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(NEW YORK) — For years, The Tenement Museum in New York City’s Lower East Side has become a living monument to the stories of 19th and early 20th-century working-class New Yorkers.

The museum is housed in a former tenement building that showcases an interactive learning space with artifacts, exhibits and other programs that have taught visitors the stories of struggle and hard work of immigrant families during that time.

“We had settled on telling the stories of people who actually lived in the building. We’ve scoured public records, census records, city directories,” Laura Lee, the director of training and resources at The Tenement Museum, told ABC News.

That dedicated research led the museum to create a new interactive exhibit in the building that explores the tenement experiences that Black families had to face through the story of a 19th-century couple.

“A Union of Hope: 1869,” recreates the home of Joseph and Rachel Moore, who lived in the Lower East Side in the 1870s, right down to their furniture and even replicas of the food they ate. The exhibit is the first apartment recreation at the museum dedicated to a Black family, according to administrators.

The exhibit also features audio re-enactments of what the free Black community in New York City would have talked about during this time.

Annie Polland, the museum’s president, said the history of the Black community in New York during this time was mostly untold. She noted that the idea behind the exhibit came to be after a visitor looked at old tenement directories on display and noticed there were two listings for a man named Joseph Moore.

One of the Joseph Moore listings had a major distinction, she said.

“Our visitor started asking, ‘Who’s this other Joseph Moore? And what does it mean to have col’d next to their name?'” Polland said. “We would explain that’s a 19th-century term for people of African descent. But then we’re like, ‘well, what would his life be like?'”

The Tenement Museum’s researchers began looking into Moore’s history. Born in New Jersey in 1837, Moore, whose family was not enslaved, lived and experienced one of the biggest transitional moments in American history, according to Lee.

“Slavery was still legal at that time. In his community, there were free Black folks in New Jersey, but also there would have been some enslaved folks, too,” she said.

Lee said that the tenement building that the couple lived in housed a diverse group of families.

“We see a lot of Black and Irish folks creating a family together. So you’ll see households, you’ll see marriages, you’ll see children who are listed as mulatto, which was the term for mixed race at that time,” she said. “I think it’s surprising for people to see these two communities coming together and creating space in the most intimate ways.”

Kojo Senoo, an educator at the Tenement Museum, told ABC News that the Moores worked numerous jobs, including a waiter, coachman and various domestic labor roles, which encapsulated what the labor force looked like for the working class during the late 19th century.

“All of these families essentially come here to this city just to make a better life for their kids, to be able to realize that dream. It’s also with the understanding that a lot of times you have to work together [and] you have to get to know your neighbors. You have to have a community here,” Senoo said.

Lee said she is proud to be able to tell the Moores’ story and showcase a piece of New York’s history that has gone long forgotten.

“To be able to think about how they’re gathering at home and what that home might feel like…I think I’m just really excited to be able to even connect with folks in that way,” she said.

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(FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.) — A young girl has died and a boy has been hospitalized after they fell into a hole in the sand at a beach Tuesday at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida.

“Our hearts are heavy in LBTS today after learning two children were trapped in the sand,” the Town of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea said in a statement.

The two children were pulled out of the sand and taken to the hospital, but police later confirmed the girl had died.

Police received a call about two children being trapped in the sand at around 3 p.m.

A witness shared video with Miami ABC affiliate WPLG showing one of the children being rushed away by first responders after being pulled from the hole.

“You saw grown men digging with shovels and buckets and nobody could find her,” a witness told WPLG. “I guess when the wall caved in she may have been laying flat and so maybe it just kind of pancaked her. The dad was able to pull his son out but the daughter was still underneath the sand.”

An investigation is ongoing into the incident.

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(OWASSO, Okla.) — Investigators in Owasso, Oklahoma, are investigating the death of a nonbinary student one day after a physical altercation with other students.

There are conflicting reports regarding the student’s name and gender identity, and they are believed to be part of the transgender and gender nonconforming community. The student was identified to be 16-year-old Nex Benedict by their mother in an interview with The Independent.

The student’s mother, Sue Benedict, told the news outlet that Nex and another student had gotten in a fight with three older girls in the bathroom. It is not yet clear if their gender identities had a role in the altercation.

Nex had experienced several months of bullying from students, according to Sue Benedict in The Independent.

Police said an Owasso High School student died on Feb. 8, a day after a physical altercation between the student and others at the school took place. Police have not publicly identified the victim.

According to police, the teen and their family reported the altercation at a local hospital, where the student was taken following the incident. A school resource officer responded to the hospital to take the report.

In a statement on the school’s website, school officials said: “Students were in the restroom for less than two minutes and the physical altercation was broken up by other students who were present in the restroom at the time, along with a staff member who was supervising outside of the restroom.”

According to police, the student was rushed back to a hospital the next day, where the student was pronounced dead.

Officials say they are investigating the incident and will be interviewing school staff and students “over the course of the next two weeks.” The findings will then be submitted to the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution review.

Officials say it is not known at this time if the death is related to the incident at the school or not. The department is awaiting an autopsy report and toxicology results.

The State Medical Examiner’s Office will determine a final cause and manner of death.

Nex’s mother told The Independent that they had experience several months of bullying from students, and it followed state legislative policies that targeted the transgender community.

In recent years, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed bills that required students to use bathrooms that match their sex assigned at birth citing safety, banned the use of nonbinary gender markers on IDs, restricted gender-affirming care and banned transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports citing fairness.

In a post on GoFundMe, Sue Benedict added: “We are sorry for not using their name correctly and as parents we were still learning the correct forms. Please do not judge us as Nex was judged, please do not bully us for our ignorance on the subject. Nex gave us that respect and we are sorry in our grief that we overlooked them.”

Local LGBTQ organizations are calling for accountability against those who have promoted anti-transgender rhetoric, which some speculate may have contributed to the attack on Nex and the other student.

“The assault on Nex is an inevitable result of the hateful rhetoric and discriminatory legislation targeting Oklahoma trans youth,” said groups Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU of Oklahoma in a joint statement.

“We are deeply troubled by reports the school failed to respond appropriately to the altercation that preceded Nex’s death and demand a thorough, open investigation into the matter,” the statement read.

ABC News has reached out to the Owasso school district for comment.

“While we continue to piece together the full story, we wanted to reach out to our community grappling with this horrific harm, and the grief we all share as we reflect on the growing anti-2SLGBTQ+ sentiments our youngest community members are facing more often,” said advocacy group Freedom Oklahoma.

Anti-LGBTQ violence has been on the rise in recent years, according to law enforcement researchers, coinciding with growing anti-LGBTQ sentiment from conservative politicians.

Activists say they hope Nex is remembered for more than their tragic death.

“Nex loved rock music, and often bonded with others over headbanging,” said Freedom Oklahoma in a statement. “Nex was unfailingly kind, and always searched for the best in people.”

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(LOS ANGELES) — The Los Angeles Police Department released body camera footage Tuesday that shows a police officer shooting and killing a man who charged at him while holding a plastic fork earlier this month.

The Feb. 3 incident that killed 36-year-old Jason Lee Maccani is under investigation by the state Department of Justice, according to Police Chief Michel Moore, who told the Police Commission last week he had “concerns relative to the actions of the officer involved.”

Authorities were called to the 800 block of East 7th Street, near the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, on Feb. 3 around 2:20 p.m., local time, according to Captain Kelly Muniz.

Muniz notes that a business owner at a warehouse in the area called police after a man was allegedly threatening employees with a stick. He was believed to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the incident, Muniz said.

In the 911 audio released Tuesday, the business owner said the suspect was “getting aggressive.”

When authorities arrived, Maccani went into an office on the fourth floor of the warehouse where he had access to “sharp objects,” the business owner told police, according to Muniz.

In security footage released by LAPD, six officers are seen approaching the office where Maccani had retreated. Police say they gave “verbal commands” for Maccani to exit the location with his hands raised.

Officers then ordered Maccani to turn around and walk backward toward them, according to Muniz. Maccani initially complied but then turned and “charged” toward the officers, Muniz said.

One of the officers observed Maccani holding what he believed to be a screwdriver and deployed a less-lethal 40mm projectile launcher at Maccani and another officer fired two rounds of a beanbag shotgun at him, Muniz said, but noted the less-lethal methods were not effective.

Maccani continued to advance toward the officers and made contact with one of the officers, grabbing the beanbag shotgun, according to Muniz.

Maccani was then shot by another officer’s gunfire, taken to the ground, and taken to the hospital where he later died, according to Muniz.

The object initially believed to be a screwdriver or knife turned out to be a white plastic fork.

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(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for Hunter Biden on Tuesday moved to dismiss tax-related charges brought by special counsel David Weiss in California, accusing prosecutors of selectively targeting President Joe Biden’s son, violating a statute of limitations, and filing duplicative charges on three counts of failure to pay and tax evasion.

“The special counsel has gone to extreme lengths to bring charges against Mr. Biden that would not have been filed against anyone else,” Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement.

“Prosecutors reneged on binding agreements, bowed to political pressure to bring unprecedented charges, overreached in their authority, ignored the rules and allowed their agents to run amok, and repeatedly misstated evidence to the court to defend their conduct. It is time to hold the special counsel accountable and dismiss these improper charges,” Lowell said.

Weiss’ office charged Hunter Biden in December with nine felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from his failure to pay $1.4 million in taxes for three years during a time when he was in the throes of addiction. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The back taxes and penalties were eventually paid in full by a third party, identified by ABC News as Hunter Biden’s attorney and confidant, Kevin Morris.

In his motions on Tuesday, Lowell reiterated many of the arguments he waged in his efforts to dismiss three additional felony counts Biden faces in Delaware — charges to which Biden has also pleaded not guilty.

Lowell claimed that the tax indictment is the result of a selective and vindictive prosecution stemming from political pressure, that Weiss was not properly appointed special counsel and therefore lacks authority to file charges, and that an immunity agreement struck by the two parties last summer remains in effect.

Lowell also argued that the statute of limitations for Biden’s alleged failure to pay taxes in 2016 expired in April 2023.

Hunter Biden’s attorneys also challenged the venue of the charges, claiming Biden was a resident of Washington, D.C., at the time and argued that three counts of the indictment “contain serious duplicity problems,” where multiple alleged violations are included in the same count.

In the event the case does move forward, Lowell filed a separate motion seeking to strike “inflammatory characterizations and gratuitous facts and descriptors” included in the indictment that were “meant to depict Mr. Biden as irresponsible, frivolous, and otherwise of questionable character and integrity” during his period in the throes of addiction.

Lowell said they run the risk of “misleading and confusing the jury” if the case moves to trial.

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump owes an additional $87,502 in post-judgment interest every day until he pays the $354 million fine ordered by Judge Arthur Engoron in his civil fraud case, according to ABC News’ calculations based on the judge’s lengthy ruling in the case.

Judge Engoron on Friday fined Trump $354 million plus approximately $100 million in pre-judgment interest in the civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, after he found that Trump and his adult sons had inflated Trump’s net worth in order to get more favorable loan terms. The former president has denied all wrongdoing and has said he will appeal.

Engoron ordered Trump to pay pre-judgment interest on each ill-gotten gain — with interest accruing based on the date of each transaction — as well as a 9% post-judgment interest rate once the court enters the judgment in the case.

With Trump owing more than $600,000 in interest every week, the interest not only adds to his mounting legal bills but will likely also guide the former president’s approach to his appeal, according to University of Michigan business law professor Will Thomas.

“If he ends up losing on appeal, Trump will have to pay both the pre-judgment and the post-judgment interest,” University of Michigan business law professor Will Thomas told ABC News.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, James vowed that Trump would pay the fine, including possibly seizing his assets like his namesake buildings if he does not have the cash for the fine.

“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” James told ABC News.

Here are four things to know about Trump’s massive penalties:

Why does Trump need to pay a 9% interest rate?

Judge Engoron ordered Trump to pay a 9% interest rate for the fine based on the New York Civil Practice Law & Rules.

Engoron had to determine the date from when the pre-judgment interest began accruing, which varies based on each transaction in question.

For post-judgment interest, Trump owes 9% of the fine annually — starting from Friday when the ruling was issued — until he pays the full amount.

How did the judge determine Trump should pay $354 million?

Judge Engoron ordered Trump to pay roughly $354 million in disgorgement based on three categories of ill-gotten profits.

First, Trump needs to pay $168 million for potential interest lost by his banks, which the judge determined Trump deceived into giving him a lower rate using false financial statements. Engoron ordered Trump to begin paying pre-judgement interest for those transactions beginning on March 4, 2019 — the day when New York Attorney General Letitia James began her investigation.

Second, Trump owes $60 million for his profits from the sale of a New York golf course. The interest for that transaction began accruing on June 26, 2023, when Trump sold the lease for the course to Bally’s.

Last, Trump owes $126 million for his profits from the sale of his Washington, D.C., hotel, and the interest for that fine began on May 11, 2022, when Trump sold the property.

What about the other co-defendants?

Trump’s adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, each were fined $4 million based on the profits they received from the sale of the D.C. hotel, according to Engoron’s ruling. They each have accrued $643,183 in interest on that fine, according to the ruling, owing an additional $990 daily.

Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was also fined $1 million for the separation agreement he signed when leaving the company, which Engoron determined was “designed to ensure his continued loyalty to the Trump Organization and his non-cooperation with law enforcement.”

“There is substantial evidence that Allen Weisselberg’s $2 million separation agreement was negotiated to compensate him for his continued non-cooperation with any entities with any legal interests ‘adverse’ to defendants,” Engoron wrote. “Moreover, as Weisselberg was a critical player in nearly every instance of fraud, it would be inequitable to allow him to profit from his actions by covering up defendants’ misdeeds.”

Weisselberg owes an additional $100,356 in interest on top of the overall fine.

What happens when Trump appeals?

Trump will continue to accrue interest on the fine during his lengthy appeal of Engoron’s ruling, unless he deposits the full amount of the fine into an escrow account, according to Thomas.

While Trump’s appeal will prompt an automatic stay of the enforcement of Engoron’s ruling, Trump needs to first put money into an escrow account or post a bond in order to appeal.

If Trump decides to post a bond to cover the fine during his appeal, the interest will continue to accrue during his appeal, adding potentially tens of millions of dollars in the process.

“It’s a lot of money,” Thomas told ABC News.

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(WASHINGTON) — The informant accused of fabricating a story about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden taking $5 million each in bribes allegedly had high-level Russian intelligence contacts, according to newly filed court documents.

In the filing, Special Counsel David Weiss reveals that after his arrest last week, Alexander Smirnov told the FBI “that officials with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story” about Hunter Biden.

Prosecutors argued in their filing Smirnov should be held pending trial, with Weiss saying that Smirnov’s claims he has active contacts with “multiple foreign intelligence agencies” and had planned to leave the U.S. just two days after his arrival in the U.S. last week “for a months-long, multi-country foreign trip.”

However, a judge late Tuesday ordered Smirnov released from custody, under the condition that he surrender his passport, wear an ankle monitor, and be restricted to traveling only to Nevada and to California for court purposes.

In Weiss’ filing, he wrote that “foreign intelligence agencies could resettle Smirnov outside the United States if he were released.”

Furthermore, “Smirnov’s efforts to spread misinformation about a candidate of one of the two major parties in the United States continues,” the filing states. “What this shows is that the misinformation he is spreading is not confined to 2020. He is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November. In light of that fact there is a serious risk he will flee in order to avoid accountability for his actions.”

Smirnov’s assigned defense counsel disputed Weiss’ claims that Smirnov misled the court’s pretrial services officer about his personal wealth.

Attorney David Chesnoff said that when Smirnov met with the officer he was “only asked about his personal assets and not the business account.”

His attorney did not directly address the other claims raised by Weiss regarding Smirnov’s claimed extensive ties to Russian intelligence or other issues they say present a risk he will flee prosecution.

The developments come as Hunter Biden’s team suggested that the informant’s alleged fabrications helped tank a plea deal.

Attorneys for Hunter Biden claimed in court filings on Tuesday that a bribery allegation made by the newly indicted ex-FBI informant may have contributed to the demise of their client’s plea deal with prosecutors last year.

According to the filings, the lawyers largely base their assertion on the fact that Hunter Biden’s deal unraveled around the same time that the Justice Department began scrutinizing the informant’s claims of Biden family corruption. In court papers filed Tuesday, Abbe Lowell, an attorney for the president’s son, slammed Weiss for allegedly following the informant, Smirnov, “down his rabbit hole of lies.”

But it’s not clear from court records that the downfall of Hunter Biden’s deal was connected in any meaningful way to Smirnov’s allegations. And it’s not clear that Weiss ever found Smirnov’s allegations credible.

Weiss opened his investigation years after senior Justice Department officials determined that Smirnov’s allegations were not worth pursuing further. And the investigation came around the same time that Republican lawmakers publicly released an FBI document detailing the informant’s allegations, which the Justice Department now says were completely “fabricated.”

Specifically, Weiss filed felony false statement and obstruction charges against Smirnov last week for telling his FBI handler in 2020, as Joe Biden was running for the White House, that Biden and his son had accepted $10 million in bribes from a Ukrainian oligarch.

In Weiss’ indictment of Smirnov, he noted that in July 2023, investigators pursuing Hunter Biden launched “an investigation of allegations related to” the informant’s prior claims — shortly before a July 26, 2023, court hearing where their negotiated plea agreement with Hunter Biden fell apart.

In court papers filed Tuesday, Lowell tried to tie it all to his client’s doomed plea deal.

“Having taken Mr. Smirnov’s bait of grand, sensational charges, the [plea deal] … that was on the verge of being finalized suddenly became inconvenient for the prosecution, and it reversed course and repudiated those agreements,” Lowell wrote. “It now seems clear that the Smirnov allegations infected this case.”

Lowell’s allegation appeared in filings intended to convince a judge to order the Justice Department to hand over even more government documents related to his client’s case.

Investigators spent five years probing Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals before reaching a deal last summer that would allow him to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax crimes in exchange for probation. Hunter Biden also would have agreed to a pretrial diversion on a separate gun charge, with the charge being dropped if he adhered to certain terms.

But that deal fell apart under questioning from a federal judge, whose line of questioning about the deal exposed fissures between the two parties, prompting prosecutors to threaten Hunter Biden with additional charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

It was the specter of potential FARA violations that led Lowell to accuse Weiss’ team of inappropriately reviewing Smirnov’s claim years after the FBI determined them to be incorrect.

Weiss ultimately brought three felony gun-related charges against Hunter Biden in Delaware and additional tax-related charges in California. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to them all.

Sawdust or cocaine?

Meanwhile, in the same filing Tuesday, Lowell pointed out what appears to be an embarrassing gaffe by prosecutors: mistaking sawdust for cocaine. Weiss’ office included in a previous filing an image of what he said were lines of cocaine on Hunter Biden’s phone around the time that he purchased a firearm.

But according to Lowell, the photo was sent by Hunter Biden’s then-psychiatrist and showed not cocaine, but sawdust, which Lowell said, “sounds more like a storyline from one of the 1980s Police Academy comedies than what should be expected in a high-profile prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice.”

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(NEW YORK) — The U.S.-Mexico border region faces a public health crisis as billions of gallons of contaminated sewage flow from Mexico into San Diego, California, according to a newly released report.

“South San Diego County is in a total state of emergency related to transboundary pollution, and this is a public health ticking time bomb,” Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre told ABC News. “We are living in conditions that nobody in this great nation should be living in.”

The Tijuana River — which has been classified as an impaired water body, according to the U.S. Clean Water Act — flows north for 120 miles from Mexico to California before reaching the Pacific Ocean on the U.S. side of the border in the Imperial Beach, San Ysidro and Coronado coastal areas.

Over the last five years, 100 billion gallons of untreated sewage, industrial waste and urban runoff have been dumped into the Tijuana River, according to the International Boundary and Water Commission.

Tuesday marked the 805th day Imperial Beach has been closed due to the ongoing sewage issue, according to Aguirre, but the health risks are affecting residents far from the shore.

San Diego State University’s (SDSU) School of Public Health deemed the cross-border contamination a “public health crisis” and warned that “current regulation and monitoring measures are inadequate,” according to the new report, released on Feb. 13.

Untreated sewage pollutants originating in Mexico and not properly treated at the International Wastewater Treatment Plant include human and livestock diseases, pathogens carrying antibiotic-resistant genes, and industrial chemicals not permitted to be discharged in California, according to the report.

Studying soil samples from South San Diego, researchers found levels of the poisonous elements arsenic and cadmium that exceeded Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) thresholds for safety.

Water samples taken from the Tijuana River and Estuary, located on the U.S.-Mexico border, showed a range of dangerous viruses and bacteria, including HIV, hepatitis B and C, Salmonella, Vibrio, Streptococcus, Listeria, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, according to the report.

The report also cites levels of antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli and Legionella bacteria found in the contaminated water, “which are of considerable public health concern.”

Exposure to the contaminants, viruses and bacteria can impact the health of people who live and work nearby, which include children, seniors, lifeguards, military personnel, border patrol officers and at-risk populations, according to the study.

“Urgent interventions are needed to help reduce and address both the immediate and long-term potential health repercussions to those living near this hazardous environment,” Paula Stigler Granados, associate professor in SDSU’s School of Public Health and the paper’s lead author, told ABC News in a statement.

“The longer we take to stop the contamination, the greater the risk of exposures,” Granados noted. “Investment in our infrastructure to stop the pollution is critical.”

Toxic chemicals and bacteria — which were once believed to be isolated in the sewage alone — can be dispersed in water and air, especially during weather events, the report reveals.

For example, the California-Mexico border region has been hit recently with heavy rain and flooding caused by back-to-back atmospheric river storms. The resulting greater than usual influx of water can overwhelm California’s and Tijuana’s sewage treatment plants, researchers say.

Doctors Kimberly and Matt Dickson, a married couple who run South Bay Urgent Care in Imperial Beach, told ABC News that amid the February storms they have seen a 200 to 300 percent increase in patients with gastrointestinal illness, with symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea.

“These were people that were in the streets, going to school, but not swimming in the ocean. So, where was the transfer of bacteria and viruses going?” Matt Dickson asked. “How was it getting to these people if they weren’t swimming in the ocean?”

The couple says they began to realize that the heavy rains were causing the sewage to spill into the city’s streets, spreading illnesses across the community.

“If you’re driving down the street that’s flooded with sewage water, then you’re tracking bacteria back to your home or to the store. Or if kids are walking to school through a flooded street that’s got sewage water in it, then they go to class and they touch their shoes, and then they eat their lunch. People are getting sick,” Matt Dickson said.

“You don’t have to have a medical degree and to understand if there’s sewage on the street, people are going to get sick,” he noted.

The repeating cycle of rainstorms and illnesses in the community is “flabbergasting” to Kimberly Dickson, who says the cycle can be broken with better infrastructure to help reduce or eliminate the sewage overflow.

When it comes to the long-term health effects of the sewage problem, Kimberly worries, “It’s just the tip of the iceberg. We’re missing a lot of it. We don’t know the long-term consequences.”

In 2020, Congress approved a $300 million fund to expand the International Wastewater Treatment Plant San Ysidro. However, after the devastating infrastructure effects of Hurricane Hilary in August 2023, and the ongoing storms in the area, half of those funds were allocated to deferred maintenance before any type of expansion could happen, according memos obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Mayor Aguirre and other state politicians, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have asked Congress for an additional $310 million in federal funds to address the issue, but it has yet to be approved.

“It’s challenging to maintain the attention and focus that this emergency needs when we’re located 3,000 miles away,” Aguirre said of requesting federal intervention from Washington, D.C.

“We also need additional intervention from our state administration. Our governor has advocated for that supplemental funding request, but he has fallen short of declaring a state of emergency,” Aguirre added.

In Dec. 2023, the International Boundary and Water Commission announced the Rehabilitation and Expansion Progressive Design-Build project for the International Wastewater Treatment Plant. The project includes essential rehabilitation of existing infrastructure and expansion of the plant, according to the press release.

“We have participated in many public meetings in the affected areas and want to assure residents our priority is improving the health and welfare of communities on both sides of the border,” Frank Fisher, public affairs chief for the International Boundary and Water Commission, told ABC News in a statement.

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(NEW YORK) — The man suspected in the beating and strangulation death of a Queens woman inside a SoHo hotel earlier this month is under arrest in Arizona, where he is charged in two stabbings, according to police.

Raad Almansoori, 26, is accused in the death of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, 38, who was found earlier this month at SoHo 54 Hotel sometime on either Feb. 7 or 8. A broken iron was recovered at the scene and bits of plastic were embedded in the victim’s skull, detectives said.

Almansoori made statements while in custody in Arizona linking himself to a string of assaults on women, including the stabbings in Surprise and Phoenix, an attack in Florida and the deadly attack in the New York City hotel, according to the NYPD.

Several of those crimes involve women who work as escorts, police said.

“He tells the cops they should Google SoHo 54 Hotel,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenney said.

Almansoori also made statements about hurting as many as three woman in Florida, Kenney said.

Surprise, Arizona, police responded to a McDonald’s on Sunday morning and found a woman who had been stabbed multiple times. The suspect, later identified as Almansoori, then stole a car nearby and was later arrested with the car by the Scottsdale Police Department, police said. It was at this time Almansoori admitted to the stabbing a few days earlier in Phoenix, Surprise police said.

Almansoori is facing charges of attempted homicide, theft of means and aggravated assault in Surprise and robbery, assault, theft and criminal damage in Phoenix, police said.

He is being held without bond.

Detectives are now looking at unsolved crimes in Florida and Texas, where Almansoori has lived and has prior arrests, including the kidnapping and sexual assault of a female, according to police.

“The majority of arrests involve domestic violence and assault,” Kenney said.

Kenney said the NYPD is working with the FBI and asking the public and members of law enforcement to come forward with information. The NYPD shared photos last week of Almansoori allegedly leaving the SoHo 54 Hotel wearing the leggings of Oleas-Arancibia.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has sent prosecutors to Maricopa County, Arizona, to seek Almansoori’s extradition.

Almansoori is believed to have arrived in New York City in late January, when credit card information shows he visited an escort in upper Manhattan. Later credit card use shows the purchase of a plane ticket to Arizona where he allegedly committed two crimes.

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(NEW YORK) — The West Virginia legislature is considering a bill that would remove protections for librarians in case minors come across books that contain what the state considers “obscene” material at their facilities.

The bill passed the House of Delegates on Feb. 16 and has now been introduced in the Senate.

The bill would remove any exemptions from criminal liability for public libraries or museums that display or distribute “obscene matter to a minor.”

A librarian or museum who violates these restrictions could be charged with a felony, fined up to $25,000, and sentenced to up to five years in a correctional facility if found guilty.

Critics say the bill would lead to an increase in book challenges and potentially lead to criminal charges against librarians for books that are not pornographic, but books that include sexual content — including classical literature.

Obscene matter, as defined in three parts in the state code, applies to matter that: “an average person, applying contemporary adult community standards, would find, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, is intended to appeal to the prurient interest, or is pandered to a prurient interest.”

The definition goes on, adding that: “an average person, applying community standards, would find [that the material] depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexually explicit conduct; and a reasonable person would find, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”

The American Library Association (ALA) has found that obscenity allegations have largely been used to challenge books that touch on the LGBTQ+ community, sex education, race and politics.

The bill has prompted debate over concerns about censorship and what students can or cannot have access to.

“It is going to cost our counties and our librarians when these matters go to the court system,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle in a Friday hearing on the bill, according to local news outlet The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. “This is a very dangerous bill.”

Supporters of the bill say that it does not ban books or censor speech because the books can still be bought privately. They say it protects children.

“What this bill does do is stop obscene and pornographic material, sexually explicit materials from being available to children in public taxpayer-funded spaces,” said Republican Del. Elliott Pritt in the Friday hearing, according to The Parkersburg News and Sentinel.

Schools and libraries nationwide have seen a massive increase in book-banning efforts and complaints relating to topics like racism, race, sexual orientation, gender and more, according to the ALA.

Preliminary ALA data found that in the first eight months of 2023, attempts to censor library materials increased 20% from the same reporting period in 2022, which saw the highest number of book challenges since the organization began compiling the data over 20 years ago.

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