The Daily Moth 5-1-2019

Hello, welcome to the Daily Moth! It is Wednesday, May 1. Ready for news?

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Mueller’s concerns about Barr becomes public before his testimony

Last night news broke that Special Counsel Mueller wrote a letter to Attorney General Barr in March to inform him that his 4-page summary of the Mueller report did not fully “capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office’s work and conclusions.”

Barr’s summary said there was no evidence of a Trump-Russia collusion and that Mueller did not make a final decision on if Trump obstructed justice or not, and allowed him and the Department of Justice to make that determination. Barr cleared Trump of obstruction.

Mueller in the letter said Barr’s 4-page summary caused public confusion about the investigation and could cause public distrust.

Mueller said he had already provided Barr with his own summaries, and was concerned that Barr did not release it.

Today AG Barr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and defended his handling of the Mueller report and defended President Trump’s actions.

[Clip of Barr swearing in]

Barr said he didn’t want to give out the Mueller report by piecemeal and preferred to wait until he could give the full 448-page redacted report.

Barr said Trump did want to remove Mueller, but that this did not mean obstruction because a new special counsel would have been appointed.

Barr said he did not exonerate President Trump, but that he cleared him because there was not sufficient evidence that Trump obstructed justice.

Barr said the DOJ is working on several criminal investigations on internal leaks from the department to the media.

https://wapo.st/2J7Ud9S

https://www.axios.com/bill-barr-mueller-report-senate-judiciary-01fdadff-0d2c-4a45-8490-14aaff6040f4.html

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/barr-testimony-mueller-report/index.html

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/barr-says-doj-has-multiple-criminal-leak-probes-under-way

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Shooting at U.N.C. leaves 2 dead and 4 injured

Yesterday there was a shooting that took place at University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC).

Police identified the suspect as Trystan Andrew Terrell, 22 years old.

Terrell shot students with a handgun. Three people are severely injured and one person seems to be doing okay. Two people were killed.

Yesterday was the last day for classes before final exams. Also, there was a free Waka Flocka concert that was supposed to be happening at 6pm. Shots were fired at 5:40pm and the campus had a lockdown. The concert was cancelled.

Terrell’s grandfather, Paul Rod, mentioned that Terrell moved to North Carolina to be with his father after his mother died two years ago. His grandfather could not believe that Terrell did this. When the authorities informed him that it was his grandson, he felt like they were describing someone else, not his grandson.

The students at UNCC mentioned that they were thankful for the officers because they really saved lives. They responded quickly to the shooting and was able to capture Terrell and disarm him before he could do more shooting.

Terrell has been charged with two counts of murder, four counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, possession of firearm on educational property, and discharging a firearm on educational property.

When the police put handcuffs on him and led him away, he tilted back and smiled at the cameras.

[Video]

[Images of two victims with text that reads, “Two victims have been identified: Riley Howell and Ellis “Reed” Parlier.”]

[Image of Howell with text, “Howell is hailed as a hero because he died trying to stop the gunman.”]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6978497/At-three-injured-UNC-Charlotte-SWAT-respond-students-shelter-place.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/04/30/university-north-carolina-charlotte-shooting-dead-injured/3633635002/

https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/everything-we-know-about-the-shooting-at-unc-charlotte.html

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/amberjamieson/uncc-shooting-victims

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Two people diagnosed with HIV after “vampire facial”

Two people recently got diagnosed with HIV after getting a facial called “Vampire Facial” at VIP spa in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The New Mexico Department of Health is encouraging anyone who got an injection at that spa to get themselves tested.

Basically how the vampire facial works is that the client’s blood would be drawn, from usually the arm. The blood would be placed in a centrifuge to separate the plasma and platelets from red blood cells. The result is getting liquid called platelet-rich plasma. That material will either be applied topically on the face or injected in the face using micro needle techniques.

The theory is that this will help skin growth and this will help you look younger. This was inspired by Kim Kardashian in 2013.

Because of this incident in New Mexico of two people getting HIV, health specialists are warning people to try to avoid vampire facials.

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/9/14/17860420/vampire-facials-dangerous-new-mexico

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/maryanngeorgantopoulos/vampire-facial-clients-hiv-infections-new-mexico

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/two-people-diagnosed-hiv-positive-after-receiving-vampire-facial-new-n1000351

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Canadian amputee forced to crawl to get around

One Canadian man is now petitioning to have the Canadian Human Rights Commission to listen to his case after what happened in 2017 at Calgary airport in Canada.

Stearn Hodge lost his left arm and right leg at a workplace accident in 1984. He has been using a scooter powered by lithium batteries to get around. He can wear a prosthetic leg, but not for long as that would cause risk of infection for him.

In 2017, he was traveling to Tulsa, Oklahoma with his wife to celebrate their 43rd wedding anniversary. A security agent at the Calgary airport with a United Airline representative told him it was not safe to fly with the battery from the scooter.

Hodge was prepared for it as he gave all the information and documents, including the airline pre-approval. But no one would listen to him or read his documents.

One security agent at the airport told him that he could use a wheelchair. Hodge responded how is he supposed to use a manual wheelchair with one missing arm and one missing leg? They took his lithium battery for the scooter and the spare.

So, when he went to Oklahoma for his 3 weeks vacation, he had to stay in bed and had to crawl to get around.

This case has been going on since 2017 and this case is gaining attention because Hodge is asking the Canadian Human Rights Commission to listen to his case as he wants their support.

Their policy allows up to $20,000 in damages for each count of pain and suffering, and another up to $20,000 if the discrimination is obvious.

John Burns, Hodge’s lawyer, said, “People with disabilities should be taken seriously. You do not take someone’s legs and describe it as an inconvenience. No, it is an injury."

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/01/health/amputee-airline-batteries-confiscated-trnd/index.html

https://www.worldnewslive4you.com/2019/04/30/humiliated-amputee-forced-to-crawl-on-holiday-after-his-1000-portable-scooter-battery-was-confiscated-at-the-airport/

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Hearing interpreter turns tables on Madonna University audience

Hello, I’m Christian Young from Michigan and I’ll be contributing a news story for The Daily Moth.

About three weeks ago, Danny McDougall who’s a hearing interpreter and is the chairperson of the Sign Language Studies department at Madonna University, posted a tweet that went viral. He had a presentation where he needed to be assigned an ASL interpreter. When they were unable to find one, Danny went ahead with the presentation but using only ASL.

I interviewed him along with two deaf assistant ASL professors about their experience during the presentation.

DANNY MCDOUGALL: There were three faculty giving presentations and I was the third one of the bunch. What happened was that one week before the presentation, I accepted the invitation to present. The presentation was focused on my experience in theatre as a shadow interpreter. I’d been researching about the topic for five years. That was the topic of the presentation. As I was planning out my presentation, I started to wonder if there would be an interpreter there. I contacted the event organizer who didn’t think I needed an interpreter. I already knew that deaf people would come to the presentation. They contacted the interpreter agency three days prior to the presentation trying to find someone who would interpret for the whole presentation. Our interpreter office tried to find one. The event organizer tried to find one. I tried to find an interpreter with no luck.

I decided on maybe backing out, but it was last minute so I decided not to do that because it’s important to show the Deaf’s stories and show my research. I decided to proceed by using ASL. Here in academics, they tend to emphasize using predominantly English but why not turn the tables? Why not make ASL the priority?

[Tweet by @TerpTheatre: “Event Organizer:

We're sorry, there won't be interpreters at the event where you are presenting about Deaf things, sign language, and interpreting.

Me: No problem, I'll present in ASL without interpretation. Hearing people will have to get by.

EO: Ummm …”]

JENNIFER BERRIGAN: It feels good. I could see the reaction of the people in the audience and their body behavior. With hearing presenters, hearing people would just sit back and relax. Danny told everyone that there would be no interpreter provided and that he would use only ASL for the deaf people in attendance. He explained that it was hearing people’s turn to experience what deaf people endure using his PowerPoint slides. Those hearing people started to really paying attention as you could see from their body language. It was their turn to figure out what was happening. The PowerPoint slides Danny was using was more focused on visuals with brief texts included. You could see these hearing people taking advantage of every visual information they could get.

It was nice how we finally switched roles where they experienced what we experience every day.

BRETAGNE FREEL WHITFORD: Having that just happened was good for them and it should happen because they need to understand the deaf experience and our perspectives. Most of them would just apologize whenever an interpreter wasn’t provided, that maybe next time would be better or they would just go along with their plans.

So if they were able to see what deaf people often experience, it means they could become more “deaf friendly”.

CHRISTIAN: Wow, you really turned the tables. I wonder if what would you do if an ASL interpreter wasn’t provided: postpone or go ahead with your event?

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Contractors from Lowe’s tears down Deaf woman’s roof by mistake

On Monday, Kathleen Brockway, a Deaf woman from Bowie, Maryland, woke up to see a roof contractor crew from Lowe’s tearing off her roof. They had the wrong address.

When Brockway went out of the house to stop the crew, she fell on a tarp on the floor and broke her ankle.

“The Daily Moth” got this information from other people and reached out to her.

KAT BROCKWAY: When I woke up, I realized that someone was demolishing my house. I was so confused. I walked outside onto the front porch.

I saw that there was a tarp set up to my left so I couldn’t walk around my house. I tried to yell for the crew to stop.

[Images]

Several of the workers stared at me with a confused look on their faces. I tried walking up to them, but I tripped over the tarp and fell because the ground was uneven. I guess the sidewalk had already been dug out so I fell into the ditch. Again, I repeatedly screamed for them to stop. They froze when they saw me screaming for them to stop.

Then they called their boss who later arrived at my house. I was sitting on the ground in pain wondering what was going on. The boss was confused and showed me a copy of the order. It had my address on it but had the wrong name. I told them they had the wrong house. I didn’t know who that person was. They were absolutely stunned.

My friend, who’s a cop, came to interpret for me because her wife is deaf and they lived nearby. She tried to figure out what happened and he said I never made that order and that they had the wrong address. They were very apologetic and tried to work it out. The owner of the house down the street came running up to me saying it was their house that was supposed to be worked on, not mine. They said they had supplies ready and waited for the crew to arrive. The crew said they knocked on the door, but of course I didn’t answer because I’m deaf!

I was injured and went to the hospital. I couldn’t walk at all because both of my feet were injured. When I was at the hospital, I was surprised to find that my ankle was broken. It is broken! So now that was double the mess for me.

Alex: Thank you for sharing, Brockway. That’s probably one of the worst mornings anybody could ever have. We agreed that this was a “Deaf Bing.”

Brockway: That’s perfect! Deaf Bing! I can’t hear them knocking on my door and they went along with their job without my knowledge. That’s Deaf Bing right there!

Alex: She said she is in touch with a personal injury attorney and will work towards getting the entire roof replaced, not just half, because the color doesn’t match.

She said she had to miss one day of work because she couldn’t drive the car. But now she said she is getting better with the help of a walker.

She said she is thankful to her friends and neighbors for helping her.

The Daily Moth reached out to Lowe’s public relations office for comment, but did not get an immediate response. If they respond, I will add it to the comments.

She is a Deaf author and has a website at katbrockway.com if you want to check out her work or reach out to her.

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That is all for today! See you tomorrow and stay with the light!