The Daily Moth 6-20-2019
Iran shoots down U.S. drone; Parents brawl during youth baseball game; Detective calls for execution of gay people in church sermon; Supreme Court rulings on WWI cross and double jeopardy; Phone use causing horns to grow on young people’s skulls?; San Antonio Express News: Deaf father reaches $150k settlement with school district over interpreters for hearing son; #DeafBing Getting People’s Attention
[Transcript] Hello, welcome to the Daily Moth! It is Thursday, June 20. Ready for news?
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Iran shoots down U.S. drone
Today the Iranian military fired a missile that brought down a U.S. military drone in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran said the drone violated their airspace and crashed into Iranian waters. But the U.S. military said the drone was in international airspace.
The drone was a RQ-4A Global Hawk model. It is used to gather intelligence and surveil large regions. Each model costs over $220 million.
President Trump tweeted, “Iran made a very big mistake!”
An ABC News reporter asked Trump if he will strike back against Iran and take military action and Trump responded, “We’ll soon find out.” He did say he believes that an Iranian military person made a mistake, that it was not an order from military leadership.
Trump asked top Congressional leaders to come to the White House today for an emergency meeting.
An Iranian military leader said, “Borders are our red lines… We don’t have any intention to go to war… but we are completely ready for war.”
Two days ago the White House said they would send 1,000 additional troops to the Middle East in response to Iran’s hostile behavior. The U.S. has blamed them for attacks against oil tankers. Iran recently announced they will ramp up their nuclear production.
The shooting down of the drone is the most serious conflict yet between the American and Iranian governments.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-says-it-shot-down-a-u-s-drone-11561005235?mod=hp_lead_pos1
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1141711064305983488
https://www.axios.com/trump-iran-drone-attack-734955a7-12db-44ad-add1-d6ce3f6360b9.html
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Parents brawl during youth baseball game
Police in Lakewood, Colorado tweeted a video of a fight last week between parents and other adults at a youth baseball game where the players were 7 years old. Police wanted to identify the people involved.
[Video of fight]
Initial news reports said the adults were angry about a 13-year-old umpire’s calls.
But Fox 31 Denver news did an interview with a mother who said problems started at the beginning of the game after a coach shouted, “You need to shut the F— up” to a mother of a player on the opposing team. She said parents then talked with the umpire, and then the brawl broke out.
The teams were a part of the Bear Creek Junior Sports Association. The association said they are embarrassed and angry, and have ended the season for both teams.
Police said five people have been cited for disorderly conduct and fighting in public.
Several adults were injured, but no children were injured.
https://twitter.com/LakewoodPDCO/status/1141099740463022080
https://abcn.ws/2FgD1wb
https://kdvr.com/2019/06/20/parents-say-problems-started-early-at-baseball-game-that-ended-in-brawl/
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Detective calls for execution of gay people in church sermon
A detective in Knox County, Tennessee, Grayson Fritts, was seen in a church video preaching that the government should enforce a Biblical scripture from the Old Testament that demands execution for gay sex.
Fritts preached that “homosexuality should still be a crime… just like murder.. and rape.” He said “queers should be arrested,” and then after they face a judge and is convicted, be put to death.
Fritts later told news that he is the head of this church and that what he does as a police officer is totally separate.
The Knox County district attorney general said his comments were personally offensive and reprehensible. He said he would review all of Fritts’ pending cases for potential bias and will review any complaints about closed cases involving him.
Fritts is now on paid sick leave and will leave after collecting a buyout in July.
Cracker Barrel, the restaurant, recently said they would not allow Fritts and his church members to host an event at the restaurant that was planned for next week.
The store said they serve everyone who walks through their doors with genuine hospitality, not hate.
In separate news, a Missouri man, Edward Terry, was arrested for threatening to bring guns to a PrideSTL festival to kill every gay person he could before he killed himself. He was charged with making a terrorist threat.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/14/us/tennessee-preacher-cop-lgbtq/index.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c-arO79hjo
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/us/st-louis-pridefest-threat-charges/
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Supreme Court rulings on WWI cross and double jeopardy
Here are two recent major decisions by the Supreme Court.
The first — the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that a large World War I memorial cross can remain on a public land in Maryland. A lower court said the cross was unconstitutional because it was a religious symbol that was maintained at taxpayer expense. But Justice Samuel Alito said the cross is now well-known and its removal would be a hostile act towards a religion. He also said the cross has become a secular symbol.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented by saying the cross is clearly a symbol of the Christian religion. With the 7-2 decision, the cross will remain upright.
The second decision, made earlier this week, was a 7-2 vote to say that an individual can be charged and go through both state and federal court for the same conduct, and that this does not apply to the Constitutional clause against double jeopardy. Many looked at the case of Paul Manafort, who is serving a prison term on federal charges. He is facing state charges in New York for the same conduct. This decision by the court means that if President Trump pardons Manafort, he still could be punished on the state level.
https://www.axios.com/senate-votes-block-saudi-arm-sales-trump-veto-4db48733-32c8-4d0d-8db3-68356fccf62e.html
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/20/731824045/supreme-court-cross-can-stand-on-public-land-in-separation-of-church-and-state-c
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/17/politics/supreme-court-takeaways/index.html
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/06/19/scotus-double-jeopardy-paul-manafort
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Phone use causing horns to grow on young people’s skulls?
Researchers at an Australian university say they have noticed a prevalence of young adults growing bone spurs that look like horns in the back of their skulls — and said it might be caused by their heads tilting forward to look at their phones.
The bone growth is said to be triggered from the weight shift from the spine to the muscles at the back of the head. It is similar to how our skin on the hands or feet thickens if there is a lot of pressure or friction.
The researchers, in 2016, observed 218 X-rays of people ages 18 to 30. The horns could be seen in 41% of the skulls.
One of the researchers warned that this growth can cause chronic headaches and pain in the upper back and neck.
A columnist for Vice said this was just a “moral panic” on the impact of technology on daily lives and that the researchers are only making a guess that phone use is the cause of the horns.
Does this mean that humans, in 1,000 years, will have rear cone-shaped heads that look like bicycle competitors’ helmets?
https://wapo.st/2Na0OnE
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evy8kw/phones-cause-teens-to-grow-horns-is-dumb-tech-moral-panic
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San Antonio Express News: Deaf father reaches $150k settlement with school district over interpreters for hearing son
The San Antonio Express-News reported that a Deaf father of a hearing middle school student has reached a $150,000 settlement to resolve a lawsuit against the San Antonio Independent School District over the district’s alleged failure to provide ASL interpreters.
The father’s name is Cleto Rodriguez. He filed a federal lawsuit last year after he said he requested interpreters multiple times multiple parent-teacher conferences but that the school district did not provide them.
The lawsuit said this was a violation of ADA and other laws.
The settlement awards Rodriguez the money and requires the school district to provide in-person interpreters to deaf parents with an advance notice of at least 72 hours. SAISD also agreed to enter in a contract with a video interpreting company for brief talks with parents.
https://www.expressnews.com/news/education/article/SAISD-settles-with-parent-for-150-000-over-sign-14020292.php
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Guest #DeafBing: Grabbing Deafies’ Attention
Hey! Hey! Did I get your attention? Here are four guest #DeafBing videos about how Deaf people get other people’s attention. The first is from Jo S.
[Video clip]
Of course, throw something. That was a gentle throw, not like the next one from Jenene J.
[Video]
Man: I’m trying to call my Deaf son. Waving at him didn’t work so I thought of this.
Oh he’s overdramatic!
Alex: That was accurate. Great aim… or not. The next way to get attention is from Heather G.
(Banging)
Heather: That Deaf Bing. When I’m cooking, she’s trying to call me.
Alex: That little girl has to cause an earthquake to get her mother’s attention. The next one is from Lori A.
Lori: Huh? Hey!
(Woman looking through the window)
Lori: Deaf Bing… look.
(Woman waving through the window)
Alex: That’s creepy, but it works. Thank you all four! Now you can go away. You’re excused. Bye.
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That is all for today! Tomorrow I will be going to the National Deaf Education Conference in Austin, TX, hosted by the NAD. We will do some filming and interviews. We’ll post them on Moth Facebook, YouTube, and on the website.
Stay with the light!