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All 123 US federal prisons need ‘maintenance’: Inspector general

May 26, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The 123 federal prisons in the United States need roughly $2 billion worth of “maintenance” and most are “aging and deteriorating,” according to a DOJ inspector general report.

In three prisons, the conditions are so bad they had to be closed — including the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Manhattan, which held Jeffrey Epstein prior to his death.

“We’re seeing crumbling prisons,” DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz told Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas. “We’re seeing buildings that we go into that have actually holes in the ceilings in multiple places, leading to damages to kitchens, to doctor’s offices to gymnasiums. And they’re not being fixed.”

The inspector general’s investigation showed crumbling infrastructure in MCC New York, which was closed by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and currently has no reopening date.

While BOP sought $200 million for infrastructure repairs in fiscal year 2022 and was allocated just $57 million from Congress, the costs to fix all the facilities would cost closer to $2 billion, per the report released earlier this month.

“And that what we’ve seen is when you don’t fix your infrastructure, we don’t keep your building up to speed,” Horowitz said. “You create safety and security issues. We’ve seen inmates sleeping with pipes running over their heads that leak, that aren’t getting fixed.”

It is not only inmates that have to deal with dilapidated infrastructure, but staff who work in the prisons have to as well.

“We’ve been complaining about our prison conditions for many, many years, and it’s the conditions of confinement for the offenders, but it’s also the working conditions that our employees work in,” Shane Fausey, president of the Council of Prisons Locals, told ABC News.

Fausey, who represents over 30,000 federal corrections officers in the country, said the employees he represents go into work in tough conditions with little fanfare because they are dedicated to keeping their communities safe.

The inspector general also released three other reports detailing some of the other failures at the BOP. The Taft Correctional Institution in Taft, California was so unsafe, according to the IG, that the Justice Department had to shut down its operations. The facility was built in 1996 and had problems from its opening with unstable soil that caused cracks throughout the facility. Those cracks were so big that the sun shines through them, according to the report.

“We’re seeing problems in every institution,” Horowitz told ABC News. “It’s a global problem. The business as usual isn’t working for the BOP. They have to change that, and they have to address these very serious problems.”

But BOP’s problems extend beyond the dire need for physical repairs, extending to ongoing security problems that have allowed a steady stream of contraband like drugs, cell phones and weapons to enter several of the federal prisons the IG examined.

A 2021 search of a federal prison in Atlanta found 134 inmate-made weapons, marijuana, methamphetamines and enough prescription pills to fill two one-gallon bags along with 705 cell phones — some hidden in prison walls.

“I’m not just talking about guns [and] knives. You clearly want that out of the prison,” Horowitz said. “But what we’re seeing is tobacco, which is often a currency in the prisons. We’re seeing synthetic drugs coming in. We’re seeing cell phones coming in a cell phone in a prison is a deadly weapon.”

Cell phones in prison have proved deadly. In 2013, inmates at a federal prison in Puerto Rico were accused of using a cell phone to orchestrate the murder of corrections officer Lt. Osvaldo Albarati. Four inmates plead guilty for their roles in the plot.

The Inspector General found that more than half of the security cameras in the Atlanta facility were inoperable or malfunctioning. At MCC, there were “serious operational issues related to…camera functionality.”

In a statement to ABC News, Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters said she is committing to work with the IG and Government Accountability Office in the areas highlighted in the report.

“The BOP will carefully evaluate and implement any necessary corrective actions to ensure that our mission of operating safe, secure, and humane facilities continue to be fulfilled,” she said. “I am confident our processes and procedures now in place will ensure future success. We continue to take concrete steps that will not only meet but exceed the expectations of our external partners, and we will utilize the data gathered from the reports to optimize the allocation of resources.”

Congress has set aside over $1 billion for BOP to construct two new institutions, but the funds remain largely unspent and the projects have remained in the planning stages for over a decade. BOP has asked Congress to cancel one project and revoke funding, but that request has not been acted on.

17-year-old suspect arrested after Los Angeles bus driver stabbed in ‘heinous act’

May 25, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — A 17-year-old suspect has been arrested for allegedly stabbing a Los Angeles Metro Bus operator multiple times, leaving him in critical condition, police said.

A male suspect boarded the bus in Woodland Hills Wednesday evening and began arguing with the driver before stabbing him, Metro Los Angeles said on Twitter.

“The bus driver and the suspect exited the bus and continued the argument, at which time the suspect produced a knife (or sharp object) and stabbed the bus driver multiple times,” police said in a press release.

The suspect then fled on foot near Erwin Street and Topanga Canyon Boulevard, officials said.

L.A. Police Department officers began a grid search of the area, chief Michel Moore said, adding that the department “has mustered a number of night watch detectives and uniform personnel to investigate this senseless attack.”

Police officials released a statement with images of the suspect.

On Thursday, Moore announced that the suspect has been identified and a 17-year-old has been taken into custody. The suspect is not being publicly identified at this time because he is a juvenile, Moore said.

Moore praised the community for tips leading to the suspect’s arrest “who came together recognizing that this type of attack could not go unaddressed.”

Moore said police are investigating the suspect’s background in an attempt to find a motive for what he called a “horrific,” “vicious” and “unprovoked” attack.

The bus driver remains in “extremely” critical condition, Moore said Thursday.

“This heinous act of violence is horrific and the harm done to one of our Metro drivers is tragic. I join the entire city family in praying for him tonight, and my heart also goes out to his family,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

How tiger conservation in India may be helping to mitigate climate change

May 25, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The tiger conservation efforts in Asia have been so successful that they had an unintended — and equally beneficial — consequence of preventing further some greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere, a new study finds.

Enhanced protection of Indian forests for tiger conservation has prevented 1 million metric tons of carbon emissions as a result of averted forest loss, according to a paper published Thursday in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

The highest proportion of the world’s wild tigers — Panthera tigris — live in India. When the Indian National Tiger Conservation Authority was established in 2005 to rehabilitate the country’s dwindling tiger population, many of the tiger reserves were designated in the subsequent years, with the most recent ones being established in 2022, according to the researchers.

While the sites were already considered protected areas, the designation as tiger reserves resulted in enhanced monitoring and enforcement of forest protection. In addition, the tiger reserves were required to prepare a conservation plan that regulates forest product extraction, reduces deforestation drivers and encourages sustainable livelihoods for communities within the reserves.

Researchers compared rates of deforestation in tiger reserves to protected areas without the additional tiger protection and calculated that there was “significantly” less deforestation than what would have occurred without the enhanced protection in 11 of the 45 studied tiger reserves, according to the paper.

This forest conservation amounted to 5,802 hectares — or more than 14,000 acres — of net averted forest loss from 2007 to 2020, which the researchers estimate corresponds to net avoided carbon emissions of about 1.08 million metric tons.

India, the third-largest emitter in the world behind China and the U.S., released 2,442 million metric tons of total carbon dioxide emissions produced in 2020, according to the Global Carbon Atlas. In comparison, the amount of avoided carbon emissions from tiger conservation is “not massive,” but is still significant, Aakash Lamba, a conservation scientist at the National University of Singapore’s Center for Nature-based Climate Solutions and lead researcher of the paper, told ABC News.

The avoided deforestation could be worth about $6.24 million in carbon offsets and could represent about $92 million in ecosystem services from the avoided social cost of emissions in India, the researchers said.

Among the noteworthy results of the study was the finding that tiger conservation essentially pays for itself in terms of the avoided damages from climate change-related impacts, especially because India is one of the most vulnerable countries when it comes to the social cost of carbon, Lamba said.

Over the study period, more than a quarter of the annual expenditure on tiger conservation was paid back every year, in terms of avoided climate change impacts, the researchers found.

“Every additional tonne of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions leads to about $86 [U.S.] in damages to the Indian economy,” Lamba told ABC News.

One of the reasons why tigers have flourished in Asian countries like Nepal, India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is because these cultures tend to revere big cats, experts told ABC News last year.

In addition to the mythology, local communities, who tend of be the “custodians” of the tiger habitats, have emerged as key stakeholders in the conservation of the species, and are beginning to benefit from the ecotourism that has grown since the programs began. The conservation has become an “important way to enhance the livelihoods of the people who share their space with wild tigers,” Lamba said.

Growing up in India, Lamba was “fascinated” by the big cat, he said.

“The tiger is one of the most charismatic and highly protected wild species in India,” the paper states.

The findings show how protecting biodiversity on the planet with effective monitoring and management can benefit both species conservation and climate targets.

Traditionally, biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation have been been addressed as “fairly separate issues, but they’re quite intimately linked,” Lamba said.

Researchers are continuing to gather empirical evidence to establish that link, Lamba added.

12-year-old girl saves family from carbon monoxide poisoning

May 25, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(FORT WORTH, Texas) — A 12-year-old girl is being hailed as a hero for saving her family as authorities said carbon monoxide was filling their home in Fort Worth, Texas.

Jaziyah Parker knew something wasn’t right when her mother and younger brother began passing out.

She called 911 and quickly asked for help.

“Something wrong with my mama. Can you hurry up and come?” Jaziyah can be heard asking the dispatcher in a recording released by the department.

The fire department said in a statement to ABC News that if Jaziyah hadn’t made the crucial call, her entire family wouldn’t be alive today.

“At first, they were acting normal and when I came back to my room, they started screaming and throwing up and stuff and they started to pass out,” Jaziyah recalled.

Accidental carbon monoxide poisoning causes at least 430 deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Carbon monoxide can be very dangerous because it is invisible, has no smell or taste and it’s hard to detect.

With Jaziyah’s family, firefighters say the family accidentally left their car running in the garage.

“When a car is running in an enclosed environment, this is why people are more at risk of carbon monoxide exposure,” emergency medicine physician and medical toxicologist Dr. Stephanie Widmer explained to “Good Morning America.”

“Realizing [carbon monoxide poisoning is] what’s going on is something that’s very difficult. So that’s why carbon monoxide detectors are vital. They’re so important,” Widmer said.

The city of Forth Worth honored Jaziyah on Tuesday for her quick thinking and bravery.

“I’m the one who is supposed to protect [my children],” Jaziyah’s mother, Ariel Mitchell, said on Tuesday. “It’s like I was the one getting protected by them.”

Some Uvalde families await conclusion of district attorney’s investigation a year after shooting

May 25, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(UVALDE, Texas) — A year after the shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 21 people dead, some families in Uvalde, Texas, are troubled that the authorities still have not finished investigating the events of that day, including the botched police response.

“We feel there’s no justice for the fallen 21 — accountability,” said Jessica Orona, whose 10-year-old son, Noah, was shot but survived the attack. “I think that’s what hurts the most.”

Local District Attorney Christina Mitchell said she is still waiting on an investigative report from the Texas Department of Public Safety before presenting the case to a grand jury. In a statement released Wednesday, Mitchell said she had been “optimistic” that the investigation would be completed by the one-year mark, but it is “not surprising” that it’s still ongoing due to its magnitude.

“Ultimately what we want is to know who was there, where they were, and what they were doing,” said Assistant District Attorney Scott Durfee. “And then the grand jury will make the final decision as to what crimes have been committed and whether indictments should ensue.”

In total, 376 officers responded to the elementary school that day from 23 departments. Uvalde Police Chief Danny Rodriguez was on vacation that day, but he says that responding law enforcement, which included 25 of his officers, failed. His department is conducting its own administrative review, but he does not know when that will be complete.

“I think there was maybe a mixture of things that– that occurred that day. Maybe there was too many different agencies– too many leaders from different various agencies,” said Rodriguez.

Body and hallway cameras obtained by ABC News show that top police officials, including Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde schools police chief at the time, and Mariano Pargas, the city’s acting police chief, arrived on the scene while the gunman continued to shoot.

Instead of engaging the gunman in the classroom, video shows law enforcement retreating back down the hallways. Investigators tell ABC News that, though there were many mistakes that day, these early moments are the focus of the scrutiny.

Despite phone calls from two students inside the classroom begging dispatchers for help and explaining that there were victims shot but still alive, police waited in the hallway for a specialized border patrol team to arrive.

Dispatch audio shows that Pargas knew about those 911 calls from inside more than 30 minutes before going in to rescue the students.

“An abject failure is being kind,” said Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety Steve McCraw, whose own department had 91 officers on scene that day. Since the shooting, one DPS officer has been fired, another has resigned, and a third is appealing dismissal.

Whether that “abject failure” will be charged as a crime will be up to the grand jury, which has yet to be convened.

Arredondo has repeatedly defended his actions, saying he thought the gunman was “cornered.” He was fired by the school district and has not responded to ABC News requests for an interview.

Pargas retired from the police department after officials said they would move to fire him. He is seeking to have his retirement status changed to “honorable” and told ABC News he could not do an interview while the investigation is ongoing.

Uvalde:365 is a continuing ABC News series reported from Uvalde and focused on the Texas community and how it forges on in the shadow of tragedy.

Pargas’ former boss, Chief Rodriguez, is waiting for that administrative review to be complete before making any policy changes to the Uvalde Police Department. While the investigation is ongoing, he says the morale amongst his officers varies.

“The morale, it’s a roller-coaster,” said Rodriguez. “what they went through — it’s going to affect them for the rest of their lives. There’s no doubt about that.”

But the parents of some of the students who were also there that day, like Jessica and Oscar Orona, continue to wait for officials to be held responsible for the botched response.

“The atrocity that he not only experienced, but the length of time that he had to sit there amongst all of that you know, devastation,” said Oscar Orona, of his son. “The thought of him having to go through that, it just haunts me and haunts us.”

Since the shooting, six officers have left the Uvalde police force. Most of them were not on scene the day of the shooting, said Rodriguez, but the national and local criticism of the police response was overwhelming. A year after Uvalde’s worst day, Rodriguez is faced with leading the department forward.

“We have to gain that community’s trust, the way it was on May 23rd,” said Rodriguez. “And we’ll do it. We’re going to do it. And and I’m going to be right there with my officers doing it. it’s a group effort. And we all have to do this together.”

What has been happening in Belgorod, a Russian region that borders Ukraine?

May 25, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Earlier this week, an unknown number of heavily armed soldiers stormed over Ukraine’s north-eastern border with Russia.

At around the same time, Russian media reported explosions inside Belgorod. Russian officials later said Ukrainian artillery was used to fire into Belgorod.

The official version of events from the Ukrainian side is that only Russian nationals, belonging to two far-right paramilitary groups, were involved in the assault.

So far there is no evidence to contradict that claim.

The two paramilitary groups involved are the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Free Russia Legion. They are made up of Russian nationals who have been fighting in Ukraine alongside the Ukrainian military since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

It is unclear whether the Ukrainian-backed operation in that region is completely over.

On Thursday, the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, claimed that the Ukrainian military was shelling areas inside Belgorod and that Russian air defense had been active in a district of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine.

There have been other reports of explosions and drone attacks in the Russian region.

Eyewitness testimony from local civilians, videos circulating online and images filmed by independent media in Belgorod back some of those reports up.

The Ukrainian-backed far-right paramilitary groups who claimed responsibility for the operation in Belgorod also alleged, without providing details, that their mission was “still ongoing.”

Denis Kapustin, the leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps, told reporters that “Phase One” of the operation had ended. He also claimed that “Phase Two” would begin “in a couple of days.”

The Russian authorities took the threat seriously and launched a counterterrorism operation in the border region.

Some local residents were also evacuated from settlements close to the border where the fighting was taking place.

The level of strategic military success achieved by the Ukrainian-backed mission in Belgorod is unclear.

On Wednesday Kapustin claimed his men had taken control of roughly 16 square miles of territory inside Russia.

He also claimed two of his fighters had been killed in the raid. Russian officials said dozens of “terrorists” had been killed.

None of these figures can be independently verified.

Ukraine’s involvement

Publicly, Ukraine has tried to distance itself from the execution of the operation in Belgorod, however, there is mounting evidence that Ukraine was involved.

A commander for the Free Russia Legion, who goes by the military callsign of “Cesar,” told reporters on Wednesday that armored vehicles, “light weaponry” and “artillery weapons” used in the operation were supplied by Ukraine.

Speaking at the same event in northern Ukraine, Kapustin drew a distinction between the actions of his men in Ukraine and the operation on the other side of the border in Belgorod.

“Everything we do within the state borders of Ukraine we obviously coordinate with the Ukrainian military. Everything we do, every decision we make beyond the border (of Ukraine) is our decision,” he claimed in a response to a question from ABC News.

Kapustin told reporters that his men had been “encouraged” by the Ukrainian military.

“They wished us good luck,” he said.

Despite trying to distance themselves from the actual military operation in Russia, Ukrainian officials have celebrated what has been happening on social media and have mocked the Russian authorities for appearing to have lost control of an area near the border for an extended period of time.

In some ways, the apparent tactics of Ukraine are reminiscent of the Kremlin’s modus operandi in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas during a war which began in the spring of 2014.

Back then, Russia armed and supported Ukrainian separatists but falsely denied any involvement.

Aleksey Baranovsky, a Russian dissident who is part of the Political Center of Russian Armed Opposition, suggested to ABC News that the Kremlin was now receiving a dose of its own medicine.

“This game works both ways,” said Baranovsky, whose organization is a political affiliate of the paramilitary groups which conducted the operation in Belgorod.

“Putin thought that he was the only one to play this game,” he said. “One should respond to aggression with cunning. And Ukraine has been doing that in a smart way, as have the Russian volunteers.”

Far right links

Fighters from the two paramilitary groups were also questioned by reporters on Wednesday about their neo-Nazi and white supremacist links.

Kapustin said his group had never hidden the fact it was a far-right organization.

“We are conservative traditionalist right wingers. I don’t care what [the Russian authorities] call us. Should we care how our enemy insults us?” he said.

The spokesman of the Russian Volunteer Corps claimed his group was “more centrist” than the Russian Volunteer Corps.

Both groups emphasized that their fight against Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia gave them a common cause with Ukraine.

According to Kapustin, the Ukrainian military and his group are “brothers in arms.”

The timing of the operation is noteworthy, coming as Ukrainian officials promise a major counteroffensive “soon.”

Supreme Court cuts EPA’s Clean Water Act protection for wetlands

May 25, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A sharply divided Supreme Court on Thursday significantly rolled back federal safeguards for wetlands under the Clean Water Act, siding with Idaho property owners in a decision that curbs Environmental Protection Agency power.

The case, Sackett v. EPA, pitted Michael and Chantell Sackett against EPA regulators over a bid to build a family home adjacent to Priest Lake in northern Idaho.

The government said their land qualifies as a protected wetland, requiring an expensive permit for construction, while the family argued that its property is not directly connected to the lake and that the broad EPA regulations are an overreach.

The Clean Water Act of 1972 allows the government to set rules for pollution in “waters of the United States,” but for years, the extent to which adjacent wetlands are covered by the law has been hotly debated and unclear.

In 2017, a fractured Supreme Court said that the EPA can regulate any wetlands with a “significant nexus” to navigable waters, like rivers, lakes and oceans.

But Thursday, Justice Samuel Alito, writing for a five-justice majority in the Sackett case, said the existing standard is too broad, too difficult to enforce and too “precarious” for property owners.

“We hold that the [Clean Water Act] extends to only those wetlands that are as a practical matter indistinguishable from waters of the United States,” Alito wrote.

He said the EPA could only regulate wetlands adjacent to a “relatively permanent body of water connected to traditional interstate navigable waters” and having a “continuous surface connection with that water, making it difficult to determine where the ‘water’ ends and the ‘wetland’ begins.”

“Wetlands that are separate from traditional navigable waters cannot be considered part of those waters, even if they are located nearby,” Alito wrote.

The decision will in effect significantly reduce the number of wetlands protected by the Clean Water Act. It will also provide property owners with greater clarity and flexibility in utilizing their land free from government regulation.

“The Court’s ruling returns the scope of the Clean Water Act to its original and proper limits,” said Damien Schiff, a senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation who argued the case. “Courts now have a clear measuring stick for fairness and consistency by federal regulators. Today’s ruling is a profound win for property rights and the constitutional separation of powers.”

Alito was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett in adopting the new, more stringent “continuous surface connection” standard for which wetlands are protected.

All of the justices agreed that the Sacketts’ property, specifically, should not have been regulated as a wetland under the Clean Water Act, but Trump-appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined liberal Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson in strongly arguing that the majority had gone too far with its reasoning.

“By narrowing the Act’s coverage of wetlands to only adjoining wetlands, the Court’s new test will leave some long-regulated adjacent wetlands no longer covered by the Clean Water Act, with significant repercussions for water quality and flood control throughout the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote for the minority.

EPA administrator Michael Regan said the agency was disappointed by the high court’s decision and that it “erodes longstanding clean water protections.”

“The Biden-Harris Administration has worked to establish a durable definition of ‘waters of the United States’ that safeguards our nation’s waters, strengthens economic opportunity, and protects people’s health while providing the clarity and certainty that farmers, ranchers, and landowners deserve,” Regan said in a statement. “These goals will continue to guide the agency forward as we carefully review the Supreme Court decision and consider next steps.”

The White House said the decision “aims to take our country backwards.”

“It will jeopardize the sources of clean drinking water for farmers, businesses and millions of Americans,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at her on-cam briefing Thursday afternoon.

Environmental groups said the decision is a huge setback.

“The Sackett decision undoes a half-century of progress generated by the Clean Water Act. Almost 90 million acres of formerly protected wetlands now face an existential threat from polluters and developers,” said Sam Sankar, vice president of Programs at Earthjustice, an advocacy group that had weighed in on the case.

Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous said the weakened rules would have a direct impact.

“Millions of Americans will have less safe drinking water than the generation before them,” Jealous said in a statement. “This fight is far from over.”

Biden administration lawyers are “carefully reviewing the decision,” per Jean-Pierre.

ABC News’ Benjamin Gittleson contributed to this report.

4-month-old migrant girl dies at New York City hotel: Police

May 25, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A 4-month-old girl has died at a New York City hotel being used to house asylum-seekers, police said.

The baby, who a police official said was a member of a migrant family, was found unconscious and unresponsive inside the Stewart Hotel in Midtown at 7:32 a.m. Thursday, according to authorities.

She was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.

There is no apparent criminality but the medical examiner will determine the cause of death, according to police.

The Stewart Hotel, which was being used as a New York City Department of Social Services emergency shelter, was transitioned into a migrant shelter in November.

13-year-old graduates from Oklahoma City Community College with science and cybersecurity degree

May 25, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.) — Elijah Muhammad has achieved something not many 13 year olds can brag about: He’s a college graduate.

The young teen recently walked the stage at Oklahoma City Community College after earning an associate’s degree in computer science and cybersecurity.

Elijah told ABC News affiliate KOCO that he also has 10 IBM certifications, one Google IT certification and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Oklahoma State University.

“My dad has a homeschool program called Pro One Collegiate Academy and it basically accelerates your learning into things that you’re interested in,” Elijah told “Good Morning America.” “So, since I was interested in cybersecurity, it accelerated me in that and I was able to go to college early.”

Elijah said he would often catch the attention of other students in his community college courses, with some thinking that another adult in the classroom was babysitting him.

“I told them that I was actually in this class [at] my age — they were surprised at first,” he said. “They thought I would just be quiet in class. But when I asked questions and I was interacting with the class, they were more surprised.”

Elijah’s older sister Shania Muhammad told KOCO her brother is “the smartest person I know.”

“And regardless of if you’re older or not, it’s like I’ve never seen [anything] like him,” she said.

Shania, who spoke with KOCO about graduating from Langston University at just 15 years old, worked with Elijah and helped inspire him to graduate early.

“I got two associate’s degrees at 14 years old, and I kind of did the same process,” said Shania. “That’s why I just went on to do my bachelor’s. I completed everything in two and a half years. So I was just kind of exploring and just having fun, but it turned out quite amazing.”

Elijah said the siblings are “competitive,” but added, “When someone else needs help, we’re all there to help each other out.”

As much as Elijah studies, he also makes time for other activities, including swimming and basketball. He is also a motivational speaker and hopes to help others achieve their goals.

“If you want to put your mind to making a 4.0, you can do it,” Elijah told KOCO. “If you want to put your mind to winning a state championship, you can do it. You just gotta put in the work that it takes to accomplish that.”

Debt ceiling negotiators ‘making progress,’ Biden says even as deal remains elusive

May 25, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Seeking to strike a reassuring tone despite days of negotiations, President Joe Biden said Thursday afternoon that he’s had several “productive conversations” with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and their teams are “making progress” on debt ceiling talks as the country inches closer to default.

“I’ve made it clear time and again: Defaulting on our national debt is not an option,” Biden said as he delivered remarks in the Rose Garden before nominating a new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

But an agreement still remains elusive with just seven days until potential default. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen maintains that the U.S. government could run out of cash to pay all its bills in early June, possibly as soon as June 1.

House members left town on Thursday for Memorial Day weekend but were told to be ready to return if a deal is reached.

“It is time for Congress to act now,” Biden said in the Rose Garden. “I want to be clear: The negotiations we’re having with Speaker McCarthy is about the outlines of what the budget will look like, not about default. It’s about competing visions for America.”

“The only way to move forward is with a bipartisan agreement,” he added. “And I believe that we’ll come to an agreement that allows us to move forward and that protects the hardworking Americans of this country.

Earlier Thursday, McCarthy told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott that “every hour matters” as the clock ticks toward June 1.

The speaker also expressed optimism the two sides will come to a solution, though he dodged questions on the narrowing timetable for Congress to be able to pass a deal.

“We worked well past midnight last night,” McCarthy said. “And yesterday, I thought, was a very good day. We made some progress. There are still some outstanding issues, and I’ve directed our teams to work 24/7 to try to solve this problem.”

A key Republican negotiator said there are still “fundamental disagreements” to resolve.

“Nothing’s resolved. Nothing’s resolved. And everyone wants to think you can lock up and bank something. You can’t bank anything until you actually have a complete deal,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina.

Asked if he was confident a deal would be reached by this weekend, McHenry replied, “I’m still trying to work for the deal. And it looks very difficult because it’s very difficult subjects that we’re dealing with. I don’t think there’s I’ve made no secret about this. It’s not a position I wanted us to be in.”

Even if a debt ceiling deal is reached, Congress faces a serious time crunch to pass legislation before the end of the month. After a bill is drafted, McCarthy’s pledging to give House members 72 hours to review it, a concession he offered to conservative hardliners roadblocking his speakership vote at the start of this year. Then the Senate will have to take up the bill before it goes to President Joe Biden’s desk.

Complicating the matter further is the Memorial Day recess. The House will gavel out Thursday, and the Senate left town last week, though leadership in both chambers has directed lawmakers to be prepared to return to Washington immediately if a deal is struck.

Several Democrats have voiced frustration in recent days over the status of negotiation, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., dinging McCarthy’s plans to adjourn and excoriating Republicans for, in his words, making “unreasonable demands.”

“It’s my understanding that the designees of both President Biden as well as Speaker McCarthy will continue to talk, but it is unfortunate that House Republicans have chosen to get out of town before sundown,” Jeffries said in a news conference.

He hit the GOP for a “manufactured crisis” over the debt ceiling, accusing the party of holding the economy hostage.

“Republicans are driving us down a dangerous road of default or have presented the American people with another unacceptable choice, which is devastating cuts to children, devastating cuts to Medicaid, devastating cuts to nutrition, devastating cuts to education, devastating cuts to public safety and devastating cuts to our veterans,” he said.

Congressional Progressive Caucus leader Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington voiced similar concerns, warning Wednesday that progressives “are not going to take a deal that hurts working people.”

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., said he was “very concerned” that Biden was giving too much away in the negotiations.

Bowman added, “I’m advocating for the White House to ensure that we don’t give away the house and default on our responsibilities.”

Jeffries said Thursday that Biden “is continuing to hold the line” on the spending cuts Republicans are seeking.

Meanwhile, conservative hardliners are telling McCarthy to stand his ground, too. They say they are seeking to end Democrats’ “addiction” to government spending, which they blame for inflation and other economic woes.

“Hold the line,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.

“This White House is a mockery of leadership. So we should hold firm and actually lead the country. And we have the ability to do that,” said Rep. Bryon Donalds, R-Fla.

As the politics play out, credit rating agency Fitch warned Thursday it was putting U.S. credit rating on watch for a possible downgrade.

Pressed for his reaction, McCarthy said he wasn’t concerned.

“I am concerned about, at the end of the day, if you do not have a deal worthy of the American public, you should be worried about Fitch. I’m not,” he said.

ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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