Nancy enters Toy Hall of Fame

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Baby Nancy, the first Black baby doll to have an Afro and other authentic features, was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame on Thursday, along with sidewalk chalk and the wooden block game Jenga. The 2020 honorees were recognized for their creativity and popularity over time. They were chosen by a panel of experts from among 12 finalists that also included bingo, Breyer Horses, Lite-Brite, Masters of the Universe, My Little Pony, Risk, Sorry!, Tamagotchi, and Yahtzee. Baby Nancy was the inaugural doll for Shindana Toys, a California company launched in 1968 by Operation Bootstrap Inc., the not-for-profit Black community self-help organization that emerged in the aftermath of the Watts riots in Los Angeles. By Thanksgiving, Baby Nancy was the bestselling Black doll in Los Angeles, and before Christmas, she was selling nationwide. The toy exposed a long-standing demand for ethnically correct Black dolls, according to the National Toy Hall of Fame, located in The Strong museum in Rochester, New York. Shindana Toys folded amid financial problems in 1983, but Baby Nancy "still stands as a landmark doll that made commercial and cultural breakthoughs," curator Michelle Parnett-Dwyer said in a news release. Another inductee, sidewalk chalk, traces its roots all the way back to Paleolithic cave art found throughout the world, hall officials said. "There are few limits to what kids can do with chalk. Every sidewalk square, patio, and driveway holds the potential for a work of art, a winning game of strategy and cleverness, or a demonstration of physical agility, poise, and balance," chief curator Christopher Bensch said. Jenga, the creation of Englishwoman Leslie Scott, was honored for its simplicity and ability to be played by almost anyone. Players take turns removing wooden blocks from a rectangular tower until it collapses. Its name comes from the Swahili verb, kujenga, which means to build. "It is one of the rare games that's equally fun for two people or a bigger crowd. It's perfect for a game party with a group or something more intimate, but either way, it's always sure to make instant memories," curator Nicolas Ricketts said. The three new inductees will be on permanent display at the National Toy Hall of Fame, alongside previous winners that include Barbie and the Hula Hoop. The hall takes nominations from anyone year-round and has inducted a new class each year since 1998.

ESPN announces 300 layoffs

ESPN announced Thursday it is eliminating about 500 jobs worldwide, including about 300 through layoffs. The cuts amount to about 10% of the employees at the sports network and are due largely to the impact of the pandemic on its business and the "tremendous disruption in how fans consume sports." "In the short term, we enacted various steps like executive and talent salary reductions, furloughs and budget cuts, and we implemented innovative operations and production approaches, all in an effort to weather the COVID storm," Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN's chairman, wrote in an email to employees. "We have, however, reached an inflection point." In addition to the layoffs, the company is planning to leave about 200 vacant positions unfilled. ESPN did not say how many of the job cuts would come at its Bristol, Connecticut, campus, but said they would not be concentrated in any one area. On-air talent, the vast majority having personal contracts, is not expected to be heavily affected. But some of those contracts could be allowed to expire. The company said it has more than 5,000 employees, including about 4,000 in Bristol.

Complains of sleep deprivation

MOSCOW -- The brother of an American convicted of espionage in Russia said Thursday that his imprisoned sibling is suffering sleep deprivation at a prison colony where he is serving a 16-year sentence. David Whelan said his brother, Paul, complained that he was being woken up at approximately 2-hour intervals every night over the past few weeks. The practice apparently began because someone in the Russian system deemed Paul Whelan a flight risk, his brother said. "It is ridiculous to label someone like Paul – a foreigner lacking in money and language skills, let alone family and other connections in Russia – a flight risk," David Whelan said. The U.S. Embassy has protested to the Russian Foreign Ministry but not received a response, he said. Paul Whelan, a former corporate security executive from Michigan, was arrested in Moscow in December 2018. His lawyer said Whelan was handed a flash drive that had classified information on it that he didn't know about.

Man, 18, held in actor's slaying

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas -- Police say an 18-year-old man has been arrested in the fatal shooting of actor Eddie Hassell during a random robbery at a suburban Dallas apartment complex parking lot over the weekend. D'jon Antone was arrested on a capital murder charge Wednesday at his home in Dallas Hassell, 30, was known for his roles in the NBC show "Surface" and the 2010 film "The Kids Are All Right." Police spokesman Mark Beseda said Hassell was visiting a friend at the apartment complex and was shot after going to the parking lot to retrieve something. Beseda said a car was stolen but Hassell wasn't in it at the time. "He was just a victim of wrong place, wrong time," Beseda said.

Leader faces war crimes charges

PRISTINA, Kosovo -- The president of Kosovo, who served as a guerrilla leader during Kosovo's war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s, resigned Thursday and was sent to a special court in The Hague where he will face charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity. President Hashim Thaci said he decided to relinquish his post "to protect the integrity of the presidency of Kosovo" and to preserve the historical truth of which side was the perpetrator, and which the victim, in the conflict that killed more than 10,000 people. "We are a freedom-loving people and not vengeful," the 52-year-old Thaci said at a news conference in Pristina, Kosovo's capital. "That is why no claim may rewrite history. Kosovo has been the victim. Serbia has been the aggressor." The court confirmed his arrival in The Hague late Thursday and released a redacted version of his indictment, which was initially filed in April and confirmed by a judge on Oct. 26, a decision that likely precipitated the timing of the president's resignation. It describes Thaci and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army commanders who also are now in The Hague to face charges as members of a "joint criminal enterprise" set up "to gain and exercise control over all of Kosovo by means including unlawfully intimidating, mistreating, committing violence against, and removing those deemed to be opponents" from March 1998 to September 1999.

Civil war looms in Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Ethiopia's army said Thursday the country has been forced into an "unexpected and aimless war" with its well-armed Tigray region, while Tigray asserted that fighter jets had bombed areas around its capital -- a marked escalation with little sign of the two sides willing to talk to calm the crisis. Ethiopia's army deputy chief said military forces are being sent to the fighting in Tigray from other parts of the country. "The army will not go anywhere," Birhanu Jula told reporters, amid fears that the conflict would spill into other regions of Africa's second-most populous nation. "The war will end there." For his part, the Tigray region's president, Debretsion Gebremichael, told reporters that "we are in position to defend ourselves from enemies that waged war on the Tigray region. … We are ready to be martyrs." Ethiopia's government has not commented on the bombing allegation, read out Thursday evening on the Tigray regional broadcaster. The strong words came a day after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told the nation the military will carry out further operations this week in response to an alleged deadly attack on a military base by the regional government. Observers warn that a civil war in Ethiopia involving Tigray could destabilize the already turbulent Horn of Africa. The prime minister, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his sweeping political reforms, now faces his greatest challenge in holding together a country of some 110 million people with multiple ethnic and other grievances.

Election judge worked, then died

O'FALLON, Mo. -- A suburban St. Louis election official who worked at a polling place on Election Day despite a positive test for the coronavirus has now died, raising concerns for the nearly 2,000 people who voted there. St. Charles County, Missouri, spokeswoman Mary Enger said in a news release Thursday that the person, whose cause of death is not yet known, was an election judge supervisor Tuesday at the Blanchette Park Memorial Hall polling site in St. Charles, about 25 miles northwest of St. Louis. Enger said the county's health department and election authority recently learned that the poll worker tested positive Oct. 30 for COVID-19 and was advised to quarantine for 14 days. "The election judge nevertheless failed to follow the advice" and worked throughout the day on Tuesday, Enger said. "Authorities have informed the County that this individual has died, although a cause of death has not been given at this time." No details about the worker, including his or her age or gender, were released. Contact tracing has started and county health officials have contacted the other nine election workers at the site, who were advised to be tested for the virus, Enger said. The infected poll worker's duties did not "typically" include handling iPads, or having close contact with the 1,858 voters such as taking voter identification, Enger said.

AstraZeneca readies trial data

LONDON -- AstraZeneca hopes to show its COVID-19 vaccine is effective by the end of this year and is ramping up manufacturing so it can supply hundreds of millions of doses starting in January, Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said Thursday. The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker is working with the University of Oxford to develop one of the most closely watched COVID-19 vaccines, which is in late stage trials in the U.S., Britain and other countries to determine its safety and effectiveness. Once those results are reported, regulators will have to approve the vaccine for widespread use. "We have aligned the timing of delivery of vials to the timing of the clinical trial readout,'' Soriot told analysts on a conference call. "On a global basis, we'll be ready to supply hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine around the world by January." Governments and public health authorities are anxiously awaiting the development of a vaccine as they look for a way to combat the COVID-19 pandemic without the restrictions on business and social life that are punishing the world economy. Infection rates are rising in many countries amid a second wave of the virus that has killed more than 1.2 million people worldwide. Soriot's comments came as AstraZeneca released results showing that third-quarter revenue rose 3% as the pandemic reduced new cancer diagnoses and elective procedures, cutting demand for its products.

Fugitive rapist found in Florida

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- A convicted rapist has been arrested in Florida more than 40 years after skipping out on his Connecticut prison sentence and assuming a stolen identity. Douglas Bennett, 76, was arrested Wednesday at his Clearwater home and charged with passport fraud and aggravated identity theft. He faces up to 12 years in federal prison, which would be served before any state sentence. A warrant for his arrest was still active from Connecticut. Bennett submitted a passport application in July 2016 using the name, date of birth and Social Security number of a person who was born in 1940 and died in 1945. Emergency contact information in the application led investigators to suspect Bennett's true identity, which they confirmed with fingerprints after his arrest, the complaint said. Bennett was convicted in 1975 by a Connecticut jury of robbery, kidnapping, sexual contact, rape and deviate sexual intercourse. He was sentenced to nine to 18 years in prison but remained free on bail while he appealed. After losing his appeal, records showed Bennett never turned himself in. Bennett assumed the fraudulent identity in 1977 and remained a fugitive for more than 40 years, the complaint said. The rape occurred in February 1974 in Wethersfield, Connecticut, according to a 1976 appeal ruling, which also said Bennett lived in Granby, Massachusetts, and had worked for the victim's father. The appeal ruling said the victim's father allegedly had owed Bennett money.

Cherokees to buy Rogers ranch

OOLAGAH, Okla. -- The Cherokee Nation has agreed to buy the ranch where Will Rogers was born from the Oklahoma Historical Society. The Cherokee Nation signed a purchase agreement Wednesday and promised to make needed repairs, restorations and preservation efforts immediately. The society has operated the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch as a museum, but has been short on funds in recent years. "It's a special place for the Cherokee Nation and for the state of Oklahoma," Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. "But we can make it even more special." The museum shows what life was like on a late 19th-century ranch in what was known as Indian Territory and provides details on Rogers' Cherokee lineage. Rogers, one of the highest-paid Hollywood stars in the 1920s and 30s, was born at the ranch in Oolagah near Oolagah Lake in 1879. He also became one of the most widely read newspaper columnists in the U.S. "He was one of the most influential people of the 20th century," Hoskin said, "and his impact is still with us today." The 162-acre (65-hectare) property includes the historic ranch-style home, plus a caretaker's house and two outbuildings. It is 35 miles (55 kilometers) north of Tulsa in Rogers County. Officials did not disclose the sale price, but Bob Blackburn, the executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, said "every penny earned" from the sale would be invested into the Will Rogers Memorial Museum, which is in Claremore, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Oolagah. "Together, we will make sure the world will always remember the life and legacy of this famous Cherokee cowboy," Blackburn said.

Megachurch pastor cheats, fired

NEW YORK -- Carl Lentz, the celebrity magnet of a pastor who brought the global megachurch Hillsong from Australia to the United States, has been fired, acknowledging on Instagram that he cheated on his wife. The leader of HillsongNYC, who once ministered to Justin Bieber and a bevy of other celebrities and sports stars, wrote: "When you lead out of an empty place, you make choices that have real consequences. I was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life and held accountable for that." Lentz and wife, Laura, who met as students at Hillsong's training college in Sydney, arrived in New York in 2010 to spread the church's style of mass gatherings, a slick online reach and Grammy-winning Christian rock music throughout the U.S. The church is popular among millennials and others. The couple lives in Montclair, New Jersey. They married in 2003 and have three children. Brian Houston, a global senior pastor and founder of Hillsong, said in a message to the church's East Coast congregants Wednesday that Lentz was fired "following ongoing discussions in relationship to leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures." Globally, more than 100,000 people attend weekly services at Hillsong in about 20 countries, including more than 10,000 at several locations in the United States. The church is known for its young, tattooed leaders like Lentz, who GQ magazine once dubbed as "hypepriests" known for their designer clothes and ties to the stars.

751,000 seek jobless benefits

WASHINGTON -- The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell slightly last week to 751,000, a still-historically high level that shows that many employers keep cutting jobs in the face of the accelerating pandemic. Eight months after the pandemic flattened the economy, weekly jobless claims still point to a stream of layoffs. Before the virus struck in March, the weekly figure had remained below 300,000 for more than five straight years. Thursday's report from the Labor Department said the number of people who are continuing to receive traditional unemployment benefits declined to 7.3 million. That figure shows that some of the unemployed are being recalled to their old jobs or are finding new ones. But it also indicates that many jobless Americans have used up their state unemployment aid -- which typically expires after six months -- and have transitioned to a federal extended benefits program that lasts an additional 13 weeks. The job market has been under pressure since the virus paralyzed the economy and has regained barely half the 22 million jobs that were lost to the pandemic in early spring. The pace of rehiring has steadily weakened -- from 4.8 million added jobs in June to 661,000 in September. On Friday, when the government issues the October jobs report, economists foresee a further slowdown -- to 580,000 added jobs -- according to a survey by the data firm FactSet.

Uber's food delivery does well

NEW YORK -- Uber's food delivery business brought in more money during the third quarter than its signature rides business, showing just how much consumer behavior has changed -- and how far the company has adapted -- since the pandemic struck. The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company lost $1.09 billion in the three months that ended Sept. 30 as many customers were still staying out of shared vehicles. "Without question, the (pandemic's) impact on the world has been one of the most significant impacts of our lifetimes, and we moved quickly as a company to respond," said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, in a conference call with investors Thursday. Uber brought in $3.13 billion in revenue, down 18% from the same time last year. Its mobility business, which includes ride-hailing, scooters and bikes, accounted for $1.37 billion of that, down 53% from the same time last year. Despite the decline, the rides business showed improvement from the second quarter, when it brought in just $790 million. The partial recovery in rides was linked to the level of lockdown restrictions in any given city. "When cities start to move, so too does Uber," Khosrowshahi said.