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How students are returning to school during newest COVID-19 surge

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — In a hodgepodge of in-person, remote and delayed reopenings, millions of students across the country are set to head back to school after several weeks on winter break.

School districts in every state are using a variety of approaches and precautions to determine the best way to keep children and staffers safe amid the nation’s latest, and most significant, COVID-19 surge on record.

The return to school comes as the hospital admission rate among children has hit its highest point of the pandemic. Pediatric case rates are also approaching record highs.

During an appearance on ABC News’ This Week on Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci told George Stephanopoulos that even with the surge, he is still in support of keeping kids in school as much as possible.

“I plead with parents to please seriously consider vaccinating your children, wearing masks in the school setting, doing test-to-stay approaches when children get infected,” Fauci said. “I think all those things put together, it’s safe enough to get those kids back to school, balanced against the deleterious effects of keeping them out.”

Many districts in major cities across the country are forging ahead with reopening plans, with some requiring face masks or testing of students and staff ahead of the return as an additional precaution. However, dozens of other districts — including in Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — are beginning the spring term remotely.

Atlanta

Citing a rapid surge in infections locally, Atlanta Public Schools will open virtually Tuesday for all students and all staff. The city plans to reopen in-person instruction on Jan. 10, according to the school district’s public guidance.

All staff are required to report to work on Monday, Jan. 3 for mandatory COVID-19 surveillance testing.

Boston

Students in Boston will return to the classroom Tuesday as the district rolls out its share of the state-supplied rapid COVID-19 tests.

Over the weekend, members of the Massachusetts National Guard began delivering 227,000 rapid COVID-19 tests to school districts across the state, to be used for teachers and staff.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius announced Monday that so far, 155 teachers and school staffers have reported positive COVID-19 tests.

Chicago

In Chicago, students returned to class Monday, according to the school district’s public guidance.

Testing is only mandatory for unvaccinated students who traveled to an “orange” state, per the city’s travel guidance, which now includes every state except Montana.

Unvaccinated students who are close contacts of a known COVID-19 case must stay home and quarantine for 10 days. Vaccinated students who are close contacts can attend school as long as they are not experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms.

The district also distributed 150,000 take-home test kits to schools to support the return.

Cleveland

Citing a “significant rise in COVID-19 cases in the community,” the Cleveland Metropolitan School District will move to remote learning for the week of Jan. 3.

Following a professional day for staff, students will log on and follow their class schedules Tuesday through Friday.

Detroit

The spring semester in Detroit will not begin until later this week at the earliest.

Employees will be required to take a COVID-19 test on Monday and Tuesday through the district, according to the school district’s public guidance. All students are also encouraged to take a test through the district this week.

The district said it cannot begin the semester online, due to the fact that not all of its students have laptops.

School officials said they expect to announce plans for Thursday and Friday on Wednesday afternoon or evening.

Los Angeles

Staff in all Los Angeles County schools are required to wear upgraded masks — surgical mask or higher-level PPE, according to the district’s latest guidance. Students are “strongly recommended” to wear well-fitted masks.

The district is also strongly recommending that all eligible staff and students receive a booster shot.

COVID-19 testing is required for all close contacts who are permitted to remain in school immediately after exposure, regardless of vaccination or booster status.

Miami

All staff will be required to wear face masks inside any Miami-Dade County Public School facility. Students are not required to wear face coverings, but masks are “highly encouraged.”

Protocols for the enhanced sanitization and cleaning of classrooms and common areas, which were implemented at the beginning of the pandemic, will continue, according to the district.

New York City

Beginning Monday, schools in New York City will distribute take-home COVID-19 tests to any student or staff who exhibits COVID-19 symptoms or has been potentially exposed in a classroom where a positive case has been identified.

“The numbers of transmissions are low; your children is in a safe space to learn and continue to thrive. We’ve lost almost two years of education … we can’t do it again,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Stephanopoulos on This Week.

Unvaccinated or not yet fully vaccinated students in kindergarten through grade 12 who were in close contact to a positive COVID-19 case will no longer have to quarantine, as long as they do not have symptoms and do not have a positive COVID-19 test.

Following an exposure, all students and adults will receive a take-home rapid test kit and take two tests over the course of five days. For students in 3-K and pre-K, the quarantine policy will remain the same, meaning students who were in close proximity to a positive case will still have to quarantine for 10 days.

Newark

Newark Public Schools began the semester Monday with remote instruction to continue through Jan. 14. The school anticipates a return to in-person instruction on Jan. 18.

Seattle

In-person school in Seattle is set to resume on Tuesday. COVID-19 testing is available Monday for students and staff.

Washington, D.C.

Last month, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that D.C. public schools would require all students and staff to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result before returning to school on Thursday.

Schools were closed on Monday due to inclement weather faced by the district.

The district will make free rapid antigen tests available on Tuesday and Wednesday. DCPS families will need to upload their child’s negative test results.

Mom pays off $72K in student loan, credit card debt using these tips

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Mom pays off K in student loan, credit card debt using these tips

(SAN DIEGO) — A California mom is entering 2022 debt-free after paying off more than $70,000 in student loan and credit card debt.

Amanda Courtney, 36, of San Diego, said she began falling into debt as soon as she entered college, nearly two decades ago.

“There was no way for me to go to college without taking out student loans, so I knew as I was applying for colleges that I was going to have to take out loans,” Courtney told Good Morning America. “I was kind of like, well, everyone takes out student loans, right? It’s fine.”

Courtney said she took out $15,000 in loans for her freshman year of college, and then also got into credit card debt when, at 18, she got a credit card without learning about how to budget and make her payments.

Over the next few years, Courtney said she transferred to two different colleges, including at one point living back at home and attending a community college, to try to lower her student loan debt.

When she graduated from college in 2008, the U.S. was in the midst of a financial crisis and Courtney said she could not find a job. Without a job, she could also not afford to pay off her student loans, she said.

“I continued to enroll in school just so I could defer my student loans because I couldn’t afford to make the minimum payments, all while continuing to accrue more credit card debt,” she said. “And I just fell deeper and deeper into debt.”

At age 25, Courtney, who now works as an administrative assistant at a San Diego high school, got a job working in education that allowed her to start to pay off her debt, but only with the minimum payments each month. She said she quickly learned that though she had deferred making payments on her student loans by taking low-cost community college classes for several years, the interest on her debt had continued to add up.

“I was deferring my loans, but I wasn’t deferring the interest, so though I was deferring making those payments, I was adding to my balance,” she said. “I didn’t have the financial literacy to understand what I was doing and the full implications of what I was doing.”

Courtney said that because federal loans and grants did not cover her full college tuition, she got a loan through a private loan company that carried what she described as an “insane interest rate.”

In the United States, Americans owe nearly $1.8 trillion in student loans, according to the Federal Reserve.

Coming from a family that did not discuss finances or budgeting, Courtney said she “truly did not know” what she was getting herself into when she signed up for student loans.

“I didn’t understand the economics of it and the commitment of it,” she said. “I think I just had this false sense of security that I’m working and I’m going to get a degree and then I’m going to have a job that can pay off the debt so it won’t be a big problem.”

“Then reality hits and you realize that’s not how any of this works and my $15,000 in loans very quickly becomes $30,000,” she said.

Things started to change for Courtney when she started dating her now-husband and they had conversations about their finances.

“I, very innocently, early in our relationship, was like so, ‘How much debt do you have?,'” she recalled. “He looked at me very plainly and said, ‘I don’t have any debt. How much do you have?'”

Courtney said she made a decision in that moment to be honest about her financial woes, and her now-husband worked with her to build a budget, the first time Courtney had done that in her life.

“I truly lived with this mindset that everybody lives with debt. Everybody has student loan debt. Everybody has credit card debt,” she said. “Having had that conversation with my now-husband, I started to think of money differently.”

With that foundation in place, Courtney spent the next nearly eight years paying off $50,000 in student loan debt and $12,000 in credit card debt.

She made her final student loan payment in September 2021.

“It took that long because I did it while still living my life,” said Courtney, who got married and gave birth to her first child and was at one point the sole income earner for her family in those eight years. “We built things into the budget so I felt this freedom to still live my life.”

Here are Courtney’s three tips for paying off debt.

1. Create a budget that works for you.

“The first thing you have to do is you have to be honest with yourself,” said Courtney. “So for me, that meant pulling out all of my credit card statements and all of my student loan balances, and really looking at where I was at, and making a plan.”

Courtney works on what she calls a zero-balance budget, which means that she directs each dollar in her paycheck to a specific location.

“Every month, a week before payday, I can actually view my paycheck, so on that day, I rebuild my budget every single month,” she said. “I look at what I have coming in versus what I have going out and I tell every dollar where to go.”

Courtney said she made sure that even while she was focused on paying off her debt, she allowed herself to continue to live her life.

“I was honest with myself, and I made a plan, but I made a realistic plan,” she said. “You have to allow yourself to go to that lunch celebration with friends. You have to allow yourself to buy yourself a new top every now and again.”

Courtney loves to travel, for example, so she created a special travel savings account that she directed money to each month. She said this allowed her to still travel while being financially responsible.

“If I want to go somewhere, I look at do I have enough in that travel account to go,” she said. “If I don’t, then I don’t get to go.”

2. Consolidate your loans, if possible.

A few years into her debt-paying journey, Courtney said she was able to consolidate her loans into one payment, which made it easier for her to track and pay off the loans.

“That was so freeing,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Education offers a Direct Consolidation loan with no fee.

3. Plan ahead instead of trying to catch up.

Courtney said she kept herself within her budget by learning to plan ahead for major events, like birthdays and holidays and vacations, instead of putting those expenses on credit cards.

“Whereas I always wanted to treat the holidays as an emergency and put it on my credit card and just make it rain in various stores, all of a sudden it was like, ‘Oh, I should be putting away money every month to get there and then look at what I have at the end of the year and look at what I can afford to do for people,'” she said. “One of the years, during my debt payoff, I made all of my Christmas presents for my friends and family.”

“I still felt like I got to give gifts, but I did so within my means,” she said.

4. Focus on small benchmarks at first.

Courtney said she at first focused on paying off her credit card with the lowest balance as a way to feel like she was making progress.

“I continued to make minimum payments on my other [credit cards], but I really focused on that one because I wanted to feel accomplished,” she said. “And when I paid off that first credit card, I remember, it felt so good.”

“It started to feel like, oh, I can do this I can make headway,” Courtney recalled. “Just with every little benchmark, it felt so great and so exciting.”

COVID live updates: US reports 1 million new daily COVID cases

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 827,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 62% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jan 04, 6:36 am
US reports 1 million new daily COVID cases

More than 1 million new COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The 1,082,549 new infections were about double last week’s record daily cases, according to the university’s data. It was unclear whether the newly reported cases included backlogs from holiday testing.

The US recorded 1,688 deaths related to COVID-19 on Monday, below the record high of 4,442, set on Jan. 20, 2021, according to the university’s data.

Jan 04, 6:32 am
US reports record 325,000 new pediatric COVID infections last week

A record 325,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 last week amid the nation’s most significant COVID-19 infection surge yet, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

Children accounted for about 17.4% of last week’s reported COVID-19 cases, down from previous weeks, when children accounted for more than a quarter of all new cases.

A total of nearly 7.9 million children have tested positive for the virus, since the onset of the pandemic.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Jan 03, 4:02 pm
New York looking into COVID-19 hospitalizations that began for other reasons

New York’s hospitals will be required to report a breakdown of how many COVID-19 patients were admitted due to the coronavirus and how many were admitted for other needs and only discovered they were infected during their stays.

During a COVID-19 briefing on Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul cited anecdotal reports of as many as 50% of patients at some hospitals testing positive for the virus who were actually admitted for other reasons, such as car accidents.

“I just want to always be honest with New Yorkers about how bad this is,” Hochul said. “Yes, the sheer number of people infected are high, but I want to see whether or not the hospitalizations correlate with that.”

She continued, “And I’m anticipating to see that at least a certain percentage overall are not being treated for COVID.”

Hospitals will begin reporting their breakdowns Tuesday, but it’s unclear how soon the data will be publicly available.

-ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos and Will McDuffie

Jan 03, 3:11 pm
Surgeon general warns next few weeks ‘will be tough’

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations will continue to increase as the omicron variant rapidly spreads across the country.

“The next few weeks are going to be tough for us,” he told ABC’s “The View” on Monday. “We’re already seeing record levels of cases, and we’re seeing hospitalizations starting to tick up. We’re seeing some of our hospital systems getting strained at this point.”

Information from South Africa and the United Kingdom indicates omicron could be less severe than previous COVID-19 variants, Murthy said.

“We’re still going to see a lot of people get sick and a lot of hospitalizations, but the overall severity may end up being significantly lower,” he said.

Murthy said both South Africa and the U.K. “had a very rapid rise, but then they had a very steep fall” in cases

“I’m hoping that that’s what happens here too,” he added.

-ABC News’ Joanne Rosa

Biden administration reimposes ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Biden administration officials further outlined a plan for the implementation of the “MPP” or “Remain in Mexico” policy on a conference call with reporters Monday while underscoring a commitment to ending the program and describing safeguards designed to improve conditions for asylum seeking enrollees.

A central criticism of the MPP program — which bars asylum seekers from entering the U.S. while immigration courts review their claims — was the lack of access to U.S. legal services for enrollees forced into makeshift Mexican border camps. Now, the Biden administration is working with legal service providers and promising 24-hour consultation windows to assist with screening interviews and immigration court cases.

The Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review is working to increase legal representation rates for asylum seekers while distributing “self-help materials” for immigrant applicants who need information on the process.

Improving conditions south of the border was another component in securing the Mexican government’s cooperation. U.S. humanitarian workers have built up WiFi access at shelters, and Mexican authorities have stepped up security including at transportation hubs.

Now, migrants enrolled in MPP will have access to transportation services at the port of entry, something Biden administration officials said is a necessary security measure given the level of crime taking place at border crossings.

Over the holidays, the Biden administration submitted a request to the Supreme Court for expedited briefings on the case to end MPP. The administration previously lost lower court appeals against efforts to reinstate the protocols.

Under the latest iteration of MPP, migrants who receive an interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will be judged on whether there’s a “reasonable possibility” they have a fear of returning to Mexico rather than the previously used and more restrictive “more likely than not” standard.

The new standards are accessible to those like the group of 36 migrants brought to El Paso Monday for court hearings, making them the first to be processed under the new rules.

Officials did not provide information on the number of asylum seekers subjected to MPP under the Biden administration’s latest implementation efforts, but they did confirm enrollments have started in the El Paso and San Diego regions.

One senior Biden administration official estimated on Monday that the program was costing the U.S. government in excess of “tens of millions of dollars.”

Prince Andrew moves to dismiss lawsuit filed by Jeffrey Epstein victim

January 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A document Prince Andrew claims should prevent him from being sued by an alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein was unsealed Monday by a federal judge in New York.

The document, a 2009 settlement agreement between Epstein and Virginia Giuffre, had been under seal for two years as part of related litigation.

It indicates that Giuffre and Epstein agreed to end her lawsuit against him filed earlier that year for $500,000.

Giuffre, who claims she was sexually assaulted by both Epstein and Prince Andrew starting when she was 17, filed a civil lawsuit against the prince in August of 2021.

Prince Andrew has vehemently denied the allegations and said he never had sex with Giuffre and has sought to dismiss the lawsuit, on several grounds, including claims that Giuffre has told various inconsistent stories.

Prince Andrew’s attorneys have also argued the settlement agreement precludes Giuffre from suing the royal because it covers “potential defendants” from all legal actions taken by Giuffre.

Whether that argument will be successful depends on the definition of the agreement’s intended beneficiaries.

According to Giuffre’s 2009 lawsuit, which she filed as “Jane Doe 102,” she alleged that she was required to have sexual contact with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and also several of their adult male friends and associates, “including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen, and/or other professional and personal acquaintances.”

The inclusion of the word “royalty” is, in the view of the prince’s attorneys, a clear reference to Prince Andrew, which, they argue, would make him, in effect one of the “potential defendants’ covered by the settlement agreement and is evidence that Giuffre and Epstein intended to release the prince from any future liability.

Giuffre’s lawyer argues the royal was not named in the agreement and could not be released as a beneficiary of the settlement, which defines “second parties” as Epstein’s “agent(s), attorney(s), predecessor(s), successor(s), heir(s), administrator(s), assign(s) and/or employee (s).” That would not appear to qualify Prince Andrew.

On the other hand, the agreement does “forever discharge the said Second Parties and any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant from all, and all manner of, action and actions of Virginia Roberts,” which the prince argues does apply to him as Giuffre had previously claimed, though he continues to deny wrongdoing and that he was one of the perpetrators.

There is a hearing on the prince’s motion to dismiss via video conference Tuesday.

Epstein was a prominent financier and registered sex offender. He died by suicide in a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019 while he awaited trial on federal charges for the sex trafficking on minors in Florida and New York.

Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and associate, was convicted on Dec. 29 on five of six counts related to the abuse and trafficking of underage girls. Giuffre did not testify in the case, but the government argued she was a victim of an alleged conspiracy to sex traffic individuals under 18.

Maxwell’s sentencing date has not yet been set and she faces decades in prison.

COVID live updates: NY looking at COVID hospitalizations that began for other reasons

January 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 826,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 62% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Latest headlines:
-New York looking into COVID-19 hospitalizations that began for other reasons
-Surgeon general warns next few weeks ‘will be tough’
-COVID positivity rate at US Capitol reaches 13%
-More than 100,000 Americans are hospitalized with COVID-19
-FDA authorizes Pfizer’s booster shot for 12- to-15-year-olds

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.

Jan 03, 4:02 pm
New York looking into COVID-19 hospitalizations that began for other reasons

She continued, “And I’m anticipating to see that at least a certain percentage overall are not being treated for COVID.”

Hospitals will begin reporting their breakdowns Tuesday, but it’s unclear how soon the data will be publicly available.

ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos and Will McDuffie

Jan 03, 3:11 pm
Surgeon general warns next few weeks ‘will be tough’

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations will continue to increase as the omicron variant rapidly spreads across the country.

Information from South Africa and the United Kingdom indicates omicron could be less severe than previous COVID-19 variants, Murthy said.

“We’re still going to see a lot of people get sick and a lot of hospitalizations, but the overall severity may end up being significantly lower,” he said.

Murthy said both South Africa and the U.K. “had a very rapid rise, but then they had a very steep fall” in cases

“I’m hoping that that’s what happens here too,” he added.

ABC News’ Joanne Rosa

Jan 03, 2:27 pm
Starbucks says workers must get COVID vaccine or be tested weekly

Starbucks is requiring its 220,000 workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine or be tested weekly, complying with the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for private businesses.

Employees must reveal their vaccination status by Jan. 10, according to a letter sent Monday by Starbucks Chief Operating Officer John Culver, Reuters first reported.

“This is an important step we can take to help more partners get vaccinated, limit the spread of COVID-19, and create choices that partners can own based on what’s best for them,” Culver wrote.

Workers will have until Feb. 9 to be fully vaccinated.

Those who choose to undergo weekly testing instead will be responsible for obtaining their own tests — which cannot be self-administered or taken at home — and submitting results.

Jan 03, 1:43 pm
COVID positivity rate at US Capitol reaches 13%

The seven-day positivity rate at the U.S. Capitol COVID-19 testing center has increased from 1% to 13%, according to a letter sent from the Office of the Attending Physician to congressional offices on Monday.

Most cases have been breakthroughs among people who are fully vaccinated and have not “led to hospitalizations, serious complications, or deaths, attesting to the value of coronavirus vaccinations,” the letter reads.

The letter also states that about 61% of COVID-19 infections at the Capitol have been linked to the omicron variant, and 38% are linked to the delta variant.

The OAP advised congressional offices to telework as much as possible and that “blue surgical masks, cloth face masks and gaiter masks must be replaced by the more protective KN95 or N95 masks.”

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes convicted on 4 counts of fraud

January 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A jury has convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes on four counts of fraud on their seventh day of deliberations. She was acquitted on another four, and a mistrial was declared on the remaining three counts.

Holmes was found guilty on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud against Theranos investors and three other counts of wire fraud against investors. She was acquitted on all four counts of wire fraud against patients. The jury deadlocked on three counts of fraud against investors.

Judge Edward J. Davila, who presided over the trial, is expected to sentence the fallen entrepreneur at a later date. The 37-year-old could face decades behind bars.

Holmes showed no visible emotion as the deputy court clerk read the verdict aloud.

Her ex-boyfriend and former company COO, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who is also her co-defendant in the case, had his trial severed from Holmes earlier this year after learning her lawyers might use abuse claims as part of their defense. He has firmly denied those allegations and is expected to stand trial in February.

Holmes, who had vowed to revolutionize the health care industry with technology that could run any test from a just a few drops of blood, was convicted of defrauding investors, in the rare criminal takedown of a Silicon Valley CEO.

During his rebuttal last week, prosecutor John Bostic told jurors that Holmes’ motive to commit fraud was not to cash in, but to bolster the company she had built.

“She committed these crimes because she was desperate for the company to succeed,” Bostic said.

Holmes conviction comes after the jury in the trial, following over 45 hours of deliberation, said Monday morning that they were “unable to come to a unanimous verdict on three of the counts,” and would need more time to reach a decision.

Davila read the jury a deadlock instruction, reiterated Holmes’ presumption of innocence, and sent the 12 back to the deliberation room to continue weighing the three counts of fraud on which they could not agree.

The jurors are tasked with weighing 11 fraud charges leveled against Holmes following weeks of witness testimony from insiders who worked at the blood-testing startup, and patients and investors who prosecutors say were defrauded by the Theranos founder once lauded as the next Steve Jobs.

Holmes, 37, was initially charged with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The jury began deliberating on Dec. 20. In the two weeks since, which included some time off for holidays, they have been largely quiet.

Colorado families begin to pick up pieces following winter wildfire

January 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(DENVER) — Families and officials in Colorado began returning to their towns that were ravaged by last week’s wildfires.

Gov. Jared Polis said in a news conference Sunday that over 1,000 homes were destroyed in the fires, which started on Thursday, and many more were damaged. The governor didn’t have an exact figure on how many people were affected, but said it was in the “thousands.”

Over the weekend, some families returned home and got a firsthand look at the damage. Burned cars and scorched homes were covered in snow.

“For many, this seems like a surreal experience,” Polis said. “It’s a shock, and the reality hasn’t even set in for a lot of people.”

Polis added that residents will have a long road ahead of them.

As of Sunday afternoon, only two of the 35,000 people who were evacuated from their homes are unaccounted for, according to officials.

One of the missing persons is a woman from Superior, Colorado, who was reported missing by her family, and the other is a man near Marshall, according to the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office said it has been “a very difficult search” since the locations are still deep in debris and snow.

There were 600 homes without power outside the burn zone as of Sunday, and they are expected to regain power by end of day, the sheriff’s office said. There are 1,000 homes within the burn zone without power, according to the sheriff.

Xcel Energy Colorado said that natural gas service has been restored for 1,200 customers in the Superior and Louisville areas, and more households will see service restored by Tuesday.

Deanne Criswell, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a former Colorado firefighter, surveyed the damage Sunday and reiterated support from the federal government. There were already 100 FEMA agents on the ground in the area, according to Criswell.

“That number will grow over the coming days and weeks,” she said during the news conference.

Polis said abnormal weather was a factor, as dry grassland fueled the fire.

“Most times around Christmas and New Year’s, we would be under 6 inches or a foot of snow,” the governor said.

Polis said historic wind gusts of up to 110 miles per hour caused the fire to spread through several counties.

An official with direct knowledge of the investigation said that as of Monday afternoon, investigators probing the cause of the Marshall Fire have not found any evidence directly tying the fire to an act of arson. “While the FBI has helped in the form of performing interviews and evidence collection, we should not read too far into this at this juncture,” the official said. “The federal criminal investigators have and will take a backseat in this probe until evidence has been found directly tying the cause to criminal arson. The snow on the ground has made the evidence gathering process very slow.”

Protesters call for charges against officer who killed teen in dressing room

January 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Protesters are calling for the firing or arrest of LAPD Officer William Jones Jr. in the fatal shooting of Valentina Orellana Peralta, a 14-year-old girl who was in a clothing store dressing room when she was killed.

“We cannot allow for these things to go unresolved,” said Chloë Cheyenne, an activist and the CEO of social justice media app COMMUNITYx, who is running the Justice for Valentina website and petition. “Police officers must be held accountable for their bullet.”

Valentina, a Chilean immigrant, was killed on Dec. 23 while shopping with her mother at a Burlington clothing store in North Hollywood, California. She was in a dressing room when Jones opened fire on an assault with a deadly weapon suspect in the store, according to officials.

The wall of the dressing room Peralta was in was behind the suspect when he was shot, police said, adding that Peralta was not in view of officers when the shooting occurred.

Demonstrators, some of whom have experienced police violence within their own families, are demanding justice for Peralta and supporting her family. A petition to get body camera footage and surveillance footage from the incident and to bring charges against Jones has received thousands of signatures.

The LAPD has published 911 calls, radio transmissions, body camera footage and surveillance video from the incident. The department’s policy is to release video of incidents like police shootings within 45 days, but the footage was published just five days after the incident.

“We are really critical of this excess of police culture that makes it OK for officers to shoot and kill Black and brown people and for officers to freely open fire in Black and brown communities in a way that does not happen in white suburban communities?” Cheyenne said, noting that Los Angeles is a predominantly Latino city.

Though some demonstrators are calling for Jones’ arrest, others say that justice should also come by way of police reform and a rethinking of what policing in America should look like.

“I think that to not have a conversation about policing and its actual function in our society, I think would be wrongheaded,” said Albert Corado from the local activist organization, the People’s City Council. “We need to talk about why police are so emboldened to do what they do.”

“They were given military grade equipment, they were given bigger budgets, more oversight and more wiggle room to do whatever they want,” Corado said of police in recent years — before the recent push for police reform.

According to the Los Angeles Times, police in Los Angeles County have killed about 951 people since 2000 — about four people each month, over the last 22 years.

Corado said his sister was killed by police in an incident that mirrors Peralta’s, and that police violence is all too common in the city.

“I went to the first press conference that [Peralta’s family] did and it was a little triggering,” Corado said. “I’m hoping that people now take the outrage they’re feeling and actually transform this.”

In a Dec. 27 statement on the incident, LAPD Chief Michel R. Moore said, “This chaotic incident resulting in the death of an innocent child is tragic and devastating for everyone involved. I am profoundly sorry for the loss of this young girl’s life and I know there are no words that can relieve the unimaginable pain for the family.”

He added, “My commitment is to conduct a thorough, complete and transparent investigation into the circumstances that led up to this tragedy and provide the family and public with as much information as possible.”

Per California law, the California attorney general will be investigating and independently reviewing the officer-involved shooting.

Jones is on paid administrative leave pending the results of the investigation.

The LAPD union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said Jones followed procedure, though Tom Saggau, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said Peralta’s death was an “absolute, tragic accident.”

“The officer had just completed the mass casualty active shooter training that the LAPD puts on, just a couple of weeks prior to the incident,” said Saggau, who doesn’t believe Jones should be arrested. “He was very much in tune with how and what he was to do, responding to what he believed to be an active shooter.”

Saggau also said that Jones talked openly about his experiences with racism and tackled issues in policing. He started a non-profit called Officers for Change, which donated school supplies from fellow officers.

Jones’ lawyer, Leslie Wilcox, did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

The suspect, Daniel Elena Lopez, did not have a gun at the scene, according to officials. He had a metal bike lock that was allegedly used to assault a woman and break glass. According to audio released by the LAPD, several 911 callers told dispatchers that they suspected Lopez had a gun.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner declared Peralta’s manner of death a homicide, with the cause of death being a gunshot wound to the chest. The suspect, Lopez, was also fatally shot.

“To see a son or daughter die in your arms is one of … the greatest pains and most profound pains that any human being can imagine,” Peralta’s mother, Soledad Peralta, said. “Now, our sweet angel has left us forever. Please give us strength, Valentina.”

The Peralta family is being represented by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has also represented the families of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and more.

Cuomo not charged with COVID nursing home deaths: Manhattan DA

January 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The Manhattan District Attorney’s office will not file criminal charges in connection with the handling of coronavirus deaths in New York nursing homes during the tenure of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, his representative said Monday.

“I was contacted today by the head of the Elder Care Unit from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office who informed me they have closed its investigation involving the Executive Chamber and nursing homes,” said Elkan Abromowitz, an attorney who represented the governor’s office. “I was told that after a thorough investigation – as we have said all along – there was no evidence to suggest that any laws were broken.”

The DA’s office had no comment.

Cuomo had come under fire for a policy early in the pandemic that returned nursing home residents to their facilities upon discharge from the hospital, even if they hadn’t tested negative.

He came under additional scrutiny when the New York attorney general found his office undercounted nursing home deaths.

Cuomo said last February that nearly all nursing homes that accepted recovering patients already had COVID cases.

And he said at that time that his handling of the fatality data created a “void” filled by misinformation and conspiracies.

“The void we created by not providing information was filled with skepticism and cynicism and conspiracy theories which fueled the confusion,” Cuomo said then. “The void we created disinformation and that caused more anxiety for loved ones.”

The state assembly considered whether it could be grounds for Cuomo’s impeachment before deciding to take no action.

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