Families of Charleston Massacre victims reach $88M settlement
The Justice Department reached an $88 million settlement with the families of nine Black parishioners who were killed by a white supremacist in a South Carolina church in 2015, and with survivors of the shooting, authorities and lawyers said Thursday. The settlement includes millions for families of the victims and survivors of the shooting, in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina. The survivors and the victims’ families had sued the government for wrongful death and physical injuries, accusing authorities of negligence in the background check system that allowed the gunman to purchase a firearm, the department said.
In the middle of a crisis, Facebook renames itself Meta
Like many companies in trouble before it, Facebook is changing its name and logo. Facebook Inc. is now called Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short, to reflect what CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday is its commitment to developing the new surround-yourself technology known as the ” metaverse.” But the social network itself will still be called Facebook. Also unchanged, at least for now, are its chief executive and senior leadership, its corporate structure and the crisis that has enveloped the company.
Andrew Cuomo charged in sexual misconduct complaint
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York was charged in a criminal complaint Thursday with groping a female aide’s breast inside the Executive Mansion. The complaint, filed in Albany City Court, was based on the account of one of the women whose accusations of sexual harassment against Cuomo formed the basis of a state attorney general’s report that led to his resignation in August. Cuomo will be required to appear in court Nov. 17 in Albany to be arraigned on a charge of forcible touching. The complaint centers on an alleged interaction between Cuomo and a female aide, Brittany Commisso, Dec. 7, 2020, in the governor’s residence in Albany.
Sen. Burr under investigation again for pandemic stock sales
North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr and his brother-in-law are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for potential insider trading, a case that stems from their abrupt sales of financial holdings during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to recent federal court filings. Burr, a Republican, is among several lawmakers from both parties who faced outrage over their aggressive trading in early 2020, before the economic threat from the virus was widely known. That fueled accusations that the members of Congress were acting on inside information gained through their official duties to benefit financially, which is illegal under a law known as the STOCK Act.
Supreme Court lets 2 Oklahoma executions proceed
The Supreme Court on Thursday lifted a stay of execution that a federal appeals court had granted to two Oklahoma death row inmates. John Marion Grant and Julius Jones had argued that the state’s lethal injection protocol could subject them to excruciating pain. They also objected on religious grounds to a requirement imposed by a trial judge that they choose among proposed alternative methods of execution. Grant, convicted of murdering a prison cafeteria worker in 1998, was executed a few hours after the Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Jones, who is set to be put to death Nov. 18, was convicted of killing a man in 1999 during a carjacking.
Former school safety officer is charged in the fatal shooting of a teenager
A former California school safety officer who fatally shot an unarmed 18-year-old girl last month has been charged with murder, prosecutors said. The former officer, Eddie F. Gonzalez, 51, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of murder in the Sept. 27 shooting of Manuela Rodriguez, 18, near Millikan High School in Long Beach, the Los Angeles County district attorney, George Gascón, said in a statement Wednesday. Gonzalez, who was a school safety officer with the Long Beach Unified School District, was booked into the Long Beach jail on Wednesday, where he was being held on $2 million bail, according to jail records.
Oil executives grilled over industry’s role in climate disinformation
At a heated hearing by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform Thursday, the CEOs of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell touted their support for a transition to clean energy and said they had never engaged in campaigns to mislead the public on the role of fossil fuel emissions in global warming. All four acknowledged that the burning of their products was driving climate change but also told lawmakers that fossil fuels are not about to disappear. Democrats responded with forceful language in the more than six-hour hearing. Republicans on the committee called the hearing a distraction from more important problems facing the nation.
By wire sources
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