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More victims suspected after California man charged with kidnapping, torturing woman

June 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — Authorities say they believe a man accused of holding a woman captive at his California home and torturing her for several months may have other victims.

Peter Anthony McGuire, 59, was arrested Saturday after a woman reportedly told deputies he had been holding her against her will at his Chino Hills residence.

The Chino Hills Police Department released a photograph of McGuire on Thursday “as it is believed there may be additional victims of criminal acts committed by McGuire.”

Soon after moving into the house, the victim “was not allowed to leave,” San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Mara Rodriguez told ABC Los Angeles station KABC.

“She was held there against her will by him and at that point was subjected to multiple assaults,” Rodriguez said.

The victim managed to escape the home on the evening of June 9 and fled to nearby Alterra Park, where a bystander called 911 to get aid for her, authorities said.

She claimed that McGuire held her against her will for six months and raped, tortured and disfigured her, authorities said.

“The victim had visible injuries consistent with the allegations made,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.

Deputies executed a search warrant at the residence and recovered evidence, authorities said. McGuire was arrested on Saturday after allegedly fleeing to a home in Placentia, in neighboring Orange County. He surrendered after temporarily barricading himself inside, the sheriff’s department said.

The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office filed 10 felony charges against McGuire, including kidnapping, false imprisonment by violence, torture, mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon and forcible rape.

On the charge of mayhem, the criminal complaint stated that the suspect “did unlawfully and maliciously deprive Jane/John Doe of a member of the body and did disable, disfigure and render it useless and did cut and disable the tongue, and put out an eye and slit the nose, ear and lip of said person.”

McGuire pleaded not guilty to all charges earlier this week and is being held without bail. He is due back in court next month, KABC reported.

The victim was being treated at a hospital for her injuries, prosecutors said earlier this week.

Neighbors in Chino Hills said the suspect hardly talked to anyone.

“Honestly, it’s very frightening, it is very frightening to know that somebody like that lived three doors away,” Connie Ray told KABC.

Authorities are now urging others who are a victim of the suspect or have information about the case to contact the sheriff’s department or their local law enforcement agency if they are outside of San Bernardino County.

Thousands of flights canceled as busy summer travel season heats up

June 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Airlines are scrambling to recover after cancelling more than 2,800 flights since Thursday as severe weather pushed through the Northeast.

The majority of the cancellations and delays happened Thursday as storms passed through. The disruptions then bled into Friday as carriers worked to recover from the travel mess.

Airports that experienced the most cancellations were the New York City area airports, Charlotte Douglas International Airport and Boston Logan International Airport, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.

Airline executives met with Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Thursday to discuss how to prevent widespread cancellations and delays ahead of the July 4 holiday.

Buttigieg pressed airlines over their ability to reliably operate holiday flight schedules and asked them to improve customer experience, a source familiar with the meeting told ABC News.

The secretary also said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would continue to keep air traffic smooth and on schedule after criticism from some industry groups that FAA ground stops and delays caused by weather and staffing issues resulted in many delays over Memorial Day Weekend.

The FAA says it is working to hire more air traffic controllers for its facilities as it has had to reduce air traffic in some of the busiest airspace due daily staffing shortages.

Dominion’s 2020 election lawsuit against Newsmax to move forward, judge rules

June 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — As the Jan. 6 committee continues to lay out its evidence surrounding the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, a federal judge on Thursday ruled that a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion — a voting machine company at the heart of a number of “Big Lie” conspiracy theories — against far-right news outlet Newsmax is allowed to proceed.

Judge Eric M. Davis denied Newsmax’s motion to dismiss the $1.6 billion civil suit. In the original complaint filed in August, Dominion said Newsmax “helped create and cultivate an alternate reality where up is down, pigs have wings, and Dominion engaged in a colossal fraud to steal the presidency from Donald Trump by rigging the vote.”

At the first Jan. 6 hearing last week, former Attorney General Bill Barr said the baseless allegations that Dominion machines switched votes from Joe Biden to Trump were “complete nonsense” and “amongst the most disturbing.”

“I told them it was crazy stuff and they were wasting their time on it, and they were doing a great disservice to the country,” Barr said of the Dominion conspiracy theories, which were consistently pushed by Trump and his allies. “I saw absolutely zero basis for the allegations, but they were made in such a sensational way that they obviously were influencing a lot of people.”

Dominion has filed a number of defamation suits against those it says helped pushed the false accusations that it helped rig the 2020 election, including Rudy Giuliani and Fox News. Last year, a judge similarly denied requests from Giuliani, attorney Sidney Powell, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to throw out the Dominion suits against them.

Dominion, in its complaint against Newsmax, alleged that Newsmax “manufactured, endorsed, repeated, and broadcast a series of verifiably false yet devastating lies about Dominion.”

In a statement responding to the ruling, a Newsmax spokesperson said they were “not surprised by the judge’s decision as this was a preliminary motion and he made a very similar ruling in the Fox News case,” then went on to defend its coverage of the 2020 election.

“Newsmax reported on both sides in the election dispute without making any claim about the results other than saying they were ‘legal and final,'” the statement said. “We are confident that Newsmax will ultimately prevail given the strong First Amendment protections provided to ensure free speech and a free press.”

Last year, Newsmax retracted some its reporting surrounding the 2020 election as part of a settlement after it was sued by a Dominion employee in a separate suit.

Referring to allegations that Dominion had schemed to rig the election in favor of Biden, the network reported that it “subsequently found no evidence that such allegations were true.”

What the interest rate hike means for homebuyers

June 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A difficult year for many homebuyers became even tougher when the Federal Reserve dramatically raised borrowing costs this week in an effort to tame sky-high inflation, experts told ABC News.

For months, homebuyers have faced the dual challenges of skyrocketing mortgage rates and continued growth in home prices.

Since mid-March, when the Federal Reserve instituted its first rate hike of the year, the average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage has jumped from 4.45% to 6.11%, according to Mortgage News Daily. Meanwhile, the median price for existing single-family homes rose 15.7% over the first three months of 2022 compared with the same period last year, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.

The Fed’s decision on Wednesday to raise interest rates by 0.75%, its largest hike since 1994, will further increase mortgage rates and push many homebuyers out of the market, slowing home price increases but intensifying demand in the rental market, experts said.

“It’s got a huge impact,” Mark Stapp, a professor of real estate at Arizona State University, told ABC News. “It’s going to bump a lot of people out of homebuying.”

To be sure, rates for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages do not move in direct correlation with the Fed’s benchmark interest rate. Instead, mortgage rates trace the ups and downs of the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds, which responds to a host of indicators such as inflation and the outlook for the economy as well as interest rates.

Over the past week, as new inflation data showed a reacceleration of price hikes and observers expected the Federal Reserve to escalate its fight to dial back cost increases, mortgage rates increased more than they have over any week since 1987, according to a Freddie Mac survey released on Thursday.

Steep mortgage rate increases significantly elevate the monthly cost of homes, shutting out many buyers, decreasing overall demand, and affording leverage to the buyers who remain, experts said.

Mortgage rates will continue to increase at least moderately and could reach as high as 7%, some experts said.

“A month ago, I would’ve thought that 7% would be outlandish and it would be delusional to think they could go that high,” Holden Lewis, a housing expert at personal-finance site NerdWallet, told ABC News. “Now I think okay, well, 7% might be possible.”

“Every time I think they’ll stop, they keep going up,” he added.

At the outset of the year, when the rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage stood at 3.25%, buyers who could afford a $1,500 per month spend on the home principal plus interest, could borrow enough to afford a $345,000 home, Lewis said. At the current rate, roughly 6%, the same homebuyers can borrow about $250,000, reducing borrowing capacity by about $95,000, he added.

“As mortgage rates increase, the monthly payment you can afford can buy less house,” he said.

The mortgage rate hikes disproportionately impact buyers on the fringe of the housing market, such as people seeking their first home, said D. Sam Chandan, a professor of finance and director of the Center for Real Estate Finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

“We’ve seen a significant deterioration in housing affordability over the course of this year,” he said. “In particular for the aspirational first-time home buyer in many markets around the country.”

Forecasters expect a decline in home purchases this year, which should slow price increases, experts said. Total home sales are expected to drop 13.5% to 5.96 million units in 2022, according to Fannie Mae data released this month.

But the supply of homes will also likely decline, as sellers wait for a more favorable market, moderating the price relief expected from waning demand, Chandan said. Further, declining interest in the market for home purchases will spike demand and potentially raise prices in the rental market, he added.

In the short term, a possible rental price hike would coincide with a persistent rise in prices for essentials like fuel and groceries, straining household budgets, Chandan said.

“We find ourselves in a place where apartment rents are increasing faster than many families’ incomes are growing,” he said. “The deterioration in affordability for many income-constrained families is forcing a very tough choice in having to spend less on education, clothing, healthcare and food in order to pay rent.”

Texas committee investigating shooting visits Robb Elementary school

June 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(UVALDE, Texas) — Members of the Texas House committee investigating the Uvalde school shooting visited Robb Elementary School on Friday, according to the committee’s chair.

The school’s superintendent, Hall Harrell, arranged for the committee to go into the school, Rep. Dustin Burrows, the committee chair, said.

Last month, 19 students and two teachers were killed after a gunman walked in through an unlocked door and opened fire in the school. This was the deadliest shooting in Texas public school history.
Uvalde police have come under intense scrutiny as the narrative of what happened on the day of the shooting has shifted. It was later revealed that the shooter was in the school for 77 minutes before officers shot and killed him.

The three-person committee is meeting with teachers and several Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police officers behind closed doors.

In public remarks, Burrows said he met with a family member of one of the victims and discussed why the sessions were happening behind closed doors.

“Before this committee is willing to announce what we believe is to be factual, accurate information, we want to hear from all sides and all different viewpoints and get together before the three of us put our signatures and names on something … that is truthful and accurate,” Burrows said.

“I’m not telling you this is the perfect way to go about doing it, by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s the way we know that we feel works and we believe in it,” he added.

Burrows said the committee is continuing to have dialogue with the Uvalde police department and said he hopes the committee will get to interview officers who were on the scene.

Revlon has filed for bankruptcy after 90 years in business

June 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Revlon has officially filed for bankruptcy.

The 90-year-old cosmetics giant announced on Thursday that the company voluntarily petitioned for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Like many other companies, the company has been faced with ongoing global challenges that specifically point to supply chain and rising inflation issues, in addition to the brand’s continued obligations to its lenders.

This legal proceeding was filed with the intention to allow Revlon to strategically reorganize its legacy capital structure and improve its long-term outlook.

“Today’s filing will allow Revlon to offer our consumers the iconic products we have delivered for decades, while providing a clearer path for our future growth,” said Debra Perelman, Revlon’s president and chief executive officer, in a statement. “Consumer demand for our products remains strong — people love our brands, and we continue to have a healthy market position. But our challenging capital structure has limited our ability to navigate macro-economic issues in order to meet this demand.”

With court approval, the company said it could receive $575 million in debtor-in-possession financing from its existing lender base. In addition to its existing working capital, this will provide the company with more financial support for day-to-day operations, it said.

“By addressing these complex legacy debt constraints, we expect to be able to simplify our capital structure and significantly reduce our debt, enabling us to unlock the full potential of our globally recognized brand,” said Perelman.

Revlon was founded in New York City in 1932 by brothers Charles and Joseph Revson and chemist Charles Lachman. In 2016, it was acquired by Elizabeth Arden and its portfolio brands.

Today, Revlon has grown to include cosmetics, skincare, fragrance and personal care. Some of the company’s sister brands include Almay, Creme of Nature, celebrity fragrances from Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and more.

84-year-old man, 75-year-old woman shot dead at church meeting in Alabama

June 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(VESTAVIA HILLS, Ala.) — An 84-year-old man and a 75-year-old woman were shot dead at a small church group meeting in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, Thursday night, authorities said.

The suspect — a 71-year-old man who occasionally attended Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church — is in custody, Vestavia Hills Police said at a news conference Friday.

The gunman also wounded an 84-year-old woman, police said.

The suspect was at the church event when he took out a handgun and opened fire, police said. A motive is not clear, police said.

An event attendee subdued the suspect until police arrived, which authorities said helped save lives.

The suspect acted alone, police said.

Vestavia Hills Mayor Ashley Curry said the community, located about 7 miles outside of Birmingham, is “close-knit, resilient” and “loving.”

FDA authorizes Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines for kids as young as 6 months

June 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for kids as young as six months old, finding them both safe and effective.

“Many parents, caregivers and clinicians have been waiting for a vaccine for younger children and this action will help protect those down to 6 months of age. As we have seen with older age groups, we expect that the vaccines for younger children will provide protection from the most severe outcomes of COVID-19, such as hospitalization and death,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a press release Friday.

This comes after the FDA’s committee of independent experts voted to recommend the Moderna vaccine for kids under 6, which is a two-dose vaccine, and the Pfizer vaccine for kids under 5, which is a three-dose vaccine, on Wednesday. Both votes were unanimous.

The final step in the process is a recommendation from CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, after which shots can be administered in doctors’ offices, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies and other locations.

The FDA authorization means the federal government can begin shipping doses out to states to get ready to go in arms.

“Those trusted with the care of children can have confidence in the safety and effectiveness of these COVID-19 vaccines and can be assured that the agency was thorough in its evaluation of the data,” Califf said in the Friday statement.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

New video released in mysterious disappearance of pregnant postal worker Kierra Coles

June 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(CHICAGO) — Chicago authorities have released new information in the unsolved disappearance of postal worker Kierra Coles, including footage of a “person of interest” in Coles’ car, who police say gave “varying accounts of the last time he saw her.”

Coles vanished without a trace on Oct. 2, 2018. The 26-year-old was about three months pregnant and was eager to meet her first child, according to her mother, Karen Phillips.

Her case remains a “high-risk missing person investigation with potential foul play suspected,” Chicago police told ABC News on Thursday.

A video produced by police and published by the department on Tuesday sheds new light on the mystery.

The video revealed surveillance footage of Coles entering her home on Oct. 2, 2018.

“A man, who detectives identified as a person of interest, also arrived and entered the residence,” Lt. William Svilar said in the video. “Kierra and the man later got into her car and drove off — with Kierra in the driver’s seat.”

At about 10:43 p.m. that night, Coles was spotted on surveillance video making ATM withdrawals — the last known images of her, according to Svilar.

“Less than an hour later, [Coles’] vehicle was seen arriving and parking in another area of the city,” Svilar said. “The person of interest exits the passenger side of the vehicle, but nobody exits the driver’s side.”

The next day, on Oct. 3, “The person of interest is seen parking Kierra’s vehicle near her residence before entering the building and exiting with unknown items,” Svilar said.

The person of interest “then drives away in his personal vehicle that was parked on the block overnight,” Svilar said.

Svilar said in the video, “When officers questioned the person of interest after Kierra was reported missing, he gave varying accounts of the last time he saw her.”

Police won’t identify their person of interest. But Phillips told ABC News that Coles’ boyfriend lied to her about when he last texted the 26-year-old. The boyfriend could not be reached by ABC News for comment.

Phillips said she always knew the ATM and car surveillance footage existed, but hadn’t seen it until now.

“Just seeing her walking, in person, was heartbreaking,” Phillips said Thursday.

Police said this video showing newly made public footage from Coles’ case is part of a “series launched last month to tell the stories of homicide victims in hopes of solving their cases.” The department said “each episode focuses on a different case, with the goal of generating tips that could possibly lead to a break in the case, and in turn, an arrest.”

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service said it’s also still investigating Coles’ disappearance.

“We continue to urge the public to contact the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s hotline at (877) 876-2455, if they have any information related to her disappearance,” a spokesperson said.

For Phillips, the daily pain of not knowing what happened to her daughter is unbearable.

“Not even my worst enemy would I wish this type of pain on,” she said.

Phillips urges anyone with information to come forward.

“I just hope somebody just has a heart and calls in, or gives a tip. Anything they may know, even if they don’t think it’s important enough — any small thing could lead to breaking this whole case,” she said.

Phillips vowed, “I’m not gonna let up until my daughter is found.”

Advocates call on Biden to act on reparations study by Juneteenth

June 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Beatrice Peterson, ABC News

(WASHINGTON) — It’s been more than a month since a dozen civil rights and religious groups say they sent a letter to the White House calling on President Joe Biden sign an executive order to study reparations by Juneteenth, or this Sunday, June 19, marking the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.

So, this week, because Biden hasn’t yet done so, activists began staging a first-of-its-kind visual installation on the Ellipse, near the White House, to get Biden’s and the public’s attention leading into America’s newest federal holiday, being observed on Monday.

The study activists wants comes after a decades-long push to establish a 13-person reparations commission in Congress.

The installation on the Ellipse includes a giant Pan-African flag, made of red, black, and green flowers alongside mulch provided by Black farmers — what activists say is a visual reminder of the need for reparations.

Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Union leaders promised formerly enslaved families “40 acres and a mule” — a promise never fulfilled.

However, a reminder of the centuries-old promise has languished in Congress for decades. H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, has been introduced in every legislative session since 1989.

The measure seeks to establish a commission to study “and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, legal and other racial and economic discrimination, and the impact of these forces on living African Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies …”

In recent years, the bill has gained some political traction.

In 2019, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, hundreds of members of Congress and over 350 organizations, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors, NAACP and ACLU publicly announced support for reparations.

At the Tribeca Film Festival, “The Big Payback,” a documentary examining reparations, directed by “Living Single” actress Erika Alexander, premiered at the legendary festival in early June.

H.R. 40 passed out of the House Judiciary Committee in 2021 but has failed to come to a vote in the House or Senate.

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated in 2021 that President Biden supported the study of reparations. However, when asked if he would support a bill on reparations Psaki said, “We’ll see what happens through the legislative process.”

Asked if Biden supports an executive order on the study of reparations, Psaki said at the time, “it would be up to him, he has executive order authority, he would certainly support a study, and we’ll see where Congress moves on that issue.”

A White House official told ABC News on Thursday, President Biden still “supports a study of reparations and the continued impacts of slavery but he is very clear that we don’t need a study to advance racial equity.”

The official added, “he is taking comprehensive action to address the systemic racism that persists today, including an executive order on his first day in office establishing a whole-of-government approach to addressing racial inequality and making sure equity is a part of his entire policy agenda.”

Nkechi Taifa is director of the Reparation Education Project, and has been calling for reparations for moire than 50 years. In 1987, she was one of the founders of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), an organization that worked closely with Democratic Rep. John Conyers to draft the introduction of H.R. 40 in 1989. She says now is the time for Biden to sign an executive order so the commission can be up and running before the end of Biden’s presidency.

Taifa says she hopes the display at the ellipse sends a message that reparations advocates need to be paid attention to, and Black people should not be taken for granted.

She told ABC News, “If they think they’re gonna rest on Juneteenth because it’s a holiday and a watered down policing reform bill — that’s not enough. Black people have been run roughshod over, you know, for centuries, and it just, it just cannot continue.”

Joan Neal, deputy executive director and chief equity officer at NETWORK, a social justice advocacy group founded by U.S. religious sisters tells ABC News, that “Slavery was a sin, that was the original sin of this country, and we believe that unless you acknowledge your sin and you make a firm determination to never do it again, and then make restitution for what was lost. You still have not been forgiven.”

She added, “All parties have to be willing to stand up and face the sin in order for the sin to be forgiven and in order for things to be whole again.”

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