1 United Healthcare CEO's Alleged Killer Has Outburst On Way To Extradition Hearing
The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last week, Luigi Mangione, had an extradition hearing yesterday. As he was being ushered into the courthouse, Mangione yelled “This is completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience!” to the gathered press. After the hearing, where Mangione was denied bail, entered a plea of not guilty, and contested extradition to New York. That gives Pennsylvania 30 days to get a warrant from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for extradition, which Hochul said in a statement yesterday she would do. Thomas Dickey, the defense attorney for Mangione, spoke to reporters and said, “If you’re an American, you believe in the American criminal justice system, you have to presume him to be innocent.” When asked if his client would plead not guilty to a charge of murder in NYC, Dickey said he hadn’t seen any murder charges or any evidence that his client did it.
2 FBI Tells House Committee They Don't Know Who's Operating Drones Being Spotted
Attention continues to build on the mysterious flying objects that have been spotted in several states. New Jersey Sen. Jon Bramnick said in a statement yesterday that “The State of New Jersey should issue a limited state of emergency banning all drones until the public receives an explanation regarding these multiple sightings.” While much of the focus has been on sightings in New Jersey and now New York, multiple other states have reported sightings, including Oregon. Customs and Border Protection said during a recent six-week period they detected 6,900 flights near the US-Mexico border. While sightings of the mystery objects were reported yesterday over Staten Island, New York, the state of New Jersey is seeing dozens of reports come in every night. The House Subcommittee on Homeland Security held an over two-hour hearing on the subject of the “drones” yesterday, and Robert Wheeler Jr., the head of the FBI’s critical incident response group, said they haven’t seen any evidence of nefarious motives, but also said they didn’t really know anything else about the sightings. Rep. Tony Gonzales asked Wheeler “You’re telling me we don’t know what the hell these drones in New Jersey are? Is that correct?”, and Wheeler answered after a second’s delay with “That’s correct.”
3 Malibu Wildfire Explodes To Cover Over 2,800 Acres
Santa Ana winds stoked exactly the kind of massive wildfire officials were worried about. Late Monday evening the Franklin Fire broke out in Malibu near the Pepperdine University campus and in a news conference yesterday officials said it had already destroyed seven structures and damaged another eight. By last night, the fire had burned more than 3,000 acres. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said yesterday that around 18,000 people and over 8,000 structures were in the affected area, and just over 2,000 of those structures were under evacuation orders. Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Anthony Marrone said yesterday that no injuries or fatalities had been reported, but also said that the fire’s not contained.