WTF Just Happened Today

Thursday, August 4, 2022

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1/ The Justice Department charged four current and former Louisville police officers with violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights, who was shot and killed by police in 2020 while she was sleeping. The charges against Joshua Jaynes, Kyle Meany, Kelly Goodlett, and Brett Hankison include conspiracy, use of force, obstruction of justice, as well as various civil rights violations. They are the first federal charges in connection with Taylor’s killing. “Breonna Taylor should be alive today,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said, adding that the falsification of the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant needed to authorize the raid had “violated federal civil rights laws, and that those violations resulted in Ms. Taylor’s death.” (CBS News / Associated Press / New York Times / Washington Post / NBC News)

2/ The Biden administration declared monkeypox a public health emergency, a designation that will free up emergency funds and speed distribution of the vaccine. The declaration comes more than a week after the WHO declared the outbreak a global health emergency. The U.S. has confirmed more than 6,600 cases of monkeypox – about 25% of confirmed infections worldwide. Health officials estimate that the government needs about 3.5 million doses to fight the outbreak. The U.S is currently distributing about 1.1 million doses due in part to the Department of Health and Human Services failing to ask the manufacturer early on to process bulk stock of the vaccine it already owned into vials for distribution. The U.S. owns the equivalent of about 16.5 million doses of the vaccine in bulk storage. The next delivery of half a million doses isn’t expected until October. Further, roughly 5 million more doses won’t be delivered until next year. The last time the U.S. declared a public health emergency was in response to Covid-19 in January 2020. (Politico / Axios / New York Times / Washington Post / CNN / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal / New York Times / CNBC)

3/ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Tampa’s elected prosecutor for pledging not to prosecute abortions and gender-affirming care, accusing Andrew Warren of “incompetence and willful defiance of his duties.” After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Warren and 90 other elected prosecutors across the country sign...

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