Friday, March 26 top stories
It is Friday, March 26. Here are today’s top stories.
Last night Georgia state Rep. Park Cannon (D) was seen in a viral video being handcuffed by police officers after she knocked on the closed door of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R)’s office in the Capitol building as he was signing a bill that changes how people vote in the state.
[Video clip of arrest]
Rep. Cannon tweeted last night that she was released from jail and said she was not the first Georgian to be arrested for fighting voter suppression.
What is in the bill? It adds new identification requirements for voting, outlaws passing out food or drinks to voters waiting in line, adds more weekend days to early in-person voting, and alters how absentee ballots are processed.
Democrats consider the bill an attempt to disenfranchise Black voters who were among a record number of voters that flipped Georgia blue during the 2020 elections.
Tornadoes killed at least five people near Birmingham, Alabama last night and caused major damage to several cities. A family of three died in a single wood-frame home and two others died in their mobile homes. A police officer in Florence, Alabama was struck by lightning while he put out road barricades, and was hospitalized but is awake and responsive. Many people’s lives are turned upside down because their homes or workplaces are severely damaged.
Dominion Voting Systems has filed another massive defamation lawsuit, and this time it’s against Fox News. They are accusing Fox of spreading false claims that Dominion rigged the 2020 election in order to keep their base of viewers. Fox said in a statement that they are proud of their 2020 election coverage and that the lawsuit was baseless.
[Sponsored Video from Sorenson: www.sorenson.com]
Jacob Blake, who was shot several times in the back and paralyzed during an arrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin last August, is filing a federal lawsuit against a police officer who shot him: Rusten Sheskey. An investigation said Sheskey was afraid of his life because Blake had a knife with him, and no criminal charges were filed against him. Blake’s lawsuit accuses Shesky of excessive deadly force and violating Blake’s constitutional rights.
Former president Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News that the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 posed “zero threat” and that they were hugging and kissing Capitol Police officers. Trump said he felt like his supporters were being persecuted. He said Antifa or BLM protesters were not treated the same.
[VIDEO CLIP]
Donald Trump: "It was zero threat, right from the start... Some of them went in, and they are hugging and kissing the police and the guards... a lot of the people were waved in, and then they walked in and they walked out…”
Alex: Trump did not acknowledge that an U.S. Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick, was killed trying to defend the Capitol from those who used bear spray and hurled bike fences and broke into the Capitol while the Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress were inside. Trump is himself facing potential legal trouble for his speech prior to the Capitol attack in which he encouraged his followers to fight like hell. Over 300 people have been arrested by the FBI for being a part of the riots.
Covid-19 cases in the U.S. are now going back up. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said there is a 7% increase in the number of weekly new cases and she is concerned that we are repeating a cycle of declines to stagnations to increases.
The White House said an average of 2.5 million Americans are receiving the Covid-19 vaccine every day.
The FEMA announced that it will provide financial support to families or close individuals of those who died from Covid-19. For any Covid-19 related death that occurred after January 20, 2020 (last year), the FEMA is offering up to $9,000 per funeral and up to $35,500 per applicant for expenses related to a person’s death. The FEMA will set up a 800 number in the next few weeks. To apply, you need to have an official death certificate and proof of expenses. Over 545,000 Americans died from Covid-19 so far.
That is all the top news stories for today. Check out our other videos. Have a good weekend and stay with the light.
https://www.npr.org/2021/03/25/981357583/georgia-legislature-approves-election-overhaul-including-changes-to-absentee-vot
https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1375224814147895298
https://twitter.com/Cannonfor58
https://weather.com/news/news/2021-03-26-severe-weather-outbreak-impacts-alabama-mississippi-tennessee-georgia
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-media-lawsuits-elections-912eea8e168f95d51dec02da78ac2760
https://www.axios.com/jacob-blake-lawsuit-kenosha-police-rusten-sheskey-7475037f-c1cc-409a-b419-d756b4968209.html
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-claims-capitol-rioters-posed-threat-persecuted/story?id=76702608
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/26/trump-rioter-insurrection-zero-threat-478147
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jj-surge-11m-vaccine-doses-cdc-director-deeply/story?id=76705319