Three things for October 28
1. Juvenile charged in conjunction with threats against local schools
Five bomb threats were made to public schools in the Bradley County area over the past week.
The Cleveland PD quickly reassured the public they were safe. However, officers made visits to several schools throughout the week.
One juvenile has been arrested in conjunction with these events and charged with filing a false police report. According to the sheriff, the child in question took a screenshot of a threat against Bradley Central then posted it to his Snapchat account.
The Director of Schools for Bradley County, Dr. Linda Cash, blames activity like this on social media.
“It’s important that [parents] monitor those phones and what the kids are saying because they are easily influenced,” said Cash.
2. President’s spending bill is in ‘good shape,’ but no agreement has been reached
On Wednesday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced the $1.75 trillion dollar spending bill proposed by President Joe Biden is closer to an agreement. During her announcement, Pelosi stated Democrats are in “good shape.”
“It will fundamentally change the lives of millions of people for the better,” Biden said of his bill. “Let’s get this done.”
Sen. Joe Manchin has objected to the bill. According to an aide in the senator’s office, Manchin is opposed to the proposed billionaire tax which would pay for the spending bill.
“Rather than trying to penalize, we ought to be pleased that this country is able to produce the wealth,” Manchin said.
In the 50-50 senate, Biden needs all democrats to be united for his spending bill to pass.
For more information on Biden’s spending bill, read the full article from AP News.
3. Iraq close to announcing election winner after recount
After the parliamentary elections on Oct. 10, the Independent High Electoral Commission for Iraq received more than 1,300 complaints and appeals regarding vote fraud. The IHEC rejected a majority of them on the basis of “lack of evidence,” and stated it would release the final decisions on the rest of the appeals before submitting them to the supreme court for certification.
The recount began on Wednesday, and the IHEC released a statement saying the commission would “manually recount the votes of the 234 contested electoral stations based on 18 appeals distributed across the governorates Salah al-Din, Basra, and Baghdad.”
This was the sixth parliamentary election Iraq has held and it saw the lowest voter turnout since the country was liberated from Saddam Hussein in 2003. It is unclear when the IHEC will release its results from the recount.
