Wednesday, November 17 top stories
It is Wednesday, November 17. Here are today’s top stories.
Jacob Chansley, who is known as the “QAnon Shaman,” who wore viking horns, bear fur, and face paint as he broke into the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, was sentenced to 41 months in prison (3 years and 5 months) for breaking into the Capitol and obstructing an official proceeding.
The judge in his case said what Chansley did was horrific and that he made himself the “epitome of the riot.”
Chaney told the court that he admits that he was wrong, that he has no excuses, but he said that he is not a dangerous criminal.
On January 6th, Chansley was one of the first people to enter the Capitol. He used a bullhorn to rile up the crowd and demand lawmakers be brought out. He went into the Senate gallery and sat behind the chamber’s dais and wrote a note that said, “It’s Only A Matter of Time. Justice is Coming!”
Chansley was arrested on January 9th. He asked former President Donald Trump to pardon him because he was acting on Trump’s invitation to go to the Capitol. Trump didn’t pardon him, and Chansley later said he felt deceived by Trump.
Chansley will likely get out of jail in two and a half years because he’s already served time in jail since January.
The CDC released new data today that said an estimated 100,306 people in the U.S. died from a drug overdose in a year from April 2020 to April 2021. It is the first time that drug overdose deaths reached six figures in a 12-month period. It shows a bad trend in the U.S. with a 28% increase in deaths compared with a year earlier.
An analyst with Axios said two of the major factors of increased deaths are a greater prevalence of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, and the disruptions to society from the pandemic.
A Texas doctor named Dr. Mary Bowden, who worked as an ear, nose and throat doctor at Houston Methodist Hospital, has resigned after she was suspended last week for promoting the drug ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19 on Twitter. Bowden also said earlier this month that vaccine mandates are wrong and that she would only accept new patients who are unvaccinated in her private practice.
Houston Methodist said they suspended her for spreading dangerous misinformation about Covid-19 on social media. Bowden said by resigning, she has “broken free from Methodist” and said that she appreciates the support she’s received from social media.
Ivermectin is a medicine that is commonly used to treat parasites in farm animals. It is also used in smaller doses to treat humans for head lice or some skin conditions. The FDA said they have not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating Covid-19 in humans or animals.
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Local news in Florida reported that a Florida teacher who was hospitalized with Covid-19 has passed away after her husband tried to sue the hospital to force them to administer ivermectin. The woman’s name was Tamara Drock. She was admitted to the hospital about three months ago. Her husband tried to get doctors to give her ivermectin and apparently the doctors refused, so it became a legal battle. Last month a judge rejected the husband’s lawsuit, saying it would be dangerous to set a precedent to allow judges to overrule doctors’ decisions. The judge said the Drocks and the hospital should reach an agreement on their own. A doctor did agree to prescribe ivermectin, but the family’s attorney said the dosage was too low. Now Tamara has passed away from Covid-19. The husband said he wants to continue his crusade because if Tamara could have walked out of the hospital she could have had the medicine.
Tamara was not vaccinated against the coronavirus. People on social media said if she was vaccinated, she probably would be alive today.
There is severe flooding and wind damage in the Pacific Northwest from an “atmospheric river event.” There was a record amount of rainfall in several cities in British Columbia, Canada. There is a state of emergency in 14 counties in Washington state.
Pictures on social media showed entire highways covered with water and damaging mudslides. At least one person has been confirmed dead in B.C. from a mudslide with two missing. A RV park in Oregon was flooded, which required rescues for 20 people and three dogs.
Over 170,000 people are without power due to high winds. Weather forecasters say there will be a new storm system that will hit the Pacific Northwest by late Thursday that will bring more rainfall and higher elevation snowfall.
The Staples Center in Los Angeles, which is the home of the Lakers and other L.A. professional sports teams, will be renamed “Crypto.com Arena” beginning December 25. The naming change deal is for 20 years. ESPN reported that the deal is worth $700 million and is the richest deal in sports history.
It will be the second stadium to be named after a cryptocurrency brand with the first one FTX Arena in Miami at the stadium that is home to the Miami Heat. The deals show the increasing popularity and role that cryptocurrency has in our society.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/qanon-shaman-sentenced-3-years-role-capitol-riot-rcna5825c
https://www.axios.com/cdc-america-drug-overdose-deaths-9490f732-b71c-454b-b7f6-9227548eb397.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/business/staples-center-crypto-arena.html
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/17/1056431658/staples-center-lakers-crypto-arena-name
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/16/1056133993/washington-pacific-northwest-flooding-mudslides-storms