The Daily Moth 11-6-19 [Recorded on FB Live]
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Wednesday, November 6. I am on the road to Rochester. I will give a workshop at the JrNAD National Convention this weekend. I’ll show you some of what it looks like on Friday. I will share some news here LIVE due to a shorter schedule. There will be no captions, but a rough transcript of what I will sign is below.
Renca Dunn will be covering tomorrow’s news.
Ready for today’s news?
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1) Trial Set for Mavrick Fisher Murder Case
Here is an update on Mavrick Fisher’s murder case in Lakeport, California. He is accused of murdering deaf man Grant Whitaker in August in Humboldt County. Grant’s body was found several days later in Lake County after Mavrick admitted to using his car to move the body there.
Yesterday, November 5, was his second arraignment hearing. Fisher’s public defender, Thomas Feimer, told me today that Fisher pleaded not guilty to all of the charges again, denied all of the allegations, and that a trial date was set for January 2, 2020.
I contacted the court clerk today to confirm those pleas and for general information on Fisher’s hearing yesterday, but was told that this information was not yet available, but should be in the near future. So I will give you an update from that end when I get it.
This is Mavrick’s second arraignment. The first was for four “original” charges — murdering a deaf man Grant Whitaker, assault with a deadly weapon (rock) with a special allegation of great bodily harm, taking a thing of value from a dead human, and grand theft auto. He pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and the allegation in September. At the end of October, there was a preliminary hearing in which the judge ordered a trial on the first, second, and fourth charges, while dismissing the third. California has two arraignment hearings, and we know now that Mavrick has pleaded not guilty again. The trial is going to happen in less than two months away. I expect to continue to provide coverage.
One more note — the judge from the preliminary hearing, the Honorable Michael S. Lumas, said that there would be no temporary barrier set up behind Mavrick during the trial because he didn’t see a good reason for it and because he was concerned it would interfere with the jury and Mavrick’s right to a fair trial.
District Attorney Susan Krones is accusing Mavrick of premeditated murder.
If Mavrick is convicted, he faces 25 years to life in prison.
Mavrick and his attorney said the killing was done in self-defense and claimed that Grant was trying to stab him after an argument, that Mavrick managed to grasp on his hand and knife, and that Mavrick grabbed a rock and knocked him out, then struck him several more times.
During the preliminary hearing, Detective Kreutzer said Mavrick during his first interview after his detainment in Mexico that he said there were four rocks placed outside of the tent that Grant and Mavrick were sleeping in. But during his second interview the next day, Mavrick said the rocks were inside of the tent.
A knife was found inside of Grant’s vehicle that was abandoned by Mavrick in Lake County with blood on it, but it is not known whom the blood belongs to.
An autopsy report said Grant’s skull was struck in the left temporal lobe and that the force of the (rock) strikes went through his skull to the base of his brain.
That’s all I have to share on the Mavrick Fisher case for now. It is quite a fast process from charges to a trial.
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2) Highlights of 2019 elections
Here are some highlights of last night’s 2019 elections.
Democrat Ghazala Hashmi became the first Muslim-American to be elected to the Virginia Senate. Virginia Democrats won control of both chambers of the Virginia state government.
In Mississippi, Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves won the governor’s race to take over the outgoing Republican governor due to term limits. He won 53% to 46%.
In Kentucky, Democrat Andy Beshear declared victory in the governor’s race. Polls show that he narrowly defeated the Republican incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin, but he has refused to concede.
Also in Kentucky, Republican Daniel Cameron became the first African-American to be elected the state’s attorney general.
In Arizona, Regina Romero will be the first woman and the first Latina mayor of Tucson.
https://wset.com/…/first-muslim-america…
https://www.axios.com/matt-bevin-loss-k…
https://www.usatoday.com/…/…/4155155002/
https://www.foxnews.com/…/kentucky-hist…
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3) Four-day workweek a success for Microsoft employees in Japan
In Japan, Microsoft did a four-day workweek trial by shutting down its offices every Friday in August with employees having the day off. There are over 2,000 employees in the country.
Microsoft said even though employees spent less time at work, their productivity shot up 40% based on sales per employee, compared with the same period the previous year.
The managers also told staff to reduce the time they spent in meetings and responding to emails. Meetings were limited to 30 minutes.
CNN explained in an article that there is a big issue of people working excessive hours in Japan and that there is a term for it, “karoshi,” which means death from overwork from stress-induced illnesses or severe depression.
It seems like many Americans would love that same workweek concept. What do you think, would you be more productive if you worked four days a week instead of five?
https://www.cnn.com/…/micros…/index.html
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That is all for today. I will see you later. Stay with the light!