U.S.Associated PressHousekeepers struggle as US hotels ditch daily room cleaning
Like many other hotels across the United States, the Hilton Hawaiian Village has done away with daily housekeeping service, making what was already one of the toughest jobs in the hospitality industry even more grueling. Industry insiders say the move away from daily cleaning, which gained traction during the pandemic, is driven by customer preferences. But others say it has more to do with profit and has allowed hotels to cut the number of housekeepers at a time when many of the mostly immigrant women who take those jobs are still reeling from lost work during coronavirus shutdowns.
U.S.INSIDERThe Uvalde school police chief initially told the public there were 'some deaths' after the shooting. Authorities now say he refused to send cops into the building during the massacre.
The police chief of the Uvalde, Texas, school district initially told the public there were "some deaths" in the wake of the school shooting. Authorities alleged that Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo made a "wrong" call during the massacre. Arredondo delayed cops from breaching the classroom where the gunman carried out the rampage, an official said.
U.S.WSB Cox articlesCoweta man sentenced in “worst child molestation case” judge had ever seen
A Coweta County judge has found a man guilty in what he's calling the “worst child molestation case” he had ever seen. Derrol Allen Grant was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences followed by 60 years for four counts of aggravated child molestation, one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes, one count of aggravated sexual battery and three counts of child molestation. DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Newnan Police began to investigate Grant in 2018 after a child told a friend -- who then told a school counselor -- that Grant had been abusing the victim for six years.
NewsYahoo News Canada$2M for Texas shooting family: Irma and Joe Garcia’s death in a single week sparks action
"Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers," Debra Austin, Irma's cousin, posted on the GoFundMe page. "I truly believe Joe died of a broken heart and losing the love of his life of more than 25 years was too much to bear." The online fundraiser far exceeded the US$10,000, with several contributors posting message of support for the Garcia family.
U.S.QuartzWe ordered the same gun used in Uvalde. Here’s how easy it was.
After Tuesday's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas left 19 children and two adults dead, we wondered how difficult it was to order a DDM4V7, one of the two rifles the gunman bought a few days after turning 18 years old, according to reports. The AR-15-style weapon, made by Georgia-based Daniel Defense, sells online for $1,870, plus tax. Shipping to a local gun shop is free.
U.S.LA TimesAmber Heard didn't want Johnny Depp to pay $100 million. She wanted to send a message
While Depp's side has painted the case as being about getting his life and reputation back, Heard's side has argued that it's a First Amendment case about the right to tell one's own story. Heard attorney Benjamin Rottenborn led off the defendant's closing arguments by warning the jurors about the message they would be sending to victims of domestic abuse if they found in Depp's favor. "If you didn't take pictures, it didn't happen.
WorldAssociated PressUAE dismantles plane of gunrunner Russia wants for Americans
The emirate of Umm al-Quwain plans a $675 million development on a island just across a lagoon from the deactivated airport where Bout's plane sits. His legacy, however, lives on even as workers disassemble the aircraft's wings — Bout is in the news again as Russia has suggested America trade him for U.S. citizens held by Moscow amid its war on Ukraine. I had not realized that the plane was there to this day," said Stephen Braun, the co-author of a book on the gunrunner called “Merchant of Death."
U.S.WSB Cox articlesParents charged after boys, 2 and 4, found abandoned and sleeping inside vacant apartment
Gwinnett county records show the two boys — ages 2 and 4 — had only a blanket with them when found inside a supposedly vacant apartment along Graves Road. Officers tracked Eric Mendoza down. Channel 2′s Tony Thomas found an incident report from January when Snellville police stopped Mendoza for DUI and found the children in the car with him, reportedly not in seat belts.
U.S.HuffPostTrump Calls Gun Control Efforts 'Grotesque' At NRA Convention
Former President Donald Trump called efforts to curb gun violence “cynical” and “grotesque” at the National Rifle Association convention in Houston on Friday, just three days after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school. After calling the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, a “savage and barbaric atrocity” and reading aloud the name of each victim, the former president accused Democrats of being “cynical politicians seeking to exploit the tears of sobbing families to increase their own power and take away our constitutional rights.” “The various gun control policies being pushed by the left would have done nothing to prevent the horror that took place,” Trump continued, instead arguing that lawmakers should instead “deal with the problem of broken families,” pass mental health initiatives and “harden our schools.”
WorldReutersArchaeologists discover ancient Mayan city on construction site
Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of an ancient Mayan city filled with palaces, pyramids and plazas on a construction site of what will become an industrial park near Merida, on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The site, called Xiol, has features of the Mayan Puuc style of architecture, archaeologists said, which is common in the southern Yucatan Peninsula but rare near Merida. "We think more than 4,000 people lived around here," said Carlos Peraza, one of the archaeologists who led the excavation of the city, estimated to have been occupied from 600-900 A.D. "There were people from different social classes...
- BusinessReuters Videos
Russia prepares to seize exiting Western firms
STORY: The golden arches are coming down in Russia as McDonald's heads for the exit. It's just one of countless western firms that have decided to quit the country. That's angered Moscow, which now has a response in the works.
BusinessMoneyWise‘Cash is still trash’ — Billionaire Ray Dalio says keeping money in a savings account is not safe. Here’s what he holds instead
Let's take a look at what Dalio's hedge fund holds instead. Sign up for our MoneyWise newsletter to receive a steady flow of actionable ideas from Wall Street's top firms. Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) According to Bridgewater's latest 13F filing to the SEC, the fund held 22.72 million shares of Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF at the end of March.
U.S.Associated PressMan gets life in prison, plus 45 years, in beheading case
A New Hampshire man convicted of killing his wife's co-worker and forcing her to behead him was sentenced Friday to life in prison, plus 45 years. Armando Barron, 32, was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Barron was accused of assaulting his wife after discovering she had been texting with her co-worker, 25-year-old Jonathan Amerault, in September 2020.
U.S.Touchdown WireFalcons head coach Arthur Smith fails to understand politics in mass shooting comments
People who work in sports are not obligated to “stick to sports,” even when you disagree with them. Falcons head coach Arthur Smith has no such obligation, though the comments he made after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers showed a nearly complete misunderstanding of modern politics and how they work… and more importantly, how they don't work. I'm not going to get into some political rant,” Smith recently said, per Josh Kendall of The Athletic.
U.S.Fox NewsUvalde, Texas residents react to Beto O'Rourke disrupting Abbott press conference: 'Bull----'
Several residents in Uvalde, Texas, still reeling from the elementary school mass shooting that killed 19 kids and two teachers have spoken out against Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke's attempt to derail Gov. Greg Abbott's press conference Wednesday. Abbott had just finished speaking about mental health resources available for survivors and first responders to Tuesday's shooting when O'Rourke, a pro-gun control gubernatorial candidate, walked up to the stage and accused Abbott of "doing nothing" to prevent these tragedies.
U.S.ReutersForest Service says it started all of New Mexico's largest wildfire
Two blazes that grew into New Mexico's largest ever wildfire were both started by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the agency said on Friday, prompting the state's governor to demand the federal government take full responsibility for the disaster. Forest Service investigators determined the Calf Canyon Fire was caused by a "burn pile" of branches that the agency thought was out but reignited on April 19, the Santa Fe National Forest said in a statement. That blaze on April 22 merged with the Hermits Peak Fire, which the USFS started with a controlled burn that went out of control on April 6, the agency previously reported.
U.S.National ReviewMassachusetts Governor Vetoes Bill that Would Give Driver’s Licenses to Illegal Immigrants
I cannot sign this legislation because it requires the Registry of Motor Vehicles to issue state credentials to people without the ability to verify their identity,” Baker wrote in a letter to the state legislature. The Republican governor added that the RMV “does not have the expertise or ability to verify the validity of many types of documents from other countries,” as the measure would require. He also expressed concern that the bill “significantly increases the risk that noncitizens will be registered to vote” given that there would not be any way to tell the difference between a standard driver's license and one assigned to an illegal immigrant.
U.S.Miami HeraldA trucker crashed his truck at a Florida Publix. He had ‘an honest response’ for cops
A delivery driver who crashed his tractor trailer at a Florida Publix on Thursday now faces multiple charges, according to the Haines City Police Department. A Facebook post from the agency shows the crumpled cab of the 53-foot long white truck, which has a large tree branch under its wheels. Polices say his vehicle tore an awning off the building and also hit an unoccupied pickup truck, pushing it for about 200 feet.
WorldReutersU.S. seizes Iranian oil cargo near Greek island - sources
LONDON/ATHENS (Reuters) -The United States has confiscated Iranian oil held on a Russian-operated ship near Greece and will send the cargo to the United States aboard another vessel, three sources familiar with the matter said. It was unclear whether the cargo was impounded because it was Iranian oil or due to the sanctions on the tanker over its Russian nexus. Iran and Russia are facing separate U.S. sanctions.
U.S.The Daily BeastDaniel Defense, the Maker of the Uvalde Shooter’s ‘Perfect Rifle,’ Abruptly Exits the NRA Convention
On a Memorial Day weekend when we honor those who died in service to our country, the company that manufactured a weapon of war used to kill 19 children and two adults in a Texas elementary school had planned to hawk its wares at the gun industry's annual collective disgrace. But in the aftermath of Tuesday's slaughter in Uvalde, Daniel Defense, is no longer slated to join all the other profiteers of violent death at this weekend's NRA convention in Houston. Up until Wednesday afternoon,the company was to have occupied Booth 4839, conveniently close to the cafe at the George R. Brown Convention Center, amid what the NRA terms “14 acres of guns and gear.
ScienceBBCAncient DNA reveals secrets of Pompeii victims
Researchers studying human remains from Pompeii have extracted genetic secrets from the bones of a man and a woman who were buried when the Roman city was engulfed in volcanic ash. This first "Pompeian human genome" is an almost complete set of "genetic instructions" from the victims, encoded in DNA extracted from their bones. Ancient DNA was preserved in bodies that were encased in time-hardened ash.
- U.S.Associated Press
Woman gets 15 months in prison for punching flight attendant
A California woman who punched a Southwest Airlines flight attendant in the face during a flight, breaking her teeth, has been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. Vyvianna Quinonez was also ordered Tuesday by the federal judge in San Diego to pay nearly $26,000 in restitution and a $7,500 fine for the assault on a May 23, 2021 Southwest flight between Sacramento and San Diego. Quinonez, 29, of Sacramento, woman is prohibited from flying for three years while she is on supervised release and must participate in anger management classes or counseling.
U.S.HuffPostTucker Carlson Cooks Up Absurd New Scapegoat For Texas School Massacre
Australia hasn't had a mass shooting since 1996, when a gunman opened fire at a tourist resort in Port Arthur, killing 35 people. The government responded by enacting strict gun control legislation, including banning all semi-automatic rifles. In New Zealand, all semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles were banned after a gunman killed 51 people in Christchurch in 2019.
U.S.INSIDERCNN reporter calls out Texas police official at school shooting press conference: 'We've been given a lot of bad information'
A CNN reporter called out a Texas official over "bad information" about the Uvalde school shooting. "Why don't you clear all of this up now," CNN's Shimon Prokupecz said during a briefing. The Texas Department of Public Safety has given conflicting accounts about the school shooting.
- WorldAssociated Press
Albania offers ex-Soviet built naval base to NATO
Albania has offered NATO a naval base in an effort as a way to highlight the small country's value in the alliance “in these difficult times,” the prime minister's office said Thursday. Prime Minister Edi Rama said Pashaliman naval base, 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of the capital Tirana, could be “an added value” to the alliance and they had prepared a project on its renovation. “In these dangerous times I believe the general may consider having a NATO's naval base in Albania,” Rama said in a speech Wednesday.
“It could give millions a chance to finally buy a house or start their business or help their kids get an education, too.”
“You signed a contract…If you don’t want to deal with the financial pressure of debt, don’t take out the loan.”
“Without action from Biden, Black student debt will hinder his agenda with respect to eliminating racial inequities.”
“Blanket relief could end up routing too much relief to those who do not need it and too little to those who do.”
“Unlike a number of other policy issues, student debt relief doesn’t need to be pushed through a narrowly controlled Congress.”