Good morning, Her Campus! With a break-neck news cycle, there is no possible way for you to stay on top of every story that comes across your feeds—we’re all only human, after all.
But, life comes at you fast. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this quick and dirty guide to stories you might’ve been sleeping on (like, literally. It’s early.)
Rudy Giuliani Reveals Why President Trump Fired Former FBI Director James Comey
Longtime friend of President Donald Trump and newest member of the Trump legal team Rudy Giuliani revealed one of the reasons that Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey during an interview on Fox News on Wednesday night, The Huffington Post reports.
“He fired Comey because Comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn’t a target of the investigation,” Giuliani told Sean Hannity on Wednesday night.
Rudy Giuliani on potential Mueller, @POTUS interview: “Right now, a lot of things point in the direction of they’ve made up their mind that @Comey‘s telling the truth, and not the president.” #Hannity pic.twitter.com/H7QscjXBYu
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 3, 2018
“He’s entitled to that. Hillary Clinton got that and he couldn’t get that,” Giuliani said. “So he fired him and he said, ‘I’m free of this guy.’”
According to HuffPost, Trump has been unclear on his reasoning for firing Comey as FBI Director.
During an NBC News interview in May 2017, Trump said, “I was going to fire Comey, knowing there was no good time to do it,. And, in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election.’”
However, last month Trump said that Comey was not fired because of the “phony Russia investigation.”
Men Arrested at Philadelphia Starbucks Settle With the City For $1 Each
Two African American men who were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks have settled with the city for $1 each, NBC News reports.
After video of the arrest of Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson when the store manager called 911 went viral, waves of protest erupted as the police department and coffee giant were accused of racism and discrimination.
The men spent approximately eight hours in police custody before finally being released due to “lack of evidence” of a crime being committed, according to a spokesman for the district attorney’s office. Starbucks did not press charges against the two men, NBC News reports.
In addition to their $1 settlement, Robinson and Nelson will release the city of all claims in exchange for the creation of a $200,000 fund that will grants to young entrepreneurs in the city, NBC News reports. The money for the fund will come from Philadelphia’s Finance Department.
The two men will not benefit from the grant funds, but will sit on the committee that awards the grants. According to NBC News, the grants will work to create curriculum that will teach public high school students to become business owners.
“I am pleased to have resolved the potential claims against the city in this productive manner,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement. “This was an incident that evoked a lot of pain in our city, pain that would’ve resurfaced over and over again in protracted litigation, which presents significant legal risks and high financial and emotional costs for everyone involved.”
Kenney added that Robinson and Nelson approached the city with the idea of the grant fund “in an attempt to make something positive come of this.”
Robinson told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he felt this was the right decision.
“We thought long and hard about it and we feel like this is the best way to see that change that we want to see,” Robinson said. “It’s not a right-now thing that’s good for right now, but I feel like we will see the true change over time.”
Southwest Airlines Plane Makes Unplanned Landing After Window Cracks
A Southwest Airlines plane made an unplanned landing on Wednesday after one of the plane’s windows cracked, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and passengers.
The flight from Chicago to Newark, New Jersey landed at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport after the pilot, who did not declare an emergency, asked to divert to a nearby airport, CNN reports.
Window broke mid flight to Newark from Chicago @SouthwestAir #WhatsGoingOn pic.twitter.com/JQxUgebXI7
— Deepak Chawla (@deepak_9284) May 2, 2018
Passenger Linda Holley texted a picture of the window to her son, showing the crack on the outer pane of the multi-pane plane window.
“Window on plane cracked during flight. Landing in Cleveland to be safe. Everything ok but scary,” Holley wrote in one of her text messages.
In another she wrote, “Yes Southwest. Just heard loud noise. Very large crack with piece of window missing at bottom. Just landed. Everything ok. Don’t know plan yet.”
The FAA said it does not yet know what caused the window to crack, but will continue to investigate.
This is the second diversion made by a Southwest Airlines flight after damage occurring to the aircraft.
On April 17, a Southwest flight made an emergency landing in Philadelphia after the engine failed and passenger Jennifer Riordan died after being partially sucked out of the plane, CNN reports.
Passengers of that flight, as well as President Donald Trump, applauded the captain, Tammie Jo Shults, for her incredible skill at landing the plane safely.
What to look out for…
So it turns out that former FBI Director James Comey is a super fan of pop culture, and totally sang a Beyoncé song during an FBI briefing.