COEUR D'ALENE (AP) — Police investigating racist incidents directed toward the Utah women's basketball team when they were near their Idaho hotel while in town last month for the NCAA Tournament say they've found an audio recording in which the use of a racial slur was clearly audible.
The Coeur d'Alene Police Department said Wednesday in a Facebook post that it is working to determine the "context and conduct" associated with the slur's use to determine if there was a violation of law. Police said they are still reviewing evidence from the March 21 incidents, but it appears that a racial slur was used more than once.
Police said they've collected about 35 hours of video from businesses in the area, and that video and audio corroborates what members of the basketball program reported. Police said detectives are working to locate any additional evidence and get information on suspects. Detectives also are trying to identify a silver car that was in the area at the time.
Following Utah's loss to Gonzaga in the second round of the tournament on March 25, Utes coach Lynne Roberts said her team had experienced a series of hate crimes after arriving at their hotel in Coeur d'Alene. Utah and other teams played their games in Spokane, Washington, but the Utes were staying about 35 miles away in Coeur d'Alene.
Roberts said the March 21 incidents left players and coaches so shaken and concerned for their safety that they moved to a different hotel the next day.
University athletic officials said in a March 26 statement that as members of the program were walking to dinner near their hotel, a vehicle drove by and racial epithets were shouted at them. Then, on their walk back to the hotel, a vehicle slowly passed them, and the engine was revved as occupants again shouted racially disparaging words and threats.
The statement said "many students, staff and other members of the traveling party were deeply disturbed and fearful after the incidents."
The university officials said a police report was filed on March 21 after the incidents, and they were working with authorities on the investigation. A university spokesman said Thursday that they didn't have any additional comment beyond last week's statement.
Coeur d'Alene police chief Lee White said last week that about 100 people were around the area the night of the incidents. He has said there are two state charges that could be enforced — malicious harassment and disorderly conduct — if someone is arrested. White also said he was working with the FBI.
Far-right extremists have maintained a presence in the region for years. In 2018, at least nine hate groups operated in the region of Spokane and northern Idaho, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
When a resolution denouncing racism and hate speech in response to the incidents with the Utah team was introduced in the Idaho Senate last week, several Republican senators expressed doubts about the accounts or said they were unfamiliar with the situation. They debated for about 30 minutes before voting to approve the resolution.
NEW YORK (AP) — New U.S. hepatitis C infections dropped slightly in 2022, a surprising improvement after more than a decade of steady increases, federal health officials said Wednesday.
Experts are not sure whether the 6% decline is a statistical blip or the start of a downward trend. Seeing 2023 and 2024 data, when it's available, will help public health officials understand what's going on, said Daniel Raymond, director of policy at the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, an advocacy organization.
"We've had a decade of bad news ... I am cautiously encouraged," he said. "You always want to hope like something like this is real, and a potential sign that the tide has turned."
Infection rates did not occur across the board. They declined for white Americans, but continued to rise in Black, Latino and Native American communities, according to Dr. Neil Gupta, who oversees the branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that tracks viral hepatitis.
The hepatitis C virus is spread through contact with blood from an infected person. The virus does most of its damage by infecting the liver, and, if left untreated, can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer. Infections are driven mainly by people injecting illicit drugs.
Data released by the CDC for 2022 shows 4,848 new infections, down from 5,023 reported the year before. The CDC estimates about 67,000 new hepatitis C infections actually occurred in 2022, because many people who become infected don't realize it, meaning most new infections are not diagnosed and reported. But that too is down, from 70,000 estimated for 2021.
The new infection rate — used to better compare data from one year to another — dropped 6%. Though the decline is encouraging, Gupta said, the 2022 statistics are still twice as high was what the nation saw in 2015.
Cases had consistently gone up since 2013 during the longstanding opioid epidemic due to drug users shooting heroin and fentanyl. Experts say a couple of factors could have contributed to a decline in 2022, including successful prevention efforts and needle exchanges.
The North America Syringe Exchange Network keeps a directory of U.S. programs, and listings have grown from about 300 to nearly 500 in the last several years, said Paul LaKosky, NASEN's executive director. Many programs also have boosted hepatitis C testing and found ways to get infected people to treatment, he noted.
But LaKosky and others think something else may be at play, too: Drug users are shifting from injecting to smoking. A recent CDC report found that between early 2020 and late 2022, the percentage of overdose deaths with evidence of smoking rose 74% while the percentage of deaths with evidence of injection fell 29%.
Fewer people injecting drugs like fentanyl means fewer opportunities for the spread of hepatitis C, experts noted.
"There has been a tremendous shift in the way people are consuming their drugs. There's been a decrease in demand for syringes. We've seen this nationwide," said LaKosky, who added there is more demand for supplies to snort or smoke drugs.
More than 2 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C, some of them having lived with infections for many years, the CDC estimates. About 12,700 Americans died in 2022 of hepatitis C-related causes, the CDC said.
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