Monday, December 20 top stories
It is Monday, December 20. Here are today’s top stories.
A truck driver was sentenced to 110 years in prison last week in a Colorado court for a 2019 incident in which he crashed into stopped cars on a highway, leaving a trail of carnage that killed four people and caused a huge fire. The truck driver’s name is Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos. It is said that the truck’s brakes failed after driving through a mountainous area and that the driver drove past a runaway truck ramp. The driver’s defense team said he did not intentionally ignore the ramp. The driver had no indications of drugs or alcohol in his system. The driver was convicted by a jury of 27 criminal counts, including four counts of vehicular homicide. The judge at his sentencing said he had to impose a 110 year sentence due to Colorado laws that required minimum prison time for each charge and for the terms to be served consecutively. There are many people who feel the sentence is excessive and over 4 million people have signed a Change.org petition to try and appeal Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to grant clemency or a lesser sentence.
In southern England, archaeologists discovered a mammoth graveyard with five animals that they believe are about 200,000 years old. Prior to that, a Neanderthal hand axe was found in the area. Archaeologists said the animals are Steppe mammoths, which is an ancestor of the more well-known Woolly mammoth. There were more stone tools found in the area. It is likely that the Neanderthals hunted the mammoths during the ice age.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced on Sunday that he would not support President Biden’s $1.75 trillion spending agenda called Build Back Better. Manchin said he couldn’t support it because it’s too big and is concerned about the pandemic and rising inflation.
The White House said Manchin broke his commitments to the president and his Democratic colleagues in the House and the Senate.
The BBB would have offered universal and free preschool for all 3 and 4-year-olds, improve healthcare for elderly Americans and people with disabilities, extend the Child Tax Credit (giving $300 per month per child), invest in clean energy, and seek to get more taxes from large corporations and wealthy individuals. Now that sweeping vision is dead. But, news analysts said it is possible that Democrats will try to pick certain aspects of the BBB and pass it as individual pieces of legislation.
Progressive Democrats are especially angry with Manchin because they thought Manchin would support the BBB agenda in exchange for their support of the infrastructure bill.
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Moderna announced today that its booster dose for Covid-19 can provide a good level of protection against the Omicron variant. The booster dose is half the dose that is used for the original two-shot schedule for adults. Moderna said the booster provided 37 times the antibody levels against Omicron. The CDC said it is safe to use a booster shot different from your original vaccine — meaning if you had the Pfizer or the J&J shot, you can get the Moderna for the booster.
Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker said on Sunday that they tested positive for Covid-19. Both were fully vaccinated and had a booster shot and both said they had mild symptoms.
Washington State Senator Doug Ericksen, a Republican, passed away from the coronavirus at the age of 52. He visited El Salvador a few weeks ago and said he contracted the virus shortly after arrival. He tried to get monoclonal antibodies, but it was not available in El Salvador, and he got on a medical flight to a Florida hospital, but was not able to recover from his infection and died. It is not known if Ericksen was vaccinated, but he was very critical of Washington’s Democratic governor’s emergency pandemic orders and he was outspoken in protecting the rights of those who did not want to get vaccines.
A 26-year-old man in New Zealand died from an inflammation of the heart about two weeks after receiving the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. The inflammation is called myocarditis and this condition has surfaced in a small number of the millions of people who have received Covid-19 vaccines. Health officials in New Zealand said the man did not seek medical care prior to his death. The officials also said the benefits of vaccination continue to greatly outweigh the risk of rare side effects.
A powerful typhoon (hurricane) hit the Philippines on Thursday and now the death toll is at least 375. The typhoon, named Super Typhoon Rai, had wind speeds of about 120 mph. First responders said there are scenes of total devastation and that thousands of people have no power and limited access to clean water.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/12/20/aguilera-mederos-prison-sentence-petition/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLu4ik2fgWA
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-59702237
https://www.axios.com/manchin-no-build-back-better-c117843a-1eae-4f27-9d74-467440b3fbba.html
https://www.whitehouse.gov/build-back-better/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/20/moderna-covid-booster-omicron-protection/
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/booster-shot.html
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senator-elizabeth-warren-tests-positive-covid-19-2021-12-19/