(ORLANDO, Fla.) — The first all-civilian flight to Earth’s orbit successful launched Wednesday.
The Inspiration4 rocket took off successfully at the start of the five-hour window for launch at 8:02 p.m. ET. It reached orbit about 12 minutes later.
The crew said goodbye to their families, suited up and were driven in Teslas to Kennedy Space Center’s historic pad 39A Wednesday afternoon.
SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission is the third recent billionaire-backed space launch, but it’s going where neither Richard Branson nor Jeff Bezos could — into orbit.
If successful, the crew on Inspiration4 will reach the farthest any civilian has traveled from Earth. They will orbit 360 miles above the Earth, even further than the International Space Station, which orbits at 240 miles.
Commanding the mission is 38-year-old billionaire Jared Isaacman, an experienced pilot. He founded a payment process company called Shift4 Payments and purchased all four seats on the flight for an estimated $220 million.
Isaacman wants this launch to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He has already donated $100 million to the cause.
One seat was reserved for 29-year-old St. Jude ambassador Hayley Arceneaux. Arceneaux is a bone cancer survivor and will be the youngest American to go to space as well as the first pediatric cancer survivor.
The third occupant will be Dr. Sian Proctor, 51, who said she has dreamed of going to space since she was a child. She burst into tears when she heard she was chosen as a member of the Inspiration4 mission.
She will become the fourth Black female American astronaut to travel into space.
The final crew member is Chris Sembroski, 41, an Iraq War veteran and engineer with Lockheed Martin, who won the final seat through a lottery that required a St. Jude donation to enter.
The four will orbit the Earth for three days with no set destination. They said they will conduct some science experiments while on board and auction off items in space for St. Jude.
There is always risk launching into space and coming home. While these passengers have been trained by SpaceX, they are not professional astronauts.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon will also be tested for the first time at this distance.
They cannot go much longer than three days without running low on fuel, food and water. And while past missions could make changes on the return because of bad weather on Earth due to astronauts on board, this ship won’t have quite as much flexibility.
After three days of orbiting Earth, they will prepare to splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida late Saturday or early Sunday.
(WASHINGTON) — Women driving hundreds of miles alone for an abortion, clinics overwhelmed with out-of-state patients, providers facing “relentless harassment” from “emboldened vigilante activities,” those are some of the impacts detailed by the federal government in new court documents since the most restrictive abortion law went into effect in Texas earlier this month.
Nearly a week after announcing a lawsuit against the state, the U.S. Department of Justice filed for an immediate injunction Tuesday to halt the enforcement of the law, known as SB8, which bars physicians from providing abortions once they detect a so-called fetal heartbeat — technically the flutter of electrical activity within the cells in an embryo. That can be seen on an ultrasound as early as six weeks into a pregnancy — before many women even know they’re pregnant.
In their latest filing, the DOJ documented the impact of the unprecedented law based on declarations from the leaders of women’s health clinics, doctors and abortion rights advocates in support of the motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction.
“The devastating effects warned of in the pre-enforcement litigation immediately became a reality for patients and providers in Texas,” the emergency motion states. “S.B. 8 has gravely and irreparably impaired women’s ability to exercise their constitutional right to an abortion across the State.”
Under the law, between 85% and 95% of all abortions previously provided will stop, according to the motion. One Planned Parenthood affiliate in Texas went from providing 205 abortions the week before SB8 went into effect, to 52 the week after, according to the court documents.
As a result, “Women are being forced to travel hundreds — and sometimes thousands — of miles to obtain an abortion under harrowing circumstances in the middle of a COVID surge,” the motion states.
The DOJ recounted the experience of one patient, a minor, who was allegedly raped by a family member and traveled eight hours, from Galveston, Texas, to Oklahoma, for an abortion. There is an exception under the Texas law for abortions in cases of medical emergencies, but not for cases of incest or rape.
“[Other] survivors of sexual assault have to bear the additional burden of taking time off work and arranging childcare because abortions are not available in Texas,” the motion states.
According to the court documents, one patient drove a 1,000-mile roundtrip alone “because she didn’t have paid time off work and couldn’t afford” to miss her shift. Another “piled her children into her car and drove over 15 hours overnight to obtain a medication abortion in Kansas rather than struggle to patch together the money needed for airfare and child care or remain in limbo,” Anna Rupani, co-executive director of the advocacy group Fund Texas Choice, said in her declaration.
One patient traveled six hours each way to Oklahoma alone because she was worried she would make someone liable for helping her, the court documents state. Under SB8, private citizens can sue a person they “reasonably believed” provided an illegal abortion or assisted someone in getting it in the state, such as by driving them to an appointment.
On average, patients are traveling 650 miles each way to get to abortion clinics in the Southwest, according to the DOJ. The waits and logistical hurdles in planning travel to another state “have made it such that some women are no longer eligible for a medication abortion and instead are subjected to more invasive procedural abortions,” the motion states.
SB8 not only affects Texans, but has had an “extreme impact on the rights of women in other states,” the motion argues. Clinics in nearby states, including Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado, have been “overwhelmed” by an influx of Texas residents seeking abortions, with clinics in Tulsa and Oklahoma City in particular seeing an “overall staggering 646% increase” in Texan patients compared to the first six months of the year, according to the court documents.
Planned Parenthood health centers in Oklahoma are seeing scheduling backlogs of “several weeks” due to the number of Texan patients, while some clinics are simply unable to accommodate large numbers of out-of-state patients due to current demands and staffing challenges “given the current threats from S.B. 8 layered atop the challenges of hiring in a pandemic,” according to the court documents.
Abortion clinic staff have also been impacted, the DOJ argues, as SB8 has “emboldened vigilante activities” against abortion providers and staff, including yelling at, recording and trying to follow them home.”
Staff are also concerned about the threat of potential lawsuits. Whole Woman’s Health, which has 17 doctors on staff across its three abortion facilities in Texas, reported that only one doctor “unconditionally agreed to work” after the law was enacted, according to the court documents.
“For most of our physicians, the risk was too great to even come to work,” Amy Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, said in her declaration.
Some clinics risk closure for good under the law, supporters of an immediate injunction said.
“If the law remains in effect for an extended period of time, and we are only able to serve a fraction of our patients with a fraction of our staff, we will have to shutter our doors and stop providing any healthcare to the communities we serve,” Hagstrom Miller said. “I believe that, without court-ordered relief in the next couple of weeks, S.B. 8 will shutter most if not all of the remaining abortion clinics in Texas.”
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — The first all-civilian flight to Earth’s orbit is set to launch Wednesday.
The Inspiration4 crew said goodbye to their families, suited up and were driven in Teslas to Kennedy Space Center’s historic pad 39A Wednesday afternoon, ahead of a five-hour window for launch beginning at 8:02 p.m. ET for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission is the third recent billionaire-backed space launch, but it’s going where neither Richard Branson nor Jeff Bezos could — into orbit.
If successful, the crew on Inspiration4 will reach the farthest any civilian has traveled from Earth. They will orbit 360 miles above the Earth, even further than the International Space Station, which orbits at 240 miles.
Commanding the mission is 38-year-old billionaire Jared Isaacman, an experienced pilot. He founded a payment process company called Shift4 Payments and purchased all four seats on the flight for an estimated $220 million.
Isaacman wants this launch to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He has already donated $100 million to the cause.
One seat was reserved for 29-year-old St. Jude ambassador Hayley Arceneaux. Arceneaux is a bone cancer survivor and will be the youngest American to go to space as well as the first pediatric cancer survivor.
The third occupant will be Dr. Sian Proctor, 51, who said she has dreamed of going to space since she was a child. She burst into tears when she heard she was chosen as a member of the Inspiration4 mission.
She will become the fourth Black female American astronaut to travel into space.
The final crew member is Chris Sembroski, 41, an Iraq War veteran and engineer with Lockheed Martin, who won the final seat through a lottery that required a St. Jude donation to enter.
The four will orbit the Earth for three days with no set destination. They said they will conduct some science experiments while on board and auction off items in space for St. Jude.
There is always risk launching into space and coming home. While these passengers have been trained by SpaceX, they are not professional astronauts.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon will also be tested for the first time at this distance.
They cannot go much longer than three days without running low on fuel, food and water. And while past missions could make changes on the return because of bad weather on Earth due to astronauts on board, this ship won’t have quite as much flexibility.
After three days of orbiting Earth, they will prepare to splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida late Saturday or early Sunday.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 663,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 63% of Americans ages 12 and up are 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:
Sep 15, 6:58 pm
NYC health officials investigating cases linked to Labor Day concert
New York City’s Heath Department announced Wednesday it is investigating a cluster of COVID-19 cases that were linked to a Labor Day weekend concert.
At least 16 people have been identified as part of the cluster linked to the Electric Zoo music festival on Randall’s Island, which is located in the East River, the department said.
Eight people have been also been identified who “though likely exposed prior to attending the concert,” were in attendance while potentially contagious, according to the health department.
“Anyone who attended this festival should get tested immediately, regardless of whether or not they have been vaccinated. This is especially urgent if attendees are experiencing symptoms,” New York City’s health commissioner, Dr. Dave Chokshi, said in a statement.
The concert’s organizers had strict rules for entrance.
Attendees had to show proof of vaccination that matched their photo ID. Unvaccinated ticket holders were allowed in if they showed proof of a negative test “no more than 3 days prior to each day of attendance,” according to the concert’s website.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is planning to meet on Sept. 22 and 23 and is prepared to discuss COVID-19 vaccine boosters.
This will delay the potential start date of boosters until at least late next week, past the president’s planned start date for boosters on Sept. 20.
The White House acknowledged that the start date is ultimately up to the CDC and Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA advisory panel is currently scheduled to hold a public hearing on boosters for the Pfizer vaccine and will have a non-binding vote later that day.
If the FDA approves, the ACIP will discuss and vote on recommendations, such as who should get the boosters and when.
The CDC director will make the ultimate decision on the boosters following the ACIP recommendations.
-ABC News’ Eric Strauss
Sep 15, 4:00 pm
Moderna makes the case for boosters
Moderna on Wednesday released its own analysis of various studies, making the case that the company’s original vaccine appears to generate the strongest protection among the three currently authorized vaccines, but also saying people who got their vaccine will also need a booster six months later.
Like Pfizer, Moderna is requesting authorization for a booster dose six months after the primary vaccination based on evidence that boosters are safe and generate immune response, and based on newly published data from its phase 3 trial showing a lower risk of breakthrough infections among people vaccinated eight months ago compared to people vaccinated 13 months ago.
Unlike Pfizer, Moderna’s third booster will be a half-dose. Moderna says its data shows that boosting with a half-shot seems to generate more than enough immune response.
-ABC News’ Sony Salzman
Sep 15, 3:18 pm
9 states have more hospitalizations than any point in pandemic
In the last five weeks, the U.S. hasn’t reported a single day with fewer than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases, according to federal data. In the nearly six months between Feb. 7 and July 29, there was not a single day with more than 100,000 new cases.
Nine states — Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia — currently have more patients hospitalized than at any other point in the pandemic, according to federal data.
But the CDC says hospital admissions will likely decrease over the next four weeks.
Sep 15, 2:47 pm
LA County to require vaccine, negative test for clubs, concerts
Los Angeles County will require vaccination or proof of a negative test for events with more than 10,000 people, including clubs, concerts and sporting events.
As of Tuesday, LA County had 1,224 COVID-19 patients in hospitals.
Sep 15, 1:22 pm
Kids ages 2 and up must wear masks at day care in NY state
In New York state, masks are now required at child care centers for children ages 2 and above and for all staff and visitors, Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a tweet Wednesday.
“These universal mask requirements apply to anyone medically able to tolerate wearing a mask, regardless of vaccination status,” the governor said.
“With Delta on the rise, requiring masks is a key part of slowing the spread, reopening our economy safely, and protecting vulnerable New Yorkers,” Hochul tweeted. “This new mask requirement ensures that children in our child care facilities receive the same protection as children in our schools.”
Sep 15, 12:11 pm
Wendy Williams has breakthrough COVID
Talk show host Wendy Williams has a breakthrough COVID-19 case, her show said.
The new season of The Wendy Williams Show will be postponed to Oct. 4.
Sep 15, 9:53 am
FDA releases Pfizer’s data on boosters
Americans will likely need a booster shot about six months after their second vaccine dose, according to data from Pfizer that was released by the FDA.
Pfizer said it doesn’t think the delta variant surge contributed to the vaccine’s waning protection.
This data will be debated on Friday by an independent FDA panel. After a vote, the FDA is expected to formally amend its vaccine approval for Pfizer. Then the decision heads to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and finally to the CDC for sign off.
Sep 15, 8:15 am
TSA sees lowest number of travelers in 4 months
TSA agents screened 1,271,516 travelers at U.S. airports Tuesday, the lowest number since May 5.
Sep 15, 3:22 am
Alaska’s largest hospital begins rationing care amid COVID-19 surge
The largest hospital in Alaska is beginning to ration care as COVID-19 patients flood the facility.
“While we are doing our utmost, we are no longer able to provide the standard of care to each and every patient who needs our help,” Dr. Kristen Solana Walkinshaw, chief of staff at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday by The Anchorage Daily News. “The acuity and number of patients now exceeds our resources and our ability to staff beds with skilled caregivers, like nurses and respiratory therapists. We have been forced within our hospital to implement crisis standards of care.”
“What does this mean? In short, we are faced with a situation in which we must prioritize scarce resources and treatments to those patients who have the potential to benefit most,” she continued. “We have been required to develop and enact policies and procedures to ration medical care and treatments, including dialysis and specialized ventilatory support.”
Walkinshaw explained how what happens at Providence Alaska Medical Center and other hospitals in Alaska’s biggest city “impacts our entire state” because “many specialty cares can only be provided in Anchorage.”
“People from all around Alaska depend on Providence to provide medical care for people statewide. Unfortunately, we are unable to continue to meet this need; we no longer have the staff, the space or the beds,” she wrote. “Due to this scarcity, we are unable to provide lifesaving care to everyone who needs it. Our emergency room is overflowing; patients wait in their cars for hours to see a physician for emergency care. On a daily basis, our transfer center is unable to accept patients who sit in emergency rooms and hospitals across the state, people who need care their current facility is unable to provide. If you or your loved one need specialty care at Providence, such as a cardiologist, trauma surgeon or a neurosurgeon, we sadly may not have room now. There are no more staffed beds left.”
Walkinshaw urged people to wear face masks, even if they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and to get the vaccine if they are eligible and have not done so yet.
“We ask that you help us to open our beds again so that we may continue to care for all Alaskans,” she wrote.
Sep 14, 7:07 pm
Regeneron lands $2.94B deal with US government for more monoclonal antibodies
Regeneron has reached a $2.94 billion agreement with the federal government to supply more doses of its monoclonal antibody cocktail to treat COVID-19.
Under the new agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense, Regeneron will furnish another 1.4 million doses of the treatment by the end of January 2022.
The one-dose therapy will be made available to any member of the American public who is eligible to receive it. It currently is authorized to treat COVID-19 patients ages 12 and up who have mild to moderate symptoms and are at high risk of severe illness.
The deal comes as orders of monoclonal antibodies from states have gone up 1,200% in recent weeks during the delta surge, ABC News reported last month.
Last week, the White House outlined plans to boost the average pace of weekly shipments of the treatment by 50%, as part of a new six-part strategy to combat the delta variant.
(NEW YORK) — A new report from the World Bank highlights the growing risks of climate change across the world.
The new Groundswell report finds up to 216 million people across six regions from Sub-Sahara Africa to East Asia to Latin America could be forced to migrate within their countries by 2050, with the poorest and most climate-vulnerable affected.
In North Africa up to 9 percent of the population could be forced to move, Sub-Sarahan Africa up to 4 percent, and Latin America 2.6 percent.
“The Groundswell report is a stark reminder of the human toll of climate change, particularly on the world’s poorest—those who are contributing the least to its causes. It also clearly lays out a path for countries to address some of the key factors that are causing climate-driven migration,” said Juergen Voegele, Vice President of Sustainable Development, World Bank.
The first report was released in 2018 and covered sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.
That report projected climate change could force up to 143 million people in those regions to migrate.
The updated report now includes East Asia and the Pacific, North Africa, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
According to the report, countries in Sub-Sahara Africa are the most at risk to see climate impacts with its fragile drylands, exposed coastlines, and dependence on rain-fed agriculture. North African countries will see the greatest percentage of migrants because of severe water shortages and rising sea levels.
The first migrant hotspots could start emerging by 2030 and will continue to grow by 2050. Water availability, sea-level rise, and crop productivity are some of the reasons people will have to migrate.
The report does find that early action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions could slow climate-based migration up to 80 percent.
Similar to the first Groundswell report, the updated version provides a series of policy recommendations, including cutting greenhouse gases immediately; planning for internal climate migration in developmental planning; investing in better understanding the drivers behind internal climate migration.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday expressed “great confidence” in his top military adviser, Army Gen. Mark Milley, after revelations he made secret calls to Chinese counterparts in President Donald Trump’s final days in office — and as a former official told ABC News — Milley wasn’t acting alone.
“I have great confidence in Gen. Milley,” Biden told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega, during an event at the White House.
The president’s defense of Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump and now under Biden, came a day after reports that a forthcoming book would reveal behind-the-scenes actions that Milley took to avoid war with China or Trump launching a nuclear strike.
But Milley was not the only top defense official to send a message to China during Trump’s final days in office, a former senior Pentagon official told ABC News.
Rather, he was actually following the lead of then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper, the official said.
Milley’s Oct. 30 conversation with his Chinese counterpart, first reported in the forthcoming book “Peril,” by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, was meant to allay Chinese fears that Trump was planning a secret attack ahead of the presidential election. It was part of a coordinated effort started a week earlier by Esper, the former official said.
The outreach came as intelligence reports suggested the Chinese were increasingly concerned that Trump would launch a military strike on China.
Esper instructed another top Pentagon official, a civilian, to convey a message from Esper to his Chinese counterpart, Defense Minister Wei Fenghe, to assure him the U.S. had no intention of attacking China, the former official said.
“We saw indications the Chinese were over-reacting to rhetoric coming out of D.C.,” the former official said. “We conveyed that everything is under control, we have no plans (to attack). We didn’t want a misperception and misunderstanding or whatever, and we end up in some type of confrontation that leads to conflict.”
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff followed up this outreach with the call to his own counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army. Esper and Milley coordinated their actions, the former official said.
“The notion that somehow Milley was rogue on diplomacy is just completely wrong,” the former official said. “It’s not how it happened. It began with (Esper) trying to make sure the United States didn’t end up at some needless confrontation with the Chinese weeks before the election.”
Esper and Milley, however, did agree not to inform U.S. national security adviser Robert O’Brien or anybody else at the White House about the conversation, according to the former official.
Woodward and Costa also reported that, after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters, Milley feared Trump could “go rogue” and worried that he could stoke military conflict to cling to power and derail the peaceful transfer of power.
On Jan. 8, Milley called Li and assured him the United States was “100 percent steady” and not on the brink of collapse or war, despite the unrest in Washington, according to “Peril,” which ABC News obtained ahead of its Sept. 21 release.
During Milley’s October call with Li, Woodward and Costa reported, Milley pledged to provide the Chinese a heads up if the U.S. did plan to attack. But the former official cast doubt on whether Milley actually made that promise.
The official portrayed the call in a more mundane light, portraying it instead as an effort, through commonly used channels, to prevent any misunderstanding that would lead the Chinese to act as if an American attack was coming.
A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday that Milley’s conversations with his foreign military counterparts, including the Chinese, take place “regularly” and “remain vital to improving mutual understanding of U.S. national security interests, reducing tensions, providing clarity and avoiding unintended consequences or conflict.”
“His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability,” the spokesman, Col. Dave Butler, said, not denying the reported details of the call.
The calls, Butler said, were “staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense” and other federal government agencies.
Woodward and Costa also reported that, on Jan. 8 — two days after the Capitol riot — Milley convened a meeting at the Pentagon with military officials responsible for relaying orders for a military or nuclear strike and made clear he “must be directly involved” with the process of launching a nuclear weapon. While the authors reported the meeting was unscheduled, the former Pentagon official told ABC News the gathering was, in fact, one that had been regularly scheduled.
Butler, the spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the meeting had taken place “in light of media reporting.”
“Gen. Milley frequently conducts meetings with uniformed leaders across the Services to ensure all leaders are aware of current issues,” Butler said, referring to the different military branches. “The meeting regarding nuclear weapons protocols was to remind uniformed leaders in the Pentagon of the long-established and robust procedures in light of media reporting on the subject.”
In a statement Tuesday, Trump called Milley’s actions “treason” and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called on the general to resign.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki, though, on Wednesday expressed strong support for Milley.
“I can’t speak to the former president’s experience with him or the former president’s views of him, but this president, this current president, who follows the Constitution, who’s not fomenting an insurrection, who follows the rule of law,” Psaki said, “has complete confidence in Chairman Milley and him serving — continuing to serve in his role.”
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said that Milley has followed the Constitution.
“Gen. Milley continues to act and advise within his authority in the lawful tradition of civilian control of the military and his oath to the Constitution,” its spokesman, Butler, said.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Wednesday he had seen “nothing in what I’ve read that would cause any concern.” Kirby said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had “full trust and confidence in Chairman Milley and the job that he’s doing.”
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel, Luis Martinez and Matt Seyler contributed reporting.
(PHILADELPHIA) — The city of Philadelphia has agreed to pay $2 million to Rickia Young, who was pulled from her vehicle, beaten by police and separated from her 2-year-old son in October 2020, according to the mayor’s office.
“She’s still dealing with the trauma, even though it’s been almost a year,” Young’s attorney, Kevin Mincey, told ABC News. “She’s still dealing with that, and she’s dealing with the trauma being exhibited by her son as well.”
The incident occurred as anti-police brutality protests after the police shooting that killed Walter Wallace Jr were happening throughout the city.
Young, her 2-year-old son, and the 16-year-old son of a friend were driving through West Philadelphia on Oct. 27, 2020, when she came across protesters blocking the street in a standoff with police, who ordered Young to turn back. As she began to turn the car around, Young’s attorneys said she paused so she didn’t hit protesters running by her car.
Young’s attorneys said officers swarmed her vehicle and broke her windows with batons and then opened her car door, pulled Young and the 16-year-old from their seats and began to hit them. Young was detained by police, and her 2-year-old son was taken away from her.
The teen is not involved in the $2 million settlement.
Young also said the National Fraternal Order of Police used a photo of her son after he was taken away from her during the incident and used it on social media to promote pro-police messaging online.
National FOP spokesperson Jessica Cahill told the Associated Press that the post was quickly taken down when it learned about the actual story behind the photo. The National Fraternal Order of Police did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
“I will never forget what those officers did to us that night,” Young said in press conference on Tuesday. “I hope that the officers responsible will never have the chance to do something like this to another person ever again.”
Young suffered from swelling on her face and body, as well as a swollen trachea, according to her attorneys. The beating was caught on a cellphone camera and went viral online.
“The behavior that occurred during the interaction between Rickia Young, her nephew, her son, and some of the officers on the scene violated the mission of the Philadelphia Police Department,” Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said in a statement to ABC News.
Two officers have been terminated in connection with the incident, according to the office of Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney. There are also 14 members in the department awaiting disciplinary hearings as a result of an internal investigation into the incident.
“The ability for officers and supervisors on the scene to diffuse the situation was abandoned, and instead of fighting crime and the fear of crime, some of the officers on the scene created an environment that terrorized Rickia Young, her family, and other members of the public,” Outlaw said.
Kenney said he hopes the settlement and investigations into the officers’ actions can bring closure to Young and her family.
“This terrible incident, which should have never happened to anyone, only further strained the relationship between the police department and our communities,” Kenney said in a statement to ABC News. “The officers’ inexcusable actions that evening prompted an immediate and thorough investigation of the incident and for personnel to be disciplined and held accountable for their egregious conduct.”
Mincey is calling on the district attorney to take more action against the officers involved.
“The district attorney Lawrence Krasner needs to file criminal charges against the officers who were involved,” Mincey said. “If any citizen did something like this, there would be no question they will be charged with aggravated assault as a felony.”
Krasner has not said whether he will pursue a criminal case against the officers.
(NEW YORK) — Walmart on Wednesday announced plans to launch a new delivery service using self-driving vehicles in three U.S. cities, with autonomous test vehicles expected to hit the streets later this year.
The world’s largest retailer is partnering with Ford and Argo AI, an autonomous vehicle tech firm headquartered in Pittsburgh, to launch the driverless delivery services in Miami, Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas. The group said it expects to expand to other markets over time, and initial integration testing of the vehicles to begin within months.
The partnership comes as demand for delivery goods has been accelerated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as Americans’ intrigue in self-driving technology continues to make headlines and propel forward the emerging technology.
“This collaboration will further our mission to get products to the homes of our customers with unparalleled speed and ease, and in turn, will continue to pave the way for autonomous delivery,” Tom Ward, senior vice president of last-mile delivery at Walmart U.S., said in a statement.
By working directly with Ford, Argo AI and Walmart will be able to implement the technology with vehicles at scale. As customer demand for next-day and same-day delivery in urban areas rises, both for groceries and other goods, the collaboration also will help the companies collect data on how customers respond to autonomous technology.
“Argo and Ford are aggressively preparing for large-scale autonomous vehicle operations across a broad footprint of U.S. cities,” Scott Griffith, CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles & Mobility Businesses, added in a statement. “Pairing Walmart’s retail and e-commerce leadership with Argo and Ford’s self-driving operations across these multiple cities marks a significant step toward scaling a commercial goods delivery service.”
As e-commerce booms in the U.S., many retailers are facing increased pressure to speed up delivery times in order to compete with behemoths like Amazon that offer same-day delivery in many urban areas. Meanwhile, firms like Tesla and its eccentric CEO Elon Musk have pushed self-driving technology mainstream in recent years, but controversies and investigations have delayed the large-scale adoption of autonomous vehicles despite Musk’s past timelines for it.
Earlier this year, pizza delivery giant Domino’s announced it was partnering with autonomous driving firm Nuro to launch driverless pizza delivery out of a store in Houston. Late last year, Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo launched self-driving ride-hailing services in parts of Phoenix to the public after some two years of testing.
(NEW YORK) — There is a high school sophomore from Texas who wakes up at 6 a.m. on the weekends when she knows her parents are asleep, so she can secretly and quietly make calls as an ambassador for a teen pro-vaccine group, fighting off vaccine misinformation.
The reason for all the cloak and dagger secrecy? The 15-year-old, who asked to be called Rain (not her real name), is the daughter of QAnon followers who hold strident views against mask wearing, social distancing and the coronavirus vaccine.
Rain is part of a growing generational divide, experts say, in a nation where adults and their children are consuming two entirely different streams of information about the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic, with many holding sharply different views about how they should respond to it.
“Students are thinking for themselves,” said Dr. Douglas Diekema, a University of Washington Medicine Professor of Pediatrics and Seattle Children’s Physician. “Kids spent an entire year, in most places, not being able to go out and now, they want to go to school, they want to see their friends and they know that the quickest way to do that and the safest way to do that is to get vaccinated.”
“And they’re mad about the fact that they can’t accomplish that without their parents’ permission,” Diekema said.
Rain works with Teens For Vaccines, an organization started in 2019 by Arin Parsa, a teenager from California who — as a sixth-grader– developed an interest in vaccine law and public policy at the height of the measles outbreak. The two connected after Rain took to social media publicly to express her frustration at local attitudes toward vaccination.
She said her social media post “was getting a lot of hate comments from conservatives when Teens For Vaccines reached out to me and said I was very brave,” Rain told ABC News. “And since joining them, I’ve seen that there’s a lot of teens in my shoes who can’t speak out, so I want to be a voice for them.”
Parsa’s interest in vaccine hesitancy predates the pandemic. He was inspired by Ethan Lindenberger, a teenager who gained national attention in 2019 when he posted on Reddit that he had never been vaccinated because his mother believed that vaccines are dangerous.
Lindenberger testified before a Senate committee about how misinformation that appears on Facebook, Twitter and other social media fuels the anti-vaccination movement.
Since then, Parsa began reaching out to teens with anti-vaccine and vaccine-hesitant parents on Reddit to answer their questions, guide them through state consent laws and help them educate and convince their parents to allow them to get vaccinated.
As misinformation, vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine sentiment have consumed the debate over a global pandemic response, the rift between some teens and their parents has increased. Teens For Vaccines has 30 state ambassadors like Rain across the country and has partnered with GENup, another teen organization with more than 4,000 student members.
The work of the organization has garnered national interest, with most recently, Parsa being invited to a back-to-school virtual event with Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to the White House and Douglas Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, to encourage youth vaccinations.
“We are seeing a groundswell of teens from across the nation speaking up for public health and science in an era where truth and facts are being combated from all sides,” Parsa said.
Youth vaccination across the country
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility in May to everyone in the U.S. 12 years and older. However, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey from August found that for parents of unvaccinated teens, their top concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine are around the potential for long-term or serious side effects.
The survey noted that the vaccination status of children “closely mirrors that of parents” with “larger shares” of Democrats, and those with higher incomes and college degrees saying their child is vaccinated, while nearly four in 10 Republican parents and half of parents who are unvaccinated themselves say they will not get their eligible children vaccinated.
And while 12-to-17-year-olds continue to be the least vaccinated eligible age group in the country, the vaccination rate among adolescents is growing faster than any other age group, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said in late August.
According to the White House, 50% of 12-to-17-year-olds now have at least their first shot.
But for the adolescents who are eligible to be vaccinated and cannot do so because their parents are vaccine-hesitant or anti-vaccine, there aren’t many options.
“Pretty much all states have created situations in which a minor can provide consent but they’re pretty limited to the treatment and diagnosis of sexually transmitted diseases, the treatment and diagnosis of pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, the provision of psychiatric and substance abuse care,” said Diekema “But vaccinations have never fallen into that category or those categories.”
“So in most states, vaccinations require parental consent and the COVID vaccine today is no exception to that,” Diekema said. “It’s kind of messy and it’s definitely different from state to state.”
As of May, teenagers ranging from 11 to 16 can consent to being vaccinated in Alabama, the District of Columbia, Oregon, Rhode Island and South Carolina, an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed. In Arizona, although parental consent is required, a child can be vaccinated if a court order is obtained.
A few states, said Diekema, have a “mature minor doctrine” in place that allows adolescents to give consent for medical care but not all include vaccination. Arizona, Idaho and Tennessee are among the states with mature minor doctrines in place.
In August, North Carolina, one of the states with a mature minor doctrine, passed legislation requiring minors to have approval from a parent before receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Generally speaking, if you are in a state where parental consent is required for medical treatment for vaccines specifically or medical treatment, generally, then you are kind of out of luck if your goal is to be vaccinated and your parents are opposed to it,” said Brian Abramson, a vaccine law professor at Florida International University.
Abramson told ABC News that from a legal perspective, he believes some state vaccine laws that don’t permit children to give their own consent to be vaccinated are “not based in reality” because in some cases, minors who have children or are married can make their own health decisions.
“If a minor gets married, that certainly doesn’t demonstrate that they have the capacity and the maturity to make those decisions,” Abramson said. “Sometimes it demonstrates the opposite. But that’s the way the law is.”
“If you have a minor of a relatively mature age and they are seeking to be vaccinated to protect themselves from an infectious disease that has spread all over the country,” Abramson added, “that by itself is kind of an indication that they have a degree of maturity sign that they understand the consequences of their actions because they’re seeking to receive a vaccine that’s recommended by all the federal agencies and state agencies and by science.”
Because of how difficult it is for an adolescent to get vaccinated without their parents’ consent, Parsa said that a lot of his work is focused on helping teens educate their parents and addressing concerns.
“We always try convincing parents first,” Parsa said. “If nothing works, we show them the minor consent laws for their state and help them find a local pharmacy. But ultimately, we need to be able to have a law that says high schoolers should be able to consent to all the vaccines.”
In Texas, where Rain lives, minors need parental consent to be vaccinated.
“I’m probably going to have to deal with the fact that I can’t get vaccinated for COVID until I turn 18,” Rain said. “Going to school is scary but I try my best to wear my mask, sanitize my hands after every class and stay away from large groups of people even though it’s hard.”
NEW YORK) — A Texas school district that included masks as part of its dress code has been hit with a temporary restraining order.
Paris Independent School District (ISD), which serves about 3,900 students in northeast Texas, amended its dress code in early August to include masks in a loophole to Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mandates, and was sued earlier this week by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to court documents.
Paxton announced Tuesday he filed lawsuits against Paris ISD and eight other districts — Diboll, Honey Grove, La Vega, Longview, Lufkin, Waco, Midway and McGregor — for violating GA-38, Texas’ law which bans governmental entities, including schools districts, from mandating face coverings or vaccines.
In total he’s sued at least 15 districts after seeking action against Elgin, Galveston, Richardson, Round Rock, Sherman and Spring districts last week over mask mandates.
A Lamar County district court issued the temporary restraining order, prohibiting Paris ISD from enforcing the mandate as a result. The court agreed that the district lacks “authority to issue or enforce a face mask mandate in light of Governor Abbott’s executive order GA-38,” Paxton’s office said in a release.
“The law is clear, and this superintendent knows this, yet he has no issue continuing to waste precious state resources on impossible lawsuits instead of providing for his students,” Paxton said. “This temporary restraining order is just the first step in restoring order to our great state and ending this disruption from rogue local officials.”
This was the second win for the controversial GA-38 law after a Fort Worth court of appeals reinstated a temporary injunction against Fort Worth ISD’s mask mandate.
Dennis Eichelbaum, Paris ISD’s district spokesperson and attorney, told ABC News the district has received several letters from the attorney general against the mandate. “We’ve emailed back to him saying, show us where the governor actually suspended the education code, which gives us the right to have dress codes. He hasn’t responded to that,” he said.
He said the district wasn’t given a copy of the lawsuit until after the restraining order was signed. There will be a hearing Sept. 21 where the court will consider whether or not to rescind the restraining order.
“The school district is complying as of right now, with the court order. Regardless of what the Attorney General does, please continue to wear masks. It’s what’s keeping our students and our faculty safe,” Eichelbaum said. “We’ve seen that it’s done a tremendous job in minimizing the spread of COVID-19. At our campuses, we have one of the lowest rates of COVID absence and we believe that’s partly because of masks.”
In Paris ISD, school started Aug. 19 but there haven’t been any major COVID-19 outbreaks. Currently there are eight active staff cases and 27 active student cases, according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard.
That’s a tiny fraction of the thousands of virus infections reported in schools so far, according to state data. Overall, since Aug. 13 there’s been over 73,700 cumulative positive student cases and more than 16,200 staff cases reported throughout Texas Public Schools (TPS) for the 2021-2022 school year, according to the TPS COVID-19 dashboard.
Paxton has a list of over 80 school districts and other governmental entities that he deems in violation of GA-38.
Midway Independent School District, which is in the Waco area, was sued in Tuesday’s rash of lawsuits, but the district said that they don’t even have a mask mandate in place.
“At this point, we are aware of claims of a lawsuit, but we have not been directly notified or served,” district spokesperson Traci Marlin said to ABC News. “We have not received information of why or how we are considered out of compliance or considered for a lawsuit.”
“Midway ISD does not have a mask mandate,” she added. “We have respected the governor’s orders while implementing thoughtful, measured and temporary responses to clusters of COVID cases.”
One of those protocols is a 10-day “mask directive” that schools can issue to encourage mask-wearing if virus transmission reaches a concerning level, but even then masks are not required and there are no punishments for not abiding by the directive, she added.
Paxton has been ramping up the pressure on school districts after kids headed back to class last month, many of them wearing masks in defiance of the governor’s order.
“If districts choose to spend their money on legal fees, they must do so knowing that my office is ready and willing to litigate these cases,” Paxton said in a statement last week after the first wave of lawsuits.
