AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT
A US recession began in February in the face of coronavirus
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy entered a recession in February as the coronavirus struck the nation, a group of economists declared Monday, ending the longest expansion on record.
The economists said that employment, income and spending peaked in February and then fell sharply afterward as the viral outbreak shut down businesses across the country, marking the start of the downturn after nearly 11 full years of economic growth.
A committee within the National Bureau of Economic Research, a trade group, determines when recessions begin and end. It broadly defines a recession as “a decline in economic activity that lasts more than a few months.”
For that reason, the NBER typically waits longer before making a determination that the economy is in a downturn. In the previous recession, the committee did not declare that the economy was in recession until December 2008, a year after it had actually begun. But in this case, the NBER said the collapse in employment and incomes was so steep that it could much more quickly make a determination.
“The unprecedented magnitude of the decline in employment and production, and its broad reach across the entire economy, warrants the designation of this episode as a recession, even if it turns out to be briefer than earlier contractions,” the NBER panel said.
___
Officer charged in Floyd's death held on $1 million bail
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A judge on Monday kept bail at $1 million for a former Minneapolis police officer charged with second-degree murder in George Floyd's death.
Derek Chauvin, 44, said little during an 11-minute hearing in which he appeared before Hennepin County Judge Jeannice M. Reding on closed-circuit television from the state's maximum security prison in Oak Park Heights. He wore a mask and handcuffs as he sat at a table, where he answered yes or no to routine housekeeping questions and confirmed the the spelling of his name and address. He did not enter a plea; a step that usually comes later in Minnesota courts.
A judge raised Chauvin’s bail from $500,000 to $1 million when a second-degree murder charge was added on Wednesday. Monday’s hearing was a chance for arguments over the higher bail. Prosecutor Matthew Frank argued for keeping the higher bail, saying the seriousness of the charges and the “strong reaction in the community, to put it mildly,” made Chauvin a flight risk. The judge agreed with the state's request for $1.25 million unconditional bail, or $1 million with standard conditions including surrendering firearms, remaining law-abiding and making all future court appearances.
Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, did not contest the bail amount and didn't address the substance of the charges, which also include third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Nelson did not speak with reporters afterward. He has not commented on the case publicly since Chauvin's May 29 arrest.
___
Thousands mourn George Floyd in Texas amid calls for reform
HOUSTON (AP) — The last chance for the public to say goodbye to George Floyd drew thousands of mourners Monday to a church in Houston where he grew up, as his death two weeks ago continues to stoke protests in America and beyond over racial injustice, and spurred France to abruptly halt the use of police choke holds.
In a reflection of the weight of the moment, the service drew the families of black victims in other high-profile killings whose names have become seared in America's conversation over race — among them Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin.
“It just hurts," said Philonise Floyd, George Floyd's brother, sobbing as he ticked off some of their names outside The Fountain of Praise church. "We will get justice. We will get it. We will not let this door close."
Under a blazing Texas sun, mourners wearing T-shirts with Floyd's picture or the words “I Can't Breathe” — the phrase he said repeatedly while pinned down by a Minneapolis police officer — waited for hours to pay their respects as Floyd's body, dressed in a brown suit, lay in an open gold-colored casket. Some sang “Lean on Me" and Houston's police chief bumped fists and embraced others in line.
Some knew Floyd in the nearby housing projects where he grew up. Others traveled for hours or drove in from other states. Those who couldn't make it whipped up their own tributes: In Los Angeles, a funeral-style procession of cars inched through downtown as the viewing began in Houston. In Tennessee, residents of Memphis held a moment of silence.
___
Democrats propose sweeping police overhaul; Trump criticizes
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats proposed a far-reaching overhaul of police procedures and accountability Monday, a sweeping legislative response to the mass protests denouncing the deaths of black Americans in the hands of law enforcement.
The political outlook is deeply uncertain for the legislation in a polarized election year. President Donald Trump is staking out a tough "law and order” approach in the face of the outpouring of demonstrations and demands to re-imagine policing in America.
“We cannot settle for anything less than transformative structural change,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, drawing on the nation’s history of slavery.
Before unveiling the package, House and Senate Democrats held a moment of silence at the Capitol's Emancipation Hall, reading the names of George Floyd and many others killed with police interactions. They knelt for 8 minutes and 46 seconds — now a symbol of police brutality and violence — the length of time prosecutors say Floyd was pinned under a white police officer’s knee before he died.
Trump, who met with law enforcement officials at the White House, characterized Democrats as having “gone CRAZY!”
___
Some Minneapolis activists doubt disbanding police will work
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — George Floyd’s death was the breaking point for some Minneapolis civic leaders, who now say the only way to fix the city’s embattled police department is to take it apart. But it’s not clear how they would do that, and groups that have spent years shining a light on police brutality aren’t even sure it's the answer.
“We're dismantling our police department,” City Council member Jeremiah Ellison tweeted on Sunday, the same day he and a majority of the council proclaimed support to disband the force to cheering protesters at a Minneapolis park. "And we won’t be silent. We’ll be loud. We’ll fight. We’ll win.”
But dismantling an entire department is exceedingly rare. It was done in Camden, New Jersey, and was talked about — though ultimately discarded — in Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown. Such a move comes with legal issues, including a city charter that stipulates a police force, plus a union-protected workforce.
“Saying that they’re going to defund the police or that they’re going to ban the police or whatever they’re talking about, that was optics, guys," said Michelle Gross, president of the Minneapolis chapter of Communities United Against Police Brutality. "Just plain optics.”
Sam Martinez, an activist with Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar, a group formed after the 2015 death of Jamar Clark in a confrontation with police, said just getting rid of a police department doesn't solve the problem.
___
Behind virus and protests: A chronic US economic racial gap
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has been here before, staring into the deep chasm that divides white and black Americans.
It happened after cities burned in 1967, after Los Angeles erupted with the 1992 acquittal of police officers who beat Rodney King, after the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
After those upheavals came talk of change — of reforming policing, yes, but also of expanding economic opportunity to black Americans who have been disproportionately left behind in one of the world’s richest countries. Yet despite big pledges and high hopes, economic progress has come slowly, if at all, for black America.
African Americans still earn barely 60 cents for every $1 in white income. They have 10 cents in wealth for every $1 whites own. They remain more than twice as likely to live in poverty. And they're about as likely to own a home as they were when Richard Nixon was president.
Now, demonstrators are out in the streets again, this time to protest what happened in Minneapolis to George Floyd, dead after a police officer pressed a knee into his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.
___
The Latest: Vermont COVID-19 grows to 62 cases
VERMONT — Officials in Vermont say the outbreak of COVID-19 that began in the city of Winooski on Memorial Day has grown to 62 cases, including nine in the adjoining city of Burlington and five in other communities.
Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said Monday that 38 are adults and 24 are children with a median age of 21. There have been no reports of hospitalizations or deaths and only one in five of the infected individuals showed any symptoms.
Officials say the outbreak is confined to “one social network of families,” but they have been reluctant to provide more details, citing confidentiality concerns.
State Epidemiologist Patsy Kelso said contact tracers have identified shared activities that could have led to the outbreak and officials believe there has been spread within households as well.
“We think this is a pretty-well contained situation or outbreak and while the case numbers may go up because there may have been exposures in the recent days even, we don’t think this is something that we will see pop up all over the state,” Kelso said.
___
US prosecutors spar with Prince Andrew in Epstein probe
LONDON (AP) — U.S. prosecutors and attorneys for Britain's Prince Andrew sniped at one another across the Atlantic on Monday, each saying the other side was to blame for the duke's failure to participate in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking probe.
Andrew's lawyers said in a statement that he has offered three times this year to speak with U.S. investigators after being assured that he “is not and has never been a ‘target’ of their criminal investigations into Epstein.”
That offer, though, came with a request that “our co-operation and any interview arrangements would remain confidential,” said the firm Blackfords LLP in London.
“Unfortunately, the DOJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the Duke has offered zero cooperation. In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered,” the lawyers said.
Hours later, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Geoffrey S. Berman, issued a statement saying the prince had tried to “falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to cooperate” even as he repeatedly declined to schedule an interview.
___
Cristobal to merge with new storm system after lashing South
Tropical Storm Cristobal could soon renew its strength by uniting with another storm system coming from the west to form one giant cyclone, forecasters say.
After drenching much of the South, forecasters now expect the remnants of Cristobal to bring fierce winds, heavy rain and thunderstorms to much of the Midwest by Tuesday.
A very strong storm system sweeping out from the Rocky Mountains is expected to meld with Cristobal in the next couple of days, said Greg Carbin, who oversees forecasts at the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
“The two will eventually merge into a large cyclone," Carbin said. “It’s a pretty fascinating interaction we'll see over the next couple of days."
Wind gusts of up to 45 mph (72 kph) are expected in Chicago by Tuesday night, the National Weather Service said. Boaters were being warned of gale-force winds on nearby Lake Michigan on Tuesday and Wednesday.
___
Review: Davidson steps up in ‘The King of Staten Island’
The protagonists in Judd Apatow movies don’t generally have their stuff together. They are emotionally stunted, occasionally underachieving, unmotivated to change and often even border on unlikable. But whether it’s Seth Rogen’s stoner-entrepreneur, Steve Carell’s 40-year-old virgin or Adam Sandler’s depressed movie star, there has always been at least some separation between the actor and the character.
That shield of fiction is pushed aside in his latest, “ The King of Staten Island,” in which Pete Davidson (a co-writer and producer on the film) lays bare many of his personal struggles for our entertainment and edification, from losing his firefighter father at the age of 7 to living with Chron’s disease, in this tale of a Staten Island loser who is more than happy to just drift.
It is the kind of personal project that could have gone wrong in so many ways. All you need is for the lead to lack a certain self-awareness or for the filmmaker to be too protective. But somehow, and despite its bloated runtime, Davidson and Apatow have made a film that is honest, entertaining and humane. That is no small feat considering Davidson’s character Scott is one of the most unlikable Apatow leads (at least at first).
Scott is angry at the world for taking his father away, although he tries to hide that behind a nihilistic stoner front. He lives with his mother Margie (Marisa Tomei) and refuses to commit to the local girl he’s sleeping with (Bel Powley, channeling “Working Girl”-style Staten Island swagger). He knows he has mental health issues but doesn’t seem to want to do anything about it. He doesn’t have any prospects or passions. His friends are losers too. And he doesn’t even really seem to care about his pie-in-the-sky career choice of tattoo artist (his lack of skills in that department provides a particularly funny through line).
But Scott is 24 and his youthful indifference is starting to turn into a full-fledged character flaw, which is why Margie gives him a push and then a shove out of her house to get his act together. She’s emboldened by her new boyfriend Ray (Bill Burr). He’s a firefighter too, which makes Scott crazy. When Ray takes him out to a baseball game with his fellow firefighters, Scott decides to rant to the guys (among them an excellent Steve Buscemi) about why people in their profession shouldn’t have families. It’s raw and uncomfortable and helps set the stage for what will come next for Scott.