In Other News: Disney apologizes to school charged for showing ‘Lion King’; Cyborgs, trolls and bots: A guide to online misinformation

Published 1:51 pm Friday, February 7, 2020

Editor’s note: “In Other News” is a list of state, national and global headlines compiled by Daily Citizen-News staff from The Associated Press. Click on the headlines below to read the full stories.

Disney apologizes to school charged for showing ‘Lion King’

The Walt Disney Co. has apologized to a California school that was charged a $250 licensing fee after showing the company’s 2019 remake of “The Lion King” during a fundraiser. Emerson Elementary School in Berkeley was billed by Movie Licensing USA on behalf of Disney for “illegally screening” the film at a “parent’s night out” event that raised $800 last year, KPIX-TV reported Thursday. Since the school did not have a license with Disney, it was asked to pay $250.

Aide who testified against Trump likely out at White House

WASHINGTON — The decorated soldier and White House aide who played a central role in the Democrats’ impeachment case against President Donald Trump is expected to be pushed out of his job at the National Security Council, two people familiar with the expected personnel move said Friday. “I’m not happy with him,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House to head to North Carolina. “You think I’m supposed to be happy with him? I’m not. … They are going to be making that decision.” Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman could leave the White House staff and return to a job at the Pentagon as early as Friday. He could leave as part of a group of staffers exiting the NSC, according to one person familiar with the expected decision. Another person familiar with Vindman’s situation said he was getting ready for retaliation from the White House for his testimony at the House impeachment hearings.

Cyborgs, trolls and bots: A guide to online misinformation

NEW YORK — Cyborgs, trolls and bots can fill the internet with lies and half-truths. Understanding them is key to learning how misinformation spreads online. As the 2016 election showed, social media is increasingly used to amplify false claims and divide Americans over hot-button issues including race and immigration. Researchers who study misinformation predict it will get worse leading up to this year’s presidential vote.

High water wreaks havoc on Great Lakes, swamping communities

MANISTEE, Mich. — Rita Alton has an unusual morning routine these days: Wake up. Get dressed. Go outside to see if her house is closer to tumbling down an 80-foot cliff into Lake Michigan. When her father built the 1,000-square-foot, brick bungalow in the early 1950s near Manistee, more than an acre of land lay between it and the drop-off overlooking the giant freshwater sea. But erosion has accelerated dramatically as the lake approaches its highest levels in recorded history, hurling powerful waves into the mostly clay bluff. Now, the jagged clifftop is about eight feet from Alton’s back deck. “It’s never been like this, never,” she said on a recent morning, peering down the snow-dusted hillside as bitter gusts churned surf along the shoreline below. “The destruction is just incredible.”