August 17 top stories
It is August 17. Here are today’s top stories.
Hurricane Hilary to bring heavy rains to Southwest
There is a hurricane in the Pacific Ocean — Hurricane Hilary. Weather forecasters say it may approach the Baja Peninsula of California on Saturday and bring heavy rains in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona from this weekend into early next week.
Axios warned that it is likely that there will be dangerous flooding across the Southwest. There may be two to ten inches of rain in desert areas and places where there are drought conditions, so the storms will be high-impact.
Hurricane Hilary, as of this morning, has wind speeds of 85 mph.
Axios said it is very rare for a tropical storm or hurricane to make landfall in Southern California because the region is protected by relatively cool ocean waters.
Mistrial in Mississippi FedEx worker shooting case
In Mississippi, a judge declared a mistrial during the trial of two white men who are charged with attempted first-degree murder for allegedly chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver after he made a delivery.
What happened? First, I’ll recap the case, and then I’ll explain why the judge declared a mistrial.
AP News said in the evening of January 24, 2022, the FedEx employee, D’Monterrio Gibson, was making deliveries in the city of Brookhaven using a rental van with the Hertz logo on three sides. He drove to a home on a dead-end road and delivered a package. A man named Gregory Case, who lived in the area, drove a pickup truck to try and block the Hertz van from leaving. Gregory’s son, Brandon Case, walked outside with a gun. Gibson drove the van around the pickup truck and around Brandon, who allegedly shot at the van several times. Three bullets hit the van and some of the packages. The Cases then chased the van until Gibson made it on a highway. He was not injured and made an emergency call to say that someone shot at the van while he was delivering packages.
Gibson’s attorney said the shooting is similar to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was killed by three white men as he ran down a street.
The Cases’ side said they were suspicious of the van and just wanted to ask the driver what was going on but that the driver did not stop.
The trial started on Tuesday, but the judge declared a mistrial today because the Brookhaven Police Department made several errors. AP News said a detective failed to give prosecutors or defense attorneys a video of a statement they took from Gibson. The detective also improperly testified about guns found in the Cases’ home. The judge said he’s never seen these types of errors in his 17 years of work.
The local district attorney said he disagrees with the judge’s decision and that there will be a new trial scheduled, but he doesn’t know if it will happen before he leaves office at the end of the year.
So this case in Brookhaven is delayed for now.
Aldi to buy 400 Winn-Dixie / Harveys groceries
Aldi, the discount grocery store, said it plans to buy 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys supermarkets in the southern U.S.
Some of the stores will be converted to have Aldi branding and its distinctive store design, but some stores will keep their Winn-Dixie and Harveys brands.
Aldi is a German company with a U.S. headquarters in Illinois. Aldi said it wants to have 2,400 stores in the U.S. by the end of the year.
AP News said the deal comes amid wider consolidation in the grocery industry as customers increasingly defect to big box stores.
Walmart currently has the biggest share of the market, controlling 25% of U.S. grocery sales. Last fall, Kroger and Albertsons announced plans to merge. They control about 18% of the market.
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Bradley Cooper and film “Maestro” raises controversy
A trailer for a new Netflix film, “Maestro,” has raised controversy because the lead actor, Bradley Cooper, used a prosthetic nose in his portrayal of American musician Leonard Bernstein, who is Jewish.
There are complaints that the prosthetic nose perpetuates stereotypes of Jewish people. The complaints also point out that this situation is even worse because Cooper is not Jewish. Some have called the controversy an example of “Jewface.”
Bernstein passed away in 1990. His children said they have no issues with Cooper’s “makeup” because it was intended to make him look more like their father. The family said they feel the criticism is just people trying to pull down a successful person.
The film will be released in select theaters on November 22 and on Netflix in December.
USWNT coach Andonovski resigns
The U.S. women’s national soccer team’s coach Vlatko Andonovski has resigned less than two weeks after the team was eliminated in the Women’s World Cup in the Round of 16. It is the earliest exit for the team, which was the two-peat defending champions.
Twila Kilgore will take over as the interim coach. She was an assistant under Andonovski for 1 1/2 years. There is now a search for a permanent coach.
The Women’s World Cup final is this Sunday, August 20 between Spain and England.
Pig kidney functions in brain-dead man
NBC News said doctors at New York University Langone Health transplanted a pig’s kidney into a brain-dead man and it functioned normally for over a month. The doctors and researchers hope to eventually try using pig kidneys in living patients.
The kidney is still functioning and is now into its second month. Researchers are still studying the kidney, so it is ongoing.
A doctor said so far it looks like this organ is working like a human organ — that it looks even better than a human kidney.
The brain-dead man’s name is Maurice “Mo” Miller. His sister said she struggled with the idea of allowing his brother’s body to be used for this experiment but she decided to do this because Mo liked to help others.
If pig kidneys continue to be successful, they could help a shortage of transplantable organs and potentially save many people’s lives.
That’s all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.axios.com/2023/08/17/hurricane-hilary-2023-flooding-california-arizona
https://www.wlbt.com/2022/11/22/father-son-indicted-attempted-murder-charges-shooting-fedex-driver/
https://apnews.com/article/aldi-winndixie-harveys-groceries-5a19b6cbf58110b8921c5852d8cbd9ae
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/pig-kidney-transplant-human-rcna100098