AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT
Health officials are quitting or getting fired amid outbreak
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Vilified, threatened with violence and in some cases suffering from burnout, dozens of state and local public health officials around the U.S. have resigned or have been fired amid the coronavirus outbreak, a testament to how politically combustible masks, lockdowns and infection data have become.
One of the latest departures came Sunday, when California's public health director, Dr. Sonia Angell, quit without explanation following a technical glitch that caused a delay in reporting virus test results - information used to make decisions about reopening businesses and schools.
Last week, New York City´s health commissioner was replaced after months of friction with the Police Department and City Hall.
A review by the Kaiser Health News service and The Associated Press finds at least 49 state and local public health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 23 states. The list has grown by more than 20 people since the AP and KHN started keeping track in June.
Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the numbers stunning. He said they reflect burnout, as well as attacks on public health experts and institutions from the highest levels of government, including from President Trump, who has sidelined the CDC during the pandemic.
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No federal relief leaves states, cities facing big deficits
State and local government officials across the U.S. have been on edge for months about how to keep basic services running while covering rising costs related to the coronavirus outbreak as tax revenue plummeted.
It´s now clear that anxiety will last a lot longer. Congressional talks over another coronavirus relief package have failed, with no immediate prospects for a restart.
The negotiation meltdown raises the prospect of more layoffs and furloughs of government workers and cuts to health care, social services, infrastructure and other core programs. Lack of money to boost school safety measures also will make it harder for districts to send kids back to the classroom.
On Monday, governors, lawmakers, mayors, teachers and others said they were going to keep pushing members of Congress to revive talks on another rescue package.
"Congress and the White House made a commitment to the governors that there would be a second round of relief for states - we are going to hold their feet to the fire until they uphold that commitment," New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, said in a statement.
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In virus talks, Pelosi holds firm; Mnuchin wants a deal
WASHINGTON (AP) - Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not about to blink.
The Democratic leader has been here before, negotiating a deal with the White House to save the U.S. economy, and lessons from the Great Recession are now punctuating the coronavirus talks. With Republicans again balking at big government bailouts, Democratic leaders believe they have the leverage, forcing President Donald Trump into a politically risky standoff over help for millions of Americans.
"It´s impossible to know whether she has overplayed her hand until we see if there is a COVID package," says Michael Steel, a former top aide to then-Speaker John Boehner.
Monday brought no new talks between Trump's team and negotiators on Capitol Hill as the president tries a go-it-alone strategy. Over the weekend, he launched a series of executive actions that give the appearance of a White House taking charge but may end up providing little help for ordinary Americans.
The president's orders seek to reverse the devastating fallout from unemployment assistance, eviction protections and other aid that has expired. But there are limits, and legal pitfalls, in trying to make an end run around the legislative branch.
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French expert: Dangerous chemicals remain in Beirut port
BEIRUT (AP) - Chemical experts and firefighters are working to secure at least 20 potentially dangerous chemical containers at the explosion-shattered port of Beirut, after finding one that was leaking, according to a member of a French cleanup team.
Some of the containers were punctured when last week´s deadly blast ripped through the port and the Lebanese capital, said Lt. Anthony, a French chemical expert at the site who was not authorized to be identified by his full name according to government policy.
French and Italian chemical experts working amid the remains of the port have so far identified more than 20 containers carrying dangerous chemicals, Anthony said.
"We noted the presence of containers with the chemical danger symbol. And then noted that one of the containers was leaking," he told The Associated Press in a TV interview on Monday.
The experts are working with Lebanese firefighters to secure all of the containers and analyze their contents, he said. "We need to clean everything and put all in security."
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Hundreds ransack downtown Chicago businesses after shooting
CHICAGO (AP) - Hundreds of people descended on downtown Chicago early Monday following a police shooting on the city's South Side, with vandals smashing the windows of dozens of businesses and making off with merchandise, cash machines and anything else they could carry, police said.
Police Superintendent David Brown told reporters that the Sunday afternoon shooting of the man who had opened fire on officers apparently prompted a social media post that urged people to form a car caravan and converge on the business and shopping district.
Some 400 additional officers were dispatched to the area after the department spotted the post. Over several hours, police made more than 100 arrests and 13 officers were injured, including one who was struck in the head with a bottle, Brown said.
Brown dismissed any suggestion that the chaos was part of an organized protest of the shooting, calling it "pure criminality" that included occupants of a vehicle opening fire on police who were arresting a man they spotted carrying a cash register.
No officers were wounded by gunfire, but a security guard and a civilian were hospitalized in critical condition after being shot, and five guns were recovered, he said.
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Powerful derecho leaves path of devastation across Midwest
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - A rare storm packing 100 mph winds and with power similar to an inland hurricane swept across the Midwest on Monday, blowing over trees, flipping vehicles, causing widespread property damage and leaving hundreds of thousands without power as it turned toward Chicago.
The storm known as a derecho lasted several hours as it tore across eastern Nebraska, Iowa and parts of Wisconsin, had the wind speed of a major hurricane, and likely caused more widespread damage than a normal tornado, said Patrick Marsh, science support chief at the National Weather Service´s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
It´s not quite a hurricane. It has no eye and its winds come across in a line. But the damage it is likely to do spread over such a large area is more like an inland hurricane than a quick more powerful tornado, Marsh said. He compared it to a devastating Super Derecho of 2009, which was one of the strongest on record traveled more than 1,000 miles in 24 hours, causing $500 million in damage, widespread power outages and killing a handful of people.
"This is our version of a hurricane," Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini said in an interview from his home about 15 minutes before the storm was about to hit. Minutes later he headed to his basement for safety as the storm took aim at Chicago, starting with its suburbs.
Gensini said this derecho will go down as one of the strongest in recent history and be one of the nation's worst weather events of 2020.
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Extreme poverty rises and a generation sees future slip away
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - As a domestic worker, Amsale Hailemariam knew from the inside out the luxury villas that had grown up around her simple shelter of raw metal and plastic sheeting. And in them, she saw how her country, Ethiopia, had transformed.
The single mother told herself, "Oh God, a day will come when my life will be changed, too." The key lay in her daughter, just months from a career in public health, who studied how to battle the illnesses of want and hunger.
Then a virus mentioned in none of her textbooks arrived, and dreams faded for families, and entire countries, like theirs. Decades of progress in one of modern history´s greatest achievements, the fight against extreme poverty, are in danger of slipping away because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The world could see its first increase in extreme poverty in 22 years, further sharpening social inequities.
"We are living in a state where we are above the dead and below the living," Amsale said, near tears. "This is not life."
With the virus and its restrictions, up to 100 million more people globally could fall into the bitter existence of living on just $1.90 a day, according to the World Bank. That´s "well below any reasonable conception of a life with dignity," the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty wrote this year. And it comes on top of the 736 million people already there, half of them in just five countries: Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Congo and Bangladesh.
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McDonald's sues ousted CEO, alleging employee relationships
McDonald´s says it's suing Stephen Easterbrook, the CEO it ousted last year over an inappropriate relationship with an employee, alleging Monday that he covered up relationships with three other employees and destroyed evidence.
The company now wants to reclaim millions of dollars in compensation paid to Easterbrook.
"McDonald's does not tolerate behavior from employees that does not reflect our values," said McDonald's President and CEO Chris Kempczinski, who was promoted following Easterbrook's departure, in a message to employees Monday.
The lawsuit puts a spotlight - again - on a years-long reckoning over sexual harassment at Chicago-based McDonald's and its 39,000 restaurants. In the U.S. alone, more than 50 workers have filed separate sexual harassment charges against McDonald´s with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or in state courts.
Leaders with Fight for $15, which supports higher wages and unions for fast food workers, said Monday that McDonald's should use any money it recoups from Easterbrook for worker-led programs that combat sexual harassment.
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55 years after riots, Watts section of LA still bears scars
LOS ANGELES (AP) - There were no fires this time in Watts. There was no looting, no shooting and no National Guard troops patrolling.
Protesters filled the streets around the country in late May and June following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, demanding an end to police brutality. There was violence and looting in some places, including Los Angeles, but not in LA´s Watts neighborhood, forever linked to an uprising that broke out in the segregated community 55 years ago and became known as the Watts riots.
Demonstrators made a point not to go into Watts or other poor neighborhoods this time.
Watts has never fully recovered from fires that leveled hundreds of buildings or the violence that killed 34 people - two-thirds of whom were shot by police or National Guard troops. Those who lived through those frightening days and those who grew up in its aftermath are keenly aware of that past and the lessons it taught.
"People have learned from the history to say we´re not going to burn our community," said state Assemblyman Mike Gipson, who was born in Watts a year after the turmoil. "We realize our community is not going to be built again."
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Trump, coaches push for college football as cracks emerge
President Donald Trump joined a U.S. senator and a number of coaches Monday in the push to save the college football season from a pandemic-forced shutdown.
There was speculation that two of the five most powerful conferences - the Big Ten and the Pac-12 - might call off their seasons. Farther east, Old Dominion canceled fall sports and became the first school in the Bowl Subdivison to break from its league in doing so; the rest of Conference USA was going forward with plans to play.
A Big Ten spokesman said no votes had been taken by its presidents and chancellors on fall sports as of Monday afternoon and the powerful Southeastern Conference made clear it was not yet ready to shutter its fall season.
"Best advice I´ve received since COVID-19: `Be patient. Take time when making decisions. This is all new & you´ll gain better information each day,´" SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey posted on Twitter. "Can we play? I don´t know. We haven´t stopped trying."
A growing number of athletes have spoken out about saving the season with Clemson star quarterback Trevor Lawrence among the group posting their thoughts on Twitter with the hashtag #WeWantToPla. Trump threw his support behind them Monday.
