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đ Alabama Manhunt Underway
Plus: Abducted boy found 70 years later...
Happy National Punctuation Day.
You may be rolling your eyes, but punctuation can save lives. Consider the sentence: âLetâs eat grandma.â Without a comma, itâs a crime; with a comma, itâs a cozy meal. Or how about this sentence: âI find inspiration in cooking, my parents, and my dog.â Without commas, this isnât a touching toast itâs a Netflix docuseries. Commas save lives.
đ¨ Alabama manhunt underway
đ FBI releases crime statistics
đŹđ§ Capybara returns to UK zoo
âMax, Max, and Owen
KEY STORY
Alabama Manhunt
A search is underway for a group accused of orchestrating a mass shooting in Birmingham, AL
Around 11 PM on Saturday, a vehicle pulled up in a Birmingham nightlife district and opened fire on a hookah lounge, killing four and wounding 17. The vehicle then sped off. Authorities have made no arrests and havenât identified the attackers
Police believe the shooting was a targeted âmurder-for-hireâ plot and that the target was killed while the other victims were caught in the crossfire
Authorities are now offering up to $100k for information leading to the culpritsâ arrests
Dig Deeper
Police recovered around 100 shell casings from the scene of the crime. They said that at least some of the gunfire was âfully automaticâ and that the attackers likely used âmachine gun conversion devicesâ
Local police say they are sifting through tips, while federal authorities, including the FBI, are supporting the effort
KEY STORY
Southern Lebanon Evacuations
Thousands of people evacuated southern Lebanon as Israeli strikes killed ~500 in the region
On Monday, Israel said it bombed 1,300+ sites in Lebanon where Hezbollah is storing weapons and related supplies. Lebanonâs health ministry said the strikes killed ~500 people and injured 1,600, in what were by far the heaviest attacks on Lebanon since Hezbollah began striking Israel a day after the October 7 attacks. Itâs unclear how many victims were civilians or militants
Tens of thousands of Lebanese received automated evacuation messages from Israel, and roads out of Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon were packed with fleeing vehicles
Dig Deeper
Hezbollah retaliated by launching dozens of missiles at Israel, including at a defense companyâs facility and the Israeli militaryâs main storage facility in northern Israel
Lebanonâs prime minister called Israelâs attacks a âwar of extermination,â while the US and UN told Israel not to escalate
In a letter released on Monday, Israelâs foreign minister said Israel âis not interested in a full-scale warâ but will âtake all necessary measures to protect ourselvesâ
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KEY STORY
70-Year Mystery Solved
A boy abducted at age six was found over 70 years later
In 1951, a woman allegedly lured Luis Armando Albino from an Oakland, CA, park with a promise of candy, then kidnapped him and took him to the East Coast, where another family raised him. Despite extensive searches by authorities, he remained missing for decades
In 2020, Albinoâs niece took a DNA test, revealing a 22% match with a man later confirmed as her missing uncle. Renewed efforts in 2023, including the review of old newspaper articles and photos, led investigators to reopen the case, and in June, they confirmed Albino was living on the East Coast
Albino â now a retired firefighter, Marine Corps veteran, and grandfather â recently reunited with his family. He thanked his niece, saying, âThank you for finding meâ
Dig Deeper
Oakland police acknowledged the nieceâs efforts âplayed an integral role in finding her uncleâ and that âthe outcome of this story is what we strive forâ
The FBI, meanwhile, continues to investigate the kidnapping case, but the missing persons case has been closed
KEY STORY
FBI: Crime Down
The FBI released its annual crime report Monday, which found that homicides fell 11.6%, violent crime fell 3%, and property crime fell 2.4% from 2022 to 2023
The bureau claims it received data from police departments that cover collectively 94.3% of the US population, including from cities that didnât provide data last year, like Los Angeles and New York City
These statistics are at odds with those found in the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), run by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and administered by the Census Bureau. It found no drop in violent crime and instead shows crime surging since 2019
Dig Deeper
At the center of the disagreement between the FBI and NCVS is the source of the data. For the FBI, itâs from police departments, which have to opt in and can report what they want. For the NCVS, the data come from a group of 230,000 US residents who self-report crime, whether it gets prosecuted or not
RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office
đşđ¸ Donald Trump said he likely will not run again in 2028 if he loses this yearâs election
đ The US Commerce Department proposed rules that would effectively ban Chinese vehicles from the US market
âď¸ President Zelensky is presenting a âplan for victoryâ to President Biden, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump this week in Washington, DC
âťď¸ California sued Exxon Mobil, alleging that the oil company deceived consumers about the recyclability of plastic products
âď¸ The head of Russiaâs flagship Aeroflot airline said that he expects his companyâs fleet to have in-flight Wi-Fi by 2028 â 20+ years after Western airlines first introduced the service
COMMUNITY
đ§ Yesterdayâs question: Does Googling your symptoms make you feel better or worse about your health problem?
If there is anyone who says that it makes them feel better is just plain lying. Lol.
Better, by far! I just found out over the weekend that I have high cholesterol. Ever since I heard that news, I have been doing searches online about how to lower cholesterol and the various things that contribute to it. I feel a lot better being able to research the topic from reliable sources. Knowledge is power in tackling any problem (in combination with running things by my doc). I just wish I had been more proactive and done more searches on the topic years ago.
Starts out okay but then I hit some of the peripheral links and the next thing I know I'm suffering from ebola, cancer or some other deadly disease. Best to not Google whatever you think you have-- you're sure to come down with something much worse.
đ§ Todayâs question: Whatâs the prettiest part of your state? For non-American readers, whatâs the prettiest part of your country?
POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour
đŹđ§ Cinnamon rolls back: Cinnamon, a capybara who escaped from a UK zoo, has been safely returned after several days on the run. Zookeepers found her in a pond (below) and have since reunited her with her twin brother, Churro
đ Book worms: A Michigan public library closed after âmultiple species of bugsâ were found in a DVD case returned over the weekend
Cinnamon⌠what did Churro do to you?
đ Sweet victory: Pop-Tarts says itâs releasing a Halloween costume inspired by its viral college football mascot, âStrawberry,â which was billed as the first-ever edible mascot
đ Crash and burn: Louisiana state police charged a 39-year-old fire chief with a DUI on Saturday after he crashed his district-issued truck into a fire hydrant
𤯠âUltimate cheating deviceâ: YouTuber ChromaLock uploaded a video revealing his modified TI-84 calculator, which he hacked to enable ChatGPT, internet access, and camera support
ROCA WRAP
To Fact-Check or Not?
Whose job is it to âfact-checkâ? What even is a âfact-checkâ?
We explore those questions and more in this weekâs Roca Votes.
One of our app users wrote to us in DMs to the Editor last weekend, âIn your article about the debate you stated âitâs not our job to determine if it was biased..â. It is your job to fact check. You didnât. Are you afraid that if you fact checked Trump or Harris on their statements; you would end up with one person looking like an idiot? You should actually fact check. Thats what journalists do. Are you too afraid of alienating half of your readers? Be better.â
Our position is as follows:
Fact-checking is far more complicated than that message acknowledges. Hereâs one example of why:
During the debate, ABC News fact-checked Trump to say that crime has gone down under the Biden Administration. Letâs âfact-checkâ that.
An Example
Violent crime rates increased significantly between 2019 and 2020 and continued to increase between 2020 and 2021.
That same year, the FBI â whose crime reporting stat is considered one the main reference points on the matterâ changed its reporting methodology. The USâ largest cities â including New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago â then stopped submitting crime stats to the agency. Between 2021 and 2022, the FBI reports that the violent crime rate declined.
Another main reference point is the Department of Justiceâs National Crime Victimization Survey, a study of 240,000 Americansâ experiences with crime. That showed that the share of people claiming to be a victim of violent crime rose by 47% between 2021 and 2022.
The most recent edition, reflecting 2023 data, notes, âThe 2023 rate was higher than those in 2020 and 2021.â A fact-check could be, âCrime isnât at all-time highs,â but to declare âcrime has declinedâ is more complicated.
Another Example
Another example: In the debate, Trump said that under Harris, âYou could do abortions in the seventh month, the eighth month, the ninth month.â
Harris said: âThatâs not true.â
It is true: In seven states â including Minnesota, where Tim Walz is governor â there are no limits on abortion until the moment of birth. Minnesota data, for example, show that in the last five years, seven induced abortions have been reported in the third trimester of pregnancy. Data suggest such abortions are often because of fetal anomalies or maternal life endangerment.
Trump then added that Democrats support âexecution after birth,â pointing to former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who said that if a baby was born with a very low chance of survival or severe deformities, âThe infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if thatâs what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.â
Many people would find that reasonable; many people would find it to be murder.
Complicated Facts
Some facts are, therefore, complicated â but not all.
Trump declared that inflation under Biden has been âprobably the worst in our nationâs historyâ; Kamala Harris declared that âDonald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.â
Both are demonstrably wrong: When Biden entered the White House, unemployment was 6.4% â itâs been higher than that for around a quarter of the years since the Great Depression. Meanwhile, inflation averaged 8% in 2022. In 1974 and from 1979 to 1981, it was over 10%.
When to Fact-Check?
Then thereâs the question of when we should fact-check
Should we fact-check candidates when they mischaracterize the other personâs opinion? Politicians do that constantly. Harris said that Trump wants to put âa 20% tax on everyday goods that you rely on to get through the month,â calling it âTrumpâs sales tax.â
Thatâs false: Trump doesnât plan to enact a sales tax. He plans to enact a tariff on foreign goods, which could raise the prices of imported goods.
Harris similarly said that Trump promised âthere will be a bloodbathâ if he loses. Thatâs taken out of context: Trump was referring to auto industry jobs.
Trump, meanwhile, repeated claims that everyone wanted Roe v. Wade overturned â an obvious falsehood.
He said Harris âwants to confiscate your gunsâ and âwill never allow fracking in Pennsylvaniaâ and claimed that she âhates IsraelâŚ[and] hates the Arab population.â If sheâs president, he claimed, âIsrael will be gone.â
In the past, Harris has called for a ban on fracking and confiscating assault weapons. Now, she doesnât. And even if she were president, she couldnât necessarily do these things.
How do you fact-check this? Shouldnât it be up to people to hear this and make up their own minds?
Weâre curious about what you think. Reply to this email to let us know your thoughts.
ROCA VIDEO
Gen Zâs Insane Partisan Gender Gap
A historically large partisan gap exists among Gen Z voters. Male 18 to 29 year olds in swing states are 51 points more likely to vote for Trump than women between 18 and 29. 51 points!
Other polls suggest this trend has been underway for years. This video aims to explain it: What it means, why it exists, and more.
Make sure to subscribe to the channel!
EDITORâS NOTE
Final Thoughts
Thank you for all of the kind words on our YouTube travel content. For clarification, we have two channels: 1) RocaNews channel (on-the-ground content, currently in swing states); 2) We the 66 (our podcast and deep dives into important topics).
Weâre just getting started with these and are always eager to hear your feedback. Have a great day!
âMax and Max