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1 Police: 1 Dead, 13 Injured In AZ Drive-by Shootings
Police say charges are being evaluated for the suspected gunman in a string of shootings northwest of Phoenix that left one dead and 13 injured. Not all the injuries were from gunfire – just three, while nine others had other injuries. The Peoria Police Department says the string of eight incidents took place over the course of 90-minutes in Peoria, Glendale and Surprise. The adult male suspect, who has not been named, was taken into custody yesterday and the weapon has reportedly been recovered. In great news, all the surviving victims are expected to make a full recovery. Officials say they don't think there are any other suspects, nor do they believe that there’s any immediate danger to the public. Still, the question is: “Why?” "We don't know the nexus. We don't know what the motive was. We don't have an idea of what this person was thinking when he went out and did this," says Peoria Police spokesman Brandon Sheffert. "Obviously, we want to figure this out, because there's a lot of scared people and people this affected."
2 Juneteenth Becomes A Federal Holiday
Juneteenth is now a federal holiday. President Biden signed legislation creating the holiday during a ceremony at the White House yesterday. "Great nations don't ignore their most painful moments,” he noted before adding those moments helps a nation "heal and grow stronger." The President argued there's much more work to do and said the "sacred right to vote is under attack" in many states. For those who don’t know, Juneteenth marks the actual end of slavery in the U.S., more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It’s when Union troops marched into Galveston and informed the enslaved people there...that they were free. Vice President Kamala Harris called Juneteenth a day of pride and a day of action in the ongoing struggle to achieve racial equality in the U.S. She noted enslaved people helped build the White House. Harris said, "We have come far and we have far to go." The legislation was passed by the House and Senate with unusual speed this week - the Juneteenth National Independence Day is the first new federal holiday that has been created in decades.
3 White House Shares COVID Update
The White House says we're heading into a summer of joy and increasing freedom from the coronavirus pandemic as case numbers decline. White House COVID coordinator Jeffrey Zients said more than 175-million Americans have gotten at least one shot. Additionally, Zients said cases and deaths are down more than 90-percent, reaching levels similar to March 2020. Additionally, Zients said President Biden has committed to sharing 580-million doses of vaccine with the world and shipping has already begun to Mexico and Canada. On a related note, Dr. Anthony Fauci announced over three-billion-dollars in funding for the development of antiviral treatments for COVID-19 and other viruses with pandemic potential. The timing couldn’t be better as the CDC is reporting more than 300 cases of heart inflammation – known as myocarditis – in young people after they got their COVID-19 shots. The agency's director Dr. Rochelle Walensky noted that the cases are out of over 20-million adolescents and young adults that have been vaccinated. The CDC's independent advisory committee will meet to review the cases next week.