A 48-year-old man in the United States has been charged with felony stalking after he stood outside Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal’s home with a pistol, threatening to kill her.

The man, later identified as Brett Forsell, also yelled expletives such as “Go back to India” outside Jayapal’s residence. He was apprehended on the night of 9 July.

Forsell was charged on Wednesday, 27 July. Allegedly, he expressed his intent to return to Jayapal’s home as soon as he was released on bail.

As per the court documents, the King County Prosecutor’s Office requested $500,000 in bail because Forsell was “likely to commit a violent offence if free in the community.”

After Forsell was charged, Jayapal released a statement expressing gratitude towards the authorities.

“I am grateful to the King County Prosecutor’s Office for holding this man accountable for his dangerous actions, to the victim’s advocate for her assistance throughout the process, and to the Seattle Police Department, US Capitol Police, and the House Sergeant at Arms for continuing to keep my family, me, and my staff safe.”
Pramila Jayapal, US Democratic Congresswoman

Threats Against Jayapal
On the night of 9 July, Jayapal and her husband Steve Williamson heard someone yelling outside their West Seattle home. According to the report, Williamson ventured out to the front porch and heard male voices yelling expletives like “Go Back To India.”

One of the men got back into a vehicle that the other was driving and they sped away when Williamson opened the door. The voices also told Jayapal to harm herself, calling her a “communist.”

While Forsell was apprehended on 9 July, Chennai-born Jayapal said there was a similar incident in front of her home on 2 July, according to Tribune India.

As per the court documents, a car returned and sped through Jayapal’s street, revved up the engine, and then came to a halt in her driveway that night.

Manifestations of a ‘Manic Episode’
Forsell told the police that he used profanities against Jayapal but did not comment about her race or ethnicity. He told FBI agents that he returned to Jayapal’s property and was starting to set up a tent from across her home.

However, he claimed that he struggled with mental illness and described his actions as a “manifestation of a manic episode,” according to the report.

US-based Instacart’s Founder and Executive Chairman Apoorva Mehta has announced to step down from the online grocery delivery service he founded nearly a decade ago.

Instacart announced that CEO Fidji Simo has been appointed as Chair of the Board of Directors, effective as Mehta moves out from the board once Instacart becomes a public company.

“Since I transitioned from CEO to Executive Chairman a year ago, I realised that I want to pursue a new mission and I want to do it with the same singular focus that I had while building Instacart. Stepping off the board will allow me to do just that,” Mehta said in a tweet late on Friday.

Simo, a former Facebook executive, took over as CEO of Instacart when Mehta departed that role, and will be the future executive chairman of the board.

“Mehta realised more than a decade ago that grocery delivery was a core consumer need. He worked tirelessly with the team to create and build a successful model that allows consumers to access same-day delivery from their favorite grocers,” said Simo.

Simo thanked him “for all he has done for Instacart over the last decade”.

Instacart, partners with more than 800 national, regional, and local retail brands to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 70,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America on its Marketplace.

“Mehta created a company that is transforming the grocery industry. His hard work and dedication brought Instacart into the homes of millions of customers,” said Instacart Board Member Jeff Jordan.

Watching Academy and Golden Globe winning actor and producer Michael Douglas along with his also Academy award winning wife Catherine Zeta Jones as they spend a day in Mumbai in a raw, unfiltered manner is what both Hollywood and Bollywood dreams are made of.

Indian artist and entertainment professional Shailendra Singh recently captured these once-in-a-lifetime moments on his camera when the legendary duo were visiting India.

The story behind the feature, ’Unplugged in Mumbai,’ is one that involves friendship, emotions and time honored relationships.

The director has been a long-time friend of Michael Douglas, a friendship that has tested true over a period of two decades. Last year, Douglas decided to visit India along with his wife Zeta Jones.

Douglas had once visited India long back to do a recce for a possible film. However that film never got made and this time around as destiny had it, Shailendra decided to capture the celebrity couple as they spent a day in ‘Maximum City.’

The journey sees them at the Gateway of India; hearing the compelling, origin history of Babulnath Temple, the oldest temple in the city; wandering through the labyrinth of the Dhobi Ghat, the world’s largest manual laundromat.

In this never-seen-before, incredibly intimate footage, Michael and Catherine experience: a moving Sufi concert from musicians brought in from the Jaipur Palace; a rousing, live performance of Shiamak Davar’s famous dance troupe – with Catherine taking the lead on her favorite ‘Om Shanti Om’ song.

Directed by the National Award-winning Shailendra Singh, ‘Unplugged in Mumbai’ is a 60-minute film written by Nicole Sottung and edited by award-winning Arun Kumar Aravind.

United States President Joe Biden has nominated Shailen P Bhatt, an Indian American transportation expert as the administrator of the Federal Highway Administration of the US Department of Transportation, according to a White House press release.

If Bhatt’s nomination is confirmed, he will become one of more than 50 other Indian Americans who are serving in the Biden administration. This in itself would be a record for any US presidential administration.

Currently, he is serving as the Senior Vice President of Global Transportation Innovation and Alternative Delivery at AECOM, which is a global infrastructure consulting firm.

Previously, Bhatt fulfilled the roles of Executive Director at the Colorado Department of Transportation, Cabinet Secretary of the Delaware Department of Transportation, and as a presidential appointee with the US Department of Transportation.

Bhatt is thus an experienced transportation expert and according to his White House profile, he has also led innovative solutions and partnerships to assist the delivery of safe, sustainable, and cost-effective transportation systems for the 21st century.

Having worked as the CEO of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, Bhatt was also the Chair of the Board of Directors for the National Operations Center of Excellence.

Bhatt has been the Chair of the Executive Committee of the I-95 Corridor Coalition, and was also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Automotive and Personal Transport.

Moreover, he is a member of the Aurora Safety Advisory Board for autonomous driving, and is the Chair of the ITS World Congress Board of Directors.

Having graduated from Western University with a degree in Economics, Bhatt also chairs an external advisory board for the United States Department of Energy.