Month: November 2022

Officials in Atlanta said on Sunday that the victims of the shooting on Saturday night near the popular Atlanta shopping destination ‘Atlantic Station’, which left one dead and five injured, were all minors — including the deceased, a 12-year-old. Gunfire erupting on an adjacent freeway overpass of the Downtown Connector, near 17th Street.

Mayor Andre Dickens confirmed the victims’ ages at a news conference, saying that some of the victims were Atlanta Public School students. Dickens said one of the injured victims was in critical condition, adding: “When a 12-year-old dies in our city — on our city streets … the whole village has a responsibility, and the whole village is impacted.”

Officer Anthony Grant, a representative for the Atlanta Police Department, confirmed that all victims involved in the shooting were minors. The shooting took place on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year near the outdoor Atlantic Station mall, after off-duty police and mall personnel escorted the teens off the property for unruly behavior and violations of a curfew set by the shopping center.  There was no information immediately available on a possible suspect, Grant said, adding that the incident is still under investigation. While the details of how the gunfire erupted are still not clear, police said there is a possibility of two shooters.

Atlantic Station has a 3 p.m. curfew for people under the age of 18. After the curfew, they need to be accompanied by an adult. Groups of four or more juveniles will be dispersed. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact the Atlanta police at 404-577-TIPS.

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Nebraska has reported its 13th case of bird flu this year at a farm in Dixon County, where 1.8 million chickens will be sent to slaughter.  The Nebraska Department of Agriculture (“NDA”) reported the latest case at an egg-laying farm in northeast Nebraska.  The NDA will create a 6.2 mile radius around the site of the infection as a way to stop or limit any potential spread. The control zone is still being established, after which depopulation will commence followed by disposal.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly referred to as bird flu, has led to more than 50.54 million bird deaths this year, making it the worst nationwide outbreak of the virus in history. The prior record was 50.5 million birds killed in 2015. There have been 6.8 million birds ordered to be killed in Nebraska. That is the second-most by any state, behind only Iowa with 15.5 million killed.

Symptoms of bird flu include birds not taking in as much water as usual, lack of energy and appetite, soft-shelled or misshapen eggs and sudden death. Poultry producers are told to watch for these symptoms, limit access to their facilities, increase biosecurity efforts and report illnesses to the NDA or USDA.

While there is little risk to humans from the virus, the bird flu outbreak has contributed to the rising prices of chicken and turkey along with the soaring cost of feed and fuel.

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Officials say that an apartment fire in the New York City borough of The Bronx on Thanksgiving day left two people dead and two critically injured. The blaze broke out on the second floor of a five-story building in the Mount Hope neighborhood of the Bronx around 5:30 a.m., killing a 60-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman.

Police told local NY station WABC-TV that the victims were identified as 20-year-old Odalys Aramboles and 60-year-old Perfecto Aramboles. The other two victims, listed in critical condition at area hospitals, were described as a 62-year-old woman and a 63-year-old woman. An NYPD spokesperson said investigators believe all four victims are related.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but officials say it may have been caused by an electrical fire that started in a hallway closet next to the kitchen.

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During a Thanksgiving Day visit to Nantucket, Mass. to meet with local firefighters, President Joe Biden called for stricter gun laws in the wake of deadly mass shootings in Colorado, where a gunmen targeted an LGBTQ night club, and in Virginia, where a Walmart supervisor opened fire in an employee break room.

After Biden thanked first responders, he told reporters he would attempt to pass some form of gun control before a new Congress is seated in January, renewing his attempt to ban assault weapons. Said Biden: “I’m sick and tired of these shootings. We should have much stricter gun laws … Look, the idea that we’re not enforcing red-flag laws, period, just based on knowledge, not on parents saying or a loved one saying you should arrest this person now for his own sake, is ridiculous … The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick. It’s just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.”

The shootings in Colorado Springs and Chesapeake are just two of the more than 600 mass shootings so far this year. Other mass shootings occurred throughout the country over the past week; last Sunday, four people in Oklahoma were gunned down at a marijuana farm, an a mother and her three kids were killed in Richmond, Virginia, on Friday.

The president also called-in live to the broadcast of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City earlier in the day, saying:  “I want to say thanks to the firefighters, the police officers, the first responders — they never take a break.”  He said he planned to later talk to those serving in the military both here and abroad, adding,”God bless our troops, for real.”

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