(NEW YORK) — A pediatric doctor is sharing the holiday gifts parents should avoid giving kids – and it’s not because she wants to be a Grinch.
Dr. Meghan Martin, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida who shared her expert advice in an Instagram video, told “Good Morning America” the products that tend to cause the most injuries seen in pediatric emergency departments, both during and after the holiday season.
Here are Martin’s top five kids’ gifts to skip:
Any toy with button batteries
Button batteries are typically about 20 millimeters in diameter, or between the size of a penny and a nickel, according to the National Capital Poison Center. They’re used in a wide variety of household items and products, including hearing aids, key fobs – and children’s toys.
“The majority of the injuries from button batteries are going to be from swallowing them,” Martin explained, adding that the screws typically used to secure the batteries inside products can easily loosen.
“A lot of times, it doesn’t go all the way to the stomach [after swallowing],” Martin said of button batteries. “It gets stuck in the esophagus or occasionally the airway and then in that position, it starts to create burns in those tissues and a lot of tissue damage in that area.”
That tissue damage in the esophagus and chest, Martin said, puts children particularly at risk of developing “blood vessel injuries [and] airway issues.”
“These can be very dangerous and this can absolutely be fatal,” Martin added.
If parents are concerned a child has swallowed a button battery, Martin recommends calling 911 and, if the child is older than twelve months, giving the child honey while waiting for emergency medical care.
“You can administer small sips of honey every couple of minutes on the way to the emergency department,” Martin explained. “It can decrease the risk of burns and tissue damage, and it can actually be lifesaving.”
In addition to battery consumption, Martin said young kids can also “occasionally stick smaller button batteries, like watch batteries or hearing aid batteries, into their ears or to their nose.”
“You can also have injuries in those locations – again, that kind of tissue damage, tissue breakdown from the battery itself,” she said.
Any toy with water beads
Water beads, according to Martin, are often marketed as “sensory toys,” but the risks they pose can be extremely significant.
“They’re polymers that if ingested, they can swell,” Martin explained. “They can cause things like bowel obstructions, even perforations. They can get stuck in airways because they’re about the size of a small child’s airway, so it’s also a choking hazard.”
Electric scooters
The main reason Martin doesn’t recommend electric scooters and other similar toys, like electric bicycles, is their speed potential.
“They really can get going pretty quickly and if you hit a crack in the sidewalk or a bump in the road, you can easily become dislodged from that scooter,” Martin said. “And if you’re going fast, your face is also going to be going fast as you come towards the road or the sidewalk.”
Martin said they often see head injuries, facial injuries and forearm fractures with electric scooter accidents.
Overall, Martin said she doesn’t recommend giving any electric scooter to a kid. “These can be really dangerous,” she said. “And we’re seeing a lot of injuries with kids crashing on these.”
As an alternative, she recommends giving “kid-powered” scooters, without electricity or motors.
Aside from getting kids active, Martin said kid-powered scooters may also be “good for development of those kinds of fine motor skills, gross motor skills, strength [and] endurance.”
It is always recommended that all children wear helmets when riding scooters.
Hoverboards
Self-balancing scooters, more commonly known as hoverboards, can also land a child in the emergency room.
“The most common injuries I see from hoverboards are forearm fractures and elbow fractures,” Martin said. “We have seen some head injuries from it. We have seen some lower extremity, like ankle and knee injuries, too.”
Plus, Martin pointed out, hoverboards and their batteries have been reported to cause fires and electrical issues.
Trampolines
Of all the hazardous toys she has seen cause injuries in children, Martin said trampolines are the worst offender. Martin said in the pediatric ER, they see trampoline injuries “probably a couple times a week.”
“We see kids getting hurt in all different ways on trampolines,” Martin said. “Mostly it’s going to be leg injuries. But we do see things like arm injuries, elbow injuries – even head injuries and back injuries, sometimes, when doing backflips, neck injuries. So there are a variety of injuries that kids can get on trampolines. And we do see them relatively commonly.”
Martin said she doesn’t recommend trampolines for home use at all because of the risks they pose.
In general, Martin advises parents and caregivers to inspect any toy thoroughly before buying or giving it to a child.
“It’s important to just make sure that the toy is made with quality and the parts are secure and that all the pieces are there that need to be there,” Martin said.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday announced it will take up a major challenge to a felony obstruction statute the Justice Department has used against more than 300 defendants in their investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Any ruling against the use of the “obstruction of an official proceeding” statute would raise the potential that hundreds of cases that federal prosecutors have brought against rioters they accuse of engaging in some of the more serious conduct that threatened the electoral certification on Jan. 6 could be upended.
The same felony charge is also among the four brought by special counsel Jack Smith in his federal election subversion case against former President Donald Trump.
It’s unclear whether the high court’s decision to take up the obstruction case Wednesday could have an impact on Trump’s ongoing efforts to delay his own case given Trump is not accused of participating in the physical breach of the Capitol.
The appeal stems from a consolidation of three separate cases brought against alleged rioters accused of attempting to disrupt the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 — after a federal judge in the D.C. District Court dismissed the felony count for the defendants by arguing prosecutors interpreted language of the statute too broadly.
That judge, Carl Nichols, is the only judge in the D.C. District Court to have issued such a ruling against the Justice Department’s use of the statute with regards to the Jan. 6 certification, and in April a three judge panel in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in favor of DOJ.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s onetime fixer Michael Cohen sought an early end to his supervised release based on case law that may not exist, according to a federal judge in New York.
Cohen, who went to federal prison after pleading guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations, cited three decisions in his petition for early termination of supervised release. However, Judge Jesse Furman said, “As far as the Court can tell, none of these cases exist.”
Furman said he was not alone in being unable to find cases that Cohen cited. He contacted the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which purportedly affirmed each of the decisions, and the clerk there could not find the cases.
Cohen’s current lawyer, Danya Perry, said she could not find the cases either, writing to the judge, “While several cases were cited in the initial Motion filed by different counsel, undersigned counsel was not engaged at that time and must inform the Court that it has been unable to verify those citations.”
Furman ordered Cohen’s former lawyer, David Schwartz, to provide copies of the cases he cited by early next week. He also ordered Schwartz to explain whether Cohen himself played any role in the apparent deception.
“If he is unable to do so, Mr. Schwartz shall, by the same date, show cause in writing why he should not be sanctioned,” Furman said. “Any such submission shall take the form of a sworn declaration and shall provide, among other things, a thorough explanation of how the motion came to cite cases that do not exist and what role, if any, Mr. Cohen played in drafting or reviewing the motion before it was filed.”
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump lost his bid to invoke an immunity defense to E. Jean Carroll’s remaining defamation claim on Wednesday, clearing the way for a trial on damages to begin next month in New York.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Trump waived the defense of presidential immunity because he did not immediately invoke it when Carroll first sued him for allegedly defaming her by claiming she fabricated her account of a mid-1990s sexual assault.
“This case presents a vexing question of first impression: whether presidential immunity is waivable. We answer in the affirmative and further hold that Donald J. Trump waived the defense of presidential immunity by failing to raise it as an affirmative defense in his answer to E. Jean Carroll’s complaint,” the decision said.
Carroll, a former columnist at Elle magazine, successfully sued Trump for defamation and battery and was awarded $5 million in damages. The judge in Carroll’s remaining defamation case against Trump, Lewis Kaplan, has already determined he is liable so the trial will determine how much he should pay.
“We are pleased that the Second Circuit affirmed Judge Kaplan’s rulings and that we can now move forward with trial next month on January 16,” Carroll’s attorney Robbie Kaplan said.
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, immediately said they would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, but later offered an “updated” statement, saying, “The Second Circuit’s ruling is fundamentally flawed and we will continue to pursue Justice and appropriate resolution.”
Trump had argued presidential immunity is automatic, but the appellate court said “recognizing presidential immunity as waivable reinforces, not undermines, the separation of powers and the President’s decision making authority by affording the President an opportunity to litigate if he so chooses. Accordingly, we hold that presidential immunity is waivable.”
The court also rejected Trump’s attempt to revive presidential immunity as a defense because it took him three years to bring it up.
“Defendant unduly delayed in raising presidential immunity as a defense. Three years passed between Defendant’s answer and his request for leave to amend his answer,” the opinion said.
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, departs the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building and United States Courthouse on July 26, 2023 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden is peaking out following his indictment on tax and gun charges.
Addressing reporters in Washington, D.C., Hunter Biden said he’s prepared to answer questions from House Republicans — but reiterated that he would only do so in public.
“I am here to testify at a public hearing today, to answer the committees questions,” he said.
“What are they afraid of? I’m here, I’m ready,” he said.
Chairman James Comer of the House Oversight Committee last month subpoenaed Hunter Biden to sit for a closed-door deposition on Wednesday as part of the committee’s probe into President Joe Biden and his family.
In response, Hunter Biden said he was willing to testify before the panel — but only in a public forum.
Brand new Tesla cars sit parked at a Tesla dealership on Oct. 18, 2023 in Corte Madera, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Tesla will recall about twp million cars over a safety issue tied to its autopilot system, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Wednesday.
The company’s autopilot system may put drivers at greater risk of an accident in certain situations, the NHTSA added.
The electric automaker will release a software update for the vehicles impacted next February, the agency said.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York in a $250 million civil lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel Trump to the White House.
Trump, his sons Eric Trump and and Donald Trump Jr., and other top Trump Organization executives are accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” to inflate Trump’s net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The trial comes after the judge in the case ruled in a partial summary judgment that Trump had submitted “fraudulent valuations” for his assets, leaving the trial to determine additional actions and what penalty, if any, the defendants should receive.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing and his attorneys have argued that Trump’s alleged inflated valuations were a product of his business skill.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 13, 9:14 AM EST
Accounting expert to testify in state’s rebuttal case
A day after Donald Trump’s lawyers rested their defense case that featured numerous expert witnesses, New York Attorney General Letitia James is set to call her own accounting expert as part of the state’s rebuttal case.
Cornell professor Eric Lewis was qualified as an accounting expert over the objections of Trump’s attorneys yesterday, and his direct examination is scheduled to begin this morning.
Lewis will likely address some of the findings reached by the defense’s accounting experts, Jason Flemmons and Eli Bartov, whose testimony that Trump had adequate disclaimers on his financial statements is at the center of the defense’s case.
Trump’s lawyer Chris Kise aggressively criticized Lewis’ qualifications during a lengthy voir dire session yesterday, but Judge Arthur Engoron remained convinced about Lewis’ ability to testify as an accounting expert.
Dec 12, 6:10 PM EST
Defense attorney blasts expert witness in rebuttal case
Donald Trump’s attorney Chris Kise unloaded on the second rebuttal witness called by New York Attorney General Letitia James after the defense had rested its case.
“The reason they brought this witness in here is, there is no one in the actual profession who would sustain the opinions they are asking of the witness,” Kise argued about Cornell professor of practice Eric Lewis, who Judge Engoron qualified as an expert in accounting.
Kise exasperatedly questioned Lewis during a prolonged voir dire about his qualifications, criticizing his experience while knocking Engoron in the process.
“You are a professor of practice with no practice in the field of accounting,” Kise told Lewis. “I probably have more experience in the practice of accounting than this witness.”
Engoron nevertheless deemed Lewis an expert in accounting over Kise’s objections that his expertise was “too broad” for the circumstances.
“I am not sure if anything will change a decision in this courtroom,” Kise argued.
Engoron appeared worn out by Kise’s lengthy attacks.
“Stop making speeches every time we have to discuss something,” Engoron said for the umpteenth time.
Court was subsequently adjourned for the day, with the state’s rebuttal case set to resume on Wednesday.
Dec 12, 4:36 PM EST
Ex-CFO inflated size of Trump’s penthouse, rebuttal witness says
With the defense having rested its case, state attorneys began what they expect to be a brief rebuttal case by calling to the stand Kevin Sneddon, a managing director at Trump International Realty between 2011 and 2012.
State attorneys asked Sneddon about one of the centerpieces of the attorney general’s complaint: Trump’s penthouse apartment in Trump Tower, which Trump claimed on his statements of financial condition was 30,000 square feet in size when the actual dimensions are a third of that. The overstated size allowed Trump to inflate the value of the apartment by over $200 million, Judge Arthur Engoron decided in his partial summary judgment.
During the defense’s case, a former Trump Organization executive blamed Sneddon for the error.
“The person running Trump International Realty at the time, Kevin Sneddon, sent me an email that the triplex was 30,000 square feet,” former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney testified.
Sneddon, however, testified that he received the 30,000 square foot figure directly from Trump’s main deputy: co-defendant and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.
Sneddon said that he received a phone call directly Weisselberg, who requested that he value Trump’s penthouse.
“I just knew it was the penthouse. I didn’t know much about the apartment itself,” Sneddon testified.
“I asked if I could see it. He said that was not possible. I asked if there was a floor plan or any specs. He said he did not have any of that information,” Sneddon said. “He said, ‘It’s quite large. I think it’s around 30,000 square feet.'”
When McConney emailed him in September 2012 to ask for help valuing Trump’s penthouse, Sneddon said he relied on the figure Weisselberg provided him — unknowingly providing inaccurate information to McConney.
“I already valued DJT’s triplex for Allen,” Sneddon wrote in an email shown at trial. “At 30,000 sq. ft., DJT’s triplex is worth between 4K and 6K per ft – or 120MM to 180MM.”
Trump’s attorney Chris Kise fiercely objected to most of Sneddon’s brief testimony, describing the questioning as a “free for all.”
During a short cross-examination, defense attorney Clifford Robert attempted to discredit the testimony of Sneddon — who did not testify in the state’s case — by suggesting Sneddon was primed by state attorneys so his testimony would align with the state’s theory of the case.
Dec 12, 3:30 PM EST
Defense rests its case, makes 5th motion to end trial
Donald Trump’s lawyers rested their case in the former president’s civil fraud trial, as New York Attorney General Letitia James watched from the gallery.
Defense attorneys undertook several “housekeeping items” before concluding their case, including adding expert reports to the trial record “for appellate purposes.”
“You’re going to appeal,” Judge Engoron deadpanned before breaking into laughter.
Both parties were argumentative until the end, squabbling over minor issues that threatened to draw out the defense’s case.
“We don’t want additional time, we want the case to end,” said state attorney Kevin Wallace.
With all housekeeping finished, Trump attorney Chris Kise announced, “We do rest.” He then made the defense’s fifth motion for a directed verdict to end the case, saying he planned to submit a written motion on Friday.
“There is no way I am going to grant that,” Judge Engoron responded. “You’d be wasting your time.”
Wallace criticized Kise’s plan to submit a written motion as “silly” and a “colossal waste of resources.”
“We have already won on summary judgment,” Wallace said in reference to Engoron’s pretrial ruling. “I don’t know what we are pretending is happening here.”
Dec 12, 2:33 PM EST
NY AG in attendance for conclusion of defense’s case
New York Attorney General Letitia James is attending the afternoon session of Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial.
Sitting in the gallery with her staff, James briefly walked into Judge Engoron’s chambers before the trial resumed following the midday break.
Trump’s legal spokesperson, Alina Habba, was also spotted entering the judge’s chambers for a separate meeting.
Court then resumed with defense attorneys conducting their redirect examination of accounting expert Eli Bartov.
Bartov is expected to be the defense’s last witness before they rest their case, which will likely be followed by a brief rebuttal case by the state.
Dec 12, 12:37 PM EST
State highlights ‘unpersuasive’ past testimony of defense expert
In an effort to discredit the defense’s accounting expert, state attorney Louis Solomon highlighted that Eli Bartov’s testimony was rejected by a judge when he testified as an expert for the New York attorney general in her trial against Exxon Mobil in 2019.
The judge in that case wrote in his ruling that Bartov’s testimony during that trial was “unpersuasive” and was “flatly contradicted by the weight of the evidence,” according to Solomon’s reading of the ruling in court.
Bartov said he was unaware of the ruling, and defense attorney Chris Kise objected to the line of questioning as irrelevant.
Bartov largely stuck to his initial testimony during two hours of cross-examination this morning, defending his overall finding while acknowledging his analysis found that Trump’s statements included some marginal overstatements that “did not impact significantly Deutsche Bank’s decision to extend loans.”
While Bartov agreed that, in the real estate business, “price gets set first, then valuation follows” he said he saw no evidence to support the attorney general’s allegation that Trump’s statements were reverse engineered to provide support for the values determined by Trump and his executives.
“Do you know if they were reverse engineered?” Solomon asked.
“I have no knowledge of that,” Bartov responded.
Present in the courtroom for Bartov’s testimony was Eric Trump, who made a surprise appearance in the gallery. Like his father, Eric Trump initially planned to take the stand during the defense’s case, but canceled his testimony.
Dec 12, 11:13 AM EST
Trump cites limited gag order for decision to not testify
In a social media post this morning, Donald Trump claimed he “wanted to testify on Monday” but blamed his decision not to testify on the trial’s limited gag order, which prohibits Trump from commenting on Judge Engoron’s staff.
When Trump on Sunday pulled out of his testimony, he touted the strength of his evidence and previous testimony as the reasons he decided not to take the stand.
“Anyway, the Judge, Arthur Engoron, put a GAG ORDER on me, even when I testify, totally taking away my constitutional right to defend myself. We are appealing, but how would you like to be a witness and not be allowed free snd [sic] honest speech,” Trump wrote today.
In a statement to ABC News on Monday, Trump attorney Chris Kise also partially blamed the limited gag order for his client’s decision not to testify.
“There is really nothing more to say to a Judge who has imposed an unconstitutional gag order and thus far appears to have ignored President Trump’s testimony and that of everyone else involved in the complex financial transactions at issue in the case,” Kise said.
In a court filing last week, Engoron’s attorney wrote that the limited gag order “does not prevent statements about Justice Engoron himself, not the Attorney General or her staff, not the substance of the claims and allegations against petitioners, not the facts or evidence or witness testimony, not the judicial process, nor any other topic concerning the underlying action.”
Dec 12, 10:41 AM EST
Trump attorney accuses state of withholding witnesses
Judge Arthur Engoron will allow the New York attorney general to call two witnesses during the state’s rebuttal case once the defense rests its case — over the objection of Trump attorney Chris Kise.
“The government has held these witnesses back,” Kise said, arguing against the decision.
While state attorney Kevin Wallace maintained that their two rebuttal witnesses — Cornell professor Eric Lewis and former Trump Organization executive Kevin Sneddon — would only address arguments already made in court, Kise argued that the witnesses would be used to backfill evidence that the defense team would not be able to address fully.
“It’s not rebuttal. It’s filling a hole,” Kise said, accusing the state of “gamesmanship” by withholding evidence.
Unconvinced by Kise’s argument, Engoron ruled that the witnesses would still be permitted to testify.
“I see no reason not to allow these two purported experts to testify,” Engoron said.
In response, Trump’s defense attorneys suggested they might attempt to present an additional witness after the state’s rebuttal case.
Dec 12, 9:36 AM EST
Trump’s defense expected to rest its case today
After presenting four weeks of testimony, Donald Trump’s lawyers are scheduled to rest their case in the former president’s civil fraud trial today.
With Trump no longer testifying as a defense witness, New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov will be Trump’s final witness.
Resuming his cross-examination this morning, Bartov is likely to face questions about inconsistencies and potential bias in his analysis of Trump’s financial statements. Paid an hourly rate of $1,350 for 650 hours of work, Bartov said last week that he received payments from both the Trump Organization and Trump’s Save America PAC.
Bartov strongly defended Trump’s statements of financial condition, the documents at the center of the New York attorney general’s case, during his testimony last week, saying that he could find “no evidence whatsoever for any accounting fraud.” Bartov also argued the documents were insignificant to the banks that loaned Trump money, which he said used their own analysis to make their loan decisions.
“It is impossible to argue — it is really absurd to argue — that Deutsche Bank or any bank or any lender would make lending decisions based on the statements of financial condition,” Bartov said. “This should close the book on this case.”
(NEW YORK) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is on trial in Washington, D.C., this week for defaming Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Giuliani, acting on behalf of former President Donald Trump, accused the mother and daughter of committing election fraud while the two were counting ballots on Election Day in Georgia’s Fulton County.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in August awarded a default judgment to the two women, leaving this week’s trial to determine the full scope of the damages and any penalties Giuliani will have to pay. Freeman and Moss are seeking between $15.5 million and $43 million.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 13, 9:05 AM EST
Plaintiffs to call expert on reputation repair
Day 3 of the trial is scheduled to begin with a witness deposition video, finishing up the series of deposition videos that was played in court yesterday.
Plaintiffs’ attorney are then expected to call an expert witness to the stand to testify about the impact of Giuliani’s statements.
The testimony is expected to address the estimated cost to repair the damage done to Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman’s reputations.
Dec 12, 5:51 PM EST
Giuliani refrains from commenting on case
After court was adjourned for the day, Rudy Giuliani told reporters outside court that he would not comment on the case after the judge slammed the remarks he made after court Monday.
“I’m not going to discuss the case anymore because it seemed to get the judge annoyed,” he told reporters.
Court will resume Wednesday morning.
Dec 12, 5:08 PM EST
Court adjourns for the day
Following Shaye Moss’ testimony and the playing of several video depositions, Day 2 of the trial adjourned for the day.
When court resumes on Wednesday, Michael Gottlieb, an attorney for Freeman and Moss, said he plans to show one final deposition video of poll observer Pamela Michelle Branton.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys also plan to call an expert witness to testify about the impacts of Giuliani’s false accusations, according to court papers filed in the case.
Dec 12, 4:55 PM EST
Attorneys play video depositions from Giuliani aides
Attorneys for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss played excerpts from previously recorded video depositions with Trump associate Bernie Kerik and attorneys Christina Bobb, and Jenna Ellis in part to demonstrate Giuliani’s leading role in efforts to uncover evidence of systemic election fraud.
They never found it.
Kerik, the former police commissioner in New York City, described a document in the team’s legal playbook, which included a section about Freeman. Bobb, a onetime attorney for then-President Trump, described the makeup of Giuliani’s legal team.
In the recording of Ellis, a former Trump attorney, she repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination as attorneys for the two women peppered her with questions about her work with Giuliani in the aftermath of the election.
Dec 12, 4:20 PM EST
Shaye Moss concludes testimony
Shaye Moss concluded her testimony after several hours on the witness stand.
Excerpts from a taped video deposition with Giuliani associate Bernie Kerik, the former police commissioner of New York City, is next on the docket.
Kerik worked with Giuliani to try overturn the results of the 2020 election. He received a pardon from then-President Trump earlier that year on felony fraud charges dating to 2009.
Dec 12, 4:01 PM EST
Moss describes ‘homework’ from therapist
Shaye Moss grew so fearful for her life after threats poured in that she stopped going out in public, and only recently, she testified, did she build up the courage to leave her home alone, without security.
She did so at the behest of her therapist.
“That was actually her homework for me,” Moss said of her therapist’s request that she visit a public place by herself.
“I did once,” Moss said.
She testified that she drove alone to a local restaurant, where she found a quiet seat located at the end of the bar.
“I was so terrified. I felt extremely nauseous,” she said. “I was very proud of myself. But unfortunately I have not been able to do that again.”
Dec 12, 3:38 PM EST
Moss breaks into tears under cross-examination
Shaye Moss broke into tears under a line of questioning from defense attorney Joseph Sibley about the adverse health effects she attributes to Giuliani’s defamatory statements about her.
Sibley asked Moss to repeat the names of two mental health diagnoses she received from therapists since the 2020 election. When Moss intimated that she had additional ailments that could be tied to Giuliani’s conduct, Sibley asked, “What other issues do you have?”
Moss’ attorney objected to the question. As the judge consulted privately with counsel from both parties, Moss held her hands to her face and could be seen wiping tears from her cheeks.
Shortly before this exchange, Moss said her mental anguish had been exacerbated by her inability to work. She described conversations with her therapist about taking time to heal before jumping back into a job.
“Before, I had purpose, at least,” Moss said. Now, she said, “most days I pray God won’t wake me up and I disappear.”
Dec 12, 3:16 PM EST
Moss says spread of election lies akin to Olympic torch relay
Under cross-examination by Giuliani attorney Joseph Sibley, Shaye Moss was asked how she could be sure that it was his client’s remarks that inspired throngs of strangers to level racist and vile threats against her and her family.
Moss said those strangers “were parroting his exact words.”
She testified that right-wing news outlet Gateway Pundit and the Trump campaign used language similar to Giuliani’s in smearing her.
“It was like the torch for the Olympics,” she said. “They pass it from person to person to person.”
Dec 12, 2:57 PM EST
‘I want to receive some type of justice,’ Moss testifies
Shaye Moss returned to the witness stand after the midday break to be questioned by Giuliani attorney Joseph Sibley, who asked her about her efforts to rehabilitate her reputation — probing what steps she has taken to mend her name online.
Moss said she had pays a service $140 per year to monitor her name online and protect her identity, but that “it’s incredibly difficult” to repair her reputation “when powerful people keep spewing lies about us.”
“How could you work in law if people were saying, like, that you were a horrible lawyer?” Moss asked Sibley.
“You’d be surprised,” Sibley quipped.
Asked how much money she believes she is owed for Giuliani’s lies, Moss said, “I’m relying on the experts.”
“I want to vindicate myself,” she said. “I want to receive some type of justice.”
Dec 12, 12:59 PM EST
Moss says she felt like ‘worst mom’ for exposing son to racist threats
It wasn’t just Moss and Freeman who bore the brunt of Giuliani’s false fraud accusations, Shaye Moss testified. Her grandmother and son also suffered after the former mayor falsely accused Moss and Freeman by name.
“I feel like it’s my fault. Maybe if I was satisfied being in the mail room … then maybe it would not have happened,” Moss said regarding her promotion to election worker.
Moss said her 16-year-old son struggled in school after being exposed to racist threats against their family — and went from a comic-obsessed “bookworm” to flunking the ninth grade.
“Racism is real. And it comes out,” Moss recalled telling him. “I felt like the worst mom ever to allow him to have to hear this, to experience this day after day after day.”
Moss also said she harbors guilt for the treatment of her grandmother. Strangers would repeatedly send pizzas to her house under fake, racist names, Moss testified. The delivery person would expect payment upon arrival, she said.
“My grandmother has lived through all this racist crap. I mean, we’re from Georgia … miles and miles of cotton fields as we drive to the beach,” Moss said. “It’s history, but we have to go through this.”
Dec 12, 12:48 PM EST
Ordeal left her with ‘major depressive disorder,’ says Moss
In emotional testimony, Shaye Moss described how, following the 2020 election, her mental health spiraled out of control over the course of 2021 — a period during which she said her life fell into a rhythm of “Cry, eat, sleep. Cry, eat, sleep.”
“I’m like a hermit crab now. Obviously, I look totally different,” she said. “I’ve gained 70 pounds. I realize I stress-eat.”
“I don’t trust anyone,” she added.
After seeking therapy, she told her therapist about her nightmares — that a mob would arrive at her house “with nooses, with pitchforks and signs,” and that her son would find her hanging.
“The look of shock on [the therapist’s] face, the look of disbelief — it kind of scared me,” she said. “I felt bad for releasing all that on the therapist.”
Moss says she was diagnosed with “acute stress disorder.” Months later, she met with a different therapist who made a more serious diagnosis: “major depressive disorder with acute distress,” Moss said.
Dec 12, 12:17 PM EST
Job prospects deteriorated after accusations, Moss testifies
One interlude from the aftermath of the 2020 election demonstrates how Moss’ career prospects deteriorated, she testified.
Moss said she felt so disillusioned with election work by mid-2021 that she sought work elsewhere. She applied for a job at a Chick-fil-A restaurant and secured an interview.
“I was dressed up. I had my notebook with my resume. I was excited, I was ready,” Moss said.
The interview “went great,” she said, even though she realized that, without relevant experience, she would be asked to do menial tasks.
“I had made up my mind that, oh well, I’ll have to start at the bottom,” she testified. “And if I can work my way up at [voter] registration, I can work my way up here.”
Before leaving, however, the interviewer showed her an article on his laptop and said, “Tell me about this. Is this you? Is this true?”
The article featured an image of her face with the word “Fraud” plastered across it.
“The more he was talking, the more I just tuned it out,” Moss said. “I was so shocked, I was so embarrassed … I just had to leave. I just left.”
Dec 12, 11:58 AM EST
Moss, through tears, describes life after Giuliani’s accusations
Shaye Moss felt dejected and fearful after Rudy Giuliani’s defamatory statements and accusations about her proliferated online — prompting the veteran election worker to change her appearance and leave her job.
John Langford, an attorney for Moss, displayed emails and messages she received on social media in late 2020, as her name circulated online in right-wing media. One read, “Be glad it’s 2020 and not 1920.”
The chilling message, which she said made her “afraid for my life,” prompted her to assume a new physical identity.
“I went into my hair salon and I asked my stylist to make it so the same person she saw walk in here is not the person who leaves,” Moss recalled.
Her stylist, she said, “dyed it a strawberry blond color.” A selfie Moss took the following day showed her with a “puffy face from crying all night.”
Though her hair changed, Moss said she returned to work after “the worst Christmas” of her life, determined to return to normalcy.
“My goal was still to make sure that everything was ready for our next election, that everything ran smoothly,” she testified.
Instead, she recalled, “Things ain’t never returned to normal.”
Moss left the Fulton County elections office in April 2022 after she was passed over for a promotion.
“It felt like a slap in the face,” she said, because she sensed that her superiors thought it would look bad for the county.
“I wanted to retire a county worker, like my grandma — make her proud, make my mom proud — but…” she said, trailing off in tears.
Rudy Giuliani, seated at the defense table, showed little emotion as Moss wept on the witness stand. Leaning with his elbow on the table, the former mayor took intermittent notes as she testified.
Dec 12, 11:30 AM EST
Moss says seeing election fraud claims made her ‘immediately fearful’
A visibly upset Shaye Moss described what happened on Dec. 4, 2020 — the day her boss informed her about the deluge of “nasty, hateful, violent” messages directed at her from online users accusing her of election fraud.
Moss said when her supervisor summoned her to his office, she thought she might be in line for a promotion. Colleagues smiled and gave her a thumbs up as she waded through their cubicles, she recalled.
Instead, Moss testified, she was shown social media posts accusing her of manipulating ballots.
“I am shown these videos, these lies, everything that’s been going on that I had no clue about,” Moss recalled. “I was confused, I was immediately fearful.”
After returning to her desk, Moss said she “couldn’t concentrate” for the rest of the day.
Dec 12, 11:20 AM EST
Shaye Moss describes election job as ‘winning the golden ticket’
Taking the witness stand, Shaye Moss described the pride she felt as an election supervisor in Fulton County — the position she held on Election Day in 2020.
Moss began her career in elections in 2012 as a temporary worker in the Fulton County elections office mail room. Five years later, she said she secured a promotion to permanent work.
“I worked really hard for that position. I was so excited I literally dropped to my knees and cried,” Moss said. “It was like winning the golden ticket with Willy Wonka. I was so proud of myself.”
Moss said she felt proud to work in elections and took particular delight in helping the elderly and others who found it difficult to cast their ballots. She said her grandmother inspired her to pursue a career in elections.
“No, I did not like my job — because I loved my job,” Moss recalled. “It would make my grandmother proud … my grandmother enjoyed telling her friends … that her grandbaby runs the election.”
Dec 12, 10:32 AM EST
Georgia investigators dispel election fraud claims
Two state investigators who examined allegations that Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss conspired to manipulate ballots on Election Day explained in video depositions how those claims were probed and found to be untrue.
Frank Braun and Frances Watson, both investigators with the Georgia Secretary of State at the time, explained that Freeman, Moss and their colleagues returned to State Farm Arena late on Nov. 3, 2020, after the secretary extended hours for counting ballots, to help expedite the process — not, as Rudy Giuliani and others suggested, to rig votes.
“There was no evidence that suggested they did anything wrong, except show up to work and work hard,” Braun said in his video deposition.
Watson, the chief investigator at the time, said that Giuliani’s remarks about manipulated ballots at State Farm Arena were “not accurate.”
Dec 12, 9:51 AM EST
Judge blasts Giuliani for ‘additional defamatory’ remarks
Judge Beryl Howell admonished Rudy Giuliani for making “additional defamatory comments” about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss late Monday when he told ABC News’ Terry Moran that he stands by his false statements about the two women.
Giuliani told Moran as he departed the courthouse Monday that “everything I said about them is true” and that the women “were engaged in changing votes.”
Those comments “could support another defamation claim,” Howell told Giuliani’s attorney, Joseph Sibley, as court resumed Tuesday morning. “How do you reconcile those comments?”
When Howell asked if Giuliani denied making those comments, Giuliani rose his voice and said, “Of course I did.”
The trial has “taken a toll on him,” Sibley said. “He’s 80 years old … I can’t control everything he does.”
Howell then questioned Giuliani’s age, capacity and acuity — and whether that might be an issue in the case. “Can he follow instructions?” she asked.
“The answer, of course, is yes,” Sibley replied, adding again that “sitting through a multi-day trial” has been hard for Giuliani.
The judge appeared visibly frustrated while chastising Giuliani and his attorney over his remarks. Giuliani, reclining in his chair at the defendant’s table, shook his head at times.
Dec 12, 9:19 AM EST
Moss expected to testify this morning
Shaye Moss is expected to take the witness stand this morning on the second day of her defamation damages trial against Rudy Giuliani.
At the trial’s first day yesterday, an attorney for Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, described how Moss “started to have nightmares” as hundreds of strangers flooded her phone and social media with threats of violence and racist remarks — including “nightmares of her son finding her hanging from a tree alongside her mom.”
Moss “will explain the humiliation she felt” trying to apply for another job at a Chick-fil-A restaurant, the attorney added, where her interviewer found an article about scrutiny of Moss after the election and asked her, “Is this you?”
A day after Giuliani was slammed by plaintiffs’ attorneys for remarks he made to the press following yesterday’s proceedings, the former mayor ignored questions from reporters as he made his way into the courtroom this morning.
Dec 11, 11:03 PM EST
In filing, plaintiffs’ attorneys slam Giuliani’s remarks to press
In a filing late Monday, attorneys for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss are accusing Rudy Giuliani and his attorney of crafting arguments at trial that run afoul of the court’s prior ruling that Giuliani’s defamatory statements about the mother and daughter were false.
The filing cites ABC News’ reporting on correspondent Terry Moran’s exchange with Giuliani as the former mayor departed court, during which Giuliani said that he “told the truth” about Freeman and Moss “changing votes,” and that he should not be held accountable for the conduct of “other people overreacting.”
“According to public news reports, upon leaving the courthouse, Defendant Giuliani stopped to say to an assembled group of the press: ‘When I testify, the whole story will be definitively clear that what I said was true, and that, whatever happened to them — which is unfortunate about other people overreacting — everything I said about them is true,'” the filing says, quoting ABC News’ report.
“Needless to say,” attorneys for Freeman and Moss write, “were Defendant Giuliani to testify in a manner remotely resembling those comments, he would be in plain violation of the Court’s prior orders in this case conclusively affirming, and reaffirming, that all elements of liability have been established, including that Defendant Giuliani’s defamatory statements were false.”
Judge Howell in August awarded a default judgment to the plaintiffs, leaving the current trial to determine the amount of damages and any penalties Giuliani will have to pay. In their late Monday filing, the plaintiffs’ attorneys urged Howell to “instruct counsel for Defendant Giuliani that he has violated and is prohibited from further violating the Court’s orders by making arguments contrary to its prior evidentiary rulings.”
Dec 11, 6:31 PM EST
Giuliani insists Freeman, Moss were ‘changing votes’
Departing court after the first day of the trial, Rudy Giuliani told ABC News’ Terry Moran that he has no regrets about his treatment of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss — and he doubled down on his core allegations about them.
“When I testify, the whole story will be definitively clear that what I said was true, and that, whatever happened to them — which is unfortunate about other people overreacting — everything I said about them is true,” Giuliani told reporters.
“Do you regret what you did to Ruby and Shaye?” Moran asked.
“Of course I don’t regret it,” Giuliani said. “I told the truth. They were engaged in changing votes.”
“There’s no proof of that,” Moran responded.
“You’re damn right there is,” Giuliani retorted. “Stay tuned.”
Court will resume Tuesday at 9 a.m. ET.
Dec 11, 4:51 PM EST
Expert describes racist content ‘on a level we don’t see’
Plaintiffs’ first witness in the case is a social media monitor who testified about the deluge of “racist and graphic material” targeting Freeman and Moss that appeared online after Giuliani began accusing them by name.
Regina Scott, a retired Chicago Police Department official who now works as a security and risk analyst, testified that negative mentions about Freeman and Moss surfaced online at a prodigious rate.
A report Scott prepared identified more than 710,000 mentions of Freeman and Moss between November 2020 and May 2023, and 320,000 mentions between Aug. 18, 2023, and Nov. 11, 2023.
“The type of violent and racist and graphic material, that’s on a level we don’t see at all in our work,” Scott said.
-ABC News’ Laura Romero
Dec 11, 3:49 PM EST
Damages sought are ‘civil equivalent of death penalty,’ says attorney
Joseph Sibley, an attorney for Rudy Giuliani, implored jurors to withhold judgment of his client and consider a “fair and proportionate” monetary penalty when the trial concludes, framing the $43 million sought by Freeman and Moss as a “truly incredible” figure.
“What the plaintiffs’ counsel are asking for in this case is the civil equivalent of a death penalty,” Sibley told jurors in brief opening remarks.
Sibley, in making his case to the jury, ceding before arguments even began that Giuliani made defamatory comments about Freeman and Moss — but he refuted the notion that his comments led to the abuse that followed.
“There’s really no question that these plaintiffs were harmed,” Sibley said. “They’re good people, they didn’t deserve what happened to them.”
But Sibley urged jurors to consider only “what can actually be attributed to Mr. Giuliani.”
“He never promoted violence against these women, never made racist statements about them,” Sibley said of Giuliani. “That was other random people.”
Dec 11, 3:38 PM EST
Damage to plaintiffs should cost Giuliani ’10s of millions’
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss suffered a “perpetual nightmare,” their attorney Michael Gottlieb told the jury during his opening remarks, saying that the damage they suffered warrants an “award in the tens of millions of dollars.”
Gottlieb told jurors his clients suffered three types of damages — reputation, emotional and punitive — due to Giuliani’s “defamation campaign.”
In addition to the costs to “repair their reputation,” Gottlieb told jurors that Freeman and Moss’ award should account for lost wages, forced relocation, security expenses, and more.
-ABC News’ Laura Romero
Dec 11, 3:00 PM EST
Giuliani used accusers as ‘cornerstone’ of conspiracy, says lawyer
Rudy Giuliani sought to use Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss “as a cornerstone” of his campaign to denigrate the 2020 presidential election, prompting his followers to turn their ire toward the two election workers, their attorney, Von DuBose, told the jury in his opening remarks.
DuBose described how Giuliani slandered Freeman and Moss to his “massive national audience” and accused the mother and daughter of rigging ballots in President Joe Biden’s favor.
“None of that — none of that — is true. But the millions of people who heard the lies didn’t wait for confirmation,” DuBose said. “And the response from those Giuliani called to action was swift. It was racist.”
Dubose played audio recordings of several voicemails left on Freeman and Moss’ phones after Giuliani targeted them by name, including threats of violence and racist name-calling.
Many of the voicemails cited the USB drive Giuliani falsely told Georgia state legislators that the two were “surreptitiously passing around … as if they’re vials of heroin or cocaine.”
Then, DuBose said, “Words turned into action.”
“Strange people” showed up at Freeman and Moss’ home looking for them, DuBose said, with some attempting to “make citizens’ arrests.”
“This case is about how Giuliani … made their names a call to action for millions of people who did not want to believe” the results of the 2020 election, DuBose said.
Dec 11, 2:42 PM EST
Jury instructed on Giuliani’s defamatory comments
Judge Beryl Howell, following a break, delivered a lengthy statement to jurors about details of the case — including her determination that Rudy Giuliani has already been found liable for his defamatory comments.
Howell emphasized that the panel must assume that Giuliani failed to cooperate with his discovery requirements in the case in an effort to “artificially deflate” his net worth, and that jurors must understand that Giuliani benefitted financially from his defamatory comments about Freeman and Moss.
“Your job, ladies and gentlemen, is to determine the facts,” Howell said.
Howell reminded jurors that their sole responsibility is to determine the damages associated with Giuliani’s comments.
As Howell ticked through jury instructions, Giuliani intermittently shook his head and exchanged glances with his attorney.
Dec 11, 11:11 AM EST
Judge asks juror prospects about MAGA, QAnon slogans
Prospective jurors are commonly asked to divulge any affiliations with parties in the case, or preconceived views about them. But in this case — a heavily politicized matter involving election lies — Judge Howell’s questioning has veered into some of the cryptic slogans of the far-right movement.
Howell is asking prospective jurors whether they had ever used the expression “Let’s Go Brandon” — a common refrain among President Joe Biden’s detractors — or the hashtag “WWG1WGA,” a motto associated with the QAnon movement.
She is also asking jurors whether they follow Giuliani’s social media channels.
The prospective jurors reflect the unique makeup of nation’s capitol. Among those who have been questioned: a Defense Department official, a U.S. Forest Service official, a Defense Intelligence Agency official, and a woman who had worked for the Girl Scouts.
Dec 11, 10:40 AM EST
Giuliani faces Freeman, Moss for 1st time
When Rudy Giuliani entered the courtroom some 20 minutes late due to delays with the courthouse security line, it was the first time he shared a room with Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
Freeman and Moss kept their backs turned away from Giuliani as he entered the courtroom. Moss appeared to swivel her chair slightly to avoid facing him directly.
Giuliani took a seat at the defendant’s table alongside his attorney, Joseph Sibley.
While waiting for Giuliani, Sibley had asked Judge Howell’s permission for Giuliani to bypass the security line moving forward. She said she would discuss it with court personnel, but laid the blame at Giuliani’s feet for his arriving “tardily.”
Dec 11, 10:11 AM EST
Judge welcomes prospective jurors to courtroom
Judge Howell has begun reading instructions to dozens of prospective jurors, after proceedings were delayed slightly due to Giuliani’s late arrival and some apparent issues with juror paperwork.
Howell rose and swore in jurors before the selection process got underway. She emphasized that she would endeavor to seat an impartial and unbiased jury.
“The court has already determined that Mr. Giuliani is liable for defamation, and that Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss are entitled to receive compensation, including in the form of punitive damages, for Mr. Giuliani’s willful conduct,” Howell told jurors.
“The only issue remaining in this trial is for the jury to determine any amount of damages Mr. Giuliani owes to plaintiffs for the damage caused by his conduct,” Howell said.
Dec 11, 9:53 AM EST
Ruling could be another blow to Giuliani’s finances
The $15.5 million to $43 million that Freeman and Moss are seeking from Giuliani reflects the emotional distress and monetary losses associated with the former mayor’s defamatory comments, according to attorneys for the mother and daughter.
If the plaintiffs receive anywhere near those figures, it would mark the latest financial blow to a man who once raked in tens of millions of dollars through security consulting and speaking fees.
Judge Beryl Howell has already ordered Giuliani to pay Freeman and Moss upwards of $230,000 as a sanction for failing to comply with the discovery process of sharing information relevant to the case. In court filings over the summer, Giuliani’s lawyer asked the judge if Giuliani could defer payment, citing the former mayor’s “financial difficulties” as a result of fighting a slew of litigation elsewhere.
Giuliani stands to owe millions more if he loses cases brought by two voting machine companies and his own longtime personal attorney, among other legal challenges he faces. Giuliani has denied all claims.
Dec 11, 8:24 AM EST
Jury selection begins this morning
Jury selection in the case gets underway at the D.C. federal courthouse this morning, where eight Washington residents will be chosen to serve.
Jurors will be tasked with attaching a monetary value to the harm caused by the defamatory statements a judge found Rudy Giuliani liable for making in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
When the parties arrive in court this morning, it will be the first time Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss face Giuliani in person.
(NEW YORK) — After two miscarriages and now experiencing a high-risk pregnancy, Ashley Hudgins is praying for a healthy baby.
Hudgins, 34, told ABC News that intense stress and mental health complications took both a physical and emotional toll on her past pregnancies, but a new guaranteed income program for expectant mothers may ease some of the financial stressors of parenthood.
“You’re constantly thinking: ‘Oh, am I gonna have money for my rent this month? Am I going to have money to pay my phone bill?’” said Hudgins, who lives in Colorado.
She had just started to question how she’d pay the overdue bills piling up when she received her first payment as part of the guaranteed income program called the Healthy Beginnings Project.
The project, privately funded by children’s accessory company Goldbug, will provide 20 pregnant participants in both rural and urban Colorado cities with a monthly guaranteed income of $750 for 15 months.
“It’s already been a great help, so I can only imagine the things that are coming along that this is going to help,” Hudgins said.
The program was inspired by recent reports on the worsening state of maternal health care in the United States, according to Goldbug CEO Katherine Gold.
“We started this project after doing work in the doula space and other spaces to try and help figure out clues to help lower the maternal mortality rate, which is so high in this country,” Gold said.
The U.S. has been declared one of the “most dangerous developed nations” for childbirth, according to a recent report from the March of Dimes, a nonprofit organization focused on improving the health of pregnant people and babies.
The U.S. saw a 3% increase in infant mortality over the past year and a maternal death rate that doubled from 2018 to 2021, according to the March of Dimes’ analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
“I know how it feels to go through something that traumatic, and I know how it feels to feel like you’re losing your mind, and you’re not really being heard or being validated,” said Hudgins. “It is terrifying, and it is sad.”
The Bridge Project, another privately funded guaranteed income project that has worked with and influenced the Healthy Beginnings Project, has been doing this work in New York City and Rochester’s low-income communities for over two years. New mothers receive up to $1,000 a month, unconditionally, for three years, according to the organization.
To be eligible, women must live in the specified region, be at least 18 years old, 23 weeks pregnant or less with your first child, and have an annual household income under $52,000.
New York City recipient Ashley Medina, 27, was laid off from her job at a nursing home following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic before discovering she was pregnant. When she first heard about the program — cash payments with no strings attached — she thought it was too good to be true.
“I was backed up on rent. Just a lot of things were backed up, with me not working,” said Medina, who has since found a new job. “Once this came about, the money really helped … being able to have food on the table, being able to pay bills that needed to get paid off, and things like that. I was able to buy the baby everything that she needed.”
This program will now be expanding to Buffalo to address the city’s issues of racial inequality and childhood poverty.
More than 40% of children in Buffalo live in poverty, with Black children experiencing poverty at more than twice the rate of white children, according to NY State of Health data.
New research from Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy found that the success of the federal Child Tax Credit in reducing food insecurity, financial hardship, and child poverty to historic lows, could be replicated in earlier stages of family development, starting before childbirth.
Researchers found that what happens to a mother in pregnancy can impact the baby’s long-term health, development and well-being even into adulthood. Supplemental income can provide expectant parents with the resources necessary for healthy pregnancies, according to the Columbia University report.
Supplemental income programs, particularly government-funded ones such as the bipartisan federal Child Tax Credit, or CTC, have faced criticism from those who say it will stop people from working. Some critics, including the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, argue that there are other long-term solutions that could be more effective or that it is too expensive for the government to maintain.
The now-expired Child Tax Credit, which was first enacted in 1997 and later expanded under both Democratic and Republican administrations, sent monthly payments of up to $300 per child in their household as an anti-poverty effort. The effort earned bipartisan support but also bipartisan criticism.
Supporters touted the program for reducing childhood poverty to historic lows. Its critics, including Sen. Joe Manchin, criticized its costs, also arguing that recipients would misuse the payments.
The Cato Institute argues that, “as currently designed, the CTC is not primarily an anti-poverty program.” Rather, it is primarily a subsidy for middle, and upper-income Americans, according to the public policy organization. The Institute’s Jacob Goldin and Katherine Michelmore found that “the majority of filers in the bottom 30% of the distribution are only eligible for a partial credit.”
The credit expired last year but may be resurrected as Republicans and Democrats negotiate their end-of-year tax bill.
The Happy Beginnings Project is privately funded through Goldbug, and its CEO said that raising her son as a single mother and working full time influenced her decision to fund such projects:
“Having all the privilege that I have, you do recognize like how stressful and impossible it all feels to juggle everything without resources,” Gold said.
She continued, “The beauty is that as a private company, we can sort of deploy our resources into ways that others maybe couldn’t.”
Medina said both the income and the organization’s support system has shifted her outlook on the future.
Medina said she can stop worrying just about the next paycheck or bill and start thinking about the future for herself and her children — about college, a career change, and other possibilities.
“The Bridge Project is not just for income. It’s just not to receive money. They are like family … every step of the way the you want to succeed in something they will help you,” said Medina.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. officials confirm to ABC News that two missiles were fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen toward a commercial tanker vessel in the Red Sea Wednesday, with the projectiles missing the ship.
The tanker had just entered the Red Sea on its way toward the Suez Canal, an official said.
During the incident, a U.S. warship shot down a drone launched from Yemen that was heading in its direction, the officials said.
On Monday night, an anti-ship cruise missile fired from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen struck another commercial vessel in the Red Sea, the MT STRINDA, causing a fire, but no casualties, according to Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.
During an on-camera briefing Tuesday, Ryder remarked on the threat posed by Houthi attacks in the region, and efforts to start up an international maritime task force to address the problem.
“We’re continuing to take the situation in the Red Sea extremely seriously, there should be no doubt about that,” Ryder said. “The actions that we’ve seen from these Houthi forces are destabilizing, they’re dangerous, and clearly a flagrant violation of international law. And so this is an international problem that requires an international solution. We do continue to consult closely with our international allies and partners on implementing a maritime task force.”
