po
This is the Urban Christian News podcast. Here are the top stories you need to know about today.
According to Houston Chronicle, Two Harris County deputies were killed within 24 hours of each other this weekend, marking one of the deadliest time spans for cops in the Houston area since late 2019. Around 12:45 a.m. Sunday, a driver gunned down Harris County Precinct 5 Constable’s Office Corporal Charles Galloway in the 9100 block of Beechnut as the lawman attempted a traffic stop. Galloway had yet to get out of his patrol SUV before shots rang out. The shooter managed to escape. Houston police, who are investigating the shooting, did not have an update Monday morning. In a dire twist of fate, around the same time Monday morning a driver hit and killed Harris County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Ramon Gutierrez as he was escorting an oversized load along the East Sam Houston Parkway near Tidwell Road. Gutierrez had positioned his police motorcycle to block an exit ramp as he, while on foot, directed traffic. Investigators allege 40-year-old driver Lavillia Spry was intoxicated when she drove around the motorcycle and hit Gutierrez before fleeing. Other law enforcement officers who were also escorting the load chased Spry, who eventually stopped a mile away near the intersection of Van Hut and Hunters Field lanes — just around the corner from her home, court records show. She’s been booked in Harris County on charges of failure to stop and render aid, evading arrest and intoxication manslaughter. Purported footage of the woman’s car shot by OnScene.TV shows it had a damaged bumper and headlight. Gutierrez left behind a wife and three children, one of whom is supposed to be married in the coming months, according to Gonzalez. “A father won’t be there to walk his daughter down the aisle,” he said tearfully during a press conference Monday. “You can’t put a price on that.” The two deputized officers are the most recent to die on the job in and around Houston in recent months.
According to NPR, The Pentagon is placing about 8,500 U.S. troops on heightened alert to possibly deploy to Eastern Europe as Russian forces stand poised for a possible invasion of Ukraine. Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday that the decision to deploy troops has not been made. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “has placed a range of units in the United States on a heightened preparedness to deploy, which increases our readiness to provide forces if NATO should activate the [NATO Response Force] or if other situations develop,” Kirby said. The NATO Response Force is a multinational force of roughly 40,000 troops that can deploy quickly as needed. The force would be deployed at NATO’s request, Kirby said. Some U.S. forces are already on heightened alert; Austin heightened their status further, Kirby said, by shortening the number of days it would take to deploy from 10 to five. “It’s very clear that the Russians have no intention right now of de-escalating,” Kirby said, adding that Austin wanted to give U.S. forces time to “prepare to be on a shorter tether … just in case.” The countries where the U.S. troops could be sent has not been determined, Kirby said, though he indicated they could be sent to Eastern Europe. Possible destinations include Poland, Romania, Bulgaria or Hungary. The New York Times reported that the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — were also under consideration.
According to the Associated Press, Islamic extremists have abducted 17 girls in northeast Nigeria, witnesses said Saturday as the West African nation’s military said it “remains resolute in decisively countering the terrorists.” Members of the Boko Haram jihadi group attacked Pemi, a village in the Chibok local government area of Borno state, on Thursday. The state is where Boko Haram’s decade-long insurgency against the Nigeria government has been concentrated. In a statement late Friday, the Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for killing “many Christians” and setting fire to two churches and several houses during an attack on the Borno town of Bimi. Authorities blame Boko Haram for the killing of tens of thousands of people in Nigeria and neighboring countries in West Africa. The militants targeted a church and Christians when they stormed Pemi on Thursday, according to local leader Hassan Chibok. “They were shooting sporadically after they rounded the community,” Chibok said. “Some could not have access to escape, so they abducted 17 girls.” Eight of the girls came from one household, he said. Another resident, Yana Galang, said the extremists razed a church building and targeted nearby houses. “Some of them (the abducted girls) are 10, 11, 12 years,” Galang said. “They just parked their vehicle near the compounds. You know, as children, they just carried them and put them in the vehicle.” The abduction of the girls from Pemi recalled the 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, a remote town situated 130 kilometers south of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. More than 100 of the abducted students remain missing.
According to CNN, The second New York Police Department officer who was shot while responding to a domestic incident in Harlem last week has died. “It’s with great sadness I announce the passing of Police Officer Wilbert Mora,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said on Twitter. “Wilbert is 3 times a hero. For choosing a life of service. For sacrificing his life to protect others. For giving life even in death through organ donation. Our heads are bowed & our hearts are heavy.” Mora, 27, and Officer Jason Rivera, 22, were fatally shot Friday when a suspected gunman opened fire in a Harlem apartment, authorities said. The suspect, Lashawn McNeil, tried to run but was confronted and shot by a third officer on the scene, police said. McNeil died on Monday. Mora and Rivera are just two of five NYPD officers who have been shot in the nation’s largest city in the first month of 2022. In addition, a woman was pushed onto the subway tracks in Times Square and a baby was hit in the face by crossfire in the Bronx. These acts of violence under a new city administration — coming off a year that saw an increase in homicides — have dramatically changed the tenor of policing in New York City over the course of just a few days. Now, as officials enact plans to stem violent crime and illegal gun ownership, the city is preparing for the return of plainclothes units that had been disbanded nearly two years earlier. Mayor Eric Adams, a former New York Police Department captain who began his term less than four weeks ago, touted his law and order experience during the election campaign. Now, lawlessness has become his biggest immediate challenge following a spate of high-profile attacks on residents and police alike.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. have reached the highest level since early last year, eclipsing daily averages from the recent Delta-fueled surge, after the newer Omicron variant spread wildly through the country and caused record-shattering case counts. The seven-day average for newly reported Covid-19 deaths reached 2,188 a day by Monday, up about 1,000 from daily death counts two months ago, before Omicron was first detected, data from Johns Hopkins University show. While emerging evidence shows Omicron is less likely to kill the people it infects, because the variant spreads with unmatched speed, the avalanche of cases can overwhelm any mitigating factors, epidemiologists say. “You can have a disease that is for any particular person less deadly than another, like Omicron, but if it is more infectious and reaches more people, then you’re more likely to have a lot of deaths,” said Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality-statistics branch at the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S. saw the highest numbers of deaths in the pandemic about a year ago, before vaccines were widely available, when the daily average reached 3,400. More recently, the Delta variant triggered a peak just above 2,100 in late September. Omicron has since muscled Delta aside and now accounts for nearly every known Covid-19 case, the CDC has estimated. The seven-day death average last topped the current level in February 2021, as the U.S. recovered from last winter’s surge.
According to USA Today, As the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games approach and COVID-19 concerns mount, NBC Sports will not send any of its announcing teams to China. “The announce teams for these Olympics, including figure skating, will be calling events from our Stamford (Conn.) facility due to COVID concerns,” Greg Hughes, senior vice president communications, NBC Sports, said in a phone interview. “We’ll still have a large presence on the ground in Beijing and our coverage of everything will be first rate as usual, but our plans are evolving by the day as they are for most media companies covering the Olympics.” NBC’s broadcasting teams for figure skating, Alpine skiing and snowboarding had been expected to be in Beijing, but those plans have been canceled. The network’s Olympic host, Mike Tirico, will still be in China for the Feb. 4 opening ceremony and the first few days of the Games, but will then leave for Los Angeles to host the Feb. 13 Super Bowl, which also is on NBC this year. Many of the announce teams for the various Winter Olympic sports were already scheduled to be based in Stamford. NBC employed a similar strategy for its coverage of the Tokyo Summer Olympics in July-August 2021, although some of the broadcasting crews were on site for the most popular sports, including swimming and gymnastics. That of course was well before the omicron variant began raging around the world, creating increasing concerns that anyone traveling to Beijing, from the athletes of the world to accredited members of the media, could test positive while at the Games and have to spend days and even weeks in quarantine.
According to NFL.com, We just bore witness to the greatest weekend in NFL playoff history. All four Divisional Round games were won with no time remaining in regulation or in overtime, the most such finishes in an entire postseason in NFL history, according to NFL Research. The weekend kicked off with the Cincinnati Bengals staving off a collapse against the Tennessee Titans with a late interception, another Joe Burrow-Ja’Marr Chase connection, and Evan McPherson nailing a 52-yard field goal. Then the San Francisco 49ers rallied in Green Bay, using a blocked punt to tie a low-scoring bout, pummeling presumptive NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers and setting up a Robbie Gould 45-yarder to upset the Packers at Lambeau Field. The Los Angeles Rams almost became Tom Brady’s latest conquest, as L.A. gave up a 27-3 lead to the reigning Super Bowl champs with TB12 guiding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers into a tie game with 42 seconds remaining. But Matthew Stafford beat the Bucs blitz, and Cooper Kupp got wide open deep, setting up Matt Gay’s revenge on a 30-yard winner. Gay’s field goal marked the third game in which the winning points were scored with no time left in the fourth quarter, the most such finishes in an entire postseason — let alone a single weekend — in NFL history. The prelude set up the wildest, most entertaining game in a weekend of unforgettable memories. The Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills lit up the scoreboard late, with Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen proving every bit the superstars we expected them to be. The two QBs combined for 25 points in the final two minutes of regulation. After Allen threw his fourth TD of the night, Mahomes needed just 13 seconds to force overtime. From there, the Chiefs won the coin toss and marched down the field, ending the game on a Travis Kelce TD on the first possession of OT. The stage is now set for a hella entertaining Championship Sunday. The upstart Bengals head to Arrowhead to face a Chiefs team they beat 34-31 in Week 17, and the 49ers are going to L.A. to try to win their seventh straight game over the Rams.
You can read these stories and more at UrbanChristianNews.com
In closing, remember, God loves you. He always has and He always will. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you don’t know Jesus as your Saviour, today is a good day to get to know Him. Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose from the dead for you. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart and He will. Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Thanks so much for listening and may God bless your day!
————————
This is the Urban Christian News podcast. Here are the top stories you need to know about today.
According to USA Today, A winter storm began to dump snow across the upper Midwest on Friday as it made its way toward the South and eventually the East Coast, promising weekend weather havoc for millions of people. As of Friday afternoon, more than 60 million Americans were under some level of winter weather alert, according to the National Weather Service. The alerts stretched from North Dakota to as far south as Georgia, then up into the Northeast in Pennsylvania. Major travel disruptions are expected with the storm throughout the Martin Luther King Jr., holiday weekend, AccuWeather said. The storm is known as a “Saskatchewan screamer,” AccuWeather said, as it originated in that Canadian province. Meanwhile, the Weather Channel has named it “Winter Storm Izzy.” After pasting the Upper Midwest with up to a foot of snow in some areas on Friday, the storm is forecast to dive into the South on Saturday and into Sunday, spreading snow into cities such as Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Memphis is forecast to see as much as 3 inches of snow, while up to 5 inches could fall in Nashville, the weather service said. Atlanta is also in the path of the storm, which could end the city’s nearly four-year streak without measurable snow. Ice will be a particular concern with the storm in portions of the Carolinas. A weather service forecast office in South Carolina said “power outages and tree damage are likely due to the ice. Travel could be nearly impossible. Additionally, strong wind gusts may add more stress to ice-covered trees.” The storm’s last stops will be the mid-Atlantic and Northeast after it takes a sharp turn to the north-northeast along the Eastern Seaboard on Sunday and into Monday.
According to Mission Network News, Years after the defeat of ISIS in Iraq, many Iraqi Christians remain in limbo. ISIS forced them to leave their homes because of their faith. Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs USA says ISIS gave Iraqi Christians a choice. ‘Become a Muslim, and you can be part of us. You can keep your house and you can stay here. They didn’t do that. They said, ‘No, I am a Christian.’” They fled into several surrounding countries like Turkey or Lebanon. Nettleton recently met some of these Christians. “They don’t have any kind of status, and they don’t have legal protection. They’re not allowed to work. Their kids aren’t allowed to go to school. And now we are five years down the road, six years down the road. We talked to one guy who’s been waiting for eight years to get into another country like Canada or the US or Australia.” During their wait, these refugees don’t have much to do. Nettleton spoke to one man about his daily routine. “He said, ‘Well, I wake up in the morning, and I eat breakfast. Then I go down to the park. A lot of the men go there, and we hang out together and we talk. And then I come home, and I eat lunch, and I usually take a nap.” He repeats this same cycle day after day, unable to legally work or do anything else. Nettleton says listeners can take action. First, we can pray. Ask God to comfort and strengthen these Christians. Many are traumatized. Their children have lost their childhoods, and education. Then, “We need to remind our government leaders. Our government has said. ‘Yes, we’ll take some of the refugees.’ Okay, then let’s take some! Let’s get them through the approval process.” Ask God to protect them from radical ideologies as well.
According to NBC Chicago, The 6-year-old North Chicago boy who authorities say was killed by his family then reported missing days later died of hypothermia and was partially burned after his death, the coroner’s office said Tuesday. The Lake County Coroner’s Office in northwest Indiana conducted the postmortem examination on Damari Perry on Monday morning after the FBI found the boy’s body early Saturday. The autopsy found “scattered ecchymosis on the right leg, extremely cold core temperature, and partially frozen internal organs,” adding that there was “postmortem thermal injury/charring” on the child’s body. The coroner’s office said his pending cause of death was hypothermia, ruling it a homicide. The FBI found Damari’s body early Saturday morning in an alley in Gary, Indiana. His body was found naked and wrapped in a plastic trash bag. His mother Jannie Perry, 38, faces charges of first-degree murder and concealment of a homicidal death. Damari Perry’s older brother Jeremiah Perry, 20, was charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm to a child under 12, concealing a homicidal death, and obstructing justice. A second juvenile sibling was arrested for charges related to concealing the boy’s body. Damari Perry was reported missing by family members on Jan. 5, officials said, with prosecutors later alleging that the story of his disappearance they gave to investigators was “completely false.” Prosecutors said at a court hearing for Jeremiah Perry on Sunday that Damari Perry “did something to upset family” on Dec. 29, and as a result, family members put him in a cold shower for an unspecified amount of time as punishment. At some point, Damari vomited and was then removed from the shower, prosecutors said. The young boy eventually died, and relatives didn’t call for medical attention, according to officials, who said family later brought his body to Indiana.
You can read these stories and more at UrbanChristianNews.com
In closing, remember, God loves you. He always has and He always will. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you don’t know Jesus as your Saviour, today is a good day to get to know Him. Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose from the dead for you. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart and He will. Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Thanks so much for listening and may God bless your day!
BCNN1 WP 