Teen convicted in 2014 Slender Man stabbing seeking early release
One of the two Wisconsin teen girls who plotted to murder their friend to appease fictional internet demon Slender Man in 2014 is seeking early release from a mental health institution.
Anissa Weier, now 19, will formally ask for her release March 10, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Weier and Morgan Geyser schemed to murder classmate Payton Leutner in May 2014, fearing that Slender Man, a mysterious evil figure they read about online, would kill their families otherwise.
Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier encouraged her, and the two left their friend to die in the woods of Waukesha, a west Milwaukee suburb. Leutner survived the attack. All three were 12 years old at the time.
Weier pleaded guilty in 2017 to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. A jury found her not criminally responsible due to a mental disease, and she was sentenced to 25 years in a mental health institution. Geyser, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, got 40 years in the same institution.
As part of her plea deal, Weier agreed not to ask for early release for three years, according to the Journal Sentinel. Her first chance at release is next Wednesday.
If Weier is allowed to leave Winnebago Mental Health Institute, she will be monitored in some form, the Journal Sentinel reported. Weier’s plea deal requires her to be supervised until she is 37 years old.
If Weier’s request for release is denied, she can petition again in six months.
— New York Daily News
Astra stockpiles US vaccine that could speed up Biden timeline
WASHINGTON — AstraZeneca Plc has begun stockpiling its COVID-19 vaccine for use in the U.S., providing a potential supply boost that could speed up President Joe Biden’s inoculation timetable, should the company win regulatory authorization.
A company executive said this week it has begun production and expects to have 30 million doses ready for U.S. distribution, once it’s approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. AstraZeneca hasn’t yet applied to the FDA and hasn’t said when it will, but the U.K.-based company expects to produce 15 million to 25 million doses per month for the U.S. after that.
If the FDA gives the green light, “we are expecting to start with 30 million,” Ruud Dobber, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president and president of its biopharmaceuticals unit, told CNBC this week. “We’re already producing at high speed as we speak, so we feel comfortable.”
The company is “on track” to eventually deliver a total of 300 million doses to the U.S., he said.
Biden announced this week that the U.S. would receive enough doses for nearly 300 million people, or enough for every American adult, by the end of May, a figure that includes the three authorized U.S. vaccines: from the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE partnership, Moderna Inc. and Johnson & Johnson.
The U.S. has ordered 300 million shots each from Moderna and Pfizer, each of which use two doses, providing enough for 300 million people. The U.S. has also ordered 100 million doses of J&J’s one-dose vaccine.
— Bloomberg News
Biden to fire Trump EEOC general counsel who refused to resign
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden was expected to fire Sharon Gustafson, the Trump-appointed general counsel of the EEOC, on Friday, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation.
The Biden administration demanded in a March 2 email that Gustafson, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s top litigator, resign, said two different sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter.
Gustafson refused, citing her term, which runs through 2023, according to a copy of a letter Gustafson sent Friday to the Biden administration that was obtained by Bloomberg Law. She was then told by the White House on Friday that she would be fired Friday, according to the source with direct knowledge.
The administration’s move comes after Biden fired National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Peter Robb, who was also a Trump appointee, after he refused to step down on Jan. 20.
Gustafson was confirmed as the EEOC’s general counsel in August 2019. During her tenure, she prioritized combating religious discrimination in the workplace. Her legal stances prompted at least one EEOC attorney to voice concern that the agency’s approach in a religious bias lawsuit against Kroger Co. could impinge on the rights of LGBT workers.
Media representatives for the White House and the EEOC didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
— Bloomberg News
Delta flight to Mexican resort city of Cabo diverted after passenger dies on board
A passenger died suddenly aboard a Delta flight bound for the Mexican resort city of Cabo, forcing the plane to divert to Sacramento International Airport.
Delta Flight 1837 had just taken off from an airport in Seattle on Thursday when a traveler became unresponsive, according to CBS Los Angeles.
The aircraft was diverted just after 7 p.m. to Sacramento International Airport, where emergency personnel pronounced the person dead at the scene.
The Sacramento County coroner’s also office responded to the airport to retrieve the passenger’s body. Officials said it appeared the person died of natural causes.
Authorities have not yet released the name of the passenger nor any other details surrounding the incident.
A spokesperson with the coroner’s office told CBS it’s likely the plane stopped in Sacramento because it was the one that was closest at the time.
— New York Daily News
