Cop killing is suspected hate crime
CHICAGO — Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Monday that the suspected gunman in the weekend killing of an off-duty officer shot “the first Hispanic man he came in contact with” after an earlier petty dispute with a separate group of Latinos.
The “nightmare” began about 2:25 a.m. Saturday, in the city’s River North neighborhood, police said, when Menelik Jackson got into a confrontation with some Hispanic men on a party bus.
Mr. Jackson returned later with a gun, but the men were no longer there, Mr. Johnson said.
In what Mr. Johnson called “an act of cowardice,” Mr. Jackson opened fire into a parked car about 3:25 a.m. a block from the initial confrontation, killing off-duty Chicago police Officer John P. Rivera, 23, and critically wounding the officer’s friend, also 23.
At a news conference, the superintendent said the department would pursue possible hate crime charges against Mr. Jackson for targeting Officer Rivera.
Boeing changes tested
Pilots from the three American carriers that fly Boeing 737 MAX planes tested software changes developed by Boeing to a key stabilization system on Saturday, a person briefed on the tests said.
The changes are intended to decrease the chances of triggering the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, which is believed to have played a role in the Lion Air crash in October.
The Federal Aviation Administration has said there are similarities between that crash and a second 737 MAX crash earlier this month in Ethiopia.
Pilots and training officials from Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines met with Boeing officials Saturday to review the software changes, according to multiple airline sources. Pilots ran simulated flights designed to mimic the situation that brought down the Lion Air flight in Indonesia last year, using the current and updated software, according to the person briefed on the session.
Each pilot landed the plane safely, the person said. In the simulations with the current MCAS software, the test pilots used existing procedures to disable the system, while test flights using the new software required less intervention from the pilots, the person said.
Avocado recall in 6 states
California-grown avocados sold in bulk to retail stores in six states by the Henry Avocado Corp. are being recalled due to potential contamination with the bacterium listeria monocytogenes, the company announced Saturday.
“Henry Avocado is issuing this voluntary recall out of an abundance of caution due to positive test results on environmental samples taken during a routine government inspection at its California packing facility,” the company said.
The recalled products included Californiagrown conventional and organic avocados. They were packed at Henry Avocado Corp.’s facility in California and distributed to Arizona, California, Florida, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Wisconsin.