(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday that if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling by the deadline it would be a ‘calamity.’
Testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs alongside Federal Reserve System Chairman Jerome Powell, Yellen said the U.S. would hit its debt limit in less than three weeks, on Oct. 18.
“This would be a manufactured crisis we had imposed on this country, which has been going through a very difficult period and is on the road to recovery,” she said. “This would be a self-inflicted wound of enormous proportions.”
The United States has never defaulted on its debt. Congress has voted 80 times to raise or suspend the debt limit since 1960.
Yellen has previously laid out the consequences to lawmakers of missing the deadline. She has said nearly 50 million seniors could temporarily stop receiving Social Security checks, troops could go unpaid and millions of families who receive the monthly child tax credit could experience delays. A default could also trigger a spike in interest rates and result in a steep drop in stock prices and other financial turmoil, reversing the current economic recovery into a recession, with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost.
Yellen painted a grim picture again Tuesday.
Even if Congress increases the debt limit but does so too close to the deadline, it could cause economic fallout, Yellen said.
“Furthermore, we know from previous debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise borrowing costs for taxpayers and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States for years to come. Failure to act promptly could also result in substantial disruptions to financial markets, as heightened uncertainty can exacerbate volatility and erode investor confidence,” Yellen outlined in a letter to congressional leadership.
Yellen also reiterated that raising the debt limit has nothing to do with future government spending — a point some Republicans have tried to push as reason for not supporting a debt-limit hike as Democrats on the Hill scramble to try to pass both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a larger social spending package.
“I want to see that the debt ceiling is raised. I believe that it would be catastrophic not to do so. But I equally believe that deficits have been under both Democratic and Republican administrations, it’s important to recognize that, and that means paying the bills for those deficits is a shared responsibility,” Yellen testified.
ABC News’ Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott contributed to this report.
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — Family members of Miya Marcano said they’re holding out hope the 19-year-old woman missing since Friday will be found safe.
Caili Sue, a cousin of Marcano, spoke to reporters in Orlando on Tuesday as she and other relatives put up posters with Marcano’s photo and searched the woods near her apartment.
“I’m determined, and I’m still very hopeful we’re going find her,” Sue said.
Marcano, a Valencia College student, was last seen at approximately 5 p.m. on Friday at the Arden Villas apartments in Orlando, where she lived and worked, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Armando Manuel Caballero also worked in the building as a maintenance employee and had expressed interest in Marcano, but she rebuffed his advances, police said.
Sue told reporters that Caballero, 27, was constantly texting Marcano, and that he “made her uncomfortable.”
Investigators said Caballero’s job included use of a key fob to access apartments, and his was used at Marcano’s unit just before her disappearance. Family who entered Marcano’s apartment after she went missing discovered broken jewelry on dirty floors and a messy bed, Sue said.
“It looked like there was a struggle because of the dirt and jewelry on the ground,” she continued. “The family is very meticulous with cleaning and keeping their place clean, so bed unmade and things scattered was odd.”
Caballero, identified as a person of interest in the case, was found dead on Monday from an apparent suicide, authorities said.
“I was really angry,” Sue said, “because if he knew anything, he took that information with him and could have given us a lead.”
Sue and other relatives said they urging anyone who may have any information to call the police. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said anyone with details can call them at 407-836-4357.
(NEW YORK) — The unions representing American and Southwest airlines pilots are asking lawmakers and the White House for an exemption or an alternative to the federal mandate requiring companies with more than 100 people to get vaccinated.
Roughly 30% of American Airlines pilots are not vaccinated, according to the Allied Pilots Association, the union representing American’s 14,000 pilots. Southwest’s pilot union could not say how many of its members were unvaccinated.
“Some of APA’s members are unable to undergo vaccination for documented medical reasons, while others are reluctant to get vaccinated based upon concerns about the potential for career-ending side effects,” union president, Captain Eric Ferguson wrote in a letter to more than 15 people at the DOT, White House, and Congress.
Commercial airline pilots adhere to strict medical requirements and some pilots fear vaccine side effects like blood clots or heart problems could prevent them from maintaining a medical clearance, thus ending their careers as pilots.
The CDC reports there have been more than 200 million doses of vaccine administered already in the U.S. and serious safety problems are very uncommon.
Most side effects from COVID vaccines are mild and temporary and include things like soreness at the injection site or fatigue, headaches, chills and nausea. These side effects usually go away within a day or two.
There have been rare adverse events of blood clots — about 7 per million vaccinated women between 18 and 49 — with the J&J vaccine. Women in that age range may want to select a different vaccine.
There have been a small number of temporary heart problems associated with Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for young men. These reports are rare and the known and potential benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the known and potential risks of getting COVID — which include myocarditis or pericarditis.
The union representing Southwest’s pilot’s echoed American’s request to the federal government, saying in a statement: “Our pilots have shouldered an elevated risk of illness from the start of the pandemic, including well before the vaccines became available. And we are hopeful that our contributions are recognized and accounted for as we seek approval of an alternate means of compliance and an operationally feasible implementation period.”
Both unions say the 60-day-timeline for the requirement to get vaccinated could have a significant impact on holiday travel if pilots who choose not to get vaccinated are forced off the job.
“We are also concerned that the Executive Order’s anticipated 60-day implementation period for mandatory vaccinations could result in labor shortages and create serious operational problems for American Airlines and its peers. Airlines generate a substantial portion of their annual revenue during the holiday period, with a great many travelers depending on us to get them to their destinations. Our nation’s airlines, and the traveling public, cannot afford significant service disruptions due to labor shortages,” Ferguson wrote in the letter.
Meanwhile, United Airlines says 98.5% of its employees are now vaccinated after the company mandated the shot. At least seven United employees are suing the company to avoid getting the vaccine.
Delta Air Lines will soon charge unvaccinated employees $200 more per month for health insurance. The company says at least 82% of its employees are vaccinated.
(NEW YORK) — All eyes are on New York as its vaccination mandate for health care workers — among the first in the nation — takes effect on Tuesday.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order just before midnight on Monday that aims to alleviate potential health care staffing shortages as the mandate takes effect. The order removes barriers and expands eligibility to allow additional health care workers to provide care.
The executive order, which also allows many out-of-state and out-of-country health care workers to practice in New York, waives re-registration fees and expedites the re-registration process for retirees looking to re-enter the workforce, and it allows practitioners to work or volunteer in certain facilities.
Moreover, it allows physician visits in nursing homes to be done using telemedicine and allows New York State-licensed providers without current registration to practice without potential penalties. It also lets recent grads in a variety of health care programs to get straight to work.
Finally, it removes barriers for EMTs to practice and assist in additional settings and allows basic EMTs to vaccinate and test for COVID-19. It also expands the scope of practice to let midwives, registered nurses, physicians and nurse practitioners to more easily administer and order COVID-19 vaccinations and tests, as well as flu vaccinations.
Hochul also said she plans to work with the federal government to look at ways to expedite visa requests for medical professionals from other countries.
Northwell Health, New York’s largest employer of health care workers with more than 74,000 staffers, said in a statement on Monday that almost 91% of its workforce had been vaccinated.
“Northwell wants to reassure the public that patient care will not be affected by the New York State’s 9/27 vaccine mandate,” the statement said. “A system-wide workforce planning taskforce is working on contingency plans to ensure that we can meet staffing needs.”
Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, similarly downplayed any risk of a health care worker shortage, saying at a conference Monday, “I do believe that that hospitals will be prepared to get through this, again without a major impact to patient care.”
On Tuesday, all city-run and private hospitals appeared to be operating normally. About 500 nurses for New York City Health and Hospitals were not at work, but they had been preemptively replaced.
“We anticipated there would be some losses of staff. We knew that no matter what our efforts, some people would not get vaccinated, we planned appropriately,” Health and Hospitals President Dr. Mitch Katz said at a Tuesday news conference.
The sweeping action from Hochul’s office comes as small factions of health care workers in New York are still resisting the vaccine, despite a resurgence of virus cases linked to the highly contagious delta variant.
Despite some pushback, preliminary data from Hochul’s office indicates the mandate has been effective in boosting vaccination rates. The percentage of nursing home staff who had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose was at 92% as of Monday evening, up from 70% on Aug. 15, before to the mandate was announced. Moreover, 89% of adult care facility staff members have received at least one dose of the vaccine, up from 76% on Aug. 15.
Some 92% of hospital staff in the state had received at least one dose as of Monday evening, and 84% had been fully vaccinated as of Sept. 22 — up from 77% on Aug. 10.
“The only way we can move past this pandemic is to ensure that everyone eligible is vaccinated, and that includes those who are taking care of our vulnerable family members and loved ones,” Hochul said in a statement accompanying the executive order.
Hochul said she’s also directed an “around-the-clock operations center to assist local partners and troubleshoot staffing issues in real time.”
Workplace vaccine mandates have courted controversy for months despite assurances from public health officials that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.
The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission said employers legally can require COVID-19 vaccines to re-enter a physical workplace as long as they follow requirements to find alternative arrangements for employees unable to get vaccinated for medical reasons or because they have religious objections. Still, the mandates have spurred a handful of lawsuits across the U.S.
As of Monday, 83.7% of New Yorkers 18 or older had received at least one dose, and 75.1% were fully vaccinated. Nationally, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data indicated that 77.1% of the population ages 18 and up had received at least one dose, and 66.6% were fully vaccinated.
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Matt Foster contributed to this report.
(Az.) — One Arizona dad wants to give immunocompromised kids some of their childhood back by creating a hyper-clean space where they can safely play.
Brad Taylor’s daughter, Lily, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when she was 3 years old in December 2017. The diagnosis came after the family took Lily to the hospital for what they thought was an ear infection.
“We went into the hospital with an ear infection expecting to get some antibiotics and go home,” Taylor, 41, told “Good Morning America.” “We were told our daughter has cancer at 10 o’clock at night and by the following morning, she was in surgery. That’s how fast it changed my life.”
For the next two and a half years, Taylor said Lily underwent a treatment program that included chemotherapy and she became immunocompromised as a result.
“When Lily would go through chemotherapy, her body would go in and out of a place called neutropenia, which means you have no immune system,” he said.
According to the National Cancer Institute, leukemia is the most common cancer found in children ages 0-19. The main treatment for the disease is chemotherapy, though depending on the case, treatment can include surgery, radiation therapy, targeted therapy drugs, immunotherapy, and stem cell transplants.
“Chemotherapy is going to kill the cancer cells, but it’s also going to kill some good cells along the way,” Dr. Bijal Shah, of the Moffitt Cancer Center, told “GMA.” “For folks who are neutropenic, when those neutrophil cells are low, it sort of unlocks the barriers, so when you’re exposed to infection, it’s much more easy to succumb to that infection.”
Being immunocompromised meant the things Lily could do were heavily impacted, from playing in public spaces to interacting with people outside her home and the hospital to the food she could eat.
“We try to do a lot of things to protect our patients,” Shah said. “Normally, we tell them to avoid fruits and vegetables unless their parents can wash them at home. With meats, it has to be well done — no medium, no rares, nothing. We have to be very careful, even on a fundamental dietary level. And if anyone’s sick, you can’t be around them.”
How Lily’s Pad came to be The idea for Lily’s Pad came after one particular day in Lily’s cancer journey.
“Lily had no life, so I asked the doctors, ‘We’ve watched all the YouTube videos, we’ve watched all the shows, we’ve played all the games. There’s got to be somewhere I can take her,'” Taylor recalled. “They said, ‘Why don’t you take her on a drive? That way you can at least have her in a confined area.'”
While on a drive through a quiet residential area full of nature, Taylor said they passed by what looked like a brand-new park and Lily was “begging to get out of the car” to go play in it.
“By that time, she had kind of learned the rules like we couldn’t go to public places,” he said. “She finally was at her breaking point and lost it. She was throwing shoes at me from the back, just furious that I wouldn’t stop the car. She cried herself to sleep, she was so worked up.”
The next day, Taylor began researching to see if there was a space specifically for immunocompromised kids to play in so that he could take Lily to it. When he saw that there really wasn’t anything available, he decided to make it happen himself.
“I had checked with social workers and they had never heard of anything like it,” he said. “So that’s where the concept of Lily’s Pad was born. I just wanted to give her back a piece of her childhood.”
A healing space for kids to just be kids and a resource for caregivers
One of the hardest things for Taylor, he said, was seeing Lily go to chemotherapy and then have nothing afterward for her to look forward to.
“After the hospital, what do you do?” Taylor said. “So kids have to suit up every single day to go through painful procedures and then to look forward to what? To go home? So we’re trying to give them an opportunity to mentally heal along with physically.”
In addition to the physical changes brought on by chemotherapy, Taylor noted that Lily was affected mentally and emotionally as well.
“My child went from the leader of the pack to a very shy child,” he said. “She never spoke like a child anymore. Her friends and playmates were nurses and doctors.”
On a psychosocial level, the idea of Lily’s Pad is hugely profound, according to Shah.
“When you’re getting this kind of therapy, there’s lots of changes that occur — like losing hair — and you become very conscious of it,” Shah said. “Being able to be in a particularly fun space outside of the hospital where you can interact with others who may be going through similar issues without having to think twice is amazing.”
“My daughter was the only bald one in her school, and that was devastating for her,” Taylor said. “It became a fight every day to get her to school.”
Another of Taylor’s goals for Lily’s Pad is to give caregivers a place to rest and regroup. There will be a parent lounge, marriage and grievance counseling, and information on financial resources available.
“One of the hardest things my wife and I dealt with was there’s no time when the child is not begging for your attention or comfort because they don’t feel good and they’re going through really tough times,” he said. “So this would give parents time to step away from the battle for a minute.”
To protect the immunocompromised kids that will be visiting Lily’s Pad, Taylor said he consulted the medical community on the feasibility of the space as well as safety measures needed to operate.
“We’re having an HVAC system designed right now that’s similar to a hospital so it’s got HEPA filters in it and it’s got UV cleaning in it as well,” he said.
When completed, Lily’s Pad will offer three 90-minute play sessions daily, which parents have to reserve online in advance, with a maximum of 15 kids allowed per session. Kids will be looked after by the qualified nursing students on staff. The facility will be cleaned with Decon7 in between each session, with a deep cleaning in the evening. Masks will also be required.
“We wanted to give kids back a chance to go to the park — a chance to go to a playground,” Taylor said. “My daughter is so excited to be able to open this place and point to the name on the wall and say ‘I’m Lily, and you can beat this.'”
Construction on the 5,800-square-foot space was scheduled to begin in April 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Taylor now hopes to finish everything by April 2022, for the two-year anniversary of Lily’s last chemotherapy treatment.
(NEW YORK) — Whitney Houston will always be remembered as an extraordinary musician, actress and beauty icon.
MAC Cosmetics is honoring her life and legacy by launching a makeup collection that’s being created through a long-term collaboration with the Whitney Houston Estate.
The collection is slated to launch in 2022 and will support Houston’s upcoming biopic “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” through makeup support, and recreating some of Whitney’s most iconic looks of all time.
“Whitney Houston is a true legend whose talent has and will continue to transcend decades,” said Aïda Moudachirou-Rebois, chief marketing officer, MAC Cosmetics, in a statement.
She continued, “Just like the depths of her vocal range, she was a true beauty and MAC lover who could seamlessly go from a natural ‘no makeup-makeup look’ to full glam and bold colors without missing a beat. We are honored to support Whitney’s upcoming biopic and to continue to help tell her beauty story in many moments to come.”
While this is the first time MAC Cosmetics is creating a makeup line inspired by Houston, the brand has launched other collections inspired by musical greats such as the late Mexican-American singer Selena as well as singer and actress Aaliyah who died in 2001.
Now, Houston will join the brand’s lineup of dedicated makeup collections honoring some of the most beloved beauty chameleons.
On behalf of The Whitney Houston Estate, her sister, Pat Houston, shared in a statement, “Whitney possessed once-in-a-lifetime inner and outer beauty. As the film begins production, it’s so gratifying to develop a brand partnership with MAC Cosmetics. MAC was Whitney’s favorite cosmetics line and I know they will honor her legacy and her beauty.”
(NEW YORK) — Caitlyn Jenner, a candidate in California’s recent gubernatorial recall election, said Tuesday on “The View” that she would run for office again, advocating for greater inclusivity among “old school” Republicans who are hurting the party.
This month’s attempted recall of California Gov. Gavin Newsom failed by more than 24%, with some votes left to count. Jenner did not finish among the top 10 replacement candidates.
“Even though it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to in the end, it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” Jenner said.
“Would I run again? Yes. I want to stay involved,” she added. “But there’s other things that I would like to do, and that is — one is — try to get the Republican Party to be more inclusive.”
Jenner, a transgender woman, had defended former President Donald Trump while he was in office, but later she said she could no longer support him after he “relentlessly attacked” the trans community. She said on Tuesday that she thinks the media doesn’t give Republicans a “fair break.”
“Trump certainly had his messaging issues,” Jenner said. “I will agree with you on that.”
“He had an insurrection issue and a couple of impeachment issues as well,” co-host Sunny Hostin added.
“We need better candidates,” Jenner responded, adding that “old school” Republicans are hurting the party.
“Honestly,” Jenner continued, “I feel like [they] are destroying the Republican Party in so many ways, they have to move on. There’s got to be a next generation to come in, and I think they’re out there. And I’m hopeful that they’re out there, but we have to change, we have to do a better job.”
Co-host Joy Behar asked Jenner her thoughts on the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection in Washington.
“Did that bother you too?” she asked Jenner.
Jenner said that Jan. 6 “obviously wasn’t right. And we can’t have that in our country.”
“We need to bring people together is what we need to do. We have a tendency in this country to put everybody in a box,” she said. “And the Republican party needs to change, and to be honest with you, I am the poster child for change.”
(WASHINGTON) — Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pushed back strongly Tuesday on recent characterizations of his phone calls to China’s top military official and denied that he had placed himself in the chain of command for nuclear launch protocols following a phone call from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“My loyalty to this nation, its people, and the Constitution hasn’t changed and will never change as long as I have a breath to give, My loyalty is absolute, and I will not turn my back on the fallen,” Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“The calls on 30 October and 8 January were coordinated before and after with Secretary Esper and Acting Secretary Miller’s staffs and the interagency,” he told the committee. “The specific purpose of the October and January calls was generated by concerning intelligence which caused us to believe the Chinese were worried about an attack on them by the U.S.
Milley’s phone calls were first made public in the new book “Peril” by the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
“I know, I am certain, that President Trump did not intend on attacking the Chinese and it was my directed responsibility by the secretary to convey that intent to the Chinese,” said Milley. “My task at that time was to de-escalate. My message again was consistent: calm, steady: De-escalate. We are not going to attack you.”
“At Secretary of Defense Esper’s direction, I made a call to General Li on 30 October. Eight people sat in the call with me, and I read out the call within 30 minutes of the call ending,” he said.
ABC News had previously reported that former Defense Secretary Mark Esper had directed Milley to contact his Chinese counterpart as part of a coordinated effort after the U.S. intelligence reports emerged suggesting China’s concerns about a military strike.
Milley added that the second call on January 8 was prompted by a Chinese request for him to call again that had been made on December 31, 2020
“Eleven people attended the call with me. Read-outs of this call were distributed to the interagency that same day,” he said. “Shortly after my call ended with General Li, I informed both Secretary of State Pompeo and White House chief of staff Meadows about the call among other topics. Soon after that, I attended a meeting with Acting Secretary Miller where I briefed him on the call.”
Milley also explained how later that day he received a call from Pelosi inquiring “about the president’s ability to launch nuclear weapons. I sought to assure her that nuclear launch is governed by a very specific and deliberate process.”
“She was concerned and made various personal references characterizing the president,” said Milley. “I explained that the president is the sole nuclear launch authority and he doesn’t launch them alone. And that I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the president of the United States.
“There are processes, protocols, and procedures in place and I repeatedly assured her there is no chance of an illegal, unauthorized, or accidental launch,” he told the committee.
After the phone call Milley said he met with key staffers “to refresh all of us on these procedures, which we practice daily at the action officer level. “
He rejected criticism of that meeting that he was placing himself in the chain of command for nuclear attack protocols.
“At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority, or insert myself into the chain of command, but I am expected to give my advice and ensure that the president is fully informed on military matters,” said Milley.
He told the committee that after his staff meeting he notified Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller about Pelosi’s calls.
(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) — Jarrod Warren Ramos, the gunman who killed five Capital Gazette employees in June 2018, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Ramos, 41, pleaded guilty to 23 criminal charges in connection with the Annapolis, Maryland, newsroom shooting but used an insanity defense to claim he was not criminally responsible. A jury found him criminally responsible over the summer.
Anne Arundel County Judge Michael Wachs handed down the sentence of five consecutive life sentences to be served without the chance for parole, bringing an end to the long, legal battle. Ramos did not make a statement in court.
He was also sentenced to an additional life in prison plus 345 years, all to run consecutively, Anne Arundel County State Attorney’s office said in a statement.
Ramos opened fire on employees inside the Capital Gazette’s office building, killing Wendi Winters, John McNamera, Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen and Rebecca Smith.
Family members of victims and survivors of the shooting spoke during the emotional hearing.
“There were days I wondered why I lived, but I lived to tell the truth. No shooter could kill this paper. You can’t kill the truth,” Selene San Felice, a reporter who survived the shooting, said to Ramos at the hearing, Maryland news radio station WBAL reported.
Judge Wachs said that Ramos showed no remorse for his crimes and told a state psychiatrist he’d kill more if he were ever released.
“The impact of this case is just simply immense,” Wachs said, Associated Press reported. “To say that the defendant exhibited a callous and complete disregard for the sanctity of human life is simply a huge understatement.”
Prosecutors said revenge was Ramos’ motivation for the shooting.
Ramos had accused the Capital Gazette of destroying his reputation when it covered his misdemeanor harassment conviction in 2011. He was accused of harassing a former female high school student and filed several lawsuits against the newspaper, which were dismissed by the courts.
In a press conference following the sentencing, State Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said, “Justice was served.”
“He exploited his lawsuit and his losing of the lawsuit and killed innocent people just to feel better about himself,” she said. “The jury saw through that and the judge saw through that today, sentencing him to the maximum sentence under law.”
(LOS ANGELES) — Karla Rodriguez moved her family from El Salvador to Los Angeles five months ago to give her kids a better education and a better life.
Her 8-year-old son has autism. Someone at his new school recommended she reach out to a nonprofit health advocacy group, Community Health Councils, to help with his special care. Among other support and guidance, the organization helped the Rodriguez family get health insurance.
“We are immigrants, and perhaps we don’t have rights that citizens do,” Rodriguez told Los Angeles ABC station KABC in Spanish, adding that she’s grateful that California is welcoming to families like hers. “This is a huge privilege, a blessing, for our family to be able to count on something so vital, such as health care and access to it.”
But access to health insurance is a luxury not available to millions of Hispanic or Latino people across the United States. In the 100 largest U.S. cities, white people are more likely to have health insurance than people of color — and the largest gaps in most communities is experienced by Latino or Hispanic families.
The health insurance access gap is just one of many findings about the widespread inequity people of color experience in their day-to-day lives in America’s biggest cities, according to a sweeping data analysis by ABC-owned television stations.
In the report, released Tuesday, the stations’ data journalists measured equity in 20 quality-of-life areas across five categories — health, education, policing, housing and wealth, and the environment — using the latest data available from local, state and federal government agencies.
Among the findings of the stations’ report:
– In at least 18 of the 20 categories measured, the data revealed inequities in more than half of the United States’ largest cities. Among the 52 metro areas sampled, 34 are major metropolitan areas with at least 1 million residents. Twenty-three of the cities are in the Southern states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Among the 100 cities studied, all had inequities in at least 11 of the 20 categories measured.
– The inequities highlighted in the report were most widespread in the areas of housing, wealth, and interactions with police. The data revealed inequities across all five housing and wealth measurements in 87 of the 100 cities studied. The review found inequity in all three policing measurements in 86 cities.
– The data show that white families are more likely to own their home in all 100 metro areas. The homeownership gap for Black families was more than 30 percentage points in more than half the metro areas.
– Data from the FBI and local police agencies show Black residents were more likely to be arrested in all 100 metro areas, and that they were at least twice as likely to be arrested in 95 of them.
– In all but one of the 100 metro areas, an analysis of census data showed that the share of police officers who are white is larger than the share of residents who are white. In five cities including the metro areas of Durham, N.C., Portland and Las Vegas, the makeup of law enforcement agencies was whiter than their communities by more than 20 percentage points. Asian Americans were underrepresented among police in 97 of the 100 metro areas, including in every county in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Asian Americans make up around 18% of all police officers despite accounting for 34% of the population.
– Data from local schools and the U.S. Department of Education showed that Black students were twice as likely to miss days of school for suspensions than white students in 95 of 100 metro areas.
“We’re looking for fairness,” said Melanie McQueen, a parent of a high school student of color in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, where the local school district’s data shows students of color accounted for 86% of suspensions despite making up only 43% of students. “If my child did something wrong, it should not matter what color they are in regard to what their punishment is going to be.”
McQueen leads African-American Parents for Purposeful Leadership in Education, a group that has worked with school leaders to make sure policies are implemented equitably.
In a statement released in response to the equity report’s findings, Oak Park River Forest district officials said they are “committed to achieving racial equity” and their “vision of equitable excellence centers on eliminating the disparities that exist in our district.”
The equity report’s data analysis also found that access to Advanced Placement courses, which give students an advantage in college admission and readiness, is more available to white students than students of color in more than half of the 100 cities studied.
Heather Bennett, Director of Equity Services for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said her state is working to bridge those kinds of gaps.
“That’s what equity is,” Bennett said in response to the report’s findings. “It’s literally saying, ‘I believe every single one of our children are gifted — but they’re gifted in different ways and require different things and resources.’ So what are we going to do to make sure that they are going to be successful, based upon their idea of success?”
