(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Lee, a Category 1 storm churning in the Atlantic Ocean, is bringing dangerous rip currents to the East Coast before heading to New England, where a hurricane watch is in effect.
The winds and rain will reach Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine by the weekend.
Latest headlines:
-Lee now a Category 1 hurricane
-New Jersey beach town to fine those who go into dangerous surf
-Onboard with hurricane hunters as they fly into the center of Lee
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Sep 14, 12:03 PM EDT
Lee now a Category 1 hurricane
Lee, currently a Category 1 hurricane, is pounding Bermuda with tropical storm-force winds.
Lee, now located about 750 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, will soon move north. A tropical storm warning has been issued for eastern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.
Gusty winds will begin in New England on Friday night and will last through the day on Saturday.
These strong winds will force up to 4 feet of water to pile up along the coasts of Long Island, Cape Cod, Nantucket and Maine.
Lee is forecast to weaken to a post-tropical storm by the time it makes landfall Saturday night in Canada, around Nova Scotia or western New Brunswick. Two to four inches of rain is possible in eastern Maine and into Canada.
ABC News’ Max Golembo
Sep 14, 10:18 AM EDT
New Jersey beach town to fine those who go into dangerous surf
As the summer comes to an end, Hurricane Lee is bringing high surf and dangerous rip currents to beaches up and down the East Coast.
In Seaside Heights, New Jersey, beachgoers who go into the ocean without lifeguards present or in unsafe conditions this week could face a fine up to $1,250, city officials warned Thursday.
“STAY OUT, STAY ALIVE,” city officials posted on Facebook.
Click here for what you need to know to stay safe from rip currents.
Sep 14, 9:12 AM EDT
Onboard with hurricane hunters as they fly into the center of Lee
ABC News chief meteorologist Ginger Zee traveled with NOAA researchers as they flew into the center of Hurricane Lee to gather data on the storm.
Sep 14, 9:00 AM EDT
Lee’s latest forecast
Lee, now a Category 2 hurricane, is bringing huge waves — up to 12 feet — to the entire East Coast.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for Bermuda where Lee will drop gusty winds and heavy rain on Thursday.
By Friday, Lee will move away from Bermuda and begin to impact New England, where a hurricane watch was issued for Maine.
Powerful winds up to 60 mph could reach Cape Cod, Massachusetts, by Friday night.
On Saturday, the winds and rain will spread into the rest of New England. Boston could see winds up to 60 mph on Saturday morning.
The heaviest rain — 1 to 3 inches — will be from Cape Cod to Bar Harbor, Maine.
Landfall is expected Saturday night in Canada, either in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, near the Maine border. Lee at that point will have weakened to an extra-tropical storm system, but the strong winds will continue for Maine and Canada through Sunday morning.
ABC News’ Max Golembo
Sep 14, 6:07 AM EDT
What to know
There’s an increasing likelihood that Hurricane Lee will bring wind, rain and flooding to coastal New England on Friday and into the weekend.
Lee is forecast to still be hurricane-strength by the time it passes east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Saturday morning.
Lee could bring strong, gusty winds from Rhode Island to Boston to Maine. The heaviest rain, wind and storm surge will be from Cape Cod to Bar Harbor, Maine, from Friday night through Saturday.
Up to 4 feet of storm surge is possible on Cape Cod and Nantucket.
Hurricane conditions are possible in eastern Maine.
Early Sunday morning, Lee may make landfall between coastal Maine and Nova Scotia as a post-tropical storm. Then Lee will head out to sea.
(NEW YORK) — A convicted murderer who had eluded capture for nearly two weeks after escaping from a Pennsylvania prison was apparently planning to flee to Canada.
In interviews with authorities hours after his capture on Wednesday, Danelo Cavalcante allegedly revealed his plan to steal a car at gunpoint and drive to the U.S.-Canada border.
“He stated he intended to carjack somebody in the next 24 hours and that he was going to head north to Canada,” Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Clark told ABC News later Wednesday.
Authorities initially believed the 34-year-old fugitive may have been attempting to return to his native Brazil, where he faces charges in a separate slaying that took place in 2017.
Cavalcante also allegedly told authorities that they were so close to him at times during the dayslong manhunt, they nearly stepped on him.
“He said on multiple occasions law enforcement officers almost stepped on him, [that] we were only five or six feet away,” Clark said.
The fugitive claimed to have survived on the run, in part, by eating watermelon. He was also able to stay clean shaven from a razor that was in a backpack he had obtained, according to Clark.
Cavalcante absconded from the Chester County Prison in southeastern Pennsylvania on Aug. 31, while awaiting transfer to a state prison to serve a life sentence without parole for fatally stabbing an ex-girlfriend in 2021. He allegedly broke out of the jail by “crab walking” up a wall in a recreation yard, pushing his way through razor wire and accessing the roof, where he climbed down and made his getaway an hour before guards realized he was missing, according to Howard Holland, acting warden of the Chester County Prison.
State authorities launched a massive manhunt for the 5-foot-tall fugitive, recapturing him on Wednesday morning. He was found hiding in or near a large pile of logs behind a John Deere store in South Coventry Township, about 30 miles from the Chester County Prison.
Cavalcante did not surrender immediately, according to Lt. Col. George Bivens, deputy commissioner of operations for the Pennsylvania State Police. The fugitive tried to get away by crawling through thick brush while armed with a .22-caliber rifle he had stolen from a nearby residence the night before, Bivens said.
Yoda, a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection team from El Paso, Texas, was sent in and helped detain Cavalcante, biting him at least once. No shots were fired, according to Bivens.
ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) confirms to ABC News it is “looking into” accusations that several members of an agency team tasked with COVID-19 pandemic analysis were paid off “significant” hush money in order to buy a shift in their position about where the virus came from — but the agency emphasized it does not pay its analysts to reach particular conclusions.
“At [the] CIA we are committed to the highest standards of analytic rigor, integrity and objectivity. We do not pay analysts to reach specific conclusions,” CIA spokesperson Tammy Kupperman Thorp said in a statement to ABC News. “We take these allegations extremely seriously and are looking into them. We will keep our Congressional oversight committees appropriately informed.”
The CIA’s comment and review come in response to claims leveled in a new letter from two Republican House chairmen to CIA Director Bill Burns, sent Tuesday, which says there is a whistleblower within current, senior ranks of the agency, making these allegations.
It’s the latest chapter in the yet-unresolved contentious debate over the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic — and the latest in an ongoing effort by the GOP to find evidence suggesting that COVID’s origins have been buried by a conspiratorial cover-up.
In their letter to Director Burns, chair of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), and chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman, Mike Turner (R-OH), say a “multi-decade, senior-level, current CIA officer” had come forward alleging the payoff.
Turner and Wenstrup’s missive came as an apparent surprise to the other side of the aisle on their respective committees.
“Neither the ranking member nor the Democratic staff for the Intelligence Committee were made aware of these allegations before the letters were sent. We have requested additional information,” a spokesperson for the Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said in a statement to ABC News.
A spokesperson for Select Subcommittee Democrats said they “were given no prior notice of a whistleblower’s existence, let alone testimony,” adding that “without further information regarding this claim from the Majority, we have no ability to assess the allegations at this time.”
According to the whistleblower, seven “multi-disciplinary and experienced officers with significant scientific expertise” had been assigned to a “COVID discovery team,” Wenstrup and Turner’s letter says.
At the end of their review, all but one member of that team leaned towards a lab leak origin — but that they were “given a significant monetary incentive to change their position,” according to the letter stating the whistleblower’s allegations.
“Six of the seven members of the team believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China,” the letter said.
“The seventh member of the team, who also happened to be the most senior, was the lone officer to believe COVID-19 originated through zoonosis,” the letter said. “The whistleblower further contends that to come to the eventual public determination of uncertainty, the other six members were given a significant monetary incentive to change their position.”
Ultimately, as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in June, the CIA and “another agency” remained “unable” to decide on where they think COVID’s origins lie, as “both hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting.”
As ABC reported at the time, the Department of Energy and the FBI believe with varying degrees of confidence that a lab incident was the “most likely” cause of the first human infection, though ODNI said it arrived at that conclusion “for different reasons.”
ODNI also underscored that “almost all” the agencies didn’t believe the virus was genetically engineered and “most agencies” don’t think the virus was lab-adapted — meaning, most of the U.S. intelligence community doesn’t think that so-called “gain-of-function” research was how COVID-19 was born.
No definitive conclusion as to COVID’s origins has yet been determined by the American intelligence or international public health bodies who have probed for answers. And, as ODNI, President Biden and international health bodies have emphasized, unless Beijing stops stonewalling the investigation into COVID’s origins, no more definitive conclusion will be possible.
Wenstrup and Turner have asked for a number of documents on the team’s creation — their intra group, intra agency and inter agency communications on COVID’s origins, and records of payments or financial bonuses made to members of the team. Wenstrup and Turner want them by Sept. 26.
In a separate letter, Wenstrup and Turner also invite former CIA chief operating officer Andrew Makridis to sit for a “voluntary transcribed interview” on that same day, saying he “played a central role” in the “formation and eventual conclusion” of the team the whistleblower pointed to.
A spokesperson for the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic had no further comment at this time. There’s no hearing currently scheduled.
(PHILADELPHIA) — A fugitive who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison just days after being sentenced to life without parole in the fatal stabbing of his ex-girlfriend was captured early Wednesday after he tried to crawl away and was taken down by a law enforcement K-9 named Yoda, Pennsylvania State Police said.
Danelo Cavalcante was captured at 8:14 a.m. Wednesday, officials said. He was found hiding in or near a large pile of logs behind a John Deere store in South Coventry Township, about 30 miles from a county-run prison where he escaped 14 days ago.
“Today is a great day in Chester County. Our nightmare is finally over and the good guys won,” Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan said at a news conference Thursday morning.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro began the news conference by announcing Cavalcante’s capture, praising “the extraordinary work of law enforcement officials” from local, state and federal agencies.
Lt. Col. George Bivens, deputy commissioner of operations for the Pennsylvania State Police, said a federal Drug Enforcement Administration fixed-wing aircraft using infrared imaging technology picked up a heat source in the area of South Coventry Township around 1 a.m., but a lightning storm forced the aircraft to land.
Bivens said a state police tactical unit and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection team from El Paso, Texas, quickly surrounded the area and maintained a perimeter until Wednesday morning when they moved in. Bivens said Cavalcante didn’t realize he was cornered until he saw the officers coming toward him.
“Tactical teams converged on the area where the heat source was. They were able to move in very quietly. They had the element of surprise,” Bivens said. “Cavalcante did not realize he was surrounded until that had occurred.”
He said Cavalcante did not surrender immediately. He said the fugitive tried to get away by crawling through thick brush while armed with a .22-caliber rifle he stole from a nearby residence Wednesday night.
Bivens said Yoda, a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois from the Border Patrol team, was sent in and was able to help detain Cavalcante, biting him at least once. No shots were fired.
There were no injuries to law enforcement officers, Bivens said.
“The dog subdued him and team members from both of those teams immediately moved in,” Bivens said. “He continued to resist, but was forcibly taken into custody.”
He said Cavalcante was bitten on the scalp and was treated at the scene.
Asked why lethal force was not used when Cavalcante resisted, Bivens said, “That option is only to prevent the escape of a very dangerous individual.”
“Had they not been able to contain him, that would have remained an option,” Bivens said, adding that 20 to 25 officers were involved in Cavalcante’s arrest.
Shortly after the arrest, a large group of officers posed for a photo with Cavalcante, who was in handcuffs, soaking wet and wearing a gray Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt he allegedly stole during his time on the lam. He was also wearing dark work boots he swiped from a residence Wednesday night and dark pants he was wearing when he escaped, officials said.
“I’m aware that there was a photo op that was taken out there. Those men and women worked amazingly hard through some trying circumstances. They’re proud of their work,” Bivens said. “I’m not bothered at all by that. They took a photo with him in custody.”
Cavalcante was loaded in the back of an armored vehicle and driven to the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Avondale, where investigators hoped to question him, Bivens said.
As the armored vehicle carrying Cavalcante approached the police barracks in Avondale, some residents in the area lined the roadway cheering, pumping their fists in the air and applauding.
“I can assure you he will not escape while he is in our custody,” Bivens said.
Cavalcante was arraigned Wednesday on a felony escape charge and denied bail, court records show. He is scheduled to next appear in court on Sept. 27 for a preliminary hearing.
Bivens said Cavalcante will eventually be transferred to a state prison to begin serving out his life sentence for the brutal 2021 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, who was stabbed 38 times in a Schuylkill Township, Pennsylvania, home in front of her two young children.
The end of the 14-day manhunt for the 34-year-old Cavalcante came as a relief to residents in Chester County, who had been advised by officials to stay alert and keep their doors and windows locked. Several schools in Pocopson Township canceled classes as the search for Cavalcante intensified.
A combination of tactical teams from Pennsylvania State Police, FBI and Border Patrol brought Cavalcante into custody, according to a law enforcement source.
Cavalcante, who officials said is also wanted in his native Brazil on homicide charges, escaped from the Chester County Prison in Pocopson Township on Aug. 31.
Cavalcante was noticed missing that morning about an hour after his escape after inmates returned from the exercise yard at the prison, where he was being held pending transfer to a state correctional institution.
He had scaled a wall to gain access to the roof and pushed through razor wire before jumping down to a less secure area to make his getaway, Howard Holland, the acting warden of the Chester County Prison, told reporters during a recent press briefing.
Cavalcante followed the same method of escape and route used by an inmate at the Chester County Prison, Holland said. Inmate Igor Vidra Bolte broke out of the prison in Pocopson Township on May 19 by scaling a wall in an exercise yard to gain access to the roof, according to a criminal complaint obtained by ABC News.
Holland noted that “one key difference” between the two escapes was the actions of a tower guard whose primary responsibility was to monitor inmates in the exercise yard.
“In Bolte’s escape, the tower officer observed the subject leaving the yard area and contacted control immediately. That is why Bolte was apprehended within 5 minutes,” Holland said. “In the escape of Cavalcante, the tower officer did not observe nor report the escape. The escape was discovered as part of the inmate counts that occur when the inmates come in from the exercise yard.”
Cavalcante escaped from the prison by “crab walking” up a wall, pushing his way through razor wire installed after Bolte’s escape, running across the prison roof and scaling more razor wire, Holland said.
The corrections officer on duty in the guard tower at the time was terminated on Sept. 7, officials said.
Holland said during the press briefing on Sept. 6 that steps are being taken now to completely enclose the eight exercise yards at the prison, which are now open-air. He said additional security cameras will also be installed and additional officers will be on the ground to help the tower officers monitor the inmates in the exercise yards.
The search for Cavalcante was initially centered in an area near the Chester County Prison, where he had been spotted multiple times, officials said.
A citizen reported seeing a man matching Cavalcante’s description on Sept. 7 running through the area near Longwood Gardens, a sprawling horticulture attraction located about 5 miles southwest of the prison, said Lt. Col. George Bivens, deputy commissioner of operations for the Pennsylvania State Police. The search perimeter shifted toward Longwood Gardens, and Calvalcante was spotted two more times in the search area on Sept. 8, state police said.
Bivens said nearly 400 people from multiple agencies were engaged in the manhunt on Sept. 8, adding that they will “keep up this search at whatever tempo is appropriate for as long as we need to. He’s a dangerous individual.”
A Chester County jury on Aug. 16 convicted Cavalcante of first-degree murder in the fatal 2021 stabbing in Brandao.
The jury took just 15 minutes of deliberations before voting unanimously to convict Cavalcante.
Prosecutors said Brandao was killed after she learned Cavalcante was wanted for murder in Brazil and threatened to expose him to police, officials said in a statement following Cavalcante’s conviction.
Following Brandao’s murder, Cavalcante fled to Virginia, where he was arrested and brought back to Pennsylvania to face justice for Brandao’s killing.
Brandao’s sister, Sarah Brandao, released a statement on Instagram following the arrest, thanking law enforcement officials for capturing Cavalcante.
“Right now, my family and I need to regroup and focus on processing everything that has happened while taking care of ourselves,” wrote Sarah Brandao, who along with her family lives in the Chester County area where the search was being conducted.
During the search for Cavalcante, Sarah Brandao and her family members were placed under 24-hour protection, Ryan said at a recent news conference.
“The last two weeks have been extremely painful and terrifying as they have brought back all the feelings of losing my sister and the idea that the criminal could crush us again,” Sarah Brandao wrote.
It was the second time in less than two months that a dangerous inmate had escaped from a Pennsylvania lockup. Inmate Michael Burham, who is a suspect in the rape and murder of a 34-year-old woman in Jamestown, New York, escaped from the Warren County Jail in northern Pennsylvania on July 6.
Burham, an Army reserve sergeant who authorities said was a “self-taught survivalist,” was captured on July 15 following a massive manhunt in the northern Pennsylvania woods.
(SEATTLE) — A Seattle police accountability office is investigating after an officer was recorded on his body camera joking over the death of a 23-year-old woman who was fatally struck by another officer who was responding to a call.
Graduate student Jaahnavi Kandula was in a crosswalk the night of Jan. 23 when an officer struck her with his patrol SUV, police said. The officer, Kevin Dave, was driving 74 mph moments before the collision, according to the Seattle Police Department’s investigation report provided to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Dave was responding as an emergency medical technician to a “priority 1” emergency call at the time, police said.
Officer Daniel Auderer responded to the scene to evaluate Dave and determined he did not show any signs of impairment, according to the investigation report.
In newly released body camera footage, Auderer can be heard discussing the incident while on the phone in his cruiser.
“He’s going 50 [mph]. That’s not out of control. That’s not reckless for a trained driver,” Auderer said during the phone call, which according to the video’s timestamp occurred on Jan. 24.
The other person he is talking to cannot be heard during the call.
After discussing whether she was in the crosswalk and how far she was thrown, Auderer says, “But she is dead,” and laughs several seconds later.
Toward the end of the 2 1/2-minute video, Auderer says, “Yeah, just write a check,” followed by laughter.
“Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26, anyway,” he said, misstating Kandula’s age. “She had limited value.”
The Seattle Police Department on Monday released the footage, saying the video was identified by a department employee who was “concerned about the nature of statements heard on that video” and brought it to the chief’s office.
Following a review of the video, the chief referred the matter to the police department’s independent Office of Police Accountability to determine “any policy violation that might be implicated,” the police department said in a statement on Monday.
The department released the video “in the interest of transparency” due to public concern, but said it cannot comment on its substance pending the completion of the Office of Police Accountability’s investigation.
“SPD has been in touch with the family of the victim pedestrian and continues to honor their expressed request for privacy,” the department said. “As others in the accountability system proceed with their work, we again extend our deepest sympathy for this tragic collision.”
Auderer is vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, the police union that represents Seattle officers, according to the Seattle Community Police Commission, a citizen oversight board.
ABC News did not immediately receive a response from the Seattle Police Officers Guild or Auderer to a request for comment on the video.
The Seattle Community Police Commission’s co-chairs called the phone call “heartbreaking and shockingly insensitive.”
“After Detective Auderer is heard confirming that the pedestrian died, he is laughing in response to the person on the other end of the call,” the co-chairs — Rev. Harrier Walden, Rev. Patricia Hunter and Joel Merkel — said in a statement. “He joked that her life was only worth $11,000 and ‘had limited value.'”
In what was believed to be a private conversation, Auderer showed “unprofessional and inhumane conduct,” the statement continued.
Kandula was from India and was working to earn a master’s degree in information systems from Northeastern University’s Seattle campus when she died.
Dave had his patrol SUV’s emergency lights and siren on at the time of the collision, police said.
According to the investigation report, a responding officer reported that Dave appeared to be “visibly shaken” at the scene.
“Lights were on, was chirping the siren as I was headed down. She was in the crosswalk, she saw me, she started running through the crosswalk. Slammed on my brakes. Instead of staying back where she should before crossing, she just zips,” Dave told the officer, according to the report.
ABC News did not immediately receive a response from Dave to a message seeking comment on the case.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is conducting a criminal review of the incident to make any charging decision. The Office of Police Accountability is also investigating.
(SANTA FE, N.M.) — A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order against New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s order suspending the right to carry firearms in public in and around Albuquerque.
The Democratic governor issued last Friday a 30-day suspension of open and concealed carry laws in Bernalillo County, where Albuquerque, the state’s most populous city, is seated.
The move was met with pushback from gun rights groups, several of which filed lawsuits seeking to block the order. At least four lawsuits have since been filed in federal court, with the Gun Owners Foundation, National Association for Gun Rights and We The Patriots USA among the various plaintiffs.
During a motion hearing Wednesday afternoon in Albuquerque on the cases, a judge granted a temporary restraining order, blocking enforcement of the governor’s ban until Oct 3, according to ABC Albuquerque affiliate KOAT.
Some law enforcement officials and elected leaders also pushed back against the Governor’s order. Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said on Monday his office will not enforce the ban. Two Republican state representatives, John Block and Stefani Lord, are calling for the governor to be impeached over the orders.
Lujan Grisham told “GMA3” earlier Wednesday she has the “courage” to take a stand against gun violence in response to backlash over her emergency public health order temporarily suspending the right to carry firearms in public in and around Albuquerque.
“Everyone is terrified of the backlash for all of these political reactions,” Lujan Grisham told Eva Pilgrim on “GMA3” Wednesday. “None of those individuals or groups focused on the actual injuries or deaths of the public.”
“They aren’t dealing with this as the crisis that it is,” she continued.
The governor cited the recent shooting deaths of three children, including an 11-year-old boy gunned down outside a minor league baseball park last week, in issuing the temporary ban.
The decree came a day after Lujan Grisham declared gun violence a statewide public health emergency, saying “the rate of gun deaths in New Mexico increased 43% from 2009 to 2018.” Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 19 in New Mexico, she said.
“How would you feel in a city or a community if people had handguns in their belts, on parks, near schools, on public trails, at the grocery store?” Lujan Grisham told “GMA3.” “It’s outrageous and it must stop. And I will keep doing everything that’s based in science and fact and public safety efforts to clean up our cities to make this the safest state in America. And I will not stop until that’s done.”
In announcing the order, Lujan Grisham acknowledged it would face immediate challenges over constitutional rights.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, a fellow Democrat, has said he will not defend the state in the lawsuits regarding the public health emergency order, stating in a letter that he does not believe the order will have any meaningful impact on public safety.
When asked what she would say in response, Lujan Grisham told GMA she would have the same response for other individuals.
“I hope that the public’s response is if we now have elected leaders to have the courage to stand up for children,” she said. “I don’t know why we’re electing individuals who aren’t going to stand up for the people who need us to make sure they’re safe and protected.”
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering “unprecedented” legislation that would have the state issuing work authorization for asylum seekers arriving by unyielding busloads from southern border states.
Hochul said she is talking to state Assembly and Senate leaders about what the bill would look like and whether it would be debated in a special session of the legislature or whether it could wait until lawmakers return to Albany in a few months.
“I spoke about this at the White House. I said I may do something at the state level,” Hochul said. “This would be unprecedented.”
The governor said her lawyers are discussing whether the state would need the federal government to sign off before any new law could take effect.
The Biden administration said there is already a “critical mass” of migrants able to obtain work permits but too few have applied.
“There’s a critical mass that we are confident are eligible to apply for work authorization immediately,” a senior administration official said during a call with reporters.
Hochul disputed it.
“I don’t know what a critical mass is. I don’t think it’s a high number,” the governor said.
The mayor’s office said about a fifth of migrants in the city’s care have filed asylum applications. The figure does not include those getting legal help from the nonprofit sector.
A spokesperson said the city is surveying all asylum seekers currently in its shelters to “determine who is eligible to apply for work authorization right now.”
Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom called the proposal “innovative.”
She said the city consistently hears from private business that “having a permit to work, I think, that would be one of the biggest solutions to get out of the humanitarian crisis we find ourselves in.”
Hochul said the state has no choice but to look into the feasibility of state-issued work permits, while acknowledging it would require federal approval.
“We are at a situation where the status quo will not hold any longer,” she said, saying she tells the White House on near daily calls, “it’s a federal problem, we need your help, do something.”
(NEW YORK) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday denied former President Donald Trump’s attempt to stay the 2019 defamation lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
The lawsuit by the former Elle magazine columnist is scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 15. It alleges that Trump defamed her in 2019 when he said she was “not my type” and accused her of having a political and financial motive when he denied her claim that he raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s.
A jury established in a related case that Trump was liable for defaming and battering Carroll.
Trump had sought to pause the 2019 case in order to give him time to invoke an immunity defense, his attorney argued in a hearing Tuesday.
The appeals court Wednesday ordered both sides to submit written briefs in the next 15 days to argue whether Trump should be able to invoke presidential immunity to shield himself from Carroll’s 2019 claim.
The district court judge faulted Trump for waiting more than three years to invoke presidential immunity, long after engaging with the case.
(SANTA FE, N.M.) — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told “GMA3” she has the “courage” to take a stand against gun violence in response to backlash over her emergency public health order temporarily suspending the right to carry firearms in public in and around Albuquerque.
The Democratic governor issued on Friday a 30-day suspension of open and concealed carry laws in Bernalillo County, where Albuquerque, the state’s most populous city, is seated.
The move was met with pushback from gun rights groups, several of which have since filed lawsuits seeking to block the order, as well as some law enforcement officials and elected leaders. Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said on Monday his office will not enforce the ban. Two Republican state representatives, John Block and Stefani Lord, are calling for the governor to be impeached over the orders.
“Everyone is terrified of the backlash for all of these political reactions,” Lujan Grisham told Eva Pilgrim on “GMA3” Wednesday. “None of those individuals or groups focused on the actual injuries or deaths of the public.”
“They aren’t dealing with this as the crisis that it is,” she continued.
The governor cited the recent shooting deaths of three children, including an 11-year-old boy gunned down outside a minor league baseball park last week, in issuing the temporary ban.
The decree came a day after Lujan Grisham declared gun violence a statewide public health emergency, saying “the rate of gun deaths in New Mexico increased 43% from 2009 to 2018.” Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 19 in New Mexico, she said.
“How would you feel in a city or a community if people had handguns in their belts, on parks, near schools, on public trails, at the grocery store?” Lujan Grisham told “GMA3.” “It’s outrageous and it must stop. And I will keep doing everything that’s based in science and fact and public safety efforts to clean up our cities to make this the safest state in America. And I will not stop until that’s done.”
In announcing the order, Lujan Grisham acknowledged it would face immediate challenges over constitutional rights. At least four lawsuits have since been filed in federal court seeking to block the order, with the Gun Owners Foundation, National Association for Gun Rights and We The Patriots USA among the various plaintiffs.
A motion hearing in the civil cases is scheduled for 1 p.m. MT on Wednesday before a federal judge in Albuquerque.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, a fellow Democrat, has said he will not defend the state in the lawsuits regarding the public health emergency order, stating in a letter that he does not believe the order will have any meaningful impact on public safety.
When asked what she would say in response, Lujan Grisham told GMA she would have the same response for other individuals.
“I hope that the public’s response is if we now have elected leaders to have the courage to stand up for children,” she said. “I don’t know why we’re electing individuals who aren’t going to stand up for the people who need us to make sure they’re safe and protected.”
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
(LAS VEGAS) — A Nevada judge issued a preliminary injunction barring the continuation of what it ruled was a teachers strike after the Clark County School District said eight schools had to be closed in seven days due to teachers calling in sick.
“What’s happening here is very clearly a strike that needs to be enjoined,” Nevada Judge Crystal Eller said at a hearing Wednesday.
She ruled that it is “preposterous” to assume this isn’t a strike and made the decision based on an “overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence,” Eller said. She asked attorneys for the district to draft a new injunction putting an end to the strike for her to sign.
The Clark County School District and a teacher’s union appeared in court Wednesday after the district asked a judge for a temporary restraining order to put an end to an alleged sickout that caused a spike in staff absences.
The hearing comes as the district and the union are locked in a contract dispute.
The Clark County School District, which includes Las Vegas, claims that through a “targeted and coordinated rolling-sickout strike” the Clark County Education Association’s licensed educators “forced the closure of three Clark County schools and severely disrupted the operations of two others” between Sept. 1 and Sept. 8, according to court documents shared by the Nevada Independent.
The Clark County Education Association represents more than 18,000 educators in the Clark County School District, the nation’s fifth-largest.
Nevada law prohibits strikes by public sector employees. The district claimed that the absentee level at the affected schools is “unprecedented.”
The district claimed that the mass absences affected one school per day throughout most of the week, before causing two school closures on Sept. 8. Four more schools closed on Tuesday, followed by another Wednesday, according to Las Vegas ABC affiliate KTNV.
“It defies logic to suggest that these mass absences constitute anything but the type of concerted pretextual absences that [Nevada law] plainly defines as a strike,” the district said in court documents.
“The legislature outlawed this 50 years ago and the defendants in this case have clearly helped their members effect this strike,” lawyers for the district said at the hearing Wednesday.
The district is asking the court to intervene and stop the alleged strike, claiming the situation will only continue, according to court documents.
“This strike is the culmination of Defendants’ months-long campaign to pressure the District into more favorable bargaining terms by credibly threatening that there would be no school without a contract,” the district said in court documents.
In court, a lawyer for the union argued that there is not any evidence that the union coordinated an effort for teachers to call in sick illegitimately.
“I don’t disagree that something is happening in the world,” I disagree that my clients bare responsibility for it, the union’s lawyer said.
The union has been rallying over contract demands and to ensure students have a licensed teacher in every classroom, according to posts on social media.
The union said it had no knowledge of absences from last week and denied that they were in any way associated with the union’s actions in a statement to the Nevada Independent.
The union did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
