(NEW YORK) — With less than one week to go until the Fourth of July holiday weekend, here’s what you need to know before hitting the highway or heading to the airport.
The roads
About 43.2 million people are expected to hit the road for the July 4th holiday — up 2.4% from 2022 and up 4% from 2019, according to AAA.
The quietest days to travel by car are anticipated to be Sunday, July 2, and Monday, July 3, according to transportation analytics company INRIX.
If you’re heading for the highway on Friday, June 30, the worst traffic is forecast to be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to INRIX.
If you’re driving home on Wednesday, July 5, the worst traffic may hit from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Rental cars are averaging $47 per day, down 25% from the same time last year, according to Hopper.
The skies
More than 24 million are expected to fly out of U.S. airports from June 29 to July 5, with June 29 and June 30 expected to be the busiest travel days, according to Hopper.
But flight prices are dropping. Hopper said domestic tickets are more than $100 cheaper than they were last year.
American Airlines said it expects to fly nearly 3 million passengers from June 30 to July 4, with July 2 as its busiest day.
United Airlines said it’s planning to carry nearly 5 million passengers from June 30 to July 9, with June 30 as its busiest day.
United said its bookings are up 12% from 2022 and are now “nearly equal” to pre-pandemic levels.
The most popular U.S. destinations for the holiday are New York City, Los Angeles and Orlando, Florida, according to Expedia.
The most crowded airports are anticipated to be Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport, according to Hopper.
(NEW YORK) — 3M announced Thursday it has agreed to pay $10.3 billion in settlements in response to allegations in polluted water in towns and cities across the United States with toxic chemicals.
The company, which makes several consumer products, including Command strips, Scotch tape and Ace bandages, said the settlement would be paid over the course of 13 years after public water suppliers detected PFAS in drinking water.
PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are man-made chemicals that were first used in manufacturing in the 1940s, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
These chemicals are omnipresent and can be found in several everyday items such as personal care products, food packaging, cleaning supplies and nonstick cookware, according to the agency.
PFAS can be found in soil, water and air and — because of their widespread use — are often found in the blood of people and animals, such as fish, the EPA said.
People can be exposed to PFAS by breathing in, eating, drinking or ingesting the chemicals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
They can remain in the body for days or months and can potentially lead to increased cholesterol, liver damage, birth defects and a higher risk of kidney or testicular cancer, the CDC said.
Earlier this year, the EPA proposed the first-ever national standards on levels of PFAS found in drinking water to levels so low they cannot easily be detected.
3M has been the defendant in thousands of lawsuits over the past several years over claims it knew PFAS in its products could cause health issues, but continued to manufacture them anyway, resulting in a contaminated water supply.
The company said the settlement is not an admission of liability and that if the court does not approve the settlement agreement, it will defend itself in ongoing litigation.
“This is an important step forward for 3M, which builds on our actions that include our announced exit of PFOA and PFOS manufacturing more than 20 years ago, our more recent investments in state-of-the-art water filtration technology in our chemical manufacturing operations, and our announcement that we will exit all PFAS manufacturing by the end of 2025,” 3M chairman and CEO Mike Roman said in a statement.
In December 2022, 3M said it would stop manufacturing products with PFAS by the end of 2025.
3M’s settlement comes just a few weeks after three companies, Chemours, Corteva and DuPont, agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle claims that they also allegedly tainted drinking water with PFAS.
In the press release announcing that settlement agreement the companies said if the settlement is not approved, they “will continue to assert their strong legal defenses…deny the allegations in the underlying litigation and reserve all legal and factual defenses.”
(NEW YORK) — Over seven million Baby Shark bath toys are being recalled due to a risk of injuries for kids, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The CPSC and Zuru, the toys’ manufacturer, have issued a voluntary recall of Baby Shark and Mini Baby Shark Bath Toys with hard plastic top fins.
The top fins on the shark toys pose a risk of “impalement, lacerations and punctures,” according to the CPSC.
The agency said that Zuru, a California-based company, has received 12 reports of kids “falling or sitting onto the recalled full-size Baby Shark bath toy,” resulting in injuries, nine of which required stitches or medical attention.
“There have been no reported incidents or injuries involving the Mini Baby Shark bath toys,” the CPSC said in the recall announcement.
Consumers are advised to “immediately” stop using the recalled toys and contact Zuru for a full refund.
Zuru has instructions on its website to register for the recall.
The bath toys, which retail for between $6 to $20, were sold nationwide at stores including Walmart, CVS Pharmacy, Dollar General Corp., Family Dollar Services, HEB Grocery Company, Meijer, Target, TJX Companies, Ross, and Walgreens, and online at websites including Target.com, Walmart.com and Amazon.com, according to the CPSC.
There are around 7.5 million units of the two products combined currently on the market, according to the CPSC.
Zuru notes on its website that starting in March, it has sold full-size Baby Shark Bath Toys with a silicone top fin. That version of the product is not being recalled.
“If the top fin of your shark is softer to the touch than the body of the shark and there is a visible line separating the silicone and plastic portions of your top fin, then your top fin is silicone and is not being recalled,” the company states online.
(NEW YORK) — Frozen fruit products distributed to Walmart, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Target, Aldi and AWG stores in over 30 states have been voluntarily recalled due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination.
SunOpta Inc’s subsidiary, Sunrise Growers Inc., issued the voluntary recall on specific frozen fruit products linked to pineapple provided by a third-party supplier, the company announced in cooperation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday.
In the recall notice, SunOpta and the FDA urged consumers to check their freezers for the recalled product and to not consume it, but rather discard the product or return it to the store for a full refund.
“Our commitment to food safety remains our utmost priority. Sunrise Growers has terminated all future business with the third-party supplier,” the company said in a statement.
Click here for a full list of products, lot codes, best by dates and other pertinent recalled product information from the FDA.
There were a variety of generic and name-brand products affected by the recall that were distributed to the six major retailers. The products listed below, as written by the FDA, are all a part of the voluntary recall.
Walmart: Great Value Mixed Fruit, Great Value Dark Sweet Cherries, and Great Value Mango Chunks sold at stores in AR, AZ, CA, CO, DC, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MN, MO, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, PA, SD, TX, UT, VA, WV and WY from January 19, 2023 to June 13, 2023
Whole Foods: 365 Organic Tropical Fruit Medley, 365 Organic Pineapple Chunks, 365 Pineapple Chunks, 365 Organic Whole Strawberries, 365 Organic Slice Strawberries and Bananas, and 365 Organic Blackberries distributed to select stores throughout the US from November 1, 2022 to June 21, 2023
Trader Joe’s: Trader Joe’s Organic Tropical Fruit Blend distributed to select distribution centers or stores in AK, AL, CT, CO, DE, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, and Washington DC from March 28, 2023 to April 11, 2023
Target: Good & Gather Organic Cherries and Berries Fruit Blend, Good & Gather Dark Sweet Whole Pitted Cherries, Good & Gather Mango Strawberry Blend, Good & Gather Mixed Fruit Blend, Good & Gather Mango Chunks, Good & Gather Blueberries, and Good & Gather Triple Berry Blend distributed nationwide from October 14, 2022 to May 22, 2023
Aldi: Season’s Choice Tropical Blend distributed to select distribution centers or stores in AL, AR, CT, FL, GA, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MO, MS, NC, NE, NH, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT and WV from October 11, 2022 to May 22, 2023
AWG (Associated Wholesale Grocers): Best Choice Pitted Red Tart Cherries Unsweetened distributed to select distribution centers or stores in KS, MO, NE and OK from April 5, 2023 to May 4, 2023To date, there have been no illnesses associated with this voluntary recall.
“All other Sunrise Growers products that have different lot codes or best by dates are not affected by this recall. The affected retail customers have been notified of this recall and instructed to remove any recalled product from retail store shelves and inventories.
Health risks of Listeria
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, listeria can cause severe illness “when the bacteria spread beyond the gut to other parts of the body” after a person consumes contaminated food. Those at higher risk include pregnant people, those aged 65 or older, or anyone who has a weakened immune system, the CDC says.
“If you are pregnant, it can cause pregnancy loss, premature birth, or a life-threatening infection in your newborn,” the CDC states on its website. “Other people can be infected with Listeria, but they rarely become seriously ill.”
According to the CDC, anyone infected with listeria may experience “mild food poisoning symptoms” such as diarrhea or fever, and many recover without antibiotic treatment.
Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(EMERYVILLE, Calif.) — After years of research and rigorous testing, cell-cultivated meat will officially become part of the U.S. food system.
Emeryville, California-based manufacturer UPSIDE Foods, which gave ABC News a look inside its facilities earlier this year, and Good Meat a cultivated meat division of the plant-based egg substitute food technology company Eat Just, are the first U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved cell-cultivated chicken meat producer and has been fully approved by the U.S. government for commercial sales nationwide.
The food and agriculture manufacturing industry has hailed this as a “historic” moment — after years of investment in UPSIDE Foods from Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Whole Foods founder John Mackey — as scientists tout the lab-cultivated meat as a possible solution for global warming, inhumane treatment of animals and growing global hunger.
Good Meat, which previously won multiple regulatory approvals to sell its chicken in Singapore, will begin production for the American market and launch with restaurateur and chef partner José Andrés.
The Alameda, California-based company called the latest USDA and FDA approvals a “watershed moment for the burgeoning cultivated meat, poultry and seafood sector, and for the global food industry.”
“We have been the only company selling cultivated meat anywhere in the world since we launched in Singapore in 2020, and now it’s approved to sell to consumers in the world’s largest economy,” Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of GOOD Meat and Eat Just said in a statement.
UPSIDE Foods says it will begin cultivation and sales of real chicken meat grown from animal cells in bioreactors.
It will first reach consumers on the menu of a San Francisco restaurant, Bar Crenn, helmed by James Beard Award-winning chef, restaurateur and activist Dominique Crenn, who is hoping to help mainstream the innovative protein.
Crenn is also the first and only female chef in the U.S. ever to be awarded three Michelin Stars, and only one of five total to achieve the distinction in the world.
In a blog post Wednesday, UPSIDE Foods called the historic milestone “the culmination of years of dedication, ingenuity, and resilience from our team and supporters and marks the beginning of a whole new era in meat production.”
Neither UPSIDE Foods nor Good Meat have a released date of first availability, but are working with their respective restaurant partners to bring it to market.
“Soon, Americans will be able to enjoy delicious meat that doesn’t involve the slaughter of billions of animals every year,” UPSIDE Foods wrote in the post.
The UPSIDE Foods team and Good Meat have now achieved all three key regulatory milestones: A “No Questions” Letter from the FDA, a USDA Label Approval, and the USDA Grant of Inspection.
Dan Glickman, Good Meat Advisory Board member and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and member of the U.S. House of Representatives, said in a statement Wednesday that his previous experiences gave him “the opportunity to work with countless individuals at the USDA who were committed to accelerating agricultural innovation and economic opportunity as well as promoting initiatives to better nourish Americans and feed people around the globe.”
“I commend the agency’s current leadership for working collaboratively with their FDA colleagues and the GOOD Meat team to reach this significant regulatory milestone,” Glickman continued. “Today’s approval demonstrates that the United States is a global leader in the promising alternative protein space while also continuing to support family farmers’ efforts to feed the world through conventional food and agriculture techniques.”
(NEW YORK) — Eager to test a submersible one month before its first trip to the deep-sea ruins of the Titanic, in the spring of 2018, OceanGate hit a snag: lightning storms and harsh winds that battered the Bahamas for weeks and rendered the test impossible, according to the company’s blog.
OceanGate canceled the initial Titanic voyage, pushing it back to the following year, the company said.
“While we are disappointed by the need to reschedule the expedition, we are not willing to shortcut the testing process due to a condensed timeline,” the company said. “We are 100% committed to safety.”
Five years after that called-off test, OceanGate has drawn international attention as rescue vessels search for the same submersible, called Titan, which went missing during the company’s latest trip to the famous shipwrecked ruins. The craft has five passengers on board, among them the company’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush.
The oxygen in the submersible was set to run out on Thursday morning. OceanGate did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
OceanGate, founded in 2009, offers tourists the opportunity to travel on submersibles into the ocean’s depths for a closeup look at shipwrecks and underwater canyons. A spot on one of the trips can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Decades earlier, in the 1980s, Rush became the world’s youngest jet transport rated pilot, at age 19, the OceanGate website says. In the ensuing years, he earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Rush said he launched OceanGate after an epiphany that the deep sea offered a sense of discovery he once thought only attainable for astronauts, according to an instructional video taped in collaboration with the nonprofit EarthEcho International in 2020.
“I had a realization in my early 40s that what I really wanted to be was an explorer,” Rush said. “All those things that I thought were in space were actually in the ocean.”
Seeking investment, OceanGate raised nearly $500,000 in 2014 and $19.3 million in 2020, government filings show.
The company ultimately assembled a fleet of three five-person submersibles named Antipodes, Cyclops 1, and most recently, Titan.
OceanGate, based in Everett, Washington, has conducted over 14 expeditions and more than 200 dives across the Pacific, Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, according to the company’s website.
The trip to the ruins of the Titanic lasts eight days, launching from St. John’s Newfoundland, Canada, and traveling 380 miles offshore and 3,800 meters below the surface of the ocean, according to the company’s website.
The journey does not require previous diving experience but passengers must be at least 17 years old, the website says. The trip costs $250,000 per passenger.
The company’s description of the trip online offers passengers an experience like the one that Rush said he sought when launching OceanGate.
“Become an underwater explorer,” says a company web page that details the Titanic voyage.
(NEW YORK) — With the rise of artificial intelligence, more people across the country are falling victim to kidnapping and other scams. A cybersecurity expert spoke to ABC News about ways people can protect their families and themselves from the increasingly believable scams.
Pete Nicoletti of Check Point Software Technologies, one of the largest cybersecurity firms in the nation, spoke to ABC’s Whit Johnson, to explain the rapidly evolving technology. With a basic headshot and photos from social media, Nicoletti was able to alter reality.
“So here you are, this is Mississippi in front of a terrible tornado, but with artificial intelligence, you can just say, ‘Hey, I wanna put Whit in front Canadian wildfires,’” said Nicoletti. “It’s very realistic.”
Nicoletti also explained that criminals can take just 10 minutes of a voice sample and use AI to create a false message, usually asking for money.
“[The false message] would come in as a voice message and the criminals can easily impersonate your phone number,” said Nicoletti.
“There [are] tools where you can actually type it in and use your voice,” Nicoletti added.
Nicoletti suggested all family members should adopt a “safe word” that can be used when trying to communicate with a loved one who has supposedly been kidnapped.
Former FBI special agent Rich Frankel said artificial intelligence cybercrime is hard to stop. He said to call authorities immediately, even if you think it’s just a scam, and recommends recording any type of call that seems suspicious and trying to reach a loved one directly if they appear to be involved.
“I would call law enforcement right away because if it is a real kidnapping, you want law enforcement involved,” he said. “And if it’s a scam, you wanna know about it right away.”
(NEW YORK) — Washington state has overtaken California as the state with the highest gasoline prices.
The average price of regular gas in Washington is $4.93 a gallon, up 33 cents from the same time a month ago, according to AAA.
California’s average price for regular gas is $4.86 a gallon, 7 cents cheaper than Washington, AAA data shows. The price of gas in the state is up 6 cents from this time a month ago.
California has often been the state with the highest gas prices, with drivers paying an average of $6.40 a gallon in July 2022.
While the average price of gas in Washington is $4.93, some motorists are paying over $5 for gas in some counties, according to AAA data.
The average gas price in King County, Washington, which is the home of Seattle, sits at $5.09, according to AAA. Skamania County’s average price for gasoline is $5.32, the highest in the state.
The national average for gas is $3.58 as of Wednesday, according to AAA.
The countrywide average for gas has tallied between $3.50 and $3.60 daily since April 23, according to GasBuddy.
Following Washington and California is Hawaii, where the median gas price is $4.72, AAA data shows. Rounding out the top 5 are Oregon and Nevada, at $4.57 and $4.26, respectively.
By contrast, the average gas price is $3.09 in Mississippi, the lowest in the nation, AAA data shows.
“It has been a quiet week for the national average, with little overall movement in average gas prices nationally even as oil prices have been a bit unstable,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in a blog post Tuesday on the company’s website. “Some states have seen minor increases while others have seen decreases, and the mixed bag is likely to continue for the time being with oil prices a bit all over the place.”
Haan said economic uncertainty is the main reason why oil prices have decreased but it won’t be enough to prevent a continued downward trend because oil and gas inventories are tight.
“We’ll have to see which of those factors emerges as a winner to predict when the next large movement in prices could be,” Haan said. “We’re also seeing more tropical activity in the Atlantic that could pose challenges in the weeks ahead as hurricane season ramps up.”
Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — After years of research and rigorous testing, cell-cultivated chicken meat will officially be a part of the U.S. food system.
Emeryville, California-based manufacturer UPSIDE Foods, which gave ABC News a look inside its facilities earlier this year, is the world’s first U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved cell-cultivated chicken meat producer and has been fully approved by the U.S. government for commercial sales nationwide.
The food and agriculture manufacturing industry has hailed this as a “historic” moment — after years of investment in UPSIDE Foods from Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Whole Foods founder John Mackey — as scientists tout the lab-cultivated meat as a possible solution for global warming, inhumane treatment of animals and growing global hunger.
The company says it will begin cultivation and sales of real chicken meat grown from animal cells in bioreactors.
It will first reach consumers on the menu of a San Francisco restaurant, Bar Crenn, helmed by James Beard Award-winning chef, restaurateur and activist Dominique Crenn, who is hoping to help mainstream the innovative protein.
Crenn is also the first and only female chef in the U.S. ever to be awarded three Michelin Stars, and only one of five total to achieve the distinction in the world.
In a blog post Wednesday, UPSIDE Foods called the historic milestone “the culmination of years of dedication, ingenuity, and resilience from our team and supporters and marks the beginning of a whole new era in meat production.”
The company has not released a date of first availability, but indicated “that soon, Americans will be able to enjoy delicious meat that doesn’t involve the slaughter of billions of animals every year.”
The UPSIDE Foods team has achieved all three key regulatory milestones: A “No Questions” Letter from the Food and Drug Administration in November 2022, a USDA Label Approval in June 2023, and the USDA Grant of Inspection in June 2023.
(NEW YORK) — First the Choco Taco, now the Good Humor Toasted Almond Ice Cream Bar?!
It’s officially peak ice cream season with summer in full swing, but there will be one less nostalgic treat at grocery stores after Good Humor confirmed this week that its iconic cake crumb-coated Toasted Almond Ice Cream Bars have been discontinued.
The ice cream brand, owned by Unilever, confirmed this week that its longtime offering, which debuted over 60 years ago, has officially been removed from production.
Fans of the nostalgic flavor have taken to Twitter and even Change.org to petition to keep the toasted almond flavor around.
“While we don’t have plans on bringing them back, we’ll let our team know you’d like to see them return,” a representative for the brand wrote on Twitter in response to a disappointed consumer.
The almond flavor was removed from the Good Humor lineup as of June 2022, around the same time Klondike announced it stopped making the Choco Taco, which took over headlines and social media feeds, even inspiring homemade copy cat recipes.
