(PHILADELPHIA) — The Philadelphia School District announced on Friday that 46 of its schools will switch to virtual learning as the omicron variant and a winter storm take a toll on staffing.
“Based on today’s data review, we know that at least 46 schools definitely will be 100% virtual next week, Monday, January 10th through Friday, January 14th, 2022,” William Hite, the superintendent of Philadelphia’a school district, said in a statement.
The district will continue to make daily assessments on a school-by-school basis taking into consideration COVID-related staffing data, temporary measures schools can make and how central office staff can be deployed to maintain safe and orderly school environments, Hite said.
The district will be monitoring staffing data over the weekend and will provide another update by Sunday at 4 p.m., according to Hite. Next week, they will offer updates at least twice a day, he said.
“Staffing challenges due to the Omicron surge coupled with the winter storm have made this an incredibly challenging first week back to school for the 2022 new year,” Hite said. “We will continue to keep as many of our school buildings open as consistently as possible as long as we are confident we can do so safely.”
On Tuesday, the number of grab-and-go meal sites in Philadelphis schools and other locations throughout the city will double in number, from 12 to 24. Students who are quarantining or whose schools have gone virtual can pick up five-day breakfast and lunch meal boxes.
“We are doing everything we can to safely keep as many of our schools open as consistently as possible for our students and families. By continuing to work together, and by being flexible and patient with one another along the way, we can help our young people through these difficult times,” Hite said.
(NEW YORK) — The University of Pennsylvania came under fire this week after a law professor made inflammatory comments about Asians and the Asian-American community during an interview.
Amy Wax, in speaking to Brown University professor Glenn Loury on “The Glenn Show,” said: “Maybe it’s just that Democrats love open borders, and Asians want more Asians here. Perhaps they are just mesmerized by the feel-good cult of diversity. I don’t know the answer, but as long as most Asians support Democrats and help to advance their positions, I think the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.”
Those comments sparked outrage on campus, with the dean of the law school calling them “anti-intellectual and racist.”
“Like all racist generalizations, Wax’s recent comments inflict harm by perpetuating stereotypes and placing differential burdens on Asian students, faculty and staff to carry the weight of this vitriol and bias,” Dean Theodore Ruger said in a statement.
Penn students created a petition demanding the school take action against Wax, a tenured professor.
“I think that the university needs to suspend her from all teaching duties,” said Apratim Vidyarthi, a third-year law student. “She shouldn’t be allowed to come on campus, she shouldn’t be allowed to interact with students while this investigation is ongoing.”
Wax didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment from ABC News.
She’s been accused of making racist comments previously.
“We know she said similar things in the past,” Vidvarthi continued. “She said that white European cultures are better than non-white European cultures in the past. She’s lied about Black students’ performance in class. So it wasn’t surprising, and it’s about time that we do something about this.”
Soojin Jeong, co-president of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Associated, expressed disappointment in the Penn administration.
“As much as Amy Wax has said these things,” Jegon added, “we also know right now that it is a pattern, as we said in the petition.”
(NEW YORK) — Just a few minutes after the clock struck midnight, James “Roe” Williams was fatally shot by police on New Year’s Day.
The Canton Police Department has now released body camera footage that shows the moments leading up to the fatal incident as the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation begins its investigation.
Williams, 46, was firing celebratory shots into the air from his rifle just outside his home in Canton, Ohio, on Jan. 1 when police arrived, his wife, Marquetta Williams, told ABC News.
Canton Police said they were called to investigate a shots-fired incident.
In body camera footage, an officer can be heard saying, “I saw the male’s head through the fence. After I heard the shots, I got in my cruiser, went up to the porch and I saw him putting the rifle away.”
Then, several shots are fired and the officer appears to walk toward the sound. The officer approaches the fence of Williams’ home. In the audio of the body camera footage, shots can still be heard. That’s when the officer shoots toward the fence and fatally strikes Williams, who, Marquetta said, was on the other side.
According to Marquetta Williams, her husband was bleeding as he walked into their home. Body camera footage then shows Marquetta Williams coming out of the front door, yelling, “My husband’s been shot!” Another officer can be heard in the footage noting there are children inside the house.
Officers then ordered all of the people in the house to come out and get on the sidewalk, according to the video.
First aid was administered when Williams was encountered in the home, and he was transported by Canton Fire paramedics to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to officials.
All evidence has been turned over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, according to the Canton Police Department. The officer involved, who has not yet been named, has been placed on administrative leave.
A statement from the Canton Police Department said the officer was “in fear for his safety” when he shot Williams.
Marquetta Williams called the shooting “unjustified” and “senseless,” adding that the officer shot through a fence that’s intended for privacy and hard to see through.
“My husband and my family and my kids are going to get justice,” she said. “This could have been avoided.”
She described her husband as a “good man” and a loving father.
“All he did was take care of his kids,” Marquetta Williams said. “He’d give you the shirt off his back, and they took that away from me and my babies.”
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 833,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 62.4% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-1 in 5 Americans have tested positive for COVID-19
-Half of NYC COVID hospitalized patients were admitted for other reasons
-COVID vaccines can cause temporary menstrual cycle changes: Study
-CDC director responds to criticism of COVID-19 guidance
-Florida allowed up to 1 million COVID-19 tests to expire, official says
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Jan 07, 6:38 pm
LA County records record over 43,000 new cases in single day
Los Angeles County saw over 43,000 new cases in one day, a new record, health officials announced Friday.
This beats Thursday’s previous record high of 37,000.
There are 2,902 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized in the county, according to health officials.
L.A. County Director of Public Health Dr. Barbara Ferrer noted that vaccinated individuals are “between 10 and 30 times less likely to need hospital care than those unvaccinated.”
“Every resident can also do their part to protect our healthcare personnel and hospitals. Please get vaccinated or boosted as soon as possible if eligible,” she said in a statement.
ABC News’ Alex Stone
Jan 07, 4:36 pm
1 in 5 Americans have tested positive for COVID-19
The U.S. recorded more than 705,000 COVID-19 cases Thursday and is currently averaging 586,000 new cases per day — the highest ever recorded during the pandemic. new federal data shows.
With a total confirmed case count of 58.8 million COVID-19 infections, this means one in approximately every five Americans have tested positive for the virus.
New York City is currently recording the country’s highest case rate, followed by New Jersey and New York state
Meanwhile, the U.S. is reporting an average of about 1,200 new COVID-19 deaths per day, up by about 10% in the last week.
The death toll currently stands at 834,000, meaning about 1 in every 393 Americans has died from COVID-19.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 07, 5:00 pm
Pfizer vaccine lowers risk of inflammatory condition in teens: CDC
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine dramatically reduces the risk of teenagers developing MIS-C, a dangerous inflammatory condition, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Friday.
MIS-C is a condition in which different body parts can become inflamed such as the heart, lungs and kidneys. It tends to appear in kids and adolescents two to six weeks after becoming infected with COVID-19.
Researchers looked at children and teens between ages 12 and 18 from 24 hospitals across the country.
They found that the vaccine was 91% against MIS-C. Of the children who were critically ill with MIS-C and required life support, all were unvaccinated.
“No fully vaccinated patients with MIS-C required respiratory or cardiovascular life support, as opposed to 39% of unvaccinated MIS-C patients who did,” the authors wrote.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman
Jan 07, 2:17 pm
Half of NYC COVID hospitalized patients were admitted for other reasons
About half of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in New York City were originally admitted for other reasons, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
Across the state, 42% of COVID-19 patients entered hospitals for reasons unrelated to the virus, such as a car accident, and only learned they were positive during their stays, Hochul said during a press conference Friday.
This is the first time that New York has differentiated between patients who go to hospitals to get care for COVID-19 and those who seek out care for other issues but test positive upon arrival.
Hochul also asked New Yorkers who have mild symptoms to not go to emergency rooms to get tested or treated because many hospitals are currently understaffed.
“If you’re an adult with very minor symptoms, you can handle a runny nose. You can handle the throats being a little sore, a little bit of a cough. Just treat as if you would the flu, all the protocols,” she said. “But please don’t overburden our emergency rooms.”
Hochul added that nearly 20% of all emergency rooms in the state are made up of people who are there only to get tested for COVID-19.
Last April, KISS launched a new series of official live bootlegs dubbed KISS — Off the Soundboard, and now the Rock & Roll (All Nite) Hall of Famers have announced plans for the second installment of the series.
The new album, titled Off the Soundboard: Live in Virginia Beach, is due out on March 11 and will feature a recording from a concert that took place on July 25, 2004, at the Virginia Beach Amphitheatre.
The show featured KISS’ current lineup — singer/guitarist Paul Stanley, singer/bassist Gene Simmons, drummer Eric Singer and guitarist Tommy Thayer — playing career-spanning 20-song set that included such classics as “Rock and Roll All Nite,” “I Was Made for Lovin’ You,” “Detroit Rock City,” “Lick It Up,” “Christine Sixteen” and “Shout It Out Loud.”
Off the Soundboard: Live in Virginia Beach will be available on digital as a two-CD set, and as a three-LP collection pressed on standard black vinyl or limited-edition 180-gram opaque-green vinyl. You can pre-order the album now exclusively at KISS’ official online store. Special bundles also are available featuring the colored-vinyl set, along with a t-shirt, trading cards and guitar picks.
Here’s the Off the Soundboard: Live in Virginia Beach CD track list:
Disc 1
“Love Gun”
“Deuce”
“Makin’ Love”
“Lick It Up”
“Christine Sixteen”
“Tears Are Falling”
“She”
“Got to Choose”
“I Love It Loud”
“I Want You”
Disc 2
“Psycho Circus”
“King of the Night Time World”
“War Machine”
“100,000 Years”
“Unholy”
“Shout It Out Loud”
“I Was Made for Lovin’ You”
“Detroit Rock City”
“God Gave Rock ‘n’ Roll to You II”
“Rock and Roll All Nite”
(DENVER) — Officials have identified the first confirmed casualty of a devastating wildfire in Colorado.
Partial human remains found Wednesday at a home in unincorporated Boulder County destroyed by the Marshall Fire have been identified as Robert Sharpe, 69, “based on DNA analysis and scene circumstances,” the Boulder County Coroner’s Office said in a statement Friday.
The cause and manner of death are still under investigation, the coroner’s office said.
Sharpe was one of two people reported missing in the wake of the wind-fueled wildfire, which began Dec. 30 and forced 35,000 people to evacuate homes across Louisville, Superior and unincorporated Boulder County.
Sharpe was a longtime resident of Boulder who worked in construction, his family said in a statement to ABC Denver affiliate KMGH-TV.
“Robert will be greatly missed by his family and friends,” the family said, remembering him as a naturalist who was concerned with children’s rights. “The total devastation of this event has shocked and impacted so many in the community. Our hearts go out to the many others who have suffered losses.”
Sharpe is survived by three brothers, one sister and “many nieces and nephews,” said the family, who asked that anyone wishing to donate in his memory do so to the Boulder County Wildfire Fund.
A woman from Superior also was reported missing by her family in the fire, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday. The sheriff’s office has not yet provided any updates on that search.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of the fire, which destroyed 1,084 homes and damaged another 149, according to the Boulder Office of Disaster Management.
The investigation and recovery process have been impeded by recent snowfall, the sheriff’s office said this week. Debris in impacted areas, including glass, sharp metal and unstable structures, also continue to pose hazards, officials warned Friday.
(NEW YORK) — The Amber Alert for Lina Sardar Khil, a missing 3-year-old girl in San Antonio, was suspended on Friday afternoon, but police stressed that the investigation is ongoing.
“While the Amber Alert for Lina has been suspended, it’s critical to communicate that Lina is still a missing person, and, once again, we continue to follow up on leads and actively search for Lina,” a San Antonio Police Department spokesperson told ABC News on Friday.
“We will continue to diligently continue combing through leads in hopes of locating Lina and reuniting her with her family,” the spokesperson added.
Lina was last seen Dec. 20 between 4:30 p.m. and 5:10 p.m. local time at a park on the 9400 block of Fredericksburg Road in San Antonio, according to police. The park is near the family’s home.
Lina’s family is part of an Afghan refugee community in San Antonio and speaks Pashto. Police have issued alerts in multiple languages.
An FBI dive team ended a search for Lina on Wednesday without finding any trace of the girl, police said.
Police Chief William McManus said a day earlier that SAPD’s investigation had led the FBI to an area not previously searched — a creek bed near the family’s apartment complex. An 11-person FBI team spent two days combing the area.
“We don’t want to leave anything to chance,” McManus told reporters on Tuesday evening at the scene of the search. “Everything that we get that has any kind of potential at all, we follow it up. And that’s what we’re doing here today.”
Lina has brown eyes and brown hair and was last seen wearing a black jacket, a red dress and black shoes. Before the Amber Alert was discontinued, police issued multiple alerts saying that the child could be in “grave danger.”
The Islamic Center of San Antonio is offering a $100,000 reward for anyone who can help find Lina. The Crime Stoppers of San Antonio also has offered $50,000 for information resulting in the arrest or indictment of any suspect connected to Lina’s disappearance.
Anyone with information on Lina’s case is urged to contact the department’s Missing Persons Unit at 210-207-7660 or Crime Stoppers at 210-224-7867.
John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
Deadline reports that Damon Wayans Jr. and his Two Shakes Entertainment are producing a “reimagining” of the classic family comedy The Honeymooners — with “a bold, female-driven” twist.
CBS Studios is producing the project, which is being written by Lindsey Shockley, a veteran of ABC’s black-ish spinoff Mixed-ish.
According to Deadline, the network says the project centers “around new wife Ruth and her husband Alex who are determined to have a marriage where they are true equals in every way.”
The description goes on to tease, “But what happens when a marriage has two heads of the household?”
Of course, the original Honeymooners starred Jackie Gleason, and was spun from one of his classic sketches from The Jackie Gleason Show.
Gleason played hot-headed bus driver Ralph Kramden, and Audrey Meadows co-starred his wife, Alice — who usually outwitted her scheming “King of the Castle.” Art Carney famously portrayed Ralph’s buddy and bumbling neighbor Ed Norton.
Pictured (L-R): Jason Isaacs as Dr. Rob “Griff” Griffith and Sophia Bush as Dr. Sam Griffith. Photo: Ramona Diaconescu/CBS (C)2021 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
If the opening theme of the new CBS show Good Sam sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the work of everyone’s favorite dancing violinist, Lindsey Stirling.
Taking to TikTok, the musician posted a pretend conversation she had with the show’s star Sophia Bush about composing an original piece of work just for the medical drama.
“When my good friend Sophia Bush asked me to write the theme song for her new show,” Lindsey captioned the video, which splices together past footage from One Tree Hill and other shows Sophia once starred in as her side of the “conversation.”
“I always wanted to write a theme song,” Lindsey added in the video when pretending to ask Sophia what she wanted the song to sound like, which then jumps to Sophia humming the Batman theme. The Emmy nominee added that Sophia “liked” the final piece, which is a dramatic song filled with soaring, evocative notes.
In Good Sam, Sophia plays Dr. Samantha Griffith, a heart surgeon who becomes chief of surgery after her boss and father, played by Jason Isaacs, falls into a coma.
Catch Lindsey’s theme song — and Good Sam — when it airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.
The latest offering from Disney/Pixar, Turning Red, will follow its predecessors Luca, and Soul, by debuting directly on Disney+.
The trailer for Turning Red have been playing in theaters — oddly, ahead of the very different, adult-themed action film The King’s Man, which was produced by Disney-owned 20th Century Studios. However, it seems uncertainty about the COVID-19 Omicron variant has ultimately led execs to decide the movie won’t have a theatrical bow after all.
Turning Red centers on a little girl named Mei — indeed, the preview has fun with *NSYNC‘s “It’s Gonna Be Me” — who turns into a magical, giant red panda when she gets flustered.
