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Alabama offering $5 in canteen credit to prisoners who get vaccinated

August 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(MONTGOMERY, Ala.) — As coronavirus cases in Alabama prisons continue to rise, the state Department of Corrections is offering incarcerated individuals incentives to get vaccinated.

Both inmates who get the vaccine and those who’ve already gotten it will get $5 in canteen credit.

The initiative comes as the Alabama Department of Corrections reports a total of 27 people — nine inmates and 18 staff members — tested positive for COVID-19 last week, more than four times the amount of cases reported the previous week. The department said no inmates have participated in the prison’s free vaccination program since July 23, and the vaccination rate for Alabama inmates inside correctional facilities is 62%.

“A confined correctional environment in which social distancing is challenging and all communicable diseases, to include COVID-19, spread more easily is — put simply — starkly different than a community environment,” department spokesperson Kristi Simpson told ABC News, adding that incarcerated people don’t have the “freedoms available to free citizens to ensure public safety.”

Along with this new initiative, Alabama correctional facilities have taken other measures to decrease infection rates, Simpson said, including restricting visitation and non-essential entry into facilities, quarantining new inmates and rescheduling non-emergency medical appointments.

Alabama isn’t the first state to offer incentives to incarcerated individuals. The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision randomly selected vaccinated individuals to receive a care package valued up to $75 last month. In Pennsylvania, inmates were offered $25 in commissary credit.

Forrest Behne, policy director at the COVID Prison Project, an organization dedicated to tracking COVID-19 data and policy in correctional facilities, said that while incentives can help increase vaccination rates, the “high prioritization of vulnerable individuals and early vaccine distribution is really essential.”

“It’s not nothing. Right?” Behne told ABC News of the Alabama incentive, though he also noted that it’s “not as generous” as some other places. “We want to see as many people afforded the opportunity to take a vaccine as possible.”

Prisons aren’t the only entities in Alabama trying to incentivize its community to get the jab. Auburn University rolled out its own vaccination program, offering big-ticket items such as a $1,000 scholarship, priority class registration and a lunch for four with Auburn President Jay Gogue.

President Joe Biden endorsed offering incentives in a briefing last week, encouraging states to use federal COVID-19 relief funds to provide $100 payments to individuals who get vaccinated. States such as Ohio and New York have adopted this approach, but it’s unlikely Alabama will follow suit.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has continued to say there is no need for a statewide incentive program for all residents.

“Let’s focus on encouraging people, educating people about the benefits of taking the shot,” she said during a press conference last week. “That’s all we need to do.”

In a statement to ABC News, the Alabama Department of Corrections said it and its representatives “stand behind Governor Ivey and her statements.” When asked about the different approaches to increasing vaccination rates, the department added, “Governor Ivey recognizes that measures appropriate to advance the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine within a correctional environment are different than those most appropriate for the general population.”

Dr. Karen Landers, area health officer with the Alabama Department of Public Health, told ABC News the department is still researching available options for the use of federal funding to provide vaccination incentives.

According to the CDC, 34.3% of Alabama’s population is fully vaccinated and 43.2% have received one dose.

One year after Beirut blast, Lebanon suffering economic and political crises

August 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — One year after the blast that destroyed the port of Beirut and a large part of the city, the families of the dead are still looking for answers.

In the aftermath of the huge blast at a warehouse in the port of Beirut, where 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer which can also used as an explosive, had been left there for years, the authorities promised the results of an investigation within days. Instead, not only has the investigation barely advanced, the area around the port blast has barely been repaired, serving as a metaphor for the Lebanese capital’s recent woes.

At least 218 people were killed in what has been described as one of the largest non-nuclear blasts ever recorded, causing billions of dollars in damage. A report by Human Rights Watch published on Aug. 3 has pointed the finger at some government officials, saying some “foresaw the death that the ammonium nitrate’s presence in the port could result in and tacitly accepted the risk of the deaths occurring.”

The caretaker government issued a statement saying the report was “faulty” and “deviates from the truth.”

The country’s problems run far deeper than rebuilding the city, once nicknamed the “Paris of the Middle East.” According to the World Bank, Lebanon is in the midst of an economic crisis that ranks in the top 10, and possible the top three, experienced in any single country since the mid-1800s.

Last year Lebanon entered hyperinflation — and each week the Lebanese pound depreciates in value, leaving goods unaffordable for the once affluent middle class, which has now, according to experts, ceased to exist.

According to the World Bank data, overall poverty in Lebanon was estimated at 27% in 2011, before the Syrian Civil War. Now, however, more than half the population is living below the poverty line, according to UNICEF. Over the past two years alone, the level of extreme poverty has risen threefold, according to the U.N. — and the price of food and drink has risen by 670%. That has left 1.5 million people in need of humanitarian and financial aid.

“For over a year, Lebanese authorities countered an assailment of compounded crises — namely, the country’s largest peace-time economic and financial crisis, COVID-19 and the Port of Beirut explosion — with deliberately inadequate policy responses,” according to the World Bank’s latest report in April 2021. “The inadequacy is less due to knowledge gaps and quality advice and more the result of a combination of (i) a lack of political consensus over effective policy initiatives; and (ii) political consensus in defense of a bankrupt economic system.”

The World Bank describes the collapse as a “deliberate depression,” and on the streets of Beirut Lebanese cannot hide their disdain for the ruling classes.

“This explosion was a disaster for all people,” Raghda Tawfik El-Ashry, 57, a clothes seller, told ABC News. “I was here when it happened, and I saw what nobody had seen. All my goods were damaged because the fire and the ashes fell on them. Where was the state?”

“They are all a bunch of criminals and it’s all about nepotism,” she said. “I won’t remain silent.”

The government, according to Maya Yahya, director of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, a think tank, has created “no policy” since the Beirut blast. In the aftermath of the 1975-1990 Civil War, a political settlement was reached that has allowed sectarian groups and political actors to all be represented in government, “which basically took away oversight,” Yahya said.

“The militia heads [were allowed] to simply move into government positions,” she said. “They treated the state and its institutions as a war booty. They turned to state institutions into extensions of their own fiefdoms.”

That legacy has plagued the country to this day, she said, while political assassinations, beginning with the killing of Rafic Hariri in 2005, have become a regular feature of political life, she said.

“The message is quite clear. If you raise your voice too much, the threat of physical violence is an instrument we’re always ready to use,” she said.

Most families rely on backup fuel generators, medicine is increasingly scarce and long queues at gas stations are now a fact of daily life in the country.

Elie Jabbour, 24, a recent graduate with a civil engineering degree, told ABC News that of his class of 100, only two had gone on to find meaningful work, and around half at left the country. Each day comes a period, he said, there are hours without electricity, which has become a daily routine.

“We are fully relying on these generators, which are very toxic for the environment,” he told ABC News. “And they are they cannot stand this 24-hour supply of electricity. And this is affecting us since we are living in a [pandemic-induced] lockdown, kind of a lockdown. So our life is highly dependent on the Internet. And in the time where there’s no electricity, there’s no Internet, and there’s in this time, we cannot do anything.”

“[The Lebanese people] have lost hope,” he added. “They are trying to fight with whatever is remaining, they are losing money by the day and there’s no middle class anymore.”

Many young, educated Lebanese are now fleeing the country in search of “dignity,” Rani, a 25-year-old resident of Beirut, told ABC News. He is planning to join abroad.

“The situation right now in Lebanon is beyond horrendous,” he said. “We have multiple crises. We have the crisis of the pandemic, an economic crisis, an ethical crisis, a cultural crisis. Education is going down. Finding food — basic necessities — being able to supply yourself with basic necessities is growing more and more difficult.”

The decline has been rapid, although according to independent Lebanese economist Roy Badaro, can be attributed to decades of mismanagement from the political class. Particularly consequential was the pegging of the value of the Lebanese pound to the U.S. dollar, Badaro said, which hid the country’s structural imbalances and fiscal deficit.

“The demand is very high because of the crazy prices of the necessities,” Soha Zaiter, Head of the Lebanese Food Bank, told ABC News. “A lot of people lost their jobs in the crisis so they don’t have any income; on the other hand, for people that still have their jobs, the value of the salary is very low in comparison to the prices. People are in need of everything, literally everything. From the smallest things to the most important items, like milk, diapers, oil, rice.”

According to independent Lebanese economist Roy Badaro, Lebanon requires new leadership — a single unitary government that can navigate the competing interests of various groups, in order to pave the way out of the crisis.

“You have the Shia/Sunni problem. You have the Ottoman/Arab problem. You have the East and West issue. You have the Europeans and the U.S. All these interactions. I think that Lebanon suffers from that,” he told ABC News. “We need to be rowing in the same direction. At the moment we are in a boat where each oar is rowing in a different direction.”

COVID-19 live updates: Nearly 72,000 kids tested positive in US last week

August 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 614,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.2 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 58.2% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC last week, citing new science on the transmissibility of the delta variant, changed its mask guidance to now recommend everyone in areas with substantial or high levels of transmission — vaccinated or not — wear a face covering in public, indoor settings.

Here’s how the news is developing Wednesday. All times Eastern:

Aug 04, 10:01 am
WHO chief: No booster shots until at least end of September

The World Health Organization is calling for a moratorium on booster shots until more people from low-income countries have received a vaccine.

Low-income countries have only been able to administer 1.5 shots for every 100 people due to lack of supply, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said Wednesday.

A moratorium on boosters until at least the end of September will “enable at least 10% of the population of every country to be vaccinated,” he said.

Aug 04, 9:20 am
Alabama hospital sees deadliest day of pandemic

Four COVID-19 patients at Regional Medical Center in Anniston, Alabama — all unvaccinated — died within 24 hours, marking the hospital’s deadliest day of the pandemic, The Anniston Star reported.

As delta surges, patients are now getting sicker faster, a doctor at the hospital told the newspaper.

Only 28% of residents in Calhoun County are fully vaccinated, according to The Anniston Star.

Aug 04, 8:24 am
Obama to ‘significantly scale back’ 60th birthday party

Former President Barack Obama has decided to “significantly scale back” his 60th birthday party on Martha’s Vineyard due to the spread of the delta variant, according to a spokesperson. Hundreds of guests were expected to attend.

“This outdoor event was planned months ago in accordance with all public health guidelines and with covid safeguards in place. Due to the new spread of the delta variant over the past week, the President and Mrs. Obama have decided to significantly scale back the event to include only family and close friends,” spokesperson Hannah Hankins said in a statement.

Obama’s office did not give a new estimate of how many guests will attend.

Former Cuomo aide Charlotte Bennett reacts to AG investigation findings: ‘He’s a danger’

August 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Charlotte Bennett, a former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and one of the 11 women accusing him of sexual misconduct, is calling for the governor’s immediate impeachment.

“September is not soon enough,” Bennett, 25, said Wednesday on Good Morning America. “This needs to happen now. He’s a danger.”

On Aug. 3, a months-long probe by New York State Attorney General Letitia James found that Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, including current and former state employees. Following the announcement, Cuomo released a recorded video in which he denied any sexual misconduct and addressed Bennett directly.

“It wasn’t an apology and he didn’t take accountability for his actions,” Bennett said. “He blamed me and said that I simply misinterpreted what he had said.”

After working with the governor last year, Bennett lodged a harassment complaint, saying that the governor asked her inappropriate questions and made her feel uncomfortable.

“His line of questioning was not appropriate,” she said. “He was coming onto me and he insinuated that survivors of trauma and sexual assault can’t tell the difference between mentorship and leadership and sexual harassment itself — which is not only insulting to me but every survivor who listened to him yesterday.”

She added, “The victim blaming is not OK.”

Bennett’s complaint was the second of two sexual misconduct accusations against Cuomo at the time and it sparked the attorney general investigation. The first person to accuse Cuomo, Lindsey Boylan, tweeted her allegations in December 2020.

“I actually DM’ed her on Twitter and we had a private conversation in which I told her what I was experiencing and why I left public service earlier that same year,” Bennett said. “And, you know, when there are two women, there are more than two. We know from experience that it’s not just one person and that’s why we need to believe every woman who makes these allegations.”

After watching Cuomo’s response to the attorney general’s findings, Bennett said she felt “overwhelmed but mostly vindicated.”

“I had just listened to the New York State attorney general tell me and the 10 other women that we were believed … that was powerful and so much more important than anything the governor had to say,” she said.

Republicans face incomplete debate lineup, donor apathy in California recall race

August 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Ahead of a debate that’s missing a few key candidates, Republicans hoping to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom in September’s recall election have attracted relatively few sizable donations, according to data from the California secretary of state reviewed by ABC News.

The Richard Nixon Foundation, which is hosting the debate on Wednesday night, said in a news release that four candidates are participating: John Cox, Kevin Faulconer, Kevin Kiley and Doug Ose.

But Newsom did not reply to the foundation’s invitation, the group said, while deep-pocketed reality show star and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner and talk-show host Larry Elder have scheduling conflicts. The foundation said in a news release it would hold spots for Newsom, Jenner and Elder in case any decided to participate.

The foundation is also planning a debate for Aug. 23.

The debates are not the only challenges facing the candidates. Dan Schnur, a professor at the University of Southern California and a former chairman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, told ABC News that “the traditional Republican donor base doesn’t appear to be convinced yet that the recall is a viable exercise.”

But that could change due to recent polling showing “considerable grassroots support for recall,” he said.

Here’s what the Republican candidates invited to the debate have raised in large-dollar donations, according to data available on Tuesday:

John Cox: About $8.7 million across his 2021 and 2022 campaign committees — including roughly $7.6 million in monetary and non-monetary contributions and loans from himself — from at least 1,667 contributions
Kevin Faulconer: Approximately $3 million from at least 1,422 contributions
Larry Elder: About $990,000 from at least 574 contributions
Caitlyn Jenner: Approximately $747,000, from at least 1,581 contributions
Doug Ose: About $400,000 from at least 230 contributions
Kevin Kiley: Approximately $214,000 from at least 100 contributions

Only donations from an individual that add up to $100 or more are itemized in the data from the secretary of state, thus excluding those “small-dollar donations” in the donation counts.

Individuals donating to a gubernatorial candidate can give up to $32,400, according to the California Fair Political Practices Commission. According to the Federal Elections Commission, candidates have no limit when donating to themselves, but must still report those contributions.

Even if those numbers present an incomplete picture, as they only range from the start of 2021 to Tuesday and exclude the small-dollar donations, they still appear to be a relatively small number of donors for such a large state.

“The candidates … haven’t set the world on fire,” Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at the Carey Institute for Governmental Reform at Wagner College, told ABC News.

Regarding the candidates, Spivak noted that “there seems to be a wide disconnect between interest in Caitlyn Jenner from media and online sources and social media and voters.”

The California Republican Party is currently gearing up to vote on whether it can endorse a candidate at all, though it is expected to be approved. An endorsement from the state party may spur fundraising.

Newsom has criticized the recall as a partisan effort and waste of taxpayer money, but he “has his work cut out to raise Democratic interest in the recall vote. And if he fails on that front, an unusual off-year electorate might be just Republican-leaning enough to boot him out of office,” according to FiveThirtyEight.

Voters in the election will respond to two questions: do they want to recall Newsom; and if most voters elect to do so, who should be his replacement?

Republicans face incomplete debate lineup, donor apathy in California recall race

August 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

The Richard Nixon Foundation, which is hosting the debate on Wednesday night, said in a news release that four candidates are participating: John Cox, Kevin Faulconer, Kevin Kiley and Doug Ose.

The foundation is also planning a debate for Aug. 23.

But that could change due to recent polling showing “considerable grassroots support for recall,” he said.

Here’s what the Republican candidates invited to the debate have raised in large-dollar donations, according to data available on Tuesday:

John Cox: About $8.7 million across his 2021 and 2022 campaign committees — including roughly $7.6 million in monetary and non-monetary contributions and loans from himself — from at least 1,667 contributions
Kevin Faulconer: Approximately $3 million from at least 1,422 contributions
Larry Elder: About $990,000 from at least 574 contributions
Caitlyn Jenner: Approximately $747,000, from at least 1,581 contributions
Doug Ose: About $400,000 from at least 230 contributions
Kevin Kiley: Approximately $214,000 from at least 100 contributions

Only donations from an individual that add up to $100 or more are itemized in the data from the secretary of state, thus excluding those “small-dollar donations” in the donation counts.

“The candidates … haven’t set the world on fire,” Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at the Carey Institute for Governmental Reform at Wagner College, told ABC News.

Regarding the candidates, Spivak noted that “there seems to be a wide disconnect between interest in Caitlyn Jenner from media and online sources and social media and voters.”

Voters in the election will respond to two questions: do they want to recall Newsom; and if most voters elect to do so, who should be his replacement?

Republicans face incomplete debate lineup, donor apathy in California recall race

August 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

The Richard Nixon Foundation, which is hosting the debate on Wednesday night, said in a news release that four candidates are participating: John Cox, Kevin Faulconer, Kevin Kiley and Doug Ose.

The foundation is also planning a debate for Aug. 23.

But that could change due to recent polling showing “considerable grassroots support for recall,” he said.

Here’s what the Republican candidates invited to the debate have raised in large-dollar donations, according to data available on Tuesday:

John Cox: About $8.7 million across his 2021 and 2022 campaign committees — including roughly $7.6 million in monetary and non-monetary contributions and loans from himself — from at least 1,667 contributions
Kevin Faulconer: Approximately $3 million from at least 1,422 contributions
Larry Elder: About $990,000 from at least 574 contributions
Caitlyn Jenner: Approximately $747,000, from at least 1,581 contributions
Doug Ose: About $400,000 from at least 230 contributions
Kevin Kiley: Approximately $214,000 from at least 100 contributions

Only donations from an individual that add up to $100 or more are itemized in the data from the secretary of state, thus excluding those “small-dollar donations” in the donation counts.

“The candidates … haven’t set the world on fire,” Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at the Carey Institute for Governmental Reform at Wagner College, told ABC News.

Regarding the candidates, Spivak noted that “there seems to be a wide disconnect between interest in Caitlyn Jenner from media and online sources and social media and voters.”

Voters in the election will respond to two questions: do they want to recall Newsom; and if most voters elect to do so, who should be his replacement?

Five Miami Beach police officers face criminal charges in hotel beating of Black men

August 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(MIAMI) — Five Miami Beach police officers are now facing criminal charges after they were seen on body camera and security video kicking a handcuffed Black man in a hotel lobby and tackling and pummeling a Black witness who was recording the incident on his cellphone.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced the officers have been suspended and charged with first-degree misdemeanor battery.

“Excessive force can never, ever, ever be an acceptable foundation for policing in any community,” Fernandez Rundle said at a news conference on Monday. “Officers who forget that fact do a grave disservice to the people they have sworn to serve.”

Fernandez Rundle, with Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements standing behind her, played a four-minute compilation of body camera and security camera footage showing the episode that unfolded in the early hours of July 26 in the lobby of the Royal Palm Hotel in South Beach.

The state attorney went over the footage in detail, stopping and rewinding it several times to point out the individual officers who were charged and even running the video in slow motion to show two officers kicking the handcuffed detainee in the head.

“With my team, when we saw that kick to the head, and then we replayed it and saw all the kicks that preceded it — it was just unfathomable. It was unspeakable. It was just inexcusable,” Fernandez Rundle said.

She said the incident started when a police officer chased 24-year-old Dalonta Crudup into the hotel and stopped him at gunpoint as he tried to take an elevator.

A police report obtained by Miami ABC affiliate WPLG alleged that Crudup was involved in a confrontation with a Miami Beach bicycle police officer over illegally parking a motorized scooter and allegedly struck the officer with the scooter. Fernandez Rundle said the officer’s leg was injured in the encounter with Crudup and that he had to be hospitalized.

Once stopped by a police lieutenant inside the hotel, security camera footage showed Crudup appearing to comply with the officer’s orders to step out of an elevator with his hands up.

“Crudup exits the elevator with his hands raised and drops down to the ground with his arms outstretched in front of him,” Fernandez Rundle said.

After he was handcuffed with his arms behind his back, the security video showed 21 officers rushing into the lobby, swarming around Crudup and assisting in his arrest, Fernandez Rundle said.

“It is at this point the situation begins to change, in our opinion, from a legitimate arrest of a criminal suspect into an ongoing investigation of the use of force by five Miami Beach police officers,” Fernandez Rundle said.

The security video appeared to show Sgt. Jose Perez allegedly kick Crudup in the head while he was face down on the ground with other officers on top of him. At one point, Perez appears to also be seen in the video lifting Crudup and slamming him to the ground.

The video showed Perez walk away briefly twice before returning and appearing to kick Crudup in the head.

The hotel security video allegedly showed Officer Kevin Perez, who Fernandez Rundle said is not related to Jose Perez, kicking Crudup at least four times.

Other officers then turned their attention to 28-year-old Khalid Vaughn, who Fernandez Rundle said was standing 12 to 15 feet away recording Crudup’s arrest.

Body camera video appeared to show officers Robert Sabater allegedly tackling Vaughn, who was backing away. Officers David Rivas and Steven Serrano allegedly helped Sabater pin Vaughn against a concrete pillar. The body camera video appears to show Sabarter, Rivas and Serrano taking turns pummeling Vaughn with body blows.

“Body-worn cameras played a critical role in this case,” Fernandez Rundle said.

She said Vaughn was initially arrested on charges of impeding, provoking and harassing officers. Fernandez Rundle said those charges were dropped as soon after she viewed the videos.

She said the investigation is ongoing and the officers could face more charges.

Fernandez Rundle praised Clements for taking swift action and immediately informing her office of the incident.

“This is by no means at all a reflection of the dedicated men and women of the Miami Beach Police Department,” Clements said at Monday’s news conference. “Moving forward, I can tell you that my staff and I promise you, as individuals and as an agency, that we will learn from this. And we will grow from this.”

Upon his release from custody, Crudup told WPLG, “I got beat up, I got stitches, went to the hospital.” He denied parking the scooter illegally and striking the officer with it.

Vaughn told WPLG he started video recording the incident after Crudup was already handcuffed and on the ground.

“They beat him, turned around, charged me down, beat me … punched me, elbowed me in the face,” Vaughn told WPLG. “I literally got jumped by officers.”

Paul Ozeata, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, told the Miami Herald that the five charged officers are being represented by the police union’s attorneys. He told the newspaper that he hadn’t viewed the video evidence close enough to comment on the officers’ actions.

“They deserve their day in court, just as everyone else does,” Ozeata said.

In an interview with ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said he viewed the video footage and called the incident “unacceptable in every way.”

“This is not who our department is,” Gelber said, adding, “And what our department did was exactly the right thing they should do, which is relieved the officers of duty immediately, and then within hours refer the entire matter to the state attorney’s office for a review.”

Frontier flight attendants placed on leave after taping unruly passenger to seat

August 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Frontier flight attendants, with the help of passengers, had to tape an unruly passenger to his seat Saturday after he allegedly groped two of the attendants and punched a third in the face.

In an initial statement to ABC News, the low-cost carrier said the flight attendants involved had been “suspended pending further investigation” because they did not follow the proper policies for restraining a passenger.

The news of the suspension prompted backlash from the nation’s largest flight attendant union — demanding Frontier reinstate them.

“Management should be supporting the crew at this time, not suspending them,” Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO (AFA) President Sara Nelson said. “We will be fighting this with every contractual and legal tool available, but we would hope there will be no need for that as management comes to their senses and supports the people on the frontline charged with keeping all passengers safe.”

Frontier then issued a revised statement saying the flight attendants were on paid leave which is “in line with an event of this nature pending an investigation.”

“Frontier Airlines maintains the utmost value, respect, concern and support for all of our flight attendants, including those who were assaulted on this flight,” the airline’s statement continued. “We are supporting the needs of these team members and are working with law enforcement to fully support the prosecution of the passenger involved.”

The unruly passenger was identified by authorities as 22-year-old Maxwell Berry. He was arrested after the flight landed in Miami and is now facing three counts of battery.

Saturday’s case is the latest in a surge of unruly passenger incidents onboard planes. The Federal Aviation Administration has received more than 3,700 reports of unruly passengers since January with more than 2,700 of them involving fliers who refuse to wear a mask.

Last week the flight attendants union released a survey that found that 85% of the nearly 5,000 U.S. flight attendants they surveyed said they had dealt with an unruly passenger in 2021.

Almost 60% said they had experienced not one, but at least five incidents this year, and 17% reported that the incident got physical.

Flight attendants recalled incidents in which visibly drunk passengers verbally abused them, “aggressively” challenged them for making sure passengers were in compliance with the federal mask mandate, shoved them, kicked seats, threw trash at them and defiled the restrooms.

More than half of the flight attendants reported that unruly passengers used racist, sexist and/or homophobic slurs.

“I’ve been yelled at, cursed at and threatened countless times in the last year and the most that has come out of it has been a temporary suspension of travel for the passenger,” one flight attendant wrote in the survey. “We need real consequences if flight attendants are ever going to feel safe at work again.”

The AFA is doubling down on its call for the FAA and Department of Justice to “protect passengers and crew from disruptive and verbally and physically abusive travelers.”

A DOJ spokesperson told ABC News that “interference with flight crew members is a serious crime that deserves the attention of federal law enforcement.”

“As with any case, we exercise prosecutorial discretion in deciding which cases to charge federally,” the spokesperson continued. “Factors include egregiousness of the offense, were lives in danger, victim impact, mental health, did the plane have to make an unscheduled landing, is this a repeat offense, are there mitigating factors, etc. This is a serious crime that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.”

The FAA is still enforcing its zero-tolerance policy for in-flight disruptions which could lead to fines as high as $52,500 and up to 20 years in prison. The agency has looked into more than 628 potential violations of federal law so far this year — the highest number since the agency began keeping records in 1995.

Newly released body cam footage shows chaos, shock minutes after Surfside building collapse

August 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — The screams of people shouting for help can be heard in newly released body cam footage from police officers responding to the collapse of Champlain Towers South in the minutes after the Surfside, Florida, building fell to the ground.

Ninety-eight people were killed when the 12-story condominium building collapsed in the early morning of June 24. Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the collapse.

The three videos released by the Town of Surfside on Tuesday show the chaos and shock as first responders and bystanders try to grasp what had just happened.

The footage begins at around 1:24 am, minutes after the collapse of the building.

The videos show Surfside Police officers arriving at the scene, speaking for the first time with survivors and witnesses, and working with other first responders to secure the area.

In one video, Officer Craig Lovellete is seen arriving at the site of the collapse at around 1:27 a.m. He walks up to other officers and asks if there was a fire.

“No,” one officer replies. “The building collapsed.”

Lovellete peeks over a concrete wall and sees the fallen garage with debris everywhere. Screaming can be heard in the background.

Back in his car, he says, “Oh my god” and sighs heavily.

Later Lovellete encounters Champlain Towers South security guard Shamoka Furman, who was in the building when it came down. Furman describes explosion-type noises she says she heard right before the collapse of the building. In another video clip, Officer Kemuel Gambirazio joins parts of the conversation.

“I hear a boom-boom but I’m thinking it’s the elevator … no beeps or nothing goes off … another boom-boom,'” Furman says. She makes hand motions to show Lovellete that after she heard the noises, the building came down.

After seeing two residents exit the building after the loud noise, Furman said she called 911.

“This never happens, I didn’t even know we had earthquakes — I don’t even know what this was,” Furman says. “I don’t even know how I made it out of there … through the grace of God.”

Asked if the building had any work done lately, Furman says she only works overnight.

Officer Ariol Lage’s body cam footage also shows him encountering Furman earlier, while she was still covered in debris.

“What collapsed?” Lage asks.

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” Furman says. “All I heard was boom. The garage, the pool — if they don’t get out…”

“It’s OK, fire rescue is here,” Lage replies.

Lage’s bodycam footage also shows him at the garage, which was the area of the building that collapsed first.

“There’s a lot of dust, I can barely see anything,” Lage says into his radio. He then hears a woman scream so he calls out for survivors, shining a flash light toward the noise. A woman is seen next to an overturned car, but cars and debris block Lage from getting to her.

“Are you OK?” Lage asks.

“No,” the woman replies.

Footage then shows Lage leaving the garage and making his way to a colleague, and the two walk around the building trying to determine how to get closer as screams can be heard from people in the area. It’s unclear what happened to them.

Lage and his colleagues are also seen trying to move bystanders away from the scene, fearing that the rest of the building could fall. They encounter a woman who appears to be in shock, standing in front of the building.

When told to move back, the woman replies slowly, “I’m just standing here cause I’m the building president and if you need something…”

Lage interrupts the woman and tells her the rest of the building might collapse, then ushers her away.

Another clip shows Officer Gambirazio talking with a someone who says he just made his way down from the 12th floor penthouse.

The man, who appears to be in shock and out of breath, says he was on his phone watching YouTube when he heard something falling.

He says he initially thought it wasn’t a big deal, but then “all of a sudden, I hear, like, it was a jet right through the front of my balcony. So I get up, and was like, ‘Was that a plane?'”

The video shows another person running toward Gambirazio from the direction of the collapse. The man, appearing distressed and shocked, keeps pointing and shouting toward the direction of the building.

As another officer tries to calm him down, Gambirazio tells him, “Listen, right now, we were told by Rescue not even we can help right now. … They’re coordinating something to help get everybody out.”

“Please” the man says, pointing toward the collapsed structure, but Gambirazio interrupts him and says, “I understand, but we have to do whatever they say.”

The man asks the officers if he can make a call to the building, and Gambirazio responds that he can, but adds that he can’t let him back into the area.

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