Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Wake-Up Call: School's Back Door Closed, But Not Locked


Texas state police said yesterday that an outside door at the elementary school that was the site of last week's mass shooting had been closed by a teacher shortly before gunman Salvador Ramos used it to get inside, but it didn't lock when it shut as it was designed to, and investigators will try to determine why. State police had initially said after the May 24th shooting in which 19 children and two teachers were killed that a teacher had propped the door open shortly before Ramos entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. The Texas Department of Public Safety now says a teacher had propped the door open with a rock, but then removed it and closed the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus. The San Antonio Express-News cited an attorney as saying that the teacher, who wasn't named, had propped open the door to carry food from a car to a classroom, and immediately closed it when she realized there was a shooter and called 911.


Meanwhile, investigators are still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was the commander at the scene during the shooting. The head of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has said Arrendondo keep 19 police officers waiting in a hallway outside the classroom where Ramos was for an extended period of time, treating it as a hostage situation and as if children were no longer at risk. The chief communications officer for DPS said yesterday that Arrendondo hadn't responded for two days to the department's requests for an interview.

➤U.S. TO SEND MEDIUM-RANGE ROCKET SYSTEMS TO UKRAINE:
The administration said yesterday that the U.S. will send a small number of high-tech, medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine as part of a new $700 million package of security assistance that will be formally revealed today. Ukraine has been pleading for the rocket systems as it battles against Russia's intense artillery barrages in the eastern Donbas region. AP said the U.S. has been trying to balance the desire to help Ukraine in that effort while not giving it weaponry that could allow it to hit targets deep in Russia, potentially triggering an escalation of the war. President Biden confirmed in a New York Times guest essay yesterday evening that he's decided to, quote, "provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine." AP cited senior administration officials as saying Ukraine has assured the U.S. that it won't fire rockets into Russian territory. Biden stated in the essay, "We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders. We do not want to prolong the war just to inflict pain on Russia."


➤ONE KILLED, TWO INJURED IN SHOOTING AT LOUISIANA HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION: An elderly woman was killed and two men were injured in a shooting on the campus of Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans after a high school graduation late yesterday morning. The graduation ceremony for nearby Morris Jeff Community School was being held at the university, where the shooting took place in the parking lot. New Orleans Police Department Chief Deputy Superintendent Christopher Goodly said, "There was a fight that broke out between apparently two females. Subsequent to this fight, subjects produced weapons, and shots were shot." A suspect and motive were still under investigation, were police saying no arrests had been made. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell spoke at the graduation, but left before the shooting.

Sussman
➤CLINTON CAMPAIGN LAWYER ACQUITTED OF LYING TO FBI:
An attorney for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, Michael Sussman, was acquitted yesterday of lying to the FBI when he passed on a tip about possible connections between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russia. The case was the first brought to trial in special counsel John Durham's three-year investigation since he was appointed by Trump administration attorney general Bill Barr to look for any government misconduct during the investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign. The trial focused on whether Sussmann, a cybersecurity attorney, hid from the FBI that he was representing Clinton’s campaign when he passed along data that he said showed a possible secret communication backchannel between Russia-based Alfa Bank and Trump’s company, the Trump Organization. Sussmann's attorneys argued that though Sussmann legally represented the Clinton campaign, he didn’t attend the meeting on the campaign’s behalf and hadn’t asked the FBI to take any action to benefit the campaign. They called the case "extraordinary prosecutorial overreach."


➤WHEN POTUS, FLOTUS QUARREL, THEY DO IT BY TEXTING: First Lady Jill Biden says in a new interview that she and President Biden hash out their arguments via text in what they call "fexting." Biden says in the Harper’s Bazaar magazine sit-down that when her husband was vice president under former President Barack Obama, they decided to settle their disagreements by text to avoid fighting in front of Secret Service agents, and they named it "fexting." She also said that after a recent fexting text she sent her husband, he told her, "You realize that’s going to go down in history. There will be a record of that," since presidential communications are preserved for the historical record. But Biden didn't share what she texted, saying, "I won’t tell you what I called him that time."

📺‘STRANGER THINGS’ SEASON FOUR BREAKS NETFLIX VIEWERSHIP RECORDS: Deadline reports that Volume One of the fourth season of Stranger Things brought audiences back to Netflix. The streaming platform had its biggest premiere weekend ever with 286.79 million hours viewed, beating out the second season of Bridgerton with 193 million.

💒LAS VEGAS WEDDING CHAPELS TOLD TO STOP ELVIS-THEMED WEDDINGS: Las Vegas wedding chapels are famous for having Elvis Presley-themed weddings, but the licensing company that controls the name and image of the late music and pop culture icon is telling the chapels to stop using Elvis in the ceremonies. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Authentic Brands Group sent cease-and-desist letters in early May to multiple chapels. AP reports that Las Vegas' wedding industry generates $2 billion a year, and that officials say Elvis-themed weddings make up a significant number of the ceremonies performed.

🏡MORE THAN ONE-THIRD OF PANDEMIC HOME-BUYERS SAID THEY OVERPAID: More than one-third of people who bought a home during the pandemic, 36 percent, said they overpaid, in a new survey by decision intelligence company Money and Morning Consult. That's twice the percentage of those who bought a home two to nine years ago, 18 percent of whom said they overpaid, and more than double the rate of those who bought a home 10 or more years ago, with 14 percent of them believing they overpaid. Driving high home prices over the last two years of the pandemic were record low mortgage rates, people wanting more space, and the shift of many people to working from home, all coming up against not enough homes on the market.

➤HEPATITIS A CASES LINKED TO ORGANIC STRAWBERRIES: Health officials in the United States and Canada are investigating cases of hepatitis A that may be linked to organic strawberries. The Food and Drug Administration announced that the strawberries in question were sold between March 5th and April 25th under the brands FreshKampo and HEB. The agency wants the public to know that if they have any frozen berries purchased at this time to please not consume them.


🏒COLORADO TOPS EDMONTON 8-6 IN WESTERN CONF. FINALS OPENER: The Colorado Avalanche topped the Edmonton Oilers 8-6 in the opening game of the Western Conference Finals last night in Denver. Defense appeared to have taken the night off in the contest, which tied for the 10th highest-scoring playoff game in NHL history. Despite all those goals, only Colorado's J.T. Compher had more than one, scoring twice. Game 2 is on Thursday.

🎾NADAL DEFEATS DJOKOVIC IN FOUR-HOUR-PLUS FRENCH OPEN QUARTERFINAL: Rafael Nadal defeated top-seed and defending French Open champion Novak Djokovic in an epic four-hour-plus quarterfinal match yesterday (May 31st) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4). The fifth-seeded Nadal is trying to win his 14th French Open championship and 22nd Grand Slam victory. Nadal will face third-seeded Alexander Zverev in the semifinals, who beat Number 6 Carlos Alcarez in their quarterfinal. On the women's side, 18th-seeded Coco Gauff beat fellow American Sloane Stephens to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal, as did 59th-ranked Martina Trevisan, who defeated Number 17 Leylah Fernandez.

🏈23RD MASSAGE THERAPIST FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST DESHAUN WATSON: Another message therapist fiiled a lawsuit against Deshaun Watson yesterday, bringing to 23 the number of women who've accused the Cleveland Browns quarterback of sexual misconduct during massage sessions. Attorney Tony Buzbee, who is representing all of the women, told AP, "I will be filing a 24th case soon." The previous 22 lawsuits were all filed in 2021. Watson has denied any wrongdoing, and his attorney, Rusty Hardin, denied the claims in the latest lawsuit as well.

🏌DUSTIN JOHNSON TO PLAY IN SAUDI-BACKED LIV GOLF INVITATIONAL: More than a dozen PGA Tour players, including two-time major champion Dustin Johnson, will play in the first Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series event, which will take place next month in the U.K. The list of players was released last night (May 31st), and also includes longtime PGA Tour players Sergio Garcia, Kevin Na, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter, Charl Schwartzel and Lee Westwood. Phil Mickelson wasn't on the list. Johnson's appearance was a surprise, as he'd said in February that he was "fully committed to the PGA Tour." The PGA Tour has denied releases for its players to compete in the London event, and Commissioner Jay Monahan has told players that they will face discipline, including potential suspensions and/or lifetime bans, by competing in the new tour.



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