Tuesday, December 15 top news briefs

It is Tuesday, December 15. Here are top news briefs.

A news report from Los Angeles said there are very few hospital beds available in the county as it goes through the coronavirus crisis. There are only 370 hospital beds available and only 56 ICU beds left in a county with 10 million people. Some ambulances have to be diverted to different hospitals where there are more beds available, which means some patients in ambulances have to wait four hours before they are offloaded. Some hospitals are opting to cancel elective surgeries or plans to reduce nurse-to-patient ratios if things get more serious.

Pornhub has removed all videos from its website that are not from a “verified” account. The website used to allow anyone to upload sex videos. A New York Times investigation/opinion piece published two weeks ago said the website had many videos with underage people in it, child rape videos, and videos of people who never gave consent to have sex or to be filmed. The Times author, Nicholas Kristof, questioned why Pornhub is allowed to run its businesses without strong accountability. Now companies such as Visa or Mastercard are either cutting or suspending ties. Pornhub said they are disappointed because they feel they have made significant changes and pointed out that many sex workers depend on the website to generate income.

A University of Florida men’s basketball player, Keyontae Johnson, collapsed during a basketball game on Saturday. Johnson had just dunked and was celebrating with teammates on the sidelines when he suddenly fell forward in the middle of the court. He was taken to a hospital and placed in a medically induced coma. He has not yet woken up, but he was able to follow simple commands. It is not known what health condition he had. The UF basketball team cancelled a game scheduled for Wednesday so they could focus on Johnson’s recovery.

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A 63-year-old man in Michigan, Walter Forbes, was exonerated of his arson and murder charges and released from prison last month after a witness admitted to lying during his trial. Forbes was imprisoned for more than 37 years. The Detroit Free Press said in 1982, Forbes was a college student and broke up a fight at a bar and the next day the man from the bar shot him. That shooter later died in an apartment fire. Police arrested Forbes, accusing him of setting the fire for payback. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In 2017, a key witness admitted that she lied about seeing Forbes at the scene of the fire. There was an evidentiary hearing on February 20 of this year in which the witness testified she lied because she was intimidated by two other men who threatened to hurt her family. The fire is suspected to be an arson-for-insurance scheme. The owner of the apartment was convicted for arson in a separate case. He has since died.

All of this led to Forbes’ exoneration and release from prison. He walked free last month. Forbes said he is grateful that the witness did the right thing by telling the truth. The witness could have been charged with perjury but the statute of limitations is six years and Forbes’ attorney said charging people for admitting they lied can be counterproductive because we want people to come forward.

Forbes is eligible to receive about $2 million in compensation from the state of Michigan as a part of a new law that pays wrongfully convicted people $50,000 for each year they were imprinted.

Racism likely had a factor in his case. The Press said “Black people make up about 13% of the U.S. population but account for about half of all exonerations and 54% of homicide exonerations since 1989.”

That is all the top news briefs for today. Check out our other news videos. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.

https://deadline.com/2020/12/los-angeles-covid-19-l-a-just-56-adult-icu-beds-left-orange-county-0-icu-1234656346/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/sec/2020/12/15/florida-calling-off-game-against-unf-wednesday-night/3902069001/

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55304115

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/opinion/sunday/pornhub-rape-trafficking.html

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/12/14/jackson-michigan-walter-forbes-exonerated-4-decades-prison/3841099001/