PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has suspended a teen driving law which was set to take effect this week. 

Noem says the legislative bill was suspended because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic and the impact the new law would have on licensing. 

The governor says the suspension of the law which was to have taken effect July 1 will help relieve the backlog on driver’s license offices across the state. 

The bill stretches the required length of time to hold a car or motorcycle instruction permit from 180 days to 275 days, among other changes.&nbsp;&nbsp;

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has suspended a teen driving law which was set to take effect this week. Noem says the legislative bill was suspended because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic and the impact the new law would have on licensing. The governor says the suspension of the law which was to have taken effect July 1 will help relieve the backlog on driver’s license offices across the state. The bill stretches the required length of time to hold a car or motorcycle instruction permit from 180 days to 275 days, among other changes.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Noem suspends SD teen driving law during COVID-19

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska man faces felony charges after allegedly killing his dog with a baseball bat and then burying it in his backyard. 

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that 21-year-old Khaleem Baringer of Kearney is charged with felony use of a weapon to commit a felony and intentional felony animal cruelty of his dog, Mary Jane, a week ago.

 A witness told police Baringer hit the dog several times in the head with the bat after it defecated on the floor and nipped at a woman as she tried to place the dog into a kennel.&nbsp;

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska man faces felony charges after allegedly killing his dog with a baseball bat and then burying it in his backyard. The Lincoln Journal Star reports that 21-year-old Khaleem Baringer of Kearney is charged with felony use of a weapon to commit a felony and intentional felony animal cruelty of his dog, Mary Jane, a week ago. A witness told police Baringer hit the dog several times in the head with the bat after it defecated on the floor and nipped at a woman as she tried to place the dog into a kennel.&nbsp;

Nebraska man faces felony charges after dog brutally killed

LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — Police in Laramie arrested seven protesters and cited five more at a demonstration Thursday. 

Laramie police say most arrests and citations were for disorderly conduct though one charge was for “amplified noise."

 Protests against police brutality and racism have occurred in Laramie since June 2, a week after the death of George Floyd under an officer’s knee in Minneapolis sparked protests nationwide. 

The Laramie Boomerang reports protests have often spilled into downtown streets. 

Police warned protesters earlier Thursday they planned to cite anybody blocking a street. 

Protesters marched down a major thoroughfare, Grand Avenue, until they met police who forced them onto a sidewalk.

LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — Police in Laramie arrested seven protesters and cited five more at a demonstration Thursday. Laramie police say most arrests and citations were for disorderly conduct though one charge was for “amplified noise." Protests against police brutality and racism have occurred in Laramie since June 2, a week after the death of George Floyd under an officer’s knee in Minneapolis sparked protests nationwide. The Laramie Boomerang reports protests have often spilled into downtown streets. Police warned protesters earlier Thursday they planned to cite anybody blocking a street. Protesters marched down a major thoroughfare, Grand Avenue, until they met police who forced them onto a sidewalk.

Seven protesters arrested after march down Laramie street

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota health officials are reporting 55 new cases of the coronavirus spread out among 21 counties, increasing the total number of positive tests in the state to nearly 6,700. 

The update showed that the state screened 792 people in the last day, for a positive test rate of 6.9%. 

There are currently 838 active cases, an increase of 20 since Saturday. Of those, 75 are hospitalized, an increase of two. 

The new positive tests included 12 in Minnehaha County, putting it two away from 3,600 total cases, and 10 in Pennington County, putting it over 500 total cases.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota health officials are reporting 55 new cases of the coronavirus spread out among 21 counties, increasing the total number of positive tests in the state to nearly 6,700. The update showed that the state screened 792 people in the last day, for a positive test rate of 6.9%. There are currently 838 active cases, an increase of 20 since Saturday. Of those, 75 are hospitalized, an increase of two. No new deaths were reported. The new positive tests included 12 in Minnehaha County, putting it two away from 3,600 total cases, and 10 in Pennington County, putting it over 500 total cases.

South Dakota confirms 55 new virus cases among 21 counties

ROME (AP) — The world surpassed two sobering coronavirus milestones Sunday -- 500,000 confirmed deaths, 10 million confirmed cases -- and hit another high mark for daily new infections as governments that attempted reopenings continued to backtrack and warn that worse news could be yet to come.

“COVID-19 has taken a very swift and very dangerous turn in Texas over just the past few weeks,” said Gov. Greg Abbott, who allowed businesses to start reopening in early May but on Friday shut down bars and limited restaurant dining amid a spike in cases.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom rolled back reopenings of bars in seven counties, including Los Angeles. He ordered them to close immediately and urged eight other counties to issue local health orders mandating the same.

More Florida beaches will be closing again to avoid further spread of the new coronavirus as officials try to tamp down on large gatherings amid a spike in COVID-19 cases. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said interactions among young people are driving the surge.

“Caution was thrown to the wind and so we are where we are,” DeSantis said.

South Africa’s health minister warned that the country’s current surge of cases is expected to rapidly increase in the coming weeks and push hospitals to the limit. Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize said the current rise in infections has come from people who “moved back into the workplace.

New clusters of cases at a Swiss nightclub and in the central English city of Leicester showed that the virus was still circulating widely in Europe, though not with the rapidly growing infection rate seen in parts of the U.S., Latin America and India.

Poland and France, meanwhile, attempted a step toward normalcy as they held elections that had been delayed by the virus.

Wearing mandatory masks, social distancing in lines and carrying their own pens to sign voting registers, French voters cast ballots in a second round of municipal elections. Poles also wore masks and used hand sanitizer, and some in virus-hit areas were told to mail in their ballots.

“I didn’t go and vote the first time around because I am elderly and I got scared,” said Fanny Barouh as she voted in a Paris school.

In Texas, Abbott appeared with Vice President Mike Pence, who cut campaign events from upcoming visits to Florida and Arizona because of rising virus cases in those states.

Pence praised Abbott for both his decision to reopen the state, and to roll back the reopening plans.

“You flattened the curve here in Texas ... but about two weeks ago something changed,” Pence said.

Pence urged people to wear masks when unable to practice social distancing. He and Abbott wore face masks as they entered and left the room, taking them off while speaking to reporters.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, meanwhile, defended the fact that President Donald Trump has rarely worn a mask in public, saying he doesn’t have to follow his own administration’s guidance because as a leader of the free world he’s tested regularly and is in “very different circumstances than the rest of us.”

Addressing spikes in reported coronavirus cases in some states, Azar said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that people “have to take ownership” of their own behaviors by social distancing and wearing masks if possible.

A reported tally Sunday from Johns Hopkins University researchers said the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic had topped 500,00.

About 1 in 4 of those deaths – more than 125,000 – have been reported in the U.S. The country with the next highest death toll is Brazil, with more than 57,000, or about 1 in 9.

The true death toll from the virus, which first emerged in China late last year, is widely believed to be significantly higher. Experts say that especially early on, many victims died of COVID-19 without being tested for it.

To date, more than 10 million confirmed cases have been reported globally. About a quarter of them have been reported in the U.S.

The World Health Organization announced another daily record in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the world - topping over 189,000 in a single 24-hour period. The tally eclipses the previous record a week earlier at over 183,000 cases, showing case counts continue to progress worldwide.

Overall the U.S. still has far and away the most total cases. At more than 2,450,000 - roughly twice that of Brazil. The number of actual cases worldwide is much higher.

New York, once the nation’s pandemic epicenter, is now “on the exact opposite end,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in an interview with “Meet the Press.”

The state reported five new virus deaths Saturday, its lowest reported daily death toll since March 15. During the state’s peak pandemic in April, nearly 800 people were dying every day. New York still leads the nation in COVID-19 deaths with nearly 25,000.

In the state of Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee put a hold on plans to move counties to the fourth phase of his reopening plan as cases continue to increase. But in Hawaii, the city of Honolulu announced that campgrounds will reopen for the first time in three months with limited permits to ensure social distancing.

Britain’s government, meanwhile, is considering whether a local lockdown is needed for the central English city of Leicester amid reports about a spike in COVID-19 among its Asian community. It would be Britain’s first local lockdown.

“We have seen flare-ups across the country in recent weeks,” Home Secretary Priti Patel told the BBC on Sunday.

Polish voters were casting ballots, in person and by mail, for a presidential election that was supposed to have taken place in May but was chaotically postponed amid the pandemic. President Andrzej Duda, a 48-year-old conservative, is running against 10 other candidates as he seeks a second five-year term.

Iwona Goge, 79, was encouraged to see so many people voting in Warsaw.

“It’s bad. Poland is terribly divided and people are getting discouraged,” she said.

French voters were choosing mayors and municipal councilors in Paris and 5,000 towns and cities in a second round of municipal elections held under strict hygiene rules.

Italy was honoring its dead later Sunday with an evening Requiem concert in hard-hit Bergamo province. The ceremony in the onetime epicenter of the European outbreak came a day after Italy registered the lowest daily tally of COVID-19 deaths in nearly four months: eight.

European leaders were taking no chances in tamping down new clusters. German authorities renewed a lockdown in a western region of about 500,000 people after about 1,300 slaughterhouse workers tested positive.

Africa’s confirmed cases of COVID-19 continued to climb to a new high of more than 371,000, including 9,484 deaths, according to figures released Sunday by the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

China on Monday reported a further decline in new confirmed cases, with a total of just 12, including seven cases of domestic transmission in Beijing, where nearly 8.3 million people have now undergone testing in recent weeks. No new deaths were reported Monday, leaving the total at 4,634 among 83,512 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

ROME (AP) — Another tragic milestone was passed Sunday in the coronavirus pandemic: 500,000 deaths worldwide.

The reported tally comes <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">from Johns Hopkins University </a>researchers.

The nation’s top public health agency has revamped its list of which Americans are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness, adding pregnant women and removing age alone as a factor.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html" target="_blank">changed the list</a>&nbsp;of underlying conditions that make someone more susceptible to suffering and death. Sickle cell disease joined the list, for example. And the threshold for risky levels of obesity was lowered.

The changes didn’t include adding race as a risk factor for serious illness, despite accumulating evidence that Black people, Hispanics and Native Americans have higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death.

Agency officials said the update was prompted by medical studies published since CDC first started listing high-risk groups. They sought to publicize the information before Independence Day weekend, when many people may be tempted to go out and socialize.

“For those at higher risk, we recommend limiting contact with others as much as possible, or restricting contacts to a small number of people who are willing to take measures to reduce the risk of (you) becoming infected,” said CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield.

The same advice holds for people who live with or care for people at higher risk, Redfield added.

Previously, the CDC said those at high risk of serious illness included people aged 65 years and older; those who live in a nursing home or long-term care facility; and people with serious heart conditions, obesity, diabetes, liver disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung disease, and conditions that leave them with weakened immune systems.

In the changes, CDC created categories of people who are at high risk and people who might be at high risk.

Those who are at high risk include people with chronic kidney disease, chronic inflammatory lung disease, obesity, serious heart conditions, sickle cell disease, Type 2 diabetes, and weakened immune systems because of organ transplants. The threshold for obesity concern was lowered from a body mass index of 40 down to 30.

The CDC said people are at increasing risk as they get older, but it removed people 65 and older as a high risk group.

The list of people who might be at high risk includes pregnant women, smokers and those with asthma, diseases that affect blood flow to the brain, cystic fibrosis, high blood pressure, dementia, liver disease, scarred or damaged lungs, Type 1 diabetes, a rare blood disorder called thalassemia, and people who have weakened immune systems due to HIV or other reasons.

Pregnant women joined the list on the same day a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6925a1.htm?s_cid=mm6925a1_w" target="_blank">CDC report&nbsp;</a>found they accounted for about 9% of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in women of childbearing age. About 5% of women of childbearing age are pregnant at any given time.

The report showed that pregnant women had higher rates of hospitalization, of admission to a hospital intensive care unit and of winding up on a breathing machine vs. young women who weren’t pregnant. There was no clear evidence of a higher death rate among pregnant women, however.

It’s not completely surprising, said Dr. Denise Jamieson, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the Emory University School of Medicine. Pregnant women have been found to be at higher risk from other infectious respiratory diseases, likely because the lungs decrease in the volume as the uterus grows, Jamieson said.

What is surprising, she said, is that CDC didn’t place pregnant women in the highest risk category.

“To me this is the most compelling evidence to date that pregnant women are at increased risk,” said Jamieson, who spent 20 years at CDC as a reproductive health expert.

Earlier this week, CDC officials called on a panel of experts to help them identify groups that should be prioritized for coronavirus vaccinations if one becomes available and supplies are limited.

Pregnant women could be among that group. So could certain racial and ethnic groups.

CDC officials shared data with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that showed, compared with white Americans, coronavirus hospitalization rates were 4 times higher for Hispanics, 4.5 times higher for Black people, and 5.5 higher for American Indians and Alaska Natives. A recent study in the Atlanta area suggested that being Black was as large a risk for hospitalization as having diabetes, being a smoker or being obese.

“If we fail to address racial and ethnic groups as at high risk for prioritization, whatever comes out of our group will be looked at very suspiciously and with a lot of reservation,” said Dr. Jose Romero, chair of the expert panel.

“They are groups that need to be moved to the forefront,” he said.

CDC officials say they expect to come out with recommendations for racial and ethnic minority groups soon.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1593379644162.png" alt="John Hopkins Covid 19 map of of confirmed cases June 28, 2020" />
 <figcaption>John Hopkins Covid 19 map of of confirmed cases June 28, 2020</figcaption>
 </figure>ROME (AP) — The world surpassed two sobering coronavirus milestones Sunday -- 500,000 confirmed deaths, 10 million confirmed cases -- and hit another high mark for daily new infections as governments that attempted reopenings continued to backtrack and warn that worse news could be yet to come.“COVID-19 has taken a very swift and very dangerous turn in Texas over just the past few weeks,” said Gov. Greg Abbott, who allowed businesses to start reopening in early May but on Friday shut down bars and limited restaurant dining amid a spike in cases.California Gov. Gavin Newsom rolled back reopenings of bars in seven counties, including Los Angeles. He ordered them to close immediately and urged eight other counties to issue local health orders mandating the same.More Florida beaches will be closing again to avoid further spread of the new coronavirus as officials try to tamp down on large gatherings amid a spike in COVID-19 cases. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said interactions among young people are driving the surge.“Caution was thrown to the wind and so we are where we are,” DeSantis said.South Africa’s health minister warned that the country’s current surge of cases is expected to rapidly increase in the coming weeks and push hospitals to the limit. Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize said the current rise in infections has come from people who “moved back into the workplace.New clusters of cases at a Swiss nightclub and in the central English city of Leicester showed that the virus was still circulating widely in Europe, though not with the rapidly growing infection rate seen in parts of the U.S., Latin America and India.Poland and France, meanwhile, attempted a step toward normalcy as they held elections that had been delayed by the virus.Wearing mandatory masks, social distancing in lines and carrying their own pens to sign voting registers, French voters cast ballots in a second round of municipal elections. Poles also wore masks and used hand sanitizer, and some in virus-hit areas were told to mail in their ballots.“I didn’t go and vote the first time around because I am elderly and I got scared,” said Fanny Barouh as she voted in a Paris school.In Texas, Abbott appeared with Vice President Mike Pence, who cut campaign events from upcoming visits to Florida and Arizona because of rising virus cases in those states.Pence praised Abbott for both his decision to reopen the state, and to roll back the reopening plans.“You flattened the curve here in Texas ... but about two weeks ago something changed,” Pence said.Pence urged people to wear masks when unable to practice social distancing. He and Abbott wore face masks as they entered and left the room, taking them off while speaking to reporters.Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, meanwhile, defended the fact that President Donald Trump has rarely worn a mask in public, saying he doesn’t have to follow his own administration’s guidance because as a leader of the free world he’s tested regularly and is in “very different circumstances than the rest of us.”Addressing spikes in reported coronavirus cases in some states, Azar said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that people “have to take ownership” of their own behaviors by social distancing and wearing masks if possible.A reported tally Sunday from Johns Hopkins University researchers said the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic had topped 500,00.About 1 in 4 of those deaths – more than 125,000 – have been reported in the U.S. The country with the next highest death toll is Brazil, with more than 57,000, or about 1 in 9.The true death toll from the virus, which first emerged in China late last year, is widely believed to be significantly higher. Experts say that especially early on, many victims died of COVID-19 without being tested for it.To date, more than 10 million confirmed cases have been reported globally. About a quarter of them have been reported in the U.S.The World Health Organization announced another daily record in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the world - topping over 189,000 in a single 24-hour period. The tally eclipses the previous record a week earlier at over 183,000 cases, showing case counts continue to progress worldwide.Overall the U.S. still has far and away the most total cases. At more than 2,450,000 - roughly twice that of Brazil. The number of actual cases worldwide is much higher.New York, once the nation’s pandemic epicenter, is now “on the exact opposite end,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in an interview with “Meet the Press.”The state reported five new virus deaths Saturday, its lowest reported daily death toll since March 15. During the state’s peak pandemic in April, nearly 800 people were dying every day. New York still leads the nation in COVID-19 deaths with nearly 25,000.In the state of Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee put a hold on plans to move counties to the fourth phase of his reopening plan as cases continue to increase. But in Hawaii, the city of Honolulu announced that campgrounds will reopen for the first time in three months with limited permits to ensure social distancing.Britain’s government, meanwhile, is considering whether a local lockdown is needed for the central English city of Leicester amid reports about a spike in COVID-19 among its Asian community. It would be Britain’s first local lockdown.“We have seen flare-ups across the country in recent weeks,” Home Secretary Priti Patel told the BBC on Sunday.Polish voters were casting ballots, in person and by mail, for a presidential election that was supposed to have taken place in May but was chaotically postponed amid the pandemic. President Andrzej Duda, a 48-year-old conservative, is running against 10 other candidates as he seeks a second five-year term.Iwona Goge, 79, was encouraged to see so many people voting in Warsaw.“It’s bad. Poland is terribly divided and people are getting discouraged,” she said.French voters were choosing mayors and municipal councilors in Paris and 5,000 towns and cities in a second round of municipal elections held under strict hygiene rules.Italy was honoring its dead later Sunday with an evening Requiem concert in hard-hit Bergamo province. The ceremony in the onetime epicenter of the European outbreak came a day after Italy registered the lowest daily tally of COVID-19 deaths in nearly four months: eight.European leaders were taking no chances in tamping down new clusters. German authorities renewed a lockdown in a western region of about 500,000 people after about 1,300 slaughterhouse workers tested positive.Africa’s confirmed cases of COVID-19 continued to climb to a new high of more than 371,000, including 9,484 deaths, according to figures released Sunday by the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.China on Monday reported a further decline in new confirmed cases, with a total of just 12, including seven cases of domestic transmission in Beijing, where nearly 8.3 million people have now undergone testing in recent weeks. No new deaths were reported Monday, leaving the total at 4,634 among 83,512 confirmed cases of COVID-19.___ROME (AP) — Another tragic milestone was passed Sunday in the coronavirus pandemic: 500,000 deaths worldwide.The reported tally comes <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">from Johns Hopkins University </a>researchers.About 1 in 4 of those deaths – more than 125,000 – have been reported in the U.S. The country with the next highest death toll is Brazil, with more than 57,000, or about 1 in 9.The true death toll from the virus, which first emerged in China late last year, is widely believed to be significantly higher. Experts say that especially early on, many victims died of COVID-19 without being tested for it.To date, more than 10 million confirmed cases have been reported globally. About a quarter of them have been reported in the U.S.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/5/1590784947764.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>The nation’s top public health agency has revamped its list of which Americans are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness, adding pregnant women and removing age alone as a factor.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html" target="_blank">changed the list</a>&nbsp;of underlying conditions that make someone more susceptible to suffering and death. Sickle cell disease joined the list, for example. And the threshold for risky levels of obesity was lowered.The changes didn’t include adding race as a risk factor for serious illness, despite accumulating evidence that Black people, Hispanics and Native Americans have higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death.Agency officials said the update was prompted by medical studies published since CDC first started listing high-risk groups. They sought to publicize the information before Independence Day weekend, when many people may be tempted to go out and socialize.“For those at higher risk, we recommend limiting contact with others as much as possible, or restricting contacts to a small number of people who are willing to take measures to reduce the risk of (you) becoming infected,” said CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield.The same advice holds for people who live with or care for people at higher risk, Redfield added.Previously, the CDC said those at high risk of serious illness included people aged 65 years and older; those who live in a nursing home or long-term care facility; and people with serious heart conditions, obesity, diabetes, liver disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung disease, and conditions that leave them with weakened immune systems.In the changes, CDC created categories of people who are at high risk and people who might be at high risk.Those who are at high risk include people with chronic kidney disease, chronic inflammatory lung disease, obesity, serious heart conditions, sickle cell disease, Type 2 diabetes, and weakened immune systems because of organ transplants. The threshold for obesity concern was lowered from a body mass index of 40 down to 30.The CDC said people are at increasing risk as they get older, but it removed people 65 and older as a high risk group.The list of people who might be at high risk includes pregnant women, smokers and those with asthma, diseases that affect blood flow to the brain, cystic fibrosis, high blood pressure, dementia, liver disease, scarred or damaged lungs, Type 1 diabetes, a rare blood disorder called thalassemia, and people who have weakened immune systems due to HIV or other reasons.Pregnant women joined the list on the same day a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6925a1.htm?s_cid=mm6925a1_w" target="_blank">CDC report&nbsp;</a>found they accounted for about 9% of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in women of childbearing age. About 5% of women of childbearing age are pregnant at any given time.The report showed that pregnant women had higher rates of hospitalization, of admission to a hospital intensive care unit and of winding up on a breathing machine vs. young women who weren’t pregnant. There was no clear evidence of a higher death rate among pregnant women, however.It’s not completely surprising, said Dr. Denise Jamieson, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the Emory University School of Medicine. Pregnant women have been found to be at higher risk from other infectious respiratory diseases, likely because the lungs decrease in the volume as the uterus grows, Jamieson said.What is surprising, she said, is that CDC didn’t place pregnant women in the highest risk category.“To me this is the most compelling evidence to date that pregnant women are at increased risk,” said Jamieson, who spent 20 years at CDC as a reproductive health expert.Earlier this week, CDC officials called on a panel of experts to help them identify groups that should be prioritized for coronavirus vaccinations if one becomes available and supplies are limited.Pregnant women could be among that group. So could certain racial and ethnic groups.CDC officials shared data with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that showed, compared with white Americans, coronavirus hospitalization rates were 4 times higher for Hispanics, 4.5 times higher for Black people, and 5.5 higher for American Indians and Alaska Natives. A recent study in the Atlanta area suggested that being Black was as large a risk for hospitalization as having diabetes, being a smoker or being obese.“If we fail to address racial and ethnic groups as at high risk for prioritization, whatever comes out of our group will be looked at very suspiciously and with a lot of reservation,” said Dr. Jose Romero, chair of the expert panel.“They are groups that need to be moved to the forefront,” he said.CDC officials say they expect to come out with recommendations for racial and ethnic minority groups soon.___

World hits coronavirus milestones amid fears worse to come

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha woman who is accused of causing a fatal crash that killed two people last week has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. 

Twenty-eight-year-old Chinyere Nwuju was arrested Saturday after she was released from a hospital.

 Police said Nwuju was speeding southbound in a sport utility vehicle when she ran a red light in northwestern Omaha and hit a pickup truck around 9 p.m. Wednesday. 

The force of the collision split the pickup in half and killed Roberto Gonzalez, 58, and Annette North, 56, who were both from Omaha. 

Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicle records show that Nwuju's driver's license is suspended.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha woman who is accused of causing a fatal crash that killed two people last week has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. Twenty-eight-year-old Chinyere Nwuju was arrested Saturday after she was released from a hospital. Police said Nwuju was speeding southbound in a sport utility vehicle when she ran a red light in northwestern Omaha and hit a pickup truck around 9 p.m. Wednesday. The force of the collision split the pickup in half and killed Roberto Gonzalez, 58, and Annette North, 56, who were both from Omaha. Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicle records show that Nwuju's driver's license is suspended.

Driver arrested for manslaughter in crash that killed 2

By ANNE KNIGGENDORF <a href="https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2020-06-20/this-big-cat-sanctuary-in-kansas-wants-you-to-know-its-nothing-like-tiger-king">Kansas News Service</a>

The Netflix show "<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81115994" target="_blank">Tiger King</a>"
 caught the attention of millions of viewers back in March. The “murder,
 mayhem and madness” suggested in its subtitle collided in a human train
 wreck of a drama — but it got Steve Klein’s attention for a different 
reason.

Klein is the board president and resident curator at <a href="https://www.saveoursiberians.org/" target="_blank">Cedar Cove Feline Conservation and Education Center</a> in Louisburg, Kansas. A variety of 28 predators are in his and about 20 volunteers' care.

He can rattle off their species and names, but says his ability to remember them all isn’t about having a great memory.

“When they become family, it becomes easier — but it’s a big family,” Klein says.

Klein
 has volunteered — now full-time for an annual stipend of $12,000 — at 
Cedar Cove for 20 years. The mission of the center is to care for 
animals and to educate the public about the importance of keystone 
species within the global ecosystem.

He says humans are demanding 
too much of the ecosystem for just one species, taking more than our 
share. And animals are paying the price.

“Now, why are we so 
concerned about the animals? Because these animals are literally the key
 to the health of these environments and ecosystems that they occupy,” 
Klein says. “They’re not just apex predators, more importantly they’re 
called keystone species."

He illustrates the idea with what 
happened at Yellowstone Park when wolves were removed. The population of
 grazing animals grew until it destroyed the balance of the park by 
eating up everything that birds, pollinators, and insects needed for 
food or habitat. Balance was eventually regained after two seven-wolf 
packs were reintroduced to the park in 1995.

Klein talks to the 
cats, wild dogs, and fox as if they were his own — and in a way they 
are, because none of them can be released in the wild. Each one has a 
fairly tragic backstory, some worse than others, but all ending in 
needing a new home.

The oldest resident is Voodoo, a 19-year-old African Spotted Leopard.
 Klein greets him like he might any buddy: “Voodoo man!” and then makes a
 deep woofing sound, as if speaking a leopard language.

When the 
big cat approaches the tall security fence, Klein says, “He came from a 
domestic situation. A couple purchased him to be a house pet.” Before 
Voodoo was even six months old, the people thought better of their 
decision.

“He’s going to come over for a belly rub," Klein says. 
The big cat flops on his back and as Klein pets him through the fence, 
Voodoo growls and makes a sound like a thunderous purr.

In 
reflecting on "Tiger King," Klein says, “These animals are so 
mesmerizing, it’s hard not to see them being as sensational as you want 
to see them being.”

But, he says, the show wasn’t actually about 
the animals at all. “The people involved weren’t doing anything to help 
the animals; it was all to exploit the animals,” Klein says. “It wasn’t 
to make their lives better in captivity or to try to further the 
survival of the species in the wild.”

Delcianna Winders is the director of the animal law litigation clinic at <a href="https://law.lclark.edu/" target="_blank">Lewis and Clark Law School</a>
 in Portland, Oregon. She knew about Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, the 
main characters in "Tiger King," long before most people did.

She draws a sharp distinction between the show’s warring facilities — Baskin’s is accredited by the <a href="https://www.sanctuaryfederation.org/" target="_blank">Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries</a>
 and Joe Exotic’s is not. She says GFAS is the gold standard for the 
business, but only 15 facilities in the entire nation are certified.

At
 least 100 other places call themselves sanctuaries, refuges, or havens,
 including Cedar Cove. Without that accreditation, Winders says the 
businesses fall into a grey area; to stay open, they need to be 
inspected by the department of agriculture, local game warden, or some 
other governing body.

However, Winders says, “when you get into 
more nuanced things like adequate space, adequate veterinary care, 
that’s really hard for a lay person to know and to assess, and that’s 
where the third party accreditation like GFAS comes in.”

The 
popularity of "Tiger King" has gotten the public talking more about the 
well-being of big cats, which Winders is glad about. But, she knows the 
average viewer still isn’t quite sure what type of place is okay to 
support and what isn’t — both Baskin’s and Joe Exotic’s businesses were 
thriving.

“There are some clear red flags. Breeding animals is 
absolutely a red flag,” Winders says. “Another red flag is allowing 
public interaction with animals because that seeds, basically, a puppy 
mill operation where they’re constantly breeding animals to have some 
that are small enough for public encounters.”

She’s read reports about Cedar Cove and notes that it doesn’t engage in those bad practices.

Klein
 and Winders agree that these animals don’t belong in captivity, but 
until people stop breeding wild animals, they’ll continue to need safe 
places to live out their lives. According to the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/tiger#:~:text=An%20estimated%203%2C900%20tigers%20remain,crisis%20and%20declining%20in%20number." target="_blank">World Wildlife Federation</a>, only 3,900 tigers exist in the wild.

Winders
 says that more than that live in the backyards and basements of 
America— estimates say as many as 20,000 tigers may live this way. 
“Because of lack of regulation, we actually have no idea," she says.

Klein says, “We are a sanctuary to give these animals the best possible lives we can with the means at hand.”

And
 what he asks of the animals in return is to hold an audience captive 
long enough that a Cedar Cove guide has time to explain how and why the 
animals are in cages in the first place, and why that’s a tragedy.

Anne Kniggendorf writes about arts and culture for KCUR. Follow her on Twitter, @annekniggendorf.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1593011043239.png" alt="Steve Klein sits with Clarence the tiger at Cedar Cove. Klein is the board president, resident curator, and one of the only people allowed this close to the animals. Courtesy photos" />
 <figcaption>Steve Klein sits with Clarence the tiger at Cedar Cove. Klein is the board president, resident curator, and one of the only people allowed this close to the animals. Courtesy photos</figcaption>
 </figure>By ANNE KNIGGENDORF <a href="https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2020-06-20/this-big-cat-sanctuary-in-kansas-wants-you-to-know-its-nothing-like-tiger-king">Kansas News Service</a>The Netflix show "<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81115994" target="_blank">Tiger King</a>"
 caught the attention of millions of viewers back in March. The “murder,
 mayhem and madness” suggested in its subtitle collided in a human train
 wreck of a drama — but it got Steve Klein’s attention for a different 
reason.Klein is the board president and resident curator at <a href="https://www.saveoursiberians.org/" target="_blank">Cedar Cove Feline Conservation and Education Center</a> in Louisburg, Kansas. A variety of 28 predators are in his and about 20 volunteers' care.He can rattle off their species and names, but says his ability to remember them all isn’t about having a great memory.“When they become family, it becomes easier — but it’s a big family,” Klein says.Klein
 has volunteered — now full-time for an annual stipend of $12,000 — at 
Cedar Cove for 20 years. The mission of the center is to care for 
animals and to educate the public about the importance of keystone 
species within the global ecosystem.He says humans are demanding 
too much of the ecosystem for just one species, taking more than our 
share. And animals are paying the price.“Now, why are we so 
concerned about the animals? Because these animals are literally the key
 to the health of these environments and ecosystems that they occupy,” 
Klein says. “They’re not just apex predators, more importantly they’re 
called keystone species."He illustrates the idea with what 
happened at Yellowstone Park when wolves were removed. The population of
 grazing animals grew until it destroyed the balance of the park by 
eating up everything that birds, pollinators, and insects needed for 
food or habitat. Balance was eventually regained after two seven-wolf 
packs were reintroduced to the park in 1995.Klein talks to the 
cats, wild dogs, and fox as if they were his own — and in a way they 
are, because none of them can be released in the wild. Each one has a 
fairly tragic backstory, some worse than others, but all ending in 
needing a new home.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1593011143737.png" alt="Voodoo is a 19-year-old African Spotted Leopard at Cedar Cove." />
 <figcaption>Voodoo is a 19-year-old African Spotted Leopard at Cedar Cove.</figcaption>
 </figure>The oldest resident is Voodoo, a 19-year-old African Spotted Leopard.
 Klein greets him like he might any buddy: “Voodoo man!” and then makes a
 deep woofing sound, as if speaking a leopard language.When the 
big cat approaches the tall security fence, Klein says, “He came from a 
domestic situation. A couple purchased him to be a house pet.” Before 
Voodoo was even six months old, the people thought better of their 
decision.“He’s going to come over for a belly rub," Klein says. 
The big cat flops on his back and as Klein pets him through the fence, 
Voodoo growls and makes a sound like a thunderous purr.In 
reflecting on "Tiger King," Klein says, “These animals are so 
mesmerizing, it’s hard not to see them being as sensational as you want 
to see them being.”But, he says, the show wasn’t actually about 
the animals at all. “The people involved weren’t doing anything to help 
the animals; it was all to exploit the animals,” Klein says. “It wasn’t 
to make their lives better in captivity or to try to further the 
survival of the species in the wild.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1593011183034.png" alt="Olivia is a white Bengal sub-species who's lived at Cedar Cove since she was 6 months old. She's 5 now." />
 <figcaption>Olivia is a white Bengal sub-species who's lived at Cedar Cove since she was 6 months old. She's 5 now.</figcaption>
 </figure>Delcianna Winders is the director of the animal law litigation clinic at <a href="https://law.lclark.edu/" target="_blank">Lewis and Clark Law School</a>
 in Portland, Oregon. She knew about Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, the 
main characters in "Tiger King," long before most people did.She draws a sharp distinction between the show’s warring facilities — Baskin’s is accredited by the <a href="https://www.sanctuaryfederation.org/" target="_blank">Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries</a>
 and Joe Exotic’s is not. She says GFAS is the gold standard for the 
business, but only 15 facilities in the entire nation are certified.At
 least 100 other places call themselves sanctuaries, refuges, or havens,
 including Cedar Cove. Without that accreditation, Winders says the 
businesses fall into a grey area; to stay open, they need to be 
inspected by the department of agriculture, local game warden, or some 
other governing body.However, Winders says, “when you get into 
more nuanced things like adequate space, adequate veterinary care, 
that’s really hard for a lay person to know and to assess, and that’s 
where the third party accreditation like GFAS comes in.”The 
popularity of "Tiger King" has gotten the public talking more about the 
well-being of big cats, which Winders is glad about. But, she knows the 
average viewer still isn’t quite sure what type of place is okay to 
support and what isn’t — both Baskin’s and Joe Exotic’s businesses were 
thriving.“There are some clear red flags. Breeding animals is 
absolutely a red flag,” Winders says. “Another red flag is allowing 
public interaction with animals because that seeds, basically, a puppy 
mill operation where they’re constantly breeding animals to have some 
that are small enough for public encounters.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1593011289866.png" alt="In 1983, Steve Klein had his first encounter with a tiger at a drug store in Ames, Iowa. Now, he says, he looks back in horror at that experience." />
 <figcaption>In 1983, Steve Klein had his first encounter with a tiger at a drug store in Ames, Iowa. Now, he says, he looks back in horror at that experience.</figcaption>
 </figure>She’s read reports about Cedar Cove and notes that it doesn’t engage in those bad practices.Klein
 and Winders agree that these animals don’t belong in captivity, but 
until people stop breeding wild animals, they’ll continue to need safe 
places to live out their lives. According to the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/tiger#:~:text=An%20estimated%203%2C900%20tigers%20remain,crisis%20and%20declining%20in%20number." target="_blank">World Wildlife Federation</a>, only 3,900 tigers exist in the wild.Winders
 says that more than that live in the backyards and basements of 
America— estimates say as many as 20,000 tigers may live this way. 
“Because of lack of regulation, we actually have no idea," she says.Klein says, “We are a sanctuary to give these animals the best possible lives we can with the means at hand.”And
 what he asks of the animals in return is to hold an audience captive 
long enough that a Cedar Cove guide has time to explain how and why the 
animals are in cages in the first place, and why that’s a tragedy.Anne Kniggendorf writes about arts and culture for KCUR. Follow her on Twitter, @annekniggendorf.&nbsp;

Big cat sanctuary wants you to know it's nothing like 'Tiger King' 

WICHITA, KAN. – A Nevada man has been sentenced in Wichita for trying to kill two men. 

&nbsp;District Judge Bruce Brown sentenced Cardell Turner, 52, of Las Vegas, to 837 months in prison. A jury found Turner guilty of attempted first degree murder, attempted second degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.

On August 14, 2018, Turner drove up next to two men in the 2500 block of S. Greenwood, pointed a handgun at them, and pulled the trigger several times. The gun did not fire. 

During the trial last August in Judge Brown's courtroom, evidence showed Turner was hired by a man to drive from Nevada to Wichita and murder a man who lived on Greenwood. Testimony at trial revealed that Turner's handgun misfired because the wrong ammunition was in the gun.

The man who allegedly hired Turner is in prison in another state, according to the district attorney's office.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1593110982799.png" alt="Turner -photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Turner -photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>WICHITA, KAN. – A Nevada man has been sentenced in Wichita for trying to kill two men. &nbsp;District Judge Bruce Brown sentenced Cardell Turner, 52, of Las Vegas, to 837 months in prison. A jury found Turner guilty of attempted first degree murder, attempted second degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.On August 14, 2018, Turner drove up next to two men in the 2500 block of S. Greenwood, pointed a handgun at them, and pulled the trigger several times. The gun did not fire. During the trial last August in Judge Brown's courtroom, evidence showed Turner was hired by a man to drive from Nevada to Wichita and murder a man who lived on Greenwood. Testimony at trial revealed that Turner's handgun misfired because the wrong ammunition was in the gun.The man who allegedly hired Turner is in prison in another state, according to the district attorney's office.

Hitman sentenced for attempted murder of 2 Kansas men

CUSTER, S.D. (AP) — A wildfire located near Mount Rushmore in South Dakota has been completely contained ahead of next week’s visit to the monument by President Donald Trump.

 Ian Fury, a spokesman for Gov. Kristi Noem, says firefighters contained the entire fire Thursday afternoon. 

The fire started in Custer State Park on Wednesday burned an estimated 60 acres (24 hectares) about 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of the 79-year-old stone monument. 

Trump is planning to attend a fireworks display at the monument July 3. Wildfire experts are concerned the pyrotechnics could spark fires.

CUSTER, S.D. (AP) — A wildfire located near Mount Rushmore in South Dakota has been completely contained ahead of next week’s visit to the monument by President Donald Trump. Ian Fury, a spokesman for Gov. Kristi Noem, says firefighters contained the entire fire Thursday afternoon. The fire started in Custer State Park on Wednesday burned an estimated 60 acres (24 hectares) about 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of the 79-year-old stone monument. Trump is planning to attend a fireworks display at the monument July 3. Wildfire experts are concerned the pyrotechnics could spark fires.

Wildfire near Mount Rushmore contained ahead of Trump visit

Washington (AP) —Governors in places seeing huge spikes in coronavirus infections often cite statewide data to assure the public they have plenty of hospital capacity to survive the onslaught, even as the states routinely miss the critical benchmarks to guide their pandemic response.

Public health officials and experts say the heavy reliance on statewide hospital data is a misleading and sometimes irresponsible metric to justify keeping a state open or holding back on imposing new limits.

That is because statewide statistics can be deceiving, especially in large states where individual hospitals can be in crisis mode even while the overall capacity numbers look OK.

Thomas LaVeist, dean of the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, said basing pandemic and reopening policy on statewide hospital bed capacity ”is incredibly irresponsible.”

“To cherry-pick hospital capacity and to use that one metric without the context of number of cases, number of deaths, is shocking,” LaVeist said.

The issue of hospital capacity has gained urgency across the nation this week as Florida, Texas, California, Arizona and other states reported skyrocketing case numbers. Governors have repeatedly invoked hospital capacity in arguing against new business restrictions, though the dynamic began to shift Friday when Texas and Florida clamped down on bars amid an increasingly dire situation with COVID-19.

At the first White House coronavirus briefing nearly two months Friday, Vice President Mike Pence also cited hospitalizations in discussing the outlook for the pandemic.

Two months ago, Pence said 15% of patients were being hospitalized. Now it’s about 5%. That means the health care system is better positioned to cope with a resurgence in cases, he says.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kansas jumped by 568, fueled in part by outbreaks in sports practices and tournaments. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Friday that there were now 13,538 cases, up 4.3% from Wednesday and 12% from last Friday. The state also reported three more deaths, bringing the total to 264 since the pandemic began in early March.&nbsp;

In Texas, the state health department’s website on Thursday showed 12,951 available beds, 1,320 available ICU beds, and 5,850 available ventilators. What it doesn’t break down is how bleak the situation is in some particular places, including Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city. Hospital beds in Houston are filling so fast that Texas Children’s Hospital is starting to treat adult patients, and 97% of ICU beds at Texas Medical Center were in use.

In Miami, Homestead Hospital confirmed Tuesday it was at capacity. The hospital was transferring patients to other hospitals and preparing to convert regular beds to beds for ICU and acute care patients, if needed.

In Arizona, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has declined to impose new restrictions on business activity or a stay-at-home order, repeatedly citing ample capacity in the state’s hospitals as the reason he is comfortable staying open.

“That’s what’s most important when there’s a rise in cases,” Ducey said earlier this month.

Ducey has condemned as “misinformation” the notion that hospital space is running short, even as state data shows that 85% of Arizona’s hospital beds are occupied. Arizona has about 2,500 hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

At the same time, the state is badly missing the mark on the benchmarks established by the White House task force to guide the reopening of the economy, with 23 percent of COVID-19 tests coming back positive in the past week in Arizona.

The task force does not include statewide hospitalizations as part of its criteria that states are supposed to meet before reopening. Those criteria include a downward trajectory of cases within a two-week period. They also specify that hospitals should have enough intensive care unit capacity to treat a surge in patients and should have a robust testing program in place for at-risk healthcare workers, including virus antibody testing.

Dr. Joseph Gerald, associate professor of public health policy and management at the University of Arizona, said that if the trend continues, cases will likely exceed statewide hospital bed capacity within the next several weeks.

California has broken several of its own daily records for the number of positive tests and hospitalizations have risen by more than 30 percent in the past two weeks. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has sounded an upbeat tone in recent days about hospital capacity but changed his tune somewhat on Friday, saying he wants a Southern California county that borders Mexico to consider a stay-home order again.

Dr. Colleen Kraft, associate chief medical officer at Emory Hospital in Atlanta and a member of Georgia’s coronavirus task force, said regional hospital bed capacity would be a better metric than statewide capacity. She lamented that the pandemic has seemingly devolved into a “political situation.”

“As someone who came into medicine to serve people, it’s difficult to watch,” Kraft said.

Robyn Gershon, a professor and public health expert at New York University, called using statewide hospital bed capacity to guide policy “completely unethical.”

’’It’s unethical to say let’s just go about our business and by the way, we can handle the overflow,” Gershon said. “A better measure is the 14-day and seven-day case infection rate. That’s what’s telling us what’s going on right now.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1593204436609.png" alt="Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speak during a briefing with members of the Coronavirus Task Force at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, Friday" />
 <figcaption>Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speak during a briefing with members of the Coronavirus Task Force at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, Friday</figcaption>
 </figure>By JIM SALTER and LINDSEY TANNERWashington (AP) —Governors in places seeing huge spikes in coronavirus infections often cite statewide data to assure the public they have plenty of hospital capacity to survive the onslaught, even as the states routinely miss the critical benchmarks to guide their pandemic response.Public health officials and experts say the heavy reliance on statewide hospital data is a misleading and sometimes irresponsible metric to justify keeping a state open or holding back on imposing new limits.That is because statewide statistics can be deceiving, especially in large states where individual hospitals can be in crisis mode even while the overall capacity numbers look OK.Thomas LaVeist, dean of the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, said basing pandemic and reopening policy on statewide hospital bed capacity ”is incredibly irresponsible.”“To cherry-pick hospital capacity and to use that one metric without the context of number of cases, number of deaths, is shocking,” LaVeist said.The issue of hospital capacity has gained urgency across the nation this week as Florida, Texas, California, Arizona and other states reported skyrocketing case numbers. Governors have repeatedly invoked hospital capacity in arguing against new business restrictions, though the dynamic began to shift Friday when Texas and Florida clamped down on bars amid an increasingly dire situation with COVID-19.At the first White House coronavirus briefing nearly two months Friday, Vice President Mike Pence also cited hospitalizations in discussing the outlook for the pandemic.Two months ago, Pence said 15% of patients were being hospitalized. Now it’s about 5%. That means the health care system is better positioned to cope with a resurgence in cases, he says.The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kansas jumped by 568, fueled in part by outbreaks in sports practices and tournaments. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Friday that there were now 13,538 cases, up 4.3% from Wednesday and 12% from last Friday. The state also reported three more deaths, bringing the total to 264 since the pandemic began in early March.&nbsp;In Texas, the state health department’s website on Thursday showed 12,951 available beds, 1,320 available ICU beds, and 5,850 available ventilators. What it doesn’t break down is how bleak the situation is in some particular places, including Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city. Hospital beds in Houston are filling so fast that Texas Children’s Hospital is starting to treat adult patients, and 97% of ICU beds at Texas Medical Center were in use.In Miami, Homestead Hospital confirmed Tuesday it was at capacity. The hospital was transferring patients to other hospitals and preparing to convert regular beds to beds for ICU and acute care patients, if needed.In Arizona, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has declined to impose new restrictions on business activity or a stay-at-home order, repeatedly citing ample capacity in the state’s hospitals as the reason he is comfortable staying open.“That’s what’s most important when there’s a rise in cases,” Ducey said earlier this month.Ducey has condemned as “misinformation” the notion that hospital space is running short, even as state data shows that 85% of Arizona’s hospital beds are occupied. Arizona has about 2,500 hospitalized COVID-19 patients.At the same time, the state is badly missing the mark on the benchmarks established by the White House task force to guide the reopening of the economy, with 23 percent of COVID-19 tests coming back positive in the past week in Arizona.The task force does not include statewide hospitalizations as part of its criteria that states are supposed to meet before reopening. Those criteria include a downward trajectory of cases within a two-week period. They also specify that hospitals should have enough intensive care unit capacity to treat a surge in patients and should have a robust testing program in place for at-risk healthcare workers, including virus antibody testing.Dr. Joseph Gerald, associate professor of public health policy and management at the University of Arizona, said that if the trend continues, cases will likely exceed statewide hospital bed capacity within the next several weeks.California has broken several of its own daily records for the number of positive tests and hospitalizations have risen by more than 30 percent in the past two weeks. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has sounded an upbeat tone in recent days about hospital capacity but changed his tune somewhat on Friday, saying he wants a Southern California county that borders Mexico to consider a stay-home order again.Dr. Colleen Kraft, associate chief medical officer at Emory Hospital in Atlanta and a member of Georgia’s coronavirus task force, said regional hospital bed capacity would be a better metric than statewide capacity. She lamented that the pandemic has seemingly devolved into a “political situation.”“As someone who came into medicine to serve people, it’s difficult to watch,” Kraft said.Robyn Gershon, a professor and public health expert at New York University, called using statewide hospital bed capacity to guide policy “completely unethical.”’’It’s unethical to say let’s just go about our business and by the way, we can handle the overflow,” Gershon said. “A better measure is the 14-day and seven-day case infection rate. That’s what’s telling us what’s going on right now.”—-

As virus grows, governors rely on misleading hospital data

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 15-year-old who was arrested in a deadly Nebraska shooting has been charged with manslaughter. 

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Omaha police announced in a news release Friday that prosecutors had filed the new charge in juvenile court. 

The 15-year-old was originally booked into the Douglas County Youth Center on suspicion of second-degree felony assault in the June 10 shooting of 20-year-old Jonathan Baltimore. 

The teen also is charged with use of a weapon to commit a felony, unlawful possession of a handgun by a minor and possession of a defaced firearm.&nbsp;

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 15-year-old who was arrested in a deadly Nebraska shooting has been charged with manslaughter. The Omaha World-Herald reports that Omaha police announced in a news release Friday that prosecutors had filed the new charge in juvenile court. The 15-year-old was originally booked into the Douglas County Youth Center on suspicion of second-degree felony assault in the June 10 shooting of 20-year-old Jonathan Baltimore. He died from his injuries on June 13. The teen also is charged with use of a weapon to commit a felony, unlawful possession of a handgun by a minor and possession of a defaced firearm.&nbsp;

15-year-old arrested in deadly Nebraska shooting

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Democrats in Nebraska are struggling for relevance in their Republican-dominated state, and a series of high-profile embarrassments is only making it harder. 

The party is losing registered voters to Republicans, Libertarians and independents, and its long-shot nominee for Senate recently admitted to sending sexually offensive text messages to a campaign staffer. 

Nebraska Democrats say they need more national party support to win statewide races, but they acknowledge that they still have a long way to go to regain a toehold in the state.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Democrats in Nebraska are struggling for relevance in their Republican-dominated state, and a series of high-profile embarrassments is only making it harder. The party is losing registered voters to Republicans, Libertarians and independents, and its long-shot nominee for Senate recently admitted to sending sexually offensive text messages to a campaign staffer. Nebraska Democrats say they need more national party support to win statewide races, but they acknowledge that they still have a long way to go to regain a toehold in the state.

Democrats fight for relevance in red-state Nebraska

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a man crossing a busy highway in north Omaha was hit by at least two vehicles and killed.

 The incident happened around 10 p.m. Thursday on U.S. 75 in north Omaha. 

Police have identified the man killed as 29-year-old Andrew Woodard, of Omaha. 

Investigators say he was trying to cross the highway when he was hit by two northbound cars. 

Witnesses told police a third vehicle may also have been involved, but left the scene. Woodard was pronounced dead at the scene. 

No drivers were injured, and police gave no indication that charges would be brought in the case.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a man crossing a busy highway in north Omaha was hit by at least two vehicles and killed. The incident happened around 10 p.m. Thursday on U.S. 75 in north Omaha. Police have identified the man killed as 29-year-old Andrew Woodard, of Omaha. Investigators say he was trying to cross the highway when he was hit by two northbound cars. Witnesses told police a third vehicle may also have been involved, but left the scene. Woodard was pronounced dead at the scene. No drivers were injured, and police gave no indication that charges would be brought in the case.

Man crossing highway hit, killed by vehicles

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — When country singer Rissi Palmer was working on her debut album, she wanted a song like Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman,” a song that would introduce her and tell her story to fans.

On her 2007 debut single,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIYjbCvIX5U" target="_blank">“Country Girl,”</a>&nbsp;she celebrated her country roots while explaining that she didn’t have to look or talk a certain way to call herself a country girl.

“I said that I am not white in the first verse, and the label was like, ‘No, no, no,’” said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rissipalmermusic.com/" target="_blank">Palmer,</a>&nbsp;who then rewrote the lyrics to make it feel more universal. “It was very intentional when I wrote that song to talk about all the women, or all the people, that might not necessarily fit in the box, but are still of the same mindset.”

The country music industry has long been hesitant to address its long and complicated history with race, but the death of George Floyd in police custody and the protests it sparked in the U.S. and around the world became a sound too loud for the genre to ignore.

Over the past weeks, country artists, labels and country music organizations posted about Black Lives Matter on social media, participated in the industry wide&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/07a42ab2c065e7305a969e257fee8765">Blackout Tuesday</a>&nbsp;or denounced racism outright. On Thursday, Grammy-winning country group, The Dixie Chicks announced it would drop “dixie″ from its name. The group said in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/81e0e08498b9acaa5e7f5eb2d85b39f6">a statement that</a>&nbsp;it wanted to meet “this moment.”

But Black artists say the industry still needs to address the systematic racial barriers that have been entrenched in country music for decades. Stereotypes that country music is just for white audiences, written by white songwriters, and sung by mostly white males are reinforced daily on country radio, playlists, label rosters and tour lineups. In recent years, however, the conversations about country music have shifted to a broader acknowledgement that non-white artists have always been in the genre, even if they aren’t always recognized.

Artist/scholar&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/eb877556bad6494c92b531b1bbb88a1a">Rhiannon Giddens</a>&nbsp;received a MacArthur Foundation grant for her work to reclaim Black contributions to country and folk music. And artists like Darius Rucker, Kane Brown and Jimmie Allen have all had No. 1 country hits in recent years, while Mickey Guyton just released an unflinching song called&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKximTk8JCM" target="_blank">“Black Like Me.”</a>&nbsp;But that ingrained culture of exclusivity remains a struggle to change.

“You can look at the reviews of my first album. I was called colored, like, ‘I didn’t know colored people like country music,’” said Palmer, who had three singles reach the Hot Country Songs Chart. “I used to get messages all the time on MySpace, saying, ‘I am so sick of you. Why are you trying to be white?’ or ‘Why are you trying to take over country music?’”

Change hasn’t been easy. After Grammy-winning country group&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/bb120f4469e4282ba2a570fb837fe9fd">Lady Antebellum announced they were changing their name to Lady A</a>, they later had to apologize to a Black singer who had been using that stage name for years.

Atlanta-based country rapper Breland also wanted to address, with a wink and a smile, country music’s racial blinders with his TikTok-fueled song&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezqTO4xaH6A" target="_blank">“My Truck.”</a>&nbsp;The music video starts with a white guy in a black cowboy hat singing as smoke billows across a dusty landscape, then Breland abruptly shoves him out of the frame to announce, “Don’t touch my truck.”

“I just felt like it was time for people to change their perspective on what country music is and what country music can be, because there is an audience of country music listeners under 30 who believe Black Lives Matter,” said Breland, whose song reached No. 26 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and has been remixed with Sam Hunt.

Like Lil Nas X’s genre bending “Old Town Road,” Breland playfully fuses trap rhythms with country tropes about horses, do-si-dos and beer on his self-titled EP and sings with country artists Chase Rice and Lauren Alaina. Breland said country music labels can’t just continue to focus on one type of audience.

“There’s a group of country listeners who love country music because of the way it sounds, but don’t love some of the politics that they know are going on behind the scenes,” he said.

Historically country music was created by and played in both white and Black communities in the South, but the music became marketed along racial lines in the Jim Crow era, said Amanda Marie Martinez, a historian and writer who is studying country music and race. White country music was stigmatized early on as “hillbilly music” so the industry started pushing it toward the rising white middle class as a way to make the genre more respected and hugely profitable.

“In the process, they’ve also prioritized the white, middle income, relatively conservative listener as their demographic, kind of the opposite of youth culture,” Martinez said.

But there were periods of diversity, such as the post-Civil Rights era, when Black artists like Charley Pride, Linda Martell, O.B. McClinton and Stoney Edwards were having success, alongside Johnny Rodriguez and Freddy Fender, who were singing in English and Spanish.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1593173097723.png" alt="The Chicks (Photo: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DixieChicksMSG062003.jpg">Wikimedia Creative Commons</a>)" />
 <figcaption>The Chicks (Photo: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DixieChicksMSG062003.jpg">Wikimedia Creative Commons</a>)</figcaption>
 </figure>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — When country singer Rissi Palmer was working on her debut album, she wanted a song like Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman,” a song that would introduce her and tell her story to fans.On her 2007 debut single,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIYjbCvIX5U" target="_blank">“Country Girl,”</a>&nbsp;she celebrated her country roots while explaining that she didn’t have to look or talk a certain way to call herself a country girl.“I said that I am not white in the first verse, and the label was like, ‘No, no, no,’” said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rissipalmermusic.com/" target="_blank">Palmer,</a>&nbsp;who then rewrote the lyrics to make it feel more universal. “It was very intentional when I wrote that song to talk about all the women, or all the people, that might not necessarily fit in the box, but are still of the same mindset.”The country music industry has long been hesitant to address its long and complicated history with race, but the death of George Floyd in police custody and the protests it sparked in the U.S. and around the world became a sound too loud for the genre to ignore.Over the past weeks, country artists, labels and country music organizations posted about Black Lives Matter on social media, participated in the industry wide&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/07a42ab2c065e7305a969e257fee8765">Blackout Tuesday</a>&nbsp;or denounced racism outright. On Thursday, Grammy-winning country group, The Dixie Chicks announced it would drop “dixie″ from its name. The group said in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/81e0e08498b9acaa5e7f5eb2d85b39f6">a statement that</a>&nbsp;it wanted to meet “this moment.”But Black artists say the industry still needs to address the systematic racial barriers that have been entrenched in country music for decades. Stereotypes that country music is just for white audiences, written by white songwriters, and sung by mostly white males are reinforced daily on country radio, playlists, label rosters and tour lineups. In recent years, however, the conversations about country music have shifted to a broader acknowledgement that non-white artists have always been in the genre, even if they aren’t always recognized.Artist/scholar&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/eb877556bad6494c92b531b1bbb88a1a">Rhiannon Giddens</a>&nbsp;received a MacArthur Foundation grant for her work to reclaim Black contributions to country and folk music. And artists like Darius Rucker, Kane Brown and Jimmie Allen have all had No. 1 country hits in recent years, while Mickey Guyton just released an unflinching song called&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKximTk8JCM" target="_blank">“Black Like Me.”</a>&nbsp;But that ingrained culture of exclusivity remains a struggle to change.“You can look at the reviews of my first album. I was called colored, like, ‘I didn’t know colored people like country music,’” said Palmer, who had three singles reach the Hot Country Songs Chart. “I used to get messages all the time on MySpace, saying, ‘I am so sick of you. Why are you trying to be white?’ or ‘Why are you trying to take over country music?’”Change hasn’t been easy. After Grammy-winning country group&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/bb120f4469e4282ba2a570fb837fe9fd">Lady Antebellum announced they were changing their name to Lady A</a>, they later had to apologize to a Black singer who had been using that stage name for years.Atlanta-based country rapper Breland also wanted to address, with a wink and a smile, country music’s racial blinders with his TikTok-fueled song&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezqTO4xaH6A" target="_blank">“My Truck.”</a>&nbsp;The music video starts with a white guy in a black cowboy hat singing as smoke billows across a dusty landscape, then Breland abruptly shoves him out of the frame to announce, “Don’t touch my truck.”“I just felt like it was time for people to change their perspective on what country music is and what country music can be, because there is an audience of country music listeners under 30 who believe Black Lives Matter,” said Breland, whose song reached No. 26 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and has been remixed with Sam Hunt.Like Lil Nas X’s genre bending “Old Town Road,” Breland playfully fuses trap rhythms with country tropes about horses, do-si-dos and beer on his self-titled EP and sings with country artists Chase Rice and Lauren Alaina. Breland said country music labels can’t just continue to focus on one type of audience.“There’s a group of country listeners who love country music because of the way it sounds, but don’t love some of the politics that they know are going on behind the scenes,” he said.Historically country music was created by and played in both white and Black communities in the South, but the music became marketed along racial lines in the Jim Crow era, said Amanda Marie Martinez, a historian and writer who is studying country music and race. White country music was stigmatized early on as “hillbilly music” so the industry started pushing it toward the rising white middle class as a way to make the genre more respected and hugely profitable.“In the process, they’ve also prioritized the white, middle income, relatively conservative listener as their demographic, kind of the opposite of youth culture,” Martinez said.But there were periods of diversity, such as the post-Civil Rights era, when Black artists like Charley Pride, Linda Martell, O.B. McClinton and Stoney Edwards were having success, alongside Johnny Rodriguez and Freddy Fender, who were singing in English and Spanish.

Country music reckons with racial stereotypes and its future

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials estimate that 20 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus since it first arrived in the United States, meaning that the vast majority of the population remains susceptible.

Thursday’s estimate is roughly 10 times as many infections as the 2.3 million cases that have been confirmed. Officials have long known that millions of people were infected without knowing it and that many cases are being missed because of gaps in testing.

The news comes as the Trump administration works to tamp down nationwide concern about the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak">COVID-19 pandemic&nbsp;</a>as about a dozen&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/778da4a2da7e5d9d12e6105c012b8cf9">states are seeing worrisome increases</a>&nbsp;in cases.

The administration also looks to get its scientific experts back before the public more as it tries to allay anxieties about the pandemic while states begin reopening. Since mid-May, when the government began stressing the need to get the economy moving again, the panel’s public health experts have been far less visible than in the pandemic’s early weeks.

Twenty million infections means that about 6% of the nation’s 331 million people have been infected.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/5/1589829316756.png" alt="KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman. The Agency reported&nbsp; 12,970 positive virus cases in Kansas on Wednesday. Missouri has reported&nbsp; 19,421 cases." />
 <figcaption>KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman. The Agency reported&nbsp; 12,970 positive virus cases in Kansas on Wednesday. Missouri has reported&nbsp; 19,421 cases.</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials estimate that 20 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus since it first arrived in the United States, meaning that the vast majority of the population remains susceptible.Thursday’s estimate is roughly 10 times as many infections as the 2.3 million cases that have been confirmed. Officials have long known that millions of people were infected without knowing it and that many cases are being missed because of gaps in testing.The news comes as the Trump administration works to tamp down nationwide concern about the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak">COVID-19 pandemic&nbsp;</a>as about a dozen&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/778da4a2da7e5d9d12e6105c012b8cf9">states are seeing worrisome increases</a>&nbsp;in cases.The administration also looks to get its scientific experts back before the public more as it tries to allay anxieties about the pandemic while states begin reopening. Since mid-May, when the government began stressing the need to get the economy moving again, the panel’s public health experts have been far less visible than in the pandemic’s early weeks.Twenty million infections means that about 6% of the nation’s 331 million people have been infected.“It’s clear that many individuals in this nation are still susceptible,” Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on a call with reporters Thursday. “Our best estimate right now is that for every case that was reported, there actually are 10 more infections.”Previously, CDC officials and the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, have said that as many as 25% of infected people might not have symptoms.“There’s an enormous number of people that are still vulnerable,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “It still remains a potentially lethal disease. It’s a roll of the dice for everybody who gets the illness. Also, you’re rolling the dice for other people who you may give the virus to.”The new estimate is based on CDC studies of blood samples collected nationwide — some by the CDC and others from blood donations and other sources. Many infections were not caught in early testing, when supplies were limited and federal officials prioritized testing for those with symptoms.Administration officials are pointing to the new data to allay public anxieties, claiming that while there have been significant spikes, they have the outbreaks well in hand. They maintained they were not trying to minimize a public health crisis, but said the nation is in a markedly different place with the virus now than when the U.S. last saw similar infection numbers in mid-April, when testing infrastructure was weaker. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity late Wednesday to discuss the matter candidly.“This is still serious,” Redfield said on the call with reporters Thursday. “But I’m asking people to recognize that we’re in a different situation today than we were in March or April,” with more cases today in younger people who are not as likely to develop serious illness or die from infection, he said.President Donald Trump, who refuses to wear a face mask in public, has tried to play down the risk. He told a crowd in Wisconsin on Thursday that the administration had done an “incredible job” fighting the virus and added that “if we didn’t test, we wouldn’t have cases,” which ignores other indicators of the extent of the problem such as surging hospitalizations in some areas.Redfield said infection prevalence rates ranged from 1% in some areas of the West Coast to much higher in New York City.Several independent experts said the methods and locations of sampling are key to interpreting the numbers.Dr. Thomas Tsai, a Harvard University health policy researcher, said 20 million seems reasonable, but “most of these estimates exist in a range” and it’s important to know how wide that is.“It’s hard to interpret this just from a single number and without the context for it,” such as what locations were sampled and whether it was truly a random slice of a population or areas of low or high prevalence, which can skew the results.Justin Lessler, a researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said 20 million infected “is about what you’d expect based on the case fatality rate” and the number of deaths that have occurred so far in the U.S.Despite the phaseout of daily White House coronavirus briefings, the administration has been closely monitoring data on the spread of COVID-19 and has been deploying teams from the CDC to identify and stem outbreaks around the country.A dozen states in recent weeks have seen a worrisome uptick in new cases, as well as in the more critical measure of the percentage of positive cases discovered in tests performed. Seven states have seen more than 10% of tests come back positive. And troublesome spikes in Sun Belt states have dominated news coverage in recent days, to the consternation of Trump administration officials.They point instead to more nuanced county-level data, which shows positivity rates exceeding 10% in just 3% of the nation’s counties. Yet they acknowledge that some of the areas with the highest transmission rates are generally the most populous, suggesting tens of millions of Americans could be living in areas with spiking infections.As states reopen, the administration says it is up to governors and local officials to determine how to respond to the spikes. Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, for example, put a hold on any further steps to reopen and reimposed a ban on elective surgeries in some areas to preserve hospital space after the number of patients statewide more than doubled in two weeks.The CDC teams, officials said, are working to trace new outbreaks and reinforce protective measures like social distancing and mask wearing in hard-hit areas and to remind vulnerable populations to take extreme precautions. The administration says those efforts have helped slow new infections in North Carolina and Alabama, where they were deployed earlier this month.One of the hard-hit areas is Phoenix, where Trump held an event Tuesday with thousands of young attendees, nearly all of whom were maskless.The officials say the nature of the outbreak now is different than months ago, when deaths topped more than 1,000 per day for weeks and hospitals were stretched beyond capacity across the country. The new increase in positive cases, they said, is capturing what has long been there. They say it is only now showing up in data because the U.S. has increased testing and surveillance.Meanwhile, mortality data has steadily declined, as have hospitalizations in all but a few hot spots.To the administration officials, that reinforces their hypothesis that millions unknowingly had the virus earlier this year. Through early May, federal guidelines prioritized testing for symptomatic people, those exposed to a positive case and those in high-risk environments.With testing far more widespread now, officials believe 50% of new cases in Florida and Texas are among people ages 35 or younger, and most of them are asymptomatic.The U.S. is testing about 500,000 patients per day. On a per capita basis, the U.S. rate falls behind several other countries, including Spain, Australia, Russia and Iceland, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.There is no scientific consensus on the rate of testing needed to control the virus. But many experts say the U.S. should be testing roughly 1 million to 3 million people daily to catch new cases and prevent flareups. Administration officials said they expect to be able to run 20-40 million tests per month beginning this fall.Testing is constrained by laboratory supplies needed to run the tests but also lack of demand for tests in some areas.