Tuesday, June 8 top stories
It is Tuesday, June 8. Ready for today’s top stories?
A bakery in east Texas named Confections said they received backlash after posting an image of heart-shaped cookies with rainbows on it last Wednesday with the message, “Happy Pride to all our LGBTQ friends!”
The bakery posted the next day that they lost followers, received hateful comments, and that a customer canceled a large order of five dozen cookies. The bakery said they now had plenty of cookies to sell.
The next day, there was a very long line of customers who bought everything in the store and donated money when there was nothing left to sell. The owners said they are humbled and moved by this outpouring of love.
A gay couple and their home in Wisconsin is going viral because they used floodlights to create a rainbow pattern on their home to get around HOA rules that prohibited any flags other than the U.S. flag.
The couple explained in a Reddit posting that they had a Pride flag flying in front of their home since 2016, but because neighbors were starting to fly BLM or thin blue line or other opinion flags, the HOA last month decided to ban all flags except for the U.S. flag. After the rule change, someone reported to the HOA that the couple had a non-U.S. flag and they were forced to take it down.
The couple said they noticed that the HOA did not have rules on removable lights so they decided to buy six colored flood lights. The couple said it is a lot more fun for anyone complaining about the flag itself and what it represents.
Nevada passed a new law that bans non-functional grass in the Las Vegas area in an effort to conserve water from the Colorado River. There is a drought in the area and the state’s water supply is dwindling. The ban goes into effect in 2027.
The ban aims to remove and replace grass that nobody uses — such as office parks, street medians, and entrances to housing developments. The ban does not apply to single-family homes, parks, and golf courses.
AP News said Lake Mead is projected to shrink this year to “levels that would trigger the region’s first-ever official shortage declaration.”
The Colorado River provides water to over 40 million people in seven states, but scientists said there is a “‘mega-drought’ brought on by climate change.”
[Sponsored Video from Sorenson: www.sorenson.com ]
These are the mugshots of the couple who was arrested in Southern California in connection to the road rage shooting death of a six-year-old boy. Yesterday in a news brief I mistakenly said the suspects were two young men — it is actually a male and a female. Their names are Marcus Eriz and Wynne Lee.
Law enforcement authorities said they were able to track down the couple after receiving a tip about their location and arrested them when they got home. Authorities believe that Lee was driving a Volkswagen Golf wagon and Eriz was the shooter.
The Volkswagen was found stashed at Eriz’s grandmother’s house. Authorities said the grandmother was given a false story about why the car needed to be there. The gun was found hidden in Eriz’s workplace.
The shooting happened on May 21 when the boy’s mother and the couple became angry with each other over lane changes. The couple is said to drive behind the mother’s vehicle before shooting a bullet through the trunk, which then hit the boy’s torso as he sat on a booster seat. The boy, Aiden, died on that day.
The Department of Justice announced yesterday that they have recovered millions in cryptocurrency from hackers who shut down the Colonial Pipeline a few weeks ago. The FBI worked with the pipeline to seize around $2.3 million in Bitcoins from the hacking group, which is called DarkSide.
CNN reported that the FBI was able to find the cryptocurrency wallet used by the hackers who is believed to be based in Russia. The DOJ said “following the money” is one of the most basic, yet powerful, tools they have.
Local news in Baton Rouge, Louisiana reported that Martha White, who inspired the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott in 1953, has passed away on Saturday. She was 99.
A spokesperson explained that in 1953, White was a 23-year-old housekeeper who was riding on a city bus that was full of standing Black passengers while the front seats, which were reserved for only white people, remained empty. White was exhausted from her job and decided to just sit in a “white” seat, telling the bus driver that she would get off if the bus picked up a white person. But the driver ordered her off the seat. Another African American woman sat down next to White to show solidarity. The driver called the police, but the driver was informed by authorities that White was allowed to sit on the bus because of recent laws passed to desegregate buses.
The spokesperson said White’s bold actions and the actions of others served as a model for the more well-known Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956, which was the result of Rosa Parks’ refusal to leave her seat to make room for a white person.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
Wisconsin house: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/06/08/gay-couple-wisconsin-pride-flag-hoa-rules-rainbow-house-reddit/
Road Rage shooting: https://www.ocregister.com/2021/06/07/gun-car-used-in-boys-death-on-orange-freeway-found-authorities-say/
Pipeline: https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/07/politics/colonial-pipeline-ransomware-recovered/index.html
Martha White: https://www.wbrz.com/news/martha-white-organizer-of-1953-baton-rouge-bus-boycott-dead-at-99