Friday, April 2, 2021

Wake-Up Call: Taiwan Train Crash Claims 36 Dead

A passenger train crashed into a truck and partially derailed in Taiwan Friday morning, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens of others. There were reportedly 350 passengers on the train when the crash took place as it was emerging from a rail tunnel. Railways news officer Weng Hui-ping said a construction truck operated by the railway administration, but that wasn't in use at the time, slid onto the track from a work site on the hillside above. The accident took place on the first day of an annual four-day religious festival during which people travel to their hometowns.
 

➤SUPERVISORY SERGEANT: OFFICERS COULD HAVE STOPPED RESTRAINING FLOYD AFTER HE WAS NO LONGER RESISTING: A retired Minneapolis police supervisory sergeant who arrived at the scene shortly after George Floyd was taken away in an ambulance last May, testified during former officer Derek Chauvin's murder and manslaughter trial yesterday (April 1st) that the officers should have stopped restraining Floyd after he was no longer resisting. David Pleoger said, "When Mr. Floyd was no longer offering up any resistance to the officers, they could have ended the restraint." He also said that officers are trained to roll people on their side to help with their breathing after they've been restrained in the prone position.


Floyd's girlfriend, Courteney Ross, testified earlier the day, speaking about how they both struggled throughout their relationship with opioid addiction that began with taking painkillers for chronic pain, saying they, quote, "tried really hard to break that addiction many times." She said that she'd suspected Floyd had begun using again about two weeks before he died because his behavior changed. Chauvin's defense has argued Floyd died as a result of the fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, along with his underlying health conditions and his adrenaline.

Paramedics who attended to Floyd at the scene were also on the stand. Seth Bravinder said that when they arrived, he saw no signs that Floyd was breathing or moving, and it appeared he was in cardiac arrest, and a second paramedic, Derek Smith, said he couldn't find a pulse. The paramedics said they were never able to restore a pulse, and Floyd was declared dead at the hospital.

➤GUNMAN WHO KILLED FOUR, INCLUDING CHILD, IN CALIFORNIA OFFICE COMPLEX KNEW THE VICTIMS: Police said Thursday that a gunman who killed four people, including a nine-year-old boy, at a Southern California office complex the day before knew all the victims, and his motive may have been personal or involved business. The suspect, identified as 44-year-old Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition, with police saying it wasn't yet clear whether he'd been shot by police or he shot himself. A female survivor is also in critical but stable condition, and the boy who died was found in her arms. Police spokesman Lieutenant Jennifer Amat said Gonzalez allegedly chained the front and rear gates to the office complex in the city of Orange and was seen on security video carrying a semiautomatic handgun and a backpack that contained pepper spray, handcuffs and ammunition. His target was a mobile home brokerage business called Unified Homes.


 
➤'N.Y. TIMES': GAETZ PROBE FOCUSED ON WOMEN RECRUITED ONLINE FOR SEX AND PAID: The New York Times reported yesterday that a Justice Department investigation into Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Joel Greenberg, a former Florida politician who was indicted for sex trafficking, is focused on their involvement with women who were recruited online for sex and paid in cash, citing sources, as well as texts and payment receipts reporters reviewed. The Times said investigators believe Greenberg first met the women through websites that connect people who go on dates in exchange for gifts, expensive meals, travel and allowances, and he introduced them to Gaetz, who also had sex with them. One of the women, according to the report, agreed to have sex with a friend of theirs. The Justice Department is also probing whether Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl and whether she received anything of material value. The report also claims some of the men and women involved, including Gaetz, took ecstasy. Gaetz has denied the claims, including ever paying a woman for sex.
  • Meanwhile, CNN reported yesterday that Gaetz showed lawmakers nude photos of women he said he'd slept with, showing them both in private and on the House floor. CNN said there was no evidence the photos were connected to the Justice Department's investigation.

➤POLL FINDS TACOS TOPS LISTE OF FOODS THAT PUT PEOPLE IN BETTER MOOD:  A new survey on the relationship between the food we eat and our moods found that 66 percent of people said what they eat depends a lot on their mood, and nearly the same number, 65 percent also said their mood can determine what they'll eat that day. When asked in the survey by OnePoll for HelloFresh what they eat when they're having a bad day, chocolate led the list with 46 percent, followed by fast food and candy at 36 percent and chips at 35 percent. Chocolate was also at 41 percent in what people eat on a good day, with fruit and vegetables at 39 percent on those days. But for bad days, just 30 percent wanted vegetables and 27 percent wanted fruit. When asked specifically what foods instantly put them in a better mood, tacos topped the list at 33 percent, followed close behind by bacon and eggs and by steak, which were both at 32 percent.

➤FEWER SUICIDES IN 2020 DESPITE PANDEMIC: Despite fears that the stress of the pandemic and isolation from lockdowns might lead to more suicides, preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that suicides were actually down last year. Deaths by suicide fell by 5.6 percent in 2020, and suicide was also bumped out of the top 10 U.S. causes of death by Covid-19, which entered the list in third place. At the same time, mental health experts warn that we're still not back to normal, and that young people in particular still have high levels of depression and anxiety.

➤'HOUSTON CHRONICLE': NEARLY 200 KILLED BY TEXAS WINTER STORM AND COLD: A Houston Chronicle analysis found that at least 194 people were killed by the winter storm and following unusually cold temperatures that hit Texas in February, which knocked out power and heat to millions of people for days. According to the Chronicle analysis, at least 100 of those who lost their lives died from hypothermia, around half of the victims were over age 65, and nearly three-quarters were people of color. At least 16 deaths were from carbon monoxide poisoning as people used unsafe methods to try to heat their homes. The state's official death toll was increased from 57 to 111 last week, by meany deaths are still being investigated.

➤FIRST LADY PULLS APRIL FOOLS' DAY PRANK ON REPORTERS: First Lady Jill Biden pulled an April Fool's Day prank yesterday on reporters traveling with her on a flight back from California to Washington, D.C. According to AP, a flight attendant with a nametag that read "Jasmine" and short black hair passed out Dove ice cream bars during meal service while wearing a black face mask and a black pantsuit. A few minutes later, she came back out without the wig, showing she was the first lady, and laughed as she said, "April Fools!" Biden wrote in her 2019 memoir, Where the Light Enters, that she likes playing pranks, including one when her husband was vice president when she hid in an overhead bin on Air Force Two, scaring the first person who opened it up to put in their luggage.


➤GIRL SCOUT SHATTERS RECORD BY SELLING 32,484 BOXES OF COOKIES IN ONE SEASON: Selling tens of thousands of Girl Scout cookies in just two months is an incredible feat and it's only made more special when it's done during a pandemic. Eight-year-old Lilly Bumpus made it her mission to sell as many cookies as she could this season within the restrictions. She wasn't able to go door-to-door or set up a table outside of a grocery store, but she could sell online and have a booth in the front yard of her San Bernardino, California, home. Bumpus is a cancer survivor, and her troop is mostly made up of other kids who have either battled cancer, are still fighting it, or lost a loved one to the disease. Her fellow Scouts showed up at her house to surprise Bumpus and share some good news: she sold 32,484 boxes of cookies, breaking the record for most boxes sold in a season. About 5,000 of the boxes are being donated to pediatric cancer patients, homeless people, and soldiers serving overseas.

➤A GENDER GAP IN NEGOTIATION EMERGES BETWEEN BOYS AND GIRLS AS EARLY AS AGE EIGHT: When it comes to negotiation, boys and girls do things different—even from a young age. Boston College researchers looked ages kids ages four to nine and found that girls asked for less than boys did when negotiating with a man. Study leader Katherine McAuliffe explains, “We did not see this gender gap when children were negotiating with a woman. There is still much more work to be done, but one thing this tells us is that we should be teaching young girls to advocate for themselves in the context of negotiation from as early as elementary school.” Researchers say these results mirror the dynamics of the negotiation gap that persists between men and women in the workforce, and which may help explain the gender gap in pay that separates women and men. The experts say the next step is clarifying exactly what explains the development of this behavior and trying to develop interventions that could help balance things out.


➤AMERICANS ARE ON A SHOPPING SPREE—THESE WORKERS ARE OVERWHELMED: Due to the pandemic, many of us have been spending the majority of our time at home for over a year, and it’s definitely changed our shopping habits. People bought new furniture, espresso machines, and expensive European wines—and all the purchases could be seen in the surge of household cargo that shattered records at the Port of New York and New Jersey. 

The network of docks, terminals, and open storage areas moved over 755,400 standard cargo containers in October alone—the busiest month in the history of the port, which has handled cargo containers since the 1960s. In fact, this port had cargo volumes up 23 percent higher each month from August through December 2020, compared to the same months in 2019. Even in January, cargo volume rose 17 percent compared to the previous year, and in February it went up seven percent—a new high for that month. But all of this means the port had to extend its operating hours to nights and weekends, and that various businesses have been overwhelmed with demand. 

For example, LG Electronics USA reports a “double digit increase” in sales of refrigerators, stoves, dishwashers, washing machines, and dryers that ship from factories in Asia.

⚾TWO GAMES CALLED OFF ON MLB'S OPENING DAY, ONE DUE TO COVID, THE OTHER TO RAIN: Opening day was supposed to kick off baseball season yesterday with a full slate of 15 MLB games, but two were called off, one due to Covid-19 and the other to rain. The Washington Nationals’ game against the New York Mets was postponed after at least three Nationals players tested positive for Covid, and GM Mike Rizzo said there's a fourth player who's considered "likely positive." Everyone else is self-quarantining. Meanwhile, the game between the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox was a more standard postponement, with the game rained out in Boston. It will be made up today.


Some of yesterday's season-opening games were played in chilly temperatures, including in Detroit, where the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera hit the first home run of the new season in snow against the Cleveland Indians. It was hard for Cabrera to see through the snow when he hit his shot in the first inning, leading him to slide into second base because he didn't know if the ball had made it over the outfield wall.

🏒THREE MORE CANUCKS GAMES POSTPONED DUE TO COVID ISSUES: The NHL postponed three more Vancouver Canucks games yesterday due to Covid-19 issues, with players Adam Gaudette and Travis Hamonic and a member of the coaching staff in the Covid protocol. The Canucks games scheduled for Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday that have now been postponed are in addition to their game against the Calgary Flames that was postponed Wednesday.

🏌TAVATANAKIT IN LEAD AFTER ANA INSPIRATION'S OPENING ROUND: Patty Tavatanakit of Thailand is in the lead after the opening round of the ANA Inspiration at California's Mission Hills Country Club on Thursday (April 1st), one of women's golf's five majors. China's ShanShan Feng and Leona Maguire of Ireland are tied in second place one shot back. American Michelle Wie West was back to competition after a 21-month break, having gotten married in 2019 and had a baby last June.

🏈RAMS QB STAFFORD HAD MINOR SURGERY ON THROWING HAND: Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford had minor surgery on his throwing hand last moth, The Athletic reported Thursday. The NFL Network reported that the 33-year-old suffered ligament damage to his thumb last season with the Detroit Lions. He was seen in an Instagram video posted by his wife last week with a brace around his right thumb. The Athletic report said Stafford is expected to be at "100 percent" by the time team activities begin later this month.

🏀HALL OF FAME NORTH CAROLINA BASKETBALL COACH ROY WILLIAMS RETIRING: Hall of Fame North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams announced yesterday that he's retiring. The 70-year-old Williams said during a news conference, "It has been a thrill. It has been unbelievable. I've loved it." But explaining why he was leaving, he said, "I no longer feel that I am the right man for the job." Williams has spent 18 seasons at UNC, leading them to national titles in 2005, 2009 and 2017, and coached Kansas for 15 seasons, taking it to four Final Four appearances. He ranks fourth all time among Division I coaches in wins with a 903-264 record and was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.
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