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--:-- John Bickley: Hey, this is Daily Wire, Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Tuesday, August 15th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update. And by the way, it's episode 1000 of this show.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thank you so much for listening to it. You make it possible for us to do our job here, and we are very appreciative.
--:-- John Bickley: The death toll caused by the wildfires in Maui continues to rise, with officials now saying nearly 100 people have been confirmed dead. As the island continues to pick up the pieces in the wake of the historic blaze, other problems are arising.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: As residents of Maui begin returning to the area for the first time, officials are warning that the air could now be contaminated with toxic chemical compounds like asbestos and lead. Many destroyed buildings in Lahaina may have contained these dangerous chemicals because they were built before the compounds were phased out in the 1970s.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Officials have also warned Lahaina residents against drinking tap water, which could also be contaminated with other toxic organic compounds.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: While there have been reports of looting from locals on the ground, Maui police chief disputes those claims. Caravans coming in with supplies are being hijacked at gunpoint. Shame on you. These are our people and they're hurting. And if we want to make something sensational, we'll make it sensational. But I checked before I came in and I said, do we have any reports on looting? No.
--:-- John Bickley: Around 1,300 people are still unaccounted for as officials continue their search.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Biden administration moved forward with a plan on Monday to cancel nearly $40 billion in student loan debt for more than 800,000 borrowers. That's after a Michigan judge dismissed a suit seeking to block the plan.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Michigan District Judge Thomas Ludington ruled that a lawsuit filed by the Cato Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy against the Department of Education lacks standing and threw the case out.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Cato Institute argued that Biden's plan to forgive loans from borrowers is unconstitutional and in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Former President Donald Trump was indicted for a fourth time last night, this time in Georgia, along with 18 other people for their alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now reactions are trickling in from both sides of the aisle.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The prosecution used what's known as a RICO statute or a racketeering charge traditionally associated with mob bosses, to accuse Trump and his associates of forming a criminal enterprise to try and keep him in power.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The nearly 100-page indictment accuses the former president and his allies of dozens of acts of attempting to undo election results.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Fulton County DA Fannie Willis claims the defendants engaged in criminal racketeering rather than abiding by Georgia's lawful process for election challenges.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Critics to the indictment, however, say Willis's claims are weak.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's George Washington law professor Jonathan Turley on Fox News.
--:-- Jonathan Turley: In every single presidential election, we track challenges by Democrats, by Republicans. Some of them are based on strong evidence, some are not. Even in this election, You had people like Mark Elias for the Democratic Party after these acts allege that voting machines in New York were the cause of flipping an election and challenging that election. Was that a crime? Of course it wasn't. It was a challenge.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Deja Taylor, the mother of the six-year-old boy who allegedly shot his teacher in Virginia, entered a guilty plea Tuesday to a charge of felony child neglect. The charge of endangering a child by reckless storage of a firearm was dropped.
--:-- Tim Pierce: As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors said that they will not seek a sentence longer than state guidelines, which call for six months in jail or prison.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Taylor's son is accused of deliberately shooting his teacher, Abby Zwirner, at Richnick Elementary School on January 6th.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And Russia's central bank dramatically increased its interest rates today in what appears to be a desperate attempt to prop up the collapsing ruble.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Bank of Russia raised its main rate by 3.5 percentage points to 12%. The move came after the ruble fell to a 17-month low, according to CNN.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The bank said it took the step in order to limit price stability risks.
--:-- John Bickley: All right, there's your drive home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And thank you again for sticking with us for 1000 episodes.
