CHICAGO — Chicago Teachers Union members who are refusing to return to the classroom said Monday they’re worried about losing their jobs but they believe that reopening schools is a greater risk.
“We’re afraid for our lives. We don’t want to lose our jobs. The fear of losing our jobs is real. Many of us are the sole income earners in our homes,” Chicago Public Schools teacher Lori Torres said. “But the fear of this virus is greater than that fear.”
Torres and other union members spoke at a news conference early Monday, a day after the union announced that some of its members would not report to work on Monday because they don’t trust that CPS’ reopening plan is safe and equitable.
About 5,800 teachers and other staff members who serve preschoolers and some special education students were expected to return to classrooms on Monday, with those students due to return on Jan. 11, which would mark the first in-person classes in CPS since the coronavirus prompted a statewide shutdown of schools in March.
Parents were given the option to continue with remote learning — an option the CTU noted was chosen at a much higher rate by Black and Latino families. But union members also criticized the expectation that they teach simultaneously to in-person and at-home students.
—Chicago Tribune
ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis warned hospitals Monday that if they don’t step up their coronavirus vaccinations, their doses will start to be cut.
At a news conference at the Orlando Health South Seminole Hospital in Longwood on Monday, DeSantis cited the hospital system’s expansion of the vaccine program as an example of what he wants other hospitals to do across the state.
“If they’re exceeding their targets ... and there are other hospitals that are not moving the vaccine, then we’re going to up their allotment,” DeSantis said. “And we’re going to reduce the allotment of any hospital systems that aren’t getting the shots in the arms.”
DeSantis also said he wants Florida to convert some COVID-19 testing sites into vaccination sites, hire 1,000 more nurses, identify churches and other places of worship where people can get the shots, and investigate the most productive way to offer vaccinations at long-term care facilities.
The governor said he couldn’t yet give a specific timeline on how much of the vaccine will be available. He said the state only knows the week before about precise amounts of shipments.
—Orlando Sentinel
MINNEAPOLIS — A suburban fitness club manager tackled and disarmed a man who pointed a handgun at the manager's chest while complaining that members were exercising without masks, prosecutors said Monday.
Michael M. Florhaug, 64, of Maplewood, was charged in Ramsey County District Court with assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the incident about 30 minutes before Thursday's 6 p.m. closing time at the LA Fitness in Maplewood.
Florhaug remains jailed in lieu of $50,000 bail ahead of a court appearance Tuesday. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
Assistant manager Mike Olson, 33, said Monday afternoon that "I just kind of knew that it had to be done. It didn't take much thinking. It was more of a reaction."
Olson credited his willingness to risk his life to his four years in the Army, especially during an eight-month tour in Iraq in 2007-08.
Maplewood police investigative Sgt. Joe Steiner said that while "we definitely recommend that people call the police and try not to take matters in their own hands, it appears that the manager didn't really have a choice. He felt like people's lives were at risk. ... He did a great job."
—Star Tribune
NEW YORK — Attorney General William Barr personally questioned the last inmate to share a cell with Jeffrey Epstein before the multimillionaire sex offender died by suicide, a source told the New York Daily News.
Epstein was found hanging from cloth tied to a bed frame early on Aug. 10, 2019, rocking the highest levels of the Justice Department. Investigators’ attention turned to Efrain “Stone” Reyes, who had been transferred out of a cell he shared with Epstein the day before the suicide at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan.
Reyes’ niece and other sources previously told the Daily News that Reyes was moved to the privately-run Queens Detention Center, which holds cooperating witnesses.
Following Epstein’s death, Reyes was pulled from the privately run jail for frequent meetings with authorities, according to a source. Following one of the meetings, Reyes told the source that the attorney general himself had asked questions about the staff at MCC.
“Barr wanted to know about what was going on in there. Barr told him, ‘I owe you a favor, thank you for telling us the truth,’” said the source, who became close friends with Reyes while they were both held at the Queens jail.
—New York Daily News
