Morning Headlines - Monday, Dec. 19, 2022 | Recent News

U.S. and World Headlines

Elon Musk Twitter Poll: Users Say He Should Step Down As CEO

Twitter CEO Elon Musk conducted a poll on the platform asking if he should step down from leading the company, and a majority of users support his departure as company head.

Musk shared a poll to his Twitter account Sunday night asking his users if he should leave his position as head of the social media platform.

"Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll," Musk wrote.

The poll concluded Monday morning at 6:20 a.m. ET, with most respondents favoring him stepping down. More than 17 million users weighed in.

Five Things To Know Ahead Of The Jan. 6 Committee’s Crucial Week

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol is heading into a crucial week as it prepares to hold its final presentation, release a highly anticipated report outlining findings from the panel’s year-plus probe and vote on criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.

The votes on criminal referrals are expected during Monday’s business meeting, marking a significant step for the panel, which has said one of its goals is to prevent what happened on Jan. 6 from happening again.

The week’s closely watched events are the culmination of the committee’s sprawling investigation, which began months after last year’s deadly riot and has consisted of almost a dozen hearings, testimony from more than 1,000 witnesses and millions of documents.

Here are five things to look for as the committee kicks off a pivotal week.

5 People Killed In A ‘Horrendous’ Condo Shooting In Canada

Five people were killed in a shooting at a condominium in a Toronto suburb Sunday night, police said.

At around 7:20 p.m., officers responded to an active shooting call at the building in Vaughan, a city just north of Toronto, York Regional Police Chief Jim MacSween said in a news conference.

Police found a “horrendous scene where numerous victims were deceased,” MacSween said. A surviving victim who was shot was taken to a hospital in serious condition.

The male gunman was shot by an officer during a confrontation and died, the chief said. Police have not released the shooter’s name.

CNN Boss Chris Licht Slams 'Left-Wing, Uninformed' Critics Attacking Him For Making Network Less Partisan

CNN honcho Chris Licht has responded to criticism he's received for his move to make the network's historically progressive coverage less partisan, slamming the backlash as 'uniformed vitriol.'

In an interview Sunday, the network’s chief executive addressed responses to his approach around featured voices on the network - since being tapped to replace ousted predecessor Jeff Zucker last February.

That strategy has since seen a series of sweeping changes enacted by Licht, who has pushed hosts like Don Lemon and Jim Acosta away from opinionated reporting that became especially prevalent during Donald Trump's campaign and presidency.

Seeking to the station's roots as a hard-hitting news source, Licht over the past eight months has revamped the newsroom with a series of hiring, firings, and on-air shuffles - which has seen him condemned by left-wingers such as ex-colleague Keith Olbermann and gun activist Sharron Watts.

US Homeless Numbers Stay About The Same As Before Pandemic

President Joe Biden's administration announced Monday it is ramping up efforts to help house people now sleeping on sidewalks, in tents and cars as a new federal report confirms what's obvious to people in many cities: Homelessness is persisting despite increased local efforts.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said that in federally required tallies taken across the country earlier this year, about 582,000 people were counted as homeless — a number that misses some people and does not include those staying with friends or family because they do not have a place of their own.

The figure was nearly the same as it was in a survey conducted in early 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic hit the nation hard. It was up by about 2,000 people — an increase of less than 1%.

The administration aims to lower that by 25% by 2025.

Attorney For 10-Year-Old Wisconsin Boy Accused Of Killing His Mom Asks To Lower Bail To $100

An attorney for a 10-year-old Wisconsin boy accused of fatally shooting his mother because she wouldn't allow him to order a virtual reality headset from Amazon asked for the child's bail to be lowered from $50,000 to $100, court records show.

During a hearing Wednesday, the attorney, Angela Cunningham, asked for the lower bail amount because the child has no source of income.

“My team and I have spoken to him about his ability to post anything. He told us about piggy banks with savings that he had from gifts, from birthday gifts and scavenging through cushions in the couch that he's been able to save up,” Cunningham said in court, according to the news station.

A judge denied the request, keeping bail at $50,000. The court also set a travel restriction if bail is posted, requiring the boy to stay in Milwaukee County.

Wisconsin Sees 2 Major Hospital Mergers Finalized Back To Back

Millions of Wisconsin residents will be affected by two separate mergers of nonprofit hospital systems that were finalized earlier this month.

Gundersen Health System and Bellin Health completed a merger on Dec. 1. The next day, Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health did the same. Together, the mergers will impact about 8.5 million patients across several states.

Bellin and Gundersen will keep their respective names for the time being, as well as separate headquarters in Green Bay and La Crosse, while Advocate Aurora and Atrium will become "Advocate Health." Marshfield Clinic Health System and Essentia health also announced merger talks earlier this year.

The mergers come as hospitals are facing staffing and resource pressures. According to a report released in September by the American Hospital Association, anticipated profit margins would decrease 37 percent this year compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, with over half of hospitals operating at a deficit.

Hospital officials say the deals are aimed at improving patient care, and stem from organizations sharing similar missions and visions. But the mergers also have the potential to give hospitals more leverage to negotiate for higher prices with insurance companies.

Wisconsin Lawmakers, Ag Industry Push Back On Federal Rule That Would Exclude Cranberries As A Healthy Food

Healthy foods aren’t typically top of mind during the holidays. But most of the year, marketing a food as "healthy" can catch a consumer’s eye.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has a formal definition of what it means for a food to be healthy, which the agency is currently working to update. But some in Wisconsin’s congressional delegation and agriculture industry worry the new definition leaves out cranberries and tart cherries.

Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin joined a bipartisan group of federal lawmakers in sending a letter to the head of the FDA, asking the agency to make exceptions to the added sugar limits for the two unique fruits.

The FDA’s proposed definition of healthy sets specific limits for added sugars, saturated fat and sodium for food products. For fruit products, zero grams of added sugars are allowed. The lawmakers argue that cranberries and tart cherries have "low intrinsic sugar content," meaning they aren’t naturally sweet like other fruits.

Wisconsin Ranked Second In The Nation For Having Most Christmas Spirit

Tis’ the season! After all of the snow this week, it’s hardly a surprise that Wisconsin ranked second overall for having the most Christmas Spirit in the county, according to a survey from GetCenturyLink.

Wisconsin was only topped by New Hampshire which placed first for the second year in a row, survey officials said.

GetCenturyLink said in order to reach the rankings, it compiled data in two main categories: Christmas themed online activity in the last year and Christmas cultural markers. After using 1,000 American respondents data on their attitudes and habits celebrating Christmas, Data analysts weighed each of the metrics in the categories.

Wisconsin ranked 16th on the list last year, which wasn’t bad enough to earn it a lump of coal!

The survey ranked the top 10 states.

Packers Vs. Rams: 5 Things To Watch And A Prediction

The Green Bay Packers (5-8) and the Los Angeles Rams (4-9) will finish up Week 15 with a showdown between disappointing NFC teams on “Monday Night Football” from Lambeau Field.

The defending Super Bowl champs would be eliminated from the playoffs officially with a loss to the Packers, who need to win out over the final four games to sneak into the postseason after securing the No. 1 seed in 2020 and 2021.

Both teams are coming off a comeback win. The Packers stormed back to beat the Bears in Chicago before the bye week, while the Rams used two late touchdowns to shock the Las Vegas Raiders in Los Angeles to open Week 14.