Local
Man convicted for pouring boiling water over gay couple
Martin Blackwell, an Atlanta truck driver was sentenced to forty years in prison on Aug. 24, for pouring boiling water over a sleeping gay couple in February 2016. Anthony Gooden and Marquez Tolbert were sleeping in Gooden’s mother’s living room, in the same house Blackwell stayed when he was in town. According to the Washington Post, Blackwell saw the two men sleeping next to each other and went to the kitchen, boiled water, and poured it all over them, telling them to get out of the house “with all that gay”, according to the police report. Gooden was left in a medically-induced coma for weeks after the incident, while Tolbert has to wear compression garments all day for the next two years.
National
As Zika prevention, FDA calls for blood screening
In an effort to protect circulating blood from contracting the Zika virus, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required that all blood banks in all states screen their blood donations. This was the first of a series of steps taken by the FDA for the prevention of Zika, in order to search for the virus in blood, even in states where there have been no reported cases. Because the virus is also sexually transmitted, the FDA urged states to screen all donations before giving them out for transfusions, according to the New York Times.
Global
North Korea successfully launched another missile
After successfully testing a submarine-launched missile, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, said the United States is “within striking range of his nuclear weapons”, according to USA Today. Even though there’s no proof of North Korea’s ability to fit nuclear power into a warhead so that it would reach mainland U.S., former U.S. nuclear negotiator with the country, Joel Wit, said he’s worried. According to WIt, even this shows a slow progress and confirms North Korea is continuing to build nuclear weapons and missiles.
