International
Brazil Mudslide
The Rio de Janeiro state government reported 105 dead from floods and mudslides in Petropolis; 35 people are missing.
Petropolis received over 10 inches of rain within three hours on Tuesday, Feb. 15, the most rain the city has experienced since 1932.
Rio de Janeiro Gov. Claudio Castro reported in a press conference around 400 people were left homeless and 24 have been recovered alive.
Resident Rosilene Virginia said a friend of hers has not yet been found.
“It’s very sad to see people asking for help and having no way of helping, no way of doing anything,” Virginia told the Associated Press. “It’s desperate, a feeling of loss so great.”
Plans to mitigate landslide risks were presented in 2017, but the work is incomplete.
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Burning Ship Adrift in Atlantic
On Thursday, Feb. 17, the Felicity Ace caught fire while transporting Volkswagen-produced cars to the U.S. The 22-member crew evacuated safely but left the ship adrift near Portugal.
The Portuguese navy checked whether the ship was in danger of sinking or causing pollution and reported the ship was still burning.
Portuguese navy spokesman Cmdr. Jose Sousa Luis said due to its size, the ship is unlikely to be towed to port in Portugal’s Azores Islands.
Shipping in the area was warned of the burning ship’s location.
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National
Elon Musk’s Ethics of Animal Testing
Elon Musk’s Neuralink company has responded to animal cruelty accusations.
Neuralink aims to invent an implantable chip that can translate brain activity into computer commands. This chip might allow people with paralysis or similar conditions to access devices like computers or phones.
This process requires that “all novel medical devices and treatments must be tested in animals before they can be ethically trialed in humans,” Neuralink said in a blog post it published on its website in response to articles raising questions regarding their treatment of the rhesus macaque monkeys.
Their post also followed a letter over 700 pages long from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to the Department of Agriculture citing violations and requesting an investigation.
On Feb. 10, the Physicians Committee said they filed a lawsuit.
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Local
Commissioner Faces Charges
Grady County Commissioner Michael Walker was arrested in May 2021. On Feb. 15, 2022, Walker and his partner, Neal Locke, were both arrested under new charges.
In May, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents arrested Walker and said he had embezzled thousands from the county for the purpose of improving the road he lived on.
Walker was released shortly after his arrest and has since maintained his position as Grady County commissioner.
The new charges against Walker include intimidating witnesses; court documents report he told an employee he would fire “all who crossed him.”
Locke faces two charges for unlawful use of communications and one charge of conspiracy.
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Oklahoma No. 1 in Nation for Veteran Disability Benefits
According to the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, Oklahoma is No. 1 in the U.S. for veterans per capita, receiving federal, service-connected disability benefits.
A total of $2.4 billion has been provided to 100,000 Oklahoma veterans with service-related disabilities.
“We have an amazing veteran’s community here in Oklahoma and this could not have been accomplished without all the veteran service organizations banding together as a team and working really hard to achieve this,” Executive Director of ODVA Joel Kintsel said.
According to OKC Fox, it is estimated that almost half of Oklahoma veterans eligible for compensation have not applied.
Oklahoma veterans who need assistance filing a claim for service-connected disability can call (405) 523-4000.
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