Tuesday, August 10 top stories
It is Tuesday, August 10. Here are today’s top stories.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced today that he would resign, effective in 14 days. Here is a clip of Cuomo announcing his resignation.
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He is stepping down after the New York Attorney Letitia James’ office found that 11 women made credible reports of sexual harassment. Cuomo has denied wrongdoing and called the attorney general’s report false.
Cuomo was a third-term governor and was once very popular with Democrats and liberals, especially in early 2020 as he led New York through the coronavirus pandemic.
Cuomo’s downfall started when the first report of sexual harassment emerged from Lindsey Boylan, a former aide, in December 2020.
Then in January 2021, the A.G. James issued a report that found Cuomo concealed the true amount of deaths from Covid-19 in nursing homes.
From that point on, more accusations of wrongdoing surfaced.
Now that Cuomo is stepping down, he won’t be facing an impeachment from the New York Assembly, but he is still under several investigations for the nursing home deaths situation and for possibly violating state law by sexually harassing women in the workplace.
The New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will be tasked with replacing Cuomo’s role as state governor. She will be New York’s first female governor.
The Senate voted 69-30 to pass a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that aims to improve roads, bridges, and waterways in the U.S. The 69-30 vote means it was a bipartisan vote, bringing Democrats and 19 Republicans together. It’s a rare sight in today’s divided political world.
Here are some highlights of the bill, according to Axios.
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* $110 billion for roads, bridges, and major projects
* $73 billion for electric grid and power structures
* $66 billion for rail services
* $65 billion for broadband
* $55 billion for water infrastructure
* $47 billion for flooding and coastal resiliency
* $39 billion to modernize public transit
* $25 billion for airports
News reports say it is not known if the House will support the bill because representatives weren’t involved in the negotiating process. We will see what happens.
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Twitter suspended Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga)’s account for a week for posting a misleading tweet. Twitter said Marjorie falsely claimed that the Covid-19 vaccines were failing and ineffective at reducing the virus’ spread. It is the third time Twitter has disciplined the lawmaker.
Dominion Voting Systems is suing Newsmax and One America News Network (OAN) for allegedly spreading false information about a rigged election.
Dominion also sued former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne. The suits seek $1.6 billion in defamation damages from each entity.
Dominion’s CEO John Poulos said the lies about its company rigging the election has caused severe damage to their company, customers, and employees, and that they have no option but to sue.
Dominion has already sued FoxNews, Mike Lindell, Sidney Powell, and Rudy Giuliani and the lawsuits are pending.
The NASA showed a satellite image of smoke from wildfires that covered most of Russia and reached the North Pole for the first time in recorded history. The NASA said the majority of the smoke comes from wildfires in the Siberia region, partly caused by record high temperatures.
An analyst told CBS News that it is normal for wildfires to happen in Siberia, but warmer temperatures are causing fires to burn in larger areas and go further north.
A study from the CDC found that over 99.99% of people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 haven’t experienced a breakthrough case that resulted in hospitalization or death. The CDC said as of August 2, over 164 million people in the U.S. were fully vaccinated. Out of that group, 1,507 people died and 7,101 people were hospitalized with Covid. The amount of deaths is fewer than 0.001%.
The U.S. continues to peak with new Covid-19 cases and deaths. Florida and Louisiana are now considered “hot spots” with high transmission rates. On Monday, in the U.S., there were over 235,000 new cases and 720 new deaths. The amount of deaths is not as high as last year largely because 80% of Americans ages 65 and over, those most at risk of severe illness from Covid-19, are fully vaccinated.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/andrew-cuomo-investigation-08-10-21/index.html
https://www.axios.com/infrastructure-bill-senate-56a178d1-ac1c-4d38-837d-dcff4b7b1773.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/10/tech/twitter-marjorie-taylor-greene/index.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/newsmax-oann-sued-maker-voting-machines-rcna1636
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/smoke-russia-wildfires-reaches-north-pole/
https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-08-07