Friday, September 17 top stories
It is Friday, September 17. Here are today’s top stories.
A CNN report showed that there are over 9,500 migrants who are living under a bridge near the Texas border at Del Rio. Most of the migrants are from Haiti who are escaping the coup and earthquake. CNN said there could be thousands of more migrants coming at the border in the next several days.
The New York Times reported that the Department of Homeland Security said they are using the bridge as a temporary staging area to process the migrants and to avoid the heat.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said he is ordering state police and the National Guard to assist border agents in Del Rio. The governor said the Biden administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan.
CNN reported that the DHS said most of the migrants will be sent back to their home countries but that it could take up to two weeks to process this group of 9,500 people. The Times said there are many migrants who have been processed and released inside of Del Rio, which is causing stress on the city’s resources.
General Mark Milley said his secret phone call to a Chinese general during the final days of Trump’s presidency to reassure China that Trump would not attack the country and that he would give a heads up if Trump planned to attack was “perfectly within the duties and responsibilities” of his job. Milley said he would discuss the call in depth during his testimony before Congress at the end of September. The phone call to China was previously unknown until it was revealed in an upcoming book, “Peril.”
The Sequoia National Park in California was closed on Tuesday because there are two nearby wildfires that were sparked by lightning strikes. The world’s largest tree, General Sherman, was wrapped up in aluminum blankets. The material can withstand heat and flames for a limited period of time. Firefighters are working hard to prevent the flames from even approaching the giant trees.
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A Michigan father has filed a $1 million lawsuit against a school district in Mount Pleasant over his 7-year-old daughter’s hair being cut by a teacher without permission from her parents. The father, Jimmy Hoffmeyer, said in March his daughter Jurnee, who is biracial, came home with most of the hair on one side cut. The girl said a classmate used scissors to cut her hair on a school bus. The father took the girl to a hair salon to “fix it” and give it a clean look with different lengths on either side. But two days later, the girl came home with the other side cut. The girl said her teacher cut it to even it out. The father became angry. The school district said in July that the staffer who cut the girl’s hair did it without permission and violated school policy but did it with good intentions and without racial bias. The father’s lawsuit said school officials violated the girl’s constitutional rights, committed racial discrimination, ethnic indimidation, inflicted emtional distress, and assault and battery.
Former President Donald Trump said in a statement that he supports the “Justice for J6” rally that will take place near the U.S. Capitol on Saturday. The rally will be a protest against how the federal government has treated those charged with an array of crimes for breaking into the Capitol, assaulting police officers, and threatening members of Congress on January 6. Trump said “our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest.” Trump said, “In the end… JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL!”
There was protective fencing set up around the Capitol overnight and it will stay up through the rally. The U.S. Capitol Police have already asked for National Guard troops to be on standby if they are needed.
The U.S. military admitted today that it made a mistake when it conducted an airstrike in Kabul against what they thought was an ISIS-K terrorist. Multiple news reports said three adult civilians and seven children were killed instead. The U.S. military initially said the strike was “righteous” and that the people they targeted was about to carry out more bombings at the airport targeting people who were trying to evacuate the country. The U.S. in admitting the mistake said they are offering their sincere apology.
Axios reported that Michael Sussmann, an attorney who worked for a firm that represented the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, was indicted by the Department of Justice for lying to the FBI. The indictment, brought by Special Counsel John Durham, said Sussmann contacted the FBI and presented them with allegations that there was a secret back-channel between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank. The FBI asked whether Sussmann was doing this for any client and he said no and made it seem like he was doing it as a private citizen. Durham said this was a lie -- that he was working for the Clinton campaign -- and indicted him.
Here are some updates on the search for Gabby Petito, the missing young woman who was traveling across the country in a van with her boyfriend. Police said they’ve received over 1,000 tips with information. There is a search in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, where Gabby made her last call to her family on August 25. Some witnesses said they remember seeing the couple’s van near a lake in the park. The boyfriend, Brain Laundrie, drove to his home in Florida on September 1st with the van but without Gabby. He has not spoken with the media, or with the police, or even with Gabby’s family on where he last saw Gabby. There were protests outside of the Laundrie family home. We’ll see if police can find more information about where Gabby is over the weekend.
That is all the top stories for today. See you on Monday and stay with the light!
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/09/17/del-rio-texas-migrant-aerials-flores-sot-ebof-vpx.cnn
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-china-joint-chiefs-of-staff-1b23ba339e50a7c17c43c1281a0b4e04
https://www.axios.com/trump-capitol-riots-justice-j6-rally-d3809c05-0a7e-4fd4-9f9b-c6af4e95779a.html
https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/gabby-petito-search-father-sister
https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/17/politics/kabul-drone-strike-us-military-intl-hnk/index.html