media quiz 3

1. Ex- Minneapolis cop pleads guilty in George Floyd killing -  A former Minneapolis police officer pleaded guilty Monday to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd just as jury selection was about to begin. Another former officer waived his right to a jury trial, setting up an unusual proceeding in which the judge will issue a verdict after lawyers submit written arguments.The plea deal for J. Alexander Kueng calls for 3 1/2 years in prison, with prosecutors agreeing to drop a count of aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Kueng is the second officer to plead guilty to the state charge, following Thomas Lane, who pleaded guilty earlier this year.

2. 3 killed in shooting at St. Louis high school - St. Louis police say three people are dead after a shooting a high school Monday morning.Speaking at a news conference, Police Commissioner Michael Sack said the three dead included an adult, a girl and the shooter.The shooting just after 9 a.m. at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School forced students to barricade doors and huddle in classroom corners, jump from windows and run out of the building to seek safety. Within minutes, the school was surrounded by dozens of police vehicles.Six people were injured Monday morning in a shooting inside a St. Louis high school.The shooting just after 9 a.m. at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School forced students to barricade doors and huddle in classroom corners, jump from windows and run out of the building to seek safety. Within minutes, the school was surrounded by dozens of police vehicles.

3. Michigan teen pleads guilty to killing in school shooting - A teenager pleaded guilty Monday to terrorism and first-degree murder in a Michigan school shooting that killed four students and may be called to testify against his parents, who’ve been jailed on manslaughter charges for their alleged role in the tragedy.Ethan Crumbley, 16, pleaded guilty to all 24 charges, nearly a year after the attack at Oxford High School in southeastern Michigan. In the gallery, some relatives of the victims wept as assistant prosecutor Marc Keast described the crimes.The prosecutor’s office said no deals were made ahead of Monday’s plea. A first-degree murder conviction typically brings an automatic life prison sentence in Michigan, but teenagers are entitled to a hearing where their lawyer can argue for a shorter term and an opportunity for parole.

4. Dallas shooter was attending birth at hospital -  The 30-year-old man charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of two Dallas hospital employees was on parole and had been given permission to be at the medical facility for the birth of a child, a Texas prison official said Sunday.Nestor Hernandez was granted leave to be with his “significant other” at Methodist Dallas Medical Center during her delivery Saturday, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Amanda Hernandez. She said he’d been sentenced to prison for aggravated robbery and was released on parole last October, but did not provide additional details on the circumstances of the shooting.Authorities have said Hernandez opened fire at the hospital around 11 a.m. Saturday and killed two staff members before being shot and injured by a hospital police officer. The victims have not been publicly identified and it’s unclear what led to the shooting.

5. Endangered whale’s decline slows, but population falls again -The decline of an endangered species of whale slowed last year, as it lost about 2% of its population, but scientists warn the animal still faces existential threats and is losing breeding females too fast.The North Atlantic right whale’s population was more than 480 in 2010 and fell by more than 25% over the following decade. The North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, a group of scientists, government officials and industry members, said Monday that the population fell to an estimated 340 last year.That is a decline of eight animals from the previous year, when the population was initially thought to be even fewer. The whales are vulnerable to ship collisions and entanglement in commercial fishing gear, and they have suffered from poor reproduction and high mortality in recent years.The right whales live off the East Coast and migrate every year from calving grounds off Georgia and Florida to feeding grounds off New England and Canada. They were once abundant but were decimated during the commercial whaling era, when they were hunted for their oil and meat.

6. Phillies hit 4 homes, rally past Padres 10-6, lead NLCS 3-1 - Bryce Harper stood on second base after a go-ahead double and ran his hands across the script “Phillies” on his jersey as Citizens Bank Park shook in ecstasy over a World Series that suddenly seemed oh-so-close.Rhys Hoskins homered twice, Kyle Schwarber hit a solo shot into shrubbery and Harper doubled to put Philadelphia ahead for good in a wild 10-6 win over the San Diego Padres on Saturday night for a 3-1 lead in the NL Championship Series.Harper — who signed a 13-year, $330 million free-agent deal in 2019 — had made Philly both his home and a championship contender with a postseason already among the greatest in franchise history. He’s hit in nine straight games, reached base in 10 straight games, is hitting .410 in the postseason and already told his team they weren’t losing in the postseason. 

7. Slavery is on ballot for voters in US states - More than 150 years after slaves were freed in the U.S., voters in five states will soon decide whether to close loopholes that led to the proliferation of a different form of slavery — forced labor by people convicted of certain crimes.None of the proposals would force immediate changes inside the states’ prisons, though they could lead to legal challenges related to how they use prison labor, a lasting imprint of slavery’s legacy on the entire United States. The effort is part of a national push to amend the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that banned enslavement or involuntary servitude except as a form of criminal punishment. That exception has long permitted the exploitation of labor by convicted felons.Nearly 20 states have constitutions that include language permitting slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments. In 2018, Colorado was the first to remove the language from its founding frameworks by ballot measure, followed by Nebraska and Utah two years later.

8. Tom Brady ,Aaron Rodgers aren’t getting much help - Tom Brady threw a perfect deep ball to a wide-open Mike Evans on the third play of the game that would’ve been a 64-yard touchdown pass if the star receiver hadn’t dropped it.When rookie receiver Romeo Doubs dropped a low pass that would’ve extended a drive for Green Bay, Rodgers was visibly frustrated and cursed on his way to the sideline. The Packers only trailed by a field goal and there was plenty of time to rally. Instead, inferior Washington held on for a 23-21 victory.Dropped passes are part of football. Brady and Rodgers have overcome many mistakes, including plenty of their own, on their way to winning 434 games combined in the regular season and playoffs.Injuries have depleted Tampa Bay’s offensive line, the Buccaneers have the worst rushing offense in the league and tight end Rob Gronkowski isn’t around to help Brady when he needs him most.Predictable play calling from offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich also has been troubling. Carolina’s defense seemed to know what was coming quite often.

9. US heads to World Cup with players struggling for game time - The United States team’s top player has been buried on his club’s bench, starting only two matches this season. Two goalkeepers took demotions to England’s second division and the third hasn’t gotten a single Premier League minute.The Americans return to the World Cup following their failure to reach the 2018 tournament with what likely will be the youngest team among the 32 nations, a squad called the nation’s most talented generation yet inconsistent and unproven. They earned the region’s final berth only on goal difference after a final-day loss. After ending a streak of seven straight World Cup appearances, the United States opens Group B against Wales on Nov. 21, then plays England on Nov. 25 and finishes the first round against Iran on Nov. 29.The team coached by Gregg Berhalter heads to the tournament following a 2-0 loss to Japan and a 0-0 draw against Saudi Arabia, leaving the United States with one win, three losses and three draws in its last seven games against World Cup-bound nations. The Americans have been shut out six times. 

10. Cokes sponsorship leaves bad taste with green groups - Soft drink giant Coca-Cola Co.’s sponsorship of the flagship U.N. climate conference, known as COP27, sparked an online backlash and highlighted broader concerns about corporate lobbying and influence.The COP27 negotiations aimed at limiting global temperature increases are set to kick off next month in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. The Egyptian organizers cited Coca-Cola’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and key focus on climate when they announced the sponsorship deal in September, which triggered immediate outrage on social media.Activists slammed the company for its outsized role contributing to plastic pollution and pointed to the deal as an example of corporate “greenwash” — exaggerating climate credentials to mask polluting behaviors. An online petition calling for Coke to be removed as a sponsor has garnered more than 228,000 signatures, while hundreds of civil society groups signed an open letter demanding polluting companies be banned from bankrolling or being involved in climate talks.Critics say corporate involvement goes against the spirit of the meetings, where tens of thousands of delegates from around the world gather to hammer out global agreements on combating climate change to stop the earth from warming to dangerous levels. This year, the focus is on how to implement promises made at previous conferences, according to the Egyptian presidency.

11. Abortions ruling means more and riskier births in Mississippi - In Mississippi, where health officials expect 5,000 more births each year as a result of the Supreme Court ruling upending abortion rights, children are more likely to die before their first birthday than in any other state.Mississippi has the nation’s highest fetal mortality rate, highest infant mortality rate, highest pre-term birth rate and is among the worst states for maternal mortality. Black women are nearly three times more likely to die due to childbirth than white women in Mississippi. As the state’s Republican leaders led the legal fight against abortion, Gov. Tate Reeves said he would do everything in his power to make Mississippi the “safest state in the nation for an unborn child.”But access to pre- and post-natal care has dwindled in Mississippi since the June ruling, making childbirth even more dangerous for poor women and children. The only neonatal intensive care unit in the state’s impoverished Delta region closed in July under financial pressures, moving lifesaving care for ill or premature newborn babies about two hours away by car. 

12. Genes link bipolar , schizophrenia, once thought unrelated- When Chastity Murry had her first psychotic break, she went into her bathroom and downed a whole bottle of pills, hoping to die. Her teenage daughter had to perform CPR to save her life.Around that same time more than a decade ago, the man who would become her husband, Dante Murry, also lost touch with reality and considered suicide. Different illnesses led them down similar paths – bipolar disorder in her case and schizoaffective disorder in his – conditions long considered by many to be distinct and unrelated.But a growing body of research shows that bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and the in-between diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder share common genetic underpinnings as well as overlapping symptoms and signs. Bipolar disorder is known for causing extreme mood swings. Schizophrenia is characterized by delusions, hallucinations and disordered thinking. Schizoaffective disorder includes symptoms of both. 

13. Failing US nursing homes to face tougher federal penalties -  The worst-of-the-worst nursing homes will face tougher penalties if conditions don’t improve at their facilities, the Biden administration announced Friday.The intensified scrutiny on some nursing homes, where more than a million people are housed, comes nearly two years after COVID-19 exposed subpar care and extreme staffing shortages that had long festered in the facilities. Nursing home residents have been significantly more likely to die from COVID-19; as of February, more than 200,000 nursing home staffers or residents had died from the virus.President Joe Biden had promised during his State of the Union address in February to overhaul the nation’s nursing home system but some of those initiatives have yet to be implemented fully.The new guidelines announced Friday will apply to less than 0.5% of the nation’s nursing homes. The facilities are already designated as a “special focus facility” because of a previous violation and are on a watchlist of sorts that requires the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare to monitor them more regularly.Starting Friday, those nursing homes will lose federal funding if they receive more than one dangerous violation — rule-breaking that put residents at risk for harm. They will also be monitored for a minimum of three years. CMS will also consider staffing levels at the nursing homes when adding facilities to its watchlist. Currently, 88 nursing homes are on the list. 

14. Mysterious breeding habits of aquarium fish vex experts - It took a broken air conditioner for Tom Bowling to figure out — after nearly eight months of failure — how to breed the coveted pink-yellow tropical fish known as blotched anthias.Bowling, an ornamental fish breeder based in Palau, had kept the fish in cool water, trying to replicate the temperatures the deep-water creatures are usually found in. But when the air conditioner broke the water temperature rose by a few degrees overnight -- with surprising results. “They started spawning — they went crazy, laying eggs everywhere,” said Bowling.Experts around the world tinker over water temperature, futz with lights, and try various mixes of microscopic food particles in hopes of happening upon the particular and peculiar set of conditions that will inspire ornamental fish to breed. Experts hope to steer the aquarium fish trade away from wild-caught fish, which are often caught with poisons that can hurt coral ecosystems.Most of the millions of glittering fish that dart around saltwater aquariums in the U.S., Europe, China and elsewhere are taken from coral reefs in the Philippines, Indonesia and other tropical countries.Trappers often stun them using chemicals like cyanide. They are then transferred to middlemen and then flown across the globe, ending up in aquariums in homes, malls, restaurants and medical offices. Experts estimate“large percentages” die on the way.
15. Halloween caramel apples : an easy , fun treat amid the candy - There is a slightly weird irony to the fact that around Halloween, we tend to look for recipes for seasonal sweets, even as we prepare for an onslaught of candy. My kids are way beyond trick-or-treating age, but that doesn’t mean we don’t lay in a supply of mini candy bars for the kids who will come a-knocking at out door.But if you are hosting a Halloween party — for adults or children — a plastic pumpkin full of mini candies might not feel special enough. Maybe you were tasked with bringing a treat to a school party. Maybe (like us) your building hosts a Halloween party every year for the kids. Or maybe, even though you are an adult, you still think Halloween is the coolest holiday of the year and you need to go the extra mile!You can use whatever apples you like, as long as they are firm and crisp. Granny Smiths are a good choice, with the tartness playing nicely against the sweet. Honeycrisp and Fuji and Gala, all good choices. You want a crunch when you bite into it.I like to use smaller apples, because with caramel and coatings there is a lot going on. Have you seen some of those huge packaged caramel or other candy apples available during the holiday season? The kind that can feed a family of four? They are gorgeous but uh, let’s just say hard to justify.