(CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa) — Police in Iowa are investigating the scene of a nightclub shooting that killed two people and injured 10 others.
Shots broke out Sunday at the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge on Third Street in downtown Cedar Rapids just before 1:30 a.m., according to the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
Cedar Rapids police officers were on routine downtown patrol when the shooting occurred and “were able to respond immediately,” according to the police department.
The two victims were pronounced dead at the scene, while the 10 injured were treated at area hospitals, police said. Their conditions were not released by police.
It is unclear what led to the shooting. Police did not release information on whether the gunman was in custody but announced around 6 a.m. that the scene was secure and there was no threat to public safety.
Investigators are asking that anyone present at the time contact the police department.
ABC News’ Keith Harden contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — It was a chaotic meteorological transition into spring as March saw the highest number of tornadoes in a single month in U.S. history.
At least 218 tornadoes occurred in March, with many of the tornadoes happening toward the end of the month, according to the National Weather Service.
On March 30, eight states in the South and Midwest were under tornado watch.
The severe weather spawned nearly 30 tornadoes and killed two people who were inside mobile homes in Washington County, Florida. Two other people inside one of the destroyed mobile homes were injured, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
A powerful EF-3 twister with winds up to 145 mph tore through Springdale, Arkansas, on March 29, injuring seven people and inflicting heavy damage to an elementary school, the NWS reported.
Earlier in the month, more than 60 tornadoes occurred across five southeastern states. A funnel cloud that caused severe damage over a 2-mile stretch in St. Bernard’s Parish, Louisiana, on March 22 killed one person and hospitalized seven others, St. Bernard’s Parish President Guy McInnis told ABC News.
That tornado was measured to be an EF-3 with winds of at least 130 mph, according to the NWS.
A tornado on March 21 killed a 73-year-old woman and injured 10 others in Grayson County, Texas, said Sarah Somers, the director of the county’s office of emergency management.
On March 5, seven people, including two children under the age of 5, were killed when a powerful EF-3 tornado ripped across central Iowa, Lucas County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Lamb told ABC News.
Up to 30 homes were destroyed in an area just north of Winterset, Iowa, announced Diogenes Ayala, the director of Madison County Emergency Management Agency, during a news conference at the time.
Even more severe weather that could conjure up more tornadoes is expected over the next several days. On Sunday and Monday, tornadoes could pop up in eastern Oklahoma, northeast Texas, southern Missouri and much of Arkansas.
On Tuesday, enhanced risks are also predicted from Iowa to Texas, with damaging winds, hail and strong tornadoes possible. That system will then shift to Arkansas and Louisiana on Wednesday.
ABC News’ Daniel Amarante and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the White House, said Americans should continue assessing risk for themselves as COVID-19 cases tick up.
“It’s going to be a person’s decision about the individual risks they’re going to take,” Fauci told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl exclusively on Sunday.
“This is not going to be eradicated and it’s not going to be eliminated,” Fauci said. “So you’re going to make a question and an answer for yourself, for me as an individual, for you as an individual. What is my age? What is my status? Do I have people at home who are vulnerable that if I bring the virus home there may be a problem?”
Dr. Anthony Fauci says Americans should continue assessing risk for themselves as COVID-19 cases rise.
Fauci said that while “there is concern that we are seeing an uptick in cases,” it’s “not unexpected that you’re going to see an uptick when you pull back on the mitigation methods.”
With 21 states now reporting an increase in COVID cases, Fauci said much of the country “is still in that green zone, which means that masking is not recommended in the sense of not required on indoor settings.”
Amid the uptick, the annual Gridiron Club Dinner held last Saturday in Washington was followed by a surge in COVID-19 cases among high-profile attendees.
“Let me ask you about the spike we’ve seen right here in Washington,” Karl said. “You and I were both at the Gridiron Dinner. This is a dinner that had about 600 or so attendees. So far, I believe we’re at 67 people that have tested positive who were at the dinner…What is the lesson here?”
“I think the people who run functions, who run big dinners, who run functions like the White House Correspondents’ ball, or thinking back, the Gridiron Dinner, are going to have to make a determination looking at the CDC guidelines and seeing where the trends are,” Fauci responded.
President Joe Biden didn’t attend the event but has been in contact with multiple prominent lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other officials who have recently tested positive or been deemed close contacts of someone who did.
After Pres. Biden attends multiple events with people who later tested positive for COVID-19, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci tells @jonkarl that “we feel that the protocols around the president are sufficient to protect him.” https://t.co/1a7IjqSxMlpic.twitter.com/4PZZJB1rzx
“What is your level of concern about the president’s exposure here?” Karl asked.
“Well, Jon, the protocols to protect the president are pretty strong,” Fauci said. “The president is vaccinated. He is doubly boosted. He got his fourth shot of an mRNA. When people like myself and my colleagues are in the room with him closely for a considerable period of time — half an hour, 20 minutes, 40 minutes, all of us need to be tested.”
Biden, 79, received his second booster shot last month. Fauci urged those who are eligible to follow the president’s example and said the “best way to mitigate” living with “some degree of virus in the community” is to get vaccinated.
In the meantime, Fauci said, “We’re watching it very, very carefully,” adding that “hopefully we’re not going to see increased severity.”
(GRANTVILLE, Georgia) — A $15,000 reward is being offered in the search for suspects who killed the owners of a Georgia shooting range and their teen grandson during an apparent robbery in which at least 40 guns were taken, authorities said.
The triple homicide occurred at the Lock, Stock and Barrel Shooting Range in Grantville, about 50 miles southwest of Atlanta. The bodies were discovered on Friday night by Coweta County coroner Richard Hawk, the son of the slain shooting-range owners and the father of the teenager who was gunned down, police said.
“I’ve been here eight years and we’ve never had anything like this,” Grantville police Chief Steve Whitlock told ABC affiliate station WSB-TV in Atlanta. “Right now, I’m just speechless. I have a hard time talking about it because they were friends of ours. I’ve known them for a long time.”
Police identified the victims as 75-year-old Thomas Richard Hawk Sr., his 75-year-old wife, Evelyn Hawk, and their 17-year-old grandson, Luke Hawk.
Investigators suspect the killings unfolded between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Friday during an apparent armed robbery, according to a statement from the Grantville Police Department.
Richard Hawk went to the shooting range around 8 p.m. on Friday, discovered the bodies and called 911, police said.
In addition to the arsenal of guns stolen, the business’ security camera was also taken from the scene, police said.
Grantville police officials asked anyone who drove passed the gun range around the time of the killings to contact investigators and relay any information on what they saw, specifically what type of vehicles were parked outside.
The federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting in the investigation. The Lock, Stock and Barrel Shooting range is a federal firearms licensee in Grantville, officials said.
The ATF joined the City of Grantville and the Georgia and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms industry, in announcing a combined reward of up to $15,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the killings.
“ATF and our law enforcement partners will work tirelessly to bring the killer(s) to justice,” Benjamin Gibbons, special agent in charge of the Atlanta ATF field division, said in a statement. “The brutality of these senseless murders along with the fact that these killer(s) have acquired additional firearms make solving this case our top priority.”
The killings have rocked Grantville, the town of about 3,000 residents where Thomas and Evelyn Hawk lived for more than 30 years and were well-known in the community, according to friends.
“Tommy would do anything for anybody. It’s just a nice family. It’s been really hard,” said Whitlock, adding that he last spoke to the couple on Tuesday when he visited the shooting range.
The family was well known in the Coweta County community and investigators are still trying to piece together what led up to the shooting. https://t.co/NS9YZBgi5a
Coweta County Sheriff Lenn Wood said he was also close to the Hawk family and posted a heartfelt condolence letter on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, saying, the Coweta County Community is “forever broken and changed by the senseless and tragic event that happened in Grantville.”
“Family was taken from the Hawk family, and us, way too soon and we are left with hurt, pain, and very little answers,” Wood wrote. “I am a life-long member of Coweta and every family, especially the Hawk family, are a valuable and precious part of my life. My heart is hurting and my prayers to our God is that He is ever present right now with Richard and his family; providing peace, strength and overwhelming love from God and our community.”
Wood added, “I am also fervently praying that God will use our law enforcement community and the Coweta Community to bring justice swiftly.”
(NEW YORK) — When Jace Dulohery started school at Oklahoma Christian University in 2020, no one knew he was transgender. He had already begun to medically and socially transition, and no one questioned him living in male housing his freshman year.
However, when he opened up to a resident assistant about being trans that year, the information made its way up the administrative ladder at the school, which is affiliated with the Churches of Christ.
Eventually, he said he was forced to live in private housing.
“There’s just no room for a normal college experience when there’s actual discrimination happening,” Dulohery told ABC News. “This is not Christian behavior. This is not loving. This is not merciful. This is not compassionate. This is not of God. This is harmful.”
Dulohery filed a Title IX complaint about the decision to move his housing, and a Title IX panel agreed that his housing had been moved due to his gender identity. It also found that he was denied entry into a male-only social club for being transgender.
However, nothing has been resolved, Dulohery said. Instead, he said the school offered to pay for therapy.
Dulohery said the university’s legal team cited the religious exemption to Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination, as the basis for its actions. It’s just one way that he says the school has become increasingly hostile against LGBTQ people on campus.
He, other LGBTQ students and allies hope that the ongoing national debate about LGBTQ discrimination in education can push their movement forward and put an end to Title IX’s religious exemption.
Advocates say the exemption claimed by Oklahoma Christian in certain circumstances, and which is claimed by more than 100 other universities, allows schools to partake in legalized discrimination against LGBTQ people, even while federal law otherwise prohibits it.
They also say that the exemptions reinforce a particular view of Christianity that they say is not reflective of the faith as a whole.
‘Legal discrimination’
Title IX and the regulations that implement it state that religious institutions do not have to abide by the law if it would be inconsistent with the organization’s religious beliefs, according to the U.S. Department of Education. This is true even if the school has taxpayer funding.
Schools don’t have to apply for an exemption, however, however, a written claim or “request” can be submitted for assurance that the exemption will be legal and acknowledged by the DOE, according to the department. They must comply with Title IX otherwise, except for the aspects that are explicitly prohibited by their religious beliefs.
The agency can deny a school’s claim if it doesn’t believe its actions are within the religious tenets. Even if a school has a religious exemption, students can still file complaints against schools for discrimination, the education department said.
Dulohery says that the exemption allows “legal discrimination” against LGBTQ people.
There are more than 100,000 LGBTQ students attending religious colleges and universities across the U.S., according to the LGBTQ advocacy group the Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP).
Oklahoma Christian has submitted a request for assurance of religious exemption under certain conditions more than once, according to the documents on the Department of Education website.
The school also filed a notice of religious exemptions for certain policies, such as housing and admissions, after the DOE clarified transgender people are protected by Title IX in 2014. Both were granted.
The letter listed passages from the Old and New testaments interpreted to be against homosexuality or transgender identities. Churches of Christ is a set of autonomous organizations that share similar beliefs about Christianity.
“Universally, Churches of Christ believe that all sexual relations outside of a heterosexual marriage covenant, are sin,” read the 2014 letter to the Department of Education from university President John deSteiguer.
“Churches of Christ would oppose a person’s attempt to modify his or her birth sex and present as a sex other than his or her original birth sex, and we’ll consider one who does so misguided and a disruptive presence,” deSteiguer stated.
OC does not explicitly ban LGBTQ students from attending.
Other alleged instances at Oklahoma Christian
Dulohery’s complaint is not the only instance of alleged discrimination described by students, faculty and alumni interviewed by ABC News.
At least one faculty member and one staff member say they have been fired or resigned for supporting the LGBTQ community in some fashion.
Michael O’Keefe, who was a tenured art professor at the university for about 40 years was fired after inviting a gay man, former OC professor and alumnus Scott Hale, to speak to his class in an annual speaker series.
Hale spoke about religious trauma and growing up as a gay man, according to O’Keefe, Hale and students.
He gave a trigger warning before the talk and told students they could leave at any time if they felt uncomfortable, both Hale and O’Keefe said.
O’Keefe told ABC News no students complained to him about the lecture and that he was fired less than a week after the speech.
Oklahoma Christian University declined ABC News’ request for comment on O’Keefe’s and Dulohery’s allegations.
However, in a memo to staff about O’Keefe’s firing given to ABC News, the school stated: “The employment termination process was prompted by multiple complaints from eyewitnesses or others aware of the inappropriate and graphic language of a sexual nature, and stories shared in O’Keefe’s class.”
The memo continued, “Some of the speaker’s remarks included telling the class about his history of exposing his genitals to others.”
In the letter, the university said the decision was not based on Hale’s sexual orientation.
O’Keefe and Hale both denied this to ABC News, saying that the “exposing his genitals” anecdote was taken out of context, and the speaker was discussing an incident when he was 10 years old at a slumber party. Both men said they believe O’Keefe was fired because Hale is a gay man.
O’Keefe is considering filing an appeal over his firing with the university.
A wider reckoning
The calls for change at OC are not an anomaly.
Students at Christian schools across the country recently filed a class-action suit against the U.S. Department of Education for alleged discrimination they say they have experienced as a result of religious exemptions.
The lawsuit, filed in Oregon federal court in March 2021, aims to “put an end to the U.S. Department of Education’s complicity in the abuses and unsafe conditions thousands of LGBTQ+ students endure at hundreds of taxpayer-funded, religious colleges and universities.”
The Religious Exemption Accountability Project is behind the lawsuit.
It states that if plaintiffs win, the DOE would have to treat Title IX complaints from sexual and gender minorities at religious universities with taxpayer funding in the same manner as it does with complaints from non-religious colleges.
Its director, Paul Southwick, says it’s been a long time coming for this anger to reach a boiling point in places like OC.
“There is a significant human cost to religious exemptions,” Southwick said. “Exemptions essentially mean that no matter how great the harm is that you commit, there is no accountability for it.”
Although the DOE is the named defendant, students seeking to be part of the class action describe alleged discriminatory treatment at various Christian universities.
The lawsuit represents 33 LGBTQ students and alumni from various religious colleges and universities from across the country.
“What we see is LGBTQ+ students being sent into conversion therapy,” Southwick said. “We see students expelled, disciplined, stripped of leadership positions. We see pervasive harassment that goes unchecked” at some Christian universities.
He continued, “We see students who experience sexual assault unable to report that assault if it involves someone of the same sex or would reveal their gender identity. Because they could then be disciplined for that in the course of reporting an assault” in some cases.
The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, an organization of evangelical Christian institutions, denounced the lawsuit as an infringement on religious freedoms.
“The Title IX religious exemption has proven indispensable as contemporary notions of sexuality and gender depart, often substantially, from the religious beliefs that animate every aspect of Christian campus life,” said the CCCU in a court filing to join the litigation as a defendant, since the group would be affected by the outcome.
It continued, “Removing Title IX’s religious exemption, as applied to LGBT students or otherwise, will deprive religious colleges of the oxygen that gives them life by forbidding them, on pain of losing federal assistance for their students, from teaching and expecting adherence to their core religious beliefs.”
In June 2021, the Justice Department wrote in a court filing that it would defend the DOE and the exemption. Several motions to dismiss the case have been filed.
The DOE declined ABC News’ request for comment and pointed to the DOJ’s response.
Promise to ‘end the misuse’ of exemptions
The Biden administration made a campaign promise to “end the misuse of broad exemptions to discriminate,” according to his campaign website. Those against Title IX exemptions have applauded Biden and have used it as momentum for their cause.In 2021, the DOE clarified that Title IX covers discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“There has been this work to try to say: to be religious, to be Christian is to be anti-LGBTQ,” said Ross Murray, a deacon and vice president of LGBTQ media watchdog GLAAD Media Institute.
He continued, “They wanted to claim a generic Christianity that they can use and mold to reinforce the existing biases and prejudices and help to bolster their discrimination.”
As OC students and faculty continue to work toward addressing allegations of discrimination on their own campus, the effort nationwide against anti-LGBTQ sentiment continues.
They say accountability will save the lives of LGBTQ students, who suffer under such policies.
“People have always been mad about the way the school has been treating them. And now inside and outside ears are listening,” Dulohery said. He said plans are in the works for in-person action against the school from students and allies alike.
“We’re gaining attention. We’re gaining traction… I really just hope they see the consequences of their actions.”
(NEW YORK) — Last month, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a climate change legislative package that included a goal to have every passenger car registered or sold in the state be an electric vehicle starting in 2030.
Other states may be following Washington’s lead.
Rhode Island introduced a bill last month that also set a 2030 goal for 100% EV registrations in the state. Lawmakers in Hawaii previously introduced a bill that would mandate new model vehicle registrations be EVs starting in 2030.
Environmental experts told ABC News that while Washington and other states that set the 2030 registration deadline face uphill battles, including creating a strong charging infrastructure, their legislative moves could have a major impact on the rollout of EVs in the country.
“It’s aggressive but it’s OK to have aggressive goals to move the market,” Gregory A. Keoleian, a professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability and director of the Center for Sustainable Systems, told ABC News.
Washington state’s bill, which was signed on March 25, set a goal to make “all publicly owned and privately owned passenger and light duty vehicles of model year 2030 or later … an EV by 2030.” The 2021 version of the bill originally proposed mandating all new registrations starting in 2030 be an EV, however, that was changed during the current session.
An interagency state committee is tasked with completing a report by the end of 2023 to lay out concrete plans on what the state has to do to meet the deadline.
Keoleian acknowledged that Washington’s proposal still has a way to go, but it is similar to other state environmental laws that have contributed to carbon footprint reductions.
Specifically, he likened the EV goal to state-issued renewable portfolio standards, which gave utilities a deadline to provide a percentage of their energy from renewal sources.
Thirty-one states have renewable portfolio standards in place and “half of all growth in U.S. renewable electricity generation and capacity since 2000,” has been associated with those policies, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Keoleain said Washington’s 2030 EV registration goal will make it an easier sell for car manufacturers, charging companies, car dealers and other parties to increase their EV output.
“Having the states set policies that are going to ensure sales are going to be electric will be important for the industry making the vehicles. You’ve got to create a market in order for [automakers] to get moving,” he said.
Last year, General Motors announced it would only sell EVs by 2035 and Ford announced at least 40% of its lineup will be EVs. Their moves took place after California first announced its 2035 deadline for electric vehicle registrations.
A report by AAA Washington found that in order for Washington to have only zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2030, there needed to be a 40% annual increase in EVs. There were 50,520 EV registrations in Washington as of Dec. 30, 2020, trailing California, Florida and Texas with the most EV registration in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Deepak Rajagopal, an associate professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, also told ABC News that Washington state’s 2030 goal and the similar proposals are bold but they come with a huge risk.
Rajagopal noted that the country’s EV charging infrastructure is still way behind where it should be to accommodate the needs of current EV engines and motorists’ demands.
“A policy like this will have some positive impact and there will be probably more investments in Washington State, but will it be big enough to help meet the target? That’s a question that no one really has an answer to,” he said.
As part of the bill, Washington state will invest nearly $74 million to develop charging infrastructure in “rural areas, multifamily housing, office buildings, schools and other public locations” and state run sites, Rajagopal also said.
Even with uncertain success, Washington’s 2030 EV registration deadline “might raise other states’ ambitions,” and have a bigger impact nationally, Rajagopal said.
If more states adopt the goal, or if Washington shows significant progress in its plan, the federal government would be pushed to speed up its plans to increase EV adoption and improve EV infrastructure, Rajagopal added.
President Joe Biden’s zero-emission executive order issued last year took a lot of policies from a similar proposal enacted in California, he said.
“It really matters what the big states do,” Rajagopal said. “If they lead the charge with EV adoptions and succeed, other states and Washington (D.C.) won’t hesitate to take the risk.”
Keoleian said he wouldn’t be surprised if other states jump on the 2030 deadline fast, especially since the country is facing a gas crisis with no end in sight.
“All of the pieces are needed. We need the vehicles to be built, we need the demand for consumers, and we need the charging infrastructure,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the latest reports of Ukrainian civilians being tortured and killed by Russian troops have been “horrifying…downright shocking, but they have not been surprising.”
Sullivan told ABC News “This Week” Co-Anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday that before the war began, declassified intelligence “indicated that there was a plan from the highest levels of the Russian government to target civilians who oppose the invasion.”
“So this is something that was planned,” he told Karl, adding that some units may have acted without direction from their leaders, frustrated by the level of opposition they’ve encountered from Ukrainians.
“I do think some of these units engaged in these acts of brutality, these atrocities, these war crimes, even without direction from above. But make no mistake, the larger issue of broad-scale war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine lies at the feet of the Kremlin and lies at the feet of the Russian president,” he said.
When asked if the acts amounted to genocide as suggested by United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv this week, Sullivan noted that the State Department usually makes that legal determination after an investigation and legal analysis.
“But let’s set legalities aside for a minute…I think we can all say that these are mass atrocities. These are war crimes,” he said.
In one of the latest incidents, at least 52 people, including five children, were killed during a missile strike at a train station in eastern Ukraine. Images of bodies strewn across luggage showed the magnitude of the attack, which injured at least 100.
Since the war began, the Biden administration has been steadily implementing sanctions meant to cripple the Russian economy and Putin’s funding of the invasion.
In the latest package, the U.S., in conjunction with its European Union and G-7 allies, imposed a ban on all new investments in Russia, increased sanctions on two major banks and sanctioned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters. But while the U.S. has banned Russian oil imports, European governments have not.
Asked if it was time for Europe to ban Russian oil and gas and imports, which come to an estimated $850 million per day, Sullivan said the president had been clear that the U.S. was able to do so “without imposing massive costs on the American people” but would continue to work with European allies to limit dependency.
“He is now working on a daily basis with his European colleagues on steps Europe can take to wean itself off of Russian oil and gas,” he told Karl. “In fact, the United States is surging gas exports to Europe in order for them to reduce their dependence on Russia.”
Karl followed up: “But you hear the frustration from President Zelenskyy. We heard it from the mayor of Kyiv that the money continues to flow, that the ruble is not in rubble as the president said…The money is still flowing and flowing in pretty dramatic levels.”
“If you look at independent projections of the Russian economy, it is likely to fall by something like 10 to 15% this year,” Sullivan said. “It is likely to cease to be one of the world’s major economies because of the economic pressure we have put on them.”
Sullivan also said the economy is being “artificially propped up” by Russian banks.
“Banks…are not allowed by the Russian government to sell dollars to customers. That’s how they’re protecting the ruble. But that has huge economic costs on the — on the Russian economy,” he added. “We will continue to squeeze the Russian economy so that Russia and the Kremlin feel the pain from what they have done in Ukraine.”
Sullivan conceded that although Putin has suffered several setbacks in his mission to topple the Ukrainian government, his tight grip on media has prevented Russians from hearing the truth.
“They are not getting the truth, for example, Jon, about the fact that the Russians lost and the Ukrainians won the battle for Kyiv,” he said. “Kyiv stands despite Russia’s effort to conquer the capital city of their neighbor and they were unable to do that, and they suffered a significant military defeat there.”
(NEW YORK) — As politicians spar over who’s to blame for recent increases in gas prices, a large majority of Americans say oil companies and Russian President Vladimir Putin are major culprits, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds.
Along party lines, Americans are more likely to blame Democrats for the increase in gas prices than Republicans, according to the poll, which also found much greater enthusiasm about voting in this November’s elections among Republicans than among Democrats.
In the ABC News/Ipsos poll, which was conducted by Ipsos in partnership with ABC News using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, more than two-thirds of Americans blamed Putin (71%) and oil companies (68%) a “great deal” or a “good amount” for the increases in gas prices.
This comes the same week oil company executives were grilled by lawmakers about the skyrocketing gas prices, which have been declining in recent days.
Oil executives took turns defending their companies during Wednesday’s hearing with the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, pushing back on accusations of price gouging and citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason for cost increases.
Democrats have pointed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the source of the rise in gas prices, with President Joe Biden coining it “Putin’s price hike,” while Republicans have argued that Biden’s energy policies are to blame.
Although the public appears open to Democratic arguments, they are more likely to place a “great deal” or a “good amount” of blame for the price increases on Democratic party policies (52%) and Biden (51%) than on Republican party policies (33%) and former President Donald Trump (24%). A strong majority of Americans (68%) also disapproves of the way Biden is handling gas prices. Not surprisingly, these assessments divide along party lines, with almost all Republicans (93%) disapproving compared to 41% of Democrats.
The public is split, with about half (49%) saying the price increases have caused financial hardship for themselves or others in their household, while 50% say it has not. Only 21% of Americans say it is causing them serious financial hardship. Republicans (60%) are more likely to say they’re facing financial hardship over rising gas prices than Democrats (32%).
Pain at the pump is considered to be one of several big political challenges facing Democrats this year. With the elections seven months away, just under 2 in 3 Americans (63%) are very (39%) or somewhat (24%) enthusiastic about voting.
The poll found greater enthusiasm among Republicans, with 55% saying they are “very enthusiastic” about voting compared to only 35% of Democrats — setting the stage for a challenging election year for Democrats, who will need to increase the intensity on their side of the aisle. On the opposite end, more Democrats (13%) say they are “not enthusiastic at all” about voting in the November elections compared to Republicans (5%).
The ABC News/Ipsos poll did find broad support for Biden’s policies regarding Ukraine, including placing tighter economic sanctions on Russia (79%), accepting refugees from Ukraine into the U.S. (63%), sending additional U.S. weapons and equipment to Ukraine (70%) and sending additional U.S. troops to nearby European countries but not Ukraine (53%).
Americans were less supportive of more aggressive options that Biden has said the U.S. won’t pursue, including sending troops to Ukraine (17%) and imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine (27%), which could mean direct military conflict with Russia.
Despite being in lockstep with White House policies, slightly more than half (53%) of Americans disapprove of the way Biden is handling the situation with Russia and Ukraine, with a great disparity in disapproval between Republicans (85%) and Democrats (28%).
Responses on a range of other issues, including the economic recovery, crime, climate change, inflation and immigration, have remained largely unchanged since the beginning of the year, with a majority of Americans disapproving of Biden’s handling of them.
One bright spot continues to be the president’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with 58% of Americans approving — up from 50% in late January. COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have plateaued, while hospitalizations and deaths have largely trended downward. Cases have started to tick up across the Northeast and the West Coast, with the Washington elite facing a COVID-19 outbreak in recent days.
This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted using Ipsos Public Affairs’ KnowledgePanel® April 8-9, 2022, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 530 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4.9 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 27-26-40%, Democrats-Republicans-independents. See the poll’s topline results and details on the methodology here.
ABC News’ Dan Merkle and Ken Goldstein contributed to this report.
(GATESVILLE, Texas) — A woman facing execution in Texas for killing her daughter is seeking clemency, claiming she was coerced into confessing to the crime.
Paramedics were called to Melissa Lucio’s home in Harlingen, Texas, on Feb. 17, 2007, after her 2-year-old daughter Mariah Alvarez was found unresponsive and not breathing. Lucio told police Mariah fell asleep and did not wake up.
Lucio said that Mariah had fallen down a steep staircase during the family’s move to a new apartment two days prior, but did not appear seriously injured, according to court records. Unable to be resuscitated, her daughter was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Hours after Mariah’s death, Lucio was interrogated by police for over five hours, according to her lawyers. She was especially vulnerable, her lawyers say, as she was grieving for her daughter, pregnant with twins at the time, and a victim of abuse and trauma throughout her life.
These conditions led her to be manipulated into admitting she caused her daughter’s death despite Lucio asserting her innocence over 100 times throughout the interrogation, according to her lawyers.
“I guess I did it,” police say Lucio told them.
Former Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos, who is now serving a 13-year sentence for bribery and extortion in a case unrelated to Lucio’s, described this statement as a confession during the trial.
After the trial, in which the prosecution said that her daughter’s injuries could have only been caused by abuse, Lucio was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death. Her husband and Mariah’s father, Robert Alvarez, was sentenced to four years in prison for child endangerment.
Nearly 15 years later, Lucio, 53, remains on death row at Mountain View Unit prison in Gatesville, Texas. Her execution is set to take place on April 27. She would be the first Latina to ever be executed in the state.
The U.S. Supreme Court in October declined to review a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that upheld her conviction, paving the way for her execution.
The Innocence Project, a criminal justice reform nonprofit that aims to exonerate wrongly convicted persons using DNA and other evidence, joined Lucio’s legal team soon after her execution was scheduled in January.
“The Innocence Project recognized the urgency that an innocent woman was headed for execution,” Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation for the organization, told ABC News.
Potkin said Lucio’s presumed guilt “was a complete rush to judgment” spurred on by misunderstanding, a “highly manipulative and coercive” interrogation and faulty forensics.
“We’ve had her interrogation reviewed by leading experts in interrogation and false confessions. And they found that her statements are completely unreliable, that they’re a mere regurgitation of the words that the officers were feeding to her over the course of five hours,” Potkin said.
Lucio’s legal team submitted an application for clemency to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Board of Pardons and Paroles in March of this year, arguing an unreliable confession and “unscientific, false evidence that misled the jury into believing that Mariah Alvarez must have been killed by physical abuse, when the evidence is actually consistent with a conclusion that Mariah died from medical complications after a fall” based on the declarations of various experts.
The application also states that the state medical examiner who performed Mariah’s autopsy was told that Lucio admitted to abusing the girl and was accompanied by two of the interrogating officers during the autopsy.
A juror from the trial has since expressed concerns and regret over the verdict, according to the Innocence Project.
“I think that’s really significant that, you know, the individuals who heard the evidence against Melissa feel that the new evidence is so powerful that they may have voted differently in the case, and it just underscores the need for a court to consider the new evidence of Melissa’s innocence,” Potkin said.
An Innocence Project petition calling for a stop to Lucio’s execution has surpassed its goal, having received over 185,000 signatures.
Abraham Bonowitz, co-founder and director of anti-death penalty advocacy group Death Penalty Action, said he believes that filmmaker Sabrina Van Tassel’s Hulu documentary, “The State of Texas vs. Melissa,” which follows Lucio as she appeals her case, speaks to her innocence. Death Penalty Action started the Free Melissa Lucio project shortly after Lucio was notified of her execution date.
“Our campaign is called Free Melissa Lucio because we don’t want to just save her, we want her out,” Bonowitz said.
Abbott’s office, the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
The project’s petition, asking Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz to rescind the execution, has received over 44,000 signatures.
“The ask is very specific. We’re asking the governor and Board of Pardons and Paroles and the district attorney, which are the three [political] entities that can do something about this, to watch the film…because we believe anybody that watches this film will come away at least with doubt if not being convinced of Melissa’s innocence,” Bonowitz said.
According to Bonowitz, factors like ableism and racial and socioeconomic bias in the criminal justice system pose too much of a threat to warrant the use of the death penalty.
“When you get to this point, you find there’s so many layers that most people aren’t aware of and don’t care about, frankly. They look at who’s the victim, what’s the accused accused of doing? Were they convicted? Okay, let’s kill them. And that’s as much as people want to know,” he said.
“There’s so much more to it that happens way before the crime.”
The Free Melissa Lucio project has worked closely with John Lucio, Melissa Lucio’s eldest son, as he advocates for his mother’s exoneration.
He spoke in emotional support of his mother at a press conference on Friday held by civic engagement nonprofit Somos Tejas, Texas state Rep. Victoria Neave Criado and other Texas state legislators saying that his family “hasn’t been the same” since her incarceration.
“My mother is an innocent woman. My mother was never the abusing woman — the monster that the district attorney Armando Villalobos, former district attorney, made it seem like,” John Lucio said.
“She was a good mother. She wasn’t a perfect mother, but she made sure we were taken care of,” he said.
Neave Criado who visited Melissa Lucio on death row earlier this week spoke at the conference about the bipartisan support her case has received. Eighty-three Texas representatives signed a letter asking that she be granted clemency.
“The fact that we are all here today and why almost 90 state representatives, the majority of the Texas House, have rallied behind this cause to save Melissa Lucio’s life is because of the injustices in her case. It’s because of the trauma that she has suffered all of her life,” she said.
Michelle Lucio, John’s wife who knew Melissa Lucio prior to her conviction, recalled the conversations with her during their visits in prison.
“She gets very emotional because no one believed her for so many years that she was innocent. You know? All she had was us,” she said.
“I don’t want to be in that room on April 27 to see her get executed,” Michelle Lucio said.
(LONDON) — To Daria Kaleniuk, a Ukrainian anti-corruption activist, Russian President Vladimir Putin “has two armies.”
“One is visible and obvious, it operates in Ukraine,” Kaleniuk said Wednesday during a congressional hearing in Washington. “But another army is invisible.”
As Ukrainian forces fight to defend their country from Russia’s protracted invasion, experts say a second battle is being waged in London. In the 22 years since Putin swept into power, many in Russia’s billionaire class have gone abroad. Critics say in many cases it is to launder their money and reputation, finding a home in friendly real estate markets and cultural hubs. Now, the wealth they’ve amassed abroad has come under great scrutiny.
According to the anti-corruption NGO Transparency International, at least £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) worth of U.K. property is owned by Russians with links to the Kremlin or those suspected of financial crime. Due to the prevalence of opaque, offshore companies, the true scale of illicit wealth is likely far higher, hence the capital city’s nickname in some quarters: “Londongrad.”
Of course, not every wealthy Russian in London is an oligarch or is linked to illicit money. And wealthy oligarchs in London are not uniform in how close they are to Putin and how they accumulated wealth, but many do have in common ties to the Russian state, according to Thomas Mayne, an expert in corruption studies and visiting fellow at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.
“It’s a ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ type system,” he told ABC News. “You’re allowed to become unfathomably wealthy. But, on the other hand, you will be required depending on who you are at various times to support whatever the Kremlin wants you to do.”
Roman Abramovich, the now-sanctioned owner of Chelsea F.C., is perhaps the best known of these oligarchs. For almost two decades he enjoyed a privileged position in British society, investing a fortune in the London soccer club, ushering in an unprecedented era of success.
But Abramovich has “had a close relationship for decades” with Putin, according to the British government, which has announced sanctions against a host of oligarchs. Abramovich has repeatedly disputed reports suggesting his alleged closeness to Putin. He has not been sanctioned by the U.S.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office specifically mentioned Abramovich’s dealings with Evraz PLC, a manufacturing company that is said to be supplying steel to make some Russian tanks used in the war with Ukraine. Abramovich has not commented on the sanctions since they were imposed.
Abramovich has found himself in a bizarre position, and his role at the Ukraine-Russia negotiations — where he suffered a suspected poisoning along with Ukrainian delegates — has been the subject of a great deal of media intrigue.
Another investor in U.K. culture is Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who was the top shareholder of yet another major soccer club, Arsenal, until 2018. He maintained his deep ties to the Premier League until just last month, when Liverpool-based soccer club Everton suspended multimillion-dollar sponsorship deals with Russian companies linked to the oligarch. He was sanctioned by the U.K. shortly after.
The war in Ukraine has thrown London’s role as a hub for Russian money into sharp focus, spurring a response unseen after previous Russian actions, including the poisonings of Russian defectors Sergei Skripal in 2018 and Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the Georgian war of 2008.
The U.K. has now sanctioned over 1,000 individuals and businesses it says has links to the Russian state, according to the foreign office. The total asset value of the banks sanctioned is upwards of $650 billion, and the total wealth of oligarchs and their families sanctioned is upwards of $190 billion, according to official data.
“These oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs are complicit in the murder of innocent civilians and it is right that they pay the price,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in announcing the latest round of sanctions. “Putin should be under no illusions — we are united with our allies and will keep tightening the screw on the Russian economy to help ensure he fails in Ukraine. There will be no let-up.”
In terms of tackling illicit wealth and corruption of Russian origin, the response has been “robust” and “positive,” Mayne said, though questions remain about the sheer depth of Russian influence in the U.K.
“It’s perhaps surprising simply because of readiness in the last 20 years to accept this corrupt capital, this dirty cash,” he said. “You know, we’ve known for a long time Russia is a bad actor. But the big question is, you know, how did we let this happen in the first place?”
Experts say the assets that have surfaced likely reflect only a fraction of Russian wealth in the U.K. As with elsewhere in the West, many oligarchs and other wealthy individuals from foreign countries have hidden their assets in a complex network of shell companies or under the names of their family members. Critics say future sanction packages should take these loopholes into account.
“In the U.K., sanctioning oligarchs should include visa bans for [the oligarchs themselves] … but also for their family members,” Kaleniuk said during Wednesday’s hearing.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a network of investigators and journalists, found five properties linked to Usmanov in the U.K., a network of investigators and journalists, estimated to be worth more than $200 million.
In announcing Usmanov’s sanctioning last month, the U.K. government said two of Usmanov’s large properties, Beechwood House, in London, and the 16th century Sutton Place estate, in Surrey, were among his frozen assets. But some of his wealth has proved more elusive — with the OCCRP reporting large portions have been transferred into trusts, out of reach of the British government, with his family holding the beneficial rights.
In 2020, a parliamentary committee released The Russia Report, which was commissioned following the poisoning of Skripal on the streets of Salisbury with a Novichok agent. Skripal and his daughter survived, though one other British national died and another became severely ill.
The report, which was critical of government measures to combat Russian influence, said many Russians with links to Putin had integrated into London’s “business and social scene,” some with connections to the “highest levels” of British politics. Lawyers, accountants and estate agents helped enable Russian influence, it added, describing it as the “new normal.”
A Golden visa scheme, guaranteeing residency for foreign investors, which reportedly helped 2,600 Russian investors in the U.K. since 2008, was only revoked on the eve of the Ukraine war.
“The Russia Report said that the security services have taken their eye off the ball when it came to the threat posed by Russia,” Mayne told ABC News. “And that has to be tied in with the obscene amounts of capital flowing into London from Russia, which they’ve been quite happy to accept, even though it’s been dubiously acquired. Now we’re only realizing that the folly of that position.”
Downing Street officials hope the new wave of sanctions — with potentially more to come — as well as a new Economic Crime Bill, will follow through on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s warning issued at the outset of war: that those attempting to launder money in the U.K. have “nowhere to hide.”
The U.K. government hopes that targeting Russian oligarchs will have a dual effect: preventing funds from reaching the Kremlin to finance the war in Ukraine, and also curtailing the lavish lifestyles of Russian elites who have enjoyed what their riches can buy them in the West. When the U.K. announced its first seizure of a Russian owned yacht in British waters at the end of last month, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said it served as a “a clear and stark warning to Putin and his cronies.”
By their nature, sanctions are a “freeze, not a seize,” Mayne said, but the nature of Putin’s government means that targeting individuals could potentially, as the government hopes, have an effect.
The Economic Crime Bill will be paired with a National Security Agency tool, introduced in 2018 to tackle alleged dirty money, called “Unexplained Wealth Orders.” When they have been used they have been high profile — such as to target the wife of a disgraced Azeri banker who went on a major spending spree at Harrod’s — though so far only a handful have been meted out.
In an extract from his new book entitled “Butler to the World” published in The Times of London, financial journalist Oliver Bullough said sanctions will likely be challenged in court. The bill “contains nothing that will help to drive kleptocratic wealth out of this country,” he wrote.
“This really comes back to the question of what London has become, and whether this will truly be a line in the sand,” Mayne said. “Do we just sit back and continue to be happy to accept this money? Or do we start to realize that corruption poses a national security threat as Biden as identified in the U.S.? My suspicion is that, because London is the world’s largest financial center, we will go back to the way it was, with perhaps a bit of a caveat on specifically Russian cash.”
