Illinois bakery in crosshairs over drag show event will likely be forced to close
CHICAGO — UpRising Bakery and Cafe announced that “horrific attacks” on the establishment dating back to last summer, including threats and vandalism that led up to a planned drag show in July, have forced the Lake in the Hills bakery to close its doors as soon as the end of March.
Corinna Sac, owner of the bakery, said in a statement the attacks on her business resulted in “low patronage and low sales,” and therefore the bakery is likely to close.
“Without an infusion of more than $30,000 at this time, I cannot keep the doors open to my dream bakery,” Sac said in the statement. “I wish to thank every single one of you who have defended us, protected us and supported us.”
She said her last ask of the community is for people to take part in a “tip the bill” campaign, funds of which will be collected and split among the staff with the goal of giving each of them the equivalent of one extra paycheck.
—Chicago Tribune
FDNY firehouses still ‘hostile’ to firefighters of color despite years of civil rights litigation, Vulcan Society president says
NEW YORK — The head of the city’s Black firefighters group bashed the FDNY for not making significant progress in creating a “less hostile” atmosphere at firehouses — despite changes required by a groundbreaking civil rights lawsuit.
New York City firehouses remain hotbeds of racism and discrimination even after judicial orders and a settlement in the case reached in 2014, according to Regina Wilson, the president of the Vulcan Society, which represents Black firefighters.
“It’s been a number of years and our firefighters in the field are still out there trying to change the negative culture and traditions hoisted upon us,” said Wilson, the first woman president of the Vulcan Society. “We’re sick of waiting, sick of being hazed, sick of being harassed and sick of dealing with this.”
Wilson made the comments at the end of a status conference in Brooklyn Federal Court last week held to assess the city’s progress in implementing the lawsuit’s orders. A massive staff reduction at the FDNY’s Equal Employment Opportunity Office has delayed misconduct complaints by Black members who feel they are being discriminated against by co-workers and superiors, Wilson said.
—New York Daily News
Trial in Gwyneth Paltrow’s alleged ‘hit-and-run’ ski incident set to begin
The trial in a lawsuit that accuses Gwyneth Paltrow of a 2016 hit-and-run skiing incident in Park City, Utah, is set to begin this week.
In the lawsuit, retired optometrist Terry Sanderson alleges that the Goop founder was skiing downhill at the Deer Valley Resort when she collided with him, then skied away. Sanderson was left behind with a brain injury and broken ribs, according to a Deseret News report on the lawsuit, which was filed in 2019.
Sanderson originally sought $3.1 million in damages, but the amount will now be set during the jury trial, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
The trial will begin Tuesday morning at the Park City District Court and is scheduled to last eight days, court spokesperson Tania Nashburn told The Times. Both parties, including Paltrow, are expected to be present during the trial.
—Los Angeles Times
Somalia drought claimed as many as 43,000 lives last year
As many as 43,000 people are estimated to have died in Somalia last year as a result of the east African nation’s worst drought in more than four decades, according to the government and United Nations agencies.
“Half of these deaths might have occurred among children under the age of five,” Somalia’s Ministry of Health and Human Services said in a joint statement with the World Health Organization and the U.N. Children’s Fund on Monday. “These estimates suggest that although famine has been averted, for now the crisis is far from over.”
Rains in Somalia — one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries — have failed for six consecutive seasons, and water shortages are even worse than in the early 1990s when a famine claimed about 260,000 lives. Almost half of its 17 million people remain in urgent need of aid. The government and the U.N. estimate between 18,100 and 34,200 more people could die in the first half of this year because they don’t have enough to eat or drink.
The estimates are the first official attempt to quantify the death toll as a result of the drought, the effects of which have been compounded by high inflation and shortages of wheat and other staples stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ascertaining an accurate figure is tricky because Islamist militant group al-Shabab has been trying to topple the government since 2006 and some parts of the country remain unstable and inaccessible to the authorities.
—Bloomberg News
