(EAST SAINT LOUIS, Ill.) — Three people have been arrested for allegedly carrying out a mass shooting that injured seven, including a 3-year-old child, in southern Illinois.
Three suspects opened fire near 6th Street and Martin Luther King Drive in East St. Louis, Illinois around 4 p.m. Thursday, police said.
In the chaotic shooting, Illinois State Police (ISP) said that one of the shooting victims was a 25-year-old man who crashed the car he was driving into a MetroLink train. No passengers on the train were injured.
The seven shooting victims were transported to area hospitals and their conditions are unknown at this time, according to the press release.
Police identified the victims as a 49-year-old male of Belleville, Illinois; a 24-year-old male of East St. Louis, Illinois; a 53-year-old male of East St. Louis, Illinois; a 53-year-old male of Belleville, Illinois; and a 38-year-old female of St. Louis, Missouri, in addition to the 25-year-old car driver from East St. Louis.
A 3-year-old boy was hit in the rampage and was taken to the East St. Louis Police Department by his guardian, authorities said. From there, agents from the ISP Public Safety Enforcement Group transported him to an area hospital while performing life-saving measures.
Witnesses reported seeing three men fleeing the scene with weapons and a manhunt was launched for the assailants, police said.
Three suspects were found at 2:30 a.m. Friday in the basement of a partially demolished building, ISP said in an update.
Illinois Police State Police said Friday the suspects were: Deangelo M. Higgs, 35, of East St. Louis, Lorenzo W. Bruce Jr., 32, of Madison, and Cartez R. Beard, 30 of Cahokia, all of Illinois.
They’ve been charged with one count of felon in possession of a weapon and seven counts of aggravated battery/discharge of a firearm by the St. Clair County state’s attorney’s office. Lawyer information for the three was not immediately available.
“The response to this shooting is an example of the Illinois State Police bringing to bear all resources at its disposal to bring justice to this community,” ISP Director Brendan F. Kelly said in a statement. “PSEG, Patrol, SWAT, Air Ops and all ISP personnel again demonstrated our ongoing commitment to protecting the people of East St. Louis.”
On Friday, East St. Louis Police Chief Kendall Perry said the shooting wasn’t random and was targeted, however a motive remains unknown at this time.
“They had a target. I don’t know what their motive was, but they weren’t shooting just randomly,” Perry said, The Associated Press reported.
Stephen Pierce was waiting for a bus with his wife and two children when he said he heard shots fired, describing it as “boom, boom boom,” according to local CBS affiliate in St. Louis, Missouri, KMOV. His wife was wounded in the arm, he said.
“Our backs were turned and the next thing you know they just started shooting and it came at the back of my head and I didn’t know what to do but to get up and run,” Pierce told the outlet.
East St. Louis Mayor Robert Eastern III announced a curfew at midnight Friday into 6 a.m. that will last indefinitely to stop criminal activity in wake of the shooting, he announced in a press conference Friday.
(NEW YORK) — Sept. 11, 2001, marked the start of a new era for Muslims in the United States.
Shortly after al-Qaida terrorists attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, many Muslims, as well as other Arab Americans, became the targets of anger and racism.
Mosques were burned or destroyed and death threats and harassment followed many Muslims in the weeks following the attacks, according to congressional testimony from the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2011. Some victims were beaten, attacked or held at gunpoint for merely being perceived as Muslim, the organization said.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who is Muslim, reflected on 9/11 and the discrimination that followed in an interview with ABC News. “As Americans, as people who are living here, we were also attacked,” she said. “This is our community, this is our country, and there were Muslims who lost their lives in those towers, who were Muslim firefighters, who lost their lives.”
She added, “There is a desire by many to use our faith and our identity as a weapon against us and to ‘other’ us. That has been really harmful in so many ways.”
Hate crimes against Muslims rose 1617% from 2000 to 2001, according to the FBI marking some of the highest numbers of Islamophobic hate crimes ever in the U.S.
But even as the country moved further from the attacks and the Muslim American population in the country grew, discrimination against this community has not waned, Pew Research Center reports.
After the 9/11 attacks
On Sept. 17, 2001, then-President George W. Bush spoke at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., to denounce hatred against Muslims amid his vows to “win the war against terrorism” in the Middle East.
“The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam,” Bush said. “That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.”
And for the most part, the public agreed with the president — the Pew Research Center found that 59% of people had favorable views of Muslim-Americans following the attacks, although 40% of the public believe that the terrorists were motivated at least in part by religion.
However, those who didn’t view Muslims favorably went on the offense. Across the country, reports of bomb threats, arson and assaults against Muslims made headlines.
“In the post-9/11 period, there was a lot of fear about Muslims and terrorism in the United States and so we created all these new opportunities to surveil citizens and harass citizens and even entrap citizens in our desire to fight terrorism,” said Sally Howell, director of the Center for Arab American Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
As years passed, the number of hate crimes dropped (and then rose again in recent years), according to the FBI, but the damage was done. For years, Muslims in the United States felt unsure about their place in American society, according to the research initiative by the University of California, Berkeley called Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project.
“This for me is one of the saddest pieces in the survey — we asked people, as a Muslim living in the West, if ‘I feel more strongly insecure and afraid for my family and kids,'” Hatem Bazian, a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley and leader of the college’s Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project.
He said that of the people surveyed, almost 80% said they feel at least somewhat worried about the safety of their family in the U.S.
And each election cycle, that uncertainty about their role in American society was exacerbated. Islamophobia became a political tool, with some public figures, like former President Donald Trump and media commentators using the fear against Muslims and Arab Americans to rile up their bases.
Islamophobia as a political tool
Anti-Muslim rhetoric was used against former President Barack Obama during both of his presidential campaigns, despite the fact that Obama is a Christian. Racist and xenophobic rumors about his religion and about his birthplace were used to stoke outrage and mistrust against Obama, weaponizing pre-existing fear about Muslims.
Opponents doubled down on conspiracy theories about Obama concerning his nationality and religion — falsely claiming that he was ineligible to become the president because he was not born in the U.S., or that he secretly practiced Islam, which would not make him ineligible for the presidency.
“Islamophobia was monetized into votes at the ballot box by projecting Obama as a closet Muslim,” Bazian said.
Anti-Muslim sentiment continued during the 2016 election cycle, during which Islamophobic hate crimes surged again.
According to the FBI, there were 481 incidents in 2001, followed by a significant decline in incidents the next year — 155.
In 2015, there were 257 hate crimes against Muslims and 307 in 2016. The number of incidents has declined since then through 2019, the latest year for which data is available.
Experts link the rise in hate to the anti-Muslim rhetoric being espoused on the political stage. then-candidate Trump made the Islamic faith and Muslims targets of criticism throughout his presidential campaign including proposing a ban on Muslims entering the country.
In November 2015, he made unsubstantiated claims on ABC News that Arab Americans were celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers: “There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down. Not good.”
In March 2016, Trump claimed on CNN that hatred defined the Islam faith, saying “I think Islam hates us. There’s something there that — there’s a tremendous hatred there. There’s a tremendous hatred. We have to get to the bottom of it. There’s an unbelievable hatred of us.”
During the first months of the Trump administration, the Pew Research Center reported that roughly 75% of Muslim American adults said there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims in the U.S.
Shortly into his time in office, Trump signed an executive order that barred immigrants from several Muslim-majority countries in a move that critics say enshrined his anti-Muslim stance into law. While he was a presidential candidate, he called for a complete ban on Muslims entering the United States.
The measure was legally challenged until the Supreme Court upheld an amended version of the order in 2018. It affected travelers and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries like Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, and Libya.
It also included North Koreans and some Venezuelans, and other nations were added to the list in 2020.
From 2017 to 2021, when Biden ended the ban, more than 40,000 people were refused visas because of the executive order, according to U.S. State Department figures.
Trump and supporters of the order denied that it was Islamophobic, saying instead that it was protecting the U.S. from terrorism. But advocates say that the order, which is no longer in effect legitimized hatred and fear of Muslims, making life and immigration to the U.S. much harder.
“It takes a long time to undo the effects of these types of messages and these types of campaigns,” Bazian said. “Islamophobia is not really about Muslims. It uses Muslims, but it’s not about Muslims. It’s about the rallying the discomfort of certain pockets of Western society at a time of unsureness.”
Now, Muslim communities across the country are focused on building safe communities and curbing Islamophobia with education and outreach following years of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the White House.
Building community and combatting discrimination
Despite efforts by some groups to quell this population, Muslims have continued to grow and thrive in the U.S.
Muslims have slowly gained representation in the government, in U.S. television and a presence in the public sphere across the country.
“If you look at the Detroit area and the contributions that immigrants from the Muslim world are making to society and the economy — they’re just the bedrock and backbone of so many local industries,” Howell said.
In 2007, the first Muslim member of Congress, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., was elected. In 2018, voters elected the first Muslim women to hold a seat in Congress: Democratic Reps. Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
In an interview, Tlaib told ABC News that her Muslim faith and background helps her understand the harm that can come from Islamophobia and xenophobia.
“We can be there to talk about it and say, ‘no, it didn’t work 20 years ago, it’s not going to work now. And you’re actually making us less safe in your and you’re also enabling hate and racism in our country when you target people solely based on their faith,'” Tlaib said. “I think that’s why were so strongly in opposition of the ban on people of Muslim faith into our country and so much more.”
The Muslim population in the U.S. continues to rise and is projected to have grown to 3.85 million people in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center. And as more Muslims continue to cultivate communities across the country, more houses of worship in the U.S. have appeared over the last 20 years as well.
The Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership found 1,209 mosques in the U.S. in 2000 — and that number more than doubled in 2020, when researchers found at least 2,769 mosques.
Islam has been seen in the Western world in a negative light, according to Bazian, who believes this negative portrayal couldn’t be further from the truth. He says education is the first step to ridding the faith and its people of this stigma.
“They created this fear that America is being taken over by Muslims,” Bazian said, recommending training to teachers, human resources and the workplace. “We have been playing ignorant for some time, so education is still one of the primary tools to counter Islamophobia.”
Most Americans don’t know a Muslim, or admit to not knowing anything about Muslims, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
“The public has fairly limited sort of direct knowledge or interaction with Muslims,” said Dr. Besheer Mohamed, a senior researcher at Pew Research Center. “People who say they personally know someone who’s Muslim, then they have more positive views toward Islam and toward Muslims than people who don’t.”
This invisibility, Howell said, is what is giving Islamophobia its power.
“It’s important that we understand that because we need to know that Muslims are not outsiders, they’re not strangers,” Howell said. “When Muslims are visible to non-Muslims through their institutions, through their names, through their headscarves, through the Halal signs on their restaurants, then people would know their co-workers, their neighbors, as Muslims, and this helps overcome whatever you know prejudice or concern they might have.”
(SHANKSVILLE, Penn.) — Former President George W. Bush spoke at the Sept. 11 memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to mark the 20th anniversary of the attacks Saturday.
The memorial commemorates the crash of United Flight 93, one of four commercial airplanes hijacked in the September 11 attacks. The plane crashed into a field after passengers fought with and overcame the hijackers. All aboard, including 40 crew and passengers, perished.
Bush, who was in office at the time, reflected on the bravery of those passengers and the unity and heroism that took place in the days after the attacks, while warning about the lingering threat of terrorism, both foreign and domestic.
He was joined by former First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Vice President Dick Cheney, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and others.
The transcript of Bush’s speech was as follows:
Thank you all. Thank you very much. Laura and I are honored to be with you, Madam Vice President, Vice President Cheney, Gov. Wolf, Secretary Haaland, and distinguished guests.
Twenty years ago, we all found, in different ways, in different places, but all at the same moment, that our lives would be changed forever.
The world was loud with carnage and sirens, and then quiet with missing voices that would never be heard again. These lives remain precious to our country and infinitely precious to many of you. Today, we remember your loss, we share your sorrow and we honor the men and women that you have loved so long and so well.
For those too young to recall that clear September day, it is hard to describe the mix of feelings we experienced. There was horror at the scale — there was horror at the scale of destruction and awe at the bravery and kindness that rose to meet it. There was shock at the audacity of evil and gratitude for the heroism and decency that opposed it.
In the sacrifice of first responders and the mutual aid of strangers, in the solidarity of grief and grace, the actions of an enemy revealed the spirit of the people. And we were proud of our wounded nation.
In these memories, the passengers and crew of Flight 93 must always have an honored place. Here, the intended targets became the instruments of rescue, and many who are now alive owe a vast, unconscious debt to the defiance displayed in the skies above this field.
It would be a mistake to idealize the experience of those terrible events. All that many people could initially see was the brute randomness of death. All that many could feel was unearned suffering. All that many could hear was God’s terrible silence. There are many who still struggle with the lonely pain that cuts deep within.
In those fateful hours, we learned other lessons as well. We saw that Americans were vulnerable, but not fragile. That they possessed a core of strength that survives the worst that life can bring. We learned that bravery is more common than we imagined, emerging with sudden splendor in the face of death. We vividly felt how every hour with our loved ones was a temporary and holy gift. And we found that even the longest days end.
Many of us have tried to make spiritual sense of these events. There is no simple explanation for the mix of providence and human will that sets the direction of our lives. But comfort can come from a different sort of knowledge. After wandering in the dark, many have found they were actually walking step by step toward grace.
As a nation our adjustments have been profound. Many Americans struggled to understand why an enemy would hate us with such zeal. The security measures incorporated into our lives are both sources of comfort and reminders of our vulnerability. And we have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders but from violence that gathers within.
There’s little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But then there’s disdainful pluralism in their disregard of human life, in their determination to defile national symbols. They are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our continuing duty to confront them.
After 9/11, millions of brave Americans stepped forward and volunteered to serve in the armed forces. The military measures taken over the last 20 years to pursue dangers at their source have led to debate. But one thing is certain: We owe an assurance to all those who have fought our nation’s most recent battles.
Let me speak directly to veterans and people in uniform. The cause you pursued at the call of duty is the noblest America has to offer. You have shielded your fellow citizens from danger. You have defended the beliefs of your country and advanced the rights of the downtrodden. You have been the face of hope and mercy in dark places. You have been a force for good in the world. Nothing that has followed — nothing — can tarnish your honor or diminish your accomplishments. To you and the honored dead, our country is forever grateful.
In the weeks and months following the 9/11 attacks, I was proud to lead an amazing, resilient united people. When it comes to the unity of American people, those days seem distant from our own. Malign force seems at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument and every argument into a clash of cultures. So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment. That leaves us worried about our nation and our future together. I come without explanations or solutions. I can only tell you what I’ve seen.
On America’s day of trial and grief I saw millions of people instinctively grab for a neighbor’s hand and rally to the cause of one another. That is the America I know. At a time when religious bigotry might have flowed freely, I saw Americans reject prejudice and embrace people of Muslim faith. That is the nation I know. At a time when nativism could have stirred hatred and violence against people perceived as outsiders, I saw Americans reaffirm their welcome to immigrants and refugees. That is the nation I know. At a time when some viewed the rising generation as individualistic and decadent, I saw young people embrace an ethic of service and rise to selfless action. That is the nation I know.
This is not mere nostalgia, it is the truest version of ourselves. It is what we have been, and what we can be again. Twenty years ago, terrorists chose a random group of Americans on a routine flight to be collateral damage in a spectacular act of terror. The 33 passengers and seven crew of Flight 93 could have been any group of citizens selected by fate. In a sense, they stood in for us all.
The terrorists soon discovered that a random group of Americans is an exceptional group of people, facing an impossible circumstance. They comforted their loved ones by phone, braced each other for action and defeated the designs of evil.
These Americans were brave, strong and united in ways that shocked the terrorists but should not surprise any of us. This is the nation we know. And whenever we need hope and inspiration, we can look to the skies and remember. God bless.
(NEW YORK) — Saturday marks 20 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Hijackers crashed two commercial airliners into the World Trade Center, striking the north tower at 8:46 a.m. followed by the south tower at 9:03 a.m. At 9:37 a.m., a third hijacked airline crashed into the Pentagon.
Twenty-two minutes later, the World Trade Center’s south tower collapsed. A fourth hijacked plane crashed into a field in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m. after passengers fought with and overcame the hijackers.
At 10:28 a.m. the World trade Center’s North Tower collapsed.
In total, 2,977 people were killed, including many New York City first responders.
The anniversary will be marked by several events across the country, including the annual commemoration at the World Trade Center Memorial in downtown Manhattan.
Here’s how the news was developing. All times Eastern.
Sep 11, 10:40 am
NATO marks 20th anniversary with memorial ceremony
NATO marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on Saturday with a commemoration ceremony in Brussels.
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was joined by the U.S. Mission to NATO’s Chargé d’Affaires Douglas D. Jones at the ceremony.
A wreath was laid and those in attendance fell silent as they paid their respects to those who died in the attacks
-ABC News’ Guy Davies
Sep 11, 10:35 am
6th, final moment of silence held
A sixth moment of silence was held at the World Trade Center memorial at 10:28 a.m. to mark the time when the North Tower collapsed.
It was the final moment of silence of the day’s ceremonies.
After bells tolled, “Hamilton” actor Chris Jackson performed “Never Alone.”
Sep 11, 10:08 am
5th moment of silence observed
A fifth moment of silence took place at 10:03 a.m., the time when Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought with and overcame the hijackers.
Bells tolled at the memorial site near where the plane crashed as well as at the World Trade Center memorial.
Sep 11, 10:03 am
4th moment of silence observed
A fourth moment of silence took place at 9:59 a.m., the time when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.
Bells tolls at the at the National September 11th Memorial & Museum and at locations across the city to mark this moment.
Sep 11, 9:56 am
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin honors lives lost at Pentagon
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke at the Sept. 11 memorial at the Pentagon, honoring the 184 people killed in the building and aboard Flight 77.
“Today, we remember not just who our fallen teammates were, but the mission that they shared. And we recall their common commitment to defend our republic, and to squarely face new dangers,” he said.
Austin talked about the members of the military who were born after the attacks and the sacrifices they’ve made to keep the nation safe, including the 13 service members who were killed in Afghanistan last month.
“It is our responsibility to remember, and it is our duty to defend our democracy,” he said.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Sep 11, 9:47 am
3rd moment of silence held
At 9:37 a.m. a third moment of silence was held to mark the time when Flight 77 struck the Pentagon.
“Taps” played outside the Pentagon, while at the World Trade Center, a bell tolled.
Sep 11, 9:36 am
World leaders send their condolences on 20th anniversary
Leaders from around the world shared their reflections and condolences on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Queen Elizabeth said in a statement she was still moved by the unity shown by the world during such a tragic time.
“It reminds me that as we honour those from many nations, faiths and backgrounds who lost their lives, we also pay tribute to the resilience and determination of the communities who joined together to rebuild,” she said in a statement.
The U.S. national anthem played at the changing of the guard at Windsor Castle.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union Commission, tweeted, “The EU stands with the USA in defending freedom & compassion over hate.”
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres issued a statement honoring first responders and that his “thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
-ABC News’ Guy Davies
Sep 11, 9:29 am
Bruce Springsteen performs solemn tribute
Bruce Springsteen performed following the second moment of silence at the World Trade Center memorial service.
His song “I’ll See you in My Dreams,” was dedicated to all of the lives lost that day.
Sep 11, 9:12 am
2nd moment of silence held
A second moment of silence was held at 9:03 a.m. to mark the time the south tower was hit.
A bell tolled at the World Trade Center memorial as well as other locations across the country.
Sep 11, 9:04 am
Families begin reading of names lost at World Trade Center
The families of the World Trade Center victims began their readings of the lives lost on Sept. 11.
Mike Low, whose daughter Sara was a flight attendant on Flight 11, spoke before the readings began. While he said his family’s pain is still raw, they have found comfort in the community and outpouring of support from all over the world.
“As we recite the names we lost my memory goes back to that terrible day when it felt like an evil specter descended on our world, but it was also a time when people went above and beyond the ordinary,” Low said.
Sep 11, 8:51 am
1st moment of silence held at World Trade Center
The memorial services at the National September 11th Memorial & Museum began with a color guard, bagpipes and a singing of the National Anthem.
The first moment of silence took place at 8:46 a.m., the time when the first plane struck the north tower.
A bell tolled to mark the moment and was echoed by bells across the city.
Sep 11, 9:15 am
Former presidents join Biden at World Trade Center
Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former first lady Michelle Obama joined President Biden and first lady Jill Biden at the National September 11th Memorial & Museum ceremonies.
Former President George W. Bush is scheduled to meet with families in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Sep 11, 8:36 am
Crowds begin to gather at World Trade Center
Families of World Trade Center victims, survivors, first responders and dignitaries have begun gathering at the National September 11th Memorial & Museum for this year’s memorial services.
The event begins at 8:30 a.m. and is expected to conclude at approximately 1:00 p.m.
The ceremony will include moments of silence at the times the four planes crashed and the times both towers collapsed.
Family members will read the names throughout the morning of all of the people lost that day as well as the victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Sep 11, 8:01 am
Obama reflects on 20th anniversary
Former President Barack Obama released a statement Saturday morning reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
He urged all Americans to remember the courage and selflessness of those lost in the attacks.
“We reaffirm our commitment to keep a sacred trust with their families — including the children who lost parents, and who have demonstrated such extraordinary resilience. But this anniversary is also about reflecting on what we’ve learned in the 20 years since that awful morning,” Obama wrote.
“That list of lessons is long and growing. But one thing that became clear on 9/11 – and has been clear ever since – is that America has always been home to heroes who run towards danger in order to do what is right.”
In his statement the former president pointed to examples of heroic actions from the last two decades, such as the service members, first responders and medical personnel.
“They represent what is best in America, and what can and should bring us together,” Obama said. “9/11 reminded us how so many Americans give of themselves in extraordinary ways – not just in moments of great crisis, but every single day. Let’s never forget that, and let’s never take them for granted.”
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Sep 11, 8:20 am
President Biden to attend services at World Trade Center, Shanksville, Pentagon
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will attend three 9-11 memorial services throughout the day
They will begin at the National September 11th Memorial & Museum in lower Manhattan at 8:30 a.m. and fly out to Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The president and first lady will attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Flight 93 National Memorial at 12:30 p.m.
They will be joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and the second gentleman Doug Emhoff at the Pentagon at 4:30 p.m. where they will take part in the wreath-laying ceremony to honor the lives lost at the location.
Biden released a video speech on social media Friday evening marking the 20th anniversary.
“As we saw in the days that followed, unity is our greatest strength. It’s what makes us who we are — and we can’t forget that,” he tweeted.
(WASHINGTON) — In the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s latest announcement that companies with over 100 employees must mandate vaccines or test all employees once a week, legal experts say the Department of Labor rule will be litigious and messy, but it just might work.
“There’s never been anything so extensive in American history that it requires vaccines across such a wide swath of Americans,” said Lawrence Gostin, a law professor at Georgetown University and director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.
“But I think he’s on rock-solid legal ground,” Gostin said.
Already, Republican governors have outlined plans to overturn the rule — which hasn’t even been implemented by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration — on behalf of their constituents who believe it infringes on their individual rights.
But experts who have reviewed the policy say Biden is acting within his power as president and backed by previous court decisions that have been pro-vaccine.
“I would argue that the basis for findings of grave danger and necessity, which is what statute requires, are probably stronger now for this use than they have been in OSHA’s 50-plus year history,” said Lindsay Wiley, a law professor at American University in Washington, D.C., and director of the school’s Health Law and Policy Program.
Generally, when the emergency statute has been used in the past, often for chemical exposure in the workplace, it’s also faced legal pushback. But it’s never been used in a public health emergency, Wiley noted.
“This is an unprecedented step, but unsurprisingly so given that it’s an unprecedented threat and situation,” she said.
David Michaels, the longest-serving administrator in OSHA history and a professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health, said the agency’s law is clear and straightforward: keep workers from getting infected at their jobs.
He was glad the Biden administration, which he advised during the transition, was finally utilizing it.
“The legal requirement is not to vaccinate someone or to say you have to be vaccinated — it’s, ‘This is what you must do to make sure the workplace is safe,'” Michaels said.
He called for the Biden administration to take the rule even further, extending it to all businesses rather than just those over 100 employees, and include an indoor mask mandate.
The next question is whether or not the federal government, confined to the tools available in a country that rests much of its power with the states, has enough teeth to enforce the mandates.
As an underfunded and understaffed agency, following up with two-thirds of America’s workforce to see if they’re either mandating vaccines or testing workers at least once a week would take OSHA 150 years, said Debbie Berkowitz, a former senior official at OSHA under President Barack Obama.
Wiley agreed, noting that the agency has historically been “pretty spotty” at upholding measures.
“I don’t know that OSHA has the resources to really go out and do a lot of inspections and really strongly enforce this provision,” Wiley said. But in states that are supportive of Biden’s rule, the state agencies could lend a hand, she said.
On the other hand, even with its checkered record, businesses generally comply with most other OSHA standards for fear of an investigation and a fine.
While OSHA is a small agency that “often can’t inspect every time a worker complains,” employers generally “know what they have to do” and will cooperate with the new rules when published, Berkowitz said.
And failing to comply with this particular rule could cost up to $14,000, the White House said Friday, which would be bad for business in more ways than one.
“There’s the embarrassment,” said Michaels. “If an employer is cited by OSHA, that’s public information, and a lot of employers don’t want to be seen as scofflaws.”
Gostin, the Georgetown professor, predicted that Biden would order OSHA to prioritize enforcement of the vaccine mandate above other regulations.
“At the very least OSHA will send a notice of the standard to every large business in America and give them a deadline,” he said.
The new mandates could also offer cover for businesses that wanted to enforce vaccine mandates or testing but didn’t feel empowered to make the call without backing from a powerful entity, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said at a briefing with reporters Friday.
“The president’s actions will accelerate that number of companies across the board for employers over a hundred,” Zients predicted.
But the administration acknowledged that they don’t have the legal authority to mandate vaccines nationwide.
“We don’t have the ability to tell every American, ‘You have to be vaccinated.’ There’s a means of encouraging it, of mandating it through certain pursuits or certain pathways, and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday at a briefing.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, said he thought companies would begin to implement mandates even before the rule takes effect because Biden’s announcement, even without the regulatory action officially in place, would be enough.
“The biggest short-term thing that’s going to happen is that many companies that were reticent to institute a vaccine mandate as a condition of employment are going to feel emboldened to do so now because they have the federal government kind of giving them a stamp of approval,” Adalja said.
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Saturday marks 20 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Hijackers crashed two commercial airliners into the World Trade Center, striking the north tower at 8:46 a.m. followed by the south tower at 9:03 a.m. At 9:37 a.m., a third hijacked airline crashed into the Pentagon.
Twenty-two minutes later, the World Trade Center’s south tower collapsed. A fourth hijacked plane crashed into a field in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m. after passengers fought with and overcame the hijackers.
At 10:28 a.m. the World trade Center’s North Tower collapsed.
In total, 2,977 people were killed, including many New York City first responders.
The anniversary will be marked by several events across the country, including the annual commemoration at the World Trade Center Memorial in downtown Manhattan.
Here are the latest updates from the day. All times are Eastern.
Here’s how the news was developing. All times Eastern.
Sep 11, 8:21 am
Crowds begin to gather at World Trade Center
Families of World Trade Center victims, survivors, first responders and dignitaries have begun gathering at the National September 11th Memorial & Museum for this year’s memorial services.
The event begins at 8:30 a.m. and is expected to conclude at approximately 1:00 p.m.
The ceremony will include moments of silence at the times the four planes crashed and the times both towers collapsed.
Family members will read the names throughout the morning of all of the people lost that day as well as the victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Sep 11, 8:01 am
Obama reflects on 20th anniversary
Former President Barack Obama released a statement Saturday morning reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
He urged all Americans to remember the courage and selflessness of those lost in the attacks.
“We reaffirm our commitment to keep a sacred trust with their families — including the children who lost parents, and who have demonstrated such extraordinary resilience. But this anniversary is also about reflecting on what we’ve learned in the 20 years since that awful morning,” Obama wrote.
“That list of lessons is long and growing. But one thing that became clear on 9/11 – and has been clear ever since – is that America has always been home to heroes who run towards danger in order to do what is right.”
In his statement the former president pointed to examples of heroic actions from the last two decades, such as the service members, first responders and medical personnel.
“They represent what is best in America, and what can and should bring us together,” Obama said. “9/11 reminded us how so many Americans give of themselves in extraordinary ways – not just in moments of great crisis, but every single day. Let’s never forget that, and let’s never take them for granted.”
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Sep 11, 8:20 am
President Biden to attend services at World Trade Center, Shanksville, Pentagon
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will attend three 9-11 memorial services throughout the day
They will begin at the National September 11th Memorial & Museum in lower Manhattan at 8:30 a.m. and fly out to Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The president and first lady will attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Flight 93 National Memorial at 12:30 p.m.
They will be joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and the second gentleman Doug Emhoff at the Pentagon at 4:30 p.m. where they will take part in the wreath-laying ceremony to honor the lives lost at the location.
Biden released a video speech on social media Friday evening marking the 20th anniversary.
“As we saw in the days that followed, unity is our greatest strength. It’s what makes us who we are — and we can’t forget that,” he tweeted.
(WASHINGTON) — What’s black and white and roaming the greater Washington, D.C., area?
Zebras.
“As if 2021 can’t get even more crazier, a pack of zebras were spotted in a Maryland county,” the National Park Service of Chesapeake Bay tweeted out earlier this week.
The group of five zebras, referred to as a dazzle, have been on the loose in Maryland for over a week now. The zebras escaped from a farm near Upper Marlboro, Maryland, late last month, Chief Rodney Taylor with Prince George’s County Animal Services Division told Washington ABC affiliate WJLA.
The farm has had exotic animals on and off for 15 years, Taylor told WJLA. Animal Services has received multiple calls that the quadrupeds were spotted roaming and grazing on the majestic plains of rural Maryland. The farm is working to lure the zebras back with feeding stations, where they hope they will be able to corral the zebras without spooking them.
The zebras are not dangerous unless you approach them, according to Taylor.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-Washington, D.C., inserted herself into the bizarre story by releasing a statement Friday denying responsibility for letting the zebras loose. Her office later clarified it was a joke. Holmes Norton said in jest that she had a “solid alibi” proving she did not release the zebras.
She is known locally as an advocate for consent of being governed — as she continues fighting for D.C. statehood — and joked in the statement that she opposes unnecessary fences.
“Local news has reported that the zebras were let loose on Saturday or Sunday of last weekend, a period of time during which I was enjoying quiet time at home with family,” Norton said. “My alibi is solid, but given my career of fighting for statehood for the District, which includes years of explaining the importance of having consent of the governed, and given my recent opposition to fences, I can understand why the charge was made. I hope the owners find the zebras and that all involved live long, full lives.”
The country requests that anyone with information about the whereabouts of the zebras contact Prince George’s County Animal Control Services at 301-780-7200.
(NEW YORK) — He was 39 years old, but those who knew Carl Asaro remember him as “a big kid.” He was a man who loved music, his wife, six children and his job as a firefighter.
“He would still have like a lot of energy and come play with all of the neighborhood kids,” his daughter Rebecca said. “He was big on riding his bike, throwing the football around and playing his guitar. If he wasn’t with us, that’s all he did. He was a huge Grateful Dead fan. He was either humming the songs or playing on the guitar.”
Asaro worked at Engine 54, only four miles from the World Trade Center.
On Sept. 11, 2001, he was one of the first responders who answered the call to help. Of the 15 people who left from Engine 54, Ladder 4 that day, none returned home.
Now, 20 years later, 65 children of New York firefighters who died have picked up their own helmets, inspired by their loved ones’ ultimate sacrifice.
“I think during this time it’s kind of expected to feel those old feelings and feel them resurge, but the days in between, when you don’t expect it — when a song comes on the radio and you see something that reminds you of him, those are the days that hit you a little bit harder,” Asaro’s son Carl Jr. said.
Four of the six Asaro children went on to continue his legacy as firefighters — Carl Jr., Matt, Rebecca and Mark, who were 13, 12, 9, and 7 on 9/11.
Rebecca remembers it was her mom’s turn to carpool that morning.
“I saw my dad that morning. That night before I asked him for tic tacs. I remember I was begging him, so before he went to work he dropped ‘em off and he kissed us goodbye,” she said.
“In school they kept calling us one by one. My mom when she picked me up… she was just so frantic… I remember my mom was back and forth on the phone,” she said. “I was 9 and didn’t really understand much of what was going on… I thought my dad pulled up one day and it was the chief to tell my mom what was going on. My mom didn’t understand so then it finally hit her days later that he wasn’t coming home.”
Matt took the bus home that day, knowing his dad was at ground zero.
“I was proud but I didn’t know what happened. I didn’t know the severity of it,” he said. “We didn’t have no cell phones back then, and I remember just calling him and beeping and no answer, no answer. That’s how life got to be without him. Coming down here and just waiting — people getting found everyday- alive, dead. They didn’t find nothing, not a bone, not a hair, not a memento. It just kind of sucked.”
Asaro’s body was never found, so his family opted to bury a guitar instead, filled with notes from loved ones — a symbol of his love of music.
Rebecca was eventually inspired to follow her dad’s footsteps as a firefighter by seeing his impact.
“It’s like the department’s small and my dad had such a big heart,” she said. “Through the years after 9/11 we talked to people.. He impacted so many.”
For Matt, he said the bond formed at the firehouse “is like no other.”
“We grew up here,” Carl Jr. said. “I think for us to give back and live a life of service is one way to really feel connected with my dad and for us to feel whole in a way.”
The siblings agreed that being a part of the FDNY helped them cope with the incredible loss.
“They’re a big part of our lives — has been and always will be,” Matt said, joking that his dad might have pointed out he wanted them to become doctors instead.
For five years, his namesake Carl Jr. didn’t visit ground zero. Now, he finds it peaceful, saying that because it was the last place his father was, he considers it his father’s final resting place.
On the eve of the anniversary of one of the darkest days in American history, Carl Jr. reflects on a discussion he had with his sister.
“We were talking about how you’re only truly dead when your name is mentioned for the last time, and I thought that was powerful,” he said. “If that’s the case my father and these men that were killed that day and sacrificed their life, they’re going to live forever through their legacy and their actions.”
(BOWLING GREEN, Ky.) — With millions of Americans still unvaccinated, hospitals across the country are once again facing the overwhelming pressure of caring for thousands of COVID-19 patients — with more than 100,000 people in beds as of Friday.
While hospitalization rates in states like Florida and Mississippi, hit hard early in the delta surge, are beginning to decline, other southern states, including Kentucky, are showing no signs of infection and hospitalization rates slowing down.
“We walk into the hospital and it feels like the world is on fire,” Dr. Karan Singh, a pulmonologist at Med Center Health in Bowling Green, Kentucky, told ABC News.
Statewide, there are more than 2,600 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 — the highest on record, and currently, just 7% of intensive care beds remain available. At the state’s previous peak last December, there were 1,000 fewer patients hospitalized.
Last week, Kentucky reported more than 30,000 new cases, according to Gov. Andy Beshear, a weekly record since the onset of the pandemic.
“Our hospital situation has never been more dire in my lifetime than it is right now,” Beshear said. “We cannot handle more sick individuals.”
More than 400 members of the Kentucky National Guard, as well as strike teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s emergency medical services, have now been deployed to help struggling hospitals across the state.
“I would honestly say it’s at least three times worse than what it was the first time,” nurse Kerri Eklund, from Baptist Health Hardin, in Elizabethtown, told ABC News. “We’re seeing a lot of people getting really sick. There are patients that will come in and they’ll be doing okay for a few days and then, in the blink of an eye, they go downhill.”
The current wave of infections caught many health care workers by surprise, added Heather Brock, another nurse at Baptist Health Hardin. Earlier this year, with vaccinations available, there was a sense that things would return to normal. However, nearly nine months into the country’s vaccination rollout, and less than 50% of Kentucky’s total population has been fully vaccinated.
“I wasn’t expecting this much of a surge again. In my opinion, it’s worse than the previous ones,” Brock said.
Front-line health workers said that the situation escalated quickly, after a short period of relief earlier this summer, and nearly all patients have been unvaccinated.
Across Kentucky, state data shows that 91.6% of COVID-19 related hospitalizations between March 1, and Aug. 31, have been among partially or unvaccinated residents.
“The patients who are vaccinated are doing a lot better,” said Eklund. In fact, “patients who are vaccinated, most of the time don’t even need oxygen, and they’re just here because they have a few of the other complications and they’re monitored. Most of the patients who end up going downhill, unfortunately, have not been vaccinated.”
Many patients the teams are treating remain in the intensive care unit for weeks at a time, said Baptist Health Hardin nurse Clara Robertson, while “suffering and struggling for breath, that entire time. And then a lot of times, unfortunately, losing that battle, and dying.”
The state’s most recent wave has been a difficult reality to face, added Eklund, as well as emotionally crushing for the medical staff to watch so many patients suffer.
The patients, “have been doing all they can and trying their hardest, and then they just get to the point that their body can’t handle it anymore. And I think their minds start to break, because they’ve been giving it all and they’re still not getting any better.”
Medical professionals, whether doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants or respiratory therapists — all are stretched so thin that many are experiencing exhaustion, compassion fatigue and burnout.
“We’re being tasked with daunting assignments, and everyone is emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted,” noted Brian Deweese, a respiratory therapist at Med Center Health. The fatigue is such, he said, that “we are seeing highly experienced and exceptional health care workers walk away from their profession altogether, because of the stress and anxiety they’re having to deal with.”
Outside the walls of the hospital, Singh said many community members do not fully realize the severity of the COVID-19 crisis across the state.
“When we leave, and we go to the grocery store, or we talk to people not in medicine, it’s like the world is just unaware of what is happening,” Singh said.
And front-line workers say they worry this surge will only further deteriorate, as they prepare for fall and winter.
“I’m really worried that it’s just going to keep getting worse, and I hope that we’re able to find a way to protect everyone, and have what we need, because we all know that winter is the worst time for health issues all together,” said Eklund. “I’m really hoping that we’re not going to have to see a lot of lives lost.
(NEW YORK) — Hours before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, pretrial proceedings in the case against the five accused orchestrators started and ended on Friday with none of them present in the courtroom for the final public session of the week – while multiple defense teams raised formal objections against the judge continuing to preside over the military commission.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks, had been present during public sessions of the proceedings on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, even taking the rare moment out of his detention cell to wave at reporters in the public gallery in the courtroom. But he and his co-defendants surprised reporters Friday by skipping the final public portion of the commission before the world recognizes the solemn commemoration on Saturday.
An assistant staff judge advocate, identified only by a pseudonym “Pa,” testified to their absence and provided signatures acknowledging their “voluntary” decision not to attend. James Connell, defense counsel for Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, aka Ammar al-Baluchi, attempted to have the military witness identify himself, but the government objected, insisting the testimony should proceed anonymously and was within the regulations of the military commission and not a violation of the Sixth Amendment.
Connell’s complaint was less about identifying this particular witness on the record, and more about expressing his continuing objection to the government’s use of unnamed witnesses. The interaction illustrated not only the tedious nature of the pretrial proceedings where nearly every action warrants deliberation, but it also revealed another unusual aspect of this case: the defense does not have access to their own clients — even when the court is in session – unless the accused actually attend the hearings.
The assistant staff judge advocate testified that one 9/11 defendant, Ammar al-Baluchi was sleepy and chose to nap rather than attend Friday’s public session. No explanation was given for the absence of the other four defendants, though Connell was able to extract details that the condition worsened of another Gitmo detainee, Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi – who is charged in another case but shares communal living quarters with some of the 9/11 defendants.
Al-Iraqi now claims that he is paralyzed and has lost the function of his legs, so al-Baluchi apparently aided him throughout the past several nights after the detainees rejected the assistance of a female corpsman. (His lawyers say that her initial offer was an invasive exam as the reason al-Iraqi waved off care.) The assistant staff judge advocate rejected the claim that Al-Iraqi is paralyzed.
Col. Matt McCall, presiding over the proceedings, offered to make a change to the schedule to allow the defendants more time to sleep Friday morning and attend today’s proceedings in the afternoon, but the defense counsel ultimately refused the accommodation – rather than face the prospect that the codefendants would be dragged out of their cells and forced to attend in person.
After discussing the judge’s qualifications at length this week, Mohammed’s lawyer Gary Sowards surprised many in the courtroom by announcing he would seek to disqualify McCall from sitting on the bench, saying there is a reasonable question about the judge’s impartiality, given the “extra-judicial” nature of McCall’s removal from the case after he was initially assigned. (Sowards argues the decision was made without appropriate litigation and at the behest of the Pentagon.)
A second chief counsel argued not for McCall’s removal from the case, but that he needed more time to read in on the case at hand and capital law.
“You’re not familiar with the record,” defense counsel Cheryl T. Bormann told the judge. “You are not familiar with the law as it applies to capital cases. Being a judge in a trial courtroom requires you to rule spontaneously on objections.”
A third lead attorney echoed both Sowards and Bormann. Connell declared he had no objections with McCall and would not seek to disqualify him. The final team deferred for now.
McCall said he would consider the arguments and render a decision on his own position.
The teams then moved into arguing over discovery, one of the most contentious issues in this case. The defense teams argued in favor of a motion demanding the government turn over more detailed evidence from the CIA black sites where KSM and the other detainees were held. After pointing out that the government provided limited assessments of more than 800 interrogation sessions, the defense further pressed the government’s secrecy.
In step with this line of questioning, Connell also revealed to reporters after the session that he could now share that the prosecution had withheld evidence linking an FBI interrogator that was part of the so-called “clean team” that questioning the detainees after they arrived at Guantanamo and the CIA black site program, providing fresh scrutiny surrounding the 2008 testimony from the detainees that the government is expect to build much of its case upon.
This slow drip of information and lack of transparency creates a significant hurdle for each defense team, they argue. “We don’t know what we don’t know,” Corey Krzan, one of Ramzi bin al-Shibh’s lawyers, said before the judge.
After about three and a half hours of public session, the court recessed for lunch and a classified session. The public portion of the proceedings will resume on Monday.
