logo
Altercation between council member, fire chief ensues following council meeting

Altercation between council member, fire chief ensues following council meeting

Yahoo12-05-2025

Ongoing communication struggles between London City Council members and city employees resulted in a heated confrontation between a council member and the London Fire Chief following the council's Monday, May 5 meeting.
London Police body camera footage of the conversation has been circulating, having been posted to the "I Support Randall Weddle" Facebook page. The video has quickly gained attention, with just over 100,000 views at this time. Mayor Weddle told The Sentinel-Echo that the footage was released through an open records request.
According to Councilperson Kelly Greene, the verbal altercation took place when London Fire Chief Donnie Hale approached her. She said she then asked him to step aside with her, away from others at the London Community Center to "get out of their way."
The footage initially posted begins with Greene telling Hale that Mayor Weddle will eventually "be gone" and "won't be here forever." She later clarified that this was not a threat, but rather, she was referring to his term as mayor.
"Well, I've got his back. He's my boss," Hale responded. "If somebody else was in the same situation, I'd have their back."
"Hey, I didn't tell you not to have his back. I told you to stay out of politics. Stay out of politics. Do your job and stay out of politics."
"I do my job."
"That doesn't mean you can't have the mayor's back; he is your boss."
"That's exactly right, he's my boss and I'm going to do it."
As the altercation continues, Greene reiterates that Hale became involved in politics when he "should've done his job."
"Are you saying I'm not doing my job?"
"Well, I wonder about it."
The altercation comes to an end once the unknown officer filming and London Tourism Chair Phil Smith step in to de-escalate the situation.
Among the items on the meeting's agenda was a "fire department discussion," during which Greene posed questions regarding the London City Fire Department's pursuit of a certificate of need (CON) for critical care services. Weddle said the CON request comes following uncertainty surrounding the city's mutual aid agreement.
According to Greene, her and Chief Hale's argument stemmed from Hale's concern that the majority of council members had not responded to his emails questioning the fire department agenda item.
"I did not know who the council person was that put me on the agenda until she was called upon to ask questions," Hale told The Sentinel-Echo.
Greene commented that she has been "pretty disappointed" in Hale since he participated in "rallies that the mayor held outside the council chambers, cheering him on before [last year's] election about not voting for some of the council members." She cited such involvement in politics as why she opted out of responding to Hale.
At Monday's meeting, Greene inquired about the $50,000 already spent on medical equipment, application fees, and legal counsel — noting that the expenses accrued without the council's approval. She also stated that the fire department had joined a union — the union number being 5534.
After Greene finished sharing her concerns, including how this CON could impact Ambulance Inc. of Laurel County, she asked Chief Hale: "Do you want to answer to any of this, or I can go on?"
Mayor Weddle agreed to answer, stating that it is not the city's intention to "put anybody out of business." He also said the city is not seeking to operate an ambulance service but rather to enhance responses by providing critical care support before ambulance crews arrive.
"If you're having a heart attack or stroke, I suggest that you look at the response times [of] the ambulance service and then our city fire department," Weddle stated. "These things matter."
Councilperson Anthony Ortega inquired if Saint Joseph London had made any reports indicating that "the ambulance service is lacking."
"I think that there is a spreadsheet of things between the two entities that has been given to us showing that there is a need," Weddle responded.
Chief Hale chimed in that Councilperson Stacy Benge had seen the department's "guys in work," recalling that they had saved a man's life at a restaurant.
"I don't want this to become political because it seems like it has," Weddle said after. "This is only about our guys who love this community trying to respond."
Councilperson Greene went on to ask how many people would need to be hired. Mayor Weddle clarified that no new hires are necessary.
As the discussion progressed, Councilperson Judd Weaver asked if prescription medication was being administered. Weddle and Hale both told him "no." Hale said there had been access to a medical director until the mutual aid agreement ceased.
"What did we administer before?" Weaver asked.
Chief Hale nodded his head, stating, "If you all had answered your emails today and let me prepare for this just a little bit more, I could've had some more answers."
"I answered," said Benge.
Chief Hale would later clarify that Ortega had responded directly, whereas Benge responded through the city clerk.
Mayor Weddle was not aware of the altercation between Greene and Hale until the following day.
When asked what he thought sparked the heated conversation, Weddle commented, "Frustrations that department heads have tried to engage via email with a few council members and they refuse to ask questions or address concerns they have except on the camera."
"Trying to embarrass department heads with false information is the biggest problem," Weddle continued. "Heads try to communicate with them but they try to spin everything to get at me. Some on this council will not stop until they have me out of office."
Greene issued an apology to London residents regarding the recent controversy.
"I'm sorry to the public that sometimes these meetings seem to get out of hand," Greene stated. "My actions are just because of my love for London and my years of experience."
In light of recent events, Mayor Weddle encourages residents to not allow the negativity to define London.
"Remember this is a beautiful city that is moving forward. Great things are happening in London and we need to stay focused on the positivity," Weddle stated. "We were elected to serve the people of London my hope as a government we can get back to that."

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Fact Check: Anti-ICE protester wearing Army fatigues in video isn't active duty
Fact Check: Anti-ICE protester wearing Army fatigues in video isn't active duty

Yahoo

time5 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Fact Check: Anti-ICE protester wearing Army fatigues in video isn't active duty

Claim: A video clip authentically shows an active duty U.S. military member defying deployment orders by participating in anti-immigration enforcement protests in Dallas, Texas, in June 2025. Rating: Context: The Department of Defense Rapid Response X account said the woman seen in the Dallas video served in the U.S. Army from November 2010 to August 2014 and in the Army Reserves from August 2014 to June 2020. In other words, she wasn't on active duty in June 2025. On June 11, 2025, BreakThrough News, an independent news website based in New York City, posted a video (archived) showing a woman wearing Army fatigues at an anti-immigration enforcement protest in Dallas, Texas, on June 9, 2025. (X user @BTnewsroom) BreakThrough News said the video showed a "military member" speaking out against U.S. President Donald Trump's deployment of troops to Los Angeles. The woman in the video said: We are not pawns for Donald Trump's agenda. Why now? It's because the military was called upon innocent protesters. We, in our oath to serve, we serve the people of the United States, the Constitution. These constitutional rights are being stripped and just denied, and the military will not be pawns to that. So I'm calling upon the conscience of military members who served previously and now. We have a conscience, we have a mind, and we have a duty and moral obligation to say no and resist evil. The video had more than 5 million views at the time of this writing. Claims started circulating online on X (archived), Facebook (archived), Threads (archived) and Instagram (archived) that the woman in the video was an active duty U.S. soldier or Marine and had defied orders by participating in the anti-immigration enforcement protest in Dallas. However, according (archived) to the Department of Defense (DOD) Rapid Response X account, the woman in the video was not an active duty soldier. Carmen Colado served in the U.S. Army from November 2010 to August 2014 and in the Army Reserves from August 2014 to June 2020, according to the DoD. Colado described herself as a "U.S. Army veteran" and a "Former military intelligence analyst" on her Instagram page. The DOD Rapid Response account said of Colado that: "She does not speak for nor reflect the U.S. Army." Therefore, we rate this video claim as miscaptioned. We reached out to the U.S. Army Public Affairs to ask whether it had or would contact Colado about her appearance in the video while wearing an Army uniform and whether the appearance broke any army rules that might apply to retired service members and await a reply. Colado, who said her mother immigrated to the U.S. from Honduras in the 1990s, became a filmmaker, director and writer after leaving the Army. Social media users speculated that Colado had broken military rules by appearing and speaking at the protest while wearing an Army uniform (archived) (archived) (archived). According to "DOD Instruction 1334.01 Wearing of the uniform," former service members may wear their uniform during specified activities or occasions. The directive did not list protests as a specified activity. The directive also said that retired service members must not wear their uniform "during or in connection with furthering political activities, private employment, or commercial interests, when an inference of official sponsorship by DoD or the Military Service concerned for the activity or interest may be drawn." Likewise, "Directive 1344.10 on Political Activities by Members of the Armed Forces" says that members not on active duty "should avoid inferences that their political activities imply or appear to imply official sponsorship, approval, or endorsement." @BTnewsroom. "BREAKING: After Trump Deployed Marines to LA, This Military Member Joined an Anti-ICE Protest in Dallas, Declaring, 'We Won't Be Pawns in Stripping Away Constitutional Rights.'." X, 11 June 2025, "Carmen Colado." Instagram, "Carmen Colado | Art Department, Director, Writer." IMDb, Accessed 12 June 2025. @DODResponse. "Correction: This Individual Served in the U.S. Army from November 2010 to August 2014 and Was Then in the Army Reserves from August 2014 to June 2020." X, 11 June 2025, Penrod, Virginia S. DOD INSTRUCTION 1334.01 WEARING OF THE UNIFORM. U.S. Department of Defense, 13 July 2021, Political Activities by Members of the Armed Forces . U.S. Department of Defense, 19 Feb. 2008, Quezada, Chelsea. "Empowering Dreams: A Year Later with Mitú x Walmart's Filmmaker Mentorship Program Alumni Carmen Colado and Ernest Govea." Mitú, 26 Feb. 2024,

Separated from kids in Cuba and Haiti by Trump travel ban, parents plead for help
Separated from kids in Cuba and Haiti by Trump travel ban, parents plead for help

Yahoo

time5 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Separated from kids in Cuba and Haiti by Trump travel ban, parents plead for help

As Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits come to terms with what a new U.S. travel ban means for their families' hopes to reunite, many have flocked to social media in anguish — including children — seeking help. 'President Trump, I ask you to please reconsider family reunification for residents,' said a 10-year-old in a Hello Kitty T-shirt in a video she recorded in Havana. The video was published by her mother, Lia Llanes, a U.S. permanent resident living in Miami, in one of the several Facebook groups where Cubans are discussing the new prohibitions. 'I am a child who, like many others, is waiting for an interview to reunite with our parents so we can grow up in this beautiful country and become a citizen,' the child says in the video. 'With great pride, I ask you again, please reconsider. And I ask God to enlighten you. Thank you.' The child had been taking English lessons, preparing for a new life in the United States, which she thought was just days away, Llanes told the Herald. The petition to bring her daughter to the U.S. had just been approved in late May, and the family was just waiting for the visa interview at the U.S. embassy in Havana, the final step in a lengthy process to legally emigrate to the United States. Then President Donald Trump announced last week a travel ban suspending the issuing of immigrant visas to Cuban relatives of U.S. permanent residents, upending the plans of many families to reunite. 'It's very heartbreaking to know that your claim is approved and this happens,' said Llanes, who runs a small business and obtained a green card after being paroled at the U.S. border in 2022. She said her daughter spent two days 'without talking to anyone' after learning the bad news. 'It's hard to explain,' she said. 'It's strange because you have your daughter there, and you're here, and one minute, you have good news, and then the next, everything changes.' Trump's new ban restricts travel for most citizens of Cuba, Venezuela and five other countries while also placing Haiti and 11 other nations on a full ban. It's a distressing blow to families who had already been waiting years to reunite in the United States. Standing in a room full of boxes with the beds she hoped her children would sleep on when they join her in the United States, Clara Riera, a U.S. permanent resident, could barely contain her tears as she recounted how she felt after learning about the travel ban. 'I no longer have a life,' she said in a video she published on Facebook. Riera came to the United States in 2019 from Cuba, and has her own small cleaning company in Tampa, she told the Herald. Like Llanes' daughter, her children, now 16, 17, and 19, were also waiting for the visa interview at the U.S. Embassy in Havana. But their arrival had become an urgent matter because her own mother, who has been caring for Riera's three children in Granma, a province in eastern Cuba, has metastatic cancer. Adding to her desperation is that a Cuban doctor told her that due to the stress caused by their separation, her eldest now has a heart condition. 'I hope that the people at the top, those who sign and pass the laws, also take into account that we, permanent residents, also have our children in a prison country, and we want to have them here with us,' she said, her voice breaking in the video. 'At least they should take into account that there are children who aren't going to come here to commit terrorism or harm this country.' Trump hits Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti with travel bans amid immigration crackdown The ban, announced last Wednesday, suspends immigration visas for adult children of U.S. citizens and relatives of U.S. permanent residents from the 19 countries included in the executive order. Only the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens–parents, spouses, parents and minor children will be allowed to enter the United States under a directive the White House said will 'protect the United States from foreign terrorists and other national security and public safety threats.' Cubans, Haitians and Venezuelans with visas issued before June 8 will still be able to travel to the United States. But on Monday, some relatives of U.S. permanent residents who attended scheduled visa interviews at the U.S. embassy in Havana were issued a document in Spanish stating they were not 'eligible for an immigrant visa' under the new directive, a decision they could not appeal. The document also stated that their cases did not merit an exception, citing U.S. national security interests. The State Department did not say if applicants whose immigration visas were denied solely based on the new travel restrictions would have a chance down the line to present their case again. It also did not say if cases involving young children would fall under exceptions the Secretary of State can make on a case-by-case basis. But an agency spokesperson said, 'Urgent humanitarian medical travel may be considered a basis for such an exception. Only applicants otherwise qualified for a visa will be considered.' On Wednesday, a mother with a Miami cellphone number joined a WhatsApp chat group for Cubans with pending immigration cases, wanting to know if anyone had heard of a child being denied an immigration visa at the U.S. embassy in Havana. Her child has a scheduled interview later this week. 'I am just talking to him, and he is so innocent, so oblivious about all this, and he will be very happy tomorrow at his appointment,' she said, crying in a voice message. One of the group's most active commenters replied: 'God is great. Perhaps when they see that little boy in there, they would approve it.' Many families left separated by the ban were part of a historic exodus from Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela in recent years. In introducing the travel ban, Trump partly blamed the Biden administration for allowing more than a half million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans into the United States under a humanitarian parole program that allowed nationals of the four nations to migrate to the U.S. for two years as long as they had a financial sponsor, passed background checks and arrived through an airport. But part of the reason so many people from the four countries took advantage of the program, known as CHNV, stems from legal immigration hurdles and restrictive policies introduced by Trump during his first term. Among other things, his administration suspended the Cuba Family Reunification Program and a similar one for Haitians. During those years, U.S. embassies in the three countries either suspended visa processing or scaled back appointments, preventing people from immigrating legally while their populations faced political and humanitarian crises, which contributed to the historic exodus Trump is now citing. Since Trump signed his proclamation last Wednesday, Cubans in the U.S. and on the island have been debating and sharing information about the new immigration restrictions on several groups on WhatsApp and Facebook. Many are praying for a 'miracle' as they share their stories and give each other hope that the ban might be temporary. The directive states that after three months of its enactment, the President will review the recommendations by the Secretary of State regarding whether to continue the restrictions on nationals of the targeted countries. A review will be conducted every six months thereafter. But the lifting of restrictions relies on the foreign governments improving 'their information-sharing and identity-management protocols and practices.' So far, the Cuban government has not signaled it is interested in improving its cooperation with the U.S. and instead attacked Secretary of State Marco Rubio. After the travel ban was announced, Cuba's foreign minister said the measure 'aims to deceive the American people, blaming and violating the rights of migrants. Anti-Cuban politicians, including the Secretary of State, are the main proponents of this measure, betraying the communities that elected them.' Trump's proclamation also notes Cuba remains on the U.S. list of countries that sponsor terrorism. The ban also comes at especially difficult time for Haitians in a country wracked by gang violence. In a statement, Haiti's U.S.-backed Transitional Presidential Council said it plans to 'initiate negotiations and technical discussions' with the Trump administration in order to remove Haiti from the targeted countries. This is likely a tall order considering that more than 1.3 million Haitians remain displaced and armed gangs, now in control of most of Port-au-Prince, have made it difficult to circulate, raising questions about authorities' ability to improve vetting procedures and information sharing with the U.S. For Haiti, the ban prohibits the entry of all of its nationals unless they fall under the few exceptions contemplated in the new directive. Like many Haitians who arrived back in the U.S. on the first day of the travel ban, Eraus Alzime, 71, didn't fully understand its impact. The father of 10 was in Haiti visiting his children when he received a call urging him to get back to the U.S. To get out, he had to travel by bus and went through three gang checkpoints, he said. 'Of course you feel panicked,' Alzime said. 'The bandits make you get off so that they check your suitcases and see what you are carrying. You don't have a choice, you have to do it, if you don't you can end up dead.' Alzime, a U.S. citizen, said he applied for six of his children to emigrate to the U.S legally. The oldest is 43 years-old while the youngest is 14. His adult children won't be able to travel to the United States under the current ban. 'I filed for my kids and they've yet to give them to me,' he said. A victim of the country's incessant violence, Alizme says he has no choice but to travel to Haiti for his kids. 'I have to go see how they are doing,' he said. As the news about the travel ban sinks in, parents worry about the psychological toll the prolonged separation will have on their children, especially those who are too young to grasp immigration policy. Gleydys Sarda, 26, and her husband took the difficult decision to flee Cuba and left their 3-year-old son under the care of his grandparents in 2022. They didn't want to expose him to what they knew could be a dangerous land journey to the U.S. Southern border, she said. Now, he is 6 years-old, under the care of a grandparent and increasingly anxious to be with his parents. 'We live depressed because of the long wait; we ran out of excuses to tell him when he asks why he cannot be with us,' said Sardá, who is a U.S. permanent resident and works for Amazon at a warehouse in Coral Springs. 'Lately, he has been repeating more than ever that he wants to be here, that he is tired of waiting, and now this restriction broke our hearts. We have no other way.' Sardá's visa petition to bring him to the United States has yet to be approved. The couple tried to bring him using the special parole program created by the Biden administration, but they never heard back from U.S. immigration authorities. Sardá, who is currently pregnant, frets at the idea of traveling to Cuba to see her child, which currently seems to be her only choice to spend time with him, if only for a short time. The last time she visited in January, 'the goodbye was too hard. When we are there, the three of us are very happy, but after we leave,I feel I leave him worse,' she said. Sarda said the boy got depressed after they left, 'and so do we. I was in bed and didn´t want to go to work or leave the house.' 'Now I am also expecting my second child, and it would break my heart to go to Cuba with one child, return with one and leave the other in Cuba.'

Man from CA threatens to kill Trump in Facebook posts, feds say. ‘Watch yourself'
Man from CA threatens to kill Trump in Facebook posts, feds say. ‘Watch yourself'

Miami Herald

time6 hours ago

  • Miami Herald

Man from CA threatens to kill Trump in Facebook posts, feds say. ‘Watch yourself'

A California man is accused of threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump in a series of posts on Facebook, federal prosecutors said. Thomas Streavel, 73, was arraigned June 3 on three counts of making threats against Trump after the 2024 election, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. Information for Streavel's attorney was not made available as of June 4. He pleaded not guilty to all three charges, prosecutors said. 'The type of rhetoric and threats made by this defendant are similar to those that led to an attempt on the President's life last year,' U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in the release. 'There is no place for political violence or threats of violence in the United States. We will not hesitate to arrest and charge others who engage in similar criminal conduct.' According to an indictment, Streavel made several posts before the presidential election in 2024 threatening to harm or have others harm Trump. Some of the threats were posted to his friends and some were privately posted to himself, prosecutors said. The posts continued after Trump was elected, officials said. In one of the posts on Nov. 28, Streavel said killing Trump was his 'life's mission,' according to court records. 'Watch yourself (T)rump, you are a dead (expletive) and I am your assassin,' he wrote in the post, according to the indictment. Streavel was released on a $10,000 bond and has a trial date set for July 28, prosecutors said. He faces a maximum sentence of five years for each count if convicted, prosecutors said.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store