News – Page 1705 – 105.7 WDNY

Debt ceiling deal to prevent default narrowly passes first big test in key House committee

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The debt ceiling deal brokered by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy cleared a major procedural hurdle on Tuesday night, just days before a potential default by the U.S. government.

The House Rules Committee gave the green light for the Fiscal Responsibility Act to advance to the full House so members can hold a planned vote on Wednesday night before sending the legislation to the Senate ahead of Monday’s default deadline.

The panel advanced the bill to the floor for debate in a narrow 7-6 vote.

In a big win for Republican leadership, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky — a GOP hard-liner and fiscal hawk — voted in favor of the rule.

“Today’s bill is a product of compromise and reflects the realities of a divided government,” Oklahoma Republican Rep. Tom Cole, who supported the rule for the proposal, said as he began the meeting.

In his own remarks, Massie said, “My interest in being on this committee was not to imprint my ideology. I think that is an inappropriate use of the committee.”

He later told reporters he planned to vote for the deal on the floor.

The other House Freedom Caucus members on the committee, Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and North Carolina’s Ralph Norman, vowed to try to block the bill from moving forward and ultimately voted against the rule, along with the four Democratic members.

“Not one Republican should vote for this deal. It is a bad deal,” Roy said earlier Tuesday at a House Freedom Caucus press conference.

He also issued a veiled threat that there could be consequences if the deal goes through.

“We will continue to fight today, tomorrow,” Roy said. “And no matter what happens, there’s going to be a reckoning about what just occurred, unless we stop this bill by tomorrow.”

Rep. Scott Perry, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, dodged questions at the news conference on whether he’d support a motion to vacate — a rule that would allow any House member to force a vote to attempt to remove the speaker.

“I’ll let each member speak for themselves. For me, I am focused on defeating this bill. What happens post that, and the agreements we have, we will decide once we determine the disposition of the bill in its finality,” Perry said.

McCarthy shrugged off the criticism from those in his party, specifically some who claim the party was “outsmarted” by Democrats.

“How were we outsmarted, the largest cut in the history of Congress, the biggest ability to pull money back?” McCarthy said.

Getting the bill through Congress will hinge on support from moderates in both parties. The White House and Republican leaders have been holding calls and briefings to sell the deal, with more meetings planned, ABC News has reported.

Lawmakers face a time crunch to pass the debt ceiling deal because Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned the “X-date” — when the government could run out cash to pay all its bills in full and on time — could happen as early as June 5.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday Republicans have said they will deliver 150 votes from their party, and “House Democrats will make sure that the country does not default.”

The New Democrat Coalition, made up of roughly 100 House Democrats, has endorsed the debt ceiling deal.

Asked about the vote tallies, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young (a key negotiator in the debt talks) stopped short of declaring victory, telling reporters she’d leave that to Congress.

“All I know is when you enter into good faith negotiations, you don’t negotiate to see a bill posted,” she said at the daily White House briefing. “You negotiate to make sure it gets to the president’s desk and we’ll fulfill our part when it gets to the president’s desk.”

The Fiscal Responsibility Act includes a two-year government budget in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling through Jan. 1, 2025. The bill would keep non-defense spending flat in fiscal 2024 and increase levels by 1% in fiscal 2025.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday night released its score — or fiscal analysis — of the debt ceiling deal, estimating that it would reduce the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

The interest on the public debt in that time period would also decline by $188 billion, according to the CBO.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said his chamber will take up the bill as soon as it passes the House. He advised his colleagues to prepare for possible Friday and weekend votes if there’s not unanimous cooperation.

If there’s a filibuster, it could push the chamber past the June 5 default deadline. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, previously threatened to “use every procedural tool at my disposal to impede a debt-ceiling deal” he didn’t agree with.

Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a rare moment of unity, both praised the debt limit deal in floor remarks on Tuesday.

“I support the bipartisan agreement that President Biden has produced with Speaker McCarthy. Avoiding default is an absolute imperative,” Schumer said.

McConnell said while no one got everything they wanted, “the American people got a whole lot more progress towards fiscal sanity than Washington Democrats wanted to give them. Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans deserve our thanks.”

While COVID and RSV rates were decreasing this spring, a lesser-known virus was on the rise

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — While cases of COVID-19 and RSV were decreasing across the United States this spring, infections linked to another lesser-known respiratory virus were increasing.

The percent of tests positive for human metapneumovirus (hMPV) surged to 19.6% for antigen tests and 10.9% percent for PCR tests at the beginning of March, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

During the four years before the pandemic, the weekly percentage of positive tests never reached higher than 7.7%, data shows.

Meanwhile, during the beginning of March, the percentage of tests positive for COVID and RSV were at 7% and 2%, respectively, according to the CDC.

The virus causes mild symptoms for most people and typically goes away on its own, but health experts say the data is a reminder about staying vigilant regarding all types of respiratory infections and not just the ones getting the most attention.

“There’s a number of different respiratory viruses that haven’t gotten much attention and human metapneumovirus is one of them,” Dr. Bruce Y. Lee, a professor of health policy and management at City University of New York School of Public Health, told ABC News.

What is hMPV?

HMPV was discovered in 2001 and is in the same family of viruses as RSV, according to the CDC. It can cause upper and lower respiratory infections, but younger children, older adults and immunocompromised people are at higher risk of severe disease.

The virus is most commonly spread from person to person and can be transmitted through droplets from coughing and sneezing, personal contact such as shaking hands and or touching surfaces with the virus on them and then touching the eyes, nose or mouth, the CDC said.

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms can take between three to six days to appear after infection and resemble those of the common cold and include cough, nasal congestion, fever and shortness of breath.

Surveillance data shows that it tends to be more active in the late winter and spring, similar to other seasonal viruses like the flu, but has surged this year.

“That peak itself is about 36% higher than what is normally seen before the pandemic,” Lee said. “So, it’s an indirect way of getting a sense of the prevalence of hMPV infections out there. It does suggest that there is at least significant activity.”

Lee says that although testing for hMPV has become broader, people are not routinely tested for it, so the true percentage could be even higher than what is reported.

How is hMPV treated and prevented?

There are no antiviral therapies to treat hMPV so those infected can treat their disease with over-the-counter medications including pain relievers or decongestants.

No vaccines are available to prevent the disease so prevention measures including washing hands with warm soap and water, cleaning surfaces and staying home when ill, according to the CDC.

Lee said the lessons learned from the pandemic about the importance of mitigation can be applied here as well.

“Early on [in the pandemic] there was a lot of realization that a lot of the precautions that you should normally take to prevent the transmission of respiratory viruses weren’t in place,” he said. “So the best way to really constructively move from the pandemic is to think about what are some of the precautions that we should be putting in place just in general to prevent the spread of these respiratory viruses.”

Passenger on Asiana flight speaks out

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A passenger sitting next to the man on the Asiana Airlines flight who opened an emergency exit door in mid-air has spoken out about those terrifying moments on the plane.

Lee Yoon-Joon told the Yonhap News Agency that he initially didn’t have a good impression of his seatmate, claiming the man gave off a “bad vibe.”

After the man opened the door, Lee said he jumped into action, pulling the man back with the help of the flight attendants. Initially, they said they thought a mechanical malfunction had caused the door to open.

“Frankly speaking, I thought, ‘Am I going to die?'” Lee recalled. “A million things were on my mind at that moment.”

Lee said it became hard to breathe with the door open and the wind was like a “disaster movie.” Other passengers on the plane were crying, he said.

“I am an ordinary citizen and did what the flight attendant told me,” he added.

Dramatic video shows Lee, wearing red shorts, and his fellow passengers getting blasted by the high-speed wind through the open door in the final minutes of the flight.

“Air would be rushing by the airplane just outside,” Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who was not on the flight, told ABC News, speaking to what the passengers would have experienced once the door was opened. “At that speed, about 160 miles an hour, from all indications, that would be the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane-scale speed.”

Experts say the door was only able to open because of the plane’s altitude.

The plane, an Airbus A321-200, was about 700 feet above the ground as it prepared to land at Daegu International Airport in South Korea, Transport Ministry officials said. At cruising altitude, experts say, the pressure in the plane would have made it impossible to open the exit door.

Asiana Airlines said in a statement that it has since stopped selling emergency exit seats on certain planes as a safety precaution.

Twelve passengers on board were taken to the hospital for respiratory issues and other minor symptoms after the flight landed following the May 26 incident. They’ve since all been released.

Police said the suspect, who was arrested Sunday and faces up to 10 years in prison for violating aviation security laws, is “mentally struggling.” During preliminary questioning, the 33-year-old told police he felt like was suffocating and wanted to get off the plane quickly. The suspect had recently lost a job and was under stress when the incident occurred, according to police.

There were 194 people on board the aircraft, including a group of teenage athletes on their way to a track and field competition, according to Asiana Airlines.

Ahead of his court appearance, the suspect told reporters, “I’m really sorry to the kids.”

Eleven-month-old girl dies after left in car for three hours while parents went to church: Police

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(PALM BAY, Fla.) — An 11-month-old baby girl has died after being left in a car for three hours while her parents attended a Florida church service, police said.

Police in Palm Bay responded Sunday around 1 p.m. to a report of an unresponsive infant in a vehicle.

“When they arrived, they learned the infant had been left in a car for approximately three hours while the parents went to the church service,” the Palm Bay Police Department said in a statement.

The infant was transported to a local hospital where she was later pronounced deceased, police said Tuesday. A police department spokesperson did not have the time of death available.

No arrests have been made in the case at this time and the investigation is ongoing, police said.

“This is an unfortunate incident, and our condolences and prayers go out to the family,” Palm Bay Police Chief Mario Augello said in a statement.

Palm Bay is located about 75 miles southeast of Orlando. The temperature in the city around midday Sunday was in the high 70s.

The temperature inside a car can exceed 115 degrees when the outside temperature is just 70 degrees, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In 2022, 33 children died of heatstroke in vehicles, according to the NHTSA.

AI leaders warn the technology poses ‘risk of extinction’ like pandemics and nuclear war

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Hundreds of business leaders and public figures sounded a sobering alarm on Tuesday over what they described as the threat of mass extinction posed by artificial intelligence.

Among the 350 signatories of the public statement are Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, the company behind the popular conversation bot ChatGPT; and Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, the tech giant’s AI division.

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” said the one-sentence statement released by the San Francisco-based nonprofit Center for AI Safety.

Supporters of the statement also feature a range of figures like musician Grimes, environmental activist Bill McKibben and neuroscience author Sam Harris.

Concern about the risks posed by AI and calls for forceful regulation of the technology have drawn greater attention in recent months in response to major breakthroughs like ChatGPT.

In testimony before the Senate two weeks ago, Altman warned lawmakers: “If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.”

“We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models,” he added, suggesting the adoption of licenses or safety requirements necessary for the operation of AI models.

Like other AI-enabled chat bots, ChatGPT can immediately respond to prompts from users on a wide range of subjects, generating an essay on Shakespeare or a set of travel tips for a given destination.

Microsoft launched a version of its Bing search engine in March that offers responses delivered by GPT-4, the latest model of ChatGPT. Rival search company Google in February announced an AI model called Bard.

The rise of vast quantities of AI-generated content has raised fears over the potential spread of misinformation, hate speech and manipulative responses.

Hundreds of tech leaders, including billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, signed an open letter in March calling for a six-month pause in the development of AI systems and a major expansion of government oversight.

“AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity,” the letter said.

In comments last month to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Musk raised further alarm: “There’s certainly a path to AI dystopia, which is to train AI to be deceptive.”

The statement released on Tuesday included other major backers from the AI industry, including Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott and OpenAI Head of Policy Research Miles Brundage.

Addressing the brevity of the 22-word statement released on Tuesday, the Center for AI Safety said on its website: “It can be difficult to voice concerns about some of advanced AI’s most severe risks.”

“The succinct statement below aims to overcome this obstacle and open up discussion,” the Center for AI Safety added.

Experts warn against canceling Pride campaigns after extremists threaten Target

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Target reported that its employees faced threats over its new Pride collections celebrating the LGBTQ+ community and responded by pulling some of the merchandise that had caused the most “significant confrontational behavior” to protect the safety and well-being of its employees, according to a statement from the company.

Extremism experts and LGBTQ advocates warned that removing merchandise could be seen as a success by anti-LGBTQ extremists and violent protesters which could lead to copycat behavior threatening the already marginalized community.

Several Targets also received bomb threats over Memorial Day weekend related to the controversy, according to Cleveland 19 News. The threats reportedly called for the return of LGBTQ+ items to the shelves, according to the local news outlet, which said it received the bomb threats.

“I think this will embolden alt-right actors, who now are going to believe that with social media campaigns and targeted actions against retailers that they can proceed in limiting visibility of LGBTQ people,” said Sophie Bjork-James, a professor at Vanderbilt University, who researches the white nationalist movement, in an interview.

The rise coincides with political rhetoric targeting and demonizing the LGBTQ+ community, as well as legislative efforts targeting LGBTQ+ rights to gender-affirming care and inclusion in education.

Drag shows and drag story hours, even children’s hospitals, as well as other LGBTQ+ pride events have faced death and bomb threats as well as protesters in recent years. In November, a Colorado LGBTQ+ bar was the site of a mass shooting, stoking heightened fear within the community.

“Target’s giving into this,” said Victor Asal, a professor at Albany and extremism researcher. “Other extremists will say ‘hey, that’s a great idea. We should do that.'”

Michael Edison Hayden, a senior investigative reporter at the Southern Poverty Law Center, believes extremists are making calculated efforts to redefine LGBTQ+ Pride as a “toxic” or dangerous thing.

Bomb threats, he said, are intended to scare the community and supporters into silence.

“It’s a real concern,” said Hayden. “Bigots feel emboldened largely because of mainstream politicians giving them a pat on the back,” referring to some conservative political and media figures who have recently resurfaced harmful stereotypes against LGBTQ+ people.

The Department of Homeland Security said that intensifying waves of threats and calls of violence against the LGBTQIA+ community could lead to a rise of potential attacks against larger targets, such as public spaces and healthcare sites that may be linked to the community.

According to a report by The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, anonymous forum websites detailing hate crime fantasies or plans against the LGBTQ+ highlight the growing threat of violence against this community.

National LGBTQ+ organizations, including Family Equality, GLAAD, GLSEN, The Human Rights Campaign, and more are calling on Target and all businesses to stand up against anti-LGBTQ+ extremism.

“When values of diversity, equity and inclusion are tested, business must defend them unequivocally,” the organizations said in a joint statement.

Target has been a long-time supporter of the LGBTQ+ community in its merchandising, hosting Pride campaigns annually.

“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,” Target said in a statement. “Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”

Target re-affirmed its commitment to the queer community in a statement following the controversy.

“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,” Target said.

Organizations are pointing to the actions of North Face, an outdoor sporting gear company, as an example of how to respond to boycott calls against Pride campaigns. The company defended its ads featuring a drag queen in the face of criticism in a statement and has continued to roll out its Summer of Pride campaign.

“The North Face has always believed the outdoors should be a welcoming, equitable and safe place for all. We are honored and grateful to support partners like Pattie Gonia who help make this vision a reality,” the brand said in a statement to ABC News. “The Summer of Pride series, now in its second year, has helped foster a more accessible and welcoming environment for individuals from all backgrounds to gather and experience the joy of the outdoors.”

Representatives for Target and the National Retail Federation did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.

“If you are going to take these steps to embrace the LGBTQ+ population in a public way, you have to have the courage of your convictions to see it through,” said Hayden in an interview with ABC News. “Once you make that decision to do that, and you back away in fear, it is those people you are putting at risk, who are frequently a target of harassment, intimidation – as we’ve seen also, catastrophic violence.”

South Carolina teen falsely accused of shoplifting fatally shot by store owner: Police

May 30, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(SOUTH CAROLINA) — A South Carolina gas station owner was charged with murder on Monday after allegedly shooting and killing a 14-year-old boy he falsely believed was shoplifting bottles of water, according to police.

Rick Chow, 58, was arrested and charged in connection to the fatal shooting of Cyrus Carmack-Belton in Columbia, South Carolina, the Richland County Sheriff’s Office said.

In a news conference on Monday, Sheriff Leon Lott said the teenager did not shoplift from the Shell gas station, despite Chow’s belief that he did.

“He did not shoplift anything. We have no evidence that he stole anything whatsoever,” Lott said.

Police said there was a verbal confrontation inside the store before Cyrus left and took off running.

Lott said the convenience store owner, who police said was armed with a pistol, and his son chased after the teenager toward an apartment complex.

Cyrus fell during the chase, got up and was allegedly shot in the back by Chow, police said.

According to police, Chow’s son said the victim had a gun. Police said a gun was found close to the teen’s body, but there was no evidence of who the gun belonged to.

“Even if he had shoplifted four bottles of water, which is what he initially took out the cooler and then he put them back, even if he had done that, that’s not something you shoot anybody over, much less a 14-year-old,” Lott said. “You just don’t do that.”

Following a peaceful protest at the gas station Monday, there was alleged vandalism and looting, which Lott condemned during a second press conference Tuesday, saying those who took part would be held responsible.

According to a police report, protesters shattered the business’s window, vandalized gas pumps, spray-painted outside the store and left the scene carrying beer and other food items.

Chow is being held at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, according to police.

A date and time for his bond hearing has not been scheduled, police said.

53 people shot, 11 fatally, during violent Memorial Day weekend in Chicago

May 30, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(CHICAGO) — More than 50 people were shot, 11 fatally, over a violent Memorial Day weekend in Chicago, police said.

The gunshot victims included two toddlers who were accidentally shot and wounded in separate incidents and two teenagers, a 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, who were hurt in unrelated shootings while standing on sidewalks, according to a review by ABC News of the weekend incident reports from the Chicago Police Department.

On Tuesday, police officials said at least 53 people were shot across the city in 42 separate incidents that occurred between 6 p.m. on Friday and 11:59 p.m. on Monday.

Besides the 11 people who were fatally shot over the weekend, an additional person was fatally stabbed, according to police.

The string of shootings occurred as newly-elected Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s safety plan was deployed over the Memorial Day weekend. Johnson’s initiative supports violence prevention programs, and youth outreach efforts by funding the work of more than 250 grassroots organizations across 24 communities on the West and South Sides of Chicago.

The spike in gun violence in Chicago comes as city leaders were seeing declines in both homicides and shootings this year. Before this past weekend, homicides in Chicago were down 7% from the 228 slayings that occurred in the first five months of 2022, according to the Chicago Police Department’s crime statistics. Shooting incidents are also down 9% this year compared to last year, crime statistics say.

“This weekend, what you saw on display is that everybody recognizes that it’s going to take all of us to unite this city and build a better, stronger, safer city,” Johnson told reporters at a community event on Monday.

Johnson acknowledged that “we have a lot of work to do” to curb gun violence in Chicago and said poverty continues to be one of the primary reasons for the shootings and homicides.

“Poverty didn’t go away over the weekend,” Johnson said. “We understand that when communities have been disinvested in and traumatized, that you’re seeing the manifestation of that trauma.”

Seven of the 11 gunshot homicides occurred on Saturday, according to police.

The first homicide of the holiday weekend unfolded just before 1 a.m on Saturday in the Beverly View neighborhood, when a 33-year-old man was discovered unresponsive on a sidewalk with a gunshot wound under his left armpit, according to police. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene and no arrests have been announced in the incident.

Just after 2 a.m. Saturday, a 35-year-old man was found on a sidewalk in the Lake View East neighborhood suffering from a bullet wound to the chest, according to police. The victim, William Hair, was taken to Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. No arrests have been announced.

“Senseless. It’s the only word for it,” Hair’s brother, Matthew Hair, told ABC Chicago station WLS-TV.

He said his brother was walking home from a bar with his best friend when a car pulled up alongside them. The occupants of the vehicle shot Hair while attempting to rob him and his friend.

Around 2:09 a.m. on Saturday, four people were shot in a drive-by shooting, including a 69-year-old woman who was killed, according to police. Witnesses told police that the gunfire came from a vehicle and was aimed at a car containing three men, who all suffered gunshot wounds. Police later discovered the 69-year-old woman alone in another car, suffering from a bullet wound to the side. She was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

Just before 3 a.m. on Saturday, a man and a woman were both shot in the face while standing on a sidewalk. Both victims were taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where one of them, a 36-year-old man, was pronounced dead, according to police. No arrests have been announced.

At about 3:20 a.m. Saturday, a 22-year-old man, identified by police as Jonathan Salgado, was shot in the chest while standing on a sidewalk in the Little Village neighborhood in the southwest area of the city, police said. Salgado was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Also on Saturday, an unidentified man, described as 25 to 30 years old, was found shot multiple times in the Humboldt Park area in the northwest section of the city and was later pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital, police said.

A 20-year-old man was shot in the back around 10 p.m. Saturday as he walked along a street, police said. The victim was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

About an hour later, a 26-year-old man was shot and killed when he exited a gas station in the West Woodlawn section of the city, police said.

The string of killings continued on Sunday in the Fernwood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, when around 12:30 a.m. a 20-year-old man was shot multiple times by two assailants, who remained at large Tuesday morning, according to police.

Two people were shot, one fatally, around 2:09 a.m. Sunday. A 35-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman were found critically injured inside a car were taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where the man was pronounced dead, according to police.

In addition to the 11 fatal shootings, a 42-year-old woman was found stabbed to death just after midnight Saturday in an alley in the Austin neighborhood of the city. A 64-year-old man, police identified as Arnel Smith, was arrested and charged with murder in the fatal stabbing, police said.

Among the victims shot and wounded over the weekend was a 77-year-old man, who was shot in the back. The man was among three people wounded in a drive-by shooting that unfolded around 1:43 a.m. Monday in the Burnside neighborhood, police said. No arrests were announced in the incident.

On Saturday, a 21-year-old man was shot in the thigh by a 24-year-old man he allegedly approached and fired shots at, police said. The man who was shot was arrested after being taken to Holy Cross Hospital for treatment. The man who shot him has a permit to legally carry a firearm and was not charged, police said.

Memorial Day weekend mayhem leaves 53 shot, 11 fatally, in Chicago