Monday, December 23, 2019

Man in hospice granted final wish of getting baptized

An at-home hospice patient said he was missing something in his life, so staff members at came together to grant his last wish. A patient at Spartanburg Regional in South Carolina said he wanted to be baptized before his battle with cancer is over. He spent time in the Navy in Cuba and Guantanamo and 25 years as an air traffic controller. He said he’s always loved Jesus, but he had never been baptized. “The rest of his family, his brothers and sisters, have been baptized, and for some reason or another, he just never got around to getting it done,” said his son. Spartanburg Regional learned of his wish and took him to the hospice home, using the hospice special needs fund. There, a Chaplain baptized him. The video of the patients baptism has gone viral online. More than 200,000 people have watched the video. For now, he said he may pass some time drawing, as he imagines heaven. “Streets of gold and all that,” he said. (WYFF)

Iowa man sentenced to 15 years after burning church’s LGBTQ flag

30 year-old-man of Ames, Iowa was sentenced to 15 years for the hate crime of arson and given a year for reckless use of explosives or fire and 30 days for harassment. The sentences are to be served consecutively, Story County court records said. A jury convicted him in November. He’d been arrested in June. At the time of his November conviction, the “habitual offender” charge filed against him called for a lengthier penalty. Hate crime charges also carry enhanced penalties. He’s said he tore down the flag that had been hanging from the United Church of Christ in Ames and burned it because he opposes homosexuality. (KCCI)

School district passes on donation from dispensary to help with overdue lunch account

In the spirit of giving, Pure Rx Dispensary in Collinsville, Oklahoma was looking to give back in their community. So, they found the perfect opportunity when the Collinsville School District sent out a call for help. They had a $4,000 school lunch debt, so the Marijuana Dispensary decided to contribute to that. They wanted to give about $2,700 to the school district to pay for those overdue lunch accounts but the money didn’t go too far. School officials told them, “Thanks, but no thanks.” The district’s child nutrition director says there was a catch to taking that money. “We are a federally funded program, all lunch programs are federally funded,” said a school spokeswoman. “So, we were advised not to take that donation.” She says taking the money could have put their lunch program in jeopardy. Federally funded programs have a lot of rules and regulations, and organizations have to be careful with those. The folks at the dispensary are still looking to give back to the community and will look for another cause to donate to. As for the school lunch debts, that’s already being taken care of as other people in the community donated, which is what both sides wanted in the first place. Many members in the community donated to the district’s Angel Fund, which pays for the overdue lunches. The district says they will start the new year with no lunch debt. (KTUL)

Live Nation settles with DOJ

Live Nation has reached an agreement with the Justice Department to avoid a lawsuit over the way it sells tickets, citing anonymous sources. The concert-promoting giant sparked antitrust concerns after allegedly forcing concert venues to use its Ticketmaster subsidiary in violation of the 2010 merger agreement with the ticket seller. The original deal, intended to preserve competition, will now be extended through December 2025 — five and a half years beyond its initial July 2020 expiration. (CNBC)

Data on 267 million Facebook users exposed

A Ukrainian security researcher reported finding a database with the names, phone numbers and unique user IDs of more than 267 million Facebook users (nearly all U.S.-based) on the open internet. That data was likely harvested by criminals, said an independent security consultant in Kyiv. The database, which he discovered with a search engine, was freely accessible online for at least 10 days beginning December 4th, he said. He notified the internet provider where it was hosted when he found it on December 14th; five days later it was no longer available. He said someone downloaded the database to a hacker forum two days before he discovered it so it may have been shared among online thieves. Security experts say the affected Facebook users are at higher risk of being targeted by spam, password-stealing phishing attacks and identity theft attempts. The information can be cross-referenced with physical and email addresses and other data obtained in other data breaches. Facebook user IDs are unique numbers associated with individual accounts. (Engadget)

Video shows two Carnival cruise ships collide at Cozumel

The Carnival Glory and Carnival Legend collided last Friday (12/20) morning while at port in Cozumel, Mexico, leaving one passenger injured. Eyewitness video of the aftermath shows a portion of the Carnival Glory’s deck was left crushed after the crash. Carnival describes the incident as an allision (a nautical term used to describe when a moving ship collides with a stationary ship) between the two ships; the Carnival Glory was, “maneuvering to dock,” and hit the Carnival Legend, which was already docked. The company says one guest sustained a minor injury as guests were being evacuated from the dining room on decks 3 and 4, according to the company. It does not appear that either cruise liner’s itinerary will be affected by the crash, as Carnival says they’ve told guests to enjoy their day ashore. (WTSP)

US service academies say hand gestures at Army-Navy game were a game and not racist

The US Naval Academy and US Military Academy at West Point said last Friday (12/20) that the hand gesture some cadets and midshipmen were seen making on camera was part of a game known as the “circle game” and not a white supremacist symbol. The circle game is commonly played when a person forms an “OK” with their hand below their waist to trick a second person into looking at it. If the second person is caught looking at the hand gesture, that person is then punched by the person who made the gesture. The academies were investigating to see if the cadets and midshipmen were making a sign that can be associated with white nationalism, which is someone forming the “OK” sign with their fingers and thumb to symbolize the letters “WP”, which stands for “white power“. The academies launched internal investigations on Sunday after cadets and midshipmen were captured on ESPN’s pre-game show for the Army-Navy game making the hand gesture, which some interpreted as white nationalist and others interpreted as innocent. (CNN)

UPDATE: Former Dispatcher Cleared Of Wrongdoing

A former Fort Smith, Arkansas 911 dispatcher accused of mishandling a call with a drowning woman has been cleared of wrongdoing following an internal investigation conducted by the Fort Smith Police Department and Fire Department. Reports state that though operator may have violated policy by being rude to the victim at times, she had done nothing that would have warranted her termination had she still been employed with the Fort Smith Police Department. The woman on the phone who called into 911 died after her car was swept away by flash flooding while delivering papers on August 24th. She called 911 before her death, and the 911 operator answered her call. The operator was the 15th call due to vehicles in floodwaters that morning, and 19 other calls were made following hers. A report of the night states that the 911 center was staffed with four operators and was overwhelmed with calls during the flash flooding and the situation was described as “chaotic, at best.” At the beginning of the call, operator was not able to establish the callers location, but was able to put in a police call for the woman with the call type “stalled vehicle” but changed the priority from the standard level of 6 to a higher priority of 4. Records indicate that there were no officers available at the time. The operator also put in a fire call, dispatching Ladder 1 on a water rescue call. Ladder 1 got caught in flooding at an intersection while responding to the call. Records state that while turning the truck around, firefighters rescued someone else who was stranded in floodwaters. As they proceeded back to the route, they were informed that Pumper 7 took over the call and responded. In recordings released to the public, the operator was heard telling the victim, “this will teach you next time don’t drive in the water…how you didn’t see it, you had to go right over it.” She was also heard in the call telling the victim to “shut up.” The woman was on the phone with 911 operator for 24 minutes as rescue crews searched for her vehicle. Once the fire department arrived on the scene, they were able to get to get the woman, but she was already deceased. The operators interactions with the woman made national news. The operator put in her two weeks notice before the victims drowning, and the call came in during her last shift. During the investigation, The operator admitted she felt bad for how she treated the drowned woman during their conversation over the phone. (KFSM)

Monday Shines In With:

• Family Roots Day
• Festivus
• Human Light Celebration
• Metric Conversion Day