Random News: April 17, 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 April 17, 2023, and it’s a Monday. Let’s explore the very recent past…

• I’m getting pretty sick of people who shoot people due to a mistaken address.
• I told you last week about the cops in Albuquerque who killed a homeowner at the wrong address. Today I want to be sure you know about Ralph Yarl, a teenager who was sent to pick up his younger siblings at an address in Kansas City, MO.
• He went to a very wrong address and the guy who answered the door shot him twice, in the arm and then in the head. Amazingly, Ralph didn’t die and is in stable condition.
• The teen was just about to graduate high school and was headed to college to major in chemical engineering. He recently earned Missouri All-State Band honorable mention for his excellence on the bass clarinet. Now it will be amazing if he ever fully recovers.
• Is that the world we live in? If a Black kid rings your doorbell, you shoot first? Is that what guns are for?
• The resident who shot Yarl was taken into custody but has not been charged and was released 24 hours later. Civil rights attorneys have been hired.
• Moving on.
• The defamation lawsuit between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News was scheduled to start this morning, but Fox keeps raising the massive amounts of money that would settle the suit before this information becomes public.
• After a flurry of activity last night, the trial is currently delayed until tomorrow. Dominion, a voting machine company, wants $1.6 billion to counteract the lies Fox and its correspondents told during the Big Lie of the 2020 election.
• It looks like Fox is willing to pay to avoid the public spectacle of admitting that it purposely lies to its viewers.
• In the ongoing questions of ethics surrounding SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas, the judge now says he intends to amend his financial disclosure forms to reflect a 2014 real estate deal he made with GOP megadonor Harlan Crow.
• That deal — one of many improper financial interactions between the men — involves the sale of three Georgia properties, including the home where Thomas’ mother currently lives.
• Also, Thomas has reported on required financial disclosure forms that his family received rental income totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a firm called Ginger, Ltd., Partnership.
• But that company — launched in the 1980s by his wife and her relatives — has not existed since 2006. Thomas has continued to report income from the defunct company — between $50,000 and $100,000 annually in recent years.
• This guy has got to go.
• Senate minority leader and bizarre human/turtle hybrid Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 81, will be back at work in the U.S. Capitol today, almost six weeks after a fall where he ended up with a concussion and a cracked shell- I mean, rib.
• The 51-49 Democratic-controlled Senate has been slow to accomplish tasks this year due to a few members being out due to various ailments.
• And now, The Weather: “Got Shocked” by Wednesday
• Major storm systems hitting the Midwest right now, along with thousands of power outages reported across Western New York.
• RIP to jazz pianist and composer Ahmad Jamal. He was 92 years old. 
• His minimalistic style laid the groundwork for “cool jazz.” Fantastic musician in every way.
• Thomas Peterffy, a top Republican donor, said he has paused plans to fund Ron DeSantis’s expected presidential run.
• “I have put myself on hold. Because of his stance on abortion and book banning … myself, and a bunch of friends, are holding our powder dry,” he stated.
• Get used to more of that, GOP Christian Nationalist extremists.
• Even the vile Ann Coulter is calling DeSantis’s six-week abortion ban a “total disaster” for Republican candidates in the upcoming election cycle.
• She notes, “How about the 11 elections Republicans have lost with strict anti-abortion positions since Dobbs?”
• She’s right.
• On Friday, Montana became the first state to pass a bill to ban TikTok, the popular video streaming app. If Gov. Greg Gianforte signs the measure into law, it would become illegal to download the app in the state and would fine entities such as app stores $10,000 per violation.
• Interesting. I get all the reasons they’re using to support the ban, but on the surface they also seem equally applicable to Instagram, Facebook, and Google.
• Except those aren’t owned by Chinese entities. Hmm.
• From the Sports Desk… lots of injuries in the very first games of the NBA playoffs. Stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ja Morant may not make it to Game 2.
• Today in history… Trial of Martin Luther over his teachings begins during the assembly of the Diet of Worms (1521). The state of Virginia's secession convention votes to secede from the United States, later becoming the eighth state to join the Confederate States of America (1861). Confederate forces attack Plymouth, NC (1864). The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day (1907). Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy (1969). The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely (1970). NASA's Kepler space telescope confirms the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star (2014). 
• April 17 is the birthday of poet/playwright John Ford (1586), SCOTUS justice Samuel Chase (1741), financier J. P. Morgan (1837), MLB player Cap Anson (1852), ventriloquist Señor Wences (1896), actor William Holden (1918), journalist Harry Reasoner (1923), music manager/producer Don Kirshner (1934), keyboardist Jan Hammer (1948), wrestler Roddy Piper (1954), singer-songwriter Michael Sembello (1954), DJ/producer Afrika Bambaataa (1957), singer-songwriter Liz Phair (1967), actress Jennifer Garner (1972), and actress Rooney Mara (1985).

Okay, easing back into normal life. It usually takes me a full week to get past the trauma and sensory overload of a big trade show. I’ll get there. Enjoy your day.