(NEW YORK) — The Westchester, New York, district attorney’s office has had an ongoing criminal investigation into the Trump Organization’s Westchester golf course, sources with direct knowledge of the matter tell ABC News.
The probe, which is separate from a similar, and broader, investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, has included records subpoenaed from Trump National Golf Club Westchester, as well as the town about 30 miles north of New York City where the course in located, sources said.
News of the Westchester DA’s probe was first reported by the New York Times.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization said the probe was the continuation of a “witch hunt” against former President Donald Trump.
“The Club’s request for a review of its tax assessments was amicably resolved earlier this year and signed off by the Town Board, the Town Assessor, Special Counsel for the Town … the Briarcliff Manor School District, the Office of the Westchester County Attorney and the Westchester County Supreme Court judge presiding over the matter,” the spokesperson said. “Accordingly, the suggestion that anything was inappropriate is completely false and incredibly irresponsible. The witch hunt continues.”
A spokesperson for Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah declined to comment.
The investigation marks the third probe by a prosecutorial office in Trump’s home state of New York looking into the former president’s business dealings.
In July, following a nearly two-year investigation, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance charged the Trump Organization and its longtime CFO, Allen Weisselberg, with tax fraud. Weisselberg and the company have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has been conducting a parallel probe into Trump’s business dealings.
Among the issues being probed by investigators is how the Trump Organization has valued its holdings for tax purposes.
The Trump Organization owns or operates more than a dozen golf course worldwide. Earlier this year, following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S, Capitol, the PGA of America, the proprietors of one of golf’s four major championship tournaments, announced it would move its 2022 PGA Championship away from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
(PARKLAND, Fla.) — Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty Wednesday to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder for killing 17 and injuring 17 others in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting.
Cruz replied “guilty” when Judge Elizabeth Scherer asked how he wanted to plea to the slaying or wounding of each victim. Parents of the slain students watched from the courtroom and wiped tears from their eyes.
Cruz said in court, “I am very sorry for what I did and I have to live with it every day. … It brings me nightmares and I can’t live with myself sometimes.”
Cruz said he believes the victims should be the ones to decide whether he gets the death penalty.
A jury will decide if Cruz, 23, will get the death penalty or life in prison.
Manuel Oliver, father of 17-year-old victim Joaquin Oliver, told ABC News Live Friday, “I can’t wait for this to be over so I can move on, at least without the weight of not knowing what’s going to happen to this person.”
Last week Cruz pleaded guilty to charges in connection to his attack on a jail guard in 2018.
Jury selection for the penalty phase will begin on Jan. 4.
(DALLAS) — After two years of birthdays, holidays and chemotherapy treatments, Beckett Burge was able to celebrate the biggest milestone of all — being officially cancer-free.
Beckett was only 4 years old when he was diagnosed with pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia on April 25, 2018.
He began chemotherapy and was often sick following treatment. With his older sister Aubrey there to comfort him, their mother, Kaitlin Burge, snapped a photo that would go viral.
“One thing they don’t tell you about childhood cancer is that it affects the entire family,” Kaitlin Burge said in 2018. The family also keeps a Facebook page called “Beckett Strong,” where they keep everyone updated on Beckett’s recovery.
On Oct. 15, Beckett finished treatment at Children’s Medical Center Plano in Texas.
“We are excited to say the least,” said Kaitlin Burge. “It has been a long journey. Aubrey has been a great trooper.”
Beckett said he couldn’t have done it without his big sister by his side.
“She always stands up for me whenever I had cancer,” said Beckett.
Now back in school and enjoying little league baseball, Beckett and his family shared a message of hope with “World News Tonight.”
“We just want to say that we’re super excited,” said Kaitlin Burge. “Any other families that are out there going through cancer with their kids and their own family members, we just want to say, ‘Keep up the fight.'”
“There’s light at the end of the tunnel” she added. “Keep your head up. Take it one day at a time.”
(NEW YORK) — With wind chill already dragging temperatures down to the low 30s in Anchorage, Alaska, nurse manager Deyana Thayer has her insulated snow gear ready to go as soon as a COVID-19 vaccine is finally available for younger children — since her team will brave the elements to administer the shot in drive-thru clinics that make it easier for kids to get it in the warm comfort of their family’s’ car.
Though regulatory bodies are still weeks away from green-lighting a vaccine for children as young as five, meticulous planning and coordination between state and federal health officials has already been underway for weeks to stand up the complex nationwide launch.
“Quite a few parents are waiting on pins and needles,” Thayer said.
The White House on Wednesday announced its plan to distribute vaccine to cover the some 28 million children ages 5-11 if authorized, including a national public education campaign to “reach parents and guardians with accurate and culturally-responsive information about the vaccine and the risks that COVID-19 poses to children.”
The administration is “eagerly awaiting” federal regulators’ review, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told reporters, and have “a lot of reasons to be hopeful” about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.
“We need everyone on board for the work ahead of us, because every parent should have the information and tools that they need to help keep their kids safe and to help protect the kids under five who can’t get vaccinated yet,” Murthy said.
In a new operational planning guide sent to state health officials and obtained by ABC News, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises jurisdictions should be “ready to vaccinate” the newly eligible group, following Food and Drug Administration and CDC signoff.
CDC advises states to request their pediatric doses in advance — even before the FDA advisory panel meets to debate whether to move ahead — in hopes of smoothing the way for an eventual “manageable and equitable launch.”
Those “pre-orders” are allowed to begin Wednesday.
“This is as much of a logistical puzzle as it is a communication or a scientific one,” Dr. Nirav Shah, President of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and director of the Maine CDC said. “Make no mistake, this is an all hands on deck situation.”
To prioritize the “increased logistics needed” during initial rollout, the government is preparing to temporarily halt shipments of adult Pfizer doses during the first week of the pediatric launch, according to planning documents. While paused, adult doses’ availability still should not be impacted.
An imminent vaccine for kids follows a summer where pediatric COVID infections soared — upping the ante on protecting tender ages from the pandemic’s worst, and additionally stopping children from passing the virus to other vulnerable people.
“There will be a lot of pent up demand,” Shah said.
The FDA and CDC must sign off before shots to kids are given; key meetings with independent advisers are set for late October and the first week of November.
Once greenlighted, the pediatric doses will be sent to thousands of sites across the country, including more than 25,000 pediatricians’ offices, more than 100 children’s hospitals, tens of thousands of pharmacies, and hundreds of school and community- based clinics, the White House announced Wednesday.
Though the White House has purchased 65 million Pfizer pediatric vaccine doses — more than enough to fully vaccine all children ages 5-11 in America — the first launch will dole doses out in waves based on states’ eligible population of kids. Shipments can recalibrate based on shifting demand.
Within days, more than 15 millions of doses are set to begin distribution across the country: roughly 10 million allocated to states, five million to pharmacies, and approximately 265,000 for other federal health agencies, three sources familiar with the rollout said, with a focus on sites already with the infrastructure in place.
“Parents want to get the vaccine in a place where they trust, and their child is comfortable,” said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.
But pediatricians cannot shoulder the rollout alone, Shah and Hannan said.
Combatting not only the pandemic, they’re also giving seasonal flu shots and other vaccinations for the same age group — like Measles Mumps and Rubella, Chickenpox and HPV, all are also typically given to kids within the five to 11 range, but which have different storage requirements from the COVID vaccine.
Vaccinators must now also juggle two different COVID vaccine formulas: a full dose for older adolescents and adults — and one third of that dose one for younger children.
To troubleshoot any ensuing confusion, federal health officials are outlining a new color-coded cap system for each formulation of the vaccine, though still “preliminary.” Purple-capped vials will contain doses for adult and older adolescents, a chart offered to states said; orange-capped vials will contain doses for kids aged 5-11.
In New York, the state’s largest healthcare provider Northwell Health is considering colored bracelets to help coordinate which dose goes to which child, division chief of general pediatrics at Cohen’s Medical Center Dr. Sophia Jan said.
Even with “sufficient” supply, as the administration has assured, distribution could pose a challenge in some rural areas, where the population of eligible kids may be more spread out across many miles, Hannan said.
“The logistical challenge will be matching everyone up, matching the vaccine with a vaccinator and then getting the word to parents to make all those pieces come together,” Shah said.
Schools offer an attractive locus to meet kids where they’re at, and some jurisdictions plan to use them as a “mainstay” of the pediatric rollout, Shah said, including in Maine.
Columbus Ohio health officials are looking at holding after-school and weekend clinics in partnership with Nationwide Children’s Hospital and area schools, public health spokesperson Kelli Newman said.
New York’s Northwell plans to deploy staff specifically trained to work with young children and children with special needs, partnering with schools and places of worship for further community engagement, Jan said.
That outreach will be a crucial piece of the puzzle.
“Making sure that folks have the information, that it’s accurate, that it’s timely — that’s going to be challenge number one, two three,” Shah said.
The CDC has already released promotional materials in English and Spanish offering guidance on how to talk with parents about the shot.
In Maine, health officials are hoping to run ads timed with authorization, focused on parents’ education about the shot’s safety and protection against the virus.
“We want to almost preserve the bandwidth of pediatricians to contend with and work with and educate parents who are extremely hesitant,” Shah said.
State health officials expect “more questions” than ever before with the pediatric rollout, Shah said — and they’re bent on being ready to answer them with good information.
“It’s understandable because of what’s at stake,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 728,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.9 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 66.8% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Oct 20, 8:23 am
FDA could authorize Moderna, J&J booster shots Wednesday
The FDA could authorize Moderna and Johnson & Johnson booster shots for some populations as soon as Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the CDC independent advisory committee is meeting Wednesday to discuss vaccines in general. The committee is expected to debate Moderna and Johnson & Johnson on Thursday, discussing who boosters should be recommended for and if mixing and matching vaccines should be permitted.
A non-binding vote is expected at the end of Thursday.
The CDC director is expected to make the final recommendations shortly after the vote, which could come as soon as Thursday night or Friday morning.
Oct 20, 8:08 am
NYC to mandate vaccine for municipal workers
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday announced a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all municipal workers.
The mandate is expected to include all employees from sanitation workers to office workers and will require some 161,000 workers to have their first dose by Oct. 29.
Municipal employees who do not get vaccinated will be placed on unpaid leave, and their future employment will be resolved in negotiations with individual labor unions.
Correction officers will face a later deadline of Dec. 1.
(NEW YORK) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday was set to announce a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all municipal workers — a move that is likely to escalate tensions with unions and employees that have been resistant, a source told ABC News.
Nearly 150,000 of the city’s workers — teachers and school staff — had already been required to be vaccinated, but the new announcement took the push for vaccination one step further.
About 71% of employees have already have at least one shot of the vaccine. It’s up to 94% in the 11 city-run hospitals, and 96% in schools, where vaccinations are already mandatory.
But other sectors of the city’s workforce, including the police and fire departments, lag behind.
About 69% of NYPD employees and 60% of FDNY workers are vaccinated and both the fire and police commissioners have endorsed the mandate. The Police Benevolent Association has previously said “vaccine is a medical decision that members must make in consultation with their own health care providers.”
The mandate is expected to include all employees from sanitation workers to office workers and will require some 161,000 workers to have their first dose by the end of the month.
The mayor, who is pondering a run for governor when his term ends at the end of the year, is set to appear on MSNBC to make the announcement.
Municipal employees who do not get vaccinated will be placed on unpaid leave, and their future employment will be resolved in negotiations with individual labor unions.
Correction officers will face a later deadline of Dec. 1.
(NEW YORK) — “Luma out” and “If I can’t breathe, Luma shouldn’t charge us,” read some of the banners held by hundreds of Puerto Rico’s residents as they marched on a main highway Friday in protest against Luma Energy, the island’s power company.
Puerto Rico has had a long history of instability with its electric system, even prior to the devastation Hurricane Maria wreaked in 2017, which left millions on the island without power for nearly a year.
Still, blackout and brownouts are a part of daily life for Puerto Rico’s citizens, with a recent power outage now affecting thousands.
‘Perfect storm’
The combination of Luma’s late response to failures in the transmission and distribution that have left thousands without power in the last months, and the weak infrastructure of the power plants has made Puerto Rico’s electric service the worst among the U.S.’ states and territories, experts say.
“Most of these power plants should have been decommissioned many years ago. But when you decommission something, you need to have something new,” Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority former executive director Ricardo Ramos told ABC News.
ABC News requested a comment from Luma Energy and has yet to receive a response.
PREPA’s gas power plants are over 40 years old. The average lifespan of these power plants is about 20 years, according to one report by National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Ramos, who says he has worked in the energy industry all his life, told ABC News that the situation with Puerto Rico’s power is the result of a “perfect storm” of failures that perpetuate the island’s electricity woes.
PREPA’s operational hurdles
Problems with electricity have been reported since PREPA was established in 1941, Ramos said.
In the1960’s Puerto Rico began building power plants, but amid the island nation’s industrial revolution plus a then-predicted business boom, those power plants were built larger than the country could manage.
“At that time, bunker type C oil was extremely cheap. So it was chosen to use that fuel in order to have a competitive, let’s say, electricity tariff,” Ramos told ABC News.
More businesses actually began leaving the island, and Puerto Rico ended up with a majority of its larger power plants located in the southern area of the island, while the most electric consumption has been in the north, Ramos said.
That has resulted in a complex geographical situation for the island’s transmission and distribution, now managed by Luma, he said.
Prior to Luma’s takeover on June 1, 2021, the government entity, PREPA, was in charge. Today, the government only owns the system that generates electricity while Luma oversees transmission and management.
Financial Problems
The mix of an expensive system, mismanagement and lack of maintenance drove PREPA into a more dire situation, according to energy financial expert, Tom Sanzillo.
“You can look at it as unfunded maintenance over a long period of time,” Sanzillo told ABC News.
Sanzillo is the director of financial analysis of the Institute of Energy and Economics and Financial Analysis, and is a former New York State comptroller.
“You can look at it as the misuse of the revenues that have come in from the ratepayers over a number of years,” Sanzillo told ABC News.
Both Sanzillo and Ramos say that effective energy projects take time, can be complicated, and must include collaboration between key players from stakeholders to politicians.
“A power system is very hard to work on, decisions have to be made years prior,” Sanzillo added.
In addition, financing energy projects involves a large amount of investment, he said, and that PREPA’s investment came from the bond market and loans.
As the electric utility issued bonds to finance energy projects that typically take over six years to build, the island’s politics got in the way.
“If you’re changing the management every four years, and you already have, let’s say, immediate bonds for a project, and the project doesn’t exist, it can quickly become a mess,” Ramos told ABC News.
“You have a combination of a system and disrepair and political mismanagement at the top of the agency, and you have a recipe for a real problem,” Sanzillo from IEEFA said.
The island filed for bankruptcy in 2016 under Title 3 known as Puerto Rico’s Oversight Management Economic Stability Act.
In 2017, the financial oversight board imposed by Congress filed Title 3 papers for the bankruptcy process of PREPA.
Bankruptcy proceedings are still underway, according to local media reports.
Amid Hurricane Maria’s destruction, the Trump administration designated one of the biggest federal funds with nearly $10 billion for PREPA’s reconstruction. As of today only $7.1 million has been disbursed, according to Puerto Rico’s government.
Sanzillo says using funds for the expansion of a solar system on the island could help change the situation.
“You would have less stress on what is clearly a fragile system,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — More than 60,000 law enforcement officers were assaulted in the line of duty in 2020, including more than 40 who were killed, according to the FBI.
The total of 60,105 was an increase of 4,071 from 2019, with FBI drawing on reports from some 9,895 law enforcement agencies.
Among those assaulted, about 31% sustained injuries. In 2020, 46 officers were killed, down from 48 in 2019, FBI data showed.
Most of the assaults on officers happened after they responded to disturbance calls, including family quarrels and bar fights, according to the FBI.
“Police officers across the country are facing an increase in violent crime and violent acts committed against them,” said Laura Cooper, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. “Facing these dangerous situations is another reason why it has been difficult for police agencies to find recruits who want to put on a uniform and put their lives on the line.”
Vernon Stanforth, president of the National Sheriffs Association, said the staggering numbers weren’t a surprise “after this troubling year for law enforcement.”
Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund President Jason Johnson said the increased assaults on officers come at a time when they’re “seemingly under attack on all fronts.”
In the first nine months of 2021, 54 officers were feloniously killed while on duty compared with 37 over that same time period in 2020, according to the latest FBI data. Among those deaths, 20 were unprovoked attacks.
A new LELDF report showed that from June 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021, in the wake of George Floyd’s killing and the subsequent protests, the percentage of officers quitting or retiring had increased by double digits compared with 2019.
This year, high-profile police killings have already dominated headlines, including the case of Chicago officer Ella French, who was shot during a traffic stop in August.
French, 29, was the first Chicago police officer since 2018 killed in the line of duty and the city’s first female officer killed in the line of duty since 1988.
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 726,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.9 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 66.7% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Latest headlines:
-10 states see rise in hospital admissions
-UK records highest daily death toll since March
-‘National emergency’ declared on children’s mental health
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Oct 19, 2:56 pm
Secretary Mayorkas tests positive for COVID-19
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has tested positive for COVID-19, a DHS spokeswoman confirmed to ABC News.
Mayorkas, who is fully vaccinated, “is experiencing only mild congestion,” a statement said.
Mayorkas will work from home, the statement said. Contact tracing is underway.
ABC News’ Luke Barr
Oct 19, 1:00 pm
Pfizer vaccine 93% effective against hospitalizations for 12-18 age group
A new CDC study found that the Pfizer vaccine was 93% effective against hospitalizations for adolescents ages 12 to 18 from July to September.
The researchers also found that nearly all (97%) of adolescents’ ages 12 to 18 who were hospitalized with COVID-19 were unvaccinated.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman
Oct 19, 12:30 pm
10 states see rise in hospital admissions
Ten states — all of which have colder temperatures — have seen upticks in hospital admissions in recent weeks, according to federal data: Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wyoming.
However, nationwide, just under 58,000 Americans remain hospitalized, a major drop from 104,000 patients at the end of the summer, according to federal data.
Death rates remain high, with more than 1,000 Americans dying each day, according to federal data.
Over the last month, the U.S. has reported approximately 45,000 COVID-19 deaths, including nearly 7,600 deaths in the last week.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Oct 19, 11:48 am
UK records highest daily death toll since March
The United Kingdom recorded 233 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, the highest total since March 5, according to government data.
In a statement confirmed by ABC News, issued before the new figures were published, the prime minister’s office said it was keeping a “very close eye” on the numbers and urged people to get their booster shots.
“We have seen case rates rising, we’ve started to see some indications that hospitalizations and death rates are increasing also,” a spokesman for the prime minister said. “It’s important that the public understand that getting your booster jab is just as important as getting your first and second dose.”
(NEW YORK) — A freshman at the University of Kentucky died from alcohol toxicity Monday night after he was found unresponsive at his fraternity house, officials said.
University police officers were called to FarmHouse Fraternity at about 6:22 p.m. Monday where Thomas Lofton Hazlewood, an 18-year-old fraternity member, was unresponsive, the university said.
The agricultural economics major was taken to a hospital where he died, the university said.
Hazlewood’s cause of death was “presumed alcohol toxicity” pending investigation, and the manner of death was ruled an accident, the Fayette County Coroner’s Office said.
“Foul play is not suspected, but police are investigating the circumstances of his death,” the university said in a statement Tuesday.
FarmHouse Fraternity CEO Christian Wiggins said in a statement, “We are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of Thomas ‘Lofton’ Hazelwood, a new member of the University of Kentucky chapter of FarmHouse Fraternity. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and loved ones as well as the entire community. We have encouraged all members and new members to cooperate with any investigation prompted by Mr. Hazelwood’s death.”
“The thoughts of the entire UK community are with his family and all those who knew him,” the university said.
