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MS-13 Gang Member Nicknamed ‘Terror’ Gets Life In Jail for Killing Texas Teen
An MS-13 gang member nicknamed “Terror” has been sentenced to life behind bars for his role in the shooting death of a Houston-area teenager. Douglas Alexander Herrera-Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being found guilty of capital murder in the 2016 slaying of 16-year-old Estuar Quinonez, the Office of the District Attorney, Harris County, Texas, said in a release. The victim had witnessed several gang-related murders and his killers wanted to silence him forever, prosecutors said. “We are trying to break the back of this organization by sending their assassins to prison for as long as possible and we will remain unrelenting in our pursuit of these criminals who band together to terrorize communities,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in the release. Prosecutors said Herrera-Hernandez admitted to contacting MS-13 gang leaders in El Salvador to sign off on Quinonez’s murder. Herrera-Hernandez and several other …
Judicial Watch: Records Show Iowa State Officials Coordinated with Big Tech to Censor Election Posts
The records show communications between the Secretary of State’s office and representatives of Facebook and Twitter to Target Judicial Watch Posts.
(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch announced today that it received 624 pages of records from the office of the Secretary of State of Iowa, revealing how state officials pressured social media companies (Twitter and Facebook) to censor posts about the 2020 election. Included in these records were emails from Iowa state officials to representatives of Big Tech pressuring these companies to remove Judicial Watch’s posts. The emails show how the state agency successfully pressured Facebook to censor Judicial Watch’s post about Iowa’s management of its voter rolls.
Judicial Watch received the records as a result of a June 2020 Iowa Open Records lawsuit that was filed after the Iowa Secretary of State failed to comply with a February 2020 request for records and communications about a Judicial Watch report regarding the accuracy of the state’s voter registration rolls (Judicial Watch v. Iowa Secretary of State (No. 05771 EQCE085973)). Judicial Watch was represented by Iowa lawyer Alan R. Ostergren of Des Moines, Iowa.
The records show that officials in the Iowa Secretary of State office on multiple occasions contacted officials from Facebook and Twitter to try to have these companies remove Judicial Watch posts that raised concerns about Iowa’s failure to maintain accurate election rolls.
“These records are yet another example of state officials conspiring with Big Tech to deny Americans their First Amendment rights,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These records further show that Big Tech censorship is a government scandal: Iowa government officials worked with Facebook to remove posts they didn’t like, and Facebook bowed to this political pressure immediately. It should be disturbing to all Americans that government officials are working to censor speech they disagree with and that these behemoth companies often seem willing to roll over and censor free speech.”
Facebook oversight board to reveal decision on Trump ban on Wednesday
Facebook’s “Oversight Board” said Monday that its decision on whether to keep former US President Donald Trump blocked from its social media platforms will come Wednesday.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the decision to block Trump from Facebook and Instagram on Jan. 7, one day after a group of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in a bloody and deadly riot.
“The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden,” Zuckerberg wrote in the announcement.
In the same week, Twitter announced the decision to permanently ban Trump from its platform. Trump was also blocked from Snapchat and YouTube after the riot.
The bans ignited a debate about the role of social media giants in society and whether they should have the power to silence users without external policies that are clearly defined.
Gray Television to be second largest broadcaster after $2.7B Meredith deal
Gray Television will spend $2.7 billion to buy the local TV stations of Meredith, a purchase that will make it the second-largest local broadcaster in the U.S., the company announced Monday.
In the deal, Gray will acquire Meredith’s Local Media Group, which owns 17 television stations in 12 local markets including Atlanta, Phoenix, St. Louis, Nashville, Kansas City and Las Vegas.
Gray expects the deal to close at the end of the year, after which it will own stations in 113 local markets and serve approximately 36 percent of U.S. television households, according to the announcement.
Nexstar is the largest U.S. broadcast company, with stations in 116 markets serving nearly 62 percent of U.S. television households, according to its website.
As part of the deal, Meredith will spin off its National Media Group into a separate company.
National media owns numerous magazine brands including People, Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes & Gardens, InStyle, Allrecipes, Real Simple, Shape and Southern Living, as well as digital and marketing assets.
The Gray/Meredith deal is the latest of several significant media deals announced this year.
Modi Resists Pressure to Lock Down India as Virus Deaths Rise
Two weeks ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on states to only consider lockdowns “as the last option.” Now everyone from his political allies to top business leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser see them as the only way to stem the world’s worst virus outbreak.
The debate has been complicated by Modi’s move last year to impose a nationwide lockdown without warning, spurring a humanitarian crisis as migrant workers fled on foot to rural areas. While Modi is keen to avoid that criticism again, particularly after his Bharatiya Janata Party failed to win an election in West Bengal when votes were counted Sunday, even states run by his party are ignoring his advice.
“One of the problems is this false narrative that it’s either a full lockdown, which equates to economic disaster, or no lockdown, which is a public health disaster,” said Catherine Blish, an infectious disease specialist and global health expert at Stanford Medicine in California. “What’s happening now is a health and an economic disaster. If you have huge swaths of your population getting sick, that’s not good for your population or your economy.”
Sen. Scott ‘Hopeful’ on Police Reform as Democrats Now Looking for ‘Solution,’ Not ‘Issue’
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) on Sunday said that he’s now hopeful on negotiating police reform with colleagues on the other side of the aisle as Democrats have since last year shifted their focus from looking for an “issue” to finding a “solution” to the problem.
Nearly a year after the Republican senator first unveiled his law enforcement reform bill in response to the nation-wide protest against police brutality fueled by the death of George Floyd, Scott said he is more optimistic about working with Democrats on the issue.
“One of the reasons why I’m hopeful is because, in a way, this time, my friends on the left aren’t looking for the issue; they’re looking for a solution,” Scott, the fourth black politician from the South to serve in the U.S. Senate, told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“And the things that I offered last year are more popular this year. That gives me reasons to be hopeful,” he told host John Dickerson.
Verizon Agrees to Sell Yahoo, AOL to Apollo for $5 Billion
Apollo Global Management Inc. agreed to pay about $5 billion to acquire Yahoo and AOL from Verizon Communications Inc. as the wireless company exits its ill-fated foray into the media business.
The private-equity firm is paying $4.25 billion in cash for a 90% share of the media assets. Verizon will keep a 10% stake and $750 million of additional preferred stock in the new company, called Yahoo, that will be formed to operate the business.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the potential sale of Verizon’s media assets to Apollo. Verizon Media, which mostly struggled to grow against Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc., generated $7 billion in revenue last year.
Apollo’s strategy for the business revolves around getting more revenue from each of its 900 million active monthly users. Verizon’s positioning of the media business as a complement to its core mobile business—aimed at helping it add subscribers and reduce the number of people who quit—meant it hasn’t pursued some opportunities to maximize the value of each asset, executives at the private-equity firm
May 3, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 52 Minutes 29 Seconds
Bill and Melinda Gates Announce Divorce After 27 Years; Biden Raises Refugee Cap to 62,500. The Biden administration has just increased the limit for foreigners seeking refuge in the United States, President Joe Biden visited an elementary school and a community college in Virginia to sell his latest spending plan, and violent riots broke out on the West Coast on May 1.
Trump Lawyer Jenna Ellis Challenges Liz Cheney to Debate on 2020 Election Integrity: ‘Name the Time and Place’
Jenna Ellis, a former Trump campaign lawyer, is challenging Rep. Liz Cheney to debate election integrity in the 2020 election.
On Monday, Rep. Liz Cheney insisted on Twitter that the 2020 presidential election “was not stolen.”
“Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”
Cheney was responding to a Trump statement released Monday morning that “The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!”
In response to Cheney’s tweet, Ellis pointed out that “Election officials in at least six states violated the law in the administration of the 2020 election. That’s called cheating.”
“If you have the guts to debate me on this, name the time and place,” Ellis tweeted to Cheney.
Hillary Clinton voices concern on Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal, warns of ‘unintended’ consequences
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is putting a warning label on fellow Democrat President Biden’s decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan.
“I know it is a very difficult decision,” Clinton said Sunday on CNN “This is what we call a wicked problem. You know there are consequences both foreseen and unintended of staying and of leaving. The president has made the decision to leave.”
Biden, who during the Obama administration was vice president when Clinton was the country’s top diplomat, said last month that all of the remaining 2,500 U.S. military troops in Afghanistan will leave by Sept. 11 – roughly 20 years they arrived in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Clinton said her major concerns are the potential collapse of Kabul and the Taliban taking over the country, which could result in the resuming of global terrorist activities.