Jacey Fortin

In some states, that is the law — for minors, anyway. But there are no statewide laws mandating that all cyclists, including grown-ups, wear helmets.

The National Transportation Safety Board begs to differ.

The federal agency this week presented the findings of a report on bicyclists’ safety and issued a recommendation “that all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, require that all persons wear a helmet while riding a bicycle.”

But some biking enthusiasts disagreed. Their reasons touched on larger debates about the rights of cyclists, the responsibilities of drivers and the importance of individual rights in the face of systemic problems.

But helmets are good — right?

Yes, helmets help to protect cyclists from potentially serious injury. If you bike, you should wear one. Make sure it fits properly (with a snug strap, and the helmet level and low on your forehead) and is certified by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (look for a label).

The NTSB said research shows that fewer than half of bicyclists wear helmets, and that head injuries are the leading cause of bicycling fatalities. “If we do not act to mitigate head injury for more bicyclists, additional bicyclists will die,” the agency’s chairman, Robert L. Sumwalt, said in a statement.

Researchers found that helmets reduced the likelihood of serious head injury by 60%, and that in cases where it was known whether cyclists were wearing helmets, 79% of those who were fatally injured between 2010 and 2017 were not wearing them.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a report last month that 857 cyclists were killed in traffic crashes last year, the highest number of fatalities since 1990.

To prevent those deaths, the report supported measures like clearer road markings and separate bike lanes.

“The investigators’ primary focus was on crash avoidance,” the NTSB statement said. “But in those instances when crashes do occur, they said the use of a helmet was the single most effective way for riders to reduce their chances of receiving a serious head injury.”

So what’s the problem?

For critics, the issue with the agency’s headgear recommendation was not necessarily that it promoted helmets but that it encouraged states to require them — perhaps by passing laws that would be enforced by tickets or fines.

The League of American Bicyclists, an advocacy group based in Washington, is opposed to that idea.

“We certainly promote helmets,” Ken McLeod, the league’s policy director, said. “Helmets do make individual bicyclists safer. We just think a mandatory helmet law is the wrong policy for federal or state governments to pursue.”

McLeod said that helmet laws might stop people from riding bicycles, which would make things like bike sharing programs unsustainable, discourage exercise and ultimately weaken the demand for other things that help cyclists, like protected bike lanes.

He said the laws could also be implemented in bad faith — for example, with the intent of keeping bicycles off the streets — and might be unevenly or unfairly enforced by local law enforcement agencies.

Jennifer Homendy, an NTSB board member, said the helmet recommendation was a small part of a very comprehensive report that devoted much of its focus to roads, drivers and cars.

She added that any mandatory helmet laws should involve cyclists’ input. “How we envision it is that the stakeholder community would be brought in, and they would talk about how all of this should be addressed,” she said.

What are the broader debates?

Ian Walker, a professor of statistics and traffic psychology at the University of Bath in England, said helmet policy could be a tricky subject.

“The issue of helmets just seems to kind of bother some people,” he said. “I can’t help suspecting that somehow it just troubles people because it feels like an affront to common sense.”

Walker lives in Britain, which does not mandate helmets for cyclists. More than a decade ago, discussions with other cyclists motivated him to begin a study in which he was the guinea pig.

He took to the streets and used a sensor to measure whether a helmet, which he wore about half the time, had any effect on drivers’ behavior — particularly, how much distance they gave him when they passed him on the street in more than 2,000 instances.

He found that a helmet seemed to make drivers come closer to him, increasing the danger. His findings were challenged by research from Australia in 2013; he responded with a rebuttal published last year.

Australia was an early adopter of helmet laws, and research there has found that after they were implemented, the rate of bicycle fatalities decreased by 46%. Still, those laws have been challenged, with some arguing that they simply keep more cyclists off the streets.

One key question, Walker said, is how far societies are willing to go to use legislation to protect people from themselves.

“It’s really sensible to eat a healthy diet, and it’s really sensible to brush your teeth. Are we going to pass a law making it mandatory?” he said, adding that healthier diets, just like bike helmets, could save many lives.

Homendy said the agency had heard similar critiques on a range of issues — from seat belts to air bags to motorcycle helmets — for decades. “We have to look at solutions to ensure that we’re preventing crashes, preventing injuries and eliminating fatalities,” she said. “That’s our focus.”

This article originally appeared in

Experts Back Mandatory Bike Helmets but Not All Cyclists Are Sold

It is a message that was drilled into bicyclists when they were children learning to ride for the first time: Wear your helmet so that you do not crack your skull.

The publication, The Daily Northwestern, covers both the university and the surrounding community in Evanston, Illinois. The apology addressed the paper’s coverage of an event that featured former Attorney General Jeff Sessions as a speaker last Tuesday and was attended by scores of protesters.

It said that the editors were sorry that photographs of some protesters had been shared by reporters on social media. It also said that reporters’ efforts to contact students for interviews using Northwestern’s directory had been “an invasion of privacy.”

“Ultimately, The Daily failed to consider our impact in our reporting surrounding Jeff Sessions,” the column said. “We know we hurt students that night, especially those who identify with marginalized groups.”

The piece was signed by Troy Closson, the paper’s editor-in-chief and a student at the university’s Medill School of Journalism, and seven other editors. (The Daily operates independently of Northwestern and Medill.)

The column sparked immediate criticism, much of it from journalists on social media who argued that taking photographs of people in public places and reaching out to ask for interviews is part of the job.

“Being a journalist requires empathy, but this ain’t it,” Gregory Pratt of The Chicago Tribune wrote on Twitter on Monday.

“How is it possible that a newspaper at what is allegedly a top journalism school would apologize for the basics of reporting?” Glenn Kessler, a columnist with The Washington Post, said in a tweet Monday. “This is a travesty and an embarrassment.”

But some wrote in defense of the editors at The Daily.

“I’m more shocked at how angry folks seem to be, because while I wouldn’t have made that choice, I don’t think it’s wild to think about how reporting can impact the people we write about and how to mitigate it,” Tracie Hunte, a reporter for “Radiolab,” the documentary podcast from WNYC, wrote in a tweet Monday. “They’re trying something and maybe it didn’t work! It’s fine!”

“One of only black students in history to hold his position,” Wesley Lowery, a journalist with The Washington Post, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, referring to Closson. “Student journalist who makes incorrect decision based on sincere desire to not harm marginalized campus group is publicly decried by industry’s most powerful (white) journalists. Definitely a lesson to be learned here!”

On Monday, Closson addressed the criticism. In a series of tweets, he said he appreciated people’s worries and added: “We aren’t unclear about our rights as a newspaper to cover student protest, but also understand the need to do so with empathy.”

Closson noted that he was navigating his role as one of only a few black editors-in-chief in The Daily’s more than 135 years.

“Being in this role and balancing our coverage and the role of this paper on campus with my racial identity — and knowing how our paper has historically failed students of color, and particularly black students, has been incredibly challenging to navigate,” he wrote.

“And our statement and the areas it fell short were largely a result of that — of how challenging it can be for marginalized students to navigate situations like those this past week while balancing our identities, roles as student journalists and positions as students at NU.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Charles Whitaker, dean of Medill, issued a nearly 1,300-word statement addressing the coverage of the protests, the criticism directed at The Daily Northwestern and the paper’s apology, which he called “heartfelt, though not well-considered.” He called the “vicious bullying and badgering” of students who covered the event deeply troubling. But he also asked the “swarm of alums and journalists who are outraged about the Daily editorial and have been equally rancorous in their condemnation” to give the young people a break.

“I understand why the Daily editors felt the need to issue their mea culpa. They were beat into submission by the vitriol and relentless public shaming they have been subjected to since the Sessions stories appeared. I think it is a testament to their sensitivity and sense of community responsibility that they convinced themselves that an apology would affect a measure of community healing.

“I might offer, however, that their well-intentioned gesture sends a chilling message about journalism and its role in society. It suggests that we are not independent authors of the community narrative, but are prone to bowing to the loudest and most influential voices in our orbit. To be sure, journalism has often bowed to the whim and will of the rich and powerful, so some might argue that it is only fair that those who feel dispossessed and disenfranchised have their turn at calling the journalistic shots. But that is not the solution. We need more diversity among our student journalists (and in journalism writ large). We need more voices from different backgrounds in our newsrooms helping to provide perspective on our coverage. But regardless of their own identities, our student journalists must be allowed — and must have the courage — to cover our community freely and unfettered by harassment each time members of the community feel they have been wronged.”

The event last week featuring Sessions was hosted by the Northwestern University College Republicans. Meant to focus on “the real meaning of the ‘Trump agenda,’” it was free and open to the public.

Two days after his speech at Northwestern, Sessions, a Republican, formally announced that he was entering the Senate race in Alabama. He emphasized his loyalty to President Donald Trump, who forced him from office a year ago after Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation into whether Trump and his associates worked illegally with Russians to interfere in the 2016 election.

Trump has made fighting political correctness and pushing boundaries central to his identity. The issue of free speech on college campuses has become a rallying cry to some of his supporters, including many young conservative activists, who point to instances around the country in which conservative viewpoints — and appearances by conservative speakers — have been shunned or protested by liberal students and professors.

In 2018, during Sessions’ contentious 21-month tenure at the Justice Department, he announced the administration’s so-called zero-tolerance policy, which led to thousands of family separations along the U.S. border with Mexico.

In an article Wednesday about Sessions’ speech, The Daily reported that it was interrupted multiple times by demonstrators who pounded on the door of the auditorium where Sessions was speaking and recited phrases including: “You are a racist; you put kids in cages.”

Another article Wednesday focused on the protests spurred by the event. It mentioned that university police officers had blocked protesters from entering the venue, and it quoted demonstrators, including a protester who said, “There’s a difference between having a sustained dialogue and listening to other opinions and accepting hate speech and fascism.”

On Friday, The Daily reported, Morton O. Schapiro, president of the university, said that unlike some institutions, Northwestern does not grant amnesty to student protesters. “You can protest, you can’t hurt anybody, and you can’t shut down speech,” he said. “And if you do, you’re going to face the consequences.”

He also questioned whether it had been a good idea to invite Sessions instead of a different conservative speaker, adding that the episode had been “polarizing.”

The Daily Northwestern Apologizes to Student Protesters for Reporting

Editors at Northwestern University’s campus newspaper apologized Sunday for its coverage of student demonstrators, which they said was invasive and “hurt students,” spurring a swift backlash from professional journalists and a broader reckoning over reporting practices and diversity in newsrooms.

Speaking with columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin at The New York Times DealBook Conference on Wednesday, Gates, the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist whose fortune totals over $100 billion, said that he had paid over $10 billion in taxes and that it would be “fine” if he had to pay $20 billion.

“But, you know, when you say I should pay $100 billion, OK, then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left over,” he added. “Sorry, I’m just kidding. So you really want the incentive system to be there, and you can go a long ways without threatening that.”

Sorkin then asked Gates if he had ever spoken about this with Warren — he said he had not — and asked Gates if he would want to.

“You know, I’m not sure how open-minded she is or that she’d even be willing to sit down with somebody, you know, who has large amounts of money,” Gates said.

Warren responded with a tweet Wednesday evening.

“I’m always happy to meet with people, even if we have different views,” she said, tagging Gates directly. “If we get the chance, I’d love to explain exactly how much you’d pay under my wealth tax. (I promise it’s not $100 billion.)”

For Warren, who has made battling corporate greed and corruption a central theme of her campaign and is now among the top contenders in the Democratic primary field, attacks from Wall Street and public clashes with billionaires have been welcomed as signs of her populist credibility and reformatory zeal.

Her proposals include a 2% tax on household net worth over $50 million. She outlined a plan last week to pay for “Medicare for All,” which calls for $20.5 trillion in new federal spending over a decade, by increasing her proposed wealth tax on net worth above $1 billion to 6% annually and raising taxes on investment gains for the top 1% of households.

This week, former Vice President Joe Biden, the other top-polling contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, unleashed a new line of attacks against Warren, seeking to paint her as an elitist who believes people lack wisdom or courage unless they agree with her.

Warren’s team has been critical of Biden’s reliance on high-dollar fundraising events.

The two candidates are on opposite sides of a party divide that pits the structural changes favored by more left-leaning front-runners like Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., against a more moderate approach that speaks to values of unity and bipartisanship, which Biden espouses.

Gates, a Harvard dropout, is a chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest charitable organization. The foundation has directed billions of dollars annually toward efforts to combat malaria, reduce poverty and improve education.

Gates has expressed worries about President Donald Trump’s foreign aid policies and his style of communication.

He has also spoken in defiance of federal regulation before. In 1998, Gates testified in Congress to defend Microsoft when lawmakers questioned whether the company was abusing its market power. He argued that technological progress could happen “if innovation is not restricted by government.”

That appearance was mirrored by the congressional testimony last month of another tech industry titan, Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook. Zuckerberg, who struck a more conciliatory tone in front of Congress than Gates did, has criticized Warren’s plan to break up tech giants.

Warren has also clashed publicly with billionaire Leon Cooperman, a hedge fund manager who wrote an open letter to the senator last month. He disagreed with Warren’s critique of the finance industry and predicted stock market losses if she were to win the presidency.

As with Gates, Warren responded with a tweet.

“Leon is wrong,” she said. “I’m fighting for big changes like universal child care, investing in public schools, and free public college. We can do all of that with a #TwoCentWealthTax. Leon can and should pitch in more — so that every kid has the same opportunities he did to succeed.”

Bill Gates Objects to Elizabeth Warren's Wealth Tax, and She Offers to Explain

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday invited billionaire Bill Gates to meet so she could allay his worries about her plans to raise taxes on the wealthy and explain “exactly how much” he would pay.

Elizabeth Warren Offers to Explain Her Wealth Tax to Bill Gates

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” reads the poem, by Emma Lazarus.

But on Tuesday morning, Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, added a caveat.

“Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge,” he said. That evening, he said the poem referred to “people coming from Europe.”

Cuccinelli had been speaking to news outlets about the Trump administration’s new “public charge” rule targeting legal immigrants who want to remain in the United States but are deemed likely to use government benefit programs.

As he made the rounds, at least three journalists asked him about the “The New Colossus.”

Cuccinelli’s responses drew swift condemnation from those opposed to the new rule — a backlash that also spoke to the enduring symbolic significance of the statue and its sonnet on Liberty Island, just southwest of Manhattan.

“Our values are etched in stone on the Statue of Liberty,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a Democratic presidential candidate, said on Twitter on Tuesday. “They will not be replaced.”

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination, posted: “The words of the Statue of Liberty won’t be changed at the racist whims of this administration. And neither will the character of this country.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Cuccinelli said that “the theme of the left media is to ask about a poem, not talk about the policy that is almost as old as America itself, and that is we expect immigrants who come here to support themselves and not go on welfare.”

Cuccinelli began facing questions about the poem on Monday, when he gave a news conference at the White House.

“You’re implementing a public charge rule for the first time,” Steven Portnoy, a journalist for CBS News Radio, said. “Is that sentiment — give us your tired, your poor — still operative in the United States? Or should those words come down?”

Cuccinelli responded that he was “certainly not prepared to take anything down off the Statue of Liberty,” and added that the United States had a long history of welcoming migrants.

The poem came up again on Tuesday morning, during an interview with Rachel Martin on National Public Radio.

“Would you also agree that Emma Lazarus’ words etched on the Statue of Liberty — ‘give me your tired, your poor’ — are also part of the American ethos?” Martin asked.

“They certainly are,” Cuccinelli said, before adding words of his own: “Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge.”

That comment was repeated back to him later on Tuesday, during an interview with Erin Burnett on CNN.

Burnett read the poem’s final lines aloud and added: “Wretched, poor, refuse — right? That’s what the poem says America’s supposed to stand for. So what do you think America stands for?”

“Well, of course that poem was referring back to people coming from Europe, where they had class-based societies where people were considered wretched if they weren’t in the right class,” Cuccinelli said.

“And it was introduced, it was written one year after the first federal public charge rule was written,” he added. “That says, and I’ll quote it, ‘Any person unable to take care of himself without becoming a public charge’ would be inadmissible. Or, in the terms that my agency deals with, they can’t do what’s called adjusting status: getting a green card, becoming legal permanent residents.”

Cuccinelli was referring to the Immigration Act of 1882, which said the United States could deny entry to people who were likely to become a “public charge.” That was also the year that the Chinese Exclusion Act was put in place.

Excluding people because of their circumstances or ethnicity was not new to the United States, but until the late 19th century, many of those policy decisions had been left to states and localities.

The Trump administration’s new immigration rule was pushed by White House adviser Stephen Miller, who has also been asked to reckon with the 1883 sonnet. A reporter read him a line from the poem in 2017, when Miller was defending President Donald Trump’s plan to cut legal immigration by half.

“The poem that you’re referring to was added later,” he said.

It is true that the statue has not always been associated with migration. The monument was conceived as a celebration of liberty, the end of slavery and the camaraderie between France and the United States.

French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi originally designed the statue as a lighthouse for the Suez Canal in Egypt. After that project fell through, he became an enthusiastic proponent of putting Lady Liberty in New York Harbor. It was inaugurated on a soggy day in October 1886.

Around that time, Lazarus and many others thought the United States benefited from migrants, or had a moral duty to accept them, said Paul A. Kramer, an associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University. But a rising tide of voices favored exclusion.

“The 1880s were a real pivotal moment where you see these very strong pro-immigration approaches colliding with these new nativist and racist approaches,” Kramer said.

Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus” in 1883 as part of a fundraising campaign to pay for the statue’s American-made pedestal. She was a fourth-generation American whose Sephardic Jewish family was well established in New York.

Lazarus wrote poems and essays about violent pogroms against Jewish people overseas, and she became an advocate for Jews who came to the United States in the late 1800s, fleeing persecution in Europe and Russia.

“Ms. Lazarus not only insisted that American Jews come to the aid of Jewish refugees,” Esther Schor, a biographer of Lazarus and a professor of American Jewish studies at Princeton, wrote in a column for The New York Times. “She wrote ‘The New Colossus’ to argue that aiding the poor and oppressed of all lands was the mission of all Americans, the mission of America itself.”

Lazarus died in 1887; her poem was not affixed to the statue until 1903. It took years after that for the sonnet and the statue to meld in the popular imagination, but, with time, the figure that now towers more than 300 feet over Upper New York Bay came to be understood as the Mother of Exiles.

Citizenship and Immigration Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/us/cuccinelli-statue-liberty-poem.html" id="ef5dda8f-ea4a-37ed-a785-9aa7065f2b39">The New York Times</a>.

Statue of Liberty Poem Refers to Europeans, Ken Cuccinelli Says

Kenneth Cuccinelli, one of the Trump administration’s top immigration officials, set off a controversy this week with comments about “The New Colossus,” the 136-year-old sonnet at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

“May God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo,” the president said, referring to a city more than 100 miles away from Dayton, the location of a massacre on Sunday. “May God protect them. May God protect all of those from Texas to Ohio. May God bless the victims and their families. May God bless America.”

The speech followed a weekend of violence in two states. After a massacre on Saturday left 22 dead and dozens injured at a Walmart in El Paso, Americans awakened on Sunday to the news of another mass killing overnight, this time an attack in Dayton’s entertainment district that left nine dead and 27 injured.

Trump wasn’t the only politician to trip over the details. On Sunday night, former Vice President Joe Biden, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, misstated the locations of both shootings.

At a fundraiser, Biden referred to “the tragic events in Houston today and also in Michigan the day before,” according to a pool report. Michigan is to the north of Ohio, and Houston is about 700 miles from El Paso. Biden later corrected himself, according to the report.

For his part, Trump walked offstage Monday morning without taking questions from reporters or acknowledging his mistake. It was not immediately clear if the president had been improvising or reading the Teleprompter script. A transcript of his remarks released later by the White House showed the phrase “in Toledo” struck through.

Nan Whaley, the mayor of Dayton, said Monday that she had heard Trump would visit the city on Wednesday. “But I’ve not gotten a call,” she told a reporter. “And you know, he might be going to Toledo. I don’t know.

Over in Toledo, Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz also issued a statement: “It’s pretty obvious the president misspoke this morning, and that happens to all of us from time to time,” he said. “Nevertheless, Toledo is happy to accept his prayers, even if they were meant for Dayton.”

The president’s mistake drew criticism on social media, including from Dayton-area residents like Michelle Brown, 55.

“To not even be able to get the name of our city right when it’s been such an awful weekend for the country?” she said in an interview. “It’s absolutely appalling.”

And some critics pointed out that Biden had erred as well.

No politician or president is immune to flubs, and Trump has had his share. Just last month, for example, he suggested during an Independence Day speech that American soldiers “took over the airports” during or shortly after the Revolutionary War. No airports, or airplanes, existed at that time.

And last fall, Trump referred to Paradise, California, which had been devastated by wildfires, as “Pleasure.” He added, “What a name,” and repeated the mistake before other officials corrected him.

In his remarks Monday, Trump said, “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy — these sinister ideologies must be defeated.” He also used Twitter to call on Republicans and Democrats to work together to strengthen background checks for prospective gun buyers and pass new immigration laws.

Democratic presidential candidates have sought to connect the El Paso shooting to Trump, arguing that he has encouraged extremism with what they called hateful language. And on Monday, one of those candidates, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, swore in a terse tweet after Trump’s “Toledo” comment.

Ryan followed that up with a series of tweets. “Dayton. 9 lives lost. 27 people wounded,” he wrote in one. “A community reeling in pain, anguish and anger. I see you.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/us/toledo-trump.html" id="f9ed32ce-2f56-388a-a3ef-9c8b41de9065">The New York Times</a>.

Toledo? Trump Misstates Location of Ohio Massacre

In a televised speech Monday condemning two mass shootings over the weekend, President Donald Trump mistakenly named the wrong city in Ohio.

The man, Eddie Gray, 59, fell ill after he visited the Fantasy Lake Water Park in Cumberland County July 12, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement Thursday.

Naegleria fowleri infections are rare, but deadly. There were 145 known infected people in the United States from 1962 through 2018, and all but four cases were fatal.

The amoeba is typically found in warm freshwater, and the majority of cases in the United States have occurred in Florida and Texas.

“Mr. Gray’s death was tragic and untimely,” Justin Plummer, a lawyer representing his estate, said in a statement. “The family is currently asking for privacy and respect during this difficult time.”

According to his obituary, Gray was an active member of the Sedge Garden United Methodist Church who enjoyed kayaking, camping, hunting, fishing and NASCAR.

“Our sympathies are with the family and loved ones,” Zack Moore, North Carolina’s state epidemiologist, said in a statement. “People should be aware that this organism is present in warm freshwater lakes, rivers and hot springs across North Carolina, so be mindful as you swim or enjoy water sports.”

According to the North Carolina Health Department, Naegleria fowleri “does not cause illness if swallowed but can be fatal if forced up the nose, as can occur during diving, water-skiing or other water activities.”

Most of those affected have been children and adolescents, and more than three-quarters have been male, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A couple of cases have also been linked to neti pots — vessels that are used to wash out the nasal passages.

Early signs of infection can include headache, nausea and vomiting. The illness progresses rapidly, making it hard to diagnose, and most people who are infected die within one to two weeks.

After Naegleria fowleri enters the body through the nose, it can migrate to the brain along the olfactory nerve. Then, it can begin to destroy brain tissue. The technical name for the infection is primary amebic meningoencephalitis.

To prevent infection, people swimming in warm freshwater should try to limit the amount of water that goes up their nose.

“Hold your nose shut, use nose clips or keep your head above water when taking part in warm freshwater-related activities,” the Health Department said in the statement. It recommended that people avoid water activities when water levels are low and water temperatures are high, and that they refrain from stirring up sediment in shallow bodies of freshwater.

The department added that “there is no means to eliminate this amoeba from freshwater lakes.”

Fantasy Lake Water Park, which centers on a 6-acre, man-made lake, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening. But a swimming advisory on the park’s website cautions visitors that “there is a low level of Naegleria fowleri risk when entering any warm freshwater.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/us/brain-eating-amoeba-death.html" id="8cc8e56d-f6ac-3a04-ad6c-89fc1f014c6f">The New York Times</a>.

A man in North Carolina died on Monday after he went swimming in a lake and was infected by Naegleria fowleri, a single-celled organism known as the “brain-eating amoeba.”

Man Dies of 'Brain-Eating' Amoeba After Swimming in Lake

Chief Arthur Lawson of the Gretna Police Department announced the terminations, saying that Charles Rispoli, the officer who wrote the Facebook post, and Angelo Varisco, who liked the post online, had violated the department’s social media policy.

“This incident, we feel, has been an embarrassment to our department,” Lawson said at a news conference. “These officers have certainly acted in a manner which was unprofessional, alluding to a violent act to be conducted against a sitting U.S. congressman, a member of our government. We’re not going to tolerate that.”

Rispoli, a 14-year veteran of the Police Department, said in a Facebook post Thursday that Ocasio-Cortez “needs a round — and I don’t mean the kind she used to serve,” a reference to her past work as a bartender, according to a screenshot of the comment obtained by The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

Varisco joined the department in 2016. In the screenshot, his name can be seen as one of four who reacted to the post, either with a laughing face emoji or a thumbs-up.

Neither Rispoli nor Varisco could be reached for comment Monday evening.

“I applaud the investigation,” Mayor Belinda Constant said in an interview. “I think it was done appropriately, it was done expeditiously, and it absolutely was the right decision.”

Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is a self-described democratic socialist and has been a strong critic of President Donald Trump. She is one of four first-year female Democrats in the House — three of whom were born in the United States — who were told by Trump to “go back” to their countries in a Twitter post last week.

A representative for Ocasio-Cortez declined to comment Monday night.

Lawson said he had trouble understanding Rispoli’s post, especially since the article he shared — which claimed that Ocasio-Cortez had said soldiers were paid too much — was satirical.

“I think he just got caught up in the heat of the moment,” Lawson said. “And this wasn’t even a real news article.”

Neither officer had patrolled the streets, Lawson said. He said Varisco had provided security for the courts, and Rispoli had also worked in the courts before he began supervising “individuals who were in the home incarceration program.”

The action against the officers in Louisiana came at a time of increased scrutiny of police officers’ activity on social media.

Last month, researchers with the Plain View Project released a compilation of troubling posts made by public safety officers. They examined eight police departments across the country and found that — of the Facebook profiles they could verify — about 1 in 5 officers, including many in supervisory roles, and more than 2 in 5 former officers used content that was misogynist, racist, Islamophobic or otherwise biased, or that undermined the concept of due process.

The project spawned investigations and repercussions in Philadelphia, Phoenix, St. Louis and elsewhere.

Lawson said Gretna police officers had been trained and made aware of other episodes across the country in which officials had gotten into trouble for inappropriate social media posts.

“With all of those efforts, something like this still happens,” he said. “And it’s very disturbing. It certainly shows a lack of the officers paying attention to what’s going on in the world around them.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/us/gretna-police-charlie-rispoli-aoc.html" id="93f05989-e2e9-36f0-aab0-c10312fc4e47">The New York Times</a>.

Two Police Officers Are Fired Over Facebook Post Saying Ocasio-Cortez 'Needs a Round'

Two police officers in Gretna, Louisiana, were fired Monday, four days after one of them referred to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a “vile idiot” on social media and suggested that she should be shot.

A representative of Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday evening.

His family confirmed the death in a statement Thursday. A representative for Mayhew said he died after having a heart attack.

Mayhew — who was 7-foot-3 — donned a shaggy costume to play Chewbacca, the menacing yet cuddly Wookiee who was a sidekick to Han Solo and the co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon. He appeared in all three films of the original trilogy, as well as in “Revenge of the Sith” in 2005 and “The Force Awakens” in 2015.

“He put his heart and soul into the role of Chewbacca and it showed in every frame of the films, from his knock-kneed running, firing his bowcaster from the hip, his bright blue eyes, down to each subtle movement of his head and mouth,” Mayhew’s family said in its statement.

Mayhew was born in London on May 19, 1944. He had a form of gigantism and had grown extraordinarily tall by the time he was a teenager.

He was in his 30s and working as an orderly in a London hospital when Hollywood found him. A film producer had spotted Mayhew in a photograph, and he was ultimately cast to play the Minoton — a towering bronze figure — in the 1977 movie “Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.”

Shortly thereafter, he was recommended to George Lucas, who decided that Mayhew would be a good candidate to play Chewbacca in the original “Star Wars” trilogy. That role altered the course of Mayhew’s life. In addition to appearing in “Star Wars” films, he did additional work in consulting and in commercials involving the character.

Lucas called Mayhew “a good friend” in a statement Thursday and said he was saddened by his passing.

“Peter was a wonderful man,” he added. “He was the closest any human being could be to a Wookiee: big heart, gentle nature.”

After knee surgery in 2013 made it necessary for Mayhew to use a wheelchair, it was unclear whether he would be able to portray Chewbacca again. But after a period of intense rehabilitation, he reprised his role one more time in “The Force Awakens.”

Since then, he has regularly interacted with fans at conventions and on social media. He once tweeted a personal response to the woman whose infectious laughter about a Chewbacca mask charmed thousands of people in 2016.

Mayhew was also known to carry a cane that resembled a lightsaber. The tool was investigated once, briefly, by Transportation Security Administration workers at an airport; he tweeted about that, too.

In 2011, Mayhew and his wife started the Peter Mayhew Foundation, which has supported various causes including helping a young woman get approved for a life-saving lung transplant in 2016.

Mayhew is survived by his wife, Angie, who will continue running the foundation, as well as three daughters and one grandchild.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/obituaries/peter-mayhew-chewbacca-dead.html" id="cae10492-599e-34ae-ae03-f51791c56de6">The New York Times</a>.

Peter Mayhew, the actor best known for portraying Chewbacca in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, died at his home in Texas on Tuesday. He was 74.

Peter Mayhew, the Actor Behind Chewbacca's Mask, Dies at 74

Law enforcement officers found him there early April 17, and the man, Reynard Green, 34, was arrested. He was charged with simple burglary, trespassing, damaging property, drug possession and battery of a police officer.

A week after the episode, some questions remain: How did Green get inside, and why? The 8-acre property, which sits on Capitol Access Road and overlooks Capitol Lake, is gated, and the governor and the mansion are supposed to be protected by state troopers 24 hours a day.

With an investigation still underway, authorities are being tight-lipped for now. In a statement, the State Police said that they are “currently evaluating security procedures for potential areas of improvement.”

Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, has not said whether he was inside the building at the time of the intrusion, and a spokeswoman for him said that “at no time did he feel anything other than safe.”

According to booking documents provided by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, Green was found on the property around 6 a.m., and “there was an antique wooden table where Green was sleeping that was broken.”

The documents did not list any other items as broken or missing. They said Green was taken to a police facility for processing, and then things became violent: Green “took a swing” at a sergeant, and then again at an officer.

One officer found a substance that appeared to be synthetic marijuana in one of Green’s pockets, according to the documents.

Later, a sergeant who interviewed Green said that he tried to grab his service weapon. “I was able to stop Green from attempting to disarm me with a right elbow strike to the face,” the sergeant wrote.

Green, a Baton Rouge resident, remained in detention Tuesday evening. It was unclear whether he had a lawyer to represent him.

There are two governor’s mansions in Baton Rouge — one old, one new. The old one, built in 1930, is now a historical landmark and a museum downtown. The new one — where the intrusion took place last week — was built in 1963, but it was designed to evoke a Greek Revival style popular in the mid-1800s. Members of the public can take guided tours inside of the mansion.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/us/louisiana-governors-mansion-trespass.html" id="8c5ee749-0d15-3caf-a753-3bc6e73645c3">The New York Times</a>.

Residents of Louisiana woke up last week to news of an odd security breach in Baton Rouge, the capital: A man apparently had found his way into the governor’s mansion, and then fell asleep on a couch inside.

Jacey Fortin

Articles written by the author

Experts Back Mandatory Bike Helmets but Not All Cyclists Are Sold

The Daily Northwestern Apologizes to Student Protesters for Reporting

Bill Gates Objects to Elizabeth Warren's Wealth Tax, and She Offers to Explain

Elizabeth Warren Offers to Explain Her Wealth Tax to Bill Gates

Statue of Liberty Poem Refers to Europeans, Ken Cuccinelli Says

Toledo? Trump Misstates Location of Ohio Massacre

Man Dies of 'Brain-Eating' Amoeba After Swimming in Lake

Two Police Officers Are Fired Over Facebook Post Saying Ocasio-Cortez 'Needs a Round'

Two Police Officers Are Fired Over Facebook Post Saying Ocasio-Cortez 'Needs a Round'

Two Police Officers Are Fired Over Facebook Post Saying Ocasio-Cortez 'Needs a Round'

Peter Mayhew, the Actor Behind Chewbacca's Mask, Dies at 74

Man Is Found Sleeping on a Couch in Louisiana's Governor's Mansion

Suspect in 3 Black Church Fires in Louisiana Is Charged With Hate Crimes

Man Charged With Hate Crimes After 3 Black Church Fires in Louisiana

Adnan Syed, Subject of 'Serial' Podcast, Is Denied a New Trial

10 Students Who Beat the Odds to Win a New York Times Scholarship

Virgin Galactic Sends a Rocket Plane to Space Again, in Its Highest Flight Yet

Virgin Galactic Sends a Rocket Plane to Space Again, in Its Highest Flight Yet

Man Was 'Riddled With Bullets' After Police Shot Him at Taco Bell, Lawyer Says

Portland Mayor Calls for Investigation After Disclosure of Texts With Right-Wing Organizer