A Memphis, Tennessee teacher, Eliza Fletcher, was kidnapped while jogging outside a university at 4:20 AM on September 2, 2022. Police provided pictures of what Fletcher was wearing. She was wearing a pink top and purple jogging shorts.

Police also released pictures of the suspected car. They think the car was going west on Central Avenue. They also found her phone and water bottle, though it was outside a house that is owned by the university she was jogging near.

Local police are trying to find any information or leads to help find Fletcher. She is said to be five feet six inches, she has brown hair and green eyes, and she weighs 137 pounds.

“We don’t know what’s going on, but everybody is desperately looking for her and the police here are on it,” Fletcher’s friend Hart Robinson told WREG. “You can see there is a lot of activity, so if you know anything or saw anything early this morning, we just ask that you come forward. We want to find her.”

The local police, along with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, are asking anyone who may have information to come forward and report it. This could save Fletcher’s life.

Fletcher’s kidnapping happened 2 days, and a few miles away, from where a woman and her child were kidnapped by two men while she was putting groceries away in her car.

One man, who was armed, got out of a car and demanded the woman give him cash, WREG reported. Cops revealed that mom, who didn’t have any money on her, told the man to take her wallet and cards. She gave the man the PIN belonging to one of her cards, according to police. The mom was ordered to get into the car and the man allegedly snatched the toddler out of the shopping cart. Cops revealed that they were driven to a Regions bank which is located less than three minutes away from the Target store. Around $800 worth of cash was withdrawn from the ATM. The woman and her child were then driven back to the Target parking lot and released, but the suspects kept her wallet.

What is happening in this city? Hopefully, they find Fletcher and all the suspects. Please remember to report any information you may have. Remember, if you see something say something.

Source The Sun

What is going on in Jackson, Mississippi? They are on day 4 of a water shortage. This is mainly due to the water treatment plant failing to do what is basic and necessary for their community. It’s being reported that the water treatment plant has basically put band aids on maintenance issues; for decades.

The problem — which comes on top of a boil-water notice in effect for more than a month — has upended life in the city of roughly 150,000 residents, where schools were shuttered this week, businesses are forced to adapt and people have had to wait in long lines for bottled water they can use to drink, cook or brush their teeth.

It does seem like they are making progress. They rented and installed a pump. The houses and businesses closest to the water treatment plant, for the most part, have normal water pressure. But houses and businesses farther from the water treatment plant are still experiencing low to no water pressure.

President Biden has issued emergency declaration for Jackson, Mississippi. The Governor of Mississippi says this should help them obtain important resources to help them through the crisis. But it’s still upending everyday life for a lot of their citizens.

Residents are seeing cloudy, discolored water coming out of their faucets and are being told it should be adequate for sanitation purposes. They can’t use the water to drink, cook or wash dishes, but they can shower and wash their hands in it, officials said.

“Please make sure in the shower that your mouth is not open,” Jim Craig, senior deputy and director of health protection at the Mississippi Department of Health, told residents Wednesday, adding pets should also not consume the water.

What about the people who can’t afford to keep buying bottled water? What about hospitals, and schools? What about local businesses? This is a major crisis that I’m sure the citizens of Jackson, Mississippi would like to see fixed. They would like their normal lives back.

Source CNN

California is experiencing overwhelming droughts. They are trying to fight the droughts by installing solar panel canopies over local Central California canals.

The project will cost some $20 million. The project is funded by the state and has been named “Project Nexus.” It is estimated that there will be 8,500 feet of solar panels canopies put up over the Turlock Irrigation District canals. They will more than likely break ground in fall 2022 and it should be completed sometime in 2023. Such a short timeline is exciting for the state and any other state who may also want to do this in the future.

The whole concept is to unite energy and water management, according to the Turlock Irrigation District (TID). They want to “increase renewable power generation while reducing water evaporation and vegetative growth in canals.”

TID states that the project will also serve as a “proof of concept” to further study “solar over canal design.” The agency cites a 2021 University of California, Merced study, which showed that covering all of the approximately 4,000 miles of public water delivery system infrastructure in the state with solar panels could save an estimated 63 billion gallons of water annually, as well as result in significant energy and cost savings.

The Turlock Irrigation District wrote on their website, “According to the study, the 13 gigawatts of solar power the panels would generate each year would equal about one-sixth of the state’s current installed capacity.”

Numerous actions have been taken to fight the droughts and climate change in California. The Governor, Gavin Newsom, is trying to turn the state to using renewable resources no later than 2030. They also want to stop the sale of any new model gas-powered vehicles no later than 2035. Federal funding in the amount of $310 million will be given to California to focus on the drought. Hopefully, this helps them with the cost of the solar panels canopies.

Did you know that the Biden administration is working on a monkeypox vaccine? Well, they are, and they almost have enough to distribute to the high-risk population. One thing they’re doing is giving smaller doses. They are hoping one vial will equal five doses.

Since it was first authorized by the Food and Drug Administration on Aug. 9, White House officials say that some 3 in 4 health departments are now administering at least some doses of monkeypox vaccine with the “intradermal” approach.

But health departments are saying without specific needles and syringes they won’t be able to get five doses from each vial. They are only getting three, sometimes four, doses from each vial. The good news is that some 150,000 vials of the vaccine should be delivered by late September.

But is the vaccine helping? Is it slowing down monkeypox?

The looming vaccine milestone comes as public health officials say they are watching with guarded hope signs the monkeypox outbreak may be slowing in Europe and some parts of the United States.

Local health officials in cities like New York, which were among the earliest hotspots of the outbreak, now say the pace of newly reported cases has been slowing for weeks.

They’re all hopeful that the vaccine is helping to slow it down. But there are other factors that could be satisfying as well. The CDC is saying, “Given the unknown effectiveness of vaccination in this outbreak, people who are vaccinated should continue to take steps to protect themselves from infection.”

One of the CDC’s top-ranking officials says that reports sometimes lag. So more waves may be coming. She doesn’t want to comment on whether they’re “bending the curve” of monkeypox just yet. Christie also says, “Having a long career in outbreaks, I have learned not to get too excited by the initial data. So I can’t say anything more than cautious optimism.”

Source CBS News

Moderna has filed lawsuits in America and Germany against Pfizer and BioNTech. Moderna says the two companies infringed on their mRNA patents. Specifically, the mRNA technology that forms the base of their COVID vaccine.

In a statement, Moderna accused the two companies of infringing on patents it had filed between 2010 and 2016 by copying the technology in order to develop their own vaccine.

“We are filing these lawsuits to protect the innovative mRNA technology platform that we pioneered, invested billions of dollars in creating, and patented during the decade preceding the COVID-19 pandemic,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement.

At the height of the pandemic, Moderna said they would not worry about the patents. They knew that we needed to end the pandemic as soon as possible, and one way to do that was with vaccines. Now that we are two years into the pandemic and supplies aren’t scarce, they are ready to enforce the patents. Moderna doesn’t want to remove the other companies’ vaccines from the market. But they believe they are owed compensation for their patent.

Representatives for Pfizer told BuzzFeed News in an emailed statement, “Pfizer/BioNTech has not yet fully reviewed the complaint but we are surprised by the litigation given the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine was based on BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA technology and developed by both BioNTech and Pfizer.”

“We remain confident in our intellectual property supporting the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and will vigorously defend against the allegations of the lawsuit,” they said.

In a statement online, BioNTech said their “work is original, and we will vigorously defend against all allegations of patent infringement.”

According to Moderna, neither BioNTech nor Pfizer had the mRNA experience when the pandemic first started. They both tried other avenues to make their vaccines. One statement from the lawsuits states, “Ultimately, however, Pfizer and BioNTech discarded those alternatives and copied Moderna’s patented technology.”

Source Buzzfeednews

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden revealed his student load debt plan. Biden plans to forgive $10,000 in student loan debt if you qualify. So who qualifies?

This specific plan applies to borrowers with federal student loans. If you didn’t receive the Pell Grant then you can qualify.

Individual borrowers who make less than $125,000 yearly and married couples or heads of households who make less than $250,000 yearly but did receive a Pell grant as an undergraduate student will have up $20,000 of their student loan debt forgiven.

It is said that some 8 million loans may be forgiven. This may be done automatically because the Department of Education has some borrower’s income information. We should see the application in the next few weeks. We should all receive news once the Biden administration launches the application. Go to studentaid.gov to sign-up to be notified when the application drops.

Once the application has been received, it could take anywhere from four to six weeks for the borrower to see the relief. The federal student loan repayment pause is officially over as of December 31. If you want the relief before then you should apply no later than November 15.

Even though the loan repayment starts back up in January 2023, the Biden administration is proposing a new repayment plan. The plan proposes that the borrower will pay back not more than 5% of their monthly income. As of right now, it is set at 10%.

The rule would also increase the amount of income that is considered “non-discretionary income” so no borrower earning below 225% of the federal poverty level will have to make a monthly payment. For borrowers with loan balances of $12,000 or less, loan balances would be forgiven after 10 years of payments instead of the current 20-year mark, under the proposed new income-driven repayment plan.

If you think you qualify, be on the lookout for more information, and don’t forget to apply. This will help many individuals and families.

Source CNN

16-year-old Kiely Rodni was last seen in early August 2022 and texted her mother that she was on her way home except… she never arrived.

Now a group of diving volunteers called Adventures With Purpose claim that they have discovered her sunken car in Prosser Lake with human remains inside. According to sources, she was attending a party at the nearby Prosser Family Campground. Her phone last pinged just after midnight after she had already texted her mother.

WE JUST FOUND KIELY RODNI…,’ wrote the group on their Facebook page.

‘Car is upside down in only 14’ of water.

‘We have CONFIRMED Kiely is inside. Family Notified. Law Enforcement on their way.

‘More updates to follow.’

According to sources for DailyMail,

The team was in contact with local authorities and Rodni’s extended family, Bishop said.

Bishop led a six-man team, which immediately began searching Donner Lake, believing that their approach and fresh eyes could be of use.

‘With 15 to 20 million viewers per month, there was an overwhelming demand, not only by multiple different agencies, all of our supporters,’ he said.

Nick Rinn a certified diver, told Fox they were trying to find new areas to explore.

‘We’re taking our resources and the intel that we’ve been provided and we’re trying to see different avenues,’ he said.

‘At 12:36 a.m. she called me…and this is the last call anybody had with her. We said: ‘Love you, good night. Get home safe,’ and that’s the last thing we heard of her,’ Smith told the Independent.

Both California and Nevada police even went as far as to comb through local sex offender lists in a desperate attempt for leads. The FBI even got involved, helping local law enforcement chase down some 1500 dead-end leads.