With help from Jesse Naranjo, Jesús Rodríguez, Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz
Hey there, Recast family. Attorney General Merrick Garland defends DOJ’s handling of both Biden and Trump classified document probes. Rep. Ruben Gallego officially launches his bid for Arizona’s Senate seat and the Republican National Committee holds a key leadership vote this week. First we focus on the pair of mass shootings targeting Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) in California.
Terror. Grief. Helplessness.
The California communities of Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay have been devastated by the events of the past 72 hours, where gunmen took the lives of at least 18 people in separate mass shootings.
While we still don’t know the identities of all those lives claimed, what is known is that the attacks appear to be targeted at Asian communities. The alleged assailants are also Asian men.
The first incident took place Saturday evening in Monterey Park, in a town that over the decades has become such a beacon to Asian Americans and Asian immigrants that it’s been dubbed America’s first suburban Chinatown.
The shooter, a 72-year-old man who later took his own life, gunned down patrons at a ballroom dance hall. The victims were part of a large celebration to mark the Lunar New Year.
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), who attended the celebration nearby but left shortly before shots rang out, said the atmosphere felt particularly festive because it was the first Lunar New Year celebration in three years because of Covid.
Chu, who served as the…
Read the full article here
