Month: July 2022

According to a news release from the National Park Service, a 7-year-old girl was killed after a tree fell on her tent while she and her family slept in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Park rangers responded to an emergency in the Elkmont Campground at around 12:30 a.m. on July 27 after the tree fell on the girl, who is from Georgia. Other family members, including her father and two siblings, were not injured. The large, red maple tree was about two feet in diameter.

The Elkmont Campground is located between Gatlinburg and Townsend. Emergency responders from Gatlingburg Fire Department, Gatlingburg Police Department and the National Park Service responded to the site, the release said. The campsite affected and adjacent campsites were closed, while Elkmont Campground remains open.

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On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $280 billion bill to provide incentives for production of semiconductors and other investments in science and technology. The House passed ‘The Chips and Science Act’  by a vote of 243-187.  The bill passed the Senate on Wednesday with a 64-33 vote; it will now go back to President Biden to be signed into law.

The $280 billion Chips and Science Act will subsidize domestic semiconductor manufacturing while also investing billions of dollars in science and tech innovation. It provides $52 billion in federal grants for semiconductors manufacturing and research. Roughly $100 billion is provided over five years for regional tech hubs to support start-up companies. The bill is expected to make the chip supply chain more resilient after having experienced shortages that adversely impacted the economy.

That bill invests $369 billion in energy and climate change spending over 10 years while raising an estimated $313 billion from the corporate minimum tax and $124 billion through IRS enforcement of reformed tax code. It raises another $14 billion in revenue by closing the carried interest loophole for high income individuals, resulting in a deficit reduction of more than $300 billion.

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The suspect accused of the mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill., which killed seven people and injured dozens of others, has been indicted on 117 counts.

Prosecutors announced Wednesday that the suspect, Robert Crimo III, faces 21 counts of first-degree murder, which breaks down to three counts of first-degree murder for each victim who died. According to the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office, the 21-year-old is also facing 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm for each parade victim who was injured by a bullet or shrapnel. Crimo was initially charged with seven counts of murder after his arrest; he will appear in court next week to be arraigned on the new charges. He is currently being held without bond.

Crimo confessed to opening fire on the parade crowd from a nearby rooftop. Authorities believe Crimo had planned the mass shooting for weeks, saying he used a “high-powered” weapon and fired more than 70 rounds into the crowd of parade participants and attendees before dropping his rifle. Crimo was granted a permit for his weapon and had passed four background checks in 2020 and 2021. Crimo’s father, former Highland Park mayoral candidate Robert Crimo Jr., sponsored his son’s gun application for a license in December 2019; the suspect bought the gun legally in Illinois.

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed on Wednesday that the United States has made a “substantial proposal” to bring home WNBA star Brittney Griner, as well as another American currently detained in Russia. Blinken did not elaborate on the details of the proposal while taking questions from reporters at the State Department, telling reporters: “We put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago. Our government has communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal, and I’ll use the conversation to follow up personally and, I hope, move us toward a resolution.” Blinken said he would discuss the proposal with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the coming days.

CNN reported that the proposal involves exchanging Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms trafficker, for Griner and Paul Whelan, a former Marine and former security executive serving a 16-year hard labor sentence at a Mordovia prison camp.  Bout is currently serving a 25-year U.S. prison sentence after being found guilty in 2011 of conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to a designated foreign terrorist organization based in Colombia to be used to kill Americans in that country.

The 31-year-old Griner pleaded guilty to possessing less than a gram of hash oil when she arrived and was taken into custody at the Moscow airport on Feb. 17.  She testified in Russian court Wednesday that she had not intended to bring hash oil vape cartridges with her to Russia, saying that her rights were not read to her and she didn’t understand what was going on during her arrest.  Griner testified that she uses medical cannabis after a knee injury, but did not use it before tournaments, adding that she has a medical marijuana prescription from the state of Arizona.

Griner’s trial is expected to last until at least early August, and a Russian judge has ordered her detained for the entire length of the trial.  She faces as many as 10 years in prison if she’s convicted on the drug charges.

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