(NEW YORK) — Approximately 46,000 people died on U.S. roads last year, according to preliminary data from the National Safety Council.
That number is up 9% from 42,339 deaths recorded in 2020, and up 18% from 39,107 deaths in 2019, according to the nonprofit health and safety organization.
“This devastating news serves as yet another wakeup call for this country. We are failing each other, and we must act to prioritize safety for all road users,” Lorraine Martin, president and CEO of the National Safety Council, said in a press release. “One life lost in a preventable crash is tragic enough and more than 46,000 in one year is unacceptable.”
The report comes as traffic on roads nears pre-pandemic levels. According to the Federal Highway Administration, vehicle miles traveled in the first nine months of 2021 increased 11.7% from the same time in 2020.
The cause for the continuing rise in motor vehicle deaths is not yet known. Some experts say while fewer people were on roads in the beginning of the pandemic, reckless driving ran rampant.
“What we do know, at least preliminarily through some NHTSA studies at the beginning of the pandemic, is that people are speeding, they are not wearing their seatbelts, they are driving distracted and impaired as well,” Jane Terry, the vice president of government affairs at NSC, told ABC News.
A new study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found an estimated 4% of drivers in the United States said they increased their driving during the pandemic. Those drivers tended to be younger and mostly male, AAA said.
That group also reported to engage in risky driving behaviors such as distracted driving, speeding, aggressive driving, substance-impaired driving and not using seatbelts, AAA’s report found.
In January, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg released a plan, the National Roadway Safety Strategy, to reduce road deaths across the country. The plan calls for nationwide design changes to roads and automatic emergency braking in passenger vehicles, among dozens of other initiatives — including a goal to reach zero deaths on American roadways.
“This is a national crisis,” Buttigieg said at the time. “We cannot and must not accept these deaths as an inevitable part of everyday life.”
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Attorneys for former President Donald Trump have appealed a ruling that he and his two eldest children must testify in the investigation by the New York state attorney general into the family’s business practices.
Trump’s attorneys filed the notice of appeal on Monday, nearly two weeks after a New York judge ruled on Feb 17 that the three Trumps must sit for depositions within 21 days.
The Trump family had unsuccessfully tried to quash the subpoena for testimony, arguing that it was improper for the attorney general’s office to issue subpoenas for its civil investigation while the Manhattan district attorney’s office is still conducting its separate criminal probe.
Judge Arthur Engoron of the New York State Supreme Court rejected that argument.
“This argument completely misses the mark,” Engoron wrote in his decision. “Neither OAG nor the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has subpoenaed the New Trump Respondents to appear before a grand jury, The New Trump Respondents’ argument overlooks the salient fact that they have an absolute right to refuse to answer questions that they claim may incriminate them.”
The judge noted that when Trump’s son Eric sat for a deposition two years ago as part of the same investigation, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 500 times.
Trump also argued that the investigation into his business practices is overtly political, and cited statements New York Attorney General Letitia James made during and after her campaign for attorney general about her intentions to investigate the former president and his family’s real estate firm.
The judge found those statements had no bearing on the legitimacy of the subpoenas.
“Attorney General James, just like respondent Donald J. Trump, was not deprived of her First Amendment rights to free speech when she was a politician running for a public office with investigatory powers,” the judge’s decision said.
“The abhorrent statements made by Letitia leave no doubt that this is yet another politically motivated witch-hunt,” Trump attorney Alina Habba said in response to the ruling. “The court clearly had its mind made up and had no interest in engaging in impartial discourse on this critically important issue.”
Trump, in a statement following the ruling, blasted the investigation.
“She is doing everything within their corrupt discretion to interfere with my business relationships, and with the political process,” he said of James. “It is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in history — and remember, I can’t get a fair hearing in New York because of the hatred of me by Judges and the judiciary. It is not possible!”
“Today, justice prevailed,” said James following the ruling. “Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump have been ordered by the court to comply with our lawful investigation into Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization’s financial dealings. No one will be permitted to stand in the way of the pursuit of justice, no matter how powerful they are. No one is above the law.”
(NEW YORK) — Even as the pandemic situation sharply improves and protective mandates are lifted, just a third of Americans see the coronavirus as mainly controlled — and six in 10 say it’s more important to try to contain the virus than to lift restrictions on normal activities.
Fifty-eight percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll continue to prioritize controlling the spread of the virus, 20 percentage points more than the share (38%) who say it’s more important to discontinue restrictions.
That’s informed by continued concern about an unpredictable virus that has taken nearly 950,000 American lives and continues to infect nearly 70,000 and kill 1,700 daily. Thirty-four percent see the outbreak as completely or mostly controlled, up from about two in 10 last month (in a Fox News poll of registered voters), but still far from a majority. Half instead say it’s “somewhat” under control.
That said, the most dire views have improved sharply. Just 15% now say the outbreak is “not at all” under control, down sharply from 41% last month, when the omicron surge was in full swing, with a seven-day average of as many as 800,000 daily cases.
The poll, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, was completed a day before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped its recommendation of indoor masking for the roughly seven in 10 people who live in areas with low or medium transmission levels. Nearly all states with mask requirements had already discontinued them.
Normal life
Another result points to cautious re-emergence. While 56% say they’ve fully or mostly resumed their pre-coronavirus life, that’s 10 points below its level in July, before the delta and omicron variants spurred record levels of infections. About a quarter say they’ve partly returned to normal; and 16%, barely or not at all. The latter is up from 9% last July.
Returning to normality is associated strongly with views of the pandemic. Among people who see the outbreak as completely or mostly controlled, seven in 10 report having largely resumed their pre-coronavirus life. That falls to 29% who say it’s not at all controlled. Indeed, 48% in this group barely have returned to normal life, if at all.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Four people were killed, including three children, after a gunman opened fire at a church in Sacramento, California.
The shooting took place at The Church in Sacramento in the Arden-Arcade neighborhood, where the suspect opened fire in the main sanctuary area on Monday just after 5 p.m., Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Rod Grassmann told reporters during a news conference.
Three of the victims were the children of the suspected gunman, Grassmann said. The fourth victim was supervising a court-ordered visit between the man and his children.
All of the victims were dead when first responders arrived. The suspect died by suicide, Grassmann said.
The church’s pastor called 911 around 5:07 p.m. after he heard the gunshots, ABC Sacramento affiliate KXTV reported.
When deputies arrived, they found the body of an adult male, along with his three daughters aged 9, 10 and 13, inside the sanctuary.
The mother had a restraining order against the children’s father. She was not in the building at the time of the shooting.
Investigators have labeled the shooting as a domestic violence incident, Grassmann said.
The sheriff’s office asked residents to stay away from the area near the church due to a large police presence.
Investigators are asking anyone who may have been in the vicinity of Wyda Way to call 911 to provide a witness account.
(NEW YORK) — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted thousands of people to leave the Eastern European country, but should North Carolina native Craig Lang depart Ukraine and return to the United States, he could immediately be taken into custody by federal authorities.
Lang, a 32-year-old U.S. Army veteran-turned-murder suspect who previously moved to Ukraine, is one of two former soldiers accused of killing husband and wife Danny and Deana Lorenzo in southwest Florida nearly four years ago.
FBI investigators say that the Lorenzos, who were also military veterans, were fatally shot in April 2018 in an Estero parking lot after they traveled nearly three hours to respond to an online firearms advertisement.
Sheriff’s deputies found 63 bullet casings at the scene, with bullet holes riddling the Lorenzos’ vehicle.
“She was scared. I know she had to be,” Deana Lorenzo’s sister Angie Crowder told ABC News.
Residents of this Fort Myers suburb were left mystified about the alleged ambush for more than a year until the Department of Justice announced federal charges against Lang and co-defendant Alex Zwiefelhofer in connection with the Lorenzos’ deaths.
Zwiefelhofer was taken into federal custody in Wisconsin in 2019 and has pleaded not guilty.
Lang has yet to appear before a federal judge. He has denied involvement in the Florida murders and has fought extradition back to the United States. Relatives of the Lorenzos, including Crowder, are in anguish.
“We all want answers,” Crowder said. “I would like to see him come back and stand charges.”
Living in plain sight halfway across the world
In the spring of 2021, ABC News traveled roughly 5,000 miles to Ukraine in search of Lang. He was found to be living openly with a Ukrainian wife and child in a Kyiv neighborhood.
Lang, who was previously arrested for brandishing a gun near the home of one of his American ex-wives after he went AWOL, agreed to an on-camera interview with ABC News Investigative Correspondent David Scott. However, Lang refused to answer questions during the interview about the murders in Florida.
“I can’t discuss … anything about Florida [or] pretty much anything about my time in the United States in 2018,” Lang said. “I can’t talk about any of that.”
While the DOJ continues to seek his extradition, Lang told Scott that he is seeking asylum in Ukraine.
“I believe that the United States government intends to prosecute me and other veterans of this conflict here for our service in Ukraine,” he said, arguing that he is a victim of Russian propaganda and American political persecution.
After being discharged by the U.S. Army, he says he first arrived in Ukraine around 2016 and joined far-right militias such as the Azov Battalion and Right Sector. Both groups have been accused of human rights abuses by Amnesty International and have alleged ties to American white power organizations.
Lang denies that he is a right-wing extremist.
“I’m going to say that the amount of, like, neo-Nazis or people with extreme views is very, very minimal, very, very minimal,” he said. “Is there extremism to a small degree? There might be some extremism, yes.”
Small militias, major role
Since Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea, to bolster its defenses against those in its eastern regions seeking to separate from Ukraine and join Russia, Ukraine has relied on local militia groups, some of which have been linked to the nation’s far-right political movements by Amnesty International and The Soufan Center.
Such battalions with ties to Ukraine’s far-right fringe political parties may have empowered Russian President Vladimir Putin to spread the false message that “denazification” was the goal of his invasion, despite Ukraine’s elected government having the support of the United States and other Western democracies.
Scott questioned Lang about the far-right ideology reportedly behind the Azov Battalion, but Lang said that he did not think that the group’s membership included anyone with extremist views.
Over an hour into the conversation, after being pressed on racist statements reportedly made by former Azov Battalion commander Andriy Biletsky, Lang ended the interview.
“I’m going to go ahead and leave,” Lang told Scott.
‘A threat to the homeland’
Lang is one of a number of Americans who have reportedly either traveled to Ukraine over the last decade to fight for far-right paramilitary groups or have sought to do so.
The FBI alleged that Jarrett William Smith, an Army veteran who pleaded guilty in 2020 to federal charges of distributing information related to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction, had a “desire to fight in Ukraine” and communicated about his plans with Lang on Facebook.
“It was as if [Smith] wanted to use the Army to get the training that he needed to be successful going overseas, fighting on behalf of this white supremacist organization,” former federal prosecutor Anthony Mattivi said.
Smith is not alleged to have ultimately fought in Ukraine. When asked about Smith, Lang called him an extremist and confirmed that they connected on Facebook, but said that he turned Smith away from his Ukrainian unit.
“I wasn’t going out and recruiting people. I wasn’t saying, ‘Oh, come out and join us,” Lang said. “What was happening is I was simply a point of contact for a lot of foreigners that came into this country, and there’s a lot of good people that came into the country.”
The Soufan Center warned in a 2019 report that Ukraine had already become an attractive stop for far-right extremists.
“Americans have gone to fight as mercenary soldiers in far-right and paramilitary units in Ukraine,” University of Chicago Assistant Professor Kathleen Belew said. “They do pose a threat to the homeland.”
From eastern Ukraine to the East Coast
Lang and Zwiefelhofer are American, but the FBI says that the two alleged murderers initially met in eastern Ukraine more than five years ago while fighting for a far-right militia against Russian-backed separatists.
Federal prosecutors allege that after returning to the United States together, Lang and Zwiefelhofer came up with the plot to rob and kill the Lorenzos in 2018 “to fund their planned travel to Venezuela.”
A superseding indictment also claimed that Zwiefelhofer and Lang conspired with each other to travel to Venezuela and commit murder, kidnapping, and maiming as part of a “military expedition and enterprise” there.
Lang, who said that he has never been to Venezuela, declined to comment on whether he considered the South American nation to be a potential frontline for him.
At some point after the Lorenzos’ deaths, Lang ended up back in Ukraine and said he became an English instructor there, despite being wanted in Florida on federal criminal charges.
Fighters and false claims
While many Americans left Ukraine ahead of the Russian invasion, some groups made recent efforts to encourage others to do the opposite.
In January, an international message board for neo-Nazis urged American followers to join far-right militias to help fight Russian troops and pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, where local civilian fighters had been prepared to assist the Ukrainian military due to the mobilization of Russian forces.
This effort came a month before Putin falsely claimed that he is looking to rid Ukraine of Nazis and suggested that the country’s far-right has control of its government, using these lies as pretexts for war.
Ukraine’s president is Jewish and, according to the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, Russia has had its own extremist militias fighting alongside Russian-based separatists in Ukraine.
One such group was the Russian Imperial Movement, which has reportedly cultivated ties with American neo-Nazis and offered to train white nationalists at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va.
“One important thing to understand about white power and militant right groups is that they are fundamentally opportunistic,” Belew said. “When we have a major … point of tension like we’re seeing in the Ukraine right now, it’s very, very likely that actors will exploit that tension.”
‘I’ll just break out and cry’
With war now underway in Ukraine, it remains unclear when or if Lang will end up being forcibly returned to American soil to face trial in federal court.
Back in Florida, Crowder says she is still grieving the loss of her sister and brother-in-law while hoping that justice will be served.
“I still have my moments and sometimes, I’ll just break out and cry,” Crowder said.
(WASHINGTON) — Days after GOP Reps. Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared at an event organized by a white nationalist, Republican party leaders are condemning them for attending.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell released a statement Monday criticizing white supremacist hate.
“There’s no place in the Republican Party for white supremacists or anti-Semitism,” McConnell said in a statement first reported by Politico.
Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters Monday afternoon that he found Greene and Gosar’s attendance “unacceptable.”
McCarthy suggested to reporters that he plans to speak with both Gosar and Greene later this week.
“To me, it was appalling and wrong,” McCarthy told reporters. “There’s no place in our party for any of this.”
“The party should not be associated any time any place with somebody who is anti-Semitic…This is unacceptable,” he added.
McCarthy was in Israel last week with a congressional delegation. He told Punchbowl News that the news of Greene and Gosar’s attendance was particularly upsetting because of his recent visit.
Greene and Gosar have both previously been stripped of their committee assignments for their egregious behavior.
McCarthy, however, has previously said he would restore their assignments if Republicans take back the House in November.
McCarthy told CNN and another reporter outside his office that even though Greene claimed not to know who the event organizer was “with that introduction, you should have walked off stage.”
Shortly before introducing Greene, Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist who organized the event, led participants in applause for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and chanted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name.
Republican Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, when asked about Greene’s behavior Monday, also condemned the event but stopped short of condemning her members.
“White supremacy. Neo Nazism, hate speech, and bigotry are disgusting. They have no place or home and our party.”
McDaniel didn’t say whether the party would take any further action against its members, such as censuring them. Instead, she said she “would let the process play out” and see if any members brought any censures forward at a party meeting in August.
The criticism follows recent comments by former President Donald Trump, who continues to praise Putin. During an interview with the conservative radio show “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” on Tuesday, Trump labeled Putin’s tactics “genius” and “savvy.” Trump ultimately slammed the invasion on Saturday night at the Conservative Political Action Conference but called Putin “smart.”
Greene and Gosar’s appearance at the conference Friday night is now renewing calls for them to be reprimanded by fellow Republicans in Congress.
“In any other world, Greene speaking at a white supremacist conference where attendees have defended Vladimir Putin and praised Adolf Hitler would warrant expulsion from the caucus, to say nothing of her advocacy for violence and consistent anti-Semitism is disgusting,” Democratic National Committee spokesperson Ammar Moussa said.
Greene, however, has doubled down on her appearance.
“I won’t cancel others in the conservative movement, even if I find some of their statements tasteless, misguided or even repulsive at times. I encourage them to seek wisdom, and apologize to those who have been hurt by their words, as I’ve had to do,” she said. “Our faith calls for charity and forgiveness.”
“We’re not going to be deterred by journalists and Washington insiders who fear the name of Our Lord, and relentlessly attack those of us who proclaim His name. We know that Christ is our only judge,” she added.
Over the weekend, in addition to claiming she didn’t know who Fuentes was, Greene said she went to the event to reach his young audience and to discuss “American First” policies.
Last month, Fuentes was subpoenaed by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has spent more than $2 million on its investigation, including $1.64 million between October and December — an indication that the panel’s work is speeding up.
The $1.64 million is roughly four times the $418,000 the panel spent from July to September of 2021, according to spending disclosures. The increased spending is a sign of how much the committee is expanding its work ahead of public hearings and an interim report that’s expected this spring and summer.
Much of the big jump in the committee’s spending comes from an increase in payroll, with the panel reporting $1.2 million in personnel compensation in the final three months of last year compared to just $327,000 from July through September.
The committee hired 12 additional staff members last quarter, bringing the total headcount to 41, up from 29 in September of 2021. The new staffers include investigators and attorneys with experience studying organized crime, terrorism, cryptocurrency, and financial crimes, as well as several former federal prosecutors.
Committee staffers are divided into color-coded teams, with each group focused on a different aspect of the sprawling investigation — from financing and extremist groups to former President Donald Trump’s communication with GOP lawmakers before and on Jan. 6.
The committee also spent more than $300,000 on “other services” in the final three months of last year, as well as a sizable amount on equipment, supplies, rent and utilities.
According to filings, the Jan. 6 committee overall spent just a little more in the fourth quarter than the House Intelligence Committee, which reported spending $1.61 million. But that amount was far less than many other committees, including the House Oversight & Reform Committee, the House Judiciary Committee, and the House Homeland Security Committee, which in the fourth quarter spent $3.6 million, $2.2 million and $2 million, respectively.
To date, the Jan. 6 panel has conducted nearly 600 interviews, issued more than 75 subpoenas, and obtained tens of thousands of official Trump White House and administration records from the National Archives.
They have also sought records from members of the former president’s inner circle, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s son Eric Trump, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, a campaign fundraiser who is engaged to Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
(NEW YORK) — Traffic deaths surged during the pandemic, despite less cars on the road. A new study from AAA found an increase in reckless drivers on the roads may be to blame.
The study, conducted in fall of 2020, found an estimated 4% of drivers in the United States reported they increased their driving during the pandemic. Those drivers tended to be younger and mostly male, AAA said.
That group also reported to engage in risky driving behaviors such as distracted driving, speeding, aggressive driving, substance-impaired driving and not using seatbelts, the report found.
“Our research finds that higher-risk motorists accounted for a greater share of drivers during the pandemic than before it,” Dr. David Yang, executive director of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, said in a release. “Safety-minded individuals drove less, while many who increased their driving tended to engage in riskier behaviors behind the wheel.”
The average daily number of driving trips made by adults in the U.S. decreased by 42% during the early months of the pandemic, AAA said.
Despite the decrease in traffic, approximately 13% more people died on U.S. roads in the second half of 2020 compared to the same time the year prior, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The agency estimates 38,680 people died on roads in 2020 — the largest projected number of fatalities since 2007.
AAA’s survey results were part of the organization’s annual Traffic Safety Culture index. Researchers questioned almost 3,000 drivers between October and November of 2020 about their driving habits in the past 30 days.
“About 4% of the population reported they were actually driving more because of the pandemic, and the emphasis of our study here is that group, although small, is driving more and that they appeared to be far higher risk drivers, both in terms of their characteristics and in terms of their own self-reported behaviors behind the wheel,” Brian Tefft, senior researcher at the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, said in an interview with ABC News.
(GAINESVILLE, Fla.) — When Murray was released from prison in July, he didn’t have a source of income. The 54-year-old, whose last name is being withheld because he fears for his safety, is no stranger to struggling financially; he grew up poor in Gainesville, Florida, and resorted to stealing or shoplifting in the past.
“When you live with something in your life for so long, such as criminal activity, you always have this lingering thought in your mind: ‘I know a way to get some money and it wouldn’t take me long to get it,’ Murray said.
He was “down and out” after prison, he said, and doing his best to make a new life for himself, but money was hard to come by.
Struggling to maintain financial stability after incarceration is something that many formerly incarcerated people face; 27% of formerly incarcerated people are unemployed and are 10 times more likely than the general population to be homeless, according to the non-profit criminal justice research organization Prison Policy Initiative.
A new guaranteed income program in Gainesville aims to solve this issue.
Guaranteed income programs across the country give direct cash payments to recipients in order to address poverty or economic inequality, They can be targeted toward a specific population or be universal.
Some critics say these initiatives have to be multifaceted to address the nuances of poverty. Others argue they will stop people from working — though such claims have been debunked — or be too expensive to maintain.
This effort is a collaboration between the guaranteed income pilot program Just Income GNV and Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, a national network of mayors and researchers spearheading these kinds of programs. They have selected formerly incarcerated individuals who live in the city to receive $1,000 in January, followed by $600 each month for a year.
Their spending is monitored for research purposes, but the recipients are not told how to spend their money.
One month after his first cash assistance check, Murray said he is already seeing the effects an extra monthly boost can have on his well-being and stability.
He’s disabled and needs assistance with walking, so he plans on using the money to help get a scooter and a car to make transportation and mobility easier.
“It’s a relief, which is amazing. I can plan things now and guarantee they’re gonna happen,” Murray said. “I’ve been able to help out some of my relatives with money for gas and got a couple more other relatives who were low on food and I was able to help with that. And just so many great things that this program has really introduced into my life.”
How it works
The program seeks to address the cycle of financial inequality that often affects people impacted by the criminal justice system, especially in Florida which, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, outpaces the overall U.S. incarceration rate. Florida has a rate of 795 incarcerated people per 100,000 compared to 664 in the U.S. as a whole.
Research has also shown that incarceration disproportionately creates a lasting impact on Black and brown communities, as well as impoverished people.
When people come out of prison, they can face discrimination and barriers to economic opportunities, criminal fines, debt, fees and parole that can haunt them long after their sentence is over, according to Kevin Scott, the director of Just Income GNV who is also formerly incarcerated.
For some, the experience can lead them back into the criminal justice system.
When someone can’t/won’t pay a fee or fine and can’t/won’t show up to a court date regarding the fee, it could result in more jail time or additional debt for them, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Researchers at the National Research Council Committee on Law and Justice also found links between high incarceration rates and the criminalization of poverty through policy changes.
“I see it so many times when I was in prison guys coming back to prison over and over and over again because they didn’t have enough money to stay on the street and us as a society need a better system,” said David, 54, who has asked that his name be withheld out of safety concerns. He is another formerly incarcerated man and Vietnam veteran who is receiving cash assistance.
David finished a 45-year sentence in the summer and said the monthly income has been a saving grace. He said there have been family emergencies that the money has allowed him to handle, including getting his daughter out of a dangerous domestic situation.
“Had not that money been there, I don’t know what would have happened,” said David.
David said the money has given him the extra step up that he needed to succeed coming out of a long prison sentence.
“It’s sad that it boils down to that because I’ve got a lot of education under my belt for jobs,” David said. “But if you don’t have the initial step or a little way to get moving … what it all boils down to is the almighty dollar.”
Tracking the spending
Steady, the technology firm and app that helps Mayors for Guaranteed Income programs distribute money to recipients, said it can track what recipients spend their funds as part of the research and advocacy for this project.
Adam Roseman, the CEO and co-founder of Steady, said that it’s a harmful stereotype that low-income earners spend their money irresponsibly or that guaranteed income recipients may not be financially literate with their funds.
The data the company has seen so far has disproved that, he says: “They’re spending the money on things that are important to their daily lives, food, housing, paying down debt payments, acquiring new skills through career programs.”
Cash assistance, according to Roseman and Sukhi Samra, the director of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, has been extremely helpful in getting people back on track — pointing to other forms of help like the federal Child Tax credit.
“We’ve actually seen income lifts as sizable as 40 or 50% for those individuals that received emergency cash or universal basic income,” Roseman said. “You alleviate some of that major financial stress” that is holding them back from solving bigger challenges.
She says these types of programs have changed lives.
She says she’s seen people escape abusive marriages, address their mental health and well-being, or have offered them a lifeline during times of unemployment or have given them the tools needed to find work.
The ultimate goal: “a federal policy. We are investing in pilots like the one in Gainesville to build the evidence base for a federal guaranteed income,” Samra said.
David and Murray are busy making plans for their families and futures, now that they have some relief knowing they won’t be scrounging for cash to take care of themselves.
In honor of Murray’s mother’s upcoming 75th birthday celebration in March, he says he wants to give back now that he’s got some cash to support himself.
He plans on putting together 100 bagged lunches and drinks for the homeless and for the community, knowing that he was once where they were.
“I appreciate what’s happened in my life and I want to give back and I want to share and give hope to other people,” Murray said.
(LAS VEGAS) — Fourteen people suffered gunshot wounds, one of whom died, after two people exchanged gunshots at a Las Vegas hookah lounge on Saturday, according to a statement from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Police received multiple reports of a shooting at a hookah lounge around 3:15 a.m. When officers responded, they found 14 victims suffering from gunshot wounds, Las Vegas police said.
One man was pronounced dead and two other people are in critical condition, according to police.
The rest of the victims are in stable condition, according to police. Medical personnel transported the victims to UMC and Sunrise hospitals.
Preliminary investigation by police indicated that there was a party at the lounge where the shooting occurred when at least two individuals got into an altercation. They exchanged gunfire during the altercation, striking multiple people, police said.
Police said the investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
