‘We Lost A Precious Young Man’: Hockey Tragedy Stuns Communities
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Good morning! It’s Saturday, Jan. 8, and 2022 is now a week old. Depending on where you live, you could be experiencing some of the coldest temperatures of the winter. Before you complain, keep this in mind: Minnesota was colder than Siberia on Friday.
Here are some of the stories we’re following:
A high school hockey game turned tragic when a player died following an on-ice collision.
The three Georgia men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced to life in prison Friday.
Actor Sidney Poitier, who helped break down Hollywood’s color barriers with his Academy Award-winning performance in “Lilies of the Field” — the first Oscar ever won by a Black man — has died.
Ted Cruz is sorry.
Two Connecticut communities are mourning a high school hockey player who died after another student-athlete collided with him on the ice Thursday at Brunswick School in Greenwich.
Teddy Balkind, a sophomore for visiting St. Luke’s School in New Canaan, was remembered as “an all-around incredible young man, son and brother.”
"Yesterday, we lost a precious young man in a tragic accident,” St. Luke's Head of School Mark Davis told Patch. “Both St. Luke's School and Brunswick School are in shock as we work to support our students and families. St. Luke's singular focus at this moment is to care for our devastated community.” » High School Hockey Player Dies During Game, via Greenwich, Connecticut, Patch
Life In Prison For Arbery Killers
A judge in Georgia on Friday ordered three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery to prison for the rest of their lives, telling them he had considered their sentences from different angles but “kept coming back to the terror that must have been in the mind of the young man running through Satilla Shores,” the neighborhood where Arbery was killed while out for a jog.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley sentenced father and son Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael to life sentences plus 20 years each without the possibility of parole. Their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan Jr., also was sentenced to life but will have the chance for parole after 30 years.
“Ahmaud Arbery was hunted down and shot, and he was killed because individuals here in the courtroom took the law into their own hands,” the judge said before sentencing. » Ahmaud Arbery’s Killers Get Stiff Prison Sentences, via Atlanta Patch.
RIP, Mister Tibbs
Actor Sidney Poitier died Friday at the age of 94. He broke Hollywood color barriers for Black actors with the film “Lilies of the Field” and went on to star in a string of box office hits in the 1960s that mirrored real life for Blacks at that time. With the film, he was the first Black man in history to win an Academy Award.
Poitier co-starred with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn in “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner,” the story of a pair of avowed white civil rights champions coming to terms with their daughter’s engagement to a Black man. Later, as detective Virgil Tibbs in “In the Heat of the Night,” he insisted to sheriff in the racist South, “They call me Mister Tibbs.”
He was recalled with special fondness in Mount Vernon, New York, where he developed the chops that would take him to the zenith of his career. He paid his way as a dishwasher, a status that didn’t play well in auditions in New York City.
"As I walked to the bus, what humiliated me was the suggestion that all he could see in me was a dishwasher. If I submitted to him, I would be aiding him in making that perception a prophetic one," Poitier told The Associated Press of his initial foray onto the stage. "I got so pissed, I said, 'I'm going to become an actor — whatever that is. I don't want to be an actor, but I've got to become one to go back there and show him that I could be more than a dishwasher.' That became my goal." » Sidney Poitier Mourned, Roots In Mount Vernon Recalled, via Mount Vernon, New York, Patch
How Sidney Poitier Got His Start In Harlem: Years before achieving stardom, Sidney Poitier was a teenager living in Harlem — directionless and broke, but angling for an opportunity, via Harlem, New York City, Patch.
Ted Cruz Says He Didn’t Mean It
Oh, Ted Cruz. A conservative ideologue and potential 2024 presidential contender, the Texas Republican senator appeared on Fox News Channel's "Tucker Carlson Tonight" show Thursday to apologize for describing the Jan. 6 insurrection as "a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol" a day earlier, the eve of its anniversary.
"The way I phrased things yesterday, it was sloppy and it was frankly dumb," Cruz told Carlson, a powerful voice in GOP politics whose show is among the most-watched on cable news. Cruz insisted that he had misspoken, though he has similarly described the riot in interviews and statements over the last year.
Cruz's capitulation to outrage from the Republican Party's far right flank underscores the power it increasingly holds over leading GOP politicians and the influence held by conservative TV hosts like Carlson, who reach millions of viewers every night. And it shows how lawmakers like Cruz, who was once considered one of his party's most conservative voices, now face pressure from a new guard of hard-liners who swept into power with the backing of Donald Trump's base. » Ted Cruz Apologizes For Describing Jan. 6 Attack As Terorism, via Austin, Texas, Patch
Taking On Trump Is Biden's Reluctant Calling: Donald Trump, said President Jo Biden, is not just a former president but is also a defeated one whose "bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy," via Across America Patch.
Around ‘The Patch’
WWII Soldier's Letter Finally Delivered: Sgt. John Gonsalves wrote to his mother from Germany in 1945. Last month, the letter was finally delivered to his widow, via Woburn, Massachusetts, Patch.
White Sox Fan, 'Twin' Jimmy Fallon Connect: A local guy landed on a national stage when late-night TV host Jimmy Fallon donned a mustache and beer helmet to imitate the Sox fan's look, via Chicago Patch.
$76 Beer Dinner For Dolly Parton’s 76th: A five-course, Southern-inspired Sidecar Supper Club birthday dinner paired with Penrose brews? Dolly Parton would approve, via Batavia, Illinois, Patch.
Good News Fix: Start your day with a smile with this collection of nine good news stories from around “The Patch,” via Across America Patch.
Photos Of The Week
The Week In Photos: Insurrection Anniversary; I-95 Snarl; COVID Rages, via Across America Patch
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This article originally appeared on the Across America Patch
