JUMPING BY HERSELF
Florida school district to pay $26 million to shooting victims
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Broward County, Florida, school district will pay more than $26 million to the families of 17 people killed and some of those injured in the 2018 Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Board members approved the two legal settlements on Tuesday.
A total of $25 million will be shared by 51 plaintiffs, including families of the 17 dead as well as students and staff who were injured. Another $1.25 million will be paid in one lump sum to Anthony Borges, who suffered some of the most severe injuries.
Nikolas Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to the murders, and awaits a sentence of death or life in prison early next year.
Webb telescope launch delayed by communication problem
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Next week’s launch of NASA’S new space telescope is delayed for at least two days because of a communication problem between the observatory and the rocket.
Liftoff of the James Webb Space Telescope is now targeted for no earlier than Dec. 24. NASA announced the latest delay for the $10 billion telescope late Tuesday. More information will be available this week, officials said.
Webb is considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and has already been delayed by years.
COVID case in Blinken press curtails his Southeast Asia tour
BANGKOK – A positive COVID-19 test among Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s traveling party cut short the top diplomat’s first official tour of Southeast Asia.
A member of the press corps accompanying Blinken on what was to have been a visit to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur, forcing Blinken to abandon the program at his next and last stop in Bangkok, and return to the United States.
The abrupt change in plans was caused in part by fears that others in the delegation might also test positive, requiring them to quarantine in Thailand over the Christmas holiday.
The journalist who tested positive will stay in Kuala Lumpur for a mandatory 10-day isolation.
US Navy hits target during test of laser weapon in Mideast
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The U.S. Navy announced Wednesday it tested a laser weapon and destroyed a floating target in the Mideast, a system that could be used to counter bomb-laden drone boats deployed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
The test Tuesday saw the USS Portland test-fire its Laser Weapon System Demonstrator at the target in the Gulf of Aden, the body of water separating East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula.
The Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet described the laser as having “successfully engaged” the target in a statement.
‘Kentucky United’ telethon raises $3M for tornado victims
LEXINGTON, Ky. – A telethon hosted by University of Kentucky Athletics has raised more than $3 million in donations with matching funds to benefit victims of last weekend’s deadly tornadoes in western Kentucky.
Proceeds from the “Kentucky United for Tornado Relief ” telethon will go to the American Red Cross. Donations had reached $3,031,241 with more coming in as the four-hour telethon concluded Tuesday night at Kentucky’s Kroger Field football stadium. The total included $50,000 from Ohio State men’s basketball coach Chris Holtman, a Nicholasville, Kentucky, native.
The event, televised by WLEX-TV with assistance from JMI Sports and streamed on the station’s and Kentucky Athletics’ Facebook pages, included Wildcats student athletes and area head coaches volunteering to handle phone calls. Athletic director Mitch Barnhart thanked everyone involved and said in a release that it shows “the special bond that exists throughout the people of the Commonwealth.”
Texas county OKS $5M settlement over Black motorist’s death
GEORGETOWN, Texas – A Texas county approved a $5 million wrongful death lawsuit settlement Tuesday with the family of a man whom sheriff ’s deputies shocked with stun guns after a 2019 chase that was filmed by the realtime police TV series “Live PD.”
Commissioners in suburban Williamson County, just north of Austin, authorized the settlement with the family of Javier Ambler, a Black man whose car deputies chased after trying to pull him over for allegedly failing to dim his headlights to oncoming traffic.
Ambler, a former postal worker, died after deputies repeatedly used stun guns on him, despite his pleas that he was sick and couldn’t breathe, according to police body camera video and a June 2020 report by the Austin American-statesman and KVUE-TV.
The two former deputies are awaiting trial on manslaughter charges, and the county’s former sheriff, Robert Chody, was indicted on evidence tampering charges in the case. All have denied wrongdoing.
German police incinerate cocaine worth over $300 million
Police in Germany’s Bavaria region said Wednesday they have destroyed some 1.65 tons of cocaine with a street value of about $304 million – their biggest such operation yet.
Bavaria’s criminal police office said the drugs were incinerated Tuesday under heavy security at a facility at an undisclosed location in the south of the state.
The incineration, which police dubbed “Operation Snow Melt,” destroyed cocaine seized in various investigations over recent years.