Tuesday, December 29 top news briefs

It is Tuesday, December 29. Here are today’s top news briefs.

The Boeing 737 Max is back in the air in the U.S. after being grounded for 20 months by the FAA after two Max aircraft crashed in a span of five months in Indonesia and Ethiopia, killing a total of 346 people. The crashes were blamed on faulty software that caused the plane to dive. The FAA head said since then, there have been design and training changes that would make it impossible for the planes to have the same kind of accidents. Brazil was the first country in the world to fly the recertified Max aircraft last month. This morning in Miami, American Airlines flight 718, a Max, took off and landed in New York’s LaGuardia Airport. American Airlines promised that if their customers feel uncomfortable about flying on a Max, they can change the flight with no fees. United Airlines plans to start flying the Max again on February 11 and Southwest plans to start around Spring 2021.

Today Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was filmed receiving the Moderna vaccine, her first dose. Harris said it was easy and that she trusts the scientists who created and approved the vaccine and that this is about saving lives.

[Sponsored Video from Sorenson: https://www.sorenson.com/]

A Columbus, Ohio police officer who shot and killed a 47-year-old Black man named Andre Hill as he was walking out of a garage holding a cell phone last week was fired yesterday. The officer’s name is Adam Coy and he is white. The city said Coy was incompetent and conducted a gross neglect of duty. Another officer who was with Coy at the scene said she did not see any threats from Hill, but Coy shouted that “there’s a gun in his hand” and fired his service weapon. Body camera footage showed that hill lay on the garage floor for several minutes without any officer giving him aid. The Columbus police chief said Coy is a 17-year veteran and that how he handled the shooting was not a rookie mistake but reckless and deliberate. ABC News said Coy had over thirty complaints against him in his personnel file, mostly for rude language and a dozen for use of force. Coy is under criminal investigation for the shooting.

Today in Croatia there was a powerful 6.4 magnitude earthquake that caused widespread damage in the center of the country and killed at least six people, including a 12-year-old girl. News videos and images showed collapsed buildings, emergency workers, and members of the military working to help the injured and clear rubble.

NFL player Russell Okung, an offensive lineman with the North Carolina Panthers -- I mean Carolina Panthers -- said on Twitter that he was paid in Bitcoin. USAToday said he is the first NFL player to be paid part of his salary in bitcoin. His salary in 2020 is $13 million and half of it was paid with traditional money and the other half was converted to Bitcoin through Strike, an app that converts paychecks to Bitcoin. Someone asked Okung on Twitter why he didn’t get his full salary in Bitcoin and he responded that his wife is not “fully on board yet” with a crying laughing emoji.

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

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/passengers-set-board-first-boeing-max-flight-almost-two-years-n1252452

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/29/europe/croatia-earthquake-6-3-magnitude-petrinja-intl/index.html

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-observed-threats-andre-hill-shooting-74951044

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-croatia-quake-zagreb/earthquake-of-magnitude-64-strikes-near-zagreb-croatia-gfz-idUKKBN29310H

https://www.axios.com/kamala-harris-vaccine-b081b7a7-152c-4f85-8fa7-3c4ec45569ee.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/panthers/2020/12/29/russell-okung-paid-half-salary-bitcoin/4071640001/