Compiled by Thomas Ehlers
Sarah Train opened Wednesday’s show with a report of workers at the Kellogg Company striking after yearlong negotiations between union and management broke down.
The Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union said in a press release Tuesday that 1,400 of its members hit the picket lines Tuesday morning. Many of these workers produce foods like Rice Krispies, Raisin Bran, Froot Loops, Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes.
Workers claim that the company has demanded workers give up quality health care, retirement benefits, and holiday and vacation pay. They also claim that the company has threatened to send additional jobs to Mexico if workers do not accept these proposals.
In a statement to CNN, Kellog spokesperson Kris Bahner said, “Kellog provides compensation and benefits for our US employees that are among the industry’s best. Our offer includes increases to pay and benefits for our employees, while helping us meet the challenges of the changing cereal business.”
Train reported Kellogg had a total of 31,000 employees at the start of this year meaning that less than 5% of its workers worldwide are on the picket line. Factories being struck include ones in California, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Overall sales for the company have been flat for an extended period, rising only 6% total in a five year period from 2016 through 2020.
Hallie Turner continued the news by detailing a local event. The Arcade police department is participating in the National Faith and Blue weekend this upcoming Saturday at Arcade City Park.
According to the Athens Banner-Herald, police Chief Randy Williams gave a statement inviting people to stop by the park from 9 a.m. to noon as an opportunity to meet those who graciously give their time serving with emergency services here in Athens.
Turner reported that various items such as donuts, coloring books, hats and pencils will be given out by police officers. This event will have free COVID-19 vaccinations which include Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson that will be provided by the Northeast Georgia Department of Health.
Sarah reported on the Georgia Supreme Court upholding the murder conviction of a man found guilty in the killing of a lottery winner.
Dabrentise Overstreet was one of seven people charged in the 2016 murder of Craigory Burch Jr. in Fitzgerald, Georgia. Burch died just two months after winning over $400,000 when he hit the Fantasy 5 jackpot.
Overstreet argued that evidence presented in his trial was insufficent to support his malice murder charge. The judges disagreed in an opinion released Thursday. Prosecutors say that Overstreet and others “did not appreciate that Burch had bought gifts for the children in the neighborhood and stated that they wanted to rob Burch because he was flexing and showing off by handing out the gifts.”
Overstreet and others put on ski masks and broke into Burch’s home late at night to rob him. One of the men shot Burch in the knee twice, and it is reported that his children were home at the time.
Prosecutors said the men left the home a few minutes later with $200 and some cell phones, but came back and shot Burch five more times, killing him. Authorities charged all seven suspects with malice murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
After a break, Sarah returned with how YouTube has now permanently suspended two channels of singer R. Kelly, who was recently found guilty of sex trafficking last week and will not allow him to create any new channels going forward.
His music, however, has not been banned yet and is still available on YouTube Music. YouTube removed two channels: RKellyTV, which had 3.5 million subscribers and RKellyVevo, which had 1.6 million subscribers.
YouTube cites the two channels violated its terms and services. According to Variety, YouTube stated it pulled down the channels linked to R.Kelly in accordance with its “creator responsibility guidelines” that prohibits “on and or off-platform behavior that they may consider to be inappropriate including intending to cause malicious harm to others.”
This comes after Kelly’s label Sony Music’s RCA Records parted ways with the singer in January 2019 after months of criticism. His music, however, is still available on major music-streaming services.
Kelly’s official accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have recently been disabled. On Sept. 27, Kelly was found guilty in New York federal court of leading a scheme to recruit women and girls for sex, following decades of women coming forward to accuse him of sex crimes.
YouTube VP of Legal Nicole Alston said, “Ultimately we are taking this action to protect our users, similar to other platforms.”
Kelly is set to be sentenced May 4, 2022 and faces 10 years to life in prison.
Connor Hendricks updated listeners with the search for two missing Oconee County teens. The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help looking for two teens who were reported missing three weeks ago.
17-year-old James “Ethan” Dutton and his girlfriend 17-year-old Olivia Warren have not been seen since Sept. 18. The pair was reportedly driving a 2003 blue Pontiac Sunfire and their parents are unsure where they went.
The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office told Fox 5 that they believe the teens may have altered their appearances and that they are likely not in the area. Photos of the teens and the car they are driving can be found on the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. Officials asked anyone with information to call the police.
Hallie reported on Governor Brian Kemp signing an executive order on Monday that suspended Chattahoochee Circuit District Attorney Mark Jones. The suspension will last until his case is resolved or his term comes to an end.
The indictment accuses Jones of attempting to influence a police officer’s testimony, bribing prosecutors in his office and preventing the testimony of a crime victim.
Turner reported the state attorney general’s office received the indictment back on Sept. 7. His suspension was effective immediately. Jones took office in Jan. 2021 serving the counties of western Georgia.
This indictment charges Jones with two counts of violation of oath by a public officer, two counts of attempted violation of oath by a public officer, two counts of bribery, two counts of influencing witnesses and one count of attempted subornation of perjury. All nine counts are considered felony charges.
For now, Jones will continue to draw his salary, but if convicted or failed appeals, he will be removed from office.
Caleb Struchtemeyer gave a story on Delta Sigma Pi’s Classic City Showdown.
According to The Red & Black, Delta Sigma Pi’s frat boxing fundraiser The Classic City Showdown raised over $20,250 for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the Red Cross Association. The event was held last Friday at the Classic Center in Athens and had an attendance of roughly 1,500 fans filling 70-80% of the stands.
The event held three USA sanctioned boxing matches, three sorority matches and eight fraternity boxing matches. The fights were three rounds with fighters wearing boxing gloves, head guards and mouthpieces along with three judges and a referee in the ring. The fight was also streamed, gaining 137 live stream viewers and it was shown in several places around town including Sandbar, Buddha Bar, Centro and The 1785.
Yara Manasrah reported on a recent Twitch leak. Amazon-owned streaming space Twitch was leaked in its entirety, including its source code, user payout information, and encrypted passwords, after an anonymous hacker posted a 125 GB torrent file onto the website 4chan earlier this morning.
The leak was initially reported by the Video Game Chronicles just after 9 a.m. on Wednesday and has since been confirmed by Twitch. In the since-removed post, the hacker described his intent to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space,” with the post additionally describing the Twitch community as a “disgusting toxic cesspool.”
Manasrah reported that the hacker’s post comes just one month after Twitch found itself under fire from its lack of action against hate raids and problematic members on its platform. The Verge reports that groups of streamers called on the platform’s users to boycott the website for 24 hours last month in response to hate raids, or the usage of Twitch’s “raid” function in order to overwhelm a creator’s livestream with racist slurs.
While the platform did provide an explanation on Twitter the day of the protest, it did little to quell the backlash from creators and viewers alike. The leak contains data central to Twitch’s services, such as the entirety of Twitch DOT TV and the source code for the mobile, video game console, and desktop Twitch clients, in addition to three years worth of details surrounding the payouts of over 10,000 creators on the streaming platform.
The leak also includes confidential information surrounding a Steam competitor called Vapor created by Amazon, as well as internal Amazon services used by Twitch and the entire commit history dating back to Twitch’s beginnings. Polygon defines commit history as a complete list of any revisions or changes made to a website.
The leak has been labeled as “part one,” implying that the hacker has even more information than what has already been shared. While no personal data has been confirmed to be leaked as of this report, the VGC reports that users on various social media websites have found the torrent to include encrypted passwords and other sensitive information.
Both the VGC and Twitch recommend changing your password and turning on two-factor authentication for your Twitch and Amazon accounts in response to this leak.
Caleb returned to give a look at news from Palestine. According to ABC News, tens of thousands of Palestinians fathered outside chambers of commerce across the Gaza Strip Wednesday. They were hoping to be granted permits to work inside Israel after rumors that more were to be offered to those living in the regions controlled by the Militant Hamas group.
In September, an Israeli security official said that of the 7,000 work permits the country decided to offer, only 4,500 permits were issued. They are now taking applications for the other 2,500. Many Palestinians from occupied Gaza work in Israel, mainly construction and agriculture due to the higher wages in Israel.
After a full forecast from meteorologist Jared Shelton, Yara returned to report on abuse in one French church. A French independent commission has estimated that 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse within the French Catholic Church over the past 70 years in a new report released on Tuesday.
NPR states that the 2,500-page report, which represents France’s first account of abuse within the Catholic Church, was released after two and a half years of investigating archives from churches, courts, police departments, and news organizations across the country. The commission also interviewed victims and witnesses in addition to the reception of over 6,000 calls to a hotline established for the investigation.
The report, compiled at the request of clergy from the French Catholic Church in 2018, was put together by the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, an independent team made up of 22 individuals. Out of these individuals, there was an even split between both religious and secular men and women.
Jean-Marc Sauvé, the president of the commission, described the abuse as systemic and not just “a few black sheep that strayed from the flock.” Sauvé has additionally described the church’s position until the early 2000’s as “a deep, cruel indifference toward victims.”
The report comes two years after Pope Francis issued a new church law mandating the reporting of sexual abuse by clergy and cover-ups by their superiors to church authorities. The Pope spoke earlier on the report, calling the findings “a moment of shame” and implored leaders of the Church to “continue to make every effort to ensure that similar tragedies do not happen again.”
Finally, Connor gave a story on a local crash involving police. An Oconee County deputy is recovering after being seriously injured in a head-on collision on Tuesday.
The Sheriff’s Office said a driver swerved into another lane trying to avoid traffic and hit the deputy. The deputy was rushed to a local hospital and is expected to survive. The other driver was treated on the scene and released.