(NEW YORK) — A Montana judge permanently struck down a law making it more difficult for transgender people to change their sex on their birth certificate and held the state health department in contempt for disregarding court orders.
The 2021 bill — which was signed into law at the time by Gov. Greg Gianforte — required a transgender person to have gender-confirmation surgery and a court order before their sex could be changed on their birth certificate by the Montana Department of Health and Human Services.
Prior to the law, residents were allowed to amend the sex designation of their birth certificate either by submitting a gender-designation form confirming their gender transition, a government ID with the correct sex designation or a court order indicating the change.
In the Monday order, 13th Judicial District Court Judge Michael Moses wrote that the law was permanently enjoined because it is unconstitutional and the health department showed a “flagrant disregard” after previous orders temporarily banned the law.
In April 2022, the judicial court issued an order preliminarily enjoining the law and instructed the state to return to the previous rule for changing sex designation.
“Defendants, instead, engaged in temporary rulemaking and promulgated a temporary rule whereby DPHHS removed the procedure for changing the sex designation of birth certificates altogether,” Moses wrote.
Although the state eventually did drop the change, they took the case to the Montana Supreme Court, which agreed with the lower court’s decision and said the state had to go back to the previous rule.
Despite the state Supreme Court’s order, DPHHS stopped providing a method for people to change the sex designation on birth certificates.
Although the state had new counsel representing it at a hearing last month, Moses said the lawyers were unable to provide an explanation for why Montana continued to disobey court orders.
“The state here did not act in good faith or in accordance with constitutional and statutory mandates,” Moses wrote. “This court determined that it was in contempt of court for a significant portion of this litigation.”
He continued, “Weighing the equities, this is not a garden variety case. The defendants spent considerable time and effort defending a statute that they knew was unconstitutional. They ignored orders from this court and an order from the Supreme Court.”
Moses ordered the state to pay plaintiffs “reasonable” attorney fees and costs related to the contempt of court action between January 2023 and June 2023.
(NEW YORK) — Amid much back-and-forth between Starbucks and some of its workers who claim the company stopped Pride decorations from being displayed in some locations, some union employees have gone on strike to try to send a louder message.
Starbucks Workers United (SWU) announced in a press release Monday, sent to ABC News, that baristas from over 150 stores in the U.S. will strike through June 30 to demand a “fair contract and respect for LGBTQIA+ workers.”
The union campaign kicked off its nationwide week of action on Friday at Starbucks’ flagship roastery in Seattle, Washington on the heels of reports that some Starbucks stores were allegedly removing or banning the use of Pride decor, which Starbucks has vehemently denied.
A representative for Starbucks media relations confirmed to ABC News’ Good Morning America on Monday that “a subset of partners at the Seattle Roastery were the first to walk off the job on Thursday evening, an hour before close. The Roastery has been able to stay open through the weekend, though some partners remained on strike through the weekend.”
In addition to what the union representatives hailed a “successful shutdown” of the Seattle operations, the group said its workers “disrupted operations at dozens of stores” closing nearly 40 over the weekend.
“We have seen an average of 12 stores impacted by strike activity per day, at this time,” Starbucks told GMA. “That scope is currently reflected by operator reports today, as well.”
The representative told GMA that strike activity has been “limited to stores represented by Workers United, and at those stores where partners have petitioned for union representation.”
According to the SWU press release, “over 150 stores that represent 3,500 workers” have gone on strike since Friday.
“Workers United continues to spread false information about our benefits, policies and negotiation efforts — a tactic used to seemingly divide our partners and deflect from their failure to respond to bargaining sessions for more than 200 stores,” Starbucks told GMA.
Moe Mills, a shift supervisor who identifies as non-binary and has worked at Starbucks in Richmond Heights outside St. Louis, Missouri for over three years, spoke to GMA Monday via telephone while outside the storefront on strike.
“The whole point of this strike is to let [Starbucks] know that they can’t cancel Pride,” they said. “We take pride in ourselves and our partners and we take pride in our union.”
Mills continued, “we as the partners, and specifically of the union partners, are what makes Starbucks what it is and we want people to know what Starbucks isn’t — that’s what strike with Pride is about.”
On the morning of June 13, 2023, SWU put out a now-viral Twitter thread stating that Starbucks was banning Pride decorations in stores across the U.S.
Two representatives for Starbucks corporate media relations team immediately retorted what they characterized as the union group’s “false assertion,” telling ABC News in a phone interview and written emailed statement that the company is “deeply concerned by false information that is being spread especially as it relates to our inclusive store environments, our company culture, and the benefits we offer our partners.”
“We unwaveringly support the LGBTQIA2+ community. There has been no change to any policy on this matter and we continue to encourage our store leaders to celebrate with their communities including for U.S. Pride month in June,” the company stated. “For Starbucks, U.S. Pride Month in June is just one of the moments we support and celebrate our LGBTQIA2+ partners and the community, and it’s our own partners who inform the commitments and actions we have continued to take for more than four decades.”
“Starbucks has a history that includes more than four decades of recognizing and celebrating our diverse partners and customers – including year-round support for the LGBTQIA2+ community,” the statement concluded.
Later that same evening, SWU released an official response to the coffee company’s earlier statement about Starbucks’ decoration policies.
GMA obtained an internal memo with the subject, “Pride decorations in stores” sent by Starbucks SVP of Talent & Inclusion, Mark Brown on June 13, that reiterated the company’s longstanding guidelines and support for the LGBTQIA2+ community.
“There has been no change to any guidance on this matter. Our retail leaders continue to work with store teams to find ways to authentically celebrate year-round with their communities. This includes how stores decorate for heritage months, including U.S. Pride month in June – keeping in our mind our safety standards, Siren’s Eye guidance, and retail dress code,” the memo stated.
Jack Savin, a shift supervisor who has worked at the State Street Starbucks location in Madison, Wisconsin for over four years, told GMA that their newly unionized location first attempted to put up Pride decorations in May before a district manager later demanded it be removed.
“As someone who identifies as transgender, what I have observed is absolutely heartbreaking and disappointing,” Savin said. “There was no written notice, nor anything put in writing in regards to taking down our pride decorations. We had put up a pride flag at the beginning of May. The location of it was kind of a centerpiece to our community board, which is an area all Starbucks [stores] have. We continued to put up decorations around our store after the first of June, including some rainbow lights in a corner of our cafe, and put up some streamers in a rainbow pattern.”
Savin told GMA their store’s District Manager “came in” on Sunday, June 11 and “told us to take down our decorations.”
Savin said the manager’s reasoning was as follows: “We can’t decorate for pride because it might be offensive and we want to be ‘welcoming for everyone’; that decor for pride or Christmas isn’t ‘welcoming.'”
“I have never heard this reasoning before and [it] completely goes against what Starbucks has said they stand for in the past,” Savin said. “We have been able to decorate before. Us as employees have been able to symbolize and celebrate our queer identities before. So this is not only heartbreaking and disappointing, but also contradictory and weird.”
Savin shared this information with the store’s union representative immediately as more reps across the country and the SWU reported more claims on Twitter about issues with pride decorations in other states.
“Today we’re out here standing in solidarity with other stores who have had horrible experiences with store managers and district managers just ripping down their pride displays,” Mills said.
They added that their store manager, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons, wanted “to celebrate his queer employees and put up a Pride display,” that has remained up, which Mills said “was kind of a workaround” because the manager “used very specific Starbucks language and made a Starbucks-themed Pride display. It’s like a very small sign. And that’s the most that we could do safely.”
Alyssa Bingham, a shift supervisor who works with Mills and is currently on strike outside the same location, told GMA on the phone that this is their store’s third strike.
“I think Starbucks’ plan was to wait us out and that hasn’t worked, we have just gained support and power,” she said.
“We managed to close our store completely. They have not reopened at all and that feels wonderful,” Bingham said. “We have a lot of supportive customers. We have music going and it’s a party. It’s a celebration of really our only piece that we have to play in this game, which is our labor and we will spend it as we choose.”
Their colleague Max Yusen, a barista at the same location, told GMA that Monday would probably be “their only day on strike” due to the wave rollout across the country.
“The energy has been really positive and fun,” he said of their first strike that their cafe has been “fully shut down the entire time,” adding that they “don’t really have to worry about managers scabbing or borrowed workers from other stores coming in to work or customers crossing the picket line.”
When GMA attempted to call the location closed due to the workers’ strike, the phone line rang until a recorded message played, asking for a remote access code, before the call ended.
In addition to picket lines, workers protested Starbucks by marching in pride parades across the country, including New York City where they marched alongside the Starbucks corporate float.
“We are striking with pride because it is important for Starbucks to remember that the LGBTQIA+ community makes up a large part of their workforce and happens to a majority of those leading union efforts nationwide,” Jackie Zhou, a New York City-based employee of five years, said in a statement. “On top of this, we are striking for a contract which encompasses protections not only for the LGBTQ+ community but for everyone.”
Starbucks said in its statement Monday: “We apologize to our customers who may experience an inconvenience at these locations and encourage customers to find any of our more than 9,000 stores open nearby.”
CEO Laxman Narasimhan sent a letter to Starbucks Partners on June 23, obtained by GMA, to make clear the company’s support of the LGBTQIA2+ community.
“Despite today’s public commentary, there has been no change to any of our policies as it relates to our inclusive store environments, our company culture, and the benefits we offer our partners,” he stated in the letter. “As Sara Trilling and I recently stated, we continue to encourage our store leaders to celebrate with their communities including for U.S. Pride month in June, as we always have. We must ALL have the same vision for how all people, including LGBTQIA2+ people, should be treated – with respect, support and allyship, because belonging is a core value.”
He continued, “As such, we strongly disapprove of any person or group, seeking to use our partners’ cultural and heritage celebrations to create harm or flagrantly advance misinformation for self-interested-goals.”
As a follow up to that note, EVP and U.S. president Sara Trilling sent a memo titled “Reaffirming Our Commitment to Inclusivity” to U.S. Starbucks partners late Monday night to further clarify the company’s “current guidelines around visual displays and decorations.”
“We intend to issue clearer centralized guidelines, and leveraging resources like the Period Planning Kit (PPK) and Siren’s Eye, for in-store visual displays and decorations that will continue to represent inclusivity and our brand,” she said, referencing their CEO’s previous letter to employees that “there has been no change to any of our policies as it relates to our inclusive store environments, our company culture, and the benefits we offer our partners.”
This issue for Starbucks comes as other companies have come under fire for support of LGBTQ issues. Target recently faced criticism from artists involved in its Pride month products after it made the decision to remove Pride products following a boycott when anti-LGBTQ backlash nationwide boiled over, including employee harassment and bomb threats at stores in Utah, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
In a statement last month, Target said it removed some products from this year’s Pride collection because the company “experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work.”
“Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year,” the company said in the statement.
(LONDON) — Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has announced that Wagner Mercenary Group is to continue its operations in Africa and its troops are set to remain in place following the aborted armed mutiny by Wagner mercenary fighters in Russia on Saturday.
Speaking in an interview with Russia Today, Lavrov said that the rebellion led by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin would not alter the group’s presence in Africa, saying “the work will continue.”
“In addition to relations with this PMC (Wagner), the governments of Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali have official contacts with our leadership,” said Lavrov. “At their request, several hundred soldiers are working in CAR as instructors. This work will continue.”
With the dramatic mutiny over and the Kremlin sending Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to Belarus, the events raised questions for Wagner’s continued presence in Africa. The United States estimates that the paramilitary group is estimated to have some 5,000 members stationed across the continent, most of whom are currently stationed in Mali and the CAR.
“Around November 2017, some contractors affiliated with Wagner Group arrived in Sudan,” John Lechner, researcher, author and Wagner expert tells ABC News.
In early 2018, companies affiliated with Wagner began arriving in the Central African Republic, and their presence has become more and more intertwined with the political and military orbit of the West African nations.
Filling the void left by France’s military withdrawal, Mali and the CAR have turned to Russia as a strategic partner, with Wagner mercenaries aiding alongside military support in their fight against Islamist militants in the Sahel.
“We are not going to continue to justify our choice of partners,” said Mali’s foreign minister, Abdoulaye Diop. “This decision is a decision of the Malians and a decision that is taken with full responsibility. And Mali wants to work with Russia.”
However, Wagner’s operations in Africa have drawn much scrutiny in recent months and their presence has been linked to numerous human rights abuses and the extortion of natural resources. The group has also been designated as a “significant transnational criminal organization” by the U.S. Treasury.
“When the war in Ukraine broke out, and Russia pulled Wagner mercenaries out of the Central African Republic and other countries to support Putin’s invasion, many expected it would mean the end of Wagner prospects in Africa,” Nathalia Dukhan, senior investigator at The Sentry, told ABC News. “Instead, we documented Wagner’s mutation into an even more aggressive, predatory, and deadly monster that has been expanding, gaining an even stronger hold in countries like the CAR and Mali.”
A new report released by Washington-based investigative and policy organization The Sentry finds Wagner personnel have been implicated in “widespread, systematic and well-planned campaigns of mass killing, torture and rape” in the CAR.
“It’s safe to say that no one can really predict what will happen tomorrow or in a few months. The situation is extremely volatile but what we have learned from investigating and analyzing Wagner in Africa over the past five years is that the group is resilient, creative, fearless and predatory so it is less likely that the Wagner empire will instantly fall like a house of cards,” said Dukhan.
Following the aborted mutiny, the State Department took aim at Wagner’s illicit gold dealings in Africa, hitting four Wagner-affiliated companies in the United Arab Emirates, the CAR and Russia with sanctions.
Both the governments of Mali and the CAR have yet to comment on the recent mutiny or how that could affect the group’s future on the continent.
(HOLLIS, N.H.) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made a rare comment on Tuesday about the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol two years ago, which he has previously condemned while suggesting they are over-covered.
During an event in Hollis, New Hampshire, the GOP presidential hopeful was asked by a 15-year-old audience member if he believed that Trump “violated the peaceful transfer of power.”
DeSantis emphasized the electoral danger, as he put it, in “re-litigating things that happened three years ago” before saying, “I wasn’t anywhere near Washington that day. I have nothing to do with what happened that day. Obviously, I didn’t enjoy seeing what happened, but we’ve got to go forward on this stuff.”
“If this election is about [President Joe] Biden’s failures and our vision for the future, we are going to win. If it’s about re-litigating things that happened three years ago, we’re going to lose,” he said, adding, “I can tell you this: I can point you to Tallahassee, Florida, on, I believe, Jan. 5, 2023. We had a peaceful transfer of power from my first administration to my second because I won reelection in a historic fashion. And at the end of the day, you know, we need to win, and we need to get this done.”
“We cannot be looking backwards and be mired in the past,” he said.
In the hours after the insurrection in 2021, which occurred as Congress gathered to certify Biden’s electoral defeat of Donald Trump, DeSantis condemned the “unacceptable” actions of the rioters and said, “The perpetrators must face the full weight of the law.”
“It doesn’t matter what banner you’re flying under — the violence is wrong, the rioting and disorder is wrong,” he later told reporters.
More than 300 people have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees that day, the Department of Justice has said, and more than 100 defendants have been accused of using deadly weapons.
About 140 police were attacked on Jan. 6, according to DOJ.
In 2022, DeSantis reiterated that law-breakers should be held “accountable,” but he mocked continued news coverage of the insurrection, comparing Jan. 6 to “Christmas” for “D.C.-New York media” and suggesting the attention was a way to attack Trump supporters while deflecting from problems plaguing the Biden administration.
“When they try to act like this is something akin to the Sept. 11 attacks, that is an insult to the people who were going into those buildings,” DeSantis said. “And it’s an insult to people when you say it’s an ‘insurrection’ and then, a year later, nobody has been charged with that.” (Multiple people have since been found guilty of seditious conspiracy.)
When reelection opponent Charlie Crist criticized DeSantis for, he claimed, not more forcefully calling out the events of Jan. 6, a spokeswoman for the governor told PolitiFact last year: “Gov. DeSantis stands for law and order. He has always condemned all rioting and unlawful behavior, regardless of any political affiliations.”
In the days after DeSantis’ presidential campaign launch this year, however, he appeared to leave open the possibility of pardoning rioters who have been convicted even though he did not mention any specific Jan. 6 cases by name.
(NEW YORK) — Natasha Jackson faced what she says was pregnancy discrimination 13 years ago. She was three months pregnant with her third child when she was put on leave from her job as an account manager at a local furniture store in Charleston, South Carolina.
Jackson told ABC News that her workplace placed her on a 12-week unpaid Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave because her doctor recommended she avoid lifting anything over 20 pounds, a medical recommendation commonly made to pregnant women. At the end of the unpaid leave, Jackson said she was ready to come back to work but was told she had to wait until the baby was delivered and could come back if her position was still available. She received a letter two months after giving birth telling her she was terminated.
Jackson says she brought a pregnancy discrimination claim against the company, which took two years and she eventually lost in arbitration. She told ABC News she was the primary source of income for her family at the time, and her termination set her and her family on a course toward homelessness.
“It was a downward spiral from there for years. I got a divorce because of the financial strain it put on my marriage,” Jackson told ABC News. “That one day changed the course of my life.”
Jackson eventually used her voice to fight back and help other pregnant women. She shared her story publicly, including in legislative testimony, which led her to advocacy work. It’s because of stories like hers that experts say that this new federal law has come to fruition.
On Tuesday, Jackson was among the women celebrating the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) going into effect. The new law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to workers for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions.
“No postpartum worker will lose her job at a critical time in her growing family’s finances for needing time to recover from childbirth,” Dina Bakst, co-founder and co-president of Better Balance, an organization dedicated to advancing justice for working families in the U.S. said.
“No longer will women nationwide face the impossible choice between maintaining a healthy pregnancy and their economic security,” she added.
Signed by President Joe Biden at the end of 2022, this new federal law will, according to experts, close an existing loophole that has left pregnant and postpartum workers without the legally protected ability to request accommodations.
“The gap that exists means too many women were forced to choose between keeping themselves and their pregnancy healthy or making a paycheck [to] support their families,” Laura Narefsky, counsel at The National Women’s Law Center, one of the organizations that has been working for close to a decade on pushing through this legislation, said.
While the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 prohibited employers from discriminating against workers on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, experts like Narefsky say that it never created a “robust affirmative right to create accommodations to keep working.”
“The problem came when a pregnant worker needed a reasonable accommodation for her pregnancy. Without this law, it required workers to prove that others have gotten similar accommodations; the burden of proof was too large,” Elizabeth Gedmark, vice president at Better Balance, explained.
Examples of reasonable accommodations under PWFA include time off to recover from childbirth, pregnancy loss and postpartum depression; additional breaks to drink water, eat, or use the bathroom; flexible scheduling to attend prenatal or postnatal appointments; light duty or help with manual labor; a transfer away from dangerous chemicals; the ability to work remotely; and new equipment like a stool to sit on or a maternity uniform.
“Now it’s a new day. This law closes those gaps, and we now have additional protections, especially for low-wage workers in physically demanding jobs,” Gedmark added.
This law comes into play at a time when the U.S. has fallen behind its counterparts in women’s labor force participation. According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the percentage of American women participating in the labor market is 69% versus 77% in Canada, 75.1% in the UK, and 75.7% in Germany.
Experts say this is likely due to a combination of the lack of federal parental leave policy and accessible and affordable childcare.
“The U.S. lags behind every other nation as wealthy and as developed as ours, not only for women but for any caregivers. This law is a long overdue step to protect women in the workplace,” Narefsky said.
For Jackson, a law like this would have “meant the world because I saw my job as a career. I saw myself having my own furniture store. If I had this, it would have saved me a lot of trauma and heartache; it would have saved me from financial stress, from having an unhappy pregnancy.”
“Moving forward, my hope is that people let go of their fear. I have people reach out to me all the time, afraid. They are still hiding their pregnancies; they don’t want to tell employers. Use your voice — there is help out there, and there are resources now,” Jackson, who is now a community advocate with Better Balance, said.
(PARIS) — French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin called for “calm” on Wednesday after a night of violent protests over a teenager’s death at the hands of police in a Paris suburb.
“We want to have the whole truth about what happened, while respecting the time of justice,” Darmanin said during a press conference.
A 17-year-old driver was shot and killed by a police officer on Tuesday morning during a traffic check in Nanterre, a suburb of France’s capital. The officer remains detained on suspicion of manslaughter amid an ongoing investigation into the incident, according to the local prosecutor’s office.
France’s Inspectorate General of the National Police, which investigates allegations of police misconduct, is also conducting a probe into the fatal shooting.
Lawyers for the victim’s family identified him as 17-year-old Nael M. and said they intend to file complaints against the officer who fired the lethal shot and another officer who was at the scene. Nael’s mother took to social media calling for people to join her at a march in Nanterre on Thursday, saying: “Please, let’s revolt for my son.”
The teen’s death sparked unrest in the streets of Nanterre and other areas outside Paris on Tuesday night. Protesters clashed with riot police as dozens of vehicles and buildings were set ablaze. While tensions were highest in Nanterre, a town hall was set on fire in Mantes-la-Jolie, about 25 miles northwest.
Overall, 31 people were arrested, 25 police officers were injured and 40 cars were burned, according to Darmanin, who condemned the violence and announced heightened police presence. The interior minister said 1,200 officers were deployed overnight and 2,000 would be in the Paris region and around other big cities on Wednesday to “maintain order.”
Darmanin said video purported to be of the incident circulating online was “extremely shocking” and “apparently not in line with what we want in policing.”
“If the images are confirmed,” he added, “at no time is a gesture like the one we saw justified.”
French President Emmanuel Macron also addressed the teen’s death and ensuing protests, telling reporters on Wednesday that “it takes calm for justice to be done.”:
“I want to express the emotion of the entire nation after what happened and express my solidarity with his family,” Macron said. “Nothing justifies the death of a young person.”
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is now suing the writer who sued him for defamation.
Trump is accusing E. Jean Carroll of defaming him when, after a jury held him liable for sexually assaulting her but not raping her as she initially claimed, Carroll appeared on television and insisted he did rape her.
“In response to that specific inquiry, Counterclaim Defendant disregarded the jury’s finding that Counterclaimant did not rape her, and replied: ‘Oh yes he did, oh yes he did,'” the lawsuit said.
Trump’s counterclaim said Carroll’s statements following her successful battery and defamation lawsuit caused “significant harm to his reputation,” making him deserving of compensatory and punitive damages.
The former president’s lawsuit also took aim at statements Carroll said she made privately to defense attorney Joe Tacopina at the conclusion of the trial.
“Specifically, Counterclaim Defendant stated in the Interview that she emphatically told Mr. Tacopina at the conclusion of the trial that ‘he did it and you know it,’ again reaffirming her claim that Counterclaimant raped her. Counterclaim Defendant made these statements knowing each of them were false or with reckless disregard for their truth or falsity,” Trump’s lawsuit said.
A jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages in May. Trump’s attorney recently put $5.5 million into an account controlled by the court while the defense pursues an appeal of the jury’s verdict and damage award.
In a statement, Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, called Trump’s counterclaim an attempt to delay accountability.
“Donald Trump again argues, contrary to both logic and fact, that he was exonerated by a jury that found that he sexually abused E Jean Carroll by forcibly inserting his fingers into her vagina. Four out of the five statements in Trump’s so-called counterclaim were made outside of New York’s one-year statute of limitations. The other statement similarly will not withstand a motion to dismiss,” Kaplan said.
(NEW YORK) — Millions of Americans are on alert for unhealthy air quality as smoke from wildfires in neighboring Canada drifts to the United States.
Wildfires have burned more than 17.7 million acres across Canada so far this year, with no end in sight. There are nearly 500 active wildfires throughout the country and almost 260 have been deemed out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center. The smoke has been making its way to the U.S. for over a month.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 28, 7:45 AM EDT
Chicago air quality hits ‘very unhealthy’ category
As Canadian wildfire smoke infiltrates the midwestern United States, the air in Chicago has deteriorated to the Air Quality Index’s> “very unhealthy” category.
The AQI in hazy Chicago reached 250 on Tuesday afternoon. Any number over 100 is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups.
“We recommend children, teens, seniors, people with heart or lung disease, and individuals who are pregnant avoid strenuous activities and limit their time outdoors,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson warned in a statement. “For additional precautions, all Chicagoans may also consider wearing masks, limiting their outdoor exposure, moving activities indoors, running air purifiers, and closing windows.”
The smoke is forecast to clear on Friday when showers and thunderstorms hit the region.
Earlier this month, the AQI in the northeastern U.S. reached near maximum with levels in the high 400s.
Jun 28, 7:03 AM EDT
20 US states under air quality alerts
As of Wednesday morning, 20 U.S. states are under air quality alerts from Minnesota down to Georgia and as far north as western New York.
Wildfire smoke from neighbouring Canada is currently blanketing large swaths of the United States, from Iowa to western Pennsylvania to North Carolina and most everywhere in between. Only Chicago is getting a small reprieve on Wednesday morning due to a lake breeze, which isn’t expected to last for long.
Later on Wednesday, the smoke is expected to cover areas from Minnesota to Washington, D.C. and down to the Carolinas.
By early Thursday morning, the smoke will be seen in Minneapolis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Pittsburgh. But by the afternoon, it will linger from Detroit to Atlanta and east to Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.
New York City could be impacted as well, but most of the smoke from the Canadian wildfires is expected to stay in western New York state, Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.
(SAN ANTONIO) — One year after 53 people, including six kids, were killed in an abandoned sweltering tractor-trailer near San Antonio during an alleged smuggling attempt, the Justice Department announced it has indicted and arrested four men for the incident.
Riley Covarrubias-Ponce, Felipe Orduna-Torres, Luis Alberto Rivera-Leal and Armando Gonzales-Ortega were all arrested and charged on several counts including conspiracy and alien smuggling resulting in death, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
The four men allegedly participated with three other suspects, Homero Zamorano and Christian Martinez who were previously indicted and arrested, and a seventh unidentified suspect in a human smuggling organization that attempted to bring 66 people into the United States on June 27, 2022, the indictment said.
The migrants and their families, a majority from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, paid between $12,000 and $15,000 each to be brought into the country, the indictment said.
The indictment detailed how the men allegedly worked together to use trucking routes, local guides, stash houses, trucks and trailers to transport the group. To make sure they properly kept track of the group, each migrant was given the code word “clave” to recite at different points in their journey, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors said the men knew the tractor-trailer they were using on that day did not have a working air conditioning unit. As the temperature rose, the people in the back became desperate, screaming and banging on the walls for help, according to the indictment.
It was the deadliest incident of human smuggling in U.S. history, according to investigators.
Eleven people found inside the tractor were hospitalized but survived, investigators said.
U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite spoke at length during a news conference about the efforts with Joint Task Force Alpha, whose mission is to investigate human rights violations and push for prosecution. Since June of 2021, they’ve had 80 convictions.
“Our message is simple,” Polite said. “When you put people’s lives at risk, when you ignore the screams of humanity for profit, we will aggressively go after you.”
The trial for Zamorano and Martinez is set for Sept. 11. All six charged so far face life in prison if convicted. Attorney information for the suspects wasn’t immediately available.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House is going all in on “Bidenomics” branding as the 2024 election cycle heats up.
President Joe Biden is taking his economic philosophy, which emphasizes building the economy from the middle out and bottom up, on the road with the first stop being in Chicago on Wednesday.
There, he’s expected tout his “Investing in America” agenda and significant pieces of legislation passed in his first term.
“Now is the time where with all of those accomplishments, the president can take this message to the American people and say, this is what ‘Bidenomics’ is and here’s what we have to show for it,” White House principal deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton told reporters Tuesday.
“Let’s put our foot on the gas and keep moving forward instead of returning to these failed trickle-down policies that never seem to ever trickle down,” Dalton continued.
The official push by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris comes as polls show the president under water with voters on economic issues after a year of persistent inflation, which has recently eased, and high interest rates.
Republican presidential hopefuls frequently hit Biden over the economy, accusing him of fueling higher prices with big spending packages and harming corporations through so-called “woke” policies.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll last month found Americans 54-36% said former President Donald Trump did a better job handling the economy when he was in office than Biden has done so far.
The branding could carry some political risk, if the economy worsens.
Dalton defended Biden’s economic message, a rebranding of the ideas he’s articulated for years, when pressed on the poll numbers by ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce.
“Well, what I would say to you is look at where we were when we came into office after four years of Donald Trump,” Dalton responded, citing a near historic low unemployment rate and a cooling in inflation.
The administration’s recently been buoyed by a May jobs report that showed payrolls grew by 339,000, beating expectations. Consumer prices rose 4% in May compared to a year ago, also a better figure than anticipated, and down from the 40-year high of more than 9% last year.
And the White House asserts the nation is just starting to see the positive impacts of its major legislative wins, including massive investments in semiconducter production, domestic manufacturing and clean energy initiatives.
Biden on Monday rolled out how more than $40 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be used to expand high-speed internet access across the nation, specifically in underserved areas and rural communities.
During remarks in the East Room, Biden said the announcement represented what his economic vision is all about.
“I ran for president with a fundamentally different vision: to build the economy from the middle out and the bottom up instead of the top down; to grow the economy by educating and empowering workers, by promoting competition to support small businesses, and investing in ourselves again for the first time in a long time,” he said.
-ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
