Today is Monday, April 28, the 118th day of 2025. There are 247 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 28, 2004, the world first viewed images of prisoner abuse and torture by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, via a report broadcast on the CBS television news program “60 Minutes II.”

Also on this date:

In 1789, mutineers led by Fletcher Christian took control of the ship HMS Bounty three weeks after departing Tahiti, setting the ship’s captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and 18 other crew members adrift in the Pacific Ocean.

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Today in History: April 24, the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin

In 1945, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by Italian partisans after attempting to flee the country.

In 1947, a six-man expedition led by Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl set out from Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101-day, 4,300 mile (6,900 km) journey across the Pacific Ocean to the Polynesian Islands.

In 1967, heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was stripped of his WBA title after he refused to be inducted into the armed forces.

In 1994, former CIA official Aldrich Ames, who had passed U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia, pleaded guilty to espionage and tax evasion, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In 2001, a Russian rocket lifted off from Central Asia carrying the first space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito, and two cosmonauts on a journey to the International Space Station.

In 2011, convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy Garrido, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and raping a California girl, Jaycee Dugard, who was abducted in 1991 at the age of 11 and rescued 18 years later. (Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years to life in prison; Nancy Garrido was sentenced to 36 years to life.)

Today’s Birthdays:

Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III is 95.
Actor-singer Ann-Margret is 84.
Chef Alice Waters is 81.
TV host-comedian Jay Leno is 75.
Actor Mary McDonnell is 73.
Musician Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) is 72.
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is 65.
Baseball Hall of Famer Barry Larkin is 61.
Golfer John Daly is 59.
Rapper Too Short is 59.
Actor Bridget Moynahan is 54.
Actor Jorge Garcia is 52.
Actor Penelope Cruz is 51.
TV personalities Drew and Jonathan Scott are 47.
Actor Jessica Alba is 44.
Actor Harry Shum Jr. is 43.
Singer-songwriter Melanie Martinez is 30.

Extreme thunderstorms, hail, damaging winds, frequent lightning and possible tornadoes are anticipated Monday afternoon and evening across central and eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, according to the National Weather Service.

“It is worth repeating – Monday is likely to be a dangerous weather day,” the National Weather Service wrote on its website. “It is important to have severe weather safety plans in place now so quick and decisive action can be taken when storms approach and warnings are issued.”

A level 4 highest local risk alert was issued Sunday by the NWS for the Twin Cities.

All severe weather hazards are possible Monday, including strong tornadoes, though a tornado threat will depend on the structure of the storms, the NWS wrote. If a tornado were to occur, it would likely happen in the early evening.

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Residents are encouraged to be prepared to shelter if needed, in basements or rooms with no windows. Residents are also asked to be prepared to adjust their plans, ensure their devices can receive weather alerts, be in communication with others and know how to evacuate if needed.

If I try to describe Pearl Cleage’s 2010 play, “The Nacirema Society,” to you, there’s a good chance that you’re going to go in expecting something quite different from what you’ll get.

For example, if I tell you that it takes place in 1964 Montgomery, Ala., while civil rights activists are being murdered in neighboring Mississippi and the city is months away from “Bloody Sunday,” when police beat up marchers outside Selma, you may expect a historical drama about the struggle for equality.

But no: It’s a comedy about Black aristocrats preparing for their annual debutantes’ ball and the 100th anniversary of their fraternal organization for the elite families of southern Black culture. So you might think it a satire about oblivious people too wrapped up in themselves to have any interest in changing history.

And that’s not really right, either. Oh, there’s a touch of that here and there, but what Cleage has created is actually a combination of screwball romantic comedy and a vintage farce full of mistakes, misunderstandings and the best laid plans going raucously awry.

Dedra D. Woods (Marie Dunbar), Joy Dolo (Janet Logan), Nubia Monks (Gracie Dunbar), Greta Oglesby (Grace Dubose Dunbar) and Regina Marie Williams (Catherine Adams Green) in “The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years.” (Dan Norman / Guthrie Theater)

In the Guthrie Theater’s production, you’ll find an expertly executed comedy, driven by nine splendidly sculpted performances and the kind of taut direction this type of controlled chaos needs, courtesy of Valerie Curtis-Newton. Played out on an elegant, multi-tiered Takeshi Kata set on the Guthrie’s thrust stage, it’s a tremendously enjoyable show that might go on a little longer than ideal, but offers a welcome balm of laughter amid troubling times.

Something of a takeoff on a similar southern society called the Emanon Society, the Nacirema Society is all about establishing a standard of excellence, even if it’s more about keeping up appearances and maintaining a social pecking order than actually helping anyone accomplish anything.

As for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and those fighting segregation, they’re viewed with a wary eye by these elites, who haven’t quite grasped that you can’t say you participated in the mid-’50s Montgomery bus boycotts if you’ve never set foot on a city bus in your life.

Greta Oglesby (Grace Dubose Dunbar), Nubia Monks (Gracie Dunbar) and Dedra D. Woods (Marie Dunbar) in the Guthrie Theater’s production of “The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years.” The show runs through May 25 at the Minneapolis theater. (Dan Norman / Guthrie Theater)

As preparations for the annual cotillion are underway, several subplots intertwine to throw things into comical disarray. There’s a blackmail plot involving the society’s founder, secrets ending up in the wrong ears, scandalizing letters in the wrong hands, a New York Times reporter showing up, and the cotillion’s king and queen considering chucking all this confining tradition to pursue other dreams. And yes, there’s a love story, too.

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Although she’s sometimes too quiet for the Guthrie’s expansive space, Greta Oglesby nevertheless commands the stage as the society’s imperious doyenne, Grace Dunbar. Meanwhile, Nubia Monks is magnetic and marvelous as her high-energy, Supremes-loving teenage granddaughter, Gracie.

And what a hoot to have Regina Marie Williams show off her too-seldom-seen comic chops as the sherry-swilling bundle of anxiety entrusted with defusing a potential scandal. They’re complemented well by eminently believable portrayals from Aimee K. Bryant, Dedra D. Woods and Darrick Mosley.

Throughout, Cleage’s script is full of wit, careening from one pithy bon mot and snappy rejoinder to another. And this cast delivers it all with crackerjack comic timing and vivid characterizations, making this an unexpectedly inspired comedy.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

‘The Nacirema Society’

When: Through May 25

Where: Guthrie Theater, 818 Second St. S., Mpls.

Tickets: $92-$17.50, available at 612-377-2224 or guthrietheater.org

Capsule: Into a serious setting steps a silly and very enjoyable romantic comedy.

By DAVID BAUDER

“60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley paid tribute Sunday to Bill Owens, the show’s executive producer who resigned last week, saying on the air that “none of us is happy” about the extra supervision that corporate leaders are imposing.

Pelley made his comments at the end of the evening’s CBS News telecast, saying that in quitting, Owens proved he was the right person for the job.

“It was hard on him and it was hard on us,” Pelley said. “But he did it for us — and you.”

His on-air statement was an unusual peek behind the scenes at the sort of inner turmoil that viewers seldom get the opportunity to see.

Owens, only the third top executive in the 57-year history of television’s most influential newscast, resigned last week, saying he no longer felt he had the independence to run the program as he had in the past, and felt necessary.

CBS News’ parent company, Paramount Global, is in the midst of a merger with Skydance Media that needs the approval of the Trump administration. Trump has sued “60 Minutes” for $20 billion, saying it unfairly edited a Kamala Harris interview last fall to her advantage. Owens and others at “60 Minutes” believe they did nothing wrong and have opposed a settlement.

An extra look at “60 Minutes” stories before they air

As a result, Pelley explained to viewers on Sunday, Paramount has begun to supervise “60 Minutes” stories in new ways. Former CBS News President Susan Zirinsky, a longtime news producer, has reportedly been asked to look at the show’s stories before they air.

“None of our stories has been blocked,” Pelley said. “But Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires. No one here is happy about it. But in resigning, Bill proved he was the right person to lead ‘60 Minutes’ all along.”

Despite this, “60 Minutes” has done tough stories about the Trump administration almost every week since the inauguration in January, many of them reported by Pelley. On Sunday, “60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi had the latest, interviewing scientists about cutbacks at the National Institutes for Health.

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Trump was particularly angered by the show’s telecast two weeks ago, saying on social media that CBS News should “pay a big price” for going after him.

___

David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social