The new goal, which also includes fully vaccinating 160 million adults by Independence Day, comes as demand for vaccines has dropped off markedly nationwide, with some states leaving more than half their vaccine doses unordered.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday set a new vaccination goal to deliver at least one dose to 70% of adult Americans by July Fourth, focusing on easing access to shots as his administration tackles the vexing problem of winning over those reluctant to get inoculated.

The new goal comes as demand for vaccines has dropped off markedly nationwide, with some states leaving more than half their vaccine doses unordered. Biden called for states to make vaccines available on a walk-in basis and will direct many pharmacies to do the same, and his administration is for the first time moving to shift doses from states with weaker demand to areas with stronger interest in the shots.

“You do need to get vaccinated,” Biden said from the White House. “Even if your chance of getting seriously ill is low, why take the risk? It could save your life or the lives of somebody you love.”

Biden’s goal, which includes delivering at least the first shot to 181 million adults and fully vaccinating 160 million, is a tacit acknowledgment of the declining interest in shots. Already more than 56% of adult Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and nearly 105 million are fully vaccinated. The U.S. is currently administering first doses at a rate of about 965,000 per day — half the rate of three weeks ago, but almost twice as fast as needed to meet Biden’s target.

“I’d like to get it 100%, but I think realistically we can get to that place between now and July Fourth,” Biden said.

He said the administration would focus on three areas as it tries to ramp up the pace of vaccinations: adults who need more convincing to take the vaccine, those who have struggled to obtain a shot and, once the FDA gives approval, adolescents aged 12-15. Acknowledging that “the pace of vaccination is slowing,” Biden acknowledged that the inoculation effort was “going to be harder” when it comes to convincing “doubters” of the need to get the shot.

He said the most effective argument to those people would be to protect those they love. “This is your choice: It’s life and death.”

Biden’s push comes as his administration has shifted away from setting a target for the U.S. to reach “herd immunity,” instead focusing on delivering as many shots into arms as possible. Officials said Biden’s vaccination target would result in a significant reduction in COVID-19 cases heading into the summer.

To that end, the Biden administration is shifting the government’s focus toward expanding smaller and mobile vaccination clinics to deliver doses to harder-to-reach communities. It is also spending hundreds of millions of dollars to try to boost interest in vaccines through education campaigns and access to shots through community organizations that can help bring people to clinics.

Biden touted grocery stores giving discounts to shoppers who come to get vaccinated and said that getting the inoculations could be “easier and more fun” when sports leagues hold promotions to gets shots for their fans.

Ahead of the Food and Drug Administration’s expected authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for adolescents aged 12-15 by early next week, the White House is also developing plans to speed vaccinations to that age group. Biden urged states to administer at least one dose to those in that age group by July Fourth and work to deliver doses to pediatricians’ offices and other trusted locations, with the aim of getting as many of them fully vaccinated by the start of the next school year.

While younger people are at dramatically lower risk of serious complications from COVID-19, they have made up a larger share of new virus cases as a majority of U.S. adults have been at least partially vaccinated and as higher-risk activities like indoor dining and contact sports have resumed in most of the country. Officials hope that extending vaccinations to teens — who would be eligible to get the first dose in one location and the second elsewhere — will further accelerate the nation’s reduced virus caseload and allow schools to reopen with minimal disruptions this fall.

The urgency to expand the pool of those getting the shots is rooted in hopes of stamping out the development of new variants that could emerge from unchecked outbreaks and helping the country further reopen by the symbolic moment of Independence Day, exactly two months away. Though White House officials privately acknowledge the steep challenge, Biden sounded an optimistic note.

“The light at the end of the tunnel is actually growing brighter and brighter,” Biden said.

Biden’s speech comes as the White House announced a shift away from a strict by-population allocation of vaccines. The administration says that when states decline the vaccine they have been allocated, that surplus will shift to states still awaiting doses to meet demand. Those states would have the shots available whenever demand for vaccines in their states increases — a key priority of the Biden administration.

Governors were informed of the change by the White House Tuesday morning. The Washington Post first reported on the new allocation.

This week, Iowa turned down nearly three quarters of the vaccine doses available to the state for next week from the federal government because demand for the shots remains weak.

The White House previously resisted efforts to shift vaccine by metrics other than population, with Biden rebuffing Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last month when she requested more doses as her state was experiencing a surge in virus cases. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the time nearly all states were ordering at or near their population allocations, which is no longer the case.

Individual states have made similar shifts internally to account for changing demand. Last week, Washington state changed the way it allocates coronavirus vaccine to its counties. Previously the state doled out supplies to counties proportionate to their populations. But Gov. Jay Inslee said Thursday that the amounts now will be based on requests from health care providers.

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An elevated section of the Mexico City metro collapsed and sent the train plunging toward a busy boulevard late Monday, killing at least 23 people and injuring at least 79, city officials said. 

MEXICO CITY — The death toll from the collapse of an overpass on the Mexico City metro rose to 24 Tuesday as crews untangled train carriages from the steel and concrete wreckage that fell onto a roadway.

Monday night’s accident was one of the deadliest in the history of the subway, and questions quickly arose about the structural integrity of the mass transit system, among the world’s busiest.

Another 27 people remained hospitalized of the more than 70 injured when the support beams collapsed about 10:30 p.m. as a train passed along the elevated section, said Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.

On Tuesday, a crane carefully lowered a train car containing four bodies to the ground.

Of the 24 killed, 21 died at the scene, while the others died at hospitals. Only five have been identified so far. Children were among the fatalities, Sheinbaum said.

Initial analysis pointed to a “presumed structural failure,” Sheinbaum said, promising a thorough and independent inquiry. She added that a Norwegian firm had been hired to investigate.

“I did not have any report nor alert of any problem that could have led us to this situation,” she said.

The overpass was about 5 meters above the road in the borough of Tlahuac, but the train ran above a concrete median strip, which apparently lessened the casualties among motorists.

Abelardo Sánchez, a 38-year-old cook, was just closing up his sandwich shop beside the metro line when he said the ground shook, a tremendous noise echoed, lights flickered and the air filled with dust and the smell of burning wires.

Stunned, Sánchez didn’t initially react. “Then a guy in a white shirt with blood on his arms, his hands and chest came out and another guy came to help him here on the sidewalk, and he was there trembling,” he said.

The Mexico City Metro — which is among the world’s cheapest with tickets costing about 25 cents —has had at least three serious accidents since its inauguration half a century ago. In March 2020, a collision between two trains at the Tacubaya station left one passenger dead and injured 41. In 2015, a train that did not stop on time crashed into another at the Oceania station, injuring 12. In October 1975, at least 26 people were killed in another accident.

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake in 2017 exposed dangerous construction defects in the elevated line near where Monday’s accident occurred. Authorities at the time had done patchwork repairs on the columns and horizontal beams.

Julio Yañez, a 67-year-old lawyer whose apartment overlooks the collapsed metro line, was working at his computer when he heard a loud noise and felt his building shake. He saw a cloud of dust and falling debris followed by an eerie silence until emergency vehicles began arriving. Helicopters landed at a nearby Walmart to ferry the injured to hospitals.

The scene shook him because he had exited the metro at that same station earlier in the day.

“That part there was already declared bad … in the earthquake, and the authorities didn’t pay attention,” Yañez said, noting similar problems were reported at another nearby station, but nothing was done. “They are time bombs.”

The collapse occurred on Line 12, the subway’s newest, that stretches to the city’s south side. Like many of the dozen subway lines, it runs underground through more central areas of the city of 9 million but is on elevated concrete structures on the outskirts.

A report issued by the subway system including photos in 2017 showed that the base of one vertical column supporting the tracks had cracked and shed layers of concrete because not enough steel rebar stirrups had been used when it was built around 2010. In 2017, authorities patched and widened the column by injecting resins, swathing it in carbon fiber, building a jacket of additional rebar around the base and pouring concrete around the collar.

Authorities also found that one of the horizontal beams had come loose from its support at the top of a vertical column and was sagging — the kind of failure that could have contributed to Monday’s collapse. Authorities at the time welded steel diagonal braces to the bottom of the beam, chipped out and repoured fractured concrete elements.

Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard called the collapse “the most terrible accident we have ever had in mass transportation.” Ebrard was Mexico City’s mayor from 2006 to 2012, when the affected line was built.

Allegations of poor design and construction on the subway line emerged soon after the Ebrard left office as mayor. The line had to be partly closed in 2013 so tracks could be repaired.

Ebrard, who leads Mexico’s efforts to obtain coronavirus vaccines, has been considered a potential presidential candidate in 2024.

“Of course, the causes should be investigated and those responsible should be identified,” he wrote. “I repeat that I am entirely at the disposition of authorities to contribute in whatever way is necessary.”

On Monday night, hundreds of police officers and firefighters cordoned off the scene as desperate friends and relatives of people believed to be on the train gathered. Despite the fact that the coronavirus situation remains serious in Mexico City, they crowded together waiting for news.

Adrián Loa Martínez, 46, said his mother called him to tell him that his half brother and sister-in-law were driving when the overpass collapsed and that a beam fell onto their car.

He said that his sister-in-law was sent to a hospital, but that his half brother José Juan Galindo was crushed and he feared he was dead. “He is down there now,” he told journalists, pointing to the site.

The line was closed Tuesday and hundreds of buses were called in. Thousands in surrounding neighborhoods lined up before dawn to catch the buses for work.

__

Associated Press writers E. Eduardo Castillo, Mark Stevenson and María Verza contributed.

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Donald Trump incited a riot in order to overturn an election he lost. He’s responsible for hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 deaths, as well.

Trump was never popular. He never came close to winning the popular vote in 2016 or 2020. But if voter suppression laws recently passed by Republican state legislatures stand, he could become even more unpopular and still capture the presidency again.

The Republicans’ motivations are clear. They believe that if you won’t vote for them, you shouldn’t vote at all. They are threatened by the multi-racial majority in this country. When they suppress the votes of my Black and Brown sisters and brothers, they harm us all. We can’t let that happen.

Saving our democracy is much easier than people think. But our senators must hear from us.

Step 1: Get rid of the filibuster

Step 2: Pass the voting rights legislation known as the For the People Act.

All it will take is 50 votes in the Senate to get it done. Call Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen. Tammy Duckworth. Demand that they stand up for people of color and our democracy.

Neal Waltmire, Berwyn

SEND LETTERS TO: [email protected]. Please include your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be approximately 350 words or less.

FOID no threat to gun ownership

Firearm Owner’s Identification cards — popularly called FOID cards — do not prevent any law-abiding citizen from owning a firearm. The ID acts only as a barrier to people who should not own a firearm from owning one. And the card’s $10 fee impedes firearm ownership no more than the price of a gun charged by a firearms dealer.

Yet the Illinois Supreme Court is now being asked to decide whether FOID cards are a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The Second Amendment was penned in the 18th century. No one can seriously argue that the Founding Fathers were so wise they could predict the advances that would be made in the science of firearms more than 200 years into the future. The Second Amendment needs an update, not revocation.

Warren Rodgers, Jr., Matteson

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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is setting a new vaccination goal to deliver at least one dose to 70% of adult Americans by July 4, the White House said Tuesday, as the administration pushes to make it easier for people to get shots and to bring the country closer to normalcy.

The new goal, which also includes fully vaccinating 160 million adults by Independence Day, comes as demand for vaccines has dropped off markedly nationwide, with some states leaving more than half their vaccine doses unordered. Biden will call for states to make vaccines available on a walk-in basis and will direct many pharmacies to do the same, and his administration is for the first time moving to shift doses from states with weaker demand to areas with stronger interest in the shots.

Biden’s goal is a tacit acknowledgment of the declining interest in shots. Already more than 56% of adult Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and nearly 105 million are fully vaccinated. The U.S. is currently administering first doses at a rate of about 965,000 per day — half the rate of three weeks ago, but almost twice as fast as needed to meet Biden’s target.

Senior administration officials previewed the announcement Tuesday before Biden’s planned speech from the White House. It comes as the Biden administration has shifted away from setting a target for the U.S. to reach ‘herd immunity,’ but instead focusing on delivering as many shots into arms as possible. Officials said that Biden’s vaccination target would result in significant reduction in COVID-19 cases heading into the summer.

To that end, the Biden administration is shifting the government’s focus toward expanding smaller and mobile vaccination clinics to deliver doses to harder-to-reach communities. It is also deploying hundreds of millions of dollars to try to boost interest in vaccines through education campaigns and access to shots through community organizations that can help bring people to clinics.

Ahead of the Food and Drug Administration’s expected authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for adolescents aged 12-15 by early next week, the White House is also developing plans to speed vaccinations to that age group. Biden, the White House said, would “challenge” states to administer at least one dose to that age group by July Fourth and work to deliver doses to pediatricians’ offices and other trusted locations, with the aim of getting as many of them fully vaccinated by the start of the next school year.

While younger people are at dramatically lower risk of serious complications from COVID-19, they have made up a larger share of new virus cases as a majority of U.S. adults have been at least partially vaccinated and as higher-risk activities like indoor dining and contact sports have resumed in most of the country. Officials hope that extending vaccinations to teens will further accelerate the nation’s reduced virus caseload and allow schools to reopen with minimal disruptions this fall.

Biden’s speech comes as the White House announced a shift away from a strict by-population allocation of vaccines. The administration says that when states decline the vaccine they have been allocated, that surplus will shift to states still awaiting doses to meet demand. Those states would have the shots available whenever demand for vaccines in their states increases — a key priority of the Biden administration.

Governors were informed of the change by the White House Tuesday morning. The Washington Post first reported on the new allocation.

This week, Iowa turned down nearly three quarters of the vaccine doses available to the state for next week from the federal government because demand for the shots remains weak.

The White House previously resisted efforts to shift vaccine by metrics other than population, with Biden rebuffing Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last month when she requested more doses as her state was experiencing a surge in virus cases. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the time nearly all states were ordering at or near their population allocations, which is no longer the case.

Individual states have made similar shifts internally to account for changing demand. Last week, Washington state changed the way it allocates coronavirus vaccine to its counties. Previously the state doled out supplies to counties proportionate to their populations. But Gov. Jay Inslee said Thursday that the amounts now will be based on requests from health care providers.

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PORTLAND, Ore. — Brianne Smith was overjoyed to get an e-mail telling her to schedule a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Hours later, her relief was replaced by dread: a phone alert — another mass public shooting.

Before the pandemic, she would scan for the nearest exit in public places and routinely practiced active shooter drills at the company where she works. But after a year at home in the pandemic, those anxieties had faded. Until now.

“I haven’t been living in fear with COVID because I’m able to make educated decisions to keep myself safe,” says Smith, 21, who lives in St. Louis, Missouri. “But there’s no way I can make an educated decision about what to do to avoid a mass shooting. I’ve been at home for a year and I’m not as practiced at coping with that fear as I used to be.”

After a year of pandemic lockdowns, public mass shootings are back. For many, the fear of contracting an invisible virus is suddenly compounded by the forgotten yet more familiar fear of getting caught in a random act of violence.

A database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University that tracks mass killings — defined as four or more dead, not including the shooter — showed just two public mass shootings in 2020. Since Jan. 1, there have been at least 11.

Yet while mass shootings dropped out of the headlines, the guns never went away. Instead, even as the U.S. inches toward a post-pandemic future, guns and gun violence feel more embedded in the American psyche than ever before. The fear and isolation of the past year have worked their way into every aspect of the U.S. conversation on firearms, from gun ownership to inner-city violence to the erosion of faith in common institutions meant to keep us safe.

MORE GUN OWNERS, AND DIFFERENT

More than 21 million people completed a background check to buy a gun last year, shattering all previous records, and a survey found that 40% identified as new gun owners — many of whom belong to demographics not normally associated with firearms, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearm industry trade association. Purchases of guns by Black Americans increased 58% over 2019 and sales to Hispanics went up 46%, the group says.

Gun advocates tie this increase to pandemic anxiety and a loss of faith in the ability of police officers and government institutions at all levels to keep the public safe amid what at first was a little-understood, invisible menace. The eruption of sustained racial injustice protests after the police killing of George Floyd and calls to reduce police funding also contributed to more interest in firearms.

One of those buyers was Charles Blain, a 31-year-old Black man in Houston who purchased a Glock 43 handgun and a shotgun for the first time last year. Blain, who describes himself as a conservative, says “pandemic-related unemployment crime” and repeated calls over the past year to release hundreds of jail inmates because of soaring COVID-19 infections pushed him to buy.

“I was always gun-friendly, but never really felt the need to own one myself,” says Blain, who founded Urban Reform, which helps underserved communities get involved in policy decisions that impact them.

The dramatic rise in firearms ownership represents a “tectonic shift in the conversation on guns,” says Mark Oliva, the foundation’s director of public affairs.

“For these people, gun ownership and gun control was until now a rhetorical debate. It was something you could discuss at a cocktail hour, but they had no skin the game — and then they bought guns,” he says.

“It’s hard to put today’s gun owner into a box,” Oliva added.

Gun rights advocates feel good about what this could mean for gun policy, with a broader swath of society seeing themselves when they hear about gun control efforts.

At the same time, gun-related homicides in midsized and big cities in America have skyrocketed during coronavirus, and criminologists believe the pandemic and the socioeconomic loss in many communities are factors driving that trend.

A study by the Council on Criminal Justice tracked a 30% increase in homicides overall in a sample of 34 U.S. cities in 2020 as well as an 8% increase in gun assaults.

“We’ve been trying to sound the alarm, but the No. 1 priority is COVID because nothing happens until COVID is fixed,” says Alex Piquero, a criminologist and professor at the University of Miami who serves on a COVID-19 commission for the Council on Criminal Justice. “This is the long-term symptom of the disease and … the long-term mental health effects of this are going to be staggering.”

Portland, Oregon, a city of just over 650,000 people, is a stark example.

It set a 26-year record last year for homicides. This year, the city had tallied more than 340 shootings by late April — an average of about three a day — and was on track to blow past last year’s homicide record. The shootings are mostly impacting the city’s historically Black neighborhoods and lower-income areas where coronavirus has taken a heavy toll.

In one instance, a Black pastor involved in a coalition to address the violence had to hurry off a Zoom meeting about the crisis because gunfire erupted nearby. In March, a 14-year-old boy was seriously wounded by gunfire while he stood with friends near a soccer field.

“It’s the way that we all feel as people who have careers and homes and jobs and how emotionally unstable we’ve felt over this past year. Now imagine all that in people who are in hopeless situations,” says Sam Thompson, a Black resident who started a neighborhood group last summer to try to find solutions.

MORE POLITICS THAN EVER

When it comes to the gun control debate, Americans seem “more entrenched than ever,” and those divisions are playing out in state legislatures around the nation, says David Kopel, a law professor at the University of Denver and research director at the Independence Institute, a Libertarian think tank in Colorado that favors gun rights.

After a year of isolation, loss and stress, the nation is akin to a patient in an acute mental health crisis — and there is a growing chasm of opinion on whether guns are part of the remedy, or a symptom of the disease.

In conservative America, mask mandates and economic shutdowns have been lumped together with gun control legislation as examples of vast government overreach. Liberal legislatures, meanwhile, have moved to lessen gun access and tighten rules to prevent more mass shootings as a more heavily armed nation opens up.

“When you’re getting told, ‘Look, the cops just can’t be there because they’ve all got COVID’ or, depending on the state, you may not be able to buy a gun because the licensing departments are getting overwhelmed — all those things came into play,” Kopel says. “You now have state (gun) laws that are directly pandemic-related.”

In North Carolina, for example, lawmakers are considering a bill to remove a century-old requirement for a local sheriff’s permit to buy a pistol, a policy that came under scrutiny when one sheriff briefly stopped handling the paperwork because of COVID-19. In other conservative states, lawmakers have passed or are debating pandemic-inspired laws that do everything from strengthen a ban on using the government’s emergency powers to confiscate firearms to allowing gun owners to carry a concealed firearm without a permit.

In Oregon, armed protesters angry that the state Capitol was closed to the public due to COVID-19 tried to storm the building late last year in a foreshadowing of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In response, Democrats are using their supermajority to advance a bill that would mandate safe storage for firearms and make it illegal to bring a gun into the state Capitol.

In Colorado, a gun storage bill was recently signed into law and in Massachusetts, lawmakers are considering a ban on the manufacture of assault weapons in that state — a bill introduced after the recent spate of mass shootings.

If recent months are any indication, for years to come the debate about guns will hold the echoes of our shared pandemic trauma and the seismic shifts it brought to our notions of safety, freedom and well-being.

Yet in one area, some see the potential to reduce the polarization around guns: the increasing focus of public health in the national conversation. The idea that gun violence is a public health threat — just like the coronavirus and the pandemic it caused — could transform the way Americans talk about guns.

“How can we learn to live with the guns, whereas right now we’re dying with them?” says David Hemenway, a professor of health policy at Harvard University. “The public health approach in a one-sentence description is, ‘Let’s make it really easy to be healthy and really difficult to get sick and injured.’ We have to agree we have a big problem and it’s a societal problem. Then, there are so many things we can talk about.”

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Follow Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus.

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NEW YORK — Legend: Genghis Khan came up with an early concept for hamburgers that involved tenderizing meat scraps under the saddles of horses as his Golden Horde ransacked its way to China back in the 13th century.

Fact: Nobody knows for sure who first came up with putting beef patties between bread.

Such bite-size anecdotes are among the truths and folklore included in “There’s No Ham in Hamburgers,” a new book that serves up the history, science and geography behind a myriad of foods beloved by kids. Burgers and fries are represented, along with chocolate, peanut butter, chicken, ice cream and all that sugary cereal so many parents love to hate.

A history buff and promoter of reading for pleasure in schools, author Kim Zachman in Roswell, Georgia, wrote the playful, informative food dive for youngsters ages 8 to 12.

AP

“I wanted to write history for kids and I wanted it to be really fun,” she told The Associated Press. “I was trying to think of ideas and I was out walking my dog one day, and I was like, why is there no ham in hamburgers? I’d always kind of wondered that. That’s when I found so many great origin stories.”

Some, she said, are untrue or unprovable. She also collected facts on nutrition and health, and included simple recipes and a single science experiment on how to extract iron from fortified cold cereal. The latter involves pummeling cereal into dust and then hovering a powerful magnet above the mess.

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Zachman, mom to two daughters in college, doesn’t shy away from murky origins or multiple claims to innovations in her book, published by Running Press Kids. Nobody knows, for instance, the meaning behind the name Oreo, but one thing’s for sure: The Nabisco treats were a copy cat of the Hydrox sandwich cookie, which hit the market four years prior, in 1908.

“It was surprising to me how little we actually know about the origins of some of these foods,” she said. “We really don’t know for sure who made the first hamburger. Several people claim to have done it.”

In the 1500s, German sailors on trade ships crossing the Baltic Sea discovered raw meat patties in Russia. Back home, they tweaked the idea, frying the beef patties with sauteed onions. Sailors from other countries came ashore in Hamburg, the country’s most important port city at the time, and discovered “Hamburg steak.” In the 1800s, millions of Germans made their way to America and brought the Hamburg steak idea along for the ride.

Among those claiming to have invented the modern burger: “Hamburger Charlie” Nagreen, who in 1885, at age 15, was selling meatballs at the Outagamie County Fair in Seymour, Wisconsin. To make them easier to carry, he smashed them between two slices of bread and called it a “hamburger.” It was a hit.

“I thought it was interesting for kids to know that some things don’t just happen. That’s how the human species evolves. It’s not just one person who thinks of fire. It happens all over the place,” Zachman said.

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A big takeaway for Zachman was exactly how long and laborious a process it is to produce vanilla, the second most expensive spice behind saffron. The journey often starts on vanilla bean plantations in Madagascar, the world’s leading producer, and might end five years later in a pint of ice cream in America.

It takes four years for a young vanilla plant to produce a flower, and the flower lasts for just one day. Workers must pollinate and harvest by hand to produce the long pods, and pods are cured through an intricate process that takes six months.

“That blew my mind,” Zachman said.

The persnickety cacao tree was another mind blower. The tropical trees, from which chocolate hails, can’t handle direct sunlight, need rain year round, and take three to four years to produce blossoms that can only be pollinated by tiny flies called midges. Out of 1,000 flowers, just three or four will be pollinated and grow into seed pods, which take about six months to ripen. Chocolate is possible after seeds are fermented in a warm dark place, dried in the sun and roasted.

Who figured all that out? Ancient civilizations in Central America more than 3,000 years ago. Cacao seeds were so valuable that the Aztecs used them as money.

Zachman doesn’t ignore some of the big personalities behind popular kid foods, such as the brawling Kellogg brothers of Battle Creek, Michigan. Younger sibling Will Keith added sugar to their wheat (later corn) flakes to make them last longer and taste better. Older brother John Harvey, a doctor, health nut and devout Seventh-Day Adventist, was furious, and the two ended their 25-year partnership bitterly in 1906, exchanging lawsuits for years after that.

AP

The popularity of cold cereal coincided with the mass pasteurization of milk. In the beginning, many cereals were fortified with vitamins to battle rickets and other health issues for kids. Zachman is conflicted about the mass of sugar cereal became.

“I was telling my mom about this and she goes, `Yeah it didn’t have a lot of sugar in it so we would always just sprinkle sugar on it,'” the 58-year-old Zachman laughed. “It’s later as the competition got worse and they started advertising to kids that the sugar got higher and higher.”

Processed chicken nuggets — boneless, breaded and deep-fried — have only been around commercially for about 40 years, Zachman found. The trick, she said, was figuring out how to get the batter to stick throughout the freezing and frying.

One Robert Baker came up with the Chicken Crispie in 1959 at his Cornell University lab. But it was Fred Turner, chairman of the McDonald’s Corp. board in 1979, who got things rolling in a big way when he assembled the Chicken McNugget SWAT team after the U.S. government warned Americans to stop eating so much beef. In 1980, the McNugget was market-tested at 15 McDonald’s locations in Knoxville, Tennessee. Like Hamburger Charlie’s squashed meatballs, they, too, were a hit.

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Zachman, taking into consideration the impressionable age of her readers, notes that deep-fried chicken nuggets can be high in cholesterol and saturated fats, and urges moderation. She offers similar health warnings for other foods, while also pointing out health benefits.

“I had a blast doing the research,” Zachman said. “I hope it sparks kids to go out and learn more about other things in their everyday lives.”

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Just before he left office, Donald Trump freed more than a dozen federal prisoners who had received sentences ranging from 15 years to life for growing, transporting or distributing marijuana.

Yet President Joe Biden, who during his campaign said “anyone who has a [marijuana] record should be let out of jail” and promised to “broadly use his clemency power for certain non-violent and drug crimes,” is suddenly reticent about following Trump’s example.

While Biden has come a long way since his days as an ardent drug warrior who bragged about the draconian sentences he helped enact, he still has not caught up with most Americans on marijuana policy. According to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 69% of Americans, including 78% of Democrats and 62% of Republicans, support legalization.

Biden — unlike most of the Democrats he beat for his party’s 2020 presidential nomination, including his vice president — opposes repealing the federal marijuana ban, a position that puts him in the minority even within his age group. Instead he wants to decriminalize low-level possession, an idea that was at the cutting edge of marijuana reform in the 1970s.

Since the Justice Department rarely prosecutes marijuana users, Biden’s proposal would have little impact at the federal level. And it would do nothing to address the untenable conflict between the Controlled Substances Act and the laws that allow medical or recreational use of marijuana in 36 states.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) plans to reintroduce a legalization bill that was approved by the House of Representatives in December but was never considered by the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says his chamber likewise will soon consider legislation that would “end the federal prohibition on marijuana.”

When New York Post reporter Steven Nelson asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki during a press briefing last month whether Biden would sign such a bill, she reiterated his support for reclassifying marijuana “so researchers can study its positive and negative impacts,” for allowing medical use, for letting states legalize recreational use and for “decriminalizing marijuana use and automatically expunging any prior criminal records.” Pressed to explicitly say whether Biden would sign a legalization bill, Psaki replied, “I just have outlined what his position is, which isn’t the same as what the House and Senate have proposed.”

Unlike legalization, freeing marijuana prisoners would not require an act of Congress, and it is consistent with what Biden said on the campaign trail. His promises created a reasonable expectation that he would show mercy for marijuana offenders who continue to languish in federal prison, such as Ismael Lira and Pedro Moreno, who are serving life sentences for distributing cannabis from Mexico.

As Corvain Cooper, one of the marijuana lifers freed by Trump, told Nelson, “No one should be serving a long prison sentence over marijuana when states and big corporations are making billions of dollars off of this plant.” Yet when Nelson asked Psaki about clemency, she irrelevantly cited Biden’s support for moving marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act to Schedule II.

Nelson tried again the next day, noting that Biden bears personal responsibility for the lengthy sentences imposed on people for peaceful activities that are now legal in most states, including at least 17 that already or soon will allow recreational sales. “Will President Biden honor his commitment to release everyone imprisoned for marijuana?” he asked.

Psaki did not deny that Biden had made that promise. But she brought up “rescheduling” again and claimed she did not know the answer because it depends on arcane legal knowledge.

“What you’re asking me is a legal question,” Psaki said. “I’d point you to the Department of Justice.”

The “legal question” is not complicated. Biden’s commitment to “broadly use his clemency power” has nothing to do with rescheduling marijuana, and he could begin delivering on it today if he were so inclined. Psaki’s obfuscation suggests it is not a high priority.

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine.

Send letters to [email protected].

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Cinco de Mayo is right around the corner! And the perfect way to celebrate is with a bomba$$ Cinco de Mayo margarita. So, grab your amigos and mask up (pandemic is still a thing) and head to one of these amazing Chicago restaurants & bars for some top-shelf tequila. Salud! 

740 West Randolph Street, Chicago, IL 60661

This award-winning, upscale-casual Mexican restaurant combines authentic flavors in a modern, yet cozy atmosphere in Chicago’s West Loop. Take advantage of the beautiful May weather with one of their signature margaritas on the rooftop or sidewalk cafe. Pro-tip: get there for happy hour to fill up on tacos or tostadas for $9 each. Make a reservation here.

180 N Morgan St., Chicago, IL 60607

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Federales! Come for the delicious tacos and stay for the lively atmosphere and cold drinks. They’ll be serving $5 Corona drafts and cans as well as $13 Casamigos Blanco Classic Margaritas in a souvenir mason jar. Doors open at 12pm, make reservations here. 

2800 W Logan Blvd, Chicago, IL 60647

MI Tocaya Antojería is known for having some of the best food in Logan Square but their margaritas may be the true show stopper. This laid-back joint titled “my namesake” boasts a dynamite traditional margarita in addition to house favorites the El Jefe de Jefes and El Grito.

201 N Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60607

For over 5 years, Bar Takito has been fascinating palettes with it’s bright atmosphere and incredible food. Stop in to sip on their several margaritas: strawberry, coconut, mango, watermelon, grapefruit, cucumber, and more. The hardest part will be choosing! 

900 West Randolph Street, Chicago, IL 60607

Leña Brava translates to ”ferocious firewood” and draws inspiration from the multicultural elements of Baja California Norte in Mexico. All dishes are cooked on an open hearth and wood-burning oven. Pair your meal with a bubbly champagne margarita or smoky mezcal margarita for the best Cinco ever! Make your reservations here.

Cinco de Mayo margarita Featured Image Credit: Federales on Facebook

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Release Radar 04/30/21 – Counting Crows vs Teenage Fanclub

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By radstarr,
today at 12:20 pm

It’s starting to feel like summer in the Chi, and the Counting Crows return just in time for the warm weather!

Has it really been seven years since we’ve heard new music from Adam Duritz and company? Their new single is “Elevator Boots,” and it’s classic Counting Crows.” On May 21 they will release a four-song EP called, BUTTER MIRACLE, SUITE ONE, and they might even tour behind it. This is great news!

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Today is the day that Teenage Fanclub releases their eleventh full-length album, “Endless Arcade.” It’s the first one without bass player Gerard Way, and they are missing his energy.

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The boys from Felt return with “Heavy D,” an island jam with dancehall singer Collie Buddz. Does this mean they are recording a new album? Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

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COIN drops another mellow jam on us, as they’ve perfected their own version of chillwave. Really though, they do some fun stuff, and I’ve been writing about them for over a year now, so check them out.

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Your Jazz Cut Of The Week is a silky one called “Letter To Paul,” by John Patitucci, and a gang of jazz all-stars. Sit back, let this one rip, and dig those horns.

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Counting Crows, John Patitucci, New Music Friday, Release Radar, Spotify, Teenage Fanclub

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