--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Thursday, February 25th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Soon, there could be a third vaccine on the market here in the U.S. Tomorrow, an advisory committee is meeting to review Johnson & Johnson's vaccine and to decide whether it should be granted emergency authorization.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, the reason why public health officials think this one could be a game changer is because this vaccine only requires a single shot, not two. That's a huge plus. And it can be kept in a normal refrigerator. Both of these factors will make it easier to distribute it throughout the United States and the world.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Dana suggests the J&J vaccine is about 66% effective at preventing moderate to severe cases of COVID-19. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, on the other hand, have been shown to have about a 95% efficacy rate.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So you might be thinking J&J's is less good, but the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, Dr. Ashish Jha, tells NPR that's not the right way to think about this.
--:-- Dr. Ashish Jha: What I've been saying to my family is, as soon as the J&J vaccine is authorized, if that's what you can get, you should get it as soon as it's your turn in line.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Dr. Jha explains it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. You see, Johnson & Johnson's vaccine was tested in several different settings, including in Latin American countries and in South Africa, where new variants of the virus have been circulating.
--:-- Dr. Ashish Jha: The Moderna and Pfizer trials were earlier in the pandemic. So that 66 percent number really represents an amalgamation of, you know, a variety of different clinical trials. Moderna and Pfizer were not tested in those circumstances.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Plus, as Dr. Jha explains, the most important feature of this vaccine is how effective it is at preventing hospitalizations and deaths. And J&J's drug appears to do that just as well as the other two vaccines.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The pressure is rising for South Dakota's top law enforcement officer to step down after he hit and killed a man while driving. The Sioux Falls Argus leader has been covering this story.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now here what we know about the case. Last September Jason Roundsburg, the state attorney general, was driving when he hit a man who was walking on the side of the highway.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, Roundsburg said he thought he struck a deer. But this week, authorities released a video of investigators interviewing him back in September.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We know certain things. We know those are his glasses. They were on his head because they were seen on his head. They ended up in your car.
--:-- Jason Roundsburg: I never saw him until you showed him to me. Okay. I never saw him, no.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In this tape, you can hear the detective saying, his face was in your windshield, Jason.
--:-- Jason Roundsburg: Think about that. They're Joe's glasses. I'm wondering about that. So that means his face came through your windshield.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Roundsburg was charged with three misdemeanors. Now, to lay out the facts of this case, the Argus leader went through roughly three hours of recorded law enforcement interviews.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This story has a whole lot of unanswered questions. Tests show Roundsburg didn't have drugs or alcohol in his system. But then again, the samples they used to perform those tests were taken more than 12 hours after the crash was reported.
--:-- Jason Roundsburg: And then, quite frankly, wham. Okay. I hit, you know, the incident happened. I never saw anything until the impact. I immediately jump out of the car and call 911 within seconds.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He waited at the scene until the sheriff came. The sheriff issued what's known as a red ticket for a deer hit and then loaned Roundsburg a car to get home.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The next day, when he was returning the sheriff's car, Roundsburg stopped at the scene. And that's when he found the body of Joseph Beaver. This is the man he hit and killed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, the police have cast doubts on this story. They questioned Roundsberg about how he could have missed seeing the body that night, pointing out that Beaver was carrying a flashlight that was still on when his body was found the next morning.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Police also point out other inconsistencies, like Roundsberg's use of a cell phone. At first, he denied using either of his two cell phones while he was driving, but investigators found an email was sent shortly before he called 911 as well as evidence that he was checking the news on his phone.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, for his part, Roundsburg points out the sheriff and the tow truck who responded to the scene that night also missed seeing the flashlight and that he didn't see the pair of glasses in the front seat.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: This week, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem started calling for Roundsburg's resignation. A bipartisan group of lawmakers filed two articles of impeachment. Will Mortensen is one of the state representatives who's leading that charge.
--:-- Will Mortensen: And he tells the Argus leader, I don't believe Attorney General Roundsberg belongs in prison, but I know he doesn't belong in the office of the Attorney General anymore.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Still, Roundsburg is refusing to step down.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For most people, wealth isn't built in just one lifetime. It accumulates over generations. And there is a huge gap between the generational wealth of white Americans compared to people of color, particularly Black Americans, and what that means for their retirements.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal analyzed a quarter century of recent data and finds not only is there a racial savings gap, but it's getting wider and wider.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: On average, Black and Hispanic families have a little bit more than $25,000 saved for retirement. White families, on the other hand, have more than six times more retirement money. On average, they have nearly $160,000 saved.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And there are a lot of reasons for this divide. White Americans generally make more money, have jobs that are more likely to have 401k plans with employer matches. Black college graduates typically have more than triple the amount of debt than their white classmates. And homes in majority Black neighborhoods are valued lower.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: But there's also this reality. Black professionals are less likely than their white colleagues to come from families who pass on wealth to later generations. So it's more common for them to be forced to tap into their retirement savings early.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People who can't borrow from mom and dad have to borrow from their future instead.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: That's not the only way parent circumstances can affect their children. Those of us who didn't grow up with a lot of money often use our income to help family members. Nearly half of black college-educated adults are supporting their parents. Only about 15 of white households do the same.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And what this means is more people of color can save for their retirement because their parents can't.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And so it goes across generations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the world of collectibles, people will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for rare whiskeys or beanie babies. How does this one strike you? Some people are paying six figures for a short video reel of an athlete's best moments, essentially a virtual sports card.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Yeah, this story comes to us from The Athletic. It's about NBA Top Shot. It's a kind of complicated story, but the short of it is a tech company partnered with the NBA and created a market to buy and sell short highlight videos.
--:-- Shamita Basu: All you get when you buy one is a video clip, and you can keep it or like a traditional baseball card, you can sell it. And people are definitely doing that. The company claims more than $200 million in sales.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And, Shamita, I wanted to take a look around the site and find a crazy example to bring you. So here's something that's available right now. A clip of LeBron James dunking. It's very cool. It's in slow motion and everything. For $213,000.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is a digital twist on the sports collectible market, which is a $5 billion industry. But for as much as I read about this new market, I just can't see why anyone is buying these clips.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: It's not like you're owning the rights to the film clip. You're not getting residuals, but still, people are bidding up the price of this virtual asset.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And there are worries that people might get burned trying to make money trading these video cards. The site is brand new. This is still in beta. Right now, most people who buy a virtual video and sell it for real dollars can't cash out their money yet.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The company says it's still working on security and managing demand, but it does say everyone will eventually be able to withdraw their money.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The NBA is on board with Top Shot now, and a lot of players are investing their own money. This virtual business is getting bigger. Up next are WNBA and UFC highlight videos. And the company behind Top Shot is now seeking deals with the NFL, MLB, and more.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app, and while you're there, check out some of our audio stories, including that Wall Street Journal story about race and retirement. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
