McDonald’s adds three new sandwiches to compete in chicken wars
New York (CNN Business)McDonald’s is launching new sandwiches next month in an effort to win fast food’s chicken war. On Monday, the company announced three versions of a new chicken sandwich, which will be available nationally on February 24: The Crispy Chicken Sandwich, topped with pickles and served on a potato roll, the Spicy Chicken Sandwich, which adds a spicy pepper sauce, and the Deluxe Chicken Sandwich, which comes with lettuce, tomatoes and mayo. McDonald’s told investors in November to expect a new chicken sandwich this year. The new products, along with faster drive-thrus and other changes, could help McDonald’s draw more traffic to its restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond. Prior to the pandemic, the company was losing customers to fast casual chains and higher-end burger joints. The number of transactions at its US restaurants that have been open for at least 13 months slipped 1.9% in 2019, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That year, McDonald’s franchise operators warned that the chain needed a better chicken sandwich to win customers back. “JFK called for a man on the moon,” they wrote in a letter that summer. “Our call should be a category leading chicken sandwich.”
The burger chain, which already serves chicken nuggets and the McChicken sandwich nationally, has since tested fried chicken sandwiches in regional markets.And during a November webcast for investors, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, said that “a much anticipated, delicious, new crispy chicken sandwich” would hit US menus this year.
Chicken is a good bet for McDonald’s, he explained. “Globally, the chicken category is almost twice the size of beef,” he said at the time. “It is growing faster and represents a significant opportunity,” he said. “Developing a reputation for great chicken represents one of our highest aspirations. We want customers to choose McDonald’s for chicken.” Erlinger added that the new sandwich would “jump-start our chicken journey,” suggesting more chicken products to come. McDonald’s launched Spicy Chicken McNuggets in the fall, its first new McNugget flavor in the United States since the item was introduced to the US menu in 1983.Chains with a popular chicken sandwich have been rewarded by customers. Popeyes, which saw its new sandwich offering sell out just two weeks after it launched nationally in August 2019, has pointed to the sandwich as one reason that it continued to grow during the pandemic. Chick-fil-A, known for its line of chicken sandwiches, has been growing steadily for years. Recently, the competition has been heating up. Wendy’s rolled out a new version of its chicken sandwich in October. The brand’s Classic Chicken Sandwich, made with a fried-chicken filet, lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo, replaced the Homestyle Chicken Sandwich, which had been on Wendy’s menu for at least a decade. Over the summer, KFC tested a new, premium chicken sandwich called the KFC Chicken Sandwich. — CNN’s Jordan Valinsky contributed to this report.
original article here https://www.cnn.com/business
Kentucky officers in Breonna Taylor case face termination hearing
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky police officer who shot Breonna Taylor and the detective who sought the warrant is scheduled to face a termination hearing after being notified that they would be fired.
Officer Myles Cosgrove and Det. Joshua Jaynes received notice last week that they will be dismissed.
Both men were expected to appear for a pre-termination hearing on Monday.
Taylor, a Black woman, was killed on March 13 by police executing a narcotics search warrant.
Louisville acting police chief Yvette Gentry says Cosgrove failed to “properly identify a target” when he fired into Taylor’s apartment.
The chief says Jaynes lied about how he obtained some information about Taylor in the warrant.
According to The Associated Press, Jaynes admitted to Louisville police investigators back in May that the information he garnered to obtain the search warrant was from a fellow officer.
If Jaynes and Cosgrove are fired, they will be the second and third officers fired. Brett Hankison was fired back in June.
Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly has been on administrative leave, the AP reported.
via: https://www.pix11.com/news/america-in-crisis/kentucky-officers-in-breonna-taylor-face-termination-hearing
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Alex Trebek’s final episodes of Jeopardy! air this week
The last five Jeopardy! episodes hosted by Alex Trebek will begin airing Monday, January 4.
The final episode filmed before Trebek’s death will air January 8 and will include “a special tribute to the life and work of the man who captained America’s Favorite Quiz Show with skill, style, and sophistication for 36+ years,” according to a statement from Jeopardy! producer Sony Pictures Television.
Trebek died on November 8 at the age of 80 after battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He announced his diagnosis in March 2019 and kept fans updated while recording episodes of the game show between treatments, giving no indication of retiring from the host podium.
Trebek taped his final episode of Jeopardy! on October 29, just days before his death. Jeopardy! generally tapes a single week of episodes on one day.
The game show stopped filming new episodes in March 2020 during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. When new episodes resumed filming during the summer, and given Trebek’s health status, some minor changes were made in the studio. Contestants were separated by several feet, and Trebek stopped shaking the hands of contestants.
Trebek was Jeopardy’s second host after Art Fleming hosted the original version of the game show. There will now be a series of guest hosts, according to show producers. At the end of November, they announced Ken Jennings, a former contestant, will be the first guest host.
Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards released a statement following Trebek’s death saying the show would resume production on November 30.
Jennings was deemed the “Greatest of All Time” in January 2020 following a prime time Jeopardy! event. Other guest hosts will be announced in the future.
Jennings joined the program at the start of the current season as a consulting producer. Before winning the “Greatest of All Time” series, Jennings set a still-standing record of 74 wins in a row in 2004.
“Alex believed in the importance of Jeopardy! and always said that he wanted the show to go on after him,” said Richards. “We will honor Alex’s legacy by continuing to produce the game he loved with smart contestants and challenging clues. By bringing in familiar guest hosts for the foreseeable future, our goal is to create a sense of community and continuity for our viewers.”
New episodes featuring Jennings will air starting January 11.
via: https://www.pix11.com/entertainment/alex-trebeks-final-episodes-of-jeopardy-air-this-week
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Wisconsin pharmacist who ruined over 500 doses of the vaccine thought vaccine was unsafe
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin pharmacist convinced the world was “crashing down” told police he tried to ruin hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine because he believed the shots would mutate people’s DNA, according to court documents released Monday.
Police in Grafton, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Milwaukee, arrested Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist Steven Brandenburg last week following an investigation into the 57 spoiled vials of the Moderna vaccine, which officials say contained enough doses to inoculate more than 500 people. Charges are pending.
“He’d formed this belief they were unsafe,” Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol said during a virtual hearing. He added that Brandenburg was upset because he was in the midst of divorcing his wife, and an Aurora employee said Brandenburg had taken a gun to work twice.
A detective wrote in a probable cause statement that Brandenburg, 46, is an admitted conspiracy theorist and that he told investigators he intentionally tried to ruin the vaccine because it could hurt people by changing their DNA.
Misinformation around the COVID-19 vaccines has surged online with false claims circulating on everything from the vaccines’ ingredients to its possible side effects.
One of the earliest false claims suggested that the vaccines could alter DNA. The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine as well as the Moderna vaccine rely on messenger RNA or mRNA, which is a fairly new technology used in vaccines that experts have been working on for years. MRNA vaccines help train the immune system to identify the spike protein on the surface of the coronavirus and create an immune response. Experts have said there is no truth to the claims that the vaccines can genetically modify humans.
Advocate Aurora Health Care Chief Medical Group Officer Jeff Bahr has said Brandenburg admitted that he deliberately removed the vials from refrigeration at the Grafton medical center overnight on Dec. 24 into Dec. 25, returned them, then left them out again on the night of Dec. 25 into Saturday.
A pharmacy technician discovered the vials outside the refrigerator on Dec. 26. Bahr said Brandenburg initially said he had removed the vials to access other items in the refrigerator and had inadvertently failed to put them back. The Moderna vaccine is viable for 12 hours outside refrigeration, so workers used the vaccine to inoculate 57 people before discarding the rest. Police said the discarded doses were worth between $8,000 and $11,000.
Bahr said the doses people received Dec. 26 are all but useless. But Gerol said during the hearing that the vials were actually retained and Moderna would need to test the doses to make sure they’re ineffective before he can file charges.
Brandenburg’s attorney, Jason Baltz, did not speak on the merits of the case during the hearing. Gerol held off on filing any charges, saying he still needs to determine whether Brandenburg actually destroyed the doses.
Judge Paul Malloy ordered Brandenburg held on a $10,000 signature bond on the condition that he surrender his firearms, not work in health care and have no contact with Aurora employees.
Brandenburg is in the process of divorcing his wife of eight years. The couple has two small children.
According to an affidavit his wife filed on Dec. 30, the same day Brandenburg was arrested in the vaccine tampering, he stopped off at her house on Dec. 6 and dropped off a water purifier and two 30-day supplies of food, telling her that the world was “crashing down” and she was in denial. He said the government was planning cyberattacks and was going to shut down the power grid.
She added that he was storing food in bulk along with guns in rental units and she no longer felt safe around him. A court commissioner on Monday found that Brandenburg’s children were in imminent danger and temporarily prohibited them from staying with him.
Online court records indicate Brandenburg’s divorce attorney withdrew from the case on Dec. 28.
via: https://www.kmov.com/news/prosecutor-wisconsin-pharmacist-thought-vaccine-was-unsafe/article_1e23cab3-9534-5144-9326-5a952f12a729.html
Photo Credit: Ozaukee County Sheriff via AP
17-year-old offenders will no longer be considered adults in Missouri
ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) — Teenagers aged 17 will no longer be prosecuted as adults in Missouri.
A new law just went into effect on New Year’s Day. It states that the criminal justice system in Missouri will consider 17-year-olds to be juveniles – instead of adults – as they had been before.
But in certain cases, courts will still be able to certify defendants younger than 18 as adults.
Missouri passed the age-change law back in 2018 but it just took effect this year.
via: https://www.kmov.com/news/17-year-old-offenders-will-no-longer-be-considered-adults-in-missouri/article_07b4de7e-4e47-11eb-a07b-17162bef637b.html
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Minnesota gym owner used hidden cam to spy on woman, lawsuit alleges
The owner of a gym in Minnesota used a hidden camera to spy on a woman as she disrobed in a tanning booth, a new lawsuit claims.
The civil suit, filed last week in Wright County District Court, alleges that Snap Fitness franchisee Randall D. Roiger installed a surveillance camera in a tanning booth at the fitness center in Annandale, where he spied on the female customer “repeatedly” without her knowledge, the Star Tribune reported Monday.
The 42-year-old woman allegedly spotted the secret camera during a visit to the gym in January 2019 and then got in touch with cops. Roiger — who identified himself online as a former Marine — was later charged with misdemeanor interference with privacy, the newspaper reported.
Roiger watched the woman to “make sure individuals had purchased tanning booth minutes” and then allegedly stopped looking on once that was confirmed or “when people started undressing,” a criminal complaint obtained by the newspaper states.
Roiger has agreed that using the camera was an invasion of privacy, according to the complaint, but he has pleaded not guilty ahead of his trial set for March, the Star Tribune reported.
Roiger, 45, of Cokato, told the newspaper Monday that the device “has been down for over a year” before declining to elaborate. The personal injury lawsuit also named the Minnesota-based Snap Fitness – which has 2,000 clubs in 48 states and 26 countries – as a defendant, according to the report.
Attorneys for Roiger, meanwhile, have denied that he watched the woman as she used the tanning booth, insisting he installed the camera in a corner of the booth’s ceiling behind a pinhole to prevent theft and “unauthorized use” of the unit.
An attorney for the woman acknowledged that she did not “personally see” Roiger looking at her while naked, but suggested that “2 plus equals 4,” the newspaper reported.
“By the time she saw [the camera], it had apparently been there for weeks,” attorney Lori Peterson told the Star Tribune. “The camera was clearly put here to view people as they undressed.”
Peterson said she was “completely disgusted” by the gym’s response.
“To not only deny responsibility but to actively endorse spying on unclothed members and victim-blaming a woman who was spied on in the tanning booth is reprehensible,” Peterson said.
Defense attorneys claim customers were warned that video surveillance was utilized through the gym, including a sign near the entrance of the tanning booth. But Peterson insists the placards never warned customers of being watched inside the booths, according to the report.
The woman’s suit, which seeks at least $50,000 in damages, claims she still suffers emotionally and physically from the incident, including paranoia and having a fear of public bathrooms.
The woman is identified in the lawsuit, but the Star Tribune declined to reveal her name since she’s a potential victim of a sexually related crime, according to the report.
A LinkedIn profile for Roiger, meanwhile, identified him as the owner of Snap Fitness in Annandale who served in the Marine Corps for more than four years, including three combat tours to Iraq.
“While in the Marine Corps, I was promoted 3 times, being honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant,” the profile reads. “Through my experiences, I’ve learned to be a strong leader with many technical skills. I feel my greatest strength is my ability to get along with a variety of people and personalities.”
via: https://nypost.com/2021/01/04/gym-owner-used-hidden-cam-to-spy-on-woman-in-tanning-booth-lawsuit/
Photo Credit: Snap Fitness
Brooklyn nanny arrested for allegedly shaking 3-month-old baby causing brain bleed
A live-in nanny was busted for shaking a 3-month-old boy in Brooklyn, leaving him with bleeding in his brain, according to officials and police sources.
The infant’s parents told investigators that their son threw up all of his formula when they gave him a bottle before bed Tuesday at their home on East 9th Street near Avenue P in Midwood, the sources said.
The next day, the baby was still unwell, so his parents brought him to the doctor, who believed it was a stomach virus.
But when the tot’s condition did not improve by New Year’s Day, his parents brought him to the hospital at the doctor’s direction.
The parents told authorities that a live-in nanny cares for their children, according to the sources.
During interrogation, the nanny, Alexis Schultz, admitted shaking the baby because of hunger and feeling overwhelmed while caring for the infant and his sister, according to a high-ranking police source.
She was charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child, officials said.
Exams conducted in the pediatric intensive care unit at Maimonides Medical Center revealed that the baby was suffering from both an old bleed and a new bleed in the brain — indicating that he was shaken once in the past and it was not severe, and then was shaken again, developing symptoms, according to the sources.
He also suffered retinal hemorrhages in both eyes.
A spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said Schultz’s arraignment was pending late Monday morning.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/01/04/nyc-nanny-arrested-for-allegedly-shaking-3-month-old-boy/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
COVID: California funeral homes run out of space as pandemic rages
LOS ANGELES — As communities across the country feel the pain of a surge in coronavirus cases, funeral homes in the hot spot of Southern California say they must turn away grieving families as they run out of space for the bodies piling up.
The head of the state funeral directors association says mortuaries are being inundated as the United States nears a grim tally of 350,000 COVID-19 deaths. More than 20 million people in the country have been infected, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
“I’ve been in the funeral industry for 40 years and never in my life did I think that this could happen, that I’d have to tell a family, ‘No, we can’t take your family member,'” said Magda Maldonado, owner of Continental Funeral Home in Los Angeles.
Continental is averaging about 30 body removals a day – six times its normal rate. Mortuary owners are calling one another to see whether anyone can handle overflow, and the answer is always the same: They’re full, too.
In order to keep up with the flood of bodies, Maldonado has rented extra 50-foot (15-meter) refrigerators for two of the four facilities she runs in LA and surrounding counties. Continental has also been delaying pickups at hospitals for a day or two while they deal with residential clients.
Bob Achermann, executive director of the California Funeral Directors Association, said that the whole process of burying and cremating bodies has slowed down, including embalming bodies and obtaining death certificates. During normal times, cremation might happen within a day or two; now it takes at least a week or longer.
Achermann said that in the southern part of the state, “every funeral home I talk to says, ‘We’re paddling as fast as we can.'”
The volume is just incredible and they fear that they won’t be able to keep up,” he said. “And the worst of the surge could still be ahead of us.”
Los Angeles County, the epicenter of the crisis in California, has surpassed 10,000 COVID-19 deaths alone. Hospitals in the area are overwhelmed, and are struggling to keep up with basics such as oxygen as they treat an unprecedented number of patients with respiratory issues. On Saturday, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews arrived to update some hospitals’ oxygen delivery systems.
Nationally, an average of just over 2,500 people have died of COVID-19 over the past seven days, according to Johns Hopkins data. The number of daily newly reported cases in that period has averaged close to 195,000, a decline from two weeks earlier.
It’s feared that holiday gatherings could fuel yet another rise in cases.
Arkansas officials reported a record of more than 4,300 new COVID-19 cases Friday. Gov. Asa Hutchinson tweeted that the state is “certainly in the surge after Christmas travel and gatherings” and added, “As we enter this new year, our first resolution should be to follow guidelines.”
North Carolina officials also reported a record 9,527 confirmed cases New Year’s Day. That’s more than 1,000 cases above the previous daily high.
In Louisiana, a funeral was being held Saturday for a congressman-elect who died of COVID-19 complications. Republican Luke Letlow died Tuesday at age 41. His swearing-in had been scheduled Sunday. He leaves behind his wife, Julia Letlow, and two children, ages 1 and 3.
In Texas, state officials say they have only 580 intensive care beds available as staff treat more than 12,480 hospitalized coronavirus patients, a number that has risen steadily since September and has set record highs this past week.
In Window Rock, Arizona, the Navajo Nation remained in the midst of a weekend lockdown to try to slow the rate of infection. The tribe late Friday reported another seven deaths, bringing its totals since the pandemic began to 23,429 cases and 813 deaths. The reservation includes parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
The number of infections is thought to be far higher than reported because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.
Arizona on Saturday reported 18,943 new cases Friday and Saturday, a record for the state in any two-day period. It also reported 46 new deaths Saturday.
original article here https://abc7chicago.com/funeral-homes-california-covid-pandemic/9310651
Nintendo is partnering with a nonprofit to bring gaming consoles to hospitalized kids
The gaming stations are the latest initiative to come out of a yearslong partnership between Nintendo of America and the Starlight Children’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to bring happiness to seriously ill children and their families.
“Starlight Gaming has been a great aid in helping patients cope with hospitalization,” said Lexi Little of Christus Shreveport-Bossier Health System in Shreveport, Louisiana. “We cannot thank Starlight enough for impacting the lives of our patients, families, and staff members on a daily basis.”
Starlight announced earlier this month that this newest gaming station would soon be available to more children, after it debuted in December 2019 at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, Washington.
“The gaming stations are important distraction tools that normalize the health care environment and help kids through difficult experiences,” Julie Hertzog, child life supervisor at Mary Bridge, said in a statement at the time. “They provide choices for kids, motivate them, and give them the opportunity to have fun when it is needed most.”
Hospitalized kids will have more than 25 games with which to distract themselves with, including “Super Mario Party” and “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.”
The stations are easy to clean and transport from room to room — an added bonus at a time when an infectious virus continues to spread and many hospital playrooms are closed due to the pandemic.
Since the partnership began nearly three decades ago, Starlight and Nintendo have delivered more than 7,200 gaming stations to more than 800 hospitals and health care facilities, according to a news release.
via: https://www.kmov.com/news/nintendo-is-partnering-with-a-nonprofit-to-bring-gaming-consoles-to-hospitalized-kids/article_a46fe933-8f73-5d57-a4ba-dacf633f6749.html
Photo Credit: CNN
Jets fire head coach Adam Gase
As the final seconds ticked off of the Gillette Stadium scoreboard on Sunday, it was not just counting down the end of a 28-14 Jets loss to the Patriots. It was also counting down the final seconds of Adam Gase’s time with the team and to the beginning of an offseason that could feature massive change for the organization.
Gase was fired Sunday night, the team announced, hours after the loss that left the Jets 2-14 this season, the worst record for the team since 1996. In Gase’s two years, the Jets went 9-23, featured the worst offense in football and looked noncompetitive for long stretches.
The Jets looked like they had a chance at ending Gase’s time with the them with a three-game winning streak, clinging to a 14-7 lead over the Patriots in the third quarter, but two Sam Darnold interceptions paved the way to a second-half surge from Cam Newton and Bill Belichick and the Jets were handed their 14th loss of the season.
“It just wasn’t good enough, obviously,” Gase said of the season.
Not even close.
“While my sincere intentions are to have stability in our organization – especially in our leadership positions – it is clear the best decision for the Jets is to move in a different direction,” CEO Christopher Johnson said in a statement.
The Jets had high hopes when they hired Gase two years ago to replace Todd Bowles. They believed he would be the offensive mind that would bring out Darnold’s potential and make the Jets contenders again. Instead, Darnold regressed this season and there are questions about whether the Jets should draft his replacement with the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL draft.
The Jets now own the longest active playoff drought in the NFL. It has been 10 years since they played in the postseason; the Browns ended a 17-year drought Sunday by qualifying for the playoffs.
Gase had little to say about his future after the game, saying he expected to meet with team CEO and chairman Christopher Johnson late Sunday night or early Monday.
“I’m not going to predict anything,” Gase said.
The writing has been on the wall for weeks.
After going 7-9 in his first year, the Jets opened this season with 13 straight losses, the longest losing streak in franchise history. It was a tailspin that Gase could not recover from. Gase gave up most of the play-calling, but nothing helped. The Jets ended up winning two games in December to save some face and cost themselves the No. 1 draft pick, infuriating their fan base. The Jets defense allowed a franchise-record 457 points. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was fired last month after a last-second loss to the Raiders.
Along the way, Gase and running back Le’Veon Bell could not get on the same page and Bell was released in October. Before the season started, safety Jamal Adams ripped Gase before the team traded Adams to the Seahawks.
The most damning development for Gase was Darnold’s play. The third-year quarterback played terribly for most of the year. Darnold ended the season with nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions and a dismal quarterback rating of 72.7.
The 23-year-old Darnold was asked about Gase’s future after the loss Sunday.
“That’s not my decision,” Darnold said. “I love Adam, love him as a coach, but it’s not my decision.”
Darnold did take blame for the way this season went.
“I definitely didn’t play well this year,” Darnold said. “I think there were really only the two games that we won. I think I can definitely play better in the future. I don’t think I played well enough this year. I wasn’t consistent enough. That’s really it.”
Gase also expressed disappointment in how things went with Darnold.
“It definitely wasn’t what he thought, what I thought,” Gase said. “I know we had some adversity to overcome. I’m sure when we look back at it there will be things we wished we would have done different. But this is where we’re at right now and it wasn’t good enough.”
Gase’s .281 winning percentage is the third worst in Jets history. Only Lou Holtz (.231) and Rich Kotite (.125) were worse among full-time Jets coaches.
The Jets will surely now begin a coaching search that is expected to be wide-ranging and led by general manager Joe Douglas. Top candidates — including Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, Ravens defensive coordinator Don Martindale, Iowa State coach Matt Campbell and Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll — are expected to get a look from the Jets.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/01/03/jets-fire-head-coach-adam-gase-after-two-dismal-seasons/
Photo Credit: nypost.com/Bill Kostroun