Good morning. This is Prepowered with the Daily Beast. It's Friday May 14th, and these are the top stories that Chi Chi Team is watching right now. A day after Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming was booted from Republican leadership for, essentially, not being a Trump-sicker fan.
She appeared on Fox News and explicitly said the network had an obligation to tell his viewers that the quote, "'election was not stolen.'" During the Thursday interview, Cheney spoke with Red Bear, and she took the opportunity not only to question her party's relationship with the truth, but also to demand that Fox News do its part to clearly inform its viewers that Joe Biden is the legitimately elected president. The Congresswoman reiterated that the party, and Fox News, should not enable lies, saying, quote, "'We all have an obligation, and I would say Fox News, especially, especially Fox News, has a particular obligation to make sure people know the election was not stolen.'" Recent polls have found that 86% of Republicans who trust Fox News as a news source, falsely believe the election was stolen. The CDC made a big announcement Thursday that fully vaccinated people can go without masks, both outdoors and indoors. However, nothing will change in the House of Representatives until Republican holdout members get vaccinated.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN on Thursday that not all GOP members have gotten the shot, and her spokesperson clarified that it's unclear just how many people have gotten the vaccination. All lawmakers were offered vaccines back in December, but as of last month, about 25% of House members had not taken one. According to a press release from Ohio State University, a massage therapist has had her license revoked and been banned from all the schools campuses after she had allegedly, quote, "'engaged and inappropriate and exploitative behavior targeting members of the football team.'" Reportedly, the woman has been accused of offering free massages to the players on the football team at off-campus housing or hotels, and then using the massages to segue into sexual acts. She allegedly demanded payment after these interactions.
Investigators say the woman did this from 2018 to 2021. Police interviewed more than 100 current and former football players, and 20 of them said they had received massages. Of the 20, five had reportedly engaged in consensual sex with the woman. There's a trigger warning on sexual assault in this next story.
A former hockey player for the Chicago Blackhawks is suing his old team, accusing them of mishandling a sexual assault complaint he made against a then-assistant coach. The player says the Blackhawks ignored his claims that he and another teammate had been assaulted by coach Brad Aldrich, and the run-up to the team's 2010 Stanley Cup win. In the suit, Aldrich is accused of masturbating in front of the Blackhawks' player without his consent, sending, quote, inappropriate text messages to the player and threatening to, quote, physically, financially, and emotionally harm him if he did not, quote, "'engage' in sexual activity with Aldrich. While the Blackhawks have said that the lawsuit is baseless, an investigation reportedly showed that Aldrich has a 2013 conviction for sexual misconduct.
In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the grocery chain Kroger announced that his store and warehouse employees would get just an extra $2 an hour in hazard pay. The company ended the so-called hero bonus two months later, even though workers were still at the risk of contracting the virus on the job. Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen came under major public criticism, but now, after such a stingy pay increase and for such a short period for employees, McMullen, on the other hand, ended up getting a hefty pay boost. A regulatory filing on Thursday reportedly shows that in 2020, Kroger gave him more than a $22 million pay package, his highest ever.
The chain which had record revenues last year did not treat its rank and file workers as well as its CEO. The median pay for employees fell 8% in 2020. A hero cat left from the fifth floor of a burning Chicago apartment building on Thursday, surprising a crowd of onlookers below. And then, the cat just, nonchalantly walked away.
The Chicago Fire Department spokesperson said firefighters were working to put out a fire in Inglewood when the cat reportedly began to make its way onto the ledge. The spokesperson said the cat, quote, was looking out for quite a while. After a couple of minutes, the cat got closer to the edge and it looked like she was getting ready to go and she just did. Video capture the moment the cat took the death of fine leaf at one point resembling a flying squirrel before it landed on its feet, bounced briefly and walked off.
No one was injured in the blaze and the cat's owner has yet to be found. That's all for this morning. Check back every weekday morning and afternoon for more of the news you need to know. Find us wherever you listen to podcasts.