Five Quick News Stories For Your Water Cooler Chat (Monday Jan 23)
Today's stories: Monteray Park shooting, AZ Border, NY Subway violence, Senate Race, NASA audit
1) The Monterey Park Shooting
On Saturday night, a man now identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran shot up a Dance Hall where people were celebrating the Lunar New Year. An attempt to attack another dance hall a few miles away failed when his weapon was pulled from his hands. The man later took his own life in a nearby van.
Ten of the twenty people he shot in the attack succumbed to their wounds.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
The motives behind the attack are still murky. The initial knee-jerk claims of ‘white supremacy’ have some obvious flaws in their logic. The early consensus opinion of reporting seems to be converging around a domestic abuse scenario involving an ex-wife with a connection to the site of the tragedy.
2. The Border Crisis — Arizona
Dem Governor Hobbs will continue the policy bussing illegal immigrants out of state. Arizona does not have the resources to handle the influx of people.
Residents at Yuma recently claims that Mexican cartels held operational control of the US
border. Not only is the influx straining resources of those who would process and provide for these new arrivals, but the stream of people is also wreaking havoc on farmers’ fields.
Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines describes the border as superseding what they were at any time in the last 30 years. Now looking at a 171% increase year over year, as a direct result of federal policy choices.
3. Weatherman Assaulted On Subway — No Charges For Teenage Assailants
Adam Klotz, a Fox News weatherman was assaulted by three teens, aged 15-17 while riding the New York subway.
He sustained a black eye and bruised ribs as the result of this beat-down, but the attackers will not face criminal charges for the assualt, despite the injuries Mr. Klotz sustained.
New Yorkers expressed outrage and dismay about the declining safety of public transit so critical to the city’s functioning, stating that Adam was attacked after coming to the defense of an older man whose hair was being set on fire by these same youths.
Criticism of both this particular decision and the general declining safety invoked the names of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who opted not to press charges on the youths, as well as the ’empty suit’ Mayor, Eric Adams, who is bearing the blame for the perception of the city being ‘unsafe’.
4. Democrat steps up to challenge Kyrsten Sinema for Senate seat
Arizona is a purple state with a knack for producing Senators that give their own party leaders headaches. For Trump, John McCain was a proverbial thorn in his side. For Biden, the headache has come in the form of Kyrsten Sinema.
After the midterms, Sinema announced she would caucus with the Democrats, but, as Bernie Sanders has for a very long time, she would sit as an independent.
Bernie has never had to worry about anyone seriously contesting his seat, but the same courtesy is not being offered to Sinema. AOC called for her to be primaried because she didn’t rubber-stamp some of the Democrats’ more controversial legislation, and now, her wish is fulfilled: a Democrat has thrown his hat in the ring.
That challenger is Ruben Gallego, 43, a Marine and Rep of Arizona’s 3rd Congressional district.
5. NASA audit turns up crazy waste numbers
The big offender in this report is software. Specifically, duplication & fines. The report by the Inspector General is titled: NASA’s Software Asset Management
If every government department could identify and plug holes of financial waste like this one, maybe we wouldn’t need to wast so much time arguing about debt ceilings.
