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Spotlight

Missing Illinois girl found years later, Prince Harry and Meghan grapple with car chase, and more of the week's news

  • May 20, 2023
  • May 20, 2023 Updated Aug 24, 2023

From a missing girl found 6 years later after being recognized from a Netflix series, to Prince Harry and Meghan being involved in a paparazzi car chase, here are the top national stories from the past week.

McDonald's found liable for hot Chicken McNugget that fell from Happy Meal and burned girl

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — McDonald's and a franchise holder are at fault after a hot Chicken McNugget from a Happy Meal fell on a little girl's leg and caused second-degree burns, a jury in South Florida found in a case reminiscent of the famous hot coffee lawsuit of the 1990s.

A second jury will determine how much McDonald's USA and its franchise owner, Upchurch Foods, will pay the child and her mother, the South Florida SunSentinel reported.

Thursday's decision was split, with jurors finding the franchise holder liable for negligence and failure to warn customers about the risk of hot food, and McDonald's USA liable for failing to provide instructions for safe handling of the food. McDonald's USA was not found to be negligent, and the jury dismissed the argument that the product was defective.

"Our sympathies go out to this family for what occurred in this unfortunate incident, as we hold customer safety as one of our highest priorities," McDonald's owner-operator Brent Upchurch said in a statement. "We are deeply disappointed with today's verdict because the facts show that our restaurant in Tamarac, Florida did indeed follow those protocols when cooking and serving this Happy Meal."

Jurors heard two days of testimony and arguments about the 2019 episode that left the 4-year-old girl with a burned upper thigh.

Philana Holmes testified that she bought Happy Meals for her son and then-4-year-old daughter at a drive-thru window at a McDonald's in Tamarac, near Fort Lauderdale, the SunSentinel reported. She handed the food to her children, who were in the back seat.

After she drove away, her daughter started screaming. The mother testified she didn't know what was wrong until she pulled over to help the girl, Olivia Caraballo, who is now 7, the newspaper reported. She saw the burn on the girl's leg and took photos on her iPhone, which included audio clips of the child's screams.

The sound of the girl's screams were played in court. The child, who is autistic, did not testify, the newspaper reported.

Lawyers for McDonald's noted that the food had to be hot to avoid salmonella poisoning, and that the nuggets were not meant to be pressed between a seat belt and human flesh for more than two minutes.

The girl's parents sued, saying that McDonald's and the franchise owner failed to adequately train employees, failed to warn customers about the "dangerous" temperature of the food, and for cooking the food to a much higher temperature than necessary.

While both sides agreed the nugget caused the burns, the family's lawyers argued the temperature was above 200 degrees (93 Celsius), while the defense said it was no more than 160 degrees (71 Celsius).

The case is likely to stoke memories of the McDonald's coffee lawsuit of the 1990s, which became an urban legend of sorts about seemingly frivolous lawsuits, even though a jury and judge had found it anything but.

A New Mexico jury awarded Stella Liebeck, 81, $2.7 million in punitive damages after she was scalded in 1992 by hot coffee from McDonald's that spilled onto her lap, burning her legs, groin and buttocks, as she tried to steady the cup with her legs while prying the lid off to add cream outside a drive-thru.

She suffered third-degree burns and spent more than a week in the hospital.

She had initially asked McDonald's for $20,000 to cover hospital expenses, but the company went to trial. A judge later reduced the $2.7 million award to $480,000, which he said was appropriate for the "willful, wanton, reckless" and "callous" behavior by McDonald's.

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Mommy blogger Heather Armstrong, known as Dooce to fans, dead at 47

NEW YORK (AP) — The pioneering mommy blogger Heather Armstrong, who laid bare her struggles as a mother and her battles with depression and alcoholism on her site Dooce.com and on social media, has died at 47.

Armstrong died by suicide, her boyfriend Pete Ashdown told The Associated Press, saying he found her Tuesday night at their Salt Lake City home.

Ashdown said Armstrong had been sober for over 18 months but had recently had a relapse. He did not provide further details.

Armstrong, who had two children with her former husband and business partner, Jon Armstrong, began Dooce in 2001 and built it into a lucrative career. She was one of the first and most popular mommy bloggers, writing frankly about her children, relationships and other challenges.

She parlayed her successes with the blog, on Instagram and elsewhere into book deals, putting out a memoir in 2009, “It Sucked and then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown and a Much Needed Margarita.”

Armstrong appeared on Oprah and was on the Forbes list of most influential women in media.

In 2012, the Armstrongs announced they were separating. They divorced later that year. She began dating Ashdown, a former U.S. senate candidate, nearly six years ago. They lived together with Armstrong's daughters, 19-year-old Leta and 13-year-old Marlo.

Get the full story here:

If you or someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide, call 1-800-273-TALK, text 741741 or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org.

Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS Feed | Omny Studio

Photos: Notable Deaths in 2023

Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, died April 25, 2023. He was 96. With his glowing, handsome face and silky-husky voice, Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer; many still know him for his signature hit “Banana Boat Song (Day-O),” and its call of “Day-O! Daaaaay-O.” But he forged a greater legacy once he scaled back his performing career in the 1960s and lived out his hero Paul Robeson’s decree that artists are “gatekeepers of truth.”

AP file, 2011

Raquel Welch

Raquel Welch

Raquel Welch, whose emergence from the sea in a skimpy, furry bikini in the film “One Million Years B.C.” would propel her to international sex symbol status throughout the 1960s and '70s, died Feb. 15, 2023. She was 82. Welch’s breakthrough came in 1966's campy prehistoric flick “One Million Years B.C.,” despite having a grand total of three lines. Clad in a brown doeskin bikini, she successfully evaded pterodactyls but not the notice of the public.

AP file, 1982

David Crosby

David Crosby

David Crosby, the brash rock musician who evolved from a baby-faced harmony singer with the Byrds to a mustachioed hippie superstar and an ongoing troubadour in Crosby, Stills, Nash & (sometimes) Young, died Jan. 18, 2023, at age 81. While he only wrote a handful of widely known songs, the witty and ever opinionated Crosby was on the front lines of the cultural revolution of the ’60s and ’70s — whether triumphing with Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young on stage at Woodstock, testifying on behalf of a hirsute generation in his anthem “Almost Cut My Hair” or mourning the assassination of Robert Kennedy in “Long Time Gone.”

AP file, 2017

Lance Reddick

Lance Reddick

Lance Reddick, a character actor who specialized in intense, icy and possibly sinister authority figures on TV and film, including “The Wire,” "Fringe” and the "John Wick” franchise, died March 17, 2023. He was 60. Reddick was often put in a suit or a crisp uniform during his career, playing tall, taciturn and elegant men of distinction. He was best known for his role as straight-laced Lt. Cedric Daniels on the hit HBO series “The Wire,” where his character was agonizingly trapped in the messy politics of the Baltimore police department.

AP file, 2013

Richard Belzer

Richard Belzer

Richard Belzer, the longtime stand-up comedian who became one of TV's most indelible detectives as John Munch in "Homicide: Life on the Street" and “Law & Order: SVU,” died Feb. 19, 2023. He was 78. For more than two decades and across 10 series — even including appearances on “30 Rock” and “Arrested Development” — Belzer played the wise-cracking, acerbic homicide detective prone to conspiracy theories. Belzer first played Munch on a 1993 episode of “Homicide” and last played him in 2016 on “Law & Order: SVU.”

AP file, 2013

Cindy Williams

Cindy Williams

Cindy Williams, who was among the most recognizable stars in America in the 1970s and 1980s for her role as Shirley opposite Penny Marshall's Laverne on the beloved sitcom "Laverne & Shirley," died Jan. 25, 2023. She was 75. Williams played the straitlaced Shirley Feeney to Marshall's more libertine Laverne DeFazio on the show about a pair of blue-collar roommates who toiled on the assembly line of a Milwaukee brewery in the 1950s and 1960s.

AP file, 2012

Lisa Marie Presley

Lisa Marie Presley

Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley and a singer-songwriter dedicated to her father’s legacy, died Jan. 12, 2023. She was 54. Presley shared her father's brooding charisma — the hooded eyes, the insolent smile, the low, sultry voice — and followed him professionally, releasing her own rock albums in the 2000s.

AP file, 2012

Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot, the folk singer-songwriter known for “If You Could Read My Mind" and "Sundown” and for songs that told tales of Canadian identity, died May 1, 2023. He was 84. One of the most renowned voices to emerge from Toronto’s Yorkville folk club scene in the 1960s, Lightfoot recorded 20 studio albums and penned hundreds of songs, including “Carefree Highway," “Early Morning Rain” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

AP file, 2012

Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, died Jan. 10, 2023. He was 78. Beck was among the rock-guitarist pantheon from the late ’60s that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. Beck won eight Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again as a solo artist in 2009.

AP file, 2010

Bobby Caldwell

Bobby Caldwell

Bobby Caldwell, a soulful R&B singer and songwriter who had a major hit in 1978 with “What You Won't Do for Love” and a voice and musical style adored by generations of his fellow artists, died March 14, 2023. He was 71. The smooth soul jam “What You Won't Do for Love” went to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 6 on what was then called the Hot Selling Soul Singles chart. It became a long-term standard and career-defining hit for Caldwell, who also wrote the song.

AP file, 2013

Gary Rossington

Gary Rossington

Gary Rossington, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s last surviving original member who also helped to found the group, died March 5, 2023, at age 71. According to Rolling Stone, it was during a fateful Little League game, Ronnie Van Zant hit a line drive into the shoulder blades of opposing player Bob Burns and met his future bandmates. Rossington, Burns, Van Zant, and guitarist Allen Collins gathered that afternoon at Burns’ Jacksonville home to jam the Rolling Stone’s “Time Is on My Side.”

AP file, 2017

Wayne Shorter

Wayne Shorter

Wayne Shorter, an influential jazz innovator whose lyrical, complex jazz compositions and pioneering saxophone playing sounded through more than half a century of American music, died March 2, 2023. He was 89.

AP file, 2013

Jerry Springer

Jerry Springer

Jerry Springer, the onetime mayor and news anchor whose namesake TV show featured a three-ring circus of dysfunctional families willing to bare all on weekday afternoons including brawls, obscenities and blurred images of nudity, died April 27, 2023, at age 79. At its peak, “The Jerry Springer Show” was a ratings powerhouse and a U.S. cultural pariah, synonymous with lurid drama. Known for chair-throwing and bleep-filled arguments, the daytime talk show was a favorite American guilty pleasure over its 27-year run, at one point topping Oprah Winfrey’s show.

AP file, 2010

Robert Blake

Robert Blake

Robert Blake, the Emmy award-winning performer who went from acclaim for his acting to notoriety when he was tried and acquitted in the killing of his wife, died March 9, 2023, at age 89. Blake, star of the 1970s TV show, "Baretta," never recovered from the long ordeal which began with the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, outside a Studio City restaurant on May 4, 2001. The story of their strange marriage, the child it produced and its violent end was a Hollywood tragedy played out in court. Blake portrayed real-life murderer Perry Smith in the movie of Truman Capote's true crime best seller "In Cold Blood."

AP file, 1977

Willis Reed

Willis Reed

Willis Reed, who dramatically emerged from the locker room minutes before Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals to spark the New York Knicks to their first championship and create one of sports’ most enduring examples of playing through pain, died March 21, 2023. He was 80.

AP file, 1970

Michael Lerner

Michael Lerner

Michael Lerner, the Brooklyn-born character actor who played a myriad of imposing figures in his 60 years in the business, including monologuing movie mogul Jack Lipnick in “Barton Fink,” the crooked club owner Bugsy Calhoun in “Harlem Nights” and an angry publishing executive in “Elf” died April 8, 2023. He was 81.

AP file, 2012

Tom Sizemore

Tom Sizemore

Tom Sizemore, the “Saving Private Ryan” actor whose bright 1990s star burned out under the weight of his own domestic violence and drug convictions, died March3, 2023, at age 61. Sizemore became a star with acclaimed appearances in “Natural Born Killers” and the cult-classic crime thriller “Heat.”

AP file, 2013

Charles Kimbrough

Charles Kimbrough

Charles Kimbrough, a Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor who played a straight-laced news anchor opposite Candice Bergen on “Murphy Brown,” died Jan. 11, 2023. He was 86. Kimbrough played newsman Jim Dial across the 10 seasons of CBS hit sitcom “Murphy Brown" between 1988 and 1998, earning an Emmy nomination in 1990 for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series. He reprised the role for three episodes in the 2018 reboot.

AP file, 2008

Chaim Topol

Chaim Topol

Chaim Topol, a leading Israeli actor who charmed generations of theatergoers and movie-watchers with his portrayal of Tevye, the long-suffering and charismatic milkman in “Fiddler on the Roof,” died March 8, 2023, at age 87. A recipient of two Golden Globe awards and nominee for both an Academy Award and a Tony Award, Topol long has ranked among Israel’s most decorated actors.

AP file, 2015

Len Goodman

Len Goodman

Len Goodman, a long-serving judge on “Dancing with the Stars” and “Strictly Come Dancing" who helped revive interest in ballroom dancing on both sides of the Atlantic, died April 22, 2023. He was 78.

AP file, 2007

Tim McCarver

Tim McCarver

Tim McCarver, the All-Star catcher and Hall of Fame broadcaster who during 60 years in baseball won two World Series titles with the St. Louis Cardinals and had a long run as one of the country's most recognized, incisive and talkative television commentators, died Feb. 16, 2023. He was 81.

AP file, 2003

Billy Packer

Billy Packer

Billy Packer (left), an Emmy award-winning college basketball broadcaster who covered 34 Final Fours for NBC and CBS, died Jan. 26, 2023. He was 82. Packer’s broadcasting career coincided with the growth of college basketball. He worked as analyst or color commentator on every Final Four from 1975 to 2008. He received a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Sports Personality, Studio and Sports Analyst in 1993. 

AP file, 2006

Barry Humphries

Barry Humphries

Tony Award-winning comedian Barry Humphries, internationally renowned for his garish stage persona Dame Edna Everage, a condescending and imperfectly-veiled snob whose evolving character has delighted audiences over seven decades, died April 22, 2023. He was 89.

AP file, 2013

Burt Bacharach

Burt Bacharach

Burt Bacharach, the singularly gifted and popular composer who delighted millions with the quirky arrangements and unforgettable melodies of "Walk on By," "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" and dozens of other hits, died Feb. 8, 2023. The Grammy, Oscar and Tony-winning composer was 94. Over the past 70 years, only Lennon-McCartney, Carole King and a handful of others rivaled his genius for instantly catchy songs that remained performed, played and hummed long after they were written. He had a run of top 10 hits from the 1950s into the 21st century, and his music was heard everywhere from movie soundtracks and radios to home stereo systems and iPods, whether “Alfie” and “I Say a Little Prayer” or “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” and “This Guy’s in Love with You.”

AP file, 1979

Stella Stevens

Stella Stevens

Stella Stevens, a prominent leading lady in 1960s and 70s comedies perhaps best known for playing the object of Jerry Lewis’s affection in “The Nutty Professor,” died Feb. 17, 2023. She was 84. She was a prolific actor in television and film up through the 1990s, officially retiring in 2010.

AP file, 1968

Annie Wersching

Annie Wersching

Actor Annie Wersching, best known for playing FBI agent Renee Walker in the series “24" and providing the voice for Tess in the video game “The Last of Us,” died Jan. 29, 2023. She was 45. Her first credit was in “Star Trek: Enterprise,” and she would go on to have recurring roles in the seventh and eighth seasons of “24,” “Bosch," “The Vampire Diaries,” Marvel's “Runaways,” “The Rookie" and, most recently, the second season of “Star Trek: Picard” as the Borg Queen. 

AP file, 2010

Dave Hollis

Dave Hollis

Dave Hollis, who left his post as a Disney executive to help his wife run a successful lifestyle empire, died Feb. 12, 2023. He was 47. Hollis worked for Disney for 17 years and had been head of distribution for the company for seven years when he left in 2018 to join his wife's venture. The parents of four moved from Los Angeles to the Austin area, collaborated on livestreams, podcasts and organized life-affirming conferences. In their podcast, “Rise Together,” they focused on marriage.

AP file, 2015

David Jude Jolicoeur

David Jude Jolicoeur

David Jude Jolicoeur, known widely as Trugoy the Dove and one of the founding members of the Long Island hip-hop trio De La Soul, died Feb. 12, 2023. He was 54. De La Soul’s debut studio album “3 Feet High and Rising,” produced by Prince Paul, was released in 1989 by Tommy Boy Records and praised for being a more light-hearted and positive counterpart to more charged rap offerings. De La Soul signaled the beginning of alternative hip-hop. 

AP file, 2015

Barrett Strong

Barrett Strong

Barrett Strong, one of Motown’s founding artists and most gifted songwriters who sang lead on the company’s breakthrough single “Money (That’s What I Want)” and later collaborated with Norman Whitfield on such classics as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “War” and “Papa Was a Rollin' Stone,” died Jan. 29, 2023. He was 81. 

AP file, 2004

Lloyd Morrisett

Lloyd Morrisett

Lloyd Morrisett, the co-creator of the beloved children's education TV series “Sesame Street,” which uses empathy and fuzzy monsters like Abby Cadabby, Elmo and Cookie Monster to charm and teach generations around the world, died Jan. 15, 2023. He was 93. 

AP file, 2019

Robbie Knievel

Robbie Knievel

Robbie Knievel, an American stunt performer who set records with daredevil motorcycle jumps following the tire tracks of his thrill-seeking father — including at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1989 and a Grand Canyon chasm a decade later — died Jan. 13, 2023. He was 60.

AP file, 2000

Gina Lollobrigida

Gina Lollobrigida

Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida, who achieved international stardom during the 1950s and was dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” after the title of one of her movies, died Jan. 16, 2023. She was 95. Besides “The World’s Most Beautiful Woman” in 1955, career highlights included Golden Globe-winner “Come September,” with Rock Hudson; “Trapeze;” “Beat the Devil,” a 1953 John Huston film starring Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones; and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell.”

AP file, 1950s

Lynette Hardaway ("Diamond")

Lynette Hardaway ("Diamond")

Lynette Hardaway, an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump and one half of the conservative political commentary duo Diamond and Silk, died Jan. 9, 2023. She was 51. Hardaway (pictured at left), known by the moniker “Diamond,” carved out a unique role as a Black woman who loudly backed Trump and right-wing policies.

AP file, 2018

Adam Rich

Adam Rich

Adam Rich, the child actor with a pageboy mop-top who charmed TV audiences as “America’s little brother” on “Eight is Enough,” died Jan. 7, 2023. He was 54. Rich had a limited acting career after starring at age 8 as Nicholas Bradford, the youngest of eight children, on the ABC hit dramedy that ran from from 1977 to 1981.

AP file, 2002

Bobby Hull

Bobby Hull

Hall of Fame forward Bobby Hull, who helped the Chicago Blackhawks win the 1961 Stanley Cup Final, has died. Hull was 84. The two-time MVP was one of the most prolific scorers in NHL history, leading the league in goals seven times. Nicknamed “The Golden Jet” for his speed and blond hair, he posted 13 consecutive seasons with 30 goals or more from 1959-72.

AP file, 2019

Charles White

Charles White

Charles White, the Southern California tailback who won the Heisman Trophy in 1979, died Jan. 11, 2023. He was 64. A two-time All-American and Los Angeles native, White won a national title in 1978 before claiming the Heisman in the following season, when he captained the Trojans and led the nation in yards rushing.

AP file, 1979

Jerry Richardson

Jerry Richardson

Jerry Richardson, the Carolina Panthers founder and for years one of the NFL’s most influential owners until a scandal forced him to sell the team, died March 1, 2023. He was 86.

AP file, 2013

Sister André

Sister André

Lucile Randon, a French nun known as Sister André and believed to be the world's oldest person, died Jan. 17, 2023, at age 118. She was born in the town of Ales, southern France, on Feb. 11, 1904. She was also one of the world’s oldest survivors of COVID-19.

AP file, 2022

Tatjana Patitz

Tatjana Patitz

Tatjana Patitz, one of an elite group of famed supermodels who graced magazine covers in the 1980s and ’90s and appeared in George Michael's “Freedom! '90” music video, died at age 56.

AP file, 2006

Russell Banks

Russell Banks

Russell Banks, an award-winning fiction writer who rooted such novels as “Affliction” and “The Sweet Hereafter” in the wintry, rural communities of his native Northeast and imagined the dreams and downfalls of everyone from modern blue-collar workers to the radical abolitionist John Brown in “Cloudsplitter," died Jan. 7, 2023. He was 82.

AP file, 2004

Cardinal George Pell

Cardinal George Pell

Cardinal George Pell, a onetime financial adviser to Pope Francis who spent 404 days in solitary confinement in his native Australia on child sex abuse charges before his convictions were overturned, died Jan. 10, 2023. He was 81.

AP file, 2018

Ken Block

Ken Block

Ken Block, a motorsports icon known for his stunt driving and for co-founding the action sports apparel brand DC Shoes, died Jan. 2, 2023, in a snowmobiling accident near his home in Utah. Block rose to fame as a rally car driver and in 2005 was awarded Rally America's Rookie of the Year honors.

AP file, 2013

Walter Cunningham

Walter Cunningham

Walter Cunningham, the last surviving astronaut from the first successful crewed space mission in NASA's Apollo program, died Jan. 3, 2023. He was 90. Cunningham was one of three astronauts aboard the 1968 Apollo 7 mission, an 11-day spaceflight that beamed live television broadcasts as they orbited Earth, paving the way for the moon landing less than a year later.

AP file, 2014

Anton Walkes

Anton Walkes

Professional soccer player Anton Walkes died Jan. 18, 2023, from injuries he sustained in a boat crash off the coast of Miami. He was 25. Walkes began his career with English Premier League club Tottenham and also played for Portsmouth before signing with Atlanta United in MLS. He joined Charlotte for the club’s debut MLS season in 2022.

AP file, 2017

Pat Schroeder

Pat Schroeder

Former U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder, a pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, died March 13, 2023. She was 82. Schroeder took on the powerful elite with her rapier wit and antics for 24 years, shaking up stodgy government institutions by forcing them to acknowledge that women had a role in government. She was elected to Congress in Colorado in 1972 and won easy reelection 11 times from her safe district in Denver.

AP file, 1999

Seymour Stein

Seymour Stein

Seymour Stein, the brash, prescient and highly successful founder of Sire Records who helped launched the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and many others, died April 2, 2023, at age 80. Stein helped found the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and was himself inducted into the Rock Hall in 2005.

AP file, 2005

Klaus Teuber

Klaus Teuber

Klaus Teuber, creator of the hugely popular Catan board game in which players compete to build settlements on a fictional island, died April 1, 2023. He was 70. The board game, originally called The Settlers of Catan when introduced in 1995 and based on a set of hexagonal tiles, has sold tens of millions of copies and is available in more than 40 languages.

AP file, 1995

Ginnie Newhart

Ginnie Newhart

Ginnie Newhart, who was married to comedy legend Bob Newhart for six decades and inspired the classic ending of his “Newhart” series, died April 23, 2023. She was 82.

AP file, 1985

Vida Blue

Vida Blue

Vida Blue, a hard-throwing left-hander who became one of baseball’s biggest draws in the early 1970s and helped lead the brash A’s to three straight World Series titles before his career was derailed by drug problems, died May 6, 2023. He was 73.

AP file, 1976

Martin Amis

Martin Amis

British novelist Martin Amis, who brought a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to his stories and lifestyle, died May 20, 2023. He was 73. Amis was a leading voice among a generation of writers that included his good friend, the late Christopher Hitchens, Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie. Among his best-known works were “Money,” a satire about consumerism in London, “The Information” and “London Fields,” along with his 2000 memoir, “Experience."

AP file, 2012

Doyle Brunson

Doyle Brunson

Doyle Brunson, one of the most influential poker players of all time and a two-time world champion, died May 14, 2023. He was 89. Brunson, called the Godfather of Poker and also known as “Texas Dolly,” won 10 World Series of Poker tournaments — second only to Phil Hellmuth's 16. He also captured world championships in 1976 and 1977 and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1988.

AP file, 2011

Hodding Carter III

Hodding Carter III

Hodding Carter III, a Mississippi journalist and civil rights activist who as U.S. State Department spokesman informed Americans about the Iran hostage crisis and later won awards for his televised documentaries, died May 11, 2023. He was 88.

AP file, 2003

Jacklyn Zeman

Jacklyn Zeman

Jacklyn Zeman, who became one of the most recognizable actors on daytime television during 45 years of playing nurse Bobbie Spencer on ABC’s “General Hospital,” died May 10, 2023. She was 70. Zeman joined “General Hospital” in 1977 as Barbara Jean, who went by Bobbie, and was the feisty younger sister of Anthony Geary’s Luke Spencer.

AP file, 2016

Jim Brown

Jim Brown

Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown, the unstoppable running back who retired at the peak of his brilliant career to become an actor as well as a prominent civil rights advocate during the 1960s, died May 18, 2023. He was 87. One of the greatest players in football history and one of the game’s first superstars, Brown was chosen the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 1965 and shattered the league’s record books in a short career spanning 1957-65. Brown led the Cleveland Browns to their last NFL title in 1964 before retiring in his prime after the ’65 season to become an actor. He appeared in more than 30 films, including “Any Given Sunday” and “The Dirty Dozen.” When he finished playing, Brown became a prominent leader in the Black power movement during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.

AP file, 1965

Tina Turner

Tina Turner

Tina Turner, the unstoppable singer and stage performer who teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows in the 1960s and '70s and survived her horrifying marriage to triumph in middle age with the chart-topping "What's Love Got to Do With It," died May 24, 2023, at 83. Few stars traveled so far — she was born Anna Mae Bullock in a segregated Tennessee hospital and spent her latter years on a 260,000 square foot estate on Lake Zurich — and overcame so much. Her trademarks included a growling contralto that might smolder or explode, her bold smile and strong cheekbones, her palette of wigs and the muscular, quick-stepping legs she did not shy from showing off. She sold more than 150 million records worldwide, won 12 Grammys, was voted along with Ike into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 (and on her own in 2021 ) and was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2005. Her life became the basis for a film, a Broadway musical and an HBO documentary in 2021 that she called her public farewell.

AP file, 2009

Ray Stevenson

Ray Stevenson

Ray Stevenson, who played the villainous British governor in “RRR,” an Asgardian warrior in the “Thor” films, and a member of the 13th Legion in HBO’s “Rome,” died May 21, 2023. He was 58. He made his film debut in Paul Greengrass’s 1998 film “The Theory of Flight.” In 2004, he appeared in Antoine Fuqua’s “King Arthur” as a knight of the round table and several years later played the lead in the pre-Disney Marvel adaptation “Punisher: War Zone." Though “Punisher” was not the best-reviewed film, he'd get another taste of Marvel in the first three "Thor” films, in which he played Volstagg. Other prominent film roles included the “Divergent” trilogy, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” and “The Transporter: Refueled.”

AP file, 2017

John Beasley

John Beasley

John Beasley, the veteran character actor who played a kindly school bus driver on the TV drama “Everwood” and appeared in dozens of films dating back to the 1980s, died May 30, 2023. He was 79. Beasley played an assistant coach in the 1993 football film “Rudy” and a retired preacher in 1997's “The Apostle,” co-starring and directed by Robert Duvall.

AP file, 2017

Cynthia Weil

Cynthia Weil

Cynthia Weil, a Grammy-winning lyricist of notable range and endurance who enjoyed a decades-long partnership with husband Barry Mann and helped write "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," "On Broadway," "Walking in the Rain" and dozens of other hits, died June 1, 2023, at age 82.

AP file, 2010

Astrud Gilberto

Astrud Gilberto

Astrud Gilberto, the Brazilian singer, songwriter and entertainer whose off-hand, English-language cameo on “The Girl from Ipanema” made her a worldwide voice of bossa nova, died June 5, 2023, at age 83.

AP file, 1981

The Iron Sheik

The Iron Sheik

The Iron Sheik, a former pro wrestler who relished playing a burly, bombastic villain in 1980s battles with some of the sport's biggest stars and later became a popular Twitter personality, died June 7, 2023. He was 81. During his pro wrestling career, he donned curled boots and used the “Camel Clutch” as his finishing move during individual and tag team clashes in which he played the role of an anti-American heel for the WWF, which later became the WWE.

AP file, 2009

Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster who turned a tiny Virginia station into the global Christian Broadcasting Network, tried a run for president and helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition, died June 8, 2023. He was 93. For more than a half-century, Robertson was a familiar presence in American living rooms, known for his “700 Club” television show, and in later years, his televised pronouncements of God’s judgment, blaming natural disasters on everything from homosexuality to the teaching of evolution.

AP file, 2015

Tori Bowie

Tori Bowie

U.S. Olympic champion sprinter Tori Bowie died May 2, 2023, from complications of childbirth, according to an autopsy report. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Bowie won silver in the 100 and bronze in the 200. She then ran the anchor leg on a 4x100 team with Tianna Bartoletta, Allyson Felix and English Gardner to take gold.

AP file, 2017

Ted Kaczynski

Ted Kaczynski

Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated mathematician who retreated to a dingy shack in the Montana wilderness and ran a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died June 10, 2023. He was 81. Branded the “Unabomber” by the FBI, Kaczynski died by suicide at the federal prison medical center in Butner, North Carolina.

AP file, 1996

Treat Williams

Treat Williams

Actor Treat Williams, whose nearly 50-year career included starring roles in the TV series “Everwood” and the movie “Hair,” died June 12, 2023, after a motorcycle crash in Vermont. He was 71. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his role as hippie leader George Berger in the 1979 movie version of the hit musical “Hair.”

AP file, 2018

Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi, the boastful billionaire media mogul who was Italy's longest-serving premier despite scandals over his sex-fueled parties and allegations of corruption, died June 12, 2023. He was 86. A onetime cruise ship crooner, Berlusconi used his television networks and immense wealth to launch his long political career, inspiring both loyalty and loathing.

AP file, 2021

Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg, the history-making whistleblower who by leaking the Pentagon Papers revealed longtime government doubts and deceit about the Vietnam War and inspired acts of retaliation by President Richard Nixon that helped lead to his resignation, died June 16, 2023. He was 92.

AP file, 1973

Sheldon Harnick

Sheldon Harnick

Tony- and Grammy Award-winning lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who with composer Jerry Bock made up the premier musical-theater songwriting duos of the 1950s and 1960s with shows such as "Fiddler on the Roof," "Fiorello!" and "The Apple Tree," died June 23, 2023. He was 99.

AP file, 2016

John Goodenough

John Goodenough

John Goodenough, who shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work developing the lithium-ion battery that transformed technology with rechargeable power for devices ranging from cellphones, computers, and pacemakers to electric cars, died June 25, 2023, at age 100.

AP file, 2019

Christine King Farris

Christine King Farris

Christine King Farris, the last living sibling of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died June 29, 2023. She was 95. For decades after her brother's assassination in 1968, Farris worked along with his widow, Coretta Scott King, to preserve and promote his legacy. But unlike her high-profile sister-in-law, Farris' activism — and grief — was often behind the scenes.

AP file, 2015

Julian Sands

Julian Sands

Actor Julian Sands, who starred in several Oscar-nominated films in the late 1980s and '90s including “A Room With a View” and “Leaving Las Vegas,” was found dead on a Southern California mountain in June 2023, five months after he disappeared while hiking. He was 65. Sands, who was born, raised and began acting in England, worked constantly in film and television, amassing more than 150 credits in a 40-year career. During a 10-year span from 1985 to 1995, he played major roles in a series of acclaimed films.

AP file, 2019

Alan Arkin

Alan Arkin

Alan Arkin, the wry character actor who demonstrated his versatility in everything from farcical comedy to chilling drama as he received four Academy Award nominations and won an Oscar in 2007 for "Little Miss Sunshine," has died. He was 89. A member of Chicago's famed Second City comedy troupe, Arkin was an immediate success in movies with the Cold War spoof "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" and peaked late in life with his win as best supporting actor for the surprise 2006 hit "Little Miss Sunshine.”

AP file, 2011

A Florida man living underwater won't resurface even after breaking the record

KEY LARGO, Fla. — A university professor broke a record for the longest time living underwater without depressurization this weekend at a Florida Keys lodge for scuba divers.

Joseph Dituri's 74th day residing in Jules' Undersea Lodge, situated at the bottom of a 30-foot-deep lagoon in Key Largo, wasn't much different than his previous days there since he submerged March 1.

Dituri, who also goes by the moniker "Dr. Deep Sea," ate a protein-heavy meal of eggs and salmon prepared using a microwave, exercised with resistance bands, did his daily pushups and took an hour-long nap. Unlike a submarine, the lodge does not use technology to adjust for the increased underwater pressure.

The previous record of 73 days, two hours and 34 minutes was set by two Tennessee professors — Bruce Cantrell and Jessica Fain — at the same location in 2014.

But Dituri isn't just settling for the record and resurfacing: He plans to stay at the lodge until June 9, when he reaches 100 days and completes an underwater mission dubbed Project Neptune 100.

The mission combines medical and ocean research along with educational outreach and was organized by the Marine Resources Development Foundation, owner of the habitat.

"The record is a small bump and I really appreciate it," said Dituri, a University of South Florida educator who holds a doctorate in biomedical engineering and is a retired U.S. Naval officer. "I'm honored to have it, but we still have more science to do."

His research includes daily experiments in physiology to monitor how the human body responds to long-term exposure to extreme pressure.

"The idea here is to populate the world's oceans, to take care of them by living in them and really treating them well," Dituri said.

The outreach portion of Dituri's mission includes conducting online classes and broadcast interviews from his digital studio beneath the sea. During the past 74 days, he has reached over 2,500 students through online classes in marine science and more with his regular biomedical engineering courses at the University of South Florida.

While he says he loves living under the ocean, there is one thing he really misses.

"The thing that I miss the most about being on the surface is literally the sun," Dituri said. "The sun has been a major factor in my life – I usually go to the gym at five and then I come back out and watch the sunrise."

The planet’s top underwater — yes, underwater — hotels

1. Conrad Rangali Island in the Maldives

1. Conrad Rangali Island in the Maldives

This Indian Ocean resort offers a glass-walled, two-story villa — the Muraka — whose master bedroom sits 16 feet underwater, so you’re surrounded by coral and other sea life as you sleep and bathe. At $10,000+ per night, this is celeb-level splurge territory, but you can enjoy a vicarious peek at www.conradmaldives.com/stay/the-muraka. Rates for the resort’s non-submerged villas start at $780.

CONRAD MALDIVES

2. Atlantis The Palm Dubai, United Arab Emirates

2. Atlantis The Palm Dubai, United Arab Emirates

If you’re a longtime “The Amazing Race” fan, this swanky resort may look familiar. The Atlantis’ six-story water slide caused a contestant meltdown that was epic even by TAR standards. What puts the resort on the LuxuryTravelExpert’s list, though, are the underwater suites whose giant windows look into an enormous aquarium, home to some 65,000 sea creatures. Take a peek at www.atlantis.com/dubai.

3. Resort World, Sentosa, Singapore

3. Resort World, Sentosa, Singapore

This island off the Singapore coast is home to Michelin-starred restaurants, Universal Studios Singapore and the second biggest oceanarium in the world. Book a two-story ocean suite here, and you’ll have views of that underwater seascape from the lower level. Check it out at www.rwsentosa.com.

S.E.A. Aquarium

4. Anantara Kihavah Villas, Maldives

4. Anantara Kihavah Villas, Maldives

Website: https://www.anantara.com/en/kihavah-maldives/

Anantara Kihavah

5. Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland, China

5. Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland, China

Website: https://www.ihg.com/intercontinental/hotels/nl/nl/shanghai/shghe/hoteldetail

Intercontinental Hotel & Resorts

6. Reefsuites, Whitsunday Islands, Australia 

6. Reefsuites, Whitsunday Islands, Australia 

Website: https://www.cruisewhitsundays.com/experiences/reefsuites/

Cruise Whitsundays

7. Niyama Private Islands, Maldives

7. Niyama Private Islands, Maldives

Website: https://www.niyama.com/en

Anantara Niyama

8. Manta Resort Zanzibar, Tanzania

8. Manta Resort Zanzibar, Tanzania

Website: https://themantaresort.com/

Kwanini

9. Jules’ Undersea Lodge, Florida, USA

9. Jules’ Undersea Lodge, Florida, USA

Website: https://jul.com/overnight-stays/

Jules' Undersea Lodge on Facebook

10. Utter Inn, Vasteras, Sweden

10. Utter Inn, Vasteras, Sweden

Website: https://visitvasteras.se/hotell-utter-inn/

Hotel Utter Inn

Authorities ID New Mexico gunman who killed 3, wounded 6 as 18-year-old high schooler Beau Wilson

FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — The gunman who killed three people and wounded six others while roaming through his northwestern New Mexico neighborhood and apparently firing at random targets was an 18-year-old high school student named Beau Wilson, authorities said Tuesday.

The attack occurred Monday morning in Farmington, a city of about 50,000 people near the Four Corners, where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet.

Witnesses and police say the gunman walked through a neighborhood a short drive from downtown Farmington spraying bullets at cars, homes and passersby until police arrived at the scene and shot and killed him.

San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari said at a news conference Tuesday that four officers fired a total of 16 rounds at the gunman, including one of two officers who were wounded.

Mayor Nate Duckett said Tuesday both wounded law enforcement officers — a local Farmington officer and a state police officer — were treated and released from a hospital.

Get the rest of the information here:

Photos: A list of high-profile mass shootings in the US this year

Monterey Park, California

Monterey Park, California

MONTEREY PARK, CALIFORNIA

A 72-year-old man killed 11 people and wounded nine others in a shooting at a Lunar New Year dance in Monterey Park on Jan. 21. The suspect later died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

About the photo: A memorial for the victims of the Jan. 21, 2023 Monterey Park mass shooting, is displayed outside the main doors City Hall in Monterey Park, Calif., Monday, April 24, 2023.

Damian Dovarganes, Associated Press

Half Moon Bay, California

Half Moon Bay, California

HALF MOON BAY, CALIFORNIA

A farmworker killed seven people in back-to-back shootings at two Northern California mushroom farms on Jan. 23, authorities said. He is facing charges.

About the photo: Law enforcement personnel control the scene of a shooting Monday, Jan. 23, 2023, in Half Moon Bay, Calif.

Jeff Chiu, Associated Press

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

Three students and three adults were killed inside The Covenant School in Nashville on March 27. The suspect, a former student, was killed by police.

About the photo: A family leaves with their children from a reunification site in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, March 27, 2023.

John Amis, Associated Press

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

An employee shot and killed five people and wounded eight others inside the Old National Bank in Louisville while livestreaming the attack on April 10. Police later shot and killed the gunman.

About the photo: A Louisville Metro Police technician photographs bullet holes in the front glass of the Old National Bank building in Louisville, Ky., Monday, April 10, 2023.

Timothy D. Easley, Associated Press

Dadeville, Alabama

Dadeville, Alabama

DADEVILLE, ALABAMA

Four young people were killed and 32 others were wounded by gunfire at a girl's Sweet 16 party in Dadeville on April 15. Police arrested two teenagers and a 20-year-old man on murder charges.

About the photo: Investigators work at the site of a fatal shooting in downtown Dadeville, Ala., on Sunday, April 16, 2023.

Jeff Amy, Associated Press

Bowdoin, Maine

Bowdoin, Maine

BOWDOIN, MAINE

Four people were killed in a home and three others were wounded by gunfire April 18 on a busy highway in a neighboring community. A man who was released from prison a few days earlier is charged in the killings.

About the photo: A woman reacts at the scene of a multiple shooting, Tuesday, April 18, 2023, in Bowdoin, Maine.

Robert F. Bukaty, Associated Press

Cleveland, Texas

Cleveland, Texas

CLEVELAND, TEXAS

A man shot and killed five of his neighbors, including a 9-year-old boy, on April 28 after they asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because a baby was trying to sleep. The shooter was arrested after a multi-day manhunt.

About the photo: A law enforcement official works Sunday, April 30, 2023, in the neighborhood where a mass shooting occurred Friday night, in Cleveland, Texas.

David J. Phillip, Associated Press

Allen, Texas

Allen, Texas

ALLEN, TEXAS

Eight people were killed and seven were wounded at a busy outdoor shopping center in Allen, Texas, on May 6, before police killed the gunman. It was the 22nd mass killing — in which four or more people died, not including the assailant — of 2023.

About the photo: A law enforcement officer walks as people are evacuated from a shopping center where a shooting occurred Saturday, May 6, 2023, in Allen, Texas.

LM Otero, Associated Press

Vatican experts uncovering gilded glory of Hercules statue struck by lightning

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Scaffolding in a niche of the Vatican Museums’ Round Hall conceal from view the work of restorers who are removing centuries of grime from the largest known bronze statue of the ancient world: the gilded Hercules Mastai Righetti.

For more than 150 years, the four-meter-tall (13-foot-tall) figure of the half-human Roman god of strength has stood in that niche, barely garnering notice among other antiquities because of the dark coating it had acquired.

But it was only after removing a layer of wax and other material from a 19th-century restoration that Vatican experts understood the statue's true splendor as one of the most significant gilded statues of its time. Museum-goers will be able to see its grandeur for themselves once the restoration is finished, which is expected in December.

“The original gilding is exceptionally well-preserved, especially for the consistency and homogeneity,” Vatican Museum restorer Alice Baltera said.

The discovery of the colossal bronze statue in 1864 during work on a banker’s villa near Rome's Campo dei Fiori square made global headlines.

Visitors drawn to the ancient wonder at the time included Pope Pius IX, who later added the work to the papal collection. The statue depicting Hercules after he finished his labors had the last names of the pope — Mastai — and of the banker, Pietro Righetti, added to its title.

The statue has been variously dated from the end of the first to the beginning of the third centuries. Even in its day, the towering Hercules was treated with reverence.

The inscription FCS accompanying the statue on a slab of travertine marble indicates it was struck by lightning, according to Claudia Valeri, curator of the Vatican Museums department of Greek and Roman antiquities. As a result, it was buried in a marble shrine according to Roman rites that saw lightning as an expression of divine forces.

FCS stands for "fulgur conditum summanium, a Latin phrase meaning “Here is buried a Summanian thunderbolt.” Summanus was the ancient Roman god of nocturnal thunder. The ancient Romans believed that not only was any object stricken imbued with divinity, but also the spot where it was hit and buried.

"It is said that sometimes being struck by lightning generates love but also eternity,’’ Vatican Museums archaeologist Giandomenico Spinola said. The Hercules Mastai Righetti “got his eternity … because having been struck by lightning, it was considered a sacred object, which preserved it until about 150 years ago.”

The burial protected the gilding, but also caused dirt to build up on the statue, which Baltera said is very delicate and painstaking to remove. “The only way is to work precisely with special magnifying glasses, removing all the small encrustations one by one,” she said.

The work to remove the wax and other materials that were applied during the 19th-century restoration is complete. Going forward, restorers plan to make fresh casts out of resin to replace the plaster patches that covered missing pieces, including on part of the nape of the neck and the pubis.

The most astonishing finding to emerge during the preliminary phase of the restoration was the skill with which the smelters fused mercury to gold, making the gilded surface more enduring.

“The history of this work is told by its gilding. … It is one of the most compact and solid gildings found to date,’’ said Ulderico Santamaria, a University of Tuscia professor who is head of the Vatican Museums' scientific research laboratory.

'I hated school': Student goes off script, criticizes high school's culture in commencement speech

Leadership Tomorrow members and Grand Island Senior High HOSA student-volunteers talk about the "Fresh Start Cup" project and why it's important.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — The student speaker at Grand Island Senior High's graduation ceremony used the platform to call for an improvement to the school's culture.

051523-gii-news-gishgrad-jrs-p4

Grand Island Senior High graduate Kenny Morales gives the oration during graduation Sunday at the Heartland Event Center.

JOSH SALMON, THE INDEPENDENT

Kenny Morales, who graduated from GISH on Sunday, called his speech “Opening Pandora’s Box.” After a generic opening, the box opened in paragraph two, to shouts of support from some in the audience.

“I don’t know about y'all, but I hated school,” Morales told the crowd, per a transcript of the speech provided by Morales.

He touched upon the number of physical altercations at GISH, saying “… while each fight has its own story, they all stem from the same problem: And that is the culture at our school.”

In his speech, Morales contended: “We lie, we pretend and we hide the truth with selective facts on positive things occurring around the school, instead of being honest and addressing the issues head on. We attempt to fix the issue by pulling them like weeds instead of fixing the underlying issue.”

District decisions are made by administrators who “sit in a room … everyone is guarded from the truth,” Morales told the Independent.

The district declined to comment on Morales’s speech. Grand Island Public Schools Board of Education President Hank McFarland declined to comment before discussing the situation with other administrators.

Morales said he felt his speech consisted of constructive criticism.

“I really don’t think I was too critical," he said.

He told the graduates and guests the solution is raising expectations.

“Sure, at first there will be resistance, but in the long term there will be leaders within the class that will emerge and set the standard we so desperately need," Morales said in the speech.

Morales said the speech was not necessarily about shaming the school.

“It was more about that message (of raising expectations),” he told The Independent. “I just wanted to start a conversation.”

Morales said his calculus classmates encouraged him to submit a speech — in his own words. Knowing the speech he wanted to write wouldn’t pass prior review, Morales enlisted ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot, to compose a decoy. ChatGPT uses data and computing techniques to mimic human conversation.

Grand Island Public Schools Communications Director Mitch Roush described the graduation speech submission process:

“Students who are interested in speaking at graduation can submit their names and draft of the speech that they would like to give,” Roush said. “Then a group of GISH staff review them and score them blindly.”

From there, GISH Executive Principal Jeff Gilbertson assesses the scores and “makes the final call from there,” Roush explained. “Once that’s done, (the student selected) works with Mr. Gilbertson to refine their message and make sure they feel confident in what they’re doing.”

At that point, Gilbertson gives the speech a final review, Roush said.

Morales didn’t say how long it took to manufacture the submitted speech, but did note the delivered speech was written in about a half hour, the day before commencement.

“It’s just holding people accountable,” Morales said.

According to Nebraska Department of Education data, 553 GISH students graduated from the school in 2021-2022 — 83.41% of the four-year cohort for that class. State data is not yet available for the class of 2022-2023.

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