Wednesday, November 24 top stories
It is Wednesday, November 24. Here are today’s top stories.
The jury in the McMichaels/Bryan murder trial over the death of Ahmaud Arbery reached their verdict today.
The jury found Travis McMichael guilty of malice murder, felony murder, and all other related charges. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Travis is the person who shot at Arbery point-blank with a shotgun.
Travis’ father, Greg, was found not guilty of malice murder but guilty of felony murder. He also faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was seen in a video standing in the back of a pickup truck holding a firearm.
William Bryan was found not guilty of two of the most serious charges, but was found guilty of felony murder and also faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is the person who was following Arbery in his own truck and recorded the killing with his cellphone.
Georgia’s laws charges people with felony murder if they commited a “separate” felony that resulted in the death of someone. The other felonies are aggravated assault and false imprisonment.
The three men wanted to trap Arbery on the road because they suspected him of burglary, but all he did was enter a home under construction during a run. The killing was called a “modern-day lynching” because it was three white men who targeted and killed a Black man based on their own assumptions without any due process.
The judge in the case said the three men will have to remain in jail as they await a sentencing date.
This morning the NASA and SpaceX launched a rocket that will send a 1,200 pound spacecraft on a path to collide into an asteroid next year in September or October. NASA is doing this to test whether people on Earth can shift an asteroid’s path in case there is an asteroid in the future that threatens Earth. The mission is called “DART,” short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test. The asteroid that NASA is aiming for is called Dimorphos. The spacecraft will hit the asteroid at 15,000 mph.
An 8-year-old boy named Jackson Sparks became the sixth person to die from the Waukesha holiday parade horror. Jackson and his 12-year-old brother, Tucker were injured from the SUV that rammed dozens of people on Sunday night. Jackson was hospitalized and had brain surgery, but died on Tuesday.
The Sparks family posted on a GoFundMe page that Tucker, the older brother, is recovering from a fractured skull and road rash. Over 8,000 people donated about $350,000 to support the family.
Of the first five to die from the crash, three were members of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies:
Virginia Sorenson (79), Leanna Owen (71), and Tamara Durand (52).
A husband of one of the grannies, Wilhelm Hospel (81), was the fourth victim.
The fifth person to pass away is Jane Kulich, who was walking with a parade float.
There was a vigil in Waukesha on Monday night where hundreds of people gathered with candles.
The suspected driver of the SUV that rammed the holiday parade, Darrell Brooks, appeared in court on Tuesday afternoon. He was charged with five counts of first degree intentional homicide and will have a sixth count added. Police said he was jailed three weeks ago for running over the mother of their child and was released after posting a $1,000 bond. There is now an internal review on why he was allowed to be released on such a low bond, especially because he had an extensive record of violent crime.
According to court documents, a police officer tried to stop Brooks before he entered the parade route by stepping in front of his SUV and pounding on its hood, but Brooks accelerated faster and drove into the parade procession. Another officer down the road said Brooks had “no emotion” on his face. A third officer shot at the SUV three times.
Police said Brooks was fleeing some kind of fight prior to driving into the parade. But it is not clear why Brooks continued to drive over people without stopping.
After the parade ramming, Brooks went to a random home and asked the resident for help, saying that he was homeless and waiting for an Uber. The resident gave him a coat and made him a sandwich, but when he noticed police cars going up and down his street, he asked Brooks to leave, and when he went outside, he was spotted by police and detained.
Brooks faces life in prison if he is convicted. There is no death penalty in Wisconsin.
[Sponsored Video from Sorenson: www.sorenson.com]
The cause of death of Brian Laundrie has been announced as a suicide by a gunshot wound to the head. The Laundrie family attorney said his body was found in an area that had been submerged in water for about a month and that his remains was brought to a forensic anthropologist, who made the conclusion about suicide. Laundrie was named a person of interest in the murder of his fiancee and travel partner Gabby Petito, who died in late August in Wyoming.
A NPR/Marist poll found President Biden’s approval rating is at 42%, which is his lowest point with that particular survey. The main reason for the disapproval is inflation. Others say Biden hasn’t fulfilled his campaign promises.
Kyle Rittenhouse recently visited former president Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort after he was acquitted of homicide last week. Trump said Kyle and his mother made the trip. Trump said Kyle shouldn’t have been put through a trial because he acted in self-defense.
The Labor Department said 71,000 people in the U.S. applied for unemployment benefits last week, which is the lowest level since 1969. The week before last week, there were 199,000 unemployment claims. The worst numbers we’ve seen in recent times are 900,000 unemployment claims in early January. The low unemployment claims means there is a strong job growth as we continue to come back from pandemic shutdowns.
The Pentagon said it would form a new group to study reports of “unidentified aerial phenomena” — commonly known as UFOs — that are spotted in restricted airspace. The Pentagon said this is to address potential threats to military flights. In June, the Pentagon said that over the past 20 years, military pilots and others reported 143 sightings of “strange phenomena” such as objects moving without observable propulsion or with rapid acceleration that is beyond the military capabilities of other countries. The New York Times said although many people have theories about aliens from outer space, a few in the U.S. government take this idea seriously.
That’s all the top stories for today. The Daily Moth team will be taking Thursday and Friday off, so there won’t be normal “Daily Moth'' videos, but follow us on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter for the latest. Have a nice week/end and stay with the light.
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/ahmaud-arbery-killing-trial-verdict-watch-11-24-21/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/24/science/nasa-dart-mission-asteroid.html
https://cbs58.com/news/8-year-old-boy-dies-from-injuries-in-waukesha-holiday-parade-tragedy/
https://www.gofundme.com/f/waukesha-parade-attack-sparks-family
https://cnn.com/2021/11/22/us/what-we-know-about-suspect-in-waukesha-parade-tragedy/index.html
https://nypost.com/2021/11/24/kyle-rittenhouse-and-donald-trump-meet-at-mar-a-lago-after-acquittal/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uneployment-jobless-claims-plunge-2021-11-24/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/24/us/politics/pentagon-ufos.html