EEMS Resumes Services on Weekends
Emory Emergency Medical Services returned to operations Friday, Nov. 3, until Sunday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m., according to EEMS Director Rachel Barnhard. EEMS will initially be in service on weekends only, Barnhard said. The return to service comes after EEMS halted responding to 911 calls at the beginning of the semester to re-train its personnel, the Wheel previously reported. — Emily Sullivan
Irish Ambassador Lectures on Yeats
On Monday evening, Irish ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Mulhall gave a one-hour lecture on poet William Butler Yeats in the Jones Room of the Woodruff Library. Mulhall is an author and scholar of Irish history and the work of Yeats. The lecture, entitled “To Sweeten Ireland's Wrong: W.B. Yeats in the 1890s,” was open to the public and had about 70 attendees. Mulhall read from poem “To Ireland in the Coming Times” from “The Rose,” a collection of Yeats’ poems originally published in 1893, during the lecture. Mulhall primarily discussed the poet’s influence on the political climate of Ireland.
Dem. Northam Wins Virginia Governor’s Race
Democratic candidate Ralph Northam defeated Republican Ed Gillepsie to become the next Governor of Virginia, according to The Associated Press (AP). With 99 percent of the votes in, Northam garnered 53.9 percent of the vote to Gillespie’s 44.9 percent in a victory for the Democrats who were aiming to flip the seat. Northam outperformed former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who carried the state by five points in the 2016 presidential election according to Politico. Trump initially endorsed Gillepsie, but tweeted after his loss that “Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for.” Democrats Justin Fairfax and Mark Herring won their respective races for lieutenant governor and attorney general, according to the Washington Post. The election, along with New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, was seen as a test of Trump’s impact on state politics according to the Post. The Democratic candidate Phil Murphy also won the New Jersey Governor race against Republican Kim Guadango according to the Post.
Sterk Sends Letter Opposing GOP Tax Plan to Ga. Delegation
University President Claire E. Sterk sent an Oct. 31 letter to the Georgia delegation expressing disapproval of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, according to a Nov. 7 University press release. In Sterk’s Oct. 31 letter, which was sent to the Wheel by Associate Vice President for University Communications, Sterk stated that the new bill would be harmful to the Emory community. “Our endowment, like that of other non-profits, helps Emory remain committed to its mission to create, preserve, teach and apply knowledge in the service of humanity,” Sterk’s letter stated. “Any effort to impede in the management of such an instrument, such as an excise tax or mandatory payout, will severely undercut our ability to fulfill donor wishes and ensure the endowment's longevity and integrity.” The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was introduced to Congress Nov. 2 and states that the government would collect a 1.4 percent tax on a net investment income of private universities with at least 500 students and minimum assets of $100,000 per student, according to the AJC. Emory’s endowment sits at $6.7 billion, as of June 2015. Sterk discussed the University’s concerns about the tax-reform bill in a phone call with Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) who is a member of the Senate Committee on Finance and helped craft the bill.
Gunman Kills 26 in Texas
Twenty-six people were killed and 20 others were wounded Nov. 5, when Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire on a Sunday church service in Sutherland Springs, Texas, according to The New York Times. After the shooting, Kelley and bystander Stephen Willeford exchanged shots, according to NPR. Kelley then got into his vehicle and drove away while being pursued by two civilians, according to the BBC. The gunman shot himself in the head before crashing his vehicle, according to the Post. The FBI is currently trying to decrypt the shooter’s phone to find a motive for his killing, the Post also reported. A police report revealed that Kelley had escaped a mental facility in El Paso, Texas, in 2012. Trump tweeted his condolences to Sutherland Springs residents and said in a Nov. 6 press conference that the mass shooting represented a “mental health problem at the highest level.”
Mueller Charges Former Trump Advisers
Special Counsel Robert Mueller charged three advisers of President Donald J. Trump’s campaign Oct. 30 with crimes related to the Trump campaign’s involvement with Russia. Former Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime associate Richard Gates pleaded not guilty while George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty and is cooperating with investigators, according to the the Times. “In order to hide Ukraine payments from U.S. authorities, from about 2006 through at least 2016, Manafort and Gates laundered the money through scores of U.S. and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts,” the indictment against Manafort and Gates reads. The court documents regarding Papadopoulos state that he lied to the F.B.I. “about the timing, extent and nature of his relationships and interactions with certain foreign nationals whom he understood to have close connections with senior Russian government officials.” Manafort and Gates are currently under house arrest while Papadopoulos is still waiting to hear his sentence, according to the Times. In response to the charges, Trump tweeted, “there is NO COLLUSION!” and “Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar.”
Driver Plows Into People in NYCEight people were killed and 11 others injured when Sayfullo Saipov drove a pickup truck down a crowded bike path along the Hudson River in New York Oct. 31, according to the Times. The 29-year-old attacker w shouted “Allahu Akbar” before he was shot by a New York Police Department (NYPD) police officer . Saipov is currently in critical condition, according to the Times. Federal prosecutors filed terrorism charges Nov. 1 against Saipov for providing material support to ISIS and for violence and destruction of a motor vehicle with willful disregard for human life, according to CBS. Trump expressed condolences for the victims and tweeted, “We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere.” He later tweeted, “I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!” ISIS has called the attacker “a soldier of the caliphate,” but there has been no evidence that ISIS was directly involved with the attack, according to CNN.
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