President Biden will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other countries starting Monday as a new coronavirus variant has emerged, administration officials tell CNN.
Acting on advice from Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Biden administration will restrict travel from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
Officials, who are still learning more about the variant, said the policy was implemented out of an abundance of caution given the World Health Organization has now identified this as a variant of concern.
"Our scientists and public health officials are working quickly to learn more about this variant," one official said.
This does not apply to American citizens and lawful permanent residents. As with all international travelers, they must still test negative prior to travel.
Currently known as B.1.1.529, the newly identified variant appears to be spreading rapidly in parts of South Africa, and scientists are concerned that its unusually high number of mutations could make it more transmissible and result in immune evasion. The World Health Organization classified it as a "variant of concern" on Friday.
Travis Scott & Live Nation continue to have lawsuits pile up against them, with one Houston injury attorney just submitting 7 in the last hour for various clients & famed attorney Ben Crump is also repping victims.
The docs, obtained by TMZ, are mostly identical -- filed by the Houston law firm of Roberts Markland LLP -- but switch out the petitioner name each time. Each lawsuit claims both Travis & Live Nation failed to provide adequate security & a security plan to protect attendees & conditions at Astroworld Festival "caused several stampedes & a crowd compression" that led to the 8 deaths & hundreds of injuries.
The attorney behind these lawsuits -- Sean Roberts, doesn't list specific injuries for his clients, but says they were "seriously and permanently injured."
In the docs, Travis & LN are accused of failing to warn fans of safety risks & failing to provide appropriate medical staff at the event.
Of course, there will certainly be more lawsuits filed by concertgoers, and wrongful death litigation is expected as well. Attorney Ben Crump -- who repped the family of George Floyd -- has also stated he is representing Astroworld attendees.
Roberts is suing for negligence & wants an unspecified amount in damages for each of his clients.
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 24, 2021 at 7:50am
"The Most High" is the brand new album from UFO Fev co-starring his frequent collaborator Red Inf. The 10-track project features Ace Arty, K Like the Letter, MAV, Sauce Heist and Asun Eastwood.
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 13, 2021 at 7:00am
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP/WSVN) — A chance encounter with a former Marine beset by delusions of child sex trafficking ultimately led to the massacre of four members of a Florida family, including a mother holding her baby boy, a sheriff said Thursday.
Bryan Riley, who faces murder and other charges in Sunday’s killings, stopped by the slain family’s Lakeland home briefly the day before after going to a nearby friend’s house to pick up a first aid kit, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference.
Riley had told acquaintances he was headed for Hurricane Ida relief work and the friend offered the kit for the purported trip. A short distance away, Riley saw Justice Gleason mowing his lawn with his 11-year-old daughter in the yard, Judd said.
That provided the trigger that led to the slayings, Judd said: Riley saw the girl, believing she was an imaginary child named Amber who was suicidal and being held by a supposed sex trafficking ring that God had told him to confront. In fact, no one named Amber lived at the home and Gleason repeatedly told Riley that before asking him to leave their initial encounter.
“This was all fiction, all made up by him,” Judd said. “There were no victims of sex trafficking in that house.”
Judd provided numerous new details about Sunday’s slayings, including that Riley, wearing body armor, had three weapons with him and fired at least 100 shots in the main home and a smaller one in back where Catherine Delgado, 62, was the first to be killed.
Law enforcement officers fired about 60 shots in a gun battle that left Riley with a gunshot wound to the abdomen that is not life-threatening, Judd said. Riley surrendered after that.
“He was a coward. An absolute coward. He looks like a man, but he’s not a man. He’s a sniveling coward,” Judd told reporters.
The 11-year-old girl survived the attack despite being shot multiple times and has undergone four surgeries so far, Judd said.
She told investigators that her family huddled in a bathroom after Riley shot his way into the home, killed their dog and then attacked everyone hiding there. Riley repeatedly asked about Amber and then counted down — three, two, one — before shooting her and eventually leaving her for dead, she told authorities.
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Judd said the girl played dead and was able to survive despite wounds to her legs, hand and abdomen.
“That’s the reason she’s alive today,” the sheriff said.
The victims are Gleason, 40; his 33-year-old girlfriend, Theresa Lanham; their baby boy, Jody, who was born in May; and Delgado, who was Lanham’s mother and owned the property. They possessed no weapons.
Riley, 33, served as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan and was working as a security guard in the Lakeland area, including at a church. After that recent job, his girlfriend of four years told investigators, Riley began talking about communication with God but not about violence.
“No one has told us they knew anything about violence,” Judd said.
Riley is recovering from his gunshot wound and is being held without bond on murder, attempted murder and other charges. An Oct. 12 arraignment date is set for him to enter a plea. Judd said he has already confessed to the crimes, which could bring the death penalty.
Investigators also have not yet verified Riley’s post-arrest statement to officers that he was high on methamphetamines at the time of the shooting. No evidence of that drug has been found, although Judd said illegal steroids where found at Riley’s home in Brandon and hospital blood tests could reveal more.
“This investigation is not near over. This is going to go on for weeks and weeks and weeks,” the sheriff said. “This mass murder is exceptionally horrible.”
Fox 13 reports that the Polk Sheriff’s Office is collecting donations for the family of the 11-year-old girl. To donate, click here and select “quadruple homicide victims” while making the donation.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WTXL) — A combat sharpshooter accused of fatally shooting a mother, her 3-month-old baby and two others in a random attack in Florida was ordered jailed without bond Monday during his first court appearance.
Authorities say 33-year-old Bryan Riley surrendered early Sunday after a furious shootout.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says Riley stopped by a family's home in Lakeland Saturday evening saying he was on a mission from God.
Forty-year-old Justice Gleason told him to leave, but he returned hours later and invaded the home, killing Gleason and three others.
An 11-year-old girl was shot seven times and survived. She was in critical but stable condition on Monday.
Riley will be getting a private attorney, but in the meanwhile, he has requested a public defender. The defendant is said to be a Marine who was honorably discharged and now works as security for ESS Global Corporation.
He faces the following charges:
*Four counts of first-degree murder
*Seven counts of attempted murder of law enforcement officer
*Two counts of Shooting into Building (He received $5,000 bond for each for these two charges)
*Two counts of armed burglary with assault/battery
CHICAGO (AP) — A Black man who was left paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot by a white police officer in Wisconsin expects to be walking soon, an accomplishment he says is tempered by fears of it happening again.
Jacob Blake Jr. was shot seven times by a Kenosha police officer in August 2020, three months after George Floyd was killed by police in Minnesota. Blake’s shooting set off days of violent protests in the city of about 100,000 people located midway between Chicago & Milwaukee.
Blake tells CNN he was able to take a few steps during his son’s birthday celebration this past week, which he compared to sliding his legs through a woodchipper. Although he was “so geeked” by the moment that followed months of physical rehabilitation, he is not claiming victory.
“Yeah, I’m here, & yeah I’m about to be walking, but I really don’t feel like I have survived because it could happen to me again,” Blake said. “I have not survived until something has changed.”
Blake said he continues to relive not only his own shooting, but other gun violence in the Black community. Last month, during Fourth of July fireworks when Blake was in Chicago with family, he called 911 over what he later realized was an anxiety attack.
“I’m hearing these booms (fireworks) & it’s not scaring me because I got shot, it’s scaring me because all of those people have gotten shot so every time a boom went off, I’m kind of imagining people dying,” Blake said.
Blake was shot by Kenosha police Officer Rusten Sheskey after he & two other Kenosha officers tried to arrest Blake on an outstanding warrant. A pocketknife fell from Blake’s pants during a scuffle. He said he picked it up before heading to a vehicle to drive away with two of his children in the back seat. He said he was prepared to surrender once he put the knife in the vehicle. Sheskey, who was not charged, told investigators that he feared for his own safety.
The shooting touched off chaotic protests in the Kenosha area, during which time an Illinois man allegedly shot & killed two demonstrators & wounded another. Kyle Rittenhouse faces two charges of felony murder and one charge of attempted felony murder in the attack that left Blake “furious” & “angry.”
“For the reasons they said they shot me, they had every reason to shoot him, but they didn’t,” Blake said. “Honestly if his skin color was different, and I’m not prejudiced or a racist, he probably would have been labeled a terrorist.”
CORONA, Queens (WABC) -- The NYPD is hoping surveillance video and help from the community will help them track down the group they say is responsible for a mass shooting in Queens over the weekend.
Officers in the area continue to patrol, as retaliation is feared in this incident of gang violence.
It happened around 10:40 p.m. Saturday, when two men opened fire near the corner of 98th Street and 37th Avenue. After the shooting, they jumped aboard two waiting mopeds driven by two other men and took off.
Ten people were hurt, and most were innocent bystanders.
One of them said he's heard about shootings in the neighborhood but never imagined he'd be caught in the middle, and needless to say, he's just glad to have survived.
"The right side of my ear, there was this loud ringing," said the 19-year-old college student, who didn't want his name used. "It's still going on, to be honest. Yeah, this whole part was just vibrating and shaking."
Detectives were still gathering evidence at the scene Monday, looking through another car that was struck on 37th Avenue that belongs to another man who was shot while standing nearby. His cousin says the violence is out of control.
"It's getting crazier every time," Alberto Castillo said. "Crazier and crazier. Dangerous, at nighttime especially."
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A former nursing assistant who killed seven elderly veterans with fatal injections of insulin at a West Virginia hospital was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday by a federal judge who called her “the monster that no one sees coming.”
Reta Mays has a history of mental health issues & offered no explanation Tuesday for why she killed the men. But U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh told her “you knew what you were doing” before sentencing her to seven consecutive life terms, a punishment that means she’ll likely die in prison.
Mays, 46, pleaded guilty last year in federal court to seven counts of second-degree murder for intentionally injecting the men with unprescribed insulin at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg.
While the deaths accumulated during her overnight shifts at the hospital in 2017 and 2018, Mays conducted internet searches on female serial killers & watched the Netflix series “Nurses Who Kill,” Kleeh said. He also said she repeatedly denied her involvement, telling investigators three times that she had no knowledge of the crimes.
“Several times your counsels made the point that you shouldn’t be considered a monster,” Kleeh told Mays. “Respectfully, I disagree with that. You are the worst kind. You’re the monster that no one sees coming.”
Mays cried & apologized in addressing the court briefly before learning her sentence.
“I know that there’s no words that I can say that would alter the families’ pain & comfort,” she said. “I don’t ask for forgiveness because I don’t think I could forgive anyone for doing what I did.”
Hospital officials reported the deaths to the VA inspector general & fired Mays after evidence pointed to her.
Then-U.S. Attorney Bill Powell said there were about 20 suspicious deaths at the medical center during the time Mays worked there, but charges were only brought in cases where the government thought it had sufficient evidence.
The second-degree murder charges involved the deaths of Army veterans Robert Lee Kozul Sr., 89, Archie D. Edgell, 84, Felix Kirk McDermott, 82, & William Holloway, 96; Navy veteran Robert Edge Sr., 82; Air Force veteran George Nelson Shaw Sr., 81; & Army & Air Force veteran Raymond Golden, 88.
She also was sentenced to an additional 20 years for assault with intent to commit murder involving the death of Navy veteran Russell R. Posey Sr., 92.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A gunman opened fire at a birthday party in Colorado, slaying six adults before killing himself Sunday, police said.
The shooting happened just after midnight in a mobile home park on the east side of Colorado Springs, police said.
Officers arrived at a trailer to find six dead adults and a man with serious injuries who died later at a hospital, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.
The suspected shooter was the boyfriend of a female victim at the party attended by friends, family and children. He walked inside and opened fire before shooting himself, police said.
The birthday party was for one of the people killed, police said.
Police on Sunday hadn’t released the identities of the shooter or victims. Authorities say a motive wasn’t immediately known.
Children at the attack weren’t hurt and were placed with relatives.
“My heart breaks for the families who have lost someone they love and for the children who have lost their parents,” Colorado Springs Police Chief Vince Niski said.
It was Colorado’s worst mass shooting since a gunman killed 10 people at a Boulder supermarket March 22.
“The tragic shooting in Colorado Springs is devastating,” Gov. Jared Polis said Sunday, “especially as many of us are spending the day celebrating the women in our lives who have made us the people we are today.”
Colorado Springs, population 465,000, is Colorado’s second-biggest city after Denver. In 2015, a man killed three people, including a police officer, and injured eight others in a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.
MOSCOW (AP) — A gunman launched an attack on a school in the Russian city of Kazan that left at least nine people dead Tuesday — including seven youngsters & sent students running out of the building as smoke poured from one of the windows.
At least 21 others were hospitalized, six in extremely grave condition, authorities said.
The attacker, identified only as a 19-year-old, was arrested, officials said. They gave no immediate details on a motive.
But Russian media said the gunman was a former student at the school who called himself “a god” on his account on the messaging app Telegram & promised to “kill a large amount of biomass” on the morning of the shooting.
Attacks on schools are rare in Russia, & President Vladimir Putin reacted by ordering the head of the country’s National Guard to revise regulations on the types of weapons allowed for civilian use.
Four boys & three girls, all eighth-graders, died, as well as a teacher & another school employee, said Rustam Minnikhanov, governor of the Tatarstan republic, where Kazan is the capital.
Footage released by Russian media showed students dressed in black and white running out of the building. Another video depicted shattered windows, a stream of smoke coming out of one, and the sound of gunfire. Dozens of ambulances lined up at the entrance.
Russian media said while some students were able to escape, others were trapped inside during the ordeal.
“The terrorist has been arrested, 19 years old. A firearm is registered in his name. Other accomplices haven’t been established. An investigation is underway,” Minnikhanov said.
Authorities said the 21 hospitalized included 18 children.
JUST IN - Mass shooting in a school in Kazan, Russia. At least 13 dead, 12 hospitalized. One suspect detained. Another one holds several people hostage.pic.twitter.com/yiGlmOXlVn
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate on Saturday voted to acquit former Pres. Donald Trump on a charge that he incited the deadly mob that raided the U.S. Capitol last month.
Trump needed 34 not guilty votes for acquittal. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) cast the deciding vote.
The final tally was 57 senators voting to convict Trump, & 43 senators voting to acquit.
Saturday's rare impeachment session began with an unexpected vote to consider witnesses at the trial, making a Saturday verdict unlikely.
But hours later House Impeachment Managers and Trump's defense team struck a compromise allowing a new statement from Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler into the record instead.
The Republican congresswoman had shared a conversation she had with House Minority Leader Mike McCarthy regarding Pres. Trump's comments the day of the Capitol attack, Jan. 6.
The Senate held a roll call vote after a few hours of closing arguments.
Senate Republicans who joined Democrats in voting Pres. Trump guilty include Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) & Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.).
Senators Burr & Toomey are retiring at the end of their current terms in January 2023.
The seven Republicans who joined Democrats in voting to convict Pres. Trump marks the most bipartisan vote in a Senate impeachment trial.
In this clip, TK Kirkland spoke about Kamala Harris being the first female Vice President and her husband being the first "Second Gentleman," which TK says goes along with the increase in inclusion in commercials and media today. TK went on to applaud Joe Biden for his plan to speed along the COVID-19 vaccines, but he added that people should also start taking the virus more serious. The conversation then turned to the Black Death of the 1300's, which was the deadliest pandemic recorded in human history. TK then added that he's trying to live for 30 more years, and he wants to take the vaccine.
Max Holloway won the interim featherweight championship in December of 2016 with an impressive performance against Anthony Pettis. Holloway faces Calvin Kattar in the main event of Fight Island 7 live on ABC on Saturday, January 16.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley announced Tuesday that he will not file criminal charges against a white police officer who shot a Black man in the back in Kenosha last summer, leaving him paralyzed and setting off sometimes violent protests in the city.
Officer Rusten Sheskey’s shooting of Jacob Blake on Aug. 23, captured on bystander video, turned the nation’s spotlight on Wisconsin during a summer marked by protests over police brutality & racism. More than 250 people were arrested in the days that followed, including 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, a self-styled medic with an assault rifle who is charged in the fatal shootings of two men & the wounding of a third.
The Blake shooting happened 3 months after George Floyd died while being restrained by cops in Minneapolis, a death that was captured on bystander video & sparked outrage & protests that spread across the United States and beyond. The galvanized Black Lives Matter movement put a spotlight on inequitable policing.
Sheskey was among officers responding to a woman who had reported her boyfriend was not supposed to be around. Cellphone video shows Blake walking to the driver-side door of an SUV as officers follow him with guns drawn, shouting. As Blake opens the door & leans into the SUV, Sheskey grabs his shirt from behind & opens fire.
The Kenosha police union said Blake was armed with a knife, & Sheskey ordered him several times to drop it but he would not. Sheskey’s attorney, Brendan Matthews, said Sheskey fired because Blake started turning toward the officer while holding a knife.
State investigators had said only that officers saw a knife on the floor of the SUV & hadn’t said whether Blake threatened anyone with it. The officers were not equipped with body cameras. #jacobblake #justiceforjacobblake #shotintheback #paralyzed #killercops #policethepolice #rustenshesky #cops #police #kylerittehouse #kenosha #wisconsin #protests #georgefloyd #breonnataylor #excessiveforce #attemptedmurder #jacobblakeshooting #jacobblakeshootingnocharges #rustensheskynotcharged #africanamerican #blackman #whitecop
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on November 14, 2020 at 10:33am
Earl Thomas' wife is clearly done trying to make things work with the NFL star after the two were involved in that wild April incident ... TMZ Sports has learned she just filed for divorce.
According to court records, Nina Thomas put in the paperwork on Nov. 3 ... citing adultery as the grounds for ending the marriage.
Nina added in the docs that the couple has such a strained relationship ... there's zero "reasonable expectation of reconciliation."
It's interesting ... because Earl has seemed to put in a ton of effort to make things work since Nina was arrested for allegedly pointing a loaded gun at him back on April 13.
We broke the story, cops say Nina SNAPPED after she allegedly caught the former Baltimore Ravens safety cheating on her at a rented home in Austin, Texas.
Police say Nina busted in the home angrily ... and eventually held Earl at gunpoint.
Nina was ultimately arrested ... but shortly after the incident, Earl announced the two were trying to work through things.
And, it all seemed to be going smoothly ... he posted on social media several times the past few months praising her -- and even celebrated her birthday last month with a photo and a mushy "I love you" note.
But, Nina -- who married Earl in a well-publicized, extravagant wedding in April 2016 -- makes it clear in the docs ... she wants out.
The couple has three kids together ... and in the court filing, Nina is asking for Earl to only have limited access to the children until "he takes a parenting course and can show evidence that he is able to care for the children for an extended period of time."
NEW YORK - Skirmishes broke out between supporters and opponents of President Donald Trump as a Jews For Trump convoy of hundreds of cars draped with American flags and Trump 2020 banners rolled slowly through Manhattan and Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon.
The caravan traveled from Coney Island to the Trump Tower in Manhattan before heading to a rally in a Brooklyn park. Videos shared on Twitter showed several protesters pelting the vehicles with eggs or stones, snatching flags and shouting insults.
In one video showing physical fights between several people, police officers detain an unidentified man and protesters chant "let him go." Another video showed a small group of people throwing objects from a Brooklyn highway overpass at vehicles bedecked with Trump flags.
Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani briefly greeted supporters from the passenger seat of a car driving near Trump Tower during the parade, videos show.
New York City police said seven people were taken into custody in connection with physical confrontations in Times Square. Charges were pending Sunday night.
According to the Jews For Trump website, Sunday's rally was intended to show solidarity with "the beleaguered Red Zone community," a reference to the coronavirus hot spots designated by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as areas where schools and nonessential businesses must close to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The rally follows weeks of tensions in Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods over the coronavirus restrictions. Heshy Tischler, a City Council candidate and leader of Brooklyn protests against the restrictions, promoted Sunday's car parade on Twitter.
Boris Epshteyn, an adviser to the Trump campaign and co-chair of Jewish Voices for Trump, organized Sunday's rally in Brooklyn's Marine Park at the end of the car parade.
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 17, 2020 at 10:38am
Video After The Jump
AGUANGA, Calif. (KABC) -- Authorities are continuing their search for the suspect responsible for a shooting at an illegal marijuana grow in Riverside County, which has been described as an "organized crime type of operation."
Seven people were fatally shot in the unincorporated area of Aguanga early Monday morning. Six of the victims were found inside the residence on the 45000 block of Highway 371. Another woman with gunshot wounds was taken to a hospital, where she died.
Investigators said evidence collected there indicated the residence was being used to "to manufacture and harvest an illicit marijuana operation."
Sheriff Chad Bianco said it wasn't "small operation" and he has requested assistance from federal authorities in the case, adding that this is not the first homicide this year related to illegal marijuana.
More than 1,000 pounds of marijuana, worth upwards of $5 million, and several hundred marijuana plants were found, authorities said in a press release.
The names of those fatally shot were not immediately released.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Activists are calling for the firing of the seven officers who were suspended with pay over Daniel Prude’s death.
On Thursday, the Community Justice Initiative was joined by other groups supporting the Black Lives Matter movement saying they want the officers charged and fired. The groups are demanding action from city leaders and are calling for the immediate removal for all rogue and racist officers from the police department.
Prude, 41, who was Black, died when he was taken off life support March 30. That was seven days after officers who encountered him running naked through the street put a hood over his head to stop him from spitting, then held him down for about two minutes until he stopped breathing.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren announced the suspensions at a news conference Thursday amid outrage that city officials had previously kept quiet about Prude’s death.
While denying a cover-up, Warren acknowledged that Prude “was failed by the police department, our mental health care system, our society, and he was failed by me.”
The suspended officers are Troy Taladay, Paul Ricotta, Francisco Santiago, Andrew Specksgoor, Josiah Harris, Mark Vaughn and Sgt. Michael Magri.
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