DENVER, Colo. — Jonathon Stalls knows the dangers of being a pedestrian in Denver. In the winter, he has to walk through mud and snow alongside busy streets.

"You have engineering that has long, long, been centering high-speed car traffic as the priority," he said.

Jonathon became an advocate for safer streets after he walked across the entire country. He now documents what he says are fatal flaws in infrastructure that are a symptom of generations of prioritizing car travel on social media under the name "Pedestrian Dignity."

The Governors Highway Safety Association says pedestrian traffic deaths have been rising steadily since 2010, increasing faster than all other kinds of traffic deaths. Last year, was a record-breaking year.

The association estimates that 7,485 pedestrians were killed last year, an 11.5% increase from 2020.

It fits into the larger picture of America’s unsafe roads. Nearly 43,000 people died on roads last year, a sharp 10.5% spike from 2020. About 17% of those deaths were pedestrians.

"Our city streets were designed primarily to move cars, to move as many cars as fast as possible with pedestrians, bicyclists, people trying to access their transit system, basically an afterthought," said Jill Locantore, the executive director of Denver Street Partnerships.

Locantore works to connect lawmakers with changemakers to make sure pedestrians are heard. She says the conversations her group is having are being echoed in cities nationwide

"Pedestrians and bicyclists are the most vulnerable and the most likely to be hit and killed in a crash, but our streets are unsafe for everybody. There's a lot of drivers and passengers of cars that are dying in preventable traffic crashes as well," she said.

It seems the federal government is listening. At the end of October, the U.S. Department of Transportation released a set of guidelines on how to create safer streets for pedestrians, hoping cities will use some of the $9 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law to improve streets with pedestrians and cyclists in mind.

Stalls, who wrote a book on how to invite people into the conversation of changing streets, says a good place to start is exposing more lawmakers and drivers to the realities that pedestrians face.

"Consider replacing some of your car trips if you're a driver so that you can have just awareness and be an agent of community and change for how you vote, how you might organize, how you support people," he said.

Food safety is a major concern after a power outage.

According to FoodSafety.gov, your refrigerator will keep food safe for up to four hours during a power outage.

A full freezer will keep food safe for roughly 48 hours.

People should not taste the food after a power outage to determine its safety.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, refrigerators should be set to maintain a temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below.

Some refrigerators have built-in thermometers to measure their internal temperature. If your fridge does not, keep an appliance thermometer in the refrigerator to monitor the temperature.

The USDA says this can be critical in the event of a power outage. When the power goes back on, if the refrigerator is still 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the food is safe.

Foods held at temperatures above 40 degrees Fahrenheit for more than two hours should not be consumed, according to the USDA.

For tips on when to throw out certain refrigerated and frozen foods, click here.

Congressman Greg Steube was seriously injured after falling off a ladder while cutting a tree at his home in Sarasota, Florida.

A representative for the congressman wrote a series of tweets on Steube's official account. They state that someone witnessed the Florida representative falling approximately 25 feet and called 911.

Steube spent the night in the intensive care unit, but his condition is reportedly not life-threatening at this time.

"He is making progress and in good spirits," one of the tweets states.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy stated that he spoke with Steube and his wife Thursday.

"I informed him he will serve on the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, and he is eager to get back to work," McCarthy tweeted.

Steube, a Republican, has been in Congress since 2019.

Jennifer Seeley was glued to her phone, safe at home but terrified nonetheless.

There was an active shooter at the Texas mall where she works as an assistant store manager. And she was searching desperately for information, praying. Was the gunman dead? Were her coworkers dead? What was happening?

So with law enforcement in the Dallas area town of Allen releasing information slowly on that horrible May 6 afternoon, she turned to social media for answers, stumbling across videos showing the bodies of some of the eight who were slain. Desperately she texted her coworkers.

“That’s where all of my information came from was what I saw on Twitter. And, you know, nobody was really releasing any information on what actually happened,” she says now, nearly two weeks later.

The shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets this month has law enforcement public information officers from around the country talking. Social media, they say, has accelerated everything. Now everyone can post images from their phone. That means if police don’t talk, reporters and the public will simply go online, as happened in Allen.

And that presents a major problem, says Katie Nelson, social media and public relations coordinator for the Mountain View Police Department in northern California. Nelson teaches about crisis management and social media best practices. And these days, she says, when it comes to responding, “The luxury of time does not exist."

POLICE APPROACHES HAVE EVOLVED

Police began to harness social media a decade ago, most famously after the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. The four-day manhunt ended with police tweeting: “CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody.”

It was groundbreaking at the time, says Yael Bar Tur, a police communication consultant and former director of social media for the New York City police department. Now, she says, that it is the basic level expected of law enforcement.

“It’s not enough just to be on social media, you have to be good at it,” she says. “At the end of the day, you know, we have to use this tool because if you don’t, it is going to be used against you.”

In Allen, the mall shooting happened around 3:30 p.m. Allen police sent their first tweet around 4:20 p.m., announcing simply that police were at the mall and that an active investigation was underway. Seeley continued to fear that her coworkers at the Crocs store were hiding and the gunman was still on the loose.

At nearly 7 p.m., police in Allen said an officer had “neutralized the threat.” That meant he was dead. But the often-used term can be confusing to the public, says Julie Parker, a former broadcast journalist and law enforcement public information officer who now advises government agencies on how to respond to critical incidents.

“Normal people who don’t work in law enforcement don’t know what the word neutralized means,” Parker says.

Adding to the situation, the initial news conferences were brief and infrequent. One lasted less than two minutes, and police took no questions.

Eventually she learned that her coworkers had survived, but a security guard she knew was among the dead. Twenty-year-old Christian LaCour had helped jump start a customer’s car just a few days earlier.

“Very anxiety-inducing,” Seeley said of the whole experience.

MAKING THE BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

How to harness social media in the best ways — and quickly — was on everyone’s mind last week as public information officers gathered at a midyear conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

“You had a little more time to get information out five or six years ago. The expectation wasn’t there that it would be immediate, and I think it is now,” says Sarah Boyd, who is on the executive board of the association’s group on public communication.

She says her colleagues often text each other to discuss how communications are handled after tragedies. The responsibility weighs on her; she is well aware that the messages police tweet in the midst of a mass shooting might be read by someone hiding from the shooter.

“All they’ve got is their phone, and that tweet is their lifeline," says Boyd, a former newspaper reporter. She is now the public relations manager at the Clay County, Missouri, Sheriff’s Office in the Kansas City area.

This newest crop of public information officers, who like Boyd are much more likely to be former reporters themselves than in the past, also are demanding to have a seat at the table when officers are planning how to respond to mass casualty events and police shootings.

They note that the flow of information can go both ways, generating tips from the public, who might have cell phone or Ring doorbell video that could help investigators.

It can be challenging, though, with police nationally struggling to regain the public's trust in the wake of George Floyd's killing in 2020 and the protests that followed. Many factors — for example is the suspect still on the loose? — play a role in what can be released. And even if the suspect is killed, the investigation isn’t over; law enforcement still must determine whether the shooter acted alone, says Alex del Carmen, an associate dean of the school of criminology at Tarleton State University in Texas.

Missteps after the mass shooting at Uvalde, when law enforcement released shifting and at times contradictory information, show the importance of getting details right.

“People were just scratching their heads on the second or third day,” del Carmen says. He has sympathy, though, for the officers faced with communicating the unimaginable; entire careers can be defined by moments like these.

A MODEL FOR QUICKER INFORMATION

The bulk of the nation’s police forces are small, and there are vast differences in what each state allows them to release. In Missouri, for instance, 911 recordings are inaccessible to the public.

The public itself has no such restrictions, though.

After a man killed 10 people at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, in March 2021, an independent, part-time journalist began livestreaming on his YouTube channel before officers even arrived. The effect can be instantaneous — and, for authorities, quite dizzying.

“We’re putting out information quicker than I’ve ever seen before,” says Boulder police public information officer Dionne Waugh. Given the speed of social media, she says, there's simply no choice.

Amid a crush of media, each victim's family was assigned its own public information officer. All the while, what had happened was hitting Waugh personally; the victims included police Officer Eric Talley, a friend who died rushing into the store.

Though she described the experience as “life-changing” and “horrible,” she has led trainings in the years that have followed. She hopes that reliving it will help others.

Sadly, it wasn't long after Nashville Police Department spokesperson Don Aaron asked her to speak that he faced his own mass shooting. In March, a shooter killed three children and three adults at a Christian school in his city before being gunned down by police.

The police tweets were fast. The very first one announced that the shooter was dead. Surveillance video was released before the 10 p.m. nightly newscast. Body camera footage came out the following morning, in line with the department's policy of releasing such video quickly. The stream of information was fast, continual and generally accurate.

“As we have made decisions about releasing body cam in police-shooting situations, I have said to some of my colleagues across the country, especially when this first started, that I was flying a jet trying not to crash it,” says Aaron, a 32-year police veteran. “And so far, it hasn’t crashed.”

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — An investigation is underway in West Palm Beach, Florida after a bicyclist fell to her death while on an opening draw bridge that connects the city to Palm Beach.

West Palm Beach police said Sunday that an older woman, whose name has not been released, was walking her bike across the Royal Park Bridge when it started going up.

She was just 10 feet away from the end of the bridge when she fell to her death through a gap in the road, authorities said.

"The woman tried to hang on. There was a bystander nearby who tried to help her, but tragically she fell five or six stories below where she died landing on concrete," said West Palm Beach police spokesman Mike Jachles.

"There is a bridge tender, and that bridge tender has certain safety protocols to follow, specific safety protocols...that includes lowering of the gates for the vehicles, lowering of the gates for the pedestrians, and making several visual confirmations that there is nobody at either of the spans or past those gates."

The Royal Park Bridge was closed for nearly six hours and is equipped with barriers and bells alerting people when the bridge is going up.

Elizabeth Humphreys

While police look into what went wrong, bicycle safety advocates like Juan Orellana said the Royal Park Bridge is highly trafficked.

"Palm Beach is accessible only through three bridges and this is the main bridge, so it's very used by cyclists," Orellana said. "For one thing you will hear the bell before the arms go down, so when you hear the bell you gotta get out of the way before the bridge goes up," Orellana said.

"Always drive defensively, always be aware of your surroundings, see what's going on, because it's our life that we're playing with sometimes," he said.

Elizabeth Humphreys

Palm Beach police will study surveillance video as their investigation continues and local safety advocates are urging residents and tourists to be alert and aware when on roadways and bridges.

This story was originally published by Joel Lopez of WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Lawmakers in a handful of states are seeking greater protections for election officials amid growing concerns for their safety after they were targeted by threats of violence following the 2020 presidential election.

Widespread threats against those who oversee elections, from secretaries of state to county clerks and even poll workers, soared after former President Donald Trump and his allies spread false claims about the outcome of the presidential election.

The threats and harassment are not limited to prominent figures but also have been directed at lower-level staff at county election offices. Much of the legislation would create or boost penalties for threats against election workers.

In Vermont, as Reuters reports, lawmakers have proposed multiple bills that could make it easier to prosecute those who make threats towards election officials. In Maine, lawmakers have proposed legislation that would make penalties for such threats harsher. In Washington, lawmakers in that state voted to make threats of this kind towards election workers a felony.

Reuters documented more than 850 "threats and hostile messages" directed towards U.S. election officials and workers, the outlet reported. More than 100 of those incidents met the federal requirement for criminal prosecution.

Vermont's Democratic Secretary of State Jim Condos told the Associated Press, “Nationally, we are seeing longtime experienced election leaders and their staffs leaving their positions for other work because they’ve had it, this is it, this has crossed the line.”

With whiteout conditions predicted starting Friday as part of a strong winter storm poised to wallop a long stretch of the East Coast, officials warn drivers in affected areas to avoid getting on roads this weekend unless it is absolutely necessary — and to practice extreme caution if they do.

That's because snow, sleet and freezing rain may blanket cars, ice over roads and hamper visibility.

Even if you're not in the path of this weekend's nor'easter, driving in a snowstorm is difficult. Aside from snow and ice, wind and poor visibility can make travel downright dangerous.

Here's a short guide to driving safely in winter weather:

Pack a winter driving kit

If motorists have any problems with their car's battery, brakes, heating and cooling system or ignition system, they should try to stay off the roads.

For those who must go out, it's important to plan.

The AAA recommends motorists pack a winter driving kit that includes:

• A bag of abrasive material (sand, salt or cat litter), a snow shovel and traction mats

• An ice scraper and window washing liquid

• Booster cables

• A flashlight and warning flares or triangles

• A cell phone and charger

• An extra set of gloves and a blanket

• Emergency food supplies such as power bars or beef jerky — and sufficient water.

Motorists should also have at least half a tank of fuel before venturing out, the AAA says, and should make sure tires are properly inflated.

Always deice your vehicle before driving

Iced-over vehicles can limit driver visibility, and ice flying off cars can be hazardous to fellow drivers, so deice vehicles before driving.

The AAA suggests drivers clean their windows and windshield, replace their window wiper blades if they're leaving streaks and clean all snow and ice from their hood, roof, trunk, lights and windows.

Drivers should warm their car's engine for a few minutes before hitting the road.

Drive slowly with headlights on low and avoid frequent stops

When driving in conditions with low visibility, motorists should proceed slowly with their headlights on low beam, the AAA advises.

The AAA also recommends drivers avoid stopping if possible. Instead, motorists should drive slowly so their car keeps rolling without requiring a full stop.

Steering around an obstruction is often safer than braking suddenly at speeds above 25 mph on a slippery surface, according to AAA's pamphlet, "How to Go on Ice and Snow."

When motorists do brake, they should not remove their foot from the brake or pump the pedal if they have anti-lock brakes, the AAA advises. Drivers that don't have anti-lock brakes should keep their heel on the floor and apply firm pressure to the brake pedal to the threshold of locking.

In case of skidding, drivers are advised to steer in the direction they want the front of the car to go, keeping their eyes on the travel path. They should not slam on the brakes -- that's likely to make it harder to regain control.

Additionally, the AAA suggests drivers avoid cruise control when driving on slippery surfaces.

Carefully exit parking spots

Drivers should try to ease their vehicle out of parking spaces without spinning the wheels. Drive back and forth for several feet in either direction to clear a path, the AAA advises, and spread sand or salt near the wheels if additional traction is needed.

Keep as much distance between your and other cars

To safely brake if necessary on ice or snow, the AAA advises drivers increase following distances to 8 to 10 seconds.

On highways, drivers should not change lanes often, as they can lose control driving over snow that gathers between lanes.

Take the hills as slowly as possible

When driving on hills, drivers should stay as far from other vehicles as possible so they don't have to stop while maneuvering around cars that are stuck.

This will allow drivers to gently speed up when they're near the bottom of the hill, the AAA says.

Motorists should drive downhill extremely slowly and try not to use the brakes. When it's necessary, however, drivers should brake gently so they don't lose control.

KENOSHA COUNTY, Wis. — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced Friday that approximately 500 troops from the Wisconsin Army National Guard have been authorized to support authorities in Kenosha following the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse.

Members of the National Guard will stage outside Kenosha in a standby status to respond if requested by local law enforcement agencies, officials say. The Rittenhouse trial has entered its final stages.

“We continue to be in close contact with our partners at the local level to ensure the state provides support and resources to help keep the Kenosha community and greater area safe,” said Gov. Evers. “The Kenosha community has been strong, resilient, and has come together through incredibly difficult times these past two years, and that healing is still ongoing. I urge folks who are otherwise not from the area to please respect the community by reconsidering any plans to travel there and encourage those who might choose to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights to do so safely and peacefully.”

Maj. Gen. Paul Knapp, Wisconsin's adjutant general, said the National Guard is ready to support communities during times of need.

“In close coordination with the governor, we have assembled approximately 500 soldiers to help keep the Kenosha community safe, should a request from our local partners come in," Knapp said.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys for Rittenhouse returned to the courthouse without the jury present on Friday to finalize how jurors will be instructed when they get the case next week and begin deliberating.

Jury instructions will be worked out on Friday, and closing arguments are expected on Monday.

This story was originally published by staff at WTMJ.

The tragedy at Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival left eight people dead and dozens injured, as the crowd surged during the rapper's set.

The crowd at the Friday night show in Houston was so packed that when audience members were pushed toward the stage, some told CNN that they were crushed to the point where they couldn't breathe and passed out. Others were trampled, as calls for help were drowned out by the music.

Concertgoers told CNN that Scott stopped the show at least three times to ask for help for concertgoers in the crowd, though some have criticized the artist and organizers for allowing it to continue. A criminal investigation of the tragedy is now in its early stages.

Scott and his partner Kylie Jenner, who was in attendance at the Houston show, have stated in separate social media posts that they are devastated by the tragedy.

Erika Goldring/WireImage

Jenner said both she and Scott didn't know what was happening in the crowd at the time.

"I want to make it clear we weren't aware of any fatalities until the news came out after the show and in no world would have continued filming or performing," she wrote.

Similar situations have erupted at concerts in the past — here's how artists have asked crowds to stay safe.

Linkin Park

When members of the band Linkin Park noticed that multiple people in the mosh pit at their show had fallen during one of their shows, they stopped playing, according to a video of the years-old incident shared on Twitter over the weekend.

"We got to look out for safety first, for real. Nobody gets hurt. That's number one," said Mike Shinoda in the video.

Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images

"We know we've been stressing all night about being cool, and this is the reason why," Chester Bennington said in the clip. "Let's go over it one more time: When someone falls, what do you do?"

"Pick them up," the crowd yelled back.

Dave Grohl

Another clip going viral in the wake of the Astroworld tragedy is one of Dave Grohl, who was seen stopping a Foo Fighters show in 2018 when he noticed a child who appeared to need a seat. It was later revealed that the child was blind and had autism.

"Hold on one second," Grohl said, pausing and pointing at someone in the crowd. "Does that kid need somewhere to sit?"

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

Grohl then invited the child and his parents to sit at the edge of the stage.

Slayer

In 2018, metal band Slayer were opening their final tour in San Diego, California, when the concert was paused due to the size of the crowd. Audience members were instructed to clear the aisles for safety reasons.

As fans booed the instructions, Tom Araya asked fans to cooperate.

Daniel Knighton/Getty Images

"We live in a society of rules. But these rules are for your safety," he told the crowd. "They need to have cleared aisles so when something does happen, everybody has an exit, OK."

The show eventually continued.

ASAP Rocky

At a Rolling Loud performance in 2019, ASAP Rocky stopped a performance mid-set when he noticed some people had fallen.

"Everybody back up, look. Watch out," he begins. "Pick the girls up, bro. Pick the girls up... What's wrong with y'all."

Timothy Norris/WireImage

The rapper continued yelling at the crowd to "back up" and "calm down" before he began performing again.

Playboi Carti

At Playboi Carti's Lollapalooza set this summer in Chicago, organizers came onstage to halt the rapper's performance, saying people were passing out -- information Carti immediately relayed to the fans, in a video posted after the Astroworld incident.

"They telling me it's a lot of people passing out. They keep stopping my music because people are passing out. I care about you guys' safety first," he said, as organizers continued to give him more information. "Everybody take three steps back and we can start the music right away."

Some social media users drew comparisons to Carti's set, saying that the organizers at Astroworld should have forced a stop like they did at Lollapalooza.

Michael Hickey/Getty Images

At another Playboi Carti show over the weekend, held after the tragedy at Astroworld, a safety warning was given to concertgoers ahead of the show, according to a video posted on TikTok.

"If you guys do not follow the rules, if you guys jump over to the floor, if you guys do anything that they consider dangerous, not one, not two, but just one person messing up, this show is over," the loudspeaker announcement said before Carti's appearance. "We are fighting, we are convincing them to let us do this show for you, but this show now, if it happens, it is on you. So please, let's have a good time and be respectful."

"As soon as I was healthy enough, I went and got the vaccine. It was really important to me," explained Keren Sharlow.

Sharlow has a 3-year-old daughter and recently gave birth to a son. While she feeds him her milk full of antibodies, she said she is producing so much milk she wanted to share with other families.

She turned to Facebook to donate her extra supply.

"I did have some parents mention they were happy I had the vaccine and they were specifically looking for it," said Sharlow.

There are a lot of ads online looking for milk specifically with antibodies, something local OB-GYN Dr. John Caravello, from St. Mary's Medical Center, isn't surprised by.

"A baby who is breastfed exclusively for six months to a mother who received the vaccine or natural immunity, that baby is constantly getting antibody protection," said Caravello.

Caravello said if you are seeking milk online, it comes with a risk.

"I would be cautious about someone selling their milk, unless they are able to demonstrate they have gone through an appropriate pasteurization process that has been proven and they have been screened and that their milk is free of communicable disease," explained Caravello.

The doctor said when you pasteurize the milk, you are also removing a lot of the good nutrients, including some of the antibodies.

"People are kind of desperate. They want to do something to protect their baby," said Caravello.

Sharlow said she does not pasteurize, but the families she donates to know that.

The doctor said if you want to buy milk online, you should ask if the milk is pasteurized, get specific information about the donor's diet, ask how the milk is stored and make sure the pump is properly cleaned.

Discussions of workplace safety are now front and center after the fatal 'Rust' movie set shooting at Bonanza Creek Ranch.

On Oct. 21, Santa Fe County deputies said Alec Baldwin, the actor and co-producer of the film, discharged a prop gun that misfired. The weapon fatally wounded cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.

Questions also remain, like how live rounds showed up on the set.

The lawyer for the film's armorer, 24-year-old Hannah Gutierrez, released a statement Friday.

Jason Bowles said Gutierrez had no idea where the live rounds came from and added that the guns were locked up every night.

The incident has been a big concern for many people, including Baldwin.

On Saturday, Baldwin briefly spoke with reporters in Vermont, where he and his family have been laying low since the shooting.

"An ongoing effort to limit the use of firearms on film sets is something I’m extremely interested in," Baldwin said.

The actor added safety measures are needed when it comes to guns on movie sets.

"We have to realize that when it does go wrong, and it’s this horrible, catastrophic thing, some new measures have to take place," Baldwin said. "Whatever other people decide is the best way to go in terms of protecting people’s safety on film sets."

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the state may take action to address those concerns.

Her office provided the following statement to sister station KOAT:

"Workplace safety in any and every industry in New Mexico is absolutely paramount. A workplace death is never acceptable and must compel an analysis of what can and should be done better. My full expectation is that the film and television industry will, at the conclusion of the investigation into this tragic incident and once all the facts are in hand, bring forward comprehensive new safety protocols to ensure this kind of incident never, ever happens again. If that sort of comprehensive new approach does not materialize, the state of New Mexico will take immediate action, throughout whatever means are available to us, to ensure the safety of all personnel on all film and television sets here in our state. This industry is important to us economically and to so many workers throughout New Mexico, and I look forward to a full accounting of how this could have possibly happened, and we will determine our next steps from there."

The investigation is still ongoing and no charges have been filed.

Production on the movie 'Rust' has since halted.

As start dates for school inch closer, educators and health officials are unveiling plans to go back to school safely. One focus: face masks.

“It’s important for people to understand germs,” Laura-Anne Cleveland, an associate nursing officer at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, said.

Cleveland says everything starts with education.

“Trying to get them to understand that air and breath from us can have germs in it," she said.

Cleveland said the best way to do that with younger kids is through a little science experiment.

“Putting a container of water, putting pepper in it and putting soap on their finger and putting your finger in. The pepper disperses, and so showing that the pepper is the germs and soap and things like that are really good to be able to use,” she explained.

As schools finalize plans for reopening--whether that be online, in person, or a combination of the two--masks have become one of the biggest talking points.

“I have never dealt with anything like this,” Marty Gutierrez, an 8th-grade math teacher, said.

Gutierrez has been teaching for 26 years.

“So much is up in the air and we start back to school in three weeks,” he explained. “And we don’t have guidelines or they are changing every day or even two, three times a day.”

One of those guidelines is whether masks will be recommended or required.

“Like anything recommended or required with middle school kids, it’s that year where you push boundaries,” Gutierrez said. “I get parents and their ideals and values and what they want their freedoms to be. Just getting kids to wear masks is going to be difficult enough, and we know we’re going to have some kids that ‘You know what? My parents don’t want me wearing a mask.'”

If schools recommend masks instead of requiring them, there are fears this could open up doors for bullying.

“I’m sure that there will be some kids that are harassing kids for not wearing a mask, or kids that have a different mask,” he said.

Or conversations about fairness.

“If you have a sibling that has to wear a mask but you don't have to, it’s going to not feel fair,” Cleveland said.

Masks have become controversial, but to Gutierrez, it’s just an extra layer of safety for everyone in the building, including those who may be at high-risk for getting COVID-19.

“People are scared. I have friends that have children that are recovering from cancer, or I have friends that take care of elderly parents that are immunocompromised,” he said.

Cleveland and Gutierrez, both parents, themselves, want to keep kids in school and make sure kids remember the why.

“Why are we wearing masks? Why are we wearing face shields? Things like that, and getting the children to understand that,” Cleveland explained.

“This is the best we can do right now, and if we don't follow these guidelines, you're not going to be seeing these friends again, we’re going to go back to that situation where you’re only going to see them online. So, I think it’s expressing that trade-off,” Gutierrez said.

Facebook, in the aftermath of damning testimony that its platforms harm children, will be introducing several features including prompting teens to take a break using its photo-sharing app Instagram, and “nudging" teens if they are repeatedly looking at the same content that's not conducive to their well-being.

The Menlo Park, California-based Facebook is also planning to introduce new controls for adults of teens on an optional basis so that parents or guardians can supervise what their teens are doing online.

These initiatives come after Facebook announced late last month that it was pausing work on its Instagram for Kids project. But critics say the plan lacks details and they are skeptical that the new features would be effective.

The new controls were outlined on Sunday by Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president for global affairs, who made the rounds on various Sunday news shows including CNN's “State of the Union" and ABC's “This Week with George Stephanopoulos" where he was grilled about Facebook's use of algorithms as well as its role in spreading harmful misinformation ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

“We are constantly iterating in order to improve our products,” Clegg told Dana Bash on “State of the Union" Sunday. “We cannot, with a wave of the wand, make everyone’s life perfect. What we can do is improve our products, so that our products are as safe and as enjoyable to use."

Clegg said that Facebook has invested $13 billion over the past few years in making sure to keep the platform safe and that the company has 40,000 people working on these issues.

The flurry of interviews came after whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former data scientist with Facebook, went before Congress last week to accuse the social media platform of failing to make changes to Instagram after internal research showed apparent harm to some teens and of being dishonest in its public fight against hate and misinformation.

Haugen’s accusations were supported by tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents she secretly copied before leaving her job in the company’s civic integrity unit.

Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay, a watchdog for the children and media marketing industry, said that he doesn't think introducing controls to help parents supervise teens would be effective since many teens set up secret accounts anyway. He was also dubious about how effective nudging teens to take a break or move away from harmful content would be. He noted Facebook needs to show exactly how they would implement it and offer research that shows these tools are effective.

“There is tremendous reason to be skeptical," he said. He added that regulators need to restrict what Facebook does with its algorithms.

He said he also believes that Facebook should cancel its Instagram project for kids.

When Clegg was grilled by both Bash and Stephanopoulos in separate interviews about the use of algorithms in amplifying misinformation ahead of Jan. 6 riots, he responded that if Facebook removed the algorithms people would see more, not less hate speech, and more, not less, misinformation.

Clegg told both hosts that the algorithms serve as “giant spam filters."

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, told Bash in a separate interview Sunday that it's time to update children's privacy laws and offer more transparency in the use of algorithms.

“I appreciate that he is willing to talk about things, but I believe the time for conversation is done," said Klobuchar, referring to Clegg's plan. “The time for action is now.”

CINCINNATI — Bengals safety Jessie Bates III and running back Giovani Bernard were given the Most Valuable Player and "Good Guy" awards, respectively, by the Cincinnati chapter of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA) Tuesday morning.

Bates, who was drafted by the Bengals in the 2018 NFL Draft, finished the 2020 season as the top graded safety in the NFL, and led the Bengals in interceptions and passes defended.

"Bates was a runaway winner," Cincinnati chapter president of the PFWA Paul Dehner Jr. said. "His playmaking was one of the primary weapons for the defense and helped hold together a side of the ball battling injuries all around him all season.”

Bates joins the ranks of previous Bengals MVPs like AJ Green ('16) and Geno Atkins ('12 and '17).

Bernard, the Bengals' 2019 nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, is the latest recipient of the "Good Guy" award, which is awarded to players for their professionalism and cooperation with the media. Previous award recipients include Andy Dalton ('19) and Andrew Whitworth ('12 and '15).

"Bernard’s genuine thoughtfulness and honesty made a major difference in being on this beat," Dehner said. "His respect and helpfulness during so many of these challenging Zoom sessions was the latest example of a career full of professionalism toward the media.”

After safety issues, Peloton's smaller treadmill is now on sale

Updated: 1:18 PM EDT Aug 24, 2021

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