Thursday, December 30 top stories
It is Thursday, December 30. Here are today’s top stories.
A jury found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty on five counts of helping to recruit and groom underage girls to be sexually abused by her former partner Jeffrey Epstein from 1994 to 2004. Maxwell now faces up to 65 years in prison. A sentencing date hasn’t been set.
Ghislaine once had one a social life that included the world’s most powerful people — there are photographs of her with former president Bill Clinton, former president Donald Trump, hanging out with Prince Andrew, and playfully sitting on Queen Elizabeth’s throne.
One of the federal prosecutors in the case, Damian Williams, said Maxwell was found guilty of one of the worst crimes imaginable. He said he wanted to commend the bravery of the girls, who are now grown women, who were willing to face their abuser.
A 25-year-old man from California who wanted to drive to the White House to kill President Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and other top leaders was arrested in the middle of his cross-country trip in Iowa. His name is Kuachua Brillion Xion. Police said when they pulled him over on December 21 for driving aggressively, they found that Xion had an AR-15 rifle, loaded magazines, ammunition, and body armor. He had a Google Maps app on his phone with the White House set as his destination. Xion said he was prepared to die in battle and had cash in his car that was to be used for funeral expenses. He is now held at a jail in Council Bluffs.
The State of Michigan said it won’t follow the CDC’s new recommendations for quarantine time for those who test positive for the coronavirus. The CDC recently said the isolation time can be cut down from 10 days to 5 days if the person does not have symptoms, provided that the person wears a mask for the last 5 days. Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services said they would stick with the previous, longer quarantine recommendations unless they get new information from the CDC specifically about special population and high-risk settings.
The Lake Tahoe area has received 16 feet of snow in December, which is a record-breaking amount in modern times. The Tahoe area has seen 210 inches of snow. Scientists hope that the snow will help with California’s ongoing drought, but said more snow is needed in the upcoming months to make a difference.
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Several lawmakers in Jordan’s parliament got into physical fights during a discussion on a constitutional amendment that would give women more rights. CNN explained that Jordanian women currently have equal rights as men in many ways, but do not have equal rights with regard to nationality and citizenship. Women cannot pass on their citizenship to children or spouses. One of the proposed changes wanted to add the Arabic female noun for a Jordanian citizen to the constitution, but clearly there are several lawmakers who are very opposed to it. The parliament session had to be adjourned.
In Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday morning, a father shot and killed what he thought was a home intruder only to find that it was her 16-year-old daughter. The mother called 911 around 4:30 am to explain that the home’s security system was activated. ABC News said the recording of the 911 call shows the father asking his daughter what she was doing and that both parents were begging for the girl to wake up. The daughter was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead. The shooting is under investigation and police haven't filed any charges so far.
Dr. Fauci encouraged parents to have their children be vaccinated against Covid-19 because almost all of the children who are seriously ill in hospitals from the coronavirus are children whose parents decided they did not want to vaccinate them. Fauci said the children’s illnesses are avoidable and that it is the responsibility of the parents to protect their child. As of December 26, there were almost 2,000 children hospitalized with Covid-19 illnesses nationwide. The Pfizer vaccines are available for children ages 5 to 15.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.wowt.com/2021/12/30/report-gunman-stopped-iowa-way-white-house/
https://abcnews.go.com/US/lake-tahoe-sees-16-feet-snow-december-crushing/story?id=81986675
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/29/middleeast/jordan-parliament-fight-intl/index.html
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/mom-daughter-mistaken-intruder-father-fatally-shot-82002999