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GUNMAN KILLS TWO, THEN SELF, INSIDE FLORIDA PUBLIX
In a Publix filled with lunchtime shoppers, a man Thursday walked into the produce section, fatally shot a woman and her young grandson, and then turned the gun on himself, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said. The agency said late Thursday it would not identify either the woman or the toddler, who would have turned 2 years old this month. It said their family had invoked its rights under a 2018 amendment to the state constitution, modeled on California’s Marsy’s Law, that allows crime victims and their families to withhold their names from public reports. The sheriff’s office identified the gunman late Thursday as Timothy J. Wall, 55, of Royal Palm Beach. It said that as of Thursday night, there was “no known motive or relationship between the gunman and his victims.” It cautioned that its detectives still were investigating. Officials said a gun was found near Wall’s body, and they believe his injuries were self-inflicted. Deputies said the Publix, in The Crossroads shopping plaza at Royal Palm Beach and Okeechobee boulevards, would remained closed until Saturday. The murderous attack at the store sent panicked shoppers and workers scurrying for cover, witnesses said. At a news conference, sheriff’s spokeswoman Teri Barbera said detectives were interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance-camera video as they tried to determine what led to the shooting, which occurred at about 11:40 a.m. Onlookers outside the shopping plaza expressed shock at the deadly events that came on the heels of a series of mass shootings around the country and days before Saturday’s five-year anniversary of the deadly rampage at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando that left 50 dead.
[SOURCE: palmbeachpost.com / ENGAGEMENT: 16.43%]
BEST BUY JOINS WALMART AND TARGET IN CLOSING STORES ON THANKSGIVING, A BLOW TO BLACK FRIDAY
Best Buy is closed for Thanksgiving. The electronics retailer confirmed to Insider Wednesday that all of its stores will be closed for the US national holiday for the second year running. Walmart and Target also announced this year that their stores would close for the holiday. “Ultimately, consumers really want convenience and they want to get their item and get out of the store quickly. They don’t want to wait in long lines, they don’t want to wait for a store to open anymore,” Josh Elman, senior specialist at Nasdaq Advisory Services, previously told Insider’s Kate Taylor. Moreover, year-round deals mean that Black Friday and the shopping days around it are losing significance. “It has become less of a physical event and more of a virtual event in the last five to six years,” Dave Marcotte, a senior vice president at Kantar Retail, told Insider, commenting on Black Friday in 2020. It doesn’t have the same “immediacy” as before, he said. In a statement to Insider, Best Buy said it is making it more convenient for shoppers to buy online – by expanding curbside pickup options and offering faster delivery services.
[SOURCE: businessinsider.com / ENGAGEMENT: 14.84%]
WOMAN SUING ARKANSAS STATE POLICE CLAIMS TROOPER CRASHED, FLIPPED HER SUV USING ‘PIT MANEUVER’
A Central Arkansas woman is suing state police, claiming that a trooper negligently crashed and flipped her vehicle using a maneuver aimed at ending car chases. A recent investigation from WFLA’s sister station KARK exposed how state police are using more PIT maneuvers to end car chases – and how some cases end in deadly wrecks. PIT stands for Precision Immobilization Technique. It involves law enforcement hitting a fleeing car, causing it to spin out and end the pursuit. The lawsuit filed on Tuesday is over a PIT that happened in July 2020 on U.S. Highway 67/167 in Pulaski County. According to the suit, Sr. Cpl. Rodney Dunn clocked Janice Harper driving 84 mph in a 70-mph zone. Dash camera video from Sr. Cpl. Dunn’s patrol car shows Harper slowed down, moved to the right lane and turned the hazard lights on. Within three minutes of starting the pursuit, Sr. Cpl. Dunn performed a PIT maneuver, which caused Harper’s SUV to crash into the concrete median and flip. The suit claims the highway left Harper with, “no room to safely pullover” because the shoulder was too small. It goes on to say Sr. Cpl. Dunn “negligently” used a PIT maneuver which put Harper’s life and the life of her unborn child at risk. According to the lawsuit Arkansas State Police “failed to train” Dunn on “proper and safe PIT maneuver technique,” failed to “investigate allegations of excessive force” and “failed to discipline officers for violations of policy related to excessive force.”
[SOURCE: wfla.com / ENGAGEMENT: 11.46%]
TRISHA PAYTAS QUITS ‘FRENEMIES’ PODCAST AMID FEUD WITH FRENEMY
YouTube sensation Trisha Paytas is “stepping down” from the popular weekly podcast “Frenemies” amid a disagreement over their conduct on the show. The nonbinary podcast host, who goes by the pronouns they and them, dropped the bombshell Tuesday in a YouTube video that’s already racked up more than 1.5 million views. “I have this feeling in my heart that I need to step away from ‘Frenemies,’ ” said Paytas, 33, who’s been co-hosting the H3H3 Productions podcast with Ethan Klein since the two created it in September 2020. Paytas’ announcement follows a dispute during the podcast’s Monday night episode, in which they and their co-host argued over the show’s production, Insider reported. Paytas had called a new segment of the podcast “lazy” and “dumb” — prompting Klein to retort that the production crew does “most of the work” for “Frenemies” while his podcast partner “just shows up.” However, Paytas, who is reportedly engaged to Klein’s brother-in-law, artist Moses Hacmon, suggested their value lies in bringing relevant topics to the show. The spat soon erupted into an argument over production expenses, the show’s location and advertising revenue. Needless to say, the “Frenemies” production crew was none too thrilled with Paytas’ comments and even stopped recording the podcast for the week, per the announcement. Despited the heated tiff, Paytas claims that the on-air argument was not the reason for their resignation. Rather, they wanted the podcast to be a 50/50 partnership in which both hosts pitched in equal amounts for production and set costs. “I do feel like I contributed half to ‘Frenemies,’ ” Paytas said in the video. The internet personality elaborated on her decision in a comment under the clip, adding that they also quit to “ease the tension everywhere. I don’t want to be the toxicity in their machine,” wrote Paytas, adding that the show is “not good for me mentally anymore.” The statement concluded, “It could be my own brain attacking me, but for myself, right now, I just need to disengage completely. this is without a doubt, the hardest decision I’ve ever made. and it definitely was the most successful thing I’ve been a part of, so it’s with a super heavy heart that I cannot continue.” Following Paytas’ resignation announcement, Klein posted a seemingly snarky reference to their on-air tiff on Twitter, writing “Happy #NationalBestFriendsDay.” However, it appears that they’re not “Frenemies” in real life, as the host has since claimed that he’s “gutted” over his ex-colleague’s departure. “Trisha’s video this morning was a total surprise to me,” he said on Twitter. “I don’t really know what more I can say or do. Im very sorry to all the fans of frenemies, I know how much it meant to everyone, I did everything I humanly could to save it.”
[SOURCE: nypost.com / ENGAGEMENT: 10.42%]
GOP’S TOM COTTON REPEATEDLY CUTS OFF AMERICA’S FIRST BLACK DEFENSE SECRETARY AS HE FUMES OVER DIVERSITY TRAINING
During a hearing this Thursday, Sen. Tom Cotton (Republican-Arkansas) rattled off a list of examples of what he says is law enforcement and the military introducing “woke” ideology into their training systems that “rewrites America’s history” and paints America as a systemically racist country. He then turned to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin — who happens to be America’s first Black Defense Secretary — and asked him, “Do you believe that our military is a fundamentally racist organization? Yes or no, please.” “Well, I won’t give you a yes or no answer on that, sir, because it deserves more than a yes or no,” Austin replied. “The military, like any organization, will have its challenges. I do not believe it is a fundamentally racist organization.” Cotton interrupted, saying time was limited, and then asked if any member of the military “should be treated differently based in their skin color or sex? Again, yes or no will do.” “Again, this question deserves more than a yes or no answer,” Austin replied, before Cotton cut him off again. “Mr. Secretary, I’m sorry to cut you off, our time is limited,” Cotton said. “It is a very simply question. Should a member of the organization you lead be treated differently — in violation of the Constitution, I would add — based on their sex or the color of their skin?” “No, I do not believe that, and that is why we have diversity, equity, and inclusion focus in the military,” Austin shot back.
[SOURCE: rawstory.com / ENGAGEMENT: 5.16%]
MCDONALD’S BTS MEALS: INDONESIA BRANCHES FORCED TO SHUT DUE TO HIGH ORDERS
What happens when you combine the world’s biggest boyband with one of the world’s most popular burger chains? Complete and utter chaos, it seems. Or at least that was the experience of a number of Indonesian branches of McDonald’s, which found themselves so swamped with demand for the newly launched BTS Meal they had to close. Indeed, so many people ordered the meal inspired by the Korean boyband that there were fears it could cause a new Covid hotspot. “We temporarily closed four of six McDonald’s stores here in Semarang for a couple of days,” Fajar Purwoto, the Indonesian city’s public order agency head, said, according to news agency AFP. I don’t want Semarang to be in the Covid-19 red zone again.” To the uninitiated, this may all seem a bit of an overreaction to a meal consisting of 10 chicken nuggets, chips, a coke and two sauces (sweet chilli and Cajun, for those who are interested). But that is underestimating the enormous pull of the seven-member K-Pop phenomenon that is BTS. Their last single Butter broke global records when it premiered last month, while they beat superstars like Taylor Swift to be named best-selling album of 2020.
[SOURCE: bbc.com / ENGAGEMENT: 4.88%]
AMERICAN AIRLINES CEO SHOWS UP AT SOUTHWEST FLIGHT ATTENDANT’S WEDDING A YEAR AFTER THEIR VIRAL MEETING
One year ago, Southwest Airlines flight attendant JacqueRae Sullivan was feeling overwhelmed by events in the United States following the death of George Floyd. The protests in her home city of Dallas, Texas, turned violent on the night of May 29 and when she went on social media the next morning, “that did not help the situation,” Hill said in an interview with CNN at the time. She drove to Dallas Love Field for a flight to Panama City on Friday, praying for some ray of hope or understanding. “It’s so difficult with everything going on … You want to be informed, you want to know. But then at the same time, my job as a service person is to provide somebody with happiness.” She said she prayed on her way in, “God, please help me get to work today.” JacqueRae Hill — as she was known before her marriage to Rashard Sullivan this Memorial Day weekend — had a life-changing encounter with passenger Doug Parker on that day’s flight, and their story went viral. One year later, her new friend — the CEO of American Airlines — attended her wedding, and met with Sullivan and Sullivan’s mother Patti Anderson, an American Airlines attendant. Sullivan told CNN last year that when the flight started boarding, she performed her usual safety checks, greeting passengers with a hello and a smile that her eyes had to deliver, because she was wearing a mask. Then she noticed one of the final passengers to board was carrying the book “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,” by Robin DiAngelo. After she finished service, she moved toward the back of the plane, where the man who was reading the book was seated, alone, next to a window, typing on his phone. The two started conversing about the book. Sullivan recalls the man, who was White, saying, “It’s our fault. We have to start these conversations.” As the man spoke these words, Sullivan became overwhelmed with emotion and began crying. “I know he didn’t know what to do. I know I startled him. I was embarrassed. I didn’t expect that. It was just a genuine moment for me, and we talked for 10 minutes.” She thanked the man profusely for the incredible conversation, for his interest and for caring, weighed hugging him (she did). He asked her name, and she introduced herself. Then the man told her his name. “I’m Doug Parker, the CEO of American.” Parker scribbled a note to Sullivan before deplaning, expressing his gratitude and pleasure at having met and spoken with her. Sullivan waited a day before posting about her experience on Facebook. “With all those emotions, I wanted to process it fully. I wanted to make sure how I wrote it was exactly how I was feeling.”
[SOURCE: cnn.com / ENGAGEMENT: 3.47%]
ZOEY’S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST CANCELLED AFTER PEACOCK RESCUE BID FAILS
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is singing a sad song: NBC has cancelled the musical dramedy after two seasons, TVLine has learned. The network’s sibling streamer, Peacock, had been in negotiations to pick up the show for an eight-episode final season, but we’re told those talks broke down over the weekend. Lionsgate, the studio behind Zoey’s, is already shopping the show around to other streaming outlets and there is said to be some interest. (Read Zoey’s Playlist showrunner’s plea to fans here.) When asked about that possibility of Zoey’s jumping from NBC to Peacock, showrunner Austin Winsberg told TVLine in May, “I know that that has been one of the discussions on the table, but I’ve heard nothing concrete.” Winsberg went on to note that a shift from broadcast to streaming could have potential benefits for the show. “If we had the ability to not be so beholden to the network runtime, I mean, there are scenes I have to cut every week or songs I have to cut for time,” Winsberg explained. “To able to have a little bit more creative freedom and flexibility there could be great.” Zoey’s Playlist this season averaged a little over 1.8 million total viewers and a 0.35 demo rating — down 10 and 17 percent from its freshman run. Out of the 14 dramas NBC has aired this TV season, it ranks No. 12 in the demo and next-to-last in audience (besting only Good Girls). In a March poll, TVLine readers picked Zoey’s Playlist as the bubble show they most wanted renewed, with 12.7 percent of the vote. The Season 2 finale, which aired May 16, concluded with a cliffhanger twist: Max suddenly had powers and could hear Zoey’s heart song, an exuberant rendition of “I Melt With You.”
[SOURCE: tvline.com / ENGAGEMENT: 2.44%]
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