News Daypop Archives

Police in North Carolina arrested five people Saturday night as looters began to break into stores in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. Wilmington Police confirmed the arrests on Twitter but did not immediately release the identities of the five individuals. “Charges are pending and those details will be released as they become available,” police said. Police later posted on Twitter saying they were working to identify the thieves and would “will charge them to the fullest extent of the law.” The city of Wilmington, in response to looting reports, extended its curfew for the affected area, issuing a citywide curfew running from 10 pm until 6 am. The National Hurricane Center said that “catastrophic flooding” is expected in certain parts of the Carolinas as Florence remained stationary over the region. At least 11 deaths have been linked to this storm, so far. ...Read more

At least four people were injured Thursday after dozens of houses caught fire due to suspected gas line explosions in three communities north of Boston. Massachusetts State Police said they have responded to 39 fires in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover, and expected that number to rise. Residents living in those communities who have gas service from Columbia Gas were told to evacuate their homes. The 35 fires in Andover have been extinguished. Authorities said it was still too early to speculate what sparked the sprawling explosions, but emergency crews were working on depressurizing the gas lines. At least 4 people, including a firefighter were injured by the fires, according to the Associated Press.  Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker tweeted that he’s urging residents to follow instructions from local officials about evacuations and to suspend their gas usage. ...Read more

New information is emerging in the confirmation process for Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be the next Supreme Court Justice.The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, says she has received “information” about Brett Kavanaugh and has passed it on to the FBI. Feinstein said in a statement Thursday: “I have received information from an individual concerning the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. That individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision. I have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities,”Feinstein’s statement comes shortly after the Senate Judiciary Committee set a vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation for next Thursday. Feinstein has not shared details about the letter beyond her statement Thursday, and no other senators on the Judiciary Committee have been permitted to see it, according to reports. ...Read more

Apple Inc. unveiled larger iPhones and watches based on the design of current models on Wednesday, confirming that the company is making only minor changes to its lineup. Apple wants users to upgrade to newer, more expensive devices as a way to boost revenue as global demand for smartphones levels off.  Apple uses the ‘S’ suffix when it upgrades components but leaves the exterior design of a phone the same. This year’s new phones are the XS, with a 5.8-inch (14.7-cm) screen, the larger XS Max, with a 6.5-inch (16.5-cm) screen, and a 6.1-inch iPhone Xr made of aluminum, with an edge-to-edge liquid retina display. Apple also announced the new Apple Watch Series 4 range with edge-to-edge displays which are more than 30 percent bigger than displays on current models. The new watch will also be a health device, able to detect an irregular heartbeat and start an emergency call automatically if it detects a user falling down, potentially appealing to older customers. It said it had approval for the device from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. ...Read more

The longtime executive producer of 60 Minutes is leaving CBS amid accusations of inappropriate behavior. The New York Times reports that Jeff Fager was ousted, this just two days after network CEO Leslie Moonves stepped down due to similar claims. Fager was accused of sexual misconduct by six former employees in early August, when The New Yorker reported he allegedly touched women inappropriately at company parties, and other CBS employees claimed that Fager protected those accused of sexual harassment in the workplace. Fager has denied all claims. A memo from CBS News President David Rhodes states that Fager’s departure “is not directly related” to the allegations of sexual misconduct. “However, he violated company policy and it is our commitment to uphold those policies at every level,” wrote Rhodes. However in a statement, Fager said the network “terminated my contract early because I sent a text message to one of our own CBS reporters demanding that she be fair in covering the story. My language was harsh and, despite the fact that journalists receive harsh demands for fairness all the time, CBS did not like. One such note should not result in termination after 36 years, but it did.” CBS stated that Fager’s second-in-command, Bill Owens, will lead 60 Minutes while they search for a new executive producer ...Read more

A man who caused a disturbance at a Southern California hospital was taken into custody and a handgun was recovered Tuesday, but authorities now say there’s no evidence that he fired any shots. Noone was hurt in the incident at Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center near Los Angeles, according to reports. The suspect threw a chair through a window before pulling out a handgun at a medical office building separate from the main hospital. The man was unarmed when he surrendered without incident a short time later just outside the building, and a gun was later found. The man was described as a 34-year-old resident of nearby Lynwood, and there were unconfirmed reports that he was a patient at the hospital. Police and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies cleared the building room by room. Downey is a city of about 110,000 people southeast of downtown Los Angeles. ...Read more

Those living within the path Category 4 Hurricane Florence were advised on Tuesday to “take action now” by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Florence is headed toward the Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic states with 140 mph winds and is expected to make landfall late Thursday or early Friday. More than 1.5 million people have been ordered to evacuate. FEMA Associate Administrator Jeff Byard warned residents in a press conference to expect infrastructure damage, power outages, and that the storm “has the potential to cause loss of life. We cannot emphasize the importance to take action now.”  ...Read more

State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert confirmed in a statement that the U.S. is shutting down the Palestine Liberation Organization’s office in Washington D.C., blaming the PLO for not taking “steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel.” National Security Advisor John Bolton also announced the Trump administration’s closure of the PLO office at a speech before the conservative Federalist Society. He announced the U.S. will ban ICC judges and prosecutors from entering the U.S., sanction their funds in the U.S. financial system, and prosecute them in American courts. Just minutes before Bolton made his announcement, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley convened a special meeting of the Security Council to discuss ways to combat corruption around the world. ...Read more

 Hurricane Florence grew even stronger early Monday afternoon as the storm continued moving across the Atlantic Ocean, with it’s eye set on parts of the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said in a special noon advisory, that Florence rapidly intensified to a potentially catastrophic Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 130 mph. Only an hour before, Florence had been upgraded to Category 3 strength but the storm soon grew stronger as it moved over warm Atlantic waters. Its center will move between Bermuda and the Bahamas from Tuesday to Thursday, before approaching the Carolinas on Thursday. ...Read more

A Dallas police officer was arrested Sunday on a manslaughter warrant in the shooting of a black man at his home, Texas authorities said. The Texas Department of Public Safety said in a news release that Officer Amber Guyger was booked into the Kaufman County Jail and that the investigation is ongoing. It said no additional information is available at this time. A statement from the Dallas Police Department Saturday says the officer is Amber Guyger, a four-year veteran of the force assigned to the Southeast Patrol Division. Guyger has told investigators that she was off-duty on Thursday night when she mistakenly went to the wrong apartment and shot Botham Jean. In the days following Jean’s death, rumors have swirled around the internet showing a photo taken from Jean’s Instagram account with him pictured, smiling, with three other women. Many have stated that one of the women in the photo was Guyger, but that rumor was shot down after Jean’s former employer, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLC, said that the women were colleagues of Jean’s. Jean, of St. Lucia, a Caribbean island, had previously attended Harding University in Arkansas before working for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLC in Dallas. ...Read more