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Minor earthquake shakes residents near New York City

May 19, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A small earthquake shook buildings across the New York metropolitan area Friday morning.

A 2.2 magnitude impacted the New York metropolitan area around 1:50 a.m., according to the United States Geological Service.

The tremor struck south of Hastings-on-Hudson, a village in Westchester County about 10 miles north of New York City. There were no initial reports of damage or injuries from the seismic activity.

Residents in New York and New Jersey described the quake’s impact as dramatic and noticeable, though it did not cause any damage.

Yonkers, NY, resident Sophia Balaj told ABC News that the quake produced a loud rumble for a few seconds, noticeable enough to prompt all the members of the video call she was on to ask each other if they felt the same shaking.

Englewood, NJ, resident Erica Diggs, a military veteran who completed two deployments to Iraq, compared the feeling of the earthquake to a mortar.

“What it felt like was a mortar, and what it sounded like was a mortar.” She later added the quake “gave me flashbacks of being in my trailer when I was in Iraq and the mortars would hit that close.”

White Plains, NY, resident Allison Solin added that her unfamiliarity with earthquakes as a New Yorker led to some panic about the source of the shaking that impacted her home.

“I was like, ‘That’s not wind,’” she told ABC News. “And then I thought, oh my god, is there a bomb explosion nearby?”

Like Solin, many residents near New York City took to social media early Friday morning to ask if others had felt a similar shake.

Earthquakes near New York City are relatively uncommon, though the occasional tremor has impacted the region.

A 5.8 earthquake struck Virginia in 2011, sending noticeable tremors up the eastern seaboard, including New York City. Another 3.9 magnitude earthquake in 2010 off the coast of Southampton caused similar alarm for residents in New York.

The New York earthquake occurred the same evening as a significantly stronger 7.7 magnitude earthquake generated a small tsunami in the Pacific Ocean.

Detention hearing set to continue for Pentagon leak suspect Jack Teixeira

May 19, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WORCESTER, Mass.) — The detention hearing for the 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard charged in connection with the leaked documents probe is expected to continue Friday.

Jack Teixeira is scheduled to appear in federal court in Worcester, Massachusetts, at 3:30 p.m. ET Friday.

The federal magistrate judge first heard arguments last month over whether Teixeira should be kept in federal custody ahead of his trial. The judge, David Hennessy, said he needed more time to review before making a decision.

Prosecutors have argued that Teixeira is both a flight and national security risk and, if released on bail, they say he could “further disseminate classified information” and “take refuge with a foreign adversary.”

Teixeira’s public defender, meanwhile, has argued that the airman should be permitted to remain out of pretrial detention in the custody of his father or confined to a home with the presence of either his father, mother, stepfather, Air Force personnel or his lawyers. Teixeira’s father testified during the April 27 detention hearing that he was prepared to serve as a third-party custodian pending his son’s release.

Teixeira, a native of Dighton, Massachusetts, has been charged with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information, as well as willful retention of classified documents, which collectively carry a maximum of 15 years in prison. He has yet to enter a plea.

The FBI-Boston tactical team arrested Teixeira on April 13 and he made an initial appearance in federal court in Boston the following day.

The criminal complaint alleges that Teixeira “improperly and unlawfully retained and transmitted national defense information to people not authorized to receive it.”

The leaked documents apparently contain top-secret information about Russia’s war in Ukraine and other parts of the world. Teixeira allegedly accessed a government document on Feb. 23 and posted it online the following day, according to the complaint. It’s the disclosure of that one document that forms the basis of the initial charges.

Prosecutors allege Teixeira accessed far more classified information than what was posted. They suggested during last month’s detention hearing that given his untrustworthy nature, he would be likely to flee and compared him directly to Edward Snowden.

In a new court filing Wednesday further arguing in support of keeping the defendant behind bars until his trial, prosecutors said Teixeira was twice admonished by his superiors last year over “concerning actions” he took with regard to classified information.

Specifically, Teixeira was told by superiors in September and October “to no longer take notes in any form on classified intelligence information” and to “cease-and-desist on any deep dives into classified intelligence information,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.

Not long after the warnings, Teixeira allegedly admitted online in December that he was “breaking a ton of [unauthorized disclosure] regs” but “Idgaf what they say I can or can’t share,” according to prosecutors’ motion.

Teixeira’s behavior showed “he will be undeterred by any restrictions this court places upon him and will not hesitate to circumvent those restrictions if he deems it in his interest to do so,” prosecutors contended.

Teixeira’s defense team also filed a motion ahead of the hearing in support of his pretrial release. His public attorney, Allen Franco, cited prior cases involving people charged with various offenses related to classified information who were permitted to be conditionally released before their trials.

Franco also argued that the government has offered “no evidence” that his client ever intended for information shared online “to be widely disseminated.”

ABC News’ Luke Barr, Morgan Winsor, Alexander Mallin, Jack Date, Trevor Ault and Christopher Donato contributed to this report.

Targeted shooting at Ohio engine facility leaves one dead and one injured

May 19, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(MORAINE, Ohio) — A targeted shooting in Ohio left one dead and one injured late Thursday night.

A male suspect engaged in a “targeted attack” at an Ohio engine manufacturing facility Thursday evening around 9 p.m., shooting two victims, one of whom died at the scene of the shooting, according to Moraine Police sergeant and public information officer Andrew Parish.

Parish said that the shooting was targeted at the now-deceased employee, though an additional victim was shot and is being treated at a local hospital for a non-life-threatening injury.

“One male suspect who entered the plant and at this point, it looks like a targeted attack against one male victim who has been pronounced deceased here at the scene,” Parish told reporters late Thursday.

The shooter suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound and is also being treated for his injuries.

Parish added that “at least a couple” injuries resulted from the evacuation and “the ensuing chaos” at the shooting scene.

Dispatchers received calls about the shooting around 9 p.m. Thursday, and Parish noted that officers were able to determine that the active threat was over “within just a few minutes.”

The facility will remain closed overnight, though employees can return to gather their belongings.

Parish declined to provide additional information about the shooting, including the suspected motive and specifics of where the shooting occurred at the large facility.

The facility, operated by GM subsidiary DMAX Ltd. produces turbo-diesel engines for Chevy and GMC trucks.

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

Grape juicing banned at Tehran fruit market to halt home winemakers

May 18, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — An Iranian judiciary banned grape juicing at Tehran’s central fruit and vegetable market on Wednesday. Grape juicing refers to the process of making grape juice in Tehran. Residents buy large amounts of grapes ranging from 120-150 kilograms, which translates to almost 350 pounds, from the local fruit market.

The move is the latest attempt to prevent people from making wine at home during the grape season. Tehran’s fruit and vegetable contractors’ union, however, says the judiciary’s decision was meant to redirect the business owners back to their “authorized licenses.”

Banning alcoholic beverages was one of the first decisions made by the religious officials of the Islamic Republic after the Islamic Revolution took over Iran in 1979. As a result, liquor stores, pubs and bars were closed throughout the country, bottles were removed from the shelves and alcohol was removed from menus. Since then, alcohol consumers have been pushed to secretly make their own beverages and rely on illegal smugglers while risking harsh punishments.

“It is such a ridiculous and desperate move to ban grape juicing,” said Ramin, a 42-year-old Tehran-based writer, who used a pseudonym so he could freely express his ideas. Ramin makes his own alcoholic drinks, such as red and white wine, Roku gin, spiced rum and vodka. “It will be more hassle. But those who have been making their own drinks can’t be stopped by this,” he added.

An Iranian lawyer told ABC News that based on the Islamic Republic judicial regulations, the punishment for consuming alcohol when arrested for the first, second, and third offenses is 80 lashes. “The sentence for the fourth arrest is execution,” the lawyer said, who did not want their name to be disclosed for security reasons.

“Banning the fruit and vegetable market from juicing the grapes is yet another form of punishment the regime is inflicting on us for our participation in the past few months of revolution,” Ramin said, referring to the Mahsa Amini movement in which hundreds were killed and thousands were arrested amid protests ignited by the death of Amini in police custody.

Amini had been arrested for allegedly not fully obliging to wearing the mandatory hijab. “Just like the hijab law, the ridiculous ban on grape juicing is set to remind us who the boss is in public places,” Ramin said.

Explaining the importance of the public space for the regime, Ramin said consuming alcohol in public, or “seeing signs that prove alcohol is made and used in the country” is something the regime tries to prevent to prove its power by simply banning it.

Lack of access to standard products has led to several alcohol consumption crises in Iran. The most severe cases happened in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. About 600 people died after consuming poisonous products instead of normal alcoholic beverages, the judiciary spokesman said. The surge happened as the misinformation spread false claims on how alcohol could create immunity against the COVID-19 virus.

In one of the rare comments made by the Islamic Republic officials, the deputy minister of the interior minister said in a conference in January 2022 that at least “nine to 10% of 15- to 64-year-old people” drink alcohol, as ISNA reported. It means that “more than five million people” out of the 80 million population of the country consumed alcohol every year,” according to the ISNA report.

Reacting to the deputy minister’s comment on alcohol consumption, Mohammad Reza Ghadirzadeh, social worker and addiction treatment specialist, told Roozeno the real statistics might be different, as consuming alcohol is considered a “taboo” in the country.

“Because earning any money by making, distributing or smuggling alcohol is considered as black money, there is no transparency or data on it or even on crimes related to it,” the Iranian lawyer told ABC News.

“What do we do now? We’ll bring those grapes home and juice it ourselves in big buckets with a group of friends over a weekend,” Ramin said. “It is more hassle, but it is more fun and gives us a better-quality wine,” he added.

General Motors recalls over 600k cars due to car seat safety issue

May 18, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — General Motors is recalling over 660,000 SUVs due to a potential safety issue involving car seats.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration posted a recall notice on its website Thursday, stating that in certain models of Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain vehicles, the rear-seat LATCH anchorage bars used to secure car seats may have “excessive powder coating” that would prevent them from being installed.

LATCH (lower anchors and tethers for children) is an attachment system that can be used instead of the seat belt to install a car seat.

LATCH anchorage bars can be found in nearly all car seats and passenger vehicles made on or after Sept. 1, 2002, according to the Department of Transportation.

The Equinox and Terrain vehicles impacted by the recall are from 2020 to 2023, according to GM and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The NHTSA is advising owners of impacted vehicles to temporarily use the car’s rear seat belts to install car seats until the anchorage bars are fixed.

“Dealers will inspect the latch anchorage bars, and remove and replace the finish, as necessary, free of charge,” NHTSA said in the recall notice.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says in its car seat safety guide that the use of either a vehicle’s seat belt or its LATCH are “equally safe” options.

The AAP’s guidelines say that just one of the two options should be used at a time, “unless the car safety seat and vehicle manufacturers say it is OK to use both systems at the same time.”

GM notes there have been no accidents, injuries or fatalities related to the LATCH issue in the affected Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain vehicles.

“GM is voluntarily recalling certain 2020 – 2023 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain vehicles. In these vehicles, the four-seat lower child seat LATCH anchorage bars may have excessive powder coating, which could prevent a child seat from being installed with the anchorage bars,” the company said in a statement to ABC News. “As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 225, ‘Child Restraint Anchorage Systems.'”

GM said it plans to send letters to impacted owners next month.

Owners may also contact Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020 or GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782, or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236.

McCarthy praises debt limit negotiators, but GOP hardliners say talks should stop

May 18, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — As House Speaker Kevin McCarthy expressed his most positive view yet on debt ceiling talks, a group of hardline conservatives on Thursday urged Republicans to stop negotiating altogether.

McCarthy said that while no deal has been reached, they’re in a “much better place” than a week ago.

“We’re not there. We haven’t agreed to anything yet,” McCarthy said during an impromptu gaggle with reporters. “But I see the path that we could come to an agreement. I think we have a structure now.”

But undercutting McCarthy was The House Freedom Caucus, who said there should “be no further discussion” until the Senate passes the Limit, Save, Grow Act — which included substantial spending cuts in exchange for a one-year debt limit increase.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said the bill would be dead on arrival in the chamber.

“The House Freedom Caucus calls on Speaker McCarthy and Senate Republicans to use every leverage and tool at their disposal to ensure the Limit, Save, Grow Act is signed into law,” the group said in a statement.

The House Freedom Caucus, an influential group of GOP hardliners, gave McCarthy a hard time in his ascension to the speakership and forced him to agree to several concessions before handing him the gavel. Their opposition could be problematic down the road if a debt ceiling agreement is reached.

Lead negotiators were on Capitol Hill Thursday for a closed-door meeting on the debt ceiling.

Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget and Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, have been working with Republican Rep. Garret Graves to find a compromise.

“They are exceptionally smart. They are tough … it’s very professional how this discussion is,” McCarthy said of Young and Ricchetti. He later added, “They are working night and day.”

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., described the conversations as “productive” as he left meeting room.

“We’ve got a lot more work to do. Nothing is close to being done,” McHenry said. “But we’re in the right discussions. The right things are being discussed. And we have the right people in the room to get this to the point where the principles can meet and have some agreement.”

In the Senate, Schumer also touted positive momentum as he gave members the greenlight to leave town for recess — but made it clear they would need to return within a 24-hour window to vote on a debt ceiling measure.

“The negotiations are currently making progress,” he said in floor remarks. “As Speaker McCarthy has said, he expects the House will vote next week if an agreement is reached, and the Senate would begin consideration after that.”

Still, some Democrats in his chamber are also urging an alternative debt ceiling fix.

A group of 11 senators led by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders have signed onto a letter urging Biden to prepare to invoke the 14th Amendment to lift the debt ceiling — an option Biden previously said would likely lead to lengthy litigation.

The lawmakers argue the Republican position is untenable, and that Biden shouldn’t have to negotiate with McCarthy in order to avoid default.

“Is this the perfect solution, is imposing the 14th amendment the perfect solution? No it is not,” Sanders said during a press conference on Capitol Hill. “But using the 14th amendment would allow the United States to continue to pay its bills on time and without delay, prevent an economic catastrophe, and prevent devastating cuts to some for the most vulnerable people in the country.”

Providing more details on a potential timeline, McCarthy said Thursday in order for Congress to avoid the possible June 1 “X-date,” a deal would need to be reached in principle by this weekend. After that, he predicted it would take up to 11 days — four in the House and seven in the Senate — to pass a bill and send it to Biden’s desk.

Biden, who is currently abroad meeting with G-7 leaders in Japan, is cutting his trip short to return Sunday for “final negotiations.”

Moments before he left for Asia on Wednesday, Biden said he was “confident” an unprecedented, likely economically catastrophic default.

“All the leaders have agreed we will not default,” he said. “Every leader has said that.”

With the high cost of drugs used for weight loss like Ozempic and Mounjaro, some users turn to compounding pharmacies

May 18, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As medications like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro used by some for weight loss experience a surge in popularity, they remain out of reach for many people.

The reason is the medications’ cost, which can run more than $1,000 a month without insurance coverage.

“Patients may not have [insurance] coverage, and so, if they elect to use them, they often are paying out-of-pocket,” Dr. Veronica Johnson, an obesity medicine specialist at Northwestern Medicine, told ABC News. “And the costs can be anywhere between $1,000 to $1,500 a month.”

Both Ozempic and Mounjaro are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat Type 2 diabetes, but some doctors prescribe them “off-label” for weight loss. Wegovy is FDA-approved for weight loss for people with obesity or who are overweight.

Insurance coverage for the medications varies, depending on everything from a person’s medical diagnosis to where they live and their insurance plan.

Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro are not covered for weight loss under most Medicare and Medicaid programs.

“Health insurance providers work to ensure the right medications are prescribed to the right patients and at an affordable cost,” America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade association of health insurance companies, told ABC News in a statement, adding, “Evidence … suggests that patients may not be able to maintain their weight loss once they stop taking the drug.”

Among people whose insurance does not cover the medications, some are turning to an alternate option, finding a cheaper off-brand version at a compounding pharmacy.

Tina Straw of Ohio told ABC News she chose to use a compounding pharmacy when her insurance company denied coverage.

“I was like, ‘OK, I can do $1,200 a month for a year, but I can’t … do $1,200 a month indefinitely,” she said. “I’m planning on, you know, hopefully retiring soon.”

Instead of paying $1,200 per month, Straw said she is paying around $300 per month for a generic semaglutide compound.

Semaglutide is the active compound that Ozempic and Wegovy are made of, while Mounjaro contains a compound called tirzepatide.

Compound pharmacies create their own semaglutide or tirzepatide compounds using the raw ingredients.

“A compounding pharmacy is a pharmacy that takes drug components and mixes them together to make a drug,” Dr. Al Carter, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, told ABC News. “Patients [use compound pharmacies] if they need a specific drug, it’s not available in a market, or if they need a drug that doesn’t have a specific inactive ingredient because of allergy or something else.”

Some medical experts say there are risks associated with getting semaglutide through that route because the compounds can be altered and it’s not clear in many cases from where the drugs are sourced.

“It could be combined with something else that’s not tested or safe, so in general, it’s just really not recommended,” Johnson said of the use of compound pharmacies.

The FDA said while the medications are eligible for compounding because of shortages, the compounded versions “pose a higher risk.”

“Compounded drugs pose a higher risk to patient than FDA-approved drugs because compounded drugs do not undergo FDA premarket review for safety, effectiveness, or quality,” the agency said in a statement. “The FDA’s compounding program aims to protect patients from poor quality compounded drugs, while preserving access to lawfully marketed compounded drugs for patients.”

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy says many compound pharmacies are safe and are regulated by the states.

“Of these medications [used for weight loss], where I would get concerned is when you are going to purchase these compounded products online,” Carter said.

Experts say people who would like to take the brand names of the medications should check on their insurance coverage every few months because the coverage may change.

Eli Lilly, the maker of Mounjaro, said in April that it expects the medication could be approved by the FDA for weight loss as early as the end of the year.

McCaul accepts State Department offer for Congress to review Afghanistan ‘dissent cable’

May 18, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, accepted the State Department’s latest offer to review a classified communication sent by American diplomats during the final days of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, at least temporarily ending a standoff where he threatened to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over subpoenaed materials.

“I am available to view the documents as soon as possible,” McCaul wrote to Blinken in a letter shared Thursday. “In light of this invitation, I will pause efforts to enforce the Committee’s subpoena pending my review of the documents.”

McCaul added that despite his decision, the subpoena remains “in full force and effect” and pressed for additional access, arguing that all members of the panel were “undoubtedly entitled” to review the material.

McCaul and other Republicans on the panel have been engaged in a monthslong pursuit of the document that sources say was sent in July 2021 and warned Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the government of Afghanistan was at risk of collapse at the hands of the Taliban.

The committee chairman initially issued several requests for the document, followed by a subpoena in March. When the State Department refused to comply, he threatened to hold Blinken in contempt of Congress, going as far as to schedule a hearing on the matter in the coming days.

On Wednesday, State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said the department would send a letter on Monday offering McCaul and the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, an opportunity to privately review the document, known as a “dissent cable,” and that only identifying information of department personnel involved would be redacted.

“Chairman McCaul himself has said this is what he is interested in,” Patel said.

ABC News obtained a copy of the letter, which states that the State Department is prepared to make the cable available “as an additional extraordinary accommodation” to the two members of Congress “as soon as possible.”

The letter also notes that the department is extending the invitation to McCaul and Meeks “despite the materially increased risk that additional disclosures of the Dissent Channel cable could further deter Department employees from using the Dissent Channel in the future for its intended purposes of informing internal deliberations.”

The State Department had repeatedly declined to produce the cable, arguing the dissent channel needed to be protected to preserve its integrity and offering McCaul and other members of the committee a closed door briefing and a summary of the document instead.

Despite the administration’s concession, Patel made it clear that the State Department still saw its previous disclosures as adequately meeting the department’s needs.

“We believe that we have provided sufficient information through our classified briefing, through the written summary, and we believe these efforts already should have and would satisfied their request for information,” he said.

During a televised interview on Monday, McCaul called the State Department’s offer “a really significant step forward.”

McCaul said the only remaining issue he had was that the other members of the committee, including veterans of the war in Afghanistan, would not also be able to view the document.

“If we can work out this last step, then I think we’ve resolved a litigation fight in the courts,” McCaul said.

What to know about the Montana TikTok ban

May 18, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(HELENA, Mont.) — A TikTok ban enacted by Montana — the first state to impose such a law — marked a major step in the growing U.S. backlash against the Chinese-owned social media platform over concerns about data privacy.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said he signed the measure on Wednesday to “protect Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party.”

TikTok serves hundreds of thousands of users in Montana and more than 5,000 businesses, TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter told ABC News.

In a statement, Oberwetter denounced the ban and reminded users in Montana that they remain allowed to use the app.

“Governor Gianforte has signed a bill that infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by unlawfully banning TikTok,” she said. “We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living, and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana.”

Here’s what to know about the TikTok ban in Montana, according to experts:

How can Montana ban TikTok?

The Montana ban, which takes effect in January 2024, does not prevent current users from accessing the app or penalize them for doing so.

Instead, the ban targets the availability of the app by threatening entities such as TikTok, Google and Apple with a $10,000 fine for each day that the platform remains accessible in app stores for users in Montana.

“This is not doing anything with respect to existing users,” Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute, told ABC News, noting however that the law will hinder current users eventually as they fail to download new updates to the app.

“Users need updates to have TikTok run smoothly and efficiently,” Kreps said. “Over time, it will have a siphoning off effect on these existing users.”

The law will be nullified if TikTok is no longer headquartered in “any country designated as a foreign adversary” by the U.S. government.

How will Montana enforce the TikTok ban?

State officials will be able to enforce the law by observing whether app stores display TikTok for users in Montana, and the relevant companies should be largely capable of identifying where users reside and denying access accordingly, experts said.

However, users in Montana will likely be able to elude the restrictions by using technology that falsifies their location and allows them to download the app, they added.

“There’s this myth that because there are technical workarounds with the internet, the law doesn’t matter,” Timothy Edgar, a computer science professor at Brown University and a former national security official, told ABC News. “That’s not true.”

Still, users could likely circumvent the ban through the use of a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, which allows one to pose as a user logging on from a different location, thereby circumventing the state-specific ban, experts said.

The outcome of enforcement is ultimately difficult to predict, since a state has never carried out a comparable ban of a widely popular app, Kreps added.

“Montana is really pioneering here,” she said.

Can the TikTok ban in Montana withstand a legal challenge?

The TikTok ban in Montana will likely face a formidable challenge on First Amendment grounds that could ultimately knock down part or all of the measure, experts said.

Free speech advocacy groups such as the ACLU have sharply criticized the measure. “We will never trade our First Amendment rights for cheap political points,” Keegan Medrano, policy director at the ACLU of Montana, said in a statement on Wednesday.

When considering a limit on speech, courts typically weigh the extent of a national security or privacy concern against the restriction placed on expression, Edgar said.

“The court will say this clearly has an impact on the expression rights of TikTok users and creators, so what’s the government’s compelling justification?” Edgar said.

“That’s the big challenge,” he added.

Cash App founder Bob Lee murder suspect pleads not guilty

May 18, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(SAN FRANCISCO) — The suspect in the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee pleaded not guilty in a San Francisco court on Thursday.

Nima Momeni, a fellow tech executive, has been accused of killing Lee last month with a kitchen knife after driving him to a secluded area.

The judge ordered Momeni to be held without bail.

Paula Canny, the defense attorney for Momeni, said after the hearing that Lee’s death arose from a mix of self-defense and accidental harm.

“There was no premeditation,” Canny said.

Rejecting that account, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Momeni intended to kill Lee.

“We believe this was an intentional killing,” Jenkins said. “Mr. Momeni’s DNA is on the handle of that knife.”

Jenkins said that Momeni poses a flight risk because he is a person of means and “anyone that’s capable of violently killing someone is a public safety risk.”

Momeni, 38, appears to be the owner of an Emeryville, California-based company called Expand IT.

Lee, an executive at cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin, was killed in the early morning hours on April 4 in the San Francisco neighborhood of Rincon Hill, the San Francisco Police Department said last month.

During the previous afternoon, Lee spent time with Momeni’s sister and a witness, who identified him or herself as a close friend of Lee, prosecutors said. Prosecutors have not named the witness.

Later in the day, at Lee’s hotel room, he had a conversation with Momeni in which he asked Lee about whether his sister was “doing drugs or anything inappropriate,” the witness told the police, according to the document.

Lee reassured Momeni that nothing inappropriate had taken place, the witness said to police.

Early the following morning, at about 2 a.m., camera footage showed Lee and Momeni leaving Lee’s hotel and getting into Momeni’s car, a BMW Z4, prosecutors said.

Video showed the BMW drive to a secluded and dark area where the two men got out of the car. Momeni “moved toward” Lee and the BMW drove away from the scene at high speed, according to the court document.

Police later found a roughly 4-inch blade at the scene that appeared to have blood on it, the document said.

The doctor who conducted the autopsy found that Lee had been stabbed three times, including one strike that penetrated his heart, the document said.

London Breed, the mayor of San Francisco, said in a statement to ABC News last month that Lee’s death marks a “horrible tragedy.”

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