The Daily Moth 6-26-2019
Robert Mueller to testify on July 17; Image of deceased migrant father and daughter; WWII bomb detonates in German field; Megan Rapinoe and President Trump; Etika, YouTube star, found dead; Beth Chapman, partner of Dog the Bounty hunter, dies; First night of Democratic debates; Deaf owned business Wavio wins prestigious award for innovation
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Wednesday, June 26. Ready for news?
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Robert Mueller to testify on July 17
Robert Mueller has agreed to testify before Congress on July 17. Mueller had explicitly said he would not testify before Congress because everything was already in his 400-page report, but he was subpoenaed by two House committee chairs.
President Trump tweeted “Presidential Harassment!”
What this means is that the American public can watch Mueller answer questions about his investigation on Russian election interference and actions by Trump that could be considered obstruction of justice.
Mueller said in his report that if they were confident that Trump did not commit a crime, they would have said it. They said Congress should be the entity who takes action on whether Trump obstructed justice or not. We can expect Mueller to be asked many questions on this gray area.
Republicans said they will ask questions about suspicions of abuses of power by the Obama Justice Department to spy on the Trump campaign. They will bring up concerns with the Steele dossier, the use of a FISA warrant, and about former FBI agent Peter Strzok.
It’ll be a big day in Washington, D.C. on July 17.
https://www.axios.com/robert-mueller-agrees-publicly-testify-congress-62a6a8d4-76db-4de0-a681-e96d2cd03e02.html
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mueller-better-be-prepared-this-twist-could-give-gop-firebrands-ammo-at-hearing
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Image of deceased migrant father and daughter
Last night multiple news outlets showed an image of a deceased father and a 23-months-old daughter, Valeria, who apparently drowned when they tried to cross the Rio Grande river in south Texas.
The father’s name was Oscar A. M. Ramirez and was from El Salvador.
His wife and the mother of the girl said they arrived at the U.S. border last weekend and hoped to apply for asylum. They saw that the international bridge was closed until Monday. The father tucked the daughter under his shirt and tried to swim across the river while the mother and other family members followed behind. The mother said the river was rough so she turned back, and saw the father and daughter sink in the river and get swept away.
The picture is jarring and has sparked various responses — many said America should do more to welcome and protect migrants, while many others say it is the fault of the families to risk an illegal and dangerous journey.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the deaths represent a failure to address the violence and desperation pushing people to take journeys of danger for a prospect of a life in safety and dignity.
The Salvadoran government will pay for the cost to bring back the bodies of the father and daughter.
https://nyti.ms/2xhaZfD
https://reut.rs/2X9WJo5
https://wapo.st/2XchgZh
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WWII bomb detonates in German field
On Sunday early morning in western Germany, there was a loud blast on a farm that caused a 33-feet wide and 13-feet deep crater.
People thought it was an earthquake, and when they saw a crater, thought it could have been an asteroid.
Investigators say it is a World War II bomb that finally detonated after 70 years.
They believe a WWII era Allied plane dropped a 550 pound bomb, but for some reason, it did not detonate until now. Nobody was injured.
The Washington Post explained that bombs at the time often had chemicals in it that triggered the explosions, and that this bomb might have landed in an incorrect way that delayed the chemical process.
BBC explained that it is common to find unexploded bombs in Germany.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48746557
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/06/25/mysterious-explosion-left-crater-german-field-it-may-have-been-wwii-bomb/?utm_term=.f4c420f8bf4f
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Megan Rapinoe and President Trump
U.S. Women soccer star Megan Rapinoe and U.S. President Trump are not getting along with each other.
Yesterday Eight by Eight magazine asked Rapinoe if she was excited about going to the White House. She responded by saying, “I’m not going to the f—— White House… We’re not going to be invited.”
President Trump noticed her comment. He tweeted that he is “a big fan of the American team, and Women’s Soccer, but that Megan should WIN first before she TALKS!” He said he would invite the “TEAM, win or lose.”
NBC News explained that Rapinoe has, in the past, kneeled during the national anthem to protest against police brutality and injustice, and during this year’s World Cup, she has stood motionless during the anthem.
The U.S. team will play against France on Friday in the quarterfinals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. There will be plenty of attention on Rapinoe.
https://twitter.com/8by8mag/status/1143595809910530048
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1143892326286266368
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-tells-u-s-soccer-star-megan-rapinoe-never-disrespect-n1022066
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Etika, YouTube star, found dead
Etika, a popular YouTube creator who focused on Nintendo topics, was found dead in New York’s East River Monday night. A few days earlier he posted a video discussing suicidal thoughts. The exact cause of death is suicide by drowning.
His real name was Desmond Amofah and he was 29. In the past several months, there were a series of incidents with police officers, YouTube suspensions, and hospitalizations.
His final video showed him walking on a New York street apologizing to his fans, family, and friends. He said that the walls were closing around him too fast and that he felt he was mentally ill.
His phone, wallet, and Nintendo Switch was found by a bridge and his body was found nearby a few days later. There has been an outpouring of grief over his death.
https://wapo.st/2NhkZ3d
https://nypost.com/2019/06/26/youtube-star-etikas-death-ruled-suicide-by-drowning
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Beth Chapman, partner of Dog the Bounty hunter, dies
Beth Chapman, who was the wife of Duane “Dog” Chapman and helped Dog with his bounty hunting duties, died today in a hospital in Hawaii after battling throat cancer.
She was hospitalized last weekend and placed in a medically induced coma.
Duane “Dog” tweeted today that she hiked the stairway to heaven. Two days ago he shared a picture of Beth’s hand, emphasizing her nails.
[Tweet: @DogBountyHunter: “You all know how she is about HER NAILS !!”]
Duane “Dog” said in December that Beth chose alternative treatments for cancer and refused prescriptions. In February she said she was trying CBD and THC-based therapies and said that chemotherapy was poison.
The couple raised 12 children and lived in Hawaii and Colorado.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/26/entertainment/beth-chapman-obit/index.html
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First night of Democratic debates
Tonight will be the first of two nights of Democratic debates that will kick off the 2020 election race. Who will we see tonight?
Three U.S. Senators: Elizabeth Warren (Mass), Cory Booker (NJ), and Amy Klobuchar (Minn).
Two U.S. Representatives: Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) and Tim Ryan (Ohio).
One Governor: Jay Inslee (WA).
Two former U.S. Representatives: Beto O’Rourke (Texas) and John Delaney (MD).
The last two are New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Julian Castro, who was a Cabinet official in the Obama administration.
The debate will start in Miami at 9 p.m. Eastern Time and last two hours. It’ll be on NBC, MSNBC, and Telemundo.
The leader in polls for this group is Sen. Warren.
I will share highlights of the debate tomorrow. Then tomorrow night there will be another 10 Democratic candidates.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/26/us/politics/2020-debate-time-schedule.html
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Deaf owned business Wavio wins prestigious award for innovation
A Deaf owned business, Wavio, founded in 2015, created a sound recognition software to help deaf people recognize sounds. The Daily Moth did a business spotlight on Wavio in 2017.
Last Saturday, Wavio recently became the first Deaf-owned start-up ever to win a Cannes Lion and the Grand Prix Award for the Innovation category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France.
[Video tweet from @Cannes_Lions showing audience cheering Brandon Marin, who accepts the award and gives a speech]
Brandon Marin: “It’s a really big honor to be here tonight and to make this special announcement in American Sign Language. This Grand Prix Award in Innovation is a really emotional one. This shows that two teams have already broken down a huge barrier for 466 (million) deaf people in the world.”
[Captioned video feature of the Wavio product]
Renca: Wavio partnered with Area 23 to showcase their See Sound solution.
Wavio won 4 awards for different categories, but the Grand Prix Award is considered the most prestigious award in the Innovation category.
Spencer Montan, Brandon Marin, and Greyson Watkins are the founders of Wavio. The Daily Moth reached out to Wavio for an interview. We were able to chat with Montan and Marin.
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BRANDON MARIN: We ended up winning the Grand Prix award. That’s one tier above the Gold prize. So, in the Innovation competition, there were 100 categories with awards for each one. The Innovation category is one of the most prestigious of them all because typically big tech companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft would compete to win. We’re considered small time entrepreneurs yet we still won?!
I want to say that everyone there did such a beautiful job creating technology solutions. How they did it was beautiful, but this was a verification for us that we’re their equal. It’s an amazing feeling and I’ve got goosebumps.
SPENCER MONTAN: We’d been working on this company on the west coast focused on the software. It just so happened that Area 23, which is another innovation agency, so we had all these different innovations. One of them was developing the See Sound. We’re doing the hardware part on the east coast and we’re making progress with that. I think it was last year when we learned more about each other. We got connected and developed that relationship. This was a great opportunity to create that film because we wanted to work together to create that technology and make it available for all deaf people to install into their houses. So, we realized that competing against each other wasn’t the way to do it and there’s a bigger cause at hand. So, we needed to work together so we’re really excited about that and the really cool thing is we’re RIT alumni and the See Sound team also have RIT alumni as well. One of the co-founders’ husband is deaf too. So, we all have the same problems where the water is left running and we don’t hear it. It could be the fire alarm, baby crying, dogs barking, and we keep overlooking these indicators.
I’ve experienced being around a wildfire. It was 2017, it was 3 a.m. in the morning when I woke up to my family members urging me, telling me that we needed to evacuate. I didn’t hear the sirens urging us to evacuate or the police and the firemen knocking at the door. So, this is actually a life and death situation so we realized that this was a big opportunity to create an important tool that can really help deaf people to be aware of different sounds being emitted in different environments.
BRANDON MARIN: Really, our whole company’s philosophy is that it’s deaf owned. If we get more and more investments, then our own equity would be reduced. This means that hearing investors could seize control of this company then what happens? Will they continue to provide jobs for deaf people? Will they make sure that our vision of a deaf owned company remain intact? Who knows? So that’s why we want to make sure that we keep that and run with it for the long term. So that’s really important to us and we’ve realized that after several years, wait a minute, the equity is really important to us.
SPENCER MONTAN: Yeah, we do really care about the deaf ecosystem too, so we want to make this software available for all to come up with new solutions for our daily problems. We want to say to everyone, “Here you go!”
Take it, take it!
So far, we’ve been focused on licensing our software and look forward to continuing to develop our idea with many new partnerships.
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Renca: Marin mentioned that because they won that award, it means they become one of the top 10 start-ups to watch out for in 2019. It is nice to see how they have progressed up to this point. If you are interested in signing up for their product, you can check out their Facebook or website.
Congratulations, Wavio!
Video Tweet from @Cannes_Lions:https://twitter.com/Cannes_Lions/status/1141756283009130496
Wavio Video for the Festival
https://www.facebook.com/meetwavio/videos/2263280943757730/
Article
https://www.adweek.com/creativity/wavio-and-area-23s-see-sound-project-wins-top-innovation-grand-prix-at-cannes-lions/?fbclid=IwAR3EG8jIaBTJ081W8AXJwERguU98aPf-0JYRsR_P_TsSA_q-dkDCxu_xiIs
Deaf Business Spotlight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC04wOiUSD0
Wavio Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/meetwavio/
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That is all for today! See you tomorrow and stay with the light!