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(JACKSON, Miss.) — Jackson, Mississippi’s water supply is wholly unsafe to drink, officials said on Monday, with water pressure so low from long-failing treatment systems compounded by river flooding this week that cooking and cleaning — and firefighting, flushing toilets and bathing — would be widely unavailable for the state capital’s 180,000 residents save for critical outside aid.

The emerging disaster has drawn attention to the strained relationship between the city’s Democratic leadership and the Republican governor and legislature.

When Gov. Tate Reeves held an emergency press conference on Monday with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, Jackson’s mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, was not in attendance even as Lumumba, separately, had been in discussions with the Department of Health that same day.

And on Tuesday, at a news conference of his own, Lumumba said that the issues had at last spurred aid for the Magnolia State’s largest city after years of petitioning Reeves and the GOP-controlled legislature.

“We feel like we’ve been going at it alone for the better part of two years — lifting up the fact that these are challenges that are, first and foremost, beyond partisan. These are human rights challenges,” Lumumba said Wednesday on ABC News Live.

Reeves did not invite Lumumba to his Monday presser, according to a spokesperson for the mayor, who said that as of Tuesday evening, the two men had not spoken directly about the water problems. They subsequently a useful conversation on Wednesday morning, after the mayor initially reached out to Reeves, who then returned his call.

President Joe Biden also spoke to Lumumba on Wednesday morning.

Both Reeves and Lumumba have made emergency declarations and Reeves deployed the National Guard to assist on Tuesday.

The infrastructure issues with Jackson’s water system, coupled with flooding from a nearby river which damaged one of the area’s major processing facilities, fueled the latest — but not the first — water crisis.

The city’s archaic system has been in the spotlight before for being on the risk of failure, most recently in the winter of 2021. The city had been under a separate boil water notice since late July for a water-quality issue.

“Even when we’re not contending at that present moment with low pressure … we are in a constant state of emergency,” Lumumba said at Tuesday’s news conference. “And so now we are excited to have finally welcomed the state to the table and all of the valuable resources that they bring.”

On ABC News Live, Lumumba said that “we’ve had great disparity in the funding of the resources of Jackson compared to other portions of our state, over generations.”

“I think that it is time that we represent a new model … that we demonstrate from the city level to the state level and beyond that we’re all on board in trying to make certain that residents, that people, human beings, don’t have to deal with the challenge of not having the basic resource of water,” he said.

On Monday, the five state senators who represent the city of Jackson called for a special legislative session.

That day, the state’s two other top Republicans, Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Phillip Gunn, also released statements laying blame with local leaders.

“It is apparent the cities served by the system do not have the assets to address this issue in a timely manner and effectively for the longer term. I believe it is time for the State to take an active role in finding a solution—both short term and long term,” Hosemann said.

Gunn said: “I’ve been contacted by hospitals, businesses, and schools pleading that something be done to address the water crisis in Jackson. Unfortunately, the city leadership has not presented a permanent solution or a comprehensive plan. These groups have turned to the state for help, and it seems we will have to evaluate what options might be available.”

Reeves, too, has faced scrutiny. Critics have long accused the governor of stoking the flames of cultural warfare during his two-year tenure rather than addressing some of the state’s critical needs — especially in Jackson. In the days before and during the flooding that worsened the water problems, Reeves was active on social media sounding off on a range of other issues including Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan and Second Amendment rights.

Since taking office in 2020, Reeves’ greatest legislative focus has been on income tax breaks in the state.

Jackson residents voted in 2014 to approve a 1 cent local sales tax to pay for improvements to their roads and water and sewer systems. After the winter water emergency in 2021, the city council sought another election, subject to legislative approval, that would double that tax to 2 cents.

Reeves weighed in at the time and invoked the city’s history of utility mismanagement. “I do think it’s really important that the City of Jackson start collecting their water bill payments before they start going and asking everyone else to pony up more money,” he said.

Gunn, the state’s House speaker, told a conservative radio show last week that the required $1 billion to fix the city’s water system — to help with repairs, upgrades and staffing, which is the No. 1 problem, officials have said — may be too large of a price tag for even the state.

“I’m on the verge of saying that the state has got to step in and take over,” he said. “But the size of the problem is so great that I’m not even sure the state can meet the needs. It’s going to require federal help.”

On Wednesday, Reeves announced that the federal disaster declaration for Jackson had been approved by the White House, freeing up further funds to assist residents.

“The White House is watching critically in terms of what is taking place here. And so we look forward to additional support from them,” Lumumba said at Tuesday’s news conference.

“We have open arms to welcome the coordination and welcome the support … This is what we’ve been asking for,” he said.

ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.

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(DETROIT) — A search is underway for a suspect who shot four randomly selected victims over the span of 2 hours and 25 minutes on Sunday morning in Detroit, police said.

A 19-year-old man faces murder charges for allegedly killing three people and wounding a fourth in a series of random, unprovoked shootings in Detroit on Sunday, officials said.

Dontae Ramon Smith was charged Wednesday with three counts each of first-degree murder, as well as one count of assault with intent to murder, one count of animal cruelty and four counts of felony firearm in connection with the shooting rampage, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office announced.

“There are four separate cases at this time because the incidents were initially thought to be unrelated,” the office said, noting that the cases will be consolidated for preliminary court hearings.

Smith was arraigned and remanded to jail on the murder charges Wednesday. Upcoming court proceedings include a probable cause conference on Sept. 14 and a preliminary examination on Sept. 21. Attorney information was not immediately available.

The suspect was arrested on Monday, roughly 12 hours after allegedly committing the last shooting, when someone close to him recognized him in a surveillance photo police officials released during a search for him and contacted authorities, officials said.

“Yesterday, I made a plea to family and friends of the shooter to turn him in. It didn’t seem likely that he could be taken into custody without incident,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said during a news conference on Monday announcing the arrest. “But, in fact, somebody close to him did respond. It was that community input that allowed the police officers to take this individual into custody without any further violence.”

Police Chief James White said investigators are probing the suspect’s movements prior to his arrest to determine if he targeted anyone else.

“I will tell you that it’s a 19-year-old and we don’t see any criminal history at this time, and we have some indication that there is mental illness,” White said.

The random shootings all occurred on the west side of Detroit in the span of 2 hours and 25 minutes Sunday morning.

The sole survivor of the rampage, a 76-year-old man, described being shot while out walking his dog. The dog was also shot in the foot, prosecutors said.

An all-hands-on-deck search involving multiple law enforcement agencies — including the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Department of Homeland Security — took place Sunday afternoon after police determined the same gun was used in all four shootings, authorities said.

White said a 9mm handgun was recovered from a residence where the assailant was arrested. He said ballistic tests done immediately on the firearm confirmed suspicions from shell casings collected at each crime scene that it was used in all of the shootings.

When asked whether detectives have determined a motive for the rampage, White said, “Obviously, there is nothing that should motivate you to do something this tragic.”

Commander Michael McGinnis of the Detroit Police Department laid out a timeline of the shootings, saying the first occurred at 4:45 a.m. when a 28-year-old man was approached by the suspect and shot.

Prosecutors said the victim, identified as Chayne Lewis Lee of Detroit, was discovered lying in the doorway of a church by police officers.

McGinnis said the shooting was unprovoked and that the suspect walked away briefly before returning and shooting the victim several more times, killing him.

McGinnis noted that no one called 911 to report the first shooting, a detail both White and Duggan said they found troubling.

“I know from the time I spent with the officers yesterday, they’re going to be haunted for a long time. They very likely could have prevented two and probably three tragedies had they had an immediate notice,” Duggan said.

Detroit does not have a ShotSpotter gunfire detection system like many large cities, which immediately notifies police of the location of gunshots, Duggan and White said.

White added, “What we don’t want to happen is gunshots to become commonplace in our community. We don’t want to become desensitized to someone shooting in our community. There should never be a condition ever that someone uses a gun in our community that’s unaccounted for.”

McGinnis said the second shooting happened 30 minutes after the first shooting. In that episode, a 911 caller reported that a woman in her 40s was lying on a sidewalk with multiple gunshot wounds. He said the victim was found three blocks from the first shooting.

The victim, who died at the scene, has yet to be identified.

McGinnis said that as officers were investigating the second shooting, they responded to the sound of gunshots nearby and found another woman fatally shot. He said the woman had been waiting for a bus when the suspect walked by her, returned and shot her without provocation.

He said the suspect walked away, but returned and shot the woman again before fleeing.

The victim, identified by the prosecutor’s office as 43-year-old Lari Briscol of Detroit, was pronounced dead at the scene.

At 7:08 a.m., a 76-year-old man out walking his dog was confronted by the suspect, who allegedly shot him and his dog in yet another unprovoked attack. The victim suffered a bullet wound to the leg, and neighbors who heard the gunshots likely saved the man’s life by coming to his aid and putting a tourniquet on his leg and getting him to a hospital immediately, McGinnis said.

The victim, identified by the prosecutor’s office as John Palik of Detroit, was treated at the hospital and both he and his dog survived the attack.

White said the suspect did not rob or attempt to rob any of the victims.

White said technology played a key role in cracking the case, explaining that it allowed investigators to quickly analyze shell casings from each of the crime scenes and determine that the same gun was used in all four shootings.

“If someone uses a weapon in our community, we’re going to use every resource we have to lock you up and we make no apologies about that,” White said. “Enough is enough. This is unacceptable and it needs to stop.”

ABC News’ Alex Stone contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The main pump at the main water treatment facility in Jackson, Mississippi, shut down due to flooding that worsened longstanding issues, leaving up to 180,000 people without access to running water in their homes.

A state of emergency was declared on Tuesday by Gov. Tate Reeves and it was announced public schools would shift their classes online.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba spoke with “ABC News Prime” about the roots of this water crisis, which have been unfolding over multiple years, how the city plans to recover with a focus on equity and sustainability, and how people tuning in can help.

PRIME: Joining me now is the mayor of Jackson, Chokwe Lumumba. Mayor, first off, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us during such a challenging time for you.

LUMUMBA: Thank you for having me, and thank you for lifting up the challenges that my community is suffering from.

PRIME: Of course. So now that a state of emergency has been declared, what is your first order of business here with these funds to help your community?

LUMUMBA: Well, first, let me reiterate that we were excited and we welcomed this support with open arms. We feel like we’ve been going it alone for the better part of two years, lifting up the fact that these are challenges that first and foremost are beyond partisan. These are human rights challenges.

And so we’ve been saying that it’s not a matter of if our systems would fail, but when our systems fail, and we’ve seen it far too frequently. So we’ve talked with the State Department of Health and MEMA, who have assured us that they’re going to have boots on the ground to help supplement our staffing needs and the critical repairs. They have committed to approximately 50% of the cost of the repairs in a shorter time frame to get to those contracts, due to the fact that it’s under an emergency condition.

PRIME: And so, mayor, spell it out for us. How did we get here? How do we get to this point?

LUMUMBA: Yeah. This is due to decades, decades and decades, of possibly 30 years or more of deferred maintenance, a lack of capital improvements made to the system, a lack of a human capital, a workforce plan that accounted for the challenges that our water treatment facility suffers from. We’ve had hotter summers, colder winters and more precipitation each year. And it’s taking a toll on our infrastructure. And so we need the support to not only create sustainability and equity in our system, but to also weatherize our system.

PRIME: A major overhaul, certainly. And mayor, water has been a crisis in your city for some time now. In fact, in November of last year, our congressional correspondent Rachel Scott went to Jackson and reported on an elementary there that had no water. The kids had to use porta potties. They also had no water at home. You were interviewed at that time, and this is a sentiment that you’ve already reiterated this evening: that it’s not a matter of if these systems will fail, but rather when these systems will fail. And unfortunately, what we’re seeing right now, you were right. But previous to this, how high up have you taken your concerns? And do you feel that anyone was receptive to the gravity of the situation?

LUMUMBA: Well, first and foremost, I believe that the moment in which you’re recounting, I believe that the administrator of the EPA was with me and he was looking at the concerns of our water distribution system, touring the school, and was scheduled for that tour, only right before he came, for the school to have to redirect its students to another location due to the persistent water challenges. This is something that we don’t only suffer from citywide.

But more precisely, inequitably, we suffer in the southern portion of our city most disproportionately. And so it’s something that, we not only need to create sustainability but equity, realizing that some of the most impoverished parts of our city are feeling the brunt of this challenge more consistently and worse off than the rest of our city. And so this is something that, you know, I believe we have to continue to ring the alarm around, something that we have to continue to call on all levels that have responsibility.

PRIME: And make sure those dollars go where they need to go. And you’ve said Jackson in some ways is a poster child for a community that suffers from environmental justice issues. So tell us a little bit more about what you mean by that.

LUMUMBA: Well, you know, just as we review the EPA’s Justice40 initiative, when it talks about income disparities and the diversity of communities that it had in mind, Jackson is the primary example of a community that fits and checks all of the boxes of those initiatives. When we talk about the fact that we’ve had great disparity in the funding of the resources in Jackson compared to other portions of our state over generations, I think that it is time that we represent a new model, that we represent a new day, and we demonstrate from the city level to the state level. And beyond that, we’re all on board trying to make certain that residents, that people, that human beings don’t have to deal with the challenge of not having the basic resource of water.

PRIME: Right. And water really is a statewide issue there. What is your message to other mayors who could be facing similar challenges here?

LUMUMBA: Well, I would say that, you know, as we have dealt with these persistent challenges, we know just how dehumanizing this can be. We know how humiliating it can be. And so, you know, as we push forward for a better Jackson, a better state, a better nation, we need to push for dignity, economy which reflects the sustainable development goals, that give people dignity, that reveals a better quality of life for them each and every day.

PRIME: Sure. And I know right now we don’t have a timeline for when this will be fixed. So how can people around the country that might be watching right now? How can they help?

LUMUMBA: Well, I would encourage them to reach out to the city. They can do so through our website www.jacksonms.gov, through our Constituent Services division, if they look to provide water donations, if they can help just lift up to those in leadership that support.

PRIME: Okay. Certainly a little highlight there. Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, thank you so much for joining us.

LUMUMBA: Thank you.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Health officials are urging people to stay out of the water at several popular Southern California beaches due to high bacteria levels.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health issued an alert cautioning residents to avoid swimming and surfing in the waters at four beaches: Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica; Mother’s Beach in Marina Del Rey; Inner Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro; and Topanga Canyon Beach in Malibu.

“These warnings have been issued due to bacterial levels exceeding health standards when last tested,” the health department said.

The four impacted beaches remain open, though the health department warns that ocean water bacteria levels that exceed state standards could cause illness.

The advisories come amid an excessive heat warning for parts of Los Angeles County and ahead of Labor Day weekend.

At least one surfer was not deterred by the health department’s warning.

“I’ve been a surfer for nearly 40 years now and the bacteria levels come and go with storms and other things. And unless there’s like a severe sewage spill or something like that, I’m pretty much out there regardless if the waves are good,” Richard Evans told ABC Los Angeles station KABC at Topanga Canyon Beach on Tuesday.

Koji Funakoshi told the station his throat hurt “a little bit worse than normal” after surfing at the beach Tuesday morning.

“I think it’s better not to be in the water. It’s safer not to,” Dr. Russ Kino told KABC, warning that you could experience gastrointestinal issues such as diarrhea and stomach cramps.

Most of the region’s beaches are not under advisory.

The waters off the Santa Monica Pier and parts of Mother’s Beach are among the most polluted in California based on levels of bacteria in the ocean, according to the environmental group Heal the Bay. Santa Monica Pier and a portion of Mother’s Beach received Fs in the group’s latest beach “report card,” released in June.

Topanga Canyon Beach received an A, while portions of Cabrillo Beach received an A and D in the latest report card.

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(OAKLAND, Calif.) — Red tide on a northern California lake has caused the shore to be lined with dead fish, local experts said.

The recently red-brown, murky shores of Lake Merritt in Oakland have been linked to the largest algae bloom in the region’s recent history, officials said.

According to both the California Department of Public Health and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the dominant algae species forming the bloom is Heterosigma akashiwo.

H. akashiwo, while not usually considered an acute risk to humans, is lesser-studied species of harmful algae that emits toxins, harming fish and wildlife, the SF Baykeeper, an environmental advocacy organization, told ABC News

The SF Baykeeper said while this algae is not new to the area, a bloom of this level has not occurred in the region since 2004.

H. akashiwo has been associated with fish kills and the release of neurotoxins, the SF Baykeeper said. It also may contaminate shellfish.

The algae is not toxic to humans but it can cause skin and eye irritation, according to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.

That said, the SF Baykeeper advises individuals to be cautious when considering going in the water or consuming fish, particularly shellfish, caught in the lake.

Ian Wren, a scientist at the SF Baykeeper, has been working to better understand the algae bloom and how it happened.

“We’re not quite sure what’s causing it,” Wren told ABC News affiliate KGO. “There are some physical factors that might have sparked this bloom such as that it’s been relatively clear out, the winds have died down a little bit, we have warmer waters, however, it’s really hard to associate what causes this kind of bloom.”

Baykeeper executive director Sejal Choksi-Chugh said in a statement that treated sewage discharges from the Bay’s 40 sewage treatment plants and the pollutants from five dirty oil refineries create conditions ideal for algal blooms.

“Baykeeper scientists have been actively working for the past five years through agency technical advisory committees to prevent large blooms of any number of potentially toxic microorganisms from becoming commonplace in the Bay,” Choksi-Chugh said.

Choksi-Chugh said “excessive” sewage and refinery discharges are affecting the algae growth in the lake and called on officials to invest in water recycling to keep wastewater out of the water in the first place.

“These changes must happen fast in order to keep algal blooms like the ones cropping up right now in the Bay from taking over more regularly,” Choksi-Chugh said. “Hopefully this is a wake-up call for the agency to take faster action, because consistent algal blooms in the Bay would be detrimental to wildlife and people recreating in and around the Bay.”

Wren told KGO that a combination of more nutrients flowing into the water and changes in water temperature due to climate change will likely increase the possibility of blooms in the future.

“It’s quite conceivable that in other years a different type of species could take off and with much more harmful consequences,” Wren told KGO. “Things like higher temperatures, more nutrient upwelling from the ocean, changes in title circulation and wind patterns, these are all things that really produce a lot of unknowns but could still spark a lot of these blooms.

While the algae will eventually die off on its own, the SF Baykeeper said, it may leave more harm in its wake, as it may deplete oxygen and harm to fish and wildlife, especially in shallower areas of the Bay.

According to the Lake Merritt Institute, an organization that leads volunteer clean-ups, green algae usually grows in large quantities during the spring and early summer. The algae that dominates the shallows usually dissipates by the end of June, the organization reports.

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(NEW YORK) — A lawsuit alleges the Navy “harbored toxic secrets” after jet fuel leaked from a storage facility in Hawaii operated by the Navy, contaminating locals’ drinking water and sickening hundreds of families.

“You’ve got American citizens being poisoned by an American asset on American soil,” Army Major Amanda Feindt, whose family is suing, told ABC News.

In November 2021, health officials and the Navy ordered residents of Pearl Harbor and the surrounding area to stop using tap water after dangerous levels of petroleum products were found in the Navy’s Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam water system. The source was pinpointed back to the jet fuel leak from the nearby Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.

Hundreds of families reported petroleum odors coming from residential tap water supplied by the Navy water system, alongside reports of health issues caused by the contaminated drinking water.

The DOH had received almost 500 complaints of fuel or gasoline-like odor from people who receive water from the Navy water system.

Numerous families allege that they’re still battling long-term, chronic health issues in the lawsuit. A PGA golf professional says he has had five surgeries since and continues to battle internal bleeding. One family said it has been plagued with abdominal pain, vomiting, memory loss, skin rashes, brain fog, eye irritation, seizures, and teeth and gum issues, all according to the lawsuit.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, many people remain in temporary housing due to the drinking water crisis. Healani Sonoda-Pale, a Hawaii sovereignty activist, says many are still afraid to drink the water.

Activists are calling on the Navy to take action almost a year after the Hawaii Department of Health issued an emergency order against the military agency to address the closure and defueling of the Red Hill facility.

“If the Navy has committed to closing the facility, they need to move with the sense of urgency we as the Kanaka Maoli, native people of Hawaiʻi, feel they must,” said resident and protester Keoni DeFranco in an interview with ABC News.

“We have no other home,” DeFranco added.

“Thousands of O’ahu residents, most especially those still relying on the Navy water system, are still depending on bottled water for their daily needs,” Sonoda-Pale told ABC News. “The employees at the schools directly affected by the last leak are still cautious about their drinking water … even though the Board of Water Supply has said it is drinkable.”

Investigations by the U.S. Pacific Fleet found that the water contamination was a result of the Navy’s “ineffective immediate responses” to the fuel releases at Red Hill. It listed the Navy’s failures in resolving “deficiencies in the system design and construction, system knowledge and incident response training.”

It also said the agency failed to “learn from prior incidents that falls unacceptably short of Navy standards.” The facility leaked 27,000 gallons of fuel from a single tank in January 2014, according to environmental group Sierra Club of Hawaii.

The DOH ordered the Navy to immediately install a drinking water treatment system at the Red Hill Shaft and submit a work plan to assess system integrity. Within 30 days of completing the correction action, the Navy must then defuel the underground storage tanks there.

The EPA partnered with the Navy, Army and the Hawaii Department of Health to restore safe drinking water conditions to the affected residents and workers. The agency say they completed drinking water restoration in March 2022.

The Navy has since released a plan, stating that defueling the underground storage tanks may take until the end of 2024, identifying Dec. 31, 2024 as the earliest date “that is consistent with the safe defueling of the facility.”

However, that plan was rejected — deemed incomplete and “disappointing” by state officials.

Locals say 2024 is too long to wait for the promise of clean water.

“Until the facility is fully defueled and decommissioned, Oʻahuʻs aquifer will not be safe,” said DeFranco.

ABC News has reached out to the Navy for comment on the lawsuit and the demands but has yet to receive a response.

Activists and residents are asking for a new, improved plan for defueling that speeds up the timeline to ensure residents have safe water sooner.

“We fear the Navy will continue to backpedal, stall and drag out the timeline while our aquifer is currently experiencing petroleum contamination directly as a result of their neglect. Red Hill continues to be an ongoing threat to life on Oʻahu,” said DeFranco.

The Red Hill storage facility sits directly above the Southern Oʻahu Basal Aquifer.

According to the DOH, the Navy is responsible for ensuring safe water for nearby residents and ordered the agency to provide alternative drinking water for the roughly 93,000 people who may have been affected.

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(NEW YORK) — Fox News host Sean Hannity, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, is set to be deposed on Wednesday as part of a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit against his network.

The $1.6 billion dollar suit was filed against Fox News last March by the voting machine company Dominion, which was at the center of numerous unproven conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 election.

According to the lawsuit’s court docket, Hannity’s deposition would be the latest in a string of scheduled depositions of some of Fox’s biggest names. Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Jeannine Pirro were scheduled to be deposed last week, and former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs was scheduled for earlier this week according to the docket, though it has not been confirmed if those depositions occurred.

Experts say the depositions could be “potentially very important,” and that they could play a key role in the direction of the case moving forward.

“The critical issue here is the state of mind of Fox and those individual people,” Floyd Abrams, one of the country’s leading experts on First Amendment law, told ABC News. “What did they say about Dominion, and did they believe it?”

“In order for Dominion to win, it has to show that what was said was not just false, but that it was known or suspected to be false,” said Abrams, who has argued over a dozen cases before the Supreme Court.

In its complaint against Fox, Dominion alleges that the network pushed “outlandish, defamatory, and far-fetched” accusations that the voting company had rigged the 2020 election in order to “lure back viewers” so it could boost ratings and make a profit.

“Fox sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion the process,” Dominion said in its complaint.

In a statement, a Fox News spokesperson said, “We are confident we will prevail as freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected, in addition to the damages claims being outrageous, unsupported, and not rooted in sound financial analysis, serving as nothing more than a flagrant attempt to deter our journalists from doing their jobs.”

Dan Webb, an attorney who was recently added to Fox’s legal team, has also said that Fox News was simply doing its duty by reporting on the allegations.

“There are very few events in the last 50 years in this country that I think are more newsworthy than our president alleging that our entire Democratic system was put on its head by a voting machine company stealing votes,” Webb told The Washington Post.

A Dominion spokesperson declined to comment.

Roy Gutterman, an expert on free speech at Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, said depositions in these kinds of cases can get heated.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually they get down to some very blunt questions: Did you know these statements you were putting on the air were false? What kinds of information were you basing that on?” Gutterman said.

“No one’s going into this deposition without being thoroughly prepared,” said Gutterman. “There will be lawyers from both sides of the room, and it can get pretty rancorous, but you have to answer the questions.”

The Fox News suit is part of a string of lawsuits Dominion has filed against those it says helped push false accusations that it helped sway the election — a group that includes several of Trump’s close allies.

Efforts by attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell to have the lawsuits against them thrown out were denied by a judge last summer.

Powell, who promised to “release the Kraken” in what turned out to be a series of unsuccessful legal challenges alleging voter fraud, had argued that that “no reasonable person” would have believed her theories were “truly statements of fact.”

After Dominion’s suit against Giuliani was filed last January, he called it “another act of intimidation by the hate-filled left-wing to wipe out and censor the exercise of free speech, as well as the ability of lawyers to defend their clients vigorously.”

At the first public hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, former Attorney General Bill Barr said in a clip played by the committee that the baseless allegations that Dominion machines switched votes from Joe Biden to Trump were “complete nonsense” and “amongst the most disturbing.”

“I told them it was crazy stuff and they were wasting their time on it, and they were doing a great disservice to the country,” Barr said of the Dominion conspiracy theories. “I saw absolutely zero basis for the allegations, but they were made in such a sensational way that they obviously were influencing a lot of people.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The United States Army said Tuesday it has grounded its entire fleet of Chinook cargo helicopters after fuel leaks caused a “small number” of engine fires.

The Army has identified the cause of the leaks among an “isolated number” of Boeing H-47 Chinooks and is working to resolve the issue, according to Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith.

“While no deaths or injuries occurred, the Army temporarily grounded the H-47 fleet out of an abundance of caution, until those corrective actions are complete,” Smith said in a statement Tuesday. “The safety of our Soldiers is the Army’s top priority, and we will ensure our aircraft remain safe and airworthy.”

A U.S. official told ABC News there are about 70 aircraft that teams are looking at because they have a part that is suspected to be connected to the problem.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report the grounding.

The Army has about 400 Chinooks in its fleet around the world, using them to transport troops and equipment as seen in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The CH-47F, one of the latest versions of the Chinook, is the Army’s only heavy-lift cargo helicopter supporting combat and other critical operations, according to the Army’s website.

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(NEW YORK) — At the end of the 2021 school year, sixth-grade teacher Anita Carson decided to resign.

Carson, of Polk County, Florida, told ABC News that she didn’t want to leave her students behind. But when new laws began to restrict what teachers could teach about diversity, she said it would make “an already hard job — even if you love it — really unmanageable.”

Across the country, legislation has forced strict limitations on classroom curriculum and discussions concerning race and LGBTQ issues.

Schools and libraries have reported a massive increase in book-banning efforts from legislators and parents on topics like racism, race, sexual orientation, gender and more.

The U.S. has 300,000 teacher and school staff vacancies according to the National Education Association. And the culture wars over censorship and diversity in the classroom have pushed out teachers like Carson from schools.

“We are seeing that teachers are personally targeted. They’re targeted in social media, they’re targeted in everyday life,” said Emily Kirkpatrick, the executive director of the National Council of Teachers of English. “It is leading towards an extinguishing of the passion of why teachers got into the profession in the first place.”

The fight over education

Several bills across the nation have broadly targeted race, gender and sexual orientation in classroom education.

Supporters of these bills say that students should not feel shame, guilt or discomfort based on school lessons. Many teachers have reported heavy vetting when it comes to books and curriculum; several math textbooks in Florida were rejected for allegedly having racial “indoctrination.”

“We can and should teach this history without labeling a young child as an oppressor or requiring he or she feel guilt or shame based on their race or sex,” said Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt when he signed an anti-race education bill in May 2021. “I refuse to tolerate otherwise during a time when we are already so polarized.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis shared similar sentiments when signing the now-blocked Stop WOKE Act, which limited education on race and was deemed unconstitutional by a judge.

“No one should be instructed to feel as if they are not equal or shamed because of their race,” DeSantis said in June. “In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida.”

Some teachers say these efforts will block them from discussing the nation’s past and present accurately.

They also say these efforts are eroding the quality of public education and making it harder for students and teachers from marginalized groups to succeed.

“We have a nationwide challenge with getting students to read and to want to read,” Kirkpatrick said. “Teachers work so hard to find books that will appeal to students and that students can identify with and relate to. And so what legislators are doing is making that extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible.”

Stories from teachers who left

Michael James, a former special education teacher in Escambia County, Florida, resigned after he alleged that pictures of historic Black figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriett Tubman were taken down from his classroom walls because they were inappropriate.

The district has refuted the claims, saying officials were “astounded by Mr. James’ allegations, as his demeanor in the classroom that day was very friendly and accommodating.”

The district claims officials told James he would have to change his board to accommodate state standards and that he obliged, though James said he did not agree to this.

James told ABC News that he taught in a diverse school district where 34.6% of students are Black and felt it was important that his students see themselves represented in the classroom.

“Bottom line — this is all about small precious children that need to be protected, loved and rigorously educated and not treated less than others in a higher income area or poorly because of race or income,” James said in a statement.

Similarly, 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year Willie Carver resigned from his position at Montgomery County High School after he says he faced harassment from parents and residents over his sexuality, as well as restrictions on what educators could teach about race.

“The last year began with me hearing administrators telling us not to teach racial things and us having to push back pretty hard,” Carver told ABC News. “I have very few students of color. It is all the more important for us to make sure they feel seen or that they feel represented. It’s also all the more important that my students who are white have experiences with perspectives outside of their own, especially when they’re faced with such racism at home, often, or in their communities.”

Carver, a gay man, also said his school district did little to defend him from attacks on his identity from a local woman who claimed he was “grooming” children in a student-run LGBTQ group.

Carver is now working as an academic adviser at the University of Kentucky.

Montgomery superintendent Matt Thompson told ABC News in an email, “Mr. Carver is a wonderful English and French teacher. We wish him well in his new endeavor.”

Carson, the former Florida teacher, now works as a community organizer for the local political advocacy group Equality Florida. The activist group fights against the very bills that pushed Carson to leave her work as an educator. She said if parents can come to understand what’s being taught in the classroom, kids would benefit.

“This idea that teachers are trying to hide things from parents when we’ve been spending decades, begging for parents’ involvement and having curriculum nights and parent conferences and constantly having events that parents can come to … it’s incredibly false and toxic,” Carson said.

She said these bills pit parents against teachers and severely limit conversations about how to best serve the students.

“I left teaching but I could not leave advocating for my kids and advocating for students,” Carson said.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Officials have released a remarkable new image of the Phantom Galaxy — about 32 million light-years away from Earth — taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Published first by the European Space Agency, which has been collaborating with NASA on the Webb telescope, the image shows the galaxy — located in the Pisces constellation — in great detail.

Also known as Messier 74, the Phantom Galaxy, with its two well-defined spiral arms, falls under a class known as a “grand design spiral.”

The galaxy has low surface brightness, making it hard to see and requiring clear, dark skies to do so. However, Webb’s sharp lens have captured the clearest image of the galaxy’s features.

“These spiral arms are traced by blue and bursts of pink, which are star-forming regions,” NASA wrote in a social media post. “A speckled cluster of young stars glow blue at the very heart of the galaxy.”

It also provides an unobstructed view of the star cluster at the center of the galaxy, without it being obscured by gas. The Webb telescope can past through gas and dust, which can appear opaque to the human eye.

“The addition of crystal-clear Webb observations at longer wavelengths will allow astronomers to pinpoint star-forming regions in the galaxies, accurately measure the masses and ages of star clusters, and gain insights into the nature of the small grains of dust drifting in interstellar space,” the ESA said.

In the NASA post, there are also differences seen in the way the Webb telescope captured the Phantom Galaxy compared to the Hubble telescope.

The Webb telescope is an infrared telescope, meaning it uses infrared radiation to detect objects in space.

It can observe celestial bodies, such as stars, nebulae and planets, that are too cool or too faint to be observed in visible light — that is, what’s visible to humans.

By comparison, the Hubble telescope sees visible light, ultraviolet radiation and near-infrared radiation.

While Hubble did manage to capture many of the same star-forming regions and young stars, the images are not as clear as the one captured by Webb.

The Webb telescope was launched last December and NASA and ESA began releasing images from the new technology in July.

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