Las Notis is a daily news column that gets you up to speed on the political, media + other going ons in Latin America and the diaspora—all in one quick digest.
- Here’s your glimpse at what’s going on today:
- A mass shooting in a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, has taken the lives of 10 people, including a police officer. The suspect was later revealed to be a 21-year-old man from a nearby Denver suburb who used an AR-15 type of assault rifle. Law enforcement officials said he was known to the F.B.I. because he was linked to another individual under investigation by the bureau. [NYT]
- The day after AstraZeneca announced its vaccine had a 79% efficacy rate, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases released a rare statement saying that the trial results the company submitted may have been based on outdated and incomplete information about the vaccine’s effectiveness. The AstraZeneca vaccine is already facing scrutiny in Europe for links to blood clots that have yet to be proven. [NYT]
- The state of emergency in Miami Beach has been extended, possibly for several weeks, in an effort to control overwhelming Spring Break crowds. Mayor Dan Gelber described the tourist behaviors that law enforcement is tackling, listing brawls, gunplay, and disregard for COVID-19 prevention measures. [CNN]
- U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced Monday that Puerto Rico will get immediate access to $912 million in federal funds that hadn’t been available to students in public and private schools because of restrictions under the Trump administration. Governor Pedro Pierluisi has requested immediate access to those funds “in order to provide the necessary resources for the students of Puerto Rico.” [NBC Latino]
- Early research suggests that hearing loss and tinnitus can be a symptom of COVID. The recent death by suicide of Texas Roadhouse CEO, Kent Taylor, who was battling post-Covid symptoms such as severe tinnitus, has refocused concerns over the severity of these conditions. Eldré Beukes, an audiologist and research fellow at Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom, said the condition is “one of those things that is just so variable in every single person.” [WaPo]
- Cardi B’s “Up” rises to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song, previously at No. 6, got a boost after Cardi B’s Grammy Awards performance with Megan Thee Stallion. The song is Cardi B’s fifth Hot 100 No.1. [Billboard]