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5 things to know for April 3: Chicago elections, Mar-a-Lago, Turkey

1. Chicago

Chicago has a new mayor, and for the first time in history, it's a gay black woman. Lori Lightfoot won a historic runoff against another African-American woman, and will replace current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was not seeking a third term. Prior to her win, Lightfoot, a former assistant US attorney, was appointed by Emanuel to head Chicago's newly-created police accountability task force. Under Lightfoot, the city also replaced its widely criticized police oversight agency with a civilian body designed to have much more oversight over officers and their supervisors. Whoever it was, Chicago's incoming mayor was bound to inherit the responsibility of tackling the city's ongoing struggles with gun violence, crime and police-community relations.
Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot speaks during the election night party in Chicago, Illinois, on April 2, 2019.

2. Mar-a-Lago

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a woman carrying Chinese passports accused of illegally entering President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Yujing Zhang claimed a friend had asked her to fly from Shanghai to the club to try to speak to a member of Trump's family about economic relations between the US and China. After she was detained, US Secret Service agents searched multiple electronic devices including four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external "hard drive type" device and a thumb drive containing malicious malware. Since the President spends a lot of time at Mar-a-Lago, security protocol is tight, and any breach is a serious matter. The US Secret Service says Mar-a-Lago club management is responsible for deciding who is allowed in, but added that the security practices are "no different than that long-used at any other site temporarily visited by the President or other Secret Service protectees."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is contesting the results of some local elections this week that seem to show his ruling party, the Justice and Development Party (known as the AKP), has lost political control of both Istanbul and Ankara, the country's capital. This is a big deal because the AKP and its political predecessor have consistently won in Istanbul's local elections since the 1990s, and have also retained a decades-long political majority in Ankara. Losing influence in these major cities would be a serious blow to Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than 15 years after becoming prime minister in 2003. AKP party officials said they detected voting irregularities in 39 districts, and votes in five of those districts are scheduled to be re-counted today. 

4. Nigeria

The fatal police shooting of a Nigerian man has sparked outrage and reignited a public call for the shutdown of a controversial police unit. Kolade Johnson, a 36-year-old father, was killed by a stray bullet fired by a police officer during a raid in Lagos on Sunday. Johnson was not involved in the raid, and was just passing through with a friend after watching a soccer match. The officer belonged to Nigeria's anti-cultism police unit, but the shooting has brought back calls to disband the country's Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS, a unit designed to deal with the most serious crimes. In recent years, activists have accused SARS of significant human rights abuses and police brutality. In 2016, Amnesty International issued a report on SARS accusing officers from the unit of torturing detainees in custody and demanding bribes to free them. In 2018, Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo ordered an overhaul of the unit, but activists to say the changes haven't been enough and the unit should be disbanded.
Some pot products may soon be getting regulated under the Food and Drug Adminstration. The FDA announced yesterday that it will start discussing regulatory framework for the use of CBD in consumer products, including foods and beverages, next month. CBD is the the abbreviation for cannabidiol, one of the non-psychoactive ingredients in cannabis that is believed to offer wide-ranging health benefits (the nastier, psychoactive ingredient is THC). FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said the move was part of an effort to build "lawful pathways by which appropriate products containing cannabis or cannabis-derived compounds can be marketed" and made "more predictable and efficient." As it stands now under FDA guidelines, it's illegal to put CBD in a food product or market it as a diet supplement.

BREAKFAST BROWSE

World's deepest pool built in Poland
Go ahead, take the plunge!
What it's probably like to travel in a standing airplane seat
...........uncomfortable?
"This is your captain. Sit back, relax, and ... oh, wait."
Avengers: Endgame ticket pre-sales crashed websites
The USDA announced it will stop infecting kittens with parasites for research purposes 
Here, kitty kitty...
Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan finally have an Instagram account
Everyone else already pretends to be rich, attractive and in love on Instagram -- might as well have some of the real deal on there. 

HAPPENING LATER...

The college admissions scandal goes to court
Actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are among a group of 11 wealthy parents expected in federal court today. The defendants are each charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud as part of the college admissions scam.

TODAY'S NUMBER

The number of town halls CNN will host with Democratic presidential candidates next week alone. Kirsten Gillibrand, Jay Inslee, Julián Castro, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang will all get time to answer questions, tout their platforms, and distinguish themselves from the other 2,835 Democratic candidates currently in the race. 

TODAY'S WEATHER

AND FINALLY

Go on and glow 
Did you know that precious opals display iridescent colors because of the internal structure of their microscopic silica spheres? Oh, and they're really, reeeeally pretty. (Click here to view)

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