Draft Dr. Phil and Shayne “The Smartest Man” Marsaw continue the draft talk with the return of The Footwork King, Rischad Whitfield, and get his insight on who he believes is the best wide receiver in the 2021 class.
Plus, doctor Hervé Damas comes on to talk about the healing effects of marijuana and CBD for NFL and NCAA athletes, and how the controversial topic has changed over the years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the Coordination Center of the Russian Government in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, April 13, 2021. | Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
The Biden administration on Thursday announced the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats and sanctions against nearly three dozen people and companies as it moved to hold the Kremlin accountable for interference in last year’s presidential election and the hacking of federal agencies.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Thursday announced the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats and sanctions against dozens of people and companies as it moved to hold the Kremlin accountable for interference in last year’s presidential election and the hacking of federal agencies.
The sanctions also target Moscow’s ability to borrow money by prohibiting U.S. financial institutions from buying Russian bonds directly from Russian institutions.
The actions, foreshadowed for weeks by the administration, represent the first retaliatory measures announced against the Kremlin for the hack, familiarly known as the SolarWinds breach. In that intrusion, Russian hackers are believed to have infected widely used software with malicious code, enabling them to access the networks of at least nine agencies in what U.S. officials believe was an intelligence-gathering operation aimed at mining government secrets.
Besides that hack, U.S. officials last month alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations to help Donald Trump in his unsuccessful bid for reelection as president, though there’s no evidence Russia or anyone else changed votes or manipulated the outcome.
Russia swiftly denounced the actions and warned of retaliation.
The measures announced Thursday include sanctions on six Russian companies that support the country’s cyber activities, in addition to sanctions on 32 individuals and entities accused of attempting to interfere in last year’s presidential election, including by spreading disinformation. The U.S. also sanctioned eight people and entities tied to Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
The 10 diplomats being expelled include representatives of Russian intelligence services, the Biden administration said.
Other measures are expected as well, though the administration is not likely to announce them. Officials have been advising that their response to Russia would be in ways both seen and unseen.
“These actions are intended to hold Russia to account for its reckless actions. We will act firmly in response to Russian actions that cause harm to us or our allies and partners,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
But, he added, “Where possible, the United States will also seek opportunities for cooperation with Russia, with the goal of building a more stable and predictable relationship consistent with U.S. interests.”
The White House also said Biden was using diplomatic, military and intelligence channels to respond to reports that Russia encouraged the Taliban to attack U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan based on the “best assessments” of the intelligence community.
Reports of alleged “bounties” surfaced last year, with the Trump administration coming under fire for not raising the issue directly with Russia. The White House did not publicly confirm the reports. “The safety and well-being of U.S. military personnel, and that of our allies and partners, is an absolute priority of the United States,” the White House said Thursday.
After the sanctions were announced, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that “such aggressive behavior will undoubtedly trigger a resolute retaliation.”
“Washington should realize that it will have to pay a price for the degradation of the bilateral ties,” Zakharova said, adding that “the responsibility for that will fully lie with the United States.”
She said the ministry has summoned the U.S. ambassador for a “hard conversation,” but wouldn’t immediately say what action Russia will take.
The sanctions send a clear retributive message to Russia and are aimed at serving as a deterrent. But they are certain to exacerbate an already tense relationship between the U.S. and Russia.
President Joe Biden told Putin this week in their second call to “de-escalate tensions” following a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s border, and said the U.S. would “act firmly in defense of its national interests” regarding Russian intrusions and election interference.
In a television interview last month, Biden replied “I do” when asked if he thought Putin was a “killer.” He said the days of the U.S. “rolling over” to Putin were done. Putin later recalled his ambassador to the U.S. and pointed at the U.S. history of slavery and slaughtering Native Americans and the atomic bombing of Japan in World War II.
It remained unclear whether the U.S. actions would actually result in changed behavior, especially since past measures by the U.S. have failed to bring an end to Russian hacking. The Obama administration expelled diplomats from the U.S. in 2016 in response to interference in that year’s presidential election. And though Trump was often reluctant to criticize Putin, his administration also expelled diplomats in 2018 for Russia’s alleged poisoning of an ex-intelligence officer in Britain.
U.S. officials are still grappling with the aftereffects of the SolarWinds intrusion, which affected agencies including the Treasury, Justice, Energy and Homeland Security departments, and are still assessing what information may have been stolen. The breach exposed vulnerabilities in the supply chain as well as weaknesses in the federal government’s own cyber defenses.
The actions would represent the second major round of sanctions imposed by the Biden administration against Russia. Last month, the U.S. sanctioned seven mid-level and senior Russian officials, along with more than a dozen government entities, over a nearly fatal nerve-agent attack on opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his subsequent jailing.
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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Washington, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Kabul contributed.
A demonstrator reacts during a standoff with police along a perimeter fence during a protest decrying the shooting death of Daunte Wright, outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department, Wednesday, April 14, 2021, in Brooklyn Center, Minn. | AP
Former Brooklyn Center police Officer Kim Potter was charged with second-degree manslaughter in Sunday’s shooting of Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop.
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — Black community leaders and family members of Daunte Wright were calling for more serious charges against a white police officer in Wright’s death, comparing her case to the murder charge brought against a Black officer who killed a white woman in nearby Minneapolis.
Former Brooklyn Center police Officer Kim Potter was charged with second-degree manslaughter in Sunday’s shooting of Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop. The former police chief in Brooklyn Center, a majority nonwhite suburb, said Potter mistakenly fired her handgun when she meant to use her Taser. Both the chief and Potter resigned Tuesday. Potter was due for her initial court appearance Thursday.
However, protesters and Wright’s family members say there’s no excuse for the shooting and want prosecutors to file more serious charges.
“The family is glad she got charged but they do hope and pray for a day where they get equal justice,” Wright family attorney Ben Crump said Wednesday. “Why should we always get a fragment of justice?”
Advocates for Wright point to the 2017 case of Mohamed Noor. The Black former Minneapolis police officer fatally shot Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a white woman who was dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia, in the alley behind her home after she called 911 to report what she thought was a woman being assaulted.
Noor was convicted of third-degree murder in addition to second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison. Potter’s charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
Noor testified that he fired to protect his partner’s life after hearing a loud bang on the squad car and seeing a woman at his partner’s window raising her arm. But prosecutors criticized Noor for shooting without seeing a weapon or Damond’s hands, and disputed whether either of them really heard a bang.
Potter’s attorney has not spoken publicly or returned messages from The Associated Press about the shooting of Wright and the criminal case. Potter was released from the Hennepin County Jail late Wednesday on $100,000 bail.
Wright’s death came as the broader Minneapolis area nervously awaits the outcome of the trial for Derek Chauvin, one of four officers charged in George Floyd’s death. Crump pointed to that trial as having the potential to set a precedent for “police officers being held accountable and sent to prison for killing Black people.”
On her body camera video, Potter is heard yelling “Taser!” three times before she fires and then says, “Holy (expletive), I shot him.”
Potter, a 26-year veteran, was training another officer at the time of the stop.
“This was no accident,” Crump said after charges were announced. “This was an intentional, deliberate, and unlawful use of force.”
Protesters who have clashed with police since Sunday’s shooting have also drawn comparisons to the Noor case in arguing that white police officers receive preferential treatment in a system biased against Black people.
Intent isn’t a necessary component of second-degree manslaughter in Minnesota. The charge can be applied in circumstances where a person is suspected of causing a death by “culpable negligence” that creates an unreasonable risk and consciously takes chances to cause a death.
“Certain occupations carry an immense responsibility and none more so than a sworn police officer,” Imran Ali, Washington County assistant criminal division chief, said in a statement announcing the charge against Potter. “(Potter’s) action caused the unlawful killing of Mr. Wright and she must be held accountable.”
Police say Wright was pulled over for expired tags on Sunday, but they sought to arrest him after discovering he had an outstanding warrant. The warrant was for his failure to appear in court on charges that he fled from officers and possessed a gun without a permit during an encounter with Minneapolis police in June.
Body camera video shows Potter struggling with police after they say they’re going to arrest him, before Potter pulls her gun.
The criminal complaint noted that Potter holstered her handgun on the right side and her Taser on the left. To remove the Taser — which is yellow and has a black grip — Potter would have to use her left hand, the complaint said.
Experts say cases of officers mistakenly firing their gun instead of a Taser are rare, usually less than once a year nationwide.
After the charge was announced Wednesday, demonstrators clashed with police stationed behind a chain-link fence protecting the city’s police station. It was the fourth straight night of protests and unrest, with several hundred people filling the street in front of the station despite a mix of snow and rain, chanting, “Say his name! Daunte Wright!”
Within an hour before curfew, police declared the protest an unlawful assembly and ordered people to disperse, citing objects being thrown at officers and attempts to dismantle the fence — the same reason given for a similar order Tuesday.
Shortly before the dispersal order, some protesters threw objects at police, who responded with occasional gas canisters. Some officers could be seen spraying a chemical on protesters who came near the fence surrounding the heavily guarded station, and officers fired sporadic projectiles. Protesters near the fence formed a wall with umbrellas.
Brooklyn Center has seen its racial demographics shift dramatically in recent years. In 2000, more than 70% of the city was white. Today, about 45% of the roughly 31,000 residents are white, according to Census figures.
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Bauer contributed from Madison, Wisconsin. Associated Press writers Doug Glass and Mohamed Ibrahim in Minneapolis; Tim Sullivan in Brooklyn Center; Suman Naishadham in Phoenix and Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden signs the American Rescue Plan, a coronavirus relief package, on March 11, 2021. | AP Photos
That is what the federal pandemic relief bill is designed to do — cover lost revenue.
Chicago should use all of its $1.9 billion in federal pandemic relief funds to reduce the city’s debt. That is what the federal relief bill, the American Rescue Plan, is designed to do — cover lost revenue.
In an April 14 Sun-Times news report, Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) seems to be complaining when she says the $1.9 billion in federal relief “just barely covers” the $1.7 billion in city revenues lost to the pandemic.” But, in reality then, the city should have only received $1.7 billion.
Sorry, but the federal government is struggling, too. It can’t afford to fund Chicago’s universal basic income program. And since the city is more than $36 billion in debt, neither can the city of Chicago. The money should be used to pay down past debts and debt related to the pandemic. It should not be used for shiny new programs.
We cannot keep ignoring the mountain of debt crushing the city.
Courtney Houtz, West Loop
When people resist police
Not using it as an excuse for a horrible mistake, but does the Sun-Times editorial board assign any blame at all to a person who resists or fights the police, given the inherently chaotic and dangerous situation this creates? Complying with the police reduces your chances of being injured or worse by about 99.9%. I know that’s heresy to say these days — to suggest that a person being arrested shouldn’t fight. That’s why most police are just answering calls and trying not to do anything else. Good luck with summer here, with your constant emboldening of criminals.
Manny Irizarry, Norwood Park
Biden, infrastructure and climate change
President Joe Biden’s proposal to upgrade our nation’s infrastructure, the American Jobs Plan, has a strong focus on countering climate change. It aims to make our infrastructure more resilient to the impact of climate change, and it includes initiatives to reduce the emissions that cause climate change.
Biden’s plan not only would provide funding for roads, bridges and transit systems, but also for sustainable housing and buildings, electric vehicles, and research and development for clean energy technology.
A 2020 report on managing climate risk by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission validates Biden’s climate goals. This document details the threat that climate change poses to America’s energy, water, transportation and communication infrastructure. For example, it asserts that extreme precipitation, inundation from rising sea levels, extreme heat and forest fires “challenge nearly every element of transportation systems, from bridges and airports to pipelines and ports.”
The report concludes that “it is essential that the United States establish a price on carbon….In the absence of such a price…capital will continue to flow in the wrong direction, rather than toward accelerating the transition to a net-zero emissions economy.”
That’s why I’m encouraged that the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act has been introduced in the U.S. House. This bill puts a steadily rising fee on carbon dioxide emissions and returns the money to the American people.
Let’s urge our members of Congress to take action to address this critical national security threat.
As reported in the Chicago Daily News, sister publication of the Chicago Sun-Times:
After his assassination on April 15, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln came home to Illinois where a tomb was built for him in Springfield. For 11 years, Lincoln rested peacefully in Oak Ridge Cemetery, located about two miles outside of Springfield, until one night in 1876.
On Nov. 7, 1876, several thieves attempted to break in and steal Lincoln’s body, according to the U.S. Secret Service. When a gunshot startled the thieves inside the tomb, they ran off and escaped.
Eleven days after the attempted theft, the Chicago Daily News published an update.
“Jack Hughes and Torrence Mullen, two notorious characters, were arrested last night for attempted robbery, on the night of the 7th inst., of the tomb of Abraham Lincoln,” the paper reported. “Hughes is under indictment for counterfeiting in connection with the notorious Boyd, and was out on bail.”
“Mullen is a Chicago thief and counterfeiter,” the paper continued. “It is established beyond doubt that the attempt to remove Lincoln’s body was made for the purpose of securing the ransom of Boyd, the incarcerated counterfeiter.”
The paper did not publish a longer article detailing what happened, but here’s what historians know now.
Earlier that year, Chicago law enforcement locked up currency plates counterfeiter Benjamin Boyd, who worked for small-time crime boss James “Big Jim” Kennally, according to Thomas J. Craughwell, author of “Stealing Lincoln’s Body,” writing for U.S. News and World Report. Disappointed with losing one of his best counterfeiters, Kennally persuaded two associates, Hughes and Mullen, to steal Lincoln’s body and hold it for ransom to secure Boyd’s release plus $200,000.
Neither Hughes nor Mullen had grave robbing experience, so they tapped Lewis Swegles — who happened to be a Secret Service informant, Craughwell said. Swegles reported the tip to Patrick D. Tyrrell, chief of the Chicago district office of the Secret Service, and together with surviving son Robert T. Lincoln and local law enforcement, they hatched a plan.
On the night of the theft, the lawmen surrounded the tomb and waited for Swegles and the thieves to appear, which they did about two hours later, Craughwell said. As the counterfeiters attempted to remove Lincoln’s body, a shot rang out from a detective’s pistol. The shot alerted the robbers, who ran for it, and confused the lawmen, who thought the thieves had fired on them.
It took 10 days, but authorities finally apprehended the thieves in Chicago.
Back in Springfield, John Carroll Power, the custodian of the tomb, feared what would happen if real grave robbers ever targeted Lincoln’s body, Craughwell said. To protect it, Power and five friends reburied the body one night in a “shallow, unmarked grave in the tomb’s basement.”
The body remained there until 1901 when Robert T. Lincoln gave permission to exhume the body and rebury it once more in a steel cage resting in a 10-foot-deep vault and covered with concrete, Craughwell said. Lincoln’s body remains there today.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Thursday announced the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats and sanctions against nearly three dozen people and companies as it moved to hold the Kremlin accountable for interference in last year’s presidential election and the hacking of federal agencies.
The actions, foreshadowed for weeks by the administration, represent the first retaliatory measures announced against the Kremlin for the hack, familiarly known as the SolarWinds breach. In that intrusion, Russian hackers are believed to have infected widely used software with malicious code, enabling them to access the networks of at least nine agencies in what U.S. officials believe was an intelligence-gathering operation aimed at mining government secrets.
Besides that hack, U.S. officials last month alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations to help Donald Trump in his unsuccessful bid for reelection as president, though there’s no evidence Russia or anyone else changed votes or manipulated the outcome.
The measures announced Thursday include sanctions on six Russian companies that support the country’s cyber activities, in addition to sanctions on 32 individuals and entities accused of attempting to interfere in last year’s presidential election, including by spreading disinformation.
The 10 diplomats being expelled include representatives of Russian intelligence services, the White House said.
The White House also said Biden was using diplomatic, military and intelligence channels to respond to reports that Russia encouraged the Taliban to attack U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan based on the “best assessments” of the intelligence community.
Reports of alleged “bounties” surfaced last year, with the Trump administration coming under fire for not raising the issue directly with Russia. The White House did not publicly confirm the reports. “The safety and well-being of U.S. military personnel, and that of our allies and partners, is an absolute priority of the United States,” the White House said Thursday.
It was not immediately clear what, if any, other actions might be planned against Russia. Officials had previously said they expected to take actions both seen and unseen.
The sanctions, presumably intended to send a clear retributive message to Russia and to deter similar acts in the future, are certain to exacerbate an already tense relationship between the U.S. and Russia.
President Joe Biden told Putin this week in their second call to “de-escalate tensions” following a Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s border, and said the U.S. would “act firmly in defense of its national interests” regarding Russian intrusions and election interference.
In a television interview last month, Biden replied “I do” when asked if he thought Putin was a “killer.” He said the days of the U.S. “rolling over” to Putin were done. Putin later recalled his ambassador to the U.S. and pointed at the U.S. history of slavery and slaughtering Native Americans and the atomic bombing of Japan in World War II.
It remained unclear whether the U.S. actions would actually result in changed behavior, especially since past measures by the U.S. have failed to bring an end to Russian hacking. The Obama administration expelled diplomats from the U.S. in 2016 in response to interference in that year’s presidential election. And though Trump was often reluctant to criticize Putin, his administration also expelled diplomats in 2018 for Russia’s alleged poisoning of an ex-intelligence officer in Britain.
U.S. officials are still grappling with the aftereffects of the SolarWinds intrusion, which affected agencies including the Treasury, Justice, Energy and Homeland Security departments, and are still assessing what information may have been stolen. The breach exposed vulnerabilities in the supply chain as well as weaknesses in the federal government’s own cyber defenses.
The actions would represent the second major round of sanctions imposed by the Biden administration against Russia. Last month, the U.S. sanctioned seven mid-level and senior Russian officials, along with more than a dozen government entities, over a nearly fatal nerve-agent attack on opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his subsequent jailing.
Associated Press writer Zeke Miller and AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Kabul contributed.
