Tuesday, February 23 top stories
It is Tuesday, February 23. Here are today’s top stories.
Golf legend Tiger Woods was seriously injured in a car crash this early morning in Los Angeles. The LA County Sheriff’s Department said first responders had to use a “jaws of life” tool to extract Woods and transport him to a hospital. Woods’ agent said he suffered multiple leg injuries and had to undergo surgery. A video from CNN showed Woods’ SUV flipped over on its side with a crushed front. It was about 20 feet away from the road and stopped in an area with small trees, bushes, and a steep hill.
Last night President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris held a solemn ceremony in the front of the White House to honor those who died due to Covid-19. Yesterday we hit a grim milestone of 500,000 dead in the U.S. There were many candles set up on the steps. Biden gave a speech vowing to remember those who died and promised that we would get through this.
Dr. Fauci said in interviews that there shouldn’t have been 500,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the U.S. because we are a rich and sophisticated country. Fauci said the political divisions we had during the Trump administration was to blame.
[Video clip]
Dr. Fauci:
“There’s red states and blue states that, you know, are almost hostile to each other in some respects because of political differences. I think that’s the worst possible ingredients to be able to address an outbreak of an infection that even under the best of circumstances, would be a formidable challenge. And then the mixed signals that we were getting from the White House, I mean you can’t deny that where you have the medical people saying, please adhere to these guidelines and then you have the president saying liberate Virginia, liberate Michigan. That’s not helpful.
Will the coronavirus situation improve with the Biden administration and the rollout of vaccines? It’s up to the Biden administration now. He has the benefit of taking over the presidency during a time when vaccines are rolling out, but they have a huge challenge ahead of him.
[Sponsored Video from Sorenson: www.sorenson.com]
The Washington Post reported that a woman who received a double-lung transplant at a Michigan hospital last fall later died from Covid-19. The woman’s doctor tested a sample of the lungs and found out that it was positive for Covid-19. The doctor published his findings in a medical journal.
Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s wife was arrested yesterday in Virginia at Dulles International Airport on international drug trafficking charges. Her name is Emma Coronel Aisupuro. Federal prosecutors accused her of conspiring to import drugs in the U.S. and helping with the planning to break Guzman out of a Mexican prison in 2015. Guzman is currently serving a life sentence at prison in Colorado.
New Jersey’s legislature passed several bills that will legalize recreational marijuana sales and use. The governor Phil Murphy signed the bills into law yesterday. New Jersey voters supported legalization on a ballot measure in November. ABC News said 14 states and D.C. now legalize recreational marijuana. Virginia might be next.
Yesterday the Supreme Court declined to hear a case from Pennsylvania Republicans that wanted to throw out absentee ballots that were received up to three days after Election Day. Republican lawmakers said they never approved of a three-day deadline extension.
About 10,000 ballots arrived during the three-day period. The ballots had to be postmarked by Election Day to be counted. Biden defeated Trump by about 80,000 votes. So the ballots in question would not have affected the final outcome, but this case was about whether it’s okay for state election laws to be modified without the approval of state legislatures.
Six justices decided to not hear the case, while three justices said they would have heard the case: Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas. Thomas wrote a dissent in which he acknowledged the Pennsylvania case would not have affected the outcome of the federal election, but warned that major issues might come up in future elections. Thomas also said he is concerned about election fraud associated with mail-in voting.
That’s all the top news briefs for today. Check out our other videos. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2021/02/23/tiger-woods-injured-car-crash-california/4560859001/
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/23/us/tiger-woods-car-accident-intl-spt/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/23/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/
https://abcnews.go.com/International/doj-announces-arrest-el-chapos-wife-international-drug/story?id=76052368&cid=clicksource_4380645_4_mobile_web_only_headlines_headlines_hed
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jersey-legalizes-recreational-marijuana/story?id=76049798&cid=clicksource_4380645_4_mobile_web_only_headlines_headlines_hed
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-stimulus-600-dollars-approved/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/22/supreme-court-declines-take-2020-election-case-pennsylvania/6578884002/
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/22/supreme-court-gop-pennsylvania-election-dispute-470827
https://twitter.com/JoeBiden