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In his many decades on screen he worked with talents from Orson Welles to Charlie Chaplin to Denzel Washington to Amy Schumer.

LOS ANGELES — Norman Lloyd, whose role as kindly Dr. Daniel Auschlander on TV’s “St. Elsewhere” was a single chapter in a distinguished stage and screen career that put him in the company of Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin and other greats, has died. He was 106.

Lloyd’s manager, Marion Rosenberg, said the actor died Tuesday at his home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

His credits stretch from the earliest known U.S. TV drama, 1939′s “On the Streets of New York” on the nascent NBC network, to 21st-century projects including “Modern Family” and “The Practice.”

“If modern film history has a voice, it is Norman Lloyd’s,” reviewer Kenneth Turan wrote in the Los Angeles Times in 2012 after Lloyd regaled a Cannes Film Festival crowd with anecdotes about rarified friends and colleagues including Charlie Chaplin and Jean Renoir.

The wiry, 5-foot-5 Lloyd, whose energy was boundless off-screen as well, continued to play tennis into his 90s. In 2015, he appeared in the Amy Schumer comedy “Trainwreck.”

His most notable film part was as the villain who plummets off the Statue of Liberty in 1942′s “Saboteur,” directed by Hitchcock, who also cast Lloyd in the classic thriller 1945’s “Spellbound.”

His other movie credits include Jean Renoir’s “The Southerner,” Charlie Chaplin’s “Limelight,” “Dead Poets Society” with Robin Williams, “In Her Shoes” with Cameron Diaz and “Gangs of New York” with Daniel Day-Lewis.

On Broadway, Lloyd played the Fool opposite Louis Calhern’s King Lear in 1950, co-starred with Jessica Tandy in the comedy “Madam, Will You Walk” and directed Jerry Stiller in “The Taming of the Shrew” in 1957.

He was also part of Welles’ 1937 modern-dress fascist-era production of “Julius Caesar” that has gone down in history as one of the landmark stage pieces in the American theater. Norman played the small but key role of Cinna the Poet, opposite Welles’ Brutus. Stage magazine put Welles on its June cover and proclaimed the production “one of the most exciting dramatic events of our time.”

Born Nov. 8, 1914, in Jersey City, New Jersey, Lloyd jumped into acting as a youngster in the 1920s. On stage, he was a regular with Welles’ Mercury Theater, the groundbreaking 1930s troupe that also featured Joseph Cotton and Agnes Moorehead and formed the basis of Welles’ classic film debut, “Citizen Kane.”

His other plays included “Crime,” directed by Elia Kazan and featuring his future wife, Peggy Craven. The couple were married for 75 years, until Peggy Lloyd’s death in 2011 at age 98.

TV viewers knew him best as the memorable calm center of St. Eligius hospital on the 1982-99 NBC drama series “St. Elsewhere,” which co-starred William Daniels and Denzel Washington. His Dr. Daniel Auschlander was originally only supposed to appear in a few episodes, but Lloyd became a series regular and stayed with the show for the entire run.

Lloyd worked steadily as a TV actor and director in the early 1950s, but the political liberal found his career in jeopardy during the Hollywood blacklist period aimed at communists or their sympathizers.

In 1957, Hitchcock came to his rescue, Lloyd told the Los Angeles Times in 2014. When the famed director sought to hire Lloyd as associate producer on his series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” but was told “there is a problem with Norman Lloyd,” Hitchcock didn’t back down, Lloyd recalled.

“He said three words: ‘I want him,’ ” Lloyd said. He was immediately hired and eventually worked as executive producer on another series, “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.”

His other TV credits include roles in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “The Paper Chase,” “Quincy M.E.,” “Kojak” and “The Practice.”

In 2014, in recognition of his 82 years in show business, and reaching the age of 100, the Los Angeles City Council proclaimed that his birthday of Nov. 8 would be honored as “Norman Lloyd Day.”

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The World Health Organization has been facing widespread public allegations of systemic abuse of women by unnamed staffers.

BENI, Congo — When Shekinah was working as a nurse’s aide in northeastern Congo in January 2019, she said, a World Health Organization doctor offered her a job investigating Ebola cases at double her previous salary — with a catch.

“When he asked me to sleep with him, given the financial difficulties of my family …. I accepted,” said Shekinah, 25, who asked that only her first name be used for fear of repercussions. She added that the doctor, Boubacar Diallo, who often bragged about his connections to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, also offered several of her friends jobs in return for sex.

A WHO staffer and three Ebola experts working in Congo during the outbreak separately told management about general sex abuse concerns around Diallo, The Associated Press has learned. They said they were told not to take the matter further.

WHO has been facing widespread public allegations of systemic abuse of women by unnamed staffers, to which Tedros declared outrage and emergencies director Dr. Michael Ryan said, “We have no more information than you have.” But an AP investigation has now found that despite its public denial of knowledge, senior WHO management was not only informed of alleged sexual misconduct in 2019 but was asked how to handle it.

The AP has also for the first time tracked down the names of two doctors accused of sexual misconduct, Diallo and Dr. Jean-Paul Ngandu, both of whom were reported to WHO.

Ngandu was accused by a young woman of impregnating her. In a notarized contract obtained by the AP, two WHO staffers, including a manager, signed as witnesses to an agreement for Ngandu to pay the young woman, cover her health costs and buy her land. The deal was made “to protect the integrity and reputation” of WHO, Ngandu said.

When reached by the AP, both Diallo and Ngandu denied wrongdoing. The investigation was based on interviews with dozens of WHO staffers, Ebola officials in Congo, private emails, legal documents and recordings of internal meetings obtained by the AP.

A senior manager, Dr. Michel Yao, received emailed complaints about both men. Yao didn’t fire Ngandu despite the reported misconduct. Yao didn’t have the power to terminate Diallo, a Canadian, who was on a different kind of contract, but neither he nor any other WHO managers put Diallo on administrative leave.

The AP was unable to ascertain whether Yao forwarded either complaint to his superiors or the agency’s internal investigators, as required by WHO protocol. Yao has since been promoted to be director of Geneva’s Strategic Health Operations Department.

Eight top officials privately acknowledged that WHO had failed to effectively tackle sexual exploitation during the Ebola outbreak and that the problem was systemic, recordings of internal meetings show. The revelations come at a time when the U.N. health agency is winding down its response two recent Ebola epidemics in Congo and Guinea, and is already under pressure for its management of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

WHO declined to comment on specific sex abuse allegations, and none of the 12 WHO officials contacted responded to repeated requests for comment. Spokeswoman Marcia Poole noted that Tedros announced an independent investigation of sex abuse in Congo after media reports came out in October. Findings are due at earliest in August, investigators have said.

“Once we have these, we will review them carefully and take appropriate additional actions,” Poole said. “We are aware that more work is needed to achieve our vision of emergency operations that serve the vulnerable while protecting them from all forms of abuse.”

WHO’s code of conduct for staffers says they are “never to engage in acts of sexual exploitation” and to “avoid any action that could be perceived as an abuse of privileges,” reflecting the unequal power dynamic between visiting doctors and economically vulnerable women. But an internal WHO audit last year found some aid workers weren’t required to complete the agency’s training on sex abuse prevention before starting work during Ebola.

“All of us may have been suspecting for as long as the Ebola response was taking (place) that something like this would be possible,” said Andreas Mlitzke, director of WHO’s office of compliance, risk management and ethics, during an internal meeting in November. Mlitzke likened WHO officials in Congo to “an invading force” and said, “Things like this have historically happened in wartime.”

Mlitzke said during the meeting that WHO typically “takes the passive approach” in its investigations, and that it couldn’t be expected to uncover wrongdoing among staffers.

“What prevents us from doing something proactive is our own psychology,” he said.

Ryan, meanwhile, said the sexual harassment incidents were unlikely to be exceptional.

“You can’t just pin this and say you have one field operation that went badly wrong,” he told his colleagues in an internal meeting. “It does reflect a culture as well … This is in some sense the tip of an iceberg.”

Internal emails from November 2019 show WHO directors were alarmed enough by the abuse complaints that they drafted a strategy to prevent sexual exploitation and appointed two “focal points” to liaise with colleagues in Congo and elsewhere. Directors also ordered confidential probes into sexual abuse problems more broadly and U.N training on how to prevent sexual harassment, along with the independent investigation announced last year.

But staffers remain concerned that not enough has been done. At a WHO meeting in January to address sex abuse, Dr. Renee Van de Weerdt, chief of emergency management and support, told colleagues that the risk “remains high across our operations” and that “more robust supervision” was needed.

Dr. Gaya Gamhewage, head of WHO’s learning and capacity development, said at an internal WHO discussion on sex abuse that “the impunity with which we have operated is leading to this.” She warned, “Training is not going to solve this problem.”

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Shortly after Ebola was identified in eastern Congo in 2018, WHO’s Swiss headquarters gave the outbreak its most serious emergency designation, allowing Geneva to take control from its Africa office. WHO chief Tedros traveled to Congo 14 times during the epidemic to personally oversee the response, and his emergencies chief, Ryan, made at least seven visits.

Over 2018 and 2019, three Ebola experts, including two who worked for WHO at the time, told the AP they raised concerns about sex abuse in general, and Diallo in particular, with senior managers. But they said they were told that controlling the Ebola outbreak was more important, and two said Diallo was considered “untouchable” because of his relationship with Tedros.

Complaints about Diallo were also raised with emergency operations manager Yao, who was responsible for leading WHO’s overall Ebola response in Congo, with hundreds of staff, under Ryan’s supervision. On Feb. 22, 2019, Yao received an email from the WHO outbreak team leader in North Kivu with the subject line, “Private. Chat.”

“Chief, please let’s have a Private chat tomorrow,” the staffer emailed, saying he wanted to discuss Diallo, then an outbreak manager in North Kivu. The staffer didn’t want to be identified by the AP for fear of losing his job.

“We cannot afford to have people tarnishing the sweat and effort of individuals sacrificing themselves thru (sic) inappropriate sexual harassment and bullying,” the staffer wrote. “I will fill you in (in) private.”

Yao responded the next morning: “Ok we shall talk.” The staffer said that Yao told him the matter would be handled, but he didn’t believe his concerns were taken seriously and was very upset. He added that he was sidelined for complaining about Diallo.

Two WHO officials with knowledge of the situation said the agency investigated complaints that Diallo acted unprofessionally, including an alleged sexual assault, and there was insufficient evidence to corroborate the charges. But investigators failed to interview any of the women involved or the whistleblowers who flagged the harassment claims, according to a senior WHO official who didn’t want to be identified for fear of losing his job. Diallo continued to work for WHO months after concerns were raised about him.

Diallo was described as a charismatic, outgoing leader with connections to some of WHO’s top managers, including Tedros. In a speech in January 2019, Tedros singled out Diallo among the Ebola responders working under heavy gunfire in Beni.

On WHO’s website, Diallo, Tedros and Yao are pictured smiling and bumping elbows during Tedros’ June 2019 trip to Congo. On Diallo’s Facebook page, he appears in more than a dozen photos with Tedros.

Several months after Tedros’ visit, Diallo met Anifa, a young Congolese woman working in an Ebola treatment center in Beni. She said Diallo told her: “How can a beautiful girl like you work here, testing people’s temperatures and washing their hands? That’s terrible.” She said he offered her another job at five times more than her current salary where “the conditions were very simple,” according to him.

“He wanted me to sleep with him,” she told the AP, noting that Diallo frequently wore a badge with “VIP” inscribed in red, attached to his dark blue WHO vest. Anifa declined to share her full name, fearing it could harm her future job prospects. The AP doesn’t identify victims of sexual abuse.

“I told him I studied hard to be employed by the treatment center,” Anifa said. She rejected Diallo’s offer, saying that “if he hires me after sleeping with him … I would be a sex slave, not a WHO employee.”

Diallo denied the claims outright.

“I have never offered a woman a job in exchange for sex and I have never sexually harassed a woman in my life,” he told the AP in an email. He said he was never informed of any complaints about his behavior at WHO or disciplined for misconduct, and his relationship with Tedros was “purely professional.”

Diallo said his contract for WHO finished at the end of July and he hasn’t worked for the agency since.

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The same manager, Yao, was also told of alleged sexual misconduct by the other doctor, Ngandu, in an email obtained by the AP dated April 23, 2019, with the subject line, “Urgent need for your guidance.” Outbreak manager Mory Keita wrote in French: “I hereby inform you that we have a colleague who has impregnated a girl from Beni.”

Keita told Yao that a young woman and her aunt had come to the Hotel Okapi in Beni with two armed police officers, looking for senior WHO staff. They said the young woman had been having an affair with Ngandu, and the hospital had confirmed she was now pregnant. Ngandu was avoiding them, the aunt said, so they went to the police to find him.

Keita told Yao that when confronted, Ngandu acknowledged a relationship with the girl but said it was only for two weeks. The woman’s aunt, however, said her niece first spent the night with him about a month and a half ago, and at the time he gave her $100, “a detail that Ngandu could not deny,” the email noted.

The two women demanded payment for all medications and hospital treatment during pregnancy and the purchase of land for the child, “given that Dr. Jean-Paul will abandon the girl and she will be obliged to raise her child alone.”

“We have asked Jean-Paul to honor the request from the family of the girl and the aunt and try to find some common ground,” Keita said. “(Ngandu) suggested that we manage the situation here at our level here in Beni and not inform the hierarchy, but I felt … you should be informed so that you would tell us your directions for how to better manage this problem.”

Less than one week later, Ngandu and the young woman signed a notarized contract in which he agreed to pay her $100 a month until her baby was delivered, to provide all necessary health care, and to buy her a plot of land in Beni. Four witnesses signed the document, including two from WHO, Keita and Achile Mboko, a human resources officer. Keita didn’t respond to requests for comment, and Mboko acknowledged his signature and presence.

Two handwritten contracts signed by the young woman and Ngandu confirmed he paid $2,800 for land with a house in a Beni neighborhood and transferred ownership rights to her in August 2019.

“This was a private matter and did not implicate WHO,” Ngandu told the AP. Ngandu said he wasn’t the father of the baby and that he agreed to the settlement after WHO colleagues, including Keita, “advised me to settle out of court to avoid sullying the reputation of the organization and myself.”

Ngandu, who is from Congo, said he wasn’t disciplined by WHO and continued to work until his contract ended in June 2019. Ngandu is now based in Namibia and said he is in talks with WHO for potential future employment. The young woman declined to talk to the AP.

Paula Donovan, co-director of the Code Blue Campaign, which is campaigning to end sexual exploitation by U.N. peacekeepers, said WHO’s attempt to effectively silence the victim was “beyond concerning.”

“It’s a perversion of justice that WHO thinks they could take the law into their own hands and resolve a case without going to the proper authorities,” Donovan said. “If this is how they treated one case, how are they treating all the others?”

In May 2019, Yao was told of yet another unrelated sexual harassment complaint in Bunia, roughly 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Beni. Two women told the World Bank they were refused jobs at WHO because they declined to sleep with the recruiting officer, in an email seen by an Ebola aid worker. The aid worker, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, told the AP that the World Bank alerted Yao, but nothing was done.

Throughout the summer, Yao was praised for his leadership of the Ebola response. He was named in a July 17 tweet from Ebba Kalondo, a spokesperson for the African Union, as one of WHO’s “exceptional men” and was pictured alongside colleagues, including Diallo. Kalondo urged her followers: “Know their names. Write about them.”

Two months later, a young Congolese woman named Reby, then 20, met Diallo when he came into the Vodacom shop where she was working. He gave her $100 for “transport costs” to meet him at a hotel and asked her how much she made in the telecommunications job, she told the AP.

“My God, a beautiful girl like you who gets $60 a month is not enough,” he said, according to Reby. “If you sleep with me, you are going to be a high-ranking member of the Ebola response in Beni and you are going to receive around $800 a month.”

Reby declined to use her full name for fear of retribution. She said she refused Diallo’s offer, but continued to see him when he came into her shop. “From that day on, he always called me the difficult girl,” she said.

In a confidential slide presentation in January 2020, WHO officials reported that an internal U.N. review of the Ebola response in Congo had found a need for “safe-guarding mechanisms for preventing sexual exploitation.” All staff were to complete training on harassment and other issues.

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The publication of general sex abuse allegations in Congo in the media last fall set off a flurry of responses from WHO.

Yao said in an internal meeting in September that despite U.N. protocols to prevent sexual abuse, “it looks like this system is not working at the grassroots level.” He added that a recent U.N. assessment hadn’t revealed any problems, “so we were surprised about a case happening.”

WHO director-general Tedros called the allegations a “shocking” betrayal in an email to staff and promised “serious consequences,” including immediate dismissal and referral to local authorities.

At a town hall meeting in November, emergencies chief Ryan said sexual abuse issues had been “neglected” for years and apologized to his staff.

“There are behaviors here that are not acceptable,” he said.

WHO staffers, especially women, were unconvinced.

“Quite frankly, I think this is not good enough,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, at the same meeting. “We know in every situation we go in, we’re at risk.”

Staffers also worried that problems persisted in the agency’s response to another Ebola outbreak in Congo last year.

“We still do not have a robust (sexual abuse prevention) program in place,” Geneva-based project officer Jessica Kolmer said during a meeting in November. She said donors told them their new measures, including posting flyers in their offices and establishing a sexual abuse prevention committee, were “not sufficient.”

Back in Congo, Anifa said she was deeply disturbed that WHO staffers hadn’t been disciplined for their treatment of women.

“I condemn WHO for not sanctioning Dr. Boubacar Diallo because I know already they have complaints against him,” she said. “I asked myself, ‘Why did the people who came to help us, to fight Ebola here at home, why do they want to destroy our lives?’”

Shekinah said she “couldn’t count how many times” she slept with Diallo. She said she knew about a dozen other women in Beni whom he had similarly victimized.

“I wanted to quit,” she said. “But because of my financial problems, I endured it.”

Shekinah said she was often paid in cash or mobile credit, with little paperwork. Even after she and Diallo separated, she said, he continued to ask for nude pictures or video calls while she was naked.

Diallo should be punished “for his sexual abuse of all those girls in Beni as a lesson to these international organizations that this should not happen again,” she said. “I would like justice to be done.”

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Maria Cheng reported from London. Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

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Christopher Miller’s testimony is aimed at defending the Pentagon’s response to the chaos of the day and rebutting broad criticism that military forces were too slow to arrive even as pro-Trump rioters violently breached the building and stormed inside.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s acting defense secretary during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots plans to tell Congress that he was concerned in the days before the insurrection that sending troops to the building would fan fears of a military coup and could cause a repeat of the deadly Kent State shootings, according to a copy of prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press.

Christopher Miller’s testimony is aimed at defending the Pentagon’s response to the chaos of the day and rebutting broad criticism that military forces were too slow to arrive even as pro-Trump rioters violently breached the building and stormed inside. He casts himself as a deliberate leader who was determined that the military have only limited involvement, a perspective he says was shaped by criticism of the aggressive response to the civil unrest that roiled American cities months earlier, as well as decades-old episodes that ended in violence.

The Defense Department, he will tell members of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, has “an extremely poor record in supporting domestic law enforcement,” including during civil rights and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations in the 1960s and 1970s.

“And some 51 years ago, on May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard troops fired at demonstrators at Kent State University and killed four American civilians,” Miller will say, adding, “I was committed to avoiding repeating these scenarios.”

He will also deny that Trump, criticized for failing to forcefully condemn the rioters, had any involvement in the Defense Department’s response and will say that Trump had even suggested that 10,000 troops might be needed for Jan. 6.

Miller, expected to testify alongside former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and District of Columbia Police Chief Robert Contee III, will be the most senior Defense Department official to participate in congressional hearings on the riots. The sessions have been characterized by finger-pointing by officials across agencies about missed intelligence, poor preparations and an inadequate law enforcement response.

The Capitol Police have faced criticism for being badly overmatched, the FBI for failing to share with sufficient urgency intelligence suggesting a possible “war” at the Capitol, and the Defense Department for an hourslong delay in getting support to the complex despite the violent, deadly chaos unfolding on TV.

Rosen, for his part, is expected to tell lawmakers that the Justice Department “took appropriate precautions” ahead of the riot, putting tactical and other elite units on standby after local police reports indicated that 10,000 to 30,000 people were expected at rallies and protests, according to prepared remarks obtained by the AP.

Miller’s testimony will amount to the most thorough explanation of Pentagon actions after months of criticism that it took hours for the National Guard to arrive.

In his remarks, he defends his resistance to a heavy military response as being shaped by public “hysteria” about the possibility of a military coup or concerns that the military might be used to help overturn the election results. Fearful of amplifying those suspicions — as well as the chance that a soldier might be provoked into violence in a way that could be perceived as an attack on First Amendment activities — he says he agreed in the days before the insurrection to deploy soldiers only in areas away from the Capitol.

“No such thing was going to occur on my watch but these concerns, and hysteria about them, nonetheless factored into my decisions regarding the appropriate and limited use of our Armed Forces to support civilian law enforcement during the Electoral College certification,” Miller will say. “My obligation to the Nation was to prevent a constitutional crisis.”

The hearing marks the first time that Miller and Rosen will testify publicly about the Jan. 6 insurrection. In his remarks, Miller also noted that there was concern about a lack of coordination and information-sharing between law enforcement agencies.

The committee’s chair, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said that Trump’s “inflammatory language provoked and incited the violent mob” and that many questions remained unanswered.

“Our hearing will provide the American people the first opportunity to hear from top Trump Administration officials about the catastrophic intelligence and security failures that enabled this unprecedented terrorist attack on our nation’s Capitol,” Maloney said in a statement.

Democrats have signaled that they intend to press Miller on why it took so long for the National Guard to arrive despite urgent plans for help. Miller will contend that those complaints are unjustified, though he also concedes that the Guard was not rushed to the scene — a decision that he maintains was intentional.

“This isn’t a video game where you can move forces with a flick of the thumb or a movie that glosses over the logistical challenges and the time required to coordinate and synchronize with the multitude of other entities involved, or with complying with the important legal requirements involved in the use of such forces,” he will say.

Even after the Guard was requested, he said he felt compelled to send them “in with a plan to not only succeed but that would spare them unnecessary exposure and spare everyone the consequences of poor planning or execution.”

“We appreciated the seriousness of the situation, but we did not want to piece-meal National Guard forces into the zone of conflict,” Miller will say.

Although the timeline Miller offers in his remarks generally matches up with that provided by other high-ranking leaders, he notably puts himself at odds with William Walker, who as commanding general of the D.C. National Guard testified to what he said were unusual Pentagon restrictions that impeded his response and contributed to a three-hour delay between the time he requested aid and the time it was received. Walker has since become the House sergeant-at-arms, in charge of the chamber’s security.

Miller will say that Walker was given “all the authority he needed to fulfill the mission” and that before Jan. 6 he had never expressed any concern about the forces he had at his disposal. He contends that he authorized the deployment of 340 National Guard personnel, the total amount Walker had said would be necessary, and authorized him to use a 40-member quick reaction force provided that Walker could provide him with a so-called concept of operations.

Miller said he approved the activation of the Guard at 3 p.m.. He said that though that support did not arrive at the Capitol complex until 5:22 p.m., the coordination, planning and deputizing of personnel by civilian law enforcement all took time.

Miller, a Green Beret and retired Army colonel, served as a White House counterterrorism adviser under Trump before being tapped as acting defense secretary for the final months of the Trump administration. He replaced Mark Esper, who was fired after the election after being seen by Trump as insufficiently loyal.

The abrupt appointment raised concerns that Miller was in place to be a Trump loyalist. In his opening statement, though, he will say that he believes Trump “encouraged the protesters” but declines to say if he thinks the president bears responsibility. He recounts a conversation on Jan. 5 when Trump, struck by a crowd of supporters at a rally that day, told him that 10,000 troops would be needed the next day.

“The call lasted fewer than thirty seconds and I did not respond substantively, and there was no elaboration. I took his comment to mean that a large force would be required to maintain order the following day,” Miller says in his statement.

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Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this report.

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Former Illini point guard Chester Frazier was brought in as an assistant to help run the recruiting show after Orlando Antigua and Chin Coleman both left for Kentucky.

One of the first moves Bruce Weber made after being fired by Illinois in 2012 and taking the head coaching position at Kansas State three weeks later was to call his former Illini point guard Chester Frazier and offer him a job.

Then 25 and playing pro ball in Germany, Frazier said yes and dove straight into the deep end as a first-time assistant.

Fast-forward eight years, and Frazier is the veteran hand Illini Brad Underwood decided he needed to keep the program on solid ground after the departures of star players Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn and star recruiters Orlando Antigua and Chin Coleman. The latter pair left last week for Kentucky.

“I’ll be shocked in three years if Chester is not a head coach someplace,” Underwood said Tuesday.

Until then, he’ll have to prove he can cut it in a different sort of recruiting pool.

At Kansas State, Frazier helped Weber find tough kids whose talent wasn’t so obvious that Kansas and other “it” programs swooped in and got involved. At Virginia Tech after that, Frazier looked for interchangeable parts who could play off the ball in a motion offense. Both the Wildcats and the Hokies tried to keep the pace down and scores low.

The Illini? Different ballgame, folks.

“High-octane, transition, score in the first 7 seconds, guards that are fun to watch,” said Frazier, calling it an easier, “sexier” sell to players, which it certainly is.

Think: guards like Dosunmu and Andre Curbelo. Coleman led the way on the former and Antigua on the latter. Underwood is counting on Frazier to reel in his own versions.

Meanwhile, this is the most transition Underwood has ever dealt with in an offseason when he wasn’t on the move himself. His best players, gone. His best coaches, gone. That’s a daunting crossroads the Illini are at, isn’t it?

“It’s the way the world’s going to be when you get good,” Underwood said, also citing the effects of the transfer portal, which cost the Illini guard Adam Miller.

“You’d better have pros, or you’re not getting good. I don’t think it’s a crossroads. I just think it’s the new norm.”

But Illinois winning a Big Ten tournament title and getting a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament isn’t the norm. That was all shiny and new. What’ll be harder for Underwood: getting the Ilini to that level or keeping them there?

“The climb’s hard,” he said. “We’re going to find out.”

JUST SAYIN’

NBC Sports Chicago’s telecast of Monday’s Blackhawks season finale took a dark, unfortunate twist near the end of the third period just as longtime play-by-play man Pat Foley was complimenting team personnel for navigating through difficult travel conditions during a pandemic.

“Had I been traveling with the team this year,” Foley told viewers, “I might have put a bullet in my head.”

Metaphorical, but still insensitive and jarring. And a shame because Foley had just finished calling out the Hawks for their porous defense throughout a non-playoff season, and that was a fair and valid point. It was refreshing to hear needed criticism put so bluntly by a local announcer. We don’t need pom-pom waving, after all.

Foley apologized on the air for the “bullet” comment a few minutes before Dallas scored in overtime for a 5-4 win.

“I wish I didn’t say that,” he said. “I’m sorry if I offended some folks, which apparently I did. So I apologize.”

A strange way to end the season.

• The hottest team heading into the Stanley Cup playoffs? It’s not close. Joel Quenneville’s Panthers have won six straight, and 10 of their last 12, and overwhelmed the defending champion Lightning 5-1 and 4-0 in the last two games of the regular season. Good luck dealing with all that.

• Did you catch what Wizards guard Russell Westbrook said Monday after his 182nd career triple-double, breaking Oscar Robertson’s record?

“My motto is, ‘Why not?’ That’s how I live, and that’s how I think. Each and every time I step on the floor, I try to do things that people said I can’t do.”

Translation: “Stick that in your ear, Kevin Durant.”

• Don’t know if we’ve seen the last of Albert Pujols, who was of no use to Angels skipper Joe Maddon and — in his 40s and with 667 home runs, fifth all-time — perhaps should put a bow on it and call it a career.

But it would be wonderful theater to see him in a Cardinals uniform again, even if it’s just in a pinch-hitting role. Come on, baseball gods, make it happen.

• We can’t let May 12 go by without acknowledging the anniversary — No. 51 — of Ernie Banks’ 500th home run, hit off the Braves’ Pat Jarvis at Wrigley Field in 1970. It’s always fun to note that Billy Williams later homered to tie that game in the ninth inning and Ron Santo won it with a base hit in the 11th. It should be known as the Hall of Fame Game.

It’s also the 66th anniversary of Cubs pitcher Sam “Toothpick” Jones’ no-hitter against the Pirates at Wrigley. Jones was the first African-American to accomplish this feat in an MLB game. A side note: With the score 4-0, he walked the first three batters of the ninth inning before striking out the side. Nowadays, not even Tony La Russa would leave him in to finish that one.

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From coast to coast, faith groups tied to the Indian diaspora have collected hundreds of oxygen concentrators and electrical transformers to ship to overwhelmed hospitals, raised millions for everything from food to firewood for funeral pyres and gathered in prayer for spiritual support for the Asian nation.

Volunteers at Hindu temples, Muslim groups and Sikh relief organizations across the United States are mobilizing to support India as the world’s second most populous country struggles to handle a devastating surge of the coronavirus.

From coast to coast, faith groups tied to the Indian diaspora have collected hundreds of oxygen concentrators and electrical transformers to ship to overwhelmed hospitals, raised millions for everything from food to firewood for funeral pyres and gathered in prayer for spiritual support for the Asian nation.

“This is a human tragedy, said Manzoor Ghori, executive director of the California-based Indian Muslim Relief and Charities, which has donated more than $1 million for purposes including supporting teachers and providing families with thousands of medical kits and more than 300,000 meals.

Ghori said he has had five loved ones, including two nephews, die in India from COVID-19 — “so, it is a personal tragedy” as well.

He’s one of many in the U.S. diaspora to have lost relatives to the virus in India, where total confirmed infections and deaths have surpassed 22.6 million and 246,000, respectively, though the true numbers are believed to be much higher.

Kashyap Patel, an Atlanta-based physician, said the pandemic has been “catastrophic” for him, with about a dozen members of his extended family in India contracting the virus, from teenagers to octogenarians, and his 73-year-old uncle dying from it.

He volunteers for the North America branch of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha Hindu organization, which has provided 250 oxygen concentrators and several hundred thousand dollars in COVID-19 relief to help with India’s overwhelmed health system.

“It is challenging to find hospital beds,” Patel said. “It is challenging to find oxygen, to find contemporary medicine.”

India’s Supreme Court recently said it would set up a national task force consisting of top experts and doctors to conduct an “oxygen audit” to determine whether supplies from the government were reaching states in the country of nearly 1.4 billion people amid widespread complaints of shortages.

The U.S. branch of Khalsa Aid, a U.K.-based Sikh humanitarian organization, is sending another 500 concentrators and 500 electrical transformers this week to New Delhi, where the group’s team is already helping COVID-19 patients, hospitals and NGOS with essential supplies as well as wood for cremations.

At a warehouse on New York’s Long Island, workers busily packed, sorted and labeled dozens of boxes containing transformers on a recent day ahead of their shipment.

“In these last two weeks, many of us haven’t slept. We’ve been running our day jobs at the same time,” one of the group’s directors, Manpreet Kaur said.

“It’s been an intense period of time, but for us, it’s about giving back to the community,” Kaur continued. “And the people in India definitely need that support.”

Khalsa Aid’s India relief effort has gotten grassroots support from individuals all over the country, such as Tahil Sharma, a Los Angeles-based interfaith activist born to a Hindu father and a Sikh mother. He raised nearly $3,000 on Facebook for the initiative.

“It’s a small amount for a really big crisis,” Sharma said. “But it helps mitigate the costs that Khalsa Aid needs to take upon itself sometimes in being able to get oxygen concentrators, to be able to secure beds at gurdwaras (Sikh houses of worship) on the ground in New Delhi, to help them get the resources that they need so people don’t get hit by more waves of deaths.”

Seeing individual pledges like that on social media platforms motivated members of Shri Shirdi Saibaba, a Hindu Temple in South Brunswick Township, New Jersey, to organize as a religious organization for their own effort, temple founder and chairman Rajesh Anand said. So far the temple has raised about $3,000 to buy concentrators for two hospitals in New Delhi.

“We are one among many to help the cause,” Anand said.

In the New York City borough of Queens, the Hindu Temple Society of North America has also been fundraising online and has so far donated more than $50,000 to the India Development and Relief Fund in Washington, D.C., for concentrators and other medical needs.

The temple also organized special group prayers for those who have died of COVID-19 and a virtual vigil featuring music, prayer and speeches by interfaith leaders and elected officials.

“When we learned more about the difficulties the country was facing,” said Ravi Vaidyanaat, the temple’s director of religious affairs, “we immediately thought we had to do something.”

Support for India has come, too, from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which sent ventilators to hospitals in Mumbai and Ahmedabad and personal protective equipment to rural communities. It is also recruiting U.S. and Israeli intensive-care doctors and nurses for a telemedicine training program.

“In the efforts that we’re making in India … what we keep in mind is that with each action that we engage in, we can save one life,” said Michael Geller, the group’s director of communications and media relations. “And that one life represents an entire world of people who can be impacted.”

Nepal, India’s much-smaller neighbor, is seeing its own pandemic spike, with doctors there warning recently of a major crisis as hospitals run out of beds and oxygen. That has prompted similar aid efforts by Nepalese in the United States.

“It’s a landlocked country, and there’s a lack of resources there. … The situation in Nepal is very bad,” said Urgen Sherpa, a former president and current adviser of New York City’s United Sherpa Association, which has raised about $5,000 for Nepal.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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“Reimagining Utopia” focuses on multidisciplinary artists and visions of a better future.

Recently, several articles appeared about the phenomenon of “Hygiene Theater”—the focus on largely ineffective COVID-19 safety measures like Clorox wipes and plexiglass dividers designed to give people a false sense of security indoors. Some in the theater industry are rapidly signing up for this new brand of drama, such as Broadway announcing that it will reopen at 100 percent capacity in September, eager to trade profits for the safety of its patrons and casts. …Read More

Today’s update is a 5-minute read that will brief you on the day’s biggest stories.

Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be sunny with a high near 53 degrees. Tonight’s low will be around 38 degrees. Tomorrow will be sunny with a high near 61.

Top story

City to offer vaccinations to 12-to-15-year-olds starting Thursday

All city-operated vaccination sites on Thursday will begin offering Pfizer vaccinations to kids between the ages of 12 and 15.

The announcement this morning came a day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for that age group and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to grant full approval tomorrow.

“Like adults, all youth age 12 and older are encouraged to get the vaccine,” said Chicago’s chief health official Dr. Allison Arwady said in a statement.

The statement said city-operated vaccine site appointments for Thursday can be booked through the City’s call center at 312-746-4835 or through www.zocdoc.com/vaccine, although the website as of 10 a.m. this morning still indicated that anyone under 16 was not eligible.

“Current data show that the vaccine is safe and effective in children, and it not only protects our kids, but also their families and our communities,” Arwady said.

Read the full story from Mitch Dudek here.

More news you need

1. Illinoisans have now rolled up their sleeves more than 10 million times for COVID-19 vaccinations, public health officials announced today. The state hit its latest shot benchmark as 58,709 doses were administered yesterday.
2. Community activist Ja’Mal Green is accusing Mayor Lori Lightfoot of stopping a $15 million youth center he wants to build on the site of a shuttered elementary school in Auburn-Gresham in retaliation for Green’s outspoken criticism of the mayor. It’s one in multiple public breaks with the mayor since Green endorsed Lightfoot in 2019, after ending his own mayoral bid.
3. Architect Helmut Jahn’s untimely death has reignited debate over the sale of his renowned — and reviled — James R. Thompson Center. Preservation advocates say Jahn’s death “really does cement the argument that the Thompson Center should be preserved.” But Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who put the building up for sale last week, said the building doesn’t fall under the category of great, artistic work.
4. It’s not every day you get to meet your childhood hero, let alone call them your teammate. But Chicago Sky’s Azurá Stevens gets to do just that, playing alongside the legendary Candace Parker. Stevens even got to show Parker a doll she made for a middle school project on Parker in a full-circle moment.

A bright one

Urban Growers Collective teaches divested communities how to grow — and cook — food locally

Many of Chicago’s intentionally-divested communities lack viable access to fruits and vegetables — and there’s an ongoing debate about which entity is to blame, according to a 2018 study detailing supermarkets and food access.

In the meantime, the folks at Urban Growers Collective are teaching those communities how to grow fruits and vegetables at several farms around the city.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times,

Urban Growers’ co-founders, Erika Allen and Laurell Sims noticed discrepancies over time, prompting them to step in and assist communities branded as “food insecure.”

Siobhan Beal (from left), Malcolm Evans, Laurell Sims and Marshall Mitchell of Urban Growers Collective, an organization that creates farms and gardens in the South and West Sides of Chicago, are photographed at the collective’s South Chicago neighborhood farm. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

The collective operates eight “urban farms” across the city in neighborhoods such as South Chicago, Bridgeport, and Riverdale’s Altgeld Gardens and Phillip Murray Homes, a housing project long known for being a symbol for environmental racism nicknamed the “toxic doughnut,” according to a Chicago Sun-Times report.

Each site operates “production-oriented” farms where Urban Growers staff members offer educational opportunities for leadership development, training and food distribution. Each farm exposes communities — adults and teens — to organic growing methods, growing practices and year-round production strategies.

Read Evan F. Moore’s full story here.

From the press box

After the Blackhawks’ season-ending loss to the Stars last night, Ben Pope looks at a season in which the team was far from perfect, but surprisingly compelling at times.

Before the Sky traded Gabby Williams to the Sparks, the talented forward requested a trade back last month, GM James Wade said yesterday. Wade cited disagreements over her role on the team and her unwillingness to participate in training camp before joining the French national team for EuroBasket as reasons that the Sky decided to move on.

Your daily question ☕

It’s National Eat What You Want Day, so we want to know: What are you having for dinner tonight?

Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might include your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: What’s your favorite piece of architecture in Chicago? Here’s some of what you said…

“Buckingham Fountain. So beautiful. It sometimes feels like you’re in another part of the world. Like Italy or Greece. It’s just so grand. Magnificent!” — Sandra Sanchez

“Crain Communications Building, aka the Diamond building. The architecture of this building is unique to Chicago’s skyline. It’s recognizable at first glance and the windows adorn this structure with a vision of reflective strength. As a small child, back in 1983 when it was built, I remember being in awe of its shape and beauty. Seeing it makes me feel the love I have for my city.” — Leslie Kollene Warren

“The Wrigley Building on Michigan Ave., because it is fanciful and magnificent altogether. Flying buttresses on the top floors are perfect.” — Kathey Koziol

“The Water Tower. It survived the Chicago Fire, as did my great-grandparents. So it has always been my connection to Chicago, its past, and to my family history in Chicago.” — Betty Blomfield

“I love all of the details found in and on the Palmolive and Fisher buildings. The Mansueto and Harper libraries at the University of Chicago are both breathtaking as well.” — Jonathan Raymond

“The John Hancock building. It has such sleek lines, nice color and the antennas are equal lengths.” — Kelly Naughton

Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

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Brennan, who has had public struggles with alcohol, died at a hospital in California, his father, Terry Brennan, told The Associated Press. 

HONOLULU — Colt Brennan, a star quarterback at the University of Hawaii who finished third in the 2007 Heisman Trophy balloting, died early Tuesday, his father said. He was 37.

Brennan, who has had public struggles with alcohol, died at a hospital in California, his father, Terry Brennan, told The Associated Press.

“He just spent one too many times on the dark side of life, and it caught up with him,” Terry Brennan said of his son.

Brennan transferred to Hawaii after stints at Colorado and Saddleback College in California. A certain pro prospect, he bypassed the NFL Draft in order to play his senior year for Hawaii coach June Jones.

Brennan led the Warriors to its finest season ever, going 12-0 in the regular season.

Georgia ended Hawaii’s hopes for an unblemished record, defeating the Warriors 41-10 in the Sugar Bowl.

He returned, in part, to pay back to a school and a coach that gave him a second chance, and he had no regrets.

“Hawaii has inspired me to do a lot of great things,” he told The Associated Press in 2007.

Brennan was drafted by Washington in the sixth round of the NFL Draft in 2008, but he never played a regular season game in two seasons.

Brennan had been living at an addiction treatment center in Costa Mesa, California. His father said he took him to a hospital emergency room on Sunday because his son had been drinking. “I could tell he was not well and needed help,” Terry Brennan said.

But the detox facility was full, so without his family realizing it, Colt Brennan was released. He was unconscious when he was taken back to the hospital, where he later died, his father said.

He was surrounded by family members when he died.

“His sisters made sure he had the Bob Marley music going by his side,” Terry Brennan said of the reggae his son was fond of from his time in Hawaii. “They had a lei around his chest.”

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“We’ve done a lot of good things to make it feel good in games, and then other games it hasn’t felt as great,” Kane said in his exit interview Tuesday. “So it’s just an ongoing process. Hopefully we can get to the point where I’m not feeling it at all.”

Patrick Kane, in terms of production, manufactured another fantastic season for the Blackhawks in 2021.

Playing in all 56 games, he recorded 66 points, which will place him in the top seven in the NHL once every team finishes.

But as the year wore on, something looked slightly off in the 32-year-old superstar. In Monday’s season finale, he took off on several potential counterattacks — with the crowd, accustomed to so much Kane magic over the years, cheering in anticipation — only to pull up and eventually turn the puck over.

And in his exit interview Tuesday, Kane confirmed he has dealt with a previously undisclosed injury since the 2020 playoffs last August. He declined to specify the exact injury.

“I’ve got one little issue that I’ve been dealing with,” Kane said. “[I’m] trying to figure that out and hopefully it’s nothing too serious. Hopefully [I’ll] just get it fixed and not have to worry about it next year.

“We’ve done a lot of good things to make it feel good in games, and then other games it hasn’t felt as great,” he added later. “So it’s just an ongoing process. Hopefully we can get to the point where I’m not feeling it at all, and [I] feel strong on the puck and feel like it’s not an issue when I’m out there. That’s the ultimate goal.”

Kane said he expects to know more about what it will take to fix the issue, and how long the recovery process will take, after additional conversations with doctors in the coming weeks. He sounded optimistic he’ll be back at 100% health for training camp come September.

In the meantime, Kane anticipates a more low-key offseason. He wants to spend more time with his son, who turns six months old Wednesday.

Kane captained Team USA in the World Championships in 2018 and 2019, the last two times the event occurred, but isn’t attending this year’s tournament, which runs May 21 to June 6 in host countries Latvia and Belarus. Brandon Hagel (Canada), Dominik Kubalik (Czech Republic) and Nikita Zadorov (Russia) are the three Hawks so far confirmed to be participating.

“The past few years I’ve really skated a lot in the summer,” Kane said. “I’ll maybe take a little bit more time off the ice [this summer], but I don’t think it should affect anything I’m doing as far as training and working out.”

The wear-and-tear buildup is somewhat inevitable due to Kane’s age and tenure in the NHL, having hit his 1,000-game milestone this season. He reflected Tuesday on the “full circle” aspect of evolving from the Hawks’ youngest player during his first few seasons to their oldest — by more than four years — in Sunday and Monday’s lineups.

Kane also lamented his lack of goal-scoring this season. He finished with 51 assists yet only 15 goals, and scored just four goals in 33 games after hitting the 400-career-goal milestone Feb. 28. The self-blame is largely unfair, considering he still led the Hawks in scoring by 10 points, but that dissatisfaction has always fueled him.

“[When] I was producing a lot and had a big start to the season, we were in a playoff position,” he said. “Obviously, that didn’t continue and we faded out of a playoff position. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Those two things go hand-in-hand. In the future, [I have to] produce more consistently and be better for the team.

“With the way our team plays now, it’s not so much puck possession as it is moving the puck ahead and tracking it down. I’ve been used to playing that puck possession game my whole career, so it’s a little different, but I have to find a way to create no matter what the situation is. [I’m] looking forward to bouncing back next year.”

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