Illinois’ average statewide COVID-19 testing positivity rate fell to its lowest point in three weeks Friday as public health officials reported 3,369 new cases of the disease.
They were diagnosed among 104,795 tests, sending the positivity rate down to 3.6% and continuing an 11-day streak without any increases in that key metric, which indicates how rapidly the virus is spreading.
The Illinois Department of Public Health also reported a third straight night of decreasing COVID-19 hospitalizations, easing concerns — for now — that a third statewide spike in infections that started last month could spiral further out of control. Hospitals across the state were treating 2,112 COVID-19 patients Thursday night.
Chicago’s regional positivity rate is down to 5.1% compared to 5.7% a week ago, while the city’s daily rate has fallen by 15%.
4:15 p.m. US health panel urges restarting J&J COVID-19 vaccinations
A U.S. health panel says it’s time to resume use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, despite a very rare risk of blood clots.
Out of nearly 8 million people vaccinated before the U.S. suspended J&J’s shot, health officials uncovered 15 cases of a highly unusual kind of blood clot, three of them fatal. All were women, most younger than 50.
But advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday the vaccine’s benefits outweigh that serious but small risk — especially against a virus that’s still infecting tens of thousands of Americans every day. The government will rapidly weigh that recommendation in deciding next steps.
3 p.m. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson questions need for COVID-19 vaccinations
MADISON, Wis. — Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, questioned the need for widespread COVID-19 vaccinations, saying in a radio interview “what do you care if your neighbor has one or not?”
Johnson, who has no medical expertise or background, made the comments Thursday during an interview with conservative talk radio host Vicki McKenna. Contrary to what medical experts advise, Johnson has said he doesn’t need to be vaccinated because he had COVID-19 in the fall. On Thursday, he went further, questioning why anyone would get vaccinated or worry about why others have not.
“For the very young, I see no reason to be pushing vaccines on people.” Johnson said. “I certainly am going to vigorously resist any kind of government use or imposing of vaccine passports. … That could be a very freedom-robbing step and people need to understand these things.”
Johnson’s comments come as health officials in the U.S. and around the world urge people to get vaccinated for COVID-19 as soon as possible, saying that reaching herd immunity is the best shot at stopping the uncontrolled spread of the virus.
2:10 p.m. Payroll Protection Plan paid off for Illinois banks; see which of them got the most money
Illinois banks issued 239,000 loans under the federal Paycheck Protection Program worth $29 billion to businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic — and collected at least $1.5 billion in fees ultimately paid by taxpayers, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis finds.
Chicago-based BMO Harris Bank got the most money in fees: at least $232 million for handling 34,000 loans that totaled $6 billion that the banking company’s top executive has said contributed heavily to “a good” first quarter of 2021.
BMO Harris’s PPP loans ranged from just $133 to the maximum amount allowed under the program — $10 million.
The 360 banks with headquarters in Illinois made loans through the program to businesses in all 50 states and four U.S. territories.
Illinois ranked 10th among states for total fees and seventh for dollars provided in the loans, which did not need to be repaid as long as businesses spent all of the money to keep employees on the payroll and pay rent and utilities.
1 p.m. US drop in vaccine demand has some places turning down doses
JACKSON, Miss. — Louisiana has stopped asking the federal government for its full allotment of COVID-19 vaccine. About three-quarters of Kansas counties have turned down new shipments of the vaccine at least once over the past month. And in Mississippi, officials asked the federal government to ship vials in smaller packages so they don’t go to waste.
As the supply of coronavirus vaccine doses in the U.S. outpaces demand, some places around the country are finding there’s such little interest in the shots, they need to turn down shipments.
“It is kind of stalling. Some people just don’t want it,” said Stacey Hileman, a nurse with the health department in rural Kansas’ Decatur County, where less than a third of the county’s 2,900 residents have received at least one vaccine dose.
The dwindling demand for vaccines illustrates the challenge that the U.S. faces in trying to conquer the pandemic while at the same time dealing with the optics of tens of thousands of doses sitting on shelves when countries like India and Brazil are in the midst of full-blown medical emergencies.
12:15 p.m. N95 masks, now plentiful, should no longer be reused: FDA
The Biden administration has taken the first step toward ending an emergency exception that allowed hospitals to ration and reuse N95 medical masks, the first line of defense between frontline workers and the deadly coronavirus.
Thousands of medical providers have died in the COVID-19 pandemic, many exposed and infected while caring for patients without adequate protection.
Critical shortages of masks, gowns, swabs, and other medical supplies prompted the Trump administration to issue guidelines for providers to ration, clean, and reuse disposable equipment. Thus, throughout the pandemic, once a week many doctors and nurses were issued an N95 mask, which is normally designed to be tossed after each patient.
Now U.S. manufacturers say they have vast surpluses for sale, and hospitals say they have three to 12 month stockpiles.
11:30 a.m. Limited number of walk-in COVID-19 vaccine appointments start today at city-run clinics
The vaccine “Hunger Games” are over.
After four months of frustration for thousands of residents who scrambled to claim fleeting batches of COVID-19 vaccination appointments, Chicago finally has enough doses to provide a shot to anyone who wants one, the city’s top doctor said Thursday.
Thanks to a “softening” of vaccine demand in other parts of Illinois and growth in supply provided by the federal government, “you can get one today, no excuses,” according to Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.
10:45 a.m. Topless clubs in Las Vegas among Nevada businesses allowed to reopen under COVID protocols
LAS VEGAS — Topless dancers in Las Vegas can soon shed coronavirus restrictions along with some of their clothing and once again get face-to-face with patrons under rules accepted Thursday by a Nevada COVID-19 task force.
But masks still will be required for adult entertainment employees and will still be recommended for customers.
Strip clubs that went dark when Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered casinos, clubs and nonessential businesses closed in March 2020 will be able to open May 1 at 80% of fire code capacity under strict social distancing guidelines.
The rules will allow strip club entertainers to get closer than three feet to patrons if the entertainer has gotten at least a first coronavirus vaccination 14 days earlier, according to county rules or if the dancers test negative in a weekly COVID test.
Occupancy limits will be relaxed but not completely lifted at many other businesses — stores, spas and saunas, restaurants and bars, even karaoke clubs — under a new reopening plan adopted by Clark County officials.
9 a.m. National Spelling Bee revamps to ensure single champion in pandemic-altered competition.
WASHINGTON— The Scripps National Spelling Bee is undergoing a major overhaul to ensure it can identify a single champion, adding vocabulary questions and a lightning-round tiebreaker to this year’s pandemic-altered competition.
The 96-year-old bee has in the past included vocabulary on written tests but never in the high-stakes oral competition rounds, where one mistake eliminates a speller. The only previous tiebreaker to determine a single champion was a short-lived extra written test that never turned out to be needed.
The changes, announced this week, amount to a new direction for the bee under executive director J. Michael Durnil, who started in the job earlier this year.
Wednesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported 2,765 new cases of the coronavirus diagnosed among 81,133 tests to keep the average statewide positivity rate at 3.8%. After doubling over the course of a month, that key metric has now fallen or held steady for nine straight days.
As of this week, more than 40% of Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine and 26% are fully vaccinated. Though it wasn’t planned this way, more normal human life is returning just as the redbuds, azaleas, magnolias and tulips are performing their gorgeous annual affirmation of renewal. Fears of catastrophic depression, widespread shortages and massive civil unrest are receding.
Hundreds of thousands of American families and millions worldwide are bereaved, and nearly everyone has experienced some form of disruption, pain or trauma during the past year. But not everything changed for the worse.
A recent Pew poll found that among adults whose jobs can be conveniently performed online, 54% would like to continue working from home after the pandemic is over. Another 33% said they’d like to do so part time. If employers agree, then that could mark a dramatic change in many areas of American life — less road congestion, reduced demand for office space and reduced greenhouse gas emissions from cars and buses. That also means less income for real estate landlords, bus drivers, restaurants, dry cleaners, delivery services and other businesses that serve office workers. There will be many dislocations and adjustments.
President Joe Biden speaks to the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, from the East Room of the White House, Friday, April 23, 2021, in Washington. | AP
Friday’s closing message: Go forth and spend, making good on pledges for rapid transitions to cleaner vehicles, power grids and buildings to stave off the worst of global warming.
WASHINGTON — World leaders shared tales of climate-friendly breakthroughs — and feverish quests for more — to close President Joe Biden’s virtual global climate summit on Friday, from Kenyans abandoning kerosene lanterns for solar to Israeli start-ups straining for more efficient storage batteries.
It was an exhortational end to an unusual pandemic-era summit hosted from a specially created TV-style set in the White House East Room. Biden’s two-day gathering briefly united the heads of global rivals America, China and Russia — on screens, anyway — long enough to pledge cooperation on climate. It also saw the U.S. and a half-dozen allies commit to significant new efforts and financing to reduce climate-damaging emissions.
Friday’s closing message: Go forth and spend, making good on pledges for rapid transitions to cleaner vehicles, power grids and buildings to stave off the worst of global warming.
“The commitments we’ve made must become real,” declared Biden, who is seeking $2.3 trillion from Congress for legislation that would partly go for electric charging stations, for laying out an efficient new national electrical grid and for capping abandoned oil and gas rigs and coal mines. “Commitment without doing anything is a lot of hot air, no pun intended.”
“We’re gonna do this together,” Biden said, speaking live to a final Zoom-style screen of leaders of national governments, unions and business executives around the world.
His closing message echoed the sentiments of Kenyan President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, who told the summit: “We cannot win this fight against climate change unless we go globally to fight it together.”
Compared to the United States and other wealthy but carbon-addicted nations, Kenya stands out as a poorer country closing the technology gap despite limited financial resources. It has become a leading user and producer of geothermal and wind power. Small solar panels that charge lights and mobile phones have become cheap enough for some poor households to replace their kerosene lanterns. Opposition has stalled work on what would be its first dirtier-burning coal-fired power plant.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, described scientists at hundreds of Israeli start-ups working to improve crucial battery storage for solar, wind and other renewable energy.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark renewed her country’s pledge to end oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, switching from offshore oil and gas rigs to wind farms.
Biden convened the summit showcasing the United States’ own high-profile return to international climate efforts after President Donald Trump’s withdrawal. Biden used the summit to announce he intended to cut U.S. coal and petroleum emissions in half by 2030, nearly doubling the previous target.
Publicly, there had been no firm word up until this week that Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia would accept Biden’s summit invite, given disputes with the U.S. over nonclimate issues.
But they did, despite concerns that international isolation and domestic political conflict under Trump had weakened the United States.
“Nations still want to come to the party that the U.S. throws,” said Alice Hill, a senior fellow for energy and environment at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Xi, whose country is the world’s No. 1 climate polluter, held out the possibility in his summit speech of moving faster to slow China’s building of new coal-fired power plants.
He pledged to “strictly control coal power,” which sends a strong domestic message to Chinese provincial officials on future coal projects, said Yan Qin, a carbon analyst with the Refinitiv Carbon group.
South Korea’s announcement at the summit that it would stop funding new coal-fired power plants abroad increased pressure on China and Japan, which still do, analysts said.
Friday also featured billionaires Bill Gates and Mike Bloomberg, steelworker and electrical union leaders and executives for solar and other renewable energy.
“We can’t beat climate change without a historic amount of new investment,” said Bloomberg, who has spent heavily to promote replacing coal-fired power plants with increasingly cheaper renewable energy.
It was all in service of an argument officials say will make or break Biden’s climate vision: Pouring trillions of dollars into clean-energy technology, research and infrastructure will speed a competitive U.S. economy into the future and create jobs while saving the planet.
While technological development and wider use has helped make wind and solar power strongly competitive against coal and natural gas in the U.S., Biden said investment also would bring forward thriving, clean-energy fields “in things we haven’t even thought of so far.”
Republicans are sticking to the arguments that Trump made in pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. They point to China as the world’s worst climate polluter and say any transition to clean energy hurts American oil, natural gas and coal workers.
Biden envoy John Kerry stressed the presidential political selling point that rebuilding creaky U.S. infrastructure to run more cleanly would put the U.S. on a better economic footing long-term.
“No one is being asked for a sacrifice,” Kerry said. “This is an opportunity.”
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AP writer Matthew Daly contributed from Washington. Knickmeyer reported from Oklahoma City.
Steve McMichael at the Bears celebration of their 100th season in June 2019. | Mark Black/For the Sun-Times
One of the most dynamic players and personalities from the franchise’s golden era is in severe decline as he battles Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Legendary Bears defensive tackle Steve “Mongo” McMichael, an outsized personality who starred on the 1985 championship team, has been diagnosed with 36-month onset ALS.
He is paralyzed from the shoulders down and does not have movement in his arms or hands, according to a family spokesperson. His legs are weakening. He relies on his wife Misty to feed him and help with hygiene. He will soon need a customized wheelchair, which the Bears have paid for, the spokesperson said.
“I promise you, this epitaph that I’m going to have on me now?” McMichael told the Chicago Tribune. “This ain’t ever how I envisioned this was going to end.”
Former defensive end Dan Hampton said Friday that he’s visited his “brother for the last 40 years” two or three times per month since a doctor confirmed the ALS diagnosis in January. Two weeks ago, Hampton took fellow Hall of Famer Richard Dent with him to McMichael’s Romeoville home. Hampton said he’s been impressed by McMichael’s and wife Misty’s good humor.
“What do you say? What do you do? How do you respond?” Hampton said. “It’s like a plane crash. You don’t know what’s up. You have to start making contingency plans.
“I admire him so much. He and his wife’s attitude has been just spectacular. If something like that happens to me or most people, you become bitter. Moribund. To his credit, his attitude has been exemplary. The whole thing is like a bad dream.”
Former Bears coach Mike Ditka was still reeling from the news Friday afternoon and hadn’t had much time to process his thoughts. Nonetheless, it immediately reminded him of what a joy it was to coach McMichael.
“The way Steve conducted himself and played for the Bears in those years is a great example to all the young players,” Ditka told the Sun-Times. “He was a hard worker. He was a no-nonsense guy. He didn’t take any [garbage] from anybody, including his teammates. You had to love him. You had to love his spirit and the way he went about playing the game. He was special. He didn’t have all the talent that Richard and Dan and some of the other guys had, but he gave it everything he had all the time, and you’ve gotta love that.
“I don’t want to say that you have favorites, but I would have to say that Steve McMichael was always one of my favorites. There was no quit in the guy. He gave you what he had. Whether it was enough or not, it didn’t matter. You were going to get his best effort. And that’s what I love about him.”
Former receiver Dennis McKinnon found out about the diagnosis when he got a text from Misty two months ago. He soon went to their house, where he found McMichael to be the same zany friend — “He’s a few fries short of a Happy Meal, but who doesn’t like McDonald’s?” McKinnon said — albeit with physical limitations.
“I almost lost it — there’s so much love that I have for Steve,” McKinnon said. “To see him like that … anytime you can embrace a brother and he can’t hug you back, it’s one of the worst feelings in the world.”
McMichael, who is 63, has been married to Misty for 20 years. They have a 13-year-old daughter, Macy.
Hampton, who built a ramp at the McMichael home so his friend could spend time outside, called “Mongo” one of “a half-dozen alpha males” on the 1985 Bears’ championship team.
“To see that now he’s not in a position where he’s able to control his life, it’s a sobering gut punch,” he said.
McMichael had concerns about his health for several years, but was in good shape and spirits when he appeared at the Bears 100 convention in 2019. He quoted a line from Russell Crowe in the movie Gladiator to describe the rock-star reception he received at the event.
“‘Your name echoes through eternity,’” he quipped. “That’s some pride, isn’t it?”
McMichael, 63, played for the Bears from 1981 through ‘93 and was not only one of their best players of that era, but of all time. He was an all-pro in 1985 and ‘87 and made third-team all-pro three times.
Associated PressMcMichael (left) and William Perry (right) carry coach Mike Ditka off the field after winning the Super Bowl.
The Patriots drafted him in the third round in 1980 and — in a fortuitous moment for him and the Bears — cut him a year later. The Bears signed him and quickly installed him as a starter.
McMichael finished his Bears career with 814 tackles, 92.5 sacks and two interceptions. He is second in franchise history in sacks and third in tackles.
He played his final season in 1994 for the Packers before retiring and performing as a professional wrestler from 1995-99.
A GoFundMe page has been established to help pay the costs of McMichael’s medical care. The McMichaels are looking for a handicap-accessible van and have made a down payment on a handicap-accessible van. Obvious Shirts has created a Team Mongo T-shirt; 100 percent of the proceeds with benefit the family.
Cinespace Chicago Film Studio will add 19 soundstages to its location in the 1500 block of South Rockwell Street. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Cinespace Chicago Film Studios is the home Showtime’s “The Chi,” Comedy Central’s “South Side,” and NBC’s ‘One Chicago’ franchise.
Cinespace Chicago Film Studios, the home to several locally filmed hit TV series and movies, says it’s aiming to expand its imprint by 50% by the end of year.
The announcement, made by Cinespace this week, says it plans to add 19 soundstages to a space acquired in the 1900 block of South Rockwell Street in addition to the 42 it operates at two Little Village locations, at 2621 W. 15th Pl. and in the 3100 block of South Kedzie Avenue.
Cinespace is home to TV series and films including NBC’s “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago P.D.,” and “Chicago Med,” Showtime’s “The Chi” and Comedy Central’s “South Side.”
Adrian S. Burrows Sr./NBC“Chicago Fire,” NBC’s hit TV series, is filmed at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios.
The expansion, first reported by Crain’s Chicago Business, was prompted by the popularity of the studio site. Cinespace president Alexander S. Pissios told Crain’s he’s had to turn away projects, and aims to make the film studio one of the largest in the country east of Hollywood.
“Typically, productions need anywhere from four to six stages for each show, and each production brings about 300 new jobs with it. This means we could potentially add between 1,200–1,800 new jobs at our studios because of this expansion,” Pissios said in a written statement. “If we have more productions, we can have more interns from the area learning the business and working on shows.”
This month, Cinespace added Starz’s “Power Book IV: Force,” Amazon Prime’s “Paper Girls” and “Lightyears,” the latter featuring Sissy Spacek and Ed O’Neill (“Married With Children” and “Modern Family”), along with AMC’s “61st Street,” a series for which actor Michael B. Jordan (“Black Panther,” “Creed,” and “The Wire”) is an executive producer.
“During this pandemic, I think we all had a chance to experience how essential quality shows are to our culture and even to our mental health,” Pissios said. “Having Chicago as a critical link to providing not only quality entertainment, but also good-paying jobs in our community makes all the extra effort to help production companies keep filming worth it.”
In recent years, Cinespace was home to FX’s “Fargo,” Fox’s “The Big Leap,” HBO’s “Lovecraft Country” and the 2018 film “Widows.”
Pat and Nick talk with Jordan Lazowski from Sox on 35th and recap Cleveland and preview Texas! They also talk Madrigal’s defensive miscues is Abreu back and is this the real Rodon?
A few weeks after COVID-19 shut down the country, Chicago engineer and producer Ayo “AyoChillMannn” Makinde lost his full-time job as a youth national teams director for U.S. Soccer. In an effort to stave off depression, he dedicated all his energy to making music, and within a year it became his career.…Read More
President Joe Biden speaks to the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, from the East Room of the White House, Friday, April 23, 2021, in Washington. | AP
President Joe Biden’s closing message echoed the sentiments of Kenyan President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, who told the summit: “We cannot win this fight against climate change unless we go globally to fight it together.”
WASHINGTON — World leaders joined President Joe Biden Friday to close his virtual climate summit with stories of their own national drives to break free of climate-wrecking fossil fuels — Kenyans leapfrogging from kerosene stoves to geothermal power and Israeli start-ups scrambling to improve battery storage.
“We’re gonna do this together,” Biden exhorted, speaking live to a Zoom-style screen of leaders of national governments, unions and business executives around the world.
Biden’s closing message echoed the sentiments of Kenyan President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, who told the summit: “We cannot win this fight against climate change unless we go globally to fight it together.”
The second and final day of Biden’s summit of 40 world leaders made the case for massive investment now — in the U.S. and around the world — for prosperous as well as cleaner economies in the long run.
Compared with the United States and other wealthy but carbon-dependent nations, Kenya stands out as a poorer nation closing the technology gap despite limited financial resources. It has moved in decades from dirty-burning coal, kerosene and wood fires to become a leading user and producer of geothermal energy, wind and solar power, all aided by mobile-phone banking.
The summit’s opening on Thursday saw a half-dozen nations, including the United States, pledge specific, significant new efforts to cut emissions. Other summit speakers, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country is the world’s top climate polluter, held out the possibility of deepening their commitments, in China’s case by easing back on building of coal-fired plants.
Biden’s own pledge, nearly doubling the U.S. target for cutting emissions from coal and petroleum this decade, depends on his keeping political support from voters and securing more than $2 trillion for a nationwide infrastructure overhaul.
“The commitments we’ve made must become real,” Biden said Friday, speaking to the home audience as much as the international one. “Commitment without doing anything is a lot of hot air, no pun intended.”
He wondered aloud if there was “anything else you can think of that could create as many good jobs going into the 21st century.”
The coronavirus pandemic forced the summit into its virtual format, with a TV talk show-style set created in the White House East Room. Cabinet secretaries stepped in as emcees to keep the livestreamed action moving.
It was all in service of an argument officials say will make or break Biden’s climate vision: Pouring trillions of dollars into clean-energy technology, research and infrastructure will speed a competitive U.S. economy into the future and create jobs while saving the planet.
While technological development and wider use has helped make wind and solar power strongly competitive against coal and natural gas in the U.S., Biden said investment also would bring forward thriving, clean-energy fields “in things we haven’t even thought of so far.”
Republicans are sticking to the arguments that then-President Donald Trump made in pulling the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris climate accord. They point to China as the world’s worst climate polluter — the U.S. is No. 2 — and say any transition to clean energy hurts American oil, natural gas and coal workers.
It means “putting good-paying American jobs into the shredder,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor Thursday in a speech in which he dismissed the administration’s plans as costly and ineffective.
Much of the proposed spending to address climate change is included in Biden’s infrastructure bill, which would pay for new roads, safe bridges and reliable public transit, while boosting electric vehicles, clean drinking water and investments in clean energy such as solar and wind power.
Biden’s plan faces a steep road in the closely divided Senate, where Republicans led by McConnell have objected strongly to the idea of paying for much of it with tax increases on corporations.
The White House says administration officials will continue to reach out to Republicans and will remind them that the proposal’s ideas are widely popular with Americans of all political persuasions.
Friday also featured billionaires Bill Gates and Mike Bloomberg, steelworker and electrical union leaders and executives for solar and other renewable energy.
“We can’t beat climate change without a historic amount of new investment,” said Bloomberg, who has spent heavily to promote replacing dirty-burning coal-fired power plants with increasingly cheaper renewable energy.
Biden envoy John Kerry stressed the political selling point that the president’s call for retrofitting creaky U.S. infrastructure to run more cleanly would put the U.S. on a better economic footing long-term. “No one is being asked for a sacrifice,” Kerry said. “This is an opportunity.”
Global leaders described their own investments and commitments to break away from reliance on climate-damaging petroleum and coal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described scientists at hundreds of Israeli start-ups working to improve crucial battery storage for solar, wind and other renewable energy. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark renewed her country’s pledge to end oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, switching from offshore oil and gas rigs to wind farms.
On the summit’s opening day Thursday, Biden pledged the U.S. will cut fossil fuel emissions as much as 52% by 2030. South Korea, Japan, Canada and South Africa also joined in specific new emissions efforts timed to the summit.
Biden’s new goal puts the United States among the most ambitious nations in curbing climate change, the Rhodium Group, an independent research organization, announced overnight.
Different nations use different base years for their emission cuts so comparisons are difficult and can look different based on baseline years. The Rhodium Group said using the U.S.-preferred 2005 baseline, America is behind the United Kingdom but right with the European Union. It’s ahead of a second tier of countries including Canada, Japan, Iceland and Norway.
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Seth Borenstein contributed from Washington. Knickmeyer reported from Oklahoma City.
Loyola announced Lucas Williamson will return for another season. | Mark Humphrey/AP
The school announced Friday that Williamson will be back for another year of eligibility under relaxed NCAA rules prompted by the pandemic.
Lucas Williamson, who helped Loyola reach a Final Four as a freshman and return to the Sweet 16 as a senior this year, is returning for one more season.
Williamson and Krutwig led Loyola to 99 victories the past four seasons, the most wins over a four-year period in school history. A Chicago native, Williamson averaged 8.8 points last season and was Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
Loyola returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since a surprising Final Four run in 2018 and finished with a 26-5 record. The Ramblers were ranked 17th in the final AP poll.
Loyola also announced seniors Keith Clemons, Tate Hall and Aher Uguak will be back. All three started their careers at other schools.
In this image taken from video, Quentin Jackson, regional director for the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials, addresses protesters blocking Business U.S. 17 in Elizabeth City, N.C., on Thursday, April 22, 2021. The crowd was demanding that authorities release body camera footage showing the fatal officer-involved shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. the day before. | AP
The calls for transparency come amid signs, included emergency scanner traffic, that Andrew Brown Jr. was shot in the back and killed as he was trying to drive away.
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — Leaders of a North Carolina city where a Black man was shot and killed by deputies serving search and drug-related warrants planned Friday to vote on a resolution urging a court to release body camera video of the shooting.
The calls for transparency come amid signs, included emergency scanner traffic, that Andrew Brown Jr. was shot in the back and killed as he was trying to drive away.
Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten II has said that at least one of the deputies serving the warrants on the day of Wednesday’s shooting was wearing a body camera and that it was activated. A notice posted by the City Council in Elizabeth City said it intended to have the city attorney petition a local court to make the video public.
The council’s measure wouldn’t be binding on the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office, which is a separate entity from city government. In North Carolina, a judge must generally sign off on release of body camera footage, but the law says anyone can file a petition in court seeking its release.
The sheriff has given no timetable for release of the video, which has also been urged by protesters who have taken to the streets each night since Brown was shot.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that President Joe Biden is aware of Brown’s death, but that Biden would likely leave decisions over the timetable for releasing body camera footage to local authorities.
“Obviously, the loss of life is a tragedy and obviously we’re thinking of the family members and the community,” Psaki said at her daily briefing.
Wooten has said deputies from his department including a tactical team were attempting to serve search and drug-related warrants when he was shot, but offered few other details. Nearby Dare County had issued two arrest warrants for Brown on drug-related charges including possession with intent to sell cocaine. Brown, 42, had a criminal history dating back to the 1990s, including past drug convictions.
Recordings of scanner traffic compiled by broadcastify.com from the morning of the shooting include emergency personnel indicating that Brown was shot in the back. An eyewitness has said that deputies fired shots at Brown as he tried to drive away, and a car authorities removed from the scene appeared to have multiple bullet holes and its back windshield shattered.
“We are responding. Law enforcement on scene advises shots fired, need EMS,” says one woman, who refers to the address where the warrant was served.
“EMS has got one male 42 years of age, gunshot to the back. We do have viable pulse at this time,” said a male voice. Someone then said that first responders were performing resuscitation efforts.
The sheriff, district attorney and state medical examiner didn’t immediately respond to emails Friday asking for comment on the scanner traffic. The SBI declined to comment.
Wooten said multiple deputies involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave pending a probe by the State Bureau of Investigation. He didn’t specify how many deputies were involved.
During demonstrations Thursday night, protesters questioned why deputies opened fire in a residential area down the street from an elementary school. Brown’s car came to rest in front of a house near yellow road signs marking the approach to the school.
“That means they fired a shot in a school zone,” Quentin Jackson, regional director for the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials, said while addressing a group of fellow demonstrators.
People in the crowd nodded and shouted, “Yeah.” One man yelled, “And they fired into a moving vehicle.”
“When does this stop?” Jackson asked. “When does it stop?”
On Wednesday night, hours after the shooting, Mike Gordon, who lives in the house where Brown’s car hit a tree and came to a stop, showed a reporter a bullet hole next to his front door that went through an antique wall clock and all the way into his kitchen.
“I’m happy and thankful to the Lord that my wife and I wasn’t home,” he said.
Still, Gordon, a former military police officer, said he he’s thankful for the work law enforcement does, and he hoped people would reserve judgment until the facts come out.
“You never know what had happened or what went wrong,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter now. The young man is gone.”
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