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A 9-year-old girl, a TV journalist, and a woman were killed in a series of shootings in Florida
A man who police believe shot and killed a woman in her 20s returned to the scene of the crime hours later and opened fire on a TV news van and at a nearby home, killing one journalist and a 9-year-old girl.
Orange County Sheriff John Mina said law enforcement had already cleared the scene on Hialeah Street in Pine Hills when the suspect returned to the area around 4 p.m. The 19-year-old suspect allegedly walked up to a Spectrum News 13 vehicle and shot two men, a reporter and a photographer who were covering the earlier homicide. According to Mina, he then allegedly walked into a home about a block away and shot a 9-year-old girl and her mother.
All four victims were transported to hospitals, where the child and one of the journalists died. The girl's mother and the other News 13 journalist remained in critical condition as of Wednesday night. Deputies arrested the suspect, Keith Melvin Moses, and charged him with murder.
While covering the shooting, WESH 2 journalist Luana Munoz said tearfully on camera, "This is every reporter's absolute worse nightmare. We go home at night afraid that something like this will occur and that is what happened here."
UN to vote on a ceasefire in Ukraine
- This week, the UN is slated to vote on a resolution calling for Russia to leave Ukraine, the Washington Post reported. Though the resolution would be nonbinding, the vote sends a united message from global superpowers well beyond Europe.
SNAPSHOTS
The man who murdered Nipsey Hussle will spend 60 years to life in prison. Eric Holder Jr. was found guilty of first-degree murder for shooting Hussle outside The Marathon Clothing, the store that the rapper had opened in the neighborhood where he grew up.
The suspect accused of killing five people in an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs in November 2022 ran a neo-Nazi website and used anti-gay slurs, a police detective testified. The suspect had been to Club Q in 2021 and 2022 at least six times before the shooting.
Bernie Sanders walked into a woman's TikTok and reacted exactly how you would expect. In the footage, Sanders appeared to be leaving a New York City hotel as influencer Taylor Champ performed choreography with a door attendant.
Florida's school book bans have teachers "walking on eggshells"
Officially put into effect in July 2022, HB 1467 is a Florida law that requires that all books go through a formal approval process with a certified school librarian or media specialist before being made available to public school students.
The law allows residents to lodge objections to course material, and right-wing organizations are already taking advantage: One group, Moms For Liberty, has lobbied for more than 150 books to be removed from Florida school libraries, including The Color Purple, The Handmaid’s Tale, and many others that deal with race and LGBTQ issues. So far, most of those efforts have not been successful, but many schools are erring on the side of extreme caution when faced with angry parents.
Over the past two years, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has promoted a variety of staunchly conservative education laws. In June 2021, he spearheaded an effort to ban “critical race theory” from curricula, saying teachers were “teaching kids to hate their country.” Less than a year later, he rubber-stamped the so-called Don't Say Gay bill, which prohibits LGBTQ topics from being discussed in classrooms from kindergarten through third grade. DeSantis is believed to be considering a run for the presidency in 2024.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Inside Italy's most exciting food fight
For hundreds of years, the Northern Italian city of Ivrea, about an hour and 20 minutes west of Milan, has held an annual three-day event, called the Carnival of Ivrea. Its main attraction is the Battle of the Oranges, which has become one of the world’s largest food fights.
According to legend, this ritual calls back to the fall of an oppressive ruler who controlled the city during the Middle Ages. Supposedly, when the despised leader was overthrown, locals pelted stones at his castle, leading to its destruction. For years, this event would be commemorated in Ivrea and since the 1800s, oranges symbolize the stones thrown during the reenactment. This is the first time the Battle of the Oranges has happened since the pandemic broke out in 2020.
“For us, it’s a passion that’s passed down through the generations. It’s more important than Christmas,” one reveler told BuzzFeed News. He added, “I love the adrenaline of throwing oranges, fighting alongside my friends. We’re all united. We celebrate together independently from the team.”
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