(CNN) Larry King, the longtime CNN host who became an icon through his interviews with countless newsmakers and his sartorial sensibilities, has died. He was 87.His son, Chance, confirmed King’s death Saturday morning.King hosted “Larry King Live” on CNN for over 25 years, interviewing presidential candidates, celebrities, athletes, movie stars and everyday people. He retired in 2010 after taping more than 6,000 episodes of the show.A statement was posted on his verified Facebook announcing his passing.

“With profound sadness, Ora Media announces the death of our co-founder, host and friend Larry King, who passed away this morning at age 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles,” the statement said. “For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry’s many thousands of interviews, awards, and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster.”The statement did not give a cause of death.

He battled a number of health problems

King had been hospitalized with Covid-19 in late December at Cedars-Sinai, a source close to the family said at the time.”We mourn the passing of our colleague Larry King,” CNN President Jeff Zucker said in a statement.

“The scrappy young man from Brooklyn had a history-making career spanning radio and television. His curiosity about the world propelled his award-winning career in broadcasting, but it was his generosity of spirit that drew the world to him. We are so proud of the 25 years he spent with CNN, where his newsmaker interviews truly put the network on the international stage. From our CNN family to Larry’s, we send our thoughts and prayers, and a promise to carry on his curiosity for the world in our work.”King battled a number of health problems, suffering several heart attacks. In 1987, he underwent quintuple bypass surgery, inspiring him to establish the Larry King Cardiac Foundation to provide assistance to those without insurance.More recently, King revealed in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and successfully underwent surgery to treat it. He also underwent a procedure in 2019 to address angina.King also suffered personal loss last year when two of his adult children died within weeks of each other: Andy King, 65, suffered a heart attack and daughter Chaia King, 52, died after being diagnosed with lung cancer. King is survived by three sons.

He interviewed every president from Ford to Obama

In an era filled with star newsmen, King was a giant — among the most prominent questioners on television and a host to presidents, movie stars and world class athletes.With an affable, easygoing demeanor that distinguished him from more intense TV interviewers, King perfected a casual approach to the Q&A format, always leaning forward and listening intently to his guests, rarely interrupting.”I’ve never learned anything,” King was fond of saying, “while I was talking.”

Larry King Fast FactsFor 25 years, he hosted “Larry King Live” on CNN, a span that was highlighted by more than 30,000 interviews, including every sitting president from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama, and thousands of phone calls from viewers.The show made King one of the faces of the network, and one of the most famous television journalists in the country. His column in USA Today, which ran for nearly 20 years until 2001, showcased King’s distinct style in print, inviting readers down a trail of non-sequiturs that served as a window into his mind.”The most underutilized player in the NFL this year was Washington’s Desmond Howard…Despite what you think of Lawrence Walsh, we will always have the need for a special prosecutor because a government cannot investigate itself,” King wrote in a 1992 column.Those musings, combined with his unmistakable appearance — oversized glasses, ever-present suspenders — made King ripe for caricature. In the 1990s, he was portrayed on “Saturday Night Live” by Norm MacDonald, who channeled the USA Today column with a spot-on impersonation.Jokes aside, King’s influence is evident today in the generation of podcasters who have mimicked — whether deliberate or not — his conversational approach to interviews.”A good interview — you know more than you do before you start. You should come away with maybe some of your opinions changed,” King told the Los Angeles Times in 2018. “You should certainly come away entertained — an interviewer is also an entertainer.”

He started his media career as a disc jockey

Born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger on November 19, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, King was raised by two Jewish immigrants. His mother, Jennie (Gitlitz) Zeiger, was from Lithuania, while his father, Edward Zeiger, hailed from Ukraine. Edward died of a heart attack when King was 10, a memory King said he mostly “blocked out.”Left to raise King and his younger brother Marty alone, Jennie Zeiger was forced to go on welfare to support her children. The death had a profound effect on King, and his mother.”Prior to his death, I’d been a good student but afterwards, I just stopped being interested,” King told The Guardian in a 2015 interview. “It was a real blow to me. But eventually I channeled that anger because I wanted to make him and my mother proud.”King said his father had enormous influence on him, instilling in his son a sense of humor and a love of sports. And no sport drew more of King’s affection than baseball.He grew up a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and continued to support the team after its move to Los Angeles. He was a fixture at the team’s home games in Dodger Stadium, often spotted in the high-priced seats behind home plate. In 2004, King wrote a book aptly titled, “Why I Love Baseball.”King’s career in media began in earnest in 1957, when he took a job as a disc jockey at WAHR-AM in Miami. It was then when he made the decision to drop his surname.”You can’t use Larry Zeiger,” he recalled his boss at the station saying. “It’s too ethnic. People won’t be able to spell it or remember it. You need a better name.””There was no time to think about whether this was good or bad or what my mother would say. I was going on the air in five minutes,” King wrote in his 2009 autobiography.”The Miami Herald was spread out on his desk. Face-up was a full-page ad for King’s Wholesale Liquors. The general manager looked down and said, ‘King! How about Larry King?'”

His CNN show premiered in 1985

It was around this time that King entered what would become a string of failed marriages. His union with Frada Miller was annulled, and the dates of his second marriage with Annette Kaye are publicly unavailable.From 1961-63, King was married to Alene Akins, whom he married again from 1967-71; before they re-married, King tied the knot with Mickey Sutphin in 1964 before they divorced in 1966.He had two more divorces — with Sharon Lepore, with whom he was married from 1976-82, and Julie Alexander, with whom he was married from 1989-92 — before marrying his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick in 1997 at UCLA Medical Center, as he was about to undergo cardiac surgery. King filed for divorce from Southwick in 2019, citing irreconcilable differences.King remained in Miami for years, eventually getting hired as a columnist for the Miami Herald in 1965. In 1971, he was arrested in Miami on charges of grand larceny, which led to his suspension from the station and newspaper where he was employed. Although the charges were dismissed the following year, King was not re-hired, prompting him to decamp Florida and head to Louisiana, where he worked as a freelance journalist.By 1978, King returned to Miami and to WIOD, the station where he was employed at the time of his arrest. The same year, “The Larry King Show” launched as a syndicated late-night radio show. It originally aired in 28 cities; within five years, it had spread to 118 cities, serving as the springboard to fame. The show won a Peabody Award in 1982.In 1985, “Larry King Live” premiered on CNN, beginning a long and storied run that included a number of high-profile interviews. Throughout its more than two decades on air, the show was routinely CNN’s most-watched program, and King was arguably the network’s biggest star.King left CNN in 2011, a move he expected would amount to retirement. But he kept working until his death, hosting “Larry King Now,” a program that aired on Ora TV, Hulu and RT America. King, it seemed, just never wanted the interview to end.”I just love what I do,” he said, “I love asking questions, I love doing the interviews.”

CNN’s Ray Sanchez and David J. Lopez contributed to this report.

via: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/23/us/larry-king-dies-trnd/index.html

Photo Credit: CNN

Shocking new video shows the moment a Florida sheriff’s deputy is sent flying after getting slammed by a woman in a stolen car.

Katarina Vanfossen, 23, is facing attempted murder charges for allegedly driving the stolen white Ford Taurus into the deputy — with the whole thing caught on police aerial video released Thursday.

The wild scene unfolded Wednesday, as police cornered the stolen car in the parking lot of a South Bradenton strip mall — just hours after the car sped off when deputies first spotted it, the sheriff’s office said in a release.

When they caught up with the stolen car the second time, police surrounded the car with sheriff’s office vehicles outside a local stereo store — only to have Vanfossen try to slam her way out by smacking into the cruisers, the video shows.

One deputy is seen walking up to the vehicle ordering Vanfossen to get out — but the Ford instead accelerates and sends him flying over the hood and onto another car.

Deputies then moved in and arrested Vanfossen.

The deputy was not seriously injured and was due to be released from a local hospital.

In addition to the attempted murder charge, Vanfossen was charged with auto theft, fleeing police and leaving the scene of a crash.

The last charge stems from her run-in with cops earlier in the day, when she crashed into another vehicle to elude the deputies

via: https://nypost.com/2021/01/21/wild-video-shows-florida-deputy-getting-hit-by-stolen-car/

Photo Credit: Manatee County Sheriff’s Office

A Philadelphia father has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after his 9-year-old daughter was accidentally shot dead by a 5-year-old boy inside the home this week, according to new reports.

The little girl, whose name was not released by police, was shot in the right side of the head in the back bedroom of a home on North Bouvier Street shortly before 11 a.m. Wednesday, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

She was rushed in critical condition to Temple University Hospital, and transferred to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, where she died at 1:50 p.m., according to the report.

Her dad, Blake Davis, 39, faces an involuntary manslaughter rap, in addition to two firearms violations — including one issued because he was prohibited from possessing a gun due to a prior criminal conviction, the paper reported, citing police. He has also been charged with corruption of minors, and reckless endangerment.

A 5-year-old boy inside the home fired the fatal shot after a 12-year-old, also in the home, provided him with the weapon, WPVI-TV reported.

Police have not said how the children are related — but Patrick Flood, who lives nearby and is Davis’ lifelong friend, told the Inquirer Wednesday that the 12-year-old boy was the girl’s brother, and the 5-year-old was their cousin.

The children were home at home without adult supervision, the local station reported, citing the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

Davis recently moved into the home with the children and a girlfriend, Flood told the Inquirer.

He has custody of the children, but their mother lives nearby.

Davis was arrested and convicted in Philadelphia eight times between 2001 and 2012 — mostly for drug dealing, but also for simple assault and contempt of court, according to court records obtained by the Inquirer.

via: https://nypost.com/2021/01/22/philly-dad-charged-after-daughter-accidentally-shot-by-young-boy/

Photo Credit: Philadelphia Police Department

Officers responded to a home in Detroit on a call that a child had been shot after 9:30 a.m. the Detroit Free Press reported.

When officers arrived, they found a 5-year-old boy was shot in the neck, according to WXYZ-TV.

The boy was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

“It’s a sad day in the city today,” Police Commander Tiffany Stewart said at a press conference. “We lost another child in the city of Detroit due to a lack of firearm safety. This was completely avoidable.”

Cops say the 18-month-old boy found the firearm in the home and accidentally struck his cousin.

The father of the victim, the boys’ grandmother and another child were in the home at the time of the shooting, police said.

Police arrested the father, who is believed to be the gun owner. No charges were filed pending an investigation.

via: https://nypost.com/2021/01/21/toddler-fatally-shoots-5-year-old-cousin-after-finding-gun-in-home/

Photo Credit: nypost.com

Nearly 2000 doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine were spoiled at a Boston-area VA facility after a cleaning contractor accidentally loosened a plug for a freezer, according to a report.

The shots were discovered by staff at the VA Boston Pharmacy on Tuesday. At least 1,900 doses were compromised, Kyle Toto, a spokesman for the VA Boston Healthcare System, told the Boston Globe.

“The plug was found loose after a contractor accidentally removed it while cleaning,” Toto said.

He added that he does not think the spoiled doses will affect the vaccine rollout, and told the newspaper that replacement doses were already being delivered.

Moderna COVID-19 vaccines — as well as doses developed by rival Pfizer-BioNTech — must be stored at very low temperatures, between negative 13 and negative 5 degrees Fahrenheit. In order to maintain this temperature, storage facilities at the Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center were equipped with alarms intended to trigger if the doses get too warm or too cold, though they did not sound when the freezer was unplugged.

Toto said he wasn’t sure why the alarm did not go off.

“An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the incident and why the monitoring and alarm system did not work as expected,” he said.

Massachusetts has recorded a total of 462,910 coronavirus cases and 13,622 deaths from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic last year, according to the state Department of Public Health.

via: https://nypost.com/2021/01/22/nearly-2000-covid-vaccine-doses-spoiled-at-boston-va-facility/

Photo Credit: nypost.com