 Travis McMichael Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael, two of the three white men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020, were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Friday. William "Roddie" Bryan, a neighbor of the McMichaels who followed and filmed the shooting, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley held a minute of silence before reading his sentences, representing "a fraction of the time" that Arbery, a Black man, was running before being shot. More: - Travis McMichael was convicted in November of all nine charges against him; his father Gregory McMichael was acquitted of malice murder but convicted of all other charges.
- Their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, was found guilty of three counts of felony murder.
- The convictions required Walmsley to levy life in prison sentences, but he was able to determine whether the suspects would be allowed to receive parole after 30 years.
- The family of Ahmaud Arbery asked for maximum sentences for the three men, and remembered Arbery as a "young man full of life and energy."
- Defense attorneys argued that parole should be a possibility for the men despite "reckless" actions. "This was not a planned murder," Robert Rubin, one of Travis McMichael's defense attorneys, said.
- The McMichaels and Bryan followed Arbery, who was jogging, in pickup trucks on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan recorded cell phone video of Travis McMichael struggling with and shooting Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia.
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 The Supreme Court heard arguments Friday regarding the Biden administration's employer-based vaccine mandates, which would require more than 80 million Americans to get coronavirus shots. One of the mandates, which applies to large employers, is set to take effect on Monday, though the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says it won't impose fines until late February. Although the court usually issues decisions months after hearing a case, it could rule on the vaccine mandates within days. More: - Early in the arguments, the court's liberal justices appeared supportive of the mandates, and three of the court's conservative justices – Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas – appeared firmly against them.
- Attorney Sean Marotta said that conservative-leaning Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, and Chief Justice John Roberts will likely determine the outcome.
- There are signs that the swing justices may support the mandate for health care workers, but not for all businesses with more than 100 employees.
- Opponents of the mandates say they will exacerbate labor shortages and encourage hundreds of thousands of people to quit their jobs.
- Supporters say mandating the vaccines is a matter of public health, and that a significant percentage of the U.S. population won't elect to get a vaccine on their own, but aren't stridently against them and would comply if required.
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 Sidney Poitier and Lilia Skala in "Lilies of the Field" (1963) Actor and civil rights activist Sidney Poitier has died at the age of 94. A legendary figure, particularly in the cinema of the 1950s and '60s, Poitier was the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for the 1963 film "Lilies of the Field." He also appeared in the films "A Raisin in the Sun" (1961), "To Sir, with Love" (1967), "In the Heat of the Night" (1967), "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967), and "Sneakers" (1992). More: - Poitier often took what The New York Times described as "limiting, saintly roles" that appealed to white audiences at a time when Black leading males were virtually non-existent.
- He was often criticized, starting in the late 1960s, for not taking roles where the characters had more texture and personality flaws. "I felt very much as if I were representing 15, 18 million people with every move I made," he once said about representing Black Americans on screen.
- Poitier, who was born in the Bahamas, served as the Bahamas' ambassador to Japan from 1997 to 2007.
- He also directed several films, including "Stir Crazy" (1980), starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor.
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 GOOD NEWS: Pakistan has cleared the way for its first female Supreme Court Justice to be confirmed. Justice Ayesha A. Malik is likely to become the first woman to sit on Pakistan's highest court after Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed supported her nomination, despite opposition from a number of the country's lawyers who say she lacks seniority. Much of Pakistan's legal community celebrated Malik's nomination in a system that has been dominated by men since Pakistan became an independent nation in 1947. More: - A judicial commission initially rejected Malik's nomination as she was fourth in seniority on the Lahore High Court.
- However, women's rights groups and advocates said that her lack of seniority should not prevent her nomination to the high court from being considered.
- Advocates hope Malik's ascension will bring more attention to the continuing struggle for women's rights in Pakistan.
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Employers added fewer jobs (199,000) in December than in previous months, but the U.S. economy still set a record in 2021 for the most new jobs in comparison to the prior year. The U.S. economy had 6.4 million more jobs than at the end of 2020, a sign of a slowly-but-surely recovering labor market following millions of layoffs at the beginning of the pandemic. The unemployment rate fell from 4.2% in November to 3.9% in December, though the labor-force participation rate ended the year at 61.9%, below the 63.4% of February 2020. More: - The Labor Department's data came in before the omicron variant sent COVID-19 cases skyrocketing in late December, which may have impacted labor participation rates.
- However, there are signs that workers are enduring the latest surge, as there were only 207,000 new jobless claims last week, the lowest level in more than 50 years.
- Economists said they expected 2022 to bring a consistent level of economic growth, with businesses and workers "learning to live with" new coronavirus waves.
- However, fears of catching COVID-19 and difficulties finding child care are still cited as the top hindrances to greater labor force participation.
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 A 5-year-old playing with a lighter may have set a Christmas tree ablaze, resulting in the fire that killed 12 people at a Philadelphia rowhome this week, investigators believe. The details of the investigation were included in a search warrant application, as officials seek to determine what caused the fire and where it started. Three sisters and nine of their children died in what was the deadliest fire in the city in more than a century. More: - The search warrant application was necessary for investigators to gain access to the apartment, but is far from confirmation of what initiated the blaze.
- The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is assisting in the investigation.
- Family members, friends, and hundreds of other supporters held a vigil Thursday night in front of a local elementary school.
- Two survivors of the fire were hospitalized, with at least one in stable condition.
- The three-story building that caught fire is owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, a public housing agency that also serves as Pennsylvania's biggest landlord.
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QUICK HITS - E3, the video game trade show organized by the Entertainment Software Association, is once again shifting to an online-only event this summer due to coronavirus concerns.
- A record number of Florida manatees died last year, most of starvation, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
- Starting this year, mobile payment apps including Venmo, Cash App, and PayPal will have to report commercial transactions of more than $600/year to the IRS. The apps will not have to report any personal charges between friends and family.
- The CDC issued a rabies warning after three Americans died in 2021 after being exposed to bats. No such deaths were reported in 2019 or 2020.
- Former NFL running back Clinton Portis has been sentenced to six months in prison and six months of home confinement for his role in a fraud scheme involving an NFL health care fund.
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 |  | Jonathan Harris is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles. |  | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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