Monday, November 22 top stories
It is Monday, November 22. Here are today’s top stories.
On Sunday night a speeding SUV plowed through marchers at a holiday parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing five people and injuring 40. Ten children are in an ICU hospital unit and two are in critical condition. The ages of those who died ranged from 52 to 81.
Videos on social media showed the SUV whizzing only inches away from families and ramming into dancers or musicians from behind. Many people didn’t have enough time to react because the SUV was moving so fast.
Waukesha law enforcement said a police officer opened fire on the SUV but had to stop firing due to the threat of the bullets hitting other people.
The driver has been identified as Darrell E. Brooks and he was arrested on Sunday night. He is facing five counts of intentional homicide.
The incident initially seemed like a terrorist attack, but authorities said Brooks was involved in a domestic disturbance before he drove into the parade. Some news reports said he was in a knife fight.
Brooks bonded out of jail on Friday on charges related to allegedly running over the mother of his child with his SUV earlier this month. He has an extensive criminal history and there is now criticism towards the local justice system for allowing him to bond out.
President Joe Biden announced he would renominate Jerome Powell for another four-year term as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. During the worst of the pandemic and economic shutdowns, Powell lowered interest rates and purchased trillions of dollars worth of bonds to pump cash into our economy. Biden said the focus now is on “keeping inflation low, prices stable, and delivering full employment.”
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The trial for the three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery went into the closing arguments phase today. Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski said Gregory and Travis McMichael (a father and son) and William Bryan decided to attack Arbery because they assumed Arbery committed a crime – burglary – and decided to kill him because he was a black man running down on the street who refused to stop and talk to them. The prosecutor said the three men cannot claim self-defense because they were the aggressors and “brought the shotgun to the party.”
The defense team is now making their closing arguments at the time of signing this video. They said the shooting was based on self-defense and that the men had the right to detain Arbery until the police arrived because they suspected him of committing a crime. The defense said Arbery chose to fight instead of staying put and allowing himself to be arrested by police.
It is likely that the jury will start their deliberations tomorrow with a possible verdict decided this week.
The Chinese tennis player who went missing last week after she accused a former top government official of rape, Peng Shuai, was seen in a video call on Sunday with the president of the International Olympic Committee. Peng said she is safe and well in her home in Beijing and wants privacy.
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), the top organization for women’s tennis, said although they are happy to see Peng in a video, they still don’t know if she is free and acting without coercion. The WTA said they want a proper investigation about her allegations of rape, or they will pull tournaments out of China.
An arbitrator ruled that Kevin Spacey has to pay $31 million to the producers of the Netflix series, “House of Cards” because he breached a sexual harassment policy in his contract. Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, which led to his suspension. The series had to stop production of its final season and completely changed the script to eliminate Spacey’s character.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://heavy.com/news/darrell-brooks-jr/
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/wisconsin-waukesha-christmas-parade-car-plow-11-22-21/index.html