News – Page 1645 – 105.7 WDNY

More than $200 billion in pandemic relief squandered, says government watchdog report

June 27, 2023 by WDNY Radio

More than 0 billion in pandemic relief squandered, says government watchdog report

(WASHINGTON) — The federal government squandered more than $200 billion in its aggressive rush to prop up small businesses as the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to shatter the U.S. economy, according to a report published Tuesday by the inspector general of the Small Business Administration.

The hefty sum, which amounts to approximately 17% of the $1.2 trillion dispersed by SBA, updates previous estimates from the inspector general, Hannibal “Mike” Ware, as investigators from several federal agencies continue to trace and recover millions of dollars lost to fraud, waste and other abuses that occurred during the pandemic.

Officials said the government watchdog report represents the first comprehensive estimate of fraud to date.

At the advent of the pandemic, government agencies pushed through several program meant to support small businesses, including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL).

The programs flooded businesses with easy access to cash that likely rescued the economy, experts say. But for all the jobs they helped rescue, these programs’ legacies may be tarnished by unprecedented amounts of fraud — a turn of events that experts fear may impair efforts to pass future emergency relief programs.

All government programs suffer some amount of fraud, experts have said. And emergency programs are even more susceptible, due to the inherent tension between the pressure to approve loans quickly and the need to screen applications and maintain other fraud-prevention measures that may prolong the process.

In an October 2020 report, Ware’s office found that “to expedite the process, SBA ‘lowered the guardrails’ or relaxed internal controls, which significantly increased the risk of program fraud.”

“A decision was made at the outset of the pandemic: speed was the key,” Michael Horowitz, the chairman of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), a federal watchdog charged with tracking how much money was defrauded from the government during the pandemic, told ABC News in an interview in March 2022. “It was a bad choice. It was the wrong choice. It never should have happened.”

Ware predicted in a 2021 interview with ABC News that, “in terms of the monetary value, the amount of fraud in these COVID relief programs is going to be larger than any government program that came before it.”

Ware will appear before Congress in July to discuss his findings under oath. Pandemic relief fraud has attracted attention from lawmakers across the political spectrum.

Many of those who defrauded the pandemic relief programs also victimized individual Americans in the process. Thousands of fraudsters who applied for funds used social security numbers stolen from innocent people, according to the PRAC. The committee wrote in a recent report that nearly 70,000 potentially suspect Social Security numbers were used to successfully apply for EIDL or Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds.

Both the SBA and the White House have pledged to offer better assistance to victims in the future, and to improve fraud reporting systems by using multi-factor authentication and a new process to pause billing once someone has reported identity theft, SBA spokesperson Christina Carr said in a statement earlier this year.

Many of those reforms will be guided by an expected executive order from President Joe Biden, who pledged over a year ago to sign an order in the “coming weeks” that would direct “new actions to support the victims of identity fraud.”

Administration officials told ABC News that the action is still expected to come soon, though they didn’t provide concrete timing.

All told, the government has doled out an estimated $5 trillion in relief funds since the beginning of the pandemic, across several programs. A Secret Service official told Congress that its investigators had recovered more than $1.43 billion in wrongfully obtained funds.

Dueling Trump, DeSantis events in New Hampshire stir up GOP excitement and drama

June 27, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(CONCORD, N.H.) — The focus of the Republican primary has turned to New Hampshire on Tuesday, with former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis holding competing events.

The scheduling pileup in the first-in-the-nation state has some primary voters excited about the front-runners’ campaign activity while others are disappointed with the simultaneous stops — which stirred drama in a locally influential GOP group.

DeSantis spoke first, on Tuesday morning, in a stump speech in Hollis a few hours before Trump headlines the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women’s (NHFRW) Lilac Luncheon an hour north in Concord. Trump is also set to open his state campaign office on Tuesday.

When news broke last week that DeSantis had added a visit to the key primary state, the NHFRW put out a statement citing their disappointment with him for scheduling a campaign event during their event with Trump.

The organization’s president, Elizabeth Girard, claimed the move was a slight: “This attempt to pull focus from our Lilac Luncheon only diminishes the efforts of Republican women in New Hampshire who are volunteers, working hard to provide opportunities for our membership to have access to all of the candidates.”

However, Girard’s statement was not agreed upon by all members of her group, and two of them resigned.

Kate Day, who had been the public relations chair for the NHFRW, wrote on Twitter that the statement violated the group’s neutrality policy in the primary.

She echoed that to ABC News. “We often have same day multiple campaign events. It is not an issue. In this case, the DeSantis event was not announced until after the NHFRW luncheon was sold out. There was no foul by the DeSantis campaign whatsoever,” Day said. “However, beaching neutrality is.”

The back-and-forth underlines New Hampshire’s continued importance in the GOP primary campaign. Whomever wins there next year heads into the following primary contests with the boost of voter approval — something DeSantis hopes to win in his quest to defeat Trump. Early polls show the former president is still leading the primary nationwide and in the Granite State.

DeSantis’ campaign declined to comment on the dust-up over his Tuesday event. A spokesperson for the pro-DeSantis political group Never Back Down said in a statement, however, that they feel he has momentum building “across the country, and Never Back Down’s historic grassroots efforts are accelerating his support in the first four primary states.”

“Our canvassers have knocked nearly 84,000 in New Hampshire alone, turning votes to the Governor as more Republicans learn his story and record of fighting for American families. By mid-July, we expect to have talked to every one of our primary targets,” the spokesperson said. “No other candidate’s on-the-ground efforts come anywhere close to ours, which is why you’ll continue to see Gov. DeSantis’ support grow.”

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung shot back in a statement of his own: “DeSantis is drawing tiny crowds and micro poll numbers. If he’s not careful, he could kill his chances in 2028.”

Outside Republican operatives are encouraging the flurry of activity, with many believing the split-screen provides an opportunity for undecided or independent voters, who make up 41% of New Hampshire voters, an ability to shop around.

Greg Moore, a conservative activist and state director for the group Americans for Prosperity, described the events as a “big day for the primary.”

“Obviously, we’ll be comparing their styles, their messaging and watching how the crowds react,” Moore said. “That’s particularly true for Gov. DeSantis, who’s still introducing himself to Granite Staters.”

Democrats also weighed in.

“The Trump people believe that there shouldn’t be anyone else in the state when Trump’s in the state,” New Hampshire Party Chair Raymond Buckley said. “And the DeSantis people are going to do whatever they can to try to goad him into behaving badly with the hope that that might garner some votes for DeSantis.”

New Hampshire state Sen. Donna Soucy was more succinct, joking that the snafu has been “kind of fun to watch.”

Since announcing their respective presidential runs, Trump has visited New Hampshire three times while Tuesday’s speech by DeSantis will mark his second official visit to the state.

Fellow GOP candidate Nikki Haley will also make an appearance in New Hampshire on Tuesday, hosting a town hall.

ABC News’ Hannah Demissie and Soo Rin Kim contributed to this report.

Supreme Court rejects unchecked state legislature power over federal election rules

June 27, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday delivered a strong rejection of a controversial legal theory that threatened to upend state election laws nationwide and give state legislatures unchecked power over federal election rules.

In a 6-3 decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court sided with a group of North Carolina voters who challenged an attempt by state Republican lawmakers to circumvent a state court decision that struck down a new gerrymandered election map.

Roberts was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

At the heart of the case was a controversial legal concept dubbed the “independent state legislature” theory, which contends the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution provides state legislators alone the power to govern federal elections unencumbered by traditional oversight from state constitutions, courts and governors.

Election and democracy experts warned the theory, if adopted in its most extreme application, could have a dramatic impact on how elections are run and voting rules are written in the U.S. Challengers said the theory would’ve unleashed a dangerous and unprecedented scheme on the eve of the 2024 presidential election.

Roberts roundly repudiated the theory, stating the Elections Clause “does not insulate state legislatures from the ordinary exercise of state judicial review.”

“In interpreting state law in this area, state courts may not so exceed the bounds of ordinary judicial review as to unconstitutionally intrude upon the role specifically reserved to state legislatures by Article I, Section 4, of the Federal Constitution,” Roberts wrote.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito dissented.

The justices argued the case should have dismissed given state-level developments. The North Carolina Supreme Court, under a new Republican majority, in April reversed its previous ruling that said the gerrymandered maps were illegal.

“This is a straightforward case of mootness,” Thomas wrote. “The federal defense no longer makes any difference to this case — whether we agree with the defense, disagree with it, or say nothing at all, the final judgment in this litigation will be exactly the same.”

Abha Khanna, the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case, celebrated the ruling as a “resounding victory for free and fair elections in the United States.”

“The independent state legislature theory is a dangerous, fringe legal theory that has no place in our democracy. In its most extreme form, the Independent State Legislature Theory could have weakened the foundation of our democracy, removing a crucial check on state legislatures and making it easier for rogue legislators to enact policies that suppress voters and subvert elections without adequate oversight from state court,” Khanna said in a statement. “We are incredibly relieved that the Supreme Court decisively rejected this dangerous theory.”

Voting rights advocates also praised the decision as upholding a key protection for voters. Former Attorney General Eric Holder described the decision as win “for our system of checks and balances, the cornerstone of American democracy.”

Family of Ajike Owens calls for murder charges after suspect charged with manslaughter: ‘We are deeply disappointed’

June 27, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(OCALA, Fla.) — The family of Ajike “AJ” Owens, the Black woman who was killed by her neighbor on June 2 in Florida, called on prosecutors to upgrade the charges against Susan Lorincz from manslaughter to second-degree murder during a virtual press conference on Tuesday.

Lorincz, who is white, has been charged with first-degree felony manslaughter in the death of her neighbor, Ajike “AJ” Owens, a Black mother of four who was fatally shot on June 2 through the door of the suspect’s home when she confronted her in a dispute over where her children were playing, according to prosecutors.

Anthony Thomas, an attorney for the Owens family, told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday that the family was “deeply disappointed” by the charges, but “our resolve remains unwavering, and we will continue to fight.”

“We are devastated,” Owens’ mother Pamela Dias said in a statement to ABC News. “How do I explain to AJ’s children, my young grandbabies, that the loss of their mother’s life is still not being taken seriously? Only a living breathing AJ would be true justice, and today’s charge could not be further from that.”

Lorincz, 58, was arrested on June 6 and the family has been calling for murder charges to be filed in this case, but Florida State Attorney William “Bill” Gladson said there was insufficient evidence to prove such a charge in court.

Lorincz allegedly fired a shot through the door of her Ocala, Florida, home, killing the 35-year-old Owens in front of her 10-year-old son after Owens banged on the door of Lorincz’s home, according to police.

Gladson announced Monday his office has formally charged Lorincz with one count of felony first-degree manslaughter with a firearm and one count of assault. If convicted, Lorincz faces 30 years in prison, Gladson said.

“As deplorable as the defendant’s actions were in this case, there is insufficient evidence to prove this specific and required element of second-degree murder,” Gladson said.

According to a June 6 statement from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Lorincz shot Owens through a door after the mother of four went to speak with Lorincz about a dispute over Owens’ children playing near Lorincz’s home.

“Evidence gathered during the investigation established that over a period of time, Lorincz had become angry at Owens’ children who were playing in a field close to her home,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement on June 6. The sheriff’s office said that Lorincz “engaged in an argument with the children and was overhead yelling at them by a neighbor.”

“The children then went and told their mother, Owens, about what had happened,” the sheriff’s office said. “Owens approached Lorincz’s home, knocked on the door multiple times, and demanded that Lorincz come outside. Lorincz then fired one shot through the door, striking Owens in her upper chest. At the time she was shot, Owens’ 10-year-old son was standing beside her.”

According to the sheriff’s office, Lorincz claimed in her interview with police that she was acting in “self-defense” and claimed that Owens was trying to “break down her door,” but through the investigation “detectives were able to establish that Lorincz’s actions were not justifiable under Florida law.”

“The family will continue to not only advocate for accountability in all forms, but they also will continue to say her name so that Florida officials remember this tragic loss of life. There is still much that needs to be done to make Florida a place where Black women and children feel safe and protected,” Crump said in a statement to ABC News in response to the charges.

Lorincz’s attorney could not be reached for comment. Lorincz has entered a not guilty plea. Her next court hearing is set for July 11.

Gladson said the decision on what to charge Lorincz with was carefully examined. He said he concluded that a second-degree murder charge would require prosecutors to prove beyond reasonable doubt “the existence of a depraved mind toward the victim at the time of the killing.”

“Depraved mind requires evidence of hatred, spite, ill will or evil intent toward the victim at the time of the killing,” Gladson said in a statement.

Gladson added, “As is always true in criminal cases, failure to prove beyond a reasonable doubt even one element of a crime will result in a not guilty verdict.”

“I am aware of the desire of the family, and some community members, that the defendant be charged with second-degree murder. My obligation as State Attorney is to follow the law in each case that I prosecute,” Gladson said. “I did so in this case, and while some may not agree with that decision, I can assure you that the decision was thoughtful and made without consideration of any factors other than the specific facts of this terrible crime. Simply stated, my obligation is to follow the law.”

Owens’ son alleged in an interview with investigators that the shooting unfolded after Lorincz threw a skate at him but did not hit him when she found him and other children playing in a field outside her home, and became angry, according to Gladson.

Lorincz initially claimed she acted in self-defense, alleging Owens attacked her in the past, according to Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods. According to a police report, Lorincz also told investigators that she did not intend to hit Owens when she fired the gun.

But in a video statement released the day Lorincz was arrested, Woods said the shooting was not a stand-your-ground self-defense case but “simply a killing.”

Owens’ death sparked protests and demands that Lorincz be arrested immediately. National civil rights attorney Ben Crump agreed to represent the Owens family.

It took sheriff’s officials about a week after the shooting before they arrested Lorincz, who was jailed on suspicion of manslaughter and held without bail.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a national civil rights leader and president of the National Action Network, slammed Gladson’s decision not to file murder charges in the case.

“The legal system failed AJ Owens and her family today by refusing to recognize that this brazen shooting was plain murder,” Sharpton said in a statement. “It was an outrageous decision to not bring murder charges against a shooter who fired blindly through the door. Florida officials have failed AJ throughout this entire process.”

Sharpton called on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the shooting as a federal hate crime.

“We urge the DOJ to intervene in this case, so the appropriate level of justice is delivered for AJ and her family,” Sharpton said.

Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide: New details revealed

June 27, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A new Justice Department Inspector General report details the failures that occurred beginning one month before Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide while in custody of the Bureau of Prisons. The report also makes clear that foul play was not possible.

When officers discovered Epstein unresponsive in his cell on Aug. 10, 2019, Officer Michael Thomas, who was charged criminally in the case, said, “Breathe, Epstein, Breathe,” according to the new report issued Tuesday.

When Thomas saw Epstein dangling from the bed, he said, “We’re going to be in a lot of trouble,” according to the report.

Epstein died by hanging at New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center while he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

The disgraced financier hanged himself in his jail cell with an orange noose he fashioned from “a sheet or a shirt,” the report said.

When Epstein’s room was searched after his death, investigators found extra bedsheets, another mattress and a noose, according to the report.

On Aug. 10, the Inspector General said Epstein was in his cell at 8 p.m. Officials said he made an unrecorded call on a landline that was not monitored by prison communications. Epstein told the officers he was calling his mother, according to the report, but she had died before that date. The report said staffers should have been monitoring this call made by Epstein.

After 10:40 p.m., Epstein was not checked on nor was he monitored until officers discovered him hanging from his cell, according to the report.

Epstein first attempted suicide in custody on July 23, 2019, and the Inspector General report said Bureau of Prisons employees should have been put on alert then.

On July 30, the Inspector General said an email was sent to 70 staffers of the prison physiological unit instructing that Epstein was to be housed with a cellmate. But the Inspector General said that warning went unheeded by Bureau of Prisons staff so that when his cellmate was moved on Aug. 8, another inmate was not placed there.

The Inspector General makes clear that Epstein’s death was in fact a suicide.

“The Medical Examiner who performed the autopsy detailed for the OIG [Office of Inspector General] why Epstein’s injuries were more consistent with, and indicative of, a suicide by hanging rather than a homicide by strangulation,” the report said. “The Medical Examiner also told the OIG that the ligature furrow was too broad to have been caused by the electrical cord of the medical device in Epstein’s cell and that blood toxicology tests revealed no medications or illegal substances were in Epstein’s system. The Medical Examiner also noted the absence of debris under Epstein’s fingernails, marks on his hands, contusions to his knuckles, or bruises on his body that would have indicated Epstein had been a struggle, which would be expected if Epstein’s death had been a homicide by strangulation.”

The Inspector General report also found the camera system was defunct and the prison had severe understaffing and structural issues.

Members of the staff also allegedly repeatedly mislead the Inspector General, including one supervisor who allegedly said she didn’t know Epstein was supposed to have a roommate, even though she was on the email sent in July 2019 stating he should have one.

“We further found that multiple BOP employees submitted false documents claiming that they had performed the required counts and rounds and that several MCC New York staff members lacked candor when questioned by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) about their actions,” the report said.

The report is coupled with nearly 4,000 pages of documents obtained by reporters earlier this month under a Freedom of Information Act request.

The documents show that toward the end of his life, Epstein sat alone in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, repeatedly calling himself a coward out loud.

Thomas and his partner were charged with doctoring the log books to make it seem like they completed their rounds when they had not, according to officials. Both pleaded guilty.

Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, was convicted in December 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to recruit, groom and abuse minors and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. She has appealed the verdict.

If you are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises, please call or text the new three digit code at 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org.

Trump aide Walt Nauta’s arraignment on classified docs charges is delayed

June 27, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(MIAMI) — Former President Donald Trump’s longtime aide, Walt Nauta, could not be arraigned on federal charges Tuesday in Florida as scheduled, after his lawyer told the judge that Nauta has been unable to retain local counsel.

Nauta was charged alongside Trump earlier this month as part of the classified documents case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

The charges against Nauta include conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

Nauta’s lawyer, Stan Woodward, also told the judge Tuesday that Nauta’s flight out of Newark, New Jersey, was canceled and that they were unable to rebook him.

Nauta wanted to “express his sincerest condolences to the court,” his lawyer told the judge. “He takes very seriously the charges,” Woodward said.

The judge granted a request for a delay. Arraignment is now set for July 6.

Members of the special counsel’s team did not oppose a delay in the arraignment, but asked that the delay be as “brief as possible.”

Jay Bratt, a member of the special counsel’s team, said they “would like to move forward.”

Smith was not present in court.

Trump pleaded not guilty this month to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities. He has denied all charges and denounced the probe as a political witch hunt.

Prosecutors allege that Nauta moved boxes containing classified documents around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate at Trump’s direction, in an effort to prevent the documents from being turned over to authorities.

In one instance, prosecutors allege that boxes were moved out of a storage room at the Palm Beach estate before Trump’s attorney searched the room for documents to hand over to investigators in compliance with a grand jury subpoena seeking their return.

According to the indictment, Nauta was seen on surveillance footage moving boxes.

Prosecutors also accuse Nauta of lying to investigators when questioned about his knowledge of the boxes’ whereabouts.

Nauta, a Guam native who enlisted in the Navy in 2001, worked in the Trump White House, where in 2021 he was promoted to the rank of Senior Chief Culinary Specialist, according to Navy records. Trump, according to investigators, subsequently promoted Nauta to be his valet, otherwise known as a “body man.”

After Trump left the White House and moved to Florida, Nauta left the Navy and continued to work for the former president. In August 2021, Nauta became Trump’s executive assistant, serving as his personal aide, a role in which he “reported to Trump, worked closely with Trump and traveled with Trump,” according to the federal indictment.

ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.

Over 300 severe storm reports across US as dangerous weather continues

June 27, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — There were more than 300 severe storm reports in the United States on Monday, mostly along the East Coast from New Hampshire to South Carolina, as threatening weather and dangerous heat plagues the nation.

Gusty winds of 60 to 66 miles per hour were reported from New York to North Carolina, with golf ball-sized hail damaging cars in the latter.

Some areas in New Jersey received close to half a foot of rain, which flooded roadways. There were even tornado warnings in the Garden State but, as of Tuesday morning, no actual twisters reported.

More thunderstorms are in the forecast for Tuesday, with lightning, flooding rain and gusty winds expected from North Carolina all the way up to New England. The areas along Interstate 95 will begin seeing storms develop after 3 p.m. ET that will last into the night.

The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch from Delaware to Maine, where local rainfall amounts of 4 inches are possible.

Another severe weather system moving eastward across the country will hit the central Plains and parts of the South on Tuesday, from South Dakota to Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Damaging winds and huge hail will likely be the biggest threat there, though a few tornadoes can’t be ruled out. Monday’s storms spawned seven reported tornadoes in Wyoming and Nebraska.

Meanwhile, a heat wave continues in the South and is expected to expand over the coming days, moving into southern parts of the Midwest and the Mid-South, including Memphis and Nashville in Tennessee as well as parts of southern Illinois and Indiana. The hottest days will be Tuesday through Thursday, with temperatures forecast to feel like nearly 120 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas across the southern half of the country.

As of Tuesday morning, 13 states were under a heat alert from Arizona up to southern Illinois and down to northern Florida. Major cities such as Houston, Austin, New Orleans and even Orlando could see record high temperatures on Tuesday.

A record high of 111 degrees Fahrenheit was reported in Del Rio, Texas, on Monday for the ninth consecutive day. Another record high of 112 degrees Fahrenheit was reported in San Angelo, Texas.

The extreme heat will continue into the weekend for parts of Texas and the Deep South.

LGBTQ couples push for ‘fertility equality’ in family-building benefits

June 27, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — For Emma Goidel and Ilana Caplan, building a family using assisted reproductive technology was never going to be easy, but the couple says they never imagined the financial costs they’d face simply because of who they are.

“We looked really closely at our insurance and we saw, oh my God, Aetna covers fertility procedures. But then when we read the fine print, we saw – wait a minute, this coverage is only for people having heterosexual sex,” said Goidel, who lives in New York City.

As a growing number of same-sex couples turn to intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) to have children, many say they’re encountering entrenched inequality in how benefits are provided by health insurers and employers.

While insurance companies in more than a dozen states offer no-cost fertility treatments for straight couples who struggle to get pregnant, they often refuse to cover those same services for lesbian or gay couples until they’ve paid out of pocket for up to a year.

Goidel and Caplan spent nearly $50,000 of savings to have their son Avi, who is a year old. None of the expenses for IUI or IVF were reimbursed by the insurer, Aetna, they say.

“How is it OK to say if you’re straight and your partner can’t get you pregnant, you come into the doctor and we’ll cover your treatment, but if you’re a queer and your partner can’t get you pregnant, too bad you’re going to pay?” said Goidel.

One-in-three American adults say they’ve used fertility treatments, like IUI or IVF, to grow their families or know someone who has, according to Pew Research Center, and many have spent thousands of dollars out of pocket in the process.

In places where fertility benefits are offered or required, LGBTQ people can be disadvantaged.

“Only 14 states provide coverage on private insurance plans for fertility health care, [but] only three states have fertility insurance laws that inclusively cover LGBTQ people,” said Polly Crozier, director of family advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD).

“When there’s not access to fertility health care in your state, it particularly hits LGBTQ people hard, and then even in the states that do have access to fertility health care, LGBTQ people there face different standards. There are different rules for those families. It’s just not equal,” Crozier said.

Advocates say the fight for “fertility equality” is emerging as a key legal battleground. More than 100,000 same-sex couples are raising children in this country, according to government data, and increasing numbers are looking to grow their families, advocates say.

“We’ve always wanted to have kids. We knew when we got married that we wanted to have a family,” said Goidel, 33, who wed Caplan, 33, in 2017.

After having their first child through self-funded intrauterine insemination using donor sperm, in 2020 the couple consulted with their newly acquired Aetna health plan about fertility coverage for a second pregnancy.

The plan stipulated a diagnosis of infertility in order to qualify, they said. For Goidel and Caplan, that meant having to first attempt at least 12 months of IUI treatment — paid out of pocket — before any insurance coverage would kick in.

They got pregnant using IUI after five prior attempts, one of which resulted in a miscarriage, and one cycle of IVF, which also resulted in a miscarriage.

“My partner can’t get me pregnant. Whether that’s because she doesn’t have the gametes or something’s going on internally with me. No one makes that distinction when you’re a straight couple,” Goidel said.

Goidel brought a federal class-action lawsuit against Aetna in 2021, accusing the insurance company of sex discrimination for denying equal access to fertility treatment.

In court documents, the company denies the claims, saying Goidel did not meet requirements for fertility coverage under her health plan.

“Aetna is committed to equal access to reproductive health coverage for all members,” the company told ABC News in a statement on the Goidel case. “We offer infertility coverage for our plan sponsors, which aligns with our publicly available guidelines, individual benefit plans, and regulations. We have a history of strong support for the LGBTQ+ community, which we continue to build on. We continually evolve our benefit coverage guidelines based on evidence-based clinical information and member safety as a top priority.”

The case is currently pending in federal district court.

For gay men who want their own kids through surrogacy, it can be even more complicated and costly.

Corey Briskin, 34, and Nicholas Maggipinto, 37, of Brooklyn, New York, say neither their health insurance nor Briskin’s employer, the City of New York, would cover any costs of fertility treatment needed to get a surrogate pregnant.

“There’s just no way that that’s not some form of discrimination,” Maggipinto said in an interview.

Both men are attorneys.

“The No. 1 hurdle that every same-sex couple faces is that they can never meet the definition of infertility, which is the threshold qualifier for covered IVF,” he said.

Briskin and Maggipinto filed a class-action discrimination complaint in April 2022 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), seeking a nationwide order that employers must extend fertility benefits to LGBTQ employees.

The City of New York provides IVF benefits for heterosexual employees who have faced difficulty getting pregnant and are deemed infertile but does not cover LGBTQ employees because they cannot meet the infertility criteria.

The City, which declined an interview with ABC, argues the charge should be dismissed, telling the EEOC in a legal filing that “practically all” employer-provided health insurance nationwide does not cover IVF for surrogate pregnancies, “consistent with the law” and is “not discriminatory.”

The complaint remains pending at EEOC.

“I think there’s a fair argument that that’s sex discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, and frankly, just bad business,” Crozier said.

A small growing number of companies are providing benefits for family building outside of insurance plans, some chipping in for IVF and others offering to help cover the cost of adoption.

Both couples — Briskin and Maggipinto, and Goidel and Caplan — said they respect adoption as an option for same-sex couples to build families but not one that should be imposed on them.

“There’s nothing wrong with adoption, and for many people, that is a really wonderful option and maybe even their preference,” said Briskin. “But at the same token, no one should tell us that we should build our family that way.”

As the legal cases play out, both families hope change is on the horizon.

“We are hopeful that whatever becomes of this, there will be a change for the better for people who are similarly situated to us,” Briskin said.

Ozempic weight loss pills may be on the way: What to know

June 27, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Drugs used for diabetes and weight loss like Ozempic and Wegovy were found to be effective for weight loss when taken as a pill, according to research published over the weekend.

Rybelsus is the pill version of semaglutide — the active ingredient that helps patients lose weight — and is already approved for those with Type 2 diabetes.

A new study published in The Lancet highlighted that a higher dose of the pill also worked for weight loss in those without diabetes. Researchers looked at nearly 700 patients with overweight or obesity for over a year and found that the drug lowered body weight by an average of 15%.

Nearly 70% of those who took the pill achieved a 10% reduction in body weight. Additionally, over three times the number of people taking the drug achieved a 5% reduction, a generally accepted baseline for clinically meaningful weight loss.

Ozempic and Wegovy are typically injected once a week. Researchers noted that a once-daily pill would increase the options for those struggling with obesity.

Although studies were not designed to directly compare, the injectable form of the drug appears more effective than the pills. Both versions of the drug have similar safety profiles but come with a relatively high proportion of patients reporting side effects like nausea and constipation.

“This is not just for cosmetic or vanity’s sake. This is to change health risks and outcomes,” Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent and a board-certified obesity medicine specialist, said on Good Morning America.

Those with obesity may struggle to manage long-term weight loss with changes in diet and exercise alone. While doctors can prescribe the pills off-label, additional research may help open doors to getting semaglutide pills used more widely for weight loss, rather than just for those with diabetes.

The results come on the heels of new research estimating that the number of people living with diabetes will double by 2050, exceeding 1.3 billion worldwide.

Around half of this increase may be attributable to obesity fueled by the widespread availability of ultra-processed and relatively cheap food options.

“Remember, when you talk about the bad news of these increasing Type 2 diabetes rates, the good news is that Type 2 diabetes is largely reversible and preventable, but that does not mean it’s easy to do that,” Ashton said.

Those who are overweight or obese are often at a higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Over 70% of American adults are considered to be overweight or obese, and more than 37 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Trump aide Walt Nauta to be arraigned in Miami as part of classified documents case

June 27, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(MIAMI) — The longtime aide to former President Donald Trump who was federally charged alongside him earlier this month is set to be arraigned Tuesday morning in Miami as part of the classified documents case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

Walt Nauta, who first worked with Trump in the White House, is charged with six counts as part of the criminal case involving Trump’s handling of classified documents.

The charges include conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

Nauta, 40, appeared in court in Miami with Trump earlier this month, but was not arraigned because he did not have local counsel. The pair sat with each other at the defendants’ table for the duration of that hearing, separated by Trump’s attorney.

Trump, who was indicted on 37 felony counts, pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Nauta is not expected to appear in court on Tuesday.

According to the indictment, Nauta was seen on surveillance footage moving boxes.

Prosecutors also accuse Nauta of lying to investigators when questioned about his knowledge of the boxes’ whereabouts.

+ More