(NEW YORK) — New York state is weighing landmark legislation that would prevent tech platforms like Instagram and TikTok from using algorithms for social media feeds viewed by children.
The measure would require social media companies to present posts to children in the order they’re issued by followed accounts, eliminating the role of algorithms that shape the stream of content.
Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who backs the bill, is near an agreement with the legislature for passage, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.
The bill has drawn opposition from some advocacy and industry groups, including TechNet, a trade organization that represents companies such as Google, Snap, Meta, Amazon and Apple. TechNet did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Supporters of the measure fault social media algorithms for addicting young users and harming their mental health. Opponents, on the other hand, say the legislation could worsen content feeds by limiting tools that filter harmful speech and risks infringing on the First Amendment.
Here’s what to know about the proposed social media regulation:
What would the measure do? The proposed legislation would restrict the use of algorithms for social media accounts that belong to individuals under the age of 18.
The removal of algorithm-fueled feeds would reduce the addictiveness of the apps and ease the harm inflicted upon minors, proponents say.
The bill would also disallow social media apps from sending notifications to minors during late night and early morning hours without parental consent.
At a press event in Albany, New York last week, Hochul accused the social media companies of “bombarding young people with these absolutely addictive algorithms.”
A Senate version of the bill claims that minors are uniquely vulnerable to the addictive quality of social media platforms.
“Children are particularly susceptible to addictive feeds because they provide a non-stop drip of dopamine with each new piece of media and because children are less capable of exercising the impulse control necessary to mitigate these negative effects,” the measure says.
The call for bolstered online protections for children gained momentum in the aftermath of revelations in 2021 from then-Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who released internal research showing that the company understood the danger that Facebook-owned Instagram posed for some teen girls.
Last year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned in a new advisory that excessive social media can pose a “profound risk” to the mental health of children.
Who are the supporters and opponents of the bill? The measure is backed by Hochul, New York Attorney General Letitia James and a bipartisan group of New York state legislators.
A set of advocacy groups and teachers unions also supports the measure, including the United Federation of Teachers, Mothers Against Media Addiction and the New York Urban League.
The bill, along with another that protects children’s data privacy, offers New York legislators “the ripe occasion to take meaningful action at a pivotal time in history,” the group of nonprofits said in a statement in April.
On the opposing side, a coalition of trade and activist groups warn of unintended consequences and the difficulty of verifying the age of app users.
Chamber of Progress, a tech industry organization that receives support from dozens of firms such as Meta, Apple and Amazon, warned that the algorithm and data privacy measures could ultimately worsen social media feeds for children.
“Instead of giving teenagers a healthier online experience, New York’s bills could prevent platforms from ensuring age-appropriate feeds for teens,” Chamber of Progress says on its website. “It could mean that whoever posts most recently goes to the top of a teen’s feed — even if that post is spam, hate speech, or other harmful content.”
The New York Inclusive Internet Coalition, a group that says it represents members of marginalized groups in New York, has also criticized the measure as a threat to the community offered by social media platforms.
“We believe the ability to freely use the internet is an important right — particularly for LGBTQ+ youth, undocumented immigrants, young women exercising their reproductive rights, and the elderly,” the organization said in a statement.
“We agree that New York’s young people are facing a mental health crisis, and with the importance of examining how youth interact with social media and the potential harms that may occur. Yet we believe that focusing on regulating social media’s algorithms does not address this crisis’ root causes,” the organization added.
What happens next? The 2024 New York legislative session ends on Thursday, leaving lawmakers little time to approve the measure. If it passes by then, Hochul is expected to sign the bill into law.
If it goes into effect, the measure could face legal challenges from the tech platforms as well as logistical difficulties centered on enforcement, said Aynne Kokas, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and author of “Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty.”
“Any state-level bill would face challenges when trying to manage or provide oversight over large tech platforms,” Kokas told ABC News. “It’s a very difficult challenge and in many ways very unfair to put on under resourced state governments, even in big states like California and New York.”
(ARLINGTON, Va.) — To reach Waverly B. Woodson, Jr.’s final resting place, you start on Eisenhower Drive. At the end of Marshall Drive, you make a half turn around Patton Circle, and there, tucked in the southeast corner, you’ll find grave no. 1172, a simple marble headstone like 400,000 others at Arlington National Cemetery.
Not far away, along the same trajectory, lies the Pentagon, where the question of how to honor Woodson — the forgotten hero of D-Day — has bedeviled the Army in recent years. Woodson was nominated for the Medal of Honor in the summer of 1944. He did not receive it: no Black soldiers received our nation’s highest military honor during World War II.
While I was researching my book, “Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes,” I learned about Woodson’s nomination. I shared the story with Woodson’s unstoppable wife, Joann, who, along with a battery of allies, began calling on the Army to reconsider Woodson’s case.
Kevin Braafladt, a curious Illinois-based historian with the First Army, picked up the trail, investing two years of his own time hunting for more records that would prove that Woodson — who, along with others in his unit, was awarded the fourth-place Bronze Star — deserved far greater recognition. His report would prompt the Army to reopen the case.
On Monday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who championed Woodson’s case on Capitol Hill, announced that the Pentagon would posthumously award Woodson the Army’s second-highest honor, the Distinguished Service Cross.
Woodson “has never received the full recognition that his actions clearly merited – largely due to the color of his skin. That’s why we’ve fought for years to secure the acknowledgement he deserved,” Van Hollen said in a statement.
The Woodsons were VIP guests of the French government in 1994, for the 50th anniversary of D-Day. Motorcades swept them from plane to hotel to Omaha Beach. A palm-sized medal that Joann still treasures acknowledged her husband’s service.
That occasion marked the first time Waverly Woodson told his story publicly. “There is no hero, it’s just that you’re there and you do what you can do,” he told ABC News at the time.
Now 95, Joann Woodson waited three more decades for her own country to recognize her husband’s heroics. “There’s not enough words to say how thankful I am,” she said from her home in Clarksburg, Maryland, about the Distinguished Service Cross. “This has been a long time coming.”
Joann Woodson will be watching as her husband’s story is featured in the docuseries “Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color,” narrated by Idris Elba, which began airing Monday on National Geographic TV and streaming soon after on Disney+/Hulu.
Woodson was a premedical student in Pennsylvania when he enlisted in the Army in December 1942. He passed officer training school but race-based quotas scrubbed his promotion, and he retrained as a medic with the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, the only Black combat unit that landed with the infantry on Omaha Beach on D-Day.
On the morning of June 6, 1944, Woodson, 21, was seriously wounded on the approach to Omaha Beach when shrapnel tore into his inner thigh and buttocks. “I am dying,” Woodson thought, according to an account he wrote years after the war.
Another medic patched him up and, beneath a barrage of punishing enemy fire, Woodson set up a medical station and worked though his own pain for the next 30 hours, saving untold lives, until he collapsed. After he was treated on a hospital ship, he asked to go back to the beach.
Woodson returned home a star: his exploits made coast-to-coast news in the Black press. But like many other chapters in U.S. history, Woodson, and his battalion, were excluded from the story of D-Day. Most books do not mention them. Popular films about World War II largely do not show Black fighters.
Yet by the end of that very long day, there would be some 2,000 African Americans on the beaches of Normandy. The 320th Barrage Balloon battalion went on to spend 140 days there while the allies pushed toward Berlin, and victory.
The men of the 320th raised a curtain of hydrogen-filled balloons, armed with small bombs, to protect the men and materiel on the beach from dive-bombing German planes. Other Black troops worked to recover vehicles that sank in the rising tide. Commendations from General Eisenhower lauded two Black units, including the 320th, for their exemplary service.
The Oscar-winning Hollywood director John Ford, who came ashore at Omaha Beach with a Coast Guard camera crew, watched from a position of safety as a Black soldier unloaded supplies from a ship, seemingly oblivious to the relentless machine-gun fire and shells exploding around him. “By God, if anybody deserves a medal, that man does,” Ford wrote some twenty years later.
Odds were against “that man” ever receiving a medal. An independent study commissioned during the Clinton administration concluded that “the racial climate and practice” within the Army during World War II denied Black soldiers the opportunities — and honors — they deserved.
Near Woodson’s grave at Arlington, a road is named after another storied general, Omar Bradley, who once said that every man on Omaha Beach was a hero. But clearly, not all heroes were treated equally. While some received medals and our collective thanks, others were forgotten.
“There were no Black soldiers at D-Day,” I was told throughout the five years I worked on my book. I still hear it today.
Joann Woodson is hoping the Distinguished Service Cross will ensure her husband’s legacy is protected. She is hoping it may even be a stepping stone to the big one — the Medal of Honor. She is not alone. Braafladt, the enterprising historian, has more archives to explore on his to-do list, more records yet to uncover.
“So the search will go on,” he said.
Linda Hervieux is a journalist and author of “Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes.”
Lancaster County Sheriff Chief Deputy Ben Houchin during a press briefing in Lincoln, Nebraska, June 3, 2024. (Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office)
(NEW YORK) — Authorities in Nebraska are investigating after a 74-year-old woman believed to have died while in hospice care was found to be breathing after being transported to a funeral home.
The woman subsequently died after being transported to a hospital, authorities said Tuesday.
The “unusual” incident began Monday morning, according to Lancaster County Chief Deputy Ben Houchin. The woman had been transported from a nursing home, where she had been declared dead at around 9:44 a.m. local time, to the Butherus-Maser & Love Funeral Home in Lincoln, according to the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities responded to the funeral home after an employee noticed the woman was breathing and “instantly called 911” at approximately 11:44 a.m. Monday, according to Houchin.
Funeral home staff conducted CPR on the woman — identified by authorities as Constance Glantz of Lincoln — and she was transported to a local hospital alive, Houchin said.
Glantz ultimately died at the hospital at approximately 4 p.m. Monday, Houchin said. Her family has been notified, he said.
“I can’t imagine what her family has went through and we are really, really sorry for them to have to do that,” Houchin said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
The Lancaster County attorney has ordered an autopsy, Houchin said. The final results of the autopsy could take up to 12 weeks.
Because this was a case where a death was anticipated and there was nothing suspicious about her supposed death, the nursing home did not have to contact the coroner or local authorities after the woman was declared dead, Houchin said.
“It’s a very unusual case,” Houchin said during a press briefing on Monday. “Been doing this 31 years and nothing like this has ever gotten to this point before.”
The sheriff’s office is investigating and no criminal charges are pending, according to Houchin. The nursing home has been “totally cooperative,” he said.
“We have not been able to find any criminal intent by the nursing home but the investigation is ongoing,” Houchin said Monday.
(NEW YORK) — Three Trump associates allegedly tied to the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election have been charged with forgery in Wisconsin.
Attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and James Troupis and former Trump staff member Michael Roman have been charged in connection with the alleged efforts.
Wisconsin is the fourth state to pursue election interference charges related to the 2020 election.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, several allies of former President Donald Trump and alleged fake electors pleaded not guilty in Arizona last month for their alleged efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford in December announced felony charges against six alleged “fake electors” in that state.
Chesebro and Roman were charged alongside Trump and over a dozen others in Georgia last August in a sweeping racketeering indictment related to efforts overturn the 2020 election results in the state. All defendants pleaded not guilty.
In Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel similarly charged 16 “alternate electors” last July for conspiracy to commit forgery, among other charges.
(NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio.) — A woman allegedly stabbed a 3-year-old boy to death outside an Ohio grocery store in a random attack, according to police.
The little boy and his mother were both stabbed around 3 p.m. Monday in the parking lot of a Giant Eagle in North Olmsted, about 15 miles outside of Cleveland, according to North Olmsted police.
The boy suffered stab wounds to the back and cheek, police said. His mother, Margot Wood, survived with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
The suspect, 32-year-old Bionca Ellis, was taken into custody, police said.
Ellis and the victims didn’t know each other, police said.
“Our hearts go out to the two victims of what appears to be a random act of violence,” North Olmsted Mayor Nicole Dailey Jones said in a statement.
Ellis is facing charges including aggravated murder, police said.
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, departs the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building and United States Courthouse on July 26, 2023 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo by Mark M
(WILMINGTON, Del.) — President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden is on trial in Delaware on three felony charges related to his efforts to obtain a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs.
The son of a sitting president has never before faced a criminal trial.
The frequency of updates may be limited due to federal court restrictions:
Jun 04, 7:26 AM Arguments to get underway this morning
Hunter Biden returns to court this morning for the start of arguments in his federal gun trial.
Attorneys with special counsel David Weiss’ office and lawyers for Hunter Biden are both scheduled to deliver opening statements in the case.
Judge Maryellen Noreika yesterday swore in a jury of six men and six women, completing the jury selection process in a single day to put the trial two days ahead of schedule.
Jun 03, 6:06 PM Friends, family look on during Day 1 in court
Hunter Biden spent the first day of his gun trial taking notes, reading documents placed in front of him by his attorneys, and often turning to catch a glimpse of the friends and family who came to court to support him.
At one point, he nodded along as a prospective juror spoke about her friend’s overdose after addiction.
Jill Biden was seated behind Hunter Biden all day, and she watched attentively as some jurors told the court that they had such a skewed view of her family that they could not be impartial. The first lady did not appear to react in those moments, but at times her daughter Ashley Biden placed her hand on the first lady’s back in support.
Hunter Biden’s family members also appeared to be actively involved with his defense strategy — at one point standing up and huddling with Hunter Biden’s attorneys Abbe Lowell and David Kolansky after a sidebar.
When court was dismissed, Jill Biden gave Hunter Biden a hug and a kiss before he walked out hand-in-hand with his wife.
Jun 03, 5:49 PM After opening statements, FBI agent will be first witness
Hunter Biden and his stepmother, first lady Jill Biden, departed court at the conclusion of the day’s jury selection proceedings.
With opening statements set for Tuesday, prosecutors said their first witness would be FBI Special Agent Erika Jensen, who will introduce into evidence several of Hunter Biden’s text messages, as well as excerpts from his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things, and other evidence.
The parties had carved out three days to select a jury, which means the proceedings are currently running ahead of schedule.
Judge Maryellen Noreika told jurors they would likely need to be available for the trial through June 14, with the possibility of deliberations stretching into the week of June 17.
Jun 03, 5:32 PM Jury of six men, six women will hear openings Tuesday
A jury of six men and six women is scheduled to hear opening statements Tuesday in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial.
An additional four women were chosen as the alternate jurors.
The jurors include a Secret Service retiree, a man whose father was killed by a gun, and a number of jurors whose family and friends have suffered from addiction — a central theme in the case against Hunter Biden.
Juror No. 1 is a woman who recently heard about Hunter Biden’s case on the evening news. Said said her sister is also an addict, but is “currently clean.”
Juror No. 2 is a woman who worked for the Secret Service for nearly 25 years and is now retired. Her husband was a uniformed officer in Washington, D.C.
Juror No. 3 is woman who gets her news from YouTube. When asked what she has heard about the case, she said that it involves guns and drugs.
Juror No. 4 is a woman who said she feels people who smoke weed “should not be allowed” to own a gun, but said she could set that aside.
Juror No. 5 is a currently unemployed man who previously received a DUI for which he pleaded guilty.
Juror No. 6 is a man who said he previously knew about the case. He currently owns three pistols and said, “I believe the Second Amendment is very important.”
Juror No. 7 is a man whose father owned a firearm. He said he knows “some” gun laws.
Juror No. 8 is a man whose father was killed by a gun in 2004. He has a brother who was arrested for drug possession and was sentenced to prison.
Juror No. 9 is a woman whose home was burglarized years ago. She purchased a gun and has had it for over 20 years.
Juror No. 10 is a man whose brother and brother-in-law both suffered from alcoholism and are now both deceased. His niece and nephew both own guns.
Juror No. 11 is a woman whose family hunts and has hunting rifles. She said her “childhood best friend” passed away from a drug overdose.
Juror No. 12 is a man whose older brother is an addict who has been to rehab multiple times for PCP and heroin. He said the brother had a gun but he was not sure when.
Jun 03, 4:24 PM Jury is seated
The jury of 12 jurors and four alternates has been seated in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial.
The panel was picked from 250 prospective jurors who arrived at the courthouse this morning for the voir dire process.
Jun 03, 1:50 PM Many prospective jurors know of Hunter Biden’s travails
Judge Maryellen Noreika has so far quizzed more than 50 Delaware residents about their fitness to serve as jurors in the first trial of a sitting president’s son. And being Delaware — a small state that Joe Biden represented in the Senate for more than three decades — nearly all of them had some level of familiarity with Hunter Biden’s legal travails.
“I live in Delaware,” one prospective juror said. “You can’t swing a cat without hearing something.”
“Delaware is a small place,” another said. “So you hear stuff.”
Several jurors said they had heard or read about this trial specifically. Most had only a cursory understanding of the case, but others expressed a detailed accounting of the charges. A few jurors mentioned the ill-fated plea deal that Hunter Biden initially struck with prosecutors last summer.
“At one time there was a deal, and then there wasn’t,” one man said.
One woman had even read Hunter Biden’s memoir, “Beautiful Things,” which prosecutors plan to use to help prove their case. She was excused by the judge.
President Joe Biden has emerged repeatedly in questioning, with prospective jurors expressing both positive and negative feelings on his presidency. One woman said she believed that Hunter Biden was facing charges largely because his father is the president.
“I think it was a very strong factor,” she said.
Several others have been dismissed for harboring negative views toward the Bidens. Asked for his opinion about the president, one man said, “Not a good one.” Another man said, “Negative toward the defendant.” Both were excused.
The jury questionnaire also includes several questions about drug and alcohol addiction — an affliction that many prospective jurors said has personally affected them.
One woman held back tears as she described how her best friend had died of a heroine overdose. Another man said his daughter is a recovering addict.
“Everybody needs a second chance,” he said.
Judge Noreika has been pressing ahead, intent on getting a jury seated as soon as possible — perhaps even by the end of the day.
In addition first lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden’s wife Melissa, his sister Ashley Biden attended court during the morning session, and his confidant and financier Kevin Morris is also in attendance.
Jun 03, 10:26 AM President Biden says he has ‘boundless love’ for his son
President Joe Biden said in a statement issued this morning that he has “boundless love” for his son.
“I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. Hunter’s resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us,” Biden said in the statement as jury selection got underway.
“A lot of families have loved ones who have overcome addiction and know what we mean,” the president said.
“As the President, I don’t and won’t comment on pending federal cases, but as a Dad, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength,” he said. “Our family has been through a lot together, and Jill and I are going to continue to be there for Hunter and our family with our love and support.”
Jun 03, 10:10 AM Jurors face individual questioning as Jill Biden looks on
After filling out the jury questionnaire, the first panel of prospective jurors are being brought into the court room one-by-one to face individual questioning from the judge and both parties. As of about 9:45 a.m. ET, the court had made it through the questioning of just six jurors.
The prospective jurors so far have include a woman who worked with the Secret Service for over two decades and whose husband was a uniformed officer in Washington, D.C., at locations including the White House.
One prospective juror who volunteered for Hilary Clinton’s 2008 campaign prompted the first mention of President Joe Biden — though not by name.
Judge Norieka asked that prospective juror if her work volunteering and donating to Democratic campaigns would prevent her from being fair in a case that involved “the son of the Democratic president of the United States.”
She said it would not.
The exchange occurred as first lady Jill Biden sat in the front row of the gallery, watching intently as each juror answered their questions. The first lady is sitting next to Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa.
Earlier, a prospective juror was struck for cause because of his firm views on guns, after he told the judge he thought gun ownership was a “God-given right.” He said he would not be able to be impartial in a case where someone was prevented from buying a gun due to federal law.
Jun 03, 9:39 AM 1st batch of 50 jurors sworn in
Hunter Biden’s arrival through the front entrance of the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building this morning means he would have passed an enormous portrait of his father, which hangs in every federal courthouse in the country.
The first batch of 50 jurors were sworn in by Judge Noreika, who instructed them not to discuss the case with anyone, including family, or to conduct any research on the case or to read any news about it.
Reporters monitoring the proceedings from the overflow room could not hear most of Noreika’s statement due to technical difficulties. As technicians tried to fix the issue, they turned on a TV that happened to be playing an attack ad against Joe Biden.
Jun 03, 8:58 AM Hunter Biden, first lady Jill Biden arrive at courthouse
Hunter Biden has arrived at the courthouse for the start of his federal gun trial this morning.
His mother, first lady Jill Biden, is also attending.
Jun 03, 7:46 AM Prospective jurors will be asked about president
Two hundred and fifty Delaware residents have been summoned to the courthouse in downtown Wilmington, where they will face typical questions about their fitness to serve as jurors.
But because this is the trial of the son of a sitting president, there will be some novel topics covered during the jury selection process known as “voir dire.”
Among the questions jurors will be asked: “If you were eligible to vote in any election(s) in which Joseph R. Biden was a candidate, would that fact prevent you from maintaining an open, impartial mind until all of the evidence is presented, and the instructions of the Court are given?”
And “Do you believe Robert Hunter Biden is being prosecuted in this case because his father is the President of the United States and a candidate for President?”
Jun 03, 7:20 AM Judge rules annotated form can’t be used as evidence
On the eve of trial, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika threw a wrench in one of the key arguments attorneys for Hunter Biden were planning to advance, ruling that an annotated copy of the federal form Hunter Biden is accused of lying on would be excluded from evidence.
The original document, called an ATF Form 4473, was created in 2018 when Hunter Biden purchased the firearm. But in 2021, gun store employees made a copy that included some handwritten notes. Defense attorney Abbe Lowell contended that employees had “tampered with” the document, and that it raised questions about “who wrote what on the form, and when.”
Lowell hoped his argument would undermine the credibility of some key government witnesses — the people who sold Biden the gun — and potentially create a reasonable doubt that Hunter Biden was the one who actually checked that box.
Attorneys for special counsel David Weiss’ office have said the gun shop employees merely “annotated” the form and urged Noreika to prevent Lowell from introducing it into evidence.
Late Sunday, Noreika sided with Weiss.
Jun 03, 6:50 AM Jury selection set to get underway
Jury selection is scheduled to get underway today in the federal gun trial of Hunter Biden, who authorities say broke the law when he purchased a Colt revolver in 2018.
President Joe Biden’s son faces two counts of making false statements while purchasing the firearm and a third count of illegally obtaining it while addicted to drugs.
Although the charges together carry a possible sentence of up to 25 years, legal experts say that, as a first-time and nonviolent offender, Hunter Biden would not likely serve time if convicted.
The trial, in Delaware federal court, is expected to last two to three weeks.
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, departs the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building and United States Courthouse on July 26, 2023 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo by Mark M
(WILMINGTON, Del.) — President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden is on trial in Delaware on three felony charges related to his efforts to obtain a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs.
The son of a sitting president has never before faced a criminal trial.
The frequency of updates may be limited due to federal court restrictions:
Jun 03, 6:06 PM Friends, family look on during Day 1 in court
Hunter Biden spent the first day of his gun trial taking notes, reading documents placed in front of him by his attorneys, and often turning to catch a glimpse of the friends and family who came to court to support him.
At one point, he nodded along as a prospective juror spoke about her friend’s overdose after addiction.
Jill Biden was seated behind Hunter Biden all day, and she watched attentively as some jurors told the court that they had such a skewed view of her family that they could not be impartial. The first lady did not appear to react in those moments, but at times her daughter Ashley Biden placed her hand on the first lady’s back in support.
Hunter Biden’s family members also appeared to be actively involved with his defense strategy — at one point standing up and huddling with Hunter Biden’s attorneys Abbe Lowell and David Kolansky after a sidebar.
When court was dismissed, Jill Biden gave Hunter Biden a hug and a kiss before he walked out hand-in-hand with his wife.
Jun 03, 5:49 PM After opening statements, FBI agent will be first witness
Hunter Biden and his stepmother, first lady Jill Biden, departed court at the conclusion of the day’s jury selection proceedings.
With opening statements set for Tuesday, prosecutors said their first witness would be FBI Special Agent Erika Jensen, who will introduce into evidence several of Hunter Biden’s text messages, as well as excerpts from his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things, and other evidence.
The parties had carved out three days to select a jury, which means the proceedings are currently running ahead of schedule.
Judge Maryellen Noreika told jurors they would likely need to be available for the trial through June 14, with the possibility of deliberations stretching into the week of June 17.
Jun 03, 5:32 PM Jury of six men, six women will hear openings Tuesday
A jury of six men and six women is scheduled to hear opening statements Tuesday in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial.
An additional four women were chosen as the alternate jurors.
The jurors include a Secret Service retiree, a man whose father was killed by a gun, and a number of jurors whose family and friends have suffered from addiction — a central theme in the case against Hunter Biden.
Juror No. 1 is a woman who recently heard about Hunter Biden’s case on the evening news. Said said her sister is also an addict, but is “currently clean.”
Juror No. 2 is a woman who worked for the Secret Service for nearly 25 years and is now retired. Her husband was a uniformed officer in Washington, D.C.
Juror No. 3 is woman who gets her news from YouTube. When asked what she has heard about the case, she said that it involves guns and drugs.
Juror No. 4 is a woman who said she feels people who smoke weed “should not be allowed” to own a gun, but said she could set that aside.
Juror No. 5 is a currently unemployed man who previously received a DUI for which he pleaded guilty.
Juror No. 6 is a man who said he previously knew about the case. He currently owns three pistols and said, “I believe the Second Amendment is very important.”
Juror No. 7 is a man whose father owned a firearm. He said he knows “some” gun laws.
Juror No. 8 is a man whose father was killed by a gun in 2004. He has a brother who was arrested for drug possession and was sentenced to prison.
Juror No. 9 is a woman whose home was burglarized years ago. She purchased a gun and has had it for over 20 years.
Juror No. 10 is a man whose brother and brother-in-law both suffered from alcoholism and are now both deceased. His niece and nephew both own guns.
Juror No. 11 is a woman whose family hunts and has hunting rifles. She said her “childhood best friend” passed away from a drug overdose.
Juror No. 12 is a man whose older brother is an addict who has been to rehab multiple times for PCP and heroin. He said the brother had a gun but he was not sure when.
Jun 03, 4:24 PM Jury is seated
The jury of 12 jurors and four alternates has been seated in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial.
The panel was picked from 250 prospective jurors who arrived at the courthouse this morning for the voir dire process.
Jun 03, 1:50 PM Many prospective jurors know of Hunter Biden’s travails
Judge Maryellen Noreika has so far quizzed more than 50 Delaware residents about their fitness to serve as jurors in the first trial of a sitting president’s son. And being Delaware — a small state that Joe Biden represented in the Senate for more than three decades — nearly all of them had some level of familiarity with Hunter Biden’s legal travails.
“I live in Delaware,” one prospective juror said. “You can’t swing a cat without hearing something.”
“Delaware is a small place,” another said. “So you hear stuff.”
Several jurors said they had heard or read about this trial specifically. Most had only a cursory understanding of the case, but others expressed a detailed accounting of the charges. A few jurors mentioned the ill-fated plea deal that Hunter Biden initially struck with prosecutors last summer.
“At one time there was a deal, and then there wasn’t,” one man said.
One woman had even read Hunter Biden’s memoir, “Beautiful Things,” which prosecutors plan to use to help prove their case. She was excused by the judge.
President Joe Biden has emerged repeatedly in questioning, with prospective jurors expressing both positive and negative feelings on his presidency. One woman said she believed that Hunter Biden was facing charges largely because his father is the president.
“I think it was a very strong factor,” she said.
Several others have been dismissed for harboring negative views toward the Bidens. Asked for his opinion about the president, one man said, “Not a good one.” Another man said, “Negative toward the defendant.” Both were excused.
The jury questionnaire also includes several questions about drug and alcohol addiction — an affliction that many prospective jurors said has personally affected them.
One woman held back tears as she described how her best friend had died of a heroine overdose. Another man said his daughter is a recovering addict.
“Everybody needs a second chance,” he said.
Judge Noreika has been pressing ahead, intent on getting a jury seated as soon as possible — perhaps even by the end of the day.
In addition first lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden’s wife Melissa, his sister Ashley Biden attended court during the morning session, and his confidant and financier Kevin Morris is also in attendance.
Jun 03, 10:26 AM President Biden says he has ‘boundless love’ for his son
President Joe Biden said in a statement issued this morning that he has “boundless love” for his son.
“I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. Hunter’s resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us,” Biden said in the statement as jury selection got underway.
“A lot of families have loved ones who have overcome addiction and know what we mean,” the president said.
“As the President, I don’t and won’t comment on pending federal cases, but as a Dad, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength,” he said. “Our family has been through a lot together, and Jill and I are going to continue to be there for Hunter and our family with our love and support.”
Jun 03, 10:10 AM Jurors face individual questioning as Jill Biden looks on
After filling out the jury questionnaire, the first panel of prospective jurors are being brought into the court room one-by-one to face individual questioning from the judge and both parties. As of about 9:45 a.m. ET, the court had made it through the questioning of just six jurors.
The prospective jurors so far have include a woman who worked with the Secret Service for over two decades and whose husband was a uniformed officer in Washington, D.C., at locations including the White House.
One prospective juror who volunteered for Hilary Clinton’s 2008 campaign prompted the first mention of President Joe Biden — though not by name.
Judge Norieka asked that prospective juror if her work volunteering and donating to Democratic campaigns would prevent her from being fair in a case that involved “the son of the Democratic president of the United States.”
She said it would not.
The exchange occurred as first lady Jill Biden sat in the front row of the gallery, watching intently as each juror answered their questions. The first lady is sitting next to Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa.
Earlier, a prospective juror was struck for cause because of his firm views on guns, after he told the judge he thought gun ownership was a “God-given right.” He said he would not be able to be impartial in a case where someone was prevented from buying a gun due to federal law.
Jun 03, 9:39 AM 1st batch of 50 jurors sworn in
Hunter Biden’s arrival through the front entrance of the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building this morning means he would have passed an enormous portrait of his father, which hangs in every federal courthouse in the country.
The first batch of 50 jurors were sworn in by Judge Noreika, who instructed them not to discuss the case with anyone, including family, or to conduct any research on the case or to read any news about it.
Reporters monitoring the proceedings from the overflow room could not hear most of Noreika’s statement due to technical difficulties. As technicians tried to fix the issue, they turned on a TV that happened to be playing an attack ad against Joe Biden.
Jun 03, 8:58 AM Hunter Biden, first lady Jill Biden arrive at courthouse
Hunter Biden has arrived at the courthouse for the start of his federal gun trial this morning.
His mother, first lady Jill Biden, is also attending.
Jun 03, 7:46 AM Prospective jurors will be asked about president
Two hundred and fifty Delaware residents have been summoned to the courthouse in downtown Wilmington, where they will face typical questions about their fitness to serve as jurors.
But because this is the trial of the son of a sitting president, there will be some novel topics covered during the jury selection process known as “voir dire.”
Among the questions jurors will be asked: “If you were eligible to vote in any election(s) in which Joseph R. Biden was a candidate, would that fact prevent you from maintaining an open, impartial mind until all of the evidence is presented, and the instructions of the Court are given?”
And “Do you believe Robert Hunter Biden is being prosecuted in this case because his father is the President of the United States and a candidate for President?”
Jun 03, 7:20 AM Judge rules annotated form can’t be used as evidence
On the eve of trial, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika threw a wrench in one of the key arguments attorneys for Hunter Biden were planning to advance, ruling that an annotated copy of the federal form Hunter Biden is accused of lying on would be excluded from evidence.
The original document, called an ATF Form 4473, was created in 2018 when Hunter Biden purchased the firearm. But in 2021, gun store employees made a copy that included some handwritten notes. Defense attorney Abbe Lowell contended that employees had “tampered with” the document, and that it raised questions about “who wrote what on the form, and when.”
Lowell hoped his argument would undermine the credibility of some key government witnesses — the people who sold Biden the gun — and potentially create a reasonable doubt that Hunter Biden was the one who actually checked that box.
Attorneys for special counsel David Weiss’ office have said the gun shop employees merely “annotated” the form and urged Noreika to prevent Lowell from introducing it into evidence.
Late Sunday, Noreika sided with Weiss.
Jun 03, 6:50 AM Jury selection set to get underway
Jury selection is scheduled to get underway today in the federal gun trial of Hunter Biden, who authorities say broke the law when he purchased a Colt revolver in 2018.
President Joe Biden’s son faces two counts of making false statements while purchasing the firearm and a third count of illegally obtaining it while addicted to drugs.
Although the charges together carry a possible sentence of up to 25 years, legal experts say that, as a first-time and nonviolent offender, Hunter Biden would not likely serve time if convicted.
The trial, in Delaware federal court, is expected to last two to three weeks.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — A Minnesota trooper who fatally shot an unarmed Black man during a routine traffic stop last July has had the charges against him dismissed.
Ryan Londregan, the white state trooper accused of killing Ricky Cobb II, 33, had faced charges of second-degree unintentional murder, first-degree assault and second-degree manslaughter. He previously pleaded not guilty.
In a statement Sunday night, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced that the charges against Londregan would be thrown out. The dismissal comes after the defense said Londregan would testify that he saw Cobb “reach for the trooper’s firearm,” and that a Minnesota State Patrol trainer said “he never instructed officers to refrain from shooting into a moving vehicle.”
As a result of this new evidence, prosecutors determined they could no longer prove beyond a reasonable doubt “that Mr. Londregan’s actions were not an authorized use of force by a peace officer,” and decided to drop the case.
In a press conference Monday morning, Moriarty expressed regret that she would not be able to bring the case to trial.
“Ricky Cobb should be alive today,” she said. “And that makes our inability to move forward even more difficult for Mr. Cobb’s family and for our community. And for that, I’m deeply sorry.”
Civil rights attorneys Bakari Sellers, Harry Daniels and F. Clayton Tyler, who are representing the Cobb family, criticized the county attorney’s office, saying they had “bowed to political pressure to drop the charges.”
“Apparently, all you have to do to get away with murder is to bully the prosecutors enough and the charges will just go away,” the attorneys said in a statement. “The people don’t believe the excuses and neither do we.”
Cobb was pulled over on July 31, 2023, around 1:50 a.m. — initially because his taillights were out, but upon being stopped, troopers learned he was wanted for violating a protective order in a nearby county and were asked to take him into custody, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
Bodycam footage shows two troopers talking to Cobb while they stood outside the car. The troopers attempted to detain Cobb, but he allegedly refused to exit the car and tried to drive away. One of the troopers appeared to try to grab the steering wheel to stop him, but he drove away, the body camera video shows. A trooper, since identified as Londregan, shot multiple times at Cobb, who drove a short distance before striking a median and dying at the scene, authorities said.
Cobb’s family filed a federal lawsuit in April against Londregan — as well as Minnesota State Trooper Brett Seide, who was also involved in the traffic stop but was not charged in this case — accusing them of “unreasonable seizure” and “excessive use of force.”
In a press conference announcing the lawsuit, Olivia Stroh, the mother of Cobb’s 7-year-old son, called for justice in the case and revealed the trauma her young son is experiencing.
“I just want to say that the pain that I felt from having to tell my son that the person he looks up to — the person who’s supposed to protect and serve – he shot his daddy,” Stroh said of Londregan. “It’s horrifying to tell him that — he’s 7. And he doesn’t deserve this. Ricky doesn’t deserve this. His four other children don’t deserve this, and he absolutely needs justice.”
Cobb’s father, Ricky Cobb Jr., said in a press conference in January that he was struggling to stay strong for his family.
“This is a hard one,” he said. “I will say to any father who has lost his child, this takes you to a different level of how to stand strong. I had to stand strong for my kids.”
Londregan’s attorney, Christopher Madel, told ABC News in April that he would represent him in both the civil and criminal cases. “We will fight the civil case with the same vigor as we have the criminal case,” he said at the time.
In a statement after Londregan was first charged, Madel criticized prosecutors and described Londregan as a “hero.”
“This County Attorney has provided sweetheart deals to murderers and kidnappers, and now, today, she charges a hero. This County Attorney is literally out of control,” Madel said. “Open season on law enforcement must end. And it’s going to end with this case.”
ABC News’ Dhanika Pineda and Davi Merchan contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Two New York City police officers are recovering from injuries after both were shot early Monday while chasing a moped-riding suspect authorities described as an undocumented migrant from Venezuela.
The shooting unfolded in the borough of Queens, where the injured officers were working early Monday to address recent robbery patterns in the area. Victims had their cellphones snatched from their hands and at least one robbery victim was assaulted by suspects riding mopeds and scooters, according police.
One of the injured officers, 26-year-old Richard Yarusso, who joined the NYPD nearly three years ago, was saved by his bulletproof vest, which stopped a bullet from hitting him in the torso, officials said.
During a news conference Monday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams held up the officer’s body armor and pointed to a bullet hole, saying, “Because of this vest, a young police officer is going home.”
Adams, a former NYPD police captain, described the shooting as a “senseless act of violence, a total disregard for life.”
The other injured officer, Christopher Abreu, also 26, and a five-year veteran of the NYPD, was shot in the leg, according to NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, who called the shooting another reminder of how NYPD officers “put themselves on the line to make sure our city is safe.”
“Every day, they go toward the danger and we saw it again early this morning,” Caban said.
Officers Yarusso and Abreu are assigned to the 115 Precinct’s public safety team and were working in East Elmhurst, Queens, when at 1:40 a.m. ET they saw the suspect, identified by police as Bernardo Raul Castro Mato, driving an unregistered moped the wrong way on a one-way street and attempted to pull him over, Caban said.
“The suspect then fled on foot and our officers began a foot pursuit, which led for several blocks,” Caban said. “During the pursuit, the suspect fired multiple rounds at our officers, who then returned fire.”
The suspect, according to police, was shot in the right leg and taken to New York Presbyterian Queens Hospital, where he was undergoing surgery Monday morning. An illegal firearm was recovered at the scene, police said.
Yarusso and Abreu were treated at Elmhurst Hospital and released, emerging from the hospital to the applause of fellow officers.
Patrick Hendry, president of the New York City Police Benovelent Association, said the actions of both Yarusso and Abreu were “heroic.”
Hendry said Yarusso likely saved Abreu’s life by putting a tourniquet on his injured leg.
“That’s what partners do in the NYPD,” Hendry said. “They save each other’s lives and that’s what happened here today.”
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said Castro is a suspect in several robbery patterns, which each pattern involving hundreds of incidents.
“Many of these crimes have all been committed by the perpetrators riding on scooters and motorbikes,” Kenny said.
Kenny said the number of robbery patterns citywide involving assailants on mopeds and scooters has totaled 80 so far this year.
Kenny said the suspect has been living at a former Courtyard Marriot Hotel in Queens that was converted into a shelter for migrants.
The suspect is from Venezuela who entered the U.S in July 2023 by illegally crossing into the country from Mexico at Eagle Pass, Texas, according to Kenny.
(NEW YORK) — Google is making some changes to its AI Overviews, after the artificial intelligence-driven search feature gave what the company calls “odd and erroneous” responses to people’s online searches.
AI Overviews were introduced last month at Google’s annual I/O developer conference. Now, when people use Google Search to find information on certain topics, a box of AI-generated text appears at the top of the search results, annotated with links to external websites. Traditional search results appear below the AI Overviews, marking a major shift in how Google presents information.
According to a blog post from Google VP Liz Reid, AI Overviews results are generated using the company’s large language model (LLM), Gemini, and are designed for instances when someone wants to “get both a quick overview of a topic and links to learn more.”
Google technology expert Alex Joseph told ABC Audio that AI Overviews is able to field more complex questions than a traditional Google Search.
“With an AI Overview what [Google] can really do is synthesize a lot of information and get you the answer that you’re looking for very quickly,” said Joseph.
Instead of presenting users with pages of links to comb though, Joseph said, AI Overviews streamlines the process by summarizing information and providing users with a concise answer.
“They’ll have less friction, they won’t have to click through to a number of different websites, which can often be quite a bit of a bugbear if you just want some information very quickly,” notes Chris Stokel-Walker, technology journalist and author of the book “How AI Ate the World: A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence – and Its Long Future.”
However, Stokel-Walker said the new feature makes it harder for people using Google Search to verify the accuracy of the information they’re reading.
“We’ve kind of got used to over the last two decades of Google Search dominance to the results that we get to a search term being largely right,” he told ABC Audio. “Suddenly, if you get rid of that, as Google is proposing, and actually just shove an answer straight into the search results page that its created via generative AI, you have no real way of identifying and kind of analyzing that information to see whether it’s true or not.”
There are other concerns about the new feature as well. For one, generative AI technology, both from Google and elsewhere, has faced criticism for “hallucinating” – that is, generating information that’s unreliable and inaccurate.
For example, in the few weeks since AI Overviews have been available to the public, people using Google Search have been advised to eat at least one small rock per day, and it told one user that a good way to get cheese to stick to pizza is to mix glue into the tomato sauce – both of which are, of course, very bad ideas. It also said that Andrew Jackson, the seventh U.S. president who died in 1845, graduated from college in 2005.
Stokel-Walker said any benefit from AI Overviews ultimately comes down to a tradeoff between convenience and cost. “You no longer have kind of click through five or six different pages and maybe several pages of search results to find the right answer, but also it does mean that either the answer might be wrong or it might not be the one that you actually want to get,” he said.
“We’ve always been very clear about the limitations of LLMs, that there will be occasionally hallucinations,” Google’s Alex Joseph said, adding that’s why AI Overviews also cites the websites it uses to generate its answers.
“It’s part of the reason that we present all of the information for you holistically,” said Joseph. “These are quick shortcuts to help you get some information to you quickly, but they’re followed along with areas where you can go, double check, verify.”
Joseph also said not all queries are best served by an AI Overviews: “We only show them on queries where we have a high confidence that it’s going to be helpful and actually enhance the experience.”
In the wake of the unusual responses some social media users have reported, Google announced it had made “more than a dozen technical improvements” to AI Overviews. According to Liz Reid’s blog post, they include limiting the inclusion of user-generated content, as well as satirical or humorous webpages, in the data used to craft AI Overviews. Reid said Google also “launched additional triggering refinements to enhance our quality protections” regarding health content, and that it “aim[s] to not show AI Overviews for hard news topics, where freshness and factuality are important.”
The blog post also notes that “AI Overviews generally don’t ‘hallucinate’ or make things up in the ways that other LLM products might,” and that the incorrect answers are the result of “misinterpreting queries, misinterpreting a nuance of language on the web, or not having a lot of great information available.”
Aside from the accuracy concerns, Stokel-Walker said Google prioritizing AI Overviews over traditional search results could affect revenue and reshape how business is done on the web.
“Websites produce content; they try and make it attractive to Google. Google will show them in its search results. And as a result, people click through to their website, they then see ads off the back of that, and the publisher makes the money that allows them to put new content onto websites,” Stokel-Walker explained.
By replacing the top of the Google Search results page with AI-generated content, however, Stokel-Walker said websites could see fewer visitors – and therefore less ad revenue.
It’s an ironic situation, according to Stokel-Walker. That’s because Gemini, the LLM Google uses to create its AI Overviews, relies on the websites it’s now appearing ahead of.
“These websites do still need to exist, and they do need to have a way of making income, because otherwise, there’s nothing for those AI-generated search results to be based on,” Stokel-Walker pointed out.
In a statement to ABC News, Google said its testing has shown that the opposite is actually happening: that the links included in AI Overviews get more clicks than if the page had appeared as it typically does in search results. Google also said it will “continue to focus” on sending valuable traffic to publishers and creators.
Regardless of how the concerns about AI Overviews ultimately shake out, it’s just one of a slew of features the company has planned for its line of technology products.
“I think that doing something like this as quickly as Google is doing it is concerning,” said technology journalist C. Scott Brown of the website Android Authority.
Google has announced plans for additional features similar to AI Overviews, which will aim to answer questions about specific webpages or YouTube videos. Brown says those features will hit the market against the backdrop of increasing competition.
“And the reason it’s doing that is because it feels like it has to. It has to keep up with companies – especially like OpenAI, for example – that are creating generative AI technologies that are threatening Google’s core business, which is delivering information to people through Google search, and thus delivering them advertisements that allow Google to make billions and billions of dollars,” said Brown.
“With Google seeing these things as a threat, it can’t just rest. It can’t figure out how to do this cleanly, and do it right,” Brown added. “It just has to do it.”
