Thursday, April 1 top stories

It is Thursday, April 1. Here are today’s top stories.

Last night four people, including a 9-year-old boy, were shot and killed at an office building in the city of Orange, which is in the Los Angeles area. The suspect is a 44-year-old man named Aminadab Gonzalez. Police said he knew all the victims in relationships that were either personal or business-related. The suspect locked the gates leading into the courtyard and that delayed police officers’ response, but they got into a shootout with the suspect and he was hospitalized. He had a semi-automatic handgun and a backpack with pepper spray, handcuffs, and ammunition. Police said the boy died in his mother’s arms. It is yet another serious mass shooting in America and the third one that I’ve reported in the past two weeks — the first one being the Atlanta-area spa shootings and the second one the supermarket shooting in Colorado. Some feel that as we start to exit the coronavirus pandemic, we are starting to go back to a scary kind of normal — with mass shootings in America.

On Wednesday the Pentagon announced an updated policy that will, in 30 days, allow transgender troops to serve in their preferred gender and allowed them to receive military medical care necessary for gender transition. This is a reversal of former President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender troops. The announcement came on the International Transgender Day of Visibility. There are between 1,000 to 8,000 service members who identify as transgender.

Two U.S. Capitol Police officers filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump in which they accused him of inciting the January 6 attack against the Capitol which resulted in them being emotionally and physically injured. The two officers are seeking damages of $75,000 or more each. Both officers said they experienced head and back injuries and have to cope with the mental trauma of surviving the attack while others died.

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Today George Floyd’s girlfriend, Courteney Batya Ross, testified on Day 4 of the Derek Chauvin trial. She said she first met Floyd at a Salvation Army shelter where he was working as a security guard. She said Floyd offered to pray for her family and then asked for her number and they kissed each other at the lobby and then dated for three years afterwards. Ross said both of them struggled with opioid addiction. Ross was clearly emotional whoever she talked about Floyd.

Another person who testified today is Seth Zachary Bravinder, a paramedic who took Floyd’s slumped body into an ambulance after his arrest. A video was shown in the courtroom of police officers and paramedics moving Floyd’s body from the street and on a stretcher. He could tell from a distance that Floyd was not breathing and that monitors inside of the ambulance showed that he was flatlining — that his heart was not pumping blood.

President Biden announced a $2 trillion infrastructure plan to revitalize U.S. transportation, water systems, broadband, and manufacturing. The plan includes $400 billion to care for elderly and disabled Americans and $300 billion for building and retrofitting affordable housing. Biden hopes to improve 20,000 miles of roads and repair 10,000 bridges. He wants to replace 100% of our nation’s lead pipes. His idea on how to pay for it is to raise corporate tax rates to 28% and introduce measures to curb offshoring of profits. Democrats will have to convince at least 10 Republican Senators to vote for it, but if they don’t support it, Democrats can push the bill through a similar process that got the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package passed — the process is called budget reconciliation. President Biden said he wants to negotiate with Republicans in good faith. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell said he is unlikely to support the proposal because of tax increases.

That is all the top stories for today. See you later and stay with the light.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/31/biden-infrastructure-plan-includes-corporate-tax-hike-transportation-spending.html

https://www.axios.com/chauvin-trial-george-floyd-former-girlfriend-30575993-f9ff-4035-b38f-90424bb1d7df.html

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/derek-chauvin-trial-04-01-21/index.html

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/pentagon-issues-policy-allowing-transgender-troops-to-serve-in-preferred-gender-reversing-trump-ban-1.667928

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/31/police-officers-sue-donald-trump-injuries-capitol-riot

https://apnews.com/article/california-office-building-shooting-updates-a084e8ec7950ea19724ad46b9f0b5ebc

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/multiple-people-dead-after-shooting-in-orange-police/