Category: ESTA News

The investigation into the murder of American hip-hop legend Tupac Shaker, which remained unsolved for nearly 30 years, is gaining momentum after a long time.

Attention is focusing on whether the truth of the murder case of Tupac Shakur and his rival Notorious BIG, which has been full of doubts, will be revealed. According to the Associated Press and Reuters on the 18th, the Las Vegas Nevada Police Department announced that it searched a house outside Las Vegas the day before in connection with the 1996 Tupac murder case.

It is the first time in years that the police have publicly stated that they are actively pursuing an investigation into the Tupac murder. The police did not disclose whose house was the place where the search was conducted, why the house was searched, and whether the suspect was identified.

Police Department spokeswoman Aden Ocampo-Gomez declined to comment on a phone call with The Associated Press, saying “as this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot provide further details.”

Tupac was called America’s living hip-hop legend in the 1990s. On September 7, 1996, he was shot and killed while driving to a club in Las Vegas after watching a boxing match at a hotel in Las Vegas.

Immediately, rumours circulated that Notorious B.I.G, who was called the two great mountains of American hip-hop together with him, was behind the Tupac murder case. Tupac and B.I.G, who were the leaders of hip-hop in the western and eastern U.S., respectively, engaged in a sharp war of nerves by releasing songs targeting each other, and the observation that the conflict between the two would have led to a terrible murder case was weighted. However, the police investigated dozens of people involved, but the investigation ended without results.

Six months after that, on March 9, 1997, B.I.G attended a party held at a museum in Los Angeles and was shot dead in the middle of the road on the way back. Rumors circulated that the murder was in retaliation for Tupac’s death. However, the suspect in this case is also still in the labyrinth.

At one time, police were investigating famous gang member Orlando Anderson as a suspect in the murder of Tupac, but he was killed in a drug-related shootout in 1998. Even after that, the police have been investigating behind the scenes, such as setting up an investigation team to handle the unsolved case, but so far, no significant results have been publicly revealed.

Tupac is one of the prolific figures in the hip-hop scene, and despite only five years of his professional music career, hits such as ‘California Love (Remix)’ and ‘How Do U Want It’ have sold more than 75 million records worldwide. He has been nominated for six Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. Last month, he was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s leading presidential candidate, faces a crisis of indictment by a special prosecutor behind the January 6 intrusion into the Congress.

On the 18th, former President Trump posted a post on his social media ‘TruthSocial’, saying, “‘Crazy’ Jack Smith, special prosecutor of the Department of Justice Joe Biden, sent me a letter on Sunday night.” Former President Trump claimed, “I was given only a short period of four days to report to the grand jury,” and “this almost always means arrest and prosecution.”

The Washington Post (WP) pointed out that “this letter shows that former President Trump, a leading Republican candidate, is likely to face another prosecution crisis.” Prosecutor Smith, appointed in November last year, has conducted a long-term investigation focusing on former President Trump’s role in the invasion of Congress. It is known that the investigation focused on various meetings held by former President Trump from the end of 2020 right before the US presidential election to January 2021, and what discussions were held to overturn the results of the presidential election here.

In fact, the fact that the official investigation letter was delivered to former President Trump means that prosecutors have secured enough evidence to prove the crime, and it can be interpreted as a sign of imminent prosecution, the WP said.

A patient shot and killed a doctor at a hospital in Tennessee.

According to local media, NBC and USA Today on the 12th, Dr Benjamin Mock (43), a senior orthopaedic surgeon, was shot by a patient at around 2:00 pm the previous day at the Campbell Clinic in Collierville, Tennessee.

Police identified the suspect as Memphis resident Larry Pickins, 29. Pickins is a patient at the Campbell Clinic and was confirmed to have been in the hospital hours before the incident. Local police said, “The motive for the crime has not yet been confirmed, but the shooting appears to have been intentional.”

A witness told local broadcaster WREG that “Suspect Pekins had been threatening Dr Mock for at least a week.” However, Collierville Police said, “no reports have been received in this regard” and “we are looking to see if there are any reports from other jurisdictions.”

Pickins was arrested by police within five minutes of the crime, charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault, and held in custody on $1.2 million bail by the court. Police explained that at the time of Pickins’ arrest, he had a handgun on his body.

The Campbell Clinic said that Dr Mock has been treating the hospital since 2012 and specializes in elbow, hand, and wrist surgery. The hospital side expressed shock and condolences, saying that Dr Mock was a respected and loved doctor in the community, and asked to “pray for Dr Mock’s family.” Dr Mock had two young children and a wife.

NBC Broadcasting said that Dr Mock was named on the list of ‘2023 Memphis Best Doctors’ in ‘Memphis Magazine’ published last week, saying, “He was a prestigious doctor who received a rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars from about 700 patients.”  It is known that Dr Mock has also served as the general manager of the ‘Congenital Hand Deformity Clinic’ affiliated with ‘Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital’ in Memphis.

In 1982, the only suspect in the ‘Tylenol poison murder case’ that shook the whole of the United States in fear died before the full-scale investigation was resumed.

American media, including the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press, cited the announcement of the judicial authorities on the 10th that James Lewis (76), a suspect in the 1982 Tylenol capsule poisoning case that took the lives of seven Chicago residents, died at his home in Cambridge, a suburb of Boston, around 4:00 pm the previous day.

The police estimated that there was no possibility of murder, saying, “Louise’s wife, who is on a long-distance trip, asked to check her condition, saying, ‘I can’t reach her husband.’

The Tribune reported that Lewis had a history of heart disease and had recently been in poor health. Lewis is accused of injecting potassium cyanide, commonly called cyanide, into Tylenol distributed in the Chicago area between late September and early October 1982, killing seven people.

After taking two Tylenol Tablets, a 12-year-old girl in a suburb of Chicago collapsed to death in 1982. Investigative authorities estimated that someone opened the Tylenol capsules in the bottle, filled them with cyanide, and brought them to the store shelf.

Regarding the fact that Lewis’ only daughter, Tony, died of a suture break after undergoing heart surgery in 1974 when she was five years old, the prosecution said, “Lewis is the parent company of ‘Ethicon’, a maker of sutures, and ‘Johnson & Johnson,’ a maker of Tylenol.” (J&J) with a grudge and demanded financial compensation.”

On October 1, 1982, Lewis sent a letter of complaint to J&J regarding the death of his daughter and was charged with attempted extortion and mail fraud. However, Lewis denied the charges of lethal injection and murder, and he has been on the line for more than 40 years but has never been charged. Lewis explained to investigators how to open a Tylenol capsule and inject cyanide into it, pointing out that “the authorities shouldn’t have left the investigation of the case to J&J itself.” He also opened and operated a website claiming his innocence.

According to CBS Chicago, the investigative authorities said, “We resumed the closed investigation in September of last year, which marked the 40th anniversary of the incident, secured sufficient circumstantial evidence, and planned to indict Lewis on charges of lethal injection and murder in September.” When Louis died, all plans were scrapped. Meanwhile, due to this incident, J&J recalled all 31 million bottles of Tylenol that were circulating across the United States at the time and took measures to close capsule type production lines and stop advertising.

Since then, the packaging, distribution, and consumption methods of over-the-counter drugs, which can be easily purchased from drugstore shelves without a prescription, have changed. However, the full picture of the incident that has sent chills to many people’s spines so far remains a mystery.

NASCAR, an American car racing competition, held a competition on a special track installed in downtown Chicago.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times on the 2nd, NASCA held a two-day race on the roads around Grant Park in Chicago the day before. However, the Xfinity Series held on the first day was cancelled due to bad weather during the game. NASCAR tried to continue the suspended game on the morning of the 2nd, but when the weather conditions did not improve, the player who had been leading until the previous day was announced as the winner.

The Cup Series, originally scheduled for the afternoon, has also been delayed. In the case of F-1, an international car racing competition, competitions are often held on special tracks installed in the city centre in addition to dedicated tracks, but this is the first time that NASCAR has held a competition in the city centre.

It was found that consumer demand for Tesla, which is leading price cut competition in the electric vehicle industry, has increased.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 2nd that the number of vehicles Tesla delivered to contractors in each country in the second quarter was 466,000 units, an 83% increase compared to the same period last year. This is a figure that exceeds the 445,000 that experts expected.

The rapid increase in Tesla vehicle deliveries seems to be due to the recent expansion of the plant in Austin, Texas, and increased production capacity. WSJ said that Tesla’s aggressive price cuts are also a factor in increasing demand. Starting with a price cut in the US in January, Tesla has led price competition in the electric vehicle industry.

As the company continued to make further cuts, the selling price of the Model Y fell by more than 20%. The selling price of the Model 3 was reduced by 11%. In addition to the US market, Tesla also lowered its sales price in international markets such as Korea, Japan, Europe, and China. Tesla’s share price, which shook off last year’s sluggishness due to increased demand, is also recovering.

At the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), on June 30, Tesla’s stock price soared more than twice compared to the beginning of the year to $ 261.7.However, it is not close to the level of November 2021, when it exceeded $ 400.This seems to be because the demand for Tesla has increased in the market, but the rate of return has decreased due to the price cut policy.

Tesla’s operating profit margin in the first quarter was 11.4%, down nearly half from 19.2% in the same period last year. In this regard, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in April, “I think it is the right choice to pursue large-scale production rather than reducing production and obtaining high returns.

Despite the killing of a student at Ingraham High School in November last year and the recent shooting near Garfield High School, most Seattle residents still think schools are generally safe.

In a joint survey conducted by the Seattle Times and Suffolk University in the middle of this month, 66% of 500 respondents answered that schools are generally safe, while 24% said they were not. 10% answered that they did not know or were unsure.

By age group, 57% of the 25–34-year-old group and the 65+ year old group responded that they were safe overall, while the rate was much higher at 77% in the 55-64 age group. Among parents with two or more children, 71% responded positively, while among parents with only one child, only 58% responded.

In terms of the quality of education at SPS schools, more than one-third of the respondents rated it as ‘excellent’ or ‘excellent’, and 26% rated it as ‘average’.

Specifically, 6% of respondents said the quality of education was ‘excellent’, 31% said it was good, 26% said it was average, 9% said it was ‘not good’, and 26% said ‘don’t know’.  As a result, 82% of the respondents who said it was good and 97% of the respondents who said it was exceptional evaluated the school as safe, while among those who evaluated the quality of education negatively, the majority (51%) was analyzed to be dissatisfied with school safety as well.

The results of the survey on the quality of education at SPS schools showed a correlation with the previously announced evaluation results for Seattle as a residential area. Of those who said Seattle was not a great city to live in, 48% also rated the quality of education at SPS as low, and of those who rated Seattle as a great city to live in, 48% also rated the quality of SPS education as exceptional or excellent. evaluated and analyzed.

SPS Superintendent Brent Jones said in the survey that 66% of respondents rated schools as overall safe, but this was not satisfactory. I will do my best to make you feel like I am.”

Superintendent Jones added that he was satisfied that most respondents (63%) rated the quality of education at SPS schools positively.

The Honolulu Light Rail will officially open some sections after a long construction delay and controversy over excess costs. It has been 12 years since the groundbreaking ceremony was held in 2012.

Starting from the departure station Kuala Kai (East Kapolei), Keoneae (UH West Oahu), Honouliuli (Honopili), Oaeae (West Loch), Pouhala (Waipahu Bus Transit Center), Halaul There are nine stations in total, including Lani (Leeward Community College), Waiawa (Pearl Highlands), Kalauao (Pearl Ridge), and Halawa (Aloha Stadium).

The total length of the route is 11 miles, and the travel time to the end is 22 minutes.

It took about 20 years and a huge amount of money to complete the partial opening.

During this period, the mayor of Honolulu changed 3 times and the CEO of HART 6 times, and a large part of the total budget of 9.8 billion dollars was exhausted.

Roger Morton, director of the city’s Department of Transportation, expressed hope that the light rail project, despite spending a great deal of time and resources, would eventually usher in a new era of public transportation.

Discussions about the Honolulu light rail project began in earnest at the end of 2004 with the election of former mayor Mouffie Hahnemann.

In 2005, the state legislature approved Oahu’s general excise tax increase to build a high-capacity transportation system, and in 2008, a poll showed that most Oahu residents supported the light rail project.

At the time, the cost of the light rail project was estimated at $4.3 billion.

In 2010, former mayor Moofi Hahnemann announced at a press conference that the project was ready to be submitted to then-governor Linda Ringle’s administration for an environmental impact assessment.

The city government set East Kapolei and Ala Moana Center as the starting and ending stations, respectively, and continued discussions on the route, history, and initial opening section.

One of the initial initiatives, which came out in 2008, was to connect West Loch and Waipau first, starting in 2013, and then extend the route to East Kapolei and Pearl Highlands a year later.

There was also an opinion that partial opening should be started in the Urban Honolulu area from the initial stage to alleviate traffic congestion, but the objection that the central Honolulu area was not suitable for constructing a large-scale vehicle intermediate base was weighed on.

The current vehicle depot is located on 43 acres of land near Leeward Community College.

According to the 2010 environmental impact assessment by the administration of former mayor Moofi Hahnemann, the initial opening section was at noon on Saturdays and Sundays with three stations: West Loch, Waipahu, and Leeward University.

Also, next up was five stations: East Kapolei, Pearl Highlands, Aloha Stadium, Middle Street, and Alamona.

In 2011, former Mayor Peter Carlisle held a press conference on the main street next to the Salvation Army Croc Center, which was under construction near East Kapolei Station, to inform residents of the Honolulu city government’s high-capacity public transportation development plan.

At the time, some residents supported the construction of the light rail line, but voiced concerns that if the route was set up around East Kapolei Station, which was still undeveloped, there would be insufficient demand.

Since then, development has been carried out around the nearby UH West Oahu and Ho’o Folly stations, starting with about 2,500 homes.

Local development became a reality, and concerns about demand for use subsided to some extent, but the opening of the light rail system became unclear, and the city government’s light rail project faced another criticism.

The city government announced the partial opening of East Kapolei and Aloha Stadium in 2017 and plans for the terminal station at Ala Moana Center in 2019, promoting a plan to build a total of 21 stations.

However, during the test run in 2021, a defect was found that the train wheels and rail crossings had different specifications, and then additional cracks were found in the station pillars, further delaying the construction.

The city government eventually cut about 2 miles of the entire line and decided to cut 2 stations to reduce the construction cost and construction period by 2.6 billion dollars.

At the current stage, the light rail terminal is Kakaako’s Civic Center, and the Ward Village and Ala Moana Center stations are left to be discussed later.

Although the area around East Kapolei, the departure station, has been heavily developed, questions about demand still exist.

Aloha Stadium, the terminal station of the partially opened route, is also considered difficult to secure a large floating population until 2028, the expected deadline for completion of the redevelopment.

Meanwhile, proponents of light rail argue that future generations will enjoy the benefits of public transportation and station areas.

It seems that the city government is concentrating on linking with buses to increase the efficiency of using light rail.

According to the Star Advertiser’s report, many bus routes have been reconfigured to pass through nine stations that are partially open.

In addition, it is expected to provide convenience by setting the bus dispatch interval to 10 minutes at peak demand or at noon and providing direct buses from the transfer center to the station.

For example, between the Kapolei Transit Center and East Kapolei Station and UH West Oahu Station, there are direct buses at specific times.

Of the nine stations to be partially opened, except for Hopili Station and Leeward University Station, all other stations have bus stops.

UH West Oahu, West Loch and Aloha Stadium stations are home to multibay bus hubs that can accommodate multiple bus routes.

Seven of the nine stations also have sections for getting on and off handivans and shared vehicles.

Five of the seven stations have parking spaces for a total of 1,275 cars.

Three locations have 304-590 units, and two locations each have 20 units.

City Department of Transportation spokesman Travis Orta predicted that within a year of partial opening, the city could expect to see about 8,000 to 10,000 daily passenger demand.

The light rail division predicts that once the Kakaako Civic Center terminus is completed, the number of passengers traveling between the starting point and terminus will reach 84,000 per day during the week.

Carina Nuez, who works as a janitor in San Francisco’s financial district, is seriously contemplating her relocation to another location. She’s only making about $600 a week, as San Francisco’s bankruptcy cuts her cleaning services significantly due to her telecommuting. “She spends most of her income on rent, which has plummeted by nearly 50 percent compared to a few years ago,” said Nuez. said.

California’s economy, which once enjoyed a booming economy with big tech companies, is facing a crisis amid the stagnation of big tech companies. As the unemployment rate increased significantly due to large-scale job cuts by big tech companies and wages decreased, the aftermath of the economic downturn is spreading to small businesses such as cleaning companies, laundromats, and restaurants that are rooted in the local economy. Concerns are growing.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported recently that the ripple effect is spreading to small businesses in the region as the California economy suffers from measles in the aftermath of the big tech slump. The economic downturn at big tech companies has led to manpower cuts to the point of being called a job cut fever.

Mark Zuckerberg’s meta-announced plans to lay off 11,000 people, or 13% of the total workforce, in November last year, and then increased the number of job cuts by 10,000 in March this year. Microsoft is also planning to cut 10,000 jobs, less than 5% of its total workforce.

Big Tech’s job cuts acted as a driving force to raise the unemployment rate in California. According to the Department of Labour, California’s unemployment rate in April was 4.5 percent, the second highest in the nation. This is almost 1 percentage point higher than the national unemployment rate of 3.4%. California’s unemployment rate, which is showing a different pattern from the national unemployment rate, which has been at an all-time low since 1969, was largely due to job cuts by big tech companies.

Falling wages also hurt the state’s economy. In San Francisco County, where big tech companies are concentrated, weekly wages plummeted 22.6% last year. Wage declines are unmistakable in cities with big tech companies, with Seattle falling 5.4% to 339th out of 356 large cities nationwide. The aftermath of big tech job cuts is also a factor slowing job creation in California.

In April, jobs at tech companies and construction companies in California declined significantly compared to the previous year, while the number of jobs in finance, trade, transportation, and logistics remained flat compared to last year. The stagnation of big tech companies coincides with the Federal Reserve’s rate hike, leading to contraction in consumer demand, making it more difficult for small business owners in the California area.

The California government was also not free from the stagnation of big tech companies. In May, the state government projected a budget deficit of $32 billion this year. From the deficit forecast in January, it has increased by $10 billion. Over the past two years, amid a boom in big tech, California has posted a budget surplus of $102 billion.

The sharp turnaround from a surplus budget to a deficit budget in just two years is because the income of the top 1% of the highest earners, who account for almost half of the income tax collected by the state government, has plummeted.

Despite the participation of rescue efforts from around the world, the occupants of the submersible that went missing in the North Atlantic never returned alive.

The U.S. Coast Guard said on the 22nd that all five people on board the Titanic, a deep-sea submersible operated for tourists to see the wreckage of the Titanic, which sank 111 years ago, are believed to have died.

It has been four days since contact was lost 1 hour and 45 minutes after the start of the dive on the morning of the 18th.

The Coast Guard made this conclusion based on the remains of five submersibles, including a tail cone (conical structure at the tail of the aircraft) found on the seabed 488 meters from the bow of the Titanic.

An internal explosion appears to have occurred in the submersible.

“The debris supports that a catastrophic explosion occurred on this submersible,” Boston Coast Guard Major General John Moger said at a briefing.

It is difficult to know at this time whether the Titan exploded on the day of its disappearance or later, Moger added.

During the search, thumping underwater noise was detected over two days, raising hopes that the missing people were still alive, but it turned out that there was no relationship between the detected noise and the Titan.

However, when asked about the possibility of finding the body, Mauger said he was not sure, saying, “The seabed down there is an incredibly tough environment.”

The submersible includes Stockton Rush, CEO of Oceangate Expeditions, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani tycoon Shahjada Daoud and his son Suleman, and French maritime expert Paul Henri Nazolet. there was.

“His family was immediately notified (of his presumed death),” Mauger said.

The missing Titan is a 6.7m-long submersible made of carbon fiber and titanium, designed to carry a pilot and four passengers down to a depth of 4,000m.

As oxygen can be filled for up to four days, it was estimated that the ‘golden time’ was over in the morning, raising concerns.

As a result of this accident, it was also revealed that there had been issues raised inside and outside the company since 2018 that Oceangate had developed and operated this submersible without sufficient safety verification, causing controversy.

This submersible tour is an ultra-expensive tour product that costs 250,000 dollars per person.