Also on today’s menu:
Drowning Victim Identified But Cause Of Death Unknown
Fleeing Vehicle Kills Man Near White House
Just An Event, Or A New Epoch?
Ray Epps, a retired U.S. Marine who had to close the wedding venue business he operated with his wife in Arizona and move into a motorhome in Utah because of threats and harassment due to a right-wing conspiracy amplified by Fox News, has sued the media company for defamation. The lawsuit accuses Fox of telling a “fantastical story” about Epps being a federal agent after he was filmed encouraging people to enter the U.S. Capitol complex in January 2021.
Epps was in Washington, D.C., with Trump supporters the night before and the day of the riot. A video captured him urging people to enter the building, although he did not enter himself. Members of the crowd accused him of being a law enforcement official, chanting, “Fed! Fed!”
Epps said he got carried away by his support for Donald Trump and the belief that widespread fraud had swayed the 2020 election, and denied having any ties with law enforcement. Fox News and its network star, Tucker Carlson, continued to spread the story that he was a federal agent, bolstered by the fact that the FBI questioned Epps but never charged him in connection with the riot. Carlson also is named in the lawsuit.
Drowning Victim Identified But Cause Of Death Unknown
Although the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner completed an autopsy on Therese M. Donohue, 26, of Hooksett on July 12, the New Hampshire State Police say the manner and cause of death are still pending and the investigation is ongoing.
Troop D was notified on July 10 that a resident of West Shore Drive, Andover, had found a body in Highland Lake.
Officers and troopers from the Andover Police Department, New Hampshire Marine Patrol, and the State Police Major Crime Unit are investigating the death.
Fleeing Vehicle Kills Man Near White House
The driver of a vehicle that Secret Service officers attempted to pull over for having an expired registration plate struck several pedestrians, killing one, while fleeing from the officers, and remained at large on Wednesday night.
The agents who attempted to pull the vehicle over near the White House around 1:30 p.m. on July 12 said the suspect “indicated that they would stop the vehicle, but then quickly fled”. The motorist drove off through a red light and “struck multiple individuals in the crosswalk” while fleeing.
Officers at the scene provided first aid to those injured, including a 13-year-old girl. The victim was a 75-year-old man, according to CBS Washington.
Just An Event, Or A New Epoch?
A group of scientists advocating for a new chapter in the earth’s history want to formally adopt the name Anthropocene as the term for our present epoch, but other geologists say this period of human history is but an event taking place in the Holocene epoch, which began nearly 12,000 years ago.
The change is warranted, according geologists studying Crawford Lake in Canada, which has layered sediments recording more than a thousand years of environmental history. They say it provides proof of humanity’s adverse impacts on the planet since the mid-20th century. Increased fossil fuel consumption, nuclear weapons tests, and deforestation have had a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems, and many of the changes “will persist for millennia or longer, and are altering the trajectory of the Earth,” according to the Anthropocene Working Group. If the findings are endorsed by the wider geological community, there will be a new interval added to the earth’s 4.6 billion-year timeline.
Formally adopting the Anthropocene as a new epoch must pass the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, which is responsible for subdividing Earth’s history from the past 2.4 million years. The proposal then must pass a vote at the larger International Commission on Stratigraphy before being ratified at the International Geological Congress in South Korea next year.
Do you have a story to tell?
The News Café is a virtual meeting place where, each weekday, we discuss the news of the day: local, statewide, national, and international. Subscribers can share their knowledge, thoughts, and questions about any topic, and we may select some of those subjects for more in-depth analysis.
Compiling these summaries and preparing the information takes time, so your paid subscriptions help to make the effort worthwhile. However, if you’re unable to pay but still want to receive all of the posts in your in-box, click the Subscribe button and select a free subscription.
Visit us at www.libertymedianh.org
Join in the conversation through chat or notes by downloading the Substack app or going to the online site.
Also see our new Substack news site, By The Way.