Paradise News

Tag: United States

  • Fact Check: The Wall Street Journal didn’t report that an American missile caused deadly Gaza hospital blast

    An Oct. 17 attack on a Gaza hospital, estimated to have killed hundreds of civilians being treated and taking refuge there, sparked a blame game between Israel and Palestinian officials, with each accusing the other of responsibility.

    Amid this back and forth, claims spread on social media that The Wall Street Journal reported that the blast at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital was caused by an American missile.

    “The Wall Street Journal: ‘The bomb that was dropped on the hospital was an American MK-84,’” read an Oct. 17 post on X, formerly Twitter. “This bomb is precision-guided, largest in MK family and has about 950 kg weight.”  The post had been viewed more than 375,000 times as of this publication. 


    Screenshot via X

    A Wall Street Journal spokesperson told PolitiFact that the newspaper did not publish any report about an American MK-84 being used in the blast.  

    The newspaper has published multiple stories about the hospital explosion, as well as live updates about the war. None mention an American-made missile causing the explosion.

    We found no evidence that any other credible news source made such a report.

    Shortly after the explosion, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said it was caused by an Israeli airstrike. But Israel denied involvement, and said the explosion was the result of a misfired rocket by an armed Palestinian group.

    On Oct. 18, U.S. officials announced that intelligence, which included satellite data, intercepts and open-source information, indicated that the blast wasn’t caused by an Israeli airstrike and instead suggested it came from a rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group. 

    But officials cautioned that the assessment is preliminary and said they were still collecting and analyzing evidence.

    We rate claims that The Wall Street Journal reported that the explosion was caused by an American ballistic missile False.



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  • Ex-boyfriend accused of killing Michigan nursing student at Illinois truck stop

    MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (TCD) — A 26-year-old man allegedly killed his 25-year-old ex-girlfriend at a truck stop in Illinois, fled to Iowa, and then took his own life.

    According to a news release from the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, Gina Bryant was reported missing after she didn’t show up to work following her lunch break. Co-workers grew concerned and started receiving unusual text messages from her phone.

    The Sheriff’s Office suspected Bryant was with her ex-boyfriend, Justin Wendling of Holly, Michigan.

    Wendling was allegedly waiting at Bryant’s home when she came back for lunch. A neighbor’s surveillance video reportedly captured him guiding her to his car at approximately 1:42 p.m. on Oct. 12.

    Wendling allegedly called his parents the next day and said he had killed his ex-girlfriend and was planning to take his own life. According to the Sheriff’s Office, the parents alerted law enforcement of Wendling’s location in LaSalle, Illinois.

    Surveillance video and witnesses from a truck stop in LaSalle revealed that Wendling allegedly fatally shot his ex-girlfriend at around midnight on Oct. 13.

    According to the Sheriff’s Office, the suspect fled to Bettendorf, Iowa. Local officers reportedly approached his vehicle and he fatally shot himself.

    According to the Detroit News, Wendling and Bryant had been dating for a little less than a year and lived together. Her sister and mother reportedly made her leave the apartment they shared because Wendling abused her.

    WNEM-TV reports that Bryant was a nursing student at the University of Michigan-Flint.

    In a letter obtained by WNEM, Cynthia McCurren, the dean of University of Michigan-Flint’s School of Nursing, said, “There are truly no words to fully capture the anguish that losses like this cause our community. Gina was an extraordinary young woman with much ahead of her.”

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  • Fact Check: Ask PolitiFact: Where does Hamas get its weapons?

    Photos and videos on social media show thousands of missiles launched from Gaza to Israel, drones and grenades destroying tanks, Hamas militants armed with assault weapons and machine guns breaching the fenced boundary between Gaza and Israel. 

    These images have led some congressional Republicans and social media users to question the provenance of Hamas’ arsenal and the militant group’s ability to attack Israel by surprise. Some claim that U.S. weapons are now in Hamas’ hands — weapons meant for Ukraine or left behind by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

    PolitiFact conducted advanced searches on Google and the database, Nexis, spoke with six experts in military, terrorism and middle eastern affairs and the U.S. State Department and found no public confirmation that Hamas used U.S. weapons in the Oct. 7 attacks. However, experts told PolitiFact it is not inconceivable for Hamas to have U.S. weapons. 

    Here’s what we know about where and how Hamas gets its weapons.

    How claims that Hamas has U.S. weapons spread

    Speculation that Hamas has U.S. weapons went viral on social media soon after Hamas attacked Israel.

    “We need to work with Israel to track serial numbers on any U.S. weapons used by Hamas against Israel,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Oct. 8 on X, formerly Twitter. “Did they come from Afghanistan? Did they come from Ukraine? Highly likely the answer is both.”

    Jim Ferguson, a former Brexit Party parliamentary candidate, posted Oct. 8 on X, “Breaking News Israel: US weapons left behind in Afghanistan used to attack Israel.” 

    A fabricated video claiming to be a BBC News report falsely said investigative journalists from Bellingcat, a Netherlands-based group, “concluded” that “Ukraine supplied the majority of the weaponry used by the Palestinian Hamas movement.” BBC and Bellingcat journalists say the video is fake.

    In 2022, BBC News reported that social media posts originating in Russia falsely claimed that Ukrainians were selling U.S.-provided weapons on the black market. BBC said the posts used photos of weapons from previous years and conflicts, including the civil war in Syria, which started in 2011.

    Other claims that Hamas has U.S. weapons trace back to an anonymous source cited in a June Newsweek article.

    How does Hamas usually get its weapons? 

    Iran smuggles weapons to Hamas and also trains the militants on how to build their own weapons, according to the CIA’s World Factbook. The U.S. State Department has said that Hamas gets funding from Iran. 

    Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Middle East analyst and guest contributor for the Washington Institute, a pro-Israel U.S. think tank based in Washinngton, D.C., said Egypt’s crackdowns on smuggling routes that run through its country has forced Hamas to build and source more weapons locally in Gaza. But some materials needed to build weapons continue to be smuggled, he said.

    Hamas sometimes builds weapons using materials recovered from Israeli strikes, such as rubble and unexploded weapons, a 2021 report from the Washington Institute said. Materials are recycled and used to create rocket propellers and warheads. 

    Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official, told RT Arabic, a Russian state-owned news outlet, Oct. 8 that Hamas has weapon-building factories in Gaza. 

    Is there evidence that Hamas is using U.S. weapons?

    Fouad Alkhatib told PolitiFact that footage of the Oct. 7 attacks shows Hamas fighters using Soviet-era missiles, not weapons the U.S. has provided to Ukraine. He added that “no visual or open-source intelligence confirms” Hamas’ use of U.S. weapons left behind in Afghanistan.

    Fouad Alkhatib says videos of the attack also show weapons produced in Gaza. 

    An NBC News report about weapons confiscated by the Israel Defense Forces and a CNN analysis of videos and photos of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack reached the same conclusions. 

    “You can see by the symbols on all the equipment that everything is homemade of Hamas,” an Israeli soldier said in a video posted Oct. 15 by the Israel Defense Forces. 

    However, Michael Knights, a military expert at the Washington Institute, said Hamas can obtain U.S. weapons by buying them on the black market or by capturing weapons the U.S. sent to Israel.

    Iran also trains Hamas on how to build copies of U.S. weapons, he said.

    David Silbey, a Cornell University military expert, said that if Hamas has U.S. weapons, they are likely small weapons used by one person, rather than large armored vehicles or missile systems which would be more difficult to smuggle into Gaza.  

    What about the weapons sent to Ukraine?

    Knights said claims that Ukraine has been selling the weapons it has received from the U.S. on the black market are a “conspiracy theory” intended to stop U.S. aid to Ukraine.

    Other experts, Ukrainian officials and an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson agree.

    Brian Micahel Jenkins, a terrorism expert at Rand Corp., a global policy think tank, said this conspiracy theory fits with a larger Russian campaign.

    “The way Russia sees as its path to victory in Ukraine is to basically persuade Ukraines backers in the West that the contest is hopeless, that Ukrainians are corrupt and do everything they can to discourage continuous support,” Jenkins said. “Russia wins by cracking U.S. western support.”

    Nevertheless, weapons left behind in battlegrounds, or that were lost, stolen, or sold can end up on the black market. 

    Vietnam War weapons have shown up in other conflicts in different parts of the world, Jenkins said.  

    “No war will be unfought because of a lack of weapons,” he said.

    In October 2022, the State Department published a fact sheet about U.S. efforts to keep weapons sent to Ukraine from ending up in different hands, such as safeguarding arms and ammunition when they’re transferred and deployed and bolstering security and border management in Ukraine and neighboring states. Ukraine’s “intense internal demand” for weapons has also prevented U.S. weapons from leaking into the black market, the State Department said. 

    However, the State Department added that U.S. weapons can surface on the black market if Russian forces capture them after battling Ukrainians. 

    In a February House Armed Services Committee hearing, Colin H. Kahl, then-undersecretary of defense for policy, told lawmakers there was no “significant diversion” of U.S. weapons and “no evidence the Ukrainians are diverting (them) to the black market.”



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  • Delaware couple convicted of strangling, kidnapping, and torturing their children

    KENT COUNTY, Del. (TCD) — A couple pleaded guilty to the “serial abuse and torture of their children” that occurred over the course of nearly two years.

    According to an Oct. 18 news release from the Delaware Attorney General’s Office, over a span of 20 months, 46-year-old Mary Vinson and 37-year-old Charles Vinson subjected their children to a series of abusive acts. They reportedly forced them to stand for extended periods of time, deprived them of food, forcibly fed them, and repeatedly inflicted violent physical assaults.

    Both children, who have since been placed under the care of the Division of Family Services, were hospitalized multiple times due to the abuse. The Attorney General’s Office said the abuse was documented on video because Charles and Mary Vinson installed cameras in the children’s room.

    According to the Attorney General’s Office, one of the victims was 10 years old at the time, while the other child was abused from age 11 to 13.

    The couple was initially indicted on 646 charges in September 2022.

    On Sept. 26, Mary Vinson pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree child abuse, seven counts of attempted first-degree child abuse, two counts of first-degree kidnapping, three counts of attempted second-degree assault, four counts of strangulation, three counts of first-degree reckless endangering, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of second-degree conspiracy, and one count of false statement to police.

    Charles Vinson pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree child abuse, two counts of first-degree kidnapping, one count of second-degree assault, two counts of act of intimidation, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of second-degree conspiracy, and one count of third-degree child abuse.

    In a statement, Attorney General Jennings said, “These are the cases that keep us up at night. The pain that these children endured — and that it was inflicted by people who should have been their protectors — is unthinkable.”

    The Vinsons are scheduled to be sentenced in January. Mary Vinson faces a minimum of 30 years and up to 444 years in prison. Charles Vinson faces a minimum of 10 years and up to 158 years in prison.

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  • Fact Check: No evidence Democrats want to accept ‘1 million’ Gaza refugees

    Israeli Defense Forces told people in north Gaza, an area that’s home to about 1 million people, to evacuate as Israel prepared to respond to attacks by Hamas.

    Now, some conservatives are using that figure to falsely claim the Democratic Party is broadly advocating to take them all in as refugees.

    “Democrats want to bring one million to the US,” conservative news website The Gateway Pundit posted Oct. 15 on X.

    “Democrats want the USA to take in half of Gaza, including up to 1 million ‘refugees,’ at your expense, because Israel is destroying their homes,” read another X post from the same day, this one from a radio show host. “Prediction: Biden will find a way to do this.”

    U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said something similar on X on Oct. 16: “The Democrats’ push to take in a million Palestinian refugees is absurd. Even other Middle Eastern nations recognize the fact that terrorist cells could disguise themselves as refugees fleeing war.” 

    Biggs linked to a clip of an interview he gave to radio show host James T. Harris. “We were talking about how we had a move by the Democrats to try to get Palestinian refugees over in America,” Harris said. “How serious are the Democrats?”

    “They are pretty serious about that,” Biggs replied. “These Democrats, a lot of them are finding sympathy with Hamas and the Palestinian movement — not with Israel, who was attacked ruthlessly.”

    We contacted a Biggs spokesperson to ask for his evidence that the Democratic Party has sought to allow 1 million refugees from Gaza to the U.S.

    “He is referring to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s calculation that more than 1 million Palestinians have already been displaced from their homes in just one week. Additionally, he is referring to Israel’s evacuation order to 1 million Palestinians,” Biggs spokesperson Matthew Tragesser told PolitiFact in an email. Tragesser said “many Democrats” including Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.,  “have publicly supported bringing in the Palestinian population via the refugee resettlement process to the United States.”

    We asked Tragesser to point to specific statements by the two lawmakers showing they called for 1 million refugees from Gaza to be allowed into the U.S. and got no response. Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez have made broad statements supporting refugees, but we found no statements showing they called for 1 million to come to the U.S.

    Comments by two members do not represent the entire party.

    Bowman and AOC expressed support for taking refugees

    Some social media posts making the 1 million claim linked to an Oct. 14 New York Post article headlined, “Progressives call for US to take in some of the expected 1 million Gaza refugees.” But the story quotes only one Democratic lawmaker — Bowman — and he didn’t call for a specific number of refugees to enter the U.S. 

    Bowman said that “50% of the population in Gaza are children. The international community as well as the United States should be prepared to welcome refugees from Palestine while being very careful to vet and not allow members of Hamas.” 

    We contacted Bowman’s office to ask whether that was his full statement or whether he has said how many Gaza refugees he thinks the U.S. should receive. We got no response.

    In an Oct. 16 CNN interview with Ocasio-Cortez, host Abby Phillip played a clip of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who said he opposed allowing any refugees from Gaza into the U.S. and said “all” of them are anti-Semitic. Phillip asked Ocasio-Cortez if the Arab countries should take on the “lionshare of the burden to absorb what could be over 1 million if not more refugees from Gaza.” 

    Ocasio-Cortez said she supports accepting refugees, but cited no number.

    “I think there’s something to be said about the region’s partners being able to support and step up Palestinians,” she said. “However, that does not abdicate the United States from our historic role that we’ve played in the world of accepting refugees and allowing people to restart their lives here.” We contacted Ocasio-Cortez’s press office to ask whether she made any statements calling for a specific number of refugees to be allowed into the U.S. and got no response.

    Biden previously raised the refugee cap, but nowhere close to 1 million

    Even if there were any evidence to the claim that Democrats are advocating to accept such a sizable number of refugees into the U.S., current policies would not allow that.

    Receiving refugee status is a difficult process that can take years. 

    Biden campaigned in 2020 on a promise to set annual refugee admissions at 125,000 and seek to raise it over time. We gave Biden a Promise Kept in July for raising the refugee cap to 125,000. 

    But in the federal fiscal year ended in September, the U.S. let in about half the allowable amount: 60,014, including 56 Palestinians, according to the Refugee Processing Center within the State Department. 

    There is another path for people fleeing difficult situations including war: humanitarian parole. Unlike refugee status, parole does not include a path to citizenship but does allow people to live and work in the U.S. for two years. Biden has extended parole to people from Afghanistan, Ukraine and some Latin American countries.

    Through Aug. 31, more than 211,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans had arrived lawfully under the humanitarian parole processes, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

    But PolitiFact found no evidence that Democrats are widely advocating for 1 million people to enter through that process, either.

    A spokesperson for the National Security Council, which advises President Joe Biden on national security and foreign policy, told PolitiFact that there are no plans for any new refugee programs or granting parole. That matched what National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Oct. 12.

    Spencer Tilger, a spokesperson for the International Refugee Assistance Project, a legal aid group, said Palestinian refugees have historically faced hurdles — and they do now as well.

    “Given that there are no airports in Gaza, and the territory’s Egyptian and Israeli borders are sealed, a more pressing concern is that Palestinians displaced by Israeli military action actually have no safe place to go or safe way to get there,” Tilger said. 

    Our ruling

    Biggs said the Democrats are pushing “to take in a million Palestinian refugees.”

    That’s how many people in north Gaza have been told to leave: 1 million.

    Two Democrats — Reps. Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez —  said the U.S. should accept some refugees, but neither mentioned a number. They talked about other countries doing their part, too.

    The U.S. would not be able to take in 1 million refugees from Gaza — that’s eight times the cap for all refugees.

    We rate this statement Pants on Fire!

    RELATED: All of our fact-checks about Israel and Gaza



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  • Andalusia man pleads guilty to multiple drug charges

    Andalusia man pleads guilty to multiple drug charges

    Published 2:45 pm Wednesday, October 18, 2023

    The Covington County District Attorney’s office announced Monday that Oddesius Lacharles Bryant, 33, of Andalusia, pled guilty to multiple charges.

    Oddesius Lacharles Bryant

    Bryant was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, first-degree possession of marijuana, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting arrest, and felon in possession of a firearm.

    Circuit Judge Lex Short presided over the case and took Bryant’s pleas, which came after a jury was selected shortly after noon Monday. When the jury returned from lunch, they were dismissed for a break in order for Bryant’s pleas to be taken.

    Bryant was represented by Gulf Shores attorney Riley Powell. The State was represented by Assistant District Attorney Nikki Stephens. No plea agreement was reached as to the sentence that would be imposed, thus Bryant pled “blind” and a sentencing hearing was set for Dec. 19, 2023, at 9 a.m. before Short.

    The trial setting and pleas were a result of a June 2021 traffic stop by Drug Task Force agents wherein Bryant failed to use traffic signals. Once stopped, agents observed a .223 assault-style pistol in the vehicle with Bryant and knew him to be a convicted felon prohibited from possessing firearms. When agents attempted to remove the suspect from the vehicle, he resisted officers and bit one of them before being handcuffed. Agents recovered powder cocaine and alprazolam (Xanax) pills from his pants pocket. From the vehicle, agents recovered more powder cocaine and alprazolam, crack cocaine, hydrocodone, morphine, oxycodone, and marijuana.

    Because Bryant has three or more prior felony convictions and because he was out on bond for drug trafficking at the time of these offenses, he is due to be sentenced under the Habitual Felony Offender Act. Bryant faces a sentence of 20 years to life for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute; 15 years to life each for first-degree possession of marijuana and the firearm charge; one year and one day up to 10 years for possession of alprazolam, hydrocodone, morphine, or oxycodone; up to one year for the drug paraphernalia; and up to six months for resisting arrest.

    Stephens thanked Covington County Sheriff’s Office narcotics agents Cody Holmes and Mark Odom, Andalusia narcotics agent Tyler Patterson, and Gantt Police Chief Ken Harris for their work on the case.

    “The case was solid and we had attempted ad nauseam to negotiate a plea deal with Mr. Bryant. We ultimately decided we were done negotiating and ready to go to trial. I suppose Mr. Bryant and his attorney could see the writing on the wall, and he pled guilty,” Stephens said.

    District Attorney Walt Merrell commended Stephens and the officers involved.

    “Too often we hear that drug crimes are victimless and that people dealing drugs ‘aren’t hurting anybody,’ but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The seizure of these illegal drugs prevented them from falling into the hands of addicts and those whose lives are often already teetering on the edge of disaster. Nobody knows how many people these drugs might have affected had Mr. Bryant had the chance to distribute them as he intended, and I’m thankful that didn’t happen,” Merrell said.

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  • 3 children killed in New Orleans house fire their father allegedly set intentionally

    NEW ORLEANS (TCD) — Three children, all younger than 8 years old, were killed in a house fire early Wednesday morning in what police are now investigating as a homicide case.

    The New Orleans Fire Department said in a statement firefighters received a call Wednesday, Oct. 18, at 12:09 a.m., about “possible persons trapped” inside a home on the 4900 block of America Street. Trucks arrived five minutes later and fire crew were told that three children were likely still in the residence.

    Firefighters started an “interior attack” of the fire and searched for the children at the same time. They discovered an unresponsive child near the front door and another between the kitchen and entryway. Firefighters tried to resuscitate them before EMS arrived and transported the two juveniles to the hospital, where they died. WVUE-TV reports the victims were an 8-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl.

    The fire department received a request for a second alarm at 12:27 a.m. because firefighters did not want the blaze to spread to neighboring homes. Officials continued to search the home for the third child and found a toddler “near the center of the dwelling.” The 3-year-old child was already dead.

    According to the statement, 17 trucks and other vehicles responded to the home with 46 fire personnel battling the flames. The fire was under control at 12:40 a.m.

    Police reportedly suspect the children’s father, Joseph Washington, started the blaze. WVUE shared surveillance footage from a neighbor’s Ring camera that showed the fire and a man exiting the home, then getting into a dark vehicle. About 11 hours later, a black Dodge Charger was reportedly pulled out of a levee.

    Washington’s father, Troy McDonnell, urged his son to turn himself in.

    According to the New Orleans Advocate, McDonnell also said, “If I catch him, I’m gonna kill him.”

    The children’s mother was reportedly at work when the fire broke out, and she is now allegedly at the hospital being monitored for suicide. Washington and the children’s mother married in 2014 but split up five years later.

    Washington has previously been convicted of domestic violence-related crimes. The New Orleans Advocate reports he often choked the children’s mother, hit her, and threatened to kill her in 2018. She later filed for a restraining order against him.

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  • Fact Check: Good Enough to Be True: Lego donated model MRI scanners to comfort children

    Undergoing a medical procedure, such as an MRI scan, can be scary, especially for children. Lego is here to help.

    Fans of the Danish company’s colorful building blocks might have seen social media posts about a Lego model of a magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, machine, that was created to reassure children who need to have MRIs.

    An Oct. 8 Instagram post shared a photo of the Lego MRI scanner and said, “Lego donates model MRI kits to hospitals to help children understand the procedure and reduce their anxiety.”

    (Screengrab from Instagram)

    We learned this toy story is Good Enough to Be True: the Lego MRI scanner is real and the models have been distributed to 600 hospitals worldwide.

    Our occasional Good Enough to Be True stories are intended to highlight social media claims about uplifting news that would earn a True rating on our Truth-O-Meter.

    Lego’s model MRI scanner started in 2015 as a passion project for Lego chemical technician Erik Ullerlund Staehr and the radiology department at Odense University Hospital in Denmark, Lego said in a February 2022 press release.

    MRI is a noninvasive, painless test doctors use to diagnose a variety of medical conditions. The machine uses a strong magnetic field and radio wave energy pulses to produce detailed pictures of a person’s organs and internal body structures, according to Radiology Info, an information website managed by the American College of Radiology and the Radiological Society of North America.

    The Lego MRI scanner model consists of 500 pieces and measures 5 inches wide, 10 inches long and 4 inches high, the company said. And because Legos are made of plastic — and are therefore not magnetic — this toy would be considered safe to have near the MRI machine.

    MRI scanners make a lot of noise, and to have accurate results, patients must lie still during the exam, which can take up to an hour depending on which body parts are being scanned, Ulla Jensen of Odense University Hospital’s radiology department said in Lego’s press release.

    Staehr said in the release that the children he’s seen interact with these MRI models usually feel more relaxed before their scans, “turning an often highly stressful experience into a positive, playful one.”

    Since the first prototype was made, Lego said the radiology department at Odense University Hospital has used the Lego MRI scanners to help more than 200 children, ages 4 to 9, annually.

    The Lego Foundation, which owns 25% of the Lego Group, said in 2022 that it would expand the project by donating 600 MRI models to hospitals with existing pediatric MRI scanning facilities. Lego also developed training videos that show physicians how to incorporate the model in their interactions with children and their families.

    We rate the claim that Lego donated model MRI scanners to help children undergoing the procedure feel comfortable Good Enough to be True!

    See a post that might make a great Good Enough to Be True story? Send it to [email protected]. We choose claims that pique our curiosity and fit our Truth-O-Meter definition of True.



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  • Wis. dad wanted after 12-year-old son’s body is found in 'advanced state of decomposition'

    MILWAUKEE (TCD) — A 45-year-old man is being charged with several child neglect-related crimes after his 12-year-old son was found dead and badly decomposing in his home.

    The Milwaukee Police Department announced the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office charged Romuan Moye with one count each of chronic neglect of a child — consequence is death, chronic neglect of a child — consequence is bodily harm, chronic neglect of a child, and failure to report the death of a child in connection with his son’s death.

    The boy was found dead Oct. 10 at approximately 6:10 p.m. at a home on the 4100 block of North Elmhurst Road. Milwaukee Police said the child’s cause of death was still under investigation.

    According to the criminal complaint, police went to the home after receiving a call about a deceased child whose body was “in an advanced state of decomposition.”

    WITI-TV identified the victim as Jacarie Robinson. The affidavit says Jacarie lived at Moye’s house with two other children, but they were staying with their mother at the time.

    Police spoke with Moye’s son, who said he went to Moye’s house four to five days before Jacarie was found dead. The son, who was identified as “JM” in the affidavit, said Moye was “acting abnormal, repeatedly taking deep breaths.” JM said he was worried about his father and asked Moye to keep in touch. JM reportedly did not go into the house, nor did he see Jacarie.

    On Oct. 8, JM reportedly texted his father and said he was going to drop off two of his siblings at Moye’s house. Moye initially agreed, then later said he was not home. Two days later, JM went to Moye’s residence, knocked on the door, and asked his father to come outside.

    Moye did not answer, so JM went inside. The affidavit says he was “immediately struck by the strong odor from inside,” but he did not see anyone. He went outside, then reentered. When he walked through the living room, he reportedly “observed a human foot protruding from covers on the living room floor.”

    JM reportedly lifted up the cover and saw Jacarie’s face “eaten up” and decomposed “with maggots present.” His body had been wrapped in a blanket and his face covered with a torn T-shirt.

    According to the affidavit, Moye allegedly told JM he had cancer and that it started to worsen. JM also told investigators Moye had reportedly recently been forbidding Jacarie to see other relatives. Moye would allegedly let other siblings go out of the house, but not Jacarie. JM reportedly last saw Jacarie alive on the boy’s birthday on Aug. 19, and noticed he looked “extremely skinny.”

    JM reportedly asked Jacarie if he was OK, and Jacarie allegedly responded, “No.”

    The affidavit says Jacarie’s mother had not seen him for three years, but she spoke with him on the phone about five weeks prior to his death. Moye allegedly told the mother Jacarie often stole food, so he would not let the boy go to her house. The other children, however, could go. The mother sent Moye a text on Oct. 10 asking to see Jacarie, but Moye reportedly never responded.

    Police searched the home and noticed “an overwhelming smell of mold, feces, and decay.”

    The home was reportedly covered in trash and mold, including the kitchen and bathroom sinks.

    Jacarie’s siblings allegedly told police Moye home-schooled them and that Jacarie “misbehaves and gets into constant trouble.” Jacarie reportedly often snuck into the kitchen to steal food.

    The autopsy showed Jacarie had several fractured bones, some of which were in the process of healing. He weighed 54 pounds when he died and was “extremely malnourished and emaciated.”

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  • Fact Check: Lawmaker estimated there were six transgender athletes competing in Wis. sports, but lacks evidence

    During a public hearing on a bill that would ban transgender girls from competing in high school girls’ sports in Wisconsin, bill co-author Rep. Barbara Dittrich, R-Oconomowoc, was asked if she knew how many transgender athletes were competing in Wisconsin K-12 sports.

    “I heard (there) were about a half a dozen of them,” she responded during the Oct. 4 hearing. “Whether there are more than that, I do not know.”

    But the only thing that’s clear about the number of transgender athletes in Wisconsin is that the actual number is uncertain.

    Let’s dive in.

    Dittrich’s response

    In a series of email exchanges, Dittrich spokeswoman Meagan Matthews initially said the complaints were from “about six different teams.” Matthews then said the complaints were from six individuals whose identities she kept confidential “to guard their privacy.” 

    Matthews finally said Dittrich had heard six individuals connected to six different teams complain about their daughters having to compete against transgender athletes.

    “Hope that’s clear enough for you,” Matthews added.

     

    But that just amounts to a restating of the claim.

    Indeed, the number of trans athletes competing in Wisconsin youth sports is unclear. It could be more, it could be less.

    No concrete numbers exist

    The six complaints Dittrich cited during her testimony were from 2021, Matthews said in an email. Dittrich first cited such complaints after she introduced a previous version of her bill more than two years ago. 

    When asked if any of the six complaints about transgender athletes were specifically regarding high school sports, Matthews said Dittrich “doesn’t recall” and cited the two-year gap.

    At the time, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asked for examples of transgender athletes competing in Wisconsin that Dittrich was citing. Her office provided two unnamed athletes and their races, but a Journal Sentinel report from May 2021 found both athletes were adults who were not competing in school sports and would not be affected by the bills.

    Officials with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association estimated in the Journal Sentinel report they had received a few dozen inquiries from schools about transgender athletes since the mid-2010s, of which four were about athletes seeking to transition to female.

    A WIAA spokesperson told the Journal Sentinel in 2021 he couldn’t recall a transgender athlete ever competing in a state tournament. 

    More: Wisconsin transgender athletes face ban from women’s sports under proposed bills, which would affect few, if any, sports officials say

    The WIAA’s Transgender Participation Policy says districts should contact the association if they have a student athlete participating in WIAA sport opposite their sex assigned at birth. 

    But Todd Clark, WIAA communications director, told us the WIAA has no way of confirming the number of trans athletes participating in interscholastic athletics in Wisconsin because it does not track notifications sent to its office.

    He added that, according to staff, there were “very few” notifications sent to the office.

    As for complaints, Clark said the WIAA has not received “true complaints” about transgender athletes, but has had a few calls to the office expressing concerns “more so about the policy and potential impact” of allowing transgender athletes to compete in the division that matches their gender.

    The WIAA couldn’t speculate on whether the concerns were based on a specific athlete, he added.

    We did our own search for any recent reports of transgender athletes. We found only one potential example of a transgender student competing in Wisconsin high school sports in Green Bay, though the instance was based on parent complaints. 

    Lori Blakeslee, director of communications and public relations for the Green Bay Area School District, said the district does not require students to identify themselves and is therefore unsure how many, if any, transgender athletes compete in school sports.

    Our ruling

    During a hearing on a bill that would ban transgender girls from competing in high school girls’ sports, Dittrich claimed there are “about a half a dozen” transgender athletes competing in Wisconsin K-12 schools.

    The number she cited referenced complaints made to her office more than two years ago when the bill was originally introduced. But she only provided two specific examples at the time, and both were found to be adults not competing in school sports.

    In the wake of the new claim, her office had no new specifics.

    The WIAA has heard some concerns and “very few” notifications about transgender athletes. But the organization does not keep records of the number of transgender athletes, and it’s unclear from the concerns how many transgender athletes compete in Wisconsin high school sports.

    Based on the information available to us now, and the lack of evidence from Dittrich, we rate this claim Mostly False.

     



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