Tuesday, March 2 top stories

It is Tuesday, March 2. Here are today’s top stories.

Today the FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before a Senate panel about the attack on the U.S. Capitol. He said the investigation into the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick is still ongoing. He said the attack was domestic terrorism from those who were violent racists. Here is a clip from CNN.

[Clip of Wray describing domestic terrorism from those who subscribed to white supremacy during a Senate hearing]

Wray said since taking over the FBI in 2017, he’s now seeing triple the amount of racially motivated violent extremists out there and encouraged people to report it if they see threatening chatter on social media.

Vernon Jordan, who was a civil rights leader and an adviser to former president Bill Clinton, passed away at 85 years of age last night. He grew up during segregation in Atlanta and was the only black student in a class of 400 at Depauw University in Indiana. He earned a law degree from Howard University in 1960 and started his career in civil rights activism, first working with a law firm to sue the University of Georgia for racial discrimination. He later worked with the NAACP, the United Negro College Fund, and the National Urban League. He was shot and seriously wounded by a white supremacist in 1980. Jordan worked with several presidents both Democratic and Republican. When Bill Clinton was elected president, Jordan was on the Clinton transition team and then served as a close advisor. Today Clinton tweeted a tribute to him.

[full-screen image]

[Tweet with image of Bill and Vernon embracing each other in an image: @BillClinton “Vernon Jordan was a wonderful friend to Hillary, Chelsea, and me, in good times and bad. We worked and played, laughed and cried, won and lost together. We loved him very much and always will.”]

In southern California near the Mexican border, there were 27 passengers traveling in a SUV when it collided with a semi truck carrying gravel. 14 people died at the scene while one more person died at a hospital. Several others are seriously injured and were airlifted to hospitals.The semi truck driver had multiple injuries.

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Six Dr. Seuss books will no longer be published because they have racist and insensitive images. The author’s real name is Theodor Geisel and he passed away in 1991. Dr. Seuss Enterprises, who manages the books, said the drawings are hurtful and wrong. The racist drawings include Asian-looking people using conical hats or bare-footed African men wearing grass skirts. President Joe Biden did not include Dr. Seuss in the names he listed on “Read Across America Day,” which is held today, on Geisel’s birthday (March 2), but former presidents Trump and Obama honored Dr. Seuss on this day in recent years.

New York Attorney General Letitia James will be moving forward with an investigation on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who is accused of sexually harassing two former aides: Lindsey Boylan and Charlotte Bennett. James’ office received a formal referral letter from the governor’s office, which allows them to appoint a special counsel with subpoena power. Cuomo has denied the allegations of harassment, but admitted that he makes jokes and apologized for making people feel uncomfortable. A third woman, Anna Ruch, recently came forward saying that Cuomo made her feel uncomfortable at a wedding when he held her head with both hands and asked if he could kiss her.

The Biden administration will impose sanctions against seven Russian officials in relation to the poisoning and jailing of Alexey Navalny, a main political rival of Vladimir Putin. Axios explained that it’s significant because it’s the first penalties from President Biden against Russia, who campaigned on a pledge to confront aggression from Russia. The sanctions may include asset freezes, visa bans, and a prohibition on U.S. companies doing business with the seven officials.

NBA star LeBron James has been in a media back-and-forth with Swedish soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic about whether athletes should speak out about politics or social issues or stay quiet and focus on playing sports. Zlatan said in an interview on Thursday that he didn’t like it when LeBron tries to play basketball and do politics at the same time. He said LeBron should stay out of it. LeBron responded on Saturday that he would never shut up about things that are wrong. He said kids in his school and his community needs a voice and that he is their voice. LeBron pointed out that Zlatan once complained that he was treated differently in Sweden because his last name comes from Bosnia and called him a hypocrite. Today Zlatan maintained his position that athletes should be athletes and politicians should do politics.

That’s all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.

https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/ny-state-of-politics/2021/03/01/james-receives-formal-referral-to-begin-cuomo-investigation

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/nyregion/cuomo-charlotte-bennett-sexual-harassment.html

https://www.espn.com/soccer/ac-milan/story/4327650/ibrahimovic-lebron-james-zlatan-reaffirms-stick-to-sports-message

https://www.axios.com/navalny-sanctions-biden-eu-russia-820c757b-b656-401c-ab64-894208f9faf3.html

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/fbi-director-christopher-wray-senate-testimony-03-02-2021/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/02/politics/vernon-jordan-dies/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon_Jordan

https://twitter.com/BillClinton/status/1366798843594084358

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/03/02/imperial-county-crash-multiple-dead-southern-california-reports/6885406002/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9316387/6-books-nix-books-Dr-Seuss-works-halted-racist-images.html

https://apnews.com/article/dr-seuss-books-racist-images-d8ed18335c03319d72f443594c174513