Media Today

[Rick Plant]

Astronomers capture image of Milky Way's supermassive black hole for the first time



On Thursday, the Center for Astrophysics announced the first images of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*.

"The result provides overwhelming evidence that the object at the heart of our galaxy is indeed a black hole and yields valuable clues about the workings of such giants, which are thought to reside at the center of most galaxies," the Center for Astrophysics explained on its website. "The image was produced by a global research team called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — which includes scientists from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) — using observations from a worldwide network of radio telescopes."

"The image, described today in a special issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters, is a long-anticipated look at the massive object that sits at the very center of the Milky Way," the institution added. "Scientists had previously seen stars orbiting around something invisible, compact and very massive in our galaxy’s core. This strongly suggested that the object — known as Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A* — was a black hole; today’s image provides the first direct visual evidence of it."

Black holes are hyperdense objects with gravity wells too strong for light to escape. Smaller ones are formed by the core collapse of massive stars; the much larger ones at the center of most galaxies are more mysterious in origin.

This is not the first time a black hole has been imaged. In 2019, a groundbreaking image was revealed of the black hole at the heart of M87, a distant elliptical galaxy. That black hole is 1,500 times larger than the one at the center of the Milky Way, which is itself estimated to be four million times the mass of our Sun.

Despite this, the images look remarkably similar.

"The researchers had to develop sophisticated new tools that accounted for the gas movement around Sgr A*," noted the report. "While M87* was an easier, steadier target, with nearly all images looking the same, that was not the case for Sgr A*. Because of this, today's image of the Sgr A* black hole is an average of the different images the team extracted, finally revealing the giant lurking at the center of the Milky Way galaxy."

Agence France-Presse

[Rick Plant]

The Rolling Stones’ ‘Exile on Main St.’ Turns 50 | Anniversary Retrospective



Happy 50th Anniversary to The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St., originally released May 12, 1972.

“The sunshine bores the daylights outta me, chasin' shadows, moonlight mystery.” –Mick Jagger/Keith Richards, 1972

Born out of shadows and darkness, both metaphorical and literal, recorded in a basement in the South of France, Exile on Main St. was made while on the run from British police and tax men. You want it darker? Here you can truly feel and hear the Rolling Stones sinking into an abyss. How does it get darker than a two-year lead-up period that found Brian Jones, the doomed guitarist who founded this band plus gave it their Muddy Waters-inspired name, floating dead in a swimming pool? Then followed by the end-of-an-era calamity that was Altamont, a Woodstock-inspired free festival at a Speedway in San Francisco where concert-goer Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death, directly in front of the stage, by a crazed, acid-raging member of the misguided Hell’s Angels security detail, just as Mick Jagger was singing “Sympathy for the Devil?”

Only by doubling down, with a double album soaked in rock & roll decadence, documenting this dangerously Dionysian dance. By Spring of 1971, the Sixties had very clearly ended. The Beatles were done. The Stones were now on the run. And in a myriad of ways neither fans, nor the band, would yet acknowledge or know, so too were the Rolling Stones. “This was the bad time,” Ray Liotta said as Henry Hill in Goodfellas.

While true in his case, it was also a high time, internally and artistically, for this band. The prior era’s acid culture had given way to cocaine, and even more destructively, heroin. That drug soon ensnared many of this band’s participants in its clenches. None more infamously or importantly, than the group’s songwriting co-pilot, Keith Richards. It can be easily argued that what you hear on this album is the best work of the Rolling Stones. By default, this means it is also one of the greatest albums in rock history. It can also be fairly stated, that this is the album that nearly killed them making it. While there would be further full-length glimpses of their greatness to follow, Black and Blue (1976) and Some Girls (1978) chiefly among them, things would never be quite the same after it.

The years of 1968 to 1972 represent arguably the greatest run that any single rock band ever had. Beggars Banquet (1968). Let It Bleed (1969). Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out (1970). Sticky Fingers (1970). All indisputable classics by the band and by extension, for the genre as whole. Then finally, Exile on Main St., a raw, inspired love letter to the art form, filled with a bit of all the blues, country, gospel and R&B elements that birthed rock & roll as we know it. By 1971, Mick Jagger was ready to move past that. Richards, slipping into darkness but not yet losing his grip on the band he leads, won the argument. In this particular case, we all benefited.

Of course, it helped that the musicians involved were made up of a veritable all-star team of Rolling Stones collaborators. Besides the faithfully solid-as-a-rock drumming of Charlie Watts, this also meant saxophonist Bobby Keyes. Nicky Hopkins’ piano was crucial, most notably as centerpiece of the classic “Loving Cup.” Clydie King & Venetta Fields, both formerly of Ray Charles’ legendary Raelettes, blessed this godforsaken mess with some church-fueled vocal beauty. Most importantly, Mick Taylor, the best pure musician the Rolling Stones ever counted as a member, was in the sweet spot of his five-year tenure in the band. Taylor’s imprints are all over this record. He plays every lick of slide guitar. He plays lead and rhythm in other places. He even subs in for bassist Bill Wyman on bass for five tracks, presumably since Wyman was either shagging or sleeping at the time. Or maybe Richards just knew Taylor was by then the group’s secret weapon. Either way, he wields his axe with devastating effect all over the album.

Speaking of Micks, despite Taylor's virtuosity, it ain’t the Rolling Stones without the one whose lips came to symbolize this entire enterprise. I don't blame Mick Jagger for not counting Exile among his personal favorites. This is clearly a "Keef" album, probably 65/35, on the Jagger/Richards sliding “Glimmer Twins” scale. That's before we even get into the Daily Mirror-esque tawdry tales. Things that led to two boyhood friends stealing each other’s girls during the recording process, documented in rock folklore many times before, recently and mockingly in Richards’ LIFE autobiography, referencing his strutting lead singer's "tiny todger.”

On a purely musical level, Jagger's vocals are oddly muted. His words are slurred. The mix is muddled. The band is up front, with singing pushed back even with top-shelf lyrics. Despite this fact, this same singer, who happens to be one of the legendary frontmen in rock history, spends the entire album spitting bile and adding bite, even when backing up his fellow gunslinger's most iconic solo track.

Let’s move along, to these eighteen intoxicatingly heady rock & roll songs. If you can name ten better albums in rock history to help you get your "Rocks Off,” I’d say you're dreaming. Step up. Toss your "Tumbling Dice" while you "Shake Your Hips" to the "Casino Boogie.” As the Stones "Rip This Joint,” lack of oxygen inside their basement in the French countryside will give you the "Ventilator Blues.”

But "Stop Breaking Down.” To truly appreciate Exile, along with the "Torn and Frayed" folks who created it to make you “Happy,” while temporarily and toxically trying to do the same for themselves, you gotta follow them “All Down the Line.”

Somewhere in the depths of all this darkness, the voice of a "Sweet Black Angel" will find you and then "Shine a Light.” Come on. Come on down, "Sweet Virginia.” That "Turd on the Run" has got some spombleprofglidnoctobuns on your shoe, and just seen too many flies on you, but this dirty demon-fueled masterpiece can help you brush ‘em off.

Much love to Keith & Mick. 50 years after this album was released and over 70 years since they first met each other, these two are somehow still “Soul Survivors.” Long after today, their legacy, in particular Exile on Main St., will still be.

https://albumism.com/features/tribute-celebrating-50-years-of-the-rolling-stones-exile-on-main-st

[Rick Plant]

Missouri man dies after setting himself on fire during a traffic stop

A Dalton man who set himself on fire during a traffic strop Wednesday has died.

The Chillicothe 911 communications center received calls at 6:34 p.m. Wednesday about a suspicious man attempting to buy lighters from businesses south of Livingston County. He was carrying a container of flammable lighter fluid and driving a retired school bus that had been repainted, Chillicothe Police Chief Jon Maples said in a news release Thursday.

A short while later, the center received another call from a concerned witness. The person reported a school bus sporadically speeding up and slowing down on U.S Highway 65. According to Maples, the bus was running other vehicles off the road.

At 7:18 p.m. Chillicothe police saw the bus entering the city limits at a high speed. They pulled the driver over in the 900 block of South Washington Street.

When officers confronted the man, he leaped from his seat and ran to the back of the bus. Police could not see inside the bus because the windows were tinted, Maples said.

The man poured a container of lighter fluid over his body and set himself on fire. He exited the bus and ran toward officers.

Maples said police used a fire extinguisher from a patrol car to put out the flames. Emergency medical personnel from Livingston County were called to the scene.

The 43-year-old suffered severe injuries and was airlifted to a medical facility, but died.

According to Maples, the man’s intent is still unknown and an investigation is ongoing.

The Kansas City Star

[Rick Plant]

Florida teacher told students that 'Black people are beneath white people' to justify using the N-word: lawsuit

News4JAX is reporting a Black Florida woman, Alyse Beechem, is planning to sue Duval County Public Schools after her son, enrolled at Mandarin Middle School, was called a racial slur by his teacher and told that "Black people are beneath white people."

Beechem's lawsuit alleges a pattern of racist abuse directed at her son, while also accusing faculty members of turning a blind eye or even exacerbating the problems.

One such incident occurred when the son complained to the teacher about another student calling him a racial slur.

"[The teacher] told [Beechem’s son] that he gets mad when someone calls him a [n-word], but he thinks he can say it about himself," the complaint alleges. "[Beechem’s son] asked his teacher...how she would feel if someone called her a 'cracker,' and she responded by calling him a [n-word], and saying, ‘you don’t have the privilege to call white people "crackers" because Black people are beneath white people.'"

Jasmine Rand, the attorney representing Beecham, tells News4JAX that seven other students have submitted written statements backing up claims of the teacher using racist language in the classroom.

The lawsuit further alleges that Beechem's son was actually punished because he had gotten into a physical altercation with another student who had used the slur.

"According to the document, the Dean contacted Beechem and told her that her son would be suspended for three days, allegedly saying, 'words don’t hurt and he needs to know how to handle things better,'" said the report. "The other student in the exchange was also suspended, but no formal investigation was launched at that point."

This is not the first time a Florida teacher has been involved in a racial incident in recent years. Last August, a special education teacher for Collier County Public Schools was suspended after an altercation in which she shouted at a mother from her car that her children were "mulattos" and "half breeds."

All of this comes as Florida Republicans pass legislation to prohibit teachers from discussing any topic that might cause people to feel "discomfort" over race.

https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2022/05/12/mother-plans-to-sue-school-duval-county-schools-principal-over-alleged-racial-discrimination/

[Rick Plant]

Florida woman held after forcing daughters to drink bleach to cure 'voodoo spell'

A Florida mother of two told police that a "voodoo spell" compelled her to make her three-year-old and eight-year-old daughters drink bleach.

The woman, Joanne Zephir, 36, of Poinciana, admitted she made her children drink bleach and said she then planned to kill herself, according to a Newsweek report.

Zephir was found passed out in the driver's seat of a car outside of the Poinciana Pentecostal Church on May 8. The three-year-old was found unresponsive in the back seat and later was determined to have been strangled. The older sibling was found out on a road near the church. She now is in the custody of other family members.

Zephir was taken into custody by the Osceola County Sheriff's Office on an outstanding arrest warrant in Orange County for attempted murder and aggravated battery.

Newsweek says that Zephir allegedly blamed a voodoo spell for forcing her children to drink bleach, which likely contributed to the death of her 3-year-old daughter and injuring her 8-year-old. She is said to have admitted guilt to the alleged crime in Orange County to a relative.

Osceola County Sheriff Marcos R. Lopez said she had told them "the 8-year-old was also going to die, and then she would kill herself. When questioned, Zephir is said to have told officers she forced her children to drink bleach before choking the younger girl." According to Lopez: "The reason for doing this to her children was because the victim in Orange County must have put a voodoo spell on her, making her harm her children."

The woman currently is being held in the Osceola County jail.

https://www.newsweek.com/florida-mom-who-forced-daughters-drink-bleach-blamed-voodoo-spell-police-1706504

[Rick Plant]

'Traumatizing': HBCU lacrosse coach reacts to new evidence debunking sheriff's claims



The coach of an HBCU women's lacrosse team reacted to new evidence after her team's bus was searched by white sheriff's deputies in Georgia.

Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman was revealed to have misled the press about the details after his deputies searched the Delaware State women's lacrosse team's bus. After three weeks of silence about the April 20th traffic stop and search for marijuana, Bowman held a press conference on Wednesday.

"No personal items on the bus or person was searched," he claimed.

On Friday, NBC affiliate Alive 11 TV reported bodycam footage discredits the sheriff's claim about personal items being searched.

"But body camera video shows at least one deputy tearing open a gift from one of the player's aunts. It was a dictionary. No drugs were ever found," the station reported.

MSNBC's Alicia Menendez interviewed coach Pamella Jenkins.

"I'm still in disbelief that coming from a game that we experienced that," Jenkins said. "It is just traumatizing to think that our ladies were accused of something like that."

She also addressed the bodycam footage.

"So upsetting to watch them just go through their things, their personal items. Just such a violation of their privacy," she noted. "Just thinking of the scholar-athletes that we have on our team, it just makes me very upset that the world now is seeing what they carry with them on their trips, and that's not just our players' bags but then as coaches as well, going through our personal belongings."

"It is just such a huge invasion of our privacy," she said.

Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the incident, but Jenkins said she has not been contacted by any investigators.

Watch the segment below:

[Rick Plant]

Accused subway shooter Frank James pleads not guilty to terrorism charge



NEW YORK — The man accused of spraying 33 shots on a crowded subway train last month pleaded not guilty Friday to federal terrorism charges.

Frank James, 62, appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court Friday in a khaki jail jumpsuit, telling a judge he was doing “pretty good.”

James is accused of boarding the rush hour train on April 12, donning a gas mask, setting off a smoke canister and opening fire at terrified passengers as it approached the 36th Street station in Sunset Park.

Ten passengers were shot. Amazingly, no one died.

James was on the lam in the city for a day before he was arrested near a McDonald's in the East Village.

He is charged with committing a terrorist attack on a mass transit system and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

After asking James questions about his educational background, Brooklyn Federal Court Judge William Kuntz determined that he was “competent” to proceed in the case.

The Bronx native faces life in prison if convicted. He is being held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center without bail.

James is due back in court July 25.

© New York Daily News

[Rick Plant]

No prison time for Tennessee nurse convicted of fatal drug error

RaDonda Vaught, a former Tennessee nurse convicted of two felonies for a fatal drug error, whose trial became a rallying cry for nurses fearful of the criminalization of medical mistakes, will not be required to spend any time in prison.

Davidson County criminal court Judge Jennifer Smith on Friday granted Vaught a judicial diversion, which means her conviction will be expunged if she completes a three-year probation.

Smith said that the family of the patient who died as a result of Vaught’s medication mix-up suffered a “terrible loss” and “nothing that happens here today can ease that loss.”

“Miss Vaught is well aware of the seriousness of the offense,” Smith said. “She credibly expressed remorse in this courtroom.”

The judge noted that Vaught had no criminal record, has been removed from the health care setting, and will never practice nursing again. The judge also said, “This was a terrible, terrible mistake and there have been consequences to the defendant.”

As the sentence was read, cheers erupted from a crowd of hundreds of purple-clad protesters who gathered outside the courthouse in opposition to Vaught’s prosecution.

Vaught, 38, a former nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, faced up to eight years in prison. In March she was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and gross neglect of an impaired adult for the 2017 death of 75-year-old patient Charlene Murphey. Murphey was prescribed Versed, a sedative, but Vaught inadvertently gave her a fatal dose of vecuronium, a powerful paralyzer.

Charlene Murphey’s son, Michael Murphey, testified at Friday’s sentencing hearing that his family remains devastated by the sudden death of their matriarch. She was “a very forgiving person” who would not want Vaught to serve any prison time, he said, but his widower father wanted Vaught to receive “the maximum sentence.”

“My dad suffers every day from this,” Michael Murphey said. “He goes out to the graveyard three to four times a week and just sits out there and cries.”

Vaught’s case stands out because medical errors ― even deadly ones ― are generally within the purview of state medical boards, and lawsuits are almost never prosecuted in criminal court.

The Davidson County district attorney’s office, which did not advocate for any particular sentence or oppose probation, has described Vaught’s case as an indictment of one careless nurse, not the entire nursing profession. Prosecutors argued in trial that Vaught overlooked multiple warning signs when she grabbed the wrong drug, including failing to notice Versed is a liquid and vecuronium is a powder.

Vaught admitted her error after the mix-up was discovered, and her defense largely focused on arguments that an honest mistake should not constitute a crime.

During the hearing on Friday, Vaught said she was forever changed by Murphey’s death and was “open and honest” about her error in an effort to prevent future mistakes by other nurses. Vaught also said there was no public interest in sentencing her to prison because she could not possibly re-offend after her nursing license was revoked.

“I have lost far more than just my nursing license and my career. I will never be the same person,” Vaught said, her voice quivering as she began to cry. “When Ms. Murphey died, a part of me died with her.”

At one point during her statement, Vaught turned to face Murphey’s family, apologizing for both the fatal error and how the public campaign against her prosecution may have forced the family to relive their loss.

"You don’t deserve this,” Vaught said. “I hope it does not come across as people forgetting your loved one. … I think we are just in the middle of systems that don’t understand one another.”

Prosecutors also argued at trial that Vaught circumvented safeguards by switching the hospital’s computerized medication cabinet into “override” mode, which made it possible to withdraw medications not prescribed to Murphey, including vecuronium. Other nurses and nursing experts have told KHN that overrides are routinely used in many hospitals to access medication quickly.

Theresa Collins, a travel nurse from Georgia who closely followed the trial, said she will no longer use the feature, even if it delays patients’ care, after prosecutors argued it proved Vaught’s recklessness.

“I’m not going to override anything beyond basic saline. I just don’t feel comfortable doing it anymore,” Collins said. “When you criminalize what health care workers do, it changes the whole ballgame.”

Vaught’s prosecution drew condemnation from nursing and medical organizations that said the case’s dangerous precedent would worsen the nursing shortage and make nurses less forthcoming about mistakes.

The case also spurred considerable backlash on social media as nurses streamed the trial through Facebook and rallied behind Vaught on TikTok. That outrage inspired Friday’s protest in Nashville, which drew supporters from as far as Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Nevada.

Among those protesters was David Peterson, a nurse who marched Thursday in Washington, D.C., to demand health care reforms and safer nurse-patient staffing ratios, then drove through the night to Nashville and slept in his car so he could protest Vaught’s sentencing. The events were inherently intertwined, he said.

“The things being protested in Washington, practices in place because of poor staffing in hospitals, that’s exactly what happened to RaDonda. And it puts every nurse at risk every day,” Peterson said. “It’s cause and effect.”

Tina Vinsant, a Knoxville nurse and podcaster who organized the Nashville protest, said the group had spoken with Tennessee lawmakers about legislation to protect nurses from criminal prosecution for medical errors and would pursue similar bills “in every state.”

Vinsant said they would pursue this campaign even though Vaught was not sent to prison.

“She shouldn’t have been charged in the first place,” Vinsant said. “I want her not to serve jail time, of course, but the sentence doesn’t really affect where we go from here.”

Janis Peterson, a recently retired ICU nurse from Massachusetts, said she attended the protest after recognizing in Vaught’s case the all-too-familiar challenges from her own nursing career. Peterson’s fear was a common refrain among nurses: “It could have been me.”

“And if it was me, and I looked out that window and saw 1,000 people who supported me, I’d feel better,” she said. “Because for every one of those 1,000, there are probably 10 more who support her but couldn’t come.”

© Kaiser Health News