Thursday, October 13 top stories
It is Thursday, October 13. Here are today’s top stories.
SSA announces 8.7% increase in benefit checks
The Social Security Administration announced there would be an 8.7% increase in benefit checks starting next year. This means that on average, SS checks will have $150 more per month.
The Washington Post said, “the change will affect about 70.3 million Social Security beneficiaries, including roughly 8 million Supplemental Security Income recipients…”
The increase is the biggest one in 40 years. The Post said this is a “response to the fastest inflation America has seen in four decades.”
Jury spares Parkland school shooter from death penalty
A jury decided against recommending that the Parkland, Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz be put to death for murdering 17 people. Cruz will be imprisoned for the rest of his life.
Many families of the victims expressed disappointment and anger at the verdict.
Florida Gov. DeSantis sided with the families, saying that he doesn’t think anything else is appropriate except for the death penalty.
Cruz will be formally sentenced on November 1. The families of the victims can speak at the sentencing hearing.
Alex Jones to pay $965M for defamation
A jury in Connecticut ordered Alex Jones to pay $965 million to the families of those who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and an FBI agent.
The families and the FBI agent filed a defamation lawsuit against Alex Jones after he used his InfoWars show to spread false stories that the school shooting never really happened and that the grieving parents were only actors.
AP News explained that the jury awarded various sums to the victims’ relatives and an FBI agent, who testified that they were threatened and harassed for years by people who believed Jones’ false claims.
Defamation is when someone makes up a story about you with the goal of harming your reputation. Jones's side said he was only exercising his right to free speech on his show. But in America, you can be sued and found liable if you make up stories that cause damage to other people.
AP News explained that this is the second big judgment against Jones with the first Texas jury awarding $50 million to the parents of one of the victims.
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Texas family sentenced for roles in Jan 6
CBS News reported that five members of a Texas family were sentenced Wednesday for their roles in the Jan 6. attack on the U.S. Capitol. The family is from Borger, Texas.
Parents Dawn and Thomas Munn were sentenced to two weeks in prison with three months of home confinement and three years of probation for leading four of their eight children into the Capitol riot. Three of their adult children — ages 30, 25, and 20 — were sentenced to probation.
Prosecutors said the family got inside the Capitol by climbing through broken windows in a Senate wing door. The family said they were in the building for about an hour.
The mother, Dawn, said a federal stimulus check helped pay for the family trip to D.C.
D.C. Chief District Judge Beryl Howell said the family participated in a “mob that stopped the democratic process” and that the father “should have known better before leading the family into a chaotic situation.”
Two police officers killed in ambush
In Bristol, Connecticut, two police officers were shot and killed by a man who allegedly made a fake 911 call and waited for the cops to show up before shooting at them with an AR-15-style rifle. This happened Wednesday night.
A third officer was hit by gunfire, sustained serious injuries, and is in the hospital.
The two officers who were killed were 35-year-old Dustin Demonte and 34-year-old Alex Hamzey. The injured officer is 26 years old.
The suspected shooter, Nicholas Brutcher, was shot and killed.
Connecticut Gov. Lamont said this is a senseless tragedy and that the officers are heroes. He ordered flags in the state to be lowered to half-staff.
Nurse charged with murdering seven babies
The Washington Post reported that a nurse in the U.K. was charged with murdering seven babies and attempting to kill 10 other babies at a hospital by either injecting them with air or poisoning them with insulin.
The nurse’s name is Lucy Letby. She pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors said the hospital where she worked at “saw a significant rise in deaths and catastrophic collapses in its neonatal unit during 2015 and 2016.”
Prosecutors said Letby was present every time things became bad for the 17 babies. She was charged in November 2020 and now she’s on trial.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/10/13/social-security-cola-inflation/
https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-officers-killed-injured-overnight-shooting/story?id=91430674
https://www.fox5ny.com/news/3-police-officers-shot-bristol
https://www.wfsb.com/2022/10/13/ct-state-police-responding-shooting-bristol/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-family-of-5-sentenced-in-jan-6-case/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/11/uk-nurse-letby-murder-babies-hospital/
https://www.axios.com/2022/10/13/kyiv-iranian-kamikaze-drones
https://www.axios.com/2022/09/21/ukraine-russia-iran-israel-intelligence-kamikaze-drones