Author: staff
I wanted to serve. We’re at a pivotal point in our country: COVID has exposed and exaggerated big challenges we’re facing, but they’ve been building for decades. I agree with President (Joe) Biden that this is a country that can do absolutely anything … if we truly try. Being a citizen is an active job, though, and I wanted that quality of citizenship to be a bigger part of the way I spend my time. This fellowship struck me as an incredible opportunity to use the skills that I’ve developed in my career, which has mostly been in the private sector, and directly apply them to this great American experiment. I want my whole career to have impact. It’s a unique kind of impact you can have through the work of the federal government. There are so many ways in which the federal government interacts with we the people and I wanted to more practically understand how it actually works, so I can ideally help, in some small way, to make it work better in creating positive impact in the daily lives of people. When I return to my work outside the government, I want to be a good partner both in holding the government accountable, but also in helping the government have the impact that it wants to have on the lives of Americans and on people around the world. I realized that given where I am in my career, this fellowship was a really unique way to contribute. I’m not afraid to roll up my sleeves and do the work. I credit that mentality to growing up in Illinois.
Benson read a portion of the letter issued to the Rev. Wheeler Parker, Jr., Till’s cousin and best friend, who was in the Mississippi house when Till was kidnapped in the middle of the night: “In 2017, professor Timothy Tyson (with the publication of “The Blood of Emmett Till”) alleged that Carolyn Bryant, now Carolyn Donham, the wife of one of the confessed murderers and a witness to events leading up to the murder, had in an interview with him recanted previous accounts she had given of the circumstances surrounding Mr. Till’s murder. In response, the Dept. of Justice and the FBI examined whether Carolyn Bryant had recanted and if so, whether she had information that would allow prosecution of any living person, including Carolyn Bryant herself. Following the exhaustive, multiyear investigation, which included fully reviewing that new evidence and examining the evidence gathered from an earlier investigation, we regret to inform you that for the reasons explained more fully below, we have not uncovered sufficient evidence to support a federal prosecution.”
Webb said prosecutors have overwhelming evidence corroborating that the two key witnesses, brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, told police the truth about Smollett’s plan to pay them to commit the hoax beating, yell racial and homophobic slurs, pour bleach on him and put a makeshift noose around his neck.
In this provided photo, the Alkhafajis family, from left to right: Jay, Rasha and their dog, Ganosh, Ali, Mousa and their dog, Hero pose for a picture at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Thousands of Airbnb hosts have agreed to house refugees as part of the online lodging marketplace’s philanthropic program to provide emergency temporary housing to those who need it. (AP)
An Amazon headquarters building is shown on the company’s corporate campus in downtown Seattle, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021. Amazon Web Services suffered a major outage Tuesday, the company said, disrupting access to many popular sites. The company provides cloud computing services to many governments, universities and companies, including The Associated Press. (Ted S. Warren/AP)
Western governments, including the U.S., Australia and Britain, have increasingly criticized Beijing for human rights abuses against its Uyghur minority in the northwest Xinjiang province, which some have called genocide. They have also spoken out against Beijing’s suppression of democratic protests in Hong Kong. Rights groups have called for a full-blown boycott of the Beijing Winter Games.
“(Utah) always ran a lot of plays for me, just to spot up or run from screens,” Plummer said. “Here, it’s different. I feel like here I’ve got the ball more in my hands, I can create situations for my teammates, I can move more in the court. It’s more of a playmaking, shot-creator vibe.”
Brooklyn: The Nets are missing Kyrie Irving, who can’t play unless he changes his mind and gets a COVID-19 vaccine, which seems unlikely at this point. Kevin Durant is putting up MVP numbers, but the Nets are suffering from the inconsistent play of James Harden, who shot 5-for-21 on Saturday in their loss to the Bulls. The Nets (16-7) are 0-6 against the top teams they’ve played (the Bulls, Warriors, Suns, Bucks and Heat) and feasting on everyone else. If Irving comes back before the playoffs, will the Nets have enough time to get acclimated to playing with him?
Pinning the whole thing on Fields isn’t fair and isn’t an accurate way of describing the situation, but when you’re talking about the roster and the Bears’ ability to contend for a playoff spot, he’s absolutely the most critical piece of the puzzle. His rookie season has been up and down, and the Bears desperately need to be better offensively in 2022 if they want to win. While they’re doing that, they have to pay attention to a defense that is a shadow of what it was when Matt Nagy came on board in 2018. There’s a lot of work to do, and while I wish I could provide a more definitive answer, too many unknowns cloud the future. In a best-case scenario, the Bears are a threat in 2023 with young players in place who give them a chance to grow and improve. With a shortage of draft capital in 2022, that will be challenging.
Chicago Clerk Anna Valencia, a candidate for Illinois secretary of state, attends the Illinois Democratic County Chair’s Association brunch before Governor’s Day at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield on Aug. 18, 2021. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)