(SMITHSBURG, Md.) — A 23-year-old man faces over two dozen charges after allegedly opening fire at his workplace, killing three people and later wounding an officer in an ensuing shootout, authorities announced.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said Friday it has charged Joe Louis Esquivel, of Hedgesville, West Virginia, in connection with Thursday’s shooting at Columbia Machine in Smithsburg, Maryland.
Esquivel faces 25 charges, including three counts each of first-degree murder and second-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder.
The suspect was working his normal shift at the factory before allegedly retrieving a semi-automatic handgun from his car and firing upon his coworkers in the breakroom at around 2:30 p.m., according to the sheriff’s office.
He then allegedly fled the scene in his bronze Mitsubishi Eclipse and was apprehended by Maryland State Police in nearby Hagerstown based on a description of the suspect, the sheriff’s office said.
The suspect and state troopers exchanged gunfire and the suspect and a trooper were wounded, the sheriff’s office said. Both were transported for medical treatment with non-life-threatening injuries.
Esquivel was arrested Friday and is being held by the Washington County Detention Center without bond. A bail hearing has been scheduled for Monday. Online court records do not include any attorney information for him.
Authorities have not commented on a possible motive in the attack.
When police arrived at Columbia Machine they found a victim critically injured outside the business. Responding sheriff’s deputies then found three additional victims dead inside.
The deceased victims were identified by the sheriff’s office as Mark Alan Frey, 50; Charles Edward Minnick Jr., 31; and Joshua Robert Wallace, 30. The fourth victim who was injured was identified as 42-year-old Brandon Chase Michael.
Maryland State Police said the injured trooper is a 25-year veteran of the department assigned to the Criminal Enforcement Division Western Region, and that he’s not being identified at this time.
Local authorities and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives executed a search warrant at the suspect’s home and found additional firearms, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said.
Columbia Machine manufactures equipment for concrete products. Smithsburg is about 70 miles northwest of Washington, D.C.
The company said it is working closely with local authorities amid the ongoing investigation.
“Our highest priority during this tragic event is the safety and well-being of our employees and their families,” Columbia Machine CEO Rick Goode said in a statement.
(WASHINGTON) — Editor’s note: This story was originally published in January 2022. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Hamse Warfa was the first Somali-American presidential appointee. Other Somali Americans have been appointed to presidential administrations prior to Warfa, including Hani Garabyare, during Barack Obama’s tenure. We regret the error.
The White House announced this week that Hamse Warfa will join the Biden administration — a Somali native who was inspired to enter public service because of the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment during the 2016 election cycle.
While not the first Somali-American to join a presidential administration, Warfa is one of the highest-ranking — a senior adviser to the State Department on civilian security, democracy and human rights. In that role, he will help develop strategies for protecting and promoting democracy at home and abroad.
“My acceptance of this role is in direct response to President Biden’s call to action to protect and promote democracy,” he told ABC News.
Warfa’s family fled Somalia after the country’s civil war started in 1991 and lived in various refugee camps across Kenya, he said. After arriving in the United States as a teenager in 1994 alongside his family, he received a bachelor’s degree in political science from San Diego State University and his master’s in organizational management and leadership from Springfield College in the same city. He moved to Minnesota in 2012 after he was recruited by the state’s largest philanthropic foundation, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, he explained.
The 2016 election season inspired Warfa to become more active in civic engagement.
“The strong anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim policy and actions, motivated me to organize and get more involved at the state level,” Warfa said. “Some of the Minnesota gubernatorial candidates talked about shutting down the refugee program, and in some cases, created fear about refugees in Minnesota, especially about Minnesota’s Muslim, Somali community.”
In 2019, the Minnesota governor’s office appointed Warfa as deputy commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, making him the highest-ranking Somali American official in the state’s executive branch, according to the department.
Warfa’s list of accomplishments also includes being the co-founder of BanQu, Inc., a blockchain service created to broaden economic opportunities for low-income people across the globe, as well as the recipient of a 2016 Bush Fellowship, which is granted to help develop leadership skills, and an Ashoka Fellowship for social entrepreneurs.
During his time in Minnesota government, he “successfully advocated for the largest job bill in state history, supplying workforce training to youth and adults,” according to his department.
He served as an economic adviser to the Biden campaign, helping develop the administration’s plans to reverse the Muslim ban and increase refugee admission numbers.
“When we talk about democracy, I want to make sure we talk about inclusive democracy,” he told ABC News. “I want to bring my both lived and professional experiences to help the administration expand access to those affected by government policies and actions.”
“I want to see America live through its ideals in building multiethnic and multiracial democracy that protects everyone,” he added. “I hope people see in my example — from the refugee camp to representing America — hope for democracy and value of everyone’s voice and vote.”
(NEW YORK) — As details have emerged from the deadly mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas last month — which left 19 children and two teachers dead — questions have been raised about the effectiveness of security technology used at the school, experts told ABC News.
In Uvalde, a school employee used a security app on his phone to trigger an internal alert system before the shooter entered the school, a spokesperson for the company behind the alert system, Raptor Technologies, said last Friday.
The employee pressed a “lockdown” button that set off a cascade of emergency texts and emails to coworkers, the company said. But at least one teacher, third– and-fourth-grade teacher Arnulfo Reyes, who was wounded in the attack, said he did not receive a message through the Raptor security system.
In addition, a teacher who saw the shooter approach the school armed with a gun, closed a door to the school but the door failed to lock, allowing the shooter to enter, authorities said. Law enforcement is looking into why the door did not lock, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
The tragedy has cast the spotlight once again on the role of security technology — such as alarms, surveillance cameras and metal detectors — and its potential to help prevent and mitigate mass shootings. It also comes as many Republicans and some Democrats have called for enhanced protective measures at schools, such as bulletproof doors, while others have rejected school security measures and technologies as a key solution for mass shootings.
School security technology and the push for it has become increasingly commonplace despite a lack of conclusive research that it makes schools safer, some experts told ABC News. While technology provides schools with additional means for identifying and combating threats, its success depends largely on the competence of the people who operate it and can detract from a school’s academic offerings, the experts said.
Concerns have also arisen over the possibility of disproportionate negative effects of school security technology for Black and brown students, who are more likely to face suspension or expulsion than their white counterparts, according to a study released in 2018 by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
What is school security technology?
School security technology encompasses a host of products that protect a campus from unwanted or dangerous visitors, as well as weapons and other prohibited goods.
Schools often protect their main entryways with dead-bolted or otherwise heavily locked doors, which can be equipped with an automatic lock triggered remotely in the event of an emergency, according to a report from the non-profit National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities.
Further monitoring traffic in and out of school often takes place through the use of visitor ID badges and surveillance cameras. To discover weapons or other illicit materials, some schools deploy metal detectors. Communication devices, such as walkie talkies or public announcement systems, allow staff to alert each other or students to potential threats.
Advanced school security technology incorporates artificial intelligence, such as surveillance cameras programmed to detect guns or identify possible shooters.
Some experts emphasized the value of school security technology, noting that extra lines of defense can make a difference in preventing or slowing a potential attack. But they stressed that technological solutions cannot stand alone. Instead, schools face a challenge of training staff and students to deploy the technology effectively and respond to it in an emergency.
“When properly used to address specific needs, school security technology can be an extra tool,” Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, told ABC News. “But any security technology is only as strong as the weakest human link behind it.”
Another expert went even further, describing technology as a crucial part of school safety.
“School security plays a significant and key role,” said Ronald Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Center, a nonprofit that consults with school districts and other stakeholders on safety precautions.
Stephens highlighted the value of surveillance cameras, metal detectors, and forward-thinking school design that permits easy supervision of students. Technology offers schools an additional set of safety precautions as they face the difficult threat of a shooter committed to harming students or staff, sometimes at the risk of his or her own life, he added. But school safety depends on the people overseeing it, he acknowledged.
“There is still nothing like having that responsible adult or team of adults who are watching,” Stephens said. “It’s something that requires entire community support.”
A study commissioned by the Department of Justice in 2016 found that safety technology may be useful but that effective deployment requires specific measures that fit a given school. Districts may need a layered approach that implements equipment both inside and outside of a school, the report added. But high-profile events often spark measures that don’t make sense in the long run, it noted.
A growing industry
Security technology, at least in some form, is nearly ubiquitous in U.S. schools.
As of the 2017-18 school year, 95% of public schools said that they controlled access to school buildings by locking or monitoring doors, the National Center for Education Statistics found. Eighty-three percent of public schools said they use security cameras, a significant uptick from the 1999-2000 school year, when just 19% of schools were equipped with security cameras, the organization’s survey found.
The prevalence of security technology has helped the sector become a multibillion-dollar industry. In 2017, the security equipment and services sector generated $2.7 billion in revenue, according to an analysis by market-research firm IHS Markit.
Despite recent growth in the industry, research on the effectiveness of school security technology has proven inconclusive, and an uptick in school shootings over recent years suggests that the equipment has little or no effect in protecting schools from attacks, Odis Johnson Jr., the executive director at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Safe and Healthy Schools, told ABC News.
The report commissioned by the Department of Justice in 2016 found an absence of proof that school security measures — such as access control, alarms, and video surveillance — make schools safer. “There is limited and conflicting evidence in the literature on the short- and long-term effectiveness of school safety technology,” the report said.
Similarly, a study that year from research firm RAND on school security technology — such as door locks, video surveillance, and emergency alerts — found “rigorous research about the effectiveness of these technologies is virtually nonexistent.”
Johnson said there remains a lack of clear data that demonstrates the effectiveness of school security technology. “I don’t think the literature is where it needs to be, especially as it relates to strong evidence that there is a benefit to fortifying schools,” he said.
Reaction to school shootings
The heightened use of school security technology has coincided with an increase in shootings and shooting deaths at schools, raising further questions about the effectiveness of the equipment, Johnson said.
During the 2020-21 school year, 145 school shootings took place at U.S. public and private elementary and secondary schools, including 93 shootings with casualties, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. That marked the highest number of school shootings in a given school year on record, following record-setting marks each of the three years prior, the organization found.
“The nation has fortified schools by adding law enforcement and more security measures,” Johnson said. “As we still see an increase in injuries and deaths, to me that suggests that these technologies are not an appropriate response to the problem.”
Stephens, the executive director of the National School Safety Center, a non-profit that consults with school districts, disagreed, saying that bolstered security could only help schools protect themselves against shooters.
“My take is it’s always better to be prepared,” he said. “Do everything you can, knowing that you can’t do everything.”
But Johnson and Stephens agreed that school security technology forces schools to make tradeoffs that can detract from academics. Stephens cited the example of a metal detector at a single entryway point, which he said can delay students from reaching their classrooms at the start of the day for up to two and a half hours.
“What about the educational process?” Stephens said. “You have to look at the cost.”
Kenneth Trump, the president of National School Safety and Security Services, said he’s noticed a pattern of a rise in calls for additional technology that follows mass shootings.
“After every high-profile incident, we’ve seen over the years an explosion of overnight experts, gadgets, and gurus that pop up,” Trump said. “People want a tangible thing.”
(NEW YORK) — Isaac Marchionna had always been a loyal SUV owner until he upgraded his Toyota 4Runner to a Ford F-150 Raptor, a massive truck with 450 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of torque, three years ago.
Marchionna, who lives in Oregon, originally bought the $72,000 pickup to go off-roading in the Baja California desert. He soon realized that the Raptor had all the creature comforts he sought in a daily driver.
“It’s aggressive and can bomb through a desert … but drives like a big car, handles very easily and is a very plush ride,” he told ABC News. “Just a pleasant driving experience around town.”
Trucks have definitely become the “it” vehicle in the U.S., according to Ivan Drury, a senior manager at Edmunds. They now come equipped with features that once made luxury vehicles stand out. Plus, towing capabilities and bed size have increased in the latest generations.
“Automakers are adding everything — heated and ventilated seats in the front and rear, 360-degree cameras, adaptive cruise control,” Drury told ABC News. “Trucks make your life easier and are more practical than an SUV.”
Sales of trucks have exploded in recent years. They account for 20% of the U.S. automotive market, up from 13% in 2012, according to Edmunds data. Prices have also skyrocketed: the average transaction price of a truck in 2005 was $29,390. Today, consumers are spending $54,564 on average, though trucks can easily top out at — or exceed — six figures.
“I used to think spending $50K or $60K on a truck was outrageous. Now there are $100K pickups,” Tony Quiroga, editor-in-chief of Car and Driver, told ABC News. “Automakers keep producing models that are more and more expensive and there doesn’t seem to be a limit to the appetite.”
When General Motors opened reservations for its $112,595 GMC Edition 1 Hummer EV pickup last October, all units were sold out within 10 minutes, the company said. The muscular EV, a modern take on the former gas-guzzling ute, still commands attention from motorists with its bold, athletic exterior design. The Hummer’s three electric motors and battery pack produce 1,000 hp and 1,200 lb-ft of torque. The truck’s engineers and designers, however, paid as much attention to the interior and ride quality as the insane performance numbers.
Inside are crisp graphics on two large screens and multiple storage cubbies to hold items. GM said 70% of drivers who made a reservation are new to EVs.
“The way we’ve executed this truck … anyone could drive this,” Brian Malczewski, lead exterior designer of the Hummer EV, told ABC News. “All my friends and family just loved it, regardless of gender.”
Automakers have made trucks so attractive to nontraditional owners — roomy cabins, massage seats, 14-inch screens — that a growing number of families and women are choosing them over SUVs as their primary vehicle, said Andre Smirnov, managing editor at TFLtruck.com. Trucks are no longer utilitarian vehicles with two doors and a flatbed, he pointed out.
“They’re more capable off-road, more maneuverable … and some have noise cancellation,” Smirnov told ABC News. “A truck 20 years ago would rattle and be loud. Now it’s as quiet as a whisper inside.”
He added, “A pickup truck lets a person or family have the ability to do anything or go anywhere. Trucks can absolutely be a status symbol.”
Trucks have an average mpg of 17, according to government data. Quiroga sees America’s fascination with them screeching to a halt if fuel prices keep climbing higher.
“With gas at $4 to $7 a gallon, I don’t know how long the demand will last,” he conceded. “When you add the cost of gasoline to the monthly payment, a truck is outrageously expensive.”
Smirnov said high fuel prices may push some wannabe truck owners toward electrics like the Hummer, Rivian R1T, Ford F-150 Lightning or smaller pickups with hybrid powertrains.
The Ram 1500 TRX — a beast of a truck with 35-inch tires, 702 hp, 650 lb-ft of torque and a 6.2L supercharged Hemi V8 engine — can launch from 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds or cruise comfortably at legal speeds like a family hauler. The $72,390 truck can easily hit $100,000 with added options and towing packages and gets a combined 12 mpg rating from the EPA.
“Demand for the TRX has never been higher — it’s in incredible demand,” Brant Combs, senior manager for Ram 1500, told ABC News. “More people want a TRX than ever before.”
The TRX’s “wild” performance numbers may be a draw for some drivers, Combs acknowledged. It’s the truck’s everyday abilities, however, that really sell the TRX, he said: the prodigious storage space, multiple USB adapters, rear reclining seats and premium leather, to name a few.
“It has the comfort and safety features … a great truck for suburban daily use,” Combs said.
Toyota and Chevrolet recently launched two new trucks to get a bigger piece of the red-hot market. The revamped Tundra, available in seven trim levels, has a starting price of $35,950. Customers can opt for the fully loaded Capstone model ($74,230) that features 22-inch machine-finish alloy wheels, walnut wood trim, acoustic glass on the front door and leather trimmed 10-way power-adjustable front seats.
“We’re thrilled with the response from customers on Tundra. We have sold every Tundra that has been built so far,” a Toyota spokesperson told ABC News.
Chevrolet’s formidable Silverado Crew 1500 ZR2, with its naturally aspirated 6.2L V8 engine (420 hp, 460 lb-ft of torque), starts at $71,000 and has many of the perks drivers are requesting: four-wheel drive, head-up display, a rear camera mirror, adaptive cruise control and a 13.4-inch infotainment system that’s compatible with Amazon Alexa.
Ford, which started the high-performance truck craze a decade ago with the F-150 Raptor, confirmed that a Raptor R version with even more power and torque will soon go into production.
Demand for trucks has even been rising in suburbs and cities like San Francisco, pockets of the country that have long preferred EVs and SUVs to brawny work-type vehicles, Drury said. On his commute to Edmunds’ office in Santa Monica, California, Drury recalled one residence that had a Rolls-Royce parked next to an F-150 Raptor.
“The number of lifestyle truck owners is up across the board,” Drury said. “A lot of it is bragging rights. This is an expanding market — not a contracting one.”
Drury himself joined the truck bandwagon in 2020, selling his SUV for one. He recently convinced his brother to trade in his Toyota Camry for a Raptor.
“The stigma is gone. Trucks ride so much better than they used to,” he said. “Once you purchase a pickup, it’s very difficult to go back. I am 100% a truck guy now.”
(NEW YORK) — Around the bends and over the hills of New York City’s Central Park, the world’s original women-only road race will celebrate its 50th anniversary on Saturday, just weeks before Title IX marks the same milestone.
The now-called-Mastercard New York Mini 10K first took place in 1972, just three weeks before the signing of the landmark Title IX law, which guaranteed women the right to participate equally in school sports.
Kathrine Switzer, who was attacked by the director of the 1967 Boston Marathon as she was running the race because she is a woman, says the Mini 10K is one of many vital steps toward gender equality in sports.
“The women [who created the race] knew that we were stepping into history because we were creating our own space,” Switzer told ABC News in an interview.
However, Switzer is a running icon of her own. She recalled the attack that made her famous, when the marathon race director ripped the running bib off of her back and tried to stop her from running.
She says that though many think the attack itself was the defining moment for her, it was instead the moment “when I turned to my coach, and I said, ‘I’m going to finish this race on my hands on my knees if I have to.’”
She was the first woman to officially run the marathon — and she set the stage for women across the country and world. Now, she remains inspired by the women running the Mini 10k, taking up space in a sport that wasn’t always welcoming.
“We have come so far since the official tried to throw me out of the Boston Marathon and rip off those famous 261 bib numbers,” Switzer said, who now runs a global network of female runners called 261 Fearless. “Now we have, in the United States, 58% of all participating runners are women. So, the fact that this one official was so wrong, just proved us right.”
Some other running icons will be at the event, including Patricia Barrett. She is one of the “Six Who Sat” at the 1972 New York City Marathon.
Women were forced to start the race before or after the male marathon runners. When the gun went off to start the women’s race, Barrett and five others sat down at the starting line, waiting for the start of the men’s race to begin running.
“I was looking at the ground and I was trying not to laugh. I was smirking because I’m thinking, ‘this is so insane. We have to go through this just to run,” Barrett told ABC News. “The men behind us looked like they were laughing too, because it’s so insane.”
Without icons like Switzer and Barrett, the momentum to get gender equality enshrined into law with Title IX may not have come to fruition as soon as it did.
“It opens the door for a lot of different opportunities for women,” Barrett, who has run the 10k herself, said. “At any level, — grammar school, high school, college, after college — it gives us a chance to participate in things that your grandmother’s couldn’t do.”
Sara Hall, the reigning, two-time New York Mini 10K champion, will also be at the event and is aiming for her third win.
As a mother of two, who looks up to the women who came before her, Title IX and races like the Mini 10K represent the future of gender equality in sports.
“There are all these women just excited to be together, running together,” Hall said, describing the race as a “festival” with an undulating energy.
So when New York Road Runner sends hundreds of women off to the races on Saturday morning, they’ll be running on a course riddled with history and activism in the ongoing fight for gender equality.
“You talk to any woman about how important running is to her, and she’ll probably tear up, because she knows she has this magic weapon, this victory under her belt every day that nobody can take away from her,” Switzer said.
(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.
Al Diaz/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(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.
(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.
(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.
South Korean Defense Ministry/Dong-A Daily via Getty Images
(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.”
