Tuesday, December 20 top stories
It is Tuesday, December 20. Here are today’s top stories.
Earthquake in Northern California
Reuters said there was a strong 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Northern California this morning at 2:34 local time.
The earthquake caused damage in Humboldt County and two people were injured: a young person who had a head injury and an older person who sustained a broken hip.
There were widespread power outages in the area, many gas leaks, and downed power lines. A bridge and several roads were damaged.
A resident said his home shook and shook and that anything that was on the walls broke off the walls, including his fish tank.
Officials said residents should be prepared for further aftershocks that can create more destruction and hazards.
97-year-old Nazi secretary convicted
A 97-year-old woman who was a secretary that worked at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II was convicted for her role as an accessory to over 10,000 murders.
Her name is Irmgard Furchner. She was a stenographer and typist at the Stutthof concentration camp in northern Germany.
The Washington Post said it was a death camp that murdered 10,505 people while Irmgard was there between 1943 to 1945. One of her roles was to type out execution orders for a SS commander.
Over 60,000 people died at the Stutthof camp. Many died by lethal injection or in the gas chamber. Others died from starvation or disease.
The Post explained that the trial was held in juvenile court because Irmgard was 18 and 19 years old when she worked as a secretary. She was sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence.
A top Nazi hunter said the outcome was the best that could be achieved because she was tried in a juvenile court.
Extreme cold to hit most of the U.S.
The National Weather Service said there would be an Arctic cold front this week that will bring dangerous cold to much of the country with the potential for flash freezes from the Mid-South to the East Coast.
Temperatures could drop 25 to 35 degrees in just a few hours wherever the cold front passes.
There will be heavy snowfall in the West while in the Mid-South to the East coast, there is a threat of flash freezes due to rain becoming frozen due to falling temperatures, leading to icy roads.
The Weather Channel said there could be blizzard conditions in parts of the Great Lakes later this week and high winds on the East Coast.
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Robert De Niro burglarized
ABC News said a woman was arrested for allegedly breaking into actor Robert De Niro’s townhouse in New York City and stealing Christmas presents from under his tree.
The suspect’s name is Shanice Aviles. Police said she entered De Niro’s home at 2:45 a.m. on Monday. Police said they were already following her because she was a suspect in six other burglaries.
ABC News said police saw her entering the home and when she did not come out, police entered the home and saw her taking presents and putting them into a bag. De Niro was upstairs and came downstairs when he heard the commotion. Police said they didn’t realize it was his house until he appeared.
Aviles was charged with second-degree burglary. A spokesperson for De Niro said he is “fine.”
Wells Fargo to pay $3.7B settlement
CNBC reported that Wells Fargo agreed to a $3.7 billion settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over customer abuses tied to mortgages, auto loans and overdraft fees. $1.7 billion of that is a civil penalty and $2 billion will be for redress to consumers.
The CFPB said “The bank’s illegal conduct led to billions of dollars in financial harm to its customers and, for thousands of customers, the loss of their vehicles and homes.”
The bank’s CEO, who took over in 2019, said they hope to, after the agreement, continue to transform the bank and put these issues behind us.
Harvey Weinstein found guilty of rape
Harvey Weinstein, the former Hollywood movie producer, was found guilty of rape and two counts of sexual assault by a jury in Los Angeles, California.
Al Jazeera explained that it is the second conviction for Weinstein after he faced multiple sexual abuse allegations five years ago during the #MeToo movement.
Weinstein is already serving a 23-year prison sentence for his first conviction of sex crimes in New York City.
He faces up to 18 years in prison for the LA convictions.
Kari Lake to argue election results in court
AP News said a judge in Phoenix will allow Kari Lake, the Republican candidate who lost the Arizona governor race, to call witnesses in her attempts to prove that there was misconduct by election officials that led to her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
AP said Hobbs had a lead of about 17,000 votes over Lake out of 2.6 million votes statewide.
Lake alleged that ballot printers malfunctioned because of intentional interference by election officials and that a county contractor who handles returned mail ballots improperly added ballots. These are the accusations.
AP said Lake faces an extremely high bar to prove that misconduct happened and that it affected the outcome of her race. The hearing will take place Wednesday and Thursday.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/20/nazi-irmgard-furchner-secretary-holocaust-stutthof/
https://apnews.com/article/prisons-dceae7a28dfdee9a869bd8fe8a75c91a
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/20/harvey-weinstein-found-guilty-of-rape-in-los-angeles
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/20/harvey-weinstein-found-guilty-of-rape-in-los-angeles
https://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-arrested-after-breaking-robert-de-niros-apartment/story?id=95540359
https://twitter.com/NWSWPC/status/1604947272579665930/photo/1