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(NEW YORK) — The second day of jury selection in the high-profile murder case of Ahmaud Arbery commenced Tuesday, with prosecutors and lawyers finding it tough to impanel an impartial jury.

“I guess I would call it murder,” one potential juror vented on the three white Georgia men accused of chasing down and killing Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man.

Another would-be panelist put it bluntly when asked in court about his opinions of the case that has dominated headlines nationwide, but particularly in south Georgia, saying, “I’m sick of it.” Several potential candidates said they were worried about their safety if selected to serve.

In the first day and a half of the courtroom proceedings, no jurors have been selected and at least 14 of the first 40 questioned under oath so far have been dismissed, while others have yet to be individually questioned or told they may be called back. At least three of the potential panelists let go are Black and one is Hispanic, causing attorneys for Arbery’s family to be concerned.

“We certainly believe that there should be Black and brown voices, as well as white voices on the jury,” one of the family’s attorneys, Lee Merritt, said in an interview with ABC News’ Linsey Davis on Monday evening.

About 1,000 residents of Glynn County received a jury summons and questionnaire, or about 1 out of 85 eligible people living in a county that, according to U.S. Census data, is 69% white, 26% Black and 7% Hispanic.

The three defendants are Gregory McMichael, 65, a retired police officer, his son, Travis McMichael, 35, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, 52. They have all pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment stemming from the Feb. 23, 2020, fatal shooting of Arbery in the unincorporated Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick.

The McMichaels claim they thought Arbery was a burglar and were exercising their rights under the state’s citizens’ arrest law, which has since been repealed. Travis McMichael is also claiming self-defense after allegedly shooting Arbery three times with a shotgun during a fight, according to his attorney.

Bryan made a cellphone video of part of the fatal confrontation, which is now being used as evidence against him and the McMichaels. Bryan’s attorney said he was only a witness to the crime, but prosecutors counter that he was an active participant in the pursuit of Arbery.

On Tuesday, the second batch of 20 potential jurors was sworn in by Chatham County Superior Court Judge Timothy R. Walmsley, who was appointed to preside over the Glynn County trial. Under general questioning from Walmsley, nine of the candidates raised their hands affirmatively when asked, “Have you for any reason formed or expressed an opinion in regard to the guilt or innocence of the accused?”

When asked by lead prosecutor Linda Dunikowski if there was anyone in the room who wanted to serve on the jury, no one raised their hand.

In an indication of how small Glynn County is, at least five jurors said they knew one or more of the defendants or some of the witnesses Dunikowski said could be called to testify.

One potential juror said she knew Jackie Johnson, the former Brunswick District Attorney. Johnson, the first prosecutor to get the case, was indicted in September on a felony count of violating her oath of office by allegedly “showing favor and affection” to Gregory McMichael, with whom she once had a working relationship, and a misdemeanor count of hindering a law enforcement officer.

During the questioning of individuals on Monday, some of the would-be panelists did not shy away from sharing their opinions.

“I think Mr. Arbery was probably in terror. I’m trying to be honest here,” a woman referred to as Juror No. 4, a retired accountant and auditor, said under questioning by defense lawyers.

After acknowledging her negative feelings toward Travis McMichael, she said, “He shot a man who had been running through his neighborhood who didn’t appear to have done anything wrong. What would I call that? I guess I would call it murder.”

A man referred to as Juror No. 2 said during questioning that he has shared the video of Arbery’s slaying on social media and discussed the case with his brothers — one of whom is also among the potential jurors summoned.

“I’m sick of it,” Juror No. 2 said of news of the case. “It’s everywhere. It’s around my job. Everywhere I look, it’s there.”

ABC News’ Janice McDonald contributed to this report.

 

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(NEW YORK) — The family of Elijah McClain has reached a settlement with the city of Aurora over his violent arrest and subsequent death, city officials said.

“The city of Aurora and the family of Elijah McClain reached a settlement agreement in principle over the summer to resolve the lawsuit filed after his tragic death in August 2019,” Ryan Luby, the deputy director of Communications and Marketing for Aurora, told ABC News.

He said city leaders will sign the agreement as soon as the family completes a separate process to determine how any settlement proceeds will be divided among themselves. Until then, “the parties cannot disclose the settlement terms,” but so far, no amount was discussed in the most recent hearing on Oct. 8, Luby said.

“The court will now determine allocation of the proceeds between Ms. McClain, the parent who raised Elijah McClain by herself, and LaWayne Mosley,” attorneys for Elijah McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, told ABC Denver affiliate, KMGH-TV.

A lawyer for Elijah McClain’s father also confirmed a settlement has been reached.

“Nothing will bring back his son Elijah, who he loved dearly, but he is hopeful that this settlement with Aurora, and the criminal charges against the officers and medics … will allow his family and the community to begin to heal,” attorney Mari Newman, on LaWayne Mosley’s behalf, told ABC News.

The settlement comes over a year after the family filed a 106-page federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Colorado, accusing several officers and paramedics of violating Elijah McClain’s civil rights and negligently causing his death.

Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist from Aurora, Colorado, was confronted by police on Aug. 24 while walking home from a convenience store, after a 911 caller said they saw someone “sketchy.” He was unarmed.

He was wearing a ski mask at the time because, according to his family, he had anemia, a blood condition that can make people feel cold more easily.

Body camera video shows that the officers told Elijah McClain he was “being suspicious,” to which he replied, “I have a right to go where I am going.”

Officers placed him in a carotid chokehold, which restricts the carotid artery, cutting off blood to the brain, according to an independent review of his death released in February. Elijah had earlier pleaded with them, saying he is non-violent and at one point was heard on the body camera footage saying that he can’t breathe.

When EMTs arrived at the scene, he was administered a shot of 500 milligrams of ketamine and was then loaded on an ambulance, where he had a heart attack, officials said.

Elijah McClain went into cardiac arrest. The incident led to his death on Aug. 30, three days after doctors pronounced him brain dead and he was removed from life support, officials said. The Adams County coroner ruled the cause of McClain’s death to be undetermined.

Initially, no charges were brought against the officers involved in the incident.

However, in January, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser launched a grand jury probe into Elijah McClain’s death. In September, a state grand jury returned a 32-count indictment against the three officers — Nathan Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt and Randy Roedema — and two paramedics — Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec — in the case, charging them with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, among other charges.

Sheneen McClain called the charges “a step toward justice” at the time.

“I’m still praying for them to be in prison. My son’s murderers and their accomplices all need to be in prison for what they did to him,” she told ABC News. “They had no right to stop him. They had no right to handcuff him, brutalize and terrorize him, or inject him with ketamine.”

The Aurora Police Association Board of Directors defended the officers following the indictment, saying in a statement, “There is no evidence that APD officers caused his death. The hysterical overreaction to this case has severely damaged the police department.”

Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson and Aurora Fire Rescue Chief Fernando Gray both said that each of their departments will continue to cooperate as the judicial process moves forward.

Last month, the Colorado attorney general issued a report following a 14-month probe into the actions of the Aurora Police Department in the wake of Elijah McClain’s death and found the department had a pattern of racial bias, as well as excessive force.

The report also found Aurora Police arrested people of color “1.3 times more than whites based on population percentage alone.”

The AG office recommended changes to policies, training, record-keeping and hiring as a result of the report.

ABC News’ Ivan Pereira, Sabina Ghebremedhin, Deena Zaru and Courtney Condron contributed to this report.

 

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(ATLANTA) — Police are taking DNA evidence from decades-old unsolved child murder cases to a private lab in Utah in the hopes of finding “concrete answers for the families,” Atlanta’s mayor said.

From 1979 to 1981, at least 29 Black people, mostly kids and adolescents, were killed in the Atlanta area, according to the mayor’s office. The first two victims were a 14-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy who vanished within days of each other, the mayor’s office said.

The slayings became known as the “Atlanta Child Murders.”

Wayne Williams was long been considered the suspect but was never convicted in the cases, ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV reported. In 1982, Williams was convicted of killing two adults and he’s currently incarcerated, according to WSB-TV.

This week, investigators are taking the evidence to a private lab in Salt Lake City “that specializes in analyzing deteriorated DNA,” Atlanta police said.

“Considering the emergence of new science and technology related to DNA testing, the Atlanta Police Department realized an opportunity to re-evaluate evidence from the Atlanta Child Murders case,” police said in a statement Tuesday. “As with all murder cases, our investigators dedicate countless hours of time and energy to successfully solve cases and bring some sense of closure to victims’ relatives.”

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms tweeted, “It is my sincere hope that there will be concrete answers for the families.”

 

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(NEW YORK) — The NYPD’s oversight agency has recommended the department discipline 65 officers who are accused of misconduct during last year’s anti-racism protests.

The New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board received over 750 complaints concerning alleged NYPD officer conduct following the Black Lives Matter demonstrations during summer 2020, according to the agency. Only 313 complaints fell within the board’s jurisdiction.

It found 42 substantiated complaints of misconduct concerning 65 officers.

The board recommended serving charges against officers in 37 complaints, Command Discipline B in 11 complaints, and Command Discipline A in 19 complaints.

The recommended disciplinary actions are the most severe forms of punishment against NYPD officers. According to the CCRB website, charges prompt an administrative trial that may lead to lost vacation time, suspension or termination.

Command disciplines are recommended for misconduct that does not rise to the level of charges, but is emblematic of an issue more severe than poor training, according to the board. An officer can lose up to 10 vacation days as a result of a Command Discipline — Schedule B is the more serious of the command disciplines.

CCRB review states that there have been challenges in the investigation “due to the failure to follow proper protocols, officers covering their names and shield, officers wearing protective equipment that did not belong to them, the lack of proper use of body-worn cameras, as well as incomplete and severely delayed paperwork.”

An NYPD spokesperson told ABC News that the department has assisted the CCRB in its investigations by providing body camera footage and “thousands of pages of records.”

“The NYPD has made significant strides and continues to work toward making our discipline processes transparent,” Deputy Commissioner Public Information spokesperson Sergeant Edward Riley said in a statement to ABC News. “Like any citizen, police officers should be afforded a presumption of innocence until and unless proven guilty.”

Any discipline as a result of an NYPD administrative trial will be made public in the NYPD’s online discipline database, according to Riley.

In January, New York Attorney General Letitia James also filed a lawsuit against the NYPD over its handling of anti-racism protests across New York City, accusing the department of failing to address issues of abuse of power against civilians.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller told reporters at the time that the lawsuit “doesn’t seem to meet the standard of a federal monitor. It doesn’t seem to illustrate a pattern of practice, which is required under the law … But we will, as with most civil lawsuits, address those assertions in court.”

 

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump sat for a deposition Monday at Trump Tower in New York City that lasted “several hours,” said an attorney for the plaintiffs suing him over an alleged assault.

“The deposition of Donald John Trump went not unlike any other deposition, any other employer that I’ve examined under oath,” the attorney, Benjamin Dictor, said.

The lawsuit stems from a 2015 protest outside Trump Tower that followed then-candidate Trump’s comments that Mexican immigrants were criminals and rapists.

A demonstrator, Efrain Galicia, was “violently attacked” by Trump’s security personnel as he attempted to retrieve a sign that security had confiscated, the attorney said.

“Mr. Trump is responsible for those actions,” Dictor said Monday after the deposition. “The public sidewalks are sacred.”

“Rather than protest peacefully, the plaintiffs intentionally sought to rile up a crowd by blocking the entrance to Trump Tower on 5th Avenue, in the middle of the day, wearing Ku Klux Klan robes and hoods,” Trump said in a statement released following the deposition. “When security tried to deescalate the situation, they were unfortunately met with taunts and violence from the plaintiffs themselves. Seeing this for what it is, prior to my deposition today, the Court dismissed almost all of the plaintiffs’ claims — except for a baseless claim for injuries they never suffered, and the temporary loss of a worthless cardboard sign which was soon thereafter returned to them.”

“After years of litigation, I was pleased to have had the opportunity to tell my side of this ridiculous story,” Trump said in his statement.

Monday’s deposition began at 10 a.m. and Trump “answered questions for several hours with his lawyer present,” Dictor said.

Dictor said he looked forward to presenting Trump’s sworn testimony to a jury as soon as possible.

Dictor declined to describe specific answers the former president gave to specific questions. However when asked to describe the deposition, Dictor said, “You all have seen the president for many years on the news, almost every night for five or six years now. The president was exactly as you would expect him to be.”

“He answered questions the way you would expect Mr. Trump to answer questions, and conducted himself in a manner you would expect Mr. Trump to conduct himself,” the attorney said.

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(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.

More than 722,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 66.5% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.

Oct 18, 7:19 pm
FDA may allow mixed boosters: Source

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering allowing Americans to receive a booster shots from a different brand than their original shots, a source familiar with the agency’s planning told ABC News Monday.

The New York Times first reported the proposal Monday evening.

The FDA is moving toward recommending people get boosters that match their original doses — from the Pfizer or Moderna or Johnson & Johnson — but the agency may also allow health care providers to give certain patients boosters that do not match their initial doses, the source said.

An advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is slated to discuss boosters this week and could issue recommendations for boosters by the end of the week.

ABC News’ Eric Strauss

Oct 18, 6:11 pm
New Mexico enacts crisis of standard care

New Mexico’s growing coronavirus hospitalization has forced the state to enact a crisis of standard care, the state’s health department announced Monday.

“In particular, the volume of COVID-19 patients – almost all of whom are unvaccinated – have exacerbated existing staffing and other resource shortages,” the health department said in a news release.

Medical facilities statewide must now use a “more standardized and equitable procedure,” before deciding who gets care and temporarily suspend procedures that are not medically necessary, according to the health department.

More details on the crisis of standard care will be revealed later this week, the health department said.

ABC News’ Jennifer Watts

Oct 18, 5:31 pm
99% of Seattle public employees complied with city’s vaccine mandate

Just hours before the midnight deadline for its public employee vaccine mandate, the city of Seattle revealed Monday that 99% of its 11,000 employees have complied with the order.

Approximately 150 public employees had yet to submit documents showing their vaccination status as of Monday evening, according to city officials. About 5% of public employees were granted exemption, the city said.

When it came to specific departments, the city said 91% of Seattle Police Department employees were vaccinated and 7% received exemptions. As of Monday evening, 24 Seattle PD employees (2% of the department) did not submit vaccination documents to the city, according to officials.

The Seattle Fire Department reported 93% of its employees complied with the vaccine mandate and 6% received exemptions, the city said. As of Monday evening, 16 Seattle Fire employees (1% of the department) did not submit their vaccination documents, according to city officials.

ABC News’ Matthew Fuhrman

Oct 18, 3:24 pm
CDC now counts those with AstraZeneca, Novavax shots as ‘fully vaccinated’

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its definition of what it means to be “fully vaccinated” to include people who got the AstraZeneca and Novavax doses in clinical trials.

A person also should be considered fully immunized even if they mix their vaccines, the CDC announced Monday.

In general, people are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after their second dose in a two-dose series, such as the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine

The new guidance applies to COVID-19 vaccines currently approved or authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson — and can be applied to COVID-19 vaccines that have been listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization, such as AstraZeneca and Oxford.

The CDC is not recommending vaccines that are not FDA-authorized and has not yet made a decision on official guidelines for mixing doses.

The new guidance on interpreting vaccine records does not impact CDC recommendations on primary series vaccination and should not guide clinical practice, according to the CDC.

ABC News’ Anne Flaherty

 

 

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(GLYNN COUNTY, Ga.) — As the trial of three white Georgia men charged with the 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery got underway Monday with jury selection, Arbery’s father said he is “focused on justice.”

The first group of prospective jurors was called to the Glynn County, Georgia, Courthouse to begin the arduous task of selecting a panel to hear evidence in the case.

Arbery’s family and their attorneys said they are not taking anything for granted.

“It is a lived experience for Black people in America that we can never take for granted that a white person will be convicted for killing a Black person, no matter how much evidence we have,” Ben Crump, one of the Arbery family’s attorneys, said during a news conference outside the courthouse in Brunswick, Georgia.

‘I know my son was lynched’

Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery Sr., said he and his family are relying on the prayers of supporters from across the nation to get them through the trial that the lead prosecutor said could take until Nov. 19 to complete.

“I’m focused on justice,” Arbery Sr. said. “I know my son was lynched, lynched by a white mob.”

The three defendants are Gregory McMichael, 65, a retired police officer, his son, Travis McMichael, 35, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, 52.

All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment stemming from the Feb. 23, 2020, fatal shooting of Arbery in the unincorporated Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick.

Prosecutors alleged Arbery was jogging through the neighborhood when Gregory McMichael saw him and thought he resembled a burglary suspect seen on a security video posted online by his neighborhood association. Gregory McMichael and his son allegedly armed themselves and with guns, and with the help of Bryan chased down Arbery in their pickup trucks, prosecutors said.

Travis McMichael allegedly shot Arbery three times with a shotgun after he was cornered and began fighting with Travis McMichael in the street. The fatal encounter was partially video recorded by Bryan on his cellphone and is poised to be the most significant piece of evidence prosecutors plan to present to the jury.

The McMichaels are claiming they were exercising their right to make a citizens’ arrest under a state law that was repealed following Arbery’s death. Travis McMichael is also claiming he shot Arbery in self-defense, according to his attorney.

Bryan claims he was just a witness to the incident, according to his lawyer. But prosecutors allege he was an active participant in the pursuit of Arbery and that he attempted to use his truck to block Arbery’s path.

In addition to state charges, all three men have been indicted on federal hate crime charges.

First 600 prospective jurors questioned

About 600 of the 1,000 prospective jurors who received questionnaires in the case were called to the courthouse on Monday to begin voir dire or the process to whittle down prospective the jury pool to 16 impartial people, including four alternates.

About 20 of the would-be jurors spent Monday afternoon answering general questions as a group before lawyers began questioning individual jurors. While Chatham County Superior Court Judge Timothy R. Walmsley, who was appointed to preside over the Glynn County trial, allowed the media to observe and livestream the general questions of the group, he barred cameras from filming questioning of individual prospective jurors.

During the general questioning of the first batch of prospective jurors, 13 of the 20 said they had already formed an opinion on the guilt or innocence of the accused based on pre-trial publicity.

Before the actual questioning of potential jurors began, a hearing was held on what questions prosecutors and defense attorneys will be allowed to asked candidates.

In addition to how much prospective jurors know about the case and whether they can put that aside and decide the case solely on the evidence presented in court, defense attorneys for the McMichaels proposed 30 additional questions. Many of the defense questions pertained to thoughts on racism, the Black Lives Matter movement and whether would-be jurors believe the Confederate flag — which the McMichaels had on their pickup truck — as a symbol of racism.

Linda Dunikowski, the lead prosecutor in the case, objected to more than half of the defense questions, calling them too broad or unrelated to the evidence, including whether prospective jurors supported the Black Lives Matter movement or participated in any social justice demonstrations before or after Arberry’s death.

“That question has absolutely nothing to do with what the defendants did on Feb. 23, 2020, and participating in a constitutionally allowable peaceful assembly about social justice has absolutely nothing to do with these defendants,” Dunikowski said in court.

Walmsley said he’ll allow some of the defense questions, but ruled most of them, including questions on gun ownership, were too broad or would lead prospective jurors to prejudge the evidence.

Walmsley also said he would not allow the attorneys to ask whether the prospective jurors are “concerned about your safety, your reputation, your livelihood if you were to be a juror on this case.” Robert Rubin, an attorney for Travis McMichael, said that was likely the most important question on the list.

“This is a case that has garnered significant attention in this community as well as around the country, and I have no doubt that the 1,000 or so individuals that were summoned when they received that summons, reacted in some way to that,” Walmsley said. “This is not an easy thing for anybody.”

 

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(NEW YORK) — School routines have been upended amid the COVID-19 pandemic and as a result of recent nationwide supply chain problems, there are new challenges for free lunch programs.

From distribution delays and shortages of fresh foods to cafeteria supplies like trays and tongs, districts across the U.S. have had to rework breakfast and lunch options for students.

In Alabama, Alexander City Schools took to social media earlier this month to warn parents on Facebook that due to a lack of food deliveries from suppliers, their breakfast would be impacted in the coming weeks.

“In previous weeks we have not received our food deliveries due to suppliers who are short on supplies, drivers and even warehouse employees,” the Oct. 9 post said, adding that it opened accounts with outside vendors to get more supplies. “If possible, we ask that you feed your student breakfast prior to school or try to send a snack.”

The schools in Alexander City also had to alter their menus to fit the supplies they were receiving instead and notified parents of the limited menu selections, but confirmed that “at no time were our students not offered or served a meal for lunch or breakfast.”

“This is a situation that is frustrating for you as a parent, and for us as well as our ability to feed our students is being greatly impacted,” the post said.

Tonya Grier, a Child Nutrition Program Director for Dothan City Schools, told GMA its district, which is nearly three hours from Alexander City, has seen similar issues.

“Deliveries from our primary distributor continue to be unpredictable; we’re no longer confident of arrival until we see the truck at the back door. There are still multiple items (food and non-food) that are marked as “out” on our orders, but the vendor is working to find and offer substitutes for items that are in short supply from manufacturers,” Grier told GMA. “We are working to secure products from other distributors, but they too face the same challenges related to supply chain disruptions.”

“Particularly troubling is the shortage of supplies to serve food. We’re used to subbing out food items to make a menu; that happened occasionally even before COVID-19. But if we can’t get trays, cups, and cutlery to serve food to students, that’s a totally different challenge for us,” Grier said. “We serve an average of 9,400 meals a day (breakfast and lunch combined), and the volume of food and supplies needed to do that means going to our local grocery stores and warehouse club is not a viable option for us.”

Dothan Superintendent Dennis Coe told GMA that “the uncertainty of food supplies” has created “an extra layer of stress and anxiety for staff.”

“This exacerbates our existing difficulties in hiring qualified staff,” Coe said of the current issues facing the schools in Dothan.

The school district’s Public Relations Information Officer Megan Dorsey added that with students home for fall break until Oct. 20, they believe “some stress on food shortages” may be alleviated.

In September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $1.5 billion investment to provide assistance for schools to respond to supply chain disruptions and feed students.

“Throughout the pandemic, school food professionals have met extraordinary challenges to ensure every child can get the food they need to learn, grow and thrive,” the USDA said in a release. “But circumstances in local communities remain unpredictable, and supply chains for food and labor have been stressed and at times disrupted. These funds will support procurement of agricultural commodities and enable USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to enhance the toolbox for school nutrition professionals working hard to make sure students have reliable access to healthy meals.”

School Nutrition Association President, Beth Wallace, hailed the waiver as “a huge relief for school nutrition professionals who are working so hard to serve our students healthy meals in the face of unprecedented challenges.”

Over the past several months, Wallace said their organization has scrambled “to secure foods and supplies for our students’ meals and re-working our menus when our orders have been canceled or deliveries delayed.”

A survey by the SNA heading into the 2021 school year found that 97% of school meal program directors nationwide were concerned about continued pandemic supply chain disruptions. Of those concerned, the SNA said 65% cited it as a “serious” concern.

Issues reported in the survey included “canceled orders, food and supply shortages, product substitutions, price increases, delayed and canceled deliveries often with little or no advance notice.”

Chalkbeat, a nonprofit organization that focuses on education news, started a self-submission form for parents, administrators and districts to report similar food program situations with respect to the supply chain woes.

In Newark, New Jersey’s largest district, Patrick Wall told GMA that shortages extend beyond just food and lunchroom supplies, but to cafeteria workers creating “horrible” lunch options for kids because it’s “difficult to prepare meals from scratch.”

“In response, the district has begun outsourcing some of its meal production. Last month, it made a $3.9 million ’emergency purchase’ of pre-made meals from a vendor,” he said.

 

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(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.

More than 722,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 66.5% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.

Oct 18, 3:24 pm
CDC now counts those with AstraZeneca, Novavax shots as ‘fully vaccinated’

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its definition of what it means to be “fully vaccinated” to include people who got the AstraZeneca and Novavax doses in clinical trials.

A person also should be considered fully immunized even if they mix their vaccines, the CDC announced Monday.

In general, people are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after their second dose in a two-dose series, such as the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine

The new guidance applies to COVID-19 vaccines currently approved or authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson — and can be applied to COVID-19 vaccines that have been listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization, such as AstraZeneca and Oxford.

The CDC is not recommending vaccines that are not FDA-authorized and has not yet made a decision on official guidelines for mixing doses.

The new guidance on interpreting vaccine records does not impact CDC recommendations on primary series vaccination and should not guide clinical practice, according to the CDC.

ABC News’ Anne Flaherty

Oct 18, 1:45 pm
US sees 50% drop in daily cases

Coronavirus infections are steadily falling across the country, thanks to significant declines in highly populated states such as Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The number of daily cases in the U.S. has dropped 50% since Sept. 1, with a 43% drop in hospitalizations and a 21% drop in daily deaths.

However, an uptick in cases in Northern states is causing some concern.

In recent weeks, coronavirus infections have been creeping up in several states in the Upper Midwest and the Northeast. Eight states — Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Vermont — have seen notable jumps in their case averages.

Experts have been warning for weeks that Northern states could begin to see upticks in the coming weeks as winter approaches, and people start to head indoors.

Alaska currently has the country’s highest case rate, followed by Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, West Virginia, and North Dakota, which all with case rates above 400 per 100,000 people.

Daily deaths are slowly falling, but remain persistently high. The nation is still reporting an average of 1,250 new deaths each day, and over the last four days alone, the U.S. reported just under 7,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths.

The death average is still about 6.5 times higher than in mid-July, when the national average had dropped to a near pandemic low of 192 deaths reported each day.

Nationally, hospitalization numbers have dropped to under 60,000 patients with COVID-19 currently receiving care, down from 104,000 patients in late August. Hospital admissions have also fallen by about 10.4% in the last week.

Approximately 113.5 million Americans remain completely unvaccinated. Just under 65.2 million of those people are over the age of 12. The other 48 million unvaccinated people are children under the age of 12.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropolous

 

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(WASHINGTON) — Former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell died Monday morning due to complications from COVID-19, his family said in a statement.

“He was fully vaccinated. We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for their caring treatment,” the family said. “We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American.”

Powell was 84 years old.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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