Also on today’s menu:
Israel Launches Attacks On Two Fronts
Local Ice Fishing Derbies Melt Away
The Kansas City Star reports that Lisa Lopez-Galvan, co-host of a weekly radio show called “A Taste of Tejano”, was killed and 21 others were wounded as the Kansas City Chiefs, celebrating their Super Bowl victory, were preparing to leave the stage. Police took three people into custody, but have not named them or revealed any motive behind the shootings.
Various reports say between eight and 15 of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries when the shots were fired around 2 p.m., and at least 11 of those injured were between the ages of 6 and 15, according to Children's Mercy Hospital.
Police Chief Stacey Graves said police were unsure whether the Super Bowl victory celebration was the target of the attack or whether the violence was incidental to the event and spilled over into it.
Discussion: There were more than 800 law enforcement officers, including federal agents, on security detail for the event, but Missouri law allows anyone to carry a gun, making the task of preventing such an incident difficult. Democrats in the Missouri legislature had introduced a bill last year that would have prohibited children from carrying weapons on public property without adult supervision, which Representative Donna Baringer had said police had requested to stop “14-year-olds walking down the middle of the street in the city of St. Louis carrying AR-15s”. Republicans in the legislature voted the bill down.
Israel Launches Attacks On Two Fronts
Israel Defense Forces carried out a raid on the besieged Nasser medical complex in Gaza, saying Hamas fighters were hiding inside and that Israeli hostages’ bodies also might be there. Spokesman Daniel Hagari said the Hamas fighters inside included “those suspected of involvement in the 7 October massacre”. Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis, is one of the few medical facilities still functioning in Gaza.
The IDF had ordered thousands of displaced people who had been sheltering at the site to leave the day before the raid.
Israel also launched attacks in Lebanon that killed at least seven civilians in response to Hezbollah rocket fire that killed a soldier in Israel. The Israeli strikes killed at least two Hezbollah fighters. The militant group has exchanged fire with Israeli forces almost every day since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas last October.
Discussion: Keeping the war from spreading gets more difficult every day. On the one hand, Israel is defending itself from further attacks, while on the other hand, its efforts to eradicate Hamas is killing too many innocent civilians to avoid global condemnation. The question of what happens after the war is unresolved. President Joe Biden Jr. has been supporting the so-called “two-state solution” that gives Palestinians a home, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that will never happen. The Biden administration is working with a small group of Middle East partners, including Qatar and Egypt, to complete a comprehensive plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state that includes the formation of an interim Palestinian government.
Local Ice Fishing Derbies Melt Away
Both the Webster Lake Ice Fishing Derby in Franklin and the Alexandria Volunteer Fire Department Fishing Derby on Newfound Lake have been canceled due to poor ice conditions on the lakes. It is a situation they have faced for the last two years.
Jim Shokal of the Alexandria Volunteer Fire Department said his committee decided that inviting hundreds of people out on the lake when there was still open water and thin ice was too risky. “It’s too late in the winter to get sufficient ice in for the derby,” he said. “In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was no ice across the whole lake this winter.”
The Webster Lake Ice Fishing Organization also canceled its four-decade-long derby again this year, saying that all online registrations will be refunded, and that in-person pre-registrations and sales of raffle tickets will be honored at next year’s derby.
Discussion: Canceling popular events is difficult, but people’s safety has to be the primary concern.