(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — Four police officers were wounded during a shootout after they responded to a call about an armed robbery in New Mexico on Thursday morning.
Albuquerque Police Department Chief Harold Medina told reporters Thursday that three of the four officers were shot during the incident, which occurred at a business in the Foothills in northeast Albuquerque.
“We are here at a horrible scene. … These officers put their lives at risk on every single call and their families never want to get the calls they’re getting today,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller told reporters.
The officer in critical condition was shot in the upper chest, just above the vest, Medina said, while another was shot in the arm. Both required surgery. A third officer was shot at the center of his bulletproof vest, and the fourth was injured by what Medina said likely was shrapnel or glass.
One of the suspects had also been shot during the incident and was in custody at the hospital. Keller said APD had been working with local, state and federal law enforcement to locate a second suspect on Thursday morning, but by the afternoon, the APD tweeted that the suspect had been caught. At least four other people had been detained, Medina said, adding that their investigation would determine if there would be any additional charges.
The APD urged anyone with information, or photo or video evidence, to come forward.
Remembering two officers who died in the line of duty on Aug. 18, 2005, Medina said, “It’s a very emotional time.”
(NEW YORK) — Time to take stock of what’s in your freezer after a major frozen shrimp producer issued an expanded recall on a range of products due to salmonella concerns.
Avanti Frozen Foods Pvt. Ltd, expanded a voluntarily recall that was first issued June 25, 2021 to now include “certain consignments of various sizes of frozen cooked, peeled, deveined, shrimp (with some packaged with cocktail sauce) sold in various unit sizes, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.”
Avanti sells its shrimp under a range of labels. Initially, the recall included frozen shrimp from Censea, CWNO, Chicken of the Sea, Honest Catch, Hannaford, Waterfront Bistro, Open Acres, 365 (Whole Foods), and Meijer. Now it has expanded to include new brands and additional SKUs from the previous brands listed.
Click here for full details on the affected products, codes and labels from the FDA.
The affected frozen raw and cooked shrimp products were distributed nationwide from November 2020 to May 2021, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
According to the recall, there have been nine reports of salmonella-related illness to date associated with these shrimp distributions. Avanti has taken several preventive steps and initiatives to eliminate potential for future contaminations.
Salmonella is an organism that can cause serious illness, especially in young children, elderly people and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy individuals infected with salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
Although a number of product included in the recall has not been associated with any illness, according to Avanti Frozen Foods, this expansion was initiated out of an abundance of precaution after discussions with FDA and CDC.
Consumers who purchased any of the products in question are urged not to eat it and return them to the place of purchase or contact the company by phone with questions.
(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Trade Commission is not backing down in its antitrust legal battle against Facebook.
The agency filed an amended complaint against the social media giant on Thursday — voting 3-2 along party lines to proceed — after a federal judge in June dismissed an initial antitrust complaint brought by the FTC.
The new complaint alleges that after Facebook failed to develop innovative mobile features for its network, the company instead opted for an “illegal buy-or-bury scheme” to maintain dominance, according to a statement from the FTC. The agency also accuses the company of “unlawfully” acquiring innovative competitors after its own failed efforts to create popular mobile features.
“Facebook lacked the business acumen and technical talent to survive the transition to mobile. After failing to compete with new innovators, Facebook illegally bought or buried them when their popularity became an existential threat,” Holly Vedova, the FTC’s Bureau of Competition acting director, said in a statement Thursday. “This conduct is no less anticompetitive than if Facebook had bribed emerging app competitors not to compete.”
“The antitrust laws were enacted to prevent precisely this type of illegal activity by monopolists,” Vedova added. “Facebook’s actions have suppressed innovation and product quality improvements. And they have degraded the social network experience, subjecting users to lower levels of privacy and data protections and more intrusive ads.”
Vedova said the FTC’s latest legal move seeks to “put an end to this illegal activity and restore competition for the benefit of Americans and honest businesses alike.”
Many of the arguments are along similar lines of the initial lawsuit, though the FTC said the new complaint includes additional data and evidence.
The new complaint in part focuses on the “transition period” when the emergence of smartphones and mobile internet use seemingly threatened Facebook’s dominance.
The agency alleges in a statement that after Facebook suffered “significant failures during this critical transition period,” the company opted instead to engage in anticompetitive behavior and buy up mobile innovators, including former rivals Instagram and WhatsApp.
The agency also takes aim at Facebook’s treatment of software developers, saying that after starting its Facebook Platform as an open space for third-party software developers, it abruptly reversed course and required developers to agree to conditions that prevented successful apps from emerging as competitors.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, Facebook referred to a company Twitter post that said: “We are reviewing the FTC’s amended complaint and will have more to say soon.”
In response to the initial complaint, the company has previously slammed the allegations as “revisionist history,” noting that the agency had cleared the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. The company has also argued that Instagram and WhatsApp have become what they are today due because Facebook further funded and developed them.
When he dismissed the initial antitrust complaint, District Judge James Boasberg stated that the agency’s complaint “is legally insufficient and must therefore be dismissed.” Boasberg said the FTC failed to provide enough facts to prove Facebook’s alleged monopolistic behavior.
Lina Khan, a vocal critic of Big Tech’s dominance, took the helm at the FTC earlier this year, leading many to speculate a crackdown on the industry could be looming. Facebook has petitioned for Khan to be recused from the antitrust investigation, but the agency on Thursday dismissed the petition.
(GEORGIA) — A Georgia teen honored his late mother through a graduation photoshoot.
KJ Morgan’s mother Teresa Colbert died from cancer on May 19, 2019, near the end of his freshman year at Northside High School. In preparation for his graduation this May, Morgan, 17, did a photoshoot with his mom’s portrait and wore a custom stole with photos of her on it.
“When she was here, we’d always talk about how I was going to graduate and I was going to be the one crying and she was going to be the one laughing and screaming,” Morgan told “Good Morning America.”
Morgan was supposed to graduate in May 2022, he said, but his mom’s death pushed him to work harder and graduate a year early.
“She was already not here,” he said. “So I was like, ‘Why don’t you just graduate early and make it 10 times more better?'”
In order to accomplish that, Morgan said he took college classes at Central Georgia Technical College in addition to his regular high school course load.
“From January to May, I took eight classes and for the summer semester I had five classes,” he said.
Morgan’s early graduation was even more special to him he said, because he had to miss class to take care of his mom.
“I missed so many school days taking care of my mom,” he said. “So my ninth grade year, I was failing classes back to back yet I still managed to graduate a whole year early. It just put the cherry on top for me. It did it for me to know that my mom wouldn’t be disappointed in me. … I just wanted to make her proud and this was my way of making her proud.”
(MISSISSIPPI) — More than 20,000 students across Mississippi are in quarantine after the first week of in-person classes.
Mississippi, which has the lowest vaccination rate among all states — about 34%, according to state data — is reeling from rising COVID-19 cases and the highly transmissible delta variant. Last week, a 13-year-old eighth grader died after testing positive — the fifth Mississippi child to die during the pandemic.
Some schools reopened last week, and so far 4,521 students have tested positive for COVID-19 and 20,334 have been quarantined due to exposure — about 5% of the state’s public school students, according to data compiled by the state Aug. 9 to Aug. 13 from over 800 schools.
Additionally, 948 teachers or staffers tested positive last week and 1,463 were quarantined due to exposure, according to state data.
Dr. Paul Byers, the state epidemiologist, painted a somber picture of the crisis unfolding in real time during a call with state pediatricians on Wednesday.
“These are dramatic numbers,” he added. “We are clearly at the worst part of the pandemic that we’ve seen throughout, and it’s continuing to worsen.”
Gov. Tate Reeves has not mandated masks in schools, instead letting districts decide for themselves.
About 600 schools have implemented universal masking for indoor settings following the recent spike in cases and isolations, Mississippi newspaper The Clarion-Ledger reported. The Biloxi school board, and the Gulfport and Hancock districts are among those requiring students to wear masks.
Governors and school districts throughout the U.S. have sparred over mandating masks in classrooms even as children younger than 12 still can’t be vaccinated.
New COVID-19 infections among 5-to-17-year-olds in Mississippi have risen steadily since March, accounting for about 20% of new cases through July, according to state data.
On Saturday, 13-year-old Mkayla Robinson died in Smith County, according to ABC Jackson affiliate WAPT.
“She was loved by all of her teachers,” Smith County Schools Superintendent Nick Hillman told WAPT. “She was an honor student, a band student. Everybody says if they had 30 kids in the classroom like her, they have the perfect classroom.”
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 90% of parents in the United States plan to send their children to school in person this fall, an increase since May, even with the delta variant spreading across the country and more children falling sick from COVID-19.
At the same time, almost one-third of parents say they don’t know their child’s school’s COVID-19 safety plan, and 60% say they’d like to know about the measures their school is taking to keep kids safe.
The numbers are from a survey of more than 3,000 parents, conducted this summer by the RAND Corporation and commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation, aimed at finding out how hesitant adults are to send their children to school in person this year. The report, Will Students Come Back? was released Wednesday.
Andrew Sweet, managing director of COVID-19 response and recovery at the Rockefeller Foundation, said he was surprised to see more parents commit to in-person learning this summer than in the spring.
“I think we’re at a breaking point and a lot of parents just can’t afford to keep their kids at home. They don’t have time. A lot of parents have to go to work. You can’t work in a grocery store remotely,” he said.
Parents with children under 12 years old — and not yet authorized to receive a COVID-19 vaccine — are just as likely to send their children to school in person as parents whose children were 12 or over, the survey found.
Fifty-seven percent of parents said they would get their child vaccinated when the shot is authorized for their age. Meanwhile, 52% of parents with children 12 and over — who made up roughly two-thirds of all those surveyed — said their child had received the vaccine.
Parents differed along racial lines: 94% of white parents surveyed said they would send their children to school in-person, compared to 83% of Hispanic and 82% of Black parents.
Additionally, parents of color were substantially more likely to require certain school safety measures — like classroom ventilation, mandatory masking and vaccinated teachers — to allow their kids to return to school buildings this fall.
Parents of color were twice as likely as white parents to support mask requirements, an issue that has flared recently in states like Florida, Texas and Arizona, where governors have attempted to ban schools from mandating face coverings for kids.
The survey found that only 27% of parents know in detail which safety measures their child’s school is adopting, suggesting a glaring lack of communication that has most of the surveyed parents wanting more information about how their child will be protected from COVID-19 in the classroom.
“I think there is confusion because there are so many messengers,” said Sweet.
Most parents in the survey said they’d prefer to get information about school safety from a school staff member, with 44% of them preferring to hear from a principal.
Yet educators might not be the most effective messengers of health guidance to parents and students, suggested Sweet.
“It’s hard to be an educator but also a public health communicator. We’ve asked so much of our teachers over the course of the pandemic, and to add another piece to it to speak about ventilation systems or antigen testing … that’s not part of their vocation. That’s not really what they signed up to do. And so it’s asking them to do yet another thing,” he said.
The public school district in New Orleans began weekly press conferences with the superintendent this summer to help communicate safety decisions to families. The district is also using social media to spread information, and is encouraging parents to speak to one another and contact their child’s school directly.
“It is always our challenge to make sure the nitty-gritty details get to our parents, which is unfortunate and hard at times,” Dina Hasiotis, senior adviser to the Superintendent of NOLA Public Schools, said in a roundtable streamed by the Rockefeller Foundation on Wednesday.
(WASHINGTON) — Could you live on Mars for an entire year? Or, could you at least pretend?
NASA is on the search for four people to live in a 1,700-square-foot habitat, created by a 3D-printer, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to simulate a year-long stay on Mars.
Applications to participate as part of the crew are being accepted through Sept. 17, 2021 for the one-year mission that starts in late 2022.
According to NASA’s website, finalists will undergo medical evaluations, psychological testing and psychiatric screening to determine suitability for the physically and mentally demanding isolation mission.
“The CHAPEA missions are designed to collect critical health and performance data to characterize risks associated with going to Mars,” said Shaneequa Vereen, public affairs officer for the Human Health and Performance Directorate at the NASA Johnson Space Center. “These analog missions will entail a good number of the challenges associated with a Mars mission, such as a Mars-realistic spaceflight food system, time-delayed communication, crew isolation and confinement, and resource restrictions.”
But NASA isn’t looking for just anyone to join this mission. The qualifications are intense and applicants must have a Master’s degree in a science, engineering or math field or pilot experience.
Additionally, only U.S. residents between the ages of 30 and 55 with no dietary or physical health issues will be eligible. Motion sickness? Sorry, but no can do.
“Living on Mars is going to entail a large number of challenges,” Vereen added. “By conducting analog missions we are able obtain data that enables us to better characterize risks before sending astronauts all the way to Mars.”
The Mars Dune Alpha experiment will be carried out in three phases, with the first beginning next fall. The exploration trip will also be complete with spacewalks and ready-to-eat space food. There will even be an area to grow plants and other vegetation.
(WASHINGTON) — The Cannon House Office Building, a congressional office building in Washington, D.C., was evacuated via underground routes Thursday morning due to a suspicious vehicle, according to a law enforcement sources.
The Capitol Police in a tweet called it “an active bomb threat investigation.”
Messages have been sent to congressional staffers asking that they “remain calm and relocate to Longworth House Office Building using the underground tunnels.”
The Library of Congress is also being evacuated, sources told ABC News.
The FBI said it’s responding. The White House is monitoring the situation and is receiving updates from law enforcement, according to an administration official.
Congress is in recess.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Several governmental buildings in Washington, D.C., were evacuated Thursday morning due to a suspicious vehicle and what Capitol Police call “an active bomb threat investigation.”
Law enforcement negotiators are working to make contact with the person in the vehicle, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said in a press conference around noon local time that negotiations are still ongoing to have a “peaceful resolution” and the suspect’s motives were unknown.
The suspect told responding police he had a bomb, and responding officers said he had what appeared to be a detonator in his hand, Manger said.
The Cannon House Office Building, a congressional office building, was evacuated via underground routes. The Library of Congress and Supreme Court building were also evacuated. Both the Supreme Court and Congress are on recess.
Messages have been sent to congressional staffers asking that they “remain calm and relocate to Longworth House Office Building using the underground tunnels.”
Senate staff were asked in a message to “remain clear of the police activity” and to “please move indoors” if they were outside on Capitol grounds.
The FBI said it’s responding. The White House is monitoring the situation and is receiving updates from law enforcement, according to an administration official.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Several governmental buildings in Washington, D.C., were evacuated Thursday morning due to what Capitol Police call “an active bomb threat investigation” after a man drove a pickup truck onto a sidewalk.
The bomb threat suspect, 49-year-old Floyd Ray Roseberry of North Carolina, surrendered Thursday afternoon and is in police custody, Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said.
It’s still unclear if there were explosives in the truck, Manger said in an afternoon news conference.
The suspect had been sitting in his truck for several hours in front of the Library of Congress and said he had explosives, Manger said.
Responding officers said he had what appeared to be a detonator in his hand, Manger said.
Authorities tried to negotiate with the suspect by writing messages on a whiteboard, Manger said. Authorities then used a robot to give the suspect a phone, but he wouldn’t use it, Manger said.
The suspect then exited his truck and surrendered without incident, Manger said.
Authorities are also investigating a video posted to Facebook that purports to have been posted by the man in the vehicle.
The Cannon House Office Building, a congressional office building, was evacuated via underground routes. The Library of Congress and Supreme Court building were also evacuated. Both the Supreme Court and Congress are on recess.
Messages were sent to congressional staffers asking that they “remain calm and relocate to Longworth House Office Building using the underground tunnels.”
Senate staff were asked in a message to “remain clear of the police activity” and to “please move indoors” if they were outside on Capitol grounds.
The FBI said it was responding. The White House is monitoring the situation and is receiving updates from law enforcement, according to an administration official.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
