OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a woman has been arrested in the killing of a 58-year-old man in Omaha. 

Police said Saturday that 37-year-old Autum Acacia-Cortes has been booked into jail on suspicion of first-degree murder, use of a weapon and tampering with evidence in the death of Jose Martinez, KETV reports. 

Officers found Martinez dead early Wednesday after they were sent to an apartment complex to check on someone’s welfare. 

Police also were seeking a 53-year-old man in an effort to “ensure his safety.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a woman has been arrested in the killing of a 58-year-old man in Omaha. Police said Saturday that 37-year-old Autum Acacia-Cortes has been booked into jail on suspicion of first-degree murder, use of a weapon and tampering with evidence in the death of Jose Martinez, KETV reports. Officers found Martinez dead early Wednesday after they were sent to an apartment complex to check on someone’s welfare. Police also were seeking a 53-year-old man in an effort to “ensure his safety.”

Woman arrested in killing of 58-year-old man in Omaha

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police have identified the victim of a Wednesday morning homicide as a 58-year-old man. 

Police identified the victim as Jose C. Martinez. Officers were called just before 4 a.m. Wednesday to Highland Tower in southeast Omaha to check on a person’s welfare. 

Arriving officers found a man dead. Police did not release how the man died or other details. 

Highland Tower is operated by the Omaha Housing Authority. 

Police also were seeking another man as part of the investigation.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police have identified the victim of a Wednesday morning homicide as a 58-year-old man. Police identified the victim as Jose C. Martinez. Officers were called just before 4 a.m. Wednesday to Highland Tower in southeast Omaha to check on a person’s welfare. Arriving officers found a man dead. Police did not release how the man died or other details. Highland Tower is operated by the Omaha Housing Authority. Police also were seeking another man as part of the investigation.

Omaha police identify man whose body was found in apartment

GRETNA, Neb. (AP) - Two people were killed and a third person was critically hurt in a crash on Interstate 80 near Gretna on Saturday after snow fell in the area.

The Sarpy County Sheriff's office said the crash happened near the Nebraska Highway 370 exit around 3 p.m. Saturday. Authorities said an eastbound SUV crossed the median and collided with an oncoming semi truck.

The sheriff's office said two people who were in the front seat of the SUV died. A 26-year-old woman who was riding in the back seat of the SUV was taken to an Omaha hospital in critical condition.

The sheriff's office said the SUV's 30-year-old driver, David Hardy Jr., and 30-year-old passenger Sabrina Reynolds both died in the crash.

The westbound lanes of the interstate were closed for several hours after the crash.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/7/1563361166533.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>GRETNA, Neb. (AP) - Two people were killed and a third person was critically hurt in a crash on Interstate 80 near Gretna on Saturday after snow fell in the area.The Sarpy County Sheriff's office said the crash happened near the Nebraska Highway 370 exit around 3 p.m. Saturday. Authorities said an eastbound SUV crossed the median and collided with an oncoming semi truck.The sheriff's office said two people who were in the front seat of the SUV died. A 26-year-old woman who was riding in the back seat of the SUV was taken to an Omaha hospital in critical condition.The sheriff's office said the SUV's 30-year-old driver, David Hardy Jr., and 30-year-old passenger Sabrina Reynolds both died in the crash.The driver of the semi was not hurt.The westbound lanes of the interstate were closed for several hours after the crash.

2 men killed in crash on Interstate 80 in eastern Nebraska

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Migrant workers lined up by the hundreds during a break from picking produce this week to receive the coronavirus vaccine on a Southern California grape farm.

The farmworkers who got their shots are among vulnerable immigrants in the United States — particularly the 11 million in the country illegally — who advocacy groups say may be some of the most difficult people to reach during the largest vaccination campaign in American history.

Some immigrants in the country illegally fear that information taken during vaccinations could be turned over to authorities and so may not seek out vaccines, while those who speak little or no English may find it difficult to access them.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-norc-poll-us-half-want-vaccine-shots-4d98dbfc0a64d60d52ac84c3065dac55">Like other groups</a>, some are also hesitant about receiving a newly approved shot — and language barriers may also make it harder to get messages countering misinformation to them.

While these challenges may exist for many vulnerable immigrant groups, they are particularly worrying for Latino immigrants, who make a large portion of the workforce in industries where they have a significant risk of exposure.

“There is anxiety and it’s real ... but so is the fear of dying of COVID-19,” said Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

To tackle these challenges, groups that advocate for Latino immigrants are heading into farm fields to bring vaccines and information to migrant laborers and trying to counter misinformation in Spanish and other languages.

In California’s sprawling Riverside County, home to a $1.3 billion agriculture industry, the health care nonprofit that brought vaccines to the grape farm recently took tablets into the fields to register workers for vaccine appointments, said Conrado Bárzaga, CEO of Desert Healthcare District and Foundation. The organization also shares information about the virus and how to get tested for it on WhatsApp in Spanish and Purépecha, an indigenous language from western Mexico spoken by some farm workers in California.

The National Day Laborer Organizing Network has used a Spanish-language radio show on social media to share information throughout the pandemic about the virus. Now, the show’s hosts, many of them migrants and low-income workers themselves, plan to spend airtime debunking myths about the vaccine to their 300,000 weekly listeners, Alvarado said.

He believes countering misinformation on social media is key to overcoming most hesitancy about the vaccine — such as knocking down&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/3287934e9316b008e2a6c7735b7b01df">false claims that the vaccine would insert a microchip&nbsp;</a>into people.

Daniel Cortés, a 58-year-old Mexican immigrant who lives in New York, is among those with doubts. He’s not authorized to live in the U.S. but any fears of deportation have nothing to do with it. He says he would not take the vaccine because he is healthy and fears a bad reaction. Trials for the vaccines being given in the U.S. involving tens of thousands of participants have so far surfaced no signs of serious side effects, and few unexpected adverse reactions have been reported in the early days of vaccine distribution in the country.

“I maintain social distancing, wash my hands, change my clothes when I get home,” Cortés said, explaining that he thinks those precautions are enough. “I haven’t been sick in eight years and hopefully it will stay that way.”

President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” includes a program to set up community vaccination centers across the U.S. and use mobile clinics to access hard-to-reach communities. It has also said it would take steps to make the vaccine free to all U.S. residents independent of their immigration status.

But some advocacy groups say the legacy of the Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies will make reaching some immigrants especially tough.

In Florida, Maria Rodriguez, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition in Miami, said fears persist about the former administration’s so-called public charge rule, which sought to deny green cards to immigrants who receive food stamps or other public benefits.

While the public charge rule never restricted access to testing or vaccinations for a communicable disease — and it is being challenged in courts — Rodriguez says, “it doesn’t matter, the perception still exists.”

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts recently came under criticism when he said workers with legal status would be prioritized in the state’s vaccine rollout over those without legal status when he was asked about the plan to protect the state’s meatpacking facilities, which historically have relied on foreign-born labor. But a day later, Ricketts appeared to walk back his statement, saying through his spokesman that “proof of citizenship is not required for vaccination,”&nbsp;<a href="https://omaha.com/news/state-and-regional/us-citizenship-not-a-requirement-for-covid-vaccine-in-nebraska/article_4da1d138-4fac-11eb-89a9-c3052b2306d2.html" target="_blank">the Omaha-World Herald reported</a>.

Blanca Flores, a community organizer at the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, an alliance of female farmworkers, said many of the women she works with in rural Homestead, Florida, believe that any personal information they provide could somehow be used against them later. They also worry about missing a few day’s work and possibly getting fired if they suffer adverse side effects.

“They would like to wait a month or two to see what happens and decide later,” said Flores, a Colombian-born immigrant with legal residency.

But others are eager — perhaps reflecting the way in which&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/d3c55be27a2549afa2906c190fe5adc9">Latino immigrant communities</a>&nbsp;have been disproportionately hit by the virus. In New York, Francisco Flores, a Mexican immigrant who lost a brother, a brother-in-law and a sister-in-law to COVID-19, said he would not hesitate to take the shot.

Flores, who is 54 and has lived without authorization in the U.S. for more than 20 years, plans to sign up the moment he can.

“The government already has my data. I have been here for a long time. I have a driver’s license, bank accounts. I have nothing to fear,” said Flores, who works for a company that makes golf courses. “And after what we went through with COVID, I would not hesitate to take the vaccine.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609851067615.png" alt="Vaccine arrived January 18 in Southwest Kansas- photo courtesy Western Plains Medical Center" />
 <figcaption>Vaccine arrived January 18 in Southwest Kansas- photo courtesy Western Plains Medical Center</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY (AP) — Migrant workers lined up by the hundreds during a break from picking produce this week to receive the coronavirus vaccine on a Southern California grape farm.The farmworkers who got their shots are among vulnerable immigrants in the United States — particularly the 11 million in the country illegally — who advocacy groups say may be some of the most difficult people to reach during the largest vaccination campaign in American history.Some immigrants in the country illegally fear that information taken during vaccinations could be turned over to authorities and so may not seek out vaccines, while those who speak little or no English may find it difficult to access them.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-norc-poll-us-half-want-vaccine-shots-4d98dbfc0a64d60d52ac84c3065dac55">Like other groups</a>, some are also hesitant about receiving a newly approved shot — and language barriers may also make it harder to get messages countering misinformation to them.While these challenges may exist for many vulnerable immigrant groups, they are particularly worrying for Latino immigrants, who make a large portion of the workforce in industries where they have a significant risk of exposure.“There is anxiety and it’s real ... but so is the fear of dying of COVID-19,” said Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.To tackle these challenges, groups that advocate for Latino immigrants are heading into farm fields to bring vaccines and information to migrant laborers and trying to counter misinformation in Spanish and other languages.In California’s sprawling Riverside County, home to a $1.3 billion agriculture industry, the health care nonprofit that brought vaccines to the grape farm recently took tablets into the fields to register workers for vaccine appointments, said Conrado Bárzaga, CEO of Desert Healthcare District and Foundation. The organization also shares information about the virus and how to get tested for it on WhatsApp in Spanish and Purépecha, an indigenous language from western Mexico spoken by some farm workers in California.The National Day Laborer Organizing Network has used a Spanish-language radio show on social media to share information throughout the pandemic about the virus. Now, the show’s hosts, many of them migrants and low-income workers themselves, plan to spend airtime debunking myths about the vaccine to their 300,000 weekly listeners, Alvarado said.He believes countering misinformation on social media is key to overcoming most hesitancy about the vaccine — such as knocking down&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/3287934e9316b008e2a6c7735b7b01df">false claims that the vaccine would insert a microchip&nbsp;</a>into people.Daniel Cortés, a 58-year-old Mexican immigrant who lives in New York, is among those with doubts. He’s not authorized to live in the U.S. but any fears of deportation have nothing to do with it. He says he would not take the vaccine because he is healthy and fears a bad reaction. Trials for the vaccines being given in the U.S. involving tens of thousands of participants have so far surfaced no signs of serious side effects, and few unexpected adverse reactions have been reported in the early days of vaccine distribution in the country.“I maintain social distancing, wash my hands, change my clothes when I get home,” Cortés said, explaining that he thinks those precautions are enough. “I haven’t been sick in eight years and hopefully it will stay that way.”President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” includes a program to set up community vaccination centers across the U.S. and use mobile clinics to access hard-to-reach communities. It has also said it would take steps to make the vaccine free to all U.S. residents independent of their immigration status.But some advocacy groups say the legacy of the Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies will make reaching some immigrants especially tough.In Florida, Maria Rodriguez, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition in Miami, said fears persist about the former administration’s so-called public charge rule, which sought to deny green cards to immigrants who receive food stamps or other public benefits.While the public charge rule never restricted access to testing or vaccinations for a communicable disease — and it is being challenged in courts — Rodriguez says, “it doesn’t matter, the perception still exists.”Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts recently came under criticism when he said workers with legal status would be prioritized in the state’s vaccine rollout over those without legal status when he was asked about the plan to protect the state’s meatpacking facilities, which historically have relied on foreign-born labor. But a day later, Ricketts appeared to walk back his statement, saying through his spokesman that “proof of citizenship is not required for vaccination,”&nbsp;<a href="https://omaha.com/news/state-and-regional/us-citizenship-not-a-requirement-for-covid-vaccine-in-nebraska/article_4da1d138-4fac-11eb-89a9-c3052b2306d2.html" target="_blank">the Omaha-World Herald reported</a>.Blanca Flores, a community organizer at the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, an alliance of female farmworkers, said many of the women she works with in rural Homestead, Florida, believe that any personal information they provide could somehow be used against them later. They also worry about missing a few day’s work and possibly getting fired if they suffer adverse side effects.“They would like to wait a month or two to see what happens and decide later,” said Flores, a Colombian-born immigrant with legal residency.But others are eager — perhaps reflecting the way in which&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/d3c55be27a2549afa2906c190fe5adc9">Latino immigrant communities</a>&nbsp;have been disproportionately hit by the virus. In New York, Francisco Flores, a Mexican immigrant who lost a brother, a brother-in-law and a sister-in-law to COVID-19, said he would not hesitate to take the shot.Flores, who is 54 and has lived without authorization in the U.S. for more than 20 years, plans to sign up the moment he can.“The government already has my data. I have been here for a long time. I have a driver’s license, bank accounts. I have nothing to fear,” said Flores, who works for a company that makes golf courses. “And after what we went through with COVID, I would not hesitate to take the vaccine.”___

Language barriers, wariness make vaccinating immigrants hard

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The Department of Tourism says a reduction in visitors and tourism income broke a 10-year streak of industry growth last year. 

According to an annual study by Tourism Economics released Thursday, the number of visitors to the state dropped by 13% to 12.6 million people in 2020. 

But the state fared better than others during the pandemic and the industry’s annual two-day conference in Pierre was marked with optimism. 

Attendees praised Gov. Kristi Noem for keeping the state open for business during the pandemic and not imposing many restrictions. 

Visitors to South Dakota spent $3.4 billion last year, a decline of 18% from 2019.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The Department of Tourism says a reduction in visitors and tourism income broke a 10-year streak of industry growth last year. According to an annual study by Tourism Economics released Thursday, the number of visitors to the state dropped by 13% to 12.6 million people in 2020. But the state fared better than others during the pandemic and the industry’s annual two-day conference in Pierre was marked with optimism. Attendees praised Gov. Kristi Noem for keeping the state open for business during the pandemic and not imposing many restrictions. Visitors to South Dakota spent $3.4 billion last year, a decline of 18% from 2019.

South Dakota 2020 tourism declined, but industry optimistic

LONDON (AP) — There is some evidence that a new coronavirus variant first identified in southeast England carries a higher risk of death .than the original strain, the British government’s chief scientific adviser said Friday -- though he stressed that the data is uncertain

Patrick Vallance told a news conference that “there is evidence that there is an increased risk for those who have the new variant.”

He said that for a man in his 60s with the original version of the virus, “the average risk is that for 1,000 people who got infected, roughly 10 would be expected to unfortunately die.”

“With the new variant, for 1,000 people infected, roughly 13 or 14 people might be expected to die,” he said.

But Vallance stressed that “the evidence is not yet strong” and more research is needed.

In contrast to that uncertainty, he said, there is growing confidence that the variant is more easily passed on than the original coronavirus strain. He said it appears to be between 30% and 70% more transmissible.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead on COVID-19, said studies were underway to look at the transmission and severity of new virus variants.

She said so far “they haven’t seen an increase in severity” but that more transmission could lead to “an overburdened health care system” and thus more deaths.

The evidence for the new variant being more deadly is i&nbsp;<a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/955239/NERVTAG_paper_on_variant_of_concern__VOC__B.1.1.7.pdf" target="_blank">n a paper prepared by a group of scientists that advises the government on new respiratory viruses</a>, based on several studies.

The British scientists said that although initial analyses suggested that the strain, first identified in September, did not cause more severe disease, several more recent ones suggest it might. However, the numbers of deaths are relatively small, and case fatality rates are affected by many things including the care patients get and their age and health beyond having COVID-19.

The British scientists stress that the information so far has major limitations, and that they do not know how representative the cases included in the analyses are of what’s happening throughout the country or elsewhere.

One analysis did not find an increased risk of death among people admitted to a hospital with the new strain. In another, the odds of being admitted to a hospital with the new strain compared to the previously dominant one were no different.

There is a lag in reporting hospitalizations after infection, and a further lag from infection to death, so officials expect to learn more in several weeks.

Paul Hunter, Professor in Medicine at the University of East Anglia, said “there is quite a bit of difference in the estimated increased risk of death between the different analyses, though most, but not all, show increased risk of death,” he said.

Ian Jones, professor of Virology at the University of Reading, said “the data is limited and the conclusions preliminary. However, an increased case fatality rate is certainly possible with a virus that has upped its game in transmission.”

British officials say they are confident that the vaccines that have been authorized for use against COVID-19 will be effective against the new strain identified in the country.

But Vallance said scientists are concerned that variants identified in Brazil and South Africa could be more resistant to vaccines, adding that more research needs to be done.

Concerns about newly identified variants have triggered a spate of new travel restrictions around the world. Many countries have closed their borders to travelers from Britain, and the U.K. has halted flights from Brazil and South Africa.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there could be further restrictions.

“We may need to go further to protect our borders,” he said.

Britain has recorded 95,981 deaths among people who tested positive for the coronavirus, the highest confirmed total in Europe.

The U.K. is currently in a lockdown in an attempt to slow the latest surge of the coronavirus outbreak. Pubs, restaurants, entertainment venues and many shops are closed, and people are required to stay largely at home.

The number of new infections has begun to fall, but deaths remain agonizingly high, averaging more than 1,000 a day, and the number of hospitalized patients is 80% higher than at the first peak of the pandemic in the spring.

Johnson, who has often been accused of giving overly optimistic predictions about relaxing coronavirus restrictions, sounded gloomy.

“We will have to live with coronavirus in one way or another for a long while to come,” he said, adding that “it’s an open question” when measures could be eased.

“At this stage you’ve got to be very, very cautious indeed,” he said. Vallance agreed, “I don’t think this virus is going anywhere,” he said. “It’s going to be around, probably, forever.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/12/1608566572342.png" alt="Image courtesy GISAID" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy GISAID</figcaption>
 </figure>LONDON (AP) — There is some evidence that a new coronavirus variant first identified in southeast England carries a higher risk of death .than the original strain, the British government’s chief scientific adviser said Friday -- though he stressed that the data is uncertainPatrick Vallance told a news conference that “there is evidence that there is an increased risk for those who have the new variant.”He said that for a man in his 60s with the original version of the virus, “the average risk is that for 1,000 people who got infected, roughly 10 would be expected to unfortunately die.”“With the new variant, for 1,000 people infected, roughly 13 or 14 people might be expected to die,” he said.But Vallance stressed that “the evidence is not yet strong” and more research is needed.In contrast to that uncertainty, he said, there is growing confidence that the variant is more easily passed on than the original coronavirus strain. He said it appears to be between 30% and 70% more transmissible.Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead on COVID-19, said studies were underway to look at the transmission and severity of new virus variants.She said so far “they haven’t seen an increase in severity” but that more transmission could lead to “an overburdened health care system” and thus more deaths.The evidence for the new variant being more deadly is i&nbsp;<a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/955239/NERVTAG_paper_on_variant_of_concern__VOC__B.1.1.7.pdf" target="_blank">n a paper prepared by a group of scientists that advises the government on new respiratory viruses</a>, based on several studies.The British scientists said that although initial analyses suggested that the strain, first identified in September, did not cause more severe disease, several more recent ones suggest it might. However, the numbers of deaths are relatively small, and case fatality rates are affected by many things including the care patients get and their age and health beyond having COVID-19.The British scientists stress that the information so far has major limitations, and that they do not know how representative the cases included in the analyses are of what’s happening throughout the country or elsewhere.One analysis did not find an increased risk of death among people admitted to a hospital with the new strain. In another, the odds of being admitted to a hospital with the new strain compared to the previously dominant one were no different.There is a lag in reporting hospitalizations after infection, and a further lag from infection to death, so officials expect to learn more in several weeks.Paul Hunter, Professor in Medicine at the University of East Anglia, said “there is quite a bit of difference in the estimated increased risk of death between the different analyses, though most, but not all, show increased risk of death,” he said.Ian Jones, professor of Virology at the University of Reading, said “the data is limited and the conclusions preliminary. However, an increased case fatality rate is certainly possible with a virus that has upped its game in transmission.”British officials say they are confident that the vaccines that have been authorized for use against COVID-19 will be effective against the new strain identified in the country.But Vallance said scientists are concerned that variants identified in Brazil and South Africa could be more resistant to vaccines, adding that more research needs to be done.Concerns about newly identified variants have triggered a spate of new travel restrictions around the world. Many countries have closed their borders to travelers from Britain, and the U.K. has halted flights from Brazil and South Africa.Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there could be further restrictions.“We may need to go further to protect our borders,” he said.Britain has recorded 95,981 deaths among people who tested positive for the coronavirus, the highest confirmed total in Europe.The U.K. is currently in a lockdown in an attempt to slow the latest surge of the coronavirus outbreak. Pubs, restaurants, entertainment venues and many shops are closed, and people are required to stay largely at home.The number of new infections has begun to fall, but deaths remain agonizingly high, averaging more than 1,000 a day, and the number of hospitalized patients is 80% higher than at the first peak of the pandemic in the spring.Johnson, who has often been accused of giving overly optimistic predictions about relaxing coronavirus restrictions, sounded gloomy.“We will have to live with coronavirus in one way or another for a long while to come,” he said, adding that “it’s an open question” when measures could be eased.“At this stage you’ve got to be very, very cautious indeed,” he said. Vallance agreed, “I don’t think this virus is going anywhere,” he said. “It’s going to be around, probably, forever.”

UK chief scientist says new virus variant may be more deadly

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Larry King, the suspenders-sporting everyman whose broadcast interviews with world leaders, movie stars and ordinary Joes helped define American conversation for a half-century, died Saturday. He was 87.

King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Ora Media, the studio and network he co-founded,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/kingsthings/status/1352960673978880000/photo/2" target="_blank">tweeted.&nbsp;</a>No cause of death was given, but&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/los-angeles-larry-king-coronavirus-pandemic-talk-shows-us-news-7cd892f589671d503a4d45de00890f64">CNN had earlier reported</a>&nbsp;he was hospitalized with COVID-19.

A longtime nationally syndicated radio host, from 1985 through 2010 he was a nightly fixture on CNN, where he won many honors, including two Peabody awards.

With his celebrity interviews, political debates and topical discussions, King wasn’t just an enduring on-air personality. He also set himself apart with the curiosity be brought to every interview, whether questioning the assault victim known as the “Central Park Jogger” or billionaire industrialist Ross Perot, who in 1992 rocked the presidential contest by announcing his candidacy on King’s show.

In its early years, “Larry King Live” was based in Washington, D.C., which gave the show an air of gravitas. Likewise King. He was the plainspoken go-between through whom Beltway bigwigs could reach their public, and they did, earning the show prestige as a place where things happened, where news was made.

King conducted an estimated 50,000 on-air interviews. In 1995 he presided over a Middle East peace summit with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He welcomed everyone from the Dalai Lama to Elizabeth Taylor, from Mikhail Gorbachev to Barack Obama, Bill Gates to Lady Gaga.

Especially after he relocated to Los Angeles, his shows were frequently in the thick of breaking celebrity news, including Paris Hilton talking about her stint in jail in 2007 and Michael Jackson’s friends and family members talking about his death in 2009.

King boasted of never over-preparing for an interview. His nonconfrontational style relaxed his guests and made him readily relatable to his audience.

“I don’t pretend to know it all,” he said in a 1995 Associated Press interview. “Not, `What about Geneva or Cuba?′ I ask, `Mr. President, what don’t you like about this job?′ Or `What’s the biggest mistake you made?′ That’s fascinating.”

At a time when CNN, as the lone player in cable news, was deemed politically neutral, and King was the essence of its middle-of-the-road stance, political figures and people at the center of controversies would seek out his show.

And he was known for getting guests who were notoriously elusive. Frank Sinatra, who rarely gave interviews and often lashed out at reporters, spoke to King in 1988 in what would be the singer’s last major TV appearance. Sinatra was an old friend of King’s and acted accordingly.

“Why are you here?” King asks. Sinatra responds, “Because you asked me to come and I hadn’t seen you in a long time to begin with, I thought we ought to get together and chat, just talk about a lot of things.”

King had never met Marlon Brando, who was even tougher to get and tougher to interview, when the acting giant asked to appear on King’s show in 1994. The two hit it off so famously they ended their 90-minute talk with a song and an on-the-mouth kiss, an image that was all over media in subsequent weeks.

After a gala week marking his 25th anniversary in June 2010, King abruptly announced he was retiring from his show, telling viewers, “It’s time to hang up my nightly suspenders.” Named as his successor in the time slot: British journalist and TV personality Piers Morgan.

By King’s departure that December, suspicion had grown that he had waited a little too long to hang up those suspenders. Once the leader in cable TV news, he ranked third in his time slot with less than half the nightly audience his peak year, 1998, when “Larry King Live” drew 1.64 million viewers.

His wide-eyed, regular-guy approach to interviewing by then felt dated in an era of edgy, pushy or loaded questioning by other hosts.

Meanwhile, occasional flubs had made him seem out of touch, or worse. A prime example from 2007 found King asking Jerry Seinfeld if he had voluntarily left his sitcom or been canceled by his network, NBC.

“I was the No. 1 show in television, Larry,” replied Seinfeld with a flabbergasted look. “Do you know who I am?”

Always a workaholic, King would be back doing specials for CNN within a few months of performing his nightly duties.

He found a new sort of celebrity as a plain-spoken natural on Twitter when the platform emerged, winning over more than 2 million followers who simultaneously mocked and loved him for his esoteric style.

“I’ve never been in a canoe. #Itsmy2cents,” he said in a typical tweet in 2015.

His Twitter account was essentially a revival of a USA Today column he wrote for two decades full of one-off, disjointed thoughts. Norm Macdonald delivered a parody version of the column when he played King on “Saturday Night Live,” with deadpan lines like, “The more I think about it, the more I appreciate the equator.”

King was constantly parodied, often through old-age jokes on late-night talk shows from hosts including David Letterman and Conan O’Brien, often appearing with the latter to get in on the roasting himself.

King came by his voracious but no-frills manner honestly.

He was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in 1933, a son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who ran a bar and grill in Brooklyn. But after his father’s death when Larry was a boy, he faced a troubled, sometimes destitute youth.

A fan of such radio stars as Arthur Godfrey and comedians Bob &amp; Ray, King on reaching adulthood set his sights on a broadcasting career. With word that Miami was a good place to break in, he headed south in 1957 and landed a job sweeping floors at a tiny AM station. When a deejay abruptly quit, King was put on the air — and was handed his new surname by the station manager, who thought Zeiger “too Jewish.”

A year later he moved to a larger station, where his duties were expanded from the usual patter to serving as host of a daily interview show that aired from a local restaurant. He quickly proved equally adept at talking to the waitresses, and the celebrities who began dropping by.

By the early 1960s King had gone to yet a larger Miami station, scored a newspaper column and become a local celebrity himself.

At the same time, he fell victim to living large.

“It was important to me to come across as a ‘big man,”’ he wrote in his autobiography, which meant “I made a lot of money and spread it around lavishly.”

He accumulated debts and his first broken marriages (he was married eight times to seven women). He gambled, borrowed wildly and failed to pay his taxes. He also became involved with a shady financier in a scheme to bankroll an investigation of President Kennedy’s assassination. But when King skimmed some of the cash to pay his overdue taxes, his partner sued him for grand larceny in 1971. The charges were dropped, but King’s reputation appeared ruined.

King lost his radio show and, for several years, struggled to find work. But by 1975 the scandal had largely blown over and a Miami station gave him another chance. Regaining his local popularity, King was signed in 1978 to host radio’s first nationwide call-in show.

Originating from Washington on the Mutual network, “The Larry King Show” was eventually heard on more than 300 stations and made King a national phenomenon.

A few years later, CNN founder Ted Turner offered King a slot on his young network. “Larry King Live” debuted on June 1, 1985, and became CNN’s highest-rated program. King’s beginning salary of $100,000 a year eventually grew to more than $7 million.

A three-packs-a-day cigarette habit led to a heart attack in 1987, but King’s quintuple-bypass surgery didn’t slow him down.

Meanwhile, he continued to prove that, in his words, “I’m not good at marriage, but I’m a great boyfriend.”

He was just 18 when he married high school girlfriend Freda Miller, in 1952. The marriage lasted less than a year. In subsequent decades he would marry Annette Kay, Alene Akins (twice), Mickey Sutfin, Sharon Lepore and Julie Alexander.

In 1997, he wed Shawn Southwick, a country singer and actress 26 years his junior. They would file for divorce in 2010, rescind the filing, then file for divorce again in 2019.

The couple had two sons, King’s fourth and fifth kids, Chance Armstrong, born in 1999, and Cannon Edward, born in 2000. In 2020, King lost his two eldest children, Andy King and Chaia King, who died of unrelated health problems within weeks of each other.

He had many other medical issues in recent decades, including more heart attacks and diagnoses of type 2 diabetes and lung cancer.

Early in 2021, CNN reported that King was hospitalized for more than a week with COVID-19.

Through his setbacks he continued to work into his late 80s, taking on online talk shows and infomercials as his appearances on CNN grew fewer.

“Work,” King once said. “It’s the easiest thing I do.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609638834672.png" alt="Larry King moderated a presidential candidate debate in 2004 -photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Larry King moderated a presidential candidate debate in 2004 -photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Larry King, the suspenders-sporting everyman whose broadcast interviews with world leaders, movie stars and ordinary Joes helped define American conversation for a half-century, died Saturday. He was 87.King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Ora Media, the studio and network he co-founded,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/kingsthings/status/1352960673978880000/photo/2" target="_blank">tweeted.&nbsp;</a>No cause of death was given, but&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/los-angeles-larry-king-coronavirus-pandemic-talk-shows-us-news-7cd892f589671d503a4d45de00890f64">CNN had earlier reported</a>&nbsp;he was hospitalized with COVID-19.A longtime nationally syndicated radio host, from 1985 through 2010 he was a nightly fixture on CNN, where he won many honors, including two Peabody awards.With his celebrity interviews, political debates and topical discussions, King wasn’t just an enduring on-air personality. He also set himself apart with the curiosity be brought to every interview, whether questioning the assault victim known as the “Central Park Jogger” or billionaire industrialist Ross Perot, who in 1992 rocked the presidential contest by announcing his candidacy on King’s show.In its early years, “Larry King Live” was based in Washington, D.C., which gave the show an air of gravitas. Likewise King. He was the plainspoken go-between through whom Beltway bigwigs could reach their public, and they did, earning the show prestige as a place where things happened, where news was made.King conducted an estimated 50,000 on-air interviews. In 1995 he presided over a Middle East peace summit with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He welcomed everyone from the Dalai Lama to Elizabeth Taylor, from Mikhail Gorbachev to Barack Obama, Bill Gates to Lady Gaga.Especially after he relocated to Los Angeles, his shows were frequently in the thick of breaking celebrity news, including Paris Hilton talking about her stint in jail in 2007 and Michael Jackson’s friends and family members talking about his death in 2009.King boasted of never over-preparing for an interview. His nonconfrontational style relaxed his guests and made him readily relatable to his audience.“I don’t pretend to know it all,” he said in a 1995 Associated Press interview. “Not, `What about Geneva or Cuba?′ I ask, `Mr. President, what don’t you like about this job?′ Or `What’s the biggest mistake you made?′ That’s fascinating.”At a time when CNN, as the lone player in cable news, was deemed politically neutral, and King was the essence of its middle-of-the-road stance, political figures and people at the center of controversies would seek out his show.And he was known for getting guests who were notoriously elusive. Frank Sinatra, who rarely gave interviews and often lashed out at reporters, spoke to King in 1988 in what would be the singer’s last major TV appearance. Sinatra was an old friend of King’s and acted accordingly.“Why are you here?” King asks. Sinatra responds, “Because you asked me to come and I hadn’t seen you in a long time to begin with, I thought we ought to get together and chat, just talk about a lot of things.”King had never met Marlon Brando, who was even tougher to get and tougher to interview, when the acting giant asked to appear on King’s show in 1994. The two hit it off so famously they ended their 90-minute talk with a song and an on-the-mouth kiss, an image that was all over media in subsequent weeks.After a gala week marking his 25th anniversary in June 2010, King abruptly announced he was retiring from his show, telling viewers, “It’s time to hang up my nightly suspenders.” Named as his successor in the time slot: British journalist and TV personality Piers Morgan.By King’s departure that December, suspicion had grown that he had waited a little too long to hang up those suspenders. Once the leader in cable TV news, he ranked third in his time slot with less than half the nightly audience his peak year, 1998, when “Larry King Live” drew 1.64 million viewers.His wide-eyed, regular-guy approach to interviewing by then felt dated in an era of edgy, pushy or loaded questioning by other hosts.Meanwhile, occasional flubs had made him seem out of touch, or worse. A prime example from 2007 found King asking Jerry Seinfeld if he had voluntarily left his sitcom or been canceled by his network, NBC.“I was the No. 1 show in television, Larry,” replied Seinfeld with a flabbergasted look. “Do you know who I am?”Always a workaholic, King would be back doing specials for CNN within a few months of performing his nightly duties.He found a new sort of celebrity as a plain-spoken natural on Twitter when the platform emerged, winning over more than 2 million followers who simultaneously mocked and loved him for his esoteric style.“I’ve never been in a canoe. #Itsmy2cents,” he said in a typical tweet in 2015.His Twitter account was essentially a revival of a USA Today column he wrote for two decades full of one-off, disjointed thoughts. Norm Macdonald delivered a parody version of the column when he played King on “Saturday Night Live,” with deadpan lines like, “The more I think about it, the more I appreciate the equator.”King was constantly parodied, often through old-age jokes on late-night talk shows from hosts including David Letterman and Conan O’Brien, often appearing with the latter to get in on the roasting himself.King came by his voracious but no-frills manner honestly.He was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in 1933, a son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who ran a bar and grill in Brooklyn. But after his father’s death when Larry was a boy, he faced a troubled, sometimes destitute youth.A fan of such radio stars as Arthur Godfrey and comedians Bob &amp; Ray, King on reaching adulthood set his sights on a broadcasting career. With word that Miami was a good place to break in, he headed south in 1957 and landed a job sweeping floors at a tiny AM station. When a deejay abruptly quit, King was put on the air — and was handed his new surname by the station manager, who thought Zeiger “too Jewish.”A year later he moved to a larger station, where his duties were expanded from the usual patter to serving as host of a daily interview show that aired from a local restaurant. He quickly proved equally adept at talking to the waitresses, and the celebrities who began dropping by.By the early 1960s King had gone to yet a larger Miami station, scored a newspaper column and become a local celebrity himself.At the same time, he fell victim to living large.“It was important to me to come across as a ‘big man,”’ he wrote in his autobiography, which meant “I made a lot of money and spread it around lavishly.”He accumulated debts and his first broken marriages (he was married eight times to seven women). He gambled, borrowed wildly and failed to pay his taxes. He also became involved with a shady financier in a scheme to bankroll an investigation of President Kennedy’s assassination. But when King skimmed some of the cash to pay his overdue taxes, his partner sued him for grand larceny in 1971. The charges were dropped, but King’s reputation appeared ruined.King lost his radio show and, for several years, struggled to find work. But by 1975 the scandal had largely blown over and a Miami station gave him another chance. Regaining his local popularity, King was signed in 1978 to host radio’s first nationwide call-in show.Originating from Washington on the Mutual network, “The Larry King Show” was eventually heard on more than 300 stations and made King a national phenomenon.A few years later, CNN founder Ted Turner offered King a slot on his young network. “Larry King Live” debuted on June 1, 1985, and became CNN’s highest-rated program. King’s beginning salary of $100,000 a year eventually grew to more than $7 million.A three-packs-a-day cigarette habit led to a heart attack in 1987, but King’s quintuple-bypass surgery didn’t slow him down.Meanwhile, he continued to prove that, in his words, “I’m not good at marriage, but I’m a great boyfriend.”He was just 18 when he married high school girlfriend Freda Miller, in 1952. The marriage lasted less than a year. In subsequent decades he would marry Annette Kay, Alene Akins (twice), Mickey Sutfin, Sharon Lepore and Julie Alexander.In 1997, he wed Shawn Southwick, a country singer and actress 26 years his junior. They would file for divorce in 2010, rescind the filing, then file for divorce again in 2019.The couple had two sons, King’s fourth and fifth kids, Chance Armstrong, born in 1999, and Cannon Edward, born in 2000. In 2020, King lost his two eldest children, Andy King and Chaia King, who died of unrelated health problems within weeks of each other.He had many other medical issues in recent decades, including more heart attacks and diagnoses of type 2 diabetes and lung cancer.Early in 2021, CNN reported that King was hospitalized for more than a week with COVID-19.Through his setbacks he continued to work into his late 80s, taking on online talk shows and infomercials as his appearances on CNN grew fewer.“Work,” King once said. “It’s the easiest thing I do.”___

Larry King, broadcasting giant for half-century, dies 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The Nebraska Supreme Court is allowing a lawsuit to continue against an Omaha natural gas utility for a 2016 fire that destroyed part of the downtown Omaha's Old Market.

The ruling Friday affirms the finding of a lower court that rejected Metropolitan Utilities District's request for summary judgment to be excused from the lawsuit.

The lawsuit stemmed from an explosion and fire sparked Jan. 9, 2016, when construction workers struck a natural gas line in front M's Pub restaurant in the Old Market. Gas leaked into the basement of the building and exploded, destroying the building that included other businesses and homes. The Nebraska Fire Marshal's Office later issued a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2c4c1eabca4d45bc8e91e9d1498da54f" target="_blank">report&nbsp;</a>saying Metropolitan Utilities District workers didn't properly mark the natural gas line that was breached, sparking the explosion and massive fire.

Property owners sued various contractors and MUD, and eventually settled with all defendants except MUD, which held that it was immune from the lawsuit.

The lower court and Nebraska Supreme Court justices disagreed, noting that MUD was required under law and its own policies to ensure that lines were clearly marked, that the gas was to be immediately shut off by MUD in the event of a gas fire and to ensure that abandoned gas lines are properly abandoned. Plaintiffs in the case say MUD failed at all three.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The Nebraska Supreme Court is allowing a lawsuit to continue against an Omaha natural gas utility for a 2016 fire that destroyed part of the downtown Omaha's Old Market.The ruling Friday affirms the finding of a lower court that rejected Metropolitan Utilities District's request for summary judgment to be excused from the lawsuit.The lawsuit stemmed from an explosion and fire sparked Jan. 9, 2016, when construction workers struck a natural gas line in front M's Pub restaurant in the Old Market. Gas leaked into the basement of the building and exploded, destroying the building that included other businesses and homes. The Nebraska Fire Marshal's Office later issued a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2c4c1eabca4d45bc8e91e9d1498da54f" target="_blank">report&nbsp;</a>saying Metropolitan Utilities District workers didn't properly mark the natural gas line that was breached, sparking the explosion and massive fire.Property owners sued various contractors and MUD, and eventually settled with all defendants except MUD, which held that it was immune from the lawsuit.The lower court and Nebraska Supreme Court justices disagreed, noting that MUD was required under law and its own policies to ensure that lines were clearly marked, that the gas was to be immediately shut off by MUD in the event of a gas fire and to ensure that abandoned gas lines are properly abandoned. Plaintiffs in the case say MUD failed at all three.

Ruling says lawsuit against MUD in Omaha fire can continue

CODY, Wyo. (AP) — Former Wyoming Senate President Hank Coe has died. He was 74. 

A Republican from Cody, Coe was first elected to the Wyoming Senate in 1988. Besides serving as Senate president from 2001-2002, Coe was chairman of the Senate Education Committee from 2003-2020 and played a key role in major decisions involving public education. Coe decided in March not to seek re-election. 

The Cody Enterprise reports that Coe was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in November and died Thursday at home with his children around him. 

His ex-wife Marty Coe says a small family funeral and a public celebration to honor Coe are likely.

CODY, Wyo. (AP) — Former Wyoming Senate President Hank Coe has died. He was 74. A Republican from Cody, Coe was first elected to the Wyoming Senate in 1988. Besides serving as Senate president from 2001-2002, Coe was chairman of the Senate Education Committee from 2003-2020 and played a key role in major decisions involving public education. Coe decided in March not to seek re-election. The Cody Enterprise reports that Coe was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in November and died Thursday at home with his children around him. His ex-wife Marty Coe says a small family funeral and a public celebration to honor Coe are likely.

Former Wyoming Senate President Coe dies at home at age 74

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Douglas County Sheriff's Office says one person has died in the crash of a pickup truck just west of Omaha. 

The sheriff's office says in a news release that the crash happened late Thursday night at 252nd and Q streets, when the truck left the road and hit a tree, killing the driver.

 A witness told investigators that the truck had been speeding well beyond the posted speed limit when it crashed. 

Authorities have not released the name of the person killed.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Douglas County Sheriff's Office says one person has died in the crash of a pickup truck just west of Omaha. The sheriff's office says in a news release that the crash happened late Thursday night at 252nd and Q streets, when the truck left the road and hit a tree, killing the driver. A witness told investigators that the truck had been speeding well beyond the posted speed limit when it crashed. Authorities have not released the name of the person killed.

Sheriff's office: 1 killed in truck crash near Omaha

ATLANTA (AP) — Hank Aaron, who endured racist threats with stoic dignity during his pursuit of Babe Ruth but went on to break the career home run record in the pre-steroids era, died early Friday. He was 86

The Atlanta Braves said Aaron died peacefully in his sleep. No cause of death was given.

Aaron made his last public appearance less than two weeks ago when he received the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Hammerin’ Hank” set a wide array of career hitting records during a 23-year career spent mostly with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves, including RBIs, extra-base hits and total bases.

But the Hall of Famer will be remembered for one swing above all others, the one that made him baseball’s home-run king.

It was a title he would hold for more than 33 years, a period in which the Hammer slowly but surely claimed his rightful place as one of America’s most iconic sporting figures, a true national treasure worthy of mention in the same breath with Ruth or Ali or Jordan.

ATLANTA (AP) — Hank Aaron, who endured racist threats with stoic dignity during his pursuit of Babe Ruth but went on to break the career home run record in the pre-steroids era, died early Friday. He was 86The Atlanta Braves said Aaron died peacefully in his sleep. No cause of death was given.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://t.co/4hOMsSGnRi">pic.twitter.com/4hOMsSGnRi</a>&mdash; Atlanta Braves (@Braves) <a href="https://twitter.com/Braves/status/1352650753920430083?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Aaron made his last public appearance less than two weeks ago when he received the COVID-19 vaccine.“Hammerin’ Hank” set a wide array of career hitting records during a 23-year career spent mostly with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves, including RBIs, extra-base hits and total bases.But the Hall of Famer will be remembered for one swing above all others, the one that made him baseball’s home-run king.It was a title he would hold for more than 33 years, a period in which the Hammer slowly but surely claimed his rightful place as one of America’s most iconic sporting figures, a true national treasure worthy of mention in the same breath with Ruth or Ali or Jordan.

Baseball legend Hank Aaron has died 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police are investigating after an off-duty officer fired gun at the vehicle of a suspected shoplifter at a northwest Omaha home improvement store. 

Police say in a news release that the shooting happened Wednesday night when the off-duty officer tried to stop a person accused of leaving the store without paying for items. 

Police say the shoplifting suspect refused to stop, jumped into a sport utility vehicle and took off, nearly hitting the officer. 

Police say the off-duty officer then pulled a handgun he has for personal use and fired a shot at one of the SUV's tires. 

Police say no one was injured in the shooting, and the suspect escaped.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police are investigating after an off-duty officer fired gun at the vehicle of a suspected shoplifter at a northwest Omaha home improvement store. Police say in a news release that the shooting happened Wednesday night when the off-duty officer tried to stop a person accused of leaving the store without paying for items. Police say the shoplifting suspect refused to stop, jumped into a sport utility vehicle and took off, nearly hitting the officer. Police say the off-duty officer then pulled a handgun he has for personal use and fired a shot at one of the SUV's tires. Police say no one was injured in the shooting, and the suspect escaped.

Off-duty Omaha officer shoots at suspected shoplifter's SUV

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a burst of executive orders, President Joe Biden served notice Thursday that America’s war on COVID-19 is under new command, promising an anxious nation progress to reduce infections and lift the siege it has endured for nearly a year.

At the same time, he tried to manage expectations in his second day in office, saying despite the best intentions “we’re going to face setbacks.” He brushed off a reporter’s question on whether his goal of 100 million coronavirus shots in 100 days should be more ambitious, a point pressed by some public health experts.

The 10 orders signed by Biden are aimed at jump starting his&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-pandemics-archive-coronavirus-pandemic-2cceeb30ccf92784a84cbfa16ed6c3ca">national COVID-19 strategy</a>&nbsp;to increase vaccinations and testing, lay the groundwork for reopening schools and businesses, and immediately increase the use of masks — including a requirement that Americans mask up for travel. One directive calls for addressing health care inequities in minority communities hard hit by the virus.

“We didn’t get into this mess overnight, and it will take months to turn this around,” Biden said at the White House. U.S. deaths have have surged past 400,000, and he noted projections that they could reach 500,000 in a month.

But then, looking directly into the TV camera, Biden declared: “To a nation waiting for action, let me be clear on this point: Help is on the way.”

The new president has vowed to take far&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/National-Strategy-for-the-COVID-19-Response-and-Pandemic-Preparedness.pdf" target="_blank">more aggressive measures</a>&nbsp;to contain the virus than his predecessor, starting with stringent adherence to public health guidance. A key difference is that under Biden, the federal government is assuming full responsibility for the COVID response. And instead of delegating major tasks to states, he is offering to help them with technical backup and federal money.

He faces steep obstacles, with the virus actively spreading in most states, slow progress on the vaccine rollout and political uncertainty over whether congressional Republicans will help him pass a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-coronavirus-action-plan-3d8d5841bb9098a81ad9452fb2619024">$1.9 trillion economic relief and COVID response package.</a>

On Thursday a group influential with Republican office holders lent its support to Biden’s strategy. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said, “We support the new administration’s focus on removing roadblocks to vaccinations and reopening schools, both of which are important steps to accelerating a broad-based economic recovery for all Americans.”

Biden officials have said they’ve been hampered by a lack of cooperation from the Trump administration during the transition. They say they don’t have a complete understanding of their predecessors’ actions on vaccine distribution. And they face a litany of complaints from states that say they are not getting enough vaccine even as they are being asked to vaccinate more categories of people.

The U.S. mask order for travel implemented by Biden applies to airports and planes, ships, intercity buses, trains and public transportation. Travelers from abroad must furnish a negative COVID-19 test before departing for the U.S. and must quarantine upon arrival. Biden has already mandated masks on federal property.

Although airlines, Amtrak and other transport providers now require masks, Biden’s order makes it a federal mandate, leaving little wiggle room for passengers tempted to argue about their rights. It marks a sharp break with the culture of President Donald Trump’s administration, under which masks were optional, and Trump made a point of going maskless and hosting big gatherings of like-minded supporters. Science has shown that masks, properly worn, cut down on coronavirus transmission.

Biden is seeking to expand testing and vaccine availability, with the goal of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/a512629b3af12e89ab42097a81668960">100 million shots in his first 100 days in office</a>. But some independent experts say his administration should strive for two or three times that number. Even with the slow pace of vaccinations, the U.S. is already closing in on 1 million shots a day.

“It’s a disappointingly low bar,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a public health expert and emergency physician.

Asked about that at the White House on Thursday, Biden told a reporter: “When I announced it, you all said it’s not possible. Come on, give me a break, man.”

The Democratic president has directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to begin setting up vaccination centers, aiming to have 100 up and running in a month. He’s ordering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin a program to make vaccines available through local pharmacies starting next month, building on a plan devised by the Trump administration. And he’s launching an effort to train more people to administer shots.

Biden has set a goal of having most K-8 schools reopen in his first 100 days, and he’s ordering the departments of Education and Health and Human Services to provide clear guidance for reopening them safely. States would also be able to tap FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to help get schools back open.

Getting schools and child care going will help ease the drag on the U.S. economy, making it easier for parents to return to their jobs and for restaurants to find lunch-time customers.

But administration officials stressed that reopening schools safely depends on increased testing.

Biden is giving government agencies a green light to use the Cold War-era&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/16bf293467703f6b4fceae5a7f272ab5">Defense Production Act</a>&nbsp;to direct manufacturing. It allows the government to direct private industry to produce supplies needed in times of national emergency. In this case it could be anything from swabs, to masks, to certain chemicals.

“We do not have nearly enough testing capacity in this country,” said White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients. “We need (more) money in order to really ramp up testing, which is so important to reopen schools and businesses.”

This means that efforts to boost the economy could hinge on how quickly lawmakers act on the $1.9 trillion package proposed by Biden, which includes separate planks such as $1,400 in direct payments to most working people, a $15 minimum wage and aid to state and local governments that some Republican lawmakers see as unnecessary for addressing the public health emergency.

The Biden plan estimates that a national vaccination strategy with expanded testing requires $160 billion, and he wants an additional $170 billion to aid the reopening of schools and universities. The proposal also calls for major investment in scientific research to track new variants of the virus.

As part of his strategy, Biden ordered establishment of a Health Equity Task Force to ensure that minority and underserved communities are not left out of the government’s response. Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans have borne a heavy burden of death and disease from the virus. Surveys have shown vaccine hesitancy is high among African Americans, a problem the administration plans to address through an education campaign.

But Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, the top White House health adviser on minority communities, said she’s not convinced that race is a factor in vaccination reluctance. Disparities seem to have more to do with risky jobs and other life circumstances.

“It’s not inherent to race,” she said. “It’s from the exposures.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1611316225677.png" alt="President Biden discussed his COVID-19 plan Thursday -image courtesy White House" />
 <figcaption>President Biden discussed his COVID-19 plan Thursday -image courtesy White House</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — With a burst of executive orders, President Joe Biden served notice Thursday that America’s war on COVID-19 is under new command, promising an anxious nation progress to reduce infections and lift the siege it has endured for nearly a year.At the same time, he tried to manage expectations in his second day in office, saying despite the best intentions “we’re going to face setbacks.” He brushed off a reporter’s question on whether his goal of 100 million coronavirus shots in 100 days should be more ambitious, a point pressed by some public health experts.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Today, <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> issued a mask mandate on federal property, launching his “100 Day Masking Challenge” as part of our efforts to flatten the COVID-19 curve. <a href="https://t.co/NLGr6JHB0h">pic.twitter.com/NLGr6JHB0h</a>&mdash; The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1352086017822650368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The 10 orders signed by Biden are aimed at jump starting his&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-pandemics-archive-coronavirus-pandemic-2cceeb30ccf92784a84cbfa16ed6c3ca">national COVID-19 strategy</a>&nbsp;to increase vaccinations and testing, lay the groundwork for reopening schools and businesses, and immediately increase the use of masks — including a requirement that Americans mask up for travel. One directive calls for addressing health care inequities in minority communities hard hit by the virus.“We didn’t get into this mess overnight, and it will take months to turn this around,” Biden said at the White House. U.S. deaths have have surged past 400,000, and he noted projections that they could reach 500,000 in a month.But then, looking directly into the TV camera, Biden declared: “To a nation waiting for action, let me be clear on this point: Help is on the way.”The new president has vowed to take far&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/National-Strategy-for-the-COVID-19-Response-and-Pandemic-Preparedness.pdf" target="_blank">more aggressive measures</a>&nbsp;to contain the virus than his predecessor, starting with stringent adherence to public health guidance. A key difference is that under Biden, the federal government is assuming full responsibility for the COVID response. And instead of delegating major tasks to states, he is offering to help them with technical backup and federal money.He faces steep obstacles, with the virus actively spreading in most states, slow progress on the vaccine rollout and political uncertainty over whether congressional Republicans will help him pass a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-coronavirus-action-plan-3d8d5841bb9098a81ad9452fb2619024">$1.9 trillion economic relief and COVID response package.</a>On Thursday a group influential with Republican office holders lent its support to Biden’s strategy. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said, “We support the new administration’s focus on removing roadblocks to vaccinations and reopening schools, both of which are important steps to accelerating a broad-based economic recovery for all Americans.”Biden officials have said they’ve been hampered by a lack of cooperation from the Trump administration during the transition. They say they don’t have a complete understanding of their predecessors’ actions on vaccine distribution. And they face a litany of complaints from states that say they are not getting enough vaccine even as they are being asked to vaccinate more categories of people.The U.S. mask order for travel implemented by Biden applies to airports and planes, ships, intercity buses, trains and public transportation. Travelers from abroad must furnish a negative COVID-19 test before departing for the U.S. and must quarantine upon arrival. Biden has already mandated masks on federal property.Although airlines, Amtrak and other transport providers now require masks, Biden’s order makes it a federal mandate, leaving little wiggle room for passengers tempted to argue about their rights. It marks a sharp break with the culture of President Donald Trump’s administration, under which masks were optional, and Trump made a point of going maskless and hosting big gatherings of like-minded supporters. Science has shown that masks, properly worn, cut down on coronavirus transmission.Biden is seeking to expand testing and vaccine availability, with the goal of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/a512629b3af12e89ab42097a81668960">100 million shots in his first 100 days in office</a>. But some independent experts say his administration should strive for two or three times that number. Even with the slow pace of vaccinations, the U.S. is already closing in on 1 million shots a day.“It’s a disappointingly low bar,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a public health expert and emergency physician.Asked about that at the White House on Thursday, Biden told a reporter: “When I announced it, you all said it’s not possible. Come on, give me a break, man.”The Democratic president has directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to begin setting up vaccination centers, aiming to have 100 up and running in a month. He’s ordering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin a program to make vaccines available through local pharmacies starting next month, building on a plan devised by the Trump administration. And he’s launching an effort to train more people to administer shots.Biden has set a goal of having most K-8 schools reopen in his first 100 days, and he’s ordering the departments of Education and Health and Human Services to provide clear guidance for reopening them safely. States would also be able to tap FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to help get schools back open.Getting schools and child care going will help ease the drag on the U.S. economy, making it easier for parents to return to their jobs and for restaurants to find lunch-time customers.But administration officials stressed that reopening schools safely depends on increased testing.Biden is giving government agencies a green light to use the Cold War-era&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/16bf293467703f6b4fceae5a7f272ab5">Defense Production Act</a>&nbsp;to direct manufacturing. It allows the government to direct private industry to produce supplies needed in times of national emergency. In this case it could be anything from swabs, to masks, to certain chemicals.“We do not have nearly enough testing capacity in this country,” said White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients. “We need (more) money in order to really ramp up testing, which is so important to reopen schools and businesses.”This means that efforts to boost the economy could hinge on how quickly lawmakers act on the $1.9 trillion package proposed by Biden, which includes separate planks such as $1,400 in direct payments to most working people, a $15 minimum wage and aid to state and local governments that some Republican lawmakers see as unnecessary for addressing the public health emergency.The Biden plan estimates that a national vaccination strategy with expanded testing requires $160 billion, and he wants an additional $170 billion to aid the reopening of schools and universities. The proposal also calls for major investment in scientific research to track new variants of the virus.As part of his strategy, Biden ordered establishment of a Health Equity Task Force to ensure that minority and underserved communities are not left out of the government’s response. Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans have borne a heavy burden of death and disease from the virus. Surveys have shown vaccine hesitancy is high among African Americans, a problem the administration plans to address through an education campaign.But Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, the top White House health adviser on minority communities, said she’s not convinced that race is a factor in vaccination reluctance. Disparities seem to have more to do with risky jobs and other life circumstances.“It’s not inherent to race,” she said. “It’s from the exposures.”___

Biden’s mask order for travel includes airports, Amtrak and more

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Wednesday defended Donald Trump's legacy while refusing to say whether he held any responsibility in goading the mob that attacked the Capitol. 

The Republican governor was a close Trump ally and supported his efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election.

 Other Republicans have said that Trump’s lie that the election was stolen has tarnished his legacy. 

But in her first news conference since a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, Noem says Trump’s policies were “overwhelmingly” good and signaled she wanted to skip over holding anyone responsible for the attack on Congress.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Wednesday defended Donald Trump's legacy while refusing to say whether he held any responsibility in goading the mob that attacked the Capitol. The Republican governor was a close Trump ally and supported his efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election. Other Republicans have said that Trump’s lie that the election was stolen has tarnished his legacy. But in her first news conference since a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, Noem says Trump’s policies were “overwhelmingly” good and signaled she wanted to skip over holding anyone responsible for the attack on Congress.

Noem defends Trump legacy, deflects blame for Capitol mob

WASHINGTON (AP) —President Joe Biden revoked a recent Trump <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/The-Presidents-Advisory-1776-Commission-Final-Report.pdf">administration report </a>that aimed to promote “patriotic education” in schools but that historians mocked and rejected as political propaganda.

In an executive order signed on Wednesday in his first day in office, Biden disbanded&nbsp;Donald Trump’s <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/The-Presidents-Advisory-1776-Commission-Final-Report.pdf">presidential 1776 Commission&nbsp;</a>and withdrew a report it released Monday. Trump established the group in September to rally support from white voters and as a response to The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” which highlights the lasting consequences of slavery in America.

<a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/The-Presidents-Advisory-1776-Commission-Final-Report.pdf">In its report, </a>which Trump hoped would be used in classrooms across the nation, the commission glorifies the country’s founders, plays down America’s role in slavery, condemns the rise of progressive politics and argues that the civil rights movement ran afoul of the “lofty ideals” espoused by the Founding Fathers.

The panel, which included no professional historians of the United States, complained of “false and fashionable ideologies” that depict the country’s story as one of “oppression and victimhood.” Instead, it called for renewed efforts to foster “a brave and honest love for our country.”

Historians widely panned the report, saying it offers a false and outdated version of American history that ignores decades of research.

“It’s an insult to the whole enterprise of education. Education is supposed to help young people learn to think critically,” said David Blight, a Civil War historian at Yale University. “That report is a piece of right-wing propaganda.”

Trump officials heralded the report as “a definitive chronicle of the American founding,” but scholars say it disregards the most basic rules of scholarship. It offers no citations, for example, or a list of its source materials.

It also includes several passages copied directly from other writings by members of the panel, as one professor found after running the report through software that’s used to detect plagiarism.

Matthew Spalding, the panel’s executive director and a vice president at the conservative Hillsdale College, denied any wrongdoing, saying the panel’s members “contributed our own work and writing, under our own names, to the 1776 Report, which was an advisory report to the president.”

Spalding and other commission leaders did not immediately respond to other criticism leveled against the report.

In his order dissolving the panel, Biden said it “sought to erase America’s history of racial injustice.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1611233837065.png" alt="<a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/The-Presidents-Advisory-1776-Commission-Final-Report.pdf">Click here t</a>o read Donald Trump's 1776 Report" />
 <figcaption><a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/The-Presidents-Advisory-1776-Commission-Final-Report.pdf">Click here t</a>o read Donald Trump's 1776 Report</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) —President Joe Biden revoked a recent Trump <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/The-Presidents-Advisory-1776-Commission-Final-Report.pdf">administration report </a>that aimed to promote “patriotic education” in schools but that historians mocked and rejected as political propaganda.In an executive order signed on Wednesday in his first day in office, Biden disbanded&nbsp;Donald Trump’s <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/The-Presidents-Advisory-1776-Commission-Final-Report.pdf">presidential 1776 Commission&nbsp;</a>and withdrew a report it released Monday. Trump established the group in September to rally support from white voters and as a response to The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” which highlights the lasting consequences of slavery in America.<a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/The-Presidents-Advisory-1776-Commission-Final-Report.pdf">In its report, </a>which Trump hoped would be used in classrooms across the nation, the commission glorifies the country’s founders, plays down America’s role in slavery, condemns the rise of progressive politics and argues that the civil rights movement ran afoul of the “lofty ideals” espoused by the Founding Fathers.The panel, which included no professional historians of the United States, complained of “false and fashionable ideologies” that depict the country’s story as one of “oppression and victimhood.” Instead, it called for renewed efforts to foster “a brave and honest love for our country.”Historians widely panned the report, saying it offers a false and outdated version of American history that ignores decades of research.“It’s an insult to the whole enterprise of education. Education is supposed to help young people learn to think critically,” said David Blight, a Civil War historian at Yale University. “That report is a piece of right-wing propaganda.”Trump officials heralded the report as “a definitive chronicle of the American founding,” but scholars say it disregards the most basic rules of scholarship. It offers no citations, for example, or a list of its source materials.It also includes several passages copied directly from other writings by members of the panel, as one professor found after running the report through software that’s used to detect plagiarism.Matthew Spalding, the panel’s executive director and a vice president at the conservative Hillsdale College, denied any wrongdoing, saying the panel’s members “contributed our own work and writing, under our own names, to the 1776 Report, which was an advisory report to the president.”Spalding and other commission leaders did not immediately respond to other criticism leveled against the report.In his order dissolving the panel, Biden said it “sought to erase America’s history of racial injustice.”The American Historical Association condemned the document, saying it glorifies the founders while ignoring the histories and contributions of enslaved people, Indigenous communities and women. In a statement also signed by 13 other academic groups, the organization says the report seeks “government indoctrination of American students.”The sharpest criticism of the report was directed at its presentation of slavery and race. The report attempts to undermine allegations of hypocrisy against Founding Fathers who owned slaves even as they espoused equality. It also attempts to soften America’s role in slavery and explain it as a product of the times.“Many Americans labor under the illusion that slavery was somehow a uniquely American evil,” the panel wrote in the 20-page report. “The unfortunate fact is that the institution of slavery has been more the rule than the exception throughout human history.”Blight, at Yale, compared it to “a sixth or seventh grade kind of approach to history — to make the children feel good.” He added: “But it’s worse than that, because it comes out of an agenda of political propaganda.”The authors argue that the civil rights movement was distorted to advance programs promoting inequality and “group privilege.” It complains, for example, about affirmative action and other forms of “preferential treatment.”Ibram X. Kendi, a scholar and historian of racism at Boston University, called the report “the last great lie from a Trump administration of great lies.”“If we have commonly been given preferential treatment, then why do Black people remain on the lower and dying end of nearly every racial disparity?” Kendi said on Twitter. “Whenever they answer this question, they express racist ideas of Black inferiority while claiming they are ‘not racist.’”Other scholars underscored what was left out. The report includes nothing of Native American history, and its only reference to Indigenous people is a racial slur quoted from the Declaration of Independence.In one passage jeered by historians, the authors draw a comparison between the progressive movement in America and fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association, said the report is intended to discredit contemporary public policies rooted in America’s progressive reform movement. He worries that, even after Biden dissolved the commission, its report could end up in some classrooms.“Historians need to be paying attention to curriculum conversations in localities and at the state level,” Grossman said. “The nonsense that’s in this report will be used to legitimate similar nonsense.”In a public meeting of the commission this month, some members held out hope that Biden would keep the commission alive. But others said they needed to push the report to state and local education officials.“It’s really going to be up to governors and state legislators and school board members and parents and higher education commissioners even students to take this charge and carry this work forward,” said Doug Hoelscher, a White House assistant under Trump.The report ultimately demands a shift in teaching at schools and at U.S. universities, which the panel describes as “hotbeds of anti-Americanism.” It denounces any teaching that breeds contempt for American ideals, blaming that kind of “destructive scholarship” for the nation’s divisions and for “so much of the violence in our cities.”“To restore our society,” the report says, “academics must return to their vocation of relentlessly pursuing the truth and engaging in honest scholarship that seeks to understand the world and America’s place in it.”