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Biden announces joint declaration on immigration in attempt to show unity across the Americas

June 11, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Flanked by the leaders of several countries, President Joe Biden announced the Los Angeles Declaration of Migration and Protection on the final day of the Summit of the Americas on Friday.

20 different countries signed on to the declaration, each committing to tackling different components of migration.

Biden credited the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and climate change as contributing factors to migration throughout the Western Hemisphere.

“Right now, migrants make up as much as 10% of the population of Costa Rica. And no nation should bear this responsibility alone, in my view, our view,” he said.

Many of the commitments under the declaration deal specifically with boosting temporary worker programs.

Canada has agreed to welcome more than 50,000 agricultural workers from Mexico, Guatemala, and the Caribbean this year. Mexico and Guatemala are also agreeing to expand migrant labor programs to address labor shortages.

Ecuador has issued a decree to create a pathway to regular migration status for Venezuelans who legally entered through port of entry but are currently unlawfully in the country.

At home, the Biden Administration has offered its own commitments including $300 million in funding for humanitarian assistance for countries “so when migrants arrive on their doorstep, they can provide a place to stay, make sure migrants can see a doctor, find opportunities to work, so they don’t have to undertake the dangerous journey north.”

The Biden Administration has been rattled by the continuation of hardline immigration policies installed by the Trump administration.

Unprecedented rates of migration and piecemeal approaches to stemming the flow have manifested in large groups gathering at ports of entry like Del Rio, Texas. However today, the president made clear that controlling migration is a responsibility shared among all nations in the western hemisphere. Perhaps pushing back on Republican attacks that he’s “soft on immigration,” the president also assured that the declaration includes a commitment to strengthen border security as well as the administration’s intention to expand a multilateral “sting operation” that aims to disrupt human trafficking in Latin America.

“If you prey on desperate and vulnerable migrants for profit, we are coming for you. We are coming after you,” Biden said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will be launching a $65 million pilot program to issue grants for farmers hiring seasonal agricultural workers.

The administration failed in its attempts to lift Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allows the government to quickly expel migrants without giving them a chance to apply for asylum because of the ongoing pandemic. Last month, a federal judge prevented the administration from ending the rule on May 23.

Immigration advocates and lawyers have said that Black asylum seekers are bearing the brunt of these kinds of hardline policies as they face discrimination at our border and on their journey here.

In September, photos depicting Border Patrol agents on horse back aggressively apprehending Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas, sparked outrage and a lawsuit on behalf of some of the people detained that day.

The president has carved out several initiatives that deal specifically with Haitian migrants in the Declaration including resuming its participation in the Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program, which allows U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to apply for parole for relatives in Haiti. The U.S. will also be providing 11,500 H-2B visas for nonagricultural seasonal workers from Central America and Haiti.

Nana Gyamfi, the Executive Director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), said the initiatives laid out in the declaration deprive Haitian migrants the right to seek asylum where they feel safe.

“When you claim asylum, you are taking agency over your life. You are saying that I’m making this journey, if I survive here is where I want to be safe,” she said. “All of the pieces that you see in this declaration are all take away agency from the people who need the support, and puts all of the decision making into government entities.”

Gyamfi also believes it fails to address institutional racism that excludes Black asylum seekers from finding refuge across the hemisphere.

“There’s no policies that are saying look, we understand that a you know, anti blackness exists and that it’s being expressed not just in the United States policy, but the policies of Mexico the policies and Central America,” she said.

The announcement of the Declaration comes as some of the controversy over notable absences at the Summit have threatened to overshadow the collaborative work the administration intended to do on issues like climate change, recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic, and migration.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei boycotted the summit over the administration’s decision to not invite leaders of the authoritarian governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.

During a plenary session, Prime Minister of Belize Johnny Briceño slammed the president, as he was seated from a few feet away, over his “incomprehensible” and “un-American” exclusion of Cuba and Venezuela.

The administration is touting the declaration as proof that countries in the region can work together to achieve common goals.

Belize has committed to launching a program in August to legalize some Central American and CARICOM migrants who have been living illegally in the country.

“Our security is linked in ways that I don’t think most people in my country fully understand, and maybe not in your countries as well. Our common humanity demands that we care for our neighbors by working together,” the president said.

A year after Surfside condo collapse, investigators still don’t know the exact cause

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Nearly one year after the condominium collapse in Surfside, Florida, that killed 98 people, federal investigators said Thursday that there are “many factors” that likely contributed to the failure.

During an online presentation to the National Construction Safety Team Advisory Committee, one of the lead federal investigators, Glenn Bell, said the National Institute of Standards and Technology has not “ruled out any scenarios” and currently has “about two dozen hypotheses” that are being “actively considered” in its ongoing investigation.

None of the hypotheses is considered a “leading theory” at this point, he said.

Champlain Towers South, a 13-story oceanfront residential building in Miami-Dade County, partially collapsed overnight on June 24, 2021. The rest of the building was demolished 10 days later due to concerns over structural integrity.

“I’ve been investigating and studying structural failures for over 40 years and I can say that this investigation is one of the most difficult and complex of its type ever undertaken,” Bell told the committee.

Bell said that even after nearly a year of analysis, there remains no “clear initiating event” that triggered the failure. He pointed to several possibilities that NIST is investigating, including the corrosion of the reinforcing steel in the plaza slab of the building, and the possible impact of the construction of a neighboring condo building.

Other possibilities Bell mentioned are the possible impact of climate change that may have affected the foundation of the oceanfront structure, and the construction of a penthouse that exceeded local height restrictions.

Bell said NIST is also reviewing public and private recordings related to the building, and conducting interviews with people who have knowledge of the design and construction practices that were prevalent in South Florida at the time of building’s construction.

“Why did the structure stand and then partially collapse after 40 years? What changed in the loading and/or the strength of the structure? There are no clear answers to these questions either,” Bell said.

At the end of the investigation, NIST plans to publish a written report and create several “realistic animations” to convey their findings.

The agency does not yet have a timeline for when the investigation will be concluded.

“The entire team is driven and committed to getting to the bottom of what happened at Champlain Towers South,” said Dr. Judith Mitrani-Reiser, NIST’s associate chief of materials and structural systems. “After we determine the causes of collapse, we will prepare recommendations for codes, standards, and practices, and any continued research indicated by our findings, so that a disaster like this never happens again.”

Last month, lawyers announced a proposed settlement reached for families of those who died in Champlain Towers South would exceed $1 billion.

UK tests a four-day workweek

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Thousands of employees in the U.K. will be working four days a week for the next six months, in the largest such pilot program to date.

ABC News’ “Start Here” podcast reported that 70 companies, ranging from fish-and-chip shops to digital marketing companies, will be taking part in this study, which is being coordinated by three non-profits, a labor think-tank and researchers at three universities in the U.S. and U.K.

The more than 3,300 workers participating in the study will be paid the same amount and be expected to maintain the same level of productivity while working 80% of their normal hours, according to 4 Day Week Global, which is coordinating the experiment. The number of hours worked will be less.

There are multiple explanations for why companies might want to try a four-day workweek.

For starters, “the labor market is so tight now, employers will offer almost anything to get to keep people,” Daniel Hamermesh, professor emeritus of economics at University of Texas and author of a new study about the rise of the four-day workweek, told ABC News.

The pandemic, subsequent rise of work-from-home culture, as well as historic labor shortages have led companies to try different techniques to entice workers: more benefits, wage increases, remote work flexibility and a shorter workweek are some of them.

Hamermesh’s research has shown that the fraction of U.S. employees working four days a week has been steadily growing and tripled over the past half century.

“People want more leisure,” he said, “and they’re willing to work more each day if they can get fewer days of work.”

Hamermesh is skeptical that workers can maintain the same levels of productivity working just 80% of the time, but acknowledges they might not have always been 100% productive in the first place, noting, “goofing off on the job is not a bad thing, it’s relaxing and reduces stress.”

News reports about similar programs that have been run in Iceland, New Zealand, Scotland and the United States, yet Hamermesh has not seen anything he would consider an official study, including this most recent one.

Hamermesh notes there’s no control group, which would compare productivity levels working a 5 day work-week with a 4 day work-week.

This U.K. program “sounds like it’s a demonstration, not an experiment,” he says.

Disappearances of journalist, researcher in Brazilian Amazon spark international outcry

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — International outcry continues over the disappearances of British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous rights expert Bruno Araújo Pereira, who have been missing in a remote region of the Brazilian Amazon since Sunday.

The two men were last heard from by colleagues while travelling by boat in the Javari Valley region near the border with Peru.

Phillips was on one of his last reporting trips for an upcoming book he was writing as part of a 2021 fellowship awarded by the Alicia Patterson Foundation, according to Margaret Engel, the U.S. journalism foundation’s executive director.

As of Friday, authorities in Brazil said they were testing samples of blood on a possible suspect’s boat, but the two men remain missing.

Authorities have questioned five others since the investigation started, but no arrests related to the disappearances have been made, a source with the Brazilian federal police told ABC News.

At a vigil outside the Brazilian embassy in London on Thursday, Phillips’ family members urged Brazilian authorities to continue the search.

“We want to find out what is happening to them, and we want anyone responsible for any criminal acts to be brought to justice,” Sian Phillips, the sister of Dom Phillips, said. “We want a persistent, deep and open investigation.”

They were joined by environmentalist groups in appealing to Brazilian authorities, after accusations that responding agencies were slow to act. This adds to a growing chorus of activists, celebrities and news organizations who have expressed concern for the safety of Phillips and Pereira.

Legendary Brazilian soccer star Pele tweeted a video Wednesday of Phillips’ wife Alessandra Sampaio giving a tearful plea to intensify the search.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro initially appeared to cast blame on Phillips and Pereira saying they “were on an adventure that is not recommended.” He continued, “It could be an accident, it could be that they were executed, anything could have happened.”

Those comments were “obviously upsetting” to the family said Paul Sherwood, Sian Phillips’ partner.

People close to Phillips and Pereira refute that this was a reckless excursion. Engel, who was collaborating with Phillips on his upcoming book, said, “Nothing he did was off-the-cuff,” before adding, “He was not naïve about the dangers that were there.”

Soraya Zaiden, who works closely with Pereira at Indigenous rights organization Univaja, said he was unlikely to put anyone in danger.

“He loves what he does and never takes inconsiderate risks,” Zaiden said. “He is the one who is helping to create safety protocols for the monitoring.”

Violence has taken place in the past in this part of the Amazon where illegal mining activities, drug trafficking and deforestation is resisted by groups trying to preserve the rainforest and the culture of its Indigenous inhabitants. A member of the Brazilian government agency FUNAI, which is tasked with protecting Indigenous peoples’ interests, was shot and killed in the Javari Valley in 2019, advocates told ABC News.

Pereira also previously worked for FUNAI.

“When Bolsonaro took offices, FUNAI region directors including Bruno were replaced,” Antenor Vaz, a former FUNAI coordinator, said. “We also lost at least 40 % of our resources.”

ABC News obtained a letter sent to Pereira about a week before him and Phillips went missing. In it, the anonymous sender wrote, “Bruno from FUNAI sends the Indians to seize our engines and to take our fishes.” It continues, “I am just warning you this time that if you carry on this way it will be worst of all for you.”

The timing of Phillips and Pereira’s disappearances coincides with the Summit of the Americas, where many Latin American leaders, including Bolsonaro, convened in Los Angeles with President Joe Biden. Environmental organizations protested there too, urging Biden to not meet with Bolsonaro, who has previously downplayed the effects of deforestation in the Amazon and its impact on climate change.

The case of the missing men was raised by some environmental advocates who demanded answers from Bolsonaro on the whereabouts of the two men.

“Where are Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira?” demonstrators asked.

Biden’s mounting nuclear threats from North Korea, Iran

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — While the world’s focus has been trained on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling over Ukraine, two other longstanding threats to U.S. national security have been not so quietly amplifying their ability to wreak international havoc.

In recent months, North Korea has test-launched an unprecedented number of ballistic missiles, and the U.S. assesses the country has imminent plans to resume nuclear testing after a five-year hiatus.

The U.N.’s atomic watchdog announced this week that Iran is mere weeks away from enriching enough uranium to potentially manufacture a nuclear explosive device and is blatantly blocking its surveillance efforts.

The threats posed by a Tehran or Pyongyang with weapons of mass destruction are vast, and the U.S. diplomatic approach to both countries is nuanced.

But the core question facing the Biden administration is straightforward: What — if anything — can it do to stop to prevent Iran and North Korea from becoming nuclear powers?

A cold shoulder from North Korea

The State Department has publicly messaged to Pyongyang that the door for diplomacy is open, but the U.S. Special Representative to North Korea says that sentiment has been communicated through “high-level personal messages from senior U.S. officials” via “private channels” as well.

Sung Kim revealed on Tuesday that in recent weeks, officials have even laid out specific proposals for humanitarian assistance in response to the Hermit Kingdom’s coronavirus outbreak.

But these offers have gone unanswered, Kim said, as the country continues “to show no indication that is interested in engaging.”

The silence of Pyongyang’s leadership is in direct contrast to the explosive missile launches that regularly light up the sky over the waters surrounding the Korean peninsula.

“North Korea has now launched 31 ballistic missiles in 2022. The most ballistic missiles it has ever launched in a single year, surpassing its previous record of 25 in 2019. And it’s only June,” Kim said, adding the country has “obviously done the preparations” to resume nuclear testing as well.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said earlier this week the response to any such test by North Korea would be “swift and forceful,” but so far, no official has publicly stated what exactly the reaction would be.

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price downplayed the extraordinary displays of force on Monday, calling them “cyclical.”

“We’ve seen periods of provocation; we’ve seen periods of engagement. It is very clear at the moment that we are in the former,” Price said.

But Bruce Bennett, a defense researcher at the RAND Corporation who has previously worked with Department of Defense, says it might be time for the U.S. to take a bolder approach.

Bennett argues that giving North Korea’s authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un the opportunity to rebuff an invitation from the U.S. plays into his hand.

“He’s just able to say no, makes him look superior, like he’s in control. So that’s not helping us on the deterrence issue,” he said.

US stresses allied cooperation in face of N. Korea threats
Similarly, Bennett argues that following up Kim Jong Un’s test launches by firing off short-range missiles with South Korea, as the U.S. did on Sunday, is unlikely to yield results. A better route, he says, would be directly punishing the dictator.

Some options? Bennett suggests threatening to fly reconnaissance aircraft along the country’s coast, playing off Kim’s abhorrence for spying. Or perhaps vowing to drop hard drives loaded with what he has called a “vicious cancer”: K-Pop.

“That’s where we’ve got to get creative — with what Kim hates himself,” Bennett said.

While those strategies might seem lighthearted, Bennett says the threat North Korea poses is anything but.

“The last North Korean nuclear test was of a 230 kiloton nuclear weapon. That size weapon detonated, focused on the Empire State Building will kill or seriously injure just under three million people,” he said. “We’re talking about massive damage that this North Korea threat can do if it’s ever really completed and made operational. And so the U.S. should be very anxious to stop and to rein it in. But we don’t seem to have figured out what we need to do to do that.”

Iran on the verge

As the top brass of the International Atomic Energy Agency warned of Iran’s stockpiling of enriched Uranium and failure to comply with U.N. inspectors this week, the U.S. and its allies successfully pushed for a censure.

The rebuke is largely symbolic, but it may be telling when it comes to the administration’s dimming hopes of returning to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—the 2015 nuclear agreement former President Trump withdrew from in 2018.

When President Joe Biden entered the White House, top officials promised “a longer and stronger” deal. The administration loosened the enforcement of some sanctions and held back in forums like IAEA meetings in order to create space for negotiations. But after more than a year of indirect, stop-and-go talks, the odds of reviving the even the original JCPOA seem slim to none.

The Biden administration said in February it would soon be “impossible” to return to the deal given the pace of Iran’s nuclear advances. But Ali Vaez, the Iran Project Director at The International Crisis Group and former Senior Political Affairs Officer at the U.N., says there is still time—but not much.

“Iran has never been closer to the verge of nuclear weapons,” Vaez said. “And restoring the JCPOA is going to become more and more difficult as time passed.”

While Vaez notes that having the material to make an explosive isn’t the same as having the capability to manufacture a nuclear weapon, he says the U.S. and other agencies have little oversight of those next steps.

“The reality is that we have no visibility over the weaponization part of this,” he said.

Despite the diminishing sunset clauses—expiration dates of provisions in the nuclear agreement—Vaez argues the JCPOA still holds value and is the most straightforward path to curbing Iran.

“The break out time — if the original deal is restored with all of its thresholds — will be about six months. But six months is better than six days,” he said, adding that many key restrictions would remain in place until 2031. “It basically puts this issue on the back-burner for a long period of time.”

But because of the time needed to lock in an agreement, the approaching midterm elections, and the possibility that Democrats may lose control of one or both chambers of Congress, Vaez says if an agreement is going to be reached, it likely needs to happen this month or next.

Vaez also warns that failure could spell political disaster for the president if he is blamed for allowing Iran to develop weapons of mass destruction under his watch.

“Six months from now, that breakout time will be really near zero. And so the president will face an impossible choice of either acquiescing to a virtual nuclear weapons state in Iran or taking military action against Iran’s nuclear program,” he said. “So six months from now, it will be Biden’s war or Biden’s bomb.”

A more dangerous world

While the hazards posed by Iran and North Korea are separate from the nuclear threats posed by the Kremlin, Putin’s shadow extends far beyond Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The whole conflict has a nuclear dimension that is going to have an effect on how we deal with Iran and North Korea, with other proliferators” said John Erath, Senior Policy Director for the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and a 30 year veteran of the State Department.

“We need to maintain this idea that Russia should not be allowed to benefit from using nuclear blackmail,” he added. “Because what happens when North Korea then says I’m going to nuke the South?”

Bennett adds that if adversaries are allowed to acquire functional nuclear weapons, other countries following suit, like South Korea and Japan. Although these countries are allies to the U.S., more nuclear powers means more opportunity for catastrophic wars and destruction unlike the world has ever seen.

“You have this dynamic going on in the region which is really not what the U.S. wants,” he said. “That’s a world which we’re reluctant to have happen, but we’re kind of letting happen.”

Causes of death released for Texas family likely killed by escaped inmate

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(Centerville, Texas) — Five family members believed to have been killed by an escaped inmate in their Texas vacation home last week were fatally shot and stabbed, cause of death reports show.

Four children and their grandfather were found murdered at the family’s ranch in Centerville, located between Dallas and Houston, on June 2 after a relative contacted law enforcement to do a welfare check, authorities said.

An escaped inmate, who was killed in a shootout with police hours after the family’s bodies were discovered by law enforcement, is believed to have broken into the home and committed the murders, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Brothers Waylon Collins, 18, Carson Collins, 16, and Hudson Collins, 11, of Tomball, were killed, along with their cousin, 11-year-old Bryson Collins, and grandfather, 66-year-old Mark Collins.

All five victims were shot and had stab wounds or sharp force injuries, cause of death records released this week show. Mark Collins’ injuries included a shotgun wound to the abdomen, his report noted.

They died on June 2 and their manner of death was ruled as homicide by the medical examiner with the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences at Dallas.

Visitation for the Collins family will be Friday evening at Houston Northwest Church in Houston. The family members will then all be laid to rest Saturday morning.

“These precious people who loved and were loved by so many will never be forgotten,” the Collins family said in a statement last week. “The impact on their family and friends cannot be overstated.”

The four boys, who attended Tomball Independent School District, were active in sports, including football and baseball. The eldest brother, Waylon, had recently graduated high school.

Their pastor described the family as having “the greatest character, the deepest faith and unrelenting kindness and love.”

“I was honored to sit with the family last night and this morning again for several hours and the characteristic that continued to jump out was unrelenting faith,” Steve Bezner, a senior pastor at Houston Northwest Church, told reporters during a press briefing last week at the church. “They did not understand — why none of us can understand why. But they continue to say we trust that God is good. And we know that he is with us in the midst of these circumstances.”

The family’s ranch in Leon County was near where the inmate — convicted murderer Gonzalo Lopez — had escaped on May 12.

Following the discovery of the murders, Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office deputies spotted a pickup truck stolen from the ranch that Lopez, 46, was believed to be driving. The suspect was killed in an ensuing shootout with law enforcement, authorities said.

Investigators were seen at the ranch on Thursday. Further information on the case is not being released at this time, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is leading the investigation, told ABC News.

A massive manhunt had been underway for Lopez after he managed to break free from custody near Centerville while being transported from Gatesville to Huntsville for a medical appointment on May 12, authorities said. He was added to Texas’ 10 Most Wanted Fugitives List and a $50,000 reward was issued for his capture.

Lopez was serving a life sentence for a capital murder in Hidalgo County and an attempted capital murder in Webb County.

This week, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it was temporarily suspending inmate transports while it conducts a review of its procedures in the wake of Lopez’s escape.

Sarah Palin vies for Alaska’s only House seat in crowded nonpartisan primary

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — When Alaska’s only House member, Rep. Don Young, died in March, it opened the floodgates to replace him.

Since Young — the longest serving Republican in the House — was first elected in 1973, this is the first time in nearly half a century that Alaska’s House seat is vacant.

Forty-eight candidates are now running in a special statewide primary Saturday, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Palin and fellow Republican Nick Begich III, as well as independent Al Gross, are among among the four likely to advance to the general election in August, according to FiveThirtyEight, which notes that since the election is primarily being conducted using mail ballots due June 21, the results won’t be known until later this month.

The Alaska Division of Elections is holding the “Nonpartisan Top 4 Primary to determine the top four vote getters that will advance to the General Election, regardless of party affiliation.” The winner in August will serve only the remainder of Young’s term; the regularly scheduled election to decide who will serve a full two-year term starting in 2023 will be held in November.

Palin has the most name recognition in the relatively crowded primary field. Her return to national politics comes 14 years after she and then-GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain lost the 2008 election to Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

In 2009, a few months after that loss, she resigned as Alaska’s governor. But Palin gained popularity along with the “tea party” movement that same year. Two years later, in 2010, she was the keynote speaker at the National Tea Party Convention.

The “tea party,” though rooted in an opposition to taxation and big government, also included radical elements — with some adherents supporting the fabricated and racist birtherism theory that Obama, the first Black president, is not a United States citizen.

In many ways, Palin’s shoot-from-the-hip style and the tea party were precursors to Trump and the MAGA movement. Both tapped into voters’ anger during the Obama era and used it to their advantage.

Palin supported Trump’s 2016 presidential run, and only two days afer Palin launched her House campaign this year, Trump returned the favor. In early June, Trump held a statewide telerally for Palin.

Palin’s main platform includes making America energy independent, getting inflation under control and protecting Second Amendment rights. In an interview with the Associated Press, she said she’s committed to the people of Alaska.

When she announced her run for Congress in April, Palin said she entered the race because she believed “America was at a tipping point.”

Even though Palin’s candidacy is high profile, she faces competition. Begich, who is running as a Republican, comes from a prominent Democratic family. His grandfather, Democratic Rep. Nick Begich Sr., was Alaska’s sole representative before Young — from 1970 to 1972. The older Begich was presumed to have died in 1972 when his plane disappeared en route to a rally in Alaska — a plane also carrying then-House Majority Leader Hale Boggs. Nick Begich’s siblings served in the Alaska legislature and the U.S. Senate as Democrats; Mark Begich was a senator for a single term, elected in 2008.

Before running for Congress, Begich held several political roles, including co-chair for Young’s 2020 reelection campaign, the 2020 OneAlaska campaign and the Alaska Republican Party’s Finance Committee.

Another candidate who could advance to the general is Gross, running as an independent.

Gross told the Anchorage Daily News he is running for Congress because he wants to do what is best for Alaskans and his top priorities include creating jobs, diversifying the state’s economy and making the U.S. energy independent.

Thirty-one candidates have filed for the general election.

Michigan police officer Christopher Schurr arraigned for killing of Patrick Lyoya, pleads not guilty

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(Grand Rapids, Mich.) — Michigan police officer Christopher Schurr appeared in court Friday to be arraigned for the killing of Patrick Lyoya. Lyoya, 26, was shot in the back of the head after Schurr pulled him over on April 4 for an unregistered license plate.

Schurr, who turned himself in Thursday, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The judge set Schurr’s bond at $100,000 cash surety, with conditions. Schurr, an officer with the Grand Rapids Police Department, will not be allowed to purchase or posses any firearms or dangerous weapons; he must report to court services; and he is not allowed to engage in any assaults, threatening or intimidating behavior, according to the judge.

Schurr was charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Lyoya during the April traffic stop, Kent County prosecutor Chris Becker announced Thursday.

If found guilty, Schurr could face up to life in prison.

Schurr’s lawyers were in the courtroom, but Schurr himself appeared remotely.

Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom told ABC News Thursday that he would be filing paperwork before the end of the day to suspend Schurr without pay.

Body camera footage of the traffic stop, released by police, showed Lyoya, a native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was shot by an officer following a struggle outside a house in Grand Rapids.

The footage shows Schurr struggling with Lyoya, eventually forcing him to the ground and shouting, “Stop resisting,” “let go” and “drop the Taser,” before shooting him. Lyoya was shot in the back of the head, according to the Kent County medical examiner.

Police said Lyoya had grabbed at the officer’s stun gun during the altercation.

“The evidence in this case will show that the death of Patrick Lyoya was not murder but an unfortunate tragedy, resulting from a highly volatile situation,” Schurr’s lawyers, Mark Dodge and Matthew Borgula, said in a statement to Grand Rapids ABC affiliate WZZM. “Mr. Lyoya continually refused to obey lawful commands and ultimately disarmed a police officer. Mr. Lyoya gained full control of a police officer’s weapon while resisting arrest, placing Officer Schurr in fear of great bodily harm or death. We are confident that after a jury hears all of the evidence, Officer Schurr will be exonerated.”

ABC News’ Whitney Lloyd and Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.

Guns in America: Black and Latino community members speak out on Buffalo, Uvalde mass shootings

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, have bound in tragedy and trauma two communities of color – one Black, one Latino. Now, members of those communities are exploring potential paths forward to healing and reform.

In the ABC News Live special “Guns in America: From Buffalo to Uvalde” ABC News contributor María Elena Salinas spoke to those suffering as they work to recover after the shootings that took 31 lives just 10 days apart.

Vincent Salazar’s only granddaughter, Layla Salazar, 11, was killed in the May 24 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, with 18 of her classmates and two teachers. He and the families and friends of other victims are devastated by the loss of their loved ones.

“The fact that my child, my granddaughter, was killed the way she was killed is one thing. What it did to the community; it didn’t break their hearts, it shattered the hearts of Uvalde.”

Salazar says the community has been looking for answers to how a tragedy like this has happened yet again.

“I want to know how come this hasn’t been fixed since the Columbine shootings?” he asked, referring to the April 20, 1999, shooting and attempted bombing at Columbine High School in Colorado, where seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 students and one teacher.

According to the Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s K-12 School Shooting Database there have been over 900 shooting-related incidents in schools since 1999.

“We need to take some kind of action and have some kind of responsibility and control of what we’re doing,” Salazar, a gun owner who recently started a petition for gun reform that got more than 50,000 signatures in one day, said.

Pastor Dwayne Jones of Mount Aaron Missionary Baptist Church in Buffalo, a former law enforcement officer, echoed Salazar’s sentiments, saying the recent shootings in both Buffalo and Uvalde have weighed heavily on him. Jones knew the victims of the May 14 mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, Tops Friendly Market.

Authorities are calling the massacre that left 10 dead and 3 others injured a racially motivated hate crime. A grand jury indicted shooting suspect and alleged white supremacist Payton Gendron, 18, on 25 charges including 10 counts of first degree murder and one count of domestic terrorism motivated by hate.

“This community in Buffalo, New York, where it was located at the supermarket, was the only supermarket in that geographical area. He purposely picked out this one location to hurt Black and Brown individuals,” Jones said.

Jones said he believes that people should continue to have a right to own weapons, but sees a problem with civilian access to AR-style guns like those used to carry out the shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde.

“I believe that the government needs to do more about these weapons of that mass level that’s out there,” he said. “I really feel for what happened in Texas. Those were very innocent, innocent kids. And I don’t think there’s anything we can say that could move the hurt from Texas or Buffalo, but we can do something where this won’t happen again.”

Congressman Joaquin Castro, a Democrat representing the 20th District of Texas 80 miles from Uvalde, spoke to the growing calls for action from government officials.

“Americans are enraged because they keep seeing things like what happened in Uvalde and Buffalo happen over and over and over again,” he told ABC News.

Castro sees widespread support for universal background checks, ‘red flag laws’ and raised age restrictions as a step in the right direction, but says it will take unified commitment to see the change that so many have been waiting for.

Last week, President Biden addressed the nation on gun violence, urging Congress to pass “commonsense measures” on gun control. On Wednesday, the House passed “Protecting Our Kids Act”, a bill that would raise the legal age for purchasing semi-automatic firearms from 18 to 21 and further regulate weapons often referred to as ‘ghost guns’.

“It’s clear that there hasn’t been the kind of legislation that people want to see. I do believe that it’s possible to have change,” he said. “It’s possible for elected officials to actually do something. But they have to have the political and the moral courage to put the lives of Americans above their own political futures.”

ABC News’ Poh Si Teng and Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.

Connecticut woman dies from rare tick-borne virus in 2nd fatality this year in US

June 10, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A Connecticut woman has died from the rare tick-borne disease Powassan virus, the state’s Department of Public Health announced.

This is the first fatality recorded in the state and the second in the U.S. this year after a Maine resident died from POWV in April.

According to the DPH, the patient was bitten by a tick and the insect was removed two weeks prior to the onset of symptoms.

The woman, who was in her 90s, first exhibited symptoms in early May including fever, chills, headache, altered mental state, chest pain and nausea, the department said.

She was admitted to a local hospital where her health rapidly deteriorated, according to the DPH.

She “became unresponsive over the next two weeks” and passed away May 17.

After the patient’s death, tests performed by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory in Fort Collins, Colorado, confirmed she had antibodies to POWV.

POWV is typically spread by black-legged ticks and deer ticks. Most cases in the U.S. occur in the Northeast or Great Lakes regions typically between mid-spring and early fall.

Between 2011 and 2020, CDC data shows 194 cases of POWV were identified, 22 of which resulted in death.

DPH Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani wrote in the release that the virus can be transmitted from tick to human in as little as 15 minutes after the bite, but it can take anywhere from one week to one month before symptoms emerge.

Most patients experience either no symptoms or mild flu-like symptoms, the press release said. But, in severe cases, POWV can cause encephalitis, which is inflammation of brain tissue, or meningitis, which is swelling of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord.

According to the DPH, approximately one in every 10 cases of severe illness result in death and around half of patients who survive severe illness report long-term health problems.

There are currently no specific treatments for POWV — aside from helping relieve symptoms — and no vaccines to prevent the disease.

“This incident reminds us that residents need to take actions to prevent tick bites now through the late fall,” Juthani said in a statement. “DPH stresses the use of insect repellent this summer and avoiding high-risk areas, such as tall grass, where ticks may be found.

She added, “It’s also important to check carefully for ticks after being outside which can reduce the chance of you and your family members being infected with this dangerous virus.”

The CDC recommends showering within two hours of having been outdoors to reduce the risk of tickborne disease and to either wash clothes in hot water or tumble dry low to kill any ticks that may have been carried indoors.

This is the second case of POWV reported in Connecticut this year after a man in his 50s fell ill with the disease in late March.

He was hospitalized with central nervous system problems, but was eventually discharged and recovered at home, health officials said.

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