(NEW YORK) — Former GOP Rep. Steve Buyer was arrested Monday on insider trading charges.
According to the complaint, Buyer, who has done consulting work since leaving Congress in 2011, “misappropriated material non-public information that he learned as a consultant and used [it] … to place timely, profitable securities trades in brokerage accounts in his own name and the names of others.”
In March 2018, Buyer attended a golf outing with an executive of T-Mobile, one of his consulting clients, from whom he learned about the company’s then-nonpublic plan to acquire Sprint, the complaint said. Buyer began purchasing Sprint securities the next day, and, after news of the merger leaked in April 2018, Buyer saw an immediate profit of more than $107,000, according to the complaint.
In total, Buyer’s fraudulent trading activity based on nonpublic information in 2018 and 2019 resulted in profits of at least $349,846.61, the complaint said.
Buyer was arrested in Indiana where he was expected to make an initial appearance in federal court later Monday.
Buyer, who was first elected to the House from Indiana in 1992, announced in 2010 he would not seek another term amid ethical questions involving fundraising.
Monday’s arrest was the result of a joint investigation by several federal agencies including the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission.
It wasn’t immediately clear who was representing Buyer following his arrest.
(NEW YORK) — As the heat hovering over much of the country continues, residents on the East Coast will soon have another extreme weather event to contend with: severe storms.
More than 52 million people living along the Interstate 95 corridor will be under threat of severe thunderstorms on Monday afternoon.
As the storm system moves east, it will effectively end a nearly weeklong heat wave from Boston to Washington, D.C.
Records for heat were broken over the weekend in Newark, New Jersey, which hit 102 degrees for the fifth day in a row, breaking the all-time record for consecutive days over 100. Boston surpassed its record at 100 degrees, Philadelphia broke its record at 99 degrees and Providence, Rhode Island, did the same at 98 degrees. New York City’s LaGuardia Airport tied its heat record at 98 degrees.
Heat alerts remained in the Northeast on Monday, with hot and humid conditions from Maryland to Massachusetts.
Monday afternoon, a cold front is expected to pass through the region with severe thunderstorms, damaging winds, hail and the possibility of isolated tornados.
There will be a break in the heat following the storm system with temperatures in the Northeast staying in the 80s over the next several days.
However, scorching conditions will continue Monday afternoon in the Pacific Northwest, down the coast to central and Southern California and stretching to the Midwest, Plains and Southeast.
Triple-digit temperatures are expected in cities like Portland and Medford, Oregon; Fresno, California; San Antonio, Houston and Dallas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Shreveport, Louisiana. In Tennessee, Nashville is expected to hit 102 degrees, while Memphis is expected to reach 108 degrees.
A strong push of monsoon moisture into the Southwest will bring elevated threats for flash flooding Monday and through the week. Flood watches have been issued for Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado.
(NEW YORK) — Pope Francis is set to deliver a long-sought apology to the Indigenous community in Canada over the Catholic church’s role in the generational abuse they suffered at Indigenous residential schools for nearly 150 years.
The schools were operated for decades by churches and the federal government of Canada to force assimilation.
Beginning in the 1800s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children from Canada and the United States were taken from their homes and families and placed into so-called residential schools aimed at ridding the children from ties to their Native communities, language and culture. Some of the schools were run by the Catholic church, where missionaries participated in the policies of forced assimilation and abuse.
Upon his arrival in Edmonton, the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta, Pope Francis was greeted on Sunday at the airport by First Nations, Metis and Inuit leaders, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mary Simon, who is Canada’s first Indigenous governor general.
“[Pope Francis] is visiting Canada to deliver the Roman Catholic Church’s apology to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Survivors and their descendants – for its role in operating residential schools, and for causing pain and suffering that continues to this very day,” Trudeau tweeted on Sunday.
Francis is set to meet with residential school survivors on Monday near the site of a former residential school in Maskwacis in central Alberta, where he is expected to pray and deliver an apology.
“Dear brothers and sisters of [Canada], I come among you to meet the indigenous peoples. I hope, with God’s grace, that my penitential pilgrimage might contribute to the journey of reconciliation already undertaken. Please accompany me with [prayer],” Francis tweeted on Sunday.
Chief Tony Alexis of the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, who had called for Pope Francis to deliver an in-person apology on behalf of the church, told ABC News’ Marcus Moore that Francis’ visit is “a validation of what has happened with the church and how they’ve hurt and abused our people.”
Ahead of his historic seven-day trip to Canada, Pope Francis asked for prayers to accompany him on what he called a “penitential pilgrimage” and offered an apology to Native communities for the Catholic church’s role in the abuse.
According to a 2015 report released by Canada’s National Center for Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous residential schools were an integral part of the Canadian government’s “conscious policy of cultural genocide,” where children were disconnected from their families, punished for speaking their Native languages and some faced physical and sexual abuse.
“The Canadian government pursued this policy of cultural genocide because it wished to divest itself of its legal and financial obligations to Aboriginal people and gain control over their land and resources. If every Aboriginal person had been ‘absorbed into the body politic,’ there would be no reserves, no Treaties, and no Aboriginal rights,” according to the report.
Reflecting on the generational trauma that was inflicted on Indigenous communities, Alexis recalled a conversation with a survivor who told him, “The only thing I learned in the residential school was how to hate myself.”
The pope’s visit comes a year after nearly 1,000 sets of human remains were found at the cemetery of the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan in western Canada and at the former St. Eugene’s Mission School for Indigenous children in Aqam, a community in British Colombia. It is unclear how many total students died at residential boarding schools and what their causes of death were.
After the graves were discovered in Canada, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland — the first Native American to hold a Cabinet position — launched a probe in June 2021 into the U.S. government’s own role in funding Indian boarding schools as part of an effort to dispossess Indigenous people of their land to expand the United States.
The probe’s initial findings were outlined in a May report that found more than 500 American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children died over the course of 150 years in Indigenous boarding schools run by the American government and churches.
Native Nations scholars estimate that almost 40,000 children have died at Indigenous boarding schools. According to the federal report, the Interior Department “expects that continued investigation will reveal the approximate number of Indian children who died at Federal Indian boarding schools to be in the thousands or tens of thousands.”
Haaland, whose grandparents attended Indian boarding schools, now oversees the government agency that historically played a major role in the forced relocation and oppression of Indigenous people and said that her work is a chance to bring some healing to the community.
“I have a great obligation, but I was taught by my mother and my grandfather and my grandmother that when you are asked to do something for your people that you step up,” Haaland told ABC’s Nightline in an interview earlier this year.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 symptoms are “almost completely resolved,” his physician said on Monday.
Kevin O’Connor wrote in a letter released by the White House that Biden is now only noting “some residual nasal congestion and minimal hoarseness.”
“His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature remain absolutely normal. His oxygen saturation continues to be excellent in room air. His lungs remain clear,” O’Connor added.
Biden on Sunday night also completed his fourth full day of Paxlovid, the COVID-19 treatment he’s been taking since he tested positive for the virus on Thursday. The president is believed to have contracted the BA.5 subvariant, which has shown increased resistance to vaccines than previous COVID strains.
Prior to Monday, Biden’s symptoms had included a runny nose, cough, sore throat, a slight fever and body aches. He had also been using an albuterol inhaler for a cough, though O’Connor’s Monday letter did not mention that.
Biden is fully vaccinated and double-boosted, though at 79 years old, he’s considered to be in a high-risk age group for severe infection.
The White House has said that 17 people are considered close contacts of the president, though no other positive tests from the administration have been reported as of Monday morning.
Biden will continue working from the White House residence until he tests negative. He had to cancel trips to Pennsylvania and Florida after contracting the virus.
(PHOENIX) — Ahead of Arizona’s Aug. 2 primary, Republican voters in the battleground state say they remain torn over former President Donald Trump’s place in the party — as he and his estranged former Vice President Mike Pence support dueling candidates in the GOP governor’s primary.
At a banquet-style event in Peoria on Friday with roughly 350 guests, Pence joined a term-limited Gov. Doug Ducey and GOP secretary of state candidate Beau Lane to support gubernatorial hopeful Karrin Taylor Robson, a wealthy donor and former member of the Arizona Board of Regents widely seen as the establishment candidate.
On the heels of another prime-time Jan. 6 hearing, Pence only mentioned Trump once in his 21-minute speech to tout their accomplishments — careful not to break fully from the former president in public but taking a quick swipe at Trump’s chosen candidate, Kari Lake, saying, “There are those who want to make this election about the past.”
That day, at a rally across the state, Trump and Lake, a former TV journalist-turned-“Ultra MAGA mom,” called President Joe Biden’s victory “illegitimate” and likened the former president to “Superman” before an energized crowd of thousands.
In interviews with ABC News, voters at a Lake town hall on Saturday expressed frustration with Pence for supporting Robson and for fulfilling his constitutional duty to certify the 2020 presidential election.
“To me, it just reiterated my disappointment in Pence,” said LeAnna Perez, a teacher for deaf and hard-of-hearing students from Louisiana who moved to Arizona in February and will be voting in her first election in the state next week. “I’m done with Mike Pence. He’s proving who he truly is.”
A half-dozen Republicans in Arizona told ABC News that while they support Trump’s “America First” policies, they are split on whether he is the right person to deliver them in an already polarized political climate.
“Whoever he is sponsoring is going to have a hard time in the primary and in the general election,” said Anastasia Keller, a lifelong Republican, Arizonan and small business owner who supported Trump in 2020.
Keller added that she had relatives break off from him: “They really liked Trump and what he stood for, some of the things that he accomplished, but the mean tweets and the overall attitude — I just don’t think that he can bring the country together.”
Pence, formerly Trump’s loyal No. 2, has become one of the most prominent GOP politicians with a contrasting style — endorsing a range of local candidates even against the Trump-endorsed picks, as he did when he stumped for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp over primary challenger David Perdue.
Lake is the odds-on favorite for the gubernatorial nod, but Robson has seen a surge in polling in recent weeks with former Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon dropping out of the race to back her and blast Lake. But Lake would face an uphill battle in the general election in a state that has shifted blue, with the likely Democratic nominee, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, singling out Lake over Robson in most of her attack ads.
John Mendibles, the executive director of Arizona’s League of Veterans who is supporting Robson, told ABC News that Republicans “want level heads. We don’t want no more craziness.”
“We’ve got enough of that. That’s behind us,” Mendibles said, holding a Robson sign for the camera. “This is 2022; 2024 is coming.”
One outside strategist in the Arizona governor’s race argued that Trump’s brand in the state was tarnished given Democrats’ victories in the state in 2018 and 2020.
“Kari Lake embodies the Trump experience. … She has taken the Trump playbook and [tried] to replicate what Trump did nationally in Arizona,” said GOP strategist and lifelong Arizonan Barrett Marson. “But Trump lost in 2020 in Arizona.”
According to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, nearly half (49%) of Republicans said they wanted Trump to seek a second term. But the other half of those surveyed told the Times that they wanted someone else to get the Republican nomination in 2024 and 16% of GOP voters said they would never vote for Trump.
Voters at Lake’s event over the weekend said they would back Trump in 2024 — but also praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is at 25% among GOP primary voters, according to the Times poll.
Jason J. Baker, who works for DoorDash and a Christian film company, said Trump has his vote “unless there’s a candidate that just blows him away.”
“It would be kind of close for me, because I’m a huge supporter of Gov. DeSantis, and if [South Dakota] Gov. Kristi Noem was to ever run, she’d pretty much have my vote from the announcement,” Sanchez said.
(ST. LOUIS) — Nearly 2,500 Boeing workers are set to go on strike next month after voting down a union contract on Sunday.
Workers at three St. Louis-area plants will begin the strike on Aug. 1 after rejecting an offer that insufficiently compensated workers through its retirement plan, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, or IAMAW, told ABC News.
The contract included a $2 per hour increase in the base wage for all employees, which equates to an average 7.2% wage hike, Boeing said. Workers at the three St. Louis-area facilities make an average of $29.42 per hour, the union said.
The contract would also have improved the pace at which workers move up the wage scale and a deal would’ve included a $3,000 cash bonus for each worker if it had been ratified by Sunday, the company said.
In 2014, Boeing stopped offering a traditional pension plan for new hires, replacing it with a 401(k) that fails to adequately compensate workers, Jody Bennett, chief of staff of the IAMAW Aerospace Department, told ABC News.
“We cannot accept a contract that is not fair and equitable, as this company continues to make billions of dollars each year off the backs of our hardworking members,” IAMAW said in a statement.
“Boeing previously took away a pension from our members, and now the company is unwilling to adequately compensate our members’ 401(k) plan. We will not allow this company to put our members’ hard-earned retirements in jeopardy,” the union added.
The 401(k) plan offered in the contract features a dollar-for-dollar company match on 10% of a worker’s pay, Bennett said.
Plus, for the remainder of this year, the company will automatically put an amount equivalent to 4% of a worker’s pay into the 401(k), Bennett said. That automatic 401(k) investment from the company drops to 2% in 2023 and 2024 and is eliminated after 2024, he added.
“This is about that takeaway,” Bennett said. “We can’t recommend a takeaway.”
In a statement, Boeing lamented the union’s rejection of the contract.
“We are disappointed with Sunday’s vote to reject a strong, highly competitive offer,” the company said. “We are activating our contingency plan to support continuity of operations in the event of a strike.”
Boeing reported a loss of $1.2 billion in the first quarter of this year. The company brought in $62.2 billion revenue in 2021 after a resurgence in sales of its 737 MAX, which was grounded in 2019 after two crashes left 346 people dead. The Federal Aviation Agency lifted the grounding order in November 2020.
On Wednesday, the company will release earnings results for the second quarter.
“While it may be Boeing’s name that goes on those airplanes, it’s these people that do the work to make those airplanes,” IAMAW’s Bennett said.
(LONDON) — Prince Harry has scored an early victory in his legal battle to ensure he and his family are protected by security when they are in the U.K.
A judge in London ruled Friday that the uke of Sussex’s case can go to the High Court in London, meaning Harry, sixth in line to the British throne, will face off with the Home Office, which oversees immigration and security, in court.
Harry is fighting back against a 2020 decision by the government that denied his family police protection while in Britain after he and his wife Meghan, the duchess of Sussex, stepped down from roles as senior working roles.
At the time, the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures made a decision that security would be granted on a case-by-case basis.
Harry, who now lives in California with Meghan and their children Archie and Lilibet, has said he wants police protection for his family while on British soil and is willing to pay for the cost himself.
“He says that since birth, he’s been born into a world that requires a level security,” said Omid Scobie, ABC News royal contributor and the author of Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family. “Not just to keep himself safe, but also his extended family, the people he marries, the children he has.”
Harry has only returned to the U.K. a handful of times since moving in 2020.
He and Meghan made their first joint return to the U.K. in April, where they met briefly with Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, on their way to the Invictus Games.
The couple then returned with their children in June to celebrate the queen’s Platinum Jubilee, their first known trip to the U.K. as a family of four.
Archie, 3, was born in the U.K. but had not traveled back publicly with his parents since they moved to California in 2020.
Lilibet was born last June in Santa Barbara, California, making her the first senior royal baby born in the U.S., and the first great-grandchild of the queen to be born outside of the U.K.
Since moving to California, the Sussexes have relied on a privately-funded security team, but Harry’s legal team has said they hope to expand that soon.
The family’s current security situation is similar to that of Harry’s late mother Princess Diana who had to rely on private security protection after her divorce from Harry’s father Prince Charles in 1996.
One year later, in 1997, Diana died in a car crash in Paris after the car she was riding in was pursued by paparazzi.
“When Diana died, she didn’t have police protection. She had a private security team at that point,” said Victoria Murphy, ABC News royal contributor. “And I think it’s very clear that Prince Harry feels that the police protection is superior and that that is what he wants for his family.”
(NEW YORK) — Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved to a low-security federal prison in Florida to serve her 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
Maxwell, who has filed notice that she intends to appeal her conviction and sentence, is currently listed as an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee.
The facility is different than what Maxwell’s attorneys had requested. They asked that she serve her time in Danbury, Connecticut.
Maxwell, 60, was found guilty of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to recruit, groom and abuse minors.
The outgoing director of the BOP, Michael Carvajal, was subpoenaed to testify this week before a Senate panel and could face questions about Epstein’s suicide while in jail.
Maxwell’s defense attorneys had frequently complained about the conditions of her confinement at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where she was previously held, arguing she was subjected to harsh treatment because of her association with Epstein.
At the facility in Tallahassee, Maxwell will be expected to wake up at 6 a.m., make her bed, dress in khaki pants and khaki shirt and maintain a regular job assignment.
(NEW YORK) — As abortion laws across the South and Midwest block nearly all abortions in over a dozen states, some city politicians are seeking new ways to protect abortion access.
While city leaders can’t directly overturn state legislature, some are seeking city-wide bills to mitigate the effects of state bans.
Austin unites against Texas state law
On Thursday, Austin’s city council voted to enact the GRACE Act, which effectively decriminalizes abortion in the city. One council member, Mackenzie Kelly, was absent from the vote.
City policy will be updated to deprioritize the investigation or enforcement of any charges related to pregnancy and abortion.
While Austin is still under Texas’ abortion law that bans nearly all abortions in the state, the GRACE act aims to minimize criminal accountability for those who seek or provide abortions.
“Criminalizing abortions won’t make them go away. It only puts people of lower economic means and communities of color at risk by making seeking essential health care unsafe,” Council member Vanessa Fuentes told ABC News.
The legislation also blocks the use of city funding or other resources for information sharing, data collection and surveillance related to abortion services and other reproductive health decisions, according to District 4’s office.
The act, however, will not apply when “coercion or force” is used against a pregnant person or in cases of criminal negligence related to a pregnant person’s health, the office added.
Jenna Hanes, communications director for the District 4 office, said that council member Jose Vela believes abortion is just like any health care, and shouldn’t be limited by politics.
“Abortion being punishable by up to 99 years in the state of Texas is ridiculous, it’s a violation of human rights,” Hanes told ABC News.
The city unanimously passed another three measures on Thursday, all aimed to protect access to abortion.
One was a nondiscrimination ordinance, which does not allow a resident to be discriminated against in housing or employment based upon their previous reproductive choices.
Two other measures were introduced by the city’s mayor, Steve Adler, and passed by the council.
One is an awareness campaign regarding birth control options, including male-targeted options such as vasectomies. The second directs the city manager to explore options to assist city employees in traveling for any procedure they cannot obtain within Texas — including abortions.
“In Austin we stand together and fight for what is right. Reproductive rights and choice are fundamental rights,” Adler told ABC News.
New Orleans resistance meets state backlash
Some New Orleans officials have adopted similar measures, and are facing backlash from the state government for doing so, the New Orleans mayor’s office said.
Louisiana’s abortion laws are currently not in action, as a temporary order blocking enforcement was issued June 27 and has since been extended several times, with a state judge expected to hear arguments Tuesday, officials said.
If the laws are cleared by the judge, several New Orleans officials have pledged to resist enforcing the bans.
In June, the New Orleans City Council passed a resolution similar to the GRACE Act that prohibits public funds or resources from being used by local law enforcement to enforce the trigger ban, according to the mayor’s office.
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said his office will not prosecute abortion providers, and New Orleans Police Department and the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said they will not arrest nor investigate providers.
In opposition, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry called upon the state treasurer and his fellow members of the Bond Commission, a state agency that determines who can incur debt or levy taxes, to delay any applications and funding for New Orleans and Orleans Parish until officials agree to enforce the ban, according to a statement from Landry.
New Orleans mayor Latoya Cantrell said she will continue to fight to make New Orleans a safe haven for abortion access.
“As a Black woman, I understand the devastating impact these laws will have on our health and safety. We experience a higher maternal mortality rate than any other group and we cannot risk our reproductive health care decisions being forced out of our hands,” Cantrell told ABC News.
St. Louis leaders defy the state of Missouri
A similar circumstance exists in St. Louis, where Mayor Tishaura Jones signed a bill to direct $1 million in federal relief funds to support access to abortions on Thursday, according to the mayor’s press conference.
Hours later, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed suit to block the new law, issuing a statement that the law was “blatantly illegal.”
“I believe that abortion is healthcare and that healthcare is a human right. He does not,” Jones said. “I believe, and a majority of Missourians believe, reproductive health care decisions should stay between St. Louisans, their God, and their doctor. The attorney general does not.”
Earlier this week, the St. Louis County Council voted not to adopt a similar bill to use federal funding towards abortion resources following a nearly three-hour debate on Tuesday.
The effort, sponsored by Council members Lisa Clancy, D-5th District, and Kelli Dunaway, D-2nd District, faced a 4-3 vote at the end of the meeting, blocking it from enactment.
Clancy told ABC News that she sponsored this bill because “removing the ability to access this procedure is a fundamental violation of the freedom of women and other pregnant people to self-determine their health care decisions.”
Clancy said that two abortion clinics in neighboring Illinois are the most accessible for the St. Louis region. But, for those who don’t have transportation, lodging and child care, getting to those clinics remains nearly impossible.
“My bill will help to level the playing field among those who need abortions to actually get them by providing funding for the logistics required to get an abortion across state lines,” Clancy told ABC News.
District 6 Council member Ernie Trakas told ABC News that he does not believe it is legitimate to use such funds for abortion travel, and that passing such a bill would “most definitely result in suit being file by the Missouri Attorney General.”
(NEW YORK) — The sixth teenager in the 1989 Central Park jogger case, who pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, will be exonerated on Monday.
While the famous “Central Park 5” juveniles went to trial, a sixth teen, Steven Lopez, pleaded guilty to avoid the rape charge.
On Monday afternoon, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. is moving to vacate Lopez’s guilty plea and dismiss the indictment.
On the night of April 19, 1989, Trisha Meili was jogging in Central Park when she was raped, brutally beaten and left for dead. She survived and testified, but did not remember her assault.
Five teenagers — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise — had high-profile trials after they were taken into custody, hounded in police interrogations and ultimately gave false confessions.
Salaam, Santana and McCray were convicted of rape, assault and robbery. Wise was found guilty of sexual abuse, assault and riot, and Richardson was convicted of attempted murder, rape, sodomy, robbery, assault and riot.
In 2002, convicted rapist Matias Reyes confessed to being Meili’s sole attacker, and Reyes’ DNA was matched to the crime scene. The five men’s convictions were overturned and they later received a settlement from the city.
Lopez’s case is not as well known. Lopez, who was 15 when arrested and interrogated, took a deal with prosecutors to avoid the rape charge and pleaded guilty to robbing a male jogger the same night as the rape, according to The New York Times.
Lopez served over three years and didn’t receive settlement money, the Times reported.
ABC News’ Susan Welsh, Keren Schiffman and Enjoli Francis contributed to this report.
