Friday, December 3 top stories
It is Friday, December 3. Here are today’s top stories.
Omicron spreading in the U.S.
The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading in the U.S.
There are new reports of Omicron infections in New York, Minnesota, California, Colorado, Nebraska, and Hawaii.
The Colorado case was a vaccinated woman who recently traveled throughout southern Africa and returned last week. She has mild symptoms and is now quarantined.
In Hawaii, an unvaccinated person tested positive for Omicron and has moderate symptoms. The person was previously infected with Covid-19 and had no history of travel outside of the state. This means there is likely a community spread of Omicron in Hawaii.
In Nebraska, officials said there are six cases of Omicron, with five of them in unvaccinated persons and one in a vaccinated person. One of the infected people recently traveled to Nigeria and the other five had household contact with the person. None of the six people needed hospitalization.
The New York cases were found on Long Island and in four boroughs of New York City. Health officials say the cases shows that Omicron is spreading throughout the community, not just in travelers.
Scientists in South Africa, where the Omicron strain was first identified last week, said new studies show that Omicron appears to spread more than twice as quickly as Delta. Omicron is responsible for about 75% of new cases in South Africa.
Parents of Michigan school shooter charged
Today a prosecutor in Michigan announced that the parents of the 15-year-old student accused of killing four students at a high school on Tuesday were charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter. The parents’ names are Jennifer and James Crumbley.
NBC News explained that Michigan law allows an involuntary manslaughter charge if prosecutors believe that someone contributed to a situation where harm or death was high. The parents now face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Ethan Crumbley, the alleged shooter, has been charged as an adult with multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, and terrorism. The gun he used was purchased by his parents four days before the shooting.
The prosecutor said on the morning of the day of the shooting, Ethan’s teacher saw a note on his desk that had a drawing of a handgun pointing at the words, “the thoughts won’t stop, help me.” The note also had a drawing of a bullet with the words, “blood everywhere.” The teacher was alarmed and took a picture of it. The school immediately asked the parents to come to the school and in a meeting told them that they had to get their son into counseling within 48 hours. The parents said in the meeting that they didn’t want Ethan to leave the school and then Ethan was returned to the classroom, where a short time later he allegedly committed the shooting. The prosecutor said the parents failed to ask their son if he had his gun with him or to inspect his backpack. Police said the father called 911 a few minutes after the shooting was on the news to report that a gun was missing and that he believed his son might be the shooter.
There are seven students who were wounded from the shooting. One of them is a 17-year-old girl who is still in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the chest. Another is a 14-year-old girl who had a gunshot wound to the left chest and neck — she was in critical condition and on a ventilator but is now upgraded to stable condition. A third student is a 17-year-old girl with a gunshot wound to the neck — she is in stable condition. Two other students with wounds to the legs or hips were discharged from a hospital. A female teacher who was shot in her left shoulder was also discharged from a hospital.
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Update on Ghislaine Maxwell trial
Here is an update on the Ghislaine Maxwell trial. She is accused of helping the late Jeffrey Epstein to recruit and groom underage girls for sexual abuse. A former employee of Epstein who worked at his home in Palm Beach, Florida from 1991 to 2002 testified that she saw two girls that appeared to be underage at the home and that they spent time with both Epstein and Maxwell. The employee said he remembered cleaning sex toys from Epstein’s massage room and storing them in Maxwell’s bathroom.
Maxwell’s defense attorney questioned the employee about stealing money from Epstein, and the employee admitted he did it and said it was the biggest mistake of his life.
Earlier this week during the trial, a woman in her 40’s testified that she was abused by Epstein when she was 14, 15, and 16 in the 1990’s. The woman said Maxwell was the one who set her up to meet Epstein.
There will be three more female accusers who will testify in the trial.
Jussie Smollett trial
The trial of Jussie Smollett, who is accused of reporting a false hate crime attack, started on Tuesday in Chicago. Smollett is on trial on six counts of disorderly conduct for making false reports to the police. Smollett faces up to three years of prison if he is convicted.
Smollett was an actor on the TV series, “Empire” and on January 2019 he reported to Chicago police that he was a victim of a racist and homophobic attack when two men beat him and put a rope around his neck. Smollett said the men shouted, “This is MAGA country." But as police investigated the case, they said Smollett faked the attack and paid two men who were brothers, Abimbola and Ola Osundairo, to act as his attackers.
Abimbola testified that Smollett asked him to “fake beat him up.” He said he was confused but agreed to do it because he felt like Smollett could help with his acting career. Abimbola said he offered to bring his brother Ola in it and Smollett agreed.
Law enforcement said Smollett paid the brothers $3.500 to stage an attack.
There was a bizarre moment in the trial when one of the defense attorneys asked for a mistrial and accused the judge of lunging at her. The judge denied lunging at her and the trial continued.
The trial might have its closing arguments on Monday with jury deliberations afterwards.
Colombia seizes spiders, insects at airport
In Colombia, law enforcement at the international airport in the capital city of Bogota said they busted two Germans who tried to illegally smuggle 232 tarantula spiders, nine spider eggs, a scorpion with seven of its young, and 67 roaches. The animals were found in 210 plastic containers. The German suspects said they were shipping the animals for academic reasons but weren’t able to provide permits. Now officials will examine the animals and decide what to do with them.
That is all the top stories for today. Have a good weekend and stay with the light.
https://www.axios.com/omicron-cases-confirmed-3-us-states-4040d14b-1669-4168-b95a-4c639a5662b6.html
https://news.trust.org/item/20211203151236-bymgb
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-charges-does-jussie-smollett-face-at-trial
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/01/us/jussie-smollett-trial-abimbola-osundairo-testimony/index.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/colombia-seizes-hundreds-arachnids-being-illegally-smuggled-europe-n1285279