Wednesday, September 22 top stories
It is Wednesday, September 22. Here are today’s top stories.
AP News reported that Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. have climbed to an average of more than 1,900 a day for the first time since early March. In West Virginia, 340 people died this month alone. Georgia has an average of 125 dead per day, which exceeds large states like California. The majority of those who died have been unvaccinated.
A doctor and vaccine expert from Johns Hopkins, Dr. William Moss, said many low-vaccination communities also have high rates of conditions like obesity and diabetes. He said he thinks that we as a society have failed and that it is a sin to be at this stage where we have hospitals overwhelmed with many dying from the coronavirus.
President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. would double its goal of purchasing Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccines to share with the world -- Biden wants to buy a total of 1 billion doses. Biden said he hopes 70% of the global population would be vaccinated within the next year. He is pushing other wealthy countries to also do more to control the pandemic.
Donald Trump filed a $100 million lawsuit against his niece Mary Trump and the New York Times today. He is accusing Mary and three reporters from the Times of plotting to take Donald’s confidential tax records out of Mary’s attorney’s office.
Mary had access to the records from the estate of Fred Trump Sr, Donald’s father and Mary’s grandfather. Mary recently revealed in a book that she provided the tax documents to New York Times reporters.
The New York Times said in a statement that the lawsuit is an attempt to silence independent news organizations and that they would vigorously fight it in court.
The FBI announced on Monday afternoon that the body found near Grand Teton is Gabby Petito, who went missing several weeks ago during a trip with her fiance, Brian Laundrie. The autopsy found that the manner of death is homicide, but it will take more time to determine the cause of death. Gabby was 22 years old.
Brian the fiance is considered a “person of interest” by law enforcement. He has been in hiding for a week now and there are many law enforcement officers searching for him in a forested area near Venice, Florida called the Carlton Reserve. The latest is that the police have sent a boat and a dive team.
There is widespread criticism for how the media and Americans in general seem more interested and invested in missing persons cases if they are younger, white women compared with missing people of color. MSNBC host Joy Reid said it was an example of the “missing white woman syndrome.”
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There is now new attention on a 24-year-old Black man, Daniel Robinson, who has been missing for three months in Arizona. He was a geologist and did work at various sites in the Arizona desert. He was last seen leaving a job site in Buckeye, Arizona on June 23. About a month later, Daniel’s jeep was found crashed in a remote area. Daniel’s phone, wallet, and keys were inside of the Jeep. The Buckeye Police Department said a human skull was found near the Jeep, but it did not belong to Daniel. Police said they are still searching for Daniel and need the public’s help with tips.
There is also fresh attention on “MMIW” -- short for missing or murdered indigenous women. The federal government said Native American women face murder rates more than 10 times the national average. There are about 1,500 American Indian and Alaska Native missing persons in the National Crime Information Center Database. Many indigenous activists feel that law enforcement and the FBI does not devote as much resources to solving these cases compared with cases like Gabby Petito.
The FBI is now offering up to $10,000 for information leading to whoever may be responsible for the disappearance of a 40-year-old Indigenous woman in Washington state named Mary Johnson or Mary Davis. She was last seen traveling to a friend’s house in November 2020. She was reported missing on December 9. Mary was a member of the Tulalip Tribes.
The House passed a bill to prevent a federal government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling -- increasing the amount of money the government can borrow -- in a 220-211 vote. All Democrats supported it and all Republicans opposed it. Senate Republicans said they want to block the bill. The deadline for Congress to pass a funding plan is September 30, or there will be another shutdown.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://apnews.com/article/health-coronavirus-pandemic-missouri-c4d03a53de4036158fabb0125c4f7b02
https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/us/gabby-petito-brian-laundrie-update-tuesday/index.html
https://news.yahoo.com/joy-reid-calls-missing-white-145741309.html
https://twitter.com/BuckeyeAZPD/status/1438703650587623425
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/daniel-robinson-arizona-missing-person-police-information/
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/mary-johnson-missing-indigenous-woman-fbi-10000-dollars/