Walmart employee sues for $50 million, says company knew about gunman’s troubling behavior
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A Walmart employee who says she narrowly missed being shot as a manager opened fire inside a Chesapeake store last week filed a $50 million lawsuit against the company Tuesday, alleging the company ignored her complaints about his troubling behavior in the months prior to the deadly shooting.
The lawsuit states that Donya Prioleau, who had been working at the Sam’s Circle Walmart as an overnight stocker and trainer for more than a year, was in the break room when the shooting happened and she narrowly avoided being shot. Six store employees were shot and killed when police said 31-year-old Andre Bing, an overnight manager for Walmart, entered the break room and began shooting people before killing himself.
Prioleau’s lawsuit, filed in Chesapeake Circuit Court, outlines a series of complaints she made about Bing in the two months prior to the shooting. According to the lawsuit, Prioleau said Bing harassed her and made comments about her age, asking “Isn’t your lady clock ticking? Shouldn’t you be having kids?”
She said she submitted a complaint on Sept. 10 to Walmart management. Prioleau’s mother spoke with the store’s manager and was told “there was nothing that could be done about Mr. Bing because he was liked by management,” the lawsuit reads.
—The Virginian-Pilot
Mayor Adams to use broader reading of state law to remove mentally ill from NYC streets
NEW YORK — New York City police and mental health clinicians who engage emotionally disturbed people on streets and subways will now be armed with a much broader interpretation of state law to institutionalize those who pose a risk to themselves or others.
That broader, more defined legal reading will likely result in the city placing more mentally ill homeless people into hospitals against their will.
Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday that he issued a new directive to city agencies clarifying the way first responders and other city workers should approach those exhibiting acute mental distress — and what steps city employees are permitted to take to remove those people from a public space against their will.
“Job one is to make it universally understood by our outreach workers, hospital staff and police officers that New York law already allows us to intervene when mental illness prevents a person from meeting their basic human needs, causing them to be a danger to themselves,” Adams said Tuesday morning.
—New York Daily News
Stanford president’s research under fire for potential scientific misconduct, report says
AN JOSE, Calif. — An academic research organization is “looking into” allegations of scientific misconduct involving Marc Tessier-Lavigne, the president of Stanford University, after online posts challenged the authenticity of multiple images published in a paper he co-authored.
Posts on PubPeer, an online forum in which users critique scientific papers, have previously alleged that a paper co-authored by Tessier-Levigne duplicated, inverted and stretched panels, despite the factors using different experimental conditions. The postings were reported by the Stanford Daily, the university’s student newspaper.
The Stanford Daily spoke to multiple scientific misconduct investigators, who confirmed there were “serious problems” with both the paper published in The European Microbiology Organization Journal and three others published in different publications, including two papers in which Tessier-Lavigne was the lead author.
In a statement to the student newspaper, university spokesperson Dee Mostofi wrote that the doctored images in two of those papers “do not affect the data, results or interpretation of the papers,” but prominent biologist Elisabeth Bik told the Daily that she did “not agree with (the) statement that these issues have no bearing on the data or the results.”
—Bay Area News Group
Horrified at Russian missile strikes, NATO vows more Ukraine support
BUCHAREST, Romania — NATO vowed on Tuesday to "further step up" support to Ukraine, including in repairing the country's energy infrastructure after a series of damaging Russian missile and drone attacks.
"Allies will assist Ukraine as it repairs its energy infrastructure and protects its people from missile attacks," a declaration from the Western military alliance read, on the first day of a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Bucharest.
The 30 foreign ministers of the Western military alliance are gathered in the Romanian capital to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"Russia is using brutal missile and drone attacks to leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a press conference. Stoltenberg said alliance members agreed to send more non-lethal aid, including fuel and generators, to help Ukraine during the winter, without providing further details.
—dpa
