The Daily Moth 2-7-2025
It is Friday, February 7, 2025. Here are today’s top stories.
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Plane with 10 people missing in Alaska
CBS News said a plane with 10 people went missing in Alaska on Thursday afternoon. It is a Bering Air Caravan flight that departed Unalakeet and was heading towards Nome. The plane had nine passengers and a pilot.
The Nome Volunteer Fire Department said one of the last contacts with the pilot was when he told air traffic control that he would enter a holding pattern while waiting for the runway to be cleared.
The Coast Guard sent a C-130 plane to fly a grid pattern over the water and shoreline to try and find the plane.
CBS News said on Thursday afternoon, there were near-whiteout conditions in the Nome area.
Nome is a well-known city because it is the finish line of the 1,000-mile Iditarod.
This is the third major U.S. aviation incident in recent days with the others being the D.C. helicopter/plane collision and the Philadelphia medical plane crash.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/plane-missing-alaska-10-on-board-nome/
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DOGE staffer resigns over offensive posts
A 25-year-old man named Marko Elez, who worked with the Trump administration/Elon Musk’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), resigned on Thursday after the Wall Street Journal reported that the man made several racist and offensive posts on X.
What did Elez say? He posted, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” “Normalize Indian hate,” “I was racist before it was cool,” “I wouldn’t mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth,” and “I just want a eugenic immigration policy.”
Elez was one of the DOGE staffers who gained access into a very important federal government payment system called BFS last weekend.
After he resigned, Elon Musk posted on X a poll on whether he should bring him back. About 80% of respondents said he should be brought back.
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/06/nx-s1-5289337/elon-musk-doge-treasury
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Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter sentenced to 5 years
NBC News said MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, was sentenced to almost five years in prison on charges related to stealing almost $17 million from Ohtani’s bank account to pay off his gambling losses and valuable baseball cards.
Prosecutors said Ohtani was a victim and he never bet on baseball. They said Mizuhara took advantage of him as he tried to navigate the world of baseball in the U.S. as a non-English speaker.
Mizuhara, who is Japanese just like Ohtani, could be deported after completing his prison sentence.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/shohei-ohtani-former-interpreter-set-sentenced-gambling-linked-theft-rcna190978
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FEC chair says she refuses to be fired by Trump
USAToday explained that President Trump wrote a letter to fire Federal Elections Commission (FEC) chairwoman Ellen Weintraub but she is refusing to step down.
Weintraub said there is a legal way to replace FEC commissioners and what Trump did is not legal.
Weintraub is one of three Democrats on the six-member bipartisan panel. The FEC is tasked with overseeing U.S. federal elections and enforces U.S. campaign finance laws.
USAToday explained that federal law requires the FEC to be composed of three Democrats and three Republicans with each member serving six-year terms that are staggered.
Weintraub was appointed by George W. Bush in 2002 and her term has already ended a long time ago, but commissioners can stay in their roles until they are replaced. She was named the FEC chair this year by her colleagues.
Weintraub is known for standing up to Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. In 2021, she said Trump needed to accept that he lost the election. So, of course, that will draw the ire of Trump.
A former Republican FEC Commissioner, Trevor Potter, said Trump’s action violates the law and the separation of powers. Potter said Trump can nominate new commissioners and allow Congress to approve them, but Trump cannot fire a single Democratic commissioner who has been an outspoken critic of him.
We’ll see what happens with this FEC situation. Weintraub said she would remain in office until a successor is confirmed by the Senate.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/07/trump-fires-fec-chair-ellen-weintraub/78324207007/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14370509/trump-removes-fec-chair-ellen-weintraub-stolen-election.html
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CBS’ “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris controversy
There is a controversy over CBS’ “60 Minutes” news program and how it edited an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris before the election.
What happened? Fox News explained that in October, CBS released a preview of the interview that showed Harris giving a long answer on how she would deal with Israel’s prime minister because there were reports that he was not listening to the Biden administration.
She said, “The work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. And we’re not going to stop doing that. We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
At that time, some mocked Harris for giving a “word salad” answer.
When CBS’ “60 Minutes” released the interview the next night, it showed the same question but that Harris’ answer was edited down to show her only saying, “We’re not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
At that time, people criticized CBS for apparently trying to help Harris look better.
Donald Trump, who was a presidential candidate, filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS alleging election interference.
Fast-forward to now – Trump is president and there’s a new chair of the FCC (Federal Communication Commission). The new chair, Brendan Carr (R), said they are reviewing the situation and released the full interview video. Carr said he’s concerned. But another FCC commissioner, Anna Gomez (D) said there’s no evidence of any violations and the FCC should dismiss this case to avoid politicizing their enforcement actions.
CBS said it did nothing wrong and that it is common to edit down interviews. CBS said the full video shows that there was no deceit.
President Trump said CBS defrauded the U.S., removed Harris’ answers, and replaced them with different answers from another part of the interview.
There’s a huge financial component to this – CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, is considering settling Trump’s lawsuit because the company is planning to merge with another company, Skydance, in a deal that is worth billions of dollars. The FCC has the authority to halt the merger. If Paramount decides to settle and avoid the ire of Trump, they could be paying millions of dollars to Trump in a settlement.
So, this relatively simple edit of Harris’ response could be worth millions of dollars.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/fcc-chair-calls-cbs-news-conduct-hard-explain-following-release-kamala-harris-interview-transcript
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/business/media/cbs-60-minutes-harris-interview.html
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102 venomous snakes removed from backyard
In Sydney, Australia, a man noticed six venomous red-bellied black snakes around a pile of mulch in his backyard.
He called a snake catcher to come and remove them and was shocked to see that there were 102 pregnant and newborn snakes in the mulch. The snake catcher said some of the snakes gave birth while it was captured in a bag.
This type of snake is ovoviviparous, which means that it gives birth to live young. Most types of snakes lay eggs, but it varies.
The resident said he felt “the shudders” when he saw all the snakes.
The snake catcher said he would release them in a national park, with permission from authorities.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/number-snakes-removed-australian-yard-make-shudder-118560529
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That is all the top stories for today and this week. Have a nice weekend and stay with the light.