FOUR MINNEAPOLIS POLICE officers were fired after a black man in their custody died after a white officer kneeled on his neck. The FBI is investigating for possible civil rights violations (Shutterstock/A. Katz).

Four police officers in Minneapolis were fired from their jobs Tuesday after a black man in their custody died.  A video shot by a bystander showed that the handcuffed man pleaded that he could not breathe as a white police officer kneeled on his neck.

The victim, identified as George Floyd, repeatedly told police that he was in pain and could not breathe. Spectators pleaded with the officers to check the man’s pulse and offer some medical assistance during the five-minute period when the policeman’s knee was pressed into the black man’s neck, according to the Associated Press.

Mayor Jacob Frey said, “This is the right call,” in announcing the firing of the four officers. “Being black in America should not be a death sentence.”

Police said that Floyd was a suspect in a forgery case and had resisted arrest. The FBI is investigating the incident to determine if police had deprived him of his civil rights.

NHL to conclude season with tournament

The National Hockey League on Tuesday announced that it would make a return to action with a tournament involving 24 of the league’s 31 teams.

According to the New York Times, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said that the top 12 teams in the standing for each conference – once medically cleared – would qualify.

The Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings will not be included in these playoffs, both posting losing records in the season that was interrupted in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The round-robin system will be based in one “hub city” for each conference, but those sites were not announced. Training camps will resume no earlier than July 1.

Wall Street jumps on vaccine hopes, reopenings

The big stock exchanges of Wall Street posted strong gains on Tuesday, fueled by hopes that a vaccine will soon be available to blunt the impact of the coronavirus. According to Yahoo Finance, optimism about the reopening of economies in most states was a factor as well.

The Standard and Poors 500 was up 36.32 points (a gain of 1.23 percent), while the Dow Industrials rose 529.95 points (2.17 percent). Nasdaq was up 15.63 points (0.17 percent).

U.S. coronavirus death count close to 10,000

The number of Americans dead from the coronavirus pandemic neared 10,000 on Tuesday, with the Johns Hopkins University putting the count at 98,852. That’s the most of any nation. Roughly a third of that total is in the New York-New Jersey area.

Second in fatalities is the United Kingdom (Great Britain) at 37,130, followed by Italy with 32,955, France with 28,533 and Spain with 27,117.

The worldwide total of confirmed cases is now at 5,559,130, with the U.S. the leader with 1,679,419 cases. Following are Brazil (374,898), Russia (362,342), the U.K. (266,596) and Spain (236,259).

Weather: Fog and sun and fog and sun …

In the Orange County area, a pattern of morning fog followed by afternoon sun should prevail through the weekend and beyond. According to the National Weather Service, Wednesday will show that forecast, with a high of 82. Similar conditions will continue on Thursday (high of 81) and Friday (high of 77).

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