Here's a look at trending topics for today, Oct. 12:
Alex Jones
The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay $965 million to people who suffered from his false claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, a jury in Connecticut decided Wednesday.
The verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host over his relentless promotion of the lie that the 2012 massacre never happened, and that the grieving families seen in news coverage were actors hired as part of a plot to take away people’s guns.
It came in a lawsuit filed by the relatives of five children and three educators killed in the mass shooting, plus an FBI agent who was among the first responders to the scene.
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Nury Martinez
The former president of the Los Angeles City Council resigned from public office Wednesday, three days after a recording surfaced of her making racist remarks in a meeting that is now the subject of a state investigation.
Nury Martinez, the first Latina to hold the top post on the council, announced her decision in a press release following a groundswell of outrage and calls for the resignations of her and two other council members involved in the conversation recorded last year.
Martinez made racist remarks about the Black son of a white councilman and other crude comments.
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Willie Spence
A finalist on “American Idol” has died in a vehicle crash in Tennessee.
Willie Spence, 23, died Tuesday after hitting the rear of a tractor-trailer that was stopped on the shoulder of Interstate 24 East near Chattanooga, according to news outlets, which cited a Tennessee Highway Patrol report.
Both drivers were wearing seatbelts, and the truck driver wasn't injured, the crash report said.
Spence, who was from Georgia, finished in second place on season 19 of “American Idol" last year.
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