Author: chicagoinquirer

WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday after experiencing symptoms, but is engaged in her duties while working from home, Treasury spokesperson Lily Adams said. Yellen will continue to work from home until she can return to Treasury offices, Adams said in an emailed statement. Yellen, 78, returned to Washington on Saturday from a three-day trip to Raleigh, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas, to promote the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act investments in clean energy and the Internal Revenue Service.

By Danielle Broadway DETROIT – A Michigan inmate who accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of drugging and sexually assaulting him at a party almost 30 years ago has been awarded a $100 million judgment against the rapper and record producer. Derrick Lee Smith, 51, won the multimillion-dollar judgment by default in Lenawee County Circuit Court during a virtual hearing on Monday after Combs, 54, failed to show up. An attorney for Combs said the rapper would move to have the judgment dismissed. “This man (Smith) is a convicted felon and sexual predator, who has been sentenced on 14 counts of sexual…

CHICAGO – Former Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has been named new coach of the United States men’s team, U.S. Soccer announced on Tuesday. Pochettino, who parted ways with Premier League side Chelsea in May after one season in charge, will take the reins in the U.S. ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Mexico, Canada and the United States. The Argentine, a former Paris St Germain and Tottenham Hotspur manager, said his decision to join U.S. soccer was not just about football, but about the journey the country was on and he couldn’t pass up the…

by Ahmed Kingimi MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – Floods in north Nigeria have killed more than 80% of animals in a large zoo with an array of wildlife from lions and crocodiles to buffaloes and ostriches, the facility said on Tuesday. “Some deadly animals have been washed away into our communities, like crocodiles and snakes,” Sanda Kyarimi Park Zoo added in a statement on the floods in northern Borno state, urging residents to take precautions. Floods began when a dam overflowed following heavy rains, uprooting thousands of people. The disaster has affected other facilities in the state capital Maiduguri including the post…

by Amina Niasse NEW YORK – The Biden Administration on Monday said it had finalized regulation to help ensure the 175 million Americans with private health insurance have access to affordable mental health services. The 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act already requires insurers and corporate-backed health plans to provide access and payment structures for mental health care services on par with other medical services. In practice, that is often not the case, with less than half of U.S. adults with mental illness able to access care in 2020, while nearly 70 percent of children cannot receive treatment,…

by Amy Tennery and Karl Plume NEW YORK – Taylor Swift headlined the list of celebrities present at the U.S. Open final on Sunday, as another Taylor – Fritz – aimed to end a 21-year American men’s major drought on Arthur Ashe Stadium against Italian top seed Jannik Sinner. Sports, television and movie stars have flocked to Flushing Meadows over the past fortnight, occupying luxury boxes and sipping on the venue’s famous $23 “Honey Deuce” cocktails and the celebrities were back in full force for Sunday’s finale. But few stars shine brighter in American pop culture than Swift, who kicked…

by Joseph Omoremi CHICAGO – Expectations are high on the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for ten years as thousands of Americans including Rev Jesse Jackson petitioned for its timely re-authorization and enhancement to include the disbursement of the $55 billion earlier pledge for the African Union 2063 agenda and the $5 billion for the Special Purpose Investment Fund for Africa (SPIFA). “We belief AGOA has played an integral role in creating good paying- jobs thereby reducing poverty, enhancing democracy and rule of law in Sub-Sahara Africa,” said recently by Fred Oladehinde, President of the Foundation…

CHICAGO -September 8 – A special teams and defensive touchdown in the second half sparked the host Chicago Bears to a 24-17 victory against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday in quarterback Caleb Williams’ NFL debut. Chicago scored 24 unanswered points to rally past Tennessee, which outgained the Bears 244-148. Tyrique Stevenson gave the Bears (1-0) their first lead of the game on a 43-yard interception return touchdown with 7:35 to play. Trying to escape the pass rush, Titans quarterback Will Levis flipped the ball away but Stevenson was waiting. Chicago notched its first TD with 9:07 left in the third…

NEW YORK – The mother of the teenager charged with fatally shooting two students and two teachers at a Georgia high school on Wednesday called the school that morning and warned a counselor about an “extreme emergency,” the Washington Post reported. Marcee Gray, the mother of the suspected shooter, 14-year-old Colt Gray, said she told the counselor to find her son immediately, the newspaper reported. Phone records provided by a relative to the Post show a 10-minute call to Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, at 9:50 a.m., about 30 minutes before the attack began. Gray declined to detail what…

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – At least 48 people were killed on Sunday in a fuel tanker truck explosion following a collision with another vehicle in north-central Nigeria, the state’s disaster management agency said. The State Emergency Management Agency in north-central Niger state said the fuel truck collided with a truck carrying travellers and cattle. Several other vehicles were also caught up in the accident, it said. The agency’s spokesperson Hussaini Ibrahim put the death toll at 48 and officials were still trying to clear the scene of the incident. Nigeria’s state-owned firm NNPC Ltd last week hiked the price of gasoline…