Parents call for ouster of Chicago radio host as high school volleyball coach after mocking Gus Walz

CHICAGO — Chicago public school parents are calling on local radio personality Amy Jacobson to step down as head coach of Amundsen High School’s boys and girls varsity volleyball teams after she mocked Gus Walz, the son of vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, last week.

Gus Walz has a nonverbal learning disorder that affects one’s physical coordination and ability to read social cues, according to advocacy group Child Mind Institute. “That’s my dad!” the 17-year-old enthusiastically shouted as he sobbed and pointed at his father on stage at the Democratic National Convention last week accepting the party’s nomination for vice president. During his speech, Tim Walz described his family as “my entire world.”

Jacobson mimicked Gus Walz’s animated reaction and laughed as podcast co-host Dan Proft compared him to a Chris Farley character in a “Saturday Night Live” spoof on their weekday radio show, "Chicago’s Morning Answer." The show and hosts are known for their strong right-wing commentary.

Amanda Griffith-Atkins wrote a letter to Amundsen’s principal, Kristi Eilers, requesting an apology to the school community after listening to Jacobson and Proft’s Aug. 22 show. Her son, who’s in 10th grade and has Prader-Willi Syndrome, attends the high school as part of a cluster program designed for children with disabilities.

—Chicago Tribune

ACLU calls for safeguards in Maryland policy governing police use of facial recognition technology

The ACLU of Maryland is calling for safeguards to be incorporated in a statewide policy governing the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement, saying that police use poses “significant risks” to the public.

The technology, a tool used to identify people through artificial intelligence, has led to false matches and wrongful arrests, and poses amplified risks for people of color and women, the rights organization warned in a letter sent last week. The letter further warned that use of the tool with video footage could enable “mass surveillance.”

The best solution to those risks is an outright ban, said Nate Freed Wessler, the deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, who co-authored the ACLU of Maryland’s letter. But in places like Maryland, where lawmakers are trying to regulate it rather than outlaw it, there are “real, serious steps” police can take to minimize risk.

“The Maryland legislature engaged in a good faith effort to address some of the harms of this technology,” Wessler said. “The state police have a chance now to become one of the leaders in the country on serious protections against abuse. … The ball is in their court.”

—The Baltimore Sun

Fireball bursts like '60 tons of TNT,' leaving smoke trail above Midwest, NASA says

A lot of Midwesterners were recently left impressed, and momentarily wondering what the heck they just saw, after a blazing fireball violently and loudly broke apart overhead.

The fireball, which was later determined to be an asteroid fragment, was first seen soaring across the Midwestern sky at about 6:13 a.m. Friday, NASA said in a news release.

Though it was already light outside, the fireball was particularly bright and clearly visible to witnesses in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to reports submitted to the American Meteor Society.

“I saw a great bright white light, and I thought that’s unusually bright for a headlight on a plane this time of day,” a Wisconsin resident said. They slowed down to get a better look, and the object appeared to be “rolling across the sky” until it suddenly “evaporated into 2 very white smoke clouds.”

—The Charlotte Observer

German opposition urges Scholz to cooperate on migration after attack

BERLIN — German opposition leader Friedrich Merz said he expects Chancellor Olaf Scholz to work with him to tighten migration policy, days after a deadly knife attack by a Syrian man who had evaded deportation.

Three people were killed and eight others wounded, four of them seriously, during a stabbing spree at a festival on Friday evening in the western city of Solingen.

The suspected perpetrator — a 26-year-old Syrian man who has been remanded in custody — was supposed to have been deported to Bulgaria last year after his request for asylum in Germany had been rejected.

Merz, the leader of Germany's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), met with Scholz on Tuesday. Afterwards, he called for comprehensive measures to curb irregular migration and said that Scholz's center-left Social Democrats should cooperate with the CDU to achieve this.

—dpa