Friday morning news - October 29, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Biden announces “historic” deal on framework for spending bill » President Biden announced on Thursday he had reached a—“historic economic framework”—on a massive new spending package.

BIDEN: It’s a framework that will create millions of jobs, grow the economy, invest in our nation and our people.

Party leaders have been negotiating with more moderate Democrats who objected mainly to the size of the plan. Biden was pushing for a $3.5 trillion spending package.

The agreed-upon framework, according to the president, cuts that figure in half—at least on paper. It outlines $1.75 trillion in spending on social services and climate change programs.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters …

PELOSI: I said over and over again, provisions in the bill are about children learning, parents earning. And that means with universal pre-k and childcare, with home healthcare, with childcare tax credit and all the rest.

But Republicans say nearly $2 trillion dollars is still a staggering and irresponsible amount of money to spend. And Sen. Marco Rubio insists the actual price tag would be much higher.

RUBIO: It doesn’t matter if it’s $3.5 trillion or $1.75 trillion. At the end of the day, that’s a gimmick because they can just lower the number of years. They can say, well we’re only going to have these socialist programs for two years, and then that will lower the cost - because they’re plan is, once they get these things in place, it’s very hard to repeal them. And they know that. That’s what they’re banking on.

Democrats plan to pass a spending bill without any Republican votes using reconciliation. But they will need all 50 Senate Democrats on board. And Democratic holdouts in the upper chamber have not yet publicly committed to backing the plan.

New covid cases fall 70% since Delta surge peak » New COVID-19 cases have fallen more than 70 percent since the peak of the delta variant wave. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher reports.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: After the delta variant took hold in the United States in July, new cases rose sharply for almost two months straight. The current wave peaked in mid-September at nearly 190,000 new cases per day.

But daily cases are now down to about 56,000.

Deaths are also down sharply. At the delta variant peak, 2,400 Americans were dying of the illness each day. That number is now under 1,000.

With many more Americans vaccinated, the delta surge has not been as lethal as previous waves. At its January peak, COVID-19 claimed more than 4,000 lives in the United States each day.

But the vast majority of those who are most vulnerable are now vaccinated. Ninety-seven percent of adults 65 and up have received at least one dose. And 85 percent of them are fully vaccinated.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Families, survivors of Charleston church shooting reach settlement » The Justice Department will pay out nearly $90 million in a settlement in connection with a racially motivated mass shooting at a black church in South Carolina.

Six years ago, 21-year-old Dylann Roof opened fire on a Bible study group of nine worshipers at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.

Mullins McLeod is an attorney for multiple victims. He told reporters Thursday …

MCLEOD: The background check for Dylann Roof, there were some mistakes made. And but for those mistakes, the firearm would not have been sold.

And the Department of Justice has conceded that a prior criminal charge should have prevented Roof from buying the gun he used in his crimes.

Each family of the victims will receive between $6 and $7.5 million. And each survivor is entitled to $5 million. The settlement is pending a judge’s final approval.

Facebook Inc. rebrands as Meta to stress ‘metaverse’ plan » Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company is changing its name. WORLD’s Leigh Jones has that story.

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: Facebook’s new corporate name will be Meta. Zuckerberg said the change is designed to reflect the company’s virtual-reality vision for the future—what he calls the “ metaverse.”

Zuckerberg describes the “metaverse” as a “virtual environment” you can go inside—instead of just looking on a screen. He further explained, it’s a world of connected virtual communities where people can meet, work and play, using virtual reality headsets and other devices.

Zuckerberg expects the metaverse to reach a billion people within the next decade.

But skeptics question the timing of the name change. They say the announcement is merely an attempt to change the subject after the company took a public relations beating in recent weeks. That after a former employee leaked internal Facebook documents and accused the company of putting profits over safety, failing to police dangerous content.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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