Month: October 2021

Authorities announced on Thursday that prominent South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was arrested and charged with misappropriating insurance settlement funds in the wrongful death suit that followed the mysterious trip and fall death of his longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. The heirs of Satterfield, a family housekeeper who died three years ago in what was initially described as an accidental fall, have insisted they received none of the proceeds from a $4.3 million settlement they said was orchestrated in secret by Murdaugh.

The 52-year-old Murdaugh was arrested in Orlando, Florida, upon his release from a drug rehabilitation facility. Murdaugh claimed that he was shot in the head on a roadside in September, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (“SLED”). He faces two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses and is expected to appear at an extradition hearing on Friday before he’s arraigned in Columbia, South Carolina. Murdaugh has been taken to Orange County Corrections where he will be held until he receives an extradition hearing. Upon extradition being granted or waived, he will be brought back to South Carolina to receive a bond hearing.

Murdaugh, a well-known attorney in the South Carolina Lowcountry, was thrust into the national spotlight after he came home on the night of June 7, 2021, to find his wife, Maggie, 52, and youngest son, Paul, 22, shot to death on the grounds of their hunting lodge. From the beginning, authorities have considered Murdaugh a person of interest in the deaths of his wife and son, though his attorneys insist that his client was not involved. Murdaugh was fired in June from his job at his family’s law firm after being accused of embezzlement. He was shot in the head, gone to rehab for substance abuse and arrested and accused of hiring a hitman to help him commit suicide so his surviving son could cash in on a $10 million life insurance policy.

Editorial credit: Nagel Photography / Shutterstock.com

An advisory committee for the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Thursday to approve the Moderna COVID-19 booster shot for recipients over 18. In the first day of a two-day meeting to evaluate requests from both Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to authorize their booster doses, the panel voted 19-0 to approve Moderna boosters beginning at least six months after completion of the initial two-dose regimen. On Friday, the committee will meet to evaluate the Johnson & Johnson booster dose, which is produced by subsidiary Janssen.

The authorization applies to people 65 years and older as well to those between 18 and 64 who are at high risk for the disease. Moderna officials said in a tweet: “We are grateful for the opportunity to present the clinical data package for our COVID-19 booster vaccine to the FDA’s advisory committee today. We thank the committee for their review & for their unanimous vote in support of EUA of the 50 [microgram] booster dose.”

Last month, the FDA approved a third shot of the vaccine made by Pfizer for people over 65, as well as recipients between 18 and 64 who are at high risk of severe illness and who face frequent institutional or occupational exposure to COVID-19. Almost 9 million people in the United States have received a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine over the past few weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The panel’s recommendations will have to be approved by the FDA and CDC before Americans could begin to receive the Moderna and Janssen boosters. The soonest the agencies could grant that approval is Oct. 22.

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_latest/~3/zB1aUbOeZNk/index.html

Editorial credit: guteksk7 / Shutterstock.com

A Colorado mail carrier was shot and killed Wednesday, the third deadly incident amid of rash of deadly shootings involving U.S. Postal Service workers in recent days. The Longmont Police Department responded to a shooting just after 12:30 p.m. at Heatherhill Street and Renaissance Driv. Wednesday’s deadly incident comes amid a rash of shootings involving postal workers. Two Memphis, Tenn., post office employees were shot and killed Tuesday by a co-worker who died from a self-inflicted gunshot, authorities said; and last week, a Pittsburgh-area postal worker was fatally shot.

Longmont Dep. Chief Jeff Satur told reporters that the letter carrier in Colorado was on his route when someone wearing all black fired multiple shots; when officers arrived, they found the USPS employee shot in front of neighborhood mailboxes. The employee died at the scene, and authorities did not say if the unidentified worker was targeted.

A male suspect wearing all black clothing and a blue mask was seen fleeing the scene on foot, Police Chief Satur said. He said investigators are following up on leads in the case, but declined to say what kind of weapon was used.

Editorial credit: Eric Glenn / Shutterstock.com

The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that it was launching a civil rights investigation into Texas’ juvenile justice facilities, over allegations of physical and sexual abuse against children there. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said the Justice Department, in conjunction with local U.S. attorneys’ offices across Texas, was launching a pattern-or-practice probe into potential civil rights abuses at these correctional facilities. The investigation will span five secure correctional facilities operated by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

Clarke said at a virtual news conference announcing the investigation: “State officials have a constitutional obligation to ensure reasonable safety for children in these institutions, and the Department of Justice is committed to protecting the rights of children who end up in such facilities. No child who is sent to a Texas facility for treatment and rehabilitation should be subjected to violence and abuse nor denied basic services.”  Clarke said that investigators will look into the reported use of pepper spray and restraints against children, as well as allegations of improper or excessive physical force, the use of isolation in these facilities and the level of mental health services available to children there. Clark also said that in recent years at least 11 staff members had been arrested over allegations of sexually abusing children at these facilities.

The investigation comes as the Biden administration and government of Texas have feuded on an array of issues, most notably over abortion access, the influx of migrants attempting to cross the southern border and Covid-19 vaccination requirements. Clarke said that Texas officials had been formally notified of the probe, and that federal investigators intended to meet with their state counterparts as part of their examination of the treatment of youths in these facilities. Camille Cain, the executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, announced the agency would “cooperate fully“ with the Justice Department investigation, and said in a statement: “We all share the same goals for the youth in our care: providing for their safety, their effective rehabilitation, and the best chance for them to lead productive, fulfilling lives.”

Editorial credit: Paul Brady Photography / Shutterstock.com

On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that New York state cannot impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on healthcare workers without allowing their employers to consider religious exemption requests. U.S. District Judge David Hurd in Albany, New York, ruled that the state’s workplace vaccination requirement conflicted with healthcare workers’ federally protected right to seek religious accommodations from their employers. Seventeen healthcare workers opposed to the mandate sued, saying the requirement violated their rights under the U.S. Constitution and a federal civil rights law requiring employers to reasonably accommodate employees’ religious beliefs. Hurd agreed, saying the state’s order “clearly” conflicted with their right to seek religious accommodations. Hurd issued a temporary restraining order on Sept. 14 in favor of the workers while he considered whether to issue a preliminary injunction.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul vowed in a statement to fight the decision, saying her “responsibility as governor is to protect the people of this state, and requiring health care workers to get vaccinated accomplishes that.” New York’s Department of Health on Aug. 26 ordered healthcare professionals to be vaccinated by Sept. 27 and the order did not allow for the customary religious exemptions.

At least 24 states have imposed vaccine requirements on workers, usually in healthcare. Vaccines have become highly politicized in the United States, where only 66% of Americans are vaccinated. Vaccine mandate opponents across the country are preparing to fight plans by President Joe Biden’s administration to extend COVID-19 inoculation requirements to tens of millions of unvaccinated Americans.