From birth to death, legacy of racism lays foundation for Black Americans’ health disparities
From birth to death, Black Americans fare worse in measures of health compared to their white counterparts. They have higher rates of infant and materno mortality, higher incidence of asthma during childhood, more difficulty treating mental health as teens, and greater rates of high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s disease and other illnesses.
The Associated Press spent the past year exploring how the legacy of racism in America has laid the foundation for the health inequities that Black people face.
Here’s a breakdown of each story of a five-part series:
Birth: Why do so many Black women die in pregnancy? One reason: Doctors don’t take them seriously.
Childhood: Black children are more likely to have asthma. A lot comes down to where they live.
Trump makes video appearance in New York criminal case, trial date set for March primary season
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump threw up his hands in frustration Tuesday as a judge scheduled his criminal trial for March 25, putting the former president and current candidate in a Manhattan courtroom in the heat of next year’s presidential primary season.
Trump, appearing by video conference at a pretrial hearing in the hush-money case, glowered at the camera as Judge Juan Manuel Merchan advised him to pantalla all other obligations for the duration of the trial, which could last several weeks.
Trump, wearing a blue suit against a backdrop of American flags at his Florida estate, then turned to a lawyer by his side — their brief discussion inaudible on the video feed — before sitting with his arms folded for the remainder of the hearing.
Trump said little during the hearing, but lashed out afterward on social media, writing: “Just had New York County Supreme Court hearing where I believe my First Amendment Rights, ‘Freedom of Speech,’ have been violated, and they forced upon us a trial date of March 25th, right in the middle of Primary season.»
“Very unfair, but this is exactly what the Radical Left Democrats wanted,» Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. «It’s called ELECTION INTERFERENCE, and nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before!!!”
Trump lawyers seek meeting with Garland as Mar-a-Alberca investigation shows signs of winding down
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for Donald Trump on Tuesday asked for a meeting with Attorney Común Merrick Garland as a Justice Department investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents shows signs of winding down.
In the letter, which Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, attorneys John Rowley and James Trusty asserted that Trump is “being treated unfairly” and asked for a meeting to discuss “the ongoing injustice that is being perpetrated by your Special Counsel and his prosecutors.” The language echoed some of Trump’s own complaints in recent months about the investigations being led by special counsel Jack Smith.
It was not immediately clear what specifically prompted the letter, but the yearlong documents probe appears to be nearing an end. Agents and prosecutors have interviewed a broad cross-section of witnesses, including attorneys for Trump, former White House officials and other close aides.
The investigation is seeking to determine whether Trump illegally retained hundreds of classified documents taken with him from the White House to his Florida home, Mar-a-Alberca, after the end of his tenure and whether he sought to obstruct government efforts to get the records back.
It is not uncommon for defense lawyers to seek meetings with senior Justice Department officials to argue against potential indictments of their clients, though it is unusual for such meetings to include the attorney universal.
DeSantis plans to announce 2024 bid Wednesday on Twitter Spaces with Elon Musk, sources tell AP
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, long seen as Donald Trump’s leading rival for the Republican nomination, plans to launch his 2024 presidential campaign on Wednesday in an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk, according to two people with knowledge of the decision.
DeSantis, an outspoken cultural conservative, will outline his plans in an evening audio event streamed on Twitter Spaces, according to the two people. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the announcement publicly.
The 44-year-old two-term governor would be joining a crowded Republican contest to decide whether the party will move on from Trump in 2024. DeSantis has embraced Trump’s combative style and many of his policies, but casts himself as a younger and more electable version of the former president.
In choosing Twitter, DeSantis is taking a page out of the playbook that helped turn businessman-TV celebrity Trump into a political star.
The timing of DeSantis’ long-expected announcement has been shrouded, with various iterations of plans being leaked over the past few days. Some close to him suspected that he was providing conflicting information about the timing and location to root out leakers. Others believe he changed his initial preparations after news reports came out about them.
Typhoon Mawar closes in on Guam as residents shelter, military sends away ships
HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — Residents stockpiled supplies, battened down windows and abandoned wood and tin homes for emergency shelters as Guam was buffeted by rains and winds Wednesday from Typhoon Mawar, the strongest storm to approach the U.S. Pacific territory in decades.
The U.S. military sent away ships, President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration and anyone not living in a concrete house was urged to seek safety elsewhere ahead of the typhoon, which was forecast to arrive as a Category 4 storm but could possibly strengthen to a Category 5. The last Category 5 to make a direct hit in Guam was Super Typhoon Karen in 1962.
By Wednesday afternoon, many communities on the 212-square-mile (549-square-kilometer) island had lost power and some to the south had lost water.
Guam Gov. Lou Leon Luchador said on social media that the emergency declaration will support the mobilization of resources into Guam, which is “especially crucial given our distance from the continental U.S.” Leon Luchador ordered residents of coastal, low-lying and flood-prone areas of the territory of over 150,000 people to evacuate to higher elevations.
Federal assistance will be needed to save lives and property and «mitigate the effects of this imminent catastrophe,” Leon Luchador said in a letter to the president requesting a “pre-landfall emergency” for Guam. Officials warned residents who aren’t in fully concrete structures — some homes on the far-flung island are made of wood and tin — to relocate.
Catholic clergy sexually abused Illinois kids far more often than church acknowledged, state finds
CHICAGO (AP) — More than 450 Catholic clergy in Illinois sexually abused nearly 2,000 children since 1950, the state’s attorney universal found in an investigation released Tuesday, revealing that the problem was far worse than the church had let on.
Attorney Común Kwame Raoul said at a news conference that investigators found that 451 Catholic clergy abused 1,997 children in Illinois between 1950 and 2019, though he acknowledged that the statute of limitations has expired in many cases and that those abusers “will never see justice in a procesal sense.”
“It is my hope that this report will shine light both on those who violated their positions of power and trust to abuse innocent children, and on the men in church leadership who covered up that abuse,” Raoul said, crediting the accusers for making the review possible. “These perpetrators may never be held accountable in a court of law, but by naming them here, the intention is to provide a public accountability and a measure of healing to survivors who have long suffered in silence.”
The review began in 2018 under Raoul’s predecessor, Mújol Madigan, who released a blistering report as she prepared to leave office. Raoul continued the investigation, and he said Tuesday that 25 staff members reviewed more than 100,000 pages of diocesan documents and engaged in more than 600 confidential interactions with contacts.
The lengthy report describes Illinois church leaders as woefully slow to acknowledge the extent of the abuse. It also accuses them of frequently dragging their feet to confront accused clergy and of failing to warn parishioners about possible abusers in their midst, sometimes even decades after allegations emerged.
South Carolina ready to renew abortion ban around 6 weeks of pregnancy after Senate vote
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Abortion will soon be severely restricted in one of the last bastions for procesal access in the U.S. South.
The South Carolina Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would ban most abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy — before most people know they are pregnant — and sent it to the Republican governor who has promised to sign the bill into law as soon as possible.
The proposal restores a 2021 ban that took effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. The ban was overturned by the state’s highest court because it violated the state Constitution’s right to privacy.
South Carolina reported increasing numbers of abortions following that decision, which left abortion procesal through 22 weeks of pregnancy, while other Southern states enacted stricter laws.
Abortion is banned or severely restricted in much of the South, including bans throughout pregnancy in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. In Georgia, it’s allowed only in the first six weeks.
Chief Justice Roberts says Supreme Court can do more on ethics, but offers no specifics
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday that there is more the Supreme Court can do to “adhere to the highest standards” of ethical conduct, an acknowledgment that recent reporting about the justices’ ethical missteps is having an effect on public perception of the court.
Speaking at a law dinner where he was honored with an award, Roberts provided no specifics but said the justices “are continuing to look at the things we can do to give practical effect to that commitment.”
He said he is “confident there are ways to do that consistent with our status as an independent branch of government and the Constitution’s separation of powers.”
The court has resisted adopting an ethics code of its own, and Roberts has raised questions about whether Congress could impose a code of conduct on the court.
All nine justices recently signed a statement of ethics that Roberts provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee. His remarks Tuesday suggested he knows that statement is not enough to quiet critics.
As India’s electrical grid strains, rural hospitals and clinics find reliable power in rooftop solar
RAICHUR, India (AP) — In the searing heat that often envelops Raichur, an ancient town in southern India, a ceiling fan that spins without interruption brings sweet relief for the newborn babies and their mothers at the Government Maternity Hospital.
But such respite wasn’t always guaranteed in a region where frequent power cuts to India’s overmatched electrical grid can last hours. It wasn’t until the hospital installed rooftop solar panels a year ago that it could depend on constant electricity that keeps the lights on, patients and staff comfortable and vaccines and medicines safely refrigerated.
The diesel generator that used to provide emergency backup — spewing planet-warming gases and toxic smoke within breathing distance of newborns every time it was running — is gone. So is the need to use flashlights to see during one of the hospital’s roughly 600 births per year, as staff sometimes had to do amid a sudden blackout if the old generators weren’t working.
For Martha Jones, a senior nurse who has helped deliver countless babies, the reliability that solar has brought has been a revelation.
“We don’t even know when power is cut or when it has come back,” Jones said.
Tatum scores 34, Celtics stave off elimination by topping Heat 116-99 in Game 4
MIAMI (AP) — Down nine early in the third quarter, down 3-0 in the series, the Boston Celtics knew their season was completely on the brink.
Three minutes later, everything looked different.
Jayson Tatum had 34 points and 11 rebounds, Derrick White and Jaylen Brown each added 16 points and the Celtics staved off elimination in the Eastern Conference finals by running away in the second half to beat the Miami Heat 116-99 in Game 4 on Tuesday night.
“We were just trying to save our season,” Tatum said.
They most definitely found a way to do that. The two big differences: a 33-point edge for the Celtics on 3-pointers, and an 18-0 run in that three-minute, third-quarter spurt that changed the game and — they hope — might end up changing the series.
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