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Jan. 6 committee chair Bennie Thompson tests positive for COVID-19

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, announced Tuesday he has COVID-19 two days ahead of a prime-time hearing Thursday.

“I tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, and I am experiencing mild symptoms,” Thompson said in a statement. “Gratefully, I am fully vaccinated and boosted. I am continuing to follow CDC guidelines and will be isolating for the next several days.”

Despite Thompson’s diagnosis, the committee’s next hearing later this week will go on as planned.

“While Chairman Thompson is disappointed with his COVID diagnosis, he has instructed the Select Committee to proceed with Thursday evening’s hearing,” a spokesperson for the committee said in a statement. “Committee members and staff wish the Chairman a speedy recovery.”

Thursday’s hearing will focus on former President Donald Trump’s response to the attack, zeroing in on the 187 minutes between his speech at the Ellipse and his statement later that day telling rioters to go home.

Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., told “GMA 3” last week that evidence shows Trump wasn’t emphatic in his call to the rioters to stop the violence.

Luria will be leading the hearing along with Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger.

“Mr. Kinzinger and I plan to go through that 187 minutes. What happened between the time that [Trump] left the stage, gave these inflammatory remarks and gave people the impression … that he was going to himself march with this crowd to the Capitol,” Luria said.

“[And] what happened between that moment and then around 4:17 in the afternoon, which is about 187 minutes later, when he finally made a statement to the nation, to the people at the Capitol to go home,” she added.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to former chief of staff Mark Meadows, previously testified that Trump was not empathetic to the violent language targeting his vice president during the riot — including calls to “hang Mike Pence.”

Two more aides in Trump’s White House are expected to testify before the panel, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.

Former deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews and Matthew Pottinger, a member of the National Security Council during the Trump administration, are slated to speak Thursday. Both officials resigned from their posts on Jan. 6, 2021.

Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, has opened each of the seven public hearings the committee has held since early June.

In his statement Tuesday, Thompson encouraged Americans to get vaccinated.

“The pandemic has impacted our lives, changed the way we work, and affected our daily activities,” he said. “Vaccinations are crucial to humanity. The message to unvaccinated Americans is to protect yourself from infectious diseases by getting vaccinated. We must continue to do our part.”

UK temperature tops 40 C for first time, as Heathrow passes 104 F

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — The U.K. on Tuesday posted its highest temperature on record, breaking 40 degrees Celsius for the first time, after government officials declared a national emergency and issued unprecedented health warnings.

“London Heathrow reported a temperature of 40.2°C at 12:50 today,” the Met Office said.

The Met Office earlier on Tuesday had provisionally recorded a record-breaking temperature of 39.1 degrees Celsius (102.38 Fahrenheit) in the village of Charlwood, England. Temperatures are likely to rise throughout the day, they said.

Monday night saw the U.K. experience the hottest night on record, the Met Office said.

For the first time, the Met Office has issued a “Red warning” in response to the extraordinary heat.

The heat wave in Britain, which has been linked to climate change, follows a weekend of wildfires and soaring deadly temperatures in France, Portugal and Spain.

Thousands have been forced to flee wildfires in southern France and Spain, and more than 1,000 deaths have been linked to the heat wave in Portugal and Spain since earlier in July by the countries’ respective health ministries. France could experience its hottest day on record on Monday, according to local media.

The previous hottest day on record in the U.K. stands at 38.7 C (101.6 F.) But that is expected to be surpassed on Tuesday, with temperatures reaching 40°C (104 F) in parts of the U.K.

“Nights are also likely to be exceptionally warm, especially in urban areas,” the Met Office’s Chief Meteorologist Paul Gundersen said in a statement. “This is likely to lead to widespread impacts on people and infrastructure. Therefore, it is important people plan for the heat and consider changing their routines. This level of heat can have adverse health effects.”

Government scientists have warned that the frequency, intensity and duration of similar heat waves will increase in the coming century as the world continues to experience the effects of climate change.

“We hoped we wouldn’t get to this situation but for the first time ever we are forecasting greater than 40°C in the U.K.,” Dr. Nikos Christidis, a climate attribution scientist at the Met Office, said. “Climate change has already influenced the likelihood of temperature extremes in the U.K. The chances of seeing 40°C days in the UK could be as much as 10 times more likely in the current climate than under a natural climate unaffected by human influence.”

Despite the heat, schools are expected to remain open. However, there are concerns that U.K. infrastructure is ill-equipped to deal with such weather events. While offices are generally equipped with air-conditioning, only a small number of homes have air-conditioning units.

One Met Office meteorologist, Steven Keates, warned that the heat was not something to celebrate.

“This is not just another heatwave,” Keates told The Telegraph. “This is dangerous heat, because we’re not used to it. It’s simple –our infrastructure is not geared up for weather like this.”

“Do as little as possible,” he added. “Because heat is fatiguing and we are in slightly uncharted territory.”

Biden to sign executive order on Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will sign an executive order on Tuesday that codifies a 2020 law dealing with Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad.

Drawing on the 2020 Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, the new executive order will reinforce the U.S. government’s efforts to support families of Americans wrongfully detained or held hostage overseas, according to the White House.

The order will authorize the federal government to impose financial sanctions on those who are involved — directly or indirectly — in wrongful detaining Americans abroad, the White House said. Moreover, government agencies will be directed to improve engagement with those Americans’ families, including sharing intelligence information about their loved ones and the government’s efforts to free them. The order will also charge experts across agencies with developing “options and strategies to deter future hostage-takings,” the White House said.

A senior Biden administration official told reporters that new sanctions will not be announced on Tuesday.

In addition to the executive order, Biden will introduce a new “risk indicator” — “the ‘D’ indicator” — to the U.S. Department of State’s travel advisories for particular countries to alert Americans of the risk of wrongful detention by a foreign government, according to the White House.

Starting Tuesday, the first countries to receive this additional risk indicator will be China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela, another senior administration official told reporters. The “D” indicator joins the existing “K” indicator that covers the risk of kidnapping and hostage-taking by non-state actors, as well as a range of other existing risk indicators.

China’s “D” risk designation may spark ire in Beijing, where Chinese officials have largely tried to avoid the subject of wrongful detentions and where Western sanctions are a constant trigger.

Experts estimate that roughly 200 Americans are arbitrarily jailed in China, and that even more are subject to unlawful “exit bans,” barring them from leaving the country. Some advocates have pushed for the Biden administration to take a more vocal approach to secure their freedom, rather than the standard behind-the-scenes diplomacy. But the State Department has recently tried a similar strategy — updating their official advisory to American and instructing them to reconsider travel plans to China due to “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.”

Syria, with which the United States does not currently have formal diplomatic relations, will be notably excluded from the “D” risk designation on Tuesday. U.S. officials believe that while the Syrian government may not be currently holding American journalist Austin Tice in its custody, it could have valuable information on his whereabouts and perhaps those of other missing Americans. Tice, 40, was abducted in Syria nearly 10 years ago.

The White House recently held a telephone call for the relatives of detained Americans to share information with them about these new announcements. Some of them are in Washington, D.C., this week for the unveiling of a mural depicting their loved ones, according to a spokesperson for many of the families, Jonathan Franks.

Franks, who represents a group called the Bring Our Families Home Campaign, accused U.S. officials of holding a “one-way conversation with families” and ignoring their requests to meet with Biden.

The public mural in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood will depict the faces of 18 American hostages and wrongful detainees, according to Franks. Among those featured will be American basketball star Brittney Griner, 31, and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, 52, both of whom remain detained in Russia, as well as U.S. permanent resident Paul Rusesabagina, 68, who inspired the acclaimed 2004 film Hotel Rwanda and was sentenced last September to 25 years in Rwandan prison over terrorism charges.

Franks accused the White House of rolling out these new steps in order to “pre-manage the press attention from many hostage families being in D.C. this week to unveil their mural,” saying “the White House is taking executive action to direct itself to follow existing law.”

The White House declined to comment in response to Franks.

According to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, there are actually 64 publicly known cases of Americans being held hostage or wrongfully detained around the world.

Heat-related deaths top 1,100 in Spain, Portugal amid heat wave and wildfires

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As Western Europe experiences a record-breaking heat wave, Spain and Portugal have reported at least 1,169 heat-related deaths, according to each country’s ministry of health.

At least 510 people died from heat-related issues in Spain between July 10 and July 18, the country’s health ministry said. Of those deaths, 273 were recorded on Friday, officials said. Another 659 heat-related deaths were recorded in Portugal between July 7 and July 17, local officials said.

Thousands of firefighters were having trouble containing forest fires in France, Spain and Portugal that have destroyed thousands of acres of land. The fires have forced thousands of people to evacuate to safety, as extreme heat grips the region.

In southern France, more than 14,000 people were forced to flee as fires spread to more than 27,180 acres of land. The country’s Interior Ministry also issued red alerts for heat waves for 15 French departments and orange alerts for 51 departments on Sunday.

France, reached a high of 40.8 degrees Celsius — 105.44 Fahrenheit — on Sunday. Temperatures remained high on Monday and Tuesday, but were expected to break by Wednesday.

The number of people who died of heat-related deaths is unknown, but France’s Ministry of Health told ABC News that information on the number of casualties will be released at the end of the month.

Firefighters in Spain were fighting 30 active fires, mostly in Castilla y Leon, Galicia and Andalusia, Interior Ministry and Catalan Authorities said.

Temperatures on Sunday were forecast to reach 42 C (107.6 F) in three provinces in the country, prompting the state meteorological agency to issue “extreme risk” alerts.

In Mijas, Spain, in the municipality of Malaga, 3,000 people have fled due to fires. More than 22,000 acres of land are at risk of being burned in the Mijas province as firefighters struggle to contain the flames.

Wildfires are happening earlier in the season, ending later and becoming more frequent because of climate change, the European Union said in a report last year.

“Climate change is aggravating the situation, making countries more prone to wildfires and increasing the intensity of such events,” the report said.

The sweltering heat is also expected to take hold of other parts of Europe in the coming days. Areas of England are expected to hit 40 C (104 F) on Tuesday.

“This year, for the first time, we’ve issued a severe weather emergency response in summer,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan said.

Ukrainians are being forcibly deported to Russian ‘filtration camps’

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Eduard Mkrtchian, injured during Russian shelling of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, said he was forced to evacuate and, at a Russian-controlled checkpoint, said he was given false information and forced to travel into Russia.

He told officials he wanted to go to western Ukraine, to a city called Zaporizhzhia, but was told “there’s no Zaporizhzhia anymore,” he said in an interview with ABC News’ Ines de La Cuetara.

Instead, he was brought to a so-called “filtration camp,” a checkpoint in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine where reports have emerged of people being interrogated for hours, their biometric data being recorded and their photos on their phones wiped.

He said he was repeatedly misled, and brought deeper and deeper into Russia.

“I was deceivingly taken to Russia,” he told ABC News.

The U.S. Department of State estimates that between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, have been “interrogated, detained, and forcibly deported” to Russia, adding that “the unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and is a war crime.”

There are at least 18 “filtration camps” that have been set-up along the Russia-Ukraine border, according to Michael Carpenter, the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

During his interrogation, Mkrtchian says, “they asked me to undress. They asked me the meaning of every tattoo on my body.”

“They deliberated a long time whether or not to let me go. I realized that they could kill me here,” he said.

“You have to fill out a form. There are different questions. For example – do you have relatives in the armed forces of Ukraine, do you know about the location of Ukrainian military bases, and so on,” said Mariupol resident Ruslan Bojko, who says he spent four days at a “filtration camp.”

ABC News spoke with Bojko on a reappropriated cruise ship in Tallinn, Estonia, that now houses more 1,800 Ukrainian refugees.

“These people don’t have a choice, they have to comply,” Tanya Lokshina, Europe and Central Asia associate director for Human Rights Watch, told ABC News. “The de facto choice, the only option that they have, is to remain in the streets and die under shelling.”

According to a statement released on Wednesday by the U.S. Department of State, “evidence is mounting that Russian authorities are also reportedly detaining or disappearing thousands of Ukrainian civilians who do not pass ‘filtration.’”

“There are very strong grounds to believe that those individuals detained by them experience ill treatment and even torture,” said Lokshina.

“The woman who was sitting next to me in the filtration camp, her husband had been gone for two weeks. He was taken away for filtration and not returned. There were at least 10 women I spoke with who had similar stories,” said Mkrtchian.

Russia has acknowledged that it is resettling Ukrainian refugees, yet claims it is for “humanitarian” reasons.

After spending time in a refugee camp in Russia, Mkrtchian eventually traveled across Russia to Estonia where he now lives, awaiting the opportunity to return to Ukraine.

“How can I stay in a country that destroyed my life?” he said.

Second half of 2021 sees first increase of births since pandemic: CDC

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — After months of declining births during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of babies born may be rebounding in the United States, a new federal report finds.

The report, published early Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found there was a 4% increase in births for the second half of 2021 compared to the same period the year before.

Between July 2021 and December 2021, 1,905,953 babies were born compared to 1,830,523 babies born from July 2020 to December 2020, according to the CDC.

This marks the first increase in births seen since 2014, the researchers noted.

For the report, the authors looked at birth certificate data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, including final birth counts from 2019 and 2020, as well as provisional data for 2021.

Results showed that, when comparing 2020 counts to those of 2019, births declined in both the first and second halves of the year at 2% and 5%, respectively.

Additionally, compared to the first half of 2020, there was a 2% decrease in births in the first half of 2021.

January 2021 and February 2021 saw the biggest declines in births, at 9% and 2%, respectively.

Meanwhile, July 2021 to December 2021 recorded increases in births between 1% and 7% in comparison with July 2020 to December 2020. November 2021 and December 2021 saw the largest increases, at 6% and 7%, respectively, data showed.

Researchers also looked at changes in births based on the race and ethnicity of the mother.

During the first year of the pandemic, all races and ethnicities saw decreases in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. The same trend continued in the first half of the year in 2021, with declines of between 2% and 8% for women in nearly all groups.

However, for the second half of 2021, increases were seen across multiple groups. Hispanic women saw the largest increase in births at 6%, followed by white women at 4% and Asian women at 3%, the report found.

Other groups — including Black women, American Indian/Alaskan Native women and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander women — did not see significant changes in the number of births during the second six months of 2021.

The report also looked at changes in the number of births by state. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia recorded a decline in births in the first half of 2021 compared to the first half of 2020, while only four states saw increases, the CDC report found.

Similarly, when comparing the first six months of 2019 to the same period in 2020, the number of births declined for 20 states.

However, in the second half of 2021, births increased for 39 states compared to the second half of 2020, with the largest increase seen in Connecticut at 10%.

Other significant increases were seen in New Hampshire at 9%, as well as Florida, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont at 8% each. Declines were seen in only two states: Arizona and New Mexico.

The authors note that despite the increase in births in 2021 compared to the year prior, the overall number — 3,659,289 — was still 2% lower than the 3,747,540 recorded in 2019.

“The difference in trends observed between the first two months of the year and the last seven months suggests that the downward trend seen in 2020 through the beginning of 2021 may have abated,” the authors wrote. “Ongoing evaluation of trends in births by month will monitor whether the changes observed for the second six months of 2021 will continue into the next year.”

The CDC did not immediately return ABC News’ request for comment.

Macy’s brings back Toys ‘R’ Us in time for the holidays

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A classic toy superstore is being brought back to life ahead of the holiday season.

Macy’s, in partnership with Toys “R” Us parent company WHP Global, announced Monday that it plans to bring the Toys “R” Us brand to every Macy’s store in the U.S. for the holiday season.

The rollout of the new pop-up stores is set to begin in late July, with all locations expected to be complete by Oct. 15, according to a press release. In-store shops will vary in size, but span up to 10,000 square feet in flagship locations like Atlanta, Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco.

Toys “R” Us, a beloved toy chain, liquidated its U.S. stores in 2018 after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2017. The brick-and-mortar toy megastore buckled under the competition from online retailers like Amazon.

According to a recent report by the U.S. Commerce Department, U.S. retail sales rebounded more strongly than expected in June, even amid historically soaring inflation. Retail sales rose 1% last month, and revised data from May showed sales falling only 0.1% instead of 0.3%, as previously reported.

As to where it stands, retail sales are 18% above pre-pandemic marks, according to data collected by Mastercard.

Since last summer, Toys “R” Us products have been available at Macy’s exclusively online. In Macy’s reported earnings for the first quarter of 2022, the retailer recorded that toy sales were 15 times higher than before its partnership with Toys “R” Us.

“Macy’s cannot wait to bring the Toys ‘R’ Us experience to life in our stores,” said Nata Dvir, Macy’s chief merchandising officer, in part of a statement. “The customer response to our partnership with Toys ‘R’ Us has been incredible and our toy business has seen tremendous growth.”

Man arrested after attempting to access closed roadway near first lady Biden’s motorcade

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A man was arrested after allegedly attempting to access a roadway closed off for first lady Jill Biden’s motorcade, according to the United States Secret Service.

The man was charged with assault on police, failure to obey, crossing a police line and resisting arrest, officials said.

“A man was arrested near the White House after attempting to access a roadway that was temporarily closed due to a protectee motorcade,” the Secret Service told ABC News. “The individual struggled with uniform division officers and was ultimately placed into custody. Two officers were sent to an area hospital for evaluation following the minor physical confrontation.”

The first lady’s office declined to comment on Tuesday.

Story developing…

FDA approves new therapy for people living with skin-discoloration disorder Vitiligo

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted approval on Monday for Opzelura, which is the first topical JAK inhibitor cream for the treatment of vitiligo for people 12 and older.

Vitiligo, which research estimates that 1.9-2.8 million adults in the U.S. have, is an autoimmune disorder caused by antibodies that attack a person’s pigment-producing cells. This causes patches of skin to lose color and become almost chalk white.

“There’s a large unmet medical need here in vitiligo,” Dr. Steven Stein, chief medical officer at Incyte, told ABC News. “This opens a completely new door, new avenue for them and for patients who want therapy to repigment.”

“With the approval of Opzelura in nonsegmental vitiligo, Incyte has once again delivered a treatment to patients with high unmet medical need who previously had no approved therapies,” Hervé Hoppenot, Incyte’s chief executive officer, said in a press release. “We are proud of Incyte’s scientists and development teams that have made this milestone possible, and we’re pleased that eligible vitiligo patients now have a choice to address repigmentation.”

The discoloration doesn’t usually cause a medical risk but can result in physical complications, such as eye issues, hearing problems and severe sunburn. It also can be challenging to deal with people’s reactions.

“Growing up with vitiligo has been pretty hard. Going around people seeing you with white patches. It’s very stressful that people judge you from your skin,” Berardo Rivas, a 41-year-old who’s been living with vitiligo for over 30 years, told ABC News. “It was traumatizing growing up.”

Rivas said he had minimal success with other treatments prior to joining the clinical trial for Opzelura, but he told ABC News he first started to see positive results after four months and more noticeable results in 1 year.

“My wife looked at me. She stared at me and she’s said, you know, you have pigment back on your eyes and I was like, I didn’t believe her. So I ran straight to the mirror. And I saw it … I was just jumping with joy. It’s like, oh, it’s working. You know, thank God,” he said.

Vitiligo can’t be cured and it’s difficult to control. Oral and topical steroids are a common treatment for vitiligo before this FDA approval, but most are not a long term solution, experts told ABC News.

“Since long-term use of steroids has a lot of side effects, dermatologists are always looking for steroid-sparing agents.” Dr. Mansha Sethi, a board-certified dermatologist in Houston, who was not involved in the clinical trial, told ABC News.

Doctors may also try phototherapy, which stimulates cells to make skin pigment, but this option is not always easy to implement as it can be expensive and involves going into an office equipped with phototherapy devices multiple times a week, every week.

“Emerging topical JAK-inhibitors, like Ruxolitinib (Opzelura), are a promising option,” Sethi said. “I personally have used JAK inhibitors off-label for several patients with vitiligo. Since it’s off-label, patients have to spend hundreds of dollars out of pocket to buy them from compounding pharmacies.”

But now, with FDA approval, insurance companies are expected to begin covering this prescription drug.

It’s difficult to predict how much the medication will cost depending on the plan you have, but as is common with pharmaceuticals, Dr. Stein says that Incyte plans to “provide copay cards that will limit the out-of-pocket cost to patients to hopefully as little as $10 or less.” And the company has a program that some may qualify to get Opzelura for free called IncyteCARES.

Dr. David Rosmarin, director of the Clinical Trials Unit at Tufts, and the principal investigator for the Opzelura vitiligo clinical trials, told ABC News he started searching for better treatments in 2013.

“We realized that the immune system is too active destroying the pigment cells,” he said.

He wondered if, Opzelura, which was already FDA approved for the treatment of mild to moderate eczema, would be able to stop the immune system from attacking the pigment.

It works as a JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor that targets specific immune system pathways specific to vitiligo.

Opzelura was tested in two Phase 3 clinical trials, which enrolled over 600 men and women ages 12 and older.

Results of the trial showed “Adolescent and adult patients with vitiligo achieved substantial facial and total body re-pigmentation within 24 to 52 weeks of therapy.”

Half of all participants had 75% improvement of their facial vitiligo after one year using the study’s measurement of repigmentation.

Rosmarin said the side effects were well tolerated.

“Six percent of patients will get some acne, which is usually mild. And about 6% can have an application site reaction, which could be some redness,” Rosmarin said. “It has a very favorable safety profile, topical easy to use, and has proven to work very consistently.”

The medication requires a prescription and is applied as a cream to clean skin on areas affected by vitiligo twice a day.

Sparks fly at Uvalde school board forum as community demands transparency, accountability

July 19, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(UVALDE, Texas) — Emotions reached a roiling boiling point Monday during an open forum hosted by the school board in Uvalde, Texas, just one day after a 77-page report by a joint committee of the Texas Legislature slammed the police response to the incident and the school district’s lack of preparation for such an attack.

A special public forum held by the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Board to allow community members to ask questions and voice concerns about the changes and updates for the 2022-2023 school year — including safety and security plans — quickly became a tinder box of emotion and anger.

Community members resoundingly said they want former Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo — currently on paid administrative leave — fired immediately. As the May 24 massacre unfolded, Arredondo allegedly failed to take on the role of incident commander or transfer the responsibility to another officer on scene, despite it being an “essential duty” he had assigned himself in the active shooter plan he helped write, the committee said.

Many called for members of Uvalde’s school district police force who were present during the shooting to be fired, for an independent investigation into the Robb Elementary School failures, and for answers and transparency about their specific concerns following the report.

On Monday night, parents threatened to pull their kids from Uvalde schools come September, and several also called for Uvalde CISD Superintendent Dr. Hal Harrell to resign.

The community also wanted answers on what was known about the Robb Elementary School door being locked or not.

“In violation of school policy, no one had locked any of the three exterior doors to the west building of Robb Elementary. As a result, the attacker had unimpeded access to enter,” the committee reported.

The committee also faulted the school district for failing to treat the maintenance of doors with known faulty locks with “appropriate urgency.”

Speakers at the forum also called for an independent investigation into the massacre. The group was united, calling several times to stand up together — to be courageous and voice their truth.

After apologizing in his introduction for not having held a forum like this sooner, Harrell, sitting on stage alongside the full school board, opened the floor to questions.

“First of all, I just want to say last time y’all had us on a time limit of sorts, and that’s not going to fly today,” said Brett Cross, the uncle of Uziyah Garcia. “There’s no other way to put it. We have a lot to say, and we won’t be silenced and we won’t be stopped. So if y’all had the idea of a time limit, it’s not going to get followed this time.”

Cross was referencing a press conference held by the special committee report Sunday on the failed police response to the shooting that saw 19 children and two teachers killed. Families were invited to attend and ask questions Sunday, and those invited — including the media and families — had to fill out compulsory paperwork required by the committee to ask a question. Many members of the community did, but due to time constraints, they were not given the opportunity to ask their questions.

Before the forum began Monday, attendees from the community sporting “Uvalde Strong” matching shirts placed photos of the victims on the seats in the front row facing the school board members.

When later asked by Cross if Arredondo was going to be fired, Harrell said, “That will be a decision… We will take the report into consideration, it will be a closed session.”

“I’ll tell you this: If he’s not fired by noon tomorrow, then I want your resignation and every single one of you board members,” Cross responded.

Vincente Salazar, the grandfather of Layla Salazar, addressed the school board saying, “Your system failed these families” and “it didn’t save our children. Your closed sessions that… didn’t save our children.”

“What we need to do now is put families in your sessions so we know what’s going on, what’s going on. And the way you’re spending your money for the security of our children,” Salazar continued. “We pay over 40% of the city budget for the school and for the police, and you hired trash. That’s not right.”

“I lost a loved one right here. My only granddaughter, I can hold myself together now because I’ve done my crime. Now it’s time to do my fighting. And you have seen me in the papers and you will see me in the papers a lot more. Because this isn’t the end. This is just the beginning of a war that you guys created for our children,” he added, to cheers from community members in the crowd.

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