(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — A Jan. 6 rioter seen in chaotic video assaulting and pinning a Metropolitan Police Department officer in a doorway was sentenced Friday to 7 years and 6 months in prison.
Patrick McCaughey was at the front of the mob that trapped D.C. officer Daniel Hodges the building’s lower West Terrace tunnel as he was repeatedly assaulted by rioters.
Judge Trevor McFadden described the assault as among the “most dangerous and violent clashes with police” and that McCaughey’s actions amounted to “some of the most egregious crimes committed on that day.”
Officer Hodges told the court the trauma he experienced in that doorway continues to haunt him and that “all Americans” were victims of McCaughley’s assault.
“Not a day goes by that I do not recall the events of January 6,” he said.
Wearing a baggy orange short sleeve jumpsuit and a dressing the judge in a somber tone, McCaughey said what he did on Jan. 6 was “the greatest embarrassment of my life.”
“I will be a felon … unworthy of the trust and rights I once enjoyed,” McCaughey said.
McCaughey apologized to the police and his own family before the judge read and explained his sentence.
McFadden said McCaughey’s expression of remorse and lack of prior criminal history weighed in favor of a lighter sentence.
The judge ultimately rejected the government’s recommendation of 15-plus years. Instead he issued three separate sentences, all to be served concurrently.
(NEW YORK) — Parler, a social media platform popular among conservatives, will temporarily shut down after being acquired by the hedge fund Starboard, the company said on Friday.
The acquisition comes months after the failure of a bid for the app’s parent company, Parlement Technologies, undertaken by Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.
Starboard pulled down the app as part of a “strategic assessment” but plans to relaunch the platform, the company said in a statement.
“No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more,” Starboard said.
“We at Starboard see tremendous opportunities across multiple sectors to continue to serve marginalized or even outright censored communities,” the company added.
New York-based Starboard, founded in 2018, did not disclose how much it paid to acquire Parlement Technologies.
In the middle of last year, Parler counted 700,000 monthly average users compared with 2.8 million on rival rightwing platform Truth Social, according to data from the firm Data.ai, which was analyzed by the New York Times.
Starboard also owns right-leaning sites American Wire and BizPac Review.
“Parler’s large user base and additional strategic assets represent an enormous opportunity for Starboard to continue to build aggressively in our media and publishing business,” Ryan Coyne, CEO of Starboard, said in a statement.
“The team at Parler has built an exceptional audience and we look forward to integrating that audience across all of our existing platforms,” he added.
Parler was removed from iPhone and Android app stores after the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The platform was later reinstated to those app stores.
Launched five years ago, Parler characterized itself as a platform where a user could “speak freely and express yourself openly without fear of being ‘deplatformed’ for your views,” according to the homepage on its previous website.
Parler is among a host of alternative content platforms — including Truth Social, Rumble and Gab — considered to have less stringent content moderation policies than apps such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Parler is the most well-known of those alternative platforms, according to a Pew Research survey conducted last May.
Thirty-eight percent of U.S. adults said they had heard of Parler, as opposed to 27% of adults familiar with Truth Social and 20% who knew of Rumble, the study showed.
The acquisition of Parler arrives amid tumult in the social media landscape.
Facebook-parent Meta, which has laid off more than 20,000 workers since the fall, has suffered declines in its revenue and stock price.
Meanwhile, Twitter has slashed roughly 75% of its workforce and overhauled its subscription offering since entrepreneur Elon Musk completed a $44 billion deal for the service in October.
China-based TikTok, which boasts more than 150 million U.S. users, faces bipartisan calls on Capitol Hill for a ban.
In the press announcement on Friday, Starboard referred to Parler as “the world’s pioneering uncancelable free speech platform.”
(LONDON) — It was in early March when Fereshteh, a 42-year-old mother of two, said she received a phone call from a friend claiming there had been a chemical gas attack at a girls’ school in their small town in Iran’s Isfahan Province. She ran all the way to her daughter’s high school, fearing for her only daughter’s safety.
“I felt my heart coming out of my chest with fear. I don’t know how my feet dragged me to Roshana’s (her daughter) school,” Fereshteh said. ABC News has agreed to use pseudonyms for her and her 16-year-old daughter so that they could speak freely of their experience.
Even after finding her daughter safe, Fereshteh told ABC News she did not let either Roshana or her 11-year-old son go to school for five weeks, fearing for their wellbeing.
Over 7,000 students in Iran have been affected by at least 290 similar incidents at schools involving “poisonous substances” from November through March, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a press association established by Iranian human rights advocates. The mysterious poisonings have primarily targeted schools for girls, the agency said.
Hundreds of schoolgirls have been hospitalized as a result of these “targeted chemical attacks,” United Nations officials said in a statement March 16.
“We are deeply concerned about the physical and mental well-being of these schoolgirls; their parents and the ability of the girls to enjoy their fundamental right to education,” the U.N. statement said.
Some protesters and activists allege that the gas attacks are an attempt by government forces to close schools after mass protests that roiled the country in the wake of the suspicious death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died under mysterious circumstances shortly after being arrested in September for allegedly not wearing a hijab.
Women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad claimed in an interview with ABC News that the attacks are the Islamic Republic’s “revenge” on women for their leading role in the ongoing anti-regime movement.
The Iranian government initially dismissed the reported attacks as rumors, but Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has since called the poisonings an “unforgivable crime.” “If there are any people involved in the matter, and there certainly are… the perpetrators must be given the most severe of punishments,” he warned in a statement March 6.
Amid the closing of schools for the two-week Persian New Year holidays in late March, many parents and observers had said they hoped the gas attacks would be over. However, a series of apparent attacks were reported in several cities across the country in early April, especially in the Kurdish town of Saqez, the hometown of Amini.
Despite her mother’s reluctance for her to attend school, Roshana said she decided to return to school after the New Year break. “I know I am not safe, but I think if these attacks mean that there are people who do not want girls to get educated, I’d be giving them what they want by not going to my classes,” she said.
“It is very tough. I do not know what is right and what is wrong. But I do trust my daughter’s decision,” Fereshteh said. However, she still does not let her son go to school. “I know it damages his learning procedure, especially at this age, but he has respiratory problems, and a gas attack can make him very sick.”
The alleged gas attacks were first reported in November in the holy city of Qom when 18 schoolgirls were hospitalized after feeling sick at a school. Similar events soon spread to over 100 cities, affecting both girls’ and boys’ schools and university students, according to activists.
The attacks have re-ignited new protests against the Islamic Republic. The regime was already under pressure with the women-led protests over the suspicious death of Amini.
Videos shared online by activists and human rights groups appear to show students on hospital beds suffering from respiratory problems, dizziness, nausea, with some complaining they feel numb in their limbs. Some victims said they smelled citrus fruit or rotten fish before feeling sick, according to Iranian media reports.
“No dystopian novel can beat the story our students live now. Poisoning defenseless girls at schools by chemical gases is the worst thing that one can possibly imagine,” Said Shadi, a 26-year Tehran-based tutor, told ABC News.
In February, Iran education minister Yusef Noubri dismissed the first alleged gas attacks as “rumors,” saying the students had underlying illnesses. “A smell was felt in some schools, and some students went to the hospital. Some of these students have underlying diseases and are being treated; then rumors are raised,” he said. The government’s position on the issue changed as the attacks spread throughout the country.
Authorities announced the arrest of several suspects in connection with the suspected poisonings shortly before the Persian New Year. However, some Iranians have expressed doubt that the main culprits have been arrested amid the ongoing attacks.
Some said they do not believe the regime has a “real intention” of arresting or punishing those involved in the poisonings.
“They (authorities) use the traffic cameras and their intelligence to arrest women who do not wear a hijab. If they are serious in their claim, why they do not use these resources to identify the ones attack on innocent kids,” Shadi said.
In early March, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi ordered the Interior Ministry to probe the incidents, with the assistance of the health and intelligence ministries, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
“We talk about the attacks a lot. Some of us think it is them (the regime). Some of us believe they want us to stay at home just like what the Taliban is doing to the girls in Afghanistan,” Roshana said.
The White House said last month that the Biden administration does not know what is causing the apparent attacks and called for the Iranian government to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation.
“It’s deeply concerning news coming out of Iran,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said. “Little girls going to school should only have to worry about learning. They shouldn’t have to worry about their own physical safety, but we just don’t know enough right now.
(NEW YORK) — Spring has sprung and summer is around the corner which means long strolls and rolling strides outside to enjoy the warm weather months.
But with heat waves already setting in across parts of the country, ABC News’ Good Morning America tapped Dr. Liz Weinandy, lead dietitian at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, to explain what to watch out for if dehydration hits, as well as the best things to drink and eat to keep your body nourished.
Symptoms of dehydration
“There are several signs a person might be dehydrated,” she said. “Headache or confusion, extreme thirst, very dark urine, infrequent urination, fatigue, muscle cramping and lightheadedness. In extreme cases of dehydration, it can lead to heatstroke or hyperthermia (abnormally high body heat).”
When it comes to preventative measures and staying hydrated, Weinandy said, “the best way to avoid dehydration is to drink before you get thirsty.”
“In some situations, it is easier to get dehydrated, like being active in hot temperatures,” she continued.
Best drinks for hydration besides water
While some supplements like hydration packets that are added to water can be helpful for some, Weinandy said H2O still reigns supreme for staying hydrated.
“Water is usually best and suitable for most people unless they are excessively sweating, then replacing electrolytes like potassium and sodium start to become more important,” Weinandy explained. “Sports drinks and electrolyte replacement solutions are very appropriate in this situation, although keep in mind most people do not need them.”
“As for food, most fruits and vegetables have a higher water content compared to other foods,” she said. “Melons, strawberries, pineapple, cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce are especially high in water and can help prevent dehydration.”
Who’s at-risk for dehydration?
Weinandy said another factor to keep in mind is that “some groups are at a higher risk of becoming dehydrated.”
“Infants, elderly and people who cannot communicate clearly” can all be more prone to dehydration, she said. “Also, being dehydrated increases the risk of developing kidney stones because urine is more concentrated.”
How much water to drink to stay hydrated
ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said the amount of water you should consume daily depends on your age, height and where you live.
Most guidelines call for the average woman to drink around 2.7 liters per day, and 3.7 liters for men.
One liter is equivalent to 33 ounces.
“Your body’s own systems will tell you when you need more water and it’s called thirst,” Ashton said. “A lot of times people think they’re hungry and they’re actually thirsty. See how it works for you.”
(NEW YORK) — Five years ago, Shannel Perman nearly became a statistic in the growing Black maternal health crisis in the United States.
In the last week of her pregnancy with her first child, Perman, now 33, said she began to experience complications like swelling, high blood pressure and weight gain that she said were dismissed by her doctor.
Perman, who lives near Baltimore, went onto give birth to a healthy baby, a son named Jyace, 41 weeks into her pregnancy, and said she thought she was medically in the clear.
“As far as I was concerned, I was healthy. My baby was healthy,” Perman told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “That’s all my doctor kept telling me, was that I was OK and my baby was OK.”
It was not until a week after giving birth that Perman nearly lost her life.
She suffered a stroke while at home with her baby and husband, who rushed her to the hospital, where she eventually underwent two emergency brain surgeries.
“I wasn’t stroke-alerted when I came in to the hospital showing signs of a stroke,” said Perman, who added that it was her mom, who met them at the hospital, who demanded she get medical attention for a stroke. “I was failed multiple times.”
As a Black woman in the U.S., Perman is three times more likely to die during childbirth or in the months after than white, Asian or Latina women, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A recent CDC report found the majority of maternal mortality cases — about 53% — occur after the first week of childbirth.
Black women are also more likely than white, Asian or Latina women to die from pregnancy-related complications regardless of their education level or their income, data shows. And in cases of maternal death, Black women are more likely to die from cardiac conditions, like the high blood pressure complications that Perman described experiencing in her last week of pregnancy, according to the CDC.
Perman said that as an otherwise healthy 29-year-old at the time of her son’s birth, with no preexisting conditions, suffering a stroke came as a life-changing shock. She said she underwent several months of rehabilitation and continues to suffer from complications including memory loss, brain fog, migraines and light sensitivity.
Perman said it also came as a shock to learn the disparities Black women like herself face when it comes to giving birth, and how the maternal mortality rates have only continued to grow in the five years since she gave birth.
“A mom should be able to enjoy her pregnancy, enjoy her newborn and postpartum period and not have to worry about dying during childbirth or shortly after her child’s birth,” she said. “So it’s heartbreaking to think about, that this issue is still happening.”
For Perman, the decision to have a second child was one that took several years, a period of time that she said involved mental health therapy, prayer and finding the right medical team.
Last year, Perman gave birth to a healthy daughter, whom she and her husband named Jordyn.
She shared with GMA the things she did differently when giving birth to her second child, and what she wants other women to know.
1. I made sure I felt seen by my medical team.
Perman said she and her husband did their research on doctors, including meeting with several, to make sure they found the right fit.
“We wanted to find someone that made us feel comfortable and made us feel seen and heard. Someone that we didn’t feel rushed with. Someone that took the time to answer every and all of our questions,” Perman said. “And the team that we went with, they were great. If we showed any concerns, they were running tests and just doing all the things we would want from a doctor.”
Dr. Pam Oliver , a board-certified OB-GYN and executive vice president of Novant Health in North Carolina, said she also encourages patients to look around to find a team of doctors with whom they connect.
“I think that patients should look at the team that’s taking care of them and make sure they feel that connection. They feel like this is a place, or this is a team that truly cares about me,” Oliver, who did not treat Perman, told GMA. “And that becomes part of how you choose the team that actually is going to take care of you when you deliver.”
Oliver, also president of the Novant Health Physician Network, said she also encourages patients to work with the same OB-GYN prior to pregnancy, when possible.
“I like to take care of my patients prior to pregnancy so that they understand that how they come into pregnancy matters some with their outcomes,” she said. “We start a nine-month journey once we have a positive pregnancy test, but some of the outcomes and, unfortunately, the deaths that we see may be related to health issues that started way before pregnancy.”
2. I used an at-home blood pressure monitor.
Perman said that with her second pregnancy, she used an at-home blood pressure reader, which can be purchased over-the-counter for as little as $20.
“That can be a life-changing method for so many moms, if they have a blood pressure reader where they can be testing or checking their own blood pressure throughout their pregnancy and even the postpartum period,” she said. “Because for a lot of moms, we don’t get a [postpartum] checkup until the six-week appointment, and so much can go wrong in those six weeks.”
High blood pressure, or hypertension, can put women at risk during and after childbirth, raising the risk of stroke, preeclampsia and preterm delivery, according to the CDC .
The CDC also recommends that women keep track of their blood pressure at home so they can notify their healthcare provider if their blood pressure is higher than usual.
3. I was my own biggest advocate.
Perman said her biggest piece of advice to other women is to speak up and be persistent if they feel anything is off with their body.
“You have to be your own biggest advocate,” she said. “If you feel any symptoms or anything is concerning, you have to speak up. If your doctor isn’t listening to you or you don’t feel seen or heard, you need to find someone else that’s going to hear you because you cannot take any chances when it comes to your life or your child’s life.”
Perman continued, “You have to trust your own intuition and if something something doesn’t feel right, you just have to follow that and speak up and advocate for yourself.”
Oliver said she encourages patients to be persistent with their doctor and proactive with their health.
“Advocating is really about being persistent and making sure that your provider, whether it’s a physician or a midwife, understands what your issue or your concern may be and that you get some answer, even if it means you have to seek another opinion or talk to someone else to make sure that you truly are getting an answer,” Oliver said. “Because there are a lot of things in pregnancy we can’t explain. There are a lot of aches and pains and things that happen.”
4. I was alert for warning signs after giving birth.
With Perman’s second pregnancy, she said she knew that even after she gave birth, she needed to advocate for herself and pay close attention to how she was feeling.
“The experience between the two pregnancies were night and day,” she said. “This time around, I was able to know what to look out for.”
Oliver echoed that once a new mom goes home from the hospital, it’s important that she knows to speak up when something feels off in their body.
Among the warning signs for women to watch for are shortness of breath, chest pain, weakness, severe headaches and excessive bleeding, according to Oliver.
“Those are just a few of the things that we look out for because they may be tied to the most common causes for women dying after childbirth,” she said. “You have to make sure that you you’ve gotten your symptoms out, that you’re heard and that you’ve had an evaluation that feels reasonable to say, ‘We’ve ruled out the bad stuff.'”
Oliver noted that women should listen to their intuition and feel confident telling their doctor, “Something just feels off.” She added that if a woman is told by her doctor that a symptom, like a headache, for example, is normal, she should ask the follow up question, “When should I be concerned about this headache?”
“That is something you can truly act on,” Oliver said. “You need your team to be able to tell you when do you get concerned? When do you follow up? How do you follow up and what should you expect from there?”
5. I knew that maternal mortality was a major crisis.
Perman described it as “difficult” and “heartbreaking” to know that so many women, particularly Black women, die during and after childbirth due to forces beyond their control.
Oliver, too, said she struggles as a doctor to know that outside of medical care, there are issues like poverty, bias and systemic racism that impact the rising maternal mortality rate.
One reason for the maternal mortality disparity is that more Black women of childbearing age have chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes, which increases the risk of pregnancy-related complications like preeclampsia and possibly the need for emergency C-sections, according to the CDC.
But there are also socioeconomic circumstances and structural inequities that put Black women at greater risk for those chronic conditions. Black women often have inadequate access to care throughout pregnancy which can further complicate their conditions, data shows.
Anecdotal reports also show that the concerns of Black women experiencing negative symptoms during pregnancy and postpartum are specifically ignored by some physicians until the woman’s conditions significantly worsen, at which point it may be too late to prevent a deadlier outcome.
Oliver said one of the most heartbreaking and frustrating things she hears as a doctor is Black women who are afraid to have children, or who have decided not to have children out of fear they will die.
“That hurts my heart because that’s not at all what we intend to do, is to scare people,” Oliver said. “It’s not about fear. It’s about empowering ourselves, advocating for things that we know help all women, getting legislators and others to understand what we need to do to get the data, to cover the services that need to be covered, to approach this from many angles.”
She continued, “It’s important for people to know it is still safe to have babies and every day millions of women are having safe childbirths, but the trouble is that Black women are dying at a rate that is three to four times that of White women.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency stay of an appeals court ruling that would sharply restrict access to the widely-used abortion medication mifepristone.
The restrictions were set to take effect early Saturday morning.
On behalf of the Food and Drug Administration, the DOJ has asked the court to impose an immediate administrative stay of the 5th Circuit’s abortion pill decision — to preserve the status quo while the justices consider the application — but to ultimately stay the ruling pending appeal.
“If allowed to take effect, the lower courts’ orders would upend the regulatory regime for mifepristone, with sweeping consequences for the pharmaceutical industry, women who need access to the drug, and FDA’s ability to implement its statutory authority,” the DOJ stated.
The government says the ruling creates a “host of unprecedented issues” that put the FDA in an “impossible position,” particularly in light of the dueling order out of Washington state.
“Regulated entities are trying to discern their legal duties and urgently demanding guidance. FDA has spent the last week first grappling with the implications of the district court’s order, then racing to untangle the different and enormously more complicated issues raised by the Fifth Circuit’s decision. And in the meantime, another district court has enjoined FDA from doing anything to change the conditions on the distribution of mifepristone in 17 States and the District of Columbia — which means that FDA risks contempt if it takes action to permit the marketing of mifepristone in a manner consistent with the Fifth Circuit’s order. This Court should put a stop to that untenable situation by staying the district court’s order in full,” the Justice Department’s application said.
The administration told the high court that a decision by a district court federal judge in Texas is “the first time any court has abrogated FDA’s conditions on a drug’s approval based on a disagreement with the agency’s judgment about safety — much less done so after those conditions have been in effect for years.”
A few minutes earlier, Danco Labs, maker of the abortion pill mifepristone, also filed an emergency application with the court seeking a full stay of the Texas judge’s order pending appeal or asks the justices to take up the case immediately on the merits and decide it this spring.
Danco cites the conflicting ruling from the Eastern District of Washington as the primary basis for urging the court to get involved now.
The company cites “regulatory chaos” that would ensue if those old FDA restrictions snap back at midnight and an “untenable limbo for Danco, for providers, for women and for health care systems all trying to navigate these uncharted waters.”
Notably, both the FDA and Danco warn that if the 5th Circuit’s decision stands — reverting to circa-2000 restrictions of the abortion pill — all existing doses of mifepristone would be “misbranded” because their labeling would no longer comply with the approval standard.
In turn, they suggest, those doses could not be properly sold or distributed under regulations. Adjusting the drug’s labeling “could take months” they say.
The government also points out that such a scenario would invalidate all generic versions of the drug, since those were approved for use subsequent to the year 2000.
And, they warn of danger to women …. forcing the government to “reinstate a now-obsolete and unfamiliar dosing regimen [from 2000] that includes higher doses of mifepristone than what we now know are needed for the intended use,” which could harm patients.
(BOSTON) — The 21-year-old arrested in connection with the leaked documents probe has been charged with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and willful retention of classified documents, which collectively carry a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air Force National Guard, made his initial appearance before a federal magistrate in Boston on Friday morning.
Teixeira walked into court in a beige smock and pants with a black T-shirt underneath. He entered in handcuffs, which were removed before he sat at the defense table with his attorney. Teixeira appeared to briefly scan the crowd while in his seat.
Three people sat on a bench in the front row reserved for relatives of the defendant.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadine Pellegrini sought pretrial detention, which was granted pending the outcome of a hearing on Wednesday.
Teixeira was taken into custody in Massachusetts on Thursday “in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information,” Attorney General Merrick Garland announced.
Media reports have described the U.S. intelligence documents — which seem to contain top-secret information about the Ukraine war and other parts of the world — as being shared among a small group of users on Discord before getting wider notice.
(NEW YORK) — One couple found out that they are truly a match — in more ways than one.
After being together for more than 20 years, a husband and wife pair learned they were rare matches as living donors.
Dexter Holaday had been living with a rare genetic disorder called polycystic kidney disease, when in late 2021, he was told he needed a kidney transplant.
“The average timeframe for a kidney, with my blood type, is five years for a deceased donor,” Holaday told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “So it’s kind of a waiting game.”
Living donor kidneys are generally healthier than deceased donor kidneys, which leads to greater long- and short-term survival rates. However, in 2022, living donors accounted for only 29.7% of all kidney transplants nationwide, highlighting the need for living donors, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Despite the rarity of living donor kidneys, Holaday and his wife June began their search for a match.
“We had flyers, we had sent out over 400 Christmas cards,” June Holaday told GMA.
More than 90,000 people nationwide are currently waiting for a kidney; the average wait time for a deceased donor kidney is three to five years, and more than 22 people a day die in the U.S. while waiting for a transplant, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
Up against time and despite having different blood types, June Holaday decided to still get tested to see if she could be a living donor for her husband — even if the chances were extremely thin.
After months of testing, June Holaday found out she defied the odds. She was a match and was approved to give her husband the gift of life.
“I think we finally breathed a sigh of relief for the first time in the whole journey,” June Holaday said of learning she was a match for her husband.
Living donor transplant surgeries happen simultaneously in rooms next to each other to ensure the organ is transplanted quickly and safely. On March 28, the Holadays went into the lifesaving operation room, together.
Dr. Leigh Anne Dageford, a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, performed June Holaday’s nephrectomy. She said the Holaday’s situation was “beautiful.”
“To be a true perfect match, it’s one out of 100,000, but given the advances we have these days, we don’t always have to have that exact perfect match,” Dageford said. “It is an amazing love story. Her willingness to do this, to continue to have a wonderful life with him. For the rest of their lives together is beautiful.”
Dr. Nahel Elias, the surgical director of the kidney transplant program at Massachusetts General Hospital, was right next door to transplant June Holaday’s kidney into her husband Dexter.
“It is not only life-changing,” Elias said. “It’s life-enhancing and it’s life-extending.”
Dexter Holaday said he is “absolutely grateful” for his wife, describing what she did as “amazing.”
June Holaday called her donated kidney just a “spare,” and wants to encourage others to sign up to be living donors.
“Anyone can function on one kidney. I want to shout it from the rooftops like, ‘Share your spare, share your spare!'” she said. “Someone in this country will need you at some point.”
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — The brain of Louisville, Kentucky, mass shooting suspect Connor Sturgeon will be tested for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly known as CTE, a family spokesperson told ABC News.
The results of the testing will take several weeks, spokesperson Pete Palmer said.
Sturgeon, 25, allegedly killed five people and injured eight others in Monday’s mass shooting at Old National Bank. Sturgeon, who worked at the bank, was armed with an AR-15 and was killed by officers at the scene.
CTE is a degenerative brain disease found in those with a history of repetitive brain trauma — often athletes and veterans.
Former NFL player Phillip Adams, who police said killed six people in Rock Hill, South Carolina, in 2021, had CTE at the time he carried out the mass shooting, according to the Boston University CTE Center. CTE can only be formally diagnosed after an autopsy. Adams, who spent 21 years playing tackle football, died from a self-inflicted gunshot after the shooting.
According to the Louisville Courier Journal, Sturgeon experienced multiple concussions from playing sports as a child.
Sturgeon’s mother called 911 the morning of the shooting, telling the dispatcher, “He’s never hurt anyone, he’s a really good kid.”
The suspect’s family said in a statement Tuesday, “While Connor, like many of his contemporaries, had mental health challenges which we, as a family, were actively addressing, there were never any warning signs or indications he was capable of this shocking act. While we have many unanswered questions, we will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement officials and do all we can to aid everyone in understanding why and how this happened.”
“No words can express our sorrow, anguish, and horror at the unthinkable harm our son Connor inflicted on innocent people, their families, and the entire Louisville community,” the family added.
(NEW YORK) — Airlines are already booking up for getaways abroad this summer and as Americans finalize travel plans, there are some important things to keep in mind.
With 75% of seats already sold on their aircrafts, Delta revealed that it has had to increase its number of international flights.
As search interest soars for summer travel, Expedia travel expert Melanie Fish told ABC News’ Good Morning America that their app has already seen “a 25% jump in flight searches over the summer” for popular domestic destinations alone, such as Los Angeles, Seattle and New York City.
“People are going back to cities, but we’re also seeing people interested in these more far-flung destinations,” Fish said.
June will likely mark peak prices for domestic travel and July for international destinations.
Hayley Berg, an economist for the travel booking app Hopper, told GMA that for anyone planning to travel domestically, “book now if you’re going to be traveling in May, June or July.”
“If you’re planning to travel at the end of the summer, think August, early September and Labor Day,” Berg said. “You have a few more weeks to find the best deals.”
London, Paris, New Zealand, Japan and Vietnam are among the most popular international destinations. But Berg suggested finding cheaper destinations or nearby arrival cities for less.
“Most travelers headed to a bucket list vacation in Europe are going to consider the big cities Rome, Paris, London,” she said. “But Portugal is typically very inexpensive to fly in and out of.”
Bianca Signez plans to take her first international trip since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. But she told GMA that increased airfare alone for peak summer travel has already left her “really disappointed.”
“I hear that July is a great time to go to Italy, which I’m excited about, but it’s also very pricey,” Signez said. “The flight alone will cost me a little over $1,000 — I think that’s the most I’ve ever spent on a flight before.”
As airfare prices trend upwards, another option to get more bang for the buck could be to head for the high seas instead.
Cruise Critic shows that you can travel to Alaska between May and August for less than $115 per night per person, with some ships selling spots as low as $37. Meanwhile, average fares for cruises to Mexico are less than $100 per night for most of the summer.
When it comes time to plan domestic travel, experts suggested booking airfare 21 to 60 days out and at least three months in advance for international airfare.
Last year, average ticket prices were around 8% lower during these same time frames, compared to 60 to 90 days out.
