Top national news from the week of Dec. 3
GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California is resigning, 2 months after his ouster as House speaker
UpdatedLOS ANGELES — Two months after his historic ouster as House speaker, Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy announced Wednesday that he is resigning from his congressional seat in California.
His announcement capped a stunning end for the one-time deli owner from Bakersfield, who ascended through state and national politics to become second in line to the presidency before a contingent of hard-right conservatives engineered his removal in October.
McCarthy is the only speaker in history to be voted out of the job.
FILE - Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters after a closed-door meeting with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and other House Republicans after Gaetz filed a motion to oust McCarthy from his leadership role, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. McCarthy says he's resigning from his congressional seat in California two months after his historic ouster as House speaker. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
“No matter the odds, or personal cost, we did the right thing," McCarthy wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, announcing his decision.
“It is in this spirit that I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways,” he wrote.
His toppling from the chamber’s top post was fueled by grievances from his party’s hard-right flank, including over his decision to work with Democrats to keep the federal government open rather than risk a shutdown.
McCarthy, 58, arrived in the House in January 2007 after a stint in the California Assembly, where he served as minority leader. In Congress, he maneuvered through his party’s hierarchy — serving as majority whip and Republican leader along the way — before being elected speaker in January 2023.
The dayslong floor fight that preceded his elevation to the House’s top job foreshadowed a stormy tenure, at a time when former President Donald Trump remained the de facto leader of the party and deep divisions within the GOP raised serious questions about the party’s ability to govern.
It took a record 15 votes over four days for McCarthy to line up the support he needed to win the post he had long coveted, finally prevailing on a 216-212 vote with Democrats backing leader Hakeem Jeffries and six Republican holdouts voting present. Not since the Civil War era has a speaker’s vote dragged through so many rounds of counting.
McCarthy emerged from the fight weakened, especially considering Republicans held only a fragile margin in the chamber after a predicted “red wave” failed to materialize in the 2022 elections.
Once installed as speaker, his well-known savvy for fundraising and political glad-handing appeared ill-suited for corralling his party’s disputatious hard-right faction. And deals he cut to become speaker — including a rules change that allowed any single lawmaker to file a motion to remove him — left him vulnerable.
When he became speaker, “he faced new challenges that required a different skill set,” said Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney, a one-time domestic policy analyst for House Republicans. And “the deals he made to become speaker made it almost impossible for him to succeed as speaker.”
McCarthy, the son of a firefighter and a homemaker, has long depicted himself as an unflagging battler. He is fond of quoting his father, who told him, “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
McCarthy hails from Bakersfield, a Republican-leaning area in Central California where oil derricks blanket hillsides and country music fans pack into Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace hall. Far from the Southern California beaches and tony San Francisco restaurants, farming and oil pumping shape the economy.
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These 8 Republicans stood apart to remove Kevin McCarthy as House speaker
Rep. Ken Buck
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REP. KEN BUCK
Buck is serving his fifth term representing a Colorado district that includes much of the eastern part of the state and some Denver suburbs. He's got a penchant for being a wildcard as a fiscal conservative, but also someone willing to push back against party leaders when he feels like it.
Most recently, Buck has spoken out against McCarthy's launch of an impeachment inquiry into Biden, saying that House Republicans itching for impeachment are relying on flimsy evidence.
He also has pointed to concerns about the process for approving spending and complained about stopgap spending bills like the one McCarthy came up with Saturday to keep the government running.
“We are $33 trillion in debt and on track to hit $50 trillion by 2030," he tweeted after the vote. "We cannot continue to fund the government by continuing resolutions and omnibus spending bills. That’s why I voted to oust @SpeakerMcCarthy. We must change course to sensible budgeting and save our country.”
Rep. Tim Burchett
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REP. TIM BURCHETT
Burchett is serving his third term representing a district in east Tennessee. Burchett served 16 years in Tennessee’s legislature as well as eight years as a mayor before entering Congress.
He said while explaining his vote to oust McCarthy that the House took off the whole month of August despite knowing they needed to get the spending bills done before the fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
“At some point, we've just got to say enough is enough, folks,” he said in a Twitter video. “I hate losing Kevin as a friend, but I worry about losing our country.”
Rep. Eli Crane
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REP. ELI CRANE
Crane represents an Arizona district. He is also a former Navy SEAL who served in the military for 13 years. In November, he defeated a Democratic incumbent, Tom O’Halleran, who had held the seat since 2017. He was the lone Republican freshman back in January to come out against McCarthy's bid to become speaker.
“Each time our majority has had the chance to fight for bold, lasting change for the American people, leadership folded and passed measures with more Democrat support than Republican,” Crane tweeted Tuesday.
Rep. Matt Gaetz
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REP. MATT GAETZ
Gaetz is serving his fourth term representing a Florida district. He is a close Trump ally who filed the motion to vacate the chair, the procedure used to oust McCarthy, and he led the debate on the House floor for those seeking to pass the motion.
He was also a holdout in January when McCarthy ran to become speaker. The defining moment during that showdown came when Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican ally of McCarthy, angrily confronted Gaetz on the House floor before being pulled back by a colleague.
Gaetz could face political repercussions for his actions, as many Republican lawmakers blame him for this week's chaos and view him as looking out for himself rather than for the good of the party.
“Look, you all know Matt Gaetz. You know it was personal. It had nothing to do about spending," McCarthy said. “It all was about getting attention from you. I mean we were getting e-mail fundraisers as he's doing it.”
Gaetz said McCarthy didn't follow through on many of the commitments he made to win the speaker's job, and that's what drove him.
“Kevin McCarthy is a feature of the swamp. He has risen to power by collecting special interest money and redistributing that money in exchange for favors,” Gaetz said. “We are breaking the fever now, and we should elect a speaker who’s better.”
Rep. Bob Good
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REP. BOB GOOD
Good of Virginia won office in 2020 after GOP voters ousted the Republican incumbent, Denver Riggleman, who had angered social conservatives by officiating a gay marriage.
Good said Tuesday that back in January he helped persuade a handful of colleagues to switch their votes to present so that McCarthy could become speaker.
But Good has been harshly critical of the deal to avoid a default and voiced alarm as Republicans prepared to ensure a partial government shutdown did not occur last weekend.
He said that if you're not willing to endure any kind of shutdown to get the changes you seek, “it’s a recipe to lose, it’s a recipe for surrender.”
“We need a speaker who will fight for something, anything, besides just staying or becoming speaker," Good said on the House floor Tuesday.
Rep. Nancy Mace
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REP. NANCY MACE
Mace is serving her second term representing a South Carolina district. She graduated from The Citadel, where she was the first female to graduate from its Corps of Cadets. She served as a state representative before coming to Congress.
Mace tweeted her vote to oust McCarthy wasn't about ideology. “This is about trust and keeping your word. This is about making Congress do its job," she said.
McCarthy said he called Mace's chief of staff on Monday saying he didn't understand how he had not kept his word. He noted that he had helped get Mace elected to Congress.
Rep. Matt Rosendale
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REP. MATT ROSENDALE
Rosendale is serving his second term in the House representing a Montana district. He's a hardliner on fiscal issues who also has voted against U.S. support for Ukraine in repelling Russia's invasion, citing what he said are more pressing security needs along the southern U.S. border.
“Our country is facing $33 trillion of debt. Our border is facing an unprecedented invasion. And instead of being energy dominant, we are now energy reliant. The House of Representatives and the American people deserve a leader who can challenge the status quo and put an end to this ruin," Rosendale said following Tuesday's vote.
Norman Lear, producer of TV's 'All in the Family' and influential liberal advocate, has died at 101
UpdatedLOS ANGELES — Norman Lear, the writer, director and producer who revolutionized prime time television with such topical hits as "All in the Family" and "Maude" and propelled political and social turmoil into the once-insulated world of sitcoms, has died. He was 101.
Lear died Tuesday night in his sleep, surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles, said Lara Bergthold, a spokesperson for his family.
A liberal activist with an eye for mainstream entertainment, Lear fashioned bold and controversial comedies that were embraced by TV sitcom viewers who long had to watch the evening news to find out what was going on in the world. His shows helped define prime time comedy in the 1970s and after, launched the careers of such young performers as Rob Reiner and Valerie Bertinelli and made Carroll O'Connor, Bea Arthur and Redd Foxx among others into middle-aged superstars.
Norman Lear participates in the "One Day at a Time" panel during the TCA Summer Press Tour on Sunday, July 29, 2018, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
His signature production was "All in the Family," which was immersed in the headlines of the day, while also drawing upon Lear's childhood memories of his tempestuous father. Racism, feminism, and the Vietnam War were flashpoints in the sitcom featuring blue collar conservative Archie Bunker, played by O'Connor, and liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic (Reiner). Jean Stapleton co-starred as Archie's befuddled, but good-hearted wife, Edith, and Sally Struthers played the Bunkers' daughter, Gloria, who often clashed with Archie on behalf of her husband.
At the start of the 1970s, top-rated shows still included such old-fashioned programs as "Here's Lucy," "Ironside" and "Gunsmoke," although the industry was beginning to change. CBS, Lear's primary network, would soon enact its "rural purge" and cancel such standbys as "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Green Acres." The groundbreaking sitcom "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," about a single career woman in Minneapolis, debuted on CBS in Sept. 1970, just months before "All in the Family" started.
FILE - Television producer Norman Lear is shown in his office in Los Angeles on March 29, 1979. Lear, producer of TV's "All in the Family" and an influential liberal advocate, died Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023, at 101. (AP Photo, File)
But ABC passed on "All in the Family" twice and CBS was initially reluctant to take on the daring series, Lear would say. When the network finally aired "All in the Family," it began with a disclaimer: "The program you are about to see is 'All in the Family.' It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. By making them a source of laughter we hope to show, in a mature fashion, just how absurd they are."
By the end of 1971, "All In the Family" was No. 1 in the ratings and Archie Bunker was a pop culture fixture, with President Richard Nixon among his fans. Some of his putdowns became catchphrases, whether calling his son-in-law "Meathead," or his wife "Dingbat." He would also snap at anyone who dared occupy his faded orange-yellow wing chair, the centerpiece of the Bunker home in the New York City borough of Queens and eventually an artifact in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Even the show's opening segment was innovative: Instead of an off-screen theme song, Archie and Edith are seated at the piano in their living room, belting out a nostalgic number, "Those Were the Days," with Edith screeching off-key and Archie crooning such lines "Didn't need no welfare state" and "Girls were girls and men were men."
"All in the Family," based on the British sitcom, "Til Death Us Do Part," was the No. 1-rated series for an unprecedented five years in a row and earned four Emmy Awards as best comedy series, finally eclipsed by five-time winner "Frasier" in 1998.
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR THE TELEVISION ACADEMY - Norman Lear is seen at "An Evening with Norman Lear", presented by the Television Academy at the Montablan Theatre on Wednesday, January 28, 2015 in Hollywood. (Photo by Vince Bucci/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)
Hits continued for Lear and then-partner Bud Yorkin, including "Maude" and "The Jeffersons," both spinoffs from "All in the Family" and both the same winning combination of one-liners and social conflict. In a 1972 two-part episode of "Maude," the title character (played by Arthur) became the first on television to have an abortion, drawing a surge of protests along with the show's high ratings. Nixon himself objected to an "All in the Family" episode about a close friend of Archie's who turns out to be gay, privately fuming to White House aides that the show "glorified" same-sex relationships.
"Controversy suggests people are thinking about something. But there'd better be laughing first and foremost or it's a dog," Lear said in a 1994 interview with The Associated Press.
Lear and Yorkin also created "Good Times," about a working class Black family in Chicago; "Sanford & Son," a showcase for Foxx as junkyard dealer Fred Sanford; and "One Day at a Time," starring Bonnie Franklin as a single mother and Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips as her daughters. In the 1974-75 season, Lear and Yorkin produced five of the top 10 shows. Around the same time, "All in the Family" led off one of TV's greatest evening lineups, a Saturday slate from CBS that also featured the non-Lear hits "M*A*S*H," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Bob Newhart Show" and "The Carol Burnett Show."
Norman Lear arrives at the BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Friday, Oct. 25, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
The late Paddy Chayefsky, a leading writer of television's early "golden age," once said that Lear "took television away from dopey wives and dumb fathers, from the pimps, hookers, hustlers, private eyes, junkies, cowboys and rustlers that constituted television chaos, and in their place he put the American people."
Lear's series reflected his ardent political beliefs, which his business success allowed him to express in grand fashion. In 2000, he and a partner bought a copy of the Declaration of Independence for $8.14 million and sent it on a cross-country tour.
He founded the nonprofit, liberal advocacy group People for the American Way in 1980 in response to the growing strength of conservative religious groups. In a 1992 interview with Commonweal magazine, Lear said he acted because he felt people such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were "abusing religion."
"And I started to say, This is not my America. You don't mix politics and religion this way," Lear said. He also was an active donor to Democratic candidates.
With this wry smile and impish boat hat, Lear remained a youthful presence for much of life and continued creating television well into his 90s, rebooting "One Day at a Time" for Netflix in 2017 and exploring income inequality for the documentary series "America Divided" in 2016. He was also featured in two documentaries: 2016's "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You," and HBO's 2017 look at active nonagenarians such as Lear and Rob Reiner's father, Carl Reiner, "If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast."
FILE - Producer Norman Lear speaks in support of thousands of Writers Guild of America (WGA) writers and others in the fifth day of their strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) in a rally at Fox Plaza in Los Angeles' Century City district on Nov. 9, 2007. Lear, producer of TV's 'All in the Family' and influential liberal advocate, died Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023, at 101. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
In 1984, he was lauded as the "innovative writer who brought realism to television" when he became one of the first seven people inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame. He later received a National Medal of Arts and was honored at the Kennedy Center. In 2020, he won an Emmy as executive producer of "Live In Front of a Studio Audience: 'All In the Family' and 'Good Times'.'"
Lear managed to beat the tough TV odds to an astounding degree. At least one of his shows placed in prime-time's top 10 for 11 consecutive years (1971-82). But Lear had flops as well.
Shows including "Hot L Baltimore," "Palmerstown" and "a.k.a. Pablo," a rare Hispanic series, drew critical favor but couldn't find an audience; others, such as "All That Glitters" and "The Nancy Walker Show," earned neither. He also faced resistance from cast members, including "Good Times" stars John Amos and Esther Rolle, who often objected to the scripts as racially insensitive, and endured a mid-season walkout by Foxx, who missed eight episodes in 1973-74 because of a contract dispute.
In the 1990s, the comedy "704 Hauser," which returned to the Bunker house with a new family, and the political satire "The Powers that Be" were both short-lived.
Lear's business moves, meanwhile, were almost consistently fruitful.
Lear started T.A.T. Communications in 1974 to be "sole creative captain of his ship," his former business partner Jerry Perenchio told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. The company became a major TV producer with shows including "One Day at a Time" and the soap-opera spoof "Mary Hartman Mary Hartman," which Lear distributed himself after it was rejected by the networks.
In 1982, Lear and Perenchio bought Avco-Embassy Pictures and formed Embassy Communications as T.A.T.'s successor, becoming successfully involved in movies, home video, pay TV and cable ownership. In 1985, Lear and Perenchio sold Embassy to Coca-Cola for $485 million. They had sold their cable holdings the year before, reportedly for a hefty profit.
By 1986, Lear was on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest people in America, with an estimated net worth of $225 million. He didn't make the cut the next year after a $112 million divorce settlement for his second wife, Frances. They had been married 29 years and had two daughters.
He married his third wife, psychologist Lyn Davis, in 1987 and the couple had three children. (Frances Lear, who went on to found the now-defunct Lear's magazine with her settlement, died in 1996 at age 73.)
Lear was born in New Haven, Conn. on July 27, 1922, to Herman Lear, a securities broker who for a time went to prison for selling fake bonds, and Jeanette, a homemaker who helped inspire Edith Bunker. Norman Lear would remember family life as a kind of sitcom, full of quirks and grudges, "a group of people living at the ends of their nerves and the tops of their lungs," he explained during a 2004 appearance at the John F. Kennedy Presidential LIbrary in Boston.
His political activism had deep roots. In a 1984 interview with The New York Times, Lear recalled how, at age 10, he went to live with his Russian immigrant grandfather for two years. His job was to mail Shia Seicol's letters, which began "My dearest darling Mr. President," to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sometimes a reply came.
"That my grandfather mattered made me feel every citizen mattered," he said. By age 15, Lear was sending his own messages to Congress via Western Union.
He dropped out of Emerson College 1942 to enlist in the Air Force and was awarded a Decorated Air Medal. He worked in public relations in New York after the war, then moved to California.
Lear began his writing career in the early 1950s on shows including "The Colgate Comedy Hour" and working for such comedians as Martha Raye and George Gobel. In 1959, Lear and Yorkin founded Tandem Productions, which produced films including "Come Blow Your Horn," "Start the Revolution Without Me" and "Divorce American Style." Lear also directed the satire "Cold Turkey," a 1971 release starring Dick Van Dyke about a small town that takes on a tobacco company's offer of $25 million to quit smoking for 30 days.
In his later years, Lear joined with Warren Buffett and James E. Burke to establish The Business Enterprise Trust, honoring businesses that take a long-term view of their effect on the country.
He also founded the Norman Lear Center, based at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, which explores the relationship between entertainment, commerce and society. In 2014, he published the memoir "Even This I Get to Experience."
Photos: Notable Deaths in 2023
Matthew Perry
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Matthew Perry, who starred as Chandler Bing in the hit series "Friends," died Oct. 28, 2023. He was 54. The Emmy-nominated actor was found dead of an apparent drowning at his Los Angeles home.
Rosalynn Carter
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Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, the closest adviser to Jimmy Carter during his one term as U.S. president and their four decades thereafter as global humanitarians, has died at the age of 96. The Carter Center said she died Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023.
Henry Kissinger
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Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the diplomat with the thick glasses and gravelly voice who dominated foreign policy as the United States extricated itself from Vietnam and broke down barriers with China, died Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. He was 100.
Tina Turner
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Tina Turner, the unstoppable singer and stage performer who teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows in the 1960s and '70s and survived her horrifying marriage to triumph in middle age with the chart-topping "What's Love Got to Do With It," died May 24, 2023, at 83. Few stars traveled so far — she was born Anna Mae Bullock in a segregated Tennessee hospital and spent her latter years on a 260,000 square foot estate on Lake Zurich — and overcame so much. Her trademarks included a growling contralto that might smolder or explode, her bold smile and strong cheekbones, her palette of wigs and the muscular, quick-stepping legs she did not shy from showing off. She sold more than 150 million records worldwide, won 12 Grammys, was voted along with Ike into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 (and on her own in 2021 ) and was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2005. Her life became the basis for a film, a Broadway musical and an HBO documentary in 2021 that she called her public farewell.
Jimmy Buffett
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Singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who popularized beach bum soft rock with the escapist Caribbean-flavored song “Margaritaville” and turned that celebration of loafing into a billion-dollar empire of restaurants, resorts and frozen concoctions, died Sept. 1, 2023. He was 76. “Margaritaville,” released on Feb. 14, 1977, quickly took on a life of its own, becoming a state of mind for those ”wastin’ away,” an excuse for a life of low-key fun and escapism for those “growing older, but not up.” The song is the unhurried portrait of a loafer on his front porch, watching tourists sunbathe while a pot of shrimp is beginning to boil. The singer has a new tattoo, a likely hangover and regrets over a lost love. Somewhere, irritatingly, there is a misplaced salt shaker.
Tony Bennett
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Tony Bennett, the eminent and timeless stylist whose devotion to classic American songs and knack for creating new standards such as "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" graced a decadeslong career that brought him admirers from Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga, died July 21, 2023. He was 96, just two weeks short of his birthday. The last of the great saloon singers of the mid-20th century, Bennett often said his lifelong ambition was to create "a hit catalog rather than hit records." He released more than 70 albums, bringing him 19 competitive Grammys — all but two after he reached his 60s — and enjoyed deep and lasting affection from fans and fellow artists.
Jim Brown
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Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown, the unstoppable running back who retired at the peak of his brilliant career to become an actor as well as a prominent civil rights advocate during the 1960s, died May 18, 2023. He was 87. One of the greatest players in football history and one of the game’s first superstars, Brown was chosen the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 1965 and shattered the league’s record books in a short career spanning 1957-65. Brown led the Cleveland Browns to their last NFL title in 1964 before retiring in his prime after the ’65 season to become an actor. He appeared in more than 30 films, including “Any Given Sunday” and “The Dirty Dozen.” When he finished playing, Brown became a prominent leader in the Black power movement during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.
Dick Butkus
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Dick Butkus, a middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears whose speed and ferocity set the standards for the position in the modern era, died Oct. 5, 2023. He was 80. Butkus was a first-team All-Pro five times and made the Pro Bowl in eight of his nine seasons before a knee injury forced him to retire at 31. He was the quintessential Monster of the Midway and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility. Trading on his image as the toughest guy in the room, Butkus enjoyed a long second career as a sports broadcaster, an actor in movies and TV series, and a sought-after pitchman for products ranging from antifreeze to beer.
Bob Barker
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Bob Barker, the enduring, dapper game show host who became a household name over a half century of hosting “Truth or Consequences” and “The Price Is Right,” died Aug. 26, 2023. He was 99. Barker retired in June 2007, thanking his studio audience “for inviting me into your home for more than 50 years.” He started that marathon run in 1956 on “Truth or Consequences,” where he remained for 18 years. He began hosting a revived version of “The Price Is Right” on CBS in 1972. It would become TV’s longest-running game show. He was also an animal rights activist.
Dianne Feinstein
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U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a centrist Democrat and champion of liberal causes who was elected to the Senate in 1992 and broke gender barriers throughout her long career in local and national politics, died Sept. 29, 2023. She was 90. Feinstein, the oldest sitting U.S. senator, was a passionate advocate for liberal priorities important to her state — including environmental protection, reproductive rights and gun control — but was also known as a pragmatic lawmaker who reached out to Republicans and sought middle ground.
Raquel Welch
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Raquel Welch, whose emergence from the sea in a skimpy, furry bikini in the film “One Million Years B.C.” would propel her to international sex symbol status throughout the 1960s and '70s, died Feb. 15, 2023. She was 82. Welch’s breakthrough came in 1966's campy prehistoric flick “One Million Years B.C.,” despite having a grand total of three lines. Clad in a brown doeskin bikini, she successfully evaded pterodactyls but not the notice of the public.
Suzanne Somers
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Suzanne Somers, the effervescent blonde actor known for playing Chrissy Snow on the television show “Three’s Company” and who became an entrepreneur and New York Times best-selling author, died Oct. 15, 2023. She was 76. Somers appeared in many television shows in the 1970s, including “The Rockford Files,” “Magnum Force” and “The Six Million Dollar Man,” but her most famous part came with “Three’s Company,” which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1984 — though her participation ended in 1981.
Lisa Marie Presley
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Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley and a singer-songwriter dedicated to her father’s legacy, died Jan. 12, 2023. She was 54. Presley shared her father's brooding charisma — the hooded eyes, the insolent smile, the low, sultry voice — and followed him professionally, releasing her own rock albums in the 2000s.
Harry Belafonte
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Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, died April 25, 2023. He was 96. With his glowing, handsome face and silky-husky voice, Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer; many still know him for his signature hit “Banana Boat Song (Day-O),” and its call of “Day-O! Daaaaay-O.” But he forged a greater legacy once he scaled back his performing career in the 1960s and lived out his hero Paul Robeson’s decree that artists are “gatekeepers of truth.”
Sinéad O’Connor
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Sinéad O’Connor, the gifted Irish singer-songwriter who became a superstar in her mid-20s and was known as much for her private struggles and provocative actions as for her fierce and expressive music, died July 26, 2023, at age 56. Recognizable by her shaved head and with a multi-octave mezzo soprano of extraordinary emotional range, O’Connor began her career singing on the streets of Dublin and soon rose to international fame. She was a star from her 1987 debut album, “The Lion and the Cobra,” and became a sensation in 1990 with her cover of Prince’s ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U,” a seething, shattering performance that topped charts from Europe to Australia and was heightened by a promotional video featuring the gray-eyed O’Connor in intense close-up.
David Crosby
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David Crosby, the brash rock musician who evolved from a baby-faced harmony singer with the Byrds to a mustachioed hippie superstar and an ongoing troubadour in Crosby, Stills, Nash & (sometimes) Young, died Jan. 18, 2023, at age 81. While he only wrote a handful of widely known songs, the witty and ever opinionated Crosby was on the front lines of the cultural revolution of the ’60s and ’70s — whether triumphing with Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young on stage at Woodstock, testifying on behalf of a hirsute generation in his anthem “Almost Cut My Hair” or mourning the assassination of Robert Kennedy in “Long Time Gone.”
Steve Harwell
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Steve Harwell, the longtime frontman of the Grammy-nominated pop rock band Smash Mouth died Sept. 4, 2023. He was 56. Smash Mouth was known for hits including “All Star” and “Then The Morning Comes."
Lance Reddick
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Lance Reddick, a character actor who specialized in intense, icy and possibly sinister authority figures on TV and film, including “The Wire,” "Fringe” and the "John Wick” franchise, died March 17, 2023. He was 60. Reddick was often put in a suit or a crisp uniform during his career, playing tall, taciturn and elegant men of distinction. He was best known for his role as straight-laced Lt. Cedric Daniels on the hit HBO series “The Wire,” where his character was agonizingly trapped in the messy politics of the Baltimore police department.
Richard Belzer
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Richard Belzer, the longtime stand-up comedian who became one of TV's most indelible detectives as John Munch in "Homicide: Life on the Street" and “Law & Order: SVU,” died Feb. 19, 2023. He was 78. For more than two decades and across 10 series — even including appearances on “30 Rock” and “Arrested Development” — Belzer played the wise-cracking, acerbic homicide detective prone to conspiracy theories. Belzer first played Munch on a 1993 episode of “Homicide” and last played him in 2016 on “Law & Order: SVU.”
Cindy Williams
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Cindy Williams, who was among the most recognizable stars in America in the 1970s and 1980s for her role as Shirley opposite Penny Marshall's Laverne on the beloved sitcom "Laverne & Shirley," died Jan. 25, 2023. She was 75. Williams played the straitlaced Shirley Feeney to Marshall's more libertine Laverne DeFazio on the show about a pair of blue-collar roommates who toiled on the assembly line of a Milwaukee brewery in the 1950s and 1960s.
Paul Reubens
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Paul Reubens, the actor and comedian whose character Pee-wee Herman became a cultural phenomenon through films and TV shows, died July 30, 2023, at age 70. Reubens died after a six-year struggle with cancer that he did not make public, his publicist said in a statement.
Jerry Springer
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Jerry Springer, the onetime mayor and news anchor whose namesake TV show featured a three-ring circus of dysfunctional families willing to bare all on weekday afternoons including brawls, obscenities and blurred images of nudity, died April 27, 2023, at age 79. At its peak, “The Jerry Springer Show” was a ratings powerhouse and a U.S. cultural pariah, synonymous with lurid drama. Known for chair-throwing and bleep-filled arguments, the daytime talk show was a favorite American guilty pleasure over its 27-year run, at one point topping Oprah Winfrey’s show.
Michael Gambon
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Veteran actor Michael Gambon, who was known to many for his portrayal of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight “Harry Potter” films, died Sept. 28, 2023. He was 82. No matter what role he took on in a career that lasted more than five decades, Gambon was always instantly recognizable by the deep and drawling tones of his voice. He was cast as the much-loved Dumbledore after the death of his predecessor, Richard Harris, in 2002.
Burt Young
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Burt Young, the Oscar-nominated actor who played Paulie, the rough-hewn, mumbling-and-grumbling best friend, corner-man and brother-in-law to Sylvester Stallone in the “Rocky” franchise, died Oct. 8, 2023, at age 83. Young had roles in acclaimed films and television shows including “Chinatown,” “Once Upon a Time in America" and “The Sopranos.” But he was always best known for playing Paulie Pennino in six “Rocky” movies. The short, paunchy, balding Young was the sort of actor who always seemed to play middle-aged no matter his age.
Mark Margolis
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Mark Margolis, who had a breakout role as a mobster in “Scarface” but became best known decades later for his indelible, fearsome portrayal of a vindictive former drug kingpin in TV's “Breaking Bad," died Aug. 3, 2023. He was 83. Margolis was nominated for an Emmy in 2012 for outstanding guest actor in “Breaking Bad” as Hector “Tio” Salamanca, the murderous elderly don who was unable to speak following a stroke. But this actor did not need dialogue; he communicated via facial expressions and the sometimes menacing use of a barhop bell taped to his wheelchair.
Jacklyn Zeman
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Jacklyn Zeman, who became one of the most recognizable actors on daytime television during 45 years of playing nurse Bobbie Spencer on ABC’s “General Hospital,” died May 10, 2023. She was 70. Zeman joined “General Hospital” in 1977 as Barbara Jean, who went by Bobbie, and was the feisty younger sister of Anthony Geary’s Luke Spencer.
John Beasley
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John Beasley, the veteran character actor who played a kindly school bus driver on the TV drama “Everwood” and appeared in dozens of films dating back to the 1980s, died May 30, 2023. He was 79. Beasley played an assistant coach in the 1993 football film “Rudy” and a retired preacher in 1997's “The Apostle,” co-starring and directed by Robert Duvall.
Michael Lerner
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Michael Lerner, the Brooklyn-born character actor who played a myriad of imposing figures in his 60 years in the business, including monologuing movie mogul Jack Lipnick in “Barton Fink,” the crooked club owner Bugsy Calhoun in “Harlem Nights” and an angry publishing executive in “Elf” died April 8, 2023. He was 81.
Tom Sizemore
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Tom Sizemore, the “Saving Private Ryan” actor whose bright 1990s star burned out under the weight of his own domestic violence and drug convictions, died March3, 2023, at age 61. Sizemore became a star with acclaimed appearances in “Natural Born Killers” and the cult-classic crime thriller “Heat.”
Charles Kimbrough
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Charles Kimbrough, a Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor who played a straight-laced news anchor opposite Candice Bergen on “Murphy Brown,” died Jan. 11, 2023. He was 86. Kimbrough played newsman Jim Dial across the 10 seasons of CBS hit sitcom “Murphy Brown" between 1988 and 1998, earning an Emmy nomination in 1990 for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series. He reprised the role for three episodes in the 2018 reboot.
Willis Reed
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Willis Reed, who dramatically emerged from the locker room minutes before Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals to spark the New York Knicks to their first championship and create one of sports’ most enduring examples of playing through pain, died March 21, 2023. He was 80.
Brooks Robinson
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Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson, whose deft glovework and folksy manner made him one of the most beloved and accomplished athletes in Baltimore history, died Sept. 26, 2023. He was 86. Coming of age before the free agent era, Robinson spent his entire 23-year career with the Orioles. He almost single-handedly helped Baltimore defeat Cincinnati in the 1970 World Series and homered in Game 1 of the Orioles' 1966 sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers for their first crown. Robinson participated in 18 All-Star Games, won 16 consecutive Gold Gloves and earned the 1964 AL Most Valuable Player award after batting .318 with 28 home runs and a league-leading 118 RBIs.
Betsy Rawls
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Betsy Rawls, a four-time U.S. Women's Open champion and tournament administrator whose remarkable career landed her in the World Golf Hall of Fame, died Oct. 21, 2023, at age 95. Rawls won eight majors in her 55 LPGA Tour titles.
Tim McCarver
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Tim McCarver, the All-Star catcher and Hall of Fame broadcaster who during 60 years in baseball won two World Series titles with the St. Louis Cardinals and had a long run as one of the country's most recognized, incisive and talkative television commentators, died Feb. 16, 2023. He was 81.
Billy Packer
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Billy Packer (left), an Emmy award-winning college basketball broadcaster who covered 34 Final Fours for NBC and CBS, died Jan. 26, 2023. He was 82. Packer’s broadcasting career coincided with the growth of college basketball. He worked as analyst or color commentator on every Final Four from 1975 to 2008. He received a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Sports Personality, Studio and Sports Analyst in 1993.
Gordon Lightfoot
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Gordon Lightfoot, the folk singer-songwriter known for “If You Could Read My Mind" and "Sundown” and for songs that told tales of Canadian identity, died May 1, 2023. He was 84. One of the most renowned voices to emerge from Toronto’s Yorkville folk club scene in the 1960s, Lightfoot recorded 20 studio albums and penned hundreds of songs, including “Carefree Highway," “Early Morning Rain” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."
Jeff Beck
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Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, died Jan. 10, 2023. He was 78. Beck was among the rock-guitarist pantheon from the late ’60s that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. Beck won eight Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again as a solo artist in 2009.
Clarence Avant
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Clarence Avant, the judicious manager, entrepreneur, facilitator and adviser who helped launch or guide the careers of Quincy Jones, Bill Withers and many others and came to be known as the "Black Godfather" of music and beyond, died Aug. 13, 2023. He was 92.
Bobby Caldwell
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Bobby Caldwell, a soulful R&B singer and songwriter who had a major hit in 1978 with “What You Won't Do for Love” and a voice and musical style adored by generations of his fellow artists, died March 14, 2023. He was 71. The smooth soul jam “What You Won't Do for Love” went to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 6 on what was then called the Hot Selling Soul Singles chart. It became a long-term standard and career-defining hit for Caldwell, who also wrote the song.
Gary Rossington
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Gary Rossington, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s last surviving original member who also helped to found the group, died March 5, 2023, at age 71. According to Rolling Stone, it was during a fateful Little League game, Ronnie Van Zant hit a line drive into the shoulder blades of opposing player Bob Burns and met his future bandmates. Rossington, Burns, Van Zant, and guitarist Allen Collins gathered that afternoon at Burns’ Jacksonville home to jam the Rolling Stone’s “Time Is on My Side.”
Wayne Shorter
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Wayne Shorter, an influential jazz innovator whose lyrical, complex jazz compositions and pioneering saxophone playing sounded through more than half a century of American music, died March 2, 2023. He was 89.
Angus Cloud
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Angus Cloud, the actor who starred as the drug dealer Fezco “Fez” O'Neill on the HBO series “Euphoria,” died July 31, 2023. He was 25. Cloud hadn’t acted before he was cast in “Euphoria.” He was walking down the street in New York when casting scout Eléonore Hendricks noticed him. Cloud was resistant at first, suspecting a scam. Then casting director Jennifer Venditti met with him and series creator Sam Levinson eventually made him a co-star in the series alongside Zendaya for its first two seasons.
Michael Chiarello
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Michael Chiarello, a chef known for his Italian-inspired Californian restaurants who won an Emmy Award for best host for “Easy Entertaining With Michael Chiarello" and appeared on Bravo’s “Top Chef” and “Top Chef Masters,” died Oct. 6, 2023. He was 61.
Alan Arkin
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Alan Arkin, the wry character actor who demonstrated his versatility in everything from farcical comedy to chilling drama as he received four Academy Award nominations and won an Oscar in 2007 for "Little Miss Sunshine," has died. He was 89. A member of Chicago's famed Second City comedy troupe, Arkin was an immediate success in movies with the Cold War spoof "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" and peaked late in life with his win as best supporting actor for the surprise 2006 hit "Little Miss Sunshine.”
Julian Sands
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Actor Julian Sands, who starred in several Oscar-nominated films in the late 1980s and '90s including “A Room With a View” and “Leaving Las Vegas,” was found dead on a Southern California mountain in June 2023, five months after he disappeared while hiking. He was 65. Sands, who was born, raised and began acting in England, worked constantly in film and television, amassing more than 150 credits in a 40-year career. During a 10-year span from 1985 to 1995, he played major roles in a series of acclaimed films.
Cynthia Weil
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Cynthia Weil, a Grammy-winning lyricist of notable range and endurance who enjoyed a decades-long partnership with husband Barry Mann and helped write "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," "On Broadway," "Walking in the Rain" and dozens of other hits, died June 1, 2023, at age 82.
Sheldon Harnick
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Tony- and Grammy Award-winning lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who with composer Jerry Bock made up the premier musical-theater songwriting duos of the 1950s and 1960s with shows such as "Fiddler on the Roof," "Fiorello!" and "The Apple Tree," died June 23, 2023. He was 99.
Barrett Strong
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Barrett Strong, one of Motown’s founding artists and most gifted songwriters who sang lead on the company’s breakthrough single “Money (That’s What I Want)” and later collaborated with Norman Whitfield on such classics as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “War” and “Papa Was a Rollin' Stone,” died Jan. 29, 2023. He was 81.
The Iron Sheik
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The Iron Sheik, a former pro wrestler who relished playing a burly, bombastic villain in 1980s battles with some of the sport's biggest stars and later became a popular Twitter personality, died June 7, 2023. He was 81. During his pro wrestling career, he donned curled boots and used the “Camel Clutch” as his finishing move during individual and tag team clashes in which he played the role of an anti-American heel for the WWF, which later became the WWE.
Treat Williams
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Actor Treat Williams, whose nearly 50-year career included starring roles in the TV series “Everwood” and the movie “Hair,” died June 12, 2023, after a motorcycle crash in Vermont. He was 71. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his role as hippie leader George Berger in the 1979 movie version of the hit musical “Hair.”
Bill Richardson
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Bill Richardson, a two-term Democratic governor of New Mexico and an American ambassador to the United Nations who dedicated his post-political career to working to secure the release of Americans detained by foreign adversaries, died Sept. 2, 2023. He was 75.
Daniel Ellsberg
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Daniel Ellsberg, the history-making whistleblower who by leaking the Pentagon Papers revealed longtime government doubts and deceit about the Vietnam War and inspired acts of retaliation by President Richard Nixon that helped lead to his resignation, died June 16, 2023. He was 92.
Pat Robertson
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Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster who turned a tiny Virginia station into the global Christian Broadcasting Network, tried a run for president and helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition, died June 8, 2023. He was 93. For more than a half-century, Robertson was a familiar presence in American living rooms, known for his “700 Club” television show, and in later years, his televised pronouncements of God’s judgment, blaming natural disasters on everything from homosexuality to the teaching of evolution.
Robert Blake
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Robert Blake, the Emmy award-winning performer who went from acclaim for his acting to notoriety when he was tried and acquitted in the killing of his wife, died March 9, 2023, at age 89. Blake, star of the 1970s TV show, "Baretta," never recovered from the long ordeal which began with the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, outside a Studio City restaurant on May 4, 2001. The story of their strange marriage, the child it produced and its violent end was a Hollywood tragedy played out in court. Blake portrayed real-life murderer Perry Smith in the movie of Truman Capote's true crime best seller "In Cold Blood."
Ted Kaczynski
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Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated mathematician who retreated to a dingy shack in the Montana wilderness and ran a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died June 10, 2023. He was 81. Branded the “Unabomber” by the FBI, Kaczynski died by suicide at the federal prison medical center in Butner, North Carolina.
Lloyd Morrisett
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Lloyd Morrisett, the co-creator of the beloved children's education TV series “Sesame Street,” which uses empathy and fuzzy monsters like Abby Cadabby, Elmo and Cookie Monster to charm and teach generations around the world, died Jan. 15, 2023. He was 93.
Chaim Topol
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Chaim Topol, a leading Israeli actor who charmed generations of theatergoers and movie-watchers with his portrayal of Tevye, the long-suffering and charismatic milkman in “Fiddler on the Roof,” died March 8, 2023, at age 87. A recipient of two Golden Globe awards and nominee for both an Academy Award and a Tony Award, Topol long has ranked among Israel’s most decorated actors.
Len Goodman
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Len Goodman, a long-serving judge on “Dancing with the Stars” and “Strictly Come Dancing" who helped revive interest in ballroom dancing on both sides of the Atlantic, died April 22, 2023. He was 78.
Burt Bacharach
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Burt Bacharach, the singularly gifted and popular composer who delighted millions with the quirky arrangements and unforgettable melodies of "Walk on By," "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" and dozens of other hits, died Feb. 8, 2023. The Grammy, Oscar and Tony-winning composer was 94. Over the past 70 years, only Lennon-McCartney, Carole King and a handful of others rivaled his genius for instantly catchy songs that remained performed, played and hummed long after they were written. He had a run of top 10 hits from the 1950s into the 21st century, and his music was heard everywhere from movie soundtracks and radios to home stereo systems and iPods, whether “Alfie” and “I Say a Little Prayer” or “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” and “This Guy’s in Love with You.”
Stella Stevens
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Stella Stevens, a prominent leading lady in 1960s and 70s comedies perhaps best known for playing the object of Jerry Lewis’s affection in “The Nutty Professor,” died Feb. 17, 2023. She was 84. She was a prolific actor in television and film up through the 1990s, officially retiring in 2010.
Barry Humphries
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Tony Award-winning comedian Barry Humphries, internationally renowned for his garish stage persona Dame Edna Everage, a condescending and imperfectly-veiled snob whose evolving character has delighted audiences over seven decades, died April 22, 2023. He was 89.
Annie Wersching
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Actor Annie Wersching, best known for playing FBI agent Renee Walker in the series “24" and providing the voice for Tess in the video game “The Last of Us,” died Jan. 29, 2023. She was 45. Her first credit was in “Star Trek: Enterprise,” and she would go on to have recurring roles in the seventh and eighth seasons of “24,” “Bosch," “The Vampire Diaries,” Marvel's “Runaways,” “The Rookie" and, most recently, the second season of “Star Trek: Picard” as the Borg Queen.
Dave Hollis
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Dave Hollis, who left his post as a Disney executive to help his wife run a successful lifestyle empire, died Feb. 12, 2023. He was 47. Hollis worked for Disney for 17 years and had been head of distribution for the company for seven years when he left in 2018 to join his wife's venture. The parents of four moved from Los Angeles to the Austin area, collaborated on livestreams, podcasts and organized life-affirming conferences. In their podcast, “Rise Together,” they focused on marriage.
Christine King Farris
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Christine King Farris, the last living sibling of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died June 29, 2023. She was 95. For decades after her brother's assassination in 1968, Farris worked along with his widow, Coretta Scott King, to preserve and promote his legacy. But unlike her high-profile sister-in-law, Farris' activism — and grief — was often behind the scenes.
David Jude Jolicoeur
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David Jude Jolicoeur, known widely as Trugoy the Dove and one of the founding members of the Long Island hip-hop trio De La Soul, died Feb. 12, 2023. He was 54. De La Soul’s debut studio album “3 Feet High and Rising,” produced by Prince Paul, was released in 1989 by Tommy Boy Records and praised for being a more light-hearted and positive counterpart to more charged rap offerings. De La Soul signaled the beginning of alternative hip-hop.
Robbie Knievel
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Robbie Knievel, an American stunt performer who set records with daredevil motorcycle jumps following the tire tracks of his thrill-seeking father — including at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1989 and a Grand Canyon chasm a decade later — died Jan. 13, 2023. He was 60.
Gina Lollobrigida
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Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida, who achieved international stardom during the 1950s and was dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” after the title of one of her movies, died Jan. 16, 2023. She was 95. Besides “The World’s Most Beautiful Woman” in 1955, career highlights included Golden Globe-winner “Come September,” with Rock Hudson; “Trapeze;” “Beat the Devil,” a 1953 John Huston film starring Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones; and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell.”
Lynette Hardaway ("Diamond")
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Lynette Hardaway, an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump and one half of the conservative political commentary duo Diamond and Silk, died Jan. 9, 2023. She was 51. Hardaway (pictured at left), known by the moniker “Diamond,” carved out a unique role as a Black woman who loudly backed Trump and right-wing policies.
Adam Rich
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Adam Rich, the child actor with a pageboy mop-top who charmed TV audiences as “America’s little brother” on “Eight is Enough,” died Jan. 7, 2023. He was 54. Rich had a limited acting career after starring at age 8 as Nicholas Bradford, the youngest of eight children, on the ABC hit dramedy that ran from from 1977 to 1981.
Bobby Hull
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Hall of Fame forward Bobby Hull, who helped the Chicago Blackhawks win the 1961 Stanley Cup Final, has died. Hull was 84. The two-time MVP was one of the most prolific scorers in NHL history, leading the league in goals seven times. Nicknamed “The Golden Jet” for his speed and blond hair, he posted 13 consecutive seasons with 30 goals or more from 1959-72.
Charles White
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Charles White, the Southern California tailback who won the Heisman Trophy in 1979, died Jan. 11, 2023. He was 64. A two-time All-American and Los Angeles native, White won a national title in 1978 before claiming the Heisman in the following season, when he captained the Trojans and led the nation in yards rushing.
Robbie Robertson
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Robbie Robertson, The Band’s lead guitarist and songwriter who in such classics as “The Weight” and “Up on Cripple Creek” mined American music and folklore and helped reshape contemporary rock, died Aug. 9, 2023, at 80. The Canadian-born Robertson was a high school dropout and one-man melting pot — part-Jewish, part-Mohawk and Cayuga — who fell in love with the seemingly limitless sounds and byways of his adopted country and wrote out of a sense of amazement and discovery at a time when the Vietnam War had alienated millions of young Americans.
Ron Cephas Jones
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Ron Cephas Jones, a veteran stage actor who won two Emmy Awards for his role as a long-lost father who finds redemption on the NBC television drama series “This Is Us,” died Aug. 19, 2023, at age 66.
Samuel “Joe” Wurzelbacher
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Samuel “Joe” Wurzelbacher, who was thrust into the political spotlight as “Joe the Plumber” after questioning Barack Obama about his economic proposals during the 2008 presidential campaign, and who later forayed into politics himself, died Aug. 27, 2023. He was 49.
Mohamed Al Fayed
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Mohamed Al Fayed, the flamboyant Egypt-born businessman whose son was killed in a car crash with Princess Diana, died Aug. 30, 2023. He was 94. Al Fayed, the longtime owner of Harrods department store and the Fulham Football Club, was devastated by the death of son Dodi Fayed in the car crash in Paris with Diana 26 years ago. He spent years mourning the loss and fighting the British establishment he blamed for their deaths.
Jerry Richardson
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Jerry Richardson, the Carolina Panthers founder and for years one of the NFL’s most influential owners until a scandal forced him to sell the team, died March 1, 2023. He was 86.
Sister André
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Lucile Randon, a French nun known as Sister André and believed to be the world's oldest person, died Jan. 17, 2023, at age 118. She was born in the town of Ales, southern France, on Feb. 11, 1904. She was also one of the world’s oldest survivors of COVID-19.
Tatjana Patitz
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Tatjana Patitz, one of an elite group of famed supermodels who graced magazine covers in the 1980s and ’90s and appeared in George Michael's “Freedom! '90” music video, died at age 56.
Russell Banks
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Russell Banks, an award-winning fiction writer who rooted such novels as “Affliction” and “The Sweet Hereafter” in the wintry, rural communities of his native Northeast and imagined the dreams and downfalls of everyone from modern blue-collar workers to the radical abolitionist John Brown in “Cloudsplitter," died Jan. 7, 2023. He was 82.
Cardinal George Pell
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Cardinal George Pell, a onetime financial adviser to Pope Francis who spent 404 days in solitary confinement in his native Australia on child sex abuse charges before his convictions were overturned, died Jan. 10, 2023. He was 81.
Ken Block
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Ken Block, a motorsports icon known for his stunt driving and for co-founding the action sports apparel brand DC Shoes, died Jan. 2, 2023, in a snowmobiling accident near his home in Utah. Block rose to fame as a rally car driver and in 2005 was awarded Rally America's Rookie of the Year honors.
Walter Cunningham
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Walter Cunningham, the last surviving astronaut from the first successful crewed space mission in NASA's Apollo program, died Jan. 3, 2023. He was 90. Cunningham was one of three astronauts aboard the 1968 Apollo 7 mission, an 11-day spaceflight that beamed live television broadcasts as they orbited Earth, paving the way for the moon landing less than a year later.
Anton Walkes
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Professional soccer player Anton Walkes died Jan. 18, 2023, from injuries he sustained in a boat crash off the coast of Miami. He was 25. Walkes began his career with English Premier League club Tottenham and also played for Portsmouth before signing with Atlanta United in MLS. He joined Charlotte for the club’s debut MLS season in 2022.
Pat Schroeder
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Former U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder, a pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, died March 13, 2023. She was 82. Schroeder took on the powerful elite with her rapier wit and antics for 24 years, shaking up stodgy government institutions by forcing them to acknowledge that women had a role in government. She was elected to Congress in Colorado in 1972 and won easy reelection 11 times from her safe district in Denver.
Seymour Stein
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Seymour Stein, the brash, prescient and highly successful founder of Sire Records who helped launched the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and many others, died April 2, 2023, at age 80. Stein helped found the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and was himself inducted into the Rock Hall in 2005.
Klaus Teuber
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Klaus Teuber, creator of the hugely popular Catan board game in which players compete to build settlements on a fictional island, died April 1, 2023. He was 70. The board game, originally called The Settlers of Catan when introduced in 1995 and based on a set of hexagonal tiles, has sold tens of millions of copies and is available in more than 40 languages.
Ginnie Newhart
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Ginnie Newhart, who was married to comedy legend Bob Newhart for six decades and inspired the classic ending of his “Newhart” series, died April 23, 2023. She was 82.
Vida Blue
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Vida Blue, a hard-throwing left-hander who became one of baseball’s biggest draws in the early 1970s and helped lead the brash A’s to three straight World Series titles before his career was derailed by drug problems, died May 6, 2023. He was 73.
Martin Amis
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British novelist Martin Amis, who brought a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to his stories and lifestyle, died May 20, 2023. He was 73. Amis was a leading voice among a generation of writers that included his good friend, the late Christopher Hitchens, Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie. Among his best-known works were “Money,” a satire about consumerism in London, “The Information” and “London Fields,” along with his 2000 memoir, “Experience."
Doyle Brunson
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Doyle Brunson, one of the most influential poker players of all time and a two-time world champion, died May 14, 2023. He was 89. Brunson, called the Godfather of Poker and also known as “Texas Dolly,” won 10 World Series of Poker tournaments — second only to Phil Hellmuth's 16. He also captured world championships in 1976 and 1977 and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1988.
Hodding Carter III
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Hodding Carter III, a Mississippi journalist and civil rights activist who as U.S. State Department spokesman informed Americans about the Iran hostage crisis and later won awards for his televised documentaries, died May 11, 2023. He was 88.
Ray Stevenson
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Ray Stevenson, who played the villainous British governor in “RRR,” an Asgardian warrior in the “Thor” films, and a member of the 13th Legion in HBO’s “Rome,” died May 21, 2023. He was 58. He made his film debut in Paul Greengrass’s 1998 film “The Theory of Flight.” In 2004, he appeared in Antoine Fuqua’s “King Arthur” as a knight of the round table and several years later played the lead in the pre-Disney Marvel adaptation “Punisher: War Zone." Though “Punisher” was not the best-reviewed film, he'd get another taste of Marvel in the first three "Thor” films, in which he played Volstagg. Other prominent film roles included the “Divergent” trilogy, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” and “The Transporter: Refueled.”
Astrud Gilberto
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Astrud Gilberto, the Brazilian singer, songwriter and entertainer whose off-hand, English-language cameo on “The Girl from Ipanema” made her a worldwide voice of bossa nova, died June 5, 2023, at age 83.
Tori Bowie
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U.S. Olympic champion sprinter Tori Bowie died May 2, 2023, from complications of childbirth, according to an autopsy report. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Bowie won silver in the 100 and bronze in the 200. She then ran the anchor leg on a 4x100 team with Tianna Bartoletta, Allyson Felix and English Gardner to take gold.
Silvio Berlusconi
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Silvio Berlusconi, the boastful billionaire media mogul who was Italy's longest-serving premier despite scandals over his sex-fueled parties and allegations of corruption, died June 12, 2023. He was 86. A onetime cruise ship crooner, Berlusconi used his television networks and immense wealth to launch his long political career, inspiring both loyalty and loathing.
John Goodenough
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John Goodenough, who shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work developing the lithium-ion battery that transformed technology with rechargeable power for devices ranging from cellphones, computers, and pacemakers to electric cars, died June 25, 2023, at age 100.
Coco Lee
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Coco Lee, a Hong Kong-born singer and songwriter who had a highly successful career in Asia, has died by suicide July 5, 2023. She was 48. She was the first Chinese singer to break into the American market, and her English song “Do You Want My Love” charted at #4 on Billboard's Hot Dance Breakouts chart in December 1999.
If you or someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide, call 1-800-273-TALK, text 741741 or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
Jane Birkin
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Actor and singer Jane Birkin, who made France her home and charmed the country with her English grace, natural style and social activism, died July 16, 2023, at age 76. The London-born star and fashion icon was known for her musical and romantic relationship with French singer Serge Gainsbourg. Their songs notably included the steamy “Je t’aime moi non plus" ("I Love You, Me Neither"). Birkin's ethereal, British-accented singing voice interlaced with his gruff baritone in the 1969 duet that helped make her famous and was forbidden in Italy after being denounced in the Vatican newspaper.
William Friedkin
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William Friedkin, the generation-defining director who brought a visceral realism to 1970s hits “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist" and was quickly anointed one of Hollywood's top directors when he was only in his 30s, died Aug. 7, 2023. He was 87. Friedkin won the best director Oscar for “The French Connection.”
Michael McGrath
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Michael McGrath, a Broadway character actor who shined in zany, feel-good musicals and won a Tony Award for “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” died Sept. 14, 2023. He was 65. McGrath was in over a dozen Broadway shows including “Plaza Suite,” “She Loves Me,” “Tootsie" and “Spamalot” as well as on television as the sidekick to Martin Short on “The Martin Short Show.”
Fernando Botero
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Renowned Colombian painter and sculptor Fernando Botero, whose depictions of people and objects in plump, exaggerated forms became emblems of Colombian art around the world, died Sept. 15, 2023. He was 91.
David McCallum
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Actor David McCallum, who became a teen heartthrob in the hit series "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." in the 1960s and was the eccentric medical examiner in the popular "NCIS" 40 years later, died Sept. 25, 2023. He was 90. McCallum’s work with “U.N.C.L.E.” brought him two Emmy nominations, and he got a third as an educator struggling with alcoholism in a 1969 Hallmark Hall of Fame drama called “Teacher, Teacher.” McCallum returned to television in 2003 in another series with an agency known by its initials — CBS’ “NCIS.”
Tim Wakefield
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Tim Wakefield, the knuckleballing workhorse of the Red Sox pitching staff who bounced back after giving up a season-ending home run to the Yankees in the 2003 playoffs to help Boston win its curse-busting World Series title the following year, died Oct. 1, 2023. He was 57.
Louise Glück
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Nobel laureate Louise Glück, a poet of unblinking candor and perception who wove classical allusions, philosophical reveries, bittersweet memories and humorous asides into indelible portraits of a fallen and heartrending world, died Oct. 13, 2023, at age 80.
Piper Laurie
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Piper Laurie, the strong-willed, Oscar-nominated actor who performed in acclaimed roles despite at one point abandoning acting altogether in search of a “more meaningful” life, died Oct. 14, 2023. She was 91. Laurie arrived in Hollywood in 1949 as Rosetta Jacobs and was quickly given a string of starring roles with Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis, among others. She went on to receive Academy Award nominations for three distinct films: The 1961 poolroom drama “The Hustler”; the film version of Stephen King’s horror classic “Carrie,” in 1976; and the romantic drama “Children of a Lesser God,” in 1986. She also appeared in several acclaimed roles on television and the stage, including in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” in the 1990s as the villainous Catherine Martell.
Bob Knight
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Bob Knight, the brilliant and combustible coach who won three NCAA titles at Indiana and for years was the scowling face of college basketball died Nov. 1, 2023. He was 83.
Frank Borman
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Frank Borman, who commanded Apollo 8's historic Christmas 1968 flight that circled the moon 10 times and paved the way for the lunar landing seven months later, died Nov. 7, 2023. He was 95.
Maryanne Trump Barry
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Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired federal judge and former president Donald Trump's oldest sister, died Nov. 13, 2023, at age 86 at her home in New York.
Ken Squier
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Ken Squier, a longtime NASCAR announcer, died Nov. 15, 2023, in Waterbury, Vermont, at the age of 88, according to the management of the local WDEV radio, which he owned.
A.S. Byatt
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Author A.S. Byatt, whose books include the Booker Prize-winning novel “Possession,” died Nov. 16, 2023, at the age of 87. Byatt wrote two dozen novels, starting with “The Shadow of the Sun” in 1964.
George Brown
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George Brown, drummer and co-founder of Kool & The Gang, died Nov. 16, 2023 in Los Angeles, after a battle with cancer. He was 74.
In photo: Robert "Kool" Bell, from left, Ronald "Khalis" Bell, Dennis "DT" Thomas and George Brown attend a ceremony honoring Kool & The Gang with a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame on Oct. 8, 2015, in Los Angeles.
Willie Hernandez
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Three-time All-Star relief pitcher Willie Hernández, who won the 1984 Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards as part of the World Series champion Detroit Tigers, died Nov. 20, 2023. He was 69.
Jean Knight
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Jean Knight, a New Orleans-born soul singer known for her 1971 hit "Mr. Big Stuff," died Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023, at age 80 from natural causes, family representative Mona Giamanco said.
Frances Sternhagen
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Frances Sternhagen, the veteran character actor who won two Tony Awards and became a familiar maternal face to TV viewers later in life in such shows as “Cheers,” “ER,” “Sex and the City” and “The Closer,” died Nov. 27, 2023. She was 93.
Shane MacGowan
Shane MacGowan, the singer-songwriter and frontman of The Pogues, best known for their ballad “Fairytale of New York,” died Nov. 30, 2023. He was 65.
Norman Lear
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Norman Lear, the writer, director and producer who revolutionized prime time television with such topical hits as "All in the Family" and “Maude” and propelled political and social turmoil into the once-insulated world of sitcoms, died, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. He was 101.
Sandra Day O’Connor
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Sandra Day O’Connor, who joined the Supreme Court in 1981 as the nation's first female justice, died Dec. 1, 2023, at age 93.
Benjamin Zephaniah
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Benjamin Zephaniah, the British dub poet and political activist who drew huge inspiration from his Caribbean roots, died Dec. 7, 2023. He was 65.
Ryan O'Neal
Actor Ryan O'Neal, who was nominated for an Oscar for the tear-jerker “Love Story” and played opposite his precocious daughter Tatum in “Paper Moon,” died Dec. 8, 2023. He was 82.
Handcuffed and sent to the ER – for misbehavior: Schools are sending more kids to the hospital
UpdatedSALISBURY, Md. — Three times a week, on average, a police car pulls up to a school in Wicomico County on Maryland's Eastern Shore. A student is brought out, handcuffed and placed inside for transport to a hospital emergency room for a psychiatric evaluation.
Over the past eight years, the process has been used at least 750 times on students. Some are as young as 5 years old.
The state law that allows for these removals, known as petitions for emergency evaluation, is meant to be limited to people with severe mental illness, who are endangering their own lives or safety or someone else's. It's the first step toward getting someone involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital.
A view of Wicomico Middle School appears Tuesday, August 1, 2023, in Salisbury, Md. Data from the sheriff’s office shows that over the past eight years, children have been taken from Wicomico County schools to the emergency room for psychiatric evaluations at least 750 times. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
But advocates say schools across the country are sending children to the emergency room for psychiatric evaluations in response to behaviors prompted by bullying or frustration over assignments. The ER trips, they say, often follow months, and sometimes years, of their needs not being met.
Black students are more frequently subjected to these removals than their peers, according to available data. Advocates point to students with disabilities also being removed at higher rates.
"Schools focus on keeping kids out rather than on keeping kids in," said Dan Stewart, managing attorney at the National Disability Rights Network. "I think that's the fundamental crux of things."
Schools in Wicomico County agreed not to misuse emergency petitions as part of a 2017 settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice. But while the number of suspensions and expulsions declined, mandated trips to the emergency room ticked up.
Last year, children were handcuffed and sent to the emergency room at least 117 times from Wicomico schools, about once per every 100 students, according to data obtained from public records requests to the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office.
At least 40% were 12 or younger. More than half were Black children, even though a little more than a third of Wicomico public school children are Black.
'TRYING TO GET HIM OUT OF SCHOOL'
In interviews, dozens of students, parents, educators, lawyers and advocates for students with disabilities in Wicomico County said a lack of resources and trained staff, combined with a punitive culture in some schools, are behind the misuse of emergency petitions.
One Wicomico mom, who asked for anonymity because she feared retaliation from the school, recalled the terror she felt when her son's school called and said they were going to have him assessed for a forced psychiatric hospitalization. When she arrived at the school, she said, her son was already in handcuffs. He was put in the back of a police car and taken to the hospital.
A Salisbury Police car appears on display during National Night Out, Tuesday, August 1, 2023, in Salisbury, Md. The event, hosted by the Salisbury Police Department, aims to promote stronger community relationships and includes a number of organizations that provide support services to families. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
"He said his wrists hurt from the handcuffs," the mother said. "He was just really quiet, just sitting there, and he didn't understand why he was in the hospital."
The practice isn't just happening in Wicomico.
Recent data shows New York City schools still call police to take children in emotional distress to the emergency room despite a 2014 legal settlement in which they agreed to stop the practice.
A Kentucky school district was found to have used a psychiatric assessment on kids more than 1,000 times in a year. In Florida, thousands of school-aged children have been subjected to the Baker Act, the state's involuntary commitment statute.
In a settlement with the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights, the Stockton Unified School District in California agreed to protocols that require other interventions before referring students with disabilities for psychiatric evaluation.
In Maryland, Wicomico uses emergency petitions more often per capita than almost every other Maryland district where data is available.
Baltimore City, for example, last year had 271 emergency petitions from schools, compared with Wicomico's at least 117, according to data obtained from law enforcement agencies through public records requests. But Baltimore's student population is five times as large.
Wicomico parents describe struggling to get support for their children when they fell behind on basics like reading and math in early grades. These gaps in learning can lead to frustration and behaviors challenging for teachers to manage.
The Wicomico mother whose son was handcuffed said she fought for years with administrators to obtain accommodations for her child, who is autistic, an experience echoed by other parents. Her son, who also has ADHD, was several years behind in reading by the time he got to middle school. The mother said he was sent to the hospital after an outburst rooted in frustration, not mental illness.
She recalled school officials telling her, "'He doesn't have special needs, he just has anger issues.' They were trying to get him out of the school."
Her son had grown increasingly discouraged and agitated over an assignment he was unable to complete, she said. The situation escalated, she said, when the teacher argued with him. He knocked a laptop on his desk to the floor, and the school called for an emergency petition. After being taken to the hospital in handcuffs, he was examined and released.
"After that, he went from angry to terrified," she said. "Every time he saw the police, he would start panicking."
A Wicomico County police car appears on display during National Night Out, Tuesday, August 1, 2023, in Salisbury, Md. Data from the sheriff’s office shows that over the past eight years, children have been taken from Wicomico County schools to the emergency room for psychiatric evaluations at least 750 times. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
A spokeswoman from the Wicomico County Public Schools said emergency petitions "are used in the most extreme, emergency situations where the life and safety of the student or others are at risk."
"(Emergency petitions) are not used for disciplinary purposes and frequently do not result from a student's behaviors," Tracy Sahler said in an email. "In fact, a majority of EPs are related to when a student exhibits suicidal ideation or plans self-harm."
School officials did not respond to questions about why the rate of emergency petitions was so much higher in Wicomico than in other counties in Maryland. The Sheriff's Department declined to share records that would show the reasons for the removals.
EDUCATORS STRETCHED THIN
By law, certain classroom removals must be recorded. Suspensions, expulsions and arrests are the most commonly documented indicators of racial disparities in discipline. Schools are required by law to publicly report the data, which often triggers oversight and investigations.
But with the exceptions of Florida and New York City, most places do not routinely collect information on removals from school for psychiatric assessments.
Without that data, there is no way to hold schools accountable, said Daniel Losen, senior director for the education team at the National Center for Youth Law.
"The civil rights of children is at stake, because it's more likely it's going to be Black kids and kids with disabilities who are subjected to all kinds of biases that deny them an educational opportunity," he said.
Families who have experienced emergency petitions say educators who can communicate with their child are stretched thin, and measures that could de-escalate a situation are not always taken. The day her son was sent to the hospital, the mother recalled, the administrator who had consistently advocated for him was out of the building.
A view of Wicomico Middle School appears Tuesday, August 1, 2023, in Salisbury, Md. Data from the sheriff’s office shows that over the past eight years, children have been taken from Wicomico County schools to the emergency room for psychiatric evaluations at least 750 times. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
In another instance, a middle schooler said the required accommodations for his learning and behavioral disabilities included taking a walk with a trusted educator when he became agitated. The day he was involuntarily sent to the hospital, that staff member was unavailable. He began yelling and spitting when an administrator blocked him from leaving on his own. He said that by the time police arrived, he was calm and sitting in the principal's office. Still, he was handcuffed and taken to the hospital, where he was examined and released a few hours later.
Because emergency petitions happen outside the standard discipline process, missed school days are not recorded as suspensions. For students with disabilities, that has special consequences – they are not supposed to be removed from class for more than 10 days without an evaluation of whether they are receiving the support they need.
"If you use the discipline process, and you're a student with a disability, your rights kick in," said Selene Almazan, legal director for the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates.
In many places around the country, the resources needed to support students with disabilities are scarce.
On Maryland's Eastern Shore, lawyers and advocates for families said the spectrum of alternatives for students is limited by both money and geography. Those can include private, out-of-district placements and specialized classrooms for specific needs like dyslexia, for example.
In cases where children need targeted services unavailable in the local district, the district must allow them to be educated outside the school system — and pay for it.
"You're stuck between a rock and a hard place because you're like, 'This kid needs more services,' but you can't get the school to agree," said Angela Ford, clinical director at Maple Shade Youth and Family Services, which serves children with emotional and behavioral disabilities in Wicomico.
A view of Wicomico High School appears Tuesday, August 1, 2023, in Salisbury, Md. Data from the sheriff’s office shows that over the past eight years, children have been taken from Wicomico County schools to the emergency room for psychiatric evaluations at least 750 times. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
ER TRIPS INCREASED AFTER SETTLEMENT
The 2017 settlement with the Justice Department required the Wicomico district to reduce the significant racial and disability-related disparities in suspensions, placements in alternative schools and other discipline measures.
The district agreed not to use emergency petitions "where less intrusive interventions … can be implemented to address the behavioral concern" and not to use them "to discipline or punish or to address lack of compliance with directions."
But since the settlement, many parents, teachers and community leaders said the district has seemed more concerned with keeping suspension numbers down than providing support for teachers to help prevent disruptive behavior.
"If we know how to handle and deal with behaviors, then we will have less EPs," said Anthony Mann, who was an instructional aide at Wicomico County High School last year and is a Wicomico public school parent.
Tatiyana Jackson, who has a son with a disability at Wicomico Middle School, agrees teachers need more training. "I don't think they have a lot of patience or tolerance for children with differences. It's like they give up on them."
Wicomico school officials said ongoing professional development for staff includes the appropriate use of emergency petitions.
"Each school has a well-trained team that includes a social worker and school counselor, with the support of school psychologists," said Sahler. "All supports that may be beneficial to assist the student are utilized. However, the safety of the student is paramount and the determining factor is ensuring that there is no unnecessary delay in obtaining aid for the student."
But Denise Gregorius, who taught in Wicomico schools for over a decade and left in 2019, questioned the feasibility of the discipline and behavior strategies taught during professional development.
What the teachers really want, she said, is more support.
After the settlement, which had a two-and-a-half year monitoring period, the number of suspensions and expulsions in Wicomico declined markedly – for Black and white students. But the number of emergency petitions, which don't appear in state statistics, has ticked up.
Other measures of exclusionary discipline remained high, including school arrests. In 2021-22, Wicomico had 210 school-based arrests – the second highest number in the state, while they were 15th in student enrollment. More than three-quarters of the children arrested were Black and 80% were students with disabilities.
"Monitoring the numbers doesn't bring you the solution," said Losen, from the National Center for Youth Law. In many districts, "the problem is more than what they're doing with discipline."
The Department of Justice declined to comment.
People take a selfie with the National Night Out mascot, Tuesday, August 1, 2023, in Salisbury, Md. The event, hosted by the Salisbury Police Department, aims to promote stronger community relationships and includes a number of organizations that provide support services to families.(AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
BLACK PARENTS POINT TO CULTURE PROBLEM
Some Wicomico parents and educators point to an insular culture in the school district where problems are hidden rather than resolved.
They are frustrated that there is no relationship with the county's mobile crisis unit, which is often relied on in other counties to help de-escalate issues instead of calling the police.
Jermichael Mitchell, a community organizer who is an alum and parent in Wicomico County Schools, said educators often do not know how to empathize and respond to the trauma and unmet needs that may lead to children's behavior.
"A Black kid that's truly going through something, that truly needs support, is always looked at as a threat," he said. "You don't know how those kids have been taught to cry out for help. You don't know the trauma that they've been through."
Studies have found Black and Latino children who have a teacher of the same race have fewer suspensions and higher test scores, but that diversity is lacking in Wicomico County. Wicomico schools have the largest gap between the number of students of color and teachers of color in the state.
A general view of National Night Out in Salisbury City Park, Tuesday, August 1, 2023, in Salisbury, Md. The event, hosted by the Salisbury Police Department, aims to promote stronger community relationships and includes a number of organizations that provide support services to families. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Wicomico school officials said they do not discriminate against any of their students.
A Wicomico teenager described a years-long process of becoming alienated from school, with an emergency petition as the ultimate break. He said he was bullied in middle school over a series of months until one day he snapped and hit the student who had been taunting him.
The school called the police. He told the officers not to touch him, and that he needed to calm down. Instead, the officers grabbed him and shoved him into the ground, he said. He was handcuffed and transported to the emergency room. But when he returned, he said the only thing that was different was how he felt about the adults in the building.
"I got used to not trusting people, not talking to people at school," he said. "Nothing else really changed."
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This story about emergency petitions was produced by The Associated Press and The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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House votes to censure Democratic Rep. Bowman for pulling a fire alarm in a Capitol office building
UpdatedWASHINGTON — House members voted again Thursday to punish one of their own, targeting Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman for triggering a fire alarm in one of the U.S. Capitol office buildings when the chamber was in session.
The Republican censure resolution passed with some Democratic votes, but most Democrats stood by Bowman in opposition of an effort they said lacked credibility and integrity. The prominent progressive now becomes the third Democratic House member to be admonished this year through the censure process, which is a punishment one step below expulsion from the House.
"It's painfully obvious to myself, my colleagues and the American people that the Republican Party is deeply unserious and unable to legislate," Bowman said Wednesday as he defended himself during floor debate. "Their censure resolution against me today continues to demonstrate their inability to govern and serve the American people."
The 214-191 vote to censure Bowman caps nearly a year of chaos and retribution in the House of Representatives. Since January, the chamber has seen the removal of a member from a committee assignment, the first ouster of a speaker in history and, just last week, the expulsion of a lawmaker for only the third time since the Civil War.
Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., who introduced the censure resolution, defended her resolution, claiming Bowman pulled the alarm in September to "cause chaos and the stop the House from doing its business" as lawmakers scrambled to pass a bill to fund the government before a shutdown deadline.
"It is reprehensible that a Member of Congress would go to such lengths to prevent House Republicans from bringing forth a vote to keep the government operating and Americans receiving their paychecks," McClain said in a statement.
Bowman pleaded guilty in October to a misdemeanor count for the incident, which took place in the Cannon House Office Building. He agreed to pay a $1,000 fine and serve three months of probation, after which the false fire alarm charge is expected to be dismissed from his record under an agreement with prosecutors.
The fire alarm prompted a building-wide evacuation when the House was in session and staffers were working in the building. The building was reopened an hour later after Capitol Police determined there was no threat.
Bowman apologized and said that at the time he was trying to get through a door that was usually open but was closed that day because it was the weekend.
Many progressive Democrats, who spoke in his defense, called the Republican effort to censure him "unserious," and questioned why the party decided to target one of the few Black men in the chamber and among the first to ever represent his district.
"This censure is just the latest in this chamber's racist history of telling Black men that they don't belong in Congress," said Rep. Ayanna Pressley. D-Mass.
The vote is the latest example of how the chamber has begun to deploy punishments like censure, long viewed as a punishment of last resort, routinely and often in strikingly partisan ways.
"Under Republican control, this chamber has become a place where trivial issues get debated passionately and important ones not at all," Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said during floor debate. "Republicans have focused more on censuring people in this Congress than passing bills that help people we represent or improving this country in any way."
While the censure of a lawmaker carries no practical effect, it amounts to severe reproach from colleagues, as lawmakers who are censured are usually asked to stand in the well of the House as the censure resolution against them is read aloud.
Bowman is now the 27th person to be censured by the chamber — and the third just this year. Last month, Republicans voted to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan in an extraordinary rebuke of her rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war.
In June, Democrat Adam Schiff of California was censured for comments he made several years ago about investigations into then-President Donald Trump's ties to Russia.
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The 10 Senate seats most likely to flip in 2024
1. West Virginia
Updated
1. West Virginia
Incumbent: Democrat Joe Manchin
West Virginia remains the seat most likely to change party hands next year, whatever Sen. Joe Manchin does. The most conservative Democrat in the Senate – who hasn’t ruled out running as an independent for reelection or for president – Manchin isn’t expected to announce his plans until the end of this year. He raised $715,000 in the July-to-September third quarter – enough to maintain appearances that he’ll be a candidate next year. The haul is also more than what either of his major GOP opponents raised but about half a million less than his previous quarter total. (The chances of this seat flipping only go up if Manchin declines to seek a third full term.)
Even if he runs without the “D” after his name, he’ll have an uphill battle in a state Trump won by 39 points in 2020. His vulnerability is apparent in the way GOP-affiliated ads are tying him to Biden and Democratic-aligned spots are tying him to Trump. One Nation, for example, has attacked him over his support of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, while Duty and Honor PAC has touted Manchin’s work with Trump to protect miners’ pensions.
The immediate fight, however, is the GOP primary, where Jim Justice, the popular Democrat-turned-Republican governor, has outraised Rep. Alex Mooney by about $300,000. While national Republicans and Trump are behind Justice, the Club for Growth and an allied super PAC have committed nearly $13.6 million to the House Freedom Caucus member. The club’s political arm is airing ads calling Justice a RINO, or Republican in Name Only, and trying to tie him to Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell.
2. Montana
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2. Montana
Incumbent: Democrat Jon Tester
Sen. Jon Tester, another red-state Democrat, is no stranger to tough races. But the most pressing question is whether GOP Rep. Matt Rosendale – fresh off his vote to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy – decides to complicate national Republicans’ plans by mounting his own bid to avenge his 2018 loss to Tester. The NRSC likes retired Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, who already has the backing of the two other members of Montana’s congressional delegation (including Daines, the NRSC chairman) and Gov. Greg Gianforte. Sheehy, who entered the race in July, raised $2.9 million in the most recent fundraising quarter (including about $653,000 in personal money), but he’s a relative newcomer. (The Minnesota native has taken heat, for example, for saying in a Breitbart News interview that there were more bears than people in Montana.)
Rosendale, too, has out-of-state roots, and his House campaign only brought in about $335,000 during the third quarter. But as a previous statewide candidate – he was elected state auditor in 2016 and lost to Tester by about 4 points in 2018 – he starts with more built-in name recognition than Sheehy and could potentially benefit from assistance from the Club for Growth. Sheehy has been on air trying to introduce himself, leaning heavily into his military service and using ranching motifs to highlight his ties to the state. He’s also been attacking Tester for not adhering to some of the commitments in an ethics pledge he ran on during his first campaign, as CNN’s KFile reported.
An outside group called Last Best Place PAC, seemingly linked to Democrats, is attacking Sheehy – a sign Democrats may think he’d be a tougher opponent than Rosendale. Tester appears to be taking the race seriously – he raised more than $5 million in the third quarter and ended September with $13 million.
3. Ohio
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3. Ohio
Incumbent: Democrat Sherrod Brown
Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is gearing up for a tough race in a state that’s been trending red over the past decade. (He raised $5.8 million in the third quarter, ending the period with $11.2 million.) He’ll need all the money he can get if he faces one of the two self-funders vying for the GOP nomination. Both businessman Bernie Moreno and state Sen. Matt Dolan loaned their campaigns $3 million in the third quarter. Secretary of State Frank LaRose – who raised about $1 million, including $250,000 he loaned his campaign – doesn’t have the same kinds of personal resources, but he likely starts with a name ID advantage as the only statewide elected official in the GOP race. He became the public face of an August ballot effort to raise the threshold for amending the state constitution – seen as a proxy fight over an upcoming November referendum on abortion rights. LaRose admitted the measure was effectively about abortion, so the effort’s failure has been a point of attack from his primary opponents.
Trump carried Ohio twice, and his backing proved instrumental in getting now-Sen. JD Vance over the finish line in last year’s Republican primary, which also featured Dolan and, briefly, Moreno. Vance is backing Moreno in this primary, and while Trump has praised Moreno, he hasn’t made any endorsement yet. The NRSC is so far staying neutral in this race. The candidates met for their first forum last weekend, where US aid to Ukraine was a point of divergence between Moreno – who, like Vance, wants to suspend it – and Dolan, who wants it to continue. (LaRose called for making aid contingent on securing the US southern border.)
Meanwhile, Brown has been on the picket line with striking United Auto Workers – underscoring the economic populist streak that Democrats hope will allow him to defy the political tilt of his state once again.
4. Pennsylvania
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4. Pennsylvania
Incumbent: Democrat Bob Casey
The Keystone State moves up several spots this month largely because of how uniquely settled the GOP primary is compared with other battleground states. Republicans coalesced around Dave McCormick to take on Democratic Sen. Bob Casey soon after the former hedge fund executive got into the race in late September. (State Sen. Doug Mastriano announced in May that he was passing on a bid – a major relief for national Republicans who were wary of the failed 2022 gubernatorial candidate and election denier.)
But Democrats think McCormick, who unsuccessfully sought the state’s other Senate seat last year, has his own baggage. He tried to tack to the right in an effort to secure Trump’s endorsement and the GOP nomination in the 2022 Senate primary, which could alienate some suburban Philadelphia voters in a general election. He’s also facing questions about his residency. McCormick insists that he lives in Pennsylvania but returns to Connecticut to visit his daughter, who’s still in school there and lives with his ex-wife. “And if there’s a political cost associated with that, so be it,” he recently told ABC27’s “This Week in Pennsylvania.”
Still, the combination of McCormick and his vast personal resources during a presidential year are likely to make this Casey’s most competitive Senate race yet. The three-term incumbent, who raised $3.2 million in the third quarter, has a well-known political name in the state and enjoys a 48% job approval (and 31% disapproval) rating, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this month. He led McCormick 50% to 44% among registered voters in that survey, but this race is still young.
5. Arizona
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5. Arizona
Incumbent: Independent Kyrsten Sinema
Kari Lake – who embraced election denialism and conspiracy theories in her losing 2022 gubernatorial bid – was far from Republicans’ dream Senate candidate in this emerging purple state. But the former TV anchor is going to be hard to beat in a primary given her strong connection with the GOP base. Trump endorsed her by video at her announcement rally earlier this month, and there are signs that the party establishment is trying to keep her close. “We have not ruled out endorsing Lake,” a source familiar with the NRSC’s strategy told CNN. Daines has said the national party has had “productive conversations” with Lake, who recently told The Associated Press she’d vote for McConnell for leader. She’s also picked up the backing of Senate GOP Conference Chairman John Barrasso.
But Lake still won’t admit she lost last year’s gubernatorial race and her past hard-line positions on abortion could turn off swing voters. Her candidacy represents a familiar challenge for Arizona Republicans, whose recent nominees for key offices swung right in the primary and then struggled to pivot to the general election. Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is also running for Senate, but raised just $475,000 in the third quarter.
The race will remain unsettled, however, until Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who left the Democratic Party to become an independent last year, announces whether she’s running. Her $825,000 haul in the third quarter raised questions about her future, given that it was less than what she’s raised in the past. But Sinema still had more than $10 million in the bank as of September 30. Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, meanwhile, outraised her yet again – bringing in $3.1 million last quarter – but had about half of her cash on hand.
6. Nevada
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6. Nevada
Incumbent: Democrat Jacky Rosen
Nevada is a slightly more Democratic state than most on this list, although that’s not saying much. It voted for Biden by about 2 points, so Democrats aren’t taking Sen. Jacky Rosen’s reelection for granted. She raised $2.7 million in the third quarter, ending with $8.8 million in the bank.
National Republicans have made clear their preference for retired Army Capt. Sam Brown, an unsuccessful 2022 Senate candidate who’s trying to tie Rosen to Biden and his economic policies. But that hasn’t winnowed the GOP field. Trump’s former ambassador to Iceland, Jeff Gunter, entered the race in August and has cut an ad that refers to him as “110% pro-Trump.” Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Tony Grady, who lost a GOP primary bid for lieutenant governor last year, also jumped into the race in August. Former state Assemblyman Jim Marchant, an election denier and the losing 2022 GOP nominee for Nevada secretary of state, only raised $74,000 last quarter, compared with $1.2 million for Brown.
The primary isn’t until June, but Democrats are already seizing on what they see as vulnerabilities in Brown’s abortion positioning, including comments he made during a 2014 run for the Texas state legislature and his past work with the Nevada Faith and Freedom Coalition.
7. Wisconsin
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7. Wisconsin
Incumbent: Democrat Tammy Baldwin
Wisconsin slides down one spot on this list, in part because Republicans still don’t have a major candidate to take on Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin. That doesn’t mean this race won’t eventually be very competitive in a battleground presidential state that swung from Trump to Biden in 2020.
Republicans are eyeing businessman and 2012 Senate candidate Eric Hovde, who would likely have the ability to self-fund. Baldwin raised $3.1 million during the third quarter and began October with about $6.9 million in the bank. This is one of the few states where presidential performance isn’t necessarily indicative of Senate race outcomes. GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, for example, won a third term last year after Biden had carried the state, albeit by only about half a point, two years earlier.
8. Michigan
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8. Michigan
Incumbent: Democrat Debbie Stabenow (retiring)
Michigan is a bluer state than its Midwestern neighbor Wisconsin – Biden carried the Wolverine State by nearly 3 points and Democrats saw success up and down the ticket in 2022, in part because abortion was such a galvanizing issue. Democrats are now trying to ensure that retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s seat remains in their hands. Much of the party has coalesced around Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who raised nearly $3 million in the third quarter, although she does face primary challenges, including from actor Hill Harper, who raised about $559,000 and kicked in about $463,000 more of his own money.
Republicans landed a prominent recruit in former Rep. Mike Rogers, who succeeded Stabenow in the House and represented an earlier version of Slotkin’s Lansing-area seat for seven terms. Rogers, who raised $824,00 in the third quarter after entering the race in September, earned immediate praise from the NRSC as the “type of candidate who can perform well with suburban Michiganders.” And although the former House Intelligence chairman may use his recent absence from elected politics as a selling point, the GOP has changed a lot since he left Congress in 2015 – especially in Michigan, where the state party has a controversial new chair.
Since entering the race, Rogers has already landed a primary challenge from former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who was disqualified from last year’s governor’s race over signature issues. Former Rep. Peter Meijer, who has formed an exploratory committee, could still run – although the one-term congressman isn’t likely to curry much favor with the GOP base after voting to impeach Trump in 2021.
9. Texas
Updated
9. Texas
Incumbent: Republican Ted Cruz
Texas is a hard state for Democrats to flip – they haven’t won a statewide election here since 1994, their longest losing streak in the country. But GOP Sen. Ted Cruz makes a good villain for national Democrat donors. (See Beto O’Rourke’s massive 2018 fundraising hauls in his closer-than-expected loss to the senator.)
The question, however, is whether that grassroots Democratic opposition to Cruz can translate widely enough to deny him a third term. Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, who has already proved to be a strong fundraiser, brought in $4.7 million in the third quarter – more than Cruz’s $3.1 million. Democrats tout the former NFL player’s background as a good fit for Texas – he first won election to the House by flipping a GOP-held district in the Dallas area and has previously won support from the US Chamber of Commerce.
But although Allred already appears focused on Cruz, he’ll have to get through a crowded primary first. Among the other candidates is state Sen. Roland Guttierez, who represents Uvalde and raised $632,000 in the third quarter.
10. Florida
Updated
10. Florida
Incumbent: Republican Rick Scott
Former Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell announced her campaign to take on GOP Sen. Rick Scott in late August. Despite only being in the race for part of the third quarter, she narrowly outraised the first-term senator and former governor – $1.5 million to $1.4 million. Scott gave his campaign an additional $154,000 of his own money, and there’s plenty more where that came from for the wealthy former health care CEO.
Florida has been trending red in recent years – Trump carried the state by about 3 points in 2020, nearly tripling his margin from four years earlier. But each of Scott’s races for governor and Senate have been relatively close, and he’s never run in a presidential year. Democrats have targeted him over some of his more unpopular policy proposals – such as a sunset provision for all federal programs, which he later revised to exclude Social Security and Medicare after criticism from within his own party. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, for example, has been running digital ads casting Scott and Cruz as threats to popular entitlement programs.
Even with Democratic investment, though, it’s going to take a lot to flip this seat blue. The state’s senior senator, Republican Marco Rubio, won reelection last year over a high-profile Democratic opponent by 16 points.
Analysis: Pennsylvania moves up list of contested Senate seats in 2024
Updated
While events on the other side of the world – and the other end of the US Capitol – have dominated recent news, the race for control of the Senate is a crucial factor in what Washington could look like after next year’s elections.
The 2024 Senate map is advantageous for Republicans as they try to pick up the one or two seats needed to flip the chamber, depending on who wins the White House next year. Members of the Senate Democratic Caucus are defending the most competitive seats – the top eight on this list of 10 seats most likely to flip – which is not likely to change ahead of November 2024.
The order of the ranking, however, is changing. (Rankings are based on CNN’s reporting, fundraising figures and historical data about how states and candidates have performed.) Pennsylvania, for example, shoots up from No. 7 in July to No. 4 this month – in large part because it’s the one battleground where Republicans aren’t facing a messy primary.
GOP candidate fields elsewhere have only grown over the past couple of months, despite the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s new policy of taking sides in primaries. Besides Pennsylvania, the national party has made its preference known for specific candidates in West Virginia, Montana, Nevada and Michigan. The NRSC is neutral in Ohio’s crowded primary and hasn’t ruled out endorsing in Arizona.
Whether engaging in primaries early on will pay off remains to be seen. So far, however, NRSC Chairman Steve Daines’ tactic of keeping Donald Trump close appears to be working, as the former president hasn’t yet endorsed against any of the campaign committee’s picks.
The GOP presidential front-runner – with his four criminal indictments – is likely to be a liability in some places next year if he is the party’s nominee. But Republicans take comfort in the fact that he won the top three states on this list handily in 2020 and red-state Democrats will have to run with an unpopular President Joe Biden atop the ticket. In an era of increasingly nationalized politics, it’s becoming harder to run for Senate in a state that voted for the opposite party’s presidential nominee. In Democrats’ favor, however, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio have succeeded at it before.
Vulnerable Democratic senators will try to distance themselves from Biden where they can or try to signal that they represent a check on the White House. For example, six of them (plus independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who caucuses with Democrats) recently joined a bipartisan call to the secretary of state to freeze $6 billion in Iranian assets after Hamas’ attack on Israel – even though the administration has made clear that the money hasn’t been touched, has strict restrictions around it and the US hasn’t found a direct link between Iran and the Hamas attack.
It’s too early to say whether current events – especially abroad – could have any impact on elections that are still over a year away, but with the GOP-led House paralyzed without a speaker and Congress being called upon to approve aid to Israel and Ukraine, the moment has underscored how congressional contests have very real consequences.
Inmate stabbed Derek Chauvin 22 times, charged with attempted murder, prosecutors say
UpdatedA federal inmate was charged Friday with attempted murder in the prison stabbing of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd.
John Turscak stabbed Chauvin 22 times in the law library at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona, with an improvised knife, federal prosecutors said. Turscak, 52, told correctional officers he would've killed Chauvin had they not responded so quickly, prosecutors said.
Turscak later told FBI agents that he’d been thinking about assaulting Chauvin for about a month because he is a high-profile inmate but denied wanting to kill him, prosecutors said.
Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, seen June 25, 2021, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, was stabbed 22 times by another inmate Nov. 24 in Arizona.
Turscak told the agents that he attacked Chauvin on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, as a symbolic connection to the Black Lives Matter movement and the “Black Hand” symbol associated with the Mexican Mafia gang, prosecutors said.
An attorney for Turscak was not listed in court records and Turscak, who has represented himself in numerous court matters from prison, remained in custody on Friday.
Chauvin, 47, was sent to FCI Tucson from a maximum-security Minnesota state prison in August 2022 to simultaneously serve a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights and a 22½-year state sentence for second-degree murder.
Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, had advocated for keeping him out of general population and away from other inmates, anticipating he’d be a target. In Minnesota, Chauvin was mainly kept in solitary confinement “largely for his own protection,” Nelson wrote in court papers last year.
Floyd, who was Black, died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is white, pressed a knee on his neck for 9½ minutes on the street outside a convenience store where Floyd was suspected of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.
Bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe.” His death touched off protests worldwide, some of which turned violent, and forced a national reckoning with police brutality and racism.
Read more:
Photos: Reactions across US to guilty verdict in Derek Chauvin trial
People cheer after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis, Minn. Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
People cheer after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis, Minn. Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
A woman holding a George Floyd poster pumps her fist across the street from the Hennepin County Government Center, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis, after jurors found former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts of murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd during an arrest last May in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
People cheer after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis, Minn. Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
AniYa A motions as she walks through Times Square in New York, while talking on her cell phone after a Minnesota jury found Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Floyd died last May after Chauvin, a white officer, pinned his knee on or close to the 46-year-old Black man's neck for about 9 1/2 minutes. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus listen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, as the verdict to announced in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Kamaile Elderts and Joseph Ravago listen to news reports as they wait Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Washington, to hear the verdict in Minneapolis, in the murder trial against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was announced. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
A person reacts on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Washington, at Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House after the verdict in Minneapolis, in the murder trial against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was announced. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks as Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, listens on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, after the jury returned guilty verdicts on all three charges in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Joseph Ravago wipes tears from the eyes of Kamaile Elderts on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Washington, after the verdict in Minneapolis, in the murder trial against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was announced. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
London Williams, 31, of Harrisburg, Pa., bursts into tears on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Washington, after hearing that former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
In this image from video, former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, center, is taken into custody as his attorney, Eric Nelson, left, looks on, after the verdicts were read at Chauvin's trial for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. (Court TV via AP, Pool)
People cheer after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis, Minn. Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
People cheer after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis, Minn. Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
People cheer after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis, Minn. Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Charles Hall talks about the verdict in the murder trial against former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in the neighborhood where George Floyd grew up. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
A woman holding a George Floyd sign stands in the street next to the Hennepin County Government Center, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis, after jurors found former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts of murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd during an arrest last May in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
Lee Singleton reacts to the verdict in the murder trial against former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, after listening to the verdict in the neighborhood where George Floyd grew up. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
People cheer after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis, Minn. Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
People cheer after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis, Minn. Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Ronaly Brooks walks past a mural in the neighborhood where George Floyd grew up Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Houston. Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd, the explosive case that triggered worldwide protests, violence and a furious reexamination of racism and policing in the U.S. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Shermaine Lester, left, poses for a photo with Spike Lee at a rally outside the Barclays Center on Tuesday, April 20, 2021 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd, the explosive case that triggered worldwide protests, violence and a furious reexamination of racism and policing in the U.S. Floyd died last May after Chauvin, a white officer, pinned his knee on or close to the 46-year-old Black man's neck for about 9 1/2 minutes. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman)
Philonise Floyd, Attorney Ben Crump and the Rev, Al Sharpton, from left, react after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis, Minn. Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Appeals court upholds gag order on Trump but narrows restrictions on his speech: ‘Sweeps too broadly’
UpdatedWASHINGTON — A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday upheld a gag order on former President Donald Trump in his 2020 election interference case but narrowed the restrictions on his speech.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks Nov. 19 to Texas state troopers and guardsmen at the South Texas International Airport.
The three-judge panel's ruling modifies the gag order to allow the Republican 2024 presidential front-runner to make disparaging comments about special counsel Jack Smith.
But the court upheld the ban on public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the case.
“By broadly proscribing any statements about or directed to the Special Counsel and the court’s and counsel’s staffs, as well as reasonably foreseeable witnesses or their testimony, the Order sweeps too broadly,” the court said in its opinion. “It captures some constitutionally protected speech that lacks the features or content that would trench upon the court’s proper functioning or ability to administer justice.”
Trump, who has described the gag order as unconstitutional muzzling of his political speech, could appeal the ruling to the full court or to the Supreme Court.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed the gag order in October, barring Trump from making public statements targeting Smith and other prosecutors, court staff and potential witnesses. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had lifted the gag order while it considered Trump's challenge.
Prosecutors have argued the restrictions are necessary to protect the integrity of the case and shield potential witnesses and others involved in the case from harassment and threats inspired by Trump's incendiary social media posts.
The order has had a whirlwind trajectory through the courts since prosecutors proposed it, citing Trump’s repeated disparagement of the special counsel, the judge overseeing the case and likely witnesses.
The case accuses Trump of plotting with his Republican allies to subvert the will of voters in a desperate bid to stay in power in the run-up to the riot by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. It is scheduled to go to trial in March in Washington’s federal court, just blocks away from the U.S. Capitol.
The special counsel has separately charged Trump in Florida with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left the White House following his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. That case is set for trial next May, though the judge has signaled that the date might be postponed.
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Read more:
Scene: Trump in DC for historic 2020 election charges
Supporters of former President Donald Trump gather Thursday at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington, where Trump was due to answer to charges that he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The plane carrying former President Donald Trump arrives Thursday at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., as he heads to Washington to face a judge on federal conspiracy charges alleging he conspired to subvert the 2020 election.
Former President Donald Trump speaks Thursday before boarding his plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., after facing a judge on federal conspiracy charges.
Former President Donald Trump waves Thursday as he steps off his plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., as he heads to Washington to face a judge on federal conspiracy charges.
Members of the media stand outside E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse on Thursday in Washington, where former President Donald Trump was to answer charges he sought to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.
The motorcade carrying former President Donald Trump departs Thursday from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport along George Washington Memorial Parkway in Arlington, Va., as Trump heads to Washington to face a judge on federal conspiracy charges.
Demonstrators protest Thursday outside of the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington.
Workers put up barricades and secure the area outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse on Wednesday in Washington.
The U.S. Capitol is seen in the distance as Nadine Seiler holds a banner Thursday at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse. Former President Donald Trump is due in federal court in Washington to answer charges he sought to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.
A supporter of former President Donald Trump, center, talks with protesters Thursday near the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse.
President of People for the American Way Svante Myrickctivists speaks as protesters hold signs that spell JUSTICE on Thursday in Washington.
A U.S. Marshals Service K-9 officer patrols the area Thursday outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington. Former President Donald Trump is due in court on Thursday, the first step in a legal process that will play out in a courthouse between the White House he once controlled and the Capitol his supporters once stormed.
Washington Metropolitan Police patrol the area outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse on Thursday in Washington. Former President Donald Trump is due in federal court Thursday to answer to charges that he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The U.S. Capitol is seen in the distance as supporters of former President Donald Trump drive by the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse on Thursday.
Former President Donald Trump's airplane flies behind the Washington Monument on Thursday as it makes its final approach into Reagan National Airport in Washington.
Domenic Santana, 61, of Miami, holds a sign Thursday that reads "Lock Him Up" at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump rally Thursday outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington, where Trump was to answer charges he sought to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.
Code Pink's Medea Benjamin protests with a "Trump Baby" near the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse on Thursday in Washington.
Washington Metropolitan Police patrol the area outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse on Thursday in Washington.
Former President Donald Trump boards his plane Thursday at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J. Trump headed to Washington to answer to charges that he worked to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
A person protests with a sign that reads "FREE J6ers" near the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse on Thursday in Washington. Former President Donald Trump is due in federal court in Washington to answer charges he sought to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.
A person in a car holds up an image of Former President Donald Trump on Thursday near the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington.
Protesters hold signs that spell JUSTICE as Domenic Santana, 61, of Miami, holds a sign Thursday that reads "LOCK HIM UP" near the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington.
Nicky Sundt holds a banner Thursday outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington before the arrival of former President Donald Trump.
A supporter of the former President Donald Trump waves a flag Thursday outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington.
The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse is seen behind barricades Thursday before the arrival of former President Donald Trump in Washington.
Valet Walt Nauta hands former President Donald Trump an umbrella before he speaks Thursday at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after facing a judge on federal conspiracy charges.
The first SUV in the motorcade carrying former President Donald Trump arrives Thursday at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington.
Supporters of the former President Donald Trump holds their banners before his arrival Thursday outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington.
The motorcade of former President Donald Trump drives through a tunnel Thursday as he heads for the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse.
Metropolitan police officers stand patrol outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse on Thursday in Washington, before the arrival of former President Donald Trump.
A supporter holds an image of former President Donald Trump as he rides in a limousine with a presidential seal on the door Thursday outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington, before the arrival of Trump.
President of People for the American Way Svante Myrickctivists speaks during a rally Thursday in Washington. Former President Donald Trump is due in federal court Thursday to answer to charges that he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Nadine Seiler arrives Thursday to celebrate the indictment of former President Donald Trump at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington.
Media and protesters gather Thursday at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington. Former President Donald Trump is due in federal court Thursday to answer to charges that he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Laurie Arbeiter of New York is seen Thursday outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington as a Washington Metropolitan Police Officer asks her to step out of the street.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump rally Thursday outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington.
Suzzanne Monk stands with people Thursday near the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington. Monk is wearing a ribbon in support of the people who were arrested after participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Eric Lamar holds an anti-Trump sign Thursday as he is surrounded by protestors and supporters of former President Donald Trump near the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington.
People wait outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse on Thursday in Washington.
Demonstrators place an inflatable rat as they protest outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse on Thursday in Washington.
People gather Thursday, one with a sign that reads "COUP," before President Donald Trump arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington.
The U.S. Capitol is seen in the distance Thursday as a protester in a Donald Trump mask holds a sign near the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse.
People watch Thursday after former President Donald Trump arrived at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington to face a judge on federal conspiracy charges alleging he conspired to subvert the 2020 election.
Alina Habba, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, speaks after Trump arrived Thursday at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington.
Former President Donald Trump waves from his motorcade Thursday as he leaves the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington.
3 takeaways from the AP's investigation into how the Mormon church protects itself from child sex abuse claims
UpdatedHAILEY, Idaho — Paul Rytting had been director of the Risk Management Division at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for around 15 years when a 31-year-old church member told him that her father, a former bishop, had sexually abused her when she was a child.
Rytting flew from church headquarters in Salt Lake City to Hailey, Idaho, to meet with Chelsea Goodrich and her mother, Lorraine, to discuss what he said was a "tragic and horrendous" story.
Chelsea Goodrich poses for a portrait at a friend's house in Ketchum, Idaho, on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023. Goodrich's father, a popular Idaho dentist and former bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church, was excommunicated after sharing details about his relationship with her when she was a child during a religious confession. Recordings obtained by The Associated Press show that instead of helping prosecutors, the church used a legal playbook that has helped protect itself from sex abuse claims. Goodrich's father is today a free man, and she says she decided to speak out to protect other children. (AP Photo/Jason Dearen)
By that time, Chelsea's father, John Goodrich, had made a religious confession to a bishop with the church, widely known as the Mormon church, with details of his relationship with his daughter. Following church policy, Bishop Michael Miller had called a church Helpline, established to take calls from bishops about sexual abuse, and John Goodrich was quickly excommunicated.
After the excommunication, Chelsea and Lorraine reported Chelsea's claims of abuse to Mountain Home, Idaho, police. They backed up their accusations with recordings of conversations with John Goodrich in which he admitted to climbing into bed with his daughter when he was sexually aroused, though he insisted there was no direct sexual contact. Nevertheless, Mountain Home police arrested him and charged him with a variety of sex crimes.
At their meeting with Rytting, Chelsea and her mother had one overarching question: Would the church allow Miller to testify at John Goodrich's criminal trial?
Over the next four months, during multiple conversations, Rytting told Chelsea, Lorraine and Eric Alberdi, a fellow church member acting as Chelsea's advocate, that a state law known as the clergy-penitent privilege prevented Miller from testifying without the consent of the alleged perpetrator, John Goodrich. Without Miller's testimony, prosecutors dropped their case.
Next, Rytting offered Chelsea and her mother $300,000 on the condition that they agree to not use Chelsea's story as the basis for a lawsuit against the church — and to never acknowledge the existence of this nondisclosure agreement.
Today, Goodrich, who did not respond to questions from the AP, remains a free man practicing dentistry, with access to children.
The Mormon church, in comments to the AP, said, "the abuse of a child or any other individual is inexcusable." The church also noted that Miller would not be able to testify without the permission of Goodrich, and that the confidentiality agreement with Chelsea and Lorraine did not preclude Chelsea from telling her story.
The Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City is shown on April 18, 2019. A top Mormon church official learned a former bishop had made a religious confession to details about his relationship with his own daughter when she was a child. Recordings obtained by The Associated Press show that instead of helping prosecutors, the church used a legal playbook that has helped protect itself from sex abuse claims. Today, the former bishop is a free man. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
All the conversations with Rytting, Chelsea, Lorraine, and Alberdi were recorded, and provided by Alberdi to The Associated Press.
Takeaways from the AP's investigation:
THE CLERGY-PENITENT PRIVILEGE
An earlier investigation by the AP revealed that more than half the states maintain the clergy-penitent privilege, which provides a loophole for clergy who are otherwise required to report child sex abuse to police or local welfare officials. As a result, some child predators who reveal their crimes to clergy in a confessional setting and do not turn themselves in to police are allowed to remain free, able to continue abusing children while presenting a danger to others.
Although child welfare advocates have attempted to change or eliminate the privilege, the AP found that lobbying by religious institutions including the Catholic Church, the Mormon church, and the Jehovah's Witnesses have persuaded state legislators throughout the country to maintain the loophole. Indeed, the AP catalogued more than 100 attempts to amend or eliminate the privilege, all of which failed.
NONDISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS
Nondisclosure agreements, also known as confidentiality agreements, have been used frequently by the Mormon church and other organizations, including the Catholic Church, as well as individuals, to keep sex abuse allegations secret. Twenty-one years ago, the Catholic Church approved a Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in which it pledged to eliminate the use of confidentiality agreements to settle child sex abuse claims, except in cases where the victims requested anonymity – a recognition of the role NDAs play in the cover-up of child sexual abuse. The Mormon church does not have a similar policy.
THE HELPLINE
The earlier AP investigation found that the Helpline plays a central role in the cover-up of child sex abuse in the Mormon church, even as the church claims its purpose is to provide bishops with guidance about sexual abuse reporting requirements. Initiated in 1995, when financial claims for sexual abuse against religious institutions were on the rise, the Helpline fields calls from bishops about child sexual abuse and directs the most serious cases to attorneys with the firm of Kirton McConkie, which represents the church.
According to the church, all information about child sexual abuse passed from church members to their bishops is confidential under the clergy-penitent privilege, and all information passed from the Helpline to church attorneys is confidential under the attorney-client privilege. Meanwhile, Rytting and other church officials have said in sworn testimony that the Helpline either keeps no records or destroys all records at the end of each day.
Or does it? During his conversations with Chelsea and Lorraine, Rytting said he could find out whether John Goodrich had previously "repented" for his relationship with Chelsea by checking Helpline records, seeming to contradict his sworn testimony in another child sex abuse case against the church.
In its comments to the AP, the church declined to answer questions about the apparent contradiction.
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Rezendes reported from New York.
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