News Daypop Archives

A majority of the Minneapolis City Council agreed Sunday to dismantle the city’s police department after the in-custody killing of George Floyd. Councilman Jeremiah Ellison said the council would work to disband the department in its “current iteration. The plan has to start somewhere. We are not going to hit the eject button without a plan so today was the announcement of the formulation of that plan.” Ellison said that eight or nine of the council members have agreed to the move.... [Read Full Story]

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, joining number of Republicans and military leaders criticizing President Donald Trump amid nationwide protests. Powell, a Republican who led the US military during the 1991 Gulf War in Iraq under President George HW Bush and later headed the State Department under President George W Bush, said Trump “lies all the time,” has “drifted away” from the US Constitution and poses a danger to American democracy.... [Read Full Story]

Facebook has begun labeling content produced by media outlets it says are under state control, enacting a policy the social network first announced in October. Posts from at least 18 outlets including Russia Today, China’s People’s Daily and Iran’s Press TV now carry notices to users that they are “state-controlled media.” Ads from state-controlled publishers will also be labeled starting later this year. The labels will initially be shown to U.S. Facebook users and roll out to other countries over time.... [Read Full Story]

A memorial was held Thursday for George Floyd, the black man who died last week after a police officer pressed a knee into his neck while detaining him in Minneapolis, triggering protests across the country.... [Read Full Story]

A 14-year-old boy pleaded guilty to robbery in the first degree on Wednesday in the case of Tessa Majors, the 18-year-old Barnard College student who was stabbed to death in a New York City park last December. The teen will be sentenced on June 15.  Prosecutors are offering 18 months of detention, with a 6-month minimum and credit for time served in pretrial detention. The murder charge against the teen, who was 13 at the time of Majors’ death, was dropped. ... [Read Full Story]

Three more former Minnesota police officers will be charged in the killing of George Floyd, the 46-year-old Black man who died after an officer kneeled on his neck during an arrest. On Wednesday, the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison charged Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng with aiding and abetting Floyd’s murder. The Hennepin County prosecutor had already arrested Derek Chauvin, the former police officer seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck, last week, charging him with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Ellison’s office is also planning to announce that it would be upgrading the third-degree murder charge to second-degree murder.... [Read Full Story]

Roxie Washington, the mother of George Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter, tearfully spoke out at Minneapolis City Hall on Tuesday, saying Floyd was a loving and devoted father who continued to provide for their family before his death at the hands of police.... [Read Full Story]

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday night that the GOP is seeking a new state to host this summer’s Republican National Convention, after host North Carolina refused to guarantee the event could be held in Charlotte without restrictions because of ongoing concerns over the coronavirus.... [Read Full Story]

An independent autopsy conducted regarding the killing of George Floyd found his death was a homicide and that he died of “asphyxiation from sustained pressure.” The autopsy said compression to Floyd’s neck and back as former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck and other officers knelt on his back led to a lack of blood flow to his brain and that he was “dead on the scene.”  A statement by the family’s lead attorney Ben Crump said, “The independent examiners found that weight on the back, handcuffs and positioning were contributory factors because they impaired the ability of Mr. Floyd’s diaphragm to function.”  Dr. Michael Baden, one of the pathologists who performed the independent autopsy said Floyd had no underlying medical problems that contributed to his death. “Police have this false impression that if you can talk, you can breathe. That’s not true,” said Baden.... [Read Full Story]

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a curfew for New York City on Monday night, following four days of protests in response to the killing of George Floyd.  The curfew began at 11 pm Monday, and will continue until 5 am Tuesday morning, Cuomo announced. Cuomo did not indicate if the curfew will extend beyond Monday.  The governor also announced that the NYPD will increase its police presence on Monday night, with the number of officers jumping from 4,000 to 8,000. ... [Read Full Story]

U.S. retailers are closing some of their stores across the country because of disruptions caused by the widespread street protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. On Sunday, Target, CVS, Apple and Walmart all said that they had temporarily closed or limited hours at some locations for safety reasons. In some places, their stores have been burned, broken into or looted as protests turned violent.... [Read Full Story]

President Donald Trump said on Sunday the U.S. government will designate anti-fascist group Antifa as a terrorist organization. President Trump made the announcement on Twitter, comes amid violent nationwide protests about police brutality following the death of a George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis seen on video gasping for breath as a white police officer knelt on his neck.... [Read Full Story]

Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order on Thursday to activate the Minnesota National Guard, in light of protests and looting in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in police custody. Looting has erupted at various locations in St. Paul and Minneapolis.... [Read Full Story]

On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting Twitter and other social media giants, saying he is taking action to “defend free speech from one of the gravest dangers it has faced in American history,” after Twitter called two of his tweets “potentially misleading.”  ... [Read Full Story]

Walt Disney World has announced a phased re-open approach for its parks.  WDW’s Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom Park are proposing July 11, 2020 as an opening date, and Epcot and Hollywood Studios are targeting July 15, 2020. Once it is approved by Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and the committee, it needs final approval from Gov. Ron DeSantis.... [Read Full Story]

NASA and SpaceX postponed the return to human spaceflight from the U.S. on Wednesday because of storm clouds at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  Astronauts Bob Behnken and Douglas Hurley had been scheduled for launch to the International Space Station at 4:33 p.m. EDT in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Lightening and heavy rains due to a system that moved north and became Tropical Storm Bertha near Georgia on Wednesday morning was of concern.... [Read Full Story]

After a video of a woman in Central Park calling New York police on a black man who says he asked her to leash her dog went viral, the woman has been fired from her job with Franklin Templeton.  The incident occurred Monday in the Ramble, a wooded area of Central Park where dogs are required to be on leashes.... [Read Full Story]

Four officers from the Minneapolis Police Department have been fired following the death of a man who was pinned down during an arrest. Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced Tuesday that four officers were fired following a viral video that showed George Floyd, a black man, becoming unresponsive as an officer pinned him to the ground by holding a knee against his neck. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey commended Arradondo’s decision to fire the officers: “It is the right decision for our city,” Frey said. “We’ve stated our values, and ultimately, we need to live by them.”... [Read Full Story]

Despite calls from health officials to remain socially distant during the long weekend, crowds still flocked to popular spots on Memorial Day. In the face of rising cases of coronavirus throughout the U.S. and Canada.... [Read Full Story]

The Navajo Nation officials have reported 104 new cases of the coronavirus with four more deaths from the pandemic. Tribal officials said the latest figures raised the tribe’s total number of cases as of Saturday night to 4,633 with 153 known deaths.... [Read Full Story]

Officials announced Thursday that the man who filmed video of two white men fatally shooting an unarmed a black man who was jogging down a road, has now also been arrested on murder charges. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.50 year-old William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. is expected to face charges of felony murder and criminal intent to commit false imprisonment in connection with the killing of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery.... [Read Full Story]

The FBI has determined that an active shooter incident at a Texas naval base Thursday morning was related to terrorism. The FBI said at a press briefing Thursday afternoon, “we have determined that the incident this morning at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi is terrorism-related,, adding that while the shooter is deceased; there may be a second person of interest at large in the community. The public should remain calm, and if you see something, say something,” officials said.... [Read Full Story]

Floodwater as high as 5 feet — and rising — submerged parts of the central Michigan town of Midland on Wednesday, after days of heavy rain led to the failure of two dams and the evacuation of thousands of people.... [Read Full Story]

On Wednesday President Trump slammed plans to expand voting by mail in Michigan and Nevada, even briefly threatening to withhold federal funding for the states. He later dropped the warning after criticism from Democrats.... [Read Full Story]

On Tuesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defended the Trump administration’s fiscal response to the coronavirus pandemic and told senators he was willing to consider extending and modifying a payroll loan program for small businesses.... [Read Full Story]

Pier 1 Imports, which previously said it would close half of its fleet of stores, now plans to close all of its locations. The retailer announced in a news release Tuesday that it was seeking bankruptcy court approval to begin an “orderly wind-down” when stores are able to reopen “following the government-mandated closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.”... [Read Full Story]

On Monday, China’s President Xi Jinping said Monday that China will contribute $2 billion in aid to combat the coronavirus in other countries, after the pandemic spread beyond its borders.... [Read Full Story]

On Monday, President Donald Trump told reporters he’s been taking hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug he’s touted as a possible treatment for COVID-19. Trump said he asked the White House doctor if he could take the unproven treatment despite having no symptoms, adding he’s been taking a pill a day for about a week-and-a-half. “I’m still fine,” he said, referring to possible dangerous side effects.... [Read Full Story]

An explosion Saturday at an oil manufacturer in downtown Los Angeles injured 11 firefighters who had gone inside and on the roof to try to control a fire. Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott said “one significant explosion” shook the neighborhood around 6:30 p.m. Firefighters inside had to run through a wall of flames he estimated as 30 feet high and wide. Some of the fleeing firefighters were on fire and tore off their protective equipment and left it on the sidewalk, along with melted helmets, Scott said.... [Read Full Story]

The U.S. Navy granted its first waiver that will allow a transgender service member to continue serving despite a 2019 policy that would have seen the sailor discharged. The naval officer, identified in the case as Jane Doe, served nearly 10 years in uniform as a surface warfare officer before being confronted with the likelihood of being kicked out under the new rules.... [Read Full Story]