Pharrell wants federal investigation into fatal police shooting of his cousin
Pharrell Williams called for federal authorities to investigate the death of his cousin, Donovon Lynch, who was fatally shot by police in Virginia Beach on March 27.
Williams, 48, spoke at Lynch’s funeral Monday.
“I had to speak at my cousin’s funeral, and was choked up with emotions. Too many unanswered city and state questions,” he wrote in a social media post. “Respectfully, I am calling for a federal investigation. I also humbly ask that you all keep the family in prayer.”
Police fatally shot Lynch, a 25-year-old Black man, in the early morning hours of March 27.
Cops later said he was “brandishing” a gun at the time. The officer who killed Lynch did not activate his body camera.
An internal investigation by Virginia Beach police was turned over to Virginia State Police, the Associated Press reported. No federal inquiry has been announced.
Williams, a 13-time Grammy winner, grew up in Virginia Beach.
“[Donovon] was a bright light and someone who always showed up for others,” he said in March. “Virginia Beach is the epitome of hope and tenacity and, as a community, we will get through this and come out even stronger.”
— New York Daily News
Florida sues Biden administration and CDC to reopen cruise industry
Florida has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to force the reopening of Florida’s cruise industry, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced at a news conference in Miami.
The suit was filed Thursday morning just before the news conference, Attorney General Ashley Moody said.
Moody said the suit challenges the federal government’s authority to prevent cruise lines from sailing from Florida ports. She said the administration has been unwilling to discuss how vaccinations and health protocols introduced by the cruise lines have made the CDC’s ban on cruising outdated.
DeSantis said that tens of thousands of Florida workers who depend on the cruise lines have been unfairly harmed by the ban, which has been in effect since March 2020.
“I don’t think the federal government has the right to mothball an industry for more than a year based on very little evidence and very little data,” he said.
— South Florida Sun Sentinel
Home inspector caught on nursery camera pleasuring himself with Elmo doll faces charges
DETROIT — A home inspector caught pleasuring himself with an Elmo doll has been charged with two misdemeanor counts in a Rochester Hills district court.
Kevin Wayne VanLuven, 59, was arraigned on charges of aggravated indecent exposure and malicious destruction of property under $200. Bond was set at $2,500 cash or surety.
The charges stem from a March 12 incident in Oxford Township, when homeowners asked to have their property inspected at the request of the buyers. A nursery camera detected movement, the news release said, so the 22-year-old homeowner checked her phone and caught VanLuven in the act. After he finished pleasuring himself, he returned the doll to its original place, the release said.
“Just when I think I have seen it all, someone steps up and surprises me with a new level of disturbing actions,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a news release.
When officers questioned him about the incident, VanLuven said he moved the doll to check an electrical outlet, but “made incriminating statements and apologized" after he was told of the nursery camera, the news release said.
VanLuven is not allowed to be alone in a home that is not his, may not contact the homeowners and is required to undergo a mental health evaluation, the news release said. His next court appearance is scheduled for April 19 before Judge Nancy Carniak.
— Detroit Free Press
Israel remembers Holocaust victims, mourns those lost to pandemic
Israel paused on Thursday to remember the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis and mourn those who survived the Holocaust only to be lost in the past year to the pandemic.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, sirens wailed nationwide for two minutes while pedestrians paused and drivers pulled their cars over.
According to official figures, 174,500 Holocaust survivors are still alive in Israel.
Eighty-three percent of them are older than 80, and 18% are older than 90. More than 900 Holocaust survivors in Israel are older than 100.
President Reuven Rivlin said at a ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial late Wednesday that some 900 survivors in Israel died "as a direct result" of the coronavirus pandemic.
He said many of them spent their final days "distraught and isolated, behind masks and protective gloves, longing for contact but separated from their loved ones."
"Our hearts are with them and their families," Rivlin said.
Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 patients suffering from a severe case of the disease in Israel dropped below 300 for the first time in more than fourth months, despite the easing of coronavirus restrictions in the country.
The Health Ministry reported 290 active severe cases on Thursday, the lowest number since December.
Infection rates are generally on decline in Israel, with 274 new cases being detected over the last 24 hours.
This is largely due to the country's successful rollout of its coronavirus vaccine campaign. So far, 5.3 million Israelis have received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 4.9 million inhabitants of the country of 9 million have received two doses.
— dpa
