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Mayoral candidates call for reforms, recounts after NYC Board of Elections admits ‘errors’

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(NEW YORK) — An updated count of in-person votes in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary still shows Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams maintaining a close lead, but it also shows a razor-thin margin between former consul to Mayor Bill de Blasio Maya Wiley and former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia in the penultimate round of voting.

The New York City Board of Elections released an updated unofficial count of ranked choice votes on Wednesday afternoon, after candidates and officials sharply criticized the BOE for counting over 130,000 test votes in an initial release of vote tallies for the city’s ranked-choice Democratic mayoral primary.

Wednesday’s count showed Eric Adams holding 31.8% of the vote in the first round, with Maya Wiley following with 22.2% and Kathryn Garcia third with 19.3%.

But by the eighth round, with all of the other candidates eliminated and their votes allotted to others, Garcia led Wiley by only 347 votes.

“While we remain confident in our path to victory, we are taking nothing for granted and encourage everyone to patiently wait for over 124,000 absentee ballots to be counted,” Garcia said in a statement on Wednesday night.

As of Wednesday evening, the BOE has received over 125,000 absentee ballots, none of which are included in the unofficial count.

“Yesterday’s ranked choice voting reporting error was unacceptable and we apologize to the voters and to the campaigns for the confusion,” the BOE said in a statement released alongside the updated figures.

The Board of Elections removed the initial results from its website late Tuesday, and tweeted a statement around 10:30 p.m. ET that admitted to including test votes in the released figures.

“When the cast vote records were extracted for the first pull of RCV results, it included both test and election night results, producing approximately 135,000 additional errors,” the BOE said. It committed to removing the test votes and accurately recounting.

Common Cause New York Executive Director Susan Lerner said on Tuesday that “a mistake by a low-level junior staffer” caused the miscount.

After the Board of Elections’ admission, Adams struck a conciliatory tone.

“We appreciate the Board’s transparency and acknowledgement of their error,” Adams said in a statement late Tuesday. “We look forward to the release of an accurate, updated simulation, and the timely conclusion of this critical process.”

He had initially questioned the results, with Wiley going further in criticizing the board.

“This error by the Board of Elections is not just [the] failure to count votes properly today, it is the result of generations of failures that have gone unaddressed,” Wiley said in a statement on Tuesday night. “We have once again seen the mismanagement that has resulted in a lack of confidence in results … because those who implement [election laws] have failed too many times.”

Garcia called the count error “deeply troubling” and said it “requires a much more transparent and complete explanation.”

“I am confident that every candidate will accept the final results and support whomever the voters have elected,” she said in a statement on Tuesday night.

Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters on Wednesday morning that what happened is “indicative of the fact the Board of Elections is broken, structurally broken. I don’t know how many times we are going to have this conversation. We can no longer have a partisan Board of Elections.”

Representatives from both the Democratic and Republican parties sit on the Board.

Lerner called for reforming the Board as well, adding: “The system is designed for the 19th century, and we need to bring it into the 21st century.”

“It’s like a rookie mistake,” Rob Richie, president and CEO of FairVote, a nonpartisan organization advocating for voting reforms, said in an interview with ABC News. “Every voting equipment process has to be tested, and it’s a very elementary part of it, which is you clear the data after you do your tests.”

The Board of Elections has faced scrutiny before for election errors. Last September, it erroneously mailed at least 100,000 absentee ballots with incorrect names and addresses.

Richie said that ranked-choice voting itself, which New Yorkers experienced for the first time in the primary, is not to blame, and next time the BOE could possibly run daily vote tallies and accept additional support from developers of the tabulation software.

“I think a lot of people would have expected it to be lucky to get turnout [like] what we got eight years ago, when Bill de Blasio ran,” Richie said. “Well, it’s much bigger than that, right? It’s like more than 25% more votes.”

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Averi Harper contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In Wisconsin, 95% of COVID-19 deaths since March were among unvaccinated

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Tempura/iStock

(MILWAUKEE) — In Wisconsin, 95% of COVID-19 deaths since March were among locals who were unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated, state health officials said.

The state recorded 21 COVID-19 deaths that were “breakthrough cases,” meaning patients who caught coronavirus 14 days or more after completing the vaccine series, out of 433 total deaths from March 1 to June 24. Such cases accounted for just 5% of deaths in that time frame, Wisconsin’s Department of Health shared with ABC News.

Data shows the chance of catching COVID-19 after getting vaccinated is very low.

Wisconsin reported 1,572 confirmed and probable “breakthrough cases,” which amounted to 1% of total COVID-19 cases from Jan. 1 through June 24. The number of “breakthrough cases” is also a small fraction of the more than 2.9 million fully vaccinated people in the state.

“As you know, the science is clear; vaccines work in the real world. They save lives. And if you are fully vaccinated, you are protected. All three vaccines have been tested and proven to be safe and effective,” Wisconsin Department of Health Services spokesperson Elizabeth Goodsitt told ABC News. “The vaccine not only works to fight off disease, but it reduces the risks for hospitalizations and deaths, and symptoms tend to be milder if someone does get sick after receiving the vaccine than if they didn’t get one at all.”

Doctors in Wisconsin say the state’s data matches what they’re seeing unfolding in hospitals.

“The vast majority of people who we are seeing in our hospitals, and who are dying of COVID-related complications are unvaccinated, unfortunately,” Dr. Joyce Sanchez of Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin told local ABC affiliate WISN.

As of Wednesday, half of Wisconsinites have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 46.9% have completed the vaccine series, according to state data.

The state’s latest data reports a seven-day average of 73 new confirmed COVID-19 cases a day and a seven-day average test positivity rate of 0.9%.

Overall in the pandemic, Wisconsin has recorded more than 612,700 cases and over 7,000 confirmed deaths and more than 800 probable deaths.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Manhattan DA expected to charge Trump’s company and CFO Thursday: Sources

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Spencer Platt/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Former President Trump’s namesake company expects to face criminal charges by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office as soon as Thursday, sources told ABC News.

The Trump Organization and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, are expected to face charges of tax fraud, the sources said. The charges would be the first brought by prosecutors following their two-year investigation of the former president and his company.

A Trump Organization spokesperson declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

The expected charges, which have not been publicly disclosed, are believed to involve fringe benefits given to employees, including Weisselberg, the sources said. Investigators, who fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court for access to the former president’s personal and business tax returns, have been examining whether the company and Weisselberg properly accounted for those forms of compensation, said sources.

ABC News has previously reported that prosecutors zeroed in on the perks after Weisselberg’s daughter-in-law Jennifer revealed the existence of a rent-free apartment used by her estranged husband, Weisselberg’s son Barry.

Attorneys for the former president’s company were told to expect charges last week by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s staff, the sources said.

“In my more than 50 years of practice, never before have I seen the District Attorney’s Office target a company over employee compensation or fringe benefits,” Ronald Fishchetti, an attorney for former President Trump, told ABC News in a statement last week, adding the case in his view is “completely outrageous.”

Trump himself is not expected to be part of these criminal charges. He has denied all wrongdoing and has dismissed the investigation as being politically motivated, calling it “a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Report: Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon will perform at Clive Davis’ Central Park concert

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Danny Clinch; Rob Ball/WireImage

Music mogul Clive Davis is staging a huge concert August 21 in New York City’s Central Park to celebrate the post-COVID reopening of the Big Apple, and according to one report, he’s already lined up two major stars for the event.

A source tells Page Six that Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon will be among the headliners for the show, which will air on CNN.  According to the source, Springsteen will sing a duet with fellow rocker Patti Smith; Springsteen co-wrote Smith’s hit “Because the Night” with her.

Simon was previously part of a now-iconic 1981 concert in Central Park with Art Garfunkel., and he also played a huge solo show in the park in 1991.

Jennifer Hudson, who is portraying Aretha Franklin in an upcoming biopic, also is expected to take part in the event, claims the source.

Originally envisioned as a three-hour concert, an insider tells Page Six that the event will now be a four-hour show and will include “a sizable percentage [of] artists of color.”

One artist who Davis attempted to land for the event was Diana Ross, who memorably performed in Central Park in 1983. However, sources say Ross said no, because she’s not planning to perform again until 2022.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

House approves resolution to create select committee to probe Jan. 6 Capitol riot

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drnadig/iStock

(WASHINGTON) — The House approved a resolution Wednesday that would green-light the creation of a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The resolution required a majority vote in the House for the committee to be formed and it passed along party lines.

The final vote was 222-190.

Republicans have blasted the select committee as too partisan. Even those few Republicans who ultimately decided to impeach the former president earlier this year for his role in inciting the insurrection opted to oppose the select committee in Wednesday’s vote.

GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, both Trump critics, were the only two Republicans to vote in favor of the select committee with all Democrats.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will appoint members and announce a chair for the committee at a later time.

Members of the Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department were sitting in the Speaker’s box in the House Gallery to watch the vote at Pelosi’s invitation.

After Cheney voted yes, she was spotted paying them a visit and giving several officers a hug, including the family of fallen Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick.

Pelosi introduced the resolution earlier in the week, which states the committee will include 13 members. Eight of those members will be selected by Pelosi, while the five others will be selected by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in consultation with Pelosi.

An aide to the House speaker signaled that she could name a Republican among her eight appointments to the committee.

Pelosi could select either Cheney or Kinzinger to be on the committee as part of her eight appointees, and both have expressed an openness to it.

“January 6th was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history. It is imperative that we establish the truth of that day and ensure such an attack cannot again happen. The Select Committee will investigate and report upon the facts and causes of the attack and report recommendations for preventing any future assault,” Pelosi said in a statement.

The select committee comes after Senate Republicans blocked the creation of a bipartisan, independent commission last month.

“Senate Republicans did Mitch McConnell a ‘personal favor’ rather than their patriotic duty and voted against the bipartisan commission negotiated by Democrats and Republicans. But Democrats are determined to find the truth,” Pelosi said Monday in her statement.

The select committee will be run by House Democrats and it will have subpoena power.

“I’m hopeful that both the speaker and the minority leader appoint people who are honest, sincere in their effort to get at the facts, underlying why Jan. 6 happened, who was responsible for Jan. 6 happening and what can we do to prevent a Jan. 6 insurrection from happening again,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday. “All of those facts are necessary for the Congress, but much, much more importantly, necessary for the American people to understand and have knowledge of.”

A chair to run the committee has not yet been announced, but Pelosi told reporters last week that further details would be released soon.

McCarthy, for his part, has said a select committee is not necessary and has bashed it as a politically motivated, partisan act by Democrats.

He has also not indicated who he would appoint to the committee.

McCarthy could be called to testify about a phone call he made to former President Donald Trump on the day of the insurrection. He has yet to fully recount that phone call in a public setting, but he has said he would be willing to testify if asked.

“I have no problem talking to anybody about it,” McCarthy said last week. “I don’t know what the conversations that day would matter as that’s going on.”

House Democratic Chair Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Tuesday he expects McCarthy will be asked to testify before the committee.

“It’s my expectation that whoever winds up chairing the select committee will pursue all available angles in terms of individuals that will be called before the committee to testify and I think that Leader McCarthy has indicated that he’s willing to testify and share the contents of that conversation,” Jeffries said.

Under the resolution text, the select committee does not have a deadline for producing a report.

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State Department allows Americans to ‘self-select’ gender on passports

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yenwen/iStock

(WASHINGTON) — Americans can now choose which gender is displayed on their passports, no longer needing medical certification if their preference contradicts supporting documents such as birth certificates, the State Department announced Wednesday.

“Today, I am pleased to announce that the Department will be taking further steps toward ensuring the fair treatment of LGBTQI+ U.S. citizens, regardless of their gender or sex, by beginning the process of updating our procedures for the issuance of U.S. Passports and Consular Reports of Birth Abroad (CRBA),” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

While the most immediate change will be allowing applicants to self-identify as either “M” or “F,” the two current options on forms, the department is working to add a third gender marker for “non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming persons,” applying for passports or CRBAs. That step will take more time.

“The process of adding a gender marker for non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming persons to these documents is technologically complex and will take time for extensive systems updates,” Blinken said.

The State Department “cannot provide an exact timeline” for when the new gender marker might be available, according to its website.

President Joe Biden promised these changes during his 2020 campaign. “Transgender and non-binary people without identification documents that accurately reflect their gender identity are often exposed to harassment and violence and denied employment, housing, critical public benefits, and even the right to vote,” his website said.

Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, deputy executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, praised the move.

“Having accurate passports and consistent ID is critical to daily life,” Heng-Lehtinen said in a statement. “It’s necessary for travel, banking, starting a new job and school. Inaccurate IDs open transgender people up to harassment and discrimination. Reforming US passports is a common-sense way to improve the lives of transgender people.”

The new State Department policy takes cues from other countries, according to Blinken.

“In line with the Administration’s commitment to re-engage with allies and partners, the Department is taking these steps after considerable consultation with like-minded governments who have undertaken similar changes,” Blinken said.

The secretary, who last week had the “Progress” flag raised outside his department’s building in Washington, D.C., said he would let engagement with the LGBTQI+ community “inform our approach and positions moving forward.”

“With this action, I express our enduring commitment to the LGBTQI+ community today and moving forward,” he said.

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As prices for insulin skyrocket, Walmart launches ‘affordable’ brand

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(NEW YORK) — Walmart announced it is launching its own private brand of insulin, which the big box chain says will save customers with diabetes up to 75% on the lifesaving drug.

Walmart’s ReliOn brand will sell private label NovoLog short-acting insulin that is manufactured by the pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk.

The analog insulin vials and pens will save customers between 58% to 75% off the cash price of branded insulin products, or up to $101 per vial or $251 per package of “FlexPens,” the retailer said.

The medication will be available in Walmart pharmacies starting this week, and Sam’s Club pharmacies beginning in mid-July.

“We know many people with diabetes struggle to manage the financial burden of this condition, and we are focused on helping by providing affordable solutions,” Dr. Cheryl Pegus, the executive vice president of Walmart Health and Wellness, said in a statement Tuesday. “We also know this is a condition that disproportionately impacts underserved populations.”

Pegus said Walmart’s new insulin offerings are part of their commitment to improve access and lower the cost of care.

The medical costs for patients with diabetes can be an estimated $9,601 per year, according to the American Diabetes Association. On average, the advocacy group says people diagnosed with diabetes have medical expenditures approximately 2.3 times higher than what expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes.

“We welcome all affordable solutions that make diabetes management more accessible to millions of Americans living with diabetes,” Tracey D. Brown, the chief executive officer of the American Diabetes Association, said in a statement accompanying Walmart’s announcement. “We encourage everyone to ask their health care provider questions to better understand what the right and affordable treatment is for their unique medical needs.”

The price of insulin in the U.S. has spiked significantly over the past decade, and remains dramatically higher than in most other developed countries. The average gross manufacturer price for a standard unit of insulin in 2018 in the U.S. was more than 10 times the price compared to the same sample from 32 foreign countries that are part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, according to a 2020 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report. The average U.S. price was $98.70, compared to $8.81 in the 32 non-U.S. OECD countries.

Despite years of advocacy for policy changes to keep the cost of the drug low, Americans living with diabetes have seen little reprieve from federal lawmakers to address the skyrocketing prices.

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The Who’s Pete Townshend selling his historic London estate for over $20 million

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Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

We can’t say if it’s a bargain, but The Who‘s Pete Townshend is selling his expansive London estate for a cool 15 million pounds, or about $21 million.

According to Pereds realtors, the residence, known as The Wick, was first built in 1775, and is located on a picturesque bend in the Thames River. The 8,500-square-foot home features five bedrooms, five bathrooms, an office suite, a reception room, a drawing room with a balcony, a conservatory, two studies, a dogs’ room, a heated swimming pool and more.

People reports that Townshend purchased The Wick in 1996 from music executive Derek “Dick” Leahy, who helped guide George Michael‘s career. Prior to Leahy, Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood owned the mansion and installed a music studio, which was used by The Stones to record the demo for their classic hit “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It).”

Wood purchased The Wick from Oscar-winning actor John Mills.

“The main thing about the home is that it just looks like a little doll’s house sitting on the hill,” Preds founder Perry Press tells People. “But…[o]nce you get inside it sort of expands around you. It also has that outlook over the River Thames, which is quite astonishing considering it’s on the fringe of London.”

Press also notes that Townshend actually helped design the music studio commissioned by Wood, while reporting that the studio has “been pretty much dismantled for the sale.”

You can check out photos of The Wick and the estate’s grounds at Pereds.com.

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Bon Jovi scores their first billion-view video — but not for the song you think

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Frederic REGLAIN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Bon Jovi has finally joined YouTube’s Billion Views Club: One of the band’s videos has officially racked up a billion views on the streaming platform.  But it’s not for the song you might think.

While you’d figure that either “You Give Love a Bad Name” or “Wanted Dead or Alive” — arguably the group’s two signature tunes — would have hit the billion mark long ago, they actually haven’t.  Instead, it’s the video for their 2000 hit “It’s My Life” that has hit the milestone.

By comparison, “You Give Love a Bad Name” has just under 300 million views, while “Wanted Dead or Alive” has a paltry 151 million views.

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Limited recall of fresh blueberries due to potential Cyclospora contamination

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Kativ/iStock

(NEW YORK) — With berries being a staple fruit of the summer, check your fridge to make sure your container of Dole fresh blueberries is safe to eat.

Dole Diversified North America, Inc. has voluntarilly recalled a limited number of cases of its blueberries due to potential Cyclospora contamination.

The impacted products were packaged in a variety of plastic clamshell container sizes and distributed in four U.S. states — Illinois, Maine, New York and Wisconsin — and two Canadian provinces: Alberta and British Columbia.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has advised consumers to check any Dole fresh blueberry products in their homes and discard those matching the production description, UPC codes or product lot codes it has listed.

Check here for a full list of UPC codes, where to find the printed product lot code on the label and more.

“Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal infection caused by the Cyclospora parasite. A person may become infected after ingesting contaminated food or water,” the FDA said. “Common symptoms include severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, body aches and fatigue. The infection is treated with antibiotics and most people respond quickly to treatment.”

At the time of publishing, there have been no illnesses reported in association with the recall. No other Dole products have reportedly been affected.

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