(BIRMINGHAM, Ala.) — Four people are dead after a gunman opened fire at two homes in Alabama, authorities said.
A 28-year-old man is accused of fatally shooting two people in a Birmingham home before killing two more in a nearby suburb, according to police.
Around midnight, St. Clair County deputies responded to a home in Ragland, a Birmingham suburb, where they found a woman dead in the driveway and a man suffering from a gunshot wound inside, according to a sheriff’s office statement. The man was airlifted to a hospital, where he died.
The victims were identified by the sheriff’s office as Amber Manning, 37, and Timothy Davidson, 62.
Hours later, around 6 a.m., police in St. Clair County arrested Daniel Watson, of Pell City, who allegedly admitted to the arresting officer that he had also shot two people in Birmingham.
Police officers responded to a Birmingham house reportedly described by Watson around 8 a.m. local time Tuesday and found a man and woman dead from apparent gunshot wounds inside, police said.
“We believe the suspect shot two victims in Birmingham, before traveling into St. Clair County and shooting two additional victims in their jurisdiction,” Truman Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the Birmingham Police Department, said in a video statement.
Authorities have not yet determined a motive for the killings, according to Fitzgerald.
“We do believe the suspect knows at least some of the victims,” said Fitzgerald, who did not identify the Birmingham shooting victims.
Watson is being held without bond by the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office on charges of capital murder and murder with a gun. He is also being detained for the Birmingham homicides, the sheriff’s office said.
Watson is expected to face capital murder charges in Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham, as well, according to Fitzgerald. It is unclear if the suspect has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
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(NEW YORK) — In 2022, only 13 countries, territories and regions globally have met the World Health Organization’s guidelines for healthy air quality, according to a report from Swiss technology company IQAir.
The company, which has worked with the United Nations Environmental Program, UN-Habitat and Greenpeace to combat air pollution, examined air data from more than 30,000 stations and sensors that monitor air quality from 7,323 cities across 131 countries, regions, and territories.
According to the report, Australia, Bermuda, Bonaire, Estonia, Finland, French Polynesia, Grenada, Guam, Iceland, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Sint Eustatius and Saba, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have all achieved the target air quality guidelines of PM2.5, or five micrograms per cubic meter or less.
PM2.5 is a fine particulate matter that is an air pollutant that can harm people’s health when the levels are high, according to the New York State Department of Health.
When high, those particles can decrease visibility and make the air seem hazy, according to the NYS Department of Health.
“The size of particles is directly linked to their potential for causing health problems,” the Environmental Protection Agency said. “Small particles less than ten micrometers in diameter pose the greatest problems, because they can get deep into your lungs, and some may even get into your bloodstream.”
Last year, countries and territories in Africa and Central and South Asia had the highest yearly average of PM2.5 concentrations by population, according to IQAir.
Chad has the highest concentration of PM2.5, with 89.7 micrograms per cubic meter; followed by Iraq with 80.1; and Pakistan with 70.9, according to the report.
Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Kuwait, India, Egypt and Tajikistan comprise the rest of the report’s top 10 most polluted countries.
Despite growth in recent years, procuring air quality data in Africa continued to be an issue. Only 19 out of the continent’s 54 countries had necessary data available, according to the report.
According to the report, 118 countries, or about 90%, exceed the World Health Organization’s guidelines on good air quality.
The WHO’s air quality guidelines, implemented in 2021, were created for governments around the world to use as targets to reduce air pollution and ultimately improve people’s health, the organization said.
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(NEW YORK) — A cryptocurrency linked to former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon and Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn has caught the attention of federal prosecutors in New York, who have started looking into it, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
News of federal prosecutors’ interest in the Bannon and Epshteyn-fronted cryptocurrency comes on the heels of an ABC News investigation into the cryptocurrency, which looked at allegations of internal chaos, and mismanagement by the two high-profile Trump associates over the past year, including accusations that they’ve failed in their commitment to continue to donate portions of the coin’s proceeds to charities.
The New York Times was the first to report the news of the inquiry from federal prosecutors.
The cryptocurrency — dubbed $FJB from the shorthand version of the vulgar MAGA expression “F— Joe Biden” and now officially said to stand for Freedom Jobs and Business — has lost 95% of its value amid internal turmoil.
Critics say $FJB represents the latest in a string of ill-fated efforts to leverage MAGA support for financial returns — particularly on the part of Bannon, who in September pleaded not guilty to unrelated charges that he defrauded donors with the promise of building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Acquired by Bannon and Epshteyn from original lead creator Grant Tragni and two other co-founders in late 2021, $FJB was promoted as a rejection of President Joe Biden and an alternative financial institution for conservatives by the two MAGA influencers — who also emphasized that part of the currency’s 8% transaction fee would go to charities including the Wounded Warriors Project, Tunnels To Towers, Semper Fi and Patriot Freedom Project.
But according to a spokesperson for the Wounded Warriors Project, as of January this year, no donations had been made by $FJB to the organization since Bannon and Epshteyn took over in December 2021. Wounded Warriors told ABC News that they had only received the one donation from $FJB in November 2021 — prior to Bannon and Epshteyn’s involvement.
Bannon and Epshteyn did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Frustration among some apparent $FJB buyers continued in October 2022 when a representative of $FJB publicly acknowledged during one of their weekly calls that an unknown amount of money from accounts linked to the coin’s 8% transaction fee had gone “missing.” Representatives have yet to provide details about the missing funds, citing an ongoing “internal investigation” and “legal action.”
In response to growing frustration among online users, one $FJB administrator said during a weekly call in mid-December 2022, that “Boris [Epshteyn] is working on recovering our funds.”
Concerns about the missing funds and that the stated commitment to charity was going unfulfilled increased over the fall as the coin’s value continued to drop while Bannon and Epshteyn appeared to go silent about the coin for five months. Then the company briefly angered buyers when an $FJB representative announced in mid-February that the duo was walking away from the project — only to rescind the announcement within minutes. Soon after, Bannon and Epshteyn took to social media to reiterate their support and commitment of $FJB.
“Not only am I a huge supporter of that project and the community, my wallet — Boris and my wallet — is public,” Bannon said on Feb. 15, 2023. “I’ve not only never sold a coin, I’ve only bought coins, and that wallet is public. Everybody, check it. We are huge supporters of the $FJB project and the community.”
A person close to Bannon and Epshteyn told ABC News last month, “Steve and Boris are fully committed to the $FJB community, and are working with a proficient and dedicated team in order to continue moving forward with all of the goals and objectives of the project. There is also a full effort under way to determine and remedy any and all issues stemming from actions of the original founders of the coin. The $FJB community stands for and champions transparency, independence, and American strength. Steve and Boris will always fight for those ideals.”
(LOS ALTOS, Calif.) — A student suffered a minor head injury after a redwood tree fell on an elementary school in the San Francisco Bay area on Tuesday, school officials said, as the latest atmospheric river brings severe weather to California.
The redwood tree fell around 12:30 p.m. local time at Oak Avenue Elementary School in Los Altos in Santa Clara County, school officials said. A girl was taken by ambulance with her parents to a local hospital.
Los Altos, located in Silicon Valley, prides itself on its tree-lined streets.
The incident occurred as the National Weather Service in San Francisco reported wind gusts as high as 70 mph midday Tuesday. Downed trees were also reported in neighboring Santa Cruz County.
More than 330,000 customers were without power in California Tuesday afternoon amid the heavy rains and high winds.
A wide swath of the state is currently under a flood watch, with a high flood risk for Southern California. Rainfall totals of two to four inches are expected in many areas along the southern California coast, with totals of up to six inches possible in the foothills and mountains. Rainfall rates of up to one inch per hour are possible during the peak of the storm.
Parts of Monterey County in northern California are also still underwater after a levee along the Pajaro River breached over the weekend, flooding the community of Pajaro.
The rain is expected to continue into Wednesday in Los Angeles and San Diego.
The atmospheric river is then expected to become the next cross-country storm. It is forecast to start pushing east on Wednesday, bringing heavy snow to the Colorado Rockies and rain for the desert Southwest, where parts of central Arizona are under a flood watch.
By Thursday, the snow will push into the plains of Nebraska and from Iowa to Wisconsin.
ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke contributed to this report.
All aboard the Kundalini Express for the first Love and Rockets tour in 15 years.
The “So Alive” group, which hasn’t performed live since 2008, will play a run of West Coast headlining dates taking place May 21 in Oakland, May 24 in Salt Lake City, May 26 in Portland and May 28 in Seattle.
As previously reported, Love and Rockets are also performing at the 2023 Cruel World festival, which will be held May 20 in Pasadena, California. Other artists on the bill include Siouxsie, Iggy Pop, Billy Idol and Echo & the Bunnymen.
(MONTEREY PARK, Calif.) — President Joe Biden delivered an emotional tribute to the victims of the Monterey Park, California, shooting on Tuesday as he introduced his latest executive order to combat gun violence, this one aimed at increasing the number of background checks done on gun purchases, and promoting safe gun storage, among other actions.
“I’m here on behalf of the American people, to mourn with you, to pray with you. To let you know you’re loved and not alone. Every case is different. But I know what it’s like. I know what that’s like to get that call,” Biden said in an empathetic address.
As has become common when he visits the sites of mass shootings, Biden cited each victim by name, sharing a bit about each person’s character and legacy. He also acknowledged the heroism of Brandon Tsay, who subdued the gunman to bring an end to the attack.
“Twenty minutes after the rampage at Star Ballroom, Brandon saw the same shooter walk into his family’s own dance studio just two miles away, pointing a gun at him,” Biden said. “In an instant, he found the courage to act and wrestle a semi-automatic fireware — arm — away. Brandon saved lives. He protected the community,” he said, eliciting loud applause and a standing ovation for Tsay, who also attended Biden’s State of the Union address in February.
The visit to Monterey Park came as Biden issued another executive action to address gun violence across the U.S., in addition to the sweeping bipartisan Safer Communities Act he signed into law last year, and previous executive actions.
Biden’s latest action will ask Attorney General Merrick Garland to better define who is “engaged in the business” of selling guns in an effort to increase the number of background checks run on purchases.
“It’s just common sense to check whether someone is a felon, a domestic abuser, before they buy a gun,” Biden said of the checks.
The action also looks to promote the use of so-called red flag laws, and safer storage of weapons by gun owners, as well as call for the public release of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms inspection reports of firearms dealers cited for violation of the law.
“That way policymakers can strengthen laws to crack down on those illegal gun dealers and the public can avoid purchasing from them,” Biden said.
Biden will also use the order to ask members of his Cabinet to develop a proposal for how the federal government should respond to communities impacted by gun violence.
“The same way FEMA responds to natural disasters in California and all around the nation … we need to provide more mental health support and grief, for grief and trauma, and more financial assistance when a family loses the sole breadwinner or when a small business shuts down due to a lengthy shooting investigation,” Biden proposed.
Yet, even with the new action that was announced Tuesday, Biden acknowledged he is limited by using executive authority alone, and it will require congressional action to enact significant change. He once again called for a ban on assault weapons, something he has repeatedly promised to achieve during his tenure but is virtually impossible given the balance of power in Congress.
“But let’s be clear, none of this absorbs Congress the responsibility from — from the responsibility of acting to pass universal background checks, eliminate gun manufacturers immunity from liability and I am determined once again to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. I led that fight in ban them in 1994,” he said.
“The ten years that law was in place, mass shootings went down. Our Republican friends let it expire,” Biden said. “Ten years later, and mass shootings tripled since then, tripled. So, let’s finish the job. Ban assault weapons ban them again. Do it now. Enough do something do something big.”
Biden’s calls for action have grown across his presidency as the country faces continued instances of mass shootings. According to the Gun Violence Archives, there have been 110 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year.
But given the divided Congress in Washington, passing significant legislation faces an uphill battle.
Biden also took a moment during the speech to note the achievements of Asian actors at Sunday night’s Oscars.
“Just this week a film about resilience and power of an Asian American immigrant family made history at the Oscars. Echoing the heart of so many in this community,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Silicon Valley Bank’s failure on Friday raises concerns over the potential impacts on the climate technology industry, where SVB was heavily involved.
“They went out of their way to attract entrepreneurs, to attract companies in the technology industry. They were one of the first banks to have a dedicated, clean energy sustainable finance department,” Mona Dajani, Global Head of Energy & Infrastructure at the law firm Shearman and Sterling, told ABC News. “They consciously developed this practice, and they were a well-known source — that’s where you could go because they were willing to lend to higher-risk, new companies.”
Silicon Valley Bank provided financing for over 1,550 clients working on climate technology and sustainability, according to its website. As of December 2021, SVB had committed $3.2 billion to such projects. The bank also claimed to have led or participated in 62% of community solar financings, as of last March.
Dajani said many of her clients banked with SVB and that “despite having their money restored” there is a feeling of skittishness after the failure of the bank.
Long-term, she said the failure of SVB could mean some smaller start-up climate technology companies could be cut off from credit lines if no other bank or entity takes on the SVB portfolio.
While larger “clean tech” companies will likely take their business to larger banks, Dajani said smaller companies and start-ups may have a harder time meeting what will likely be stricter standards for loans, possibly leading to a “slight chilling effect” in the industry.
Kiran Bhatraju, founder and CEO of Arcadia, a tech company focused on combating climate change, expressed concern over the downfall of SVB on Twitter Saturday, writing, “What’s missing from the narrative is SVB is a climate bank.”
“They were strong supporters [of] innovators in decarbonization and clean energy infrastructure – financing nearly 60%+ of the community solar market – alongside companies like Sunrun, Vivint, AES, and Bloom,” Bhatraju continued. “Arcadia is fine, and will be fine through this. But my hope for our industry and planet is someone makes sure funds continue to flow on Monday.”
In the aftermath of the bank’s failure, some Republican lawmakers have blamed its so-called “woke” policies, including ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) and DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) for the downfall.
“A point that seems to be getting lost in the conversation around SVB is the failure of the San Francisco Fed to monitor the risks that were growing at Silicon Valley Bank,” Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, tweeted Sunday night. “It is abundantly clear that SVB was terribly mismanaged. Their executives appeared to be more focused on diversity and ESG than managing their own risks. But why didn’t the SF Fed see this before it was too late? Was it because their CEO was on the board of directors of the SF Fed? Or were these regulators just asleep at the wheel? We need answers.”
Banks that utilize ESG policies consider those aspects when evaluating risk and opportunities, and many banks have some version of these policies in place, including Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and others.
While Silicon Valley Bank billed itself as a bank friendly to start-ups in the climate technology space, climate-related start-ups did not make up the bank’s whole portfolio. SVB had notable clients across a variety of business sectors, including finance technology, life science and health care, enterprise software and others.
Sunrun, one of the solar companies banking with SVB, released a statement detailing its exposure on Friday after the bank’s collapse.
“SVB represents a small percentage of our overall hedging facilities as measured by notional value of less than 15%,” Sunrun said in a statement.
Following the news that the FDIC would protect SVB depositors, Sunrun CEO Mary Powell provided additional comment to ABC News, saying, “We are pleased that the federal government acted Sunday to stabilize the banking system, ensuring us access to the less than $80 million we had in deposits at SVB.”
“Sunrun has long-standing banking relationships with a large number of financial institutions, and we remain confident in our ability to replace SVB’s undrawn commitments,” Powell continued. “Sunrun has always believed in strength through diversification.”
In January 2022, the bank announced a commitment to provide “at least $5 billion by 2027” in financing for sustainability efforts.
With SVB’s failure, that commitment, and a potential funding stream for climate tech projects is now void.
“The ones that are going to be hurt the most are the unsecured kind of start-ups,” Dajani said. “But I do feel that it will make the clean energy space as a whole come out stronger because they’ve learned from this and they’re trying to strengthen their foundation to avoid another collapse and look at other options for funding, for capital.”
(CHICAGO) — An Illinois man has been indicted for allegedly cheating the U.S. government out of millions of dollars for his pop-up COVID testing company and allegedly lied about test results.
Zishan Alvi, 44, was the co-owner of Laboratory Elite, headquartered in Chicago, which purported to offer two types of COVID-19 testing, PCR tests and 15-minute rapid antigen tests, according to an indictment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
The company also offered a service where people could pay a fee to receive expedited PCR test results
Between February 2021 and February 2022, Alvi and others at his company allegedly devised a plan to seek reimbursements for tests under the government’s Health Resources and Services Administration, which covered the cost of COVID-19 testing for those without health insurance.
These tests were either never performed, performed in such a way that the results were unreliable; or had already been paid for by patients, according to the indictment.
Additionally, to reduce costs and increase profits, Alvi allegedly told employees to use less materials for the PCR tests including reagents, which is a substance or mixture the test uses for a chemical analysis. Using less of these materials made the tests unreliable, the indictment said.
Over the course of this period, Laboratory Elite received more than $83 million from the HRSA Uninsured Program, some of which Alvi allegedly transferred to a personal account.
Prosecutors said he then used this money to cover personal expenses, including vehicles and investments in stocks and cryptocurrency.
“The indictment seeks forfeiture from the defendant of at least $6.8 million in alleged ill-gotten gains, in addition to five luxury vehicles and funds from other trade and investment accounts” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
What’s more, Alvi allegedly told employees to provide negative test results to people who had been swabbed, but their specimens were thrown out.
He was indicted by a federal grand jury on 10 counts of wire fraud and one count of theft of government funds.
“It is absolutely reprehensible that the defendant would use a public health crisis to allegedly defraud taxpayers and further put public health at risk by providing fraudulent COVID-19 test results,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement.
If Alvi is found guilty, each count of wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison and the count of theft of government funds is punishable by up to 10 years, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
(NEW YORK) — The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the second-biggest bank failure in U.S. history, took place over less than 48 hours.
Customers withdrew $42 billion — nearly a quarter of the bank’s total deposits — within a single day last week.
The speedy bank run has raised questions about the fragility of financial institutions in a digital environment marked by easy cash withdrawals and the spread of information on social media and other spaces online, where panic among a few can grow into a stampede for the exit.
Such a possibility, known as a digital bank run, heightens the risk of a sudden, widespread cash withdrawal, especially among a group of depositors who share an industry and social ties — like the depositors in Silicon Valley Bank, experts told ABC News.
“This was the first Twitter-fueled bank run,” Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, said in a statement days after the fall of Silicon Valley Bank.
The group of depositors in Silicon Valley Bank was made up of a relatively small set of venture capital firms, tech startups and other large investors.
After a woeful financial report last Wednesday set off concern, some of the depositors discussed their reactions in WhatsApp and Slack groups devoted to startups, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Meanwhile, several prominent venture capitalists and other major investors voiced their concern on Twitter, amplifying fears of a collapse.
Michael Burry, an investor best known for predicting the subprime mortgage crisis, warned in a now-deleted tweet: “It is possible today we found our Enron.”
On Thursday, shares of Silicon Valley Bank fell 60% in response to concern about the bank’s distressed financial position.
By the early afternoon, the sudden decline of the bank took over online discussions among startup founders, according to entrepreneur Alexander Torrenegra.
“All of my chats with tech founders in the US light on fire with what’s happening,” Torrenegra recounted on Twitter. “Obviously, we have a bank runoff. Surreal.”
Founders Fund, a venture capital fund led by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, withdrew all of its deposits that day, Bloomberg reported.
Since the bank is FDIC-insured, depositors were guaranteed protection of up to $250,000 in funds for different types of accounts held in the event of a collapse. However, many depositors in Silicon Valley Bank held accounts that far exceeded $250,000, raising the stakes for those who failed to remove their funds before a potential bank failure.
“Because information comes out faster, you get the information in real time, it’s widespread and it leads people to take action,” Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University, told ABC News. “If you’re the first group out, you get 100% of your money and if you’re the last group out, you potentially get zero.”
Hilary Allen, a professor at the American University Washington College of Law who studies banking regulation, said the relatively small and tight-knit community of bank depositors helped accelerate the downfall.
“Virtually all of the depositors were from the same community and a community that was very online,” Allen told ABC News. “If you’ve got something like Silicon Valley Bank, where the vast majority of depositors are in the tech industry and are very connected and all speaking to one another, those are the circumstances in which a panic can really flourish very, very quickly.”
To be sure, investors who fled the bank held well-founded concerns about its financial health.
Silicon Valley Bank had loaded up on investments into long-term Treasury bonds and mortgage bonds, which typically deliver small but reliable returns amid low interest rates. As the Federal Reserve aggressively hiked interest rates over the past year, however, those holdings lost significant value.
A day before the major cash withdrawal, Silicon Valley Bank announced that it had lost $1.8 billion on the sale of those distressed bonds.
“This isn’t purely a bank run,” Itamar Drechsler, a professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, told ABC News. “The bank had a very fundamental problem.”
Still, the speed and reach of online communication likely accelerated the bank’s collapse, Dreschler said.
“Like a crowd that moves together very fast, if it decides to exit someplace, there’s a problem,” Dreschler said. “If we coordinate more through social media and other information technology, that can cause the crowd to move a lot faster.”
While digital banking allows for quick and easy withdrawals, the availability of such a service likely contributed little or not at all to the bank run, since such technology has existed for many years without significant issue, the experts said.
“People have been talking for a while about whether the speed of digital banking itself would contribute to bank runs,” said Allen, of American University. “My view on that is it has been relatively easy to get your money out for quite a while now. I’m not sure how much of a difference that has made.”
In response to the outcry and fearing wider spread of the crisis, the FDIC, Treasury Department and the Fed ultimately took a major step on Sunday, telling depositors in Silicon Valley Bank that the FDIC would protect all of their funds, including those that exceed the $250,000 limit.
Later that day, the Fed announced an emergency lending program to cover the deposits at issue and restore wider confidence in the financial system.
The spread of panic online may have contributed to the federal government’s decision to take such extraordinary action and prevent uncertainty from seeping further into the financial system, Allen said.
“Was that part of the concern that motivated the Biden administration to step in because it was worried that the very public venting on Twitter might transfer to other banks, as well?” she asked.
On Monday, in a morning address from the White House, President Joe Biden sought to reassure Americans that the banking system was sound.
“Americans can rest assured that our banking system is safe,” Biden said. “Your deposits are safe. Let me also assure you, we will not stop at this. We’ll do whatever is needed.”
Biden also addressed the issue that day in a Twitter post.
Talk about fashion promoting an unrealistic body image: M3GAN, the killer android from the movie of the same name, is now modeling for Marc Jacobs.
Images of the doll, dressed up in Jacobs’ Heaven line, popped up on Instagram Tuesday. The photos were snapped by famed fashion shooter Harley Weir.
The doll is shown wearing a hoodie in one red-tinted snap; another shows her dressed in chunky knee-high boots, baring her silicone legs — quite a different look than the pleated skirt and black buckle shoes she wore in the hit horror-thriller.
If “likes” are any indication, she slayed … again. The post gained more than 45,000 likes in a matter of hours.
She may be artificial — insert plastic surgery modeling joke here — but she’s in good company. Previous stars who have modeled for Heaven by Marc Jacobs include Pamela Anderson, Doja Cat and Kyle MacLachlan.
