Elon Musk’s America Pac, a canvassing operation in support of Donald Trump and the Republican party, is facing a lawsuit filed by two women. They allege that they were underpaid and denied reimbursement for expenses incurred during their work to rally support for Republican congresswoman Michelle Steel. The lawsuit claims that the women were promised an hourly wage but were instead paid by the number of houses they visited. No specific amounts have been mentioned yet. Defendants in the suit include America Pac, a hiring and payroll company called Liberty Staffing Services, the Blair Group which is a national canvassing company and Michelle Steel’s re-election campaign.
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The police chief and three officers in Geary, Oklahoma resigned, leaving the town’s entire police department empty. Additionally, two city council members stepped down, leaving just one member in the council due to an earlier vacancy. The city has assured citizens that normal services will be maintained, with assistance from sheriffs’ offices in nearby counties and an interim police chief, reportedly veteran law enforcement officer JJ Stitt. The reasons for the resignations were not clearly stated, with former police chief Alicia Ford describing the decision as a difficult but correct one. Council member Glen “Rocky” Coleman Jr. noted a mismatch in values and lack of administrative communication as his reasons for resigning.
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John Sawchak, 54, is accused of shooting his neighbour, Davis Moturi, after a long history of harassment and evasion of arrest, according to court records. The Minneapolis Police Department is facing criticism for failing to arrest Sawchak on active warrants before he allegedly carried out the shooting, returning to the center of controversy over race and policing. Sawchak had two outstanding warrants against him for alleged harassment of the victim, and a third for assaulting another neighbour, while the defence insists their client denies the allegations. The department claims they had tried multiple times to arrest Sawchak, but faced challenges due to his history of mental illness, gun ownership, and refusal to engage with police. A motion for an independent review of all incidents between Sawchak and Moturi, and the shooting, was approved by the Minneapolis City Council.
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Archeologists from Egypt and the US have discovered an ancient tomb with 11 sealed burials near Luxor, Egypt, dating back to the Middle Kingdom (1938 B.C.-1630 B.C.). The tomb was found in the South Asasif necropolis, next to the Temple of Hatshepsut on the Nile’s West Bank in Luxor. The tomb, thought to be a family tomb used for generations during the 12th and the start of the 13th Dynasty, contained coffins for men, women and children. Though ancient floods had destroyed most of the burials’ wooden coffins and linen wrappings, items like jewellery had survived. Egypt has been working to attract more tourists, heavily dependent on the country’s rich Pharaonic artifacts, which previously suffered a downturn following political turmoil and violence after a 2011 uprising.
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Donald Trump’s social media company, Trump Media, which operates the Truth Social platform, has outsourced jobs to workers in Mexico, contradicting Trump’s rhetoric against outsourcing. This revelation has sparked discord within the company, prompting a whistleblower letter on behalf of staff members calling for the dismissal of CEO Devin Nunes for “severe” mismanagement and implementing an “America Last” hiring policy. The company’s use of foreign labor has particularly frustrated the domestic workforce who allege that the Mexican workers lack the necessary technical skills. Despite criticisms for offshoring work, a Trump Media spokesperson dismissed the issue as a sensational scandal aimed at discrediting the company. Trump Media has previously also been reported to have source labor in the Balkans.
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Luke Durant, a 36-year-old former Nvidia programmer, has discovered the world’s largest known prime number, consisting of 41,024,320 digits. The number, called M136279841, is a Mersenne prime, a rare type of number that can be written in the form 2ᵖ-1. The historic finding was announced by The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS), a community-based project. Durant’s discovery is notable as the first to be uncovered using graphics processing units (GPUs), which are renowned for their high-speed mathematical equation performance and data processing capabilities. Durant is eligible for a $3,000 GIMPS research discovery award for his finding, which he plans to donate to his old school, the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science.
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Thousands of women rallied in the US in support of abortion rights and other feminist causes ahead of Tuesday’s election. Not only the presidential election but also various state-level abortion-rights measures were in focus. As per a survey, abortion rights have supplanted inflation as the top issue for women under 30 in the presidential election. Numerous states will consider constitutional amendments for upholding the right to abortion. Other issues like LGBTQ+ rights, higher wages, paid sick leave, and efforts against gun violence were also advocated for during the rallies.
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Ronald Gasser, the man who shot former NFL player Joe McKnight to death during a road-rage incident, has completed his prison sentence less than eight years after the killing. Gasser’s release marks the end of a complicated legal ordeal which included an overturned murder conviction, a subsequent guilty plea to manslaughter, and the Supreme Court ruling that non-unanimous jury verdicts are unconstitutional. The case spotlighted Louisiana’s “stand your ground” law. Gasser initially claimed he shot McKnight in self defense, and was initially given a 30-year sentence for manslaughter in 2018, a conviction later overturned because of a non-unanimous verdict. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter again in 2022 and received a 10-year sentence, a significant portion of which he’d already served.
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The newly appointed head of the Chicago school board, the Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson, resigned on the request of Chicago Mayor, Brandon Johnson, over alarming posts on social media. The posts, deemed antisemitic, sexist, and conspiratorial by city leaders, led to an outcry for his resignation. Notably, the board had already been shaken by the simultaneous resignation of every member earlier this month. One of Rev. Johnson’s posts suggested that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job, while another stereotype women in a negative light. He apologized for his comments, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.
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During their first date, Leslie Reeves and Chris Smith were shot, with only Smith surviving. Smith was found in his Illinois home with a bullet in his brain and was placed in a medically induced coma after brain surgery. Pieces of the bullet are still in his brain, as removing them could cause further harm. Smith recovered and can now move his left leg from his knee up, although he has no recollections from the night of the shooting. Now he is back singing with his rock band and is engaged to his fiancée, despite his neurosurgeon saying he may never be able to walk again.
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John Q. Hosedrinker