Tuesday, December 8 top news and political news briefs
It is Tuesday, December 8. Here are today’s top news and political briefs.
1.1
In London, a 90-year-old woman, Margaret Keenan, became the first woman to be vaccinated in U.K.’s Covid-19 vaccination program. The vaccine is the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine. The second person was a 81-year-old man named William Shakespeare.
1.2
Dr. Carlos Araujo-Preza, a doctor who treated the sickest Covid-19 patients in Houston during the pandemic, became infected with the virus and passed away last Monday. He was 51. A CNN feature explained that he was born in El Salvador and immigrated to the U.S. in 1994 to continue his medical education. For the past 20 years, he worked as a pulmonologist (a doctor who treats respiratory diseases). He became sick with Covid-19 in October, and by November, he had to be moved to the ICU in the same hospital where he worked at. He was released but had to come back after 48 hours. His disease progressed to the point where he had to be admitted to a different hospital where he was put on a ventilator and died.
1.3
Four lions at the Barcelona Zoo tested positive for Covid-19. Two zoo staff also tested positive. The lions were tested because staff noticed they were showing symptoms. It is the second known zoo with lions testing positive — the first was the Bronx Zoo in New York City in April with four tigers and three lions becoming infected. All of them recovered. Now the Barcelona Zoo is in touch with the Bronx Zoo on how to treat the lions.
1.4
Charles Yeager, who was the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound passed away on Monday at the age of 97. He was in the Air Force and served as a fighter pilot in World War II and was a test pilot. In 1947, he flew a Bell X-1 rocket past 660 mph, breaking the sound barrier. His wife, Victoria, announced his death last night and called him “America’s greatest pilot.”
1.5
News reports said President-elect Joe Biden will appoint retired general Lloyd Austin to become the Secretary of Defense. If he is confirmed by the Senate, he would be the first Black person to lead the U.S. military. Before his retirement in 2016, Austin oversaw the U.S. Central Command, which covers military operations in the Middle East. Politico explained that Biden has worked with Austin before during the Obama administration.
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1.6
President Trump’s personal attorney Jenna Ellis tested positive for the coronavirus. She traveled with Rudy Giuliani in several states in recent days as a part of their campaign to sue states and overturn Trump’s election losses. Axios reported that staffers at the White House are concerned because Ellis went to a Christmas party on Friday with West Wing senior staff. Giuliani tested positive for the coronavirus a few days ago and is currently hospitalized, but he tweeted that he is feeling strong.
1.7
Texas’ Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate presidential election results in four states that had a Biden victory: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan. This would affect about 10 million votes. The lawsuit accuses the four states of using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to unlawfully change their election laws and regulations. The strategy is to get the Supreme Court to become involved immediately, because states can go straight to the Supreme Court as opposed to private attorneys filing a federal lawsuit and waiting for it to move through district and appeals courts. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he would be willing to argue the case before the Supreme Court, if they choose to hear it. The Supreme Court makes the decision whether they will hear the case or not. Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin officials criticized the lawsuit, calling it embarrassing, irresponsible, and full of false allegations.
1.8
Today, December 8, is the “safe harbor” deadline for states to resolve any election-related issues and certify its results. After today, federal law says Congress must accept the states’ results as valid. The electoral college meets on Monday. However the Trump legal team vowed to continue to fight the election results up to January 6, which is when Congress counts and certifies the votes of the Electoral College.
1.9
On Monday, several Florida state police officers raided the home of Rebekah Jones, the former Florida Department of Health employee who was responsible for building the state’s Covid-19 online dashboard. Jones was fired several months ago during a controversy over whether Florida officials wanted her to manipulate the infection rates to make it appear Florida was doing better in controlling the spread. Jones posted a video that showed several officers with guns drawn walking around the house. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said they knocked on her door and waited for 20 minutes without a response, then raided her home to seize computer equipment as a part of an investigation on an unauthorized access in the state health department’s emergency alert system. Someone sent out a group text on November 20 that said, “It’s time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead.” The IP address associated wit the text message came from Jones’ home. Jones denied using the alert system and tweeted that Florida Gov. DeSantis sent the Gestapo and that the officers pointed a gun at her children.
1.10
A giant, 9-pound goldfish was discovered in a lake in South Carolina. A county park worker was doing studies on the health of fish in a lake using electrofishing, which is a process where a prod is used to send an electronic shock to test the fish. It’s not deadly and the fish can resume swimming after they are briefly shocked. So, the worker found the fish and took a photo of it and asked if anyone lost their fish. The fish was put back in the water to continue swimming. That’s a big fish.
1.0
That’s all the top news and political news briefs for today. Check out our Deaf News videos. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
https://apnews.com/article/uk-gives-first-covid-19-vaccine-doses-719288c35d8ef8815b56b1c9c5fff24c
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/08/us/houston-doctor-covid-dies-trnd/index.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-spain-zoo/four-lions-at-spanish-zoo-test-positive-for-covid-19-idUSKBN28I1EJ?utm_source=reddit.com
https://apnews.com/article/chuch-yeager-dies-at-97-air-force-f027e8960916cbd8094ab9f05ec2cbf2
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/07/lloyd-austin-biden-secretary-defense-frontrunner-contender-443479
https://www.axios.com/jenna-ellis-trump-lawyer-covid-2bab2624-0b25-4f47-a532-079fd2c392da.html
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/12/08/texas-sues-four-battleground-states-in-supreme-court-over-unlawful-election-results.html#csi=1&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s
https://twitter.com/JennaEllisEsq/status/1336376402027941892/photo/1
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2020/12/07/agents-raid-home-fired-florida-data-scientist-who-built-covid-19-dashboard-rebekah-jones/6482817002/
https://www.wwaytv3.com/2020/12/08/giant-9-pound-goldfish-found-in-south-carolina-lake/?fbclid=IwAR2h1cCiRqiELwzOp_1YexnIb9NMpq8nPaPQGeSoJ3ZnSu3zg6vrJ8lK9bM