The sitcom star also had roles in films such as George Lucas’s American Graffiti and Francis Ford Coppola’s The ConversationCindy Williams, who played Shirley opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne on the popular sitcom Laverne & Shirley, has died, her family said on Monday.Williams died in Los Angeles at age 75 on Wednesday after a brief illness, her children, Zak and Emily Hudson, said in a statement released through family spokeswoman Liza Cranis. Continue reading...
The move to end the declarations comes as House Republicans are set to pass a resolution to demand their immediate scrappingJoe Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the twin national emergencies for addressing Covid-19 on 11 May, as most of the world has returned closer to normalcy nearly three years after they were first declared.The move to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations would formally restructure the federal coronavirus response to treat the virus as an endemic threat to public health that can be managed through agencies’ normal authorities. Continue reading...
People in underserved medical communities in states that ban abortions may be more likely to attempt self-managed abortionsTop doctors in the US warn that surgeons should be prepared to treat more patients with complications from self-managed abortions and forced pregnancy after the overturning of Roe v Wade.In a recent opinion piece published in the BMJ, 17 experts from medical centers and universities including the University of Chicago, Duke Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania urged surgeons to be prepared to treat medical consequences related to a person’s inability to access an abortion. Continue reading...
Cook county state attorney makes decision after two federal convictions that ensure singer will be locked up for decadesA Chicago prosecutor said Monday that she’s dropping sex-abuse charges against singer R Kelly, following federal convictions in two courts that ensure the disgraced R&B star will be locked up for decades.Cook county state’s attorney Kim Foxx announced the decision a day ahead of a court hearing related to state charges accusing him of sexually abusing four people, three of whom were minors. Foxx said she would ask a judge to dismiss the charges at Tuesday’s hearing. Continue reading...
Students led effort over concern for reproductive rights after supreme court struck down constitutional right to abortionA vending machine that provides emergency contraception has been installed at a Washington DC university, as colleges contend with how to protect reproductive rights on campus.Students at George Washington University successfully obtained the vending machine dispensing morning-after pills following concerns in the wake of the supreme court’s ruling last summer to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision that had ushered in the constitutional right to an abortion. Continue reading...
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg to present evidence of $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016Prosecutors are to present a grand jury with evidence about hush money payments made by Donald Trump, the former US president, to adult film actor and producer Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election campaign, it was reported on Monday.The surprise move by Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney in New York, revives a long-running investigation that appeared to be drifting and raises the threat of criminal charges, adding to Trump’s already daunting legal troubles. Continue reading...
Republican-controlled judiciary committee told that longstanding precedent prevents disclosures about active investigationsThe US justice department told top House judiciary committee Republicans on Monday that it would decline to produce confidential information about the special counsel investigation into the recent discovery of classified-marked documents at Joe Biden’s personal home and office.The department said in a letter to the committee reviewed by the Guardian that it would not provide details about the president’s documents case – or any other inquiry – because it could reveal the roadmap of the investigation and risk the appearance of political conflict. Continue reading...
Carmen Quiroga called her cafe ‘Woke’ to signal to customers ‘Wake up and have a coffee’. What could possibly go wrong?A Connecticut restaurant has been forced to defend itself in the face of conservative anger over its name: “Woke”.The owner of the newly opened restaurant, Carmen Quiroga, said she had intended to communicate “Wake up and have a coffee” when she named her business in Coventry, Connecticut. Continue reading...
British firm hopes to benefit from Joe Biden’s green energy subsidies and start production in north CarolinaThe British electric vans startup Arrival is cutting 800 jobs, about half its remaining workforce, to reduce costs as it seeks extra funding and plans US expansion to take advantage of green energy subsidies.The troubled electric vehicle maker said “approximately 50%” of the company’s 1,600-strong global workforce would leave the company. Continue reading...
Proposed use of tax credits follows pressure to respond to Biden’s $369bn green subsidy scheme in USThe EU is stepping up its green subsidy race with the US through plans to loosen state aid rules on tax credits for renewable energy projects.European policymakers have been under pressure to respond to the US president Joe Biden’s $369bn (£298bn) Inflation Reduction Act, which aims to encourage renewables investment in everything from electric cars to wind turbines. Continue reading...
Atlanta police rescued the driver of a stolen police car seconds before a train crashed into it as it lay overturned on train tracks. The patrol vehicle was stolen as police officers carried out traffic stops in the early hours of 28 January. The police air unit tracked the stolen vehicle from a helicopter before the suspect lost control and it overturned on train tracks.Officers arrived at the scene in time to rescue the suspect from the vehicle, moments before a train crashed into it. Atlanta police said the suspect was charged with several offences. He was detained in Fulton county jail
Republican governor Spencer Cox signs into law bill that denies gender-affirming care, as other states weigh similar measuresUtah’s Republican governor on Saturday signed a bill that bans young people who are transgender from receiving gender-affirming healthcare as other states consider similar legislation.The governor, Spencer Cox, who had not taken a public position on the transgender care measure, signed it a day after the state legislature sent it to his desk. Utah’s measure prohibits transgender surgery for young people and disallows hormone treatments for minors who have not yet been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Continue reading...
All of the reforms that liberals suggest will save Black lives were present in Tyre’s death. So what works?The heartbreak and anger in writing about police is that they never run out of people to kill.Right after I learned about the cop who killed Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, a protester against the multimillion-dollar police facility that the City of Atlanta is tearing down a forest to construct, I learned about Tyre Nichols. Tyre was a young, Black man who loved to skateboard and take pictures. Memphis police department cops stopped him in a vehicle on January 7. He ran – which is reasonable because cops routinely kill Black people and he wanted to live. Cops often punish people who flee, just like the cops who took Freddie Gray on a “rough ride” for running in 2015. MPD beat him and took him to the hospital. He died three days later.Derecka Purnell is a Guardian US columnist. She is also a social movement lawyer and writer based in Washington, DC. She is the author of Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom Continue reading...
The Associated Press got into hot water over saying the term was offensive. Is it?What’s wrong with the French? You’ll get a different answer depending on who you ask – but according to the Associated Press Stylebook, a lot’s wrong with the French. The stylebook, one of the most respected guides to the English language for journalists, recently tweeted that writers should avoid using “the” in phrases like “the disabled, the poor and the French” because “the” terms can be dehumanizing.Much mockery ensued. Even the French embassy in the US piled on, posting a screenshot of it “changing” its name from “French Embassy US to “Embassy of Frenchness in the US” This tweet got a lot of likes but, sorry to be pedantic, the gag didn’t actually make sense because there wasn’t ever a “the” in front of ‘French Embassy’ on its Twitter account. But what do you expect from the French, eh? They’ve always had a strange sense of humour.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Florida governor’s moves spur Trump to lash out at him during low-key events over the weekend in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Plus, Sarah Michelle Gellar makes a comeback
ReAwaken America faces criticism from religious leaders as it pushes disinformation using Christian nationalist messagesA far-right project that has helped spread Donald Trump’s false claims about voting fraud in 2020, and misinformation about Covid vaccines, is trying to expand its mission, while facing new criticism from scholars and religious leaders about its incendiary political and Christian nationalist messages.ReAwaken America, a project of Oklahoma-based entrepreneur Clay Clark, has hosted numerous revival-style political events across the US after receiving tens of thousands of dollars in initial funds in 2021 from millionaire Patrick Byrne, and become a key vehicle for pushing election denialism and falsehoods about Covid vaccines. Continue reading...
There has been some debate about the identity of the best quarterback in the NFL in recent weeks. Events on Sunday night put that question to bedIt was the most pivotal of moments. Tied game. Seventeen seconds left. The Kansas City Chiefs with a 3 and 4 on the Cincinnati Bengals’ 47 in the AFC title game. In preordained fashion, it was Patrick Mahomes who willed his injured leg to join his healthy one and gain just enough yardage to eke out a first down. And then Mahomes was hit out of bounds by Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai who, up until that gaffe, had played a tremendous game. The extra 15 yards given for the unnecessary roughness penalty was just enough for Harrison Butker to nail the 45-yard field goal and send the Chiefs to their third Super Bowl in four years and further cement Mahomes’s legend.Had this been a regular-season game, Mahomes probably would have sat it out. Or maybe not. Maybe he really is superhuman, as we have suspected for much of his career. When an actual human suffers a high ankle sprain – as Mahomes did less than 10 days ago against Jacksonville – they are typically sidelined for at least three weeks. But Mahomes is a different breed: there wasn’t a scintilla of doubt he would play against the Bengals. Continue reading...
Fellow night owls, take comfort: our sleep-wake schedule is part of our genetic makeup, not a moral failingIt’s January, the month of new year’s resolutions and other doomed efforts at self-improvement. And what better way to make more of one’s life than rising earlier to seize the day?At least that’s what the voice in my head says as I hit the snooze alarm for the 10th time at 9.30am. Then it’s time to get up, racked with guilt at my laziness, as if sleeping in were some kind of ethical lapse. Continue reading...
Actor speaks of the retraumatization she endured after some news outlets published images of the scene of mother’s death and her push to reform the state law that gave media outlets accessEven if she could do it in anonymity and privacy, the actor Ashley Judd would be struggling to recover from the suicide of her mother last year.But a couple of sensational, insensitive and – experts say – dangerous tabloid media reports containing graphic details about Naomi Judd’s death forced the Grammy-winning country musician’s daughter to “double down” on the trauma counseling work that she’s done as she has grieved, she told the Guardian in an interview Friday. Continue reading...
Largest utilities spent billions on stock buybacks, dividend payments to shareholders and executive salaries, analysis findsSome of America’s largest utilities cut power to millions of struggling customers in recent years even as they spent billions of dollars on stock buybacks, dividend payments to shareholders and executive salaries, a new analysis of industry data has found.The report also reveals that companies could use just a tiny fraction of their investor and executive spending to forgive debt at all households where power was cut. Continue reading...
Moves spur Trump into attacking Florida governor during low key events over the weekend in Iowa and New HampshireAmerica’s 2024 presidential race is showing signs of kicking into gear amid reports that Florida’s rightwing Republican governor Ron DeSantis is now laying the groundwork for a White House bid as Donald Trump finally hit the campaign trail.DeSantis’s moves even spurred Trump into attacking him directly as the former US president held relatively low key events over the weekend in the key early voting states of New Hampshire and South Carolina. Continue reading...
Attendant repeatedly dismissed Rose Wakefield as she attempted to get his service and told her, ‘I don’t serve Black people’An Oregon woman has been awarded $1m by a jury after facing racist discrimination at a gas station where the attendant told her: “I don’t serve Black people.”A jury in Multnomah county reached the decision after a four-day-trial in a case where Rose Wakefield from Portland claimed an attendant at the gas station had refused to serve her because of her race. Continue reading...
Two officers allegedly handcuffed Jose Ortega Gutierrez and took him to an ‘isolated’ location where they beat him unconsciousTwo Florida police officers are facing armed kidnapping and battery charges for allegedly assaulting a homeless man after handcuffing him without reason, and taking him to an “isolated” location where they beat him unconscious.The news has emerged as America is grappling with a reckoning over abusive policing in the US following the beating to death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee. Video of the beating of the 29-year-old Black motorist shocked the US and the world when it was released on Friday. Five officers have been charged with his murder. Continue reading...
Injuries not life-threatening after soldier fires at migrant in the shoulder as he was attempting to detain migrantA Texas national guard soldier has shot and wounded a migrant in the shoulder along the US-Mexico border.According to Texas military records reviewed by the Military Times and the Texas Tribune, the soldier fired at the migrant on 15 January as he was attempting to detain the migrant. Continue reading...
Call for release of information on all officers and an end to pre-textual traffic stops, such as pulling people over for loud musicAlong Main Street, just outside Memphis City Hall, a swarm of white and Black protesters and organizers gathered under the sprinkling rain to mark a significant victory: the city police department had just announced they would permanently disband the so-called Scorpion unit whose officers were involved in the beating death of Tyre Nichols.Still, they argued, that was just the first step in getting justice for Nichols, whose shocking death has stunned and angered much of America and reopened a debate over racism and police brutality. “We’re not done,” one organizer said through a megaphone. “We’ve got a long way to go.” Continue reading...
As a longtime fan, I’ve come to see that whatever she’s being criticized for, that’s what she’s asking us to examineI’ll never forget an interview with the singer Henry Rollins I saw years ago. He was talking about Madonna – he’s long been an outspoken fan – and he said: “When you’re sleeping, she is working.”Over the last 40 years of an amazing career, Madonna has gained a reputation as one of the hardest-working people in show business. Her intense work ethic was seen again recently when she put the cast of her now shelved biopic through a grueling “bootcamp”, which reportedly included training sessions lasting up to 11 hours a day. Continue reading...
I’m in London this month, and energy costs and inflation are hitting business owners hard. I don’t envy my UK counterpartsMy wife and I visit London a few times a year to see her family and our friends from university. We’re here again this time for the entire month of January living as Londoners, staying in a rented house, taking out the trash – sorry, rubbish – and buying our food at Waitrose. The stay has given me time to observe, talk to people and walk around, and here’s what I’ve learned: I need to stop complaining about how difficult it is to run a small business in the US. It’s much harder to run a small business in the UK. Particularly now.Imagine running a business where inflation isn’t 6.5%, as it is the US, but 10.5%. The cost of living here is pushing British consumers to buy less – so much so that, according to a recent poll, two-thirds of them are planning on cutting their spending in 2023. In a nation of shopkeepers this is not insignificant. Continue reading...
From police officers to politicians, people who are keen to occupy powerful positions should be treated with cautionAt some point near the end of the last millennium, I was shown around Rome by two Roman Catholic friends of mine. The experience was a blur of churches, statues, paintings, fountains and mouldering palazzos interspersed with large quantities of pizza so crispy that it has slightly spoiled my every subsequent encounter with the dish. As with heroin, sometimes it’s better not to know what you’re missing.It was an ecclesiastically skewed tour – the eternal city’s ancient and illustrious pagan republic barely got a look-in – but a lot of fun for someone like me who loves old stuff. I envied my friends their ability, in any given church, to identify the various saints by their telltale kit, like heroes from the Marvel universe. I swore I would develop the skill myself – it would make going around churches so much more fun – but all I seem to know now is that Saint Peter has keys and Saint Mark a lion, so I’m no closer to spotting Saint Boniface from his nunchucks or Saint Ethel from her basket of cheeses, or working out whether a stained glass window depicts the ascension, the annunciation, the transfiguration or the exfoliation.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...
Sayfullo Saipov was convicted for the 2017 New York City truck attack and now awaits a decision on whether he lives or diesOn 31 October 2017, Sayfullo Saipov went to a Home Depot in New Jersey and rented a truck. Saipov, who at the time was 29, then drove into Manhattan, traveling south on the West Side highway, as countless motorists have done without incident.But as Saipov approached Houston Street, he hit the gas, speeding onto a bike path alongside the Hudson River. He smashed into cyclists and pedestrians, killing eight people – the worst terror attack in New York since 9/11. Continue reading...
In shifting our gaze from equality, we lose sight of the most marginalised“There is no primary poverty left in this country,” Margaret Thatcher told the Catholic Herald in 1978, five months before she became prime minister. “There may be poverty because people don’t know how to budget, don’t know how to spend their earnings” but such poverty is the product not of social policy but of “personality defect”. Almost two decades later, in her 1996 Nicholas Ridley Memorial Lecture, six years after she had been pushed out of No 10 by her own MPs, she insisted again that “poverty is not material but behavioural”.In between those two speeches, during her 11 years in power, the reality of Thatcherite policies, of reducing the top rate of taxation while cutting benefits, of devastating manufacturing industry and destroying trade unions, led to a huge increase in both poverty and inequality though the 1980s. Continue reading...
From Kaia Gerber to Lily-Rose Depp, celebrity offspring are making a mockery of meritocracyWhy are we so outraged by nepo babies? This is a question of particular interest to nepotism babies themselves who, since a recent New York magazine article on the children given a leg-up by their famous parents, have been attracting a level of opprobrium they are finding both unnecessary and unfair. After all, they say, they might get a foot in the door, but then they have to work twice as hard and be twice as good or at least prove themselves equal to the task. Kaia Gerber, the model daughter of Cindy Crawford, was last week the latest to make a variation on this point, which has been repeated so many times by nepo babies down the decades that it has become a sort of proverb.Let’s first take issue with this maxim. It’s just not true. The sons and daughters of the famous are helped all the way along. The forces that propel them into their first job – members of the industry wanting to please their parents – are still present at the second and the third. No one sacks or under-promotes the child of someone very important if it can possibly be helped: why risk torpedoing your own career? Instead, thresholds are lowered, sometimes literally (Lily-Rose Depp, daughter of Johnny, is just 5ft 3in but a stupendously successful model). And far from having to work extra hard to prove themselves, nepo babies have the scope to fail upwards, repeatedly. Björk’s daughter, Ísadóra, had her big break at 17 with the film The Northman, which flopped. Yet she signed a major modelling contract just two months later. Give a nepo baby a second or third chance and earn even more gratitude from those influential parents.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...
by Joseph Contreras in Sarasota, Florida on (#68A63)
Governor’s latest shot in his war on woke is the shock appointment of rightwing trustees to progressive New CollegeNew College of Florida started making history from the day it opened its doors to its first incoming class of 101 undergraduate students in 1964. It was the first institution of higher education in Florida – which was once part of the slave-owning Confederacy – to pioneer an open admissions policy committing the school not to discriminate based on “race, creed, national origin, or cultural status”.The founding principles of the college emphasized freedom of inquiry and the eminent historian and philosopher Arnold Toynbee was lured out of retirement to join the fledgling institution’s charter faculty. New College – which became a public institution when it joined Florida’s state university system in 1975 – soon established itself as one of America’s premier liberal arts schools. Continue reading...
Naloxone, an overdose-reversing ‘miracle drug’, can let people with an opioid addiction walk away from a near-death experience within minutesThe police chief of the small Kentucky city of Vine Grove knew from heart-rending experience why he needed a vending machine outside his office.Kenneth Mattingly’s daughter was twice brought to the brink of death by heroin and twice pulled back by paramedics carrying an antidote, naloxone. Then Mattingly responded to an opioid overdose call early last year at which a woman saved a friend’s life because she was carrying a naloxone spray, often known by its brand name Narcan. Continue reading...
Speech to Republicans in New Hampshire as ex-president becomes first to hit the 2024 campaign trailDonald Trump, the former US president, tried to get his spluttering White House bid off the launchpad on Saturday, declaring himself “more angry” than ever as he became the first candidate to hit the 2024 election campaign trail.Trump swung through New Hampshire, which holds the first-in-the-nation Republican primary, and South Carolina, looking to shake off concerns about a lacklustre campaign and “Trump fatigue” among voters. Continue reading...
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