The Daily Moth 11-4-19
Top News Briefs: McDonalds CEO fired; Beto drops out; California fires | Five killed in Halloween Airbnb party shooting | Three news updates on President Trump | Man has acid thrown on face, told to go back to his country | Deaf man’s family business gets deal on “Shark Tank”
[Transcript] Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Monday, November 4. Ready for news?
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Top News Briefs: McDonalds CEO fired; Beto drops out; California fires
Here are three top news briefs.
The first — The CEO of McDonald’s, Steve Easterbrook, was fired for having a consensual relationship with an employee, which is against company policy. He admitted that the relationship was a mistake. He earned almost $16 million last year and is also on the board of Walmart.
The Washington Post reported that more and more organizations are adding policies that prohibit executive-subordinate relationships in the workplace.
The second news — Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke announced Friday night that he is dropping out of the 2020 Democratic race due to low poll numbers and weak fundraising. He is best known for challenging Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) during last year’s midterm elections. Had he won that race, things could be different for him today.
The third news — reports say the wildfires in California are now mostly contained, but that conditions are still dangerous.
The Easy fire and the Getty fire in Southern California are 80% or more contained. The Kincade Fire in Sonoma County is 78% contained.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said they believe the Getty fire was sparked by a tree branch that broke off during strong winds and landed on power lines. They released a dash cam video that showed a power flash which indicates a power line was damaged and arced electrical discharges.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/11/03/mcdonalds-ceo-out-consensual-relationship-with-employee-company-says/
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/03/politics/why-beto-orourke-failed/index.html
https://www.axios.com/california-wildfires-evacuations-blackouts-c6883a1a-a9f2-408b-a898-0aba2f20d6e2.html
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Five killed in Halloween Airbnb party shooting
On Halloween night on Thursday, five people were shot and killed during a house party in Orinda, California, which is a suburb of San Francisco.
The house was an Airbnb rental that was reserved by a woman who said her family had asthma and needed to escape smoke from a wildfire. But that was not the truth, as there were posts on social media for an “Airbnb Mansion Party.”
About 100 people showed up for the party, which had a DJ and people dancing. Neighbors called police to complain. But before police showed up at the house, someone opened fire on the partygoers.
Four people who ages ranged from 22 to 29 were killed on Thursday night, including the DJ. A fifth person died on Friday, a 19-year-old. Police have not identified or arrested a suspect. They found two firearms at the scene. It is not known the motive or if there was more than one shooter.
Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky said they would ban “party houses” and would create a rapid response team to quickly address potential violations of this rule with other Airbnb rentals.
The renter of the house is banned from Airbnb and the house has been removed as a listing. The house was last sold for $1.2 million in 2017 and cost $420 a night to rent.
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Investigation-Continues-in-Shooting-that-Left-4-Dead-at-Orinda-Airbnb-Party-564266771.html
https://apnews.com/47f1797489eb4ab3928cd56aacfbfcec
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Three news updates on President Trump
Here are three updates related to President Trump.
The first — a federal appeals court ruled against President Trump’s effort to block the release of eight years of his tax returns to New York prosecutors who are investigating hush-money payments to two women before the 2016 election. This is the second federal appeals court decision that has ruled against Trump’s efforts to block the release of his taxes.
Trump’s personal attorney Jay Sekulow said they would appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen is serving a three-year prison sentence for campaign finance violations related to the hush-money payments.
The second news — President Trump said the anonymous whistleblower who filed a complaint about his call with the Ukrainian president, which sparked the impeachment inquiry, should appear in public to testify.
The whistleblower’s lawyer said the person is willing to answer written questions from House Republicans, but Trump wants him or her to appear publicly.
The third news — House Democrats released hundreds of pages of transcripts from their closed-door depositions of two witnesses in the impeachment inquiry, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and a former senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Michael McKinley.
Yovanovitch said her work environment changed after Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted in March that she was a “joker” and shared an article that said she was an Obama appointee. She said Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani worked behind the scenes to push her out from her ambassador position in May.
McKinley said he resigned last month because he felt the State Department did not support their employees who were caught up in the middle of the impeachment inquiry and because he felt our ambassadors overseas were being used to advance domestic political objectives.
In separate but related news, the National Security Council’s lawyer, John Eisenberg, was ordered by Trump to not appear before a House deposition. The Department of Justice also said he was immune from testifying.
https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-tax-returns-court-case-f6ecc4a1-5d6d-4a89-aa3a-a5c8b0fcac77.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/appeals-court-rejects-trumps-attempt-to-withhold-tax-return-from-local-prosecutors-setting-stage-for-supreme-court-fight/2019/11/04/567cdb02-f695-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/11/04/live-trump-impeachment-inquiry-updates-white-house-officials-summoned/4123783002/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/11/04/live-trump-impeachment-inquiry-updates-white-house-officials-summoned/4123783002/
https://www.axios.com/marie-yovanovitch-ukraine-ambassador-transcript-a2a1c50d-d87d-4c66-8411-d5b9b7cd71bf.html
https://www.axios.com/michael-mckinley-ukraine-investigation-transcript-ca858cd6-1d8b-4fe7-bf61-e3e89663dd5c.html
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Man has acid thrown on face, told to go back to his country
In Milwaukee, a U.S. citizen who moved here 19 years ago from Peru, Mahud Villalaz, had acid thrown in his face by a man who told him that he was illegal and that he had to go back to his country.
There is a video that shows the two men arguing on Friday night about how Villalaz parked his car. The alleged attacker then throws a container with a liquid on it on Villalz’s face. It caused second-degree burns and scarring. The liquid is suspected to be battery acid.
Police said they have arrested a 61-year-old suspect and that charges are pending.
Villalaz said he believes he is a victim of a hate crime. He has a wife and two young children.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said this was obviously a hate crime and placed the blame on President Trump, saying he “feeds” anger towards people from other countries.
There is a GoFundMe set up for Villalaz that has raised over $23,000.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/04/us/milwaukee-acid-attack/index.html
https://fox6now.com/2019/11/04/i-am-horrified-mayor-barrett-responds-after-man-burned-with-suspected-battery-acid-in-milwaukee/
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-my-brother-mahud-victim-of-another-hate-crime?utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_lico%20share-sheet&fbclid=IwAR1ie45tZSiCumjObTOrd9FAG7XjvQ_qKsyM0ix-N-bOH4rkuYjbhBRLAxc
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Deaf man’s family business gets deal on “Shark Tank”
A Deaf man, Kobe Johnson, and his father and sister pitched their “Tailgate N Go” business concept on “Shark Tank” on ABC last Sunday.
It is a portable outdoor kitchen and dry box that has everything you need to cook in the outdoors. You can attach a grill or a sink to it.
After some back and forth with the sharks, the family accepted shark Matt Higgins’ offer of $250,000 for a 20% stake and a royalty of $50 per unit until the $250k is repaid.
There was an interpreter during the show. Here is an interview with Kobe.
ALEX:
Hello, can you introduce yourself with your name and what your business is all about?
KOBE:
Hi, my name is Kobe Johnson. *Signs name*
Our business is called Tailgate ‘N’ Go or TNG for short.
ALEX:
Okay, you and your family made an appearance on ‘Shark Tank; just last Sunday. It was cool seeing that and also you ended up getting an actual deal done with Matt Higgins! What was that experience like for you being on the ‘Shark Tank’ show?!
KOBE:
Well, to be honest, there’s nothing that could ever compare to what I was feeling. You know, when I showed up and we were ready to start filming, I was in a small standing room, with my father and my sister, waiting for the doors to open. I was getting really nervous then the doors finally opened. I couldn’t even feel my legs moving as I walked out! It was almost like I was floating towards the judges. It was like I had come to haunt these people with the smile I put on my face as I “levitated” towards them. Especially with all the staff running the camera and lights everywhere, it was really overwhelming for me! When I finally stopped walking, I locked eyes with all the Sharks. They put on this serious face, with their hands at rest like this, while being introduced to us. The three of us had an interpreter there too and the interpreter walked to the right of the judges. At first, we had to stare at each other until the cameras started rolling. Then the host introduced the audience to the show and then we introduced ourselves. And we shared our story right there. That was an experience I’ll never forget.
ALEX:
I’m sure you’ll never that experience and you even have it all on film too! Now that you’ve gotten a deal done, can you explain a little bit about how you and your family invented a Tailgate kit? You said you’d been having frustrations with forgetting things to bring and organizing for camping trips, but I’m curious about your father and your background with welding? How did you develop these skills that led to this invention?
KOBE:
Well, you know what businessmen do? They meet people and make connections. So my dad has a lot of experience with heavy machinery like, for instance, excavators. So he knows people who also work with heavy machinery, but for everything else, we had to learn through research. The board had to do a lot of study, but B is also a fast learner.
ALEX:
Wow, how long does it take for your company to produce one unit?
KOBE:
Well, for us to produce one unit, it takes about 25 minutes.
ALEX:
25 minutes.
KOBE:
It takes 25 minutes because there are a lot of components involved like the rivets, the handles and many other parts. We also place orders for powder coating services and also for a waste management service from Denver.
ALEX:
After you’ve imported the parts you need then it’ll take you 25 minutes to assemble the parts. That’s cool! That’s pretty fast too! I thought it’d actually take a little bit longer than that. Only 25 minutes!
KOBE:
Yes, the board had to learn a lot and fast so we could keep on fine tuning our process.
ALEX:
I know that you had 2 offers from two Sharks, one from Kevin O’Leary known as “Mr. Wonderful”. He offered a little more out of his deal yet you chose the other Shark. What kind of stress did you experience? How did you come to the decision of choosing Matt’s offer?
KOBE:
Well, while we were considering Kevin’s offer, I admit that we didn’t think it was as good of a deal, the reason being is he could’ve killed our margins. The hard work we put into getting the profit margins would be fruitless. So the board decided to not take that deal and instead chose Matt’s offer. The board decided that Matt offered the better deal. After we got to meet Matt, we thought he was a wonderful, a very cool guy. The board had already met Matt in New York. We already thought he was an awesome guy!
ALEX:
And now you’re ready to get going with your business?! What has the business been like since making that appearance on ‘Shark Tank’? I’m sure you’ve been getting many orders?
KOBE:
Oh yes! There’s been so many orders that we’re struggling to keep up, but the board has always been ready to take on the challenge!
ALEX:
Cool and you’re the first deaf entrepreneur to make an appearance on the ‘Shark Tank’. So, moving forward, what are your goals for yourself and your family?
KOBE:
For myself, when it comes to the deaf world, I’m not satisfied with the current status quo. I want to make changes so we can improve on connecting with the hearing world and I guess making the appearance on the ‘Shark Tank’ was a small step towards that goal. Being the first deaf ‘Shark Tank’ contestant has shocked a lot of hearing people.
ALEX:
Congratulations!
KOBE:
Thank you! There’s a lot of hearing people who are shocked to see a deaf entrepreneur on the show. So we’re going to keep trying to improve how hearing people perceive deaf people. I want to create technology for deaf people because technology we have nowadays are old and outdated. I want to update and modernize the technology we have now for deaf people.
ALEX:
I’m sure you have many dreams to pursue now that you have a business with a growing network that now includes one of the Shark judges! That’s impressive and we look forward to seeing what else you’ll be able to do moving forward!
KOBE:
Thank you.
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Thank you, Kobe, for your time. If you want to check out what the Tail N Go merchandise looks like, go to the link in the transcript.
https://tailgatengo.com/
https://abc.com/shows/shark-tank/video/most-recent/vdka13908798
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That is all for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
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