(NEW YORK) — A Colorado man was indicted on hate crime charges Wednesday for allegedly defacing public spaces in New York City — including the iconic Charging Bull statue — with Nazi symbols and racial slurs in 2021.
James Ryan, 40, was indicted on three felony counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime, as well as three felony counts of aggravated harassment in the first degree, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced.
Ryan allegedly drew a swastika and an anti-Black slur on a pillar at the entrance to City Hall on Dec. 13, 2021, Manhattan prosecutors said.
The next day he allegedly spray-painted the same things outside a CVS pharmacy in the Financial District and a “large swastika” on the Charging Bull statue near Wall Street, prosecutors said.
At the time, the New York City Police Department released surveillance footage and photos of an unknown suspect wearing a poncho and backpack who was captured defacing the entrance to City Hall and the Charging Bull statue.
“Hate has no place in New York City and these offensive and damaging actions will not be tolerated,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement announcing the indictment.
Attorney information for Ryan was not immediately available.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said it has 20 open cases related to antisemitic hate crimes.
(NEW YORK) — The aftereffects of the winter that wasn’t in the Northeast are continuing to reveal themselves, as another recreational activity opens early due to mild weather conditions.
The Niagara City Cruises, the famed boat tours that take tourists to the falls, is opening for the season on Thursday, the company announced.
The “historic” opening marks the earliest point in the year that the Niagara City Cruises has even begun operations, the company said, citing the mild winter weather.
The annual spring opening is largely dependent on the buildup of ice on Lake Erie over the winter, which has been “minimal” this year, with as little as 1% of the lake’s surface currently covered in ice and water temperatures above freezing by the end of February, according to City Cruises.
On Feb. 13, near the peak of the ice season for the Great Lakes, the combined ice cover across the Great Lakes was a record low of 7.3% for that date, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. Lake Erie and Lake Ontario both saw very little ice all winter.
“While there have been some snowstorms and frigid stretches during this year’s winter, overall, conditions have been favorable,” City Cruises said.
The ice boom that is installed where Lake Erie empties into the Niagara River has been removed early as a result, according to the tourism company. The boom reduces the risk of ice jams that can damage property and reduce the strong waterflow used to generate hydroelectricity.
The removal of the boom is a “key event” for the opening of the boat tours. Last year, the boom was removed on March 29 but the New York Power Authority and Ontario Power Generation began removing the boom on March 2 this year.
Long-term trends show an average 22% decline in the annual maximum ice cover across all the Great Lakes since 1973 despite year-to-year variability, according to NOAA.
More guests will be able to take advantage of recreational activities in the region due to the favorable conditions, City Cruises said.
“2023 is our comeback year, and we are excited to be able to welcome both locals and tourists alike to the iconic destination, and this year, be part of families March spring break to enjoy during their time here in the Niagara region,” Mory DiMaurizi, chief operating officer of City Cruises in Canada, said in a statement.
It was a wet and mild winter for much of the U.S. during the 2022-2023 season. The average temperature for the contiguous U.S. this winter was 34.9 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 2.7 degrees above average, the NOAA reported.
Buffalo, New York, tied for its 5th-warmest winter on record.
Other parts of the East Coast, including New York City, have had one of their least snowy seasons to date due to unseasonably warm temperatures throughout the region. Massachusetts had its warmest winter on record, while Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky had their second warmest winters.
The falls are not the only recreational activity to open early in the East. The iconic cherry blossoms that line the National Mall in Washington, D.C., are expected to reach full bloom status between March 22 and March 25 as a result of the city’s third-warmest winter on record, according to the National Parks Service. The cherry blossoms typically reach full bloom in late March through early April.
Ana Rodríguez, Veronica Mata, Gloria Cazares and Kimberly Rubio speak with Nightline. — ABC News
(UVALDE, Texas) — Nearly 10 months after 19 Robb Elementary School students and two teachers were killed in one of the worst mass shootings in the country’s history, mothers of those victims told ABC News their anguish hasn’t gone away.
Veronica Mata, Ana Rodriguez, Kimberley Rubio and Gloria Cazares said while nothing can fill the void left by their daughters’ murders, the mothers said they have forged a new bond helping each other through some of their darkest moments.
“There are a lot of times that we feel alone. You know, even if there are 100 people in the room you still feel alone. But I don’t feel that when I’m with them,” Cazares told Nightline.
Nightline spoke with the mothers about their unexpected friendship and how they’ve been helping each other keep the memories of their children alive.
The mothers have spent a lot of time together, eating dinners, laughing and remembering their daughters.
Mata, who lost her daughter Tess in the May 24th shooting said that it feels hard for her anytime an extended period goes by when she doesn’t speak with the other mothers.
“I think because I feel that connection with them because of the girls and I feel like if I don’t talk to them, like, I’m missing a part of Tess,” she told Nightline.
Rubio, who lost her daughter Lexi, and Rodriguez, whose daughter Maite was killed in the shooting, said that it’s been easier to confide in one another about their grief than with others.
“Outside my husband and my children, these are the only people I talk to about this,” Rubio said.
“My family is completely understanding. They’ve supported me 100%. However, they have not lost a child. I know I’ve had Kim message me out of the blue, ‘Thinking of you. I love you,’ and she has no idea how much that– that helped me,” Rodriguez said.
On days when they have little to look forward to, the mothers said they find strength when they walk through Uvalde and see how the community has rallied behind the families.
The mothers have frequently visited the murals of their daughters that were painted by a variety of Texas artists shortly after the tragedy.
“‘I love you to the moon and back,’ that’s just what we’ve always said,” Cazares, whose daughter Jackie was shot in the massacre, said as she passed by Jackie’s mural with the group.
“If I have to go somewhere it’s the murals because there’s a little bit of joy,” Rubio said. “They’re beautiful.”
The group has also spent the past 10 months demanding justice for their daughters and other Robb Elementary School victims alongside other families who have lost loved ones to mass shootings.
Cazares added during rare moments of joy and laughter there is always a lingering a sense of guilt.
“Our kids aren’t here. They don’t get to enjoy what they used to enjoy. They’re not– some of the things that we do we shouldn’t be doing without them. No, they should be here to enjoy them too,” she said.
“I never thought I would smile again after she passed. I remember telling my mom, ‘How could I ever laugh again? How could I ever find happiness or joy in anything?'” Rodriguez said.
While their lives are forever changed, the mothers said they are grateful that they found each other.
“I feel like this relationship [among] all of us, even…with some of the other moms it’s going to be a life-long relationship that we’re always going to have because we all have that one common denominator,” Mata said.
(WELLESLEY, Mass.) — Students at Wellesley College, a Massachusetts private liberal arts college for women, approved a referendum to expand the college’s admission policy and use of gender-neutral language.
Students voted on Tuesday in favor of allowing transgender men and non-binary individuals who were assigned male at birth to enroll.
In a memo released prior to the vote, Paula A. Johnson, president of Wellesley, said the outcome of the vote is “nonbinding and will not impact any of the policies or practices of the College or of student organizations at Wellesley.”
The college currently accepts applications from people who “consistently identify and live as women,” including cis, transgender, and nonbinary students.
“Although there is no plan to revisit our mission as a women’s college or our admissions policy, we will continue to engage all students in the important work of building an inclusive academic community where everyone feels they belong,” Johnson said in a separate statement to ABC News.
The memo also included a list of structural changes to be implemented following concerns shared by enrolled transgender students.
The college plans to appoint a new director for the Office of LGBTQ+ Programs and Services, offer gender and sexual orientation-affirming therapy, and expand all-gender bathrooms, among other changes.
The Wellesley College News Editorial Board responded to President Johnson’s memo in a published statement. The Board called President Johnson’s response and the Board of Trustee’s involvement as “intervening in student discourse.”
“The Wellesley News Editorial Board is once again stating that transgender and nonbinary students have always belonged and will continue to belong at Wellesley, a historically women’s college,” read the statement from the news source.
It continued, “We disapprove and entirely disagree with President Johnson’s email. As journalists, we understand the power of rhetoric to do good or harm.”
The statement closed with, “We want to end with our unequivocal support for transgender, nonbinary and gender non-conforming people at Wellesley and everywhere–who enrich all communities they are a part of.”
Mount Holyoke College, a women’s college in Massachusetts, told ABC News it has welcomed women, transgender women and men, and nonbinary and gender nonconforming students since 2014.
“Our inclusive admission policy is the 21st century expression of our founding mission to provide an intellectually adventurous education for individuals who have been marginalized on the basis of their gender, gender expression or gender identity,” the statement read.
Other women’s colleges – including Smith College, Barnard College and Bryn Mawr College – have expanded their admissions to include transgender women and nonbinary women, according to their policies listed on their respective websites.
(PORTLAND, Ore.) — Two people are dead after a shooting at a hotel in Portland, Oregon, police said.
Port of Portland responded to a shooting at the Embassy Suites Portland Airport Hotel around 2 a.m. local time Wednesday. A man and woman were confirmed dead, police said. Their identities have not been confirmed.
“There is no ongoing threat to the PDX airport or the surrounding area at this time,” Port of Portland Police said in a statement.
The incident is under investigation.
Guests at the hotel told Portland ABC affiliate KATU that they heard nearly a dozen gunshots and saw blood on the floor as police escorted them out of the building.
Amid the police response, yellow crime scene tape could be seen at the entrance to the hotel, which is located near Portland International Airport. Officers could also be seen interviewing guests wrapped in blankets.
Seven Henrico County Sheriff’s deputies have been arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection to the death of Irvo Otieno, who died in Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie, Va., while in police custody. From top left, Bradley Disse, Dwayne Bramble, Jermaine Branch, Randy Boyer; bottom from left, Tabitha Levere, Brandon Rodgers, Kaiyell Sanders. — Meherrin River Regional Jail
(HENRICO COUNTY, Va.) — Seven sheriff’s deputies from Henrico County, Virginia, have been arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the death of inmate Irvo Otieno. Otieno died while in police custody earlier this month.
Otieno, 28, was being transferred to a hospital on March 6 when he became “combative” during the intake process, according to state police. He was then physically restrained and died, according to Richmond ABC affiliate WRIC.
The deputies were arrested on Tuesday and are scheduled to appear before a grand jury on March 21, according to state records.
The seven deputies have been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the cases filed against them.
The Henrico County Sheriff’s Office is also conducting an independent review of the incident and said it is fully cooperating another investigation by Virginia State Police.
“Public safety is what we stand for as a Sheriff’s Office. We will continue to maintain the highest professional standards in how we serve and protect those in our custody, the community at-large and our staff,” Henrico County Sheriff Alisa Gregory said in a statement.
The seven deputies arrested were Randy Joseph Boyer, 57; Dwayne Alan Bramble, 37; Jermaine Lavar Branch, 45; Bradley Thomas Disse, 43; Tabitha Renee Levere, 50; Brandon Edwards Rodgers, 48; and Kaiyell Dajour Sanders, 30, according to WRIC.
All seven deputies were taken to Meherrin River Regional Jail, where they are being held without bond, according to WRIC.
Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, right greets fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui before introducing him at a news conference, Nov. 20, 2018, in New York. — Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese billionaire with business ties to Steve Bannon, has been arrested on federal charges out of New York.
Wengui owned the 152-foot-long yacht Lady May on which Bannon was arrested in August 2020.
Guo and Bannon have been under investigation in connection with GTV Media Group, which the Securities and Exchange Commission previously accused of violating securities laws.
The FBI arrested Guo, also known as Ho Wan Kwok, Wednesday morning in New York on charges he orchestrated a $1 billion fraud.
“Kwok is charged with lining his pockets with the money he stole, including buying himself, and his close relatives, a 50,000 square foot mansion, a $3.5 million Ferrari and even two $36,000 mattresses, and financing a $37 million luxury yacht,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.
The SEC filed civil charges Wednesday that accused Guo and his financial adviser, Kin Ming Je, of “multiple offering frauds” that targeted retail investors through online and social media posts and videos.
“Since in or about April 2020, Guo has conducted fraudulent securities offerings that have collectively raised at least hundreds of millions of dollars from investors in the United States and around the world. Unbeknownst to those investors, Guo and his financial adviser, Je, misappropriated a large portion of the funds raised from certain of the Subject Offerings in order to enrich themselves and their family members,” the SEC complaint said.
Guo, 54, pitched three unregistered securities offerings to investors as a means of obtaining shares in GTV and a fourth offering as a means to obtain a crypto asset security called “H-Coin” that he falsely claimed was backed by gold reserves, the SEC said.
Wengui, a critic of the Chinese government, fled China in 2014 and is viewed as a fugitive by the PRC. He appeared on Forbes’ Billionaires List in 2015, worth an estimated $1.1 billion, but declared bankruptcy in February 2022.
Bannon helped Guo found GTV, but has not been charged.
Bannon is currently being prosecuted by the Manhattan district attorney for defrauding donors to the We Build the Wall online fundraising campaign.
(NEW YORK) — At least one hiker is dead and one still remains missing after a group of three were reported missing in Utah on Monday, officials say.
The incident occurred on Monday morning when the Kane County Sheriff’s Office in Utah received a call from a spouse informing them that a party of three hikers — who had left on Friday to hike Buckskin Gulch on the border between Arizona and Utah — were supposed to have come back by Sunday but had never returned.
A search and rescue team was immediately initiated for the three missing hikers — all adult makes in their mid-40’s to mid-50’s — with a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter being sent to the canyon where they had been hiking, according to the Kane County Sheriff’s Department.
“Camping debris was located which led to the location of one of the three hikers,” said Allan Alldredge of the Kane County Sheriff’s Office in a statement obtained by ABC News. “A SLC helicopter with hoist capabilities was then flown over the canyon to lower someone to extract the hiker and get them medical attention.”
The hiker was subsequently taken to hospital for medical treatment, but authorities gave no further details on the man’s condition.
The Kane County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that one of the three hikers reported missing in Buckskin Gulch on Monday has since been found dead while another still remains missing.
Authorities did not disclose how the man may have died but did confirm that the search for the third missing man is still currently active.
In separate instances, the search for the three hikers also led to multiple other rescues of people in the area who needed to be airlifted out due to severe weather, officials said.
“During this search, two other parties have called for SAR resulting in 11 people being airlifted out of the canyon due to severe weather,” said Alldredge.
The identity of the victims have yet to be released and the search and rescue operation for the last missing man is ongoing.
(NEW YORK) — Five thousand miles long, 400 miles wide, and over six million tons, a massive bloom of seaweed is drifting toward Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.
Scientists at the University of South Florida, with the help of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, have been tracking the bloom of sargassum, a type of brown seaweed, using satellites. Originating in the Atlantic Ocean, the bloom is approaching the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, posing a threat to beaches across the Gulf, including tourism-centric Florida.
“If you’ve ever been on a beach that had a huge abundance of this, it’s not fun,” Dave Tomasco, executive director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, told ABC News. “It rots, it uses up the oxygen water, and smells like rotten eggs.”
When the bloom hits a beach, it can pile one to two meters high on the shoreline and clog swimmable waterways, according to scientists. If the seaweed is not removed from the beach quickly, it will begin to rot, emitting hydrogen sulfide gas, most associated with the smell of rotting eggs that can irritate skin, eyes and the throat, as well as make breathing difficult for those with asthma.
According to Tomasco, the bloom is more likely to harm the tourism industry than harm wildlife by piling up and stinking up famous Florida beaches.
Octavio Penaloza, who manages Wings Beachwear in Miami Beach, said the bloom impacting Miami could impact his bottom line.
“If anything happens to the beach, it would impact us,” he said.
He noted that his busy season includes June and July — the same months when the sargassum peaks in size, according to scientists. While his customer base includes tourists buying souvenirs without visiting the beach, many customers stop by his store for beachwear, which would become unnecessary if beaches become less pleasant.
“[If] the seaweed comes, we will have like less people coming to buy from our store because they mostly buy things to go to the beach,” Penaloza said.
For a measurable impact on Florida beaches, University of South Florida research professor Brian Barnes said that a concentrated amount of about “the size of a football field” of seaweed must land on a seashore at once.
“If it’s a big enough blimp or big enough patch that hits a particular beach, then it can kind of overwhelm the capabilities [of the beach],” Barnes said.
While the bloom spans over two million square miles, it only completely covers about .1 percent of the sea surface, spread in patches that vary in size significantly, according to Barnes. The bloom will take months to reach land ultimately and might increase in size as the water temperature increases; the location where it lands is also dependent on wind and currents, with Barnes warning that Southeast Florida, including Miami and the Florida Keys, are the areas in the United States most likely to be impacted.
When and if it arrives, the Florida Department of Health warns that decaying sargassum’s hydrogen sulfide will irritate the skin, eyes, throat, and nose. It is unlikely to injure seriously in an airy setting like a beach, but people with asthma might have trouble breathing due to the gas.
Tomasco also noted that the hydrogen sulfide could interact with paint molecules on homes, turning them into a grayish silver color and even tarnishing silverware.
Chuanmin Hu, a professor at the University of South Florida who works on tracking the bloom with Barnes, said the amount of seaweed heading to the coast is not a cause for alarm, emphasizing that sargassum is natural and not toxic to ocean life.
Hu said that this amount of seaweed is the “new normal” for the Atlantic Ocean; however, the current seaweed mass set the record for the largest bloom of sargassum recorded during January, though it decreased in size in February.
“At least it will be one of the major sargassum years, although we don’t know if it will be a record year or not,” Hu said, emphasizing that the size of the bloom reaches its peak in June and July.
Compared to the red tide, a toxic algae bloom that has wreaked havoc on Florida’s Gulf Coast over the last decade by killing sea life and even manatees, sargassum is not harmful to wildlife under most conditions. Hu said that some animals, including sea turtles, fish, crabs, and shrimp could eat or find shelter in the blooms.
However, Tomasco warned that sargassum on beaches could disrupt sea turtle nesting habitats. Hu also noted that if sargassum sinks to the ocean floor compactly, it could smother and kill coral and seagrass.
“They sink to the ocean floor and smother things,” Hu said, noting that most of the bloom will likely end on the seafloor instead of the beach.
While the blooms are the “new normal” compared to the last few years, Barnes noted that they were “unheard of” before 2011, characterizing their sudden emergence as a mystery.
“Any type of bloom of any relative size is unheard of before 2011,” Barnes said. “Like, we never saw any type of bloom like this; there’s no reports of huge beachings or anything like that in the Caribbean.”
While Hu said there is no direct evidence to link the blooms to climate change, Tomasco pointed to the nature of sargassum — including the fact that it grows larger in warmer waters — as an indication of why it has reemerged.
“The world is changing, and part of that is the oceans are getting warmer, and algae seems to be able to grow over a longer period of the calendar now then used to be the case,” Tomasco said.
Tomasco also pointed to the increased use of fertilizing in Florida agriculture and landscaping, which runs off into the gulf and helps spur the seaweed’s growth. Hu clarified that the fertilizer would impact the seaweed when it enters the Gulf of Mexico near the shore, not when the sargassum initially grows in the Atlantic.
Regardless of the reason for the growth, what is clear to all three scientists is that coastal communities will learn to manage the new normal of this seaweed.
“I don’t see anything that indicates it’s trending anywhere but up,” Barnes said.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Marshals on Tuesday issued a wanted poster for Roy McGrath, an ex-chief of staff to former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan who is accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars while working for a state agency.
The Marshals are “now seeking to apprehend the former Maryland governor’s top aide after he failed to appear in court on Monday, March 13,” the agency said in a brief statement posted on Twitter.
McGrath was charged in 2021 and 2022 with wire fraud, embezzlement and falsifying documents stemming from his time running the state-owned Maryland Environmental Service, a position to which he was appointed by Hogan before becoming a top gubernatorial aide, federal prosecutors have said.
According to prosecutors, McGrath allegedly falsified documents in order to receive more than $276,000 related to his time at MES, which provides services like water and wastewater management, solid waste management, composting and recycling.
McGrath is accused of “caus[ing] the MES Board of Directors to approve paying McGrath a $233,647.23 severance payment—equal to one year’s salary—upon his departure from MES by falsely telling them that the Governor [Hogan] was aware of and approved the payment,” among other suspected crimes, prosecutors said last year.
He also allegedly submitted false time sheets and allegedly attempted to delete documentation from a board of directors meeting about his compensation.
McGrath was living in Florida and was supposed to be in Baltimore for the start of his trial on Monday, according to the Marshals — but he did not show up.
A lawyer for McGrath did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Prosecutors have said McGrath faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each of the five counts of wire fraud; a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for each of two counts of embezzling funds from an organization receiving more than $10,000 in federal benefits; and a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for the charge of falsifying a document if convicted.
