Emergency and disaster management briefing for September 26, 2016: Washington authorities capture the suspect of a deadly mall shooting, Charlotte officials release video of a fatal police shooting and lift a citywide curfew, certain states take steps to limit the future release of police footage, heavy rains cause major flooding in parts of the Midwest, New York officials aim to overhaul the smartphone emergency alert system, Native American tribes battle against oil pipeline construction, and the USDA recalls meat products due to E. coli concerns.
- Washington mall shooting suspect Arcan Cetin [link url=”http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/25/us/washington-mall-shooting-arrest/” title=”will be arraigned today.”] The 20-year-old allegedly opened fire in a mall north of Seattle Friday night and is now facing five counts of first-degree murder. Authorities took Cetin into custody Saturday night after a [link url=”http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/24/us/washington-mall-shooting/index.html” title=”24-hour manhunt”]; the suspect’s motive [link url=”http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/26/us/washington-mall-shooting/” title=”is still unclear”].
- On Saturday, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department [link url=”http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article103973781.html” title=”released both body and dash-cam videos”] of the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott to the public this weekend. None of the footage clearly shows [link url=”http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article103973781.html” title=”whether or not Scott is holding a gun”] when he is fatally shot. And yesterday, Charlotte officials [link url=”http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/09/25/family-charlotte-police-video-leaves-many-questions-fatal-shooting/91078150/” title=”lifted the curfew”] that had been in place since Thursday in an effort to contain violence occurring in protests of Scott’s death.
- With police shootings and video footage of the shootings increasingly in the public spotlight, some states are [link url=”http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/25/nc-among-states-limit-access-police-videos/91080306/” title=”taking steps to limit access to certain footage”]. This weekend, North Carolina [link url=”http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/25/nc-among-states-limit-access-police-videos/91080306/” title=”passed a law”] that could make it more difficult for the public to see video shot by police. Similar laws have taken effect link url=”http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/25/nc-among-states-limit-access-police-videos/91080306/” title=”in New Hampshire and Minnesota”] in recent months.
- Heavy rains caused [link url=”https://weather.com/news/news/midwest-flooding-storms-emergency-impacts” title=”major flooding in the Midwest”] late last week and into the weekend, leading to [link url=”http://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/rushing-floodwaters-could-swamp-northeast-iowa-all-week-long-n654116″ title=”at least two deaths”]. In some regions of in the Midwest, major flood concerns remain today and into this week. Parts of Iowa and Wisconsin enacted [link url=”http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/26/us/iowa-wisconsin-flooding-evacuation/index.html” title=”evacuations and curfews”] because of flood threats from swollen rivers. Iowa Governor Terry Branstad [link url=”http://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/rushing-floodwaters-could-swamp-northeast-iowa-all-week-long-n654116″ title=”declared a state of emergency”] and mobilized the National Guard as the Cedar River is expected to crest tonight.
- The recent bomb incidents in New York City and neighboring New Jersey regions may ultimately lead to [link url=”http://www.thehill.com/policy/technology/297560-nyc-bombing-spurs-push-to-overhaul-emergency-alerts” title=”an overhaul of the smartphone emergency alert system”]. New York City officials sent New Yorkers an alert when hunting the bombing suspect in what was perhaps the [link url=”http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/20/nyregion/cellphone-alerts-used-in-search-of-manhattan-bombing-suspect.html?_r=0″ title=”first time mobile alerts were ever used in a manhunt”]. But now [link url=”http://www.thehill.com/policy/technology/297560-nyc-bombing-spurs-push-to-overhaul-emergency-alerts” title=”officials are asking for changes to the system “] that would allow future alerts to include more information and features.
- Native American tribes in the Dakotas [link url=”http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipeline-nativeamericans-congress-idUSKCN11S2M2″ title=”fighting the construction of a billion-dollar oil pipeline”] all the way to the federal level. Activists have been [link url=”http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipeline-nativeamericans-congress-idUSKCN11S2M2″ title=”protesting”] the 1,100-mile, $3.7 billion project due to potential environmental risks and also to prevent construction on sacred sites. The project involves pipeline construction on both federally-managed and private lands in four states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.
- The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) [link url=”http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-case-archive/archive/2016/recall-087-2016-release” title=”recalled beef, veal, and Bison products”] that may be contaminated with E. coli. [link url=”https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/09/24/usda-orders-meat-recall-from-athol-slaughterhouse/op2zWdQPEfmFWB14I0ab7K/story.html” title=”Sicknesses linked to the recall”] have been confirmed in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. See complete details of the recall on the [link url=”http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-case-archive/archive/2016/recall-087-2016-release” title=”USDA website”].
- A manhunt by Hungarian authorities yesterday targeted a suspect thought to have [link url=”http://www.cbsnews.com/news/manhunt-hungary-homemade-bomb-targets-cops/” title=”attempted to harm police with homemade bombs”]. A blast late Saturday night wounded multiple officers, and officials later confirmed that [link url=”http://www.cbsnews.com/news/manhunt-hungary-homemade-bomb-targets-cops/” title=”police were intended targets”] of the blast. Authorities are offering a reward for information as the manhunt continues.
- Police made arrests in Orange County, California yesterday after a [link url=”http://www.ocregister.com/articles/yost-730159-police-jennifer.html” title=”triple homicide”] in Fullerton set off a search for a missing teenage girl. Police [link url=”http://www.ocregister.com/articles/yost-730159-police-jennifer.html” title=”located the missing teen”] and currently have a teen of the same age in custody, but state law prevents them from confirming that the missing teen and detained teen are the same person. Ultimately, two men and a teenage girl were taken into custody and police announced that “the killings were not random and the victims knew their attackers.”
- In the wake of Yahoo’s announcement of [link url=”https://amuedge.com/half-billion-yahoo-accounts-hacked/” title=”a massive data breach”] that involved the hacking of more than 500 million accounts, some cybersecurity experts are questioning [link url=”http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-yahoo-data-breach-20160923-snap-story.html” title=”why it took Yahoo so long”] to discover the attack. According to experts, it takes an average of about 201 days for a company to detect a data breach, but the Internet giant didn’t discover this breach until more than [link url=”http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-yahoo-data-breach-20160923-snap-story.html” title=”two years after the fact”].
Comments are closed.