Local
Grady Hospital has proposed a $165 million expansion
According to the AJC, Grady Health Systems has made plans for a $165 million expansion that would add a seven-story surgery center to its main campus. The expansion would also increase its capacity at an HIV and AIDS treatment center on Ponce de Leon Avenue. While the proposal is still in its preliminary stages, The project is expected to be complete in three and a half years. Half of the money is expected to come from Fulton and DeKalb counties, The other portion of the expansion funds would come from philanthropies and other private sources. Should proposal go through, more operating and recovery rooms would be added to Grady Hospital facilities and would open more spaces for in-patient beds.
National
Judge throws out conviction of woman who laughed at Jeff Sessions
NPR reported that a D.C. judge threw out the conviction of activist Desiree Fairooz who was arrested for laughing at Jeff Sessions during his confirmation hearing back in January for a new trail. Fairooz said her laughter was an involuntary response to Session’s remarks concerning his equal treatment of Americans. In May, a jury convicted Fairooz of disruptive conduct and blocking passage on U.S Capitol grounds. These charges would grant her a year in prison and a $2,000 fine. However, on July 14, Chief Judge Robert Morin decided that the government improperly argued that Fairooz laugh alone–as opposed to her protesting as she was being removed from the hearing–was a sufficient reason to find her guilty. Now Fairooz has a court date set for Sept. 1.
Global
Egyptian knife attacker sat and spoke with two German victims
According to the Associated Press, the 29-year-old Egyptian university graduate who stabbed and killed two German women at a Red Sea resort initially sat down and spoke with the women in their native tongue before attacking them with a kitchen knife. The attacker, Abdel-Rahman Shaaban, was then chased by hotel workers and security guards as he fled the scene. He then rushed into the hotel room next door where he attacked four other female tourists; two were Armenian, one was from Ukraine and another hailed from the Czech Republic. Eventually he was caught, disarmed and pinned to the ground; he was then turned over to the police. Although the attack was not claimed by any group, calls made by a local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State to attack Egypt’s minority Christians and foreign tourists may have inspired the attack. Shaaban’s own ideological motivations for the attack have yet to be known.
