00:00This morning, chilling new revelations.
00:03The Minneapolis gunman obsessed with killing children and idolizing mass murderers.
00:08Plus, a new director named at the CDC, but the fired leader says she's still in charge.
00:14And put down your hose.
00:16Border agents yanked two firefighters off the front lines.
00:20The backlash burning hot this morning.
00:24The stories that matter, clear and credible.
00:27From across the country to around the world.
00:30These are your unbiased updates from Straight Arrow News.
00:36Good morning, I'm Craig DeGrelli.
00:37This morning, we're learning more about the shooter who killed two students and wounded more than a dozen others at a Catholic school mass in Minneapolis.
00:45Authorities identified the gunman as 23-year-old Robin Westman, a former student at Annunciation Catholic School.
00:52Investigators say he was obsessed with the idea of killing children.
00:56They've uncovered hundreds of pages of writings in which Westman expressed hate toward, quote, almost every group imaginable, including black, Mexican, Christian and Jewish communities.
01:07Even President Donald Trump.
01:09There appears to be only one group that the shooter didn't hate.
01:14One group of people who the shooter admired.
01:17The group were the school shooters and mass murderers that are notorious in this country.
01:27The shooter idolized some of the most notorious school shooters and mass murderers in our country's history.
01:33Investigators say Westman wanted to kill defenseless children and, quote, watch them suffer.
01:38But despite the writings, authorities say a clear motive for the attack remains uncertain.
01:43Nine of the victims are still in the hospital, one child in critical condition.
01:47The community is coming together to grieve.
01:50Mourners placing flowers and teddy bears at a memorial outside Annunciation Catholic Church.
01:55One child seen embracing an adult after laying down a bloom.
01:59Also worth noting this morning, the gunman's mother, Mary Grace Westman, who used to work at the school, has hired a high-profile attorney and, according to the Minneapolis chief, is refusing to talk to police.
02:11This morning, the CDC has a new acting director after the White House fired Susan Menares just weeks into her new job.
02:19The Trump administration has tapped Jim O'Neill, a top deputy to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
02:26O'Neill will keep his post at HHS while running the CDC, a move that gives Kennedy even more influence over federal vaccine policy.
02:35The shakeup has already rattled the agency.
02:37Four top officials resigned after Menares got ousted.
02:41And staffers gathered outside the CDC in Atlanta Thursday to say goodbye.
02:45A somber clap-out to see them off.
02:48This is unprecedented.
02:51There has never been a CDC director fired.
02:55And it appears that she was fired for standing up, for saying things that are true.
03:01What we're seeing is an assault.
03:04It's an assault on science.
03:05It's an assault on CDC.
03:07And it is making Americans less safe.
03:11On Capitol Hill, Senator Bill Cassidy, who chairs the health committee, is calling for next month's vaccine advisory meeting to be postponed, warning any decisions made amid this turmoil would lack legitimacy.
03:24Kennedy defended the shakeup.
03:26There's a lot of trouble at CDC, and it's going to require getting rid of some people over the long term in order for us to change the institutional culture and bring back pride and self-esteem and make that agency the stellar agency that it's always been.
03:44Meanwhile, lawyers for Menares insist she's still the legal director, arguing that only the president can remove her.
03:51That sets up a possible legal fight, even as O'Neill takes over.
03:55Lawyers for a man at the center of a high-profile immigration case want the judge to gag the government.
04:01Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a father from El Salvador, living in Maryland, is in custody facing federal human smuggling charges.
04:09But his attorneys say the Trump administration's constant name-calling is jeopardizing his right to a fair trial.
04:15This week, after he reported to jail in Baltimore, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blasted him online, calling him an illegal alien, gang member, human trafficker, domestic abuser, and child predator.
04:28President Trump has previously referred to him as an animal.
04:31His lawyers say those claims are baseless and the public attacks are meant to vilify their client before he ever sees a jury.
04:38They argue it risks, quote, prejudicing the proceedings and want the judge to shut it down.
04:43In Washington state, controversy is flaring on top of a raging wildfire.
04:48Two firefighters were arrested by Border Patrol while battling the state's biggest act of blaze.
04:54The Bear Gulch fire has burned nearly 9,000 acres in the Olympic National Forest.
04:59Border agents confirm they detained two crew members after verifying identities on site, saying, quote,
05:05Several discrepancies were identified, and two individuals were found to be present in the U.S. illegally, one with a previous order of removal.
05:14Other crew members said they were shocked to see arrests in the middle of an active fire response.
05:20Federal officials insist the operation did not interrupt firefighting efforts.
05:24But Senator Patty Murray blasted the move, writing,
05:26Trump has undercut our wildland firefighting abilities in more ways than one, to now apparently detaining firefighters on the job.
05:34This administration's immigration policy is fundamentally sick.
05:38We'll call it Fight Club Senate edition.
05:41Mexico's upper chamber turned into mayhem and a brawl hall after a heated debate over drug cartels and whether the United States should get involved.
05:50Watch this.
05:51Senator Alejandro Moreno, leader of the opposition PRI party, marching to the podium and shoving Senate President Gerardo Fernandez-Norona,
06:01even whacking him on the neck.
06:03There they go, right there.
06:04When another man tried to intervene, he got knocked down.
06:08I mean, all you needed was Michael Buffer, the guy that goes, let's get ready to rumble.
06:11Well, the scuffle capped off a session where opposition parties were accused of calling for U.S. military intervention against the cartel, something they deny.
06:22The dust-up comes as President Trump has ordered the Pentagon to target cartels as terrorists.
06:27Mexico's president, Claudia Scheinbaum, insists there will be, quote, no U.S. invasion.
06:32But on this day, the real battlefield was on the Senate floor.
06:36Finally this morning, a dinosaur straight out of Jurassic Park.
06:39But it's not your typical Hollywood version.
06:41Researchers in Morocco have uncovered what they call a jaw-droppingly weird dinosaur.
06:47It's the Spichamelis, the oldest known ankylosaurus, dating back, get this, 165 million years.
06:55Now, this creature was a showstopper, heavy body armor with spikes up to three feet long.
07:01The fossil turned up, by the way, in the Atlas Mountains, adding a new branch to the ankylosaurus family tree.
07:07Scientists say they were slow, plant-eating tanks of their time, using their armor to survive among predators.
07:13A reminder that even after millions of years, nature still has a few surprises to dig up.
07:19I can tell you that my ankle is a saurus after playing about an hour and 15 minutes of hardcore tennis yesterday.
07:27But, hey, that's my problem.
07:28All right, it's news without the spin, like your laundry on Delicate.
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07:35Go to san.com slash newsletters.
07:37Those are your unbiased updates for this Friday.
07:40We'll see you back here next week.
07:41For all of us here at Straight Arrow News, I'm Craig DiGrelli.
07:44Have a fantastic holiday weekend.
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