7th Memphis officer disciplined, EMTs fired in Nichols death
Memphis police say two more officers involved in the arrest, beating and death of Tyre Nichols have been disciplined. Five Memphis officers already had been fired and charged in the Jan. 7 arrest of Nichols, who was Black. Police said Monday that officer Preston Hemphill was relieved of duty shortly after Nichols’ Jan. 7 arrest. The department said later that another officer has been relieved of duty. In total, seven officers have been disciplined for the arrest of Nichols, who died Jan. 10. Also Monday, two Memphis Fire Department emergency medical workers and a lieutenant were fired in connection with the case.
Students lost one-third of a school year to pandemic, study finds
Children experienced learning deficits during the COVID pandemic that amounted to about one-third of a school year’s worth of knowledge and skills, according to a new global analysis, and had not recovered from those losses more than two years later. The analysis, published Monday in the journal Nature Human Behavior and drawing on data from 15 countries, provided the most comprehensive account to date of the academic hardships wrought by the pandemic. The findings suggest that the challenges of remote learning — coupled with other stressors that plagued children and families throughout the pandemic — were not rectified when school doors reopened.
‘Laverne & Shirley’ actor Cindy Williams dies at 75
Cindy Williams, who played Shirley opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne on the popular sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” has died. Williams’ family said in statement Monday that she died in Los Angeles Wednesday after a brief illness. She was 75. Williams credits included the films “American Graffiti” and “The Conversation.” But she was by far best known for playing the straitlaced Shirley Feeney on the ABC sitcom “Laverne & Shirley.” The show, a spinoff of “Happy Days” was one of the most popular shows on television in its prime. It ran from 1976 to 1983.
Reports: New grand jury in NY examining Trump hush money
Multiple news reports say Manhattan prosecutors have convened a new grand jury to hear evidence in a probe of payments made to keep two women quiet about alleged affairs with former President Donald Trump. The reports cite unnamed sources familiar with the proceedings. A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment Monday. In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump blasted Bragg as the “Radical Left Manhattan D.A.” and said the new grand jury was “a continuation of the Greatest Witch Hunt of all time.” Trump has denied having affairs with either woman.
California is lone holdout in Colorado River cuts proposal
Six Western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a model to dramatically cut water use in the basin. California is the holdout. The state has the largest allocation of water from the river that serves 40 million people and a $5 billion-a-year agricultural industry. States missed a mid-August deadline to heed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s call to conserve 2 million to 4 million acre-feet. They regrouped to reach consensus by the end of January. The outline will factor into a larger proposal on how to operate the two largest dams on the river. California didn’t sign on to Monday’s plan, but says it intends to release its own proposal.
Brazil’s Bolsonaro applies for 6-month U.S. visitor visa
Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has filed a request for a six-month visitor visa to stay in the U.S., indicating he may have no immediate intention to return home, where legal issues await. Bolsonaro left Brazil for Florida on Dec. 30, two days before the inauguration of his leftist rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The inauguration proceeded without incident, though a week later thousands of Bolsonaro’s die-hard supporters stormed the capital and trashed the top government buildings demanding the election of Lula be overturned. Bolsonaro is being investigated for whether he was involved in inciting that uprising and is the target of other probes.
Suicide bombing tears through Pakistan mosque, killing dozens
A powerful suicide bombing Monday ripped through a mosque frequented by police officers in a highly secured part of the city of Peshawar, Pakistan, killing at least 59 people and wounding nearly 160 in the worst attack in Pakistan in months, police and hospital officials said. The attack broke a period of relative calm in Peshawar, the capital of the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in northwestern Pakistan. The northwest has been the site of several attacks on police and military targets in recent months, especially in areas that straddle the border with Afghanistan, and the Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for them.
Feds expect to collect $4.7B in insurance fraud penalties
The Biden administration is estimating that it could collect as much as $4.7 billion from insurance companies with newer and tougher penalties for submitting improper charges on the taxpayers’ tab for Medicare Advantage care. For years, federal watchdogs have sounded the alarm on questionable charges through the government’s private version of the Medicare program. Those investigators are raising the possibility that insurance companies may be bilking taxpayers of billions of dollars every year by claiming members are sicker than they really are to receive inflated payments.
By wire sources
