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Suicide attempt survivor shares what he wants other teens to know about mental health

May 10, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Nine months ago, near the end of August, Jonah Barrow, a high school senior, attempted to take his own life.

Now, the 18-year-old from Katy, Texas, is speaking out about his survival to share a message of hope amid a mental health crisis in the United States, particularly among teenagers.

“I hope that I can change the mind of at least one person. That’s all I care about,” Barrow told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “If I can change the mind of one person or encourage someone to speak out, relieve themselves of their suffering, that’s all I can hope to dream.”

Barrow said his mental health struggles began in middle school, as he faced difficulties transitioning to a new school and new friends.

When he entered high school a few years later, Barrow said he began to struggle with his mental health again. An accomplished piano, cello, ukulele and guitar player, he found his niche playing guitar in a rock band.

Yet on that day last August, Barrow said he struggled to see a future for himself.

“I felt lost, worthless,” he said. “After the suicide attempt, it’s kind of jarring to think that before that moment, I had thought that I didn’t have a future.”

Barrow said in the moment, he also struggled to see the support he had all around him, everyone from his therapist to his friends and family.

“That day, if I kept calling other people, other family members or other friends, if just one person had answered the phone, I would be in a much different place today,” he said. “It is so important to keep reaching out and keep talking about things.”

Barrow’s mother, Lori Barrow, said she remembers wishing too that her son had reached out and called even more people who love him in his most difficult moment.

“He could have called me, his grandmother, his aunts, his cousins, there’s so many people,” Lori Barrow told GMA. “That’s why it’s important to keep reaching out. Reach out to the people that you know are going to be available, and don’t stop trying.”

As a teen who has attempted suicide, Barrow is far from alone, data shows.

Last year, nearly 24% of female high school students and nearly 12% of male students in the U.S. reported making a suicide plan, according to the latest results of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, published last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although suicide is the 11th leading cause of death overall in the United States, it is the third among U.S. high school students between the ages 14 and 18, accounting for one-fifth of all deaths among this age group, according to the report.

While the past three years of the coronavirus pandemic have put a spotlight on teens’ mental health struggles, particularly when it comes to suicide, the issue has been a concern for many years, data shows.

“In the decade prior to the pandemic, there was a 57% increase in the suicide rate among young people,” U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said in an April 30 interview with GMA. “And today, nearly half of high school students are telling us that they feel persistently sad or hopeless.”

A CDC report released last year, just one month after Barrow’s own suicide attempt, found an 8% increase in the suicide rate among males ages 15 to 24 from 2020 to 2021.

Common risk factors for suicide include a history of depression and other mental illness, bullying, loss of relationships and social isolation, according to the CDC.

Jonah Barrow said that through his own journey, he has learned that simply speaking out loud about his mental health struggles has helped.

“The second you start talking about it, it gets easier,” he said. “I would say that’s the most important thing.”

Experts too say one of the most important suicide prevention steps parents can take is to talk to teenagers about suicide.

“Talk with your kids about suicide because there is a big misconception that we’re going to somehow put an idea in our kids’ heads and it’s going to make them more likely to do something risky or bad. That is absolutely incorrect,” Mitch Prinstein, Ph.D., chief science officer for the American Psychological Association, told GMA earlier this month. “You’re not putting an idea in their head, but what you are doing is communicating when they talk with you about it, they’re going to feel safe and they’re going to feel like they can open up to you.”

Lori Barrow noted she has seen the importance of not just talking to kids about mental health and suicide, but also listening to their replies.

“The biggest thing that I think parents can do is to listen, to not talk at them, to not talk about their experiences,” she said. “Because it’s easy for somebody to say, ‘I know how you feel. I’ve been there,’ but we really haven’t. Their experience is completely different from our experiences.”

Finding hope in music

In addition to finding healing in talking about his mental health, Jonah Barrow said his passion for music has restored hope in his life.

After suffering multiple injuries in his suicide attempt, including being temporarily paralyzed, Jonah Barrow has spent much of the past nine months hospitalized and undergoing rehabilitation.

While recovering at TIRR Memorial Hermann, a rehabilitation center in Houston, he began working with Ty Walcott, a board-certified music therapist.

“I remember I was challenged with trying to stand on my feet for as long as I could and could only stand for about three minutes,” Jonah Barrow said. “But when Ty Walcott came to visit me and we started playing songs and listening to music, I was able to stand for about 15 minutes.”

“It’s like magic,” he said of the effect music has had on his recovery.

Walcott said she used music as a way to help Jonah Barrow regain his mobility and endurance in relearning how to talk, in addition to using it as a tool to help regulate his emotions.

“Music acts as a medium for processing those emotions and trauma and grief,” Walcott told GMA. “And it helps as a calming agent just because of the way that it affects the brain. It’s affecting all parts of the brain differently, as opposed to us trying to do it by sheer will.”

Over several months of therapy with Walcott, Jonah Barrow went from not being able to sit up in bed long enough to play an instrument to performing onstage with Walcott at a local music festival.

“Not being able to hold your instrument is like losing an arm, losing your hands, losing your feet, because it’s a part of you. It’s what makes you you,” Walcott said. “So it was a huge milestone for him to not only be able to play, but to be able to play for other people, because that’s what he wants to do.”

Jonah Barrow said he sees reconnecting with music as a turning point in his recovery.

When he arrived at TIRR Memorial Hermann, he said he was still struggling with the “internal conflict” of his feelings over the fact that he had survived.

“Because I was still depressed, part of me was still battling with ‘I wish it worked,’ ‘I’m happy that it didn’t,'” he said, adding, “But when I started working on myself every single day, and knowing that if I just keep trying and go with this with a positive mindset and a goal to get better, it worked wonders for me.”

Jonah Barrow will graduate from high school this month, and has plans to attend college, with a goal to work in music as a career.

He said he wants people to know that suffering looks different for different people, and that there is no shame in speaking out about mental health struggles.

“I believe many people suffer in silence,” he said. “And I can only encourage them to just speak their truth, whatever that may be.”

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

George Santos could appear in court as soon as Wednesday: Sources

May 10, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A day after Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., was charged by federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York, the embattled congressman could make his first court appearance as soon as Wednesday, according to sources familiar with the matter.

While the charges remain sealed, sources have previously told ABC News that the FBI, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York, and the district attorneys’ offices in Queens and Nassau counties have been investigating Santos.

Only when Santos appears in court will the criminal charges be unsealed.

Investigators have been focusing on Santos’ financial disclosures, according to sources.

In a series of campaign disclosure amendments filed in January, Santos marked two loans that he had previously reported as loans from himself — $500,000 from March 2022 and $125,000 from October 2022 — as not from “personal funds from the candidate.”

In a previous version of his campaign disclosure, the $500,000 was reported as a loan from George Anthony Devolder-Santos, with a checked box indicating it was from “personal funds of the candidate.” But in an amendment to that report filed earlier this year, that box was left unchecked.

Santos, who was elected in November to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District, has been under mounting scrutiny over his finances — with 2022 disclosures indicating millions in assets after previously disclosing less than $60,000 in income in 2020.

Additionally, as ABC News previously reported, the FBI contacted a Navy veteran, Richard Osthoff, about a GoFundMe campaign Santos established to raise money for the veteran’s service dog.

Santos established the GoFundMe account under the auspices of a charity, Friends of Pets United, and raised $3,000 to help Osthoff pay for surgery to remove a tumor from the dog, sources said.

But Osthoff told ABC News Santos did not come through with the money and ignored text messages about it. The dog, Sapphire, subsequently died.

Santos insisted earlier this year he would serve out his term despite mounting controversies surrounding his past falsehoods, scrutiny of his finances, and multiple investigations.

Santos, who has admitted to fabricating parts of his biography, has denied any criminal wrongdoing.

Trump says CNN town hall appearance could turn into ‘disaster for all’

May 10, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A day after being found liable for battery and defamation, former President Donald Trump is set to participate in a prime-time town hall on CNN on Wednesday — after years of bitter battle with the cable network over its sharply critical coverage.

It’s the first time the recently indicted and twice-impeached former president will appear on the network since the 2016 presidential campaign, with Trump as the first candidate CNN will provide a town hall setting to as part of a series of such forums during the 2024 presidential cycle.

On Tuesday, before the jury reached a verdict in the civil case alleging rape brought by E. Jean Carroll, Trump said that the event, moderated by CNN This Morning anchor and former CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins, “could turn into a disaster for all, including me,” but claimed in a post on his Truth Social media platform, “They made me a deal I couldn’t refuse!!!”

A CNN spokesperson told ABC News that “No subject is off limits” as criticism mounted of both Trump and CNN.

The network has promoted the town hall, taking place at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire at 8 p.m. ET, as featuring Trump fielding questions from Republican and undecided voters.

Trump, who during and after his time in office had repeatedly blasted the network as “fake news,” said CNN was “desperate to get those fantastic (TRUMP!) ratings once again.”

Critics of CNN said it should not be giving Trump a live, prime-time platform — “normalizing” him as just another presidential candidate — and claiming it’s part of new CNN effort to appeal to a more conservative audience.

“Jury finds Trump guilty of sexual assault. Great timing for the CNN Town Hall!” Norman Ornstein, a political scholar, said in a tweet on Tuesday following news of Trump being found liable.

The former president also is currently under multiple investigations into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

CNN has tried to rebut those critics’ claims by stating it was only giving Trump — the current GOP primary front-runner — the same platform it would be giving other 2024 presidential hopefuls.

“This Town Hall is part of a longstanding CNN tradition of hosting leading presidential candidates for Town Halls and political events, connecting those running for office directly with constituents, as part of the network’s robust campaign coverage,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement. “CNN is no stranger to these types of events and this Town Hall will be the first of many in the 2024 election cycle.”

David Zaslav, the CEO of CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, said in a recent interview with CNBC that Trump’s stature in the 2024 race warranted his appearance on the network.

“We need to hear both voices,” Zaslav said.

The Great Task, a political action committee sponsored by former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, launched a new ad Tuesday it said was scheduled to air on CNN this week in New Hampshire “ahead of and during the former President’s scheduled town hall on the network in the state.”

The ad warns voters that “Donald Trump is a risk America can never take again,” highlighting scenes from the Jan. 6 insurrection.

At the same time, some observers have highlighted the personal matchup between Trump and Collins, who earned a reputation for tough but fair coverage during Trump’s tenure and who was once barred from a Rose Garden event after objecting to her questions.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, a panelist on ABC News’ The View, and a former member of Trump’s communications team, tweeted that Collins “is one of the toughest interviews out there. Anyone thinking that Trump will get away with lying without being called out needs to watch her past interviews. Honestly surprised he agreed.”

Mother of 6-year-old who shot Virginia teacher says son has ADHD

May 10, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Deja Taylor, the mother of a 6-year-old boy who allegedly shot his first grade teacher in January, says she is willing to take responsibility for the incident, and that her son’s actions can be linked to his ADHD diagnosis.

“I am, as a parent, obviously willing to take responsibility for him because he can’t take responsibility” for himself, she said in an exclusive interview with ABC News.

Taylor is charged with a felony count of child neglect and a misdemeanor count of recklessly leaving a firearm as to endanger a child, prosecutors said. Her bench trial is scheduled for Aug. 15.

Abby Zwerner, her son’s teacher, has recovered from the shooting. She filed a $40 million lawsuit in April against the Newport News School District and Richneck Elementary officials claiming they ignored multiple warnings about the student’s behavior, as well as concerns that he may have a gun. Lawyers for the school board have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming her injuries are covered under the state’s worker’s compensation law for which she was approved to receive benefits, but which she turned down.

Taylor describes her son as a “great kid,” but “very energetic” due to his condition.

“He’s off the wall. Doesn’t sit still, ever,” she said.

In interviews and in her lawsuit, Zwerner characterized the boy as violent and said he “slammed the cellphone on the ground so hard that it cracked and shattered.” In the lawsuit, she also claimed the child had a “history of random violence” and that he “attacked students and teachers alike.”

According to Taylor, the boy “actually really liked” Zwerner and said during the week of the shooting “he felt like he was being ignored.” The cellphone incident happened after Zwerner said she told him to sit down when he was asking her a question.

“You know, most children, when they are trying to talk to you, and if you easily just brush them off, or you ask them to sit down, or you’re dealing with something else and you ask them to go and sit down, at 6 [years old] you — in your mind would believe that, ‘Somebody’s not listening to me,’ and you have a tantrum,” Taylor said.

“He threw his arms up. He said, ‘Fine.’ And when he threw his arms up, he knocked her phone out of her hand on accident,” she said.

A suspension resulted from the incident. Taylor claimed only the screen protector had broken, and she says she had offered to pay for its replacement.

Zwerner’s attorney declined to comment Tuesday.

The shooting took place the day the student returned to class from the suspension, according to the lawsuit.

James Ellenson, Taylor’s attorney, said the ultimate responsibility for the shooting is on school officials who prematurely enrolled the student in first grade despite knowing he had only attended two months of kindergarten and two months of pre-K. They were also aware of his ADHD diagnosis, Ellenson claimed.

“If they believed all of these behaviors to be true, then they should not have allowed him” to advance to a higher level, Ellenson said. “They should’ve put him back into kindergarten, possibly even pre-K, but at the minimum to kindergarten.”

A spokesperson for Newport News Public Schools told ABC News it could not comment on issues related to “a student’s educational record.” A representative for Briana Foster Newton, the principal of Richneck Elementary School at the time of the shooting, did not respond to repeated requests for comment from ABC News.

According to the boy’s family, the school informed Taylor she and other family members were no longer required to be present in the classroom, a request they made in the fall due to the boy’s behavior challenges.

“He had started medication and he was meeting his goals, academically,” she said.

Taylor’s grandfather, Calvin Taylor, who has legal custody of the boy, agreed that “his behavior had changed [for the better] in the classroom” prior to the incident.

“He was more attentive, he tried to follow along, he tried to do the coursework,” Calvin Taylor said. “But in all fairness to the other kids in the class, sometimes it was just too much for him.”

Nothing about his behavior on Jan. 6, the day of the shooting, made it seem like something was wrong, Calvin Taylor said.

“It was almost like a normal day for him … He was happy, you know?” he said.

Ellenson said the gun was legally purchased. Deja Taylor says she last saw it when it was locked, but since then, Ellenson said, “nobody knows” how the boy obtained it. At the time, Deja Taylor’s mental state was frail, she and Ellenson both said. She said she was suffering from postpartum depression following a succession of miscarriages and had been hospitalized for a week.

Now possibly facing up to six years in prison, Deja Taylor said she feels regret.

“I just truly would like to apologize that … she [Zwerner] did get hurt. We were actually kind of forming a relationship with me having to be in the classroom. And she is really a bright person,” she said.

The more appropriate sentence Taylor should face if she is liable for alleged negligence, said Ellenson, would be probation or community service.

The boy remains in the legal custody of Calvin Taylor, who said the boy is in school elsewhere and getting therapy. He said he worries, however, about the boy’s future living in Newport News.

“I just don’t think the constant negativity [from] my community is allowing this to boil over,” he said.

Deja Taylor, he said, should not be absolved for her actions, but deserves to be looked at “as a human being who made a mistake.”

“Jan. 6 was a terrible day for a lotta people,” he said. “A terrible day for the teacher, a terrible day for the kids that was in that classroom, a terrible day for my great-grandson, and a terrible day for the community and my other family members and friends.”

Fresh inflation data to show if cooling continued in April

May 10, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Fresh inflation data on Wednesday will show whether price hikes slowed for the tenth consecutive month in April, easing financial pain for U.S. households and bolstering hopes that price increases are on their way back to normal levels.

The data arrives one week after the Federal Reserve escalated an aggressive series of interest rate increases with a quarter-point hike as it aims to slash inflation by slowing the economy.

The move came days after the seizure and forced sale of First Republic Bank, the latest spasm of banking unrest that has arisen in part from the Fed’s rate hikes.

Consumer prices rose 5% in March compared to a year ago, recording inflation well below a summer peak, but leaving it more than double the target rate of 2%.

Economists expect year-over-year inflation to have stood flat at 5% in April, halting the progress in inflation reduction and placing pressure on the Fed to further hike its benchmark interest rate even as it risks deepening the financial unrest and plunging the economy into a recession.

Data released earlier this month showed that economic growth slowed at the outset of this year, suggesting the rate hikes have helped put the brakes on business activity.

U.S. gross domestic product grew by a 1.1% annualized rate over the three months ending in March, according to government data.

A better-than-expected jobs report on Friday, however, defied fears that rate hikes have substantially weakened the economy.

Instead, the U.S. added 253,000 jobs in April, marking a slight decline from an average of 290,000 over the previous six months. The unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, matching a 54-year low, government data showed.

Meanwhile, U.S. retail sales have fallen moderately but remained solid over the course of this year, suggesting that households still retain some pandemic-era savings.

While resilient economic measures offer policymakers some leeway as they weigh further rate hikes and invite a deeper slowdown, an extension of the Fed’s series of rate increases could worsen banking distress.

As the Fed aggressively hiked interest rates over the past year, the value of long-term Treasury and mortgage bonds dropped, punching a hole in the balance sheets at some banks.

Three of the nation’s 30-largest banks have failed since March. While high interest rates contributed to the collapses, each of the banks also retained a sizable portion of uninsured depositors, who tend to panic without a government backstop for their funds.

Last week, in response to a question about additional rate hikes, Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted the removal of a sentence that appeared in the Fed’s previous rate hike announcement in March that said “some additional policy increases might be appropriate.”

Powell described the omission in the announcement on Wednesday as “meaningful,” saying a decision about any additional rate hikes would be “data dependent.”

Why some in new poll still want Trump in 2024 even if he’s criminally charged

May 10, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Donald Trump, a twice-impeached former president facing multiple criminal investigations and charges in one — as he denies wrongdoing and says he is being politically persecuted — has solidified a very early lead in the 2024 Republican primary polls.

The support for his comeback bid appears to be driven, in part, by voters who say they would cast a ballot for him even if he faces additional criminal charges.

In an ABC News/Washington Post poll released over the weekend, 51% of the 1,006 adults surveyed listed Trump as their preferred 2024 Republican nominee, compared with 25% for his nearest opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. And, when incorporating which way undecided adults would lean, 49% said they would back Trump in a general election against President Joe Biden, with 42% of respondents supporting Biden.

Trump’s backers include those who think he broke the law, with 18% of respondents who said Trump should face criminal charges in investigations of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results also saying they would be inclined to vote for him.

To be sure, polls in recent cycles have been wrong, including in the 2022 midterms, when surveys predicted a red wave fueled by economic anxiety only for Democrats to have a strong cycle, holding the Senate and narrowing losses in the House. And Democrats insist that Biden remains in a strong position with so much time before the 2024 race, pointing both to last year’s results and a string of legislative accomplishments passed with little margin for error in his first two years in office.

Still, national surveys like the most recent one conducted by ABC News do capture attitudes among voters, even when they seem contradictory. The survey was taken before a jury found Trump liable in a case brought by E. Jean Carroll alleging that he raped her and later defamed her by denying he assaulted her.

Follow up interviews with several of the poll respondents indicated there remains seemingly inexorable support from Trump from a slice of the GOP, despite his scandals and defeats. And even among those not wed to the idea of supporting Trump in a primary, they said their financial worries are encouraging them to overlook his legal peril and support him in a hypothetical rematch against Biden.

Rebecca, a 19-year-old college student who declined to give her last name, told ABC News that she had worries over “everything about [Trump] getting rid of certain files, and then the allegations of him and women,” referencing Trump’s possession of classified documents after leaving office and accusations of sexual misconduct, which he denies.

Still, Rebecca would vote for Trump even if charged, she said, “because he might be a bad person, but he is a good president.”

When pressed on if she had any concerns about having a criminal as commander-in-chief, if Trump were to be convicted, Rebecca said she would consider who was running against him. Yet when asked who could run against him who would make her reconsider her vote, she answered, “To be honest, I’m not quite sure.”

That sentiment played out in seven conversations with people who responded to the ABC News/Washington Post poll who said criminal charges wouldn’t in themselves be deal-breakers in deciding who to vote for next year.

Sherry, a 56-year-old who said she is living on disability assistance, accused Trump of trying to “bribe the officials when they was trying to change over the election process.” Still, she said other politicians are also “crooks and criminals” and that she could not bring herself to vote for Biden in a 2024 general election.

“There’s nobody left. At least he had the jobs and everything going, you just had to weed out a lot of his comments and stuff,” she said of Trump.

“Since Biden’s been in office, I’ve been struggling bad. I’ve had to have help from my little brother, my kids, and I don’t like that,” Sherry said. “I didn’t have to have all that help when Trump was in office. Since Biden’s been in office, every month it’s like, am I going to make it? If my house wasn’t paid for, I wouldn’t make it.”

Those comments reflect the larger results from the poll, in which American adults said by a 54-36% margin that Trump did a better job handling the economy when he was president than Biden has done in his term so far — even as Biden and his defenders are quick to point to the country’s rebound from the onset of COVID-19, including low unemployment, despite persistently high inflation.

Other respondents had related gripes with Biden’s foreign policy, such as the use of international aide, while praising Trump’s rhetoric on limiting entanglements abroad.

Alice Castaneda, a 58-year-old living in Texas, said in the initial poll that she identifies as very liberal — and hadn’t voted for a Republican before Trump — but “always wanted Trump” and suggested “[Biden’s] doing more for other countries. And for us, we’re poor here in Texas.”

Conversations with the respondents suggested such economic worries also helped Trump gin up support among groups where Republicans typically get swamped.

Twenty-seven percent of Black respondents in the ABC News poll said they would vote for Trump, which would mark a jump from the 12% support he won in 2020. And 43% of Hispanic people say they’d definitely or probably support Trump or lean that way, which would be a rise from the 32% support he won three years ago.

Black and Hispanic respondents who later spoke to ABC News said it would be hard for Trump to relate to voters of color but rebuked the idea from Trump’s critics that his past comments on immigrants and lawmakers of color were racist.

“What he says about some being criminals and x, y and z, it sounds a little harsh. And me, coming from a Hispanic background, I find it harsh,” said 32-year-old Philadelphia resident Kayla Gonzalez. “But I find that he’s doing the correct thing. I think they should try to come here legally.”

“The man’s been a millionaire all his life, he’s used to a certain standard. So, it’s kind of hard to understand what a person that’s on the bottom is going through when you’re always on the top,” added Tommy Miller, a Black truck driver from Georgia who lamented the past rise in gas prices. “I like the man … because he did a lot of good things.”

Biden to hammer home message about debt ceiling threat during visit to New York’s Hudson Valley

May 10, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will travel to New York state’s Hudson Valley region on Wednesday to talk about the federal debt limit, and it appears he will be reiterating the same message he’s been sharing for weeks.

A White House official said Biden plans to hammer home his view that a default would prove catastrophic, that the Republicans’ plan is bad for Americans and that he’s open to talking about certain spending cuts — but not in the context of the debt ceiling.

Biden’s remarks in Valhalla, New York — part of a congressional district he won in the 2020 presidential election that is now represented by a Republican — will come one day after he met with congressional leaders about their impasse over the debt limit. The high-stakes meeting ended without a consensus on Tuesday, just weeks before a June 1 deadline to reach a deal or the U.S. government defaults on its obligations for the first time.

“The president will lay out the stakes for hardworking families across New York and the United States: default would threaten 8 million jobs, a recession and retirement plans for millions of Americans,” the White House official said.

“The president will also make clear that he believes in fiscal responsibility,” the official added. “His budget would cut the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over 10 years. And instead of cutting programs hardworking Americans rely on, he believes we must cut wasteful spending on big oil by $30 billion and big pharma by $200 billion, and make sure the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, suggested Tuesday that energy-related cuts could be something he thought he and Biden could agree on.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who represents the congressional district that includes Valhalla, said he has accepted a White House invitation to appear alongside Biden on Wednesday.

“America is not a deadbeat nation,” the White House official said. “We pay our bills. Congress has a constitutional duty to prevent default.”

First on ABC: Harris to become first woman to deliver West Point commencement speech

May 10, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver the commencement speech at the West Point military academy this month, the first woman to do so, a White House official told ABC News.

Harris’ remarks at the May 27 commencement ceremony will mark her first visit to the U.S. Military Academy West Point, according to the official.

“We are honored to have the Vice President as our commencement speaker,” West Point’s superintendent, Lt. Gen. Steven W. Gilland, said in a statement provided by the White House. “As an accomplished leader who has achieved significant milestones throughout her career, we look forward to her inspiring remarks to our cadets.”

Harris and vice presidents before her have traditionally delivered commencement addresses at U.S. military academies. Last year, she did so at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and the year before, she spoke at the U.S. Naval Academy.

President Joe Biden, meanwhile, is scheduled to deliver remarks at this year’s U.S. Air Force Academy and Howard University commencement ceremonies.

Biden delivered West Point’s commencement speech in 2016, when he was vice president.

Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama also delivered commencement addresses there while they were in office.

Woman survives on candy and wine after being lost in the wilderness for five days: Police

May 10, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — A woman is lucky to be alive after she was stranded for five days in thick Australian bushland and managed to survive on some candy and a bottle of wine, police said.

The incident occurred when the 48-year-old woman — identified by the Wodonga Police only as Lillian — was making a journey to Bright, Australia, for a short vacation when she reportedly didn’t make her daily call to check in with loved ones on April 30 and they were able to raise the alarm to authorities that something was wrong.

Emergency services immediately began to search for the missing woman in the areas of Mitta Mitta, Wodonga, Bright and Albury — all approximately 200 miles northeast of Melbourne and about 40 miles away from the nearest town — but were unable to find any sign of Lillian for five days.

There was a break in the case last Friday when the police Air Wing from Wodonga Police were conducting a sweep of the hilly terrain in the area when they managed to spot Lillian’s car at the end of a dirt road in the Mitta Mitta bushland, police said.

“Lillian was found a good 60km away from the nearest town and due to health issues she was unable to try and walk for help so stayed with her car,” said Wodonga Police Station Sgt. Martin Torpey in a statement following the incident. “She used great common sense to stay with her car and not wander off into bushland, which assisted in police being able to find her.”

A local police van was directed by the helicopter that was conducting a sweep of the area to her location where she was located alive and well, police said.

Lillian had been attempting to drive to Dartmouth Dam when she hit a dead-end road at the end of Yankee Point Track and realized she had taken a wrong turn, according to authorities. But when she tried to turn around and backtrack to where she came from, her car became stuck in some mud and she was unable to call for help due to lack of mobile phone coverage in the area.

“She was only planning a short-day trip so had only taken a couple of snacks and [candy] with her but no water. The only liquid Lillian, who doesn’t drink, had with her was a bottle of wine she had bought as a gift for her mother so that got her through,” Torpey said.

“While she couldn’t move her car, she was able to use the heater overnight give her some warmth,” Torpey continued. “After being lost in the bush for five days, she was extremely relieved and grateful to see us and we were just as happy to see her.”

Lillian was subsequently taken to the hospital for observation and to be treated for dehydration suffered from her five-day ordeal. She is expected to fully recover.

Baked goods prices are rising much faster than overall inflation. Here’s why.

May 10, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Customers at the bakery Nothing Bundt Cake, in Memphis, Tennessee, choose items from snickerdoodle, red velvet and blueberry bliss, among other flavors. But patrons cannot avoid the surging prices.

Amy Lupo, who runs three Memphis-area company franchises, said a jump in the cost of ingredients over the past year has caused her to hike the price of an individual-sized cake from $4.50 to $5.25, a staggering 16% increase.

“It’s a tough choice to raise prices,” Lupo told ABC News. “Our customers, for the most part, have been understanding because people go to the grocery store and see it everywhere.”

Lupo is hardly the only baker lifting prices. The cost of baked goods has jumped 14% over the last year — a rate nearly double the pace of food inflation and triple the rate of overall price hikes, government data shows.

The soaring prices stem from supply shortages imposed by the Russia-Ukraine war and lower-than-expected crop yields, experts said, noting that resilient consumer demand in the face of high prices has exacerbated the problem.

“If all the stars could align in a bad way — it happened,” Naomi Blohm, a senior market advisor for Total Farm Marketing, told ABC News.

Consumer prices overall rose 5% in March compared to a year ago, extending a months-long slowdown of price increases, government data showed.

Bakery items and ingredients, however, have defied the slowdown. The price of margarine has jumped 33% over the past year, while the cost of flour has leapt 17%. Cookie prices are up 16% and bread costs have spiked 13%, the data said.

An avian flu outbreak, meanwhile, has sent egg prices up 36% over the past year.

In recent years, a weak yield of crops like wheat, soybeans and corn snarled the global supply, leaving the food system vulnerable last February when Russia invaded Ukraine, the world’s fifth-largest exporter of wheat, Blohm said.

“We have not had an abundant crop here in the U.S. and around the world,” Blohm said. “Then the Ukraine-Russia war just ignited the wheat price.”

The price of wheat rose to as much as $11 per bushel last June, far higher than the typical cost of between $5 and $6 per bushel, elevating prices throughout the baked goods supply chain, Blohm added.

“When you’re feeding a dairy cow high-priced grain, milk prices go higher and butter prices go higher,” Blohm said.

Rather than scoff at high prices for baked goods and ingredients, U.S. consumers have borne them, drawing on savings accumulated during the pandemic when hundreds of millions received stimulus checks but were stuck at home with little to buy, David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University, told ABC News.

The resilient consumer demand, as well as uncertainty about the duration of the Russia-Ukraine war and the avian flu outbreak, have left food price hikes “very sticky,” Ortega told ABC News.

“Food prices tend to rise up very quickly but take much longer to come down,” he said.

Price increases for baked goods and ingredients will likely remain high this year, since the time it takes for production and distribution means that consumers are currently encountering the results of previous disruption, Blohm said.

However, the prices could cool at the outset of next year if Ukraine and Russia agree to allow grain from the region to reach the global market, she said, emphasizing the added importance of strong global crop yields this summer.

“We need cooperation from Mother Nature,” Blohm said.

The easing of costs would be welcome news for Lupo, of Nothing Bundt Cake, who said she wants to pass along the potential savings to customers.

“I would love to be able to roll back prices,” she said. “That would certainly be my hope.”

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