News and Headlines.11/12/2020

News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.

In The News:

Wrongfully convicted Tennessee man released after 15 years in prison for 1998 murder case

Webster was convicted in 2006 on a charge of first-degree murder in the 1998 killing of Leroy Owens. Webster was indicted on the murder charge while in custody for a lesser conviction and has spent nearly two decades in jail on the combined sentences. 

But a years-long investigation by the District Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit revealed new evidence that led the state to fully lose confidence in the case against Webster. 

A Nashville judge ordered his conviction be vacated, paving the way for his release and the ultimate dismissal of the murder charge against him.

North Carolina mom charged after toddler found with missing fingernails

Nikki ManningPitt County Sheriff
Nikki Manning Pitt County Sheriff

Staffers at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville notified child welfare workers about the child’s missing fingernails and toenails – and noted that the toddler tested positive for narcotics, sheriff official said.

The child, whose gender was not specified by authorities, tested positive for methamphetamine and cocaine, according to an arrest warrant obtained by WCTI.

Manning, who was booked into the Pitt County Detention Center, was released after posting $75,000 bond, sheriff officials said.

Flooding in North Carolina foothills covers buildings, cars

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A line of strong storms brought record rainfall, flash flooding and widespread power outages to the Charlotte, North Carolina region Thursday morning as the Carolinas deal with a second day of torrential rain.

Multiple emergency crews in several counties responded to swift-water rescues, including Iredell and Alexander counties. In Alexander County, more than a dozen first responders were called to the Hiddenite Family Campground, where a group of about 20 campers were trapped by rising waters.

First Warn meteorologist Chris Mulcahy reported more than 30 people were rescued as multiple homes were evacuated due to floodwaters. 

Advertisements

Snowplow driver finds 2 bodies near Yosemite

“It was determined that the man and woman had been murdered,” said a statement from the Sheriff’s Office, which has taken the lead in the homicide investigation.

The Sheriff’s Office said it believes the slayings were “specific and targeted.”

The bodies were found along a sparsely populated stretch of highway northeast of Yosemite National Park.

The area was blanketed with 6 to 12 inches of snow Monday, according to weather reports.

Virginia Man Is Fatally Shot in Front of Fiancée, and Suspect Is Woman’s Estranged Husband

Rico Turner Credit: Facebook

After a daylong manhunt, law enforcement arrested a 25-year-old man accused of shooting his estranged wife’s fiancé as the couple and her three children walked through a shopping plaza on Monday, officials said.

Shortly before 2 p.m., Zane Christian approached Rico Turner, 27, and allegedly shot him in the parking lot of Lakeside Shopping Center in Salem, Virginia, according to a Salem Police press release obtained by PEOPLE.

When police arrived, Turner was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. Christian fled the scene and multiple law enforcement agencies began working together to find him.

Look at What’s Heading to Washington DC to Rally for Trump –– HOLY COW!

Veteran suicide rate rises, but is lower for those who recently accessed care

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, testifies before a House Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC in May.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, testifies before a House Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC in May. Pool Photo by Anna Moneymaker/UPI

“The suicide data presented in this new report is an integral part of VA’s Public Health Model for Suicide Prevention, which combines evidence-based clinical interventions and proactive community-based prevention strategies to address suicide in our nation,” VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said in a press release.

“The data shows the rate of suicide among Veterans who recently used VA health services has decreased, an encouraging sign as the department continues its work and shares what we learn with those who care for and about Veterans.”

The report analyzed data on veteran suicides between the years of 2005 and 2018, but the VA is also monitoring the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on veterans’ mental health.

New Orleans VA Failed to Assess Hundreds of Traumatic Brain Injuries

(Alastair Pike/Getty Images)
The US Department of Veterans Affairs building is seen in Washington, DC, on July 22, 2019. (Photo by Alastair Pike / AFP)

Traumatic brain injuries can happen when there is a blow, bump, or jolt to the head. They can also happen when an object penetrates the skull.

More than 185,000 veterans who use the VA for their healthcare have been diagnosed with at least one TBI, according to the latest research compiled by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center reported nearly 414,000 TBIs among U.S. service members worldwide between 2000 and late 2019.

But the facility in New Orleans has been slacking, according to former healthcare workers there

Brown U. Students Demand Removal of ‘White Supremacist’ Roman Statues

Josh Edelson/AP
Josh Edelson/AP
Advertisements

According to a report by Campus Reform, a group of student activists at Brown University has launched a campaign to remove two statues of Roman emperors from campus.

A student group called Decolonization at Brown has argued recently that campus statues of Caesar Augustus and Marcus Aurelius should be removed from campus over their alleged promotion of domination and bigotry.

“It is not that difficult to see how a statue of (Caesar Augustus) would serve as an icon of colonial and imperial domination,” one member of the student group said.

“They function not as monuments to ancient Rome, but to a set of values and political stances which existed when they were commissioned on Brown’s campus.”

Fort Hood to name one of post’s gates after slain Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen

Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen (Texas Dept. of Public Safety/TNS)
Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen (Texas Dept. of Public Safety/TNS)

Army officials invited Guillen’s family onto Fort Hood once again Tuesday, asking for their input on design concepts for a gate to be named after their beloved sister and daughter.

“The gate we designated leads to the 3rd Cavalry Regiment area where Vanessa served,” a statement from Fort Hood officials said Tuesday. “The gate is accessed by thousands of soldiers, civilians and families every day.”

Fort Hood, once known as a staging ground for troops deploying to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, has made headlines this year because of a rash of violence by and against soldiers at home.

Army officials have confirmed that 27 soldiers stationed at the post died stateside this year, including five cases of suspected foul play.

WOMAN IN CUSTODY: STOP AND GO Police Chase Near Westchester, CA

LA ‘defund’ police budget cuts force department to dissolve sexual assault unit that investigated Weinstein

The LAPD is preparing for drastic reorganization efforts after city leaders, including Mayor Eric Garcetti, decided in the summer to reduce the department’s budget by $150 million amid calls to “defund the police” after George Floyd’s May 25 death in Minneapolis police custody.

“The sexual assault unit — this is one of the cutbacks that we’re doing within the realignment — those specialized detectives will be moved out to the geographic bureaus,” LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the outlet.

The Animal Cruelty Task Force will also be dissolved, and several other units could face significant personnel reductions, including Air Support, the Metropolitan Division, Gangs and Narcotics and Commercial Crimes, NBC4 reported.

FOX NEWS VIDEO: School districts now embracing Black Lives Matter indoctrination

Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., and education activist Cynthia Garrett weigh in on ‘The Ingraham Angle.’

Politics:

New USPS Whistleblower in Philly suburb Elkins Park Details Orders To Stop Delivering Pro-Trump Mail

[Elkins Park, Pa.–Nov. 12, 2020] Project Veritas released today a new video of an anonymous USPS whistleblower here who claims that higher-ups ordered postal workers to discard pro-Trump and pro-Republican mail, and only deliver pro-Biden mail from now on.

“This is the third Pennsylvania USPS Insider to blow the whistle on election malfeasance in the last week.

There is something going on with USPS and we must get to the bottom of it immediately,” said Project Veritas founder and CEO James O’Keefe.

GOP flips NYC House seat from blue to red with Nicole Malliotakis’ win

Bret Baier tells ‘Bill Hemmer Reports’ that Rep.-elect Nicole Malliotakis has flipped freshman Democrat Max Rose’s New York City seat.

Advertisements

Maxine Waters vows to undo Trump banking rules

House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters speaks during a House Financial Services Committee hearing.
House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters speaks during a House Financial Services Committee hearing. | Joshua Roberts/Pool via AP

House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters on Thursday said she will fight to reverse the easing of financial rules that has taken place under President Donald Trump, calling the election of Joe Biden “the dawn of a new progressive America.”

“I’m putting our witnesses on notice that I will be working with the Biden administration to roll back these rules,” she said.

Waters did not explain how Democrats planned to undo the Trump-era rules. If Republicans control the Senate, legislative changes are probably off the table. Biden’s appointees could act on their own, though.

JARRETT: ‘Eyewitnesses and sworn affidavits are evidence in a court of law’

“We’ve already seen serious and valid allegations of not just voting irregularities, Sean, but outright fraud,” Jarrett said on Hannity Wednesday.

“We saw today Wayne County, Michigan, the Detroit Courtroom in which there were sworn affidavits that were presented to the judge based on eyewitness testimony, and yet we keep hearing from anchors and journalists, ‘where’s the evidence?’” he continued. 

Jarret also said that by dismissing Trump’s perfectly legal challenges, Joe Biden is only hurting his chances of being viewed as a legitimate leader. 

Warnock’s Spiritual Mentor Called for the ‘Destruction of Everything White’

Rev. Raphael Warnock / Getty Images
Rev. Raphael Warnock / Getty Images

“There will be no peace in America until white people begin to hate their whiteness, asking from the depths of their being: ‘How can we become black?'” Cone wrote.

Warnock cited the work over a dozen times in the chapters and footnotes of his own 2013 book The Divided Mind of the Black Church.

One of Cone’s central arguments is that whites worship a false “white God” and follow an anti-Christian “white theology.”

In reality, he wrote, “God is black” and “has nothing to do with the God worshiped in white churches.”

WE WILL WIN: Kevin McCarthy Reminds Reporters That 2022 Is COMING UP

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks to press.

FOX NEWS VIDEO: Tucker: How Democrats guaranteed dead people voted in election

Commentary/Opinion:
‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ host explains why voter fraud matters, even when it doesn’t swing races.

2020 Election Update (Day 9) Michigan’s Dead Voters? | Facts Matter

An unbelievable (and supernatural) turn of events: a new analysis shows that more than 10,000 people who are either confirmed or suspected to be dead, have returned their mail-in ballots in Michigan.

World News:

Hezbollah rejects prospects of peace with Israel; Europe unites vs Islamism-TV7 Israel News 12.11.20

1) Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah rejects suggestive reports that amid ongoing negotiations between Jerusalem and Beirut over a maritime border dispute – talks could lead to peace between the two Lebanon and Israel.

2) Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis hosted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for an official visit in Athens; as the two leaders are increasingly poised to confront – what they refer to as “Turkey’s aggressive behavior in the Eastern Mediterranean.”

3) Leaders of several of the most powerful EU-Member states held a security meeting, via tele-conference, in which they voiced the collective need to combat Islamist terrorism.

Taipei: ‘Taiwan’ censored during WHO Facebook video event

The World Health Organization's Facebook page blocked terms related to Taiwan during the 73rd session of the World Health Assembly, Taiwanese politicians said this week.
The World Health Organization’s Facebook page blocked terms related to Taiwan during the 73rd session of the World Health Assembly, Taiwanese politicians said this week. File Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/EPA-EFE

The WHO has excluded Taiwan following complaints from China. From 2009 to 2016 Taiwan attended the WHA as an observer.

China had allowed for Taiwanese participation at a time when the two sides enjoyed friendlier ties under Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, according to Taiwan-based News Lens International on Thursday.

Taiwanese lawmaker Chen Po-wei confirmed “Taiwan” was blocked from comments during the Facebook streaming event. Users who entered the term received an “Unable to post comment” message, Taiwan News reported Thursday.

Advertisements

Iran to Block Inspectors at Nuclear Sites

Getty Images
Getty Images

The move comes just days after a confidential IAEA report indicated Iran is hoarding large amounts of enriched uranium, the key component in a nuclear weapon.

Iran has been steadily increasing its uranium stockpiles in breach of the nuclear accord since President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal.

The IAEA concluded that Iran’s reasons for producing this amount of uranium are “not credible,” furthering suspicions Tehran has resumed work on an atomic weapon.

Israel, New Gulf Allies to Seek Hezbollah Designation as Terror Group at U.N.

AFP via Getty Images
AFP via Getty Images

“Rather than declare that countries needed to ‘outlaw’ Hezbollah, we revised the goal and instructed our missions in every country to detect the angle that each country could use to ban Hezbollah activity on its soil. Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi spoke with his counterparts and it pushed the process even further.

“Sometimes we asked the Americans to use their pull, and in other cases our friends in the Mossad relayed intelligence that helped countries make the call.”

The reasons to ban Hezbollah are manifold, Zarka said. First and foremost, “Undermining Hezbollah weakens Iran. It also deprives them [Hezbollah] from funds and undercut its image. We’re focusing our efforts on the EU because that affects all of its [27] members.”

Saudi Embassy in The Netherlands ‘Sprayed WIth Gunfire’, One Held by Police

Officers found several bullet casings outside the building and launched an investigation including an appeal for witnesses.

Later Thursday, police said they had arrested a 40-year-old man from the nearby town of Zoetermeer on suspicion of involvement in the shooting. The identity of the suspect, who was being held for questioning, was not released in line with Dutch privacy rules.

The official Saudi Press Agency said that the embassy had witnessed “a cowardly shooting incident.”

As soon as authorities learned of the incident from embassy officials, they cordoned off the area, closed the road leading to the embassy, bolstered security measures and “took criminal evidence,” the statement added.

EU proposes new rules to protect LGBTQ+ people amid ‘worrying trends’

The European commissioner Věra Jourová presents the bloc’s strategy in Brussels. Proposals include criminalising hate speech against LGBTQ+ people.
The European commissioner Věra Jourová presents the bloc’s strategy in Brussels. Proposals include criminalising hate speech against LGBTQ+ people. Photograph: Reuters
Advertisements

Brussels has put itself on a collision course with the Polish and Hungarian governments after proposing to criminalise hate speech against LGBTQ+ people under EU law and secure recognition of same-sex partnerships across the bloc’s borders.

Věra Jourová, a European commissioner, said the measures followed new “worrying trends”, with the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights reporting that 43% of LGBT people had declared feeling discriminated against in 2019, compared with 37% in 2012.

The proposals were announced as part of the commission’s first ever strategy to secure equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, intersex and queer people.

Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis: ‘Civilians massacred’, says Amnesty International

REUTERS image captionTroops loyal to the government ride in trucks to face Tigray People's Liberation Front forces.
REUTERS Troops loyal to the government ride in trucks to face Tigray People’s Liberation Front forces.

Fighting between government forces and the TPLF broke out last week.

Getting information is hard, with phone lines and the internet down and neither side has commented on Amnesty’s report.

This would be the first large-scale killing of civilians in the conflict.

There has been long-standing tension between Ethiopia’s government and the TPLF, which controls Tigray, the country’s northernmost state, and it has boiled over into military clashes, including air strikes by federal forces.

Eight international peacekeepers killed in Sinai helicopter crash

MFO staff supervise activities as Egyptian border guards prepare to take up positions in Rafah, Egypt.
MFO staff supervise activities as Egyptian border guards prepare to take up positions in Rafah, Egypt. Photograph: EPA

A helicopter carrying members of a multinational peacekeeping force has crashed near Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, killing six Americans, a Czech and a French citizen.

The US-led Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) said in a statement that all but one of the nine people onboard were killed when the aircraft went down “during a routine operation”.

Egypt has waged a years-long battle against Islamist militants in the Sinai. However, the MFO said there was “no information to indicate the crash was anything except an accident”, adding it would conduct an investigation.

Nurse charged in murder of 8 babies, attempted murder of 10 at UK hospital

Lucy Letby. 3 July 2018. (SWNS)
Lucy Letby. 3 July 2018. (SWNS)

Lucy Letby, 30, who worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital, was arrested after a three-year probe that was launched after the facility raised an alarm about the large number of deaths there between March 2015 and July 2016, the Sun reported.

The hospital in Cheshire, southeast of Liverpool, conducted an internal inquiry when health care workers found that premature babies had suffered heart and lung failures, according to the outlet.

“Lucy Letby, of Arran Avenue, Hereford, is facing eight charges of murder and 10 charges of attempted murder,” 

Commentary/Opinion:

How’s that defund the police movement going? | Michelle Malkin

Newsmax TV’s Michelle Malkin and John Bachman react to recent incidents in cities that have had strong ‘defund the police’ movements over the second half of 2020, plus what a possible Biden administration would do in regards to law enforcement, lockdowns, and more. – via John Bachman Now,

Dan Ball Interview W/ Publisher For ‘The Federalist’, Ben Domenech