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Black man fatally struck and dragged by truck-driving racist in Massachusetts road rage attack: police
January 21, 2021
A Black man was fatally struck by a white man driving a pickup truck in a racist road rage encounter, according to witnesses.
Dean Kapsalis was arrested Tuesday after killing Henry Tapias during an argument in the roadway in Belmont, Massachusetts, where witnesses said they heard the 54-year-old Kapsalis shout racial slurs before jumping into his truck, reported WBUR-FM.
<p>The 54-year-old Kapsalis struck the 35-year-old Tapias and dragged him a short distance with his truck before fleeing the scene, but he turned himself in to police about a half hour later.</p><p>"I just heard the commotion, heard my daughter scream, came to the window and I saw the gentleman on the ground with my daughter and son-in-law trying to help," <a href="https://boston.cbslocal.com/2021/01/20/belmont-massachusetts-road-rage-death-upland-road-dean-kapsalis/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">neighbor Brian Dawe told WBZ-TV</a>. "He was just in pain."</p><p>Tapias, a father of three, was taken to a nearby hospital but died from his injuries.</p><p>"Words can't describe the pain I'm feeling right now," said his brother, David Tapia. "I hope you get locked up for a long time, man."</p><p>Kapsalis, of Hudson, was charged with a civil rights violation causing injury, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, and leaving the scene of a crash.</p><p>"These are the kinds of incidents of which we have sadly particularly over the last year, seen an increase across our country, across our nation and unfortunately even here in Middlesex County," said District Attorney Marian Ryan. "We cannot and will not tolerate behavior that is rooted in racial bias."</p><p class="media-headline">
<strong>Man Killed, Driver Charged In Apparent Road Rage Incident In Belmont</strong></p><p><br/></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-proxy-image">
<a href="https://boston.cbslocal.com/2021/01/20/belmont-massachusetts-road-rage-death-upland-road-dean-kapsalis/" target="_blank"><img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4f9674a6cba245164b682d9ca7ef05ad" id="b83e3" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vbWVkaWEucmJsLm1zL2ltYWdlP3U9JTJGd3AtY29udGVudCUyRnVwbG9hZHMlMkZzaXRlcyUyRjM4NTk5MDMlMkYyMDIxJTJGMDElMkZCRUxNT05ULTEuanBnJTNGdyUzRDEwMjQmaG89aHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZib3N0b24uY2JzbG9jYWwuY29tJnM9NzI3Jmg9MTQ4Y2FhOWU1YzZhMGVhYjM3NTE2OTMxZDc3MTFlZmIyMzE0ZmVhZDZlZGMxZjE4ZGIyYTRjYjFiMWVhZDFkYSZzaXplPTk4MHgmYz0yODgwMzU3NzQ2IiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NzAyMDQ4OH0.WtfrM75OAvKpwjAsRTYYHJRZvD45r1DYXeL0AefBLNs/img.jpg"/></a>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Man Killed, Driver Charged In Apparent Road Rage Incident In Belmont</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">
<a href="https://cbsloc.al/3o28dTt" target="_blank">cbsloc.al</a>
</small>
</p><p><br/></p><p class="media-body">
<em>A driver was killed in an apparent case of road rage on a Belmont street.</em>
</p>
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Dems blast Mitch McConnell for threatening to filibuster power sharing agreement – so GOP can block all Democratic votes
January 21, 2021
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is entering his new, less powerful role the same way he managed the Senate when he was Majority Leader, with one purpose in mind: block everything Democrats want.
Democratic Senators on Thursday blasted McConnell publicly after he threatened to filibuster the organizing agreement, which specifies how many Senators from each party sit on committees and who chairs them.
<p>CNN's Manu Raju <a href="https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1352276814056595466" rel="noopener" target="_blank">notes</a> if there is no power-sharing agreement, "the Senate will operate under the rules of the last Congress when the GOP controlled Senate majority and held committee chairs."</p><p>At the center of McConnell's obstruction: he's demanding Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) commit tom keeping the filibuster – which would allow Republicans to block and jettison everything Democrats want. That means Republicans could block all of President Joe Biden's Cabinet nominees, and all legislation Democrats want to pass, as Bloomberg's Steven Dennis reports:</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">McConnell on Senate floor both makes clear Republicans are prepared to block a lot of Biden's agenda while simultaneously insisting Schumer commit to preserving the filibuster rule, which enables them to do just that.<br/>— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) <a href="https://twitter.com/StevenTDennis/status/1352308215783026690?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p>Under the false cloak of "unity," McConnell is making "unprecedented, wacky, counterproductive" demands, according to at least one Democratic Senator, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI), the Chief Deputy Whip. </p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">McConnell is threatening to filibuster the Organizing Resolution which allows Democrats to assume the committee Chair positions. It's an absolutely unprecedented, wacky, counterproductive request. We won the Senate. We get the gavels.<br/>— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianschatz/status/1352309652235702273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p>In fact, McConnell claims Democrats should commit to handing Republicans full power to toally obstruct, under the guise of "unity."</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">"If the talk of unity and common ground is to have meaning..." - McConnell on his demand that Democrats commit to preserving the filibuster rule.<br/>— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) <a href="https://twitter.com/StevenTDennis/status/1352309019080331265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> <p>U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) slammed McConnell's hypocrisy:</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">So after Mitch McConnell changed the Senate rules at a blistering pace during his 6 years in charge, he is threatening to filibuster the Senate's organizing resolution unless the Democratic majority agrees to never change the rules again.<br/><br/>Huh.<br/>— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1352306911388045314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p>Mother Jones's Ari Berman, one of the nation's top voting rights experts:</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The last person who should be lecturing Democrats on democratic norms is Mitch McConnell, who blocked Merrick Garland for 237 days before election but confirmed Amy Coney Barrett 8 days before election when 65 million people had already voted<br/>— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) <a href="https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/1352310066393853953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p>New York Times' contributing opinion writer, attorney, and playwright Wajahat Ali suggests Democrats adopt more of a scorched earth strategy:</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Mcconnell is owed nothing. He said his proudest accomplishment was to obstruct Obama. He hoped to make him a one term President. Investigate the violent insurrection and reveal the info to the public. Itll be immensely damaging to the GOP. Also kill the filibuster. <a href="https://t.co/UHmgpP207N">https://t.co/UHmgpP207N</a><br/>— Wajahat "Notoriously Brown" Ali (@WajahatAli) <a href="https://twitter.com/WajahatAli/status/1352311777007185921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
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Scientists have unearthed massive, 98-million-year-old fossils in southwest Argentina they say may have belonged to the largest dinosaur ever discovered.
Human-sized pieces of fossilized bone belonging to the giant sauropod appear to be 10-20 percent larger than those attributed to Patagotitan mayorum, the biggest dinosaur ever identified, according to a statement Wednesday from the National University of La Matanza's CTYS scientific agency.
<p>Sauropods were enormous long-necked, long-tailed, plant-eating dinosaurs -- the largest terrestrial creatures to ever have lived.</p><p>Among them, Patagotitan mayorum, also from Argentina, weighed in at about 70 tonnes and was 40 meters (131 feet) long, or about the length of four school buses.</p><p>Alejandro Otero of Argentina's Museo de La Plata is working on piecing together a likeness of the new dinosaur from two-dozen vertebrae and bits of pelvic bone uncovered so far.</p><p>He has published a paper on the unidentified dinosaur for the scientific journal Cretaceous Research, according to the university statement.</p><p>The quest for more body parts, buried deep in rock, continues. For scientists, the holy grail will be the large femur or humerus bones, which are helpful in estimating a long-extinct creature's body mass.</p><p>The massive fossils were discovered in 2012 in the Neuquen River Valley, but excavation work only began in 2015, according to palaeontologist Jose Luis Carballido of the Museo Egidio Feruglio.</p><p>"We have more than half the tail, a lot of hip bones," said Carballido, who also worked on the classification of Patagotitan a few years ago. "It's obviously still inside the rock, so we have a few more years of digging ahead of us."</p><p>The massive skeleton was found in a layer of rock dated to some 98 million years ago during the Upper Cretaceous period, added geologist Alberto Garrido, director of the Museum of Natural Sciences of Zapala.</p><p>"We suspect that the specimen may be complete or almost complete," he said. "Everything depends on what happens with the excavations. But regardless of whether it is bigger (than Patagotitan) or not, the discovery of an intact dinosaur of such dimensions is a novelty."</p><p>© 2021 AFP</p>
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