NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
1 Indie booksellers:
James Patterson has a history of helping independent bookstores. The bestselling novelist has donated millions in recent years to booksellers, while also giving millions to schools and libraries and literacy programs. Now, with stores closed or closing nationwide because of the coronavirus outbreak, Patterson has launched a new initiative. On Thursday, he announced in New York #SaveIndieBookstores, a partnership with the American Booksellers Association and the Book Industry Charitable Foundation. Patterson is contributing $500,000 and is urging others to contribute this month.
2 Attack plot:
A Georgia man accused of plotting to attack the White House with an antitank rocket and explosives pleaded guilty this week to a federal charge. Hasher Jallal Taheb, 23 is charged with attempting to destroy, by fire or an explosive, a building owned by or leased to the United States, federal prosecutors said. Federal agents arrested Taheb on Jan. 16, 2019, when he showed up for a meeting with an undercover agent and an FBI source thinking they were going to rent a car and trade their vehicles for weapons, with the intention of driving to Washington, D.C., to carry out the attack.
3 Surveillance planes:
Baltimore officials determined to reduce violent crime have approved an eyesinthesky program that uses surveillance planes to create a visual record of everything that can be seen in the streets below. Despite opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union and concerns that such pervasive monitoring could violate people’s rights, the city’s Board of Estimates voted this week to approve the privately funded contract with an Ohio firm. The sixmonth pilot program will use three planes to collect images to help investigate murders, nonfatal shootings, armed robberies and carjackings.
4 Nightclub shooting:
In Florida, the Fourth District Court of Appeal this week upheld a lower court’s ruling that a security firm employing the gunman responsible for a gay nightclub shooting can’t be held liable for failing to investigate complaints against the shooter, giving him firearm training and allowing him to possess a gun license. The decision dismisses the lawsuit against G4S by survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting and family members of the 49 people who were killed at the nightclub in Orlando in 2016. Survivors and family members had argued G4S was negligent in hiring Omar Mateen as a security guard despite concerns that had been raised about him at a previous job.
5 Fauci threats:
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease official, said Thursday he feels safe despite reports he’s received online threats and has had uncomfortable personal encounters with admirers that prompted the Trump administration to assign him a security detail. Fauci, a plainspeaking expert on the coronavirus who hasn’t shied away from publicly correcting President Trump’s erroneous statements about the virus, told NBC’s “Today” that he just focuses on the job he has chosen and puts “all of that stuff aside.”