The Daily Moth 1-30-2020
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Thursday, January 30. Ready for news?
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Coronavirus: Global emergency; Cruise ship, U.S. couple, impact on Wuhan
The World Health Organization has now declared coronavirus a “public health emergency.” It is only the sixth time in history that there is such a declaration. The WHO will now organize a global coordination plan to stop the spread of the virus.
A cruise ship with more than 6,000 people were placed on lockdown in Civitavecchia, Italy because officials fear that two passengers from China could be infected with coronavirus. They have been tested and preliminary results say they are not carrying the virus, but the final results may take 48 hours. The couple are quarantined in a certain part of the ship. The mayor of the city confronted ship workers and told them to not let anyone off. There were over 1,000 people who wanted to disembark because it was the end of their trip, but they might have to stay another night on the boat.
Federal health officials announced that there is a sixth U.S. person that is infected with novel coronavirus — a Chicago man who got the infection from his wife who had recently traveled to Wuhan, China. The wife was the second confirmed case in the U.S. that was reported last week. The man (husband) had symptoms of fever, coughing, and shortness of breath. The wife is still isolated at a hospital but is said to be “doing well.”
The numbers of people who are infected and those who died in China continue to grow on a daily basis. The latest is over 8,000 confirmed cases and 171 deaths.
Just yesterday I reported that it was over 6,000 infected and 132 dead. So it is concerning how fast the numbers are rising.
Reuters showed how the outbreak has impacted the city of Wuhan with several satellite before-and-after images that shows streets, highways, and rivers that used to be bustling with traffic and activity being empty and quiet. There are 11 million people who live in the city and its surroundings.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-coronavirus-live-updates/2020/01/30/1da6ea52-4302-11ea-b5fc-eefa848cde99_story.html https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/30/6000-passengers-stuck-on-cruise-ship-in-italy-over-coronavirus-fears
https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-WUHAN-SATELLITE/0100B5B93B4/index.html https://abcnews.go.com/Health/world-health-organization-decide-coronavirus-global-health-emergency/story?id=68639487&cid=clicksource_4380645_2_heads_hero_live_headlines_hed
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U.S. postal worker admits to hiding mail that he couldn’t deliver in time
CNN reported that in Chesapeake, Virginia, a former U.S. postal worker, Jason Delacruz, admitted that he rented a public storage unit to toss in mail that he couldn’t deliver in time because of pressure. He was busted in May 2019 by agents from the USPS Office of Inspector General who found almost 5,000 pieces of mail in the storage unit that he had for several months.
He was charged with delay of mail by a postal employee in August and has pleaded guilty. He will be sentenced in February.
Authorities said of the 5,000 pieces, 97 were first-class mail such as letters from the Department of Motor Vehicles, the IRS, insurance companies, bank statements, and other tax return documents. 115 pieces of mail were magazines and other publications. There was one package. The rest, about 4,700 pieces, were advertisements.
The USPS said the first-class mail was delivered while the ads were discarded because they were old.
Delacruz could face a fine or up to five years in prison.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/29/us/postal-worker-hides-mail-storage-unit-trnd/index.html
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Impeachment trial updates
Here are updates on President Trump’s impeachment trial. Today is day 9 of the trial.
Yesterday and today was the question and answer part where senators submit written questions to the Chief Justice John Roberts for him to read it out loud to either side.
Yesterday Sen. Ted Cruz (R) asked if it matters if there was a quid pro quo (something given in return for something).
Alan Dershowitz, a former Harvard law professor who is on Trump’s legal team, said if the “president does something that he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.” He said it would be different if a president used a quid pro quo to benefit himself financially.
Lead House impeachment manager Adam Schiff (D-Calif) said this argument was “a descent into constitutional madness” and warned that if senators acquitted Trump, it means that the next president of the U.S. could order investigations on them. Some interpreted Desrshowitz’s comments as allowing presidents to do anything.
Dershowitz clarified on Twitter that if a president did a lawful act such as “holding up funds, sending troops to vote, breaking a promise about Syria” to help himself get re-elected and also to serve the public interest, those acts are not unlawful or impeachable. He said the key focus should be on if the conduct was criminal or not.
There was another controversy when Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) wrote the identity of a person he suspects to be the whistleblower who filed a complaint on Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president that sparked the impeachment inquiry -- Paul wrote his name on a question that was submitted to Chief Justice Roberts — in an attempt to get him to say the person’s name. Chief Justice Roberts refused to read the question and Paul walked out of the Senate chamber. He ended up revealing the name of the person on his Twitter account. Paul and other Republicans have suspected the whistleblower of being someone who is politically biased and accused Democrats of “acting” like they don’t know who the person is.
What will come next? The Senate will debate tomorrow (Friday) on whether they should call witnesses or not. If there are no witnesses, then the trial could end tomorrow with a vote to find Trump guilty or not guilty. If witnesses are called, then the trial is likely to last at least another week.
Democrats hope that there will be at least four Republican senators to join them to vote to call witnesses, especially after the John Bolton situation came up. Yesterday Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he didn’t think he had enough votes to block witnesses, but it seems like he managed to convince on-the-fence Republicans to side with him. We will see what happens tomorrow.
It requires at least 67 senators voting “guilty” to convict Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. There is no sign that a single Republican senator (51 of them) would vote guilty.
https://www.axios.com/trump-impeachment-trial-recap-day-8-dershowitz-1f304dda-24d0-41cc-85b1-bb72e3a3873a.html
https://twitter.com/AlanDersh https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/witnesses-trump-impeachment-trial-end-quickly-gop-sources/story?id=68639038
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/justice-roberts-blocks-sen-paul-from-naming-whistleblower-source-says-and-paul-may-force-the-issue https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/480526-gop-senators-believe-they-have-the-votes-to-block-witnesses
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Kobe’s wife Vanessa makes statement, updates on helicopter crash
Kobe Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, made her first public statement on her husband and daughter Gianna’s death from a helicopter crash last night on Instagram.
Vanessa said, “My girls and I want to thank the millions of people who’ve shown support and love during this horrific time… We are completely devastated by the sudden loss… I take comfort in knowing that Kobe and Gigi both knew that they were so deeply loved… I wish they were here with us forever…”
Vanessa said the Mamba Sports Foundation has set up a fund to help support the other families who were affected by the helicopter crash.
Kobe (41) and Gianna (13) leaves behind Vanessa and three other daughters (and sisters).
Seven other people died on the helicopter crash, including two other 13-year-old girls.
All the remains have been recovered from the crash.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released images and video of the helicopter wreckage, which showed the fuselage reduced to charred debris and various pieces of the helicopter scattered over a large area of steep hills.
The L.A. county coroner said the cause of death of all nine people was “blunt trauma” and that they more likely died instantly.
The NTSB said the helicopter did not have a warning system called a Terrain Awareness Warning System that would have alerted the pilot if the helicopter was flying too close to a mountain or the ground.
It was very foggy on Sunday morning when the helicopter crashed, and that is considered a key factor. The NTSB is trying to find out what was going on in the pilot’s mind.
The NTSB said during the last moments of the helicopter’s flight, it climbed to 2,300 feet to try and fly out of a cloud layer, then suddenly went down over 2,000 feet a minute in a left bank and that it was a high-energy impact crash. The helicopter missed clearing the mountain by 20 to 30 feet.
A resident near the crash site turned over an audio recording from a Google Nest camera that captured the sound of the helicopter hitting the mountain, then silence afterwards.
There was also a person who filmed what seems to be Kobe’s helicopter flying overhead in foggy conditions. The person said the helicopter was circling and very low to the ground and he thought it was unusual.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B77K8XWDY7O/
https://abcnews.go.com/US/investigators-analyzing-video-captures-sound-kobe-bryant-helicopter/story?id=68611059
https://
nypost.com/2020/01/28/kobe-bryants-helicopter-circles-over-glendale-before-deadly-crash-in-eyewitness-video/
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#DeafBing from American School for the Deaf Elementary Students
Here is a Deaf Bing video from elementary students at the American School for the Deaf in Connecticut!
[Video with burned-in captions]
That Deaf Bing! My favorite is the last one, all that work to get Deborah. Very creative. Good job! Thank you to Deborah May for the video.
https://www.facebook.com/asd1817/videos/416646749281938/
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That is all for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!