Police Beat: Three sheriff’s deputies in North Carolina have resigned and seven have been put on leave after recordings of their radio traffic indicated they had shot a black man in the back while serving a warrant at his home.

  The police body camera video has not been released because only a judge can decide to do that under North Carolina law.

  The dead man, Andrew Brown Jr., had 10 children. His death occurred the morning after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty in the death of George Floyd.

  The police radio traffic was posted on a website that tracks public safety communications. At about 8:25 am a male voice tells dispatch, “Be advised. EMS has got one male 42 years of age. Gunshot to the back. We do have a viable pulse at this time.”

  The Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office said Brown had a record of drug offenses and was considered a danger. Sheriff Tommy Wooten said, “I will say if evidence shows that any of my deputies violated the law, or our policies, they will be held accountable.”

Viral News:  A panel with the Centers for Disease Control has approved the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine for use with a warning. Well, that inspires confidence. The J&J vaccine has caused blood clots in women, but in fairness, it’s only a handful. 

  With cases of Covid-19 surging, Japan declared a state of emergency for Tokyo, Osaka, and two other prefectures just three months before the open of the Tokyo Olympics. The order covers about a quarter of Japan’s population and a third of its economy until at least May 11^th.

  In Japan’s third state of emergency since the pandemic began, bars, restaurants, and shopping malls will be asked to close. Sports events will be held without spectators.

  Japan is not the worst. Turkey, Uruguay, and Argentina top the list of countries where Covid is rampant.

  The US, with only 4 percent of the world’s population, still holds the championship title for Covid deaths with 571,200 as of this morning. The next worst is Brazil at 386,416 deaths, followed by Mexico with 214,504.

Political Transition: Caitlynn Jenner, who as Bruce Jenner won gold in the decathlon in the 1976 Olympics and is now a transgender activist, announced she’s running for governor of California against incumbent Gavin Newsom, who’s facing a potential recall election.

  Jenner would be the most prominent transgender person ever to run for public office. 

  California has become a pretty solidly Democratic state. The Republican Jenner said in her announcement, “For the past decade, we have seen the glimmer of the Golden State reduced by one-party rule that places politics over progress and special interests over people.” 

  Newsom is under fire for his handling of the pandemic, but a recent poll says only about 40 percent of California voters support the recall.

   Before transitioning, Jenner was better known as the patriarch of the Kardashian-Jenner family serialized on reality  television with “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

The Spin Rack: Debris from the missing Indonesian submarine has been found, dashing hopes of rescuing its crew of 53. The sub may have dived too deep, crushing its hull. — The usually fashionable Ghislaine Maxwell, the accused procurer for the late sex perv Jeffrey Epstein, appeared in court in New York yesterday to face new charges of sex-trafficking of a minor and conspiracy to commit sex-trafficking. Dressed in prison blues, her fashionable hair bob had turned long, stringy, and gray. — Members of the Lakota Sioux tribe in South Dakota are campaigning for Congress to rescind 20 Medals of Honor bestowed on members of the 7th Cavalry who took part in the infamous 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. They say the government should recognize Wounded Knee for what it was, an atrocity. 

It’s a Man: A group of people attending a “gender reveal” party in New Hampshire set off 80 pounds of explosives in a quarry, leading some nearby residents to wonder whether there had been an earthquake. 

  Everyone survived, but increasingly spectacular efforts to reveal the gender of a baby still in the womb have been turning fatal. A few weeks ago two pilots died doing stunts for a reveal party. In New York State in February a father-to-be was killed by a pyrotechnic device he was building.

  Also in in February, in Gaines Township, Michigan, a couple fired a cannon at a baby shower, accidentally killing one of their friends.

  The gender-reveal craze appears to have begun in 2008 when a family did nothing more than cut into a pink cake. Since then, it’s been an arms race to outdo the party that came before. Blue smoke. Pink smoke. Mostly what is revealed is that fathers are little boys.

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