Beyond the Bricks: Week of 11/04

Mexico Ambush

On Nov. 6, 2019, BBC reported that nine U.S. citizens were killed in an attack carried out by a suspected drug cartel in northern Mexico. The attack occurred earlier in the week on Monday, Nov. 4, 2019. Three women and six children were killed when the gunman attacked.

The motives behind the attack remain unclear. However, officials speculate that it may have been a case of mistaken identity.

Those killed were part of a larger group of three mothers and their 14 children. Each group had a different destination, but they decided to drive together for safety reasons. Rhonita Maria Miller was one of the mothers killed in the attacked; she was burned in her vehicle.

The youngest victims were the eight-month-old twins, Titus and Tiana, belonging to Miller. Two of her other children died in the attack, 12-year-old Howard and 10-year-old Krystal.

Christine Marie Langford Johnson, age 31, died in the second vehicle that was attacked. Her seven-month-old daughter, Faith, was uninjured. In the third vehicle, 43-year-old Dawna Ray Langford was killed alongside her two sons, Trevor and Rogan, who were 11 and 3 years old respectively.

Super Storm

The Super Typhoon Halong is raging in the Northwest Pacific; it is the third Category 5 equivalent status in the Pacific this year, reported The Washington Post. On Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019, the storm peaked at 180 miles per hour, making it the most intense storm of the season thus far. This is one of the strongest storms observed from satellite.

The storm is not set to hit land; however, other tropical cyclones are wading through the Pacific and threatening to make landfall.

The Washington Post reported, “Halong is a beast of a storm, albeit a weakening one.”

Overnight, from Monday to Tuesday, the storm rapidly grew in intensity and ferocity. The 180-miles-per-hour winds lasted for one sustained minute. The gusts of the storm have been reported to reach as high as 220 miles per hour. Videos of the storm's shift to a Category 5 can be found on Twitter.

The Weather Network reports that as the storm heads for cooler and more open waters, its strength will die down and become less severe.

Vaping Illness Discovery

CNN has reported an update in regards to what is causing vaping-related illnesses. The U.S.'s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that vitamin E acetate in combination with THC may be to blame for the outbreaks.

Dr. Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director of the CDC, says that this is a breakthrough in the investigation.

Schuchat is quoted in saying, “These new findings are significant. We have a strong culprit.”

There is still a lot of work to do, and the CDC is continuing to test for the effects of other chemicals as there may be multiple causes. Twenty-nine of the patients who fell ill due to vaping-related illness were found to have vitamin E acetate.

Dr. James Pirkle, a member of the CDC, described vitamin E acetate as a very sticky substance. When a substance such as that gets into the lungs, it can linger for a significant time.

As the investigation is still underway, the CDC is advising people to refrain from using all vaping products with THC; this is regardless of where they are purchased. Many of the products that patients have used have been bought online, however, there are still unknown causes that are being looked into.