Thursday, December 15 top stories
It is Thursday, December 15. Here are today’s top stories.
Senate approves proposal on TikTok ban for federal employees
CBS News said the Senate unanimously approved a proposal to ban federal employees from using TikTok on all government devices.
The reason is that TikTok is owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance.
CBS said the State Department and Department of Homeland Security have already banned the app on their devices over security concerns. Multiple states have also banned the app for state employees.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo), who made the proposal, said “TikTok is a Trojan horse for the Chinese Communist Party.”
CBS said it is not clear if the House would take up the proposal from the Senate.
TikTok has over 1 billion monthly users in the world. The app does have access to users’ phone numbers, email addresses, contacts, and WiFi networks.
There are concerns that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to share its data.
A TikTok official in the U.S. said people are overly concerned and that TikTok collects fewer data compared with other social media apps.
NYPD storage facility blaze
A New York City Police Department (NYPD) storage facility went up into flames on Tuesday morning and it may have destroyed evidence collected from crime scenes dating back to 30 years. The facility is in Brooklyn.
An NYPD official said there was a lot of biological evidence from past crimes, burglaries, shooting incidents, and others.
A contractor was the first to see a fire in shelving inside a warehouse.
Firefighters tried to stop the fire by going inside the building, but they were overwhelmed and had to go outside. Three marine fireboats and drones were brought in to support the efforts. An official said the fire would still go on for a few days before they could fully extinguish it and get inside.
Eight people had minor injuries from the fire.
It is estimated that most of the things in the facility were damaged. The NYPD did not say if the damage would affect investigations into crimes connected to the evidence.
Elon Musk’s Twitter suspends ElonJet account
Elon Musk’s Twitter suspended a popular Twitter account that provided real-time data of the movements of Elon’s private jet using public data. The account’s name is @ElonJet.
It is said that before Elon purchased Twitter, he offered the account owner, 20-year-old Jack Sweeney, $5,000 to delete his account. But Sweeney declined the offer.
About a month ago, after Elon purchased Twitter, Elon announced that he was so committed to free speech that he would not ban the @ElonJet account.
What changed? Elon said the information about his whereabouts has put his family at risk.
He said a stranger followed a car that was carrying his son, named Lil X, and blocked it before jumping on its hood. Elon said the stranger thought he was in the car. Elon also posted a video of a masked stranger in a car and the car’s license plate, asking his followers to identify the man. Vice News said it was bizarre because Elon could have simply gone to the police instead of posting the video.
Elon is not only banning @ElonJet, but he said he would take legal action against Sweeney because he “supported harm to (his) family.”
Several other Twitter accounts that tracked jets belonging to billionaires were recently banned.
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Three men in Gov. Whitmer kidnapping plot sentenced
Three of the men who were involved in plots to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in 2020 were sentenced to long prison terms of 12, 10, and 7 years.
AP News said the trio was convicted in October of providing material support for a terrorist act. They were a part of a larger group of men who hoped to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home and inspire a civil war.
The men wanted to harm Whitmer after she issued Covid-19 lockdowns.
There were undercover FBI informants that got inside the group and tracked their movements and communications for months. The plot was broken up in October 2020 when 14 suspects were arrested.
Gov. Whitmer said the men’s plot to kidnap and kill a sitting governor is a threat to democracy itself.
AZ governor sued for using shipping containers along border
ABC News said Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) began stacking shipping containers along the border with Mexico to use as a physical barrier to deter migrants from illegally crossing the border. The land at this border area is protected by the federal government.
The Department of Justice has sued the governor for trespassing and illegally putting the shipping containers on federal lands. The governor sued the federal government in October alleging that the land belongs to the state. So it’s a back-and-forth legal battle.
There are over 900 metal containers that when double-stacked, are 17 feet high. The “wall’ is at least four miles long.
Ducey will leave office at the end of the year.
Arizona elected Katie Hobbs (D) as their new governor and she said she would see what options she has to remove the shipping containers. She said it’s a political stunt that is not really solving issues at the border.
Biden adm. offers more free Covid-19 tests
The Biden administration is offering another round of free Covid-19 tests to Americans, who can make an order for four test kits to be delivered via mail.
The federal government is concerned that there will be a spike in Covid-19 cases as many gather indoors during the holiday season.
You can make your order at www.COVIDtests.gov. The kits will start shipping out on the week of December 19.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-tiktok-ban-us-government-devices/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nypd-evidence-fire-brooklyn-erie-basin-auto-pound/
https://www.axios.com/2022/12/13/3-alarm-fire-erupts-at-nypd-evidence-warehouse
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63978323
https://apnews.com/article/crime-michigan-government-and-politics-f6ed3d5b2546dbe9c60bb34b9ee8ddb4
https://www.axios.com/2022/12/11/arizona-doug-ducey-border-wall-katie-hobbs
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/15/1142926180/free-covid-tests-mail-order