(PIGEON KEY, Fla.) — A woman was killed and two children injured in a parasailing accident in the Florida Keys on Monday, authorities said.
The individuals were parasailing shortly before 5:30 p.m. when the vessel’s tow line snapped, causing them to drag across the water, according to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement incident report.
The winds had “picked up” and the parasail struck the Old Seven Mile Bridge near Pigeon Key, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a statement Tuesday.
The woman and one of the boys were unconscious following the collision, police said. A good Samaritan helped bring the three individuals to a nearby dock, according to the incident report.
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene after first responders attempted life-saving measures, police said. The boy regained consciousness and was transported to Miami Children’s Hospital for treatment, authorities said. His current condition is unclear. The other boy suffered minor injuries, authorities said.
There were between 10 to 12 family members at the scene, including the woman’s husband, according to the incident report.
The victims, who have not been publicly identified, were from Schaumburg, Illinois, and had been on a parasail ride with Lighthouse Parasail, based in Marathon, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. ABC News did not immediately hear back from Lighthouse Parasail for comment.
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a Texas law that would ban social media companies from removing users and the content they post because of a particular viewpoint expressed.
The court did not elaborate on the decision, which is temporary while legal challenges proceed through lower courts.
“We are relieved that the First Amendment, open internet, and the users who rely on it remain protected from Texas’s unconstitutional overreach,” said Chris Marchese, an attorney for NetChoice, the industry trade group representing Meta, TikTok, YouTube and others, in a statement.
NetChoice says the law, which took effect earlier this month, would effectively force social media platforms to disseminate dangerous content, including propaganda, hate speech and threats of violence, in violation of their First Amendment rights.
Republican sponsors of the law — the first of its kind in the country — say the measure is meant to end alleged censorship of conservative users on the social networks, which they argue are modern-day “public squares.”
Four justices — Elena Kagan, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch — indicated they would have let the Texas law remain in force while the legal battle plays out.
Justice Alito, in a dissent joined by Thomas and Gorsuch, explained that he would not have interfered with a lower court decision to let the law take effect, suggesting that the justices would likely hear the dispute on appeal in due time.
“The law before us is novel, as are applicants’ business models,” wrote Alito “It is not at all obvious how our existing precedents, which predate the age of the internet, should apply to large social media companies.”
At the heart of the dispute is the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of speech and thorny questions around private companies’ censorship across networks of more than 50 million users.
Texas Republicans enacted the law in response to longstanding frustration from conservatives who feel silenced or sidelined by the media companies’ moderation policies.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is leading defense of the law, has argued the companies’ size rivals public utilities in influence and importance to Americans’ daily lives and therefore should be regulated accordingly.
“The platforms are the 21st-century descendants of telegraph and telephone companies: that is, traditional common carriers,” he wrote. The government can require common carriers to generally accept all users.
The NAACP and Anti-Defamation League are siding with the companies, warning of enhanced risk to public safety if the law is allowed to stand and more like it take hold across the country. They say the private companies have a right and obligation to police content on their sites to ensure the welfare of members.
Florida’s GOP-controlled state legislature enacted a similar law this spring, but it was temporarily blocked by a federal appeals court last week.
“Social media platforms exercise editorial judgment that is inherently expressive,” wrote Judge Kevin Newsom in the panel’s decision. “When platforms choose to remove users or posts, deprioritize content in viewers’ feeds or search results, or sanction breaches of their community standards, they engage in First Amendment-protected activity.”
If and when the Supreme Court takes up the Florida or Texas law on the merits, the decision could have sweeping impact on the future of speech on the Internet and private companies’ ability to moderate content on their sites, online legal experts say.
(NEW YORK) — Even as the first funerals of the 21 victims of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting were commencing, gunfire continued to wreak havoc across the United States over the Memorial Day weekend as police in eight major cities investigated incidents in which three or more people were shot, including 16 children.
The gun violence was especially acute in Philadelphia and Chicago, where police departments in both cities dispatched officers to more than 40 shootings between Friday afternoon and Monday night.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a website that keeps track of shootings across the country, there have been 17 episodes across the nation in which four or more people have been shot since the Uvalde mass shooting on May 24.
14 fatally shot in Philly
At least 14 people, including a 9-year-old boy and his father, were killed in Philadelphia over the holiday weekend.
Philadelphia has already recorded 209 homicides this year, just three less than at this time in 2021 — a year that saw a record 562 homicides, according to Philadelphia Police Department crime statistics.
Among those killed this weekend in Philadelphia were 37-year-old Gerald Parks and his 9-year-old son, Jamal. Police said the father and son had just arrived home in the city’s Wissinoming section Sunday night when a barrage of gunfire erupted.
Parks and his son, who were coming from a holiday cookout, were found dead in their car. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday.
In a separate episode Monday evening, one person was killed and another was seriously injured when at least 70 shots were fired in a North Philadelphia neighborhood near Temple University, police said. Apparently several shooters, who remain unidentified and at large, were involved in the incident at about 6:30 p.m. and four guns were found at the scene, according to police.
Hours later, more than 40 gunshots rang out at a party in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia, leaving a 16-year-old girl and a 21-year-old woman dead, according to police. Investigators believe that at least two gunmen were involved in the shooting that also left a 14-year-old girl and a 21-year-old man injured. No arrests have been announced.
Also on Monday, three people were shot, one fatally, on a street in West Philadelphia, police said. One of the victims shot is believed to be an innocent bystander who was hit by a stray bullet, according to police.
The shooting happened around 11 p.m. When officers arrived at the scene, they found a 32-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
Police also learned a 29-year-old woman who was a passenger in a moving car was hit by a stray bullet and critically injured. The third victim ran and was found shot twice in the leg a few blocks away by officers and paramedics.
Police said at least 34 spent shell casings were found at the West Philadelphia crime scene.
“This violence must stop. Families and friends are losing loved ones, and our youth are having their lives and potential cut short,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney tweeted Monday night. “We must all work together to end this heartbreaking, maddening epidemic and make a safer city for everyone.”
9 killed in Chicago
At least 47 people were injured and nine killed in a series of shootings across Chicago over the weekend, according to police.
Five people, including a 16-year-old girl, were shot in one incident in Chicago’s West Garfield Park neighborhood early Sunday morning. The shooting occurred during a gathering to commemorate a teenager who was fatally shot two years ago, according to police.
Shell casings from at least three guns, including an AK-47 rifle, were found at the scene, police said. No arrests have been announced.
Also on Sunday, a 69-year-old man was killed and four other people were injured in a shooting that erupted in Chicago’s West Humboldt Park neighborhood, police said. Police said the shooting stemmed from a domestic violence incident and that a 23-year-old man who was shot in the foot has been arrested in connection with the incident.
Chicago has recorded 232 homicides this year, a 10% decrease from the same period in 2021, according to police department crime statistics.
The shootings in Chicago this weekend came despite an order canceling days off for police officers over the Memorial Day weekend and the city expanding the hours of a curfew on minors unaccompanied by adults in Millennium Park, a major tourist attraction where a 16-year-old boy was fatally shot two weeks ago.
10 people shot in Charleston
Ten people, including a 17-year-old, were injured in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, late Monday night, including a police officer, when gunfire erupted. The incident remained under investigation Tuesday.
The shooting unfolded at about 11:40 p.m., police said.
In the aftermath of the shooting, several fights broke out and two officers were assaulted, according to police. Two women were arrested and charged with the assaults on the police officers, authorities said.
6 teenagers shot in Chattanooga
Six teenagers were shot and wounded, two critically, Saturday night when multiple people opened fire in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, during a confrontation between two large groups of young people, authorities said.
Chattanooga police officers were patrolling the downtown area at around 11 p.m. when they heard the gunshots and immediately responded to help those injured, Chattanooga Police Chief Celeste Murphy said during a news conference on Sunday.
No arrests have been announced.
7 injured, 1 killed, in shooting at Memorial Day event in Oklahoma
One person was killed and seven were injured after a shooting broke out during a Memorial Day festival in Oklahoma.
About 1,500 people were in attendance at the festival at the Old City Square in Taft, about 45 miles southeast of Tulsa, when the shooting took place just after midnight Sunday, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
A 39-year-old woman was killed in the incident and a 9-year-old child was among those injured, authorities said.
Police said the 26-year-old suspect, Skyler Buckner, turned himself in Sunday afternoon.
4 shot at Houston party
Gunfire erupted at a Houston house party Sunday night, leaving four people wounded, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
All of the victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries. But police said one of the shooting victims hit and killed a motorcyclist while attempting to drive himself to a hospital.
Teenager killed, five injured in Phoenix shooting
An 18-year-old man was fatally shot and five other teenagers were wounded during a shooting at a house party in Phoenix, Arizona early Sunday.
Police said the wounded victims ranged in age 16 to 18, and all are expected to survive.
No arrests have been announced and police said at least two different guns were used in the shooting.
1 dead, 6 hurt, in Michigan bar shooting
A shooting outside a Michigan bar left a 19-year-old man dead and six other people injured early Sunday morning.
The shooting unfolded around 2:30 a.m. outside the Ajay’s Lounge and A and D Liquor Store in Benton Harbor.
Witnesses told ABC affiliate WBND in South Bend, Indiana, that prior to the shooting, a fight broke over a ticketed event Ajay’s Lounge in which a rapper people thought was going to perform only made an appearance.
No arrests have been announced in the shooting.
7 hurt in Nevada freeway shooting involving motorcycle gangs
Seven people were injured, two critically, Saturday when gunfire erupted on a freeway in Henderson, Nevada, police said.
The Henderson Police Department said a preliminary investigation indicates the shooting occurred just before noon on Interstate 95 and stemmed from an altercation between members of rival motorcycle gangs.
Three suspects were identified and arrested on charges of attempted murder, felony battery, conspiracy to commit murder and discharging a gun at occupied vehicles. Police identified the suspects as 66-year-old Richard Devries, 46-year-old Stephen Alo and 26-year-old Russell Smith.
4 people shot in Memphis
Four people were shot Friday night near a rogue car show in Memphis, Tennessee, police said.
One of the people wounded in the shooting was arrested and charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun.
It was unclear if the 27-year-old man taken into custody was involved in the shooting.
Police said the victims all suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
6 shot at Alabama graduation party
Six people, including a 14-year-old child, were injured in a shooting at a graduation party in Anniston, Alabama, on Friday, police said.
About 150 people were at the party when the shooting broke out in the town about 64 miles east of Birmingham, police said.
Investigators said they recovered dozens of shell casings at the scene and that multiple cars in the area were struck by gunfire.
No arrests were announced.
Florida house party shooting leaves 4 wounded
Four teenagers were shot when a fight broke out at a house party in Malabar, Florida, on Saturday night, according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
The shooting erupted just before midnight in the city about 77 miles southwest of Orlando, authorities said.
The victims ranged in age from 15 to 18 and all suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the sheriff’s office said.
No arrests have been announced.
1 killed, 3 injured in Fresno, California
A teenager was killed and three others were injured in a shooting near a park in downtown Fresno, California, on Friday, police said.
The shooting started about 9 p.m. near Radio Park and left a 17-year-old boy dead. A 15-year-old boy and two 16-year-olds were wounded in the shooting, according to the Fresno Police Department.
The injured victims are all expected to survive, police said.
No arrests have been made.
1 dead, 3 injured in Colorado Springs
An 18-year-old man was killed and three 18-year-old women were wounded in a drive-by shooting early Friday in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The victims were standing in the parking lot of a bar around 1:15 a.m. when gunfire erupted from a passing car, police said.
No arrests have been announced.
A mother, 3 children fatally shot in Michigan
A 40-year-old mother and her three children — ages 6, 4 and 3 — were allegedly shot to death on Friday by the stepfather of the children, police said.
The quadruple homicide occurred at a house in Austin Township, Michigan, north of Grand Rapids, according to the Mecosta County Sheriff’s Office.
The stepfather of the children, identified by relatives as Charles Gillard, 51, is suspected of committing the killings around 2:30 p.m. Friday, according to the sheriff’s office.
Charles Gillard was found with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and was in critical condition at a hospital on Tuesday, the sheriff’s office said.
Relatives identified the victims as Dawn Gillard and her children, 6-year-old Katelynn, 4-year-old Ronald, and 3-year-old Joshua.
“I am in total shock. I am so devastated,” Hailey Salisbury, the daughter of Dawn Gillard’s daughter and the half-sister to the young children who were killed, told ABC affiliate station WZZM in Grand Rapids.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, FILE
(WASHINGTON) — Second gentleman Doug Emhoff called attention to the “epidemic” of antisemitism and reflected on the history he has made while speaking Tuesday at a virtual event on U.S. Jewish military history.
“This role has enabled me to use this microphone to speak out and to speak up on issues that are important to not only us Jews but all of us — all around the world,” Emhoff, an entertainment attorney and the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president, said on the final day of Jewish American Heritage Month honoring the accomplishments and history of Jews in the United States.
“And as the vice president said so eloquently in Buffalo the other day: It’s an epidemic of hate,” Emhoff said, referencing wife Kamala Harris’ trip to New York in the wake of the fatal shooting of 10 people at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood earlier in May. The suspected shooter’s writings included both anti-Black and anti-Jewish screeds; separately, advocacy groups say antisemitic incidents hit a high in 2021.
“It’s an epidemic of hate that not only includes antisemitism but includes all forms of hate,” Emhoff said Tuesday. “And we as Jews, and we as Americans, we all need to stand up and speak up.”
Emhoff also talked more personally, saying that the reaction to his identity as a Jewish second gentleman surprised him. While his faith was always a big deal to him, “I did not expect my Jewish faith to be such a big deal in this role,” he said.
“I’ve been at schools making matzah [flatbread eaten on the Jewish holiday of Passover], I’ve talked to my dad’s 85-year-old friends who, you know, gossip with him and they’ll tell him how much I mean to them,” he continued.
Though his importance to others surprised him, he took it seriously, he said: “It has nothing to do with political party or anything like that. It’s just seeing me in this role, it has engendered some feelings in people they didn’t even know they had … it really pushes me to do as well as I can.”
“To be able to live openly and joyfully as an American Jew, as I always have, but to do it so publicly, has really impacted people,” he said.
Emhoff has participated in both public and private Jewish events in his capacity as second gentlemen, which like the role of first lady includes a number of ceremonial duties and the championing of select causes. He helped light the national menorah for Hanukkah last December near the White House. In his Tuesday remarks, he looked back at other appearances.
“Whether it’s hanging the first mezuzah [a box containing a scroll with some scripture] at the vice president’s residence, having the first in-person [Passover] Seder there … lighting a menorah at the residence … and to just show up, just show everyone what we’re doing, like we’ve always done, but just to have the American people and the world see it is just really, really incredible,” Emhoff said.
President Joe Biden marked Jewish American Heritage Month with a proclamation at the end of April where he emphasized the contributions of Jewish Americans in building the U.S. and contributing to public life.
“The story of America was written, in part, by Jewish Americans who, through their words and actions, embraced the opportunity and responsibility of citizenship knowing full well that democracy is not born, nor sustained, by accident,” Biden said.
He also denounced the increase in antisemitism: “As the scourge of white supremacy and antisemitic violence rises, my Administration remains committed to ensuring that hate has no safe harbor.”
(UVALDE, Texas) — The Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde Independent School District police force are no longer cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s investigation into the massacre at Robb Elementary School and the state’s review of the law enforcement response, multiple law enforcement sources tell ABC News.
A spokesman for Texas DPS, which is running the state’s investigations, declined to comment.
The Uvalde police chief and a spokesperson for the Uvalde Independent School District did not immediately respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
According to sources, the decision to stop cooperating occurred soon after the director of DPS, Col. Steven McCraw, held a news conference Friday during which he said the delayed police entry into the classroom was “the wrong decision” and contrary to protocol.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LARGO, Fla.) — A Florida man was killed in a suspected alligator attack, authorities said.
The Largo Police Department said Tuesday it is investigating the death of a man at Taylor Lake in Largo, a city in the Tampa Bay area.
“At this time, detectives believe the victim was looking for Frisbees in the water and a gator was involved,” the department said in a statement.
The man was found by a visitor at Taylor Park, home to a 53-acre freshwater lake, and police were contacted around 8 a.m. Tuesday, according to Largo Police Department spokesperson Megan Santo.
The man’s identity has not been released pending next-of-kin notification. He was 47-years-old, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which also responded to the scene.
The agency was still working to capture the alligator Tuesday afternoon, Santo said.
“A contracted nuisance alligator trapper is working to remove a nearby alligator and efforts will be made to determine if it was involved in this situation,” the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a statement.
Police urged residents and visitors to avoid going near or swimming in the lake at any time. There are no swimming signs posted at the lake, according to police.
Fatal alligator bites are rare. From 1948 to 2021, Florida reported 442 unprovoked bite incidents from alligators, 26 of which resulted in fatalities, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. In the last 10 years, the state has averaged eight unprovoked bites a year that require medical treatment, the agency said.
The likelihood of someone being seriously injured during an unprovoked alligator incident in Florida is roughly one in 3.1 million, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The last fatal alligator attack in Florida was in 2019, according to the agency.
A man was bitten in the face by an alligator at Taylor Park in 2020 while looking for frisbees in the lake, Tampa ABC affiliate Tampa WFTS reported at the time. The injury was non-life-threatening.
(UVALDE) — The first funerals for victims killed in the second-worst school shooting in U.S. history are expected to occur in Uvalde, Texas, one week after the massacre.
Amerie Jo Garza and Maite Rodriguez, both 10 years old, will be laid to rest Tuesday following funeral services in the afternoon. Visitations for the students began on Monday.
The last photo ever taken of Garza, at this year’s award’s day, was featured inside the Hillcrest Funeral Home where her visitation took place, one mourner told ABC Houston station KTRK. Maite Rodriguez was “charismatic” and “goal-driven,” her mother told The Associated Press.
“I can’t begin to imagine what these families are going through,” the woman said as she wiped away tears. “And that’s the hardest part. You know, if I could take a little bit of their pain away, I think I would.”
Visitations at the same funeral home also began on Tuesday for Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo and Jose Manuel Flores Jr., both 10 years old.
Twenty-one people, including 19 third and fourth graders and two teachers, were murdered on May 24 when 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos allegedly opened fire at Robb Elementary School with an AR-15 style rifle he purchased days before.
Another 17 people, including three law enforcement officers, were injured in the attack.
Memorial services for victims are expected to take place in the small town through June 16.
The funeral for cousins Jailah Nicole Silguero, 11, and Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, 10, will take place Friday at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church. The cousins were “full of life” and “always had a smile on their face,” their family said in a statement to ABC News.
Jacklyn Cazares, 10, will be remembered at Sacred Heart on Friday. She “had the biggest heart,” her mother, Jacinto Cazares, told ABC News.
Annabell Rodriguez, 10, Cazares’ cousin who was in the same fourth-grade class, was also killed in the shooting. Her funeral will take place on June 8 at the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary.
Services for Maranda Gail Mathis, 11, and Eliahana Cruz Torres are scheduled for Thursday at the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary. Ellie Garcia will be laid to rest on Monday after her funeral takes place at Sacred Heart.
Makenna Elrod’s funeral will take place at First Baptist Church on Saturday. The 10-year-old’s “smile would light up a room,” her aunt, Allison McCullough, confirmed to ABC News.
The funeral for Rojelio Torres, 10, will take place at Rushing Knowles on Saturday. Rojelio Torres’ mother, Evadulia Orta, described her son to ABC News as a “”very smart and loving child.”
Alithia Ramirez will be buried Sunday after her funeral takes place at First Baptist Church. Her grandmother, Rosa Maria Ramirez, described her to ABC News as a “very talented little girl” who loved to draw.
Xavier Lopez, 10, will be buried at the Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery after his funeral on June 7. He was always the “life of the party,” his grandmother, Amelia Sandoval, told ABC News.
The funeral for fourth grade teacher Eva Mireles will take place on June 10 at Sacred Heart. Miresles’ cousin, Amber Ybarra, described her as a “hero” and an “amazing mom.”
Alexandria Rubio will be remembered on June 11 at First Baptist Church. The straight A student received a good citizen award from her school on the day she was killed, her family said.
The funeral for Tess Mata, 10, will take place on June 13 at Sacred Heart. Her mother, Veronica Mata, told ABC News she never believed a school shooting could happen in their small town.
The memorial services for Irma Garcia, one of the teachers killed in the shooting, her husband, Jose Garcia and student Uziyah Garcia have not yet been announced. Uziyah, who is not related to Irma and Jose Garcia, was described by his grandfather as “the sweetest little boy that I’ve ever known.”
ABC News’ Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — COVID-19 cases in New York City have plateaued, signaling that the latest surge is at least slowing, if not over.
An ABC News analysis of city data shows 4,204 confirmed and probable cases were recorded on May 24 — the latest date for which data is available — with a seven-day rolling average of 3,312.
This is the lowest average recorded in the last two weeks.
Other key metrics also indicate the latest wave may be subsiding.
The percent positivity rate — the percentage of tests that come back positive — is currently at 8.64%, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. This is a drop from the average of 10.95% over the last 28 days.
Additionally, the seven-day average of hospitalizations has dropped 15.4% from 84 to 71.
“In all likelihood, we’re on the other side of this particular surge, but at the same time it’s not dropping dramatically because of…behavior,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor. “We essentially have two opposing forces, one where we have a lot of immunity in the population from vaccination and infection.”
He continued, “On the other hand, people are starting to enjoy congregating and going to indoor concerts, festivals, sporting events. These will create opportunities for the virus to spread.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the unvaccinated population has made up the largest share of COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the city.
As of May 14, unvaccinated New York City residents were recording 1,826.25 cases per 100,000 people, data from the health department shows.
By comparison, those who are vaccinated but not boosted were recording 183.02 cases per 100,000 and those who are boosted were recording 310.69 cases per 100,000.
In addition, the unvaccinated were hospitalized with COVID-19 at a rate of 188.55 per 100,000 compared to 5.65 per 100,000 for those vaccinated but not yet boosted and 4.96 per 100,000 for those boosted.
“Of course, we know that there’s the probability of breakthrough infections with vaccination, but the outcomes of those breakthroughs are drastically different,” Brownstein said. “As we look at the severe outcomes, the hospitalizations and the deaths as a result of infection, those who are unvaccinated bear a far greater burden of that risk.”
He added, “Despite us being quite far into the vaccination campaign, the urgency to get people vaccinated and boosted is still there and will continue to be there, especially as we see surges in the coming months.”
Even as New York City and the Northeast appear to be plateauing, cases are rising in other parts of the country.
Hawaii is currently leading the U.S in cumulative cases per 100,000 over the last seven days at 623 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Additionally, over the last two weeks, the seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 infections has increased 78.7% in California and 33.2% in Washington state, CDC data shows.
“We’ve seen a pattern emerge where the Northeast has often been a leading indicator of surges that will take place in other parts of the country,” Brownstein said. “Surges are not uniform across the country. Surges happen at the local level and they’re not necessarily happening.at the exact same time.”
He continued, “What we experience in one part of the country, another part may experience weeks or months later.”
Brownstein also said testing totals could be undercounted because of the number of people who are testing at home and not reporting positive results to health authorities.
“It’s possible we could hit a surge and be well in the midst of it before we know it’s happening,” he said.
He encouraged people to exercise caution and, if case counts rise in their areas, to follow mitigation measures that reduce the risk of spread, such as wearing masks.
“We’re in a much better place and we have wide availability of therapeutics now, so we have better ways of managing this pandemic, but clearly people can still play a role in helping reduce any surges in communities in the coming months,” Brownstein said.
(WASHINGTON) — Following a holiday weekend with at least 12 mass shootings across the country, President Joe Biden met with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the White House on Tuesday morning, as families in Uvalde, Texas, prepared tiny caskets for the first funerals this week.
Biden told reporters he would meet with lawmakers on the issue of guns, but he didn’t say when that would happen or provide more details, according to the print pool reporter covering Biden’s Oval Office meeting with New Zealand’s prime minister.
Responding to a question about whether he’d meet with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell about guns, Biden replied, “I will meet with the Congress on guns, I promise you,” according to the print reporter.
Shortly before, inside the Oval Office, Biden praised Ardern’s leadership on a range of issues and said, “We need your guidance.”
“There’s an expression by an Irish poet, it’s ‘too long a suffering that makes us stone to the heart.’ Well, there’s an awful lot of suffering,” Biden told Ardern. “I’ve gotten to more mass shooting aftermaths than I think any president in American history, unfortunately…And so much of it, much of it, is preventable, and the devastation is amazing.”
The two leaders were set to discuss combatting terrorism and radicalization to violence, the climate crisis, and the Indo-Pacific economy, according to the White House, but Ardern’s appearance in the wake of the elementary school massacre offered a side-by-side picture of two Western nations with starkly different responses to gun violence.
After a gunman murdered 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, and streamed it on Facebook as it happened, Ardern led a dramatic push to restrict firearms in New Zealand within weeks of the attack. Less than a month after the attack, all but one of 120 Kiwi lawmakers voted to permanently ban military-style semiautomatic weapons and assault rifles.
“Can I bring the sincere condolences from the people of Aldi and New Zealand for what you have experienced and Texas and New York, and it’s been devastating to see the impact on those communities,” Ardern said, also raising a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, this month where ten Black people were killed in a grocery store.
“Our experience, of course, in this regard, is our own but if there’s anything that we can share that would be of any value, we are here to share it,” she added.
In the U.S., meanwhile, gun control legislation has remained stalled for decades as Senate Republicans have used, or threatened to use, the filibuster to block such legislation. A small group of bipartisan senators — including Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Tom Tillis, R-N.C., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., are meeting by Zoom Tuesday afternoon on gun reform talks, multiple sources told ABC News, as advocates and everyday Americans alike demand action in the wake of the latest violence.
Asked last week about New Zealand’s decision to ban most semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles in 2019, Ardern explained to CBS host Stephen Colbert how the country introduced a system to buy back guns from civilians and destroy them.
“I can only speak to our experience in New Zealand, but you know when I watch from afar and see events such as those today I think of them not as a politician, I see them just as a mother and I’m so sorry for what has happened here,” Ardern said.
“Then I think about what happened to us and all I can reflect is — we are a very pragmatic people. When we saw something like that happen everyone said ‘never again,’ so then it was incumbent on us as politicians to respond to that,” she continued. “Now, we have legitimate needs for guns in our country for things like pest control and to protect our biodiversity, but you don’t need a military-style, semi-automatic weapon to do that. So we got rid of them.”
After Biden told protesters in Uvalde on Sunday “we will” when they demanded the U.S. “do something,” it’s unclear if the president will get more involved on the issue since largely punting action to Congress. Biden has suggested assault weapons be banned and that lawmakers revisit the 1994 law but said in Texas, “I can’t outlaw a weapon. I can’t change the background checks.”
Tuesday also marks the first White House visit of a leader from New Zealand since 2014.
Bob MacDonnell/Hartford Courant/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A Democrat-linked lawyer charged by Special Counsel John Durham with lying to the FBI in 2016 was found not guilty a federal jury in Washington on Tuesday following a nearly two-week trial that served as the first in-court test of Durham’s more than three-year investigation into the Russia probe.
Michael Sussmann was charged by Durham last year for allegedly bringing forward a tip to a senior FBI official in September 2016 about a potential connection between computer servers for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s company and Russia’s Alfa bank — and lying about who he was representing at the time.
“While we are disappointed in the outcome, we respect the jury’s decision and thank them for their service. I also want to recognize and thank the investigators and the prosecution team for their dedicated efforts in seeking truth and justice in this case,” Durham said in a statement.
Through multiple days of witness testimony and evidence exhibits displayed in the D.C. district court, Durham’s prosecutors sought to convince the jury that Sussmann brought the info to then-FBI general counsel James Baker as part of Sussmann’s work for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and a technology company executive who had worked on assembling the data.
“He knew that if he told Mr. Baker that he was there on behalf of the Clinton campaign, the chances of the FBI investigating would be diminished,” assistant special counsel Jon Algor said Friday in closing arguments.
They alleged that Sussmann set up the meeting with the hope of generating an “October surprise,” to leak that the FBI was investigating a potentially suspicious tie between Trump’s campaign and Russia at a time when Russia was carrying out its hack-and-dump campaign against the Democrats.
While Sussmann’s attorneys acknowledged that he was at the time representing Clinton’s campaign and a tech executive named Rodney Joffe in handling the allegations, they claimed Sussmann’s intention in setting up the meeting with Baker was to alert the FBI to what he believed was concerning information and notify them that major news outlets were also pursuing it as a story.
In their closing argument Friday, Sussmann’s attorney Sean Berkowitz accused Durham’s team of pushing baseless “political conspiracy theories” through their prosecution of Sussmann, who he said brought forth the information to Baker in genuine good faith.
As a result of Sussmann’s meeting with Baker, according to his attorneys, the FBI was able to convince the New York Times to hold off on reporting the Alfa Bank allegations while investigators evaluated the data — which they quickly determined showed nothing nefarious. When the Times did eventually report on the Alfa Bank matter, it was part of a pre-election piece with the headline, ‘Investigating Trump, FBI Sees No Clear Link To Russia.’
“The meeting … is the exact opposite of what the Clinton campaign would have wanted,” Sussmann’s attorney Michael Bosworth said last week.
The two-week trial featured testimony from a host of current and former law enforcement officials as well as former key figures in Clinton’s campaign.
While the charge leveled against Sussmann was narrow, in the months since his indictment Durham used the case to bring forward other evidence that prosecutors suggested showed a broader conspiracy, alleging Clinton’s campaign and other political operatives sought to gin up and spread false accusations to smear Trump and use the nation’s law enforcement agencies as political tools.
But Marc Elias, the Clinton campaign’s former general counsel, and Robby Mook, the campaign’s manager, testified there was no discussion in the highest levels of the campaign about ordering or authorizing anyone to bring the Alfa Bank allegations directly to the FBI.
While Mook acknowledged that Clinton herself at one point signed off on disseminating the unverified allegations to the press so journalists could “vet” and report them out, he sought to throw cold water on the that the campaign believed it would have benefited from getting the FBI involved.
“Going to the FBI does not seem like an effective way to get information out to the public,” Mook said.
Mook said that after Clinton authorized sending the Alfa Bank data out to journalists, a press official — not Sussmann — was tasked with pushing it out to reporters. A report on the allegations was later published by Slate days before the election, though it made no mention of the FBI’s investigation into the data.
Sussmann’s attorneys also focused their strategy around undercutting testimony from the government’s star witness, Baker, who said under questioning from the special counsel’s office last week that he was “100% confident” that Sussmann told him in their Sep. 19 meeting he was not there on behalf of a particular client.
That testimony, Sussmann’s attorneys noted, directly conflicted with past statements Baker had made in interviews under oath with congressional investigators and the DOJ’s inspector general — where he either said that he believed Sussmann was there on behalf of unnamed cybersecurity experts or didn’t remember if Sussmann had mentioned representing clients one way or another.
But prosecutors also entered evidence this week showing that Sussmann had billed several flash drives he purchased days before the meeting to the Clinton campaign — two of which Durham says Sussmann provided to Baker in their meeting that included the unverified data purporting to show a connection between Trump and Alfa bank.
Additionally, they flagged multiple hours of time entries Sussmann had billed to the Clinton Campaign and the tech executive Rodney Joffe leading up to and after the meeting with Baker, where he wrote he was working on ‘confidential’ issues that Durham says was in reference to the Trump-Alfa bank allegations.
“If an opponent had brought this information, [the FBI] would want to know more about it,” Algor said. “They would question the credibility of the source and whether the FBI was being used — being played by politics.”
In the three years since Durham was initially assigned to look into the origins of the Russia investigation, he has secured one guilty plea of a former lawyer with the FBI who admitted to doctoring an email that was used to support a surveillance application that targeted a former Trump campaign aide.
The only other indictment brought by Durham outside of Sussmann was against Igor Danchenko, a lead analyst who contributed to the now-infamous Steele Dossier, who was charged last year with five counts of lying to the FBI about who his sources were for claims in the dossier. Danchenko has pleaded not guilty to all counts and his case is set for trial in Virginia in the fall.
The FBI’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election was not launched as a result of the Alfa Bank allegations or the Steele Dossier, and neither eventually factored into findings released by special counsel Robert Mueller following his two-year investigation. While Mueller’s probe found numerous instances of contacts between Trump campaign officials and individuals with ties to Russia’s government, he determined evidence didn’t support charging any individuals of engaging in a criminal conspiracy with Russia.
