Wednesday morning news - November 10, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

White House denies reports it's considering shutting down pipeline » The White House is pushing back on reports that it’s considering shouting down the Line 5 pipeline, which stretches from Canada through the state of Michigan.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that the Biden administration is talking with Canada about the future of the Line 5 replacement project, but...

PIERRE: These negotiations and discussions between the two countries shouldn’t be viewed as anything more than that and certainly not an indicator that the U.S. government is considering shutdown.

But some GOP lawmakers aren’t taking the White House at its word. Congressman Carlos Gimenez said shutting down the pipeline would hurt working class Americans.

GIMINEZ: Who’s going to pay for it? It’s going to be the poor and the middle class. Their gas prices, all of our gas prices. And when all of our gas prices go up, when all of our energy prices go up, everything goes up. That means inflation goes up.

The talks surrounding the Line 5 pipeline come after President Biden halted construction of the Keystone X-L pipeline earlier this year.

L.A. enacts strict vaccine mandate for businesses » The city of Los Angeles this week enacted one of the strictest COVID-19 vaccine mandates for businesses in the country. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The new rule covers businesses ranging from restaurants to shopping malls and theaters to hair salons. It requires businesses to check the vaccine status of their customers.

For example, restaurant patrons must now fork over their vaccine cards before they can dine.

The city says the mandates are necessary to slow the spread of the virus.

Business trade groups say businesses have enough to worry about with staffing shortages and supply chain issues.

And they contend the mandate will sow confusion and could present safety concerns for employees tasked with policing customers’ vaccination status.

The mandate is in effect now, but enforcement starts Nov. 29th. Violators will get one warning … but after that, they’ll face fines of at least $1,000 per offense.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

GE to split into three separate companies » It was once the world’s largest company by some measures, but General Electric will soon be three different companies.

GE will divide itself into three public corporations focused on aviation, healthcare and energy.

The company has already rid itself of the products most Americans know, including appliances and the light bulbs that GE had been making since the late 1800s.

The announcement Tuesday divvies up an empire created in the 1980s under then-CEO Jack Welch. GE’s stock became one of the most sought after on Wall Street under Welch.

But the company’s stock began to lag in the early 2000s and it was struck by near reunion during the Great Recession.

FBI assists in Astroworld deaths investigation as lawsuits mount » The FBI is assisting Houston police in the investigation of eight deaths in a crush of fans at a music festival. Mayor Sylvester Turner said police are leaving no stone unturned.

TURNER: Looking at the security plans, looking at the site plans, looking at where people were stationed, all of the security measures that were proposed, whether or not those things were followed.

While the FBI is assisting, some are calling for a separate outside investigation. They say the Houston police and fire department played a key role in crowd control and other safety measures at the show. And they question whether police could really conduct an impartial investigation.

In the meantime, lawsuits are rolling in. Attorney Rick Ramos is representing multiple victims and families. He said a similar event occurred two years ago with the same artist, rapper Travis Scott, at the very same venue. And while that event did not have the same tragic ending, he said it should have prepared organizers to prevent last weekend’s chaos.

RAMOS: It was the same, meaning the crowd went ahead and stormed the barricades, went into the actual venue. Security could not stop it. There was criminal activity that took place at the concert back in 2019.

A 56-page event operations plan for the Astroworld music festival included protocols for dangerous scenarios. Those included an active shooter or other terrorist acts, and severe weather. But it did not outline procedures in the event of a crowd surge.

Former Sen. Max Cleland dies » Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland has died at the age of 79. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has that story.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: Cleland died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his home in Atlanta.

The former U.S. Army captain received the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for his tour in Vietnam. He lost his right arm and both legs in an accidental grenade blast.

After returning home, Cleland served as a Democratic state senator in the 1970s before heading up the Veterans Administration as its youngest administrator. He later served as Georgia’s secretary of state until winning election to the U.S. Senate in 1996.

He was known on Capitol Hill as a vocal advocate for military veterans. He served one term, losing his re-election bid in 2002.

Countless lawmakers paid tribute on Tuesday, and President Biden called Cleland “a man of unflinching patriotism, boundless courage, and rare character.”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

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

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