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Colorado River Basin reservoir levels drop to record lows amid drought

August 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(DENVER, Colo.) — Federal government officials announced a more severe water shortage level in the Colorado River Basin Tuesday, saying it is essential that states like Arizona dramatically reduce water use before drinking water supplies or power production are affected.

“The system is approaching a tipping point and, without action, we cannot protect the system and the millions of Americans who rely on this critical resource,” Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton said in a briefing with reporters.

Reservoirs in the Colorado Basin, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are both at historically low levels after 23 years in drought conditions. Currently, Lake Powell is at 26% capacity, and Lake Mead is at 27% capacity. Combined storage of the two reservoirs is 28% of capacity.

More than 70% of the western U.S. is experiencing extreme or severe drought conditions, amplified by climate change.

But the federal government is stopping short of forcing water cuts under its emergency authorities, saying that although state action has been insufficient, they would rather work together to find a solution that avoids harming people that rely on Colorado River water.

Arizona’s water allocation must be reduced by 21% in 2023, one of the largest cuts of the seven basin states.

California currently has no required water savings planned for the upcoming year. But the country of Mexico, which also receives an allotment, will need to reduce their allocation by 7% in 2023.

The Bureau of Reclamation could announce additional actions down the line if states don’t reach these targets. Officials said the drought threatens the entire future of the Colorado River Basin, including drinking water supplies, power generation, wildlife and the river itself.

“Without prompt, responsive actions and investments now, the Colorado River and the citizens that rely on it will face a future of uncertainty and conflict,” Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tanya Trujillo told reporters.

Lake Powell is projected to be at 3,521.84 feet by the end of the year, which is 23% capacity. Glen Canyon Dam stops generating power at 3490 feet. Future projections show that under the driest scenario, Lake Powell may drop below 3,490 feet in the middle of 2023. ABC News is working to see if modifications can be made to Glen Canyon Dam to operate below this critical threshold.

Lake Mead is projected to be at 1047.61 feet by the end of the calendar year. Under the driest scenario, Lake Mead could drop below Level 3 shortage as early as the summer of 2023 and reach below 1000 feet as early as 2024.

ABC News is also looking to see if modifications can be made at Hoover Dam to operate below current minimum elevations.

New York City Department of Education relaxes COVID-19 rules for public schools

August 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The New York City Department of Education will no longer randomly test students for COVID-19 when the new school year begins Sept. 8, the department said Tuesday.

Instead, test kits will be sent home for students, parents and teachers to use if they are exposed to the virus.

As part of the department’s new COVID-19 protocols, students will no longer be required to submit a daily health screening form.

Masks will no longer be required but are strongly recommended if or when a student is exposed.

The department said that students and staff who test positive or exhibit symptoms must quarantine for five days and then wear a mask on the sixth through 10th day upon their return to school.

Masks are also required when entering a medical office in a school or exhibiting coronavirus symptoms.

Schools are now required to report positive cases to “The Situation Room,” a group within the department that tracks COVID-19 cases within the schools.

Recent New York City Education Department data shows that between Sept. 13, 2021 and Aug. 15, 2022, there have been over 250,000 positive COVID-19 cases within the schools, with students making up 190,301 of those cases.

New York City schools will still require all adults, including teachers and contracted employees, entering public school buildings to be vaccinated, the department said. Any other adult entering a building must show proof of at least one vaccination dose.

Students will still not need to be vaccinated to attend classes but will once again need to show proof of vaccination to participate in extracurricular activities, including high-risk public schools athletic league sports.

The city’s department of education will distribute over 160,000 air purifiers to schools, track ventilation in buildings daily and upgrade HVAC systems aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

Last week, the CDC laid out new guidance regarding COVID-19 as millions of students return to school.

Some rules include: unvaccinated kids no longer having to quarantine; test-to-stay, which allows students who are in contact with someone who has COVID-19 to continue to attend in-person school as long as they stayed asymptomatic and tested negative; and loosening the 6 feet social distancing requirement.

“We’re in a stronger place today as a nation, with more tools — like vaccination, boosters, and treatments — to protect ourselves, and our communities, from severe illness from COVID-19,” the CDC’s Dr. Greta Massetti, one of the authors of the updated guidance, told ABC News in a statement last week. “This guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives.”

ABC News’ Katie Kindelan contributed to this report.

Authorities announce new phase in search for missing teen Kiely Rodni

August 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(LAKE TAHOE, Nev.) — Authorities in Northern California have announced a new phase in the ongoing search for a teenager who disappeared after a party 11 days ago.

“We are moving into a more limited but continuous search-and-rescue effort,” Capt. Sam Brown of the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said during a press briefing on Monday. “We are going to have to switch modes and kind of focus on the investigative end and try to figure out where do we go from there.”

Kiely Rodni, 16, was last seen on Aug. 6 around 12:30 a.m. local time near the Prosser Family Campground in the small town of Truckee, some 20 miles north of Lake Tahoe. She was at a party with upwards of 300 people when she vanished along with her vehicle, a silver 2013 Honda CRV with California license plates and a sticker of a ram below the rear wiper blade, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the search and investigation.

Rodni’s cellphone has been out of service since then.

“Her cellphone went dead and became virtually untraceable shortly after,” Angela Musallam, public information officer for the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, told ABC News during an interview that aired Aug. 9 on “Good Morning America.”

With no trace of Rodni or her car, detectives are not ruling out a possible abduction, Musallam had said. Though, “right now we don’t have any evidence that supports an abduction,” Placer County Sgt. Scott Alford told reporters during a press briefing on Aug. 9.

“We’re considering everything,” Alford said. “This is a missing person’s case, this is a search-and-rescue effort.”

Dozens of law enforcement personnel have been involved in the search, including foot patrol, aircraft, canine and dive teams. Other local, state and federal agencies, including the Truckee Police Department, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office, the California Highway Patrol and the FBI, are assisting the Placer County Sheriff’s Office in the investigation, according to Musallam.

Rodni has also been added to the FBI’s missing persons database. Among the more than 1,200 tips the FBI said it has received and combed through, investigators have pursued several leads, including digging up a burial site near the Prosser Family Campground — only to find the remains of a dog.

“It’s important to hold onto hope,” Rodni’s mother, Lindsey Rodni-Nieman, told ABC News during an interview Tuesday on “GMA.” She then added: “It’s OK to feel sad and frustrated, it’s OK to feel this anguish.”

Rodni-Nieman told ABC News the last text message she received from her daughter said she was planning to leave the party in about 45 minutes and would be coming “straight home.” That was about an hour before Rodni’s cellphone last pinged near a lake.

Authorities, as well as Rodni’s family, are urging anyone who saw her the night she vanished to come forward as well as anyone who attended the party to cooperate with the investigation. In particular, investigators are asking for any photographs or videos from that night to help them piece together a timeline. A $50,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to Rodni’s safe return.

Last week, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said its detectives have located surveillance footage from a local business in Truckee where Rodni was spotted on Aug. 5 at 6:08 p.m. local time, prior to her disappearance. She was last seen wearing a black spaghetti-strap bodysuit, green Dickies pants with a black belt and black Vans shoes. She also may have a dark gray Lana Del Ray hoodie with the lyrics: “You don’t want to be forgotten. You just want to disappear.”

However, on Sunday, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said its detectives “have developed information” that Rodni was seen in another video, taken that night at the party, wearing a white sweatshirt with the pink writing “odd future.” It remains unclear whether she was wearing that sweatshirt when she vanished.

“I recognize both sweatshirts,” Rodni’s mother told ABC News. “The darker one belongs to her best friend. The lighter one is something that I’ve seen her wear time and time again.”

Anyone with information about Rodni or her whereabouts can call the Placer County Sheriff’s Office’s tip line at 530-581-6320 and select option seven. Callers can remain anonymous.

ABC News’ Meredith Deliso and Veronica Miracle contributed to this report.

You can fly in a seaplane between New York City and Washington, DC, starting this fall

August 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Anyone looking to ditch Amtrak or the long commutes to and from La Guardia, JFK, or Newark Airport when traveling between New York City and Washington, D.C., will now have another option—a float plane.

Tailwind Air will start flying two daily flights between the Skyport Marina near East 23rd Street in Manhattan and College Park Airport just outside D.C. The plane will take off from the water in New York and land on the runway at the Suburban D.C. airport in College Park, Maryland.

Tailwind said the flights will operate using eight-seat Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft. The flight time will be between 80-90 minutes and cost $395 one-way.

The airline is touting the ease of the smaller planes, saying passengers have up until 10 minutes before departure to check in for the flight.

“When factoring in the full journey—one hour and twenty minutes in the air (comparable to DCA-LGA service except with no need to access crowded and congested airports on both ends) or the three hours fifty minutes for the Acela—Tailwind Air will offer the fastest, least stressful, premium way to travel between DC and Manhattan. That, paired with the unforgettable views, makes this a compelling experience,” Tailwind Air co-founder Peter Manice said in a press release.

College Park Airport is 30-minute drive from Downtown D.C. and connects directly to Metro’s Green Line.

The first departure is Sept. 13.

“Bypassing the congestion of the northeast corridor between New York and Washington, DC remains the core mission of Tailwind Air,” Alan Ram, CEO and co-founder of Tailwind Air, said in a statement.

Former prosecutor, advocate for criminal justice reform, facing rape charges

August 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Adam Foss, a former prosecutor in Boston whose TED Talk brought him into partnership with singer John Legend on criminal justice reform, raped a woman in a New York City hotel, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said Tuesday.

According to court documents and statements made on the record in court, Foss, 42, met the 25-year-old woman at a Midtown Manhattan hotel after exchanging calls and texts for approximately one month. After the survivor repeatedly said no to Foss’s sexual advances, the two fell asleep, before he allegedly raped the woman as she slept.

Foss pleaded not guilty.

Bragg urged other potential victims of Foss to come forward.

“Our Special Victims Division is survivor-centered and trauma-informed, and we encourage anyone who believes they have been the victim of a sex crime to call our Hotline at 212-335-9373. Our prosecutors, investigators, and service providers are available to help.”

Foss was an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. The National Law Journal named him among the 40 most up-and-coming lawyers in the US. In 2013, the Massachusetts Bar Association voted Foss prosecutor of the year.

8th child in US tests positive for monkeypox

August 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — At least eight children in the U.S. have now tested positive for monkeypox, after health officials in Harris County, Texas, confirmed to ABC News that a presumptive case had been identified in a child under the age of 2.

Officials reported the child has been completely asymptomatic, according to the child’s parents, with no other symptoms other than a residual rash. The child is expected to make a full recovery, and is doing “very, very well,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said during a press conference on Tuesday.

“I understand that it’s a very scary thing, and parents have concerns, and what we need to make sure is to be vigilant and understand the risks, not assume the worst. But this reminds us that this is very real,” Hidalgo said.

The family has also been fully cooperative, and is assisting with contact tracing, though the child has not been in any day care or school settings. Thus far, no one else in the child’s circle has been identified as positive for monkeypox, according to officials.

How this child contracted monkeypox is still unknown, Hidalgo said.

“I understand this is a very, very worrisome for parents, especially as school is starting back up knowing that a child in our community has now contracted or as a presumptive positive for the monkey pox virus. It opens up a lot of questions about how this is spread. It makes people very worried. It makes things very tangible,” Hidalgo added.

Although this is indeed a “rare” case, Hidalgo noted that “we always knew that any person in this community can contract monkeypox. We knew that it was possible for a child to be exposed. Anyone can get this virus, so this isn’t entirely unexpected.”

The news of the positive pediatric case in Texas comes after a child in Martin County, Florida, has tested positive for monkeypox, according to state health data. The child in Florida is between the ages of 0 and 4 years old, according to the state health data.

Officials in Maine also announced Friday that they, too, had confirmed a positive monkeypox case in a child. No further information about the case has been released due to concerns over patient privacy, officials said.

“Maine CDC [Center for Disease Control and Prevention] is working to identify any others who may have been exposed and make vaccination available to close contacts,” officials wrote in a press release.

In addition to the cases in children reported in Maine and Florida, two cases have been confirmed in California, as well another two in Indiana, and a case in a non-U.S. resident reported in Washington, D.C.

The majority of cases in the current monkeypox outbreak have been detected in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. However, health officials have repeatedly stressed that anyone can contract the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously warned that there has been some preliminary evidence to suggest that children younger than 8 years old are at risk of developing more severe illness if infected, alongside pregnant people and those who are immunocompromised.

However, last week, in an effort to protect the youngest Americans, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization that allows health care for children under 18 who are at high risk of monkeypox to be vaccinated.

Across the globe, nearly 32,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported, including nearly 12,000 cases in the U.S. — the most of any country, according to the CDC. All but one U.S. state — Wyoming — have now confirmed at least one positive monkeypox case.

Monkeypox primarily spreads through prolonged skin-to-skin contact with infected people’s lesions or bodily fluids, according to the CDC. In addition to lesions, which can appear like pimples or blisters, the most common symptoms associated with monkeypox are swollen lymph nodes, fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches.

Feds bust alleged Mafia gambling operations posing as shoe repair, coffee shop

August 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(MERRICK, N.Y.) — Sal’s Shoe Repair in Merrick, New York, was doing more than fixing heels and worn soles.

The Genovese organized crime family operated an illegal gambling operation out of the shop, generating “substantial revenue,” which was then laundered through cash transfers, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said.

Nine purported members and associates of the Genovese and Bonanno organized crime families were charged Tuesday with racketeering and illegal gambling offenses for running gambling parlors out of other legitimate-seeming establishments in Queens and on Long Island, including a coffee bar and La Nazionale Soccer Club.

Salvatore Rubino, 58, known as “Sal the Shoemaker,” was among those arrested, prosecutors said.

A Nassau County police detective, Hector Rosario, is also among the defendants. He allegedly accepted money from the Bonanno family in exchange for offering to arrange police raids of competing gambling locations, according to the indictment. He is charged with obstructing a grand jury investigation and lying to the FBI.

“Current members of the five families demonstrate every day they are not adverse to working together to further their illicit schemes, using the same tired methods to squeeze money from their victims. Enlisting alleged assistance from a member of law enforcement also proves they are willing to do all they can to hide their illegal behavior,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael Driscoll said in a statement.

Beginning in May 2012, the Genovese and Bonanno families jointly operated a lucrative illegal gambling operation in Lynbrook, New York, called the Gran Caffe. The profits earned through this and other gambling locations generated substantial revenue, which was then laundered through cash transfers to the defendants and through “kicking up” to the crime families’ leaders, the indictment said.

“Today’s arrests of members from two La Cosa Nostra crime families demonstrate that the Mafia continues to pollute our communities with illegal gambling, extortion, and violence while using our financial system in service to their criminal schemes,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement.

Among those charged are Anthony “Little Anthony” Pipitone, a captain and soldier in the Bonanno family, and Carmelo “Carmine” Polito, acting captain in the Genovese family, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors detail one call Polito made in October 2019 to an associate asking him to relay a message to a debtor: “Tell him I’m going to put him under the f——- bridge.”

Newer cars shrink gender disparity in car crash fatalities: Officials

August 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The newer the car, the safer it is for women drivers, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a new report Tuesday.

While the NHTSA’s earlier report, published in 2013, found women to be at a much higher risk of fatality in car crashes compared to men, the 2022 report said that newer car technology, in line with strengthened regulations, has decreased the disparity.

According to the National Roadway Safety Strategy published by the Department of Transportation in February, officials said that although men represent more than 70 percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes, the motor vehicle fatality risk is still higher for a woman than for a man of the same age.

The NHTSA’s new report states the estimated difference in fatality risk estimates for female versus male front row occupants is 6.3% for car models from 2010-2020. Older vehicles, with model years 1960-2009, have a disparity almost three times that at 18.3%.

For vehicles within model years 2015-2020, the disparity closed even further, coming in at 2.9%, the report said.

Newer generations of cars are equipped with dual air bags, which significantly reduces the fatality risk for women in crashes, the NHTSA said. Newer cars also have more advanced seat belts, the agency said, which further reduces women’s risk.

However, NHTSA’s Administrator, Steven Cliff, said that the department is still looking to improve the impact upon women who are in car crashes.

“Advancing equity, including across our transportation system, is one of the Biden-Harris Administration’s top priorities,” Cliff said in a press release. “While NHTSA’s new report shows significant declines in differences in crash outcomes between women and men, there is more work required to eliminate any disparities that remain.”

The NHTSA said a number of developments are in action to close the remaining gap, including the development of new biofidelic crash test dummies and of sophisticated computer modeling that can evaluate the effects of different types of crashes on a large range of human body types and sizes.

Further, the agency is researching the degree to which sex disparities in injuries exist in like crashes and the evaluation of new safety standards to eliminate all remaining disparities.

Historically, car crash tests used only male dummies, according to the NHTSA. The agency has used a 4 foot 11 inch tall and 108 pound “female dummy” in some tests since 2003, the NHTSA said. However, this sizing is not accurate to the average woman’s body in America.

According to the NHTSA, new federal funding through the major infrastructure bill passed in last year will help accelerate research on this front to further close the gap in fatality rates for men and women in car crashes.

Novavax asks FDA for emergency authorization of its COVID-19 booster

August 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Novavax has submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster in adults that can be used on top of the its primary vaccine series or to mix and match with a different primary series, the company announced.

“It’s important for people to have a choice as they evaluate how to stay protected against COVID-19, and boosters are an invaluable tool to build upon immunity obtained from previous vaccinations,” Stanley C. Erck, President and Chief Executive Officer of Novavax, said in a statement on Monday.

“Based on the data presented to the FDA’s VRBPAC and the CDC ACIP, we believe our vaccine offers a broad, long-lasting immune response against a range of variants,” Erck said.

Although half a million doses of Novavax’s vaccine have now been distributed to states, following its authorization last month, just 9,700 doses of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine have been administered across the country, according to federal data.

The sluggish start may be, in part, due to the fact that the vaccines were not immediately made available after authorization, and thus, there could be some reporting delays.

Last month, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on the use of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine for Americans ages 18 years and older, making it the fourth COVID-19 vaccine to be made available to the American public.

The Biden administration secured 3.2 million doses of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine.

A number of health experts had expressed their hope that some of the individuals, who are still hesitant to be vaccinated, would be more inclined to get the Novavax vaccine, because it is based on a more traditional protein-based technology, one already used for the flu vaccine and other shots, while Pfizer and Moderna vaccine platforms tapped a new genetic technology — with messenger RNA — to produce their vaccines.

Early indicators suggest that the authorization has yet to convince a large swath of the 26 million unvaccinated American adults to get the shot.

However, experts say that although overall uptake may still be limited, there some Americans who have been vaccinated with Moderna, Pfizer, or Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccines, may feel more inclined to receive Novavax’s booster.

“Having vaccine options likely plays role in improving vaccination coverage. Given so many Americans have yet to receive their boosters despite the clear indication of their impact on reducing risk of severe complication from COVID-19, that improvement in vaccine uptake may be somewhat limited,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

Across the country, 110 million Americans — or more than half of those eligible to be boosted — have yet to receive their first booster shot, according to data from the CDC.

Similarly, although over 61 million people, over the age of 50, are eligible to receive their second COVID-19 booster shot, just a third of people have actually done so.

Committee chairs threaten DHS inspector general with subpoena over missing Secret Service texts

August 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Democratic chairs of the House Homeland Security and House Oversight committees on Tuesday threatened the Department of Homeland Security inspector general with a subpoena, accusing him of delaying responding to the committee’s request for answers regarding missing Secret Service text messages on and around the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

“If you continue to obstruct, we will have no choice but to consider alternate means to ensure compliance,” Rep. Bennie Thompson and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, both Democrats, write to Joseph Cuffari in a letter dated Aug. 16.

This is the second letter they have jointly sent to the DHS IG requesting information, amid new allegations that career staff in Cuffari’s office prepared a notice to Congress earlier this year about their difficulty obtaining Secret Service text messages connected to Jan. 6, but the notice was not included in the government watchdog’s required regular report to lawmakers.

The DHS inspector general has been under scrutiny for his handling of the deleted Secret Service text messages on and around Jan. 6. He previously waited more than a year to notify the committee about the missing texts.

A Secret Service spokesman last month acknowledged text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, were deleted after being sought by the DHS inspector general.

A letter Cuffari sent last month to the heads of the House and Senate Homeland Security committees said the messages were deleted “as part of a device-replacement program,” despite the inspector general having requesting such communications.

Guglielmi, the Secret Service spokesman, subsequently dismissed any “insinuation” the agents had “maliciously” deleted the texts.

The agency sent out communications to employees on how to upload digital files on their local devices if they are government records, according to a source familiar with the Secret Service migration process.

The letter sent by the committee chairs lays out how they say the inspector general might have violated the Inspector General Act.

“In response to the Committees’ requests, you have refused to produce responsive documents and blocked employees in your office from appearing for transcribed interviews,” the members write. “Your obstruction of the Committees’ investigations is unacceptable, and your justifications for this noncompliance appear to reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of Congress’s authority and your duties as an Inspector General.”

The DHS IG has instructed the Secret Service to stop its internal investigation because his office has now turned the deleted text message issue into a criminal investigation, according to three sources familiar with the situation.

The congressional committees say Cuffari made no mention of the Secret Service’s retention issues in the semi-annual report to lawmakers, despite knowing about them.

The inspector general’s office has not responded to ABC News request for comment.

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