Roger Mudd, longtime network TV newsman, dies at 93
Roger Mudd, the longtime political correspondent and anchor for NBC and CBS who once stumped Sen. Edward Kennedy by simply asking why he wanted to be president, has died. He was 93.
CBS News says Mudd died Tuesday of complications of kidney failure at his home in McLean, Virginia.
During more than 30 years on network television, starting with CBS in 1961, Mudd covered Congress, elections and political conventions and was a frequent anchor and contributor to various specials. His career coincided with the flowering of television news, the pre-cable, pre-Internet days when the big three networks and their powerhouse ranks of reporters were the main source of news for millions of Americans.
Besides work at CBS and NBC, he did stints on PBS’s “MacNeil/ Lehrer NewsHour” and the History Channel.
When he joined Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer’s show in 1987, Mudd told The Associated Press: “I think they regard news and information and fact and opinion with a reverence and respect that really is admirable.”
He wrote a memoir, “The Place To Be,” which came out in early 2008, and described the challenges and clashing egos he encountered working in Washington, where among other things he covered Congress for CBS for 15 years.
In an April 2008 interview on the “NewsHour,” he said he “absolutely loved” keeping tabs on the nation’s 100 senators and 435 representatives.
STAMFORD — A Connecticut woman is suing Uber over a 2019 incident in which police say she was raped by one of the company’s drivers while she was passed out drunk in the back of his car.
The woman, who is not named in the lawsuit, claims the alleged rape happened, in part, due to Uber’s “negligence.”
The company, the suit says, markets its services specifically as a “safe means” for intoxicated people to get home after a night of drinking. But they do so “without providing any meaningful protection against sexual assault by their drivers,” the suit claims.
“Uber’s entire business model is structured around convincing people to get into strangers’ cars,” said attorney Maxwell Barrand, of DiScala & DiScala, who represents the woman. “So they’ve grown into a $75billion
industry by expanding their driver base as quickly as they possibly can, and what we are now investigating — and intend to get through discovery — is how much of that money is actually invested into keeping their riders safe.”
In the complaint, Barrand wrote that by failing to “adequately screen”
their drivers, “monitor trips in progress for unexpected stops,” and offer a “panic button” feature either in the car or on the app, Uber failed to ensure the safety of his client.
“This rape, and the resulting damages to the life and person of the plaintiff, are due to the wanton and reckless conduct of defendant Uber,” Barrand wrote in the complaint.
Barrand said in the lawsuit that his client has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, “fearfulness of strangers,” anxiety, pain and more as a result of the incident.
The woman is seeking more than $15,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, as well as coverage for attorney fees and “other relief.”
Uber representatives did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
The lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court in Stamford on Jan. 22, also names the former Uber driver, Nour Awad, as a defendant in the case.
Awad was arrested in July 2019 and charged with second-degree sexual assault of a physically helpless person. He has since pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Attorney Bob Gulash, who represents Awad in his criminal case, did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
According to police, Awad picked the woman up around 1 a.m. on Feb. 9, 2019, from downtown Stamford where she had spent the night out drinking with friends.
Police said the woman was very intoxicated when she entered the car outside a Bedford Street bar and passed out as Awad began to drive her home to Darien.
But police said Awad only got as far as the 1000 block of Hope Street in Springdale where he pulled into a back parking lot and raped the passedout woman.
Police said when the woman awoke, she fought off Awad, got out of the car and called a friend, who picked her up.
After his arrest, ridehailing services Uber and Lyft said they banned Awad from their platforms.
The Connecticut lawsuit is the latest complaint filed against Uber over sexual assault and abuse accusations against its drivers.
According to a report released by Uber in 2019, the company received 5,981 allegations of serious sexual assault in the U.S. in 2017 and 2018. The claims range from unwanted touching and kissing to rape.
In 2019, a Milford woman filed a similar lawsuit against Uber after she was allegedly groped by her driver in November 2018. In the lawsuit, she also accused the company of failing to have any devices in the car that could have prevented the assault such as a panic button.
The lawsuit is still awaiting trial in state Superior Court in Milford. The driver accused of the incident, Wael Salem, was granted accelerated rehabilitation on charges of fourth-degree sexual assault and third-degree assault in 2018.
What are you willing to wait in line for? Everyone is taught to line up for school assemblies, but we keep drifting back into them long after graduation day.
A Anyone anxious to snag hot tickets to concerts (remember them?) knows all too well the anxiety that builds until the virtual box office opens, followed by a “Your wait is 5 ... 10 ... 15 ... minutes” message. While tailgating in stadium parking lots, previous generations share shaggy dog tales of wrist bracelets and sleeping on sidewalks to buy tickets.
A The people who sit in in the rear wind up first in line to greet a newly married couple after a wedding.
A Apartment dwellers know the tormented wait to snag a washing machine.
A There’s the line to get NFL seats ...
A Followed by the halftime queue to the bathroom.
A For the hungry, no line is too long to wait for food.
A There are those who seem to like the experience of the wait so much that they’ll do it just to get a cronut.
And those who would do anything not to face another line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
A The most resolute citizens are willing to wait for their voice to be heard at public hearings.
A And, of course, we patiently wait at funeral homes to pay last respects to the dead.
These waits are all, more or less, optional. The line to get a coronavirus vaccine represents the rare instance of a line everyone has an interest in, even those who are resisting getting the shots.
The line created by Gov. Ned Lamont has the advantage of being a straight one. While we championed giving consideration to residents, for example, with comorbidities, there is logic to the reasoning that any line moves more quickly that is not serpentine.
For some people, this has posed something of a moral quandary. Those who are in good health have expressed trepidation at getting access to vaccines before the more vulnerable.
The last group in the state’s rollout plan — ages 16-34 — won’t be eligible until May 3, which still seems so far away. But some people in that group are already suggesting they want to make sure they aren’t cutting in front of more vulnerable neighbors. It’s an admirable impulse, but we’ll reach the end of the line faster if there isn’t quibbling in the middle (there are a few exceptions; cases in which doctors might advise against it).
“It’s really your civic duty so we can get herd immunity,” said Karen Jubanyik, Yale Medicine Emergency Medicine physician and co-author of “Beat the Coronavirus: Strategies for Staying Safe and Coping With the New Normal During the COVID-19.”
Young people may feel safe, but they need to embrace the reality that they can still transmit the disease. And if a vaccine is formulated for even younger residents, they need to set a good example.
We wait in line for so many things. Everyone should be willing to do it to save lives.
While we championed giving consideration to residents, for example, with comorbidities, there is logic to the reasoning that any line moves more quickly that is not serpentine