“Wipeout” contestant dies after completing obstacle course
A contestant on “Wipeout” has died after completing the game show’s obstacle course, authorities and sources close to the production said Friday. The man, who was in his 30s, was declared dead at a hospital shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday, Los Angeles County coroner’s spokeswoman Sarah Ardalani said. The cause of death has not been released, and the man’s name is being withheld until relatives can be notified.
The reality competition show, in which contestants navigate an extreme obstacle course featuring giant balls and pitfalls that often result in spectacular crashes, ran on ABC from 2008 until 2014 and is being rebooted by TBS and production company Endemol Shine North America.
Two people close to the production said the man had completed the course on the show’s set in Santa Clarita, California, when he needed medical attention. He was helped by on-site medical staff until paramedics arrived and took him to the hospital. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The show stopped production Thursday and Friday and has a planned week off next week, they said. Its contestants undergo a medical exam before competing.
“We are devastated to have learned of his passing and our deepest sympathy goes out to the family.” TBS said in a statement.
Endemol Shine released a statement saying, “We offer our heartfelt condolences to the family and our thoughts are with them at this time.”
TBS announced in April that the show would be returning, and it said in September its new hosts would be John Cena and Nicole Byer. No premiere date had been set yet.
The death was first reported by TMZ.
Article via CBS
8 injured in Wisconsin mall shooting; suspect sought
WAUWATOSA, Wis. (AP) — Eight people were injured in a shooting Friday at a suburban Milwaukee mall and police said they were still seeking the suspect.
Wauwatosa Police Chief Barry Weber gave no motive for the attack at the Mayfair Mall in a brief update about three hours after the 2:50 p.m. incident near an entrance to the Macy’s store. He said the extent of injuries to the eight — seven adults and one teenager — was unknown, but all were alive. He added that the shooter was “no longer at the scene” when authorities arrived.
“Preliminary statements from witnesses indicate that the shooter is a white male in his 20s or 30s,” Weber told reporters. “Investigators are working on determining the identity of that suspect.”
The chief called the mall an active crime scene and asked people to continue to stay away. He said the mall would remain closed until further notice.
Witnesses told WISN-TV that they had heard what they believed to be eight to 12 gunshots. Some people remained in the mall while police searched for a suspect. The station interviewed several people outside the mall who said they had friends sheltering in stores inside.
Jill Wooley was inside Macy’s with her 79-year-old mother when they heard eight to 12 gun shots just outside the store entrance.
“We heard the first shot fired and knew immediately it was a gunshot,” Wooley told CBS58 in Milwaukee. “We both just dropped to the floor.”You Should Consider a Vanguard Stable Value FundThe goal of stable value funds in a portfolio is capital perservation. Discover why Vanguard stable value could be right for your plan.Ad By Vanguard See More
Wooley said she didn’t see anyone but the shots were “very close.” She added that they ran in the opposite direction to the basement of the store, where they then hid.
Trish Cox’s 19-year-old nephew works at Finish Line sporting goods store. She said she was worried because the store’s phone wasn’t being answered. She was waiting frantically while FBI agents cleared the mall.
An agent who wouldn’t give his name said the mall was being “methodically” cleared. Heavily armed FBI personnel were visible at the mall.
Mall operator Brookfield Properties said in a statement they were “disheartened and angered that our guests and tenants were subject to this violent incident today.” They declined further comment.
The Mayfair Mall was the site of a February shooting in which a city police officer, Joseph Mensah, shot and killed Alvin Cole, a Black 17-year-old. Police said Cole was fleeing from police; Mensah, who is also Black, said he shot Cole because Cole pointed a gun at him. The mall was the target of sporadic protests over several months in the wake of the shooting.
The Milwaukee County district attorney declined to file charges against Mensah, but the city this week agreed to a separation agreement in which Mensah will be paid at least $130,000 to leave the force.
via: https://www.kmov.com/news/police-8-injured-in-wisconsin-mall-shooting-suspect-sought/article_cce526a6-64b4-57ae-b3b6-07771e354a5e.html?block_id=985911
Photo Credit: WDJT via CNN Wire
Donald Trump Jr. tests positive for coronavirus
(CNN) — Donald Trump Jr., President Donald Trump’s eldest son, has tested positive for the coronavirus, a personal spokesman told CNN on Friday.
“Don tested positive at the start of the week and has been quarantining out at his cabin since the result,” the spokesman said. “He’s been completely asymptomatic so far and is following all medically recommended COVID-19 guidelines.”
Bloomberg was first to report Trump Jr.’s positive result.
Trump Jr. becomes the latest figure close to the President to test positive for Covid-19. In addition to himself, first lady Melania Trump, his youngest son Barron, his chief of staff Mark Meadows and a number of other top aides both in his campaign and in the White House have tested positive in recent months.
Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, also tested positive for the virus over the summer as the duo campaigned for Trump throughout the country.Proton therapy targeted and defeated my cancerWhen Chuck Martinez was diagnosed with lung cancer, he turned to the MD Anderson Proton Therapy Center. Today, he’s healthier than ever.Ad By MD Anderson Cancer Center See More
Trump Jr. was among the roughly 250 guests who attended the White House’s indoor election night party, where nearly every attendee was seen not wearing a mask. Other party attendees have since tested positive, including Meadows, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and White House political affairs director Brian Jack.
Trump Jr. has spread a significant amount of misinformation about the coronavirus. Late last month, he told Fox News that the number of deaths from Covid-19 is now “almost nothing.” Over the summer, his Twitter account was restricted for sharing a video that spread false information about the drug hydroxychloroquine and he shared a Facebook meme spreading doubt about the effectiveness of masks against the coronavirus.
The news comes as Covid is spreading throughout the country, with daily case records being set nearly every day in November, and is also spreading throughout Washington’s halls of power. Two Republican senators, Rick Scott of Florida and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, have announced in the last few days that they tested positive and to this point 26 House members and 10 senators have so far tested positive or been presumed positive since the beginning of the pandemic.
via: https://www.kmov.com/news/donald-trump-jr-tests-positive-for-coronavirus/article_051c5794-1e4a-54c3-924b-e39dfbb25428.html?block_id=985911
Photo Credit: kmov.com
Florida woman charged with abandoning her sick baby on stranger’s doorstep
A Florida woman allegedly abandoned her sick 3-month-old son on the doorstep of a stranger’s home over the weekend, authorities said.
Melissa Kelley, 33, is accused of dropping off her baby in his car seat on Patricia Tillman’s porch Sunday night saying she couldn’t care for the infant any longer, the Dayton Beach News-Journal reported.
Kelley, of Astor, warned Tillman the baby had scabies — an infestation of the skin caused by a tiny burrowing mite — and that he had a dirty diaper, the outlet reported citing a police report.
She added that the child’s father would pick him up before she ran off.
Tillman eventually learned that the baby’s father was her daughter’s boyfriend, Clayton Zinck.
When investigators reached Zinck’s parents they said they wouldn’t take the baby, the outlet reported.
The police report states that Kelley threatened to harm her baby boy, texting relatives, “please don’t make me throw this baby in the trash,” and that she was going to kill herself because she wasn’t in a relationship with Zinck.
Kelley has been charged with unlawful desertion of a child and child neglect. The boy was taken by child services and treated at a local hospital.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/20/florida-woman-charged-with-abandoning-sick-baby-on-doorstep/
Photo Credit: Lake County Sheriff’s Office
Florida mom allegedly forced her 2-year-old son to smoke weed from a vape so that he would “sleep and eat better
Kiarra Clarisse, 22, of Meritt Island, was arrested Tuesday on a child neglect charge after her ex-girlfriend alerted the child’s father about the alleged vaping, news station WKMG reported.
The ex-girlfriend told him that Clarisse gave pot to the boy in order to “get him to sleep and eat better,” and that she had witnessed her forcing him to use a vaping device on a number of occasions, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by The Smoking Gun.
She claimed that Clarisse also canceled the child’s medical appointments out of fear that they would detect drugs in his system.
Upon learning about the alleged vaping, the boy’s father contacted the child welfare officials and brought the boy to a hospital, where he tested positive for THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, the outlets reported.
The father also told authorities that the boy also appeared “slow” and lethargic during a visit with the toddler earlier this month.
Clarisse was released from custody Thursday on $3,000 bond, according to court records. She’s set to appear in court Dec. 15.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/19/florida-mom-made-toddler-son-vape-so-he-sleep-better-cops/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
‘Whites only’ graduation party in South Africa sparks mass protests
Police and activists clashed in South Africa Friday during a protest against a graduation party allegedly organized for “whites only.”
Nearly 2,000 members of the Economic Freedom Fighters, a radical left political party, rallied around Brackenfell High School in Cape Town as police fired tear gas and water cannons at the crowd, Al Jazeera reported.
Police later told protest organizers that only 100 people were allowed to demonstrate, but the group accused the cops of being heavy-handed.
The confrontation stemmed from outrage over an off-site graduation party organized by parents. A flyer for the bash was disseminated to a WhatsApp group that included several teachers but not shared with regular class groups, one student told local news site IOL, adding that it was clear black students were not invited.
“We have class WhatsApp groups where information is usually shared, but it was not the case on the event which clearly shows we were meant to be excluded,” the student told IOL.
The event, called the Masquerade Ball MX’20, was held at a winery in Stellenbosch on Oct. 17.
School officials said the party was a “private event” and not organized by the school.
EFF protesters and white parents scuffled over the party on Nov. 9, with videos showing them punching each other on the streets, Al Jazeera said.
South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa called for an investigation, calling the dispute “deeply regrettable,” saying it brings back “hurtful memories of a past we should never seek to return to.”
“The spectacle of parents and protesters coming to blows at the school gate is deeply unfortunate,” he said.
Apartheid in South Africa ended three decades ago, though the country remains divided by racism.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/20/whites-only-graduation-party-in-south-africa-sparks-mass-protests/
Photo Credit: EPA
Washington man arrested for child rape during interview for a job with state police
A Washington man applying for a job with the state’s police force got arrested mid-interview.
The 31-year-old admitted something that set off alarms as he was going through the background check and polygraph test process for a gig with the Washington State Patrol on Tuesday, local outlet KING-TV reported.
“A person in the application process for a civilian job with the WSP disclosed information that raised concerns of criminal activity,” a police spokesman said in a statement.
Officials didn’t divulge exactly what the man said — but it resulted in him getting cuffed on two counts of child rape.
Investigators said the incident happened years ago, but didn’t provide more details.
The creep’s name wasn’t released.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/19/washington-man-arrested-mid-interview-for-a-job-with-state-police/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Drug trafficker executed for kidnapping and raping teen, burying her alive
A marijuana trafficker convicted of kidnapping and raping a teen – and then burying her alive – was executed this week at an Indiana prison, becoming the eighth federal inmate to die this year.
Orlando Cordia Hall, 49, was put to death via lethal injection late Thursday at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, where he was pronounced dead at 11:47 p.m., the Department of Justice announced.
Court documents show Hall, who ran a marijuana trafficking operation in Arkansas with several accomplices, drove to Arlington, Texas, in September 1994 after a botched drug deal worth $4,700.
Prosecutors said Hall and his accomplices went to the man’s home because they thought he stole their money and instead kidnapped his 16-year-old sister, Lisa Rene, after she refused to let them inside.
Hall then raped the teen — an honors student and aspiring doctor — in a car and later drove her to a hotel in Arkansas, where he and his accomplices bound and repeatedly raped her, prosecutors said.
The following morning, Hall said the teen had known “too much” and took her to a park where he and another man dug a grave earlier that afternoon, but were unable to find the site.
One day later, on Sept. 26, 1994, Hall and two other men took the teen to Byrd Natural Lake Area in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where Hall placed a sheet over her head and whacked her with a shovel, prosecutors said.
“Rene screamed and tried to run away, but the men tackled her and took turns beating her with the shovel,” the Justice Department said in a statement. “After soaking her with gasoline, they dragged her into the grave and buried her alive.”
A federal jury convicted Hall in 1995 of kidnapping resulting in death and unanimously sentenced him to die by lethal injection.
In his final statements, Hall encouraged others to become followers of Islam, the Tribune-Star reported.
“Thank you for giving me this opportunity for forgiveness,” Hall said. “Thank everyone who’s here – my family and my loved ones. I love you.”
Hall also had one final message for his children.
“I’m OK,” he said. “Take care of yourself. Tell my kids I love them.”
One of Hall’s co-conspirators, Bruce Webster, was also sentenced to death, but a court vacated the punishment last year due to his intellectual disability. Three others, including Hall’s brother, cooperated at his trial and received lesser sentences.
Rene’s sister, meanwhile, said the execution capped a “very long and painful chapter” in the family’s lives, the Tribune-Star reported.
“We have been dealing with this for 26 years and now we’re having to relive the tragic nightmare that our beloved Lisa went through,” Pearl Rene said in a statement. “Ending this painful process will be a major goal for our family. This is only the end of the legal aftermath. The execution of Orlando Hall will never stop the suffering we continue to endure. Please pray for our family as well as his.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/20/drug-trafficker-executed-for-raping-teen-burying-her-alive/
Photo Credit: Attorneys for Orlando Hall
Tyson Foods manager had betting pool for how many workers would get COVID-19
The manager of a Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Iowa organized a winner-take-all betting pool for supervisors to wager on how many workers at the facility would contract COVID-19 around the start of the pandemic, a new lawsuit charges.
The manager of the Waterloo pork plant, Tom Hart, allegedly set up the sadistic wager as coronavirus spread through the company’s facilities around the globe and workers crowded into the Iowa plant without face masks or other protective equipment.
In the federal lawsuit filed in Iowa, the son of a plant worker who died of coronavirus, alleges Hart and other supervisors steered clear of the plant floor in late March and early April “because they were afraid of contracting the virus.”
“Around this time, Defendant Tom Hart, the Plant Manager of the Waterloo Facility, organized a cash buy-in, winner-take-all betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager how many employees would test positive for COVID-19,” the suit states.
On April 12, more than two dozen workers at the plant were hospitalized with coronavirus, according to the suit.
The plant remained open despite repeated calls from local officials to stop production, the suit states, and supervisors were encouraged to work even if they had symptoms of the deadly virus.
On one occasion, a top plant official, “intercepted a sick supervisor en-route to get tested and ordered the supervisor to get back to work, adding, ‘we all have symptoms—you have a job to do’,” the suit alleges.
The plant is the company’s largest pork plant in the US and employs some 2,800 workers.
In May, the Des Moines Register reported more than 1,000 workers at the facility tested positive for the virus.
The son of the worker who filed the suit, Oscar Fernandez, is seeking unspecified damages for gross negligence.
Tyson Foods and Hart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/18/tyson-foods-boss-had-betting-pool-for-worker-covid-19-cases-suit/
Photo Credit: AP
COVID-19 stricken mom gives birth to premature twins while in coma
A English woman gave birth to premature twins while in a coma with the coronavirus, a report said.
Perpetual Uke delivered the babies — a boy and a girl — via caesarean section on April 10 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Sky News reported. The twins were just 26 weeks old and each weighed under two pounds.
Just weeks earlier, Uke was admitted to the hospital, hooked up to a ventilator and placed in an induced coma.
“By the time I woke up, I was so disorientated,” the mother told the outlet. “I thought I’d lost my pregnancy because I couldn’t see my bump any more. I was really worried.”
The babies, named Palmer and Pascal, were cared for in the hospital’s neonatal intensive unit — and their mother spent 16 days in critical care before seeing them.
“They were so tiny they didn’t look like my older kids, I couldn’t touch them, I felt so emotional,” she told the outlet.
Uke’s husband, Matthew Uke, recalled the mixed emotions the day his wife gave birth.
“I had mixed feelings when the twins were brought out”, he said. “My wife was still in a coma, sick, I couldn’t talk to her. I was happy the twins were delivered but the thing is, is my wife coming home?”
Perpetual and her twins were eventually released from the hospital and the mother said they are doing “wonderfully.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/18/covid-19-stricken-mom-gives-birth-to-twins-while-in-coma/
Photo Credit: Youtube