Random News: February 16, 2023

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s February 16, 2023, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I’m sure there are things…

• Ugh, I’m fucking sick. I haven’t been sick since November 2019. I forgot what it was like.
• Found out: it sucks.
• I don’t know what I have. My throat hurts and I am coughing and shivering and feel run down, as in, like a car ran me down, and then reversed, and did it again.
• The fact of the matter is, I’ve had to spend a lot more time around gross human beings in recent weeks, first with many visits to see my mom in the hospital, and then to make arrangements at the funeral home.
• It’s probably a cold. I’m hoping it’s not a flu.
• I think it’s a flu. Fuck.
• Anyway, I probably won’t die. I mean, I will, but probably not this week or anything like that. Let’s do some news.
• A Georgia grand jury said one or more witnesses in a criminal probe of former President Donald Trump may have lied under oath while testifying.
• The panel recommended that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis pursue indictments for perjury in those cases. The section of the report that will reveal if the panel believes that Trump, his lawyers or political allies should be indicted remains under seal.
• Get his ass.
• Payton Gendron, the 19-year-old white gunman who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo grocery last year, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
• “I did a terrible thing that day. I shot and killed people because they were Black. Looking back now, I can’t believe I actually did it. I believed what I read online and acted out the hate and now I can’t take it back but I wish I could.”
• “You don't mean none of that shit,” a woman yelled.
• Gendron also faces 27 federal counts including murder, discharging a firearm and hate crimes. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison or the death penalty. 
• Moving on.
• Raquel Welch, quite possibly one of the most beautiful women who ever existed, has died after a brief illness. She was 82.
• Welch was born as Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940, in Chicago, IL. 
• ”I was not brought up to be a sex symbol, nor is it in my nature to be one. The fact that I became one is probably the loveliest, most glamorous and fortunate misunderstanding.”
• Rest in peace.
• And now, The Weather: “Arrow” by Savagery
• The Justice Department has stated that it will not bring charges against Rep. Matt Gaetz (F-FL) after a years-long federal sex-trafficking investigation.
• No justice, no peace. Remember that, you child fucker.
• From the Sports Desk… six-time NBA champion (and guy widely acknowledged as the greatest NBA player of all time) Michael Jordan is celebrating his 60th birthday on Friday by making a $10 million donation to Make-A-Wish.
• It is the largest donation ever received from an individual in the organization's 43-year history.
• That’s cool.
• Today in history… Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister (1742). Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (1923). Wallace H. Carothers receives a United States patent for nylon (1937). The Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law in the United States, was signed into law (1945). Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown (1959). In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service (1968). The first computer bulletin board system is created — CBBS in Chicago (1978). The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004–05 regular season and playoffs (2005). 
• February 16 is the birthday of US vice president Henry Wilson (1812), journalist Henry Adams (1838), engineer/businessman Henry M. Leland (1843), ventriloquist/actor Edgar Bergen (1903), actor/musician/politician Sonny Bono (1935), politician Kim Jong-il (1941), singer-songwriter James Ingram (1952), model/actress Margaux Hemingway (1954), actor/producer LeVar Burton (1957), rapper/actor Ice-T (1958), tennis player John McEnroe (1959), guitarist/songwriter Andy Taylor (1961), NFL player Jerome Bettis (1972), politician Jon Ossoff (1987), and singer-songwriter The Weeknd (1990).

I’ve been in bed all day this far. I’m trying to get up for one important meeting, but then I’ll be back in bed. Enjoy your day.