockdown and in 2008, when the lime supplier temporarily ran out of material. Rather than face that problem again, González decided the workers — many of them from the Dominican Republic — would learn how to make their own lime, a lengthy process that requires aging the mixture. Instead of horsehair once used to help bind such material, González opted for strips of fiberglass. They shunned the easier but less authentic concrete used during a prior restoration. “The cement does not allow the walls to breathe,” he said, noting that humidity played a role in the deterioration of the church, which was built near the ocean atop an Indian settlement at the highest point of San Juan’s historic district, known as Old San Juan. The church and its walls have survived a lot over the centuries, said Archbishop González, who is not related to the businessman. “It’s a wonder,” he said as he scanned the church while sitting on one of the pews that will be used for Masses after the opening on March 19. Restorers intentionally left the church’s history exposed in some areas: centuries-old, clay-colored walls and columns as well as faded murals and a niche that once served as the original confessional. A slightly elevated line inside the church’s entrance outlines the shape of the original roof. The restorers framed the area where the cannonball hit during the 1898 war. “We let the church talk to you,” Rigau said, adding that visitors “will find witnesses, ghosts, memories, scars.” But at least one mystery remains. All the figures depicted on the church’s gilded altar have been identified except for one: a woman with flaxen hair in the upper left-hand corner holding a palm frond, which indicates she was a martyr, but offers no other clues.

Federal examination of Breonna Taylor's death casts a wider net

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-12/federal-look-into-breonna-taylors-death-casts-a-wider-net

Their numbers have dwindled since protesters first flooded Louisville’s streets after police fatally shot Breonna Taylor in her home a year ago, but their push for justice has never waned. A federal investigation of the shooting that has been quietly proceeding could be their last chance. “We can’t expect people to continue to emotionally and mentally keep moving forward when there hasn’t been any justice yet for Breonna Taylor,” said Rep. Attica Scott, a state lawmaker who was tear-gassed and arrested during summer protests in the city. “We’ve been failed every single time from every level of government, and we need a freaking break.” That could come in the form of the ongoing inquiry by the U.S. Department of Justice, which appears to have expanded well beyond the actions of the three police officers who fired their guns into Taylor’s home on March 13, 2020. Last year, a grand jury formed by state Atty. Gen. Daniel Cameron charged one officer with putting Taylor’s neighbors in danger but issued no charges related to her death. The warrant that sent the police to Taylor’s home was not part of Cameron’s criminal investigation, but that document and how it was obtained are under review by federal investigators. And there are signs the investigation could range into the Louisville police response to protests after the shooting. Politics House Democrats have rushed to pass the most ambitious effort in decades to overhaul policing. Taylor’s death initially flew under the media radar, as the COVID-19 crisis shut down society, but George Floyd’s death in Minnesota and the release of a chilling 911 call from Taylor’s boyfriend in late May sparked interest in the case. Months of protests, police reforms and investigations followed. The city banned controversial “no-knock” warrants, hired a new police chief and paid a $12-million settlement to Taylor’s mother. Two of the officers who fired shots were dismissed from the department, along with a detective who sought the warrant. Through it all, protesters continued to chant, “Arrest the cops!” But that hasn’t happened. The federal investigation into her death will be “slow and methodical,” experts said, examining matters including what the officers may have been thinking that night and how they were trained leading up to the shooting. “The civil rights investigation will turn the whole situation upside-down,” said Cynthia Deitl, the former head of the FBI’s civil rights unit who has overseen similar police shooting investigations. “You look at everything — everything the officers ever learned. “It takes time to build a case against police officers,” Deitl said. She said a change in administrations in Washington wouldn’t have an effect on the officials who are leading the case. After Taylor’s front door was breached by officers, her boyfriend fired his gun once, saying later that he feared an intruder was entering the apartment. One officer was struck, and he and two other officers fired 32 shots into the apartment, striking Taylor five times. California The LAPD mishandled the unrest that erupted after the death of George Floyd, according to a new report commissioned by the City Council. The FBI has declined to comment on specifics of the investigation, but there are signs that other actions by the Louisville Metro Police Department have drawn their attention. That includes the response to citizen protests, especially in late May and early June when the city was under a curfew and officers patrolled the streets in force. FBI agents have interviewed a local TV reporter who was struck with pepper balls fired by Louisville police during Taylor demonstrations in early summer. They also have interviewed witnesses to the shooting death of West Louisville eatery owner David McAtee, who was killed by a National Guard member after Louisville police sprayed his customers with pepper balls during a curfew prompted by protests. McAtee fired two shots from his gun before he was shot dead. Steve Romines, a lawyer who is suing Louisville police on behalf of McAtee’s family, said he didn’t know if federal investigators’ witness interviews were part of a larger investigation tied to Taylor or a separate probe. Despite disappointment with the grand jury outcome, there is “cautious and guarded hope” that the federal investigation could bring some measure of justice, community activist Christopher 2X said. The FBI’s Louisville office has declined to provide details of the federal investigation into the Taylor shooting while it is ongoing. But on a July conference call with an AP reporter and others organized by 2X, Robert Brown, Louisville FBI’s special agent in charge, said investigators would look “at all aspects of it, where the facts that led up to this, the actual incident and things that might have occurred afterwards.” Civil rights violations by individuals acting in an official capacity, like police officers, can bring up to a life sentence in prison upon conviction, according to the Justice Department. California A shattered ceramic bust in Oakland honoring Breonna Taylor was stolen days after it was smashed by vandals. Cameron, the Kentucky attorney general, has confirmed that federal investigators were looking at how the warrant was obtained. Two of the Louisville officers, Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison, who fired guns during the March 13 raid have been dismissed, along with Joshua Jaynes, the detective who sought the warrant and later acknowledged that it contained false information. The third officer, Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the leg by Taylor’s boyfriend during the raid, remains with the department. Jaynes may face scrutiny for a false line in the warrant that he wrote for Taylor’s apartment. The detective said he confirmed with a U.S. postal inspector that a suspected drug dealer was receiving packages at Taylor’s home. He later admitted he didn’t contact the Postal Service. In a response to a civil lawsuit filed by Taylor’s boyfriend, Jaynes said he made an “honest mistake” and did not knowingly break the law. A recent internal investigation of the Louisville Police Department by a consulting firm found numerous problems with Louisville’s warrant process. It said supervisors generally approved probable-cause statements in search warrants “without performing an in-depth review” of the content. Proving that Jaynes and other officers were aware they were violating Taylor’s or others’ civil rights will be key to a conviction in a federal case, Deitl said. It’s a high standard. “The feds have to prove that the officer knew what he was doing, knew it was wrong and did it anyway,” Deitl said. That can lead to long-term investigations that sometime last years. “It’s frustrating for the public, but what I always try to tell the victim’s family is: I know you’re antsy; I know you want an answer from us today,” Deitl said. “But what you really want is an honest and truthful and very thorough investigation, and that’s going to take time.”

Mississippi governor signs bill banning transgender athletes from girls', women's teams

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-11/mississippi-gov-signs-bill-limiting-transgender-athletes

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill Thursday to ban transgender athletes from competing on girls’ or women’s sports teams. Mississippi is the first state this year to enact such a ban, after a federal court blocked an Idaho law last year. Mississippi’s Senate Bill 2536 is set to become law July 1, although a legal challenge is possible. More than 20 states are proposing restrictions on athletics or gender-confirming healthcare for transgender minors this year. Conservative lawmakers are responding to an executive order by President Biden that bans discrimination based on gender identity in school sports and elsewhere. Biden signed it Jan. 20, the day he took office. “But for the fact that President Biden as one of his first initiatives sat down and signed an executive order — which, in my opinion, encourages transgenderism amongst our young people — but for that fact, we wouldn’t be here today,” Reeves said during a ceremony in the Mississippi Capitol, where he was joined by legislators who supported the bill. Alphonso David, president of the LGBTQ civil rights organization Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement Thursday that the Mississippi law could lead to more bullying of transgender people. “This law is a solution in search of a problem, and legislators in Mississippi have not provided any examples of Mississippi transgender athletes gaming the system for a competitive advantage because none exist,” David said. Opinion A level playing field for transgender students May 3, 2013 Reeves has three daughters who play sports and he said March 4 on Twitter that Mississippi’s bill would “protect young girls from being forced to compete with biological males for athletic opportunities.” Chase Strangio, a transgender rights attorney with the national ACLU, said the Mississippi bill “is very vague and seemingly unenforceable.” “Unfortunately, there is already rampant discrimination against trans youth in Mississippi, which means people are already driven out of sport,” Strangio said. Alliance Defending Freedom is a conservative group defending the Idaho law and representing three cisgender girls in a Connecticut lawsuit that seeks to prevent transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports. In a statement Thursday, Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Christiana Holcomb praised the Mississippi law. “When we ignore science and biological reality, female athletes lose medals, podium spots, public recognition and opportunities to compete,” Holcomb said. The Mississippi Senate passed the bill Feb. 11, and the House passed it March 3. The votes were largely along party lines, with most Republicans supporting the bill and most Democrats either opposing it or refraining from voting. Sports An emotional six-year journey proved worth every step for Patricio Manuel on Saturday when he climbed into the ring at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio to become the first transgender male boxer in U.S. history. Dec. 8, 2018 Republican legislators who pushed the bill gave no evidence of any transgender athletes competing in Mississippi schools or universities. “The coaches have told me that this is an imminent problem in Mississippi, and that’s basically all the details that they were willing to give me,” Republican Sen. Angela Hill of Picayune said in response to questions Thursday. “I can’t tell you that they don’t know any examples. I believe they do know examples. I think that they wanted to leave it in general terms. But they told me that this is an urgent matter.” Supporters of bills such as the one in Mississippi argue that transgender girls, because they were born male, are naturally stronger, faster and bigger than those born female. Opponents say such proposals violate not only Title IX of federal education law prohibiting sex discrimination, but also rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Associated Press writer David Crary in New York contributed to this report.

Lawsuit over Rams' move from St. Louis delayed to 2022

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-11/lawsuit-over-rams-move-from-st-louis-delayed-to-2022

A Missouri judge intends to push back until early 2022 the trial for St. Louis’ lawsuit over the departure of the NFL’s Rams to Los Angeles. Judge Christopher McGraugh on Wednesday cited Missouri Supreme Court guidelines for reopening courts during the coronavirus pandemic, along with concerns about finding enough jurors willing to sit for a trial that could last up to two months, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. McGraugh said he intends to reschedule the trial for Jan. 10. It had originally been scheduled for October. “I’m concerned about trying to push this through in October when at best it’s probably a 50/50, if less, chance of it actually occurring,” McGraugh told lawyers in a virtual court hearing Wednesday. Neither side objected. The lawsuit pits St. Louis entities against Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke and the NFL. Rams The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition from the Los Angeles Rams to send a lawsuit regarding their relocation from St. Louis into arbitration. April 20, 2020 Robert Haar, a lawyer for Kroenke and the Rams, expressed concern about pretrial media coverage of the case, and about finding impartial jurors in St. Louis. “It’s a matter of critical importance to my clients and something we’re grappling with,” he said. McGraugh said he recognized the difficulty in finding enough impartial jurors. He said he favored using detailed questionnaires to eliminate jurors with biases long before in-person jury selection. “I agree getting a jury in this case is going to be the most difficult part about this trial,” McGraugh said. The 2017 lawsuit filed by the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County and the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority claims the NFL violated its own relocation rules by allowing the Rams to move to Los Angeles in 2016. The lawsuit seeks upward of $1 billion, claiming the Rams’ departure cost the city millions in amusement, ticket and earnings tax revenue. Get our high school sports newsletter Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

NBA fines and suspends Miami's Meyers Leonard for anti-Semitic slur

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2021-03-11/nba-fines-meyers-leonard-50-000-for-anti-semitic-slur

The NBA has fined Meyers Leonard $50,000 and suspended him from all Miami Heat facilities and activities for one week, in response to his use of an anti-Semitic term. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced the sanctions Thursday, two days after the video began circulating on social media. “Meyers Leonard’s comment was inexcusable and hurtful, and such an offensive term has no place in the NBA or in our society,” Silver said. Leonard apologized for using the term, insisting he did not know what it meant when he used it Monday. The Heat learned of the matter Tuesday, and Leonard’s future with the team is now in serious doubt. He will not play again this season because of a shoulder injury. Silver said Leonard spoke Wednesday “to representatives of the Anti-Defamation League to better understand the impact of his words and we accept that he is genuinely remorseful.” “We have further communicated to Meyers that derogatory comments like this will not be tolerated and that he will be expected to uphold the core values of our league — equality, tolerance, inclusion and respect — at all times moving forward,” Silver said.

1 in 5 Americans has lost someone close in the pandemic, poll finds

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-11/ap-norc-poll-1-in-5-in-us-lost-someone-close-in-pandemic

About 1 in 5 Americans say they have lost a relative or close friend to COVID-19, highlighting the division between heartache and hope as the country itches to get back to normal a year into the COVID-19 pandemic. A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research illustrates how the stage is set for a two-tiered recovery. The public’s worry about the virus has dropped to its lowest point since the fall, before the holidays brought skyrocketing cases into the new year. But people still in mourning express frustration at the continued struggle to stay safe. “We didn’t have a chance to grieve. It’s almost like it happened yesterday for us. It’s still fresh,” said Nettie Parks of Volusia County, Fla., whose only brother died of COVID-19 last April. Because of travel restrictions, Parks and her five sisters have yet to hold a memorial. Parks, 60, said she retired from her customer service job last year in part because of worry about workplace exposure. She now watches with dread as more states and cities relax health rules. Only about 3 in 10 Americans are very worried about themselves or a family member becoming infected with the virus, down from about 4 in 10 in recent months. Still, a majority are at least somewhat worried. “They’re letting their guard down, and they shouldn’t,” Parks said. “People are going to have to realize this thing is not going anywhere. It’s not over.” Science & Medicine A widespread study of nearly 200,000 U.S. adults hospitalized with COVID-19 found that the oldest patients were 19 times more likely to die than the youngest patients. March 5, 2021 COVID-19’s toll is staggering, with more than 527,000 dead in the U.S. alone, and counting. But “it’s hard to conceptualize the true danger if you don’t know it personally,” said Dr. K. Luan Phan, chief of psychiatry at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center. For those who lost a loved one, “that fear is most salient in them. They’re going to be a lot more cautious as businesses reopen and as schools start back,” Phan said. And without that firsthand experience, even people who have heeded health officials’ pleas to stay masked and keep their distance are succumbing to pandemic fatigue because “fears tend to habituate,” he said. Communities of color were hardest hit by the coronavirus. The AP-NORC poll found about 30% of Black Americans, like Parks, and Latinos knew a relative or close friend who had died from the virus, compared with 15% of white people. That translates into differences in how worried people are about a virus that will remain a serious threat until most of the country — and the world — is vaccinated. Despite recent drops in cases, 43% of Black Americans and 39% of Latino Americans are very or extremely worried about themselves or a loved one becoming ill with COVID-19, compared with just 25% of white people. (For other racial and ethnic groups, sample sizes are too small to analyze.) Although vaccines offer real hope for ending the scourge, the poll also found about 1 in 3 Americans didn’t intend to get their shot. The most reluctant: younger adults, people without college degrees, and Republicans. The hardest-hit are also having the hardest time getting vaccinated: 16% of Black Americans and 15% of Latinos say they already have received at least one shot, compared with 26% of white people. But majorities in each group want to be vaccinated. Science & Medicine Americans are warming up to COVID-19 vaccines, with 19% saying they’ve already received at least one dose and 49% intending to do so when they get the chance. March 5, 2021 Demand for vaccines still outstrips supply, and about 4 in 10 Americans, especially older adults, say the sign-up process has been poor. John Perez, a retired teacher and school administrator in Los Angeles, spent hours trying to sign up online before giving up. Then a friend found a drive-through vaccination site with openings. “When I was driving there for the first shot, I was going through a tunnel of emotions,” the 68-year-old said. “I knew what a special moment it was.” Overall, confidence in the vaccines has strengthened slowly. The poll found 25% of Americans weren’t confident the shots were properly tested. That figure was down somewhat from the 32% who said in December, before the first vaccines were approved, that they believed the shots weren’t being tested properly. “We were a little skeptical when it was first coming out because it was so politicized,” said Bob Richard, 50, of Smithfield, R.I. But now he says his family is inclined to get the shots — if they can sort through the appointment system when it’s their turn. The poll found two-thirds of Americans said their fellow citizens nationwide hadn’t taken the pandemic seriously enough. “The conflict with people who don’t take it serious as I do, it’s disappointing,” said Wayne Denley, 73, of Alexandria, La. Early on, he and his wife started keeping a list of people they knew who’d gotten sick. By November, they’d counted nine deaths and dozens of infections. He’d share the sobering list with people doubtful of the pandemic’s toll, yet he’d still see unmasked acquaintances while running errands. “I’m glad I wrote them down — it helped make it real for me,” Denley said. “You sort of become numb to it.” Science & Medicine A pair of studies in Science examine how coronavirus variants evolve in human hosts and why experts are concerned about relaxing restrictions too soon. March 11, 2021 There are exceptionally wide partisan differences. Sixty percent of Democrats said their local communities failed to take the threat seriously enough, and even more, 83%, said the country as a whole didn’t either. Among Republicans, 31% said their localities didn’t take the pandemic seriously enough, and 44% said that of the country. But another third of Republicans said the U.S. overreacted. The differences translate into behavior: More than three-quarters of Democrats say they always wear a mask around others, compared with about half of Republicans. And the divisions have Phan, the psychiatrist, worried. “We’ve survived something that we should be grateful for having survived. How do we repay or reciprocate that good fortune? The only way to do it is to be stronger in the year after the epidemic than before,” he said. The AP-NORC poll of 1,434 adults was conducted between Feb. 25 and March 1 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

House passes legislation to expand background checks for gun sales

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-11/house-passes-legislation-to-expand-background-checks

Emboldened by their majorities in the House and Senate, Democrats are making a new push to enact the first major new gun control laws in more than two decades — starting with stricter background checks. The House passed legislation on Thursday to require background checks on all firearm sales and transfers. The chamber was also voting on, and expected to pass, a bill to allow an expanded 10-day review for gun purchases. Similar bills were passed by the House in 2019, shortly after Democrats won the majority, but languished in the GOP-controlled Senate for the next two years. Democrats now hold the Senate as well, giving the party hope that the legislation will at least be considered. But the bills would need significant bipartisan support to pass. The renewed push is the latest effort by Democrats — and some Republicans — who have repeatedly tried, and failed, to pass tougher gun control laws since the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six educators. While enhanced background checks are generally popular with the American public, even with some conservatives, Congress has so far not been able to reach agreement on the issue. It is unclear whether Senate Democrats could find deep enough support among Republicans to pass new gun control legislation in a 50-50 Senate, as they would need 60 votes to do so. Still, the bills are part of an effort by Democrats to advance several major legislative initiatives while they hold both chambers of Congress and the White House. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that the Republican “legislative graveyard is over” and that the legislation to require background checks on all gun sales will have a vote in the Senate. “A vote is what we need,” Schumer said, and they will see where Republicans stand. “Maybe we’ll get the votes,” he said. “And if we don’t, we’ll come together as a caucus and figure it out how we are going to get this done. But we have to get it done.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who has been working on gun legislation with Schumer since the 1990s when they were in the House together, said she and her colleagues have promised survivors of shootings and family members of those who have died that “we are not going away” until the background checks legislation passes. “The gun violence crisis in America is a challenge to the conscience of our country — one that demands that we act,” Pelosi said during floor debate Wednesday. “These solutions will save lives.” President Biden has called for Congress to strengthen gun laws, including requiring background checks on all sales and banning assault weapons. At a speech in February, he said there was no time to wait. “We owe it to all those we’ve lost and to all those left behind to grieve to make a change,” Biden said as he marked the three-year anniversary of the Parkland school shooting in Florida that killed 17. “The time to act is now.” The first bill, which passed 227-203, is designed to close loopholes to ensure that background checks are extended to private and online sales that often go undetected, including at gun shows. The legislation includes limited exceptions allowing temporary transfers to prevent imminent harm, for use at a target range and for gifts from family, among others. The second bill would extend the review period for background checks from three to 10 days. South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in the House, introduced the legislation after a shooter killed nine people at a Charleston, S.C., church in 2015. The FBI said a background check examiner never saw the shooter’s previous arrest report because the wrong arresting agency was listed in state criminal history records and the gun dealer was legally permitted to complete the transaction after a deadline of three days. While the House bills have Republican co-sponsors, most of their GOP colleagues are opposed to the changes. During the Wednesday floor debate, Republicans argued that the background checks would not stop most mass shootings and would unfairly prevent some people from purchasing firearms. Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry said the bill would lead to more crime because there would be “less people out there defending themselves.” Democrats are hoping that there’s a gradual political shift among voters that could help them win GOP votes. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who has introduced a companion bill expanding background checks in the Senate, said he doesn’t think Democrats should just accept that there aren’t 60 votes in the Senate for the legislation. “I just think we are living in a different world than 2013,” Murphy said ahead of the House vote, referring to failed congressional efforts to expand the checks after the Newtown school shooting. Democrats also point to troubles at the National Rifle Assn., the long-powerful advocacy group that poured tens of millions of dollars into electing President Trump in 2016. The organization has been weakened by infighting as well as legal tangles over its finances. But change does not come easily in the Senate as many in the GOP base are still viscerally opposed to any new gun control. Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a moderate, have worked together for years to find a compromise on background checks but have yet to propose anything that will pass. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said this week that his committee plans to have hearings on gun policy in the next several weeks. Democrats will “test the waters and see what the sentiment is in the Senate,” Durbin said.

Oh, what a birthday week for Dr. Seuss books

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-11/oh-what-a-birthday-week-for-dr-seuss-books

Oh, the books that sold last week by Dr. Seuss. More than 1.2 million copies of stories by the late children’s author sold in the first week of March — more than quadruple from the week before — following the news that his estate was pulling six books because of racial and ethnic stereotyping. For days virtually every book in the top 20 on Amazon’s bestseller list was by Dr. Seuss. According to NPD BookScan, which tracks around 85% of retail sales, the top sellers weren’t even the books being withdrawn. “The Cat in the Hat” sold more than 100,000 copies, compared with just 17,000 in the previous week. “Green Eggs and Ham” topped 90,000 copies, and “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish” sold around 88,000. Books The pivot from Dr. Seuss’ books during a national event founded to honor him seems sudden, but for the NEA and local teachers it was a long time coming. March 5, 2021 The six books going out of print are “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “If I Ran the Zoo,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!,” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.” Dr. Seuss was born on March 2, 1904, and sales traditionally go up during his birthday week. But this year they likely received an extra shot because of those most opposed to the estate’s decision. Conservatives soon responded with allegations of “cancel culture,” as Fox News provided extensive coverage and such prominent Republicans as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy released videos of themselves reading from Seuss books. Opinion Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced it will stop publishing six of his books. His oeuvre shows the author’s work evolved and he was willing to learn from past mistakes. March 6, 2021

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu cancels historic UAE trip, citing dispute with Jordan

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-11/israel-netanyahu-cancels-uae-trip-dispute-jordan

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it called off his planned Thursday visit to the United Arab Emirates because of disagreements with the Jordanian government. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that, “because of difficulties in coordinating his flight in Jordanian airspace, the visit was postponed” until further notice. It said the conflict stemmed from the cancellation of the Jordanian crown prince’s visit to a contested shrine in Jerusalem on Wednesday “due to a disagreement over the security and protection arrangements at the site.” Jordan serves as the custodian of the Jerusalem holy site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount. Jordanian Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah II had planned to visit the site, home to Al Aqsa Mosque, but turned back at the King Hussein Bridge border crossing because of a dispute with Israeli authorities over the number of armed escorts who could accompany him, Israeli media reported. Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said the crown prince had planned a private visit to join night prayers for the Muslim holy day marking the prophet Muhammad’s ascension to heaven. He said Israel had changed agreed-upon arrangements “at the last minute,” forcing the crown prince to call off the visit. “His highness decided he did not wish to disrupt this peaceful night of prayer and decided to cancel his visit,” Safadi said at a Paris summit. “We cannot accept Israeli interference in the affairs of Al Aqsa.” Netanyahu’s office said that his historic planned visit to the United Arab Emirates, the first by an Israeli prime minister since the establishment of bilateral relations last year, would be rescheduled with Emirati authorities. The trip was meant to cement new diplomatic ties between the two Middle East nations and boost the embattled Israeli leader’s reelection hopes. World & Nation Israel boasts the world’s fastest COVID-19 vaccine rollout, with half the population inoculated. Reaching the other half presents challenges. Feb. 26, 2021 Oded Eran, a former Israeli ambassador to Jordan, said the latest spat between Israel and Jordan reflected a deeper deterioration in relations in recent years. “The major problem is there is no dialogue between the No. 1s in Jordan and Israel — that is to say, between the prime minister [Netanyahu] and the king of Jordan,” he said, adding that the two leaders are not known to have met or spoken for at least three years. Eran said there was a lack of trust, highlighted by Israel’s plans last year to annex parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel suspended the annexation plan as part of its agreement to establish ties with the Emirates, but Eran said the Jordanians remain deeply suspicious that Israel has not abandoned its intentions to annex the area. Politics President Biden waited nearly a month to reach out to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, indicating a significant refocusing of policy after Trump. Feb. 17, 2021 Jordan, which is home to a large Palestinian population, considers the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the neighboring West Bank to be a key interest, and Israel’s annexation of parts of the area would make Palestinian independence all but impossible. Israel and the Palestinians have not held substantive peace talks in more than a decade. “At the least, they need a political process and movement toward a solution,” said Eran, now a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. “The process itself is very important to the Jordanians, and when it is not there, there are certainly concerns with regard to the situation.” Earlier in the day, the hospitalization of Netanyahu’s wife had cast doubt on whether the Emirates trip would take place. Sara Netanyahu was hospitalized Thursday with an appendix infection at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, the hospital said. An official in Netanyahu’s office said she had felt unwell and was taken to the Hadassah Medical Center, where she will remain hospitalized for several days. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. Netanyahu is locked in a tight race against a field of challengers in Israel’s fourth election in two years and would have been sure to use the Emirates trip — 12 days before Israelis go to the polls — to his political advantage. The Emirates became the third Arab nation — after Egypt and Jordan — to establish formal diplomatic ties with Israel in August.

Mexican lawmakers advance bill to legalize recreational pot

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-10/mexican-lawmakers-advance-bill-to-legalize-recreational-pot

Mexico’s lower chamber approved a marijuana legalization bill Wednesday, setting the country on the path to becoming one of the world’s largest legal marijuana markets. Deputies approved the legislation in general terms but continued debating details late into the night. The approved legislation, which needs to return to the Senate, would permit recreational use of marijuana but establish a system of licenses required for the entire chain of production, distribution, transformation and sales. It would also require that individuals, and not just associations of users, have a permit to grow plants for personal use. Each individual would be allowed to have six plants, with a maximum of eight per household. Adults could use marijuana without affecting others or children, but if caught with more than one ounce they would be fined. They could face jail time if they had more than 12 pounds. Opposition parties did not support the legislation, which they say will lead to increased drug use. In 2015, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of recreational use of marijuana. In 2019, the court ordered the government to create legislation, arguing that prohibiting its use was unconstitutional. California California’s legal cannabis market is on track to post a record $3.1 billion in sales, but the black market is more than twice as large. The court has given lawmakers until April 30 to pass a law. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has expressed support and his party, Morena, has a majority in the Congress that is advancing the legislation. Still, with campaigns underway for national legislative elections in June, the final form of the legislation is still evolving. Critics fear some changes made by the lower chamber threaten the original intent. For example, in the latest version, lawmakers did away with establishing a new government agency specifically for the regulation of marijuana. Instead, management of the new market will go to the existing National Commission Against Addictions, which experts say does not have the capacity to regulate something so complex. “They’re going to make the law inoperable,” said Lisa Sánchez, director of Mexico United Against Crime, one of the nongovernmental organizations that has been pushing marijuana legalization for years. Lawmakers favoring the bill say it will move the marijuana market out of the hands of Mexico’s powerful drug cartels to the government. But experts fear transnational corporations will be the primary beneficiaries rather than consumers or the farmers who have formed the lowest rung of the drug chain. Medicinal marijuana use has been legal in Mexico since 2017 and is allowed in a number of other Latin American countries. But only Uruguay allows recreational use in the region. Even if the Senate were to approve the lower chamber’s bill without additional changes, it would take time for it to take effect. An entire regulatory framework would have to be developed. That has been the case for medicinal marijuana; the legislation began to function only in January with the establishment of the necessary regulations.

Senate confirms Merrick Garland to be U.S. attorney general

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-10/senate-confirms-merrick-garland-to-be-us-attorney-general

The Senate confirmed Merrick Garland on Wednesday to be the next U.S. attorney general with a strong bipartisan vote, placing the widely respected, veteran judge in the post as President Biden has vowed to restore the Justice Department’s reputation for independence. Democrats have praised Garland, a federal appeals court judge who was snubbed by Republicans for a seat on the Supreme Court in 2016, as a highly qualified and honorable jurist who is uniquely qualified to lead the department after a tumultuous four years under former President Trump. Many Republicans praised him as well, saying he has the right record and temperament for the moment. He was confirmed 70 to 30. The Senate on Wednesday also confirmed Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development and North Carolina regulator Michael Regan to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, picking up the pace for confirmations in Biden’s Cabinet. Fudge, a veteran lawmaker, will lead the housing agency agency just as Congress has passed new benefits for renters and homeowners who have suffered economic losses amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Regan, who has served as North Carolina’s top environmental regulator since 2017, will help lead Biden’s efforts to address climate change and advocate for environmental justice, two of the administration’s top priorities. He is the first Black man to run the EPA. Garland will inherit a Justice Department embattled by a turbulent era under Trump, who insisted that the attorney general and the department must be loyal to him personally, battering the department’s reputation. In the last month of Trump’s presidency, Atty. Gen. William Barr resigned after refuting Trump’s false claims that widespread electoral fraud had led to his defeat. Trump’s pressure on officials, particularly on Barr and former Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions over the department’s probe into his campaign’s ties to Russia, prompted abundant criticism from Democrats over what they saw as the politicizing of the nation’s top law enforcement agencies. “After Donald Trump spent four years — four long years — subverting the powers of the Justice Department for his own political benefit, treating the attorney general like his own personal defense lawyer, America can breathe a sigh of relief that we’re going to have someone like Merrick Garland leading the Justice Department,” said Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) ahead of the vote. “Someone with integrity, independence, respect for the rule of law and credibility on both sides of the aisle.” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — who prevented Garland from becoming a Supreme Court Justice in 2016 when he blocked his nomination — said he was voting to confirm Garland because of “his long reputation as a straight shooter and a legal expert” and that his “left-of-center perspective” was still within the legal mainstream. “Let’s hope our incoming attorney general applies that no-nonsense approach to the serious challenges facing the Department of Justice and our nation,” McConnell said. Garland’s nomination was widely seen as a redemption after McConnell had blocked his Supreme Court nomination, taking a huge political gamble after the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia by saying that the next president should get the pick, not outgoing President Obama. Trump was then down in the polls, but McConnell’s bet paid off when the Republican won the presidency. Garland’s nomination floundered for nine months, and he never got a hearing. “We can never erase the sad memory of what happened to Judge Merrick Garland five years ago in the United States Senate, but we can give this remarkable man an opportunity to write a new chapter of public service in his life,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) just before the vote. As he finally sat before the Judiciary panel in February, Garland sought to assure lawmakers that the Justice Department would remain politically independent on his watch. He said his first priority would be to combat extremist violence with an initial focus on the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, promising lawmakers that he would provide prosecutors with whatever resources they need to bring charges over the attack. Garland will also inherit immediate political challenges, including an ongoing criminal tax investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter, and a federal probe into the overseas and business dealings of the former New York City mayor and Trump ally Rudolph W. Giuliani, which stalled last year over a dispute about investigative tactics as Trump unsuccessfully sought reelection. His confirmation also comes amid calls from many Democrats to pursue inquiries into Trump.

Clinics across U.S. wait to vaccinate farmworkers: 'Our hands are tied'

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-10/clinics-wait-to-vaccinate-farmworkers-our-hands-are-tied

With Georgia’s sweet onion harvest approaching and COVID-19 vaccine arriving in increasing quantities from the federal government, migrant health centers around the state want to start vaccinating farmworkers. But there’s a catch. In Georgia and many other places around the U.S., such efforts are blocked by state policies that give priority for shots to other groups. “Our hands are tied,” said East Georgia Healthcare Center CEO Jennie Wren Denmark, whose agency runs 13 clinics, including one in Vidalia, home of the celebrated Vidalia onion. Her clinics’ vaccine will instead go to patients on the state eligibility list, which was expanded this week to teachers. Public health authorities have said in their defense that drawing up the priority lists is a complex balancing act that requires them to take into account outbreak data, the risks to various categories of workers and vital industries, and the limited supply of vaccine. Farmworkers and activists are upset. “Waiting and waiting has some people angry and causes despair,” said Edgar Franks, a 41-year-old leader of the agricultural union Familias Unidas por la Justicia, or Families United for Justice, who works in the blueberry fields on weekends in the Mount Vernon, Wash., area. “We’re essential, but we are not really treated as essential.” Leticia Cuevas, 35, who works pruning wine grapes near Prosser, Wash., said: “I hope that everything could return to normal and that we would all be treated equally. We all deserve dignity.” Farmworkers run an elevated risk of getting infected. They often live in crowded bunkhouses and eat together in dining halls. Those who toil outdoors often travel to the fields together in vans or buses. Others work in bustling packing houses. An estimated 9,000 agricultural workers in the U.S. have died of COVID-19, said Jayson Lusk, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University. Nearly half a million have been infected, according to a Purdue estimate, with the highest numbers in Texas, California, Iowa, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Missouri, Florida and Minnesota. California In the Central Valley, the spring harvest is coming, and the transition to Blue Shield is complicating efforts to vaccinate farmworkers against COVID-19. March 1, 2021 The concern extends well beyond those who labor in the fields and packing houses. “Agricultural workers are important for the security of our food supply,” Lusk said, noting that supermarket prices went up last year when COVID-19 outbreaks shut down meatpacking plants. “Making sure we have the people available to plant and harvest will make sure our grocery stores aren’t empty or our food prices don’t rise.” Cuevas, a member of the farmworker advocacy group UFW Foundation, agreed: “We are in the fields getting the work done to feed all the families.” Last week, more than 60 health centers that serve agricultural workers in 21 states began receiving COVID-19 vaccine directly from the federal government in a program created by the Biden administration. But in most of those states, including Texas, New York, Georgia and Florida, farmworkers are not yet in the priority groups authorized to receive the shots. And the federal vaccine came with a restriction: The health centers must follow state priorities. In Washington state, workers are beginning to arrive on hops farms and at cherry and apple orchards. “Quite frankly, as they arrive, once they test negative, we should vaccinate them,” said Lori Kelley of Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic. “We want to vaccinate all of them.” But they won’t become eligible until March 22 unless they fall into Washington’s priority groups — 65 and older, or 50 and older and living in a multigenerational home. Science & Medicine As more Americans line up for COVID-19 vaccines, children have been excluded. But that is expected to change by the fall, Dr. Anthony Fauci says. March 10, 2021 Across the U.S., healthcare workers and older Americans have been put at the front of the line for vaccinations because they have borne the brunt of the disease. In recent weeks, the line has been opened to various groups such as teachers, who are considered vital to reopening schools and letting parents get back to work. Those decisions have been left up to the states. “All of these decisions are incredibly difficult and unfortunately driven by limited supply,” said Michele Roberts, acting assistant health secretary in Washington state. She said the health department recognizes that agricultural work is “one of the highest risk occupations” and has put it in the next group for vaccinations. In some California counties, vaccination drives are targeting farmworkers. “I’m so happy. I’m feeling so good,” farmworker Monica Gonzales said at a March 3 mobile vaccination clinic held at Monterey Mushrooms in Morgan Hill, Calif. She said getting vaccinated will allow her to see her granddaughter. Florida, which grows half the nation’s domestic tomatoes and 70% of its citrus fruit, hasn’t specified farmworkers in its vaccine priority groups. What’s more, Florida has a restrictive residency requirement for vaccination. People must show a state ID or documents such as a utility bill. “The challenge for farmworkers is many don’t have these documents,” said Alexis Guild, director of health policy for Farmworker Justice, an advocacy group. Sylvia Partida, CEO of the National Center for Farmworker Health, said states need to change their guidelines. “It only makes sense. All these states benefit from economic contribution from farmworkers,” Partida said. “Why would you not make that change in your plans in order to safeguard that workforce?” The AP’s Nicholas K. Geranios in Spokane, Wash., and Haven Daley in Morgan Hill, Calif., contributed to this report.

Thomas Bach reelected as IOC president ahead of Tokyo Games

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-10/thomas-bach-re-elected-as-ioc-president-until-2025

Thomas Bach was reelected as president of the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday for a final four-year term, with his immediate focus on this year’s delayed Tokyo Games. The German lawyer was unopposed and won the vote 93-1, with four members abstaining, following an opening eight-year mandate dominated by the Russian doping scandal and the first Olympics to be postponed in peacetime. “Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for this overwhelming vote of confidence and trust,” Bach said during an online meeting of IOC members. Bach said Tokyo was “the best prepared Olympic city ever” and reiterated the Games would open on July 23 despite restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Olympics Former Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Klete Keller pleaded not guilty to charges related to his alleged involvement in the U.S. Capitol riot. March 9, 2021 “The question is not whether, the question is how these Olympic Games will take place,” he said. Because of the pandemic, Bach spoke to a wall of screens connecting members online. Uncertainty in the past year extended a theme of Bach’s presidency — turmoil for Games organizers and financial stability for the IOC in Switzerland. Bach first presided over the 2014 Sochi Games, which were tainted by Russia’s state-backed doping program. It was an “unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games,” Bach said Wednesday. Get our high school sports newsletter Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Russian teams and athletes have been barred from competing under their nation’s name or flag in Tokyo as the latest punishment in fallout from the scandal. Despite postponement costs for the Tokyo Games, Bach secured the IOC’s long-term future by extending key broadcasting and sponsor deals through 2032. He also signed future Olympic hosts Paris and Los Angeles, while Brisbane is now being fast-tracked for 2032 — a move aimed at avoiding expensive campaigns and allegations of vote-buying.

Santa Monica man who bilked 'black-ish' star in romance con sentenced in L.A.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-09/man-who-bilked-black-ish-star-in-romance-con-sentenced

A man who romanced three women, including “black-ish” star Jenifer Lewis, in order to con them out of money for his phony businesses was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison. Antonio Wilson, 58, of Santa Monica, was sentenced in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles and ordered to pay $272,000 in restitution. Wilson, also known as “Dr. Tony Mariot” and “Brice Carrington,” fleeced his victims out of money that he claimed were investments in his sound design company and software business, prosecutors said. In fact, he spent the money on himself, they said. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson described Wilson’s behavior as “vicious,” according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office. Television ABC’s flagship family sitcoms, “The Conners” and “black-ish,” offer contrasting stories about the COVID-19 pandemic in their season premieres Wednesday. Oct. 21, 2020 “‘Predator’ is not usually a term referred to in the fraud context, but it is an apt description here,” the judge said. To create a “false sense of prestige,” Wilson claimed to be a Navy SEAL, an Oxford University graduate and an “Oxford professor teaching a course on biblical antiquities at UCLA,” the U.S. attorney’s office statement said. Wilson was accused of stealing $50,000 from Lewis, who plays Ruby on the ABC sitcom “black-ish,” after meeting her at a gym where he was a manager. Lewis later sued the gym and settled for $13,000. Wilson pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud.

Biden administration won't defend Trump immigration rule

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-09/high-court-wont-hear-trump-immigration-case-after-all

A Trump-era immigration rule denying green cards to immigrants who use public benefits like food stamps was dealt likely fatal blows Tuesday after the Biden administration dropped legal challenges, including before the Supreme Court. Continuing to defend the rule “is neither in the public interest nor an efficient use of limited government resources,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. The Supreme Court won’t weigh in on the legality of the so-called public charge rule because of an agreement by the Biden administration and the parties and states challenging it. The Justice Department also dropped objections to a ruling before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, upholding a federal judge’s November order striking down the rule nationwide. The moves were the latest outgrowth of the Biden administration’s effort to undo Trump administration immigration policies. The new administration recently dismissed high court appeals over former President Trump’s effort to deny funding to so-called sanctuary communities. The justices, at the administration’s request, also put off cases they had agreed to hear over the funding of portions of the wall along the border with Mexico and the policy of forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their hearings. Politics Biden on Tuesday will establish a task force to reunite separated families, but officials say his early executive actions on immigration remain constrained by Trump’s. Feb. 2, 2021 Immigrant rights advocates celebrated Tuesday’s court action on the public charge rule after years of complex legal battles in multiple states. While Trump’s administration touted the rule first proposed in 2018 as a way to ensure only those who are self-sufficient come to the U.S., immigrant rights advocates said it amounted to a “wealth test” and public health experts said it would lead to poorer health outcomes. “After four years of fighting the rule, from the first time it was officially announced, it is officially dead,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick with the American Immigration Council. The high court had in late February agreed to hear a Trump administration appeal, first filed last year, of a lower court ruling against the public charge rule. The policy allows the denial of permanent residency status to immigrants because of their use of food stamps, Medicaid, housing vouchers or other public benefits. The justices had agreed to hear the case even as President Biden called for a “top-to-bottom” review of the rule. Politics The Supreme Court, in another rebuke of Trump, rules that his decision to cancel DACA, a program that protected young immigrants, was not justified. June 18, 2020 On Tuesday, however, the Biden administration withdrew the appeal, saying all parties involved agreed to dismiss the case. The administration took similar action before the appeals court in Chicago. After U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman’s ruling striking down the rule on the eve of the election, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ceased applying it to all pending applications and petitions across the country. But it changed course on election day after the federal appeals court allowed the rule reinstated while it considered the case. Immigrant groups opposed to the policy said that the agreement Tuesday cleared “the way at last for this unlawful rule to no longer be enforced.” Previously, the Supreme Court had divided 5-4 over allowing the policy to take effect while the legal challenge continued. That legal challenge involved New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New York City and several organizations. “We dismissed this case and restored the preliminary injunction that ensures that those living in New York and in other states do not have to choose between their immigration status and securing the necessary support to survive,” New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James said in a statement. “Quite simply, today, fewer children will go hungry and more families will get the medical care they desperately need.” Under the Trump administration policy, applicants for green cards had to show they wouldn’t be burdens to the country or “public charges.” Federal law already required those seeking permanent residency or legal status to prove they wouldn’t be a “public charge.” But the Trump administration rule included a wider range of programs that could disqualify them.

House approves pro-union bill despite dim Senate odds

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-09/house-approves-pro-union-bill-despite-dim-senate-odds

The Democratic-led House on Tuesday approved legislation that would invigorate workers’ unions, following decades of court defeats and legislative setbacks that have kneecapped the labor movement’s once formidable ability to organize. The measure, which union leaders and labor allies have presented as a cure for decades of working-class wage stagnation, was approved on a mostly party-line 225-206 vote. But it faces an all-but-certain Republican blockade in a narrowly divided Senate and is unlikely to become law. In an angry floor speech, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) excoriated Republicans, most of whom opposed the measure, mocking them for rejecting a bill to “help the damn workers.” “Heaven forbid we tilt the balance that has been going in the wrong direction for 50 years,” Ryan said, his voice rising. “We talk about pensions, you complain. We talk about the minimum wage increase, you complain. We talk about giving them the right to organize, you complain. But if we were passing a tax cut here, you’d be all getting in line to vote yes.” The Democratic push comes in the midst of a massive organizing drive in the historically labor-resistant South, which offers a crucial test for a labor movement that is showing new signs of life after decades of atrophy. President Biden, who has pledged to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen,” recently gave union organizers at a 6,000-worker Amazon facility near Birmingham, Ala., his tacit endorsement in an unprecedented sign of support. He backs the Democratic bill. Politics Roughly 29 million Americans stand to benefit from the first substantive federal expansion of Obamacare since 2010. March 9, 2021 Democrats are looking to fortify bonds with rank-and-file union members, a key constituency that has been critical for getting out the vote. Some drifted toward the GOP under former President Trump — despite the Republican Party’s long antipathy toward unions — attracted to his “America First” agenda and hostile stance toward global trade. While Republicans have welcomed blue-collar workers drawn to the party by conservative cultural issues, many draw the line at measures that would expand the power of labor and could benefit their economic bottom line. “I’ve heard Democrats argue that it’s the unions that built the middle class,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the senior Republican on the House labor panel. “No, the unions didn’t build the middle class. Entrepreneurs and individual workers in this country built the middle class. And what this bill does is take away their freedom.” Labor unions have long been a bedrock of Democratic support. But as the number of unionized workers has dwindled over recent decades, so too has labor’s power. It’s a collapse that Republicans urged on at the state level through the passage of so-called “Right to Work” laws, which hindered unions’ ability to collect dues from workers who refuse to join yet benefit from deals negotiated on their behalf. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the No. 4 House Democrat, said there has been an “unrelenting attack on the ability of everyday Americans to organize themselves.” Critics and supporters alike agree that the House measure would reverse such laws. It would also bar tactics that employers can use to drag out organizing drives, contract negotiations and ultimately the ratification of an agreement. The bill also would give organizers more control over how — and where — unionization votes are held, allowing them to be conducted at arm’s-length from employers who may be hostile to the effort. It would empower the National Labor Relations Board to fine companies that fail to comply with orders from the board. And it would grant organizers access to the contact information of workers, who they could reach outside of working hours during unionization drives. Among dozens of other provisions, it would prohibit companies from permanently replacing workers who strike, prevent some from being classified as “independent contractors” as a means to deny workplace protections and forbid employers from forcing workers into “captive audience meetings” where unionization is discouraged. Unions have historically offered a pathway to higher wages. But during floor debate, Republicans focused on the long-standing political relationship between Democrats and labor. “This far-reaching legislation is nothing more than a union boss wish list,” said Foxx, who led Republican debate on the bill. Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) excoriated the bill, saying it would effectively “funnel money to Democrats” by allowing unions to collect additional dues. But the debate also presented an awkward counterpoint to those in the party who have seized on Trump’s appeal to white, blue-collar voters and sought to rebrand the GOP, long a bastion of business and country clubs, as a working-class party. During his floor speech, Ryan, the Ohio congressman, implored Republicans who want to help the working class to take substantive action rather than focus on culture-war issues. “Stop talking about Dr. Seuss and start working with us on behalf of the American workers,” he shouted, referring to the recent conservative uproar over several children’s books that were deemed racially and culturally insensitive.

Norton Juster, 'The Phantom Tollbooth' author, dead at 91

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-09/norton-juster-the-phantom-tollbooth-author-dead-at-91

Norton Juster, the celebrated children’s author who fashioned a world of adventure and wordplay in the million-selling classic “The Phantom Tollbooth” and remained true to his wide-eyed self in such favorites as “The Dot and the Line” and “Stark Naked,” has died at 91. Juster’s death was confirmed Tuesday by a spokesperson for Random House Children’s Books, who did not provide details. Juster’s friend and fellow author Mo Willems tweeted Tuesday that Juster “ran out of stories” and died “peacefully” the night before. “Norton’s greatest work was himself: a tapestry of delightful tales,” Willems wrote. “The Phantom Tollbooth,” published in 1961, followed the adventures of young Milo through the Kingdom of Wisdom, a land extending from The Foothills of Confusion to The Valley of Sound, populated by the imperiled princesses Rhyme and Reason and the fearsome Gorgons of Hate and Malice. Drawings were provided by his roommate at the time, Jules Feiffer, who would later collaborate with Juster on “The Odious Ogre,” published in 2010. Eric Carle of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” fame illustrated Juster’s “Otter Nonsense,” which came out in 1982. As Juster wrote in the introduction to a 1999 reissue of “The Phantom Tollbooth,” he first thought of the book when he was in his late 20s and working at an architectural firm in New York City. He found himself wondering, the way a child might, about how people relate to the world around them. He had received a grant for a book on urban planning and spent months researching it before a boy’s “startling” question — overheard by Juster in a restaurant — changed his narrative and changed his life: “What’s the biggest number there is?” “I started to compose what I thought would be about a child’s confrontation with numbers and words and meanings and other strange concepts that are imposed on children,” he wrote. “I loved the opportunity to turn things upside down and inside out and indulge in all the bad jokes and puns and wordplay that my father had introduced me to when I was growing up.” Another Juster admirer, Maurice Sendak, would praise the book’s “excitement and sheer delight in glorious lunatic linguistic acrobatics.” A 1970 film adaptation of “The Phantom Tollbooth” starred Butch Patrick of “The Munsters” fame, and the tale was later made into a musical, with a score by Arnold Black and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. Juster’s wife of 54 years, Jeanne, died in 2018. They had a daughter, Emily. Juster, a native of New York City, was the son and brother of architects and he never turned entirely from his family craft. He continued to write books, while co-founding the architectural firm Juster Pope Associates, in Shelburne Falls, Mass., and his stories often combined his seemingly opposite gifts for structure and absurdity. “The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Mathematics” is a love triangle as only Juster could have imagined — between a straight and strait-laced line, a dotty dot and a swinging squiggle. (Animator Chuck Jones adapted it into an Oscar-winning short film). “Stark Naked” finds an undressed protagonist wandering in the town of Emotional Heights, encountering such characters as the intellectual Noel Lott and school principal Martin Nett. Juster’s more recent stories included “The Hello, Goodbye Window,” for which illustrator Chris Raschka received a Caldecott Medal, and the sequel “Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie.” One project he never got around to: that book on urban planning. “The funny thing is that many of the things I was thinking about for that book did find their way into ‘The Phantom Tollbooth,’” he wrote in 1999. “Maybe someday I’ll get back to it when I’m trying to avoid doing something else.”

Americans largely back Biden's virus response, poll finds

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-10/ap-norc-poll-americans-largely-back-bidens-virus-response

Joe Biden is enjoying an early presidential honeymoon, with 60% of Americans approving of his job performance thus far and even more backing his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. At a moment of deep political polarization in America, support for Biden’s pandemic response extends across party lines. Overall, 70% of Americans back the Democratic president’s handling of the virus response, including 44% of Republicans. Still, Biden faces more skepticism from Americans on the economy, which has been battered by the pandemic. Fifty-five percent of Americans approve of Biden’s approach to the economy thus far, and 63% say the U.S. economy is in poor shape, the AP-NORC survey shows. Republicans are also less likely to back Biden on the economy than they are on the pandemic, with just 17% supporting his fiscal stewardship. Less than two months into his presidency, Biden has made the pandemic his central focus, urging Americans to follow stringent social distancing and mask guidelines and vowing to speed up distribution of critical vaccines. He’s also argued that until the spread of the virus is under control, the economy won’t fully recover. To address financial shortfalls in the meantime, he’s asking Congress to pass a $1.9-trillion pandemic rescue plan that would provide direct payments to millions of Americans and surge funds into state and local governments. Politics Fifty days in, Biden has made strides on a number of key campaign pledges for his earliest days in office, while others are still awaiting action. March 10, 2021 The measure has already passed the House. But Biden is having to make compromises to keep all Democratic senators in support of the measure, including agreeing this week to narrow eligibility for $1,400 stimulus checks. In a concession to moderate Democratic senators, Biden agreed that individuals making more than $80,000 annually and couples making more than $160,000 won’t receive any benefits. Biden’s original proposal extended the stimulus funds to Americans with higher annual wages. The administration estimates that 158.5 million households will still receive checks under the Senate compromise. The prospect of a pandemic relief bill is welcome news to John Villegas, 58, an Illinois Democrat who supports Biden’s handling of both the virus response and the economy. “With the closure of so many businesses, there are a lot of people suffering,” said Villegas, who called Biden’s approach a “180 degree shift” from that of his predecessor, Donald Trump. Trump argued that the U.S. economy couldn’t afford the hit that came from enacting restrictions on business and travel. The worst fears of economists were averted as Republican-led states followed Trump’s lead and resisted restrictions, but COVID-19 cases skyrocketed. More than 520,000 people have died in the United States from the virus over the past year. Politics The government’s pandemic response has shifted and shaped two administrations a year after it began. March 10, 2021 Despite their differing approaches to managing the economy during the pandemic, Biden’s approval ratings on the economy are similar to Trump’s, whose handling of the economy since the virus took hold was consistently backed by about half of Americans. The key difference: That level of support made the economy Trump’s strongest issue, while it’s a relative weakness for Biden compared with Americans’ views of his handling of the pandemic and other issues. In a reflection of the partisanship that continues to rage in the U.S., many Americans’ views of the economy have flipped since the new president was inaugurated. In December, 67% of Republicans and just 15% of Democrats described the economy as good. Now, 35% of Republicans and 41% of Democrats describe the economy positively. There’s been little change in overall growth or unemployment over that time. Biden’s handling of the pandemic may well determine the course of his presidency and the political capital he has to pursue significant legislation on other matters. Democrats are working urgently to tee up bills addressing infrastructure investment, policing reforms and voting rights. Biden has also vowed to tackle climate change and build on the sprawling health insurance measure signed into law when he served as Barack Obama’s vice president. Politics With new rules for vaccinated Americans and a relief plan pending congressional approval, President Biden has reached a turning point in the pandemic. March 8, 2021 His promises of action have garnered him solid approval ratings on some of those fronts. For example, about 6 in 10 Americans say they approve of Biden’s handling of healthcare and race relations. Overall, 48% of Americans say the country is headed in the right direction, compared with 37% who said that in December. The poll also shows that 43% of Americans expect things in the country overall to get better in the next year, while 34% think things will get worse and 23% think they will remain about the same. Biden himself has been purposefully cautious in predicting when life in the U.S. will return to a pre-pandemic normal. Even as he promises that the U.S. will have enough vaccine supply for all Americans by the end of May, he’s said it could be the end of the year or early 2022 before Americans can stop wearing masks or fully return to normal activities. His team’s goal in setting expectations? Underpromise, then overdeliver.

Smithsonian museum of American history acquires first COVID-19 vaccine vial

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-09/smithsonian-obtains-vial-from-1st-us-covid-19-vaccine-dose

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has acquired the vial that contained the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine administered in the United States as part of its plans to document the global pandemic and “this extraordinary period we were going through.” The acquisition, along with other materials related to that first vaccine dose, was announced by the museum Tuesday to mark the upcoming one-year anniversary of the pandemic. Associated Press journalists were given an exclusive look at the materials, which include vials, special shipping equipment and the medical scrubs and ID badge of the New York City nurse who was the U.S.’ first coronavirus vaccine recipient. “We wanted objects that would tell the full story,” said Anthea M. Hartig, the museum’s director. “Everything from the scrubs to the freezer unit that shipped the vaccines.” The museum is choosing to mark Thursday — March 11, the day last year that the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. That’s also the week that much of American life shut down as the virus made inroads into offices, homes and sporting events. Entertainment & Arts Daniel Fish, Culture Clash, Dael Orlandersmith, Richard Maxwell, Annie Dorsen and Lars Jan reveal much loss — but also see a way forward. March 2, 2021 “Our broadest mandate was to document this extraordinary period we were going through,” said Diane Wendt, a curator in the museum’s medicine and science department. “We particularly had our eye on vaccine development from the start.” The first dose of vaccine in the U.S. was given on Dec. 14 by Northwell Health, a New York-based health provider, to Sandra Lindsay, an intensive care nurse. The donation from Northwell includes the original Pfizer vials as well as the specialized shipping container, about the size of a hotel room refrigerator, that delivers the Pfizer doses packed in dry ice. “Our curators were particularly interested in the process and the packaging,” museum spokeswoman Melinda Machado said. “The story of the vaccine is not just what goes in your arm.” The National Museum of American History closed on March 13 last year along with other Smithsonian facilities, including the National Zoo. It reopened on a limited basis in September but closed again around eight weeks later, before Thanksgiving, as local virus numbers started going back up. But even with doors shuttered, Hartig said the museum had what she called a “rapid response collecting task force” of curators looking at ways to tell the story of this time in American history. Hartig said she also had parallel curation crews out gathering material from last year’s wave of protests against police brutality and systemic racism and is now looking at artifacts to mark the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Trump. Entertainment & Arts Library of Congress acquires 269 sketches by late L.A. courtroom artist Mary Chaney. She chronicled trials related to Rodney King, who was beaten by police 30 years ago. March 3, 2021 The new COVID-19 materials will join the museum’s extensive medical collection, which includes one of the first batches of the polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1955 and specialized syringes and vaccination cards from that era. The collection also includes the personal blue and pink plastic coronavirus model donated last week by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime immunologist who has become synonymous with the fight against COVID-19. Museum officials said they weren’t sure if the coronavirus-related materials would be on display immediately when the museum reopens later this year. For now, they are planning to use them as part of a larger display on the history of medicine that is expected to debut next year.

From a prolonged pandemic, a rethink of life's milestones?

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-11/from-a-prolonged-pandemic-a-rethink-of-lifes-milestones

Wedding anniversaries for Elizabeth O’Connor Cole and her husband, Michael, usually involve a dinner reservation for two at a fancy restaurant. Not this time around. As the pandemic raged last May, the Chicago mom of four unearthed her boxed wedding gown from 19 years ago, got it zipped with help from one of her daughters and surprised her spouse. Cole re-created their reception menu — a shrimp appetizer and beef tenderloin — and pulled out her wedding china and silver after enlisting another of her kids to DJ their first-dance song, “At Last,” for a romantic turn around the living room. And the priest who married them offered a special blessing on Zoom with friends and family joining in. “Spontaneous and a bit chaotic,” O’Connor Cole pronounced the celebration. “Still, it was probably the most meaningful and fun anniversary we’ve had.” As the pandemic enters its second year, there’s a pent-up longing for the recent past, especially when it comes to life’s milestones. When the crisis finally resolves, will our new ways of marking births and deaths, weddings and anniversaries have any lasting impact? Or will freshly felt sentiments born of pandemic invention be fleeting? Some predict their pandemic celebrations have set a new course. Others still mourn the way their traditions used to be. Milestones, rituals and traditions help set the rhythm of our lives, from the annuals like birthdays and anniversaries to the one-timers like births and deaths, extending beyond those boundaries to more casual events like opening day (choose your sport), drinks out after work with colleagues and that first swim of summer. Jennifer Talarico, a psychology professor at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania who studies memory and personal experience, says certain events shape lives differently — and have been reshaped just as differently during the pandemic. Perhaps most devastatingly impacted, she says, are death and dying, sitting at bedsides to comfort and attending funerals to mourn as the coronavirus has killed more than 2.3 million people around the world. “That’s being felt the hardest because it’s the hardest to replace,” Talarico says. “That’s probably going to have the most lasting impact.” Renee Fry knows the feeling well. Her grandmother, Regina Connelly, died Dec. 6 of COVID-19 at her nursing home in Hollidaysburg, Pa. She had just turned 98. There was no dropping everything to be at her bedside. There was no large church celebration of her life followed by dinner for all. “We had to rely on video conferencing,” Fry says. But they also did something else. She and her sister, Julie Fry, put together a “memory book” shared with far-flung family and friends. They included Regina’s favorite prayer, the Hail Mary, and asked loved ones to recite it on her behalf. They filled pages with photos through the years, from a portrait of young Regina in a fine red dress (lipstick to match, gold pendant around her neck) to more casual shots with grandchildren. The sisters — Renee in Quincy, Mass., and Julie in Port Matilda, Pa. — wrote the story of how Regina met her husband on a blind date, then lost him when he died in 2010 after 64 years of marriage. They wrote of how she spent most of her teen years caring for her two brothers after their mother died suddenly when she was 13. They included rosaries with each of the 32 booklets they mailed. Judging from the response — a second cousin called to say thank you, and a caregiver for Regina wrote a two-page letter offering thanks as well — it made an impact. “It was incredibly meaningful,” Renee says. Such a booklet will be created when the family faces death once again. The pandemic, Fry says, has proved that distance no longer denies lasting meaning. Daryl Van Tongeren, an associate professor of psychology at Hope College in Michigan, studies meaning in life, religion and virtues. Rituals, symbols and milestones help provide structure to our worlds, he says, demarcating the passage of time or a significant accomplishment but more importantly lending meaning to life itself. “One of the things that these milestones and these rituals do is they connect us with other people and things that are larger than ourselves,” he says. Sometimes left behind in a swirl of celebration is the core significance of something just as important — the events themselves. Students who missed out on the walk across the stage at their graduations remain graduates. Couples forced to elope or give up their dreams of weddings for 200 for smaller affairs still have their marriages to experience. While some predict a Roaring ‘20s renaissance once the crisis has ended, “there are going to be a number of people who are changed,” Van Tongeren says. “They’re going to say, `I’m going to emerge from this pandemic with a new set of values, and I’m going to live my life according to new priorities.’” Last year, Shivaune Field celebrated her 40th birthday on Jan. 11 with a group of friends at a downtown restaurant in Los Angeles, where she lives. It was just weeks before the coronavirus made its way to the U.S. This year, when she turned 41, the adjunct professor of business at Pepperdine University simply took to the beach with her pals. “It felt much more authentic, a nicer way to connect without all the bells and whistles,” she says. “I think it’s really nice to get back to that. It reminds me of childhood.” Fields grew up in Melbourne, Australia, where she says her parents kept birthdays rooted in family outings to the beach or bike rides followed by a treat of ice cream. “Weekend get-togethers are now in sneakers with dogs sitting on grass and picnic rugs rather than on stools in fancy restaurants,” she says. And Field is just fine with that. Marking time has changed during the pandemic. There’s the ticking off of months based on trips to the hair salon and the length of pandemic beards. There’s Zoom creativity and socially distanced trips outdoors. Re-creating celebrations of the past for major, time-marking events has been difficult as time blurred and safety restrictions took over. “We have all of this cultural baggage, in a good way, around those events,” Talarico says. “It’s a reinforcing cycle of events that we expect to be memorable.” Memorable has been hard to achieve. But the rethink has been important for many, and its effects may ripple long after the virus has ebbed. “For those wanting to reminisce years later about important events that happened during the pandemic, there will likely be nostalgia mixed with more than a tinge of trauma,” says Wilfred van Gorp, a past president of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology. “It may remind us of the loneliness and isolation brought about by the pandemic, our fear of catching the virus, fear of dying, fear of losing loved ones and loss of any we knew who may have died from COVID-19,” he says. “And,” he adds, “recollections of what we didn’t have, what we missed, and the experiences we couldn’t share together.”

Foreclosure looms for Nile Niami’s infamous mega-mansion 'The One'

https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2021-03-08/foreclosure-looms-for-nile-niamis-infamous-mega-mansion-the-one

For years, spec developer Nile Niami has teased “The One” — a 100,000-square-foot mega-mansion in Bel-Air that he hoped to sell for $500 million. But his plans are now in peril. Niami, known for his brazen personality and wildly ambitious real estate projects, borrowed $82.5 million from Hankey Capital in 2018 to build the extravagant home. Over the last three years, that debt has ballooned to more than $110 million, and Hankey wants its money. According to a document obtained by The Times, the lender just served Niami a notice of default on the prized property, which is considered the first step in the foreclosure process. If Niami can’t repay the loan in 90 days, Hankey could force a sale of the home. Listing agents Rayni and Branden Williams of Williams & Williams at the Beverly Hills Estates and Aaron Kirman of the Aaron Kirman Group at Compass could not be reached for comment. “We felt the owner of ‘The One’ was distracted from the job at hand, which is to bring the biggest and best house in the United States to market for sale,” said Don Hankey, chairman of Hankey Investment Co. “We hope our actions will kick off the official listing.” Business Homes are flying off the market at a record pace thanks to a perfect storm: pandemic-induced demand for more space, low supply, and apps that make it easier to view, bid for and buy houses — all with a few swipes and clicks. April 23, 2021 There are multiple solutions for Niami to avoid a forced sale of the property, which include paying back all or at least some of the loan or coming to an alternative agreement with the lender. But such sales, even for prized properties, are not without precedent. In 2019, the owners of the famed Mountain in Beverly Hills — a 157-acre lot considered the city’s finest piece of undeveloped land — faced a foreclosure sale due to $200 million in unpaid loans. They tried to delay the sale by declaring bankruptcy, but their efforts were unsuccessful, and the land was auctioned off outside a Pomona courthouse. Default notices are nothing new for Niami. He received two in 2020 alone: one for a debt of $10 million on a property he owns at 1369 Londonderry Place in the Hollywood Hills, and one for a debt of $23.4 million on a mansion at 10701 Bellagio Road that he’s currently trying to sell for $59 million in Bel-Air. He took out a $200,000 loan from Compass for a separate Bel-Air property he was trying to sell in 2019, and the real estate company sued him in October for failing to repay it, records show. Last year, he told the Wall Street Journal that there have been multiple times when he was forced to stop construction because of a lack of financing. He also said that he has funded construction with cash from sales of other properties. Business In March, slightly more than half of homes sold for over the asking price across Los Angeles. In some spots, the share was even bigger. April 14, 2021 Profitable sales have been hard to come by for Niami lately. After listing an over-the-top Beverly Hills home dubbed “Opus” for $100 million, he sold it last year for $38.3 million. The buyer turned out to be Joseph Englanoff, one of Niami’s lenders for the project. Englanoff took control of the property, rebranded it and sold it for $47 million later that year. In 2019, Niami tried to sell a West Hollywood home with a glass-bottomed pool and cryogenic chamber for $55 million but couldn’t find a buyer. Late last year, he put the property into bankruptcy. All his homes boast otherworldly amenities — champagne vaults, animal skeletons, for instance — but in terms of raw ambition, the One takes the cake. Even among the colossal estates of Bel-Air, the house is over the top. The estate stretches across eight acres on a promontory lot and centers on a 100,000-square-foot palace that looks more like a futuristic spacecraft or a Bond villain’s lair than a home. Niami ended up axing some of the amenities he teased, including a jellyfish tank and a frozen room with an ice bar, but he still saved space for a nightclub, four-lane bowling alley, 50-seat theater, juice bar, putting green, golf simulator, beauty salon, yoga platform and five swimming pools. The primary suite alone is bigger than the average U.S. home at 4,000 square feet. He originally planned to list it for $500 million in 2017, but the home still hasn’t hit the market — a costly delay since the property’s annual tax bill comes in at more than $1 million. Last summer, he posted a cryptic video on his Instagram account declaring it was 10 weeks away from completion, saying, “Seven years ago, I had an idea to create the biggest, most expensive house in the urban world: The One Bel-Air. And I did it.” A post shared by Nile Niami (@nileniami) The home still has not officially surfaced for sale, but Niami did recently release a Google Forms application that asks prospective buyers to supply their name, email address, phone number and proof of funds along with the question, “Which influencer did you find out from?” In addition to the outstanding loans, Niami has also been fined five times for parties at his properties that violated L.A.’s coronavirus social distancing orders, according to the Daily Mail. The five violations made up a third of the 15 total fines handed out by the city from April to August last year. Times staff writer Roger Vincent contributed to this report.

Report: Blinken offers plan to bolster Afghan peace process

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-07/report-blinken-offers-plan-to-bolster-afghan-peace-process

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is proposing a series of steps to help jump-start Afghanistan’s stalled peace process between the government and Taliban, according to a letter from Blinken to Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, published Sunday by Afghanistan’s TOLONews. The letter calls for bringing the two sides together for a U.N.-facilitated conference with foreign ministers and envoys from Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, India and the United States “to discuss a unified approach to supporting peace in Afghanistan.” Blinken also calls for holding talks between the Afghan government and Taliban in a senior-level meeting in Turkey in the coming weeks to work out a revised proposal for a 90-day reduction in violence. The secretary of State has also called on special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to share with both the Afghan government and Taliban written proposals to help accelerate discussions, according to the TOLONews report. World & Nation Air quality has been terrible for decades in Bergamo, in northern Italy, which last year suffered many COVID-19 deaths. Researchers see a connection. March 5, 2021 Blinken also made clear in the letter that the Biden administration continues to consider a “full withdrawal” of the roughly 2,500 U.S. forces in the country by the May 1 deadline negotiated by the Trump administration. The State Department declined to comment on the TOLONews report. “We have not made any decisions about our force posture in Afghanistan after May 1,” the State Department said in a statement. “All options remain on the table.” Afghanistan presents one of the new administration’s most difficult foreign policy decisions. The U.S. public is weary of a war nearly 20 years old, but pulling out now could be seen as giving the Taliban too much leverage and casting a shadow over the sacrifices made by U.S. and coalition troops and Afghan civilians. Blinken urged Ghani to quickly embrace the proposal and underscored his concern that the security situation in the country could quickly deteriorate as the weather warms there. “Even with the continuation of financial assistance from the United States to your forces after an American military withdrawal, I am concerned that the security situation will worsen and the Taliban could make rapid territorial gains,” Blinken wrote in the letter.

San Diego mariachi bands struggle through the pandemic, helping to relieve heartache

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-07/san-diego-mariachi-groups-struggle-through-covid

For many, it’s the sound of home. It’s the music their parents danced to at weddings, teenage siblings played as they healed from a heartbreak, and uncles crooned, out of tune, while drinking tequila. It can be cheerful, patriotic, sad, desperate and hopeful. Mariachi music transports many listeners to a memory of a country they left behind, a long-lost love or happy times with family and friends. For a while it seemed the music, along with the talented musicians who play it, was becoming another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Early last year, numerous weddings, quinceañeras and other large events that usually featured mariachi bands were canceled. Many of San Diego’s mariachi bands lost work and were faced with hanging up their sombreros de charro and putting away their instruments. But now, as some businesses reopen, people begin getting vaccinated and families get creative about ways to celebrate, things are picking up. And the wholesome music of mariachi is playing again all over San Diego at drive-through birthday parties, small outdoor weddings and COVID-19 funerals, band members say. “The music touches the heart,” said Dulce Perez, leader of Mariachi Divinas from San Diego. “It makes you feel connected to your roots.” This time, to keep working, mariachi bands are replacing plaza performances, corporate events and large celebrations with smaller gatherings. Perez’s group keeps busy by playing at funerals — mostly related to COVID-19. “Even though it’s tough, and it’s a sad moment,” she said, “at the same time it’s a celebration and remembering what songs they used to love.” Perez, who started her rare all-female mariachi group in 2012, has been singing the music for almost 18 years. When the pandemic started, the band’s scheduled performances at the San Diego Convention Center, Viejas Casino and large wedding venues were canceled. Since then, half the group’s six members left because of the unsteady work, she said: “We lost our jobs.” Mariachi Divinas has become a co-ed band of six players. The band plays three to four funerals a week, compared with about one a week before the pandemic, Perez said. Even though it’s a poignant time, families will often request upbeat songs, she said, because those happy songs remind them of their loved ones. California The wife of an ailing Anaheim locksmith hires a band to lift his spirits. Feb. 15, 2021 “Mariachi is something that brings the family a sense of melancholy,” she said, “and they can remember and reminisce on the person’s life.” Mariachi music has been around for more than 100 years. The music’s popularity outside Mexico has grown so much that K-12 schools and universities have created mariachi music programs across the United States and the world. The size of a mariachi ensemble varies, but it usually includes singers, violinists, and trumpet and guitar players. Performers wear charro suits, elegant outfits decorated with embroidery and silver or gold metal buttons. Mariachi’s growth can be attributed to its connection to Latino culture and heritage, said Serafin Paredes, director of the University of San Diego’s mariachi ensemble, Mariachi Toreros de USD. “For immigrants, the only thing we take with us is our memories of our countries, our music and food,” Paredes said. “Anything that resembles Mexico, we love it and appreciate it.” The music’s versatility also is the reason it resonates with Latinos and others. It can be played at weddings, birthday parties, festivals and funerals, he said. Although gatherings among large groups are still discouraged, some families have gotten creative to celebrate milestones and honor loved ones with mariachi music. Mariachi Estrellas de Chula Vista, a 12-member band, recently played at a birthday celebration where they performed outside. Neighbors walked out to their lawns to enjoy the music as a community, rather than an individual party. “Even though people are keeping their distance, with the outdoor performances it feels like a community is coming together,” said Jacqueline Sierra, a violin player with Mariachi Estrellas de Chula Vista. Large bands like Mariachi Estrellas de Chula Vista have been accepting jobs that they wouldn’t have before the pandemic. The band is doing more serenades — short performances usually done for couples who are getting engaged, or for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. “We are doing the jobs that we can find,” said bandleader Missael Vazquez. Tuesday evening, the band played “El Son de la Negra,” a popular song often played by mariachi groups, at a home in the Ocean View Hills neighborhood of San Diego. The dining room table was filled with sheet music for songs the band was practicing before its next job. Vazquez said that although it was nice to return to work, the way families are experiencing mariachi music is not the same as it was before the coronavirus, in part because of social distancing. “It has affected the way people enjoy the music because they can’t dance, and you can tell some people feel a little uncomfortable,” he said. “They still enjoy the music but not like before.” Perez said most clients hosted events outdoors, but there are still some who organize indoor events. Although she makes sure everyone in the band follows coronavirus safety guidelines by staying distanced from party guests and wearing masks as much as possible during the performance, it’s still scary, she said. Mariachi band members wear masks except for the trumpet players, who remove their masks to play their parts. Dozens of mariachi musicians across the country have died of COVID-19, according to news reports. KNBC-TV Channel 4 recently reported that at least 20 mariachis in Los Angeles have died since the pandemic began. It is unknown how many mariachi musicians in San Diego have died. Paredes said many musicians relied on mariachi performances to feed their families, so not working because of fear of getting sick is not an option. Many of these musicians find it difficult to collect unemployment because they work as independent contractors. “It’s the only option they have to make money,” Paredes said. “They need to play.” Even large, well-established mariachi groups that used to play massive concerts around the world are hurting because of the pandemic, Paredes said. “If those people are suffering,” he said, “just imagine the average musician in the neighborhood.” Yet people still want to learn to play mariachi music. Every year, Paredes organizes a mariachi conference for students in San Diego that hundreds of musicians from the area and other countries attend, including many who mentor new musicians. This year, the event will take place online. The free virtual conference, scheduled for Friday, will connect students with mariachi musicians from all over the world.

Myanmar crisis heightens with police raids and strike call

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-07/myanmar-crisis-heightens-with-police-raids-and-strike-call

Myanmar careened deeper into crisis as police occupied hospitals and universities and reportedly arrested hundreds of people involved in protesting last month’s military seizure of power, while a coalition of labor unions called a strike for Monday. Tension was high Sunday in the country’s biggest city, Yangon, where for a second night running gunshots from heavy weapons rang out randomly in the streets of several neighborhoods after the start of an 8 p.m. curfew. The sounds of what apparently were stun grenades could also be heard on videos posted on social media. Security forces’ use of such weapons when protesters had left the streets appeared to be part of a strategy to strike fear in anyone who might think about defying the authorities. In a similar vein, there were many filmed incidents of police and soldiers in plain view savagely beating protesters they had taken into custody. Some of the shooting was heard near hospitals, where reports said neighborhood residents sought to block the entry of police and soldiers. World & Nation Hate crimes against Asians and Asian Americans jumped dramatically in major U.S. cities in 2020. March 5, 2021 Security forces have often targeted medical personnel and facilities, attacking ambulances and their crews. Members of the medical profession launched the Civil Disobedience Movement, which is the nominal coordinator of the protests, frequently hailed on demonstrators’ signs by its CDM initials. Taking over hospitals would allow the authorities to easily arrest wounded people presumed to be protesters. Large protests have occurred daily across many cities and towns in Myanmar, and security forces have responded with ever greater use of lethal force and mass arrests. At least 18 protesters were shot and killed on Feb. 28, and 38 were killed Wednesday, according to the U.N. Human Rights Office. More than 1,500 have been arrested, the independent Assistance Assn. for Political Prisoners said. Protests in various cities and towns were again met Sunday by police firing warning shots, and employing tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades. In a single Yangon neighborhood, Shwepyitha, at least 100 students were reported arrested, and many protesters were also said to have been detained in other cities, especially at universities. Myanmar labor unions, meanwhile, issued a joint call for a nationwide work stoppage beginning Monday, with the goal of a “full, extended shutdown of the Myanmar economy.” “To continue the economic and business activities as usual, and to delay a general work-stoppage, will only benefit the military as they repress the energy of the Myanmar people,” said the appeal, issued Sunday night. The statement called for the strike to continue “until we receive our democracy back.” Workers in several industries have joined the protest movement, most notably from the state railway and the banking sector. Factory workers, mostly in the Yangon area, are largely involved in the garment industry, which generates major export earnings for Myanmar. The workers have participated occasionally in the campaign against the junta but are unable to do so on a daily basis for fear of losing their modest incomes. Advocates of sanctions against the junta have purposely avoided calling for comprehensive trade sanctions for fear they would hurt the general populace. Instead they have called for, and enacted, targeted sanctions aimed at hurting the military’s leadership and military-linked companies. Earlier Sunday, police in Myanmar’s ancient former capital, Bagan, opened fire on demonstrators protesting the Feb. 1 coup, wounding several people, according to witness accounts and videos on social media. At least five people were reported hurt as police sought to break up the Bagan protest, and photos showed one young man with bloody wounds on his chin and neck, believed to have been caused by a rubber bullet. Bullet casings collected at the scene indicated that live rounds also were fired. The city, in the central Mandalay region, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of the more than 2,000 pagodas or their remnants situated there, dating from the 9th to 13th centuries, when it was the capital of a kingdom that later became known as Burma, now Myanmar. Bagan is best known for being one of the country’s top tourist attractions, but it also has been the scene of large protest marches against the junta. Multiple reports from Yangon said there had been police raids Saturday night seeking to seize organizers and supporters of the protest movement. A ward chairman from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, which was ousted from power in the coup, was found dead in a military hospital Sunday morning by fellow residents of his Pabedan neighborhood, according to a post on Facebook by NLD lawmaker Sithu Maung. Suspicion was rampant on social media that Khin Maung Latt, 58, died due to a beating in custody after being taken from his residence, but no official cause of death was immediately announced. In Yangon and elsewhere, raids are carried out nightly after the 8 p.m. curfew by police and soldiers. The arrests are often carried out at gunpoint, without warrants. The escalation of violence has put pressure on the global community to act to restrain the junta. The coup reversed years of slow progress toward democracy in Myanmar, which for five decades had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions. Suu Kyi’s party led a return to civilian rule with a landslide election victory in 2015, and with an even greater margin of votes last year. It would have been installed for a second five-year term last month, but instead Suu Kyi and President Win Myint and other members of the government were placed in military detention.

2021 Grammys announce performers: Taylor Swift, BTS, Cardi B, Billie Eilish and more

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-07/grammy-performers-taylor-swift-bts-cardi-b-billie-eilish

Taylor Swift, BTS, Cardi B and Billie Eilish are set to perform at next week’s Grammy Awards. The Recording Academy announced Sunday that Harry Styles, Bad Bunny, Post Malone, Megan Thee Stallion and Dua Lipa will also hit the stage at the March 14 event. The show will air live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles on CBS and Paramount+. The Grammys were originally supposed to take place on Jan. 31 but were delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The academy says in a statement that “artists will be coming together, while still safely apart, to play music for each other as a community and celebrate the music that unites us all.” Trevor Noah is hosting the show for the first time. Other performers include Chris Martin, John Mayer, Doja Cat, Maren Morris, DaBaby, Haim, Lil Baby, Brandi Carlile, Roddy Ricch, Brittany Howard, Miranda Lambert, Mickey Guyton and Black Pumas. Beyoncé is the leading nominee with nine, followed by Swift, Lipa and Ricch, who each earned six nominations.

GOP pushes bills to allow social media 'censorship' lawsuits

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-07/gop-pushes-bills-to-allow-social-media-censorship-lawsuits

Republican state lawmakers are pushing for social media giants to face costly lawsuits for policing content on their websites, taking aim at a federal law that prevents internet companies from being sued for removing posts. GOP politicians in roughly two dozen states have introduced bills that would allow for civil lawsuits against platforms for what they call the “censorship” of posts. Many protest the deletion of political and religious statements, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Democrats, who also have called for greater scrutiny of big tech, are sponsoring the same measures in at least two states. The federal liability shield has long been a target of former President Trump and other Republicans, whose complaints about Silicon Valley stifling conservative viewpoints were amplified when the companies cracked down on misleading posts about the 2020 election. Twitter and Facebook, which are often criticized for opaque policing policies, took the additional step of silencing Trump on their platforms after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Twitter has banned him, while a semi-independent panel is reviewing Facebook’s indefinite suspension of his account and considering whether to reinstate access. World & Nation Hate crimes against Asians and Asian Americans jumped dramatically in major U.S. cities in 2020. March 5, 2021 Experts argue the legislative proposals are doomed to fail while the federal law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, is in place. They said state lawmakers were wading into unconstitutional territory by trying to interfere with the editorial policies of private companies. Len Niehoff, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, described the idea as a “constitutional non-starter.” “If an online platform wants to have a policy that it will delete certain kinds of tweets, delete certain kinds of users, forbid certain kinds of content, that is in the exercise of their right as an information distributor,” he said. “And the idea that you would create a cause of action that would allow people to sue when that happens is deeply problematic under the 1st Amendment.” The bills vary slightly, but many allow for civil lawsuits if a social media user is censored over posts having to do with politics or religion, with some proposals allowing for damages of $75,000 for each blocked post. They would apply to companies with millions of users and carve out exemptions for posts that call for violence or incite criminal acts or other similar conduct. The sponsor of Oklahoma’s version, Republican state Sen. Rob Standridge, said social media posts were being unjustly censored and that people should have a way to challenge the platforms’ actions given their powerful place in American discourse. His bill passed committee in late February on a 5-3 vote, with Democrats opposed. “This just gives citizens recourse,” he said, adding that the companies “can’t abuse that immunity” given to them through federal law. Part of a broad 1996 federal law on telecoms, Section 230 generally exempts internet companies from being sued over what users post on their sites. The statute, which was meant to promote growth of the internet, exempts websites from being sued for removing content deemed to be “obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable” as long as the companies are acting in “good faith.” As the power of social media has grown, so has the prospect of government regulation. Several congressional hearings have been held on content moderation, sometimes with Silicon Valley CEOs called to testify. Republicans, and some Democrats, have argued that the companies should lose their liability shield or that Section 230 should be updated to make the companies meet certain criteria before receiving the legal protection. Twitter and Facebook also have been hounded over what critics have described as sluggish, after-the-fact account suspensions or post takedowns, with liberals complaining they have given too much latitude to conservatives and hate groups. Trump railed against Section 230 throughout his term in office, well before Twitter and Facebook blocked his access to their platforms after the assault on the Capitol. Last May, he signed a largely symbolic executive order that directed the executive branch to ask independent rule-making agencies whether new regulations could be placed on the companies. “All of these tech monopolies are going to abuse their power and interfere in our elections, and it has to be stopped,” he told supporters at the Capitol hours before the riot. Antigone Davis, global head of safety for Facebook, said these kinds of proposals would make it harder for the site to remove posts involving hate speech, sexualized photos of minors and other harmful content. “We will continue advocating for updated rules for the internet,” she said, “including reforms to federal law that protect free expression while allowing platforms like ours to remove content that threatens the safety and security of people across the United States.” In a statement, Twitter said: “We enforce the Twitter rules judiciously and impartially for everyone on our service — regardless of ideology or political affiliation — and our policies help us to protect the diversity and health of the public conversation.” Researchers have not found widespread evidence that social media companies are biased against conservative news, posts or materials. In a February report, New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights called the accusations political disinformation spread by Republicans. The report recommended that social media sites give clear reasoning when they take action against material on their platforms. “Greater transparency — such as that which Twitter and Facebook offered when they took action against President Trump in January — would help to defuse claims of political bias, while clarifying the boundaries of acceptable user conduct,” the report read. While the federal law is in place, the state proposals mostly amount to political posturing, said Darrell West, vice president of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a public policy group. “This is red meat for the base. It’s a way to show conservatives they don’t like being pushed around,” he said. “They’ve seen Trump get kicked off Facebook and Twitter, and so this is a way to tell Republican voters this is unfair and Republicans are fighting for them.”

Pope calls on Christians in Iraq to forgive and rebuild

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-07/where-is-ruled-pope-calls-on-christians-to-forgive-rebuild

Pope Francis called on Iraq’s Christians to forgive the injustices committed against them by Muslim extremists and to rebuild as he visited the wrecked shells of churches and met ecstatic crowds in the community’s historic heartland, which was nearly erased by the Islamic State group’s horrific reign. At each stop in northern Iraq, the remnants of its Christian population turned out, jubilant, ululating, decked out in colorful dress, though heavy security prevented Francis from plunging into the crowd as he would normally do. Nonetheless, they seemed simply overjoyed that they had not been forgotten. It was a sign of the desperation for support among an ancient community uncertain whether it can hold on. Traditionally Christian towns dotting the Nineveh Plains of the north were emptied as Christians — as well as many Muslims — fled the Islamic State group’s onslaught in 2014. Only a few have returned to their homes since the defeat of IS in Iraq declared four years ago, and the rest remain scattered elsewhere in Iraq or abroad. Bells rang out in the town of Qaraqosh as the pope arrived. Speaking to a packed Church of the Immaculate Conception, Francis said “forgiveness” is a key word for Christians. “The road to a full recovery may still be long, but I ask you, please, not to grow discouraged. What is needed is the ability to forgive, but also the courage not to give up.” The Qaraqosh church has been extensively renovated after being vandalized by IS militants during their takeover of the town, making it a symbol of recovery efforts. World & Nation Terrorized by Islamic State, Iraq’s dwindling Christians hope a historic visit by Pope Francis starting next week will boost their chances to survive. For the Vatican, the continued presence of Christians in Iraq is vital to keeping alive faith communities that have existed here since the time of Christ. The population has dwindled from around 1.5 million before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that plunged the country into chaos to just a few hundred thousand today. Francis came to Iraq to encourage them to stay and help rebuild the country and restore what he called its “intricately designed carpet” of faith and ethnic groups. In striking images earlier Sunday, Francis, dressed in white, took to a red carpet stage in a square in the north’s main city, Mosul, surrounded by the gray, hollowed-out shells of four churches, nearly destroyed in the war to oust the Islamic State group from the city. It was a scene that would have been unimaginable years earlier. Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, was at the heart of the IS so-called “caliphate” and witnessed the worst of the group’s rule inflicted on Muslims, Christians and others, including beheadings and mass killings. “How cruel it is that this country, the cradle of civilization, should have been afflicted by so barbarous a blow,” Francis said, “with ancient places of worship destroyed and many thousands of people — Muslims, Christians, Yazidis — who were cruelly annihilated by terrorism — and others forcibly displaced or killed.” He deviated from his prepared speech to address the plight of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, which was subjected to mass killings, abductions and sexual slavery at the hands of IS. “Today, however, we reaffirm our conviction that fraternity is more durable than fratricide, that hope is more powerful than hatred, that peace more powerful than war.” The square where he spoke is home to four different churches — Syriac Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox and Chaldean — each left in ruins. IS inflicted atrocities against all communities, including Muslims, during its three-year rule across much of northern and western Iraq. But the Christian minority was hit especially hard. The militants forced them to choose among conversion, death or the payment of a special tax for non-Muslims. Thousands fled, leaving behind homes and churches that were destroyed or commandeered by the extremists. Mosul became the bureaucratic and financial backbone for IS. It was from Mosul’s Al-Nuri mosque that then-IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his only public appearance, when he gave a Friday sermon calling on all Muslims to follow him as “caliph.” It took a ferocious nine-month battle to free the city in July 2017, during which between 9,000 and 11,000 civilians were killed, according to an AP investigation at the time. Al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. raid in Syria in 2019. The war left a swath of destruction across Mosul and the north, and many Iraqis have been left on their own to rebuild amid a years-long financial crisis. The Rev. Raed Kallo was among the few Christians who returned to Mosul after IS was defeated. “My Muslim brothers received me after the liberation of the city with great hospitality and love,” he said on stage before the pontiff. Before IS, he had a parish of 500 Christian families. Most emigrated abroad, and now only 70 families remain, he said. “But today I live among 2 million Muslims who call me their Father Raed,” he said. Gutayba Aagha, the Muslim head of the Independent Social and Cultural Council for the Families of Mosul, encouraged other Christians to return. Oh my heartLook at Mosul welcoming @Pontifex pic.twitter.com/Nir0JMZ48g “In the name of the council, I invite all our Christian brothers to return to this, their city, their properties and their businesses.” Throughout his four-day visit, Francis has delivered a message of interreligious tolerance and fraternity to Muslim leaders, including in a historic meeting Saturday with Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. At Qaraqosh, Francis urged its residents to continue to dream, and forgive. “Forgiveness is necessary to remain in love, to remain Christian,” he said. He spoke after a Qaraqosh resident, Doha Sabah Abdallah, told him how her son and two other young people had been killed in a mortar strike Aug. 6, 2014, as IS was nearing the city. Their death was the alarm for the rest of the residents to flee. “The martyrdom of these three angels was a clear warning: If it weren’t for them, the people of Baghdede would have remained and would have inevitably fallen into the hands of ISIS,” referring to the name of Qaraqosh used by residents. “The deaths of three saved the entire city.” World & Nation Pope Francis is supporting demands for racial justice after the death of George Floyd and is blasting COVID skeptics and the media that spread their conspiracies. She said now it was for the survivors to “try to forgive the aggressor.” Before leaving Qaraqosh, the pontiff signed a book of honor, writing, “From this Church, destroyed and rebuilt, a symbol of the hope of Qaraqosh and of all Iraq, I ask of God, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the gift of peace.” Francis wraps up the day with a Mass in the stadium in Irbil, in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, that is expected to draw as many as 10,000 people. He arrived in Irbil early Sunday, where he was greeted by children in traditional dress and one outfitted as a pope. Public health experts had expressed concerns ahead of the trip that large gatherings could serve as superspreader events for the coronavirus in a country suffering from a worsening outbreak where few have been vaccinated. The Vatican has said it is taking precautions, including holding the Mass outdoors in a stadium that will only be partially filled. But throughout the visit, crowds have gathered in close proximity, with many people not wearing masks. The pope and members of his delegation have been vaccinated, but most Iraqis have not. Kullab reported from Baghdad.

Another former aide calls Cuomo's office conduct inappropriate

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-06/another-ex-aide-calls-cuomos-office-conduct-inappropriate

Another woman who worked for Gov. Andrew Cuomo is describing conduct she felt was inappropriate for the workplace. Ana Liss, 35, told the Wall Street Journal in a story published Saturday that when she worked as a policy aide to the governor between 2013 and 2015, Cuomo called her “sweetheart,” once kissed her hand and asked personal questions, including whether she had a boyfriend. She said he sometimes greeted her with a hug and a kiss on both cheeks. Liss told the Journal she initially thought of Cuomo’s behavior as harmless, but it grew to bother her. She felt it was patronizing. “It’s not appropriate, really, in any setting,” she said. “I wish that he took me seriously.” A spokesman for Cuomo didn’t immediately return a request for comment from the Associated Press, but told the Journal that some of the behavior Liss was describing was the kind of innocent glad-handing that politicians often do at public events. Politics The two governors were once lauded for pandemic leadership but now are fighting for political survival. “Reporters and photographers have covered the governor for 14 years watching him kiss men and women and posing for pictures,” said Rich Azzopardi, a senior advisor to Cuomo. “At the public open-house mansion reception, there are hundreds of people, and he poses for hundreds of pictures. That’s what people in politics do.” Liss said she never made a formal complaint about the governor’s behavior. Cuomo’s workplace conduct has been under intense scrutiny in recent days as several women have publicly told of feeling sexually harassed, or at least made to feel demeaned and uncomfortable by the Democratic governor. Former advisor Lindsey Boylan, 36, said Cuomo made inappropriate comments on her appearance, once kissed her on the lips at the end of a meeting and suggested a game of strip poker as they sat with other aides on a jet flight. Another former aide, Charlotte Bennett, 25, said Cuomo asked if she ever had sex with older men and made other comments she interpreted as gauging her interest in an affair. Another woman, who did not work for the state, described Cuomo putting his hands on her face and asking if he could kiss her after they met at a wedding. In a news conference Wednesday, Cuomo denied ever touching anyone inappropriately, but apologized for behaving in a way that he now realized had upset women he worked with. He said he’d made jokes and asked personal questions in an attempt to be playful and frequently greeted people with hugs and kisses, as his father, Mario Cuomo, had done when he was governor. “I understand sensitivities have changed. Behavior has changed,” Cuomo said. “I get it and I’m going to learn from it.” The state’s attorney general plans to hire an outside law firm to investigate the sexual harassment allegations. Some lawmakers have called for Cuomo to resign over his workplace behavior, as well as over separate allegations that his administration misled the public about coronavirus fatalities in nursing homes.

U.S. and South Korea scale back drills, citing coronavirus and diplomacy

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-06/s-korea-us-scale-back-drills-over-virus-n-korea-diplomacy

The South Korean and U.S. militaries are scaling back their annual exercises this month because of the COVID-19 pandemic and to support diplomacy on North Korea’s nuclear program, officials said Sunday. Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the allies decided to start the nine-day drills on Monday after reviewing factors like the status of the pandemic and diplomatic efforts to achieve denuclearization and peace on the Korean peninsula. It said the drills are defensive in nature and are mostly tabletop exercises and simulations that won’t involve field training. Last year, the allies canceled their springtime drills after some of their troops were infected with the coronavirus. In recent years, the countries have also suspended or downsized many of their regular training to create more space for the now-stalled U.S.-led diplomatic drive to convince North Korea to denuclearize in return for economic and political incentives. U.S.-South Korea drills have been a major source of animosities on the peninsula, with North Korea viewing them as invasion rehearsals and responding with its own weapons tests. In January, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged the U.S. to withdraw its hostile policy and South Korea to end drills with the U.S., warning the fate of their relations with North Korea depends on how they behave. World & Nation Recent satellite imagery indicate North Korea may be trying to extract plutonium to make more nuclear weapons. Some experts have said Kim may resume high-profile missile tests and raise tensions if he feels provoked by the upcoming drills, one of the two major military exercises between Seoul and Washington along with their summertime training. The nuclear negotiations have been stalled for about two years since a February 2019 summit between Kim and then-President Trump collapsed because of wrangling over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea. The government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, which facilitated the early part of the U.S.-North Korea talks, has been calling for the diplomacy’s restart and greater inter-Korean ties. A South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff officer said that Seoul and Washington decided to “minimize” the number of troops participating in this month’s drills because of the pandemic. The officer, who requested anonymity citing a department rule, said the allies have been staging field exercises throughout the year to maintain their readiness, rather than holding them intensively in certain periods, in an apparent reference to the spring and summer drills.

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama gets vaccine shot

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-06/tibetan-spiritual-leader-dalai-lama-gets-vaccine-shot

The Dalai Lama, the 85-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader, was administered the first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday at a hospital in the north Indian hill town of Dharmsala. After receiving the injection, he urged people to come forward, be brave and get vaccinated. “In order to prevent some serious problems, this injection is very, very helpful,” he said. Dr. G.D. Gupta of Zonal Hospital, where the shot was administered, said the Dalai Lama was observed for 30 minutes afterward. “He offered to come to the hospital like a common man to get himself vaccinated,” he said. California Why is California putting an insurance company in charge of vaccinating millions of uninsured people anyway? Will this really help achieve equity? March 4, 2021 Ten other people who live in the Dalai Lama’s residence were also vaccinated, Gupta said. All 11 received the Covishield vaccine, which was developed by Oxford University and U.K.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca, and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. The Dalai Lama made Dharmsala his headquarters in 1959, fleeing Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. China doesn’t recognize the Tibetan government-in-exile and accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to separate Tibet from China. The Dalai Lama denies being a separatist and says he merely advocates for substantial autonomy and protection of the region’s native Buddhist culture. India has confirmed more than 11 million coronavirus cases and more than 157,000 deaths. The country, which has the second-highest caseload in the world behind the U.S., rolled out its vaccination drive in January, starting with healthcare and front-line workers. Earlier this month, it expanded its inoculation drive to older people and those with medical conditions that put them at risk.

More protests, more tear gas on streets of Myanmar after U.N. envoy urges action

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-06/protests-tear-gas-in-myanmar-after-un-envoy-urges-action

Security forces in Myanmar again used force Saturday to disperse anti-coup protesters, a day after a U.N. special envoy urged the Security Council to take action to quell junta violence that this past week left more than 50 peaceful demonstrators dead and scores injured. Protests were reported Saturday morning in the country’s biggest city, Yangon, where stun grenades and tear gas were used against demonstrators. On Wednesday, 18 people were reported killed there. Protests also took place in several other cities, including Mandalay, the second-biggest city; Myitkyina, the capital of the northern state of Kachin; Myeik in the far south, where police fired tear gas at students; and Dawei in the southeast, where tear gas was also used. Demonstrators in the city of Monywa poured cans of beer over their feet and those of passersby to show their contempt for the brewery’s owners — the military. Myanmar Beer is one of a number of business concerns in the country that are linked to the generals and has seen its sales plummet in the weeks following the coup. It has also lost its Japanese partner, Kirin, which announced it was pulling out of the joint venture as a result of the power grab. California The venues will be allowed to welcome back fans far sooner than expected under new guidance the state unveiled Friday. March 5, 2021 Officials are believed to have exhumed the body of a young woman who was killed during Wednesday’s suppression of protests in Mandalay. The woman, Kyal Sin, had been photographed taking part in the protests before her death, and images of her on the front lines have made her a high-profile martyr. Security forces on Friday night sealed off the cemetery where she was buried, and when residents visited in the morning, her grave was freshly plastered over and shovels and other evidence of digging were found at the site. There was no official explanation of the incident, but media close to the military had earlier reported that the authorities had questioned the conclusion that she had been shot dead by police and intended to investigate. The escalation of violence has put pressure on the world community to act to restrain the junta, which seized power on Feb. 1 by ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The coup reversed years of slow progress toward democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma, which for five decades had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party led a return to civilian rule with a landslide election victory in 2015, and with an even greater voting margin last year. It would have been installed for a second five-year term last month, but instead Suu Kyi and President Win Myint and other members of the government were placed in military detention. Large protests have occurred daily across many cities and towns, and security forces have responded with escalating use of lethal force and mass arrests. At least 18 protesters were shot and killed last Sunday and 38 on Wednesday, according to the U.N. Human Rights Office. More than 1,000 have been arrested, the independent Assistance Assn. for Political Prisoners said. The U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, said in a briefing to Friday’s closed Security Council meeting that council unity and “robust” action are critical “in pushing for a stop to the violence and the restoration of Myanmar’s democratic institutions.” “We must denounce the actions by the military,” she said. “It is critical that this council is resolute and coherent in putting the security forces on notice and standing with the people of Myanmar firmly, in support of the clear November election results.” She reiterated an earlier appeal to the international community not to “lend legitimacy or recognition to this regime that has been forcefully imposed, and nothing but chaos has since followed.” The Security Council took no immediate action. Council diplomats said Britain circulated a draft presidential statement for consideration, a step below a legally binding resolution. Any kind of coordinated action at the U.N. will be difficult because two permanent members of the Security Council, China and Russia, are likely to veto it. Earlier in the week, Schraner Burgener warned Myanmar’s army that the world’s nations and the Security Council “might take huge, strong measures.” “And the answer was, ‘We are used to sanctions, and we survived those sanctions in the past,’” she said. When she warned that Myanmar would become isolated, Schraner Burgener said “the answer was, ‘We have to learn to walk with only a few friends.’” A decree issued by the junta and published in state media Friday increased the potential costs of opposition, declaring that members of a self-styled alternative government formed by elected lawmakers whom the army barred from taking their seats were committing high treason, which is punishable by death. The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, Myanmar’s parliament, wants foreign countries and international organizations to recognize it instead of the junta. It also claims to have won the loyalty of local bodies inside Myanmar. The junta’s announcement said that people who collude with the committee would be subject to seven years’ imprisonment. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies urged immediate protection for all Red Cross volunteers and health workers. The statement came after video from a surveillance camera that was circulated widely on social media showed members of an ambulance crew in Yangon, also known as Rangoon, being savagely beaten after they were taken into custody by police on Wednesday. “We express profound sadness that Myanmar Red Cross volunteers have been injured while on duty providing lifesaving first aid treatment to wounded people, in line with fundamental principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality. Red Cross volunteers should never be targeted,” the federation said.

Bye, Bismarck: 144 cities could lose status as metro areas

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-06/bye-bismarck-144-cities-could-lose-status-as-metro-areas

Bye-bye, Bismarck. So long, Sheboygan. Those cities in North Dakota and Wisconsin, respectively, are two of 144 that the federal government is proposing to downgrade from the metropolitan statistical area designation, and it could be more than just a matter of semantics. Officials in some of the affected cities worry that the change could have adverse implications for federal funding and economic development. Under the new proposal, a metro area would have to have at least 100,000 people in its core city to count as an MSA, double the 50,000-person threshold that has been in place for 70 years. Cities formerly designated as metros with core populations between 50,000 and 100,000 people, such as Bismarck and Sheboygan, would be changed to “micropolitan” statistical areas instead. A committee of representatives from federal statistical agencies recently made the recommendation to the Office of Management and Budget, saying it’s purely for statistical purposes and not to be used for funding formulas. As a practical matter, however, that is how it’s often used. California A census tract in Stockton is the hardest to count in California, emblematic of the challenges faced by other underserved communities in the state. Oct. 11, 2020 Several housing, transportation and Medicare reimbursement programs are tied to communities being metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs, so the designation change concerns some city officials. In Corvallis, Ore., the state designates certain funding sources to metropolitan statistical areas and any change to the city’s status could create a ripple effect, particularly when it comes to transportation funding, said Patrick Rollens, a spokesman for the city that is home to Oregon State University. “I won’t lie. We would be dismayed to see our MSA designation go away. We aren’t a suburb of any other, larger city in the area, so this is very much part of our community’s identity,” Rollens said in an email. “Losing the designation would also have potentially adverse impacts on recruitment for local businesses, as well as Oregon State University.” If the proposal is approved, it could be the first step toward federal programs adjusting their population thresholds when it comes to distributing money to communities, leading to funding losses for the former metro areas, said Ben Ehreth, community development director for Bismarck. “It won’t change any formulas ... but we see this as a first step leading down that path,” Ehreth said. “We anticipate that this might be that first domino to drop.” Rural communities are concerned that more micropolitan areas would increase competition for federal funding targeting rural areas. The change would downgrade more than a third of the current 392 MSAs. Statisticians say the change in designations has been a long time coming, given that the U.S. population has more than doubled since 1950. Back then, about half of U.S. residents lived in metros; now, 86% do. “Back in the 1950s, the population it took to create a metro area is different than it would be to create a metro area in 2020,” said Rob Santos, president of the American Statistical Assn. Nancy Potok, a former chief statistician of the Office of Management and Budget who helped develop the new recommendations, acknowledged that officials in some cities will be upset with the change because they believe it could hurt efforts to lure jobs or companies to their communities. “There are winners and losers when you change these designations,” Potok said. “A typical complaint comes from economic development when you are trying to attract investments. You want to say you are part of a dynamic MSA. There’s a perception associated with it. If your area gets dumped out of an MSA, then you feel disadvantaged.” Officials in some cities said they needed to research the impact of the change. Others were surprised to find their metro was on the list in the first place. “Perhaps they made a mistake,” Brian Wheeler, director of communications for the city of Charlottesville, Va., said in an email. While the city of Cape Girardeau, which is on the list, has a resident population north of 40,000 people, as a regional hub for southeastern Missouri, it can have a daytime population of more than 100,000 people, said Alex McElroy, executive director of the Southeast Metropolitan Planning Organization. “It kind of seems misleading,” McElroy said of the designation change. In a letter to the federal budget office, the mayor of Opelika, Ala., urged that the proposal be dropped. “The risk to vital services within our community, our state and the millions of impacted Americans across this country far outweigh any limited statistical value that might be gained from this proposal,” Mayor Gary Fuller said. In a separate proposal, the U.S. Census Bureau is considering a change to the definition of an urban area. The proposal made public last month would use housing instead of people for distinguishing urban from rural. An area will be considered urban if it has 385 housing units per square mile, roughly the equivalent of 1,000 people per square mile, under the new proposal. The current standard is 500 people per square mile. The Census Bureau says the changes are needed to comply with new privacy requirements that aim to prevent people from being identified through publicly released data and it offers a more direct measure of density. Some demographers aren’t sold on the idea of changing the definition of a metro area. “It seems like everything is ad hoc, rather than having been determined by serious research,” said Kenneth Johnson, a senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire. “The definitions have been relatively stable since 1950. All of the sudden, they change these, and at least in my mind, there isn’t a compelling research-based process that has driven this decision.” In Corvallis, Rollens joked that he was intrigued by the possibility of the city becoming a micropolitan area, suggesting the community could benefit from thinking small. “We enjoy our small-batch craft beers and locally grown produce here in Corvallis, so I have no doubt that we would find a creative way to market our region if we ended up with a ‘micropolitan’ designation,” Rollens said.

Highly contagious coronavirus variants powering another surge in Europe

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-06/speedy-variants-power-virus-surge-sweeping-europe

The virus swept through a nursery school and an adjacent elementary school in the Milan suburb of Bollate with amazing speed. In a matter of just days, 45 children and 14 staff members had tested positive. Genetic analysis confirmed what officials already suspected: The highly contagious coronavirus variant first identified in England was racing through the community, a densely packed city of nearly 40,000 with a chemical plant and Pirelli bicycle tire factory a 15-minute drive from the heart of Milan. “This is the demonstration that the virus has a sort of intelligence, even if it is a single-cell organism. We can put up all the barriers in the world and imagine that they work, but in the end, it adapts and penetrates them,” lamented Bollate Mayor Francesco Vassallo. Bollate was the first city in Lombardy, the northern region that has been the epicenter in each of Italy’s three surges, to be sealed off from neighbors because of mutant versions that the World Health Organization says are now powering another uptick in infections across Europe. The variants also include versions first identified in South Africa and Brazil. Europe recorded 1 million new COVID-19 cases last week, an increase of 9% from the previous week and a reversal that ended a six-week decline, the WHO said Thursday. World & Nation Air quality has been terrible for decades in Bergamo, in northern Italy, which last year suffered many COVID-19 deaths. Researchers see a connection. “The spread of the variants is driving the increase, but not only,” said Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, citing “also the opening of society, when it is not done in a safe and a controlled manner.” The so-called U.K. variant is spreading significantly in 27 European countries monitored by the WHO and is dominant in at least 10 by the agency’s count: Britain, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Spain and Portugal. It is up to 50% more transmissible than the virus that surged last spring and again in the fall, making it more adept at thwarting measures that were previously effective, WHO experts warned. “That is why health systems are struggling more now,” Kluge said. “It really is at a tipping point. We have to hold the fort and be very vigilant.” In Lombardy, which bore the brunt of Italy’s spring surge, intensive care wards are again filling up as more than two-thirds of new positive tests are of the U.K. variant, health officials said this week. After putting two provinces and some 50 towns on a modified lockdown, Lombardy’s regional governor announced tightened restrictions on Friday and closed classrooms for all age groups. Cases in Milan schools alone surged 33% in a week, the head of the provincial health system said. The situation is also dire in the Czech Republic, which registered nearly 8,500 patients in the hospital with COVID-19 this week, a record. Poland is opening temporary hospitals and imposing a partial lockdown as the variant has grown from 10% of all infections in February to 25% now. Kluge cited Britain’s experience as cause for optimism, noting that well-considered restrictions and the introduction of the vaccine have helped tamp down the variants there and in Israel. The vaccine rollout in the European Union, by comparison, is lagging, mostly because of supply problems. World & Nation Britain, Canada and three other countries plan to fast-track the development of modified COVID-19 vaccines to target new versions of the coronavirus. In Britain, the emergence of the more transmissible strain sent cases soaring in December and triggered a national lockdown in January. Cases have since plummeted, from about 60,000 a day at the peak in early January to about 7,000 a day. Still, a study shows the rate of decline slowing, and the government says it will tread cautiously with plans to ease the lockdown. That process begins Monday with the reopening of schools. Infection rates are highest in people ages 13 to 17, and officials will watch closely to see whether the return to classrooms brings a spike in infections. While the U.K. variant is dominant in France, forcing lockdowns in the French Riviera city of Nice and the northern port of Dunkirk, the variant first detected in South Africa has emerged as the most prevalent in the Moselle region, which borders Germany and Luxembourg. It represents 55% of the virus circulating there. The South Africa variant also is predominant in a district of Austria that extends from Italy to Germany, with Austrian officials announcing plans to vaccinate most of the 84,000 residents to curb its spread. Austria is also requiring motorists along the Brenner highway, a major north-south trucking route, to produce evidence of negative test results. The South Africa variant, now present in 26 European countries, is a source of particular concern because of doubts over whether the current vaccines are fully effective against it. The Brazilian variant, which appears capable of reinfecting people, has been detected in 15 European countries. The WHO and its partners are working to strengthen the genetic surveillance needed to track variants across the continent. In Italy, the mayor of Bollate has appealed to the regional governor to vaccinate all 40,000 residents immediately, though he expects to be told the supply is too tight at the moment. Bollate has recorded 3,000 positive cases and 134 deaths — mostly among the elderly — since Italy was stricken a year ago. It took the brunt in November and December, in the fall resurgence, and was caught completely off guard when the variant arrived, racing through school-age children before hitting families at home. “People are starting to get tired that after a year there is no light at the end of the tunnel,” Vassallo said. Associated Press correspondents Jill Lawless in London; Karel Janicek in Prague, Czech Republic; Vanessa Gera in Warsaw; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Sylvie Corbet in Paris; Geir Moulson in Berlin; and Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this report.

NASA's Perseverance rover takes first test drive on Mars

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-05/nasas-new-mars-rover-hits-dusty-red-road-1st-trip-21-feet

NASA’s newest Mars rover hit the dusty red road this week, putting 21 feet on the odometer in its first test drive. The Perseverance rover ventured from its landing position Thursday, two weeks after setting down on the red planet to seek signs of past life. The back-and-forth drive lasted just 33 minutes and went so well that more driving was scheduled for Friday and Saturday. “This is really the start of our journey here,” said Rich Rieber, the NASA engineer who plotted the route. “This is going to be like the Odyssey, adventures along the way, hopefully no Cyclops, and I’m sure there will be stories aplenty written about it.” In its first drive, Perseverance went forward 13 feet, took a 150-degree left turn, then backed up 8 feet. During a news conference Friday, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge shared photos of the tracks over and around small rocks. Science & Medicine Systems engineer Ian Clark used a binary code to spell out a message in the orange-and-white strips of the rover’s parachute. “I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see wheel tracks, and I’ve seen a lot of them,” said engineer Anais Zarifian. Flight controllers are still checking all of Perseverance’s systems. The rover’s 7-foot robot arm, for instance, flexed its muscles for the first time Tuesday. So far, everything looks good. Before the six-wheel, car-size rover can head for an ancient river delta to collect rocks for eventual return to Earth, it must drop its protective “belly pan” and release an experimental helicopter named Ingenuity. As it turns out, Perseverance landed right on the edge of a potential helicopter landing strip — a nice, flat spot, according to Rieber. So the plan is to drive out of this landing strip, ditch the pan, then return for Ingenuity’s highly anticipated test flight. All this should be accomplished by late spring. Scientists are debating whether to take the smoother route to get to the nearby delta or a possibly tougher way with intriguing remnants from that once-watery time 3 billion to 4 billion years ago. Perseverance — NASA’s biggest and most elaborate rover yet — on Feb. 18 became the ninth U.S. spacecraft to successfully land on Mars. China hopes to land its smaller rover — currently orbiting the red planet — in another few months. NASA scientists, meanwhile, announced Friday that they’ve named Perseverance’s touchdown site in honor of the late writer Octavia E. Butler, who grew up next door to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was one of the first African Americans to receive mainstream attention for science fiction. Her works included “Bloodchild and Other Stories” and “Parable of the Sower.” The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Police video shows California man who died said, 'I can't breathe'

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-05/police-video-california-man-who-died-said-i-cant-breathe

A man being restrained by Fresno police officers and sheriff’s deputies cried out, “I can’t breathe!” in the moments before he died, body camera footage released Friday shows. The video in the May 2017 death of 41-year-old Joseph Perez was made public under a federal court order as attorneys for his family pursue a lawsuit against members of the two police agencies and paramedics from American Ambulance. “The Perez family is deeply troubled by the circumstances leading to Joseph’s death, especially in light of the police violence epidemic plaguing the country,” attorney Neil Gehlawat said in a statement. The release comes as former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin is set to go on trial Monday in the death last year of George Floyd. Floyd, a Black man, died May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck while Floyd was held facedown on the ground while handcuffed and saying he couldn’t breathe. Tony Botti, a spokesman for the Fresno County sheriff-coroner, said he couldn’t comment on the video “due to it being an ongoing litigation matter.” Recently retired Fresno Police Chief Andy Hall said in a separate video synopsis released by the department that he had wanted to release the video earlier but the family had objected. “Despite Mr. Perez’s personal struggles, it saddens all of us when a life is lost,” Hall says in the video, expressing condolences to the family. Hall said that the death was investigated by multiple agencies, all of which found no use of excessive force, and that officers followed policies as they tried to help Perez. The department said at the time that officers from both agencies responded to a call “saying there was a man acting strange, running and yelling on Palm Ave.” They called for an ambulance “due to his mental state” and out of concern that he might be under the influence. He died on the way to the hospital. Hall said Perez had a toxic level of methamphetamine, though Gehlawat said that did not contribute to his death. Perez is initially responsive but agitated and whimpering in the video from a Fresno police officer’s body camera, which lasts 16 minutes and 33 seconds. There are seven law enforcement officers at the scene, according to Perez family attorneys, and they can be heard repeatedly telling him to calm down and breathe, that they are there to help him. It’s not until paramedics arrive and help officers restrain him with a blue plastic backboard that he becomes unresponsive. “Help me!” Perez called out as the ambulance pulled up along the sidewalk of the busy street. “We’re going to put it on his back, and you guys can sit on this,” a paramedic tells the officers. ”Sit on that board.” The video then shows officers pressing Perez facedown with the backboard. Hall said an officer sat on the board for 1 minute and 15 seconds. “Hey, dude, I want you to relax, OK,” someone says. “Joseph, you OK? Joseph, you all right? You all right, dude?” “He’s moving,” someone else responds moments before the video shows people restraining Perez’s apparently limp hand with a leather strap. His family’s attorneys said he was unarmed and died of compression asphyxia. “Compression asphyxia during restraint is all too common, and we hope to expose this pervasive tactic used by law enforcement officers across the country,” Gehlawat said.

New California law aims to put kids in class. Will it work?

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-05/new-california-law-aims-to-put-kids-in-class-will-it-work

California’s public schools can tap into a $6.6-billion school reopening plan that Gov. Gavin Newson signed into law Friday, aimed at pressuring districts to reopen classrooms by the end of March. Educators, parents and lawmakers question whether it will work. After nearly one year of distance learning for most of California’s K-12 students, parents across the state say they are frustrated and losing hope their children will see the inside of a classroom this year. “Is this money going to be a motivator? I don’t know,” said Dan Lee, a father in San Francisco where the city sued its own school district to reopen classrooms. “We throw money at them, we sue them, we shame them. They still haven’t moved.” The bill Newsom signed into law has attracted bipartisan support and scorn in equal measure, with both the governor and lawmakers saying Friday it marked an important step forward but was far from perfect. The bill does not require school districts to resume in-person instruction. Instead, the state is dangling $2 billion before cash-strapped school boards, offering them a share of that money only if they start offering in-person instruction by the end of this month. “This is the right time to safely reopen for in-person instruction,” said Newsom, who faces a likely recall election later this year, fueled by anger over his handling of the pandemic. California The legislation, which Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to sign on Friday, is the most far-reaching effort by legislators in more than six months to address the educational challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. March 4, 2021 Newsom signed the bill via Zoom, unintentionally mimicking how most of the state’s 6.1 million public school students have been learning for the past year. The irony was not lost on Newsom, who said the virtual ceremony was necessary to include officials who were scattered across the state. He highlighted the struggles he and lawmakers had in negotiating the plan. “When you look at 58 counties, a thousand-plus school districts, this truly is a challenge at a scale no other state in the country is faced with,” Newsom said. Teachers from some of the state’s biggest districts have come out against the plan, saying schools can’t reopen until infection rates drop and enough educators have been vaccinated. Among them is the powerful United Teachers of Los Angeles, whose members were voting Friday to reject what they called an unsafe return for the second-largest district in the nation. Earlier this week, the union slammed the reopening plan as “a recipe for propagating structural racism” by benefiting wealthier areas with lower infection rates. “If you condition funding on the reopening of schools, that money will only go to white and wealthier and healthier school communities,” union leader Cecily Myart-Cruz said in a statement. While California businesses have opened and closed through the ups and downs of the pandemic, many school boards have not been willing to return students to classrooms as they have struggled with the costs to implement public health standards and negotiations with teachers’ unions. But as the rate of new coronavirus cases continues to fall and more people are getting vaccinated, politicians and parents have been pressuring districts to return to in-person learning before the end of the school year. The new law is the state’s first attempt to do that on a statewide scale. Just as it doesn’t require school districts to return students to classrooms it does not force parents to send their kids back to schools if they don’t want to. To be eligible for the money, most districts will have to offer in-person learning for all elementary school grades. But the law does not require a return to classrooms for most middle and high school students and does not mandate how long the students must be in classrooms. That’s prompted fears that some districts could return students for just one day per week and still be eligible for the money. OpenSchoolsCA, a parents’ group that has advocated for in-person schooling, called the legislation “another failed attempt” at reopening classrooms that won’t be enough to persuade many districts, especially in large, urban areas. Parents like Liz Ingle, of San Diego, a mother of two elementary school children, are already fearful of what the fall will bring. “We’re all feeling like if we don’t get all of our kids on campus before the end of the year, the chance that they’re going to open in hybrid in fall is more likely,” said Ingle. She said the plan doesn’t make districts move any faster but leaves reopening up to them. “We’ve already seen that when they have choices they don’t move very quickly,” said Ingle, who plans to join one of several rallies next weekend to mark the one-year anniversary since schools closed. The new law also sets aside $4.6 billion in spending for all districts to help students catch up, 85% of which must be used for in-person learning. “We’re going to go home to our districts and beg all of our [school] districts to open up,” said Assemblyman Phil Ting, a Democrat from San Francisco, where public schools have stayed closed all year despite one of the lowest COVID-19 rates in California. The San Francisco school board drew national scorn earlier this year for focusing on renaming 44 schools it says honored racially insensitive figures, including Abraham Lincoln, rather than working to reopen classrooms. It has since paused the renaming project. The foot-dragging in San Francisco has prompted many parents to switch to private schools, which are holding in-person classes, or move out of the city. Melissa Nemer, a San Francisco mother of two, plans to move out of the city this summer. She has watched relatives in New York City, Denver, Colorado and Minnesota suburbs send kids back to school as hers remain stuck in distance learning. “There are no dates for reopening, there is no timeline, there’s nothing,” said Nemer. “Enough is enough.”

'Hotel Rwanda' hero was tricked onto plane and into arrest, pastor testifies

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-05/hotel-rwanda-hero-was-tricked-onto-plane-into-arrest

A key piece of the mystery around the arrest of the man who inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda” became clear Friday when a pastor told a court in the capital, Kigali, that he worked with someone from the Rwanda Investigation Bureau to trick Paul Rusesabagina onto a private plane from Dubai. The pastor, Constantin Niyomwungere, alleged that Rusesabagina, who faces terror-related charges, had acknowledged that rebels backed by his opposition platform had killed Rwandans. “Myself, the pilot and cabin crew knew we were coming to Kigali. The only person who didn’t know where we were headed was Paul,” Niyomwungere said. The 66-year-old Rusesabagina, once praised for saving hundreds of ethnic Tutsis from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide while a hotel manager, now faces nine charges, including the formation of an irregular armed group; membership in a terrorist group; financing of terrorism; and murder, abduction and armed robbery as an act of terrorism. If convicted, he could face more than 20 years in prison. The case of Rusesabagina, a Belgian citizen and U.S. resident and outspoken critic of longtime Rwandan President Paul Kagame, has drawn international concern. Rusesabagina disappeared in August during a visit to Dubai and was paraded in handcuffs days later in Rwanda. His family asserts that the charges against him are politically motivated. Rusesabagina asserts that he was kidnapped. Rwanda’s president had hinted that Rusesabagina had been tricked into boarding a flight to Rwanda, a country he left in 1996. In court on Friday, Rusesabagina denounced the pastor Niyomwungere, whom he has said “betrayed” him. Niyomwungere said an unnamed person connected him with Rusesabagina in 2017 in Brussels, and they become friends. He said that in one conversation, Rusesabagina admitted that rebels backed by his opposition platform were responsible for an attack inside Rwanda. The pastor alleged that Rusesabagina showed no remorse. Niyomwungere said last year he started working on a plan with the Rwanda Investigation Bureau to capture Rusesabagina. “I prayed to God to give me courage and arrest this man. I prayed for a month,” he said. Opportunity came when Rusesabagina said he planned to travel to Burundi, which neighbors Rwanda. Niyomwungere said he alerted the Rwanda Investigation Bureau contact. Rwanda’s government has alleged that Rusesabagina was going to Burundi to coordinate with armed groups based there and in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. On Friday, Rusesabagina said all his rights have been taken away, and his international lawyers have been refused. Rwanda’s attorney general last month said in a video accidentally sent to Al-Jazeera that authorities had intercepted messages between Rusesabagina and his legal team. “How can you say my rights have been respected when I spent the first three days of captivity at an unknown location, blindfolded, tied legs and hands?” Rusesabagina asked. When the trial resumes Wednesday, the court will rule on whether Rusesabagina was kidnapped and is in Rwanda illegally. The court earlier rejected his argument that a Rwandan court cannot try him because he is no longer a citizen. Rusesabagina’s family has said he has no chance at a fair trial because of his outspoken criticism of Kagame and human rights abuses. They fear he might die behind bars from poor health.

Pope urges Iraq to embrace its Christians on historic visit

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-05/pope-urges-iraq-to-embrace-its-christians-on-historic-visit

Pope Francis began the first-ever papal visit to Iraq on Friday with a plea for the country to protect its centuries-old diversity, urging Muslims to embrace their Christian neighbors as a precious resource and asking the embattled Christian community — “though small like a mustard seed” — to persevere. Francis brushed aside the coronavirus pandemic and security concerns to resume his globe-trotting papacy after a yearlong hiatus spent under COVID-19 lockdown in Vatican City. His primary aim over the weekend is to encourage Iraq’s dwindling Christian population, which was violently persecuted by the Islamic State group and still faces discrimination by the Muslim majority, to stay and help rebuild the country devastated by wars and strife. “Only if we learn to look beyond our differences and see each other as members of the same human family,” Francis told Iraqi authorities in his welcoming address, “will we be able to begin an effective process of rebuilding and leave to future generations a better, more just and more humane world.” The 84-year-old pope donned a facemask during the flight from Rome and throughout all his protocol visits, as did his hosts. But the masks came off when the leaders sat down to talk, and social distancing and other health measures appeared lax at the airport and on the streets of Baghdad, despite the country’s worsening COVID-19 outbreak. The government is eager to show off the relative stability it has achieved after the defeat of the IS “caliphate.” Nonetheless, security measures were tight. Francis, who relishes plunging into crowds and likes to travel in an open-sided popemobile, was transported around Baghdad in an armored black BMWi750, flanked by rows of motorcycle police. It was believed to be the first time Francis had used a bulletproof car — both to protect him and to keep crowds from forming. World & Nation Francis becomes the first pontiff to visit Iraq, where he hopes to shore up the fast-dwindling Christian community and promote religious harmony. March 5, 2021 Iraqis, though, seemed keen to welcome Francis and the global attention his visit brought. Some lined the road to cheer his motorcade. Banners and posters in central Baghdad depicted Francis with the slogan “We are all Brothers.” Some hoping to get close were sorely disappointed by the heavy security cordons. “It was my great wish to meet the pope and pray for my sick daughter and pray for her to be healed. But this wish was not fulfilled,” said Raad William Georges, a 52-year-old father of three who said he was turned away when he tried to see Francis during his visit to Our Lady of Salvation Cathedral in the Karrada neighborhood. “This opportunity will not be repeated,” he said ruefully. “I will try tomorrow, I know it will not happen, but I will try.” Francis told reporters aboard the papal plane that he was happy to be resuming his travels again and said it was particularly symbolic that his first trip was to Iraq, the traditional birthplace of Abraham, revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews. “This is an emblematic journey,” he said. “It is also a duty to a land tormented by many years.” Francis was visibly limping throughout the afternoon in a sign that his sciatica nerve pain, which has flared and forced him to cancel events recently, was possibly bothering him. He nearly tripped as he climbed up the steps to the cathedral, and an aide had to steady him. At a pomp-filled gathering with President Barham Salih at a palace inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, Francis said Christians and other minorities in Iraq deserve the same rights and protections as the Shiite Muslim majority. “The religious, cultural and ethnic diversity that has been a hallmark of Iraqi society for millennia is a precious resource on which to draw, not an obstacle to eliminate,” he said. “Iraq today is called to show everyone, especially in the Middle East, that diversity, instead of giving rise to conflict, should lead to harmonious cooperation in the life of society.” Salih, a member of Iraq’s ethnic Kurdish minority, echoed his call. “The East cannot be imagined without Christians,” Salih said. “The continued migration of Christians from the countries of the east will have dire consequences for the ability of the people from the same region to live together.” The Iraq visit is in keeping with Francis’ long-standing effort to improve relations with the Muslim world, which has accelerated in recent years with his friendship with a leading Sunni cleric, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb. It will reach a new high with his meeting Saturday with Iraq’s leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a figure revered in Iraq and beyond. In Iraq, the pontiff is bringing his call for tolerance to a country rich in ethnic and religious diversity but deeply traumatized by hatreds. Since the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, it has seen vicious sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunni Muslims, clashes and tensions between Arabs and Kurds, and militant atrocities against minorities like Christians and Yazidis. The few Christians who remain harbor a lingering mistrust of their Muslim neighbors and face discrimination that long predated IS. Iraq’s Christians, whose presence here goes back nearly to the time of Christ, belong to a number of rites and denominations, with the Chaldean Catholic the largest, along with Syriac Catholics, Assyrians and several Orthodox churches. They once constituted a sizable minority in Iraq, estimated at around 1.4 million. But their numbers began to fall amid the post-2003 turmoil when Sunni militants often targeted Christians. They received a further blow when IS in 2014 swept through northern Iraq, including traditionally Christian towns across the Nineveh plains. Their extremist version of Islam forced residents to flee to the neighboring Kurdish region or further afield. Few have returned — estimates suggest there are fewer than 300,000 Christians still in Iraq, and many of those remain displaced from their homes. Those who did go back found homes and churches destroyed. Many feel intimidated by Shiite militias controlling some areas. World & Nation Hussam Matti knelt to the ground, grabbed two fistfuls of brown-gray sand and poured it over his head. Oct. 22, 2016 There are practical struggles, as well. Many Iraqi Christians cannot find work and blame discriminatory practices in the public sector, Iraq’s largest employer. Public jobs have been mostly controlled by Shiite political elites. For the pope, who has often traveled to places where Christians are a persecuted minority, Iraq’s beleaguered Christians are the epitome of the “martyred church” that he has admired ever since he was a young Jesuit seeking to be a missionary in Asia. At Our Lady of Salvation Cathedral, Francis prayed and honored the victims of one of the worst massacres of Christians, the 2010 attack on the cathedral by Islamic militants that left 58 people dead. Speaking to congregants, he urged Christians to persevere in Iraq to ensure that its Catholic community, “though small like a mustard seed, continues to enrich the life of society as a whole” — using an image found in both the Bible and Quran. On Sunday, Francis will honor the dead in a Mosul square surrounded by shells of destroyed churches and meet with the small Christian community that returned to the town of Qaraqosh, where he will bless their church that was vandalized and used as a firing range by IS. Iraq is seeing a new spike in coronavirus infections, with most new cases traced to the highly contagious variant first identified in Britain. Francis, the Vatican delegation and traveling media have been vaccinated; most Iraqis have not, raising questions about the potential for the trip to fuel infections. The Vatican and Iraqi authorities have downplayed the threat and insisted that social distancing, crowd control and other healthcare measures will be enforced. To some degree they were, but that didn’t diminish the happiness of ordinary Iraqis — Christians and Muslims alike — that Francis had come to their home. ”We cannot express our joy because this for sure is a historic event which we will keep remembering,” said Rafif Issa. “All Iraqis are happy, not just the Christians. We hope it will be a blessed day for us and for all the Iraqi people.”

Canada clears Johnson & Johnson one-dose COVID vaccine

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-05/canada-clears-johnson-johnson-vaccine-first-to-approve-4

Canada is getting a fourth vaccine to prevent COVID-19 as the country’s health regulator has cleared a Johnson & Johnson shot that works with just one dose instead of two, officials said Friday. Health experts are eager for a one-and-done option to help speed vaccination. Canada has also approved vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, and Health Canada is the first major regulator to approve four different vaccines, said Dr. Supriya Sharma, Health Canada’s chief medical advisor. Like many countries, Canada does not have domestic production and has struggled with an immediate shortage of vaccines. The U.S. so far isn’t allowing locally made vaccines to be exported, so Canada — like the other U.S. neighbor, Mexico — has been forced to get vaccines from Europe and Asia. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada has an agreement with Johnson & Johnson for 10 million doses between now and September. It was not immediately clear when Canada would get its first shipment. But Trudeau announced Pfizer would deliver an additional 1.5 million doses to Canada in March and another 1 million doses ahead of schedule in both April and May. “We are working to get doses to Canadians as quickly as possible,” Trudeau said. The U.S. approved Johnson & Johnson last month. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said J&J’s vaccine offers strong protection against what matters most: serious illness, hospitalizations and death. One dose was 85% protective against the most severe COVID-19 illness in a massive study that spanned three continents — protection that remained strong even in countries such as South Africa, where the variants of most concern are spreading. J&J also is seeking authorization for emergency use of its vaccine in Europe and from the World Health Organization. The company aims to produce about 1 billion doses globally by the end of the year. Last month, the island nation of Bahrain became the first to clear its use. The vaccine shortage is so acute in Canada that provincial governments are now saying they will extend the interval between the two doses of Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines to four months rather than three to four weeks so they can quickly inoculate more people. “It is a reasonable recommendation. If we can get earlier doses, we don’t have to wait for four months to give second doses if the supply opens up,” Sharma said. Canadians 80 and above in the general public are only starting to get vaccinated this month and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization said this week that extending the dose interval to four months would allow as many as 80% of Canadians over the age of 16 to receive a single dose by the end of June simply with the expected supply of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. Second doses would begin to be administered in July as more shipments arrive, the panel said. Canada also faces the prospect of vaccine delivery disruptions from the European Union. A shipment of over a quarter-million AstraZeneca vaccines destined for Australia has been blocked from leaving the European Union in the first use of an export control system instituted by the bloc to make sure big pharma companies respect their local contracts. J&J’s shot uses a cold virus like a Trojan horse to carry the spike gene into the body, where cells make harmless copies of the protein to prime the immune system in case the real virus comes along. It’s the same technology the company used in making an Ebola vaccine and is similar to COVID-19 vaccines made by AstraZeneca and China’s CanSino Biologics. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are made with a different technology, a piece of genetic code called messenger RNA that spurs cells to make those harmless spike copies.

Why rising interest rates are unsettling the stock market

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-05/explainer-why-rising-rates-are-unsettling-wall-street

Interest rates keep marching higher, and Wall Street keeps shaking because of it. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed back above 1.50% on Thursday, prodded higher by comments by the Federal Reserve’s chair. That helped send U.S. stocks on another slide — though they more than regained the lost ground Friday. The speed at which the yield has climbed has forced investors to reexamine how they value stocks, bonds and every other investment. And the immediate verdict has been to sell at lower prices, particularly the most popular investments of the last year. Yields have been climbing with optimism for an economic revival after a year of coronavirus-induced misery, along with expectations for the higher inflation that could accompany the revival. That’s key because those yields form the bedrock that the financial world uses to try to figure out the value for anything from Apple’s stock to a junk bond. For years, yields have been ultralow for Treasurys, meaning investors earned very little in interest for owning them. That in turn made stocks and other investments more attractive, driving up their prices. But when Treasury yields increase, so does the downward pressure on prices for other investments. Here’s a look at why the recent moves have been so rocky. Part of it is rising expectations for inflation, perhaps the worst enemy of a bond investor. Inflation means future payments from bonds won’t buy as much — because the price of a banana or a bouquet will be higher than it is today. So when inflation expectations rise, bonds are less desirable, and their prices fall. That pushes up their yield. Treasury yields also often track with expectations for the economy’s strength, which are on the rise. When the economy is healthy, investors feel less need to own Treasurys, considered to be the safest possible investment. Say I bought a bond for $100 that pays 1% in interest, but I’m worried about rising inflation and don’t want to be stuck with it. I sell it to you for $90. You’re getting more than a 1% return on your investment, because the regular payouts coming from the bond will still be the same amount as when I owned it. COVID-19 vaccines will hopefully get economies humming this year, as people feel comfortable returning to shops, businesses reopen and workers get jobs again. The International Monetary Fund expects the global economy to grow 5.5% this year following last year’s 3.5% plunge. A stronger economy often coincides with higher inflation, though it’s been generally trending downward for decades. Congress is also close to pumping $1.9 trillion into the U.S. economy, which could further boost growth and inflation. When trying to figure out what a stock’s price should be, investors often look at two things: how much cash the company will make and how much to pay for each $1 of that cash. When interest rates are low and bonds are paying little, investors are willing to pay more for that second part. They’re not losing out on much income if they had put that money in a Treasury instead. The recent rise in yields is causing investors to pare back how much they’re willing to spend on each $1 of future company earnings. That’s prompting hard questions, particularly when critics had already been arguing that stocks were approaching dangerously high levels after their prices raced upward much, much faster than profits. Stocks with the highest prices relative to earnings are in a place to get hit hard, as are stocks that have been bid up for their expected profits far in the future. Big Tech stocks are in both those camps. Dividend-paying stocks also get hurt because investors looking for income can now turn instead to bonds, which are safer investments. The ultimate worry is that inflation will take off at some point, sending rates much higher. Yes, even at 1.56% as of late Friday, the 10-year Treasury yield is still below the 2.60% level it was at two years ago or the 5% level of two decades ago. “The concern isn’t that the 10-year is at 1.50%,” said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist at BMO Wealth Management. “It’s that it went from 1% to 1.50% in a handful of weeks, and what does that mean for the rest of 2021.” Ma thinks it could keep rising and surpass 2% by the end of the year, but he doesn’t see it going back to the old normal of 4% or 5%, which would force an even bigger reassessment for markets. Until that becomes more clear, though, he says he’s looking for the stock market to stay volatile. Yes. Despite the recent pullback in the market, the major U.S. stock indexes all remain near all-time highs set within the last month. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is down only 2.4% from its Feb. 12 record closing high. Yes. The Federal Reserve has direct control over short-term interest rates, and Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly said it’s in no hurry to raise them. It’s also not planning to trim its $120 billion in monthly bond purchases used to put downward pressure on longer-term rates. Powell said the Fed won’t raise its benchmark interest rate, now at its record low of zero to 0.25%, until inflation runs slightly above its 2% target level. Powell has also repeatedly said that although price increases might accelerate in coming months, those increases are expected to be temporary and not a sign of long-run inflation threats. He echoed those statements again Thursday, but analysts said longer-term yields rose on disappointment that Powell didn’t offer something more forceful to tamp down the recent increases. “We think our current policy stance is appropriate,” Powell said. Yes, much of Wall Street still expects stocks to keep rising. One reason is that many investors agree with Powell and expect inflation pressures to be only temporary. That should hopefully keep rates from spiking to dangerous levels. Also, after a dismal 2020 for most companies, investors are banking that growth in corporate profits will explode higher as more people get COVID-19 vaccines through the year and the economy gradually approaches something close to normal. If earnings rise enough, stocks can stay stable or maybe even go higher, despite a rise in rates. Financial companies, particularly banks, have gained recently because rising rates can mean bigger profits made on a variety of consumer loans, including mortgages. And if rates are rising on inflation worries, energy companies could benefit if prices are also rising for oil and other commodities. Overall, though, rising interest rates are a drag on companies because they make borrowing more expensive. This is especially painful for companies such as real estate investment trusts — also known as REITs — which require a lot of money, and often debt, to operate. People who rely heavily on credit may also cut back, which could have a ripple effect on all kinds of companies that rely on consumer spending.

Heart problems related to COVID-19 may be rare in pro athletes who have recovered

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-04/heart-problems-may-be-rare-in-pro-athletes-after-covid-19

Heart inflammation is uncommon in pro athletes who’ve had mostly mild cases of COVID-19, and most don’t need to be sidelined as a result of their illnesses, a study conducted by major professional sports leagues suggests. The results are not definitive, experts from outside the leagues say, and more independent research is needed. But the study published Thursday in JAMA Cardiology is the largest to examine the scope of the problem. A coronavirus infection can cause inflammation in many organs, including the heart. The research involved professional athletes who play football, hockey, soccer, baseball and men’s and women’s basketball. All tested positive for the coronavirus before October and were given guideline-recommended heart tests, nearly 800 total. None of the players developed severe cases of COVID-19, and 40% had few or no symptoms — what might be expected from a group of healthy elite athletes with an average age of 25. Severe COVID-19 is more common in older people and those with chronic health conditions. Almost 4% of the athletes had abnormal results on heart tests that were done after they recovered, but subsequent MRI exams found heart inflammation in less than 1% of the athletes. These five athletes all had COVID-19 symptoms. Whether their heart problems were caused by the virus is unknown, although the researchers think that is likely. They were sidelined for about three months and returned to play without any problems, said study leader Dr. Mathew Martinez, a sports cardiologist at Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey. Martinez is the team cardiologist for the New York Jets pro football team. Two previous smaller studies in college athletes recovering from COVID-19 suggested heart inflammation might be more common. The question is of key interest to athletes, who put extra stress on their hearts during play. Undetected heart inflammation has been linked with sudden death. Opinion The lasting effects of COVID-19 on the heart are limited to a small subset of patients, studies show. Sept. 17, 2020 Whether mild COVID-19 can cause heart damage “is the million-dollar question,” said Dr. Richard Kovacs, co-founder of the American College of Cardiology’s Sports & Exercise Council. And whether severe COVID-19 symptoms increase the chances of having fleeting or long-lasting heart damage ‘’is part of the puzzle,’’ he said. Kovacs said the study has several weaknesses. Testing was done at centers affiliated with or selected by each team, and the results were interpreted by team-affiliated cardiologists, increasing the chances of bias. A more rigorous investigation would have had standardized testing done at a central location and more objective specialists interpret the results, he said. Also, many of the athletes had no previous imaging exams to compare the results with, so there is no way to know for certain if abnormalities found during the study were related to the virus. “There is clearly more work to do, but I think it is very helpful additional evidence,” said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, president-elect of the American Heart Assn. High School Sports Positive coronavirus tests dip below the threshold to allow outdoor high school sports competition in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Feb. 23, 2021 Dr. Dial Hewlett, a member of a COVID-19 task force at the National Medical Assn., which represents Black physicians, said the study “is extremely timely.” Hewlett is a deputy health commissioner for New York’s Westchester County and advises high schools and colleges on when to allow young athletes to return to play after COVID-19 infections. “I’m grateful that we are starting to get some data to help guide us in some of our decisions,” Hewlett said.

17% of global food production goes to waste, U.N. report estimates

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-04/17-of-food-production-globally-wasted-un-report-estimates

Instead of finishing your leftovers, you let them go bad and buy takeout. It’s a familiar routine for many — and indicative of habits that contribute to a global food waste problem that a new United Nations report says needs to be better measured so that it can be effectively addressed. The U.N. report estimates that 17% of the food produced globally each year is wasted. That amounts to 931 million metric tons (1.03 billion tons) of food. The waste is far more than previous reports had indicated, though direct comparisons are difficult because of differing methodologies and the lack of strong data from many countries. Toward a more sustainable California Get Boiling Point, our newsletter exploring climate change, energy and the environment, and become part of the conversation — and the solution. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. “Improved measurement can lead to improved management,” said Brian Roe, a food waste researcher at Ohio State University who was not involved in the report. Most of the waste — 61% — happens in households, while food service accounts for 26% and retailers account for 13%, the U.N. found. The U.N. is pushing to reduce food waste globally, and researchers are also working on an assessment of waste that includes the food lost before reaching consumers. The authors note the report seeks to offer a clearer snapshot of the scale of a problem that has been difficult to assess. The hope is that it will prompt governments to invest in better tracking. “Many countries haven’t yet quantified their food waste, so they don’t understand the scale of the problem,” said Clementine O’Connor of the U.N. Environment Program, a coauthor of the report. Climate & Environment A new report lays out a blueprint to cut food loss and waste in half by 2030. Doing so could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5 gigatons per year. Aug. 29, 2019 Food waste has become a growing concern because of the environmental toll of production, including the land required to raise crops and animals and the greenhouse gas emissions produced along the way. Experts say improved waste tracking is key to finding ways to ease the problem, such as programs to divert inedible scraps to use as animal feed or fertilizer. The report found food waste in homes isn’t limited to higher-income countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. Roe of Ohio State noted that food sometimes is wasted in poor countries without reliable home refrigeration. In richer countries, people might eat out more, meaning food waste is simply shifted from homes to restaurants. Roe said cultural norms and policies also could contribute to waste at home, such as “buy one, get one free” deals, or a lack of composting programs. That’s why broader system changes are key to helping reduce waste in households, said Chris Barrett, an agricultural economist at Cornell University. Opinion On a recent Monday, my kitchen was full of breakfast options: apple-topped streusel, lemon poppyseed muffins, almond Danish. June 3, 2018 For example, Barrett said, people might throw away food because of a date printed on the product — even though such dates don’t always say when a food is unsafe to eat. “Food waste is a consequence of sensible decisions by people acting on the best information available,” he said. To clarify the meaning of labeling dates, U.S. regulators have urged food makers to be more consistent in using them. They note that labels like “Sell By,” “Best By” and “Enjoy By” could cause people to throw out food prematurely, even though some labels are intended only to indicate when quality might decline. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that a family of four wastes about $1,500 in food each year. But accurately measuring food waste is difficult for a variety of reasons including data availability, said USDA food researcher Jean Buzby, adding that improved measurements are part of a government plan to reduce waste. Richard Swannell, a coauthor of the U.N. report, said food was generally more valued even in richer countries just a few generations ago, since people often couldn’t afford to waste it. Now, he said, awareness about the scale of food waste globally could help shift attitudes back to that era. “Food is too important to waste,” he said.

Britain's Prince Philip, hospitalized for weeks, has heart procedure

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-04/palace-prince-philip-had-a-successful-heart-procedure

Britain’s Prince Philip has had a successful heart procedure at a London hospital and is expected to remain for several days of “rest and recuperation,” Buckingham Palace said Thursday. The palace said the 99-year-old Duke of Edinburgh, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, “underwent a successful procedure for a preexisting heart condition at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.” “His royal highness will remain in hospital for treatment, rest and recuperation for a number of days,” the palace said in a statement. Philip has been hospitalized since Feb. 16, when he was admitted to King Edward VII’s Hospital in London for treatment of an infection. He was transferred Monday to a specialized cardiac-care hospital, St. Bartholomew’s. Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, said Wednesday that her father-in-law’s condition was “slightly improving.” “We’ll keep our fingers crossed,” said Camilla, who is married to Prince Charles, Philip and Elizabeth’s eldest and the heir apparent. Entertainment & Arts Meghan Markle and Prince Harry denied ‘this latest attack on her character’ in a statement ahead of their Oprah Winfrey interview airing Sunday. March 3, 2021 Philip’s illness is not believed to be related to the coronavirus. Both Philip and the monarch received COVID-19 vaccinations in January and chose to publicize the matter to encourage others to follow suit. He has had heart issues in the past. In 2011, he was rushed to a hospital by helicopter after suffering chest pains and was treated for a blocked coronary artery. Philip retired from royal duties in 2017 and rarely appears in public. Before his hospitalization, he had been isolating at Windsor Castle, west of London, with the queen. The longest-serving royal consort in British history, Philip married then-Princess Elizabeth in 1947. He and the queen have four children, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Entertainment & Arts Britain’s Prince Harry says the process of separating from royal life has been very difficult for him and his wife, the former actress Meghan Markle. March 1, 2021 His illness comes as the royal family braces for the broadcast of an interview conducted by Oprah Winfrey with Prince Harry and his wife, the former actress Meghan Markle. The couple quit their royal duties last year and moved to Southern California, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media. Relations between the couple and the palace appear to have become increasingly strained. On Wednesday, the palace said it was launching a human-resources investigation after a newspaper reported that a former aide had accused Meghan of bullying staff in 2018. In a clip from the pre-recorded Winfrey interview, released by CBS, Winfrey asks the Duchess of Sussex how she feels about the palace “hearing you speak your truth today?” “I don’t know how they could expect that after all of this time we would still just be silent if there was an active role that ‘the Firm’ is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us,” she says. “The Firm” is a nickname for the royal family, sometimes used with affection and sometimes with a note of criticism.

Photos show North Korea may be trying to extract plutonium

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-04/photos-show-north-korea-may-be-trying-to-extract-plutonium

North Korea may be trying to extract plutonium to make more nuclear weapons at its main atomic complex, recent satellite photos indicated, weeks after leader Kim Jong Un vowed to expand his nuclear arsenal. The 38 North website, which specializes in North Korea studies, cited the imagery as indicating that a coal-fired steam plant at the North’s Yongbyon nuclear complex is in operation after about a two-year hiatus. Smoke was observed emanating from the plant’s smokestack at various times in recent weeks. This suggests “preparations for spent fuel reprocessing could be underway to extract plutonium needed for North Korea’s nuclear weapon,” the website said Wednesday. But it added that “this could also mean simply the facility is being prepped to handle radioactive waste.” This week, Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, said some nuclear facilities in North Korea remained in service, citing the operation of the steam plant that serves the radiochemical laboratory at Yongbyon. The laboratory is a facility where plutonium is extracted by reprocessing spent fuel rods removed from reactors. “The DPRK’s nuclear activities remain a cause for serious concern. The continuation of the DPRK’s nuclear program is a clear violation of relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and is deeply regrettable,” Grossi told the IAEA’s board of governors, according to the agency’s website. DPRK refers to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. World & Nation After declaring three years ago that his country had fulfilled its decades-long ambition to become a nuclear power, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un turned his attention to fixing an ailing economy that was undermining his pledge to better the lives of his people. Plutonium is one of the two key ingredients to build nuclear weapons; the other is highly enriched uranium. The Yongbyon complex, north of the capital city, Pyongyang, has facilities to produce both ingredients. It’s unclear exactly how much weapons-grade plutonium or highly enriched uranium has been produced at Yongbyon, or where North Korea stores it. Outside estimates on North Korea’s nuclear arsenal vary. In 2018, a South Korean official told parliament that the North may have 20 to 60 bombs. U.S.-led diplomacy aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear program in return for economic and political benefits has been deadlocked since a summit between then-President Trump and Kim collapsed in early 2019. Trump rejected Kim’s calls for extensive sanctions relief in return for dismantling the Yongbyon complex in what was seen as a limited denuclearization step because North Korea had already built nuclear weapons and is believed to be running other covert bomb-making facilities. In January, Kim vowed to enlarge the country’s nuclear arsenal and disclosed an array of high-tech weapons systems targeting the United States, saying the fate of bilateral ties depends on whether Washington withdraws its hostile policy on North Korea. Some experts say Kim is attempting to pressure President Biden’s government to return to diplomacy and ease sanctions.

With Biden's backing, Democrats revive George Floyd bill to overhaul policing

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-03/with-bidens-backing-dems-revive-bill-to-overhaul-policing

Cheered on by President Biden, House Democrats hustled Wednesday to pass the most ambitious effort in decades to overhaul policing nationwide, able to avoid clashing with moderates in their own party who are wary of reigniting a debate they say hurt them during last fall’s election. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was approved 220 to 212 late Wednesday. The sweeping legislation, which was first approved last summer but stalled in the Senate, was named in honor of Floyd, whose killing by police in Minnesota last Memorial Day sparked protests nationwide. The bill would ban chokeholds and “qualified immunity” for law enforcement and create national standards for policing in a bid to bolster accountability. “My city is not an outlier, but rather an example of the inequalities our country has struggled with for centuries,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who represents the Minneapolis area near where Floyd died. She asked her colleagues if they would “have the moral courage to pursue justice and secure meaningful change?” Democrats say they were determined to pass the bill a second time, to combat police brutality and institutional racism after the deaths of Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans during interactions with law enforcement — images of which were sometimes jarringly captured on video. Those killings drew a national and international outcry. World & Nation The death of George Floyd sparked protests in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and New York. The officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday. May 29, 2020 Floyd’s family watched the emotional debate from a nearby House office building. But the debate over legislation has turned into a political liability for Democrats as Republicans seized on calls by some activists and progressives to “defund the police” to argue that Democrats were intent on slashing police force budgets. This bill doesn’t do that. Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said it was a reason the party, after talking confidently of expanding its majority in the November election, instead saw it shrink to 10 seats, 221 to 211. “We played too much defense on ‘defund the police,’” Perez said. Moderate Democrats said the charge helped drive Democratic defeats in swing districts around the country. “No one ran on ‘defund the police,’ but all you have to do is make that a political weapon,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, a moderate Texas Democrat who has pushed for more police funding in places like his city of Laredo, where the law enforcement presence is especially concentrated given the close proximity to the Mexican border. While Democrats used their then-larger majority to pass the police reform measure in the House last summer, it stalled in the then-Republican-controlled Senate, where GOP senators pushed an alternative plan that Democrats blocked from consideration, calling it inadequate. Democrats now control both chambers of Congress, but it seems unlikely the bill could pass the Senate without substantial changes to win GOP support. The bill had been set for a vote Thursday, but House leaders abruptly changed the schedule to wrap up their week’s work after U.S. Capitol Police warned of threats of violence at the Capitol two months after the Jan. 6 siege. Politics Federal security officials testify at Senate hearing about what went wrong during Capitol riot, when pro-Trump mob stormed the building. March 3, 2021 Senior Democratic congressional aides said Wednesday they were eager to get the bill to the Senate, where negotiations will take longer. Republicans quickly revived the “defund the police” criticisms. “Our law enforcement officers need more funding not less,” Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.) said during Wednesday’s debate. Despite the political attacks by Republicans, even the House’s more centrist Democrats, some representing more conservative districts, backed the bill. “Black Americans have endured generations of systemic racism and discrimination for too long, and this has been painfully evident in their treatment by law enforcement,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), who chairs the moderate New Democrat Coalition. That endorsement came despite the bill’s prohibitions on so-called qualified immunity, which shields law enforcement from certain lawsuits and is one of the main provisions that will probably need to be negotiated in any compromise with the Senate. Police unions and other law enforcement groups have argued that, without such legal protections, fear of lawsuits will stop people from becoming police officers — even though the measure permits such suits only against law enforcement agencies rather than all public employees. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), who wrote the bill, understands the challenge some House members face in supporting it. “My colleagues, several of them, I do not make light of the difficulty they had getting reelected because of the lie around defunding the police,” Bass said. She called provisions limiting qualified immunity and easing standards for prosecution “the only measures that hold police accountable — that will actually decrease the number of times we have to see people killed on videotape.” Bass said she would not make concessions before the bill cleared the House. Changes would only serve to weaken it while failing to shield Democrats from the false “defund the police” narrative used to attack it, she said. California Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles launched a campaign targeting two police unions, saying they will push to have them disbanded. Feb. 25, 2021 “Even if they were to vote against the bill, even if they were to have a press conference denouncing the bill, they are still going to be hit with the same lie,” Bass said of Democrats. She also acknowledged the challenges Democrats faced in November — and may see again — when then-President Trump’s reelection campaign and those of other leading Republicans crowded the airwaves with images of cities around the country burning. But Bass said those attacks, like much of the opposition to the bill, are built on racism, promoting fears about how “the scary Black people are going to attack you if you try to rein in the police.” “That’s as old as apple pie in our history,” she said. “So do you not act because of that?” Still, she conceded that changes are likely to come if the measure is to win the minimum 60 votes it will need to advance in the Senate, which is now split 50 to 50. Bass said she’d been in contact with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the chamber, and was confident he would help deliver some GOP support. Scott said this week that the legislation’s sticking points were qualified immunity and prosecutorial standards and that in both areas “we have to protect individual officers.” “That’s a red line for me,” Scott said, adding, “Hopefully we’ll come up with something that actually works.” That could prove a tall order, despite the White House’s vocal support for police reform. Biden has promised to combat systemic racism and signed executive orders he says will begin doing that, though advocates are expecting the new administration to go further. Biden has tweeted that he hopes “to be able to sign into law a landmark police reform bill.” California The rare veto override came as the L.A. City Council and Mayor Eric Garcetti try to resolve how to spend funds cut from the LAPD to aid communities of color. March 2, 2021

Autopsy shows California's 'I-5 Strangler' was strangled himself in prison

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-04/autopsy-californias-i-5-strangler-was-strangled-himself

A California serial killer who authorities say strangled and raped at least seven women was fatally choked himself in prison, officials said Wednesday. Roger Reece Kibbe, 81, known as the “I-5 Strangler” in the 1970s and ’80s, was found unresponsive Sunday in his cell at Mule Creek State Prison southeast of Sacramento with his 40-year-old cellmate standing nearby. An autopsy showed Kibbe had been manually strangled, the Amador County Sheriff’s Office said, calling the death a homicide. No charges have been filed in the death of Kibbe, a former suburban Sacramento furniture maker whose brother was a law enforcement officer. Kibbe was initially convicted in 1991 of the strangling death of Darcine Frackenpohl, a 17-year-old who had run away from her home in Seattle. Her nearly nude body was found west of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., in September 1987. Investigators said then that they suspected him in other similar slayings. But it wasn’t until 2009 that a San Joaquin County district attorney’s investigator used new developments in evidence evaluation to connect him to six additional slayings in multiple Northern California counties, including several victims found alongside Interstate 5 or other highways in 1986. The body of another victim, a 21-year-old woman Kibbe said he had killed in 1977, was finally located by a Napa County sheriff’s deputy in 2011. Kibbe was serving multiple life terms for the slayings when he was killed. Authorities said they never stopped trying to prove that he was responsible for even more deaths. Investigators secretly took him on multiple field trips from prison with the hope that he would reveal the whereabouts of more victims. They would buy him an Egg McMuffin and a Coke for breakfast, another Coke and a hamburger and French fries for lunch, Vito Bertocchini, a retired San Joaquin County sheriff’s detective and district attorney’s investigator, told the Sacramento Bee. Bertocchini spent nearly two decades pursuing Kibbe and thinks he must have killed others during the 10-year gap between his first- and last-known slayings. Investigators have said they found other women who had been killed and dumped with Kibbe’s trademark of cutting his victims’ clothing in odd patterns. He was finally captured after Sacramento police said a would-be victim escaped and they recovered a garrote made from a pair of dowels and parachute cord along with scissors and other items. Investigators said they matched the cord to rope found with Frackenpohl’s body and at Kibbe’s house, all with microscopic dots of red paint. DNA eventually linked him to two other victims, and he agreed to cooperate in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table. Kibbe never admitted to other killings beyond those with which he was charged, but Bertocchini said he never stopped trying to elicit another confession. Even after he retired in 2012, each year, he sent Kibbe birthday and Christmas cards, asking him to speak up if he recalled anything about other victims. He and his old partner last visited Kibbe in prison in 2019 but still he wouldn’t admit to any more victims. Now it’s too late, but Bertocchini called Kibbe’s death by strangulation “some fitting justice.” “I don’t wish ill on anyone,” Bertocchini said. “But I hope he remembered every one of his victims while he was being killed.”

Ex-White House doctor made sexist comments, drank, took sleeping pills on duty, report says

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-03/pentagon-probe-slams-ex-white-house-dr-jacksons-behavior

The Department of Defense inspector general released a scathing report Wednesday on the conduct of Ronny Jackson, now a congressman from Texas, when he worked as a top White House physician. The internal investigation concluded that Jackson made “sexual and denigrating” comments about a female subordinate, violated the policy on drinking alcohol on a presidential trip and took prescription-strength sleeping medication that prompted worries from his colleagues about his ability to provide proper medical care. The years-long investigation into Jackson, who was elected to the House in November, examined allegations into his conduct during his time serving the administrations of both Presidents Obama and Trump. Jackson, who gained notoriety for his over-the-top pronouncements about Trump’s health, denied the allegations, and declared that he was the victim of a “political hit job” because of his close ties to the former Republican president. After interviewing 78 witnesses and reviewing a host of White House documents, investigators concluded that Jackson, who achieved the rank of rear admiral, failed to treat his subordinates with dignity and respect. They also highlighted incidents of inappropriate behavior on at least two international presidential trips. World & Nation President Trump’s pick for Veterans Affairs secretary showed “a pattern” of questionable prescription drug practices and drunken behavior, including crashing a government vehicle while intoxicated and doling out a large supply of a prescription opioid to a White House military staff member, according to a summary of allegations compiled by Democrats. April 25, 2018 The report also said the investigation into Jackson “was limited in scope and unproductive” as Trump’s White House counsel insisted on being present at all interviews, which had a “potential chilling effect” on the probe. The Pentagon report, in part, focused on a trip by Obama to the Philippines in 2014. Before the trip, witnesses said, Jackson told a male colleague that he thought a female medical professional they were working with was attractive and, using inappropriate language, indicated that he would “like to see more of her tattoos.” While in Manila, witnesses said, a “visibly intoxicated” Jackson came back to the hotel where the medical team was staying and began yelling and pounding on the female subordinate’s hotel room door between 1 and 2 a.m. Witnesses said he created so much noise they worried it would wake Obama. “He had kind of bloodshot eyes,” the woman told investigators. “You could smell the alcohol on his breath, and he leaned into my room and he said, ‘I need you.’ I felt really uncomfortable.” The Department of Defense investigation, which was first reported by CNN, also found that Jackson violated the medical unit’s alcohol policy on a trip to Argentina. And witnesses said Jackson took sleep medication on long overseas travel, which left subordinates worried that it could have left him incapacitated and unable to work. Rumors about his conduct began in 2018, when Trump nominated Jackson to lead the Veterans Affairs Department. After allegations emerged that Jackson had created a hostile work environment and improperly distributed prescription drugs, the White House withdrew the nomination. Jackson then used claims that he was unfairly targeted — and then benefitted from Trump’s endorsement — to fuel a victory in a crowded GOP primary race to represent a district in northeastern Texas. He then easily won the seat in November. Jackson denied all of the allegations about his conduct and said Wednesday in a statement, “My entire professional life has been defined by duty and service.” “I have not and will not ever conduct myself in a way that undermines the sincerity with which I take my oath to my country or my constituents,” Jackson said. Jackson was well liked by most members of the Obama and Trump staffs and grew close to both presidents. He drew national attention and became the subject of late-night comedians’ jokes in early 2018 when he declared that Trump “has incredibly good genes, and it’s just the way God made him.” “I told the president that if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years he might live to be 200 years old,” Jackson said then.