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China targeted Fed employees for almost a decade, GOP Senate report says; chairman pushes back

July 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A report released Tuesday by Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee says that China targeted the Federal Reserve for nearly 10 years, working to recruit and influence employees in an effort to obtain information and monetary benefit and to influence U.S. monetary policy.

The report zeroes in on what it describes as Chinese efforts to recruit American talent using programs that targeted individuals at the Fed — offering job prospects, academic positions and economic and research opportunities in an effort to gain access to sensitive data and information.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell refuted many aspects of the report. In a letter on Monday to Sen. Rob Portman, the committee’s ranking Republican, Powell wrote that he had “strong concerns” about the findings, including allegations that the Fed had failed to work with law enforcement to ward off outside influence.

The report’s conclusions are based off of counterintelligence data from the Fed and detail a variety of actions by the central banking system’s employees that the report describes as putting the institution at risk. It identifies 13 persons of interest, representing eight regional Fed banks, who have connections to known Chinese talent recruiters or “similar patterns of activity.”

The report details the interactions that some of these individuals had with China’s government — some of which were aggressive on the part of the Chinese.

In one series of events, the report says, a Fed employee was detained on four separate occasions during a trip to Shanghai in 2019. Chinese officials threatened the employee’s family, tapped their electronics and tried to force them to sign a letter stating they would not discuss the interactions, according to the report.

Another employee provided modeling code to a Chinese university with ties to a Chinese talent recruitment agency.

Still another individual, with “continuous contacts with Chinese nationals and universities,” tried twice to transfer Fed data to an external site.

One of the reasons Fed employees were vulnerable, the report asserts, is due to China “taking advantage” of America’s openness to participating in academic and research-based work.

Republicans on the Senate committee said the Fed remains poorly positioned to counter such overtures from China, citing a “lack of internal counterintelligence competency” at the bank and failure to sufficiently cooperate with law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The result, the report says, is an institution unable to identify threats quickly or to investigate potential efforts by China to recruit U.S. talent.

Powell, the Fed chairman, pushed back in his letter.

“We value our interactions with the law enforcement community and would not hesitate to refer a matter to them or otherwise seek their counsel where appropriate. We would be concerned about any supportable allegation of wrongdoing, whatever the source,” he wrote to Portman. “In contrast, we are deeply troubled by what we believe to be the report’s unfair, unsubstantiated and unverified insinuations about particular individual staff members.”

Portman, who previously led investigations of China’s recruiting efforts in the tech and science fields, urged the Fed to “do more” to protect itself.

“I am concerned by the threat to the Fed and hope our investigation, which is based on the Fed’s own documents and corresponds with assessments and recommendations made by the FBI, wakes the Fed up to the broad threat from China to our monetary policy,” he said in a statement. “The risk is clear, I urge the Fed to do more, working with the FBI, to counter this threat from one of our foremost foreign adversaries.”

Powell insisted the Fed was already being proactive.

“Because we understand that some actors aim to exploit any vulnerabilities, our processes, controls and technology are robust and updated regularly,” he wrote. “We respectfully reject any suggestions to the contrary.”

But the report recommends that Congress act to institute safeguards for federally funded research at the Fed and other academic institutions. Portman is leading an effort to include these protections in a soon-to-pass bill on science and microchips.

San Francisco couple gets ticket for leaving car parked after curb was repainted

July 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(SAN FRANCISCO) — A couple received a ticket last week for parking in a red zone after the curb was repainted while their car was parked there, according to ABC San Francisco station KGO .

Jeff and Desiree Jolly have lived in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood for years, telling KGO that they’ve parked in the spot whenever it’s available for 25 years.

The couple said they noticed a $180 parking ticket on the windshield of their Honda sedan for parking in a red zone about a week ago.

The Jollys said the parking space was not a red zone when they had parked their vehicle days earlier, adding that the city missed a small patch when it avoided painting over their tire.

“If it was warranted, I don’t have a problem with it, but this seems unfair to me,” Desiree Jolly told KGO.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency told KGO the ticket wasn’t for the newly painted red zone, but rather, a faded one.

The decision on whether to enforce the ticket or dismiss it is now in the hands of the citation clerk, as the Jollys contested the ticket, the agency told KGO.

Earlier this month, a San Francisco couple was fined more than $1,500 for parking in their own driveway. The city eventually agreed to waive the fine and the threat of a $250-per-day fee if the couple could prove that the lot had historically been used for parking, or if they build a cover for the carpad or a garage.

As for Desiree and Jeff Jolly, they told KGO they plan to move out of the country to France in the future. “We do want to leave because of all of this stuff that goes on in the city,” Jeff said.

“I’m going through chemotherapy right now, so it’s like I’m worried about other things, and now I have to worry about this,” Desiree Jolly told KGO.

Monkeypox patient offers candid look at symptoms, stigma

July 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — There are now at least 3,846 monkeypox cases confirmed in the U.S., according to updated numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus is firmly on the radar of American health officials after the World Health Organization declared it a global health emergency over the weekend.

Most positive cases have been among men having sex with men, but there are women among the infected, and a few children, as well.

Andy Slavitt, the former senior adviser of the Biden administration’s coronavirus response team, told ABC News’ “START HERE” that he is concerned the outbreak is being dismissed as a “gay disease.”

Slavitt reiterated that monkeypox is spread by skin-to-skin contact and limiting one’s conception of who can get the disease leads to unfair discrimination.

“It would be wrong to assume that we’re going to contain this by telling people to have less sex. I don’t think that’s going to work,” he told “START HERE.”

Jonathan Araujo, of Miami, contracted the virus this month and spoke with “START HERE” Tuesday. Araujo spoke about his symptoms and the stigma he faced when he told his friends and family about his diagnosis.

START HERE: Jonathan, first of all, how are you feeling?

JONATHAN ARAUJO: Right now, I’m way better. I did like a full 360. I was really having a really tough time battling monkeypox in the beginning. It was really like mentally taxing just as much as physically.

There were kind of all just like open wounds at one point. And I had so many of them, you know, I had at least I want to say, at least 30 of them on me at one time. So, it was painful.

START HERE: Can you walk me through what it was like? Like do you know when you got it?

ARAUJO: On July 4, I was working normal. Everything was fine. And I was going out clubbing with my friends, you know, celebrating July Fourth weekend. And I went out to this club, which is where I believe I got it. [There were] the little hairs in the back of my neck just telling me that night something was not right.

The very next day, I got a fever, and then I had the fever for two days. Then I got chills, and then the chills and the third day went away. By the fourth day, I was breaking out on my forehead and on my back really bad. I had all these little pimples. That’s what they looked like to me. They were like very small little pimples at first. The fifth day, which was now July 7 or July 8, I had one on my lip.

START HERE: Like it’s spreading.

ARAUJO: Yeah. I’m not just breaking out. I’m not just sick with a random fever for two days, and now I have chills and I have headaches and body pains. It just didn’t make sense, and I knew something was wrong.

So I went to the clinic and I thought, OK, maybe I have an STD or something’s wrong. And so I went to the clinic, and when I went to go get tested and treated, the doctor immediately looked at me and he was like, “I don’t think you have an STD, I’m not saying you don’t have any, but by looking at you, I think you have monkeypox.” And I was just like, “What? I think monkeypox. I was like, ‘Are you sure?'”

START HERE: Had you heard of it before that? Like, do you know what that was at that point?

ARAUJO: I was very ignorant to the situation. I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t think much of it. I didn’t think that I would get it, and I didn’t really pay too much [attention] to it .

I knew what it was and [that] it was going around, but I was just like, it will not happen to me. And yeah, boom, it sure did happen to me.

The lesions and the sores, they weren’t huge. They got really big and they progressed rapidly. They turned into these big zits, but you couldn’t pop them, they wouldn’t burst, even if I tried to squeeze them.

They would sting randomly, like they would feel like jolts of pain. They would be dull for the most part, but then out of nowhere I would get a strike in one of them or in some of them, and then they would burn or itch. If I mess with them, or if I touch them, or if I laid the wrong way, it really felt like someone took a match and was setting fire to my skin at some point.

I had some on my elbows, so every time I move my arm it would burn or I would itch. The one I have on my hand currently itches a lot.

START HERE: You have one right now that’s still itching?

ARAUJO: Yeah. It’s on the palm of my hand. So it flexes and it’s constantly like being touched by something.

START HERE: Does the pain continue on for like days, for weeks? Do you feel like you’re sort of past the worst of the symptoms?

ARAUJO: Yeah, I’m definitely past the worst of the symptoms. In the beginning, the pain was, on a one to 10 [scale], it was like at to eight or nine half the time.

After I left the clinic, I went to the emergency room because I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t have a PCP. So I went to emergency room and then I told them, “I think I have monkeypox.” And when they looked at me, they were like in shock that I had monkeypox. Like, they didn’t even know.

START HERE: You’re like the first guy they’ve been dealing with to say this?

ARAUJO: Yeah, they were like, “You think you have monkeypox?” And she pulled out this paper and she was looking at the paper and looking at me. When I looked over like desk to see what she was looking at she was looking at pictures of what monkeypox looked like to see if it matched because she didn’t know. And so they put me into an emergency room I think within maybe 10 minutes. That is the fastest I’ve ever been put into an emergency room ever.

START HERE: And if that’s the reaction from doctors, what’s it like from other people around you?

ARAUJO: A lot of people were very like surprised. They were like, this is real. It was a shock. It was it was like a reality check to a lot of people. Even a lot of people in my family, they were like, “You have what?”

I even had some people would be like, “What is that?” They were like, “I didn’t even know this was a thing.”

I don’t want to segregate groups, but it was predominantly straight people, heterosexuals, that didn’t know what monkeypox was. I hate that it was that way because it was like, you can, anyone can get this.

START HERE: Which is concerning, right, if you’ve got people treating this like an STD passed between people in sexual situations, and it’s not necessarily that.

ARAUJO: No, absolutely not. I didn’t get it from having sex. I got it from going out, and partying and doing normal day-to-day things. I didn’t get it from having sex. I got all my test results back with all my other studies, and I came back negative for everything.

I didn’t have sex for maybe a month or three weeks, almost a month before I got sick. So, I definitely didn’t get it from having sex.

I’m sure it’s possible that you can get it from having sex, but that is not the only way to get it, and that’s where the stigma lies, is that people think it’s just an STD. No, you can get it if you touch one of my sores and then touch your face, it passes just like that because of the infection.

START HERE: Yeah really alarming when you see, not just how quickly it’s spreading, but that it’s spreading kind of faster than people are being educated about it, which is why you’re now shouting from the rooftops. We should note though that [there are] no American deaths from monkeypox yet. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience Jonathan.

ARAUJO: Yeah, of course.

Scientists explain the factors that caused the Oak Fire to explode so suddenly

July 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(MARIPOSA COUNTY, Calif.) — A bone-dry environment combined with scorching temperatures and ample fuel — all consequences of climate change — is what allowed the Oak Fire to spread so rapidly from the moment of ignition, scientists tell ABC News.

The Oak Fire spread to more than 15,000 acres within two days of it sparking in Mariposa County near Yosemite National Park in California, destroying structures and prompting evacuations of nearby residents. After the weekend, the wildfire unfurled at a less rapid pace — accumulating to more than 18,000 acres by Tuesday afternoon.

But the conditions that allowed the fire to detonate at such swift speeds remain, and are just a spark away from wreaking more havoc on the region.

A heat wave that brought triple-digit temperatures for multiple days in succession combined with extremely low humidity contributed to extremely dry fuels, consisting of dead leaves and trees, that accumulated on the ground and allowed the Oak Fire to advance, Marshall Burke, an associate professor of Earth system science at Stanford University, told ABC News.

“Right as [the Oak Fire] started, there was a period of very, very low relative humidity levels in California,” Burke said. “And I think that really contributed to drying out fuels and making this just a combustible scenario in which fires are gonna spread quickly.”

The humidity hovered between 5% and 10% at the time the Oak Fire gained traction, according to Cal Fire. The dry fuel, leftover from a mass tree fatality event from 2012 to 2016, as well as insect damage to the remaining trees, helped take the Oak Fire from “seasonal levels” to “astronomical levels,” John Abatzoglou, a climate scientist and associate professor of the management of complex systems at the University of California at Merced, told ABC News.

In addition, the rugged terrain is making it difficult for the firefighters to access the land to create fire breaks, Kristina Dahl, senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told ABC News.

When the fire began, it “grew in all directions” and unusually, without the help of a high wind event, Burke said. While fires tend to grow uphill, this Oak Fire spread both uphill and downhill, making it less predictable and harder to contain, Dahl said.

Ironically, the growth of the Oak Fire began to slow on Monday as it started to run into fire scars from previous large fires, including the Ferguson Fire, which burned in the same region in 2018, Burke said.

That slowdown is further proof that fire management, including the prescribed burns that were put out of practice for more than a century, are integral to preventing large wildfires from occurring — especially as climate change conditions continue to warm the planet and create scenarios for devastating wildfires to wreak havoc on communities and nature, Dahl said.

“This ecosystem, which really is a fire-dependent ecosystem, hasn’t been able to experience these lower-intensity burns that would have cleared out some of the smaller vegetation,” Dahl said. “So we have this buildup of fuel, and we have these drought conditions that really dry out that vegetation. So that’s enabling this fire behavior to get much more extreme.”

The current atmospheric conditions exacerbated the effects of a 22-year megadrought that is continuing to intensify in the West and is beginning to spread eastward. California saw the driest start to the calendar year in recorded history, since 1895, Abatzoglou said.

“When you combine those things, that creates this set of conditions in which really rapid growth of fires is favored,” Dahl said.

The wildfire caused California Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency for Mariposa County.

The Oak Fire sparked as the National Park Service planned to reopen the southern entrance of Yosemite as firefighters gained traction on containing the Washburn Fire — the wildfire that had been threatening the park’s iconic grove of giant sequoia trees in the weeks prior.

Thousands of firefighters had contained 26% of the Oak Fire by Tuesday morning, according to Cal Fire. An expected increase in humidity should also help to temper the wildfire.

California had a “benign” month of fire activity in June that turned into a “scorcher” in July, Abatzoglou said. Because of the relatively low fire activity, the state had the resources to devote to the Oak Fire to get it under control as quickly as possible, he added.

Climate change is expected to make wildfires worse around California and the globe, Dahl said.

“We know that climate change is increasing the area that burns during fires. It’s increasing the length of fire season. It’s contributing to extreme drought conditions out here in the West that then cause the vegetation to dry out so that it’s really just a tinderbox out here,” Dal said. “So as climate change progresses, we anticipate fires like this one to continue to happen with greater frequency and burn larger areas.”

ABC News’ Meredith Deliso and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney speaks on gun control efforts

July 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — In advance of an oversight committee hearing with AR-15 manufacturers on their role in the gun violence epidemic on Wednesday, committee chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney sat down with ABC News to discuss the context.

One month after President Joe Biden signed bipartisan gun reform into law, targeted red flag laws and expanded background checks, House Democrats are working on additional gun reform legislation.

Maloney spoke with ABC News about new legislation that would target the sale of semiautomatic weapons, the chances of getting additional legislation passed through the Senate and her hopes for the Wednesday hearing.

GMA3: Congresswoman, thank you for being back on the program. So tell me, is this new legislation to ban semiautomatic weapons, is this meant to do what the initial bipartisan gun legislation did not do?

REP. CAROLYN MALONEY: Well, we need to continue building on the work of passing historic gun reform legislation. And my hearing this week should be a wakeup call to action for Congress to act to hold these gun manufacturers accountable for the deadly weapons that they’re manufacturing that are killing innocent Americans.

We expect to pass a bill banning assault weapons. We did this in 1994. It sunseted after ten years. But during that period, gun deaths went down. So, this is important legislation. Believe me, T.J., if guns made us safer, we’d be the safest nation on Earth. We are far from it. We’re the most dangerous.

GMA3: As again, that statistic we always hear we have more guns in this country than we actually do people in the country. But still, what chance does this legislation have? And do you have the votes right now, even in the House? Because even if it gets past the House, I think most would agree it has no chance in the Senate.

MALONEY: Well, we will get it through the House. I believe we have the votes in the House. The Senate is a challenge, but we need to take a vote and hold people accountable with the American public that has had it with these mass shootings in schools and in our synagogues and churches, our neighborhoods. It’s got to get these dangerous guns off the street. And the weapon of choice is the AR-15 assault weapon.

We are also passing legislation that will end the immunity that gun manufacturers have for manufacturing deadly weapons that are killing so many innocent people.

GMA3: Congresswoman, what do you think? You said you’re not sure if you have the votes yet. You think you’ll have them in the House. But even talking to Sen. Chris Murphy last week and I asked him, I said, where is the next step? What negotiations are going on for the possible next piece of gun legislation? And he just said, “hey, we just got this one done. Just let us– give us a minute to implement this one” and nothing else, really. Even for him who’s been so passionate on this issue, he thought we needed to just give it a beat. So why so quickly? You think there is momentum right now that needs to be taken advantage of?

MALONEY: After Buffalo and Uvalde, the innocent murders of so many schoolchildren, they are hold – we have more mass shootings in schools than any place in the world. More people die, roughly 40,000 a year from gun violence, and we need to take steps. We need to hold people accountable. And we need to continue putting a focus on it like you are today and passing legislation that will make it safer for our citizens.

Other countries don’t have this challenge. Only America. Usually they have a mass shooting and they pass gun safety laws and that’s it. But we have mass shooting after mass shooting. And we know what to do, unlike so many challenges where we don’t have the answer. We know gun safety laws are important and what they are and that we need to pass them. So we need to keep trying.

GMA3: And, Congresswoman, I know the hearing is tomorrow. You invited these gun manufacturers, the head of these companies to come. First question, how well-attended do you think it’s going to be? How many CEOs and gun manufacturers, the executives do you expect to have there? And what does it look like to hold a gun maker accountable for a gun? Yes, they make them, but then they don’t sell them or use them. So where do you see their accountability and where do they need to be doing better?

MALONEY: Well, I would say we have invited three manufacturers, CEOs, two have accepted. One is dodging us and not responding to our requests for documents. And we intend to hold them accountable eventually in some form.

But to your question, most industries have a responsibility for their products. We have liability on our cars. Every time there’s a car wreck, we study it. We should do the same thing with guns. We should have liability on guns. They’re far more dangerous than cars.

And then the drug industry, they keep a record of how much problems result from their drugs. We should be doing the same thing with guns. There are ways to hold them accountable. Stay tuned. You’ll hear more information from our hearing this weekend. And we are working on additional legislation that will be coming forward hopefully that will make America safer for our citizens.

GMA3: And can I ask, do you find something in their marketing, in something of the type of weapon they’re making? Would you like to see them cut back on how many of these weapons they make? I guess, what would you like to see them do?

MALONEY: Well, their marketing is horrendous. They are marketing to young people. They are having raffles. They have all kinds of ads to entice people to play on their emotions and their insecurities. Their marketing is absolutely horrendous. They need to be held accountable and they have not. It is an industry that is producing deadly weapons that are killing innocent people. And we need to take steps to hold them accountable.

I’ll have more information at the hearing. It’s embargoed now, but I always love talking to you, T.J., and we’ll have more information after the hearing. We have a report that will be coming out. And the information in it is at this point embargoed until the hearing tomorrow.

Ga. prison ‘lacked regard for human life,’ Senate probe shows; agency director testifies

July 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A Senate investigation revealed evidence on Tuesday of widespread corruption and misconduct dating back years at a federal penitentiary in Atlanta.

At a hearing Tuesday morning, an investigatory panel led by Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff pressed outgoing Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director Michael Carvajal on agency records that show staff at the Atlanta federal penitentiary “acted with impunity and even lacked regard for human life,” Ossoff said in his opening statement.

“The evidence the [subcommittee for investigations] has secured to date reveals stunning long-term failures of federal prison administration that likely contributed to loss of life; jeopardized the health and safety of inmates and staff; and undermined public safety and civil rights in the State of Georgia and the Southeast Region of the United States,” Ossoff said.

The prison was rife with contraband, including weapons and synthetic cannabis, and large amounts of confiscated drugs were never logged after they were discovered, according to Ossoff and the subcommittee’s review of internal BOP documents in addition to interviews with whistleblowers, federal judges and former senior agency leaders.

A lack of security checks also allowed inmates to pass contraband between cells and freely use narcotics, Ossoff said.

The findings documented by the panel — an investigatory arm of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — include allegations of poorly maintained and often dangerous conditions for inmates.

Between 2012 to 2020, a total of 12 inmates died by suicide which the committee linked to a lack of compliance by staff to prison procedures and “complacency, indifference, inattentiveness, and lack of compliance with BOP policies and procedures,” according to Ossoff.

Internal reports from 2017 and 2019, now revealed by the committee, found prison guard weapons were improperly stored and at times went missing.

Erika Ramirez, a whistleblower and former chief psychologist of the Atlanta facility, testified on Tuesday to a variety of unsafe and unsanitary conditions as well as a lack of control over contraband.

“The walls were infested with mold,” Ramirez said. “Whenever it rained, the sewer would break — would back up and overflow onto the recreation yard, sometimes leaving a foot of human waste behind. Security-wise, there was little to speak of. Given the volume and flagrancy of the contraband, it was obvious that cell searches were not being properly conducted, if at all.”

Ramirez testified that she documented her findings and reported them to upper management and, in some cases, to the BOP central office in Washington. Ramirez was subsequently, involuntarily transferred to a facility in Texas in what she described as retaliation for speaking out.

Former jail administrator Terri Whitehead also appeared at Tuesday’s hearing and said unsanitary conditions at the prison resulted in security lapses.

“For example, there was so many rats inside the facility, dining hall and food preparation areas that staff intentionally left doors open so the stray cats that hung around the prison could catch the rats,” Whitehead said. “It is never a good idea to leave prison doors open.”

After initially declining to testify, citing the end of his tenure next month, BOP Director Carvajal took questions before the panel to address the reported corruption and mismanagement at the penitentiary.

“I want to stress that what happened in Atlanta is unacceptable,” Carvajal said. “We recognize the gravity of the alleged misconduct at that facility, and in July of 2021, we determined that it was in the best interest of the institution to take significant action.”

BOP has since started replacing the entire management staff at the Atlanta prison, a process which Carvajal said was ongoing.

Asked about a federal judge’s letter detailing rats, roaches and emaciated detainees at the facility, Carvajal told the Senate panel he was not aware of the specific allegations but took responsibility for the agency overall. He repeatedly testified that the BOP is a “large, complex organization,” and he does not personally oversee day-to-day operations despite the unique nature of concerns in Atlanta.

“What does it mean to you to hear, as the director of Bureau of Prisons, a report from your own investigators that staff at this facility lack regard for human life?” Ossoff asked.

“It’s completely unacceptable, senator, that’s precisely why I took the actions that I did when I became aware of it,” Carvajal said.

But it remains unclear when and what Carvajal knew about missing prison guard weapons, life-threatening conditions and security lapses reported by internal BOP auditors. Carvajal testified that he wasn’t aware of internal reports about unqualified staff in armed positions until the middle of last year.

“We have a lot going on in a very large, complex organization,” he insisted. “I assure you that if I was aware, as with anything, I would have corrected or taken action.”

At one point Ossoff held up a copy of one of the internal reports, noting that Carvajal was personally copied on the correspondence. Citing the BOP report, Ossoff said it detailed a case in November 2018 where an inmate died by hanging. Guards did not conduct checks prior to the inmate’s death and inmates had been caught on camera passing contraband under cell doors.

“When I when I tell you I’m not aware, specifically, I can’t remember specifically what I did at that time,” said Carvajal, who was then assistant director for correctional programs. “I do know that I received those reports and we took appropriate action to address those issues.”

Carvajal said that in April he conducted a day-long visit at the Atlanta facility where he met with staff.

The U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta has been under public scrutiny for years. An inmate and his fiancée pleaded guilty in 2017 to running what prosecutors described as an “inmate Uber.” The two admitted to transporting convicts to and from the prison, allowing them access to outside food and contraband.

Last year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that four senior prison officers were banned from the facility amid a corruption investigation and the prison’s population was reduced from more than 1,800 to 134.

1 dead after historic rainfall in St. Louis causes flash flooding emergency

July 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(ST. LOUIS) — One person has died after a record amount of rain poured down on the St. Louis area overnight.

St. Louis has recorded 8.56 inches of rainfall since midnight, which surpassed the old record of 6.85 inches set almost 107 years ago on Aug. 20, 1915. In the suburbs northwest of St. Louis, St. Peters received 12.34 inches of rain.

The historic rainfall event caused widespread flash flooding across the region Tuesday morning with some areas getting more than half a foot of rain in just a few hours.

One person was found dead in a car after the water began to recede, St. Louis emergency officials said during a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

Heavy rain continued for St. Louis and its surrounding areas Tuesday morning as thunderstorms sit over Missouri. The rain let up into the afternoon, but more heavy rain with flooding is expected Wednesday morning.

The St. Louis Fire Department said there’s been a report of a partial roof collapse and possible natural gas leak at the scene of a storage facility at St. Louis Zoo. Further details were not immediately available.

The fire department also said there were several vehicles trapped in high water with rescue squads responding in small boats.

As of 7 a.m. local time, St. Louis Fire Department confirmed they had responded to approximately 18 homes with flooding and trapped occupants. Six occupants and six dogs have so far been rescued by boat and approximately 15 others were contacted but chose to shelter in place.

The Forest Park-DeBaliviere train station was seen completely submerged in photos, with water rising above the platforms. The floodwaters were so high that the roofs on some of the structures collapsed, emergency officials said.

By noon, another six adults and several pets were rescued from three homes by the St. Louis Fire Department, and water had begun to recede about 6 to 8 inches, according to fire officials.

One of the families was trapped in the attic due to the floodwaters, according to the fire department.

In total, more than 70 rescues took place, Dennis Jackson, chief of the St. Louis Fire Department, said during the news conference. While there has been widespread property damages, the number of injuries remained low, said St. Louis Police Chief Mike Sack.

By 2 p.m., the highways were mostly clear and all bridges were open, Heather Taylor, senior adviser for public safety for the city of St. Louis, told reporters Tuesday afternoon. However, some areas still have high water levels, Sack said.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, who is currently overseas on a trade mission to Germany and the Netherlands, thanked rescue crews and said his lieutenant governor, Mike Kehoe, would act on his behalf.

“I have been briefed on the extreme flooding in the St. Louis area,” Parson said in a statement. “We appreciate the rapid and professional response of local first responders and emergency managers involved in flood rescues and other protective measures. We also thank our Missouri State Highway Patrol and MoDOT crews for working alongside local teams.”

ABC News’ Max Golembo, Melissa Griffin, Will Gretsky and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

Pence swipes at Trump’s ‘focus’ as he details his own agenda for the country

July 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — In another break from his one-time boss, former Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday in Washington that while he and Donald Trump may not differ on conservative ideology they “may differ on focus” — and Pence said he wouldn’t be stuck in the past.

“I don’t know that our movement is that divided. I don’t know that the president and I differ on issues. But we may differ on focus. I truly do believe that elections are about the future,” he said at the Young America’s Foundation student conference, about a mile away from where Trump was slated to speak at another event later Tuesday.

Trump’s appearance marks his return to the nation’s capital for the first time since leaving office in the shadow of the Jan. 6 insurrection. His and Pence’s remarks offered another split-screen for the onetime GOP ticket — and possible 2024 competitors — who became estranged in the wake of the Capitol riot.

The former vice president made his comments about Trump in response to a student at the conference who asked about Trump’s upcoming speech. The student asked about the divide between the two on their outlook for the future of the conservative movement.

“[It] is absolutely essential at a time when so many Americans are hurting, so many families are struggling, that we don’t give away to the temptation to look back,” Pence said.

“But I think the time has come for us to offer a bold, positive agenda to bring America back,” he said. “And I’ll continue to carry that message all across this nation.”

Pence has been increasingly vocal about his select differences with Trump — in particular his refusal to try and overturn the 2020 election results — while also stressing their work together in the White House to advance a conservative agenda.

He had been slated to get a one-day head start on unveiling his Republican agenda ahead of Trump’s return, but a Monday night speech for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, was canceled due to weather.

“My plane was diverted against that terrible storm you’ve all witnessed. And I just figured with [my wife] Karen by my side that God must have had different plans for today,” Pence said on Tuesday.

“In fact, he must have decided that a talk about the future … should be given to the rising generation.”

Pence, Trump’s loyal No. 2 while in office, has repeatedly split with him in making endorsements in state races this year, with both seeking to make their mark on the party leading up to the midterms.

Most recently, in the Republican gubernatorial primary in Arizona, Pence has campaigned with current Gov. Doug Ducey and GOP secretary of state candidate Beau Lane on behalf of Karrin Taylor Robson while Trump hosted a rally across the state with his chosen candidate, former TV journalist Kari Lake.

Pence’s Young America’s Foundation speech on Tuesday detailed his “Freedom Agenda,” which includes banning abortions, finishing the southern border wall, focusing on China as an economic threat and protecting the Second Amendment, among other GOP policies.

“Some people may choose to focus on the past. But elections are about the future. And I believe conservatives must focus on the future to win back America,” Pence said.

“The conservative movement has always been built on the notion that ideas have consequences,” he said. “Conservative conservatism is bigger than any one moment, any one election or any one person.”

Ahead of Pence’s later-canceled speech on Monday, the Democratic National Committee released a statement criticizing his platform.

“We don’t have to imagine what’s on the Mike Pence agenda — he’s already told us as he’s brought his extreme road show across the country,” DNC spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement.

Pence spent much of his hourlong speech recounting his work as vice president, including on the southern border, appointing more than 300 conservative judges to federal courts and building up the military.

Shortly after his remarks, Pence announced new details about his forthcoming memoir “So Help Me God,” scheduled for release on Nov. 15, which will chronicle “President Trump’s severing of their relationship on January 6, 2021 when Pence kept his oath to the Constitution.”

ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report.

Third set of human remains in three months found in drought-shrinking Lake Mead

July 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(LAKE MEAD, Nev.) — For the third time since May, human remains have been discovered in Lake Mead near Las Vegas as the water level in the nation’s largest reservoir continues to shrink to historic lows due to a decades-long drought, officials said.

The human remains were found around 4:30 p.m. Monday by a visitor to Swim Beach on the Nevada side of the lake’s west end, according to a statement from the National Park Service.

Park rangers responded to investigate and set up a perimeter around the area as the remains were recovered, officials said.

The Clark County medical examiner’s office is working to identify the remains, officials said.

The park service said an investigation is underway. No further information was released.

Water levels in the reservoir, which straddles Nevada and Arizona, are so low they could soon hit “dead pool” status, in which the water is too low to flow downstream to Hoover Dam, officials said.

The minimum water surface level needed to generate power at the Hoover Dam is 1,050 feet, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Anything below that is considered an “inactive pool,” and a “dead pool” exists when the water level hits 895 feet, according to the federal agency.

Satellite images released last week by NASA show side-by-side comparisons of Lake Mead, one taken on July 6, 2000, and the other more than two decades later on July 6 of this year. The images show waterways, which are fed by the Colorado River, have drastically thinned over the past 22 years as the surface of Lake Mead continues to hit its lowest levels since it was created in the 1930s.

A result of the diminishing water level is that bodies and human parts have been emerging.

On May 7, human skeletal remains were found near the lake’s Callville Bay, according to the National Park Service. The discovery came a week after the decayed body of a man was found stuffed in a steel barrel near the reservoir’s Hemenway Fishing Pier, more than 20 miles from Callville Bay, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The Clark County medical examiner’s office with the help of the FBI are still working to identify the remains recovered from the lake.

Homicide detectives from the Las Vegas Police Metropolitan Department said they suspect the man found in the barrel died from a gunshot wound. They believe the man was killed in the mid-1970s to early 1980s, based on his clothing and footwear.

Earlier this month, a World War II-era boat was discovered partially sticking out of the receding water roughly a mile from the Lake Mead Marina, which is also at the west end of the reservoir on the Nevada side, officials said.

The sunken vessel was identified as a “Higgins boat” used for beach landings during WWII and to survey the Colorado River decades ago, officials said.

West Virginia lawmakers advance new abortion bill after pre-Roe ban blocked

July 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(CHARLESTON, W.Va.) — Lawmakers in West Virginia have advanced a new bill severely restricting abortion after a pre-Roe ban was blocked in court.

The bill, passed Monday by the state’s House Health and Human Resources Committee and Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee, bans abortion at virtually every stage of pregnancy.

There are no exceptions for rape or incest, after an amendment to the bill was voted down by both committees.

However, there are exceptions if the mother’s life is in danger, if the fetus is “non-medically viable” or for an ectopic pregnancy, which is when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside of the uterus.

The bill also explicitly states that miscarriages and stillbirths are not considered an abortion.

What’s more, the bill makes performing abortions a felony punishable by three to 10 years in prison. Women who have abortions will not be criminalized under the bill.

The bill will now go to the House floor and will have a public hearing held on it Wednesday.

The West Virginia Legislature was initially called into a special session Monday to consider Gov. Jim Justice’s proposal to reduce personal income tax rates.

But that morning, as lawmakers were gaveling in, Justice amended the call and said he would also be asking lawmakers “to clarify and modernize the abortion-related laws currently existing as part of the West Virginia Code.”

“From the moment the Supreme Court announced their decision in Dobbs, I said that I would not hesitate to call a Special Session once I heard from our Legislative leaders that they had done their due diligence and were ready to act,” Justice said in a statement. “As I have said many times, I very proudly stand for life, and I believe that every human life is a miracle worth protecting.”

Justice’s office did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade last month, the state’s sole abortion clinic — Women’s Health Center of West Virginia — said in a statement on Facebook it would not be performing the procedure “until further notice” due to fear of prosecution under an 1882 law on the books.

The law made performing abortions, including administering drugs for medication abortions, a felony punishable by three to 10 years in prison.

However, Kanawha County Circuit Judge Tera Salango issued a preliminary injunction against the ban, meaning the state’s only clinic can perform the procedure again.

In her decision, Salango agreed that the law had effectively been superseded by newer laws, such as a 2015 law allowing abortions up until 20 weeks’ gestation.

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