Top Stories this AM: 6 killed in birthday shooting; Bill Barr told Trump he'd quit over FBI director; introducing Freckles the lobster
Good morning and welcome to your weekday morning roundup of the top stories you need to know.
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What's going on today:
- A man opened fire and killed 6 people, including his ex-girlfriend, before killing himself at a birthday party in Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs Police Department said friends, family, and children were at the party, when the suspect, an ex-boyfriend of one of the people in attendance, entered the trailer and began shooting. The mass shooting comes less than two months after ten people were killed at a Colorado supermarket.
- Trump Attorney General Bill Barr threatened to quit last year over Trump's attempts to fire FBI Director Chris Wray. Sources told Insider Barr went to the White House for a meeting and was introduced to Bill Evanina, a top counterintelligence official in the Trump administration who had previously worked at the FBI. When Barr realized Evanina was being suggested as a replacement for Wray, Barr threatened to resign in protest.
- A year after NYC experienced its worst days of the pandemic, the city continues to store up to 750 bodies in refrigerated trucks. "Long-term storage was created at the height of the pandemic to ensure that families could lay their loved ones to rest as they see fit," a spokesperson for the medical examiner's office said. Officials say that the majority of the bodies will likely be buried on Hart's Island which has traditionally been a burial ground for unclaimed bodies.
- Attack of the "potted plant" people: An Arizona GOP official made unverified claims that COVID vaccine turns people into 'potted plants'. Commissioner Jim O'Connor parroted the unverified claims of an Idaho doctor, and told the Arizona Republic that "many people who have taken the shot, many thousands of people here in the US, are deceased. And the deceased part is the good news. And please don't take that out of context." ¯_(ツ)_/¯
- A very special shellfish: A happy ending - and a new home - for a rare 1-in-30-million Calico shellfish that almost became a Red Lobster dinner. Freckles the lobster (FRECKLES!) escaped the plate and now resides at the Virginia Living Museum.
That's all for now. See you Monday.