(NEW YORK) — The Biden administration recently announced a proposal that would require all lead water service pipes to replaced in the United States within the next decade.
The proposal, led by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is an attempt to protect Americans from lead exposure, which can cause severe health issues in children and adults, including developmental delays, kidney damage and pregnancy complications.
There are more than 9.2 million lead pipes throughout the country, but there are certain states that would particularly benefit from the proposal.
Four states — Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania — contain nearly 40% of all lead service lines in the U.S. at more than 3.63 million total, according to an April 2023 report from the EPA.
Dr. Aaron Packman, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University and director of the Northwestern Center for Water Research, said there are two issues in Illinois: one being the government-owned city water infrastructure and the other being the lines people own individually on their properties.
“The issue with the city infrastructure, a lot of it is old … and it’s been under maintained over the last few decades because of decreasing federal funding available for water infrastructure,” he told ABC News. “The bigger issue we have now is that lead was widely used to connect the water mains in the street to people’s houses.”
He continued, “And so there are enormous numbers of these lead service lines, as they’re called, that are in people’s front yards or coming into their apartment building or school, and it’s harder for city governments typically to conduct work on private property.”
Residents of Chicago, in particular, would be greatly impacted by the initiative because nearly 400,00 lead water pipes are located in the city — the most of any city in the U.S. In the early 20th century, an agreement negotiated between plumbers’ unions and the lead industry resulted in a requirement of using lead in pipes, “so they’re just everywhere,” Packman said.
Considering the monumental challenge of replacing so many lines, the EPA has made an exception and is allowing Chicago to take 40 to 50 years to replace its pipes, according to local media reports.
“This is long-term fallout from bad industrial governmental decisions 50-plus years ago,” Packman said. “It’s larger cities, older cities with older infrastructure and are more densely populated or more built up, all of those factors make this take longer, be more challenging.”
Pennsylvania may also benefit from the proposal. In Philadelphia, similar agreements around the same time period also resulted in lead being required in the city’s pipes.
Additionally, a February 2023 report from the nonprofit Environment America revealed that despite Pennsylvania law requiring schools to test some taps for lead every year, a loophole allows districts to avoid testing taps by holding a public meeting to discuss the issue.
As of 2018, Pennsylvania was one of the states with the highest blood levels reported among kids, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows.
According to the CDC, children under the age of 6 are at greatest risk for health problems due to lead exposure, which can affect growth and development.
“For children, we see developmental delays and behavior problems related to lead exposure, because it is a very potent neurotoxin,” Dr. Ruth McDemott-Levy, professor & co-director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, at Villanova University, told ABC News. “And so, if we don’t catch it quickly enough … we’re talking about lifelong problems for the child and, that can affect the ability to perform well in school, to get a decent paying job.”
But it’s not just children. Adults can also suffer health consequences from lead exposure including high blood pressure, gastric discomfort and kidney issues, McDermott-Levy said.
Additionally, if a pregnant woman is exposed to lead over a long period or has prior high blood levels, the toxin can cross the placenta to the fetus and increase the risk of miscarriage, neurocognitive damage, premature birth or low-birth weight, according to the CDC.
She added that the proposed rule would really benefit low-income families of color, who are most impacted by lead exposure, including in water. For a city like Philadelphia, which is considered the nation’s poorest large city by poverty rate, according to 2022 Census Bureau data, that would certainly be the case.
“For example, we filter our water; it’s just a given that’s what we do and we can do that,” McDermott-Levy said. “But not everyone can afford that or can keep up with changing the filter and all of those sorts of things. So, I think it’s going to have the greatest impact on low-income people of color.”
(AUSTIN, Texas) –Police in Texas said they were investigating possible connections between a series of shootings in Austin and a fatal shooting near San Antonio that left six dead in total and injured several others on Tuesday.
A suspect in his 30s was booked into the Travis County Jail and charged with capital murder on Tuesday night, the Austin Police Department said. His name has not been released. Additional charges are pending, officials said.
Austin officers said they were investigating whether the suspect had been involved in shootings at four locations throughout the city that left four dead and three injured on Tuesday. Two of the injured were police officers, law enforcement said.
Law enforcement officials in Bexar County also said they were also investigating whether another shooting that left two dead in a “grisly” crime scene near San Antonio was connected.
The series of shootings in Austin began at about 10:43 a.m. on Tuesday, when a resource officer was shot and injured near Northeast Early College High School, the Austin Police Department said.
About two hours later, a man and a woman were fatally shot near Shadywood Drive on Austin’s south side, police said.
Officers then responded to a possible burglary just before 6 p.m. on Tuesday near the 5300 block of Austral Loop. Police and the suspect fired at each other, and one of the responding officers was hit multiple times, police said. The officer was later transferred to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
The suspect then allegedly led officers in a high-speed pursuit that ended in a crash of the vehicle the suspect was driving, police said. The man was arrested with a firearm in his possession, police said.
While the pursuit was in progress, officers went inside the residence that was allegedly burglarized on Austral Loop and discovered two people dead from fatal gunshot wounds, officials said.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said that he was contacted by Austin police officers on Tuesday evening and was told that the suspect in custody for the Austin shootings had a connection to a residence in San Antonio.
When deputies arrived at that residence, they forced entry and found two additional people, believed to be in either their 40s or 50s, with fatal gunshot wounds, police said. The bodies were wedged inside a very small room and officials described the scene as “grisly.”
The sheriff said it wasn’t yet clear if the suspect had any connection to the people found dead in the house. He said officials believed the killings near San Antonio happened first and then the suspect went to Austin.
(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 05, 5:04 PM EST
Defense expert quotes John Lennon, compares Trump to MLK
Prior to his brief cross-examination, real estate valuation expert Lawrence Moens quoted John Lennon’s “Imagine” and compared Donald Trump to Martin Luther King Jr. at the conclusion of his direct testimony.
“You may say I am a dreamer, but I’m not the only one,” Moens said, quoting the “Imagine” lyrics before comparing Trump to Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr.
“He’s a dreamer for sure. If you have a dream and are a great American, I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Moens said of Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago estate he praised as “something breathtaking” and “amazing to see.”
Moens’ cellphone went off during his testimony, and he briefly interrupted his direct examination to answer a call.
“I’ll call you right back … love you,” Moens said in a quiet tone as Judge Engoron watched in disbelief.
Moen apologized to the judge, explaining that the call was from his elderly father.
Court was adjourned for the day after Moens stepped off the witness stand.
Dec 05, 4:45 PM EST
Mar-a-Lago valuation expert is also Mar-a-Lago member
During a short cross-examination of the defense’s real estate valuation expert, Lawrence Moens, state attorney Kevin Wallace attempted to highlight flaws in Moens’ analysis that valued Mar-a-Lago at $1.2 billion in 2021.
Wallace noted that Moens’ analysis added over $100 million in membership dues to the value of the property, while Trump’s own statements of financial conduction didn’t include the membership fees since they’re refundable.
“Some get paid back, and some are nonrefundable,” Moens said in response. “I don’t know what their methodology is in those numbers.”
Wallace also asked if Moens had a membership in the club he had been paid to value.
“Are you a member at the club?” Wallace asked.
“I am,” Moens said, adding that he joined in 1995 or 1996.
“I don’t go too often. I don’t like clubs,” he said.
Moens described his process for valuing properties as comparable to a baker making a cake by taste, rather than a recipe. By his own admission, the process was not replicable or scientific.
“You’re not running a process that is recreatable … is that fair?” Wallace asked.
“That’s fair,” Moens said.
Like during his direct examination, Moens appeared confident and playful on the stand, even taking a job at the profession of a colleague mentioned in an email.
“I think he is still a liar — I mean a lawyer,” Moens said. “Sorry, I apologize, it was really low.”
Dec 05, 3:51 PM EST
Eric Trump will not be called as defense witness
Defense attorney Clifford Robert said the defense team was able to “streamline” their case and cut Eric Trump from their witness list.
After being called to the stand by the state last month, Eric Trump had been scheduled to testify for the defense on Wednesday, but now he will not appear.
Trump lawyer Chris Kise also requested that Judge Engoron postpone Donald Trump’s testimony until the New York Court of Appeals rules on Trump’s appeal of the case’s gag order.
“He is not capable of fully testifying because he is subject to the gag order,” Kise said.
Engoron flatly denied the request to delay Trump’s testimony, which is scheduled for Monday.
“Absolutely not. No way, no how. It’s a nonstarter,” Engoron said. “If he is going to testify, it’ll be Monday, and that’s that.”
Dec 05, 3:03 PM EST
Defense expert says Mar-a-Lago was worth $1.2 billion
Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club was worth more than $1.2 billion in 2021 — roughly double the value listed in Trump’s statement of financial condition — according to defense expert Lawrence Moens.
Describing Mar-a-Lago as a castle nestled on 17.6 acres of waterfront property, Moens said he determined the value by considering nearby properties and adding the total value of the club’s 500 memberships, which in 2021 cost $350,000 each.
Between 2011 and 2021, Moens’ analysis found that Trump undervalued Mar-a-Lago in his statements of financial condition — but his analysis appeared to be based on Trump being able to sell the property to an individual to use it as a private residence, which the New York attorney general says Trump is prohibited from doing based on a 2002 deed he signed that would “forever extinguish their right to develop or use the Property for any purpose other than club use.”
Judge Engoron only qualified Moens as an expert on the value of residential real estate.
Moens spoke with confidence about his ability to value real estate in Palm Beach, saying that he has sold billions of dollars of real estate since his first sale as a broker in 1982. Asked if any broker has sold more Palm Beach real estate than he has, Moens replied, “They don’t exist.”
“I am on the front lines everyday of selling properties, and I have a pretty good handle of what is going on currently in the market,” Moens said.
He later added, “My numbers are usually right.”
Moens also put together a seven-minute promotional video about Mar-a-Lago, which was played during his testimony. Set to relaxing music, the video included high-resolution drone shots and dramatic panning shots of the property’s amenities. After the video played, Moens highlighted details such as hand-carved stones, gold decorations that cost millions to construct, and other details that required years of work from tradesmen.
“I invited the attorney general’s office to come see it anytime. The offer still stands,” Moens said. “I will make sure he is not there when you come,” he said of Trump.
Engoron appeared attentive to Moen’s testimony — but once Moens left the courtroom, he indicated that he wasn’t as concerned about Mar-a-Lago’s specific value as he was about whether it was misrepresented.
“I see this case about the documents — whether the defendants used false documents when transacting business,” Engoron said. “I am not trying to figure out what the value is … I don’t necessarily consider it relevant.”
Dec 05, 12:31 PM EST
Mar-a-Lago would be residence if club was abandoned, expert says
Defense expert John Shubin attempted to explain that a 1993 agreement preserved Donald Trump’s right to sell his Mar-a-Lago social club as a private residence.
The testimony came after Judge Engoron prevented Shubin from sharing his own conclusion about whether Mar-a-Lago was a residence, leading Shubin to read into the record several documents involving the issue.
Shubin suggested that a 1993 agreement between Trump and the town of Palm Beach included a provision that Trump’s property would revert from a social club to Trump’s private residence if the club was ever abandoned, despite Trump’s 2002 deed restricting the property’s use to a social club.
Shubin also read into the record documents related to a 2021 Town of Palm Beach town meeting concerning whether Trump could continue to live at Mar-a-Lago as his residence.
“In sum, it is argued that Mar-a-Lago is either a private residence or a club, but cannot be both,” Palm Beach Town Attorney John C. Randolph wrote in a report read by Shubin.
“If he is a bona fide employee of the Club, absent a specific restriction prohibiting former President Trump from residing at the club, it appears the Zoning Code permits him to reside at the Club,” Randolph’s report concluded.
According to Shubin, no action was taken by the town after the meeting, suggesting Town officials concluded that Trump had the right to use the club as a residence.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused Trump of valuing the property as a residence worth upwards of half a billion dollars in Trump’s financial statements, while treating it as social club worth between $18 million and $28 million for tax purposes.
Dec 05, 11:03 AM EST
‘No prohibition’ on using Mar-a-Lago as residence, expert says
Introduced as an expert on land use, planning, entitlements and zoning, a witness for the defense immediately pushed back on New York Attorney General Letitia James’ chief argument that Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property was restricted to use as a social club — a claim that Judge Engoron called the “ultimate issue on Mar-a-Lago.”
“There is absolutely no prohibition on the use of Mar-a-Lago as a single-family residence,” said defense witness John Shubin.
Engoron barred Shubin from testifying about legal conclusions and immediately sustained an objection from the state regarding the testimony.
“It absolutely is a legal conclusion,” Engoron said, prompting defense lawyer Clifford Robert to unsuccessfully try to rephrase his question.
“Why don’t we just look through the documents and run backwards?” defense lawyer Chris Kise suggested.
Shubin’s testimony runs contrary to evidence presented by state lawyers that Trump signed a 2002 deed that surrendered his right to develop the property “for any purpose other than club use.”
Dec 05, 9:36 AM EST
Defense focusing on value of Mar-a-Lago
Donald Trump’s lawyers plan to call two experts, Lawrence Moens and John Shubin, to testify on Trump’s valuation of his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida.
Moens is a well-known real estate broker in Palm Beach, and Shubin is an expert on deeds and land restrictions.
The value of the property has been bitterly contested by Trump’s lawyers since the start of the trial, after Judge Arthur Engoron, in his pretrial partial summary judgment determined that Trump overvalued the property by at least 2,300%. When Trump testified in the trial in November, he repeatedly lashed out at Engoron for what he called a “crazy” assessment of the property.
“He said in his statement that Mar-a-Lago is worth $18 million and it’s worth 50 times to 100 times more than that, and everybody knows it. And everybody is watching this case. He called me a fraud and he didn’t know anything about me,” Trump said on the stand.
According to evidence shown at trial, Trump agreed in a 2002 deed to “forever extinguish [his] right to develop or use the Property for any purpose other than club use.” While Trump Organization executives were aware of the limited use of the property, they allegedly valued the property as a residence in Trump’s financial statements while treating it as a social club for tax purposes, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James.
In Trump’s statements of financial condition, he valued the property between $426 million and $612 million, despite a local tax assessor appraising the market value of the property between $18 and $27 million. Engoron, in his summary judgment ruling, wrote that James had proven that Trump was liable for a false valuation of the property.
Trump has repeatedly argued that Engoron misunderstood the purpose of a tax assessment, going as far as to call Engoron’s finding “fraud.”
“Are you paying taxes on an $18 million valuation of Mar-a-Lago or $1.5 billion?” state attorney Kevin Wallace asked Trump during his direct examination.
“You know that assessments are totally different from the valuation of property,” Trump responded.
(TUSCALOOSA, Ala.) — Four Republican presidential candidates will face off in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Wednesday for the fourth debate of the 2024 primary.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will all appear on stage together for the last time before next month’s Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
Former President Donald Trump, the heavyweight in the primary polls, will again skip the debate, this time hosting a fundraiser for his campaign.
Here are five things to watch on Wednesday:
Will a smaller stage make a difference?
Wednesday’s four-person stage will be the smallest yet, after past debate participants like former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum suspended their campaigns.
The most recent debate, last month, which featured Wednesday’s four as well as Scott, featured longer answers on policy and noticeably less arguing and crosstalk, though the event was still interrupted by clashes between some of the contenders, especially Ramaswamy. The focus on policy, which allows candidates more time to make their pitches to the public, could be even greater with a smaller field.
Still, it’s far from certain if voters’ opinions will change in the final weeks before the primary begins: So far this year, Trump has maintained his double-digit lead even since he started skipping the debates, over the objections of his rivals.
The former president held counter-programming events to all three debates before Wednesday and does not appear to have paid a price for it in the eyes of the GOP base.
What will the big policy topics of the night be?
The Israel-Hamas war is anticipated to again be a major topic of the night after a cease-fire and hostage exchange deal fell apart and fighting resumed in Gaza, now nearly two months since Hamas’ terror attack..
All of the candidates on stage Wednesday have voiced support for Israel, though Ramaswamy in the past has suggested ultimately curtailing the support Washington offers Jerusalem.
The debate also comes as Congress is still working to pass a sprawling bill proposed by the Biden administration that would provide funding for Israel, Ukraine, allies in the Indo-Pacific and beefed-up resources on the southern border.
The candidates are likely to be asked about health care, too, after Trump last week floated repealing the Affordable Care Act, an erstwhile Republican priority that the GOP largely forsook after multiple failed efforts to repeal the law, also known as Obamacare.
The remarks from the primary front-runner could spotlight how other candidates view the country’s health care system.
“Here’s what I will do: What I think they’re going to need to do is have a plan that will supersede Obamacare, that will lower prices for people so that they can afford health care while also making sure that people will preexisting conditions are protected. And we’re going to look at the big institutions that are causing prices to be high: Big Pharma, big insurance and big government,” DeSantis said Sunday on Meet the Press.
Do DeSantis and Haley target each other or Trump?
Haley has surged into a battle for distant second place with DeSantis in the wake of three straight debate performances that all polled well, though both she and DeSantis remain far behind Trump in most surveys.
The two have traded barbs in recent weeks as DeSantis has faced stagnating poll numbers and key turnover at the main super PAC supporting his campaign.
Still, it’s unclear if the two will aim more at each other on Wednesday to try to cement their hold on second place in the hopes of emerging as the chief Trump alternative or target Trump more directly to try and narrow the polling deficit both face.
DeSantis has called out Trump more directly, including over his absence from the past debates, while Haley has more obliquely referenced the “drama” of the Trump administration in which she served.
Christie squeaks in
Christie appears to have been the final candidate to qualify for the fourth debate, narrowly meeting the polling threshold with a last-minute survey that went into the field just before the Republican National Committee’s deadline.
The New Jersey Republican’s explicitly anti-Trump message is a stark difference from the other candidates and is thought to be likely resulting in a lower ceiling of support among the GOP primary electorate, with whom he has polled relatively poorly except in New Hampshire.
Christie is largely hinging his campaign on a strong showing in the primary there, with a group of voters who famously see themselves as more independent-minded.
Still, Haley has passed him, prompting calls from Republicans for him to drop out to try to consolidate support in the state, which holds its primary right before South Carolina, Haley’s home state.
Ramaswamy could reprise role as disruptor
On the debate stage so far, Ramaswamy has said he has embraced his role as a provocateur, calling out candidates and moderators alike — and often drawing sharp criticism as a result.
Clashes with Ramaswamy became personal at the last debate, when Haley accused him of being “scum” after he raised her daughter’s past use of TikTok.
Still, his disruptive style has failed to produce an ongoing level of voter support despite also ramping up his campaign infrastructure in Iowa.
(NEW YORK) — A man has been sentenced to four years in prison after a 6-minute video that his 9-year-old child took of him beating and injuring his wife emerged, authorities said.
Miguel Lazaro-Castillo was sentenced to the maximum term allowed on his charges of four years in prison last Friday by Yuba County Judge Julia Scrogin after pleading no contest in October to charges of felony domestic violence, false imprisonment and misdemeanor child abuse, according to the Yuba County District Attorney’s Office, located north of the state capital of Sacramento.
Lazaro-Castillo’s sentencing stemmed from an incident that took place on Oct. 9 shortly before 2 a.m. when the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department received a 911 call from one of Lazaro-Castillo’s children.
“When deputies arrived six minutes later, they located Lazaro-Castillo’s wife lying face-down on the floor, surrounded by bloody napkins. Lazaro-Castillo was sitting on top of her, and their three minor children, ages 15, 14, and 9, were also present,” said the Yuba County District Attorney’s Office.
Lazaro-Castillo initially denied striking his wife and claimed he had no idea where all the blood had come from when police arrived on scene.
However, it didn’t take long for deputies to discover that his youngest child had actually filmed the attack in a video that lasted over six minutes.
“Deputies discovered that the youngest of the children had videotaped the beating,” said the district attorney’s office. “The video lasted over six minutes and showed Lazaro-Castillo repeatedly hitting his wife in the head and face. One of the children tried to protect her mother, shielding her with her hands. Lazaro-Castillo slapped the child on the leg and continued assaulting his wife. Lazaro-Castillo turned his wife onto her stomach and forced her face down into the carpet for an extended amount of time.”
Lazaro-Castillo, his wife and one of the minor children were intoxicated at the time of the incident, according to the district attorney’s office.
Yuba County Sheriff’s Deputy Bonifacio Paredes placed the children into protective custody and arrested Lazaro-Castillo at the time of the incident.
“Despite Lazaro-Castillo not having a prior criminal record, he received the maximum sentence for felony domestic violence based on the brutality of his actions and his utter disregard for his children,” the district attorney’s office said.
“Thank you to Deputies Paredes, Manion, and Jones, for you work to keep the victim and children safe,” the district attorney’s office continued. “Thank you to Yuba County Chief Deputy Shiloh Sorbello for prosecuting this case to the full extent of the law.
(NEW YORK) — A 28-year-old New York City man has been indicted on hate crime charges stemming from an October antisemitic attack on a 23-year-old Israeli tourist in Times Square, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Yehia Amin was indicted by a New York State Supreme Court grand jury on charges of stalking in the first degree as a hate crime, assault in the third degree as a hate crime and stalking in the third degree as a hate crime, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. Amin was also indicted on one count of aggravated harassment in the second degree, Bragg said.
The attack unfolded around 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 18 as the victim and four friends were walking through Times Square wearing kippahs or traditional Jewish yarmulke when they encountered Amin, Bragg said.
“As alleged, Yehia Amin taunted and punched a tourist after stalking his friends and going on a vile antisemitic tirade that spanned several minutes,” Bragg said in a statement. “Violence stemming from hate and discrimination will not be tolerated in Manhattan. We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to hold those that cause harm accountable to ensure Manhattan is a safe place for everyone.”
The assault occurred about 12 days after Hamas terrorists launched a surprise attack on Israel, indiscriminately killing more than 1,200 people and taking more than 240 people hostage, according to the Israeli government. Israel responded to the attack with a bombing campaign and ground operation in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 16,200 people, according to figures released by Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health and the Hamas government media office.
Bragg said that when Amin crossed paths with the victim and his friends, the suspect allegedly recognized they were Jewish, apparently because of the kippahs they were wearing.
The suspect allegedly followed the group for several blocks, using his Bluetooth speaker to play music he later described as “Hamas music,” according to Bragg’s statement.
During the confrontation, Amin is accused of making antisemitic and anti-Israeli remarks to the victim and his friends, allegedly telling them, “Hamas should kill more of you” and “All Jews should die,” according to the district attorney’s office.
The victim and his friends tried to report the harassment to a security guard in Times Square, prosecutors said. As they continued walking to a nearby train station, Amin allegedly followed them and taunted them with threats and more antisemitic remarks, according to the district attorney’s office.
After harassing the victim and his friends for over 10 minutes, Amin allegedly sprinted up behind the victim and punched him in the back of the head, causing redness, swelling and substantial pain, according to Bragg’s statement.
Amin allegedly tried to flee the scene, but the victim and his friends followed him and flagged down a police officer who caught up to Amin and arrested him.
Even after being taken into custody, Amin allegedly continued to yell, “I will die for Gaza” and “God kill all the Israelis,” according to the district attorney’s statement.
Amin could not be reached Tuesday for comment. It was unclear if he had hired an attorney.
Reports of anti-Jewish incidents have been on the rise amid the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas, including in New York City, new data shows. The total number of bias crimes investigated by the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force increased by 124% (from 45 to 101) in October, led by a 214% spike in anti-Jewish incidents (from 22 to 69), the NYPD said on Nov. 9.
Nationwide, the Anti-Defamation League said it has recorded a “significant spike in antisemitic incidents” since Oct. 7. According to preliminary data from the ADL Center on Extremism, 312 incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault were recorded from Oct. 7 to Oct. 23 — a 388% increase over the same period last year.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, said last month that from Oct. 7 to Nov. 4, its national headquarters and chapters had received 1,283 requests for help and reports of bias. In an average 29-day period in 2022, it said it received 406 such complaints.
(NEW YORK) — In the long-running debate on whether a meat-free or meat-filled diet promotes better health, a new study is giving weight to the benefits of a meat-free diet.
Researchers at Stanford University examined the health of 22 sets of identical twin adults to see how they fared when one twin ate a vegan, or animal product-free diet, while the other twin ate an omnivorous, or animal- and plant-filled diet over two months.
The study, published Nov. 30 in the journal JAMA Network Open, looked specifically at the twins’ cardiovascular health, including cholesterol levels, sugar levels, insulin levels and body weight.
After eight weeks following their respective diets, the twin siblings who ate a vegan diet had lost more weight, reduced their LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, and experienced lower insulin levels, according to the study’s findings.
“The findings from this trial suggest that a healthy plant-based diet offers a significant protective cardiometabolic advantage compared with a healthy omnivorous diet,” the study’s authors wrote.
The study’s findings build on previous research showing that plant-based diets are better than non-plant-based diets when it comes to cardiovascular health.
A study published last year found that eating a plant-based diet can add years to your life. For that study, researchers in Norway used computer models to compare a typical Western diet — heavy on animal-based proteins, dairy and sugar — with a more ideal plant-based diet that’s heavy on fruits, vegetables, beans and grains, and light on animal-based proteins.
According to the computer models, a 20-year-old who went all in on the plant-based diet could add 10 years to their life. An 80-year-old who started a plant-based diet could add three years to their life expectancy, according to the study, published in February 2022 in PLOS Medicine.
What makes the Stanford study different is its use of twins who have the same genetic makeup and contributing environmental factors, according to the study’s authors.
“Because identical twins have nearly identical DNA and many shared experiences (eg, upbringing, geographic region growing up, and similar exposure to other variables), observed differences in health outcomes after adoption of different dietary patterns can largely be attributed to the diet itself,” the authors wrote.
A plant-based diet is a way of eating that consists mostly or entirely of foods derived from plants, including vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and fruits.
Plant-based diets typically consist of eating few to no animal foods and are different from vegan diets, which eliminate all animal foods and products, and vegetarian diets, which eliminate all meat, fish and poultry.
Plant-based diets also often emphasize whole foods.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Police in Texas said they were investigating possible connections between a series of shootings in Austin and a fatal shooting near San Antonio that left six dead in total and injured several others on Tuesday.
A suspect in his 30s was booked into the Travis County Jail and charged with capital murder on Tuesday night, the Austin Police Department said. His name has not been released. Additional charges are pending, officials said.
Austin officers said they were investigating whether the suspect had been involved in multiple shootings throughout the city that left four dead and three injured on Tuesday. Two of the injured were police officers, law enforcement said.
Law enforcement officials in Bexar County also said they were also investigating whether another shooting that left two dead in a “grisly” crime scene near San Antonio was connected.
The series of shootings in Austin began at about 10:43 a.m. on Tuesday, when a resource officer was shot and injured near Northeast Early College High School, the Austin Police Department said.
About two hours later, a man and a woman were fatally shot near Shadywood Drive on Austin’s south side, police said.
Officers then responded to a possible burglary just before 6 p.m. on Tuesday near the 5300 block of Austral Loop. Police and the suspect fired at each other, and one of the responding officers was hit multiple times, police said. The officer was later transferred to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
The suspect then allegedly led officers in a high-speed pursuit that ended in a crash of the vehicle the suspect was driving, police said. The man was arrested with a firearm in his possession, police said.
While the pursuit was in progress, officers went inside the residence that was allegedly burglarized on Austral Loop and discovered two people dead from fatal gunshot wounds, officials said.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said that he was contacted by Austin police officers on Tuesday evening and was told that the suspect in custody for the Austin shootings had a connection to a residence in San Antonio.
When deputies arrived at that residence, they forced entry and found two additional people, believed to be in either their 40s or 50s, with fatal gunshot wounds, police said. The bodies were wedged inside a very small room and officials described the scene as “grisly.”
The sheriff said it wasn’t yet clear if the suspect had any connection to the people found dead in the house. He said officials believed the killings near San Antonio happened first and then the suspect went to Austin.
(NEW YORK) — Two students have been arrested for allegedly supplying THC edibles and psilocybin mushrooms that sent at least seven students to the hospital for observation when they all ingested the drugs during the school day, police said.
Last Friday, at approximately 12:33 p.m., Cabarrus County Schools contacted the Concord Police Department after a number of students at C.C. Griffin Middle School — located some 20 miles northeast of Charlotte, North Carolina — had what police say were “negative reactions to ingesting an unknown substance,” according to a statement from the Concord Police Department describing the incident.
“Police investigators recovered a sample of the rice krispy treat eaten by students, and it tested positive for THC,” police said. “The sample has been sent to a lab for additional testing, and it will likely take several months before those results are returned. Police also recovered illegal psilocybin mushrooms.”
In total, seven students were taken to Atrium Health Cabarrus for observation after ingesting the drugs, police said.
“Working with the school system, police investigators interviewed several students and learned that this was a planned activity,” according to the Concord Police Department. “Two students shared with classmates that they had access to THC edibles, and in advance of Friday, some students made an agreement to buy some of those edibles.”
As a result, the THC edibles were brought to school on Friday and shared among a group of students, some of whom also admitted to ingesting psilocybin mushrooms, before several of them had negative reactions to ingesting the illegal substances, police said.
“The investigation also revealed that students knowingly ingested the edibles,” authorities said. “All the students who ate a piece of the rice krispy treat and who spoke with police admitted to knowing that they were eating a THC edible.”
The Concord Police Department subsequently filed petitions through the North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice for the two students who brought the edibles to school so that they could be held responsible for the incident.
“One student is being charged with two counts of possession with intent to deliver a Schedule VI drug,” said the Concord Police Department. “One student is being charged with one count of possession with intent to deliver a Schedule I drug.”
The Concord Police Department is continuing to investigate this incident, including the original source of the THC edibles and psilocybin mushrooms, and their investigation is currently ongoing.
(NEW YORK) — A teacher has been arrested after allegedly knocking out a 12-year-old student’s tooth with his elbow and throwing a basketball at him in a fit of rage, police say.
The alleged assault took place at the Putnam Academy of Arts and Science School in Palatka, Florida — some 60 miles south of Jacksonville and 100 miles north of Orlando — sometime during the school day on Monday, according to a statement from the Palatka Police Department in the aftermath of the incident.
Police first learned about the alleged assault at approximately 4:20 p.m. on Monday when they were called to a residence on Belmont Drive in reference to a report of battery which took place at the school earlier in the day.
“When the officers arrived, they made contact with [the boy’s mother]. [She] informed the officers her 12-year-old son had been struck earlier in the day by a teacher identified as James Bellamy,” the Palatka Police Department said in their statement. “[She] had been shown a video of her son and Bellamy playing basketball. The video showed Bellamy throwing the ball at her son and then later elbowing him in the mouth which knocked the child’s tooth out.”
Officers subsequently talked with the 12-year-old boy who was able to confirm to them what his mother had said and said that “Bellamy had gotten angry at him because Bellamy believed he had intentionally struck his arm or head while they were playing,” according to authorities.
“The child told Officers Bellamy called him back out onto the court and then threw the ball at him, but he was able to duck and not get hit by it,” the statement continued. “The child said he and Bellamy then started playing and then Bellamy struck him in the face with his elbow which knocked his tooth out.”
Authorities subsequently relocated to a residence on Napoleon Street where they made contact with Bellamy, who was advised of his rights and questioned by the Palatka Police Department about the incident.
“Bellamy informed the officers he was playing basketball with some students. He said the victim had hit him while playing so he called him back out onto the court. He said he threw the ball at the victim but when his elbow hit the child it was not intentional,” read the Palatka Police Department statement.
Bellamy was then placed under arrest for child abuse and battery and booked into the Putnam County Jail and is currently being held on no bond.
No court date has been announced yet and the investigation into the alleged assault is currently ongoing.
