From giving secondhand to no gifts at all, why some parents are changing Christmas traditions

December 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As families across the country celebrate this holiday season, some parents are choosing to create new traditions around gift-giving, including forgoing gifts.

For Gabrielle and Carlos Flores, that means not giving any toys to their three young children for Christmas.

“It’s more about the giving aspect of everything and not just the presents,” Gabrielle Flores told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “Let’s build a tradition so when, God forbid we’re not here, they will go and keep these traditions to their kids.”

Gabrielle Flores, of California, went viral when she shared her family’s Christmas plan on Tiktok, writing in a video that she told her children’s grandparents to only give them socks, books and education items for Christmas.

Describing her children’s reaction to knowing there will not be any toys under the Christmas tree this year, Flores said, “I really think they’re learning that Christmas is more of a holiday season about family, about traditions.”

The #NoGiftsChristmas trend is growing on social media and some celebrities, like Drew Barrymore, have said they’re forgoing buying things for their children and opting in for giving experiences.

For other parents, changing Christmas traditions come from not just a desire to help teach their children about materialism but also about protecting the environment.

ABC News chief meteorologist Ginger Zee is no stranger to taking a sustainable approach to shopping, including pledging to not buy any new clothes this year.

This Christmas, she is bringing that approach to gift-giving as a parent.

Zee said she has purchased only secondhand items for her two sons, 7-year-old Adrian and 4-year-old Miles.

“Here’s what I learned about doing secondhand gifts … they don’t have to not be new,” Zee said, pointing to a Nerf toy she plans to give her sons. “It’s probably like years old, but [they] never used it.”

How to explain different types of gift-giving to kids

Liesel B. Clark is the co-founder of the Buy Nothing Project, an online platform that establishes “gift economies” in local communities, allowing members to “gift” free reused or secondhand items to other members, a process known as “freecyling.”

She said that when it comes to secondhand gifts, children often don’t know the difference between something newly bought and something used — it is all new and exciting to them.

“If it’s new to them, they’re generally just as happy,” Clark told GMA. “There are so many families that are letting go of toys and items that their kids have outgrown, and so then that’s a wonderful way to acquire toys that are age-appropriate for your children.”

Ericka Souter, a parenting expert and author of How to Have a Kid and a Life, said there are both pros and cons to changing gift traditions at Christmas.

“Experiences foster more gratitude,” she said of the approach taken by the Flores family and others to gift only experiences. “The memories of an experience live on much longer.”

Souter continued, “Going giftless can have its drawbacks. Your kids may feel cheated out of a really fun holiday. This can be a really tough change for kids to accept.”

Souter said she recommends parents talk with their children ahead of time instead of surprising them with a change on Christmas morning.

“You want to sit them down and have a discussion with them and tell them why you are doing this,” Souter said. “But not only that, you want to tell them how this will work. So it may be that in the morning, instead of opening up a bunch of gifts, they’re going to open up the small box that will reveal what the experiences will be. Or maybe it’ll be that you all discuss a bunch of options, and then you get to pick which one goes first or what you guys do together.”

She continued, “You want to make sure that you still create some sense of mystery and excitement around going giftless.”

Souter said it’s also important to be transparent with relatives and loved ones who may want to give gifts as well.

“If you have grandparents or aunts and uncles who love sending the kids gifts, you really want to let them know the plan,” she said. “Get them on board and also give them parameters about what kinds of experiences they are supposed to give the kids.”

What buying less means for the environment

From Thanksgiving to New Year’s, the average household waste increases by more than 25%, which amounts to around 1 million extra pounds per week, according to Stanford University’s Waste Reduction, Recycling, Composting and Solid Waste Program.

According to a recent report, 5.8 billion tons of returned merchandise ends up in landfills each year and shipping returns back to retailers emit 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Clark, of the Buy Nothing Project, said that by “shopping” in your local community, you not only eliminate the waste of throwing out used items, but you also eliminate the need for packaging, wrapping paper and plastic wrap that inevitably ends up in landfills.

“There are perfectly reusable goods, right in your own community, we can create these circular economies and just keep cycling through a lot of perfectly reusable items over the years,” Clark said.

Clark said each year, for example, she makes multicolored, pillar candles using materials from her neighbors.

“I just ask them for their half-burned candles,” she said. “So that’s literally taking someone’s ‘waste,’ and turning it into something really beautiful that can be reused.”

Tips for parents to gift responsibly

Sustainable gift-giving expert Tracey Lynch, co-author of sustainable gift-giving guide Donum, spoke to Good Morning America about other ways people can reduce waste this holiday season.

She shared some tips for finding the perfect gift, without costing the environment.

Lynch said a lot starts by shifting the mindset around gift-gifting from feeling like an obligatory surprise to valuing a person’s needs and interests.

“Many times we haven’t taken the steps to learn more about the person we’re buying for. It could be our own child. It could be our spouse, it could be our sibling. It could be our parents,” Lynch said. “Our wants and needs change over time, what they may have liked before, they may not like now.”

Lynch said asking what someone wants will reduce the chance of a return.

“Santa wants to know two things. Were you a good boy or girl this year? And what do you want for Christmas?” Lynch said. “Santa’s goal is not to surprise, it is to delight.”

Lastly, Lynch said it’s important to take ownership of how, why and what you buy. She emphasized the danger of thinking of things as “disposable,” even when giving holiday gifts.

“They say, ‘It’s the thought that counts,’ but the thought is not what’s piling up in our landfills,” Lynch said. “So the thought needs to be better. The thought needs to be informed.”

House Jan. 6 committee releases final report on Capitol attack

December 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Tetra Images – Henryk Sadura/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — After nine public hearings and interviews with hundreds of witnesses, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol released its final report late Thursday night.

The 814-page volume is divided into eight chapters: The Big Lie; “I just want to find 11,780 votes”; Fake electors and the “President of the Senate strategy”; “Just call it corrupt and leave the rest to me”; A coup in search of a legal theory; “Be there, will be wild”; 187 minutes of dereliction; and Analysis of the attack.

Among its recommendations, the committee said that “Congressional committees of jurisdiction should consider creating a formal mechanism for evaluating whether to bar those individuals identified in this Report [including former President Donald Trump] … from holding future federal or state office.”

Earlier this week, the committee referred former President Donald Trump and others to the Justice Department for “possible prosecution under 18 U.S.C. 2383, including for assisting and providing aid and comfort to an insurrection,” as described in the report.

In the two months between the November election and the Jan. 6 attack, the report says that Trump and members of his inner circle engaged in at least 200 apparent acts of public or private outreach, pressure, or condemnation — targeting either state legislators or state or local election administrators — in an effort to overturn states’ election results.

All told, the Trump campaign contacted, or attempted to contact, nearly 200 state legislators from battleground states between Nov. 30, 2020, and Dec. 3, 2020, to solicit backing for possible statehouse resolutions to overturn the election, the report said. At least some messages said they were “on behalf of the president.”

In addition, nearly 300 state legislators from battleground states reportedly participated in a private briefing with Trump, attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, and others, on Jan. 2, in which Trump reportedly urged them to exercise what he called “the real power” to choose electoral votes before Jan. 6, because, said Trump on the call, “I don’t think the country is going to take it,” the report said.

The committee also reported that, in the year leading up to the Jan. 6 attack, there were at least nine incidents in which far-right protesters entered state capitols, and that at least four of these capitol incursions — in Michigan, Idaho, Arizona and Oregon — involved identifiable individuals who later participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The report said that a week before the attack, “in a December 29th text to [Trump campaign fundraiser Caroline] Wren, [former Trump staffer Justin] Caporale wrote that after the President’s planned speech there ‘maybe [sic] a call to action to march to the [C]apitol and make noise.'” The committee said this was the earliest indication they uncovered that the president planned to call on his supporters to march on the Capitol.

The report also said that after Trump, speaking to supporters on the Ellipse, called on the crowd to “take back our country” and “walk down Pennsylvania Avenue,” the Secret Service deployed a last-minute response team “to filter in with the crowds” in the event that the president made his way to the Capitol, and to establish an emergency plan “if things go south.”

The Secret Service did not immediately respond to an inquiry from ABC News about what presence agents might have had in the crowd.

Prior to the final report’s release, the committee on Monday released a 160-page summary with an overview of its findings, which identified Trump as the “central cause” of the Jan. 6 attack.

The summary of the report presented the committee’s conclusions as 17 findings, including that Trump knew his actions “would be illegal” when he pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to “refuse to count electoral votes”; that Trump “unlawfully” pressured state officials and legislatures to overturn the election; that he “oversaw an effort to obtain and transmit false electoral certificates to Congress and the National Archives”; and that he never ordered the deployment of the National Guard once the attack was underway.

Jan. 6 committee Chairman Bennie Thompson had initially said the committee would be releasing the final report Wednesday, but the panel released a statement Wednesday afternoon saying the report’s release would be delayed until Thursday.

Instead, the committee on Wednesday released the interview transcripts of 34 witnesses who were interviewed as part of the sprawling 17-month probe.

Among those witnesses whose testimony was released were Trump’s one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, Infowars host Alex Jones, onetime Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, and Trump-backed attorneys John Eastman and Jenna Ellis.

Most of the transcripts contained responses from the witnesses invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The panel on Monday said it would make multiple criminal referrals to the Department of Justice on at least four charges against Trump in connection to his actions surrounding the riot at the Capitol.

The committee said it would also be referring Eastman, who drafted a plan for Trump to cling to power by falsely claiming Pence could reject legitimate electors during the Jan. 6 certification of the vote, to the DOJ on multiple charges.

The referrals, however, are viewed as largely symbolic. The DOJ is not obligated to act on them, and the department has been conducting its own investigation into the events of Jan. 6.

The committee also said at least four sitting Republican members of Congress would be referred to the House Ethics Committee for “appropriate sanction,” including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Rep Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Rep Scott Perry, R-PA, and Rep Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.

Trump has dismissed the work of the committee, mocking it as the “Unselect Committee” and calling it a “political Witch Hunt.”

Target recalls children’s weighted blankets after 2 kids died

December 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Target is telling customers to stop using some weighted children’s blankets that were sold in its stores and online after four incidents where children became entrapped, two of which resulted in deaths, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Thursday.

A 4-year-old girl and a 6-year-old girl reportedly became entrapped in the cover of Pillowfort Weighted Blankets and died due to asphyxia at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in April, the CPSC said.

Target received two additional reports of children entrapped in the blankets, but those didn’t result in fatalities, according to the agency.

“A young child can become entrapped by unzipping and entering the blanket, posing a risk of death by asphyxiation,” Target said on its website.

Target sold about 204,000 of the $40-blankets from December 2018 through September 2022, CPSC said.

The id numbers to the affected blankets, which can be found on the fabric tag are: 097-02-0140 (Unicorn – White), 097-02-0148 (Space Navy), 097-02-0361(Pink), 097-02-0363 (Blue), 097-02-0364 (Gray), 097-02-1603 (Buffalo Plaid – Red), 097-02-3904 (Blue Constellation) and 097-02-3905 (Unicorn – Pink), according to CPSC.

Customers can log onto target.com for more information about the recall and how to get a refund.

ACLU of New Mexico sues Albuquerque over treatment of homeless

December 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico is suing the city of Albuquerque over its treatment of the city’s homeless population.

Attorneys from the law firm of Ives and Flores, the ACLU-NM and the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty (NMCLP) filed suit Monday, accusing the state’s largest city of illegally destroying property and encampments for the homeless, as well as jailing and fining them.

“They’re criminalizing those residents, fining them for existing in public spaces and they are also taking their property [that they] need to function within our society and to hopefully transition out of homelessness,” Laura Ives, partner at the law firm of Ives and Flores, told ABC News.

Albuquerque has gotten rid of tents, bed rolls, shopping carts, identification cards and even birth certificates, all things that can help people escape homeless, Ives said.

The ACLU said that the city closed Coronado Park, a place where homeless New Mexicans could sleep at night, by fencing it off, ultimately forcing those staying at the park to leave and got rid of their belongings, according to the suit.

“Unhoused people in Albuquerque make up the city’s most vulnerable population,” the lawsuit reads. “Subject to the harms and indignities of abject poverty, many unhoused people live outdoors, exposed to the extremes of Albuquerque’s climate, to hunger, thirst and to the constant fears and worries that accompany being unsheltered.”

There aren’t enough shelter spaces in Albuquerque for even close to every homeless person to go to the shelters, Ives said, describing the conditions at the shelters as “inhumane.”

The City of Albuquerque did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller announced in July that the city would revisit its policies addressing homelessness and the encampments.

Albuquerque has designated lots or partial lots that has space for tents, recreational vehicles, and/or light vehicles and can offer social services and support facilities as Safe Outdoor Spaces(SOS).

The city doesn’t consider Coronado Park as an SOS because those spaces cannot be located in parks, according to the city.

Individuals experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque have declined in the last 22 years, according to data from the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness (NMCEH). In 2000, about 2,002 homeless people were living in the city. As of Jan. 31, 2022, that figure sits at 1,311, according to a recent report by NMCEH.

In the first quarter of 2022, rent in Albuquerque increased between 10% and 19.9%, according to the ACLU.

“The housing crisis impacts everyone, but disproportionately hurts people with mental health and other disabilities,” Maria Griego, director of economic equity at NMCLP, said in an ACLU press release. “Being forced to move and having belongings confiscated increases instability, making it even harder to find work, get medications, see a social worker, or find permanent housing.”

6 months after overturning of Roe v. Wade, what abortion access looks like in America

December 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The abortion landscape of the United States has changed dramatically since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court six months ago.

The decision to reverse Roe, which guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion care, means states now choose how much access residents have to abortion.

Some states either had so-called trigger laws go into effect or laws that pre-dated Roe that were enforced following the court’s decision.

Meanwhile, some other states enacted laws that strengthened abortion rights or rejected ballot initiatives that would have further restricted access to the procedure. And then there were states did neither.

“Both those legal changes happened, and we went to this patchwork,” Katie Watson, an associate professor of medical social sciences, medical education, and obstetrics & gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told ABC News. “And states took different positions and it’s still in flux six months later.”

Abortion care nearly ceased in at least 14 states

Since Roe was overturned, at least 14 states have nearly ceased all abortion services.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia have completely banned abortion with limited exceptions.

Additionally, in Wisconsin, abortion services have stopped “due to legal uncertainty around the status of the state’s pre-Roe ban,” the Guttmacher Institute states.

Wisconsin has a 20-week ban but also a pre-Roe abortion ban on the books that could go into effect now that Roe has been overturned. Georgia also has a six-week ban in place.

Additionally, Florida has a 15-week ban in effect. Arizona also has a 15-week ban, but it won’t be enforced until 2023.

Meanwhile, in Indiana, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah and Wyoming, abortion bans were passed, but are currently being blocked while legal action proceeds.

Over a dozen states work to protect abortion access

While many states enacted abortion restrictions following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, multiple states adopted protections for and committed funding to abortion access.

States including California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Oregon committed over $250 million collectively to abortion funding over the past year, according to Guttmacher.

Other efforts to protect abortion access included new laws to improve abortion access in four states — Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York — to increase security for providers and patients accessing abortion care.

According to Guttmacher, 14 states adopted so-called shield laws designed to shield people who travel across states lines to receive an abortion and the providers who care for those patients. This means they can’t be charged for receiving an abortion out-of-state.

Voters go to the polls to vote on abortion access

The fall of Roe v. Wade raised the stakes for the 2022 midterm election in November, as multiple states had abortion-related questions on the ballot.

Kansas voters decisively rejected a bid to remove abortion protections from its state constitution.

The vote came after the state’s Supreme Court decided in 2019 that the Kansas constitution establishes a fundamental right to abortion.

The Kansas vote was the first state-level test after the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.

In California, voters decided to amend the state constitution to prohibit the state from denying or interfering with a person’s “reproductive freedom.” Voters also accepted lawmakers’ proposal to protect the fundamental right to choose to get an abortion or use contraceptives.

Currently, abortion is legal up until viability in California, which is about 24 to 26 weeks gestation, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

In Vermont, voters approved amending the state’s constitution to include a right to “personal reproductive autonomy,” which includes abortion. Although it is currently legal in Vermont at any stage of pregnancy, the state’s constitution did not grant explicit protections for the right to abortion prior to the acceptance of the amendment.

Michigan voters meanwhile approved a constitutional amendment that would add protections for reproductive rights. The amendment defines reproductive freedom as “the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management and infertility care.”

A state abortion ban on the books in Michigan since 1931 is being challenged in state courts, but a state judge ruled in September that the ban is unconstitutional, barring its enforcement by the state’s attorney general and state prosecutors.

In Kentucky, voters rejected an amendment to the state’s constitution that specified the right to abortion does not exist, nor is the government required to allocate funding for abortion.

Abortion is currently banned in the state after a trigger law went into effect when Roe was overturned. Arguments against the ban will soon be heard in the Kentucky Supreme Court, something the amendment would have prevented.

Montana voters rejected a proposal to change the state constitution to define all fetuses “born alive” as legal persons, including those born after an attempted abortion. The proposal would have granted any fetus born alive the right to appropriate and reasonable medical care and treatment.

Montana state courts have blocked three abortion bans passed last year from going into effect while litigation continues.

Patients travel further to seek abortion care

Dr. Beverly Gray, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Duke Health in Durham, North Carolina, told ABC News that ever since Roe was overturned, there has been an increase in patients, both locally and from out-of-state.

“With Florida having a 15-week ban, Georgia and Tennessee having fairly strict bans, and then South Carolina kind of going back and forth with bans, patients ended up coming to North Carolina for care,” she said. “We’re seeing a handful of patients almost every day in clinic that are traveling for care.”

“I think it’s really scary for patients who might find themselves in a situation that they weren’t expecting and needing care and their providers may not be able to provide evidence-based care because of laws that are now in place,” she continued.

Gray said she has seen a “sustained increase” in the number of patients seeking abortions in North Carolina after the Supreme Court decision, and that a significant number of them have come from neighboring states with strict abortion restrictions.

“When South Carolina had their strict ban in place, there were like six or seven weeks this summer we had a fairly high volume and then when Georgia law went into effect,” she said.

Having this increase can be logistically challenging, Gray said. North Carolina has a 72-hour waiting period before an abortion can be performed and providers are required to read a mandatory counseling script from the state, which includes information about public and private services available during pregnancy and possible adverse effects of abortion and pregnancy.

Critics say the script is a fear tactic to shame and scare people out of having abortions.

“So, there’s a lot of … logistics and requirements that have to be in place before people can get here, so it requires a lot of coordination,” Gray said. “We have someone who pretty much deals with … phone calls and logistics most day, every day that we’re in clinic.”

Clinics closing down or moving across state lines

Following the Supreme Court’s decision, several abortion clinics were forced to either shut down or move their practices out of state.

The Red River Women’s Clinic moved from Fargo, North Dakota, to Moorhead, Minnesota — a mile-and-a-half away — after Roe’s overturn due to the legal battles currently being waged in North Dakota, although abortion is still legal in the state.

Since opening on Aug.10, Tammi Kromenaker, director of RRWC, told ABC News it was bittersweet to move but they’ve found a rhythm.

“We’re providing care to patients in North Dakota, South Dakota, northwestern Minnesota; we have had a couple of gals from Texas come, like two,” she said. “We’re still able to see people in a very short amount of time, I feel like we’ve just like hit — I don’t want to call it ‘normal’ — but we’re back to seeing patients that we used to see in Fargo.”

She said the difference in political climate between North Dakota and Minnesota offers more freedom with abortion care.

“It’s so indescribable that we can just make an appointment with a person without having to go through telling them very stigmatizing awful language that the state made us used to say in North Dakota,” Kromenaker said. “Literally just being five minutes away, it’s the same community, but it’s such a stark contrast between the two states.”

Although Kromenaker and her colleagues are currently fighting legal battles in the state to prevent abortion bans from going into effect, she said she’s not sure if the clinic would ever move back or if she would open a second clinic in the Peace Garden State.

“There are so many onerous restrictions on providers in North Dakota, that unless or until those are taken away — I mean, we had to tell patients 24 hours ahead of time, ‘Abortion terminates the life of a whole separate unique living human being.’ We had to force materials from the state on women, they couldn’t refuse it, they had to receive it. We were restricted in our medication abortion regimen,” she explained.

“I need to see those … things go away before we would think about going back and providing care there. And I just don’t see, with the way North Dakota is right now, that happening for quite some time,” she added.

ABC News’ Nadine El-Bawab and Alexandra Svokos contributed to this report.

How to stay safe from COVID, flu while traveling for the holidays

December 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Americans are taking to the roads and to the skies as they travel to see family and friends for the holidays.

While the holidays are being celebrated semi-normally for the first time in more than two years, the threat of multiple respiratory viruses lingers.

Although cases of the flu and RSV are declining in some areas, they are still higher at this point in the year than in seasons past, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, weekly COVID-19 cases have increased over the last four weeks from 307,201 to 455,466, CDC data shows.

While heading to your destination, experts recommend masking and practicing good hand hygiene to avoid getting infected — or passing infection to others — while traveling.

“The good news is that we are now all educated about how to protect ourselves against COVID and just sort of pulling out that COVID toolbox,” Dr. Sandra Nelson, an infectious diseases physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, told ABC News. “Again, we can apply the lessons that we learned on how to prevent infections for the other respiratory viruses that are circulating as well.”

Stay up to date on vaccinations and boosters

Experts said the most important thing you can do to keep yourself safe, whether traveling by car, train or plane, is to make sure you’re up to date on your vaccinations and boosters.

For COVID-19, this includes the primary vaccine series and the updated bivalent booster than specifically targets omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

However, only 14.1% of Americans aged 5 and older have received the booster despite a recent study from the CDC that shows the booster was 80% effective at preventing seniors from being hospitalized and provided benefits for adults of all ages.

For the flu, this means getting the annual flu shot. As of Dec. 11 — the latest date for which CDC data is available — only 46.7% of Americans adults say they have received the vaccine.

According to the CDC, the flu shot reduces the risk of illness by 40% to 60%. Experts say the flu vaccine this year matches well to currently circulating strains.

“It’s important for an individual to get vaccinated, especially if they have high-risk conditions, they are immunocompromised, elderly and such that they should get vaccinated,” Dr. Abinash Virk, an infectious diseases specialist at the Mayo Clinic, told ABC News. “We know those vaccinations do decrease the [risk of] severe disease. They may not completely prevent you from having something, but at least they will prevent that severity.”

Consider wearing a mask

While traveling in an airplane or on a train, public health experts recommended Americans wear masks and only remove them while eating or drinking.

“Really, the highest risk time on an airplane is in getting on and off the plane before and after the ventilation systems on the airplane are up and running,” Nelson said. “So during boarding and disembarking the airplane, that is the highest risk time.”

She continued, “But there remain risks even when the flight is, is airborne. Even with the good ventilation systems, there’s still the potential for transmission from people who are sitting near us.”

When it comes to wearing a mask, doctors suggest wearing a well-fitting high-quality mask such as a KN95 or an N95 mask over a surgical mask or a cloth mask.

Practice good hand hygiene

Making sure you wash or sanitize your hands after touching contact surfaces such as an airplane bathroom door or tray table is one of the best ways to prevent infection, the experts said.

Even though COVID-19 is not primarily spread by coming into contact with contaminated surfaces, cold, flu and other viruses can live on surfaces from several hours to several days.

“Hand hygiene has never been more important with all these viruses that are transmitted through droplets,” Dr. Justin Fiala, pulmonary and critical care specialist at Northwestern Medicine, told ABC News. “So, someone sneezes, sneezes on their hand, wipes their nose and then turns the doorknob or handle, any of those things then can allow the virus to persist.”

“Nothing wrong with being a little bit more judicious getting that Purell or whatever the hand sanitizer is at the airport, at the Amtrak station, wherever people are this holiday season,” he added.

Open windows

If traveling by car, and if the weather isn’t too cold, the doctors recommended opening the windows for ventilation.

Ventilating the car and filtering air flow can help reduce virus particles and lower the risk of spread, according to the CDC.

“If you’re in like a warmer climate, it really is all about ventilation,” Fiala said. “And so, if you can get whatever the air is cycling through relatively frequently, then that conceivably will lower your risk.”

Stay home if you feel sick

If you develop cold or flu-like symptoms and it’s possible to delay or cancel travel plans, the experts recommended doing just that.

“This just comes down to if you’re feeling lousy enough where you’re wondering what to do, whether to go or not to a family gathering, usually I tell patients that is a good litmus test to say, ‘Oh, you know, what? You’re probably feeling bad enough, where this is not a good idea,'” Fiala said.

Additionally, people should also reconsider venturing out when sick if they’ll be visiting someone who is at high risk for severe illness such as those who are elderly or have weakened immune systems.

If you can’t get out of your travel plans, the experts suggest following the earlier recommended steps.

“If you have to travel, then I would definitely recommend that you wear a mask so that others don’t get infected, and in and preferably in an N-95 mask but if you have an additional risk of severe disease, then you really have to be a little bit more critical of that decision,” Virk said.

Arizona Gov. Ducey agrees to dismantle makeshift border wall

December 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(PHOENIX) — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has agreed to deconstruct the makeshift border wall his administration has been building out of shipping containers for several months.

Court records show the governor and federal officials reached an agreement to “remove all previously installed shipping containers and associated equipment, materials, vehicles, and other objects from the United States’ properties in the U.S. Border Patrol Yuma Sector, including from lands over which the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation holds an easement on the Cocopah Indian Tribe’s West Reservation.”

Last week, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Ducey, accusing him of illegally placing the containers on federal land.

“Not only has Arizona refused to halt its trespasses and remove the shipping containers from federal lands, but it has indicated that it will continue to trespass on federal lands and install additional shipping containers,” the DOJ said in a filing.

Since August, Ducey has spent $82 million in his efforts to fill gaps in the border barrier with containers. To date, he has covered approximately 1,800 feet — or 182 containers — in the Yuma, Arizona, region and about 3.5 miles in Cochise County with 982 containers, a spokesperson for the governor said.

Ducey, a Republican, agreed to remove the containers by Jan. 4, the court records show. Incoming Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, will be sworn in on Jan. 5.

In an October letter obtained by ABC News, Coronado National Forest Supervisor Kerwin Dewberry had warned Ducey that he was placing containers on National Forest System (NFS) lands.

“The Forest Service did not authorize this occupancy and use,” Dewberry wrote then, urging Ducey to obtain a permit before continuing the work.

Court records show Arizona officials will now be having a discussion with the U.S. Forest Service “within one week” about safely removing containers and equipment from NFS land to “avoid and minimize damage to United States’ lands, properties, and natural resources or disruption to federal actions or activities within the Coronado National Forest.”

In a statement, Ducey spokesperson C.J. Karamargin said he reached an agreement because the federal government was taking steps to fill those gaps, though not with shipping containers.

“For more than a year, the federal government has been touting their effort to resume construction of a permanent border barrier. Finally, after the situation on our border has turned into a full blown crisis, they’ve decided to act. Better late than never. We’re working with the federal government to ensure they can begin construction of this barrier with the urgency this problem demands,” Karamargin said. (The DOJ has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.)

Before the lawsuit was filed, the Bureau of Reclamation had warned Ducey that he was building his wall in areas where the Department of Homeland Security was already intending to erect a border barrier.

Ducey launched his own lawsuit against the federal government in October, seeking to affirm his right to build the wall.

“Our border communities are overwhelmed by illegal activity as a result of the Biden administration’s failure to secure the southern border,” he said in a statement announcing his suit.

Officials with the Cocopah Indian Tribe told ABC News in October that they welcomed any challenge to the governor’s efforts to place containers along the border in tribal lands, noting that a crucial emergency access road was being partially blocked by the construction.

The tribe often collaborates with U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to help mitigate the flow of unauthorized migrants through their land and help get aid to migrants in distress.

Cocopah Public Safety Director Paul De Anda previously said the containers have “compromised our mission.”

“The containers have been placed on adjacent property and they’ve partially blocked one of the main thoroughfares that can be used as an exit and entrance,” he has said. “Not only that, it makes it more difficult for ambulances and rescue equipment to get in when we find sick and injured along the border crossing.”

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue over the wall, claiming Ducey was disrupting a crucial movement corridor for endangered jaguars and ocelots in the region.

“Gov. Doug Ducey’s efforts over the last two months to dump shipping containers at the border are dangerous and illegal. He wasted millions of dollars of taxpayer money for this political stunt. But we are extremely happy that he has finally agreed to clean up his mess and remove his boxcar wall,” Russ McSpadden, Southwest conservation advocate with Center for Biological Diversity, previously said. “The state must also restore the damage it caused to public lands, Cocopah tribal land, the watershed of the San Pedro River and this important wildlife corridor. We’ll continue to monitor the situation, and we’ll weigh our legal options should Gov. Ducey fail to adhere to his promises.”

Missing twin baby Kason Thomass found safe, suspect in custody: Police

December 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.) — A missing 5-month-old boy was found safe in the car he was apparently stolen in, police said Thursday, after three days.

Nalah Jackson, 24, the suspect sought in the kidnapping, was taken into custody Thursday in Indianapolis, Indiana, police said hours earlier.

Kason Thomass was found near a Papa Johns in Indianapolis, police said, adding that the “5-month-old boy is in good health & being transported to a hospital to be checked out.”

The search for Kason was launched Monday night after a homeless woman allegedly stole his mom’s running 2010 Honda Accord in Columbus, Ohio. Kason and his twin, Kyair, were inside the vehicle while their mom stepped away to pick up a food order, police said.

Kyair was found around 4:40 a.m. Tuesday abandoned at the Dayton International Airport, more than 70 miles from Columbus. Surveillance cameras captured Jackson allegedly abandoning Kyair in his car seat in a parking lot at the Dayton airport, authorities said.

Police identified Jackson as the suspected car thief and initially said investigators believed she still had Kason in her possession. Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said witnesses told police Jackson was seated inside the restaurant when the mother walked in.

Jackson was taken into custody in Indianapolis around 2 p.m. local time Thursday, Columbus police said. Kason, who was last seen wearing a brown onesie, was not with Jackson at the time of her arrest, according to Bryant.

Police had received tips earlier Thursday that Jackson may have been spotted in Indianapolis. A person believed to be Jackson was stopped by police Thursday afternoon in the city and was positively identified through fingerprints an hour later, police said.

Jackson has been charged with two counts of kidnapping and is currently being questioned by police, Bryant said.

“We are relieved to have located the suspect, and it takes us one step closer to locating Kason,” Bryant told reporters during a briefing Thursday early evening. “But we will not stop searching until he is brought home safely.”

The FBI assisted in the search for Kason, providing personnel and technology.

Amid the search for Kason, Dion Green, who survived a 2019 mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, that claimed the life of his father, established a $10,000 reward for the baby’s safe return.

“I hope and pray that this baby is found safe and that we can get him back home to his mother,” Green said in a Facebook post on Wednesday announcing the reward.

On Aug. 4, 2019, Green was out with his father, Derrick Fudge, in Dayton’s Oregon District when a 24-year-old man went on a shooting rampage, killing nine people, including Fudge, and wounding dozens more. In the aftermath of the massacre, Green founded the Fudge Foundation to help individuals impacted directly and indirectly by mass shootings, violence, human trafficking, domestic abuse and other forms of trauma.

“My main concern is the child,” Green told ABC affiliate station WSYS in Columbus. “I just want to get the baby and make sure we get him returned back home safely.”

How to stay safe and prepare for freezing temperatures

December 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Break out the gloves and hats: bitter cold is moving in, bringing what could be the coldest Christmas in decades for parts of the U.S.

On Friday morning, the wind chill — what temperature it feels like — is forecast to fall to minus 6 degrees in Dallas and 1 degree in Houston. This will mark the coldest air mass for the Rio Grande River since the late 1980s.

On Saturday morning the wind chill will plunge to a bone-chilling minus 15 degrees in New York City, minus 32 degrees in Chicago and minus 39 degrees in Minneapolis. On Christmas Eve, the wind chill is forecast to clock in at minus 10 degrees in New York and minus 1 degree in Nashville.

Here is your cheat sheet for how to brave the frigid weather:

How to keep pipes from freezing

Keep the temperature in your home consistent during the day and night, the Red Cross advised. If you’re leaving home for the holidays, keep the heat on with the temperature set at a minimum of 55 degrees.

Prop open the cabinet doors in your kitchen and bathroom so warmer air can circulate around the plumbing, according to the Red Cross — just make sure to move any chemicals so children can reach them.

Keep your garage door closed if there are water supply lines inside, the Red Cross said.

You can also let the water drip, even at a trickle, from the faucet connected to exposed pipes, according to the Red Cross.

How to stay safe outside

Those with prolonged exposure or those not dressed appropriately for the weather are in danger of frostbite and hypothermia, National Weather Service meteorologist Jay Engle told ABC News.

Frostbite results in the loss of feeling and color in affected areas — usually the nose, ears, cheeks, fingers, toes or chin, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Frostbite could potentially cause permanent damage and, in severe cases, can lead to amputation, the CDC said.

Someone suffering from frostbite can be unaware of it because tissues that become frozen are numb, the CDC said. These are all signs of frostbite: numbness, white or grayish-yellow skin, or skin that feels unusually firm or waxy.

“Don’t rub your hands — if you have frost-nip or frostbite, rubbing actually causes tissue damage,” Dr. Randall Wexler, professor of family medicine at Ohio State University, told ABC News.

If you think you are developing frostbite, “keep the area covered if you can … because if you have frostbite on your hand and you pull off your glove, you may cause tissue damage,” Wexler said.

He added, “That’s also when you want to start trying to raise your core body temperature — get rid of wet clothes, put on clothes that are warm and dry.”

There’s also hypothermia — or abnormally low body temperature — which can impact the brain, “making the victim unable to think clearly or move well,” the CDC said. “This makes hypothermia especially dangerous because a person may not know that it’s happening and won’t be able to do anything about it.”

Warning signs for adults are shivering, exhaustion, confusion, fumbling hands, memory loss, slurred speech and drowsiness. Warning signs for infants are bright red or cold skin and very low energy, the CDC said.

Engle recommends to “dress in three or more layers. One big thick winter coat tends not to do the trick. You have to have a thick sweater underneath and then a lighter jacket on top of that and then your winter coat.”

“People really should keep their heads covered because that’s where majority of heat gets lost,” Engle added.

Wexler said moving can generate heat. But try to avoid sweating.

“If you are overheated and start to sweat, that lowers your body temperature and makes you more susceptible to cold injury,” he said. “You want to be able to adjust your layers, zip and unzip.”

Wexler also recommended staying hydrated because “dehydration can help promote cold injury.”

The young and elderly should be especially careful in the cold.

“Their ability to maintain core body temperature is harder than mid-age and younger adults,” he said. “Kids, especially babies, lose a disproportionate amount of heat from their head — that’s why you want to have a hat on their head when you’re out there. Older people are more at risk simply because it is more difficult to regulate our core body temperature as we get older.”

It’s also more difficult to maintain your core temperature if you are diabetic or taking decongestant antihistamines or certain blood pressure medications, Wexler said.

How to keep your car safe

When the temperature dips, getting behind the wheel can prove to be a challenge. Problems include dead car batteries, iced-over windshields, broken car locks and driving with no traction.

Audra Fordin, founder of Woman Auto Know and the owner of Great Bear Auto Repair in Queens, New York, provided these tips:

1. Before you hit the road, check under the hood.

“If it’s really cold outside, you want to make sure that your battery is going to be good in the freezing cold weather,” Fordin said. “If you see any snow or blue stuff that’s growing off your battery, that’s an indication you want to go to the shop to have your battery checked.”

2. Iced out windshields? Turn to your wallet for help.

“If you get to your car and can’t see, pull out a credit card, and you can just wipe that frost away,” Fordin said.

3. Fighting a stubborn car lock? Get sanitizing.

“If your lock is frozen, put the sanitizer on the key, and then put the key into the lock,” Fordin said.

4. If your car can’t gain traction, let your floor mat give an assist.

“Grab your floor mat, you’re going to put it underneath the wheel,” Fordin said. “That will give you enough traction to pull your car out and hit the road.”

This story was originally published in the winter of 2017 – 2018.

Senate passes $1.7T spending bill, including Ukraine aid, getting one step closer to averting shutdown

December 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Senate on Thursday reached a last-minute deal on a sprawling $1.7 trillion package to keep the government funded through the next fiscal year — and send more aid to Ukraine — while getting one step closer to averting a shutdown just before Christmas.

The chamber voted 68-29 to pass the omnibus spending bill after speeding through votes on 17 amendments. Eighteen Republicans joined Democrats in approving the bill that would keep federal agencies operational through Sept. 30, 2023.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a news conference after the vote, said it took “a lot of hard work, a lot of compromise, but we funded the government with an aggressive investment in American families, American workers, American national defense.”

“It is one of the most significant appropriations packages we’ve done in a really long time,” Schumer said.

The legislation will now go to the House for approval before making its way to President Joe Biden’s desk.

The administration has signed off on the package despite it not including everything White House officials requested, such as more COVID-19 funding.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had said at her weekly press conference that the “hope” was the House could pass the bill on Thursday night but noted it takes several hours for it to pass between chambers.

But later Thursday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the chamber will vote on the omnibus bill Friday, giving members enough time to go through the text. The House will reconvene as early as 9 a.m. ET.

Lawmakers have been scrambling to get the bill across the finish line both before Friday’s midnight deadline and before a powerful winter storm unleashes blizzard conditions and severe cold, making their travel home difficult.

The legislation includes disaster relief, medical services for military veterans, a ban of the use of TikTok on government-issued devices and reforms to the Electoral Count Act to avoid a repeat of the Jan. 6 attack.

Also included is $45 billion in humanitarian, economic and security assistance for Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a historic visit to Washington on Wednesday to make the case for continued aid, amid some calls from Republicans for more oversight, telling U.S. lawmakers the money “isn’t charity.”

“It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way,” Zelenskyy said.

How the deal happened

Schumer announced Thursday morning an agreement had been struck to expedite the process of passing the omnibus spending bill.

“I would say that the omnibus was an appropriate metaphor for the last two years … a lot of ups and downs but in the end a great result that really helped the American people,” Schumer said after the bill was passed.

Negotiations had hit a snag over an amendment from Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, that would have reinstated Title 42 — the Trump-era order used to rapidly expel migrants since the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak on the basis of public health concerns.

A federal judge had ordered Title 42 to expire earlier this week, but Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily paused that ruling as the justices considers a request from Republican-led states to keep the policy in place.

Enough Democratic senators supported Lee’s Title 42 amendment that it likely would have passed — and doomed the whole bill to fail in the House, where the amendment doesn’t have the same backing.

To push the legislation forward, Democratic leadership crafted a workaround by voting on two amendments related to Title 42. One brought forward by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester would’ve preserved Title 42 but included money for humanitarian assistance and border security and required 60 votes to pass.

The other, brought forward by Lee, required 51 votes to pass.

Neither Title 42-related amendment passed.

But several of the other proposed amendments did pass and will be included in the version of the omnibus bill being sent to the House.

Those amendments include the PUMP Act, which expands breastfeeding accommodations in the workplace, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which ensures people with limitations related to pregnancy or childbirth are not forced out of the workplace.

Senators also approved an amendment that will allow states and local jurisdictions to repurpose COVID-19 relief money for infrastructure, disaster relief or other issues.

A measure known as 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act that funds a shortfall in the 9/11 first responder fund called the World Trade Center Healthcare Program was also passed as an amendment to the omnibus bill, as was a bill to authorize $2.7 billion in compensation payments to the families of victims of the 9/11 terror attacks, the Beirut Marine barracks bombing and all victims of terrorism.

ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.

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