Local
After its historic collapse, I-85 has reopened
After only six weeks, I-85 northbound reopened on May 12. I-85 southbound reopened just a day later on May 13. The interstate has been rebuilt and returned to its original functionality — ahead of the initial scheduled reopen date of June 15, the AJC reported. After the initial fire and collapse on March 30, development and contracting teams have worked around the clock with a $3.1 million incentive if the bridge is finished prior to its schedule reopen date.
National
Trump could replace former FBI Director James Comey in a week
NPR reported that President Donald Trump said he could establish a new FBI director by next Friday. Eight candidates for the position, one of which was acting FBI director Andrew McCade, met with with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on May 13. On May 11, McCabe testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee defending Comey against the President’s assertions that the former FBI director had fallen out of favor in the eyes of FBI’s rank-and-file. Alice Fisher, a partner of the law firm Latham and Watkins has also entered the bidding for the FBI directing position. Fisher served as assistant attorney general during George W. Bush’s administration. In that position she manned the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Global
WannaCry ransomware cyber-attack was unprecedented in scale
European police agency, Europol, called for a complex international investigation to identify the culprits of the WannaCry cyber-attack, according to the BBC. The WannaCry ransomware compromised organizations around the world including 48 of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. The ransomware encrypted data on 75,000 computers in 99 countries on May 12. The owners of that information were expected to pay in order to regain access. The countries that were affected the most were European, including Russia. The perpetrators of the attack are unknown, but the tools that carried out the maneuver were allegedly made by the US National Security Agency (NSA) to exploit weaknesses in Microsoft’s Windows system.
