Liberia Elects Soccer Star George Weah Its Next President
Liberian election officials said Thursday that soccer great George Weah, seen addressing an October campaign rally in Monrovia, had won the presidential runoff.
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Former international soccer star George Weah has won Liberia’s presidential runoff, the country’s election commission announced Thursday.
Weah won 61.5 percent of the vote, with more than 98 percent of ballots counted. He defeated the current vice president, Joseph Boakai.
This marks the first time in 70 years that Liberia will transfer power from one elected president to another. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the first female head of state elected in Africa, is stepping down after two terms in office. She did not publicly endorse either candidate.
Weah had run unsuccessfully for president twice before. NPR’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports that many Liberians identify with the 51-year-old footballer, who grew up poor and was not part of the social or political elite. Critics say Weah has limited experience and education.
The job won’t be easy, as Ofeibea explained on NPR’s Morning Edition:
“Liberians will tell you that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the outgoing president, has managed to cement peace, which is hugely important after back-to-back civil wars and then that Ebola outbreak three years ago in Liberia but that she has not done enough to make Liberians prosper, to pull them out of poverty and to give them jobs and deal with the economy. And also, there have been allegations of corruption. So whoever wins has huge challenges ahead of him.”
Soccer’s international governing body, FIFA, has described Weah as “a towering figure on the ’90s football scene.” He burst onto the world stage at Monaco under manager Arsene Wenger and went on to play at some of the sport’s pre-eminent clubs: Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan, Chelsea and Manchester City. He is the only African player to have won FIFA’s World Player of the Year. He announced his retirement in August 2003.
Weah’s vice president will be Jewel Howard Taylor, ex-wife of former president Charles Taylor, who is serving a 50-year sentence for war crimes. Some are asking whether the former president will try to influence the country’s politics from prison.
“She’s my colleague in the Senate,” Weah told Deutsche Welle, explaining his choice of running mate. “She is a Liberian, capable, qualified, and Liberian people love her. I also believe in gender and equality, so I think having a woman as my vice president is a good thing.”
Russian Doping Whistleblower Says He Fears For His Life
NPR’s Robert Siegel speaks with Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News about Grigory Rodchenkov, the whistleblower in the Russian doping scandal. Rodchenkov fled to the U.S. and says he now fears for his life.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
Two years ago, Grigory Rodchenkov fled Russia for the United States. He didn’t come empty-handed. Rodchenkov gave details of a massive state-run doping campaign that helped Russian athletes win big in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. His cooperation was instrumental in the International Olympic Committee’s decision to ban Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. Well now, Rodchenkov fears Russia wants him dead, as reported by our guest Michael Isikoff, who is chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News. Welcome to the program once again.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Good to be here.
SIEGEL: And first, where is Grigory Rodchenkov, and what have you learned about him?
ISIKOFF: Well, we know that Grigory Rodchenkov somewhere in the United States, but he’s under the Federal Witness Protection Program. And in fact, because there are genuine concerns about threats to his life, his own lawyer has not even been able to communicate with him over the past week or so. That lawyer, Jim Walden, told me that he was recently informed by a U.S. government official that he should assume that there are Russian agents in the United States looking for Mr. Rodchenkov and that significant enhancements needed to be made in his security protections.
SIEGEL: Is it fair to say that Rodchenkov knew a lot about the Russian doping program because he in fact was doing it?
ISIKOFF: Well, he was the mastermind of the Russian doping program. He supervised it, but he did so under the direction of the Russian Olympic Committee and with the assistance of the FSB, the Russian secret police.
SIEGEL: The idea that there might be Russian agents looking for the now underground Grigory Rodchenkov, it raises the question of he’s not challenging Vladimir Putin as president of Russia, he didn’t send us nuclear secrets or tell us where Russian submarines are – how big a deal is disclosing the Russian athletic doping program?
ISIKOFF: This is a huge deal for Russia and for Vladimir Putin personally. The Sochi Olympics were a showcase for him. He took great pride in the fact that Russian athletes dominated those Olympics, winning more than 30 medals. And to have that prestige robbed from Russia, it was a huge embarrassment for Putin.
SIEGEL: When you’ve asked the Russian government about this, about the notion that Rodchenkov might be targeted by agents in the U.S., what are they saying?
ISIKOFF: Well, they have not responded to the specific information that Jim Walden, Rodchenkov’s lawyer, provided to me, but they have made clear that they view Rodchenkov as a criminal. They’ve filed criminal charges against him. They have demanded he be returned to Russia by the United States. And the former head of the Russian Olympic Committee has said that Rodchenkov should be executed the way Stalin would have done.
SIEGEL: So the Russians say they want to prosecute Rodchenkov, but if Rodchenkov enjoys witness protection here in the U.S., the implication is he is of some use to American prosecutors.
ISIKOFF: Exactly. One of the interesting things his lawyer, Mr. Walden, told me is that federal prosecutors are conducting investigations that could lead to criminal charges against Russian Olympic officials. These could be racketeering charges. And the idea would be that Americans who participated in the Olympics, the American Olympic Committee, American companies such as NBC, which broadcast the Olympics, would have been defrauded by this doping scheme.
SIEGEL: Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, thanks.
ISIKOFF: Thank you.
Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Louisiana Lawmaker Threatens Saints' Tax Breaks After Anthem Protests
The New Orleans Saints kneel before the playing of the national anthem before the game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on Oct. 22.
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A Louisiana state legislator wants to cut off tax breaks and other funding for the state’s only NFL franchise, the New Orleans Saints.
State Rep. Kenny Havard, a Republican, objects to player protests during the pregame national anthem. He plans to propose an amendment to strip any state funding that benefits the Saints, including free rental of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, their home venue.
“We’re paying the Saints a lot of money to entertain us — not to get off in the weeds of, you know, political discourse,” Havard says. “They can do that, but do it on their own time.”
The controversy started last season, when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose to kneel instead of stand during the national anthem in response to racial injustice and police brutality. Over the course of the 2016 season, other players joined Kaepernick’s protest by kneeling, sitting or raising a fist during the song.
Kaepernick was not offered an NFL contract in 2017, but the #TakeAKnee movement he sparked has continued without him. In September, President Trump entered the debate, saying in a speech and repeating on Twitter that the NFL should fire all players who refuse to stand for the national anthem.
The president’s comments only spurred more protests throughout the league, including by members of the Saints franchise. At the game after the president’s tweets, 10 Saints players remained on the bench for the national anthem. Since then, the team has knelt as a group before the anthem and then stood for the actual song.
Havard says removing the team’s tax breaks has had bipartisan support in the past, when the conversation focused on the league’s handling of domestic violence, concussion risk for players or team owner enrichment. But since the anthem protests began, he says, the tax debate is being perceived as a racial issue.
“Look: Slavery was however long ago, and it was a horrible thing and no one should have to go through that,” says Havard. “But it’s time that we move on as a nation.”
Havard says he believes institutional barriers to equal opportunity are gone, and he rejects the notion of an unjust society. For him, the debate over standing for the national anthem is not about how police treat African-Americans, but a question of doing what is right.
“When I see a lady coming, I open the door,” he says. “When I sit at the table, I take my hat off. When the national anthem plays, I stand.”
State Rep. Ted James, a Democrat, rejects Havard’s argument.
“This is not a conversation about Saints players being political,” James says. “This is a conversation about race.”
James represents a district in the state capital, Baton Rouge. That city became a flashpoint for the discussion about racial injustice in policing after the death of Alton Sterling, a black man who was shot by officers outside a convenience store there in 2016. No federal charges were filed in the case, and the state attorney general has not filed charges either.
Then, less then two weeks after Sterling’s death, three local police officers were killed and three others wounded in an ambush.
James says that Baton Rouge did some tough racial reconciliation work after those events and that the debate over the anthem protests is reopening painful wounds. He is preparing for a legislative fight over the Saints funding issue.
“As a black man and as a black player, you are telling these athletes ‘go throw that ball, catch that ball, run that ball, tackle that quarterback, but you dare not say a word,’ ” says James. “That’s a plantation mentality.”
The anthem protests have prompted NFL boycotts on both sides of the issue. Baton Rouge publisher and activist Gary Chambers joined the local protests after Sterling’s killing. He says he has stopped watching the NFL in solidarity with Kaepernick’s movement.
“This man took a knee and flipped America upside down,” says Chambers.
Sitting in a Baton Rouge cafe, Chambers and a friend, businessman Geno McLaughlin, say the football players are giving voice to what African-Americans have been fighting for in communities all across the country, including their own.
McLaughlin says how you view the flag and what patriotism means to you depend on your experiences as an American.
“When I see the red stripes, I also see bloodstains,” he says. “For me and for many black people … we don’t feel the same way about the flag that [a white person] might.”
He says that doesn’t mean he hates the country.
“My people, we built this country,” he says. “So do I love the country? Absolutely.”
Chambers says Trump’s inflammatory public statements and tweets about firing the players send a clear message.
“Trump is basically telling all the other slave owners ‘keep your Negroes in check’ is what I hear,” says Chambers.
Tony Melera, manager of Sarita’s Mexican Grill & Cantina, stands in front of a American flag — a gift from state Attorney General Jeff Landry — draped over the New Orleans Saints 2017 game schedule.
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About 25 minutes outside Baton Rouge, the player protests have sparked a boycott from the opposite perspective.
At Sarita’s Mexican Grill & Cantina in Denham Springs, nearly 50 big-screen TVs line the walls. Manager Tony Melera says diners can watch golf, pro wrestling and the Weather Channel, but never professional football. The restaurant has banned NFL games.
“There’s a time to protest,” Melera says. “They have the right to do so. But don’t take it out on national television against the flag.”
Melera, an immigrant from El Salvador, says the protests on the field send the wrong message.
“We respect the flag. We stand. And we pledge allegiance,” he says. “They make a lot more money than we do. Why do it? They’re going at it the wrong way.”
Melera says the restaurant lost some business at first; people in Louisiana take their football seriously. But Melera says they’ve also picked up new customers who support the boycott. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry even gave the restaurant an American flag that now hangs over the New Orleans Saints schedule that had been posted in the bar.
The state Legislature will take up the tax break question when it reconvenes in March, in the meantime, the issue is also now in the courts. Just last week, a Saints season ticket holder sued the team for a refund, claiming he has been damaged by players using football games as a platform for protest.
Barbershop Talks The Republican Tax Bill And Basketball
Guest host Ray Suarez talks to Mary Kate Cary, Kevin Blackistone and Paul Butler about end of year news.
RAY SUAREZ, HOST:
Now it’s time for the Barbershop, where we talk to a group of interesting people about what’s in the news and what’s on their minds. Sitting in the chairs for a shapeup this week, we have Mary Kate Cary. She’s a former speechwriter for the first President George Bush, now a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. She joins us in our Washington studios. Thanks for being here.
MARY KATE CARY: Thanks for having me.
SUAREZ: Next, Kevin Blackistone – he’s a professor of journalism at the University of Maryland and a columnist at The Washington Post. He’s with us here in Washington. Welcome, Kevin.
KEVIN BLACKISTONE: Thank you much.
SUAREZ: And finally, Paul Butler – he’s a professor of law at Georgetown University but joins us this week from our studios in New York. Paul, welcome.
PAUL BUTLER: What’s up, Ray? Woof-woof.
SUAREZ: All right. First up this week, the Republican tax plan. And I think we can call it the Republican tax plan because it had zero support from Senate Democrats. Mary Kate Cary, that’s not common, isn’t it? Is it reworking an entire tax system without support from the other party?
CARY: You’re right, Ray, that is not common. And when it’s been done in the past, it was months and months of work for sweeping bipartisan legislation. And I think most Republicans believe that bipartisan would have been better. But I think they’re going to take what they can get here. As a fiscal conservative, I wish that it was not adding to our deficit. But I do think that simplifying the tax code was long overdue and that the current tax code – not simple, not fair and not promoting economic growth – was a sort of unacceptable status quo for most people. So I think that’s why they moved ahead without the Democratic vote.
SUAREZ: Is it really that much simpler? Aren’t you going to need an accountant this spring?
CARY: Well, supposedly, we can all do our taxes on the back of a postcard now. I’m dying to see it. The IRS is going to issue new withholding numbers in February to employers. And that’s when I think people will start seeing the difference in their paychecks. And just in the last 48 hours, we’ve seen the number of companies that have started issuing bonuses and raising the minimum wage to $15 for their workers is pretty remarkable. Wells Fargo – 400 million to local communities. So I think it’s already having effects. So we’ll see if the postcards arrive, and we can all do our taxes on one piece of paper. That’d be great.
SUAREZ: What people make of this, I guess, is a crystal-ball moment. There’s really no way to know until it’s really here. A University of Chicago survey of economists found pretty wide skepticism about the tax bill’s effects on the GDP. Of 38 economists surveyed – and, you know, they’re nobody’s liberals at the economics department of the University of Chicago – only one thought U.S. GDP would be substantially higher a decade from now than under the status quo, before the tax bill was changed. Is this a kind of legislative victory that the Republicans will need going into the 2018 midterms? Or is it a kind of short-term success that will depend, really, on how the two parties talk to their followers about what this all means? Paul Butler, What do you think?
BUTLER: This is about hood robbing – robbing the poor to give to the superrich. Who does that? Republicans do. And that’s why Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell were grinning from ear to ear. This is a redistribution of wealth to millionaires. But that’s pretty much why the Republican Party exists. It’s not good for anybody outside the 1 percent. But watch, for most white people, that’s not going to matter. Every Republican candidate for the last 50 years has gotten the majority of the white vote. And if Trump runs for re-election in 2020, he will too, despite this plunder disguised as a tax bill that he just aided and abetted.
SUAREZ: Now, come on. A moment ago, Mary Kate was talking about actual tangible things that corporations are doing. In a couple of weeks, people will start to get paychecks that may have an extra 20 bucks, 30 bucks or if they get paid monthly, as much as 150 bucks more in them. That’s not something that’s for real?
BUTLER: Well, Mary Kate was also saying that supposedly we’re going to be able to do our tax bill or our tax – pay our taxes on the back of an envelope. That’s not going to happen. Any idea that this helps anybody but the top 1 percent is a beautiful twisted fantasy.
SUAREZ: Kevin Blackistone, what’s your thoughts?
BLACKISTONE: Well, I look at it as a bribe. Before I covered sports, I actually used to cover economics in the great state of Texas. And one thing that jumps out to me about this is that these corporations, like AT&T, are getting a lot of credit for giving bonuses to so many of their employees in the wake of the passage of this tax bill. But AT&T, like so many corporations in America for a number of years now, have been sitting on record coffers and despite that, have not increased hiring, have not increased wages and have, to a large extent, if they are manufacturing, have left their manufacturing overseas. So I see this as being a hoodwink on the American public. And much like what the Trump administration just threatened to do at the U.N. over the Jerusalem declaration, they are trying to bully this issue, in this particular case, with the American public.
SUAREZ: Kevin, I want to change topics but stay with you. A new basketball league is in the offing – the Junior Basketball Association proposed by Big Baller CEO LaVar Ball. Explain what the JBA is and how this proposal came about.
BLACKISTONE: Well, LaVar Ball was the most audacious man in sports for 2017. He has three sons who are prodigious basketball talents, the oldest of whom is in the NBA, the youngest of whom should be in high school but is being home-schooled somewhere, maybe now in Lithuania. And he is proposing to put together a league for high school graduates who do not want to be part of the college system in order to become professionals.
And so what he is proposing to do is to pay them a salary of maybe a $100,000 a year to play in this league that he’s putting together. And there are no requirements that say that you have to be a year removed from high school before you can accept this paycheck, which is the case with the NBA’s most minor league, now called the G League.
And, you know, I applaud his audacity. And I applaud the idea because what he’s really doing is putting another spotlight on this multibillion-dollar college athletic industry that is in dire need of a more equitable way of dividing the revenues that it has with the labor that – off of which it gets all that revenue.
SUAREZ: And, Paul Butler, may it be tearing the veil of virtue off of the NCAA? The JBA says it’s going to pay its players, as was mentioned, as much as a $100,000 a year. Could this be a viable alternative to college for talented high school students who might not otherwise want to deal with the more restrictive rules of the NCAA?
BUTLER: No, man, as a university professor, I sure hope not. So what’s the problem? I think the problem is college students, who in this case are mainly young black men, creating millions of dollars in wealth and not reaping the benefits of their labor. There’s a name for that. It’s called capitalism. It’s how the economy works or doesn’t work for black people.
This actually reminds me of the debate this week between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Cornel West – with West saying it’s not just about racism; it’s also about economic exploitation. So black people get hit with a double whammy. But I don’t think, Ray, the answer is for workers to simply change masters – to go from the NCAA to LaVar Ball. I think there has to be a long-term solution that’s more about getting the NCAA to share the wealth.
SUAREZ: Let me jump in there because, right now, if you buy a kid a steak dinner, he loses his eligibility and you get in trouble, too. Meanwhile, the coach for state university is making a couple of million dollars a year – sneaker deals, Coca-Cola deals, festooning the arena, which is also a multi-million-dollar project. The only kid who’s not making any money, not even getting the cost of a steak dinner – the one who creates the entertainment that makes all of that money rule.
BUTLER: I feel you, Ray. I also think, though, that a college education is incredibly important. It’s something that many of these young men should aspire to. And if going to college to ultimately play in the NBA is their incentive, I guess I’m OK with that.
SUAREZ: Mary Kate Cary, some quick thoughts?
CARY: Yeah, I’m in favor of it. College isn’t for everyone. And for those who want college, you know, people like – we were talking about Malcolm Brogdon before we came out – got his masters while playing at UVA and is now with the Milwaukee Bucks. For guys like that, it works. And for those who want to go straight to the pros, there should be an option for them, too. Minor league baseball has not killed the NCAA baseball program, so why couldn’t this work if he can get the money to do it and pull it off?
SUAREZ: We have a little time left before we part to talk about who’s been naughty and who’s been nice. And I want to go around the panel. First, who’s getting a lump of coal in their stocking, Kevin Blackistone?
BLACKISTONE: Well, I’ve got to give a lump of coal to Jerry Jones and Bob McNair and those NFL owners who dared to thwart the constitutional rights of NFL players who decided to follow Colin Kaepernick in protesting. I would give a lump of coal to the coach of the Mississippi State women’s basketball team which, after a fabulous upset of UConn in the NCAA women’s semifinal – stopping UConn’s 111-game winning streak – then decided to play yo-yo with his star point guard in the championship game. She didn’t get enough minutes. She didn’t get a chance to score and cost them.
SUAREZ: Mary Kate, quickly.
CARY: Quickly. I’m taking Harvey Weinstein off the table because what he did was so far beyond naughty that it would be disrespectful to the women.
SUAREZ: He doesn’t even get coal.
CARY: He’s just gone. Right.
SUAREZ: And Paul Butler?
BUTLER: The random airline employees who make me take my carry-on luggage and try to fit it into that little compartment, which it never fits…
SUAREZ: Oh, wow. That’s a very specific lump of coal.
CARY: Wow.
SUAREZ: That was Mary Kate Cary, a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, Kevin Blackistone, University of Maryland professor of journalism, and Paul Butler, professor of law at Georgetown. Thank you, everyone. Happy holidays to you all.
CARY: Thanks for having us.
BLACKISTONE: Same to you.
BUTLER: Merry Christmas.
Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
IOC Bans 11 More Russian Athletes For Life
Luger Albert Demchenko is one of 11 Russian athletes whom the International Olympic Committee banned for life on Friday. He will be stripped of the two silver medals he won at the 2014 Sochi Games.
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The International Olympic Committee says it is banning 11 of Russian athletes for life as part of its investigation into doping at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Ruling on the last 11 of the 46 cases it has been investigating, the IOC said all were now disqualified from the Sochi Games. The IOC has now banned 43 Russian athletes and stripped 13 medals from the country, according to NBC Sports. Three of the 46 were cleared.
The 11 athletes sanctioned Friday compete in five sports:
- Lugers Tatiana Ivanova and Albert Demchenko
- Speed skaters Ivan Skobrev and Artem Kuznetcov
- Cross-country skiers Nikita Kryukov, Alexander Bessmertnykh and Natalia Matveeva
- Bobsledders Liudmila Udobkina and Maxim Belugin
- Ice hockey players Tatiana Burina and Anna Shchukina
The sanctions mean that Russia has lost two more medals from its Sochi count. Ivanova and Demchenko had captured a silver in the mixed relay event, and Demchenko had won an individual silver medal.
Two of the cross-country skiers, Kryukov and Bessmertnykh, had already lost medals when their teammates were disqualified, The Associated Press reports.
Russia is banned from having an official presence at the upcoming 2018 Pyeongchang Games, as punishment for its widespread doping at the Sochi Games.
Some 200 athletes from Russia may still compete at the Olympics under a neutral flag. They are barred from wearing uniforms in the colors of the Russian flag, and they’ll sport generic red-and-white logos that say “Olympic Athlete from Russia.”
Papa John's CEO Steps Down Following Controversial Remarks On NFL
Papa John’s founder, chairman and CEO John Schnatter talks on Super Bowl 51 Radio Row, in February, in Houston.
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Jack Dempsey/Invision for Papa John’s
John Schnatter, the founder of the Papa John’s pizza chain, will step down as CEO in the wake of controversial comments he made last month about the NFL’s handling of the anthem protests.
Schnatter will be replaced on Jan. 1 by the company’s chief operating officer, Steve Ritchie. Schnatter will remain chairman of the board.
The 56-year-old founder of the chain came under fire after remarks he made during the company’s third-quarter earnings call. He said Papa John’s — a National Football League sponsor and advertiser — had been “hurt” by the “take a knee” protest led by African-American players to draw attention to police brutality.
“And more importantly, by not resolving the current debacle to the player and owners’ satisfaction, NFL leadership has hurt Papa John’s shareholders,” Schnatter had said during the Nov. 1 call.
“Leadership starts at the top, and this is an example of poor leadership,” he said.
The comments generated a backlash on social media, with some accusing the company of racism. Meanwhile, white supremacists vowed to make Papa John’s the official pizza of the alt-right.
Papa John’s responded in a statement: “We condemn racism in all forms and any and all hate groups that support it. … We do not want these individuals or groups to buy our pizza.”
Schnatter himself has said goodbye to the CEO gig before. He stepped down in 2005, but returned in 2008. In 2010, he took on a co-CEO, Jude Thompson, but that arrangement ended the following year.
Police Reportedly Clear Venus Williams Of Blame In Fatal Car Crash
Venus Williams, seen in body camera footage from June, listens to a police officer following a car crash that fatally injured an elderly man.
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Palm Beach Gardens Police Department via AP
Venus Williams will not be charged in the collision that led to the death of a passenger in another car in Florida earlier this year, according to multiple media outlets quoting local police. The decision marks a reversal from authorities’ initial assessment of the accident, which had laid fault primarily with the longtime tennis icon.
“Based upon this investigation and relevant Florida state statutes, no charges will be filed in this case,” reads the assessment of the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department, as the local Sun Sentinel newspaper reports. The investigation also found no fault with the driver whose car struck Williams’ vehicle.
The department did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for comment.
The results of the probe offer a new twist to the incident, the details of which have been unspooling unevenly since the fatal collision.
At first, authorities said Williams ran a red light and thus caused the crash that injured Jerome Barson, 78, who died of those injuries two weeks later. Yet not long afterward, police announced that surveillance footage appeared to show a different story — that Williams had actually entered the intersection legally before she was cut off and, in the words of The Associated Press, set off “a chain of events that seconds later resulted in a fatal crash with a third car.”
Body camera footage released weeks later offered a closer look at the accident’s aftermath, during which the officer on the scene told Williams he’d say she was at fault — but added, “I don’t feel comfortable writing a citation when I’m not a hundred percent sure, and I’m not a hundred percent sure in this case.”
Williams has not commented publicly on the report reportedly clearing her of blame. In June, after news of the crash surfaced, she wrote on Facebook that she was “devastated and heartbroken by this accident.”
Wednesday’s news does not bring an end to the questions surrounding the incident, however. There may be no criminal charges coming against Williams, but the Sun Sentinel notes that Barson’s family has already filed a lawsuit against her.
Around The World In 42 Days: Frenchman Sets New Sailing Record
French skipper, François Gabart, waves aboard his 100-foot trimaran as he celebrates his world record off Brest harbor, western France, on Sunday.
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There is a new world record for sailing solo around the world: 42 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds. If verified, it is more than 6 days faster than the previous record, set a year earlier.
Gabart reacts after his world record, in the Brest harbor, western France, on Sunday.
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French sailor François Gabart, aboard a 100-foot trimaran, set out on Nov. 4 to break the record held by countryman Thomas Coville. On Sunday, Gabart crossed the virtual finish between France’s northwest tip and Lizard Point in southwest England at 0145 GMT before turning homeward to Brest in northwestern France.
He reportedly averaged 27.2 knots (31.3 mph) over 27,859.7 nautical miles.
Making such a journey is a difficult feat. It involves tackling the cold and stormy Southern Ocean that rings Antarctica, all the while tending a high-performance sailing vessel at the edge of its performance envelope.
After reaching Brest, Gabart, 34, said he was “aching all over.”
“[It’s] been like that for weeks, weeks since a proper sleep – I can hardly go on,” he told reporters after making landfall at Brest.
“It was hard and I was on the very edge of things the whole time.”
Exhausted or not, Gabart managed to share a bottle of champagne with his shore crew.
?Les premières images de l’arrivée du #trimaranMACIF quai Malbert à @BrestFr ! ?? #RecordTourDuMondepic.twitter.com/KwGUORSlsQ
— trimaranMACIF (@trimaranMACIF) December 17, 2017
“It hasn’t sunk in yet but I know it’s a great time,” he said.
Britain’s Dame Ellen MacArthur won the title for fastest non-stop circumnavigation in 2005, but lost it to Francis Joyon of France. She regained it three years later.
Gabart’s record must be verified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, which will scrutinize his vessel’s GPS data before signing off on the new record.
Carolina Panthers Owner Jerry Richardson Says He Will Sell Team
Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson watches the action during the first half of an NFL football game between the Carolina Panthers and the Green Bay Packers in Charlotte, N.C., on Sunday.
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Mike McCarn/AP
Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson announced Sunday that he would put his team up for sale at the end of the season after the National Football League said it was opening an investigation into accusations of workplace misconduct against him.
“I believe that it is time to turn the franchise over to new ownership,” Richardson, 81, said in a statement on the team’s website. “Therefore, I will put the team up for sale at the end of this NFL season.”
Two days ago, the team said it was conducting an internal investigation into Richardson’s conduct, but did not specify the nature of the allegations. Sports Illustrated says they include sexual harassment of multiple female employees and a racial slur.
Hours before Richardson’s announcement on Sunday, NFL.com reported that the league was opening its own investigation into the allegations.
In the statement on Friday announcing the internal investigation, the Panthers said the team was “committed to ensuring a safe, comfortable and diverse work environment where all individuals, regardless of sex, race, color, religion, gender, or sexual identity or orientation, are treated fairly and equally.”
The Panthers announced that former White House chief of staff to President Clinton, Erskine Bowles — who is a minority owner of the team — would oversee the investigation by law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan.
SI, quoting unnamed sources, detailed what it claims were inappropriate comments made by Richardson about how female employees fit into their jeans, as well as “Multiple female employees [recalling] to SI that Richardson asked them if he could personally shave their legs,” the magazine said.
” … on multiple occasions when Richardson’s conduct has triggered complaints—for sexual harassment against female employees and for directing a racial slur at an African American employee—he has taken a leaf from a playbook he’s deployed in the past: Confidential settlements were reached and payments were made to complainants, accompanied by non-disclosure and non-disparagement clauses designed to shield the owner and the organization from further liability and damaging publicity,” according to SI.
Following Richardson’s announcement of the team’s impending sale, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry both issued tweets saying they were interested in buying.
There are no majority African American NFL owners. Let’s make history.
— Diddy (@Diddy) December 18, 2017
I? want in! https://t.co/XvvC1vo7xI
— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) December 18, 2017
ESPN writes: “Richardson was awarded the franchise in October 1993. The Panthers played their first season in 1995. Richardson previously had a plan in place that called for the team to be sold within two years of his death. Richardson reached a deal with Charlotte officials in 2013, when the city agreed to pay $87.5 million in upgrades to Bank of America Stadium that would keep the Panthers there through June 2019.”
Remembering Bruce Brown, Whose 'Endless Summer' Documentary Boosted Surfing As A Sport
With his 1966 documentary The Endless Summer, surfer-filmmaker Bruce Brown created one of the most iconic expressions of the joy of surfing. Brown died this week at the age of 80.
RAY SUAREZ, HOST:
We’re going to take a moment now to remember a titan among the waves, and we’re not talking about Poseidon. We’re talking about documentary filmmaker Bruce Brown, who died last week at the age of 80. As NPR’s Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi reports, Brown’s 1966 surfing documentary “The Endless Summer” sealed his status as one of the sport’s greatest evangelists.
ALEXI HOROWITZ-GHAZI, BYLINE: Bergman of the boards and Follini (ph) of the foam – That’s how Time magazine and The New York Times respectively described surfer-turned-documentary-filmmaker Bruce Brown in 1966, the year “The Endless Summer” hit film screens across the country.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, “THE ENDLESS SUMMER”)
BRUCE BROWN: Many surfers ride summer and winter, but the ultimate thing for most of us would be to have an endless summer – the warm water and waves without the summer crowds of California.
HOROWITZ-GHAZI: That’s Bruce Brown himself narrating the film. On its face, “The Endless Summer” is the story of two young surfers on a search for the world’s tastiest waves. But as Matt Warshaw, author of “The Encyclopedia Of Surfing,” sees it, it was really more of a love letter to surfing itself.
MATT WARSHAW: Bruce Brown will be remembered in the world of surfing as the guy that essentially introduced what real surfing is to the rest of the world, the guy that kind of let everybody else in on our great secret.
HOROWITZ-GHAZI: Warshaw says that, in the early 1960s, popular depictions of surfing in movies like “Gidget” and “Beach Blanket Bingo” didn’t do the sport justice. Surfers were mostly depicted as goofball teenagers or juvenile delinquents. And many surfers felt the story of the sport deserved to be told by one of their own.
WARSHAW: Bruce Brown, first and foremost, was a surfer from Southern California.
HOROWITZ-GHAZI: Brown got his break in his early 20s, when he convinced a California surfboard manufacturer to fund his first feature-length documentary. He spent the next several years cutting his teeth as a filmmaker before his big hit, “The Endless Summer.”
WARSHAW: What people didn’t realize is that he’d been practicing to make that movie. He’d been doing essentially drafts of that movie for almost five years.
HOROWITZ-GHAZI: Warshaw says “The Endless Summer” captured something essential about the joy of surfing that made it both appeal to surfers and non-surfers alike, and that made it a genre-defining film.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, “THE ENDLESS SUMMER”)
BROWN: The ultimate thing to do in surfing is to be actually covered up by the wave. And here goes Wayne (doing) doing the ultimate thing.
WARSHAW: You know, if you were ever going to turn to someone who’s never surfed and say, this is why I surf and this is what it’s like, that intro to “Endless Summer,” I think, is still the finest thing you could give to somebody as an introduction.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, “THE ENDLESS SUMMER”)
BROWN: The thing you can’t show is the fantastic speed and that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach. I couldn’t help but think of the hundreds of years these waves must have been breaking here. But until this day, no one had ever ridden one.
HOROWITZ-GHAZI: Bruce Brown eventually stepped away from filmmaking after garnering an Oscar nomination for a later documentary about motorcycling. He spent the following decades pursuing his other passions – swordfishing, golfing and rally-car racing – chasing a different kind of “Endless Summer.” In many ways, he succeeded. And with his films, Bruce Brown brought countless others along for the ride. Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE SANDALS’ “THEME FROM THE ENDLESS SUMMER”)
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