(SEATTLE) — Seattle doctors say hospitals are reaching their breaking points as they deal with a crush of COVID-19 patients amid the latest surge fueled by the omicron variant.
Between Jan. 13 and Jan. 19, there has been an average of 64 new hospitalizations per day with a total of 449 during the week, according to county health department data.
This is a 460% increase from the 80 hospitalizations that were occurring over a one-week period just a month ago.
Additionally, 19.9 per 100,000 residents have been hospitalized over the seven-day period, according to health data.
As of this weekend, UW Medicine — which has four hospitals across its system — reported more than 200 COVID-19 patients for the first time ever.
By comparison, at the end of November, there were about 30 patients infected with the virus across the system, according to Dr. John Lynch, an infectious disease expert at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and UW Medicine medical lead for the COVID-19 response.
“I think we’re closer now to a crisis — like a true crisis in health care — we’re closer than we’ve ever been during this entire pandemic,” Lynch told ABC News.
He said this is due to several factors, including the number of patients getting sick, hospitals reaching capacity, an exhausted health care workforce and the frustration of COVID patients being admitted to hospitals who are unvaccinated.
Before the omicron surge, unvaccinated King County residents were nine times more likely to be hospitalized and die, according to Public Health Seattle. During the omicron surge, unvaccinated people are now 12 times more likely to be hospitalized and 20 times more likely to die.
“We have these incredible vaccines that are so good at protecting us from serious disease and death, and yet people continue to … not get vaccinated and that ends up leading to them in the hospital,” Lynch said. “Health care workers don’t want to see people suffer and it is just so hard to see a big group of folks in the ICU because of something that was completely preventable.”
Lynch said most hospitals across Washington state were already very full when the omicron surge struck compared to other times during the pandemic, making it even more challenging to find enough beds, secure enough resources and prevent understaffing.
“My facility at Harborview, we were already about 100 patients over our normal capacity when the omicron surge hit,” he said. “Then the omicron surge came and so you basically had to absorb all these more patients, all of whom required precautions.”
Lynch urged residents to help ease the burden on hospitals by wearing masks indoors, getting vaccinated and boosted and avoiding large gatherings so they don’t potentially contract the virus and get seriously ill.
“We need your help in health care right now, in hospitals, in clinics, in emergency departments,” he said. “We need to slow down the number of new cases of COVID-19. That means please take every precaution not to get infected, not to end up in the hospital.”
(NEW YORK) — A federal prosecutor on Monday called Michael Avenatti “a lawyer who stole from his client” and promised jurors “you’re going to follow the money” at the opening of Avenatti’s trial in Manhattan federal court.
Avenatti, seated at the defense table in a mask and dark suit, is charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for forging the signature of his most well-known client, the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and steering $300,000 she was owed by a book publisher into an account he controlled.
“The defendant betrayed the victim, stole her money and lied to cover it up,” the prosecutor, Andrew Rohrbach, said during his opening statement.
Avenatti has pleaded not guilty and his attorney said there was no theft.
“Mr. Avenatti didn’t steal Storm Daniels money,” defense attorney Andrew Dalak said, instead casting the matter as a “disagreement” or fee dispute.
“This disagreement has no business in federal criminal court,” Dalak said in his opening statement.
Daniels was supposed to be paid $800,000 in four installments for writing her autobiography, including details of her long-denied affair with former President Donald Trump. The prosecution said Avenatti stole two of those payments because he was having personal financial problems and his law firm was having trouble making payroll and paying for office space.
“There was no agreement for the defendant to get any piece of Ms. Daniels’ book money,” Rohrbach said. “She didn’t know her lawyer had stolen her money.”
The defense has suggested it might question the credibility of Daniels, who Dalak called an “obscure adult entertainer” before she received a hush payment from Trump and sued to get released from a nondisclosure agreement. The defense will also be allowed to question Daniels about her beliefs in the paranormal related to her “Spooky Babes” television show in which she explores paranormal activity.
Anticipating the line of questioning, Rohrbach said actresses in adult films and paranormal investigators “can be victims of fraud and identity theft too.”
The government’s first witness is Lucas Janklow, Daniels’ literary agent, who testified he first knew Avenatti by reputation as “a folk hero” who was “very aggressive and very effective at fighting for the 70 million people who didn’t vote” for Trump.
(NEW YORK) — A $60,000 reward is being offered in the search for the suspect identified in the fatal ambush shooting of a Texas constable deputy during a traffic stop on Sunday.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner named 51-year-old Oscar Rosales as the suspect who allegedly gunned down Cpl. Charles Galloway of the Harris County Precinct 5 office.
“We have video evidence of him shooting our constable,” said Finner, who released a photo of Rosales and pleaded for the public to share any information they had about the suspect.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Rosales has been charged with capital murder in Galloways’ death. Ogg described Rosales as “a bold and incredibly dangerous fugitive.”
“Mr. Rosales, you can run but you cannot hide,” said Ogg, adding that the search for the suspect is now nationwide.
Galloway, 47, was shot multiple times while still seated in his patrol car and reportedly had no time to defend himself when the motorist he stopped got out of his car and opened fire without warning, authorities said.
“We will not stop until this individual is apprehended,” Precinct 5 Constable Ted Heap said during Monday’s news conference. “This is a murderer. This is a ruthless, savage execution and somebody like this needs to be removed from the streets quickly.”
The shooting started at about 12:45 a.m. Sunday when Galloway, a training officer, pulled over a newer-model white Toyota Avalon in a residential neighborhood of southwest Houston, according to Finner.
Finner said the suspect immediately got out of the car and began firing at Galloway multiple times with an assault-type rifle, before driving off. He said Galloway did not have an opportunity to defend himself.
Ogg said Rosales’ wife, Reina Marquez, and her brother, Henri Mauricio Pereira-Marquez, have both been arrested on charges of tampering with evidence.
Finner said Reina Marquez and her brother are alleged to have tampered with the Toyota Avalon, which has since been recovered by police.
He said the reward being offered for information leading to the capture and prosecution of Rosales came from donations from Crime Stoppers of Houston, the Fallen Heroes Fund 100 Club and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, who put up $50,000.
The deadly episode came during a string of law enforcement officer deaths in-the-line duty nationwide. On Friday night, a 22-year-old rookie New York City police officer was fatally shot and his partner was critically wounded when they responded to a domestic incident in Harlem.
On Dec. 29, Bradley, Illinois, Police Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic, 49, was fatally shot and her partner was wounded when they responded to a barking dog complaint at a hotel. Two people arrested in the case, including one who allegedly shot Rittmanic with her own gun, were arrested and are facing the death penalty if convicted.
Galloway’s death comes about three months after Harris County Constable Precinct 4 deputy Kareem Atkins, 30, was shot to death in an ambush outside a Houston sports bar that left Atkins’ partner wounded. A 19-year-old suspect was arrested in December and charged with capital murder.
“These are not assaults, these are not attacks, these are brutal, brutal murders. We have to put an end to this,” Heap said. “We cannot have people like this on our streets. I don’t want to raise my family, my grandchildren in a county where this type of crime is running rampant.”
Heap nor Finner would comment on why Galloway, who was assigned to the toll road enforcement division, initiated the traffic stop.
Finner said his departments investigative and homicide units are leading the investigation.
Heap said Galloway is survived by a daughter and a sister. He said Galloway was a 12 1/2-year veteran of Precinct 5 and had voluntarily switched to a night shift position to become a training officer.
“There are a lot of very broken up officers who he (Galloway) meant a lot in their lives because he was the one sitting in the front seat with them,” Heap said. “He was the one who was teaching them what to do and how to get home safely to their families.”
(NEW YORK) — Opening statements got underway Monday in the federal trial of three former Minnesota police officers charged in the death of George Floyd with a prosecutor telling the jury the defendants “made the conscious choice over and over again” not to protect the 46-year-old Black man.
Fired Minneapolis police officers J. Alexander Kueng, 28, Thomas Lane, 38, and Tou Thao, 35, are fighting charges stemming from their alleged roles in the deadly confrontation with Floyd who their one-time senior officer, Derek Chauvin, was convicted of murdering.
The trial, expected to last two to four weeks, is being held at the Warren E. Burger Federal Building in St. Paul.
The trial got underway just after 10 a.m. with U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson swearing in the jury before calling on a federal prosecutor to give the first opening statement.
“In your custody, in your care,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Samantha Trepel told the jury, reading from the Minneapolis Police Department’s policy on how officers should treat people once taken to custody. The prosecutor added that it’s “not just a moral responsibility, it’s what the law requires under the U.S. Constitution.”
Trepel said the defendants were all trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, yet took no action to help save Floyd’s life as he claimed at least 25 times that he could not breathe, was rendered unconscious and lost a pulse.
“Here on May 25, 2020, for second after second, minute after minute, these three CPR-trained defendants stood or knelt next to Officer Chauvin as he slowly killed George Floyd right in front of them,” Trepel said.
She added that the officers each made the “conscious choice over and over again” not to act to protect a man they had in handcuffs and pinned to the pavement.
Trepel noted that in one of the videos of the episode, Tao, who was trying to keep a crowd at bay, was standing next to Chauvin but failed to stop the excessive force, rather telling witnesses, “This is why you don’t do drugs, kids.”
The prosecutor said Keung was kneeling on Floyd’s back the whole time and did nothing to stop Chauvin’s excessive use of force, even two minutes after he could not find Floyd’s pulse and after an ambulance crew arrived and could not detect a heartbeat.
Trepel said that despite being rookie cops, Lane and Keung had been extensively trained for 1 1/2 years, both being taught at the police academy many times to turn a subject onto their side when they are having trouble breathing.
“We will ask you to hold these men accountable for choosing to do nothing and watch a man die,” Trepel told the jury
Attorneys for each of the defendants are expected to follow with their own opening statements to the jury.
Following Trepel’s statement, Kueng’s attorney, Thomas Plunkett, made a motion for a mistrial, arguing that some of what Trepel’s told the jury was more argumentative than a preview of the evidence the prosecutors intend to present over the course of the trial.
Magnuson denied the motion.
Thao’s attorney, Robert Paule, acknowledged in his opening statement that Floyd’s death was a tragedy, but added, “a tragedy is not a crime.”
Paule told the jury that he expects the prosecution to lean heavily on the video evidence in the case, including footage taken by witness Darnella Fraizer, the then 17-year-old, who began recording when the officers already had Floyd handcuffed and prone on the ground. Paule told the jury that the video doesn’t tell the whole story and noted that Floyd was struggling and resisting the officers prior to Fraizer and other witnesses filming the encounter.
Paule told the jury that after hearing the evidence, the only verdict justified will be not guilty on all counts.
Keung’s attorney, Tom Plunkett, said Keung and Lane had only completed five shifts on the job by the time they became involved in Floyd’s fatal arrest and deferred to Chauvin, their field training officer with 19 years of law enforcement experience under his belt.
Plunkett said a field training officer “has great control over a young officer’s future in the Minneapolis Police Department.”
He said Chauvin was clearly in charge of the incident even though Lane should have been because he was the senior officer in the first squad car to arrive at the scene.
Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, called the government’s case against his client a “perversion of justice.”
Gray said Floyd measured 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds and put the officer in a “scary” scenario when he struggled with them.
“He was all muscle,” Gray said of Floyd.
He said Lane “was totally concerned and did everything he could possibly do to help George Floyd.” He said Lane asked Chauvin and Kueng if they should turn the man on his side to help him breathe, but his suggestions were rejected.
“Not deliberatively indifferent about his health at all,” Gray said of Lane’s reactions during the episode.
Gray told the jury that Lane will testify during the trial.
Attorneys for the Floyd family released a statement earlier saying the trial is “another milestone in the long, slow journey to justice for George Floyd and his family.”
“This trial will be another painful experience for the Floyd family, who must once more relive his grueling death in excruciating detail,” the statement from the family’s attorneys said.
The 18-member jury, including six alternates, was impaneled in just one day, chosen on Thursday from a pool of 256 potential jurors. The jury is comprised of 11 women and seven men, none of whom are Black.
All three defendants are charged with using the “color of the law,” or their positions as police officers, to deprive Floyd of his civil rights by allegedly showing deliberate indifference to his medical needs as Chauvin dug his knee in the back of a handcuffed man’s neck for more than 9 minutes, ultimately killing him.
Kueng and Thao both face an additional charge alleging they knew Chauvin was kneeling on Floyd’s neck but did nothing to intervene to stop him. Lane, who was heard on police body camera footage asking if they should roll Floyd on his side to help ease his breathing, does not face that charge.
Kueng, Lane and Thao have pleaded not guilty.
Opening statements in the trial commenced a little over a month after Chauvin, 45, a former Minneapolis police officer, pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges stemming from Floyd’s death and the abuse of a 14-year-old boy he bashed in the head with a flashlight in 2017. He admitted in the signed plea agreement with federal prosecutors that he knelt on the back of Floyd’s neck even as Floyd complained he could not breathe, fell unconscious and lost a pulse.
The guilty plea came after Chauvin was convicted in Minnesota state court in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison in the state case and is facing an even stiffer sentence in the federal case.
Kueng and Lane were rookies being trained by Chauvin at the time of Floyd’s fatal arrest.
The May 25, 2020, police encounter with Floyd, who was accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes at a convenience store, was recorded on video from start to finish and included multiple angles taken by bystanders with cellphones, police body cameras and surveillance cameras.
The footage showed Chauvin grinding his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds while Kueng helped keep Floyd down even after he stopped resisting by placing his knee on the man’s back and holding and lifting one of his handcuffed hands. Lane, according to the videos, held down Floyd’s feet.
Thao, according to footage, stood a few feet away, ordering a crowd to stand back despite several witnesses, including an off-duty firefighter, expressing concern for Floyd’s well-being.
Following the federal trial, Lane, Keung and Thao are facing a state trial on charges arising from Floyd’s death of aiding and abetting second-degree murder, and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
The three defendants have pleaded not guilty to the state charges.
Kevin Hart is returning to the small screen for a new season of the Real Husbands of Hollywood series that premieres February 10, and he’ll be joined by fellow cast members Duane Martin, JB Smoove, Nelly, Nick Cannon, Boris Kodjoe and Robin Thicke.
The new trailer for BET+’s Real Husbands of Hollywood: More Kevin, More Problems just dropped, and once again, Hart and his buddies — playing fictional versions of themselves — bring the funny.
Cynthia McWilliams and Jackie Long return to the cast, to which Michele Weaver and Angela Rye have been added for this go ’round. As usual, the show also boasts a variety of celebrity guests. The trailer alone features Tiffany Haddish, Dr. Phil and Neil DeGrasse Tyson — who Kevin thinks is Mike Tyson‘s “astronaut” father.
All six episodes of Real Husbands of Hollywood: More Kevin, More Problems will stream on BET+.
Earlier this month, an art exhibit inspired by the iconic artwork used by music acts such as U2 was announced for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Now you’ll be able to buy your own version of those artworks — for a hefty price.
The exhibit, Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined,marks the 30th anniversary of Interscope Records and features over 50 original works by visual artists relating to a particular album or song from the Interscope catalog. Other musicians featured include Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Gwen Stefani and Selena Gomez.
The exhibit also includes artists Juice WRLD, Machine Gun Kelly, Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar.
Starting January 27, you’ll be able to buy limited-edition vinyl albums featuring the artwork from the exhibit. There will be 100 copies of each album available, and each will come with a numbered archival quality print of the artwork on the cover. On top of that, each album will be delivered in a custom Gucci box. The price? $2500 each.
The albums will be released in groups, with the first group being available to purchase from January 27 through January 31, exclusively via the app for the livestream shopping platform NTWRK. All profits will go to a charity foundation which is building a school in L.A.
The first group up for grabs includes Billie’s debut EP don’t smile at me, as well as iconic albums from Eminem, Dr. Dre and Kendrick. The release dates for the other albums haven’t yet been announced.
Meanwhile, the actual art exhibit will be on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from January 30 to February 13. For more info, visit LACMA.org.
Sammy Hagar and his current group The Circle have unveiled plans for a 14-show U.S. trek dubbed the Crazy Times tour featuring special guests George Thorogood & The Destroyers that will take place on select dates in June, August and September.
The tour gets underway on June 10 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and is plotted out through a September 10 show in Irvine, California.
Tickets for the dates go on sale to the general public on Friday, January 28, at 10 a.m. local time via Live Nation. Members of Hagar’s Redhead Fan Club will be able to purchase pre-sale tickets beginning Tuesday, January 25, at 10 a.m. local time. For more information, visit RedRocker.com.
“A tour this size has been a long time coming and it’s definitely going to be worth the wait,” the Red Rocker says in a statement. “The Circle and I are super excited and ready to throw the party of the year with George Thorogood. We’re going to take the music and party to a whole new level — ‘Crazy Times’ is an understatement.”
The Crazy Times trek will follow Hagar’s recently announced 2022 Las Vegas residency at The STRAT Theater. Those shows, which will feature Sammy performing with The Circle and some surprise guests, are scheduled for February 9, 11 and 12, and March 23, 25 and 26.
The Circle features founding Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, acclaimed rock drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Vic Johnson of Hagar’s longtime backing group, The Wabos.
FilmMagic/FilmMagic for Life is Beautiful Music & Art Festival
Last month, Green Day shared an Instagram post which shows the punk trio recording at RAK Studios in London. That tease featured the year “1972” very prominently. Now, the band has shared more footage of themselves at the London studio, with “1972” once again cropping up in the imagery.
The footage, posted over the weekend, shows the three band members jamming out, and Mike Dirnt spray-painting “1972” on a wall. That happens to be the birth year of all three members of the group.
Green Day, along with Machine Gun Kelly, Miley Cyrus, Halsey and Gwen Stefani, are set to headline the 2022 Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest, a three-day event taking place February 10-12 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles ahead of Super Bowl LVI on February 13. Perhaps the group will introduce some new music in that performance.
Green Day released three new singles in 2021: “Here Comes the Shock,” “Pollyanna” and “Holy Toledo!” The band’s most recent album is 2020’s Father of All…
(NEW YORK) — Tesla filed a counterclaim against JPMorgan Chase Monday, the latest salvo in an ongoing battle between the electric automaker and the country’s biggest bank.
The lawsuit accused JPMorgan of filing “cynical litigation” when the bank sued Tesla last year, claiming it was owed $162 million when Tesla stock warrants expired.
In its counterclaim, Tesla accused JPMorgan of deploying “illegitimate machinations” and is seeking a declaratory judgment that it does not owe the bank the additional funds.
“Last year, JPM obtained billions of dollars’ worth of shares of Tesla’s common stock for a bargain price that the parties negotiated in 2014. Not content with this multibillion–dollar gain, JPM now seeks, through this cynical litigation, to extract an additional nine-figure windfall from Tesla,” the lawsuit said.
The legal dispute began after Tesla’s Elon Musk posted on Twitter that he was considering taking the company private. He took back the statement but was sued by securities regulators. Musk and the SEC settled for $20 million. Part of the settlement required him to step down as chairman of the company’s board of directors.
“JPM took improper advantage of a Twitter post from August 7, 2018 – nearly three years before the Warrants’ exercise dates – in which Elon Musk stated that he was considering taking Tesla private. Ten days after that tweet, JPM falsely asserted that the tweet constituted an announcement by Tesla of an extraordinary corporate transaction,” Tesla’s lawsuit said.
The stock warrants were arranged after JPMorgan handled a 2014 transaction for Tesla and allowed the bank to buy shares of the automaker at a fixed price, below market value, for a period of years. JPMorgan claimed Musk’s tweet impacted the value of those shares, leaving the bank entitled to an additional $162 million.
Tesla, which is represented by Quinn Emanuel’s Alex Spiro, the lawyer who successfully defended Musk from a defamation claim, is seeking to dismiss JPMorgan’s earlier lawsuit.
JPMorgan told ABC News in a statement, “There is no merit to their claim. This comes down to fulfilling contractual obligations.”
The dueling lawsuits add to the personal animus between Musk and JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon. Musk prefers to do business with other banks and JPMorgan recently inked a deal to be the primary lender to Tesla rival Rivian, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Sidney Poitier‘s memorial service will be private due to the pandemic.
“The Poitier family so appreciates the wonderful outpouring of love, support and affection for Sidney,” reads the family statement, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “There have been many inquiries about an event to honor his life. At this time, due to the coronavirus pandemic, a private memorial service has been arranged for the family with the possibility of a more public memorial service should the virus’ numbers subside in the near future.”
The Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner star, who was the first Black man to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, died on January 6. He was 94. As previously reported, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced that Poitier passed away from a combination of cardiopulmonary failure, prostate cancer and Alzheimer’s dementia
In other news, production on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is expected to resume Monday, according to Entertainment Weekly. Shooting was halted in November as Letitia Wright, who portrays T’Challa’s sister, Shuri, recovered from an injury she sustained while filming a stunt in August. Production was initially scheduled to resume last week, however, it was pushed back after several people involved in the production — including Lupita Nyong’o, who stars as Nakia — tested positive for COVID-19.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is scheduled to open November 11.
Finally, Kandi Burruss has a new reality show. The Real Housewives of Atlanta star, and her husband, Todd Tucker will feature their A-T-L restaurant, OLG, in the new series, Kandi & The Gang. They operate OLG with Kandi’s mother, Joyce, and aunts Nora and Bertha.Kandi & The Gang will premiere on Sunday, March 6 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo.
