June 1, 2020 4:18 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Minnesota’s governor says a man who drove his semitrailer into the midst of thousands of protesters on a Minneapolis freeway was confused. Authorities say it appeared no one was hurt when the driver rolled onto the Interstate 35W freeway near downtown Minneapolis on Sunday. Gov. Tim Walz said Monday that the driver got ahead of officials who were closing the freeway and became confused. The governor noted the driver braked as he rolled past the crowd. Officials estimate 5,000 to 6,000 people were on the freeway. Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said nothing indicates the driver was intentionally targeting protesters.
June 1, 2020 4:17 am
ATLANTA (AP) – Atlanta’s mayor says two police officers have been fired and three others placed on desk duty over excessive use of force during a weekend protest incident. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Sunday that she and the police chief made the decision after reviewing body-camera footage of a Saturday incident that first gained attention from video online and on local news. It shows police officers in riot gear and gas masks surround a car driven by a man with a woman passenger. The officers use stun guns on both the woman and the man.
June 1, 2020 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump spent time in a White House bunker during Friday night’s protests outside the executive mansion. Secret Service agents rushed him there as some of the demonstrators were throwing rocks and tugging at police barricades. Trump spent nearly an hour in the underground shelter, which was designed for use in emergencies like terrorist attacks. That’s according to a Republican close to the White House who was not authorized to publicly discuss private matters and requested anonymity. The account was confirmed by an administration official who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
June 1, 2020 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Tens of thousands of protesters have again taken to the streets across America. Peaceful demonstrations Sunday against police killings of black people have been overshadowed by unrest that quickly ravaged cities from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. A truck driver drove into demonstrators in Minneapolis nearly a week after George Floyd pleaded with an officer pressing a knee into his neck that he could not breathe. Outside the White House, police fired tear gas and stun grenades into a crowd who lit fire in a street. Thieves in more than 20 California cities smashed into businesses and ran off with sneakers, cellphones and TVs.
June 1, 2020 3:56 am
Protests happened across the Pittsburgh area Monday afternoon in response to the death of George Floyd. It was the third straight day of protests in the region. Floyd died while in police custody earlier this week. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death. Chauvin is accused of keeping his knee on the Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes. Hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Pittsburgh and then gathered in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood. (Photo: WPXI)
May 31, 2020 8:31 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In a cramped office in eastern Seoul, Hwang Seungwon points a remote control toward a huge NASA-like overhead screen stretching across one of the walls. With each flick of the control, a colorful array of pie charts, graphs and maps reveals the search habits of thousands of South Korean senior citizens being monitored by voice-enabled “smart” speakers, an experimental remote care service the company says is increasingly needed during the coronavirus crisis. “We closely monitor for signs of danger, whether they are more frequently using search words that indicate rising states of loneliness or insecurity,” said Hwang, director of a social enterprise that handles SK Telecom’s services. Trigger words lead to a recommendation for a visit by public health officials. As South Korea’s government pushes to allow businesses to access vast amounts of personal information and to ease restrictions holding back telemedicine, tech firms could potentially find much bigger markets for their artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.
May 31, 2020 8:29 am
Officials across the U.S. South are still scrambling to adjust their hurricane plans to the coronavirus. The big unknown: Where will people fleeing storms go? The Associated Press surveyed more than 70 counties and states from Texas to Virginia, with more than 60% of coastal counties saying as of late May that they’re still solidifying plans for public hurricane shelters. They’re also altering preparations for dealing with the sick and elderly, protective equipment and cleanup costs. In Georgia’s McIntosh County, south of Savannah, Emergency Management Agency Director Ty Poppell said evacuations during the pandemic would be a “nightmare.” He worried about social distancing at shelters and on buses used to get people out. “I’d love to be able to tell you we’ve got that answered right now,” Poppell said. “It’s a work in progress.” Hurricane season officially starts Monday, though Tropical Storms Arthur and Bertha arrived early. Forecasters are expecting a busier-than-normal season.
May 31, 2020 8:27 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Police fired pepper spray at demonstrators near the White House and the D.C. National Guard was called in as pockets of violence and vandalism erupted during a second straight night of protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and President Donald Trump’s response to it. Hundreds of people converged on the White House and marched along the National Mall, chanting “Black Lives Matter,” “I can’t breathe” and “No justice, no peace.” Protesters threw water bottles, traffic cones, scooters, even tear gas cans at police lines. They set fire to a car and a trash bin and smashed windows, including at Bay Atlantic University. “What are you doing? That’s a school,” one man yelled. An American flag hanging at the Export-Import Bank was taken down, burned and replaced with a Black Lives Matter banner. The D.C. demonstration was one of several around the country responding to the death of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody.
May 31, 2020 8:25 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The mayor of Atlanta, one of dozens of U.S. cities hit by massive protests in recent days, has a message for demonstrators: “If you were out protesting last night, you probably need to go get a COVID test this week.” As more beaches, churches, schools and businesses reopened worldwide, civil unrest in the United States over repeated racial injustice is raising fears of new coronavirus outbreaks in a country that has seen more infections and deaths than anywhere else in the world. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms warned that “there is still a pandemic in America that’s killing black and brown people at higher numbers.” Violent protests over the death of George Floyd have shaken the country from New York City to Minneapolis, from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Some protests have turned into riots and clashes with police, leaving stores burned and torched cars in the streets. City officials have ordered overnight curfews to quell the violence. Floyd, a black man, died on May 25 in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck. It was the latest in a series of deaths of black men and women at the hands of police in America. Health experts fear that silent carriers of the virus who have no symptoms could unwittingly infect others at protests where people are packed cheek to jowl, many without masks.
May 31, 2020 8:22 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Another night of unrest in every corner of the country left charred and shattered landscapes in dozens of American cities Sunday as years of festering frustrations over the mistreatment of African Americans at the hands of police boiled over in expressions of rage met with tear gas and rubber bullets. Cars and businesses were torched, the words “I can’t breathe” were spray-painted all over buildings, a fire in a trash bin burned near the gates of the White House, and tens of thousands marched peacefully through city streets to protest the death of George Floyd, a black man who died Monday after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck until he stopped breathing. His death is one of a litany of racial tragedies that have thrown the country into chaos amid the coronavirus pandemic that has left millions out of work and killed more than 100,000 people in the U.S., including disproportionate numbers of black people. “We’re sick of it. The cops are out of control,” protester Olga Hall said in Washington D.C. “They’re wild. There’s just been too many dead boys.” People set fire to police cars, threw bottles at police officers and busted windows of storefronts, carrying away TVs and other items even as some protesters urged them to stop. In Indianapolis, police were investigating multiple shootings, including one that left a person dead amid the protests — adding to deaths in Detroit and Minneapolis in recent days. In Minneapolis, the city where the protests began, police, state troopers and National Guard members moved in soon after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect to break up protests, firing tear gas and rubber bullets to clear streets outside a police precinct and elsewhere. At least 13 police officers were injured in Philadelphia when peaceful protests turned violent and at least four police vehicles were set on fire. In New York City, dangerous confrontations flared repeatedly as officers made arrests and cleared streets. A video showed two NYPD cruisers lurching into a crowd of demonstrators who were pushing a barricade against one of them and pelting it with objects. Several people were knocked to the ground, and it was unclear if anyone was hurt.
