Morning Wire - Pfizer Plant Damaged & Powerball Winner in Los Angeles | Afternoon Update | 7.21.23

Episode Date: July 21, 2023

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I'm Georgia Howe. It's Friday, July 21st, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update. A North Carolina Pfizer pharmaceutical plant that makes anesthesia drugs suffered heavy damage from a tornado earlier this week. Pfizer confirmed that the large manufacturing complex was damaged by a twister that touched down shortly after midday near Rocky Mount. The company went on to say in an email that it had no reports of serious injuries and all employees were safe. evacuated and accounted for. After hitting the Pfizer plant, the Twister headed north, where some residents say they're just happy to be alive. I know now two things I've learned in this endeavor. One is that I am truly blessed. And two is that I have very good neighbors. The boyfriend of Carly Russell, the Alabama woman who disappeared mysteriously for two days

last week, has wiped all traces of her from his social media. The Facebook page of Tomar LaTresel Simmons was once filled with photos of him and Russell, but now those photos have been removed. The picture purge comes hours after Hoover Police revealed some strange internet searches that Carly had done in the days before going missing, including searching a movie about abduction and whether or not she was too old to be the subject of an Amber Alert. There were two searches later to Amber Alerts on a computer at Cardi's place of employment, including one regarding the maximum age of an Amber Alert. There were other searches on Carly's phone that appeared to shed some light on her mindset,

but I'd respect for her privacy. We will not be releasing the content. Russian prosecutors have asked a court to imprison opposition leader Alexi Navalny for 20 years. According to allies of Navalny, the trial, which went on behind closed doors in the prison where the politician is serving another lengthy sentence, is scheduled to conclude with a verdict on August 4th. The 47-year-old opposition leader is President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe who exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests. He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. A row of phycus trees outside of Universal Studios have become a huge point of contention between Hollywood studios and striking screenwriters and actors.

Members of SAG AFRA and some local politicians are accusing the studio of a shady move, saying the studio purposefully pruned the trees in an effort to remove a source of shade for workers picketing under the hot California sun. Still, actors and screenwriters gathered outside the studio under the recently trimmed trees. Here's what one picketing writer told Fox 11 about what they're calling a coincidentally timed tree trimming. It's just a coincidence too many for some. I think, something unscheduled, apparently unpermitted. That... It doesn't feel right to you.

It doesn't feel right. There are things that they could be doing to enhance safety for both for picketers, for their own employees and for the public. Universal Studios did release the following statement, quote, We understand that the safety tree trimming of the ficus created unintended challenges for demonstrators. That was not our intention. We support the WGA and SAGs right to demonstrate. In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a jury awarded an eight-year-old girl and her family $800,000 after the child suffered second-degree burns due to a hot chicken McNugget that scalded her leg

in 2019. The injury happened as the mother was pulling out of a drive-through, causing the extremely hot McNugget to land on the child's lap. Attorneys were seeking $15 million in damages. A winning ticket has been sold in California for the Powerball Jackpot worth an estimated 1.08 billion, the sixth largest in U.S. history and the third largest in the history of the game. The California Lottery said on Twitter that the winning ticket was sold in Los Angeles at Los Palmitas Minimart. Those are your drive home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories,

go to dailywire.com. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.