(NEW YORK) — As Americans continue to cook, do laundry and use more electricity at home amid the pandemic, utility bill prices are predicted to rise this winter.
Ken Gurny, a homeowner in New York told Good Morning America their family has tried to conserve energy since the pandemic sent their utility bill sky high.
But even as residents work to lower electricity consumption, the cost to heat homes is going up.
The National Energy Assistance Directors Association predicts gas bills in the U.S. could rise up to 30% this winter.
“Going forward this year, there are no signs of these prices coming down,” executive director Mark Wolfe told GMA.
The Natural Gas Association of America told GMA in a statement that while it does not expect shortages, “natural gas market prices are higher due to the economic recovery, strong natural gas demand from last winter, and slower than anticipated production.”
From January to March last winter, the Gurney family said they paid roughly $2,300 to heat their home which means this year, that number could go up by $700 for a total of $3,000 in the same time period.
Beyond putting on a sweater inside and lowering the thermostat, there are other savings strategies to consider.
A smart thermostat like the Nest lets people program a lowered temperature at specific times of day via a smartphone app. The company estimates it saves users 10-12% on heating costs each year.
Amazon has entered the market with its Alexa-compatible smart thermostat due on the market in November.
The U.S. Energy Department suggests a simpler fix: Swap out an old, dirty filter on the furnace to save between 5 to 15% on a heating bill.
The Natural Gas Association suggests: “if customers have trouble paying their natural gas bills, there are programs that can help.”
Wolfe said the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is a “federal program that helps people pay their energy bills, they have enough money to do so — but it’s not just for poor people, a family can have to $40,000 a year and still qualify.”
Additionally, experts suggest heat loss can be prevented by checking for cold spots with a thermal gun. Point the device at the ceiling, wall and doors to see where weatherstripping could help, replace insulation or patch up cracks.
More heating and cooling units will also run off electricity rather than gas or oil, providing greater energy efficiency and serving as better options for the environment.
(NEW YORK) — With the vaccination rate for staffers in New York state’s long-term care facilities jumping from 70% to 92% following a state mandate last week, nursing home advocates are urging the Biden administration to launch a similar mandate for long-term care facilities nationwide — but the federal agency that oversees nursing home standards has yet to provide guidance on the matter.
Biden administration officials announced in August that long-term care staffers would soon have to get vaccinated, but the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has yet to implement the policy. In the meantime, the vaccination rate among long-term care employees nationwide is languishing at just over 65%.
“The federal mandate was welcomed, but the lack of guidance is concerning,” said Michael Wasserman, the past president of the California Association for Long Term Care Medicine and a member of California’s Vaccine Advisory Committee. “Having unvaccinated staff caring for residents will result in the transmission of the virus and therefore deaths.”
“We cannot implement this soon enough,” Wasserman said. “Every day that goes by without guidance will inevitably lead to more deaths.”
CMS officials said in a press release last month that they intend to release emergency vaccine regulations in mid to late October. In the meantime, CMS officials told ABC News, the agency is encouraging staff across all health care settings to get vaccinated, and are encouraging all facilities to “take advantage of the resources available from CMS” to promote the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Back in August, John Knox Village in Missouri was among the providers that were waiting to get additional guidance from CMS before taking further action, so they could fully understand exactly what the mandate entails. Two months later, they’re still waiting for further guidance.
John Knox Village spokesperson Emily Banyas told ABC News that in the meantime, the facility is continuing with its voluntary biweekly vaccination clinics. The staff vaccination rate at the facility is up 5% over last month — but is still only around 65%.
Overall, only about half the staff in Missouri’s long-term care facilities had been fully vaccinated as of Sept. 19, according to the latest data available from CMS, making Missouri one of the lowest-vaccinated states in the country.
In Oklahoma, where the staff vaccination rate is 51.7%, a long-term care executive told ABC News she’s hopeful the federal mandate will increase staff vaccination rates — especially in rural areas. Mary Brinkley, executive director of the Oklahoma chapter of the elder advocacy group LeadingAge, said that in the meantime, providers in rural areas are making a concerted effort to increase their voluntary vaccination rates, with some nursing home operators achieving rates of 80% to 95%.
But in Montana, where the staff vaccination rate is 59.8%, the federal mandate could be the only way the state will see a big increase in employee vaccinations. Due to a state law that bans employers from requiring vaccinations, Montana Health Care Association Executive Director Rose Hughes said that unless a federal mandate is implemented to create an exception for long-term care providers, there’s “nothing else they can do” other than to “continuously try to convince staff to get vaccinated through education and information.”
However Hughes also told ABC News that she expects a “significant number” of staff to resign when the federal mandate takes effect. Some facilities have already reported losing staff amid the looming order, Hughes said.
In Kentucky, where the vaccination rate among long-term care staff is just 56.2%, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Association of Health Care Facilities said that despite concerns about possible staff resignations, the organization supports employer vaccine mandates and is hopeful that Biden’s mandate will result in a significant increase in COVID-19 vaccinations among staff.
As of Sept. 19, about a month after the Biden administration announced plans to require long-term care facilities to vaccinate their staffs or lose Medicare and Medicaid benefits, the national staff vaccination rate had only risen 4.3%, from 61.1% to 65.4%, according to CMS data. The previous month, it had risen by 2.5%.
Eric Carlson, a long-term care expert with the advocacy group Justice in Aging, says that the mandate is needed “in order to prevent deaths and to keep nursing facilities open to visitors.”
“The COVID vaccines have been game-changers in nursing facilities,” Carlson told ABC News. “We know that COVID is particularly deadly for nursing facility residents, and that broad vaccination can reduce COVID rates to close to zero. No one should be waiting for someone else in order to do the right thing.”
Lisa Sanders, a national spokesperson for LeadingAge, says it is “highly likely” that an increase in workplace vaccine mandates will lead to an overall increase in the vaccination rate.
“What’s needed now — urgently — is both the actual rule and guidance for implementation,” she said.
In Tennessee, where the staff vaccination rate is just under 54%, Tennessee Health Care Association spokesperson Jay Moore told ABC News that while a few long-term care facilities have voluntarily imposed their own mandate, many providers are waiting for the national guidance because “the landscape is changing so rapidly, and there will always be unexpected nuances when the CMS rules are finally promulgated.”
Moore said it’s a “fair assessment” to say that the lack of additional CMS guidance has put providers in limbo, but that the federal agency is just being careful because it knows that the mandate will have a “tremendous impact on individuals working in health care, the facilities, and the patients in need of services.”
“CMS hopefully is just trying to get it right,” Moore said.
(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — A juror was excused from Elizabeth Holmes’ trial Wednesday, citing religious beliefs.
“I am a Buddhist, and so I practice for compassion, you know, for loving and forgiveness,” juror No. 4 told U.S. District Judge Edward Davila.
She told the court that she had become anxious anticipating how Holmes would be “punished by the government” if she were to find Holmes guilty.
“I keep thinking about this every day,” she added. She was excused per prosecution’s request; the defense did not object.
The alternate juror slated to replace juror No. 4, however, also expressed anxiety. “She’s so young,” the alternate told Davila, referring to Holmes.
“It’s my first time in this situation and it’s her future,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m 100% ready to participate in something like this.”
Davila elaborated on how the process would work, and how jurors would have no part in Holmes’ sentencing — adding that “punishment” should not be at all considered as the jury deliberates. Neither lawyers objected to her remaining on the jury, and the judge ruled she was fit to take juror No. 4’s place. She took the place of juror No. 4 Wednesday morning.
Now that juror No. 4 is excused, there are 15 jurors remaining: 12 active and three alternates.
Wednesday marked only the 12th day of Holmes’ trial — which was previously delayed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Holmes’ pregnancy. Davila expects the trial will conclude in December, but the schedule is already delayed a day, due to a false alarm coronavirus scare amongst the jury in the trial’s first week.
Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 and claimed the company was developing blood testing technology that could perform hundreds of blood tests using only a few drops of blood. Holmes and former Theranos COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, also Holmes’ ex-boyfriend, face a dozen charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with what prosecutors call a multi-million-dollar scheme to defraud investors and patients.
Originally, the pair were to be tried together, but in December of 2019, the trials were severed due to allegations of abuse by Balwani against Holmes, which Balwani has denied.
Both this week and last, jurors heard from former Theranos lab director Dr. Adam Rosendorff, who claims he warned Holmes about Theranos device failings. He told the court he attempted to delay the company’s Walgreens launch, pleading with a “nervous” Holmes, who went forward nonetheless. In cross-examination, defense attorney Lance Wade attempted to discredit Rosendorff.
(ATLANTA) — Over 140,000 children have experienced the loss of a parent or caretaker since the COVID-19 pandemic started, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Thursday.
The study, which considered data from April 2020 until June 2021, quantified an under-discussed issue of the pandemic: the magnitude of trauma children who’ve lost guardians have suffered at home, even as the virus continues to largely target adults.
It also found that the burden of grief has fallen hardest on children of color.
Nearly one in 500 children have lost a mother, father or grandparent who cared for them since April of 2020, the study found. But the majority of children, almost seven out of every 10 who have lost parents or caretakers during the pandemic, are Black, Hispanic or Native American.
The authors of the study called for federal attention and resources to address the trauma, which will continue to grow as long as the pandemic continues. Already, the authors estimate the number of children who’ve experience loss is higher than 140,000, because of the delta variant surge that hit the U.S. over the summer after the study concluded.
One of out of every 168 American Indian and Alaska Native children have lost a parent or grandparent who cared for them. During the same time, one out of every 310 Black children have faced such loss. For white children, the risk is lower; one out of every 753 children have lost a parent or caregiver.
The study showed the highest burden of death occurred in Southern border states for Hispanic children, Southeastern states for Black children, and in states with tribal areas for American Indian/Alaska Native populations.
“We were quite disturbed by the racial and ethnic disparities that were appearing in our data,” Susan Hillis, the lead author on the CDC study, told ABC News.
The CDC didn’t collect data to explain why those disparities exist, but research over the course of the pandemic has shown grave inequities in health care have led to higher death rates for communities of color. The CDC study published Thursday also found that parents generally had more children in demographics that were hit hardest by loss.
During the research period, Hillis said she was picturing a group of first-graders, all from different backgrounds and parts of the country.
“In my mind’s eye, there’s five children standing together and having such an extreme difference in their risk of having to face the death of the very person who is supposed to provide their love, security, education and care,” she said.
“We’re compelled to mount a response that’s effective for them — for all of them,” she said.
The data suggests that the country needs to build an “urgently needed” pillar into its COVID-19 response, specifically for children, Hillis said.
While she was working on the research, Hillis met a 16-year-old girl named Katie who had lost her dad to the virus.
“She said, ‘People with COVID in our country, most of them do recover, even though my daddy didn’t. However, I will never recover,'” Hillis recalled. “I will not have my daddy with me when I go to the prom, to take pictures beforehand, he will not walk me down the aisle, he will never be with me for another special event in my whole life. I need people to understand, recognize, see and help people like me.”
Losing a parent leads to an increased risk of mental health problems, abuse, unstable housing and poverty, the study said, and for children of single parents, it could mean an immediate need for new housing — whether that is moving in with other family members who can step in and care for them, or going to foster care.
“The critical point to remember is: Not only does it affect the child now, in the short term, but it does really stay with them for the rest of their lives,” Hillis said. “The good news is we do have programs that can help address them, and we have people ready to help implement the programs that work, so I’m encouraged about that.”
(NEW YORK) — It’s the critical aspect of the fight against the pandemic that the U.S. is still figuring out nearly two years after the first documented cases of COVID-19, which has claimed more than 700,000 American lives: coronavirus testing.
At first, testing supply was extremely limited with long lab turnaround times, and only a handful of Americans could access them before things improved as tests became more widely available. Then suddenly, testing demand dropped as mass vaccinations began.
Now, despite billions of dollars in federal investment and more than 20 months into the pandemic, COVID-19 tests are getting harder to find as millions return to offices and schools.
The struggle to keep up with demand also comes amid shifting federal guidance on who should be tested and when as some companies and schools conduct extensive testing, even in situations that may not require it.
The nation’s largest COVID-19 test manufacturers say they have seen a significant increase in the demand for coronavirus tests. Some major test manufacturers — including Abbott Laboratories — scaled back their production in the spring and early summer when daily testing numbers declined.
Many large test-producing companies say their rapid testing products are quickly flying off store shelves nationwide and are out of stock for online shoppers.
“We’ve ramped up our capacity significantly and, by the end of October, we’ll be producing as many or more rapid tests as we were at the height of our production,” said John Koval, an Abbott spokesperson. “To get there, we’ve hired additional employees and have turned on parts of our self-established manufacturing network.”
Although there is a faster result turnaround for rapid antigen tests, they are not as accurate as PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, which often involve a nasal swab. PCR tests are widely considered the gold standard for COVID-19 testing, due to their sensitivity, as they provide a more definitive answer as to whether someone may have active coronavirus.
More than 51 million coronavirus tests were administered in the month of September only the second time this year, after January, when test numbers were comparably high.
According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, testing in September increased by a record 82% compared to that period last year when many schools and workplaces were still fully virtual.
The U.S. now conducts nearly 2 million tests a day on average after hitting its peak for the year on Sept. 27 with 3.6 million.
Tests can be administered in a variety of locations, including testing sites, doctor’s offices and even at home and new technology is being developed to make the process easier, more available and cost-effective.
Here’s what we know about the testing landscape in the U.S.:
Return to work and school, in person
The return of Americans to work and school, along with the spread of the delta variant and a small but rising number of breakthrough infections among the vaccinated, created an increase in test demand that many suppliers are only now beginning to catch up with.
“It’s incredibly frustrating that we find ourselves back in this situation that we were in pretty much at the start of the pandemic,” said Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, lead epidemiologist for the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. “Employers really haven’t pulled back on screening testing that they’re doing even among vaccinated workforce, so that all added together stacks up to a fairly sizable demand for tests.”
Preparing for the return of employees back to the workplace, many U.S. employers have already purchased thousands of COVID-19 tests in bulk.
Prominent investment bank Goldman Sachs, which is based in New York, now requires staff in all of its U.S. offices to take weekly coronavirus tests, even if they’re fully vaccinated.
Other large employers, such as banks, retail stores and supermarkets have begun testing as well, with some using rapid tests and others using self-administered PCR tests.
Labcorb, a U.S. medical diagnostics company, insisted to ABC News that it didn’t reduce its capacity when demand dwindled, and that it has enough supply.
Labcorp sells large quantity collection kits to businesses, which are processed in their labs. Companies can distribute them to their employees to mail in for results.
The company says that equipping businesses both large and small with coronavirus tests is a key priority.
“By making it easier for employees to get tested, we are supporting communities and small businesses across the country,” said Dr. Brian Caveney, chief medical officer and president of Labcorp Diagnostics.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for example, partnered with Labcorp in March to implement a voluntary COVID-19 testing program for agency employees and contractors doing in-person work at government buildings or elsewhere.
Approximately 3,000 PCR tests a month are expected to be provided to FDA employees over the course of the program’s year-long contract.
As vaccinations increased among the general population in early spring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) loosened mask policies for vaccinated individuals indoors and said that the vaccinated didn’t have to get tested.
Testing companies heeded that guidance, and significantly rolled back their production as their stock prices dipped in response to the lower demand.
But the rapid spread of the delta variant in the summer coinciding with a lull in vaccinations, compelled the CDC to update its guidelines.
The CDC now advises that vaccinated people who come in contact with others who have a confirmed case of COVID-19 get tested regardless of whether they have symptoms, and quarantine only if their test results are positive.
More than 186 million people — 56% percent of the U.S. population — have been fully vaccinated.
Testing protocols driving demand
Public health experts say that testing protocols for students returning to the classroom, employer testing mandates, in addition to continued spread of the virus, even in a limited way among the vaccinated, is part of what’s driving the demand for COVID-19 tests.
“We’re coming out of a fairly substantial surge of infections, so that has clearly prompted a need for more testing,” said Dr. Nuzzo, from Johns Hopkins. During the summer, the 7-day average of infections surged to levels not seen since the fall and winter spike of last year, when vaccines were not widely available.
When President Biden first took office, he committed to establishing a national pandemic testing board to “massively surge” and guarantee free access to coronavirus testing. But much remains unknown about the goals of the board, particularly when it comes to developing a national testing strategy.
A Health and Human Services spokesperson told ABC News that the board is comprised of officials from across the federal government and “includes a focus on addressing supply issues – the supply group meets regularly to review testing capacity.” Testing strategy has been left largely up to states.
The Biden administration has awarded billions in contracts to private sector companies to surge testing, with the goal of eventually getting those tests widely distributed. But industry experts have observed those actions have not been nearly enough to keep up with the pace of the demand to effectively change the ground game on testing access.
“I don’t know why it wasn’t obvious to everyone that with the fall there would be an increasing demand for testing, particularly because of the push to return kids back to school,” said Nuzzo. “We never had enough tests for that.”
The White House has promised to double the number of rapid tests on the market over the next 60 days with a special focus on reducing test prices, which is still a significant barrier to access for many Americans.
In September, the White House said it plans to spend $2 billion to purchase nearly 300 million rapid tests.
On top of that, the Biden administration recently announced plans for another $1 billion in spending on at-home rapid COVID-19 tests, which officials believe will increase the number of tests available to Americans to 200 million a month, beginning in December.
“The manufacturing is scaling up significantly, doubling across the next couple of months, and we’re just going to keep at it to encourage those manufacturers to increase capacity and to drive down the cost of those tests,” said White House COVID-19 Coordinator Jeff Zients.
Cost a factor
The cost of COVID-19 tests in the U.S. varies, as the price often depends on factors including where you live and the type of labs where tests are processed.
While some COVID-19 tests are free and lowly priced, others are not, and even the insured could be left with a sizable bill.
Many rapid antigen tests, which can provide results in a matter of minutes, cost at least $12 at many U.S. retail stores, compared to prices less than half of that in many European Union countries, including Germany and the U.K.
“We have made a fair amount of progress there. Is it enough? No,” said Mara Aspinall, an advisor to the Rockefeller Foundation and professor of practice in the biomedical diagnostics program at Arizona State University. “It’s still too expensive for many Americans who’ve got two kids to buy $65 worth of tests.”
Many retailers including Amazon, CVS, and Walmart are out of stock of Abbott’s Binax Now COVID-19 antigen self-test, which sells for $24.
Testing experts believe that even amid the current COVID-19 testing supply problems, there are other under-utilized tools that can be applied to mitigate the spread of the virus.
“Our focus is surveillance and then outbreak control, and when you do that, we’ll be doing more wastewater testing, more air monitoring, I think we need to be using more COVID sniffing dogs, and scratch-and-sniff tests,” said Aspinall. “We can’t be short-sighted, we need to be thinking about the U.S. and around the world.”
(ARLINGTON, Texas) — Four people were hurt in a shooting at Timberview High School in Arlington, Texas, Wednesday morning, authorities said.
The suspect, an 18-year-old student, fled the scene and was taken into custody hours later, authorities said.
Two of the victims suffered gunshot wounds, police said. Three victims were students and one was an older person who may have been a teacher, police said.
Three of the four victims were hospitalized: a 15-year-old boy in critical condition, a 25-year-old man in good condition and a teenage girl in good condition, police said.
Police identified the suspect as 18-year-old Timothy George Simpkins. After announcing a search for him, police said he was taken into custody and charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault with a gun. The teen suspect communicated with his attorney before turning himself in, police said.
Police said this was not a random act of violence and that the suspect allegedly got into a fight before drawing a weapon.
A teacher told ABC News he heard the shooting and barricaded in a classroom with his students.
The “all clear” was given at the school following a lockdown. Students are being escorted to another building to be reunited with their families, the Mansfield Independent School District said.
ATF officials are at the scene in Arlington, located between Fort Worth and Dallas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement, “our hearts go out to the victims of this senseless act of violence.”
“Thank you to the law enforcement officers and first responders who arrived on the scene to help the victims and prevent further violence,” he said. “I have spoken with the Mayor of Arlington and offered any assistance the state can provide, and I have directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to make state resources available to help bring the criminal to justice.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEWARK, N.J.) — Five years after high levels of lead were detected in the water of 30 public schools in Newark, New Jersey, the city faces a new challenge of convincing residents affected by the crisis that the water is now safe to drink.
Newark resident Marcellis Counts said he grew up feeling neglected by the city and that’s caused public distrust to run deeply.
“The water is just a clear example of how things are able to be neglected,” Counts said. “Many people already knew that a lot of our water was bad anyway. So I always grew up not even drinking from water fountains when I went to school and stuff like that. So it was like that distrust.”
After major signs of contaminated water appeared in 2016, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection required Newark to monitor lead levels. The city reported lead levels above the federal action level, which they said were due to corrosion of old lead water pipes throughout the city, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Two years later, Newark reported one of the highest amounts of lead in any major U.S. city by 2018.
“We are now in panic mode in this city because the feds had to come in to tell us to stop drinking the water,” said Newark resident Donna Jackson in 2019.
Newark city leaders responded by providing water filters and water bottles to more than 40,000 households.
Shakima Thomas’ 7-year-old son, Bryce, tested positive for lead in 2018, even though she said the pipes in her home were made of copper.
“We haven’t got another test since that first test because it was such a traumatizing experience for him … So I have no idea what his level is at this point,” Thomas told ABC News.
In 2019, New Jersey officials announced a $120 million loan from the Essex County Improvement Agency, and a city ordinance, to expedite the city’s efforts to replace the lead pipes – at no cost to any resident.
Since then, Newark has replaced more than 22,000 lead service lines.
Yet, in March of 2021, Thomas paid a private lab to test the lead in her water. According to the results, the lead from her kitchen sink far exceeded what the Environmental Protection Agency says is an acceptable level.
“I felt bad, I felt terrible. I think any parent will feel that way. Here we’re supposed to protect our kids, and that’s the situation that was completely out of my control,” Thomas said.
The EPA also states there is no safe limit for lead in drinking water and that low levels of lead exposure in children have been linked to various conditions, including learning disabilities and impaired hearing.
Thomas said she also got a water test from the city of Newark in April, but the city said it had lost her results, according to emails shared with ABC News.
The city of Newark told ABC News that there are resources available to help children who have been affected by lead, but Thomas said those services were denied to her son.
“I took that as, ‘Yeah, [your child] has lead in his system, but he’s not poisoned enough for us to help.’ So that’s how I took it,” Thomas said.
According to a 2018 report by the National Institute of Health, low-income populations are disproportionately affected by lead exposure.
As of 2021, a little more than 27% of Newark’s population lives in poverty, which is more than double the national average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Just a few weeks ago, 4-year-old Anailah tested positive for lead. Her mother, Crystal McMillian, said that she noticed her daughter was having trouble focusing.
“I received a phone call from the doctor’s office stating that my daughter had lead levels [that are] high,” McMillian said. “It’s hard for her at times to sit down. She acts out at times and it’s just her attention span.”
McMillian said she had an inspector come to her home to test paint, which is another potential source of lead, but she says no one has come to test the water.
“They didn’t even offer to test my water to see if the water is causing the issue … They’re not concerned if the lead is coming from the water or the paint or something else that’s causing this problem,” McMillian said. “I want to know what’s causing my baby to have and her levels to be really high.”
For now, McMillian said she goes to the Newark Water Coalition Distribution site twice a week and fills jugs of water so that she can have drinking water at her home.
The Newark Water Coalition told ABC News there has not been a drop in demand for people coming to get water, despite the city replacing nearly all lead service lines.
Kareem Adeem is the Director of the Newark Department of Water and Utilities. He said that he understands that trust doesn’t come easily, but residents need to work with the city.
“Yes, we’ll be able to get someone to our house to test the water. We’re testing thousands, thousands of water samples… and one may get lost or mixed up, but we’re here to help you,” Adeem told ABC News. “Don’t get frustrated. Work with us. We’ll get it done.”
Thomas said that she’s all but done working with the city after several unsuccessful attempts to have city officials test her water.
“I don’t think I can trust my elected officials because they’ve shown that they’re unreliable consistently,” Thomas said. “The only thing I can do is buy bottled water and bank on the fact that that’s safe, but I’d rather drink that than knowing I’m drinking lead.”
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats emerged from a closed door special caucus meeting on the debt ceiling on Wednesday and said they intend to take GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell up on his short-term debt ceiling increase.
Multiple senators and aides told ABC News Democrats are rejecting McConnell’s other offer that would have Republicans expediting Democrats passing a longer-term debt ceiling increase using the budget reconciliation process that they’re using to pass the multi-trillion dollar social spending bill.
“McConnell caved! McConnell caved,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told reporters with a fist raised.
“We intend to take this temporary victory and then try to work with the Republicans to do this on a longer-term basis,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., told CNN.
“There’s not going to be reconciliation,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., told reporters emphatically, adding that the short term fix must pass as soon as possible.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., agreed, saying she was glad McConnell “folded“ and said Democrats would “never“ use reconciliation to increase the debt ceiling.
It’s unclear if a vote on the new proposal would occur Wednesday night or Thursday, though the latter appeared more likely.
As the U.S. barrels toward an unprecedented default in a game of brinkmanship on Capitol Hill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered Democrats two options to increase the debt ceiling on Wednesday. Both options require that Democrats increase the ceiling by a specific amount, which the party has not wanted to do, fearing political implications of an increase to the nation’s borrowing limit approved solely by Democrats.
Democrats rejected an offer for that Republicans to help Democrats expedite the budget process known as reconciliation to hike the debt limit by a specified amount but instead took a short-term increase of the debt ceiling to a specified amount for two months — until December.
It comes after Republicans have refused to allow Democrats to move forward on raising the debt ceiling with a simple majority vote, subsequently preventing the country from entering a self-inflicted financial crisis, potentially worse than the 2008 crisis.
“Republicans remain the only party with a plan to prevent default,” McConnell said, though he has maintained for weeks that Democrats should go the process alone. “We have already made it clear we would assist in expediting the 304 reconciliation process for stand-alone debt limit legislation. To protect the American people from a near-term Democrat-created crisis, we will also allow Democrats to use normal procedures to pass an emergency debt limit extension at a fixed dollar amount to cover current spending levels into December.”
While some Democrats took short-term extension as a win, Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said McConnell’s two offers were “BS,” adding the GOP leader is “heartless” and, sarcastically, “He could give a rip.”
Asked by ABC News’ Mariam Khan if Schumer should accept one of McConnell’s options, given the nation is on a deadline, Hirono replied, “Why should we accept any part of a BS offer?”
Ahead of McConnell’s proposition, Senate Republicans had planned to filibuster a House-passed measure on Wednesday that would suspend the debt limit until December 2022. At least 10 Republicans would need to join all Senate Democrats to break the GOP filibuster and allow a simple majority vote to pass the bill — which President Joe Biden has called for, telling Republicans at a meeting with business leader earlier to “get out of the way.”
Without Republican support, Biden and other Democrats raised carving out an exception to ending the filibuster for the debt ceiling vote, which would take the support of all 50 Democratic senators — but it doesn’t seem to be a pathway forward either.
Moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who along with fellow moderate Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., has balked at changes to the filibuster rules, dug into his position earlier, putting the responsibility of the economic crisis squarely on the shoulders of Senate leaders to solve.
“This should not be a crisis. I’ve been very, very clear where I stand, where I stand on the filibuster. I don’t have to repeat that. I think I’ve been very clear. Nothing change,” Manchin told reporters on Capitol Hill. “But the bottom line is we have a responsibility to be the adults. Our leadership has the responsibility to lead.”
“The only thing I can say at this time to Leader Schumer, and to Leader McConnell, please, lead, work together,” he added.
Schumer had said earlier on the floor that the Senate must move forward with “the responsible thing and vote to allow the U.S. to keep paying its bills.”
“Republicans’ obstruction on the debt ceiling over the last few weeks has been reckless and irresponsible but nevertheless, Republicans will today have the opportunity to get what they’ve been asking for,” Schumer said in the morning. “The first and easiest option is this: Republicans can simply get out of the way, and we can agree to skip the filibuster vote so we can proceed to final passage of this bill.”
But Republicans letting Democrats govern so easily, despite Democrats suspending the debt ceiling multiple times in a divided Washington under former President Donald Trump.
GOP leaders have maintained for months that Democrats must act to raise the federal debt limit on their own, because they have total control of Washington and are planning to pass a multi-trillion social and economic package without Republican support.
But Democrats and Biden have reiterated that paying off U.S. debt is a historically bipartisan measure and that the funds Congress would be approving were spent, in part, under then-Senate Majority Leader McConnell.
McConnell has said repeatedly that Democrats should have to hike the debt limit to cover the cost of potentially trillions in yet-passed parts of Biden’s agenda, though the debt limit must be raised to cover spending that already took place under the Trump administration with unified GOP support.
Amid Democrats’ calls for carving out the filibuster, McConnell told members in a lunch meeting about the two options: a short-term extension or an expedited reconciliation process — but those would also give Republicans exactly what they’re asking for politically: an increase to the nation’s borrowing limit approved solely by Democrats, for the GOP to seize on in midterms.
White House economists and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have warned that without action, Americans will feel the real-world effects of a self-inflicted economic crisis in the coming days. Consequences include delays to Social Security payments and checks to servicemembers, a suspension of veterans’ benefits, and rising interest rates on credit cards, car loans and mortgages.
(LOS ANGELES) — Officials are continuing their investigation into what caused a pipeline in the Pacific Ocean to leak hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil, with cleanup efforts continuing along California’s southern coast.
Up to 350 people were participating in cleanups on a 30-mile stretch of beaches and marsh from from Huntington Beach to Dana Point, officials from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told reporters at a news conference Wednesday.
Crews in the air were identifying affected locations and alerting cleanup teams, said Captain Rebecca Ore of the Coast Guard’s Long Beach branch. “Everybody here is absolutely committed to cleaning up our much-loved California beaches.”
Michael Ziccardi, director of California’s Oiled Wildlife Care Network, said the organization has collected 13 live birds and two dead birds affected by the oil. Four live snowy Plovers, an endangered species, also were found in Huntington Beach.
An estimated 5,000 gallons of oil has been recovered from the water and beaches, Ziccardi added.
Up to 144,00 gallons of crude oil leaked into the ocean after the pipeline, about 4.5 miles off the California coast, known as Elly, was damaged on Saturday morning.
The pipeline was no longer pumping oil as of approximately 8 a.m. Saturday, and the Coast Guard was notified of the leak at that time, said Amplify Energy Corporation CEO Martyn Willsher.
But officials have alleged that the leak actually was discovered more than eight hours earlier. Orange County supervisor Katrina Foley said over the weekend that the pipeline was likely leaking before the damage was discovered Saturday morning, and officials from a division of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife stated in a report that they were notified of an “observed sheen” off the Huntington Beach coast at 10:22 p.m. Friday, according to documents obtained by ABC News.
The U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration demanded the failed pipeline be repaired in a letter to Amplify Energy Corp. on Tuesday. The letter, addressed by the associate administrator for pipeline safety, said the oil platform’s control room received low-pressure alarms on the San Pedro Bay Pipeline around 2:30 a.m. PDT Saturday, indicating a possible failure. But the line was not shut down until 6:01 a.m. — 3 1/2 hours later.
Robert Bea, co-director of the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management at the University of California, Berkeley cast doubt on Amplify Energy’s claim that the pipeline was shut down at 2:30 a.m. Saturday.
Bea hypothesized that if the first sightings of the sheen came Friday night, and a large plume of oil was visible from satellite imagery shortly thereafter, the low-pressure alarms would have sounded in the control rooms soon after the leak began, unless the alarms were faulty.
No abnormalities were found when the pipeline was cleaned last week or during an annual spill drill in 2020, Willsher said, adding that he expected the total loss of oil to be lower, given that the damage to the pipeline was just a 13-inch crack.
“We want to do everything we can to ensure that this situation and this release gets resolved as quickly as possible so that these beautiful areas can be restored, and all of the residents and businesses can get back to normal as quickly as possible,” Willsher said.
It’s unclear why the company didn’t stop pumping sooner, Bea told ABC News.
A class-action lawsuit was filed against the companies that run the oil line on Monday.
ABC News’ Matt Gutman and Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A massive search is continuing in Florida for Brian Laundrie, the boyfriend of Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old woman who went missing on a cross-country trip and who authorities confirmed as the body discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
The search for the 23-year-old Laundrie is centered around North Port, Florida, where investigators said Laundrie returned to his home on Sept. 1 without Petito but driving her 2012 Ford Transit.
Laundrie has been named by police as a “person of interest” in Petito’s disappearance. Laundrie has refused to speak to the police and has not been seen since Tuesday, Sept. 14, according to law enforcement officials.
The search for Laundrie is the latest twist in the case that has grabbed national attention as he and Petito had been traveling across the country since June, documenting the trip on social media.
Petito’s parents, who live in Long Island, New York, reported her missing on Sept. 11 after not hearing from her for two weeks.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Oct 06, 6:42 pm
Authorities to allow Laundrie’s father to assist with search, attorney says
Steven Bertolino, the Laundrie family attorney, told ABC News Wednesday that authorities are going to allow Chris Laundrie, Brian Laundrie’s father, to assist with the search at the Carlton Reserve.
Investigators don’t currently have more details on when he will join the search.
The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office told ABC News they provided aerial support Wednesday for a search of the area.
-ABC News’ Whitney Lloyd and Alondra Valle
Oct 05, 11:11 pm
Brian Laundrie left parents’ home to hike day earlier than parents originally told investigators
Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino confirmed to ABC News Tuesday night that the family now believes Brian Laundrie left to hike the Carlton Reserve on Monday, Sept. 13. Previously, they had told investigators he left on Tuesday, Sept. 14.
“The Laundries were basing the date Brian left on their recollection of certain events. Upon further communication with the FBI and confirmation of the Mustang being at the Laundrie residence on Wednesday September 15, we now believe the day Brian left to hike in the preserve was Monday September 13,” Bertolino said.
Oct 05, 4:50 pm
Brian Laundrie flew home to Florida in early August: Family attorney
An attorney for the family of Brian Laundrie confirmed to ABC News on Tuesday that the wanted fugitive flew home to Florida from Salt Lake City on Aug. 17 and flew back to Utah six days later to rejoin his girlfriend, Gabby Petito, on their cross-country road trip.
Steven Bertolino said Laundrie flew home to “obtain some items and empty and close the (couple’s) storage unit to save money as they contemplated extending the road trip.” Bertolino said the couple paid for the flights together as they were sharing expenses.
Laundrie’s trip back to the Tampa area came five days after he and Petito were stopped by police in Moab, Utah, when witnesses reported the couple was engaged in a domestic violence incident in Moab.
