(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it has seen an increase in eggs being brought across the border — a practice it said is technically illegal.
The price of eggs has been skyrocketing — up 60% in December the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says, with the average price of a dozen at $4.25.
Much of that increase is due to widespread bird flu — and CBP said people are attempting to transport eggs “because they are significantly less expensive in Mexico than the U.S.”
“The San Diego Field Office has recently noticed an increase in the number of eggs intercepted at our ports of entry,” Director of Field Operations for the San Diego Sector, Jennifer De La O said. “As a reminder, uncooked eggs are prohibited entry from Mexico into the U.S. Failure to declare agriculture items can result in penalties of up to $10,000.”
CBP spokesperson Roger Maier said this is being seen at other locations as well.
“This is also occurring with added frequency at other southwest border locations as well,” he said.
CBP said that when people declare eggs at the southwest border the eggs are confiscated but the people are not charged.
“CBP agriculture specialists will collect and then then destroy the eggs (and other prohibited food/ag products) as is the routine course of action,” Maier said in a statement to ABC News. “There have been a very small number of cases in the last week or so where the eggs were not declared and then discovered during an inspection. When that happens the eggs are seized and the individual is assessed a $300 civil penalty. Penalties can be higher for repeat offenders or commercial size imports.”
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump momentarily mistook a woman who has accused him of rape for his second wife during a legal deposition, a newly released transcript shows, raising possible questions about the viability of Trump’s defense in a defamation lawsuit brought by the accuser.
Trump has denied knowing the accuser, former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, who alleges that Trump attacked her in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman luxury department store in the 1990s.
Carroll claims Trump defamed her in 2019 when, during his presidency, he denied her rape claim by calling her a liar and saying “she’s not my type.” However, when Trump was shown a black and white photograph during an October deposition by Carroll’s attorney, a newly unsealed transcript shows that he mistook Carroll for his second wife, Marla Maples.
“I don’t even know the woman. I don’t know who — it’s Marla,” Trump said upon seeing the 1990s photo of him and Carroll, according to the transcript.
“You’re saying Marla is in this photo?” asked Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan.
“That’s Marla, yeah. That’s my wife,” replied Trump.
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, quickly corrected him, saying “No, that’s Carroll,” according to the transcript.
“Oh, I see,” Trump said.
A different portion of the transcript shows Trump called Carroll a “whack job,” among other insults, as he vehemently denied the rape accusation.
“She made up the story. It’s a total lie. She knows it. She did it to sell a book, I guess, or something,” Trump said during the October 2022 deposition.
Trump has sought to have the U.S. government substitute for him as the defendant, a position that the Justice Department under President Joe Biden has continued to support. However for that to occur, the D.C. Court of Appeals must decide that Trump was acting within the bounds of his employment as president when he allegedly defamed Carroll.
The substitution of the United States for Trump would end the case since the federal government cannot be sued for defamation.
Carroll filed a second lawsuit against Trump in November alleging defamation and battery.
(NEW YORK) — Victims of Jen Shah’s telemarketing scam are speaking out publicly for the first time after the “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison.
Trisha, a 75-year-old retiree who lives in North Carolina and who asked not to use her last name, told “Nightline” she was “shell-shocked” after the Federal Trade Commission told her she may have been a victim of the scam.
“But it turned out to be true,” she said.
The decades long scheme involved telemarketers calling potential victims and claiming to offer services like website building and business coaching. Shah and her team specifically targeted older and vulnerable people, according to prosecutors. Shah pleaded guilty to wire fraud last July and was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison by a federal judge on Jan. 6 for defrauding thousands of people.
In 2016, Trisha created a website while attempting to start an online business. About three weeks later, she says she got a phone call from someone who gave her a business pitch.
“He did a sales speech about all of the perks if I went with them that they could teach me,” Trisha said. She paid the telemarketer $12,000 in that first transaction.
Over the course of several months, Trisha would finish a program, then immediately get a phone call to start a new one. The sales pitches were good, but full of empty promises.
“I invested more than half of the savings I had for retirement. I gave them directly about $47,000,” Trisha said.
It was Trisha’s story, and others like her, that would help bring down Shah’s network.
The FTC also found 44-year-old Iowa resident Molly McLaughlin, who said she went into bankruptcy after spending putting $44,000 on credit cards for the courses. “I couldn’t pay bills. I couldn’t make my rent. I really just couldn’t do anything,” she said.
Ralph Hallock, a World War II veteran, lost more than $100,000 dollars in the scam. He took his own life at the age of 92. His family told “Impact” they believe the scam contributed to his death.
There could be thousands of victims like them, according to prosecutors.
Trisha said she was hesitant to speak to the media, because she felt ashamed for falling for the scheme.
“I did feel shame. This is not easy for me, this interview, everything, because I’m telling the world I was stupid enough to get caught in a scam, and I’m not stupid person. But I did make a big mistake. Do I want to tell the world that? No, I really don’t. But I don’t want other people to have to go through that shame that I went through,” Trisha said.
As “Real Housewives” viewers watched the excessive wealth on display every episode, they had no idea that federal investigators were already on Shah’s trail. Even before the show debuted, the feds had been arresting suspects connected to Shah’s telemarketing scheme.
After Shah pleaded guilty, a trove of evidence against her was released. In text messages, Shah and her co-conspirators, including Stuart Smith, discussed ways to keep customers hooked and spending more money.
“[Shah] often joked about the victims’ suffering and her employees’ ability to victimize them,” stated a sentencing memo from federal prosecutors.
Trisha was one of several victims who submitted victim impact statements to the judge before sentencing. Others included a man who said he became homeless after the scheme.
For years, Trisha says she didn’t have any idea who was behind the scam that stole her retirement money. It wasn’t until months after Shah pleaded guilty that Trisha found out a “Real Housewives” star was linked to her case. Trisha said she is not a big TV watcher and had never seen the show.
Most people in Trisha’s life had no idea it happened to her — not even her family knows just how bad it got.
“I am just recovering from being in deep depression. And I’m gonna cry. You get to the point where there is no way out. That started when I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. I saw my mother and my brother both die that way,” Trisha said.
Trisha now says she’s on a mission to help potential scam victims.
“Anyone that we can stop is a gift to the families,” she said.
(ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky.) — One person has died and two others were injured after a Denny’s sign fell and crushed a car in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, officials said.
The sign fell and crushed an occupied car at the chain restaurant on Thursday, Elizabethtown public affairs officer Chris Denham told ABC News.
Officials received a call at around 1:30 p.m. about the incident, and the Hardin County EMS and fire department responded to the scene, he said.
Two victims were taken to Baptist Health Hardin hospital, and a 72-year-old woman with more severe injuries was taken to the University of Louisville, where she later succumbed to her injuries, Denham said.
The other victims are being treated at Baptist Health Hardin.
It’s unknown what caused the sign to fall.
The investigation is ongoing and in its early stages, Denham said.
(EVANSVILLE, Ind.) — At least one person was shot and wounded at a Walmart in southern Indiana on Thursday night when a former employee opened fire inside the store, police said.
The gunman was ultimately killed in a minuteslong shootout with police.
The incident unfolded just before 10 p.m. local time at the Walmart in the West Side neighborhood of Evansville, a riverside city about 180 miles southwest of Indianapolis. The suspect — identified as 25-year-old Ronald Ray Mosley II — allegedly walked into the store and began shooting, according to the Evansville Police Department.
Officers were quickly deployed to the scene and immediately entered the Walmart looking for the gunman, as people tried to hide or flee. It was unknown how many people were inside the store at the time and how many of them were shot at, police said.
Seven Evansville Police officers and one Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s deputy exchanged gunfire with the suspect both inside and outside the store, in multiple different areas, though the exact number of rounds was unclear, according to police.
“Multiple times he was actually shooting at officers before they were actually able to shoot him,” Sgt. Anna Gray of the Evansville Police Department said at a press conference late Thursday. “At this time, we don’t believe there are any other suspects involved in this.”
The suspect was pronounced dead inside the store. The entire incident lasted about 15 minutes and no officers were injured, according to police.
A woman with a gunshot wound was transported from the scene to a local hospital. Her condition was unknown, police said.
“A lot of people were running out, so there could be more [victims] out there,” Gray told reporters. “If someone was directly involved or injured during the incident, please either come back to the scene or call 911 and give us that information. We are looking for any other victims at this time.”
The suspect had a criminal history and used to work at Walmart. He and the wounded victim may have been coworkers at one time, according to police.
“This is a tragic incident. We can’t imagine what the witnesses and employees and customers inside went through,” Officer Taylor Merriss of the Evansville Police Department said at a press conference early Friday. “But without the bravery and professionalism of our department, there could’ve been a lot more lives lost last night.”
The shooting remains under investigation. In addition to collecting evidence from the scene and interviewing witnesses, investigators are reviewing footage from the responding officers’ body-worn cameras as well as from the Walmart’s security cameras, according to police.
Walmart told ABC News in a statement late Thursday that it “is shocked by the senseless violence that occurred at our Evansville store.”
“As we learn more, we’ll do everything we can to support our associates as they cope with this tragedy,” the company added. “We’re thankful for the local first responders and will continue working with law enforcement through the course of their investigation.”
ABC News’ Peter Charalambous, Ahmad Hemingway and Cherise Rudy contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that last week’s computer system outage, which caused thousands of flight delays across the United States and a temporary grounding of the nation’s airspace, appears to have been the result of “unintentionally deleted files.”
“A preliminary FAA review of last week’s outage of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system determined that contract personnel unintentionally deleted files while working to correct synchronization between the live primary database and a backup database,” the FAA said in a statement. “The agency has so far found no evidence of a cyber-attack or malicious intent. The FAA continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the outage.”
“The FAA made the necessary repairs to the system and has taken steps to make the NOTAM system more resilient,” the FAA added. “The agency is acting quickly to adopt any other lessons learned in our efforts to ensure the continuing robustness of the nation’s air traffic control system.”
The FAA’s NOTAM system is critical to flight operations — it keeps pilots informed of essential information that’s needed before takeoff, such as runway conditions at destination airports, weather en route and even real-time safety alerts during flight. Notably, the system is overdue for replacement.
When the FAA first reported an issue with the NOTAM system late in the night on Jan. 10, it led to a “cascading” series of IT failures culminating in the nationwide disruption the next morning, a senior official briefed on the matter official told ABC News. By mid-day, there were more than 7,300 flight delays and 1,100 cancellations, according to tracking website Flight Aware.
The official compared the NOTAM system outage to the crisis that crippled Southwest Airlines over the winter holidays: antiquated software overdue for replacement inside a critical IT network. If one thing goes down, the system can become paralyzed.
The issue apparently occurred during routine scheduled systems maintenance, a senior official briefed on the internal review told ABC News. An engineer “replaced one file with another,” the official said, not realizing the mistake was being made. As the NOTAM system began showing problems and ultimately failed, FAA staff feverishly tried to figure out what had gone wrong. Engineers and IT teams are now working to keep the system from crashing again, while also trying to figure out if there are any similar systems that could fail without redundancies.
Congressional hearings on the matter are expected in the coming weeks, as is a possible speed-up of system replacement.
Several airlines, including American, Delta and United, are waiving fees to rebook flights due to last week’s disruption.
ABC News’ Amanda Maile, Josh Margolin and Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.
(ATLANTA) — A woman has been arrested after assaulting flight attendants and police officers when she discharged and sprayed a fire extinguisher at them during a confrontation at one of the nation’s busiest airports.
The incident occurred at approximately 9:34 p.m. on Wednesday night when the Atlanta Police Department responded to a call on concourse D at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport regarding a “suspicious female attempting to open secured doors inside the concourse,” the Atlanta Police Department said in a statement.
“Officers were advised a female, identified as Jennifer Holder, was in gate D-9 discharging a fire extinguisher inside the concourse,” authorities said. “Officers attempted to make contact with the female, but she was non-compliant and sprayed officers with the fire extinguisher.”
Officers were able to detain Holder shortly after, in spite of being assaulted, and three airport flight attendants with complaints of respiratory discomfort were treated at the scene, according to the Atlanta Police Department.
Holder reportedly continued to resist arrest after being detained and behaved “erratically and combative by spitting and kicking at officers,” authorities said.
Authorities have not yet given a reason or potential motivation to the incident as the investigation is ongoing.
The suspect was evaluated by EMS personnel for minor injuries she self-sustained during the incident before being taken to the Clayton County Jail.
Holder now has several charges pending against her, including assault, and the investigation into the incident continues.
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(NEW HAVEN, Conn.) — Yale University has announced changes to its policies to support students’ mental health, including allowing students the ability to take time off from school.
The Connecticut-based, Ivy League school said in an email to students Wednesday they are now permitted to take a medical leave of absence from school due to medical reasons rather than withdrawing.
In addition, students are now eligible for four terms of leave, an increase from two, can transition to affiliate coverage for health insurance while on leave and can utilize campus resources, like the library, also while on leave.
“I wish that no students ever had to face situations like these, but some of you may,” Dean of Yale College Pericles Lewis said in an email, citing situations like family emergencies and illness. “If you do, I hope these revised policies ease any concerns about your student status, allowing you (and the people supporting you) to focus on what is important.”
Yale has been reviewing its withdrawal polices since September, Yale’s president said in a statement last November.
The new changes come less than two months after a lawsuit was filed against Yale, alleging it discriminates against students with mental health disabilities by failing to provide necessary accommodations and pressuring them to withdraw.
The lawsuit, filed Nov. 30, features accounts by two current students, three former students and a nonprofit group, Elis for Rachael, representing several dozen others.
The nonprofit was founded last year after the suicide of freshman Rachael Shaw-Rosenbaum, who had contemplated the consequences of withdrawing from Yale in multiple online posts prior to her death.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs argue the university’s withdrawal policies foster a punitive rather than supportive environment for students with mental health disabilities, deterring many from seeking help. Their accounts detail the “traumatic” experiences of being forced to leave school, then the hurdles they had to face just to return.
If students disclose their mental health disability while seeking support and demonstrate severe symptoms, the university has often pressured them to voluntarily withdraw until they can apply for reinstatement at least a semester later. If the students refused, the university’s policies allow for “involuntary withdrawals,” forcing students to take leave without “deference to treating professionals or consideration of whether withdrawal will cause harm,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also claims that some students may never seek needed aid, fearing they’ll be subject to the university’s withdrawal policies if their mental health disability is known.
The lawsuit was filed just a few weeks after a Washington Post article detailed similar allegations from students and alumni.
In addition to making it easier to take medical leave, the changes announced by Yale on Thursday, also first reported by the Washington Post, also make it easier for students to return from leave.
Students no longer need letters of reference, and the university has removed the requirement that students stay “constructively occupied” during their leave, according to Lewis’s email. Students on personal withdrawal and medical leave also are no longer required to pass every course they take in the first two terms after their return.
The newly-announced changes at Yale University come amid data showing that student’s mental health needs remains at a low on college campuses across the country.
According to one national survey, nearly three-fourths of college students reported severe to moderate psychological distress in 2021.
The Healthy Minds Study, which looked at over 350,000 college students over a span of eight years, found that in the 2020–2021 school year, more than 60% of college students met criteria for at least one mental health problem, according to Monitor, a journal by the American Psychological Association.
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(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has rejected an African American history course that is set to be a part of the College Board’s slate of Advanced Placement courses in high schools.
In a letter obtained by ABC News, the Florida Department of Education rejected the course calling it “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
“If the course comes into compliance and incorporates historically accurate content, the department will reopen the discussion,” a Florida DOE official told ABC News.
The course is currently being piloted in a small number of high schools across the country with plans to roll out the course for any high school that wants it in the 2024-2025 school year.
“The interdisciplinary course reaches into a variety of fields — literature, the arts and humanities, political science, geography and science — to explore the vital contributions and experiences of African Americans,” read a College Board description of the course.
Some educators and students across the state have told ABC News that they fear DeSantis’ effort to rid schools of so-called “trendy ideologies” will target and erase important curriculum on the racial history of the U.S. from schools.
This is just the latest effort in DeSantis’ war on “woke”-ness, or marginalized identities, in education. He has made this a centerpiece of his gubernatorial campaign, and has been speculated to be a potential 2024 presidential candidate for conservatives.
“We seek normalcy, not philosophical lunacy, we will not allow reality, facts and truth to become optional. We will never surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die,” DeSantis said during his Jan. 3 inauguration.
DeSantis is behind the “Stop WOKE” Act, which restricts race-related content in workplaces, schools and colleges. However, the law has been temporarily blocked and is being battled in the courts.
He also signed into law the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, officially known as the Parental Rights in Education law, which restricts content on sexual orientation and gender identity from some classrooms.
Critics say these legislative efforts are censorship.
“Far from indoctrinating students into a so-called ‘woke agenda,’ educators often struggle to teach about the history and origins of racism … [Stop WOKE] would deepen this learning gap as educators, understandably fearful of public threats to police them, seek to avoid the penalties embedded in the law for teaching about prohibited topics such as the factual disparities in wealth, education and housing for Black people in this country,” the Southern Poverty Law Center said in response to the law.
DeSantis has also begun investigating data on higher education courses related to “diversity, equity and inclusion,” as well as “critical race theory.”
(WASHINGTON) — Another spending fight looms between the White House and Congress, reviving similar stalemates in 2011 and 2013 under President Barack Obama.
Then, as now, Congress was divided — a Republican House and a Democratic Senate — and the White House had a Democratic president.
Then, as now, ascendant House Republicans sought to use must-pass spending and debt legislation to negotiate priorities they said their voters wanted, such as major spending cuts and, in 2013, an effort to stop the Affordable Care Act.
The U.S. does not take in enough money in taxes or other revenue to pay for its expenses, so it must borrow to cover the rest — and on Thursday, the U.S. hit its current debt limit of approximately $31.4 trillion. The Treasury Department has begun what Secretary Janet Yellen called “extraordinary measures” to keep the federal government funded and give Congress more time to act.
Last week, Yellen wrote to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that she didn’t expect the department’s “cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted before early June.”
That timeline sets the stage for a fierce political fight, with Republicans portraying Democrats as out-of-control spenders — racking up debts upon debts upon debts — and Democrats responding that the GOP, which holds the House, is unable to responsibly govern by paying the country’s bills for the military, Social Security and much more.
All the while, the Treasury says, the country is pushed closer to the brink of major economic consequences if it runs out of “extraordinary measures” and can’t borrow money.
“This has become a political football because it’s so easy to pass back and forth and get points for hitting the other side,” said one House Democratic aide, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “There’s less incentive to actually solve problems when there’s a chance to have a news cycle hitting the other side on it.”
A “football” is what the White House says they don’t want, citing how Congress has usually addressed the debt limit in a bipartisan fashion, under presidents of both parties and even when Republicans controlled the House and Senate.
“Congress is going to need to raise the debt limit without — without — conditions and it’s just that simple,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier this month.
And while Jean-Pierre has since said there are ongoing conversations between the White House and members of both parties, “Attempts to exploit the debt ceiling as leverage will not work,” she told reporters this month. “There will be no hostage taking.”
McCarthy, R-Calif., has insisted that he would not support any debt limit increase without reducing spending back to fiscal year 2022 levels. He has pointed to the most recent election results.
“Republicans were elected with a mandate from the American people in the midterm elections. We campaigned on the fact that we were going to be serious about spending cuts. The Senate has to recognize we’re not going to budge until we see meaningful reform with respect to spending,” he said on Fox News over the weekend, referencing negotiations with the Senate.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., echoed that in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”
“The Republicans were largely elected to get control of reckless funding. That’s the mission that their voters have given them. So, when President [Joe] Biden says he’s going to refuse to negotiate with Republicans on any concessions, I don’t think that’s right,” Bacon said.
“I want our side to negotiate with the Democrats in good faith,” he said, “but President Biden has to also negotiate.”
Lawmakers and congressional aides who spoke with ABC News say they bristle over the pall over the prospect of negotiations but admit that they see political advantages for each party.
“I think members, especially the Republican side, are very pressured right now to be able to rationalize not just to themselves but to their constituents what $31.4 trillion means to the country in debt. And if they just blindly go forward with the same old, same old, they’re not doing their job,” former Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Mich., told ABC News. “That’s exactly what their constituents will tell them. So, for every opportunity you have to address the issue of spending, you really, as a member, gotta take advantage of it.”
Former Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., who has since left the party, predicted that “House Republicans will play hardball.” Jolly added that concessions by McCarthy would be an “early broken promise” to the more conservative members whom he persuaded to vote him in as speaker.
President Biden, too, could see political upside in holding his line, some in his party say.
“Biden won’t need to negotiate as long as the public continues to understand that MAGA Republicans in the House are to blame for the looming crisis. They have done a good job so far. It will help him in the reelect to run in 2024 against a Republican House that’s out of control,” said one Senate Democratic aide.
Looking back at past spending, debt ceiling fights
The modern era of spending and debt limit fights traces back to the 2010 midterms, when Republicans retook the House in what was the largest gain for a party in the chamber since 1938. Conservatives demanded the Obama administration tackle deficit reduction in order to raise the borrowing limit.
In the summer of 2011, after months of fractious wrangling, Obama told reporters that “crisis” had been averted — the U.S. government’s debt limit would be raised, ensuring it could continue to borrow money to pay its bills, in exchange for major spending cuts sought by Republicans.
“It ensures also that we will not face this same kind of crisis again in six months or eight months or 12 months,” Obama said then. “And it will begin to lift the cloud of debt and the cloud of uncertainty that hangs over our economy.”
Even so, the fiscal fight had tiptoed close to the cliff of the Treasury exhausting its resources, leading Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the credit rating of the United States government for the first time ever.
Two years later, Obama was again celebrating a breakthrough with Congress over the government’s spending and debt limit.
This time — in the wake of Obama’s 2012 reelection and Democrats picking up seats in the House and Senate — a standoff with the House GOP majority ended in the conservative lawmakers conceding on almost all of their demands, with both parties in the Senate hammering out a deal.
“We’ve got to get out of the habit of governing by crisis,” Obama said at the time.
A 2013 ABC News poll showed that 54% of Americans agreed with Obama’s handling of the issue and only 40% agreed with Republicans’ handling.
However, that disapproval didn’t appear to bring with it any broader voter reaction, with the GOP seeing gains in the 2014 midterms.
Since then, the debt limit has either been paused or increased eight times, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, with Congress largely choosing to simply extend the debt limit rather than hold a vote on raising it.
“It should be done in a bipartisan way. It always has been,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on CNN last week, seeking to play down the possibility of another bruising battle.
“I think Republicans learned their lesson,” he said then. “They suffered, we won the election after that [in 2012], and they will hopefully come and work with us.”
With the debt ceiling looming again as a priority and a problem, some other lawmakers are getting frustrated.
“I’ve blamed both sides for a long time,” one House Republican said. “It’s an inherent problem that we must get serious about.”
The House Democratic aide took this view: “I think both sides will run aggressive messaging on this and, in the end, both will get blamed. Voters tend to channel anger at who is ‘in charge.’ In this instance, that includes a bipartisan group of leaders because of the current divide.”
