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K-pop classes now in schools as music’s boom becomes growth industry in South Korea

July 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(SEOUL, South Korea) — Dozens of children repeat after their instructor’s dance moves to K-pop group NCT Dream’s latest song “Hot Sauce,” as sweat drips from their foreheads.

These children, all around 8 years old, are intensely following their instructor’s every move as their parents’ watch and cheer on their sons in a K-pop dance class for elementary school kids at a dance studio located in the wealthy streets of the Gangnam district in Seoul, South Korea.

K-pop’s growing global presence — and subsequent success — in the music industry has led to a national recognition in South Korea of K-pop as a potential growth industry, alongside the likes of semiconductors and IT that South Korea has proven to be globally competitive.

When K-pop boy band BTS topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart last summer with their first all-English single “Dynamite,” South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism published an analysis report estimating that the economic ripple effect of the song “Dynamite” alone earned up to $1.5 billion for the country.

“The technical innovation of online concerts, and the growing K-pop fandom will have strong economic impact. When the K-pop industry grows, it inevitably leads to a need for more jobs in the industry,” Park Chanuk of the Cultural Industry Research Center at the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute, told ABC News.

With prospects brighter than ever, parents, and even schools, are now jumping onto the bandwagon for an opportunity of a potentially promising career for their children. Parents waiting for their children’s K-pop dance class to finish at the Shine Dance Academy in Gangnam say their boys and girls deserve a chance to discover their talents early on.

“I think if my son wanted to be a K-pop star, I’d like to see that,” Xing Mei, a Chinese mom who was a fan of the first generation K-pop group H.O.T., told ABC News as she was filming her son throughout the class. “But it’s up to him whether he’ll make it or not.”

Another parent told ABC News that he saw a lot of potential for the K-pop industry globally, and that he wanted to let his son have all possibilities open, including the possibility of becoming a K-pop celebrity like BTS, Blackpink and EXO.

“I think the perspective has changed a lot from less than 10 years ago,” Calvin Kang, father to a 9-year-old boy, told ABC News. “Many parents didn’t want their kids to be an entertainer in the past but now, after the success of K-pop, I think that a lot of parents introduce their kids to K-pop dancing and singing.”

The Shine Dance Academy, which claims it is the first and largest K-pop dance academy for kids in South Korea, explained that more children have shown interest in their program after the success of BTS in the global market.

“Parents are really serious about this,” dance instructor Joe Song told ABC News. “It’s not cheap to have kids take K-pop dance classes from an early age, and it takes that commitment for both kids and parents to actually do this.”

The accelerated popularity of K-pop has even pushed schools to create classes for their students.

Kwangchon High School, a small school of only 76 students in the rural town of Chungnam Province, was quick to adapt to this rising demand and, with permission from the Chungnam Province Office of Education, the school restructured its curriculum to specialize in “all things K-pop,” — even renaming the school to the High School of Korean Pop and Performing Arts.

Here, teenagers take classes such as musical instruments, live performance practice, second language and concert drills which are considered crucial to being on the path to become a star entertainer.

“The goal is not to nurture K-pop celebrities,” Principal Park Boyung Gyu of the K-pop high school told ABC News. “We aim to let students find their strengths so they can take part in the millions of job opportunities surrounding the globally expanding K-pop industry.”

The High School of Korean Pop and Performing Arts received over 10 million dollars’ worth of investments in its facilities from its local government and education offices.

The Chungnam province education office paid for the school’s K-pop changeover expense as well as for new instruments in the hopes that the school will become a landmark for K-pop in South Korea. All lessons, including professional K-pop dance and song writing classes using music editing software, are free of charge at the school and the 124 attending students only have to pay for their dormitory and commute.

“Considering the limitless potential of the K-pop industry, we are investing in the school hoping the city will become a mecca to train workforce for the growing K-pop industry,” Jeong Dae-hoe, vice commissioner from the Chungnam province education office, explained to ABC News.

More than a dozen colleges in South Korea that used to teach classical music and dance are beginning to adopt K-pop as part of its formal education curriculum as an increasing number of the younger generation aim to be part of the multi-billion-dollar industry in order to train young talent who could eventually take on jobs like producers, music writers, choreographers or production staff.

“There’s a greater added value to K-pop, not just from the music and contents itself, but K-pop’s impact on products and services provided by general companies,” K-pop columnist Kim Hern-sik told ABC News. “K-pop also has a positive effect on South Korea’s brand image, therefore resulting in an economic effect that cannot be calculated.”

This is how mass deforestation is wiping out species around the world

July 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The mass-clearing of trees will be the doom of many forms of life on this planet.

Forests are critical to the Earth’s ecology. They capture and store carbon out of the atmosphere. They can alter the air quality and quantity of drinking water. And they provide the most habitat for the world’s terrestrial species.

And yet, alarming rates of deforestation are continuing all over the globe, despite warnings from scientists and urgent calls from environmental activists to cease the clearing as much as possible.

The planet is losing an estimated 137 species of plants, animals and insects every day due to deforestation, according to the World Animal Foundation.

Here are four important species at risk of extinction, each in a region heavily affected by deforestation:

Harpy eagle, the Amazon rainforest

Populations of the harpy eagle, one of the largest eagle species in the world, are dwindling as tree canopies in the Amazon rainforest disappear, and along with it the habitat for the eagles’ preferred prey, a new study published Wednesday in Nature Scientific Reports found.

The eagles rely on specific prey that live in the canopy forests: two-toed sloths, brown capuchin monkeys and grey woolly monkeys, but as the food supply decreased, the eagles did not switch to alternative prey, the researchers found.

The eagles would then deliver prey to their hatchlings less frequently, and when they did, the animals tended to have a smaller estimated weight in landscapes with 50% to 70% deforestation, according to the study.

The researchers observed multiple eaglet deaths from starvation and did not locate any nests in areas with more than 70% deforestation.

Brazil is home to 2.1 million square miles of rain forest — more than 65% of all the rain forest in the world, according to the World Animal Foundation.

But because of the Brazilian government’s dedication to meat and leather trade, about 15% of the world’s tropical forest cover was cleared between 1991 and 2004, according to the Foundation.

The harpy eagle is at risk of disappearing in a similar fashion as 10 mammal, 20 bird and eight amphibian species during three decades of deforestation, according to the foundation. The species is listed as near threatened, with a decreasing population, on the International Union of Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

Apex predators are threatened around the world, and their extinctions are often driven by failure to acquire prey due to “severe prey scarcity,” according to researchers.

Sumatran orangutan, Southeast Asia

The palm oil industry, 85% of which is produced in Indonesia and Malaysia, has wiped out a critical amount of trees in Southeast Asia — and with it, many endangered species.

Less than 80,000 orangutans are left in the world, and all of them live in Indonesia and Malaysia. Their habitats are under “constant threat” of deforestation, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Up to 3,000 are killed every year, according to the Orangutan Conservancy.

The trees are cleared by illegal logging and for conversion from rain forests to palm oil plantations. About 80% of the orangutan’s habitat was cleared in the 1990s and early 2000s by degradation, fragmentation and clearing — and sometimes by intentionally set fires, the magazine Scientific American reported.

Orangutans are agile climbers and “supremely adapted to life in trees, and it’s rare for adult orangutans to ever touch the ground, according Scientific American.

The orangutans are then forced to new areas in search for food, often bringing them in contact with humans, which leads to them being killed as “pests,” according to the Orangutan Conservancy.

Poachers are also targeting orangutans for the bush meat trade, ironically often by loggers who are clearing the forest, since the logging companies do not provide food for the workers, according to the magazine.

The Sumatran orangutan is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN’s Red List.

Koala, Australia

Koalas have been on the decline due to deforestation even before the 2019 Australian bushfires wiped out an estimated 5,000 of the marsupials.

Between 2012 and 2016, at least 5,183 koalas were killed due to the bulldozing of trees, the World Wildlife Fund Australia found.

The koalas live in eucalyptus trees in forests and woodland, using them as both food and shelter. The habitats are left fragmented or completely destroyed as a result of the clearing, and they are forced to the ground to seek alternative shelter. They are often hit by cars, attacked by dogs or contract diseases, according to WWF Australia.

“If you lose your home and your food source then you are doomed,” Deborah Tabart, chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation, told ABC News over email.

Protecting the habitat is the “only way” to save the species, Tabart said. The Australian Koala Foundation has proposed the Koala Protection Act, which would focus on protecting trees, including habitats that are empty. While current federal legislation focuses on protecting the koala species itself, its habitat “is almost impossible to protect,” according to the foundation.

The organization is also calling for a moratorium on logging of native forests, protection of all koala habitat and better management of plantation forests adjacent to koala habitats.

The species is listed as vulnerable with a decreasing population on the IUCN’s Red List. At the current rate, koalas could become extinct by 2050, according to WWF Australia.

Jaguar, North America

Populations of the largest species of cat in the Western Hemisphere are continuing to decrease due to loss of habitat.

While jaguars tend to live in habitat with dense tree canopy cover, such as the Amazon rainforest in Brazil or the Maya Forest in Central America, their range historically came as far north as New Mexico and Arizona, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The big cats require expansive areas of land for survival, but their current range is now just 51% of its historic range, according to the IUCN.

Accelerated deforestation continue to threaten the jaguar habitat, especially when it occurs in corridors that connect conservation areas, according to a 2016 study published in the scientific journal Biological Conservation. Without the corridors to travel through, the populations can become isolated and lose genetic diversity, which could then affect the short and long-term survival of the species.

In Gran Chaco, South America’s largest tropical dry forest located in Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia, about a third of critical jaguar habitat has been lost since the mid-1980s due to deforestation driven by agricultural expansion, a study published in Biodiversity Research in 2019 found.

There is a possibility that jaguars could reestablish a population in the United States through Mexico, which is the current northern edge of the range, Dan Thornton, assistant professor in the Washington State University School of the Environment and one of the authors of the study, told Washington State Magazine.

Jaguars are listed as near threatened with a decreasing population on the IUCN’s Red List. They are so elusive, that it is difficult to estimate how many are left in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

French automaker Bugatti survived two world wars. Can it outlast the electric crusade?

July 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Does every automaker have to go electric?

Industry trends and government regulations are pointing in that direction. No more naturally aspirated engines. No more turbochargers. No more engines, in fact. Instead, mute conveyances happily trundling along on city streets and highways, the roars, barks and pops of internal combustion engines a distant memory.

Not so fast.

Illustrious French automaker Bugatti has been building powerful race cars since 1909. There are no plans to replace the marque’s deafening, rocket-like, quad-turbo 16-cylinder engines with electric motors.

Volkswagen AG, the automotive conglomerate that owns Bugatti, has recently ramped up its electric vehicle efforts and reportedly may find a new owner for the brand. Can Bugatti’s thirsty 8.0-liter engines mesh with Volkswagen’s electrification strategy?

“Customers are not asking for electric Bugattis,” Cedric Davy, chief operating officer of Bugatti of the Americas, told ABC News. “We live and breathe the W16 [engine]. A lot of customers say, ‘This may be my last chance of owning the iconic W16. I don’t know what will come next.'”

In June, Bugatti showed off the new $3.9 million Chiron Super Sport, the latest member of the Chiron family that launched in 2016 and succeeded the Veyron supercar. The Chiron Super Sport’s 8.0-liter W16 engine delivers 1,577 horsepower and 1,180 lb-ft of torque and reaches an electronically limited top speed of 273 mph. Redline happens at 7,100 rpm.

Last year Bugatti unveiled the $4 million Chiron Pur Sport, a 1,479 hp unadulterated beast that’s raw, loud, nimble and engineered with shorter gear ratios for faster acceleration and cornering prowess. The fixed wing in the rear spans more than 6 feet across, generating more downforce than previous Chirons. Only 30 Super Sports will be produced; 60 for the Pur Sport.

“The Pur Sport is not a rocket someone put wheels on,” longtime Bugatti test driver Butch Leitzinger told ABC News. “This car is meant to work for you. I can talk until I am blue in the face about how easy it is to drive but no one believes me nor should they.”

Bugatti’s Chiron Super Sport 300+ shook up the automotive community in 2019 when test driver and Le Mans winner Andy Wallace piloted the car to history. The slightly modified 1,600 hp Chiron reached 304.773 mph, the first car ever to reach a speed of over 300, an incredible feat of engineering. The Chiron Super Sport 300+ was immediately declared the “fastest sports car in the world.”

Even with Bugatti’s staggering prices — upward of $3 million per vehicle — and the COVID-19 pandemic, the company reported record first-quarter sales, delivering more vehicles between January and March than the first three months of any year in the company’s modern history. Davy said the Pur Sport in particular has helped to boost sales, with 70% of Pur Sport owners in North America new to the brand.

“It’s a more visceral driving experience and we’re seeing more drivers than collectors with the Pur Sport,” he said.

A Pur Sport owner in France racked up 2,000 miles on the odometer the weekend he took delivery of the car, according to Davy, proof that these rarefied vehicles offer comfort and convenience as well as insane power and speeds.

“The cars are extremely reliable. There are customers with well over 10,000 miles on their Chirons,” he said.

Jason Cammisa, a veteran automotive journalist, said the Chiron could have been even more fearsome and supreme with an electric or hybrid powertrain.

“The Chiron was a missed opportunity. If Bugatti was looking far enough ahead, they would have known electrification means incredible amounts of acceleration,” he told ABC News. “Gas engines will be legislated out of existence and it’s in Bugatti’s interest to go electric.”

Cammisa noted that the $130K Tesla Model S Plaid sedan, which hurls occupants from zero to 60 mph in a reported 1.99 seconds, will trounce a Chiron on the track — a problem for Bugatti and other carmakers that rely on their performance laurels to sell cars.

“There’s no Chiron buyer who would get out of that and not be impressed,” he said. “The acceleration of the Plaid is painful, terrible, nauseating. In the real world that thing is a magic trick.”

Erin Minoff, a specialist in the motoring department at Bonhams in New York, said every industry has its “moment of terror.” Unlike mainstream brands, however, Bugatti is not trying to sell a lot of cars or please a lot of people, he said.

“Bugatti has different motivations than what Ford, Mercedes and even Rolls-Royce are trying to pursue,” he told ABC News. “No one is buying a Bugatti or any supercar because they are looking for an efficient mode of transportation or because they are an environmentalist.”

Jalopnik editor-in-chief Rory Carroll doubts Bugatti will upend its business model to accommodate government policies. Volkswagen had larger aspirations for the struggling marque when it acquired the rights to Bugatti in May 1998, he argued.

“Bugatti was effectively a dead brand when Volkswagen bought it and was revived to build a car that would break a speed record and do so in comfort,” he told ABC News. “Bugatti demonstrates technical prowess and attracts talent for the VW Group.”

Cammisa and Minoff both pointed out that the most in-demand toy right now for the uber wealthy is not electric or even a hybrid. It’s a six-speed manual transmission, mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, high-revving lightweight supercar that makes 650 hp from a 12,100 rpm naturally aspirated V12 engine. The T.50, the latest creation of Gordon Murray, the brilliant designer behind the famed McLaren F1, costs $2.6 million and all 100 units sold out within 48 hours of the prototype’s debut.

“There have been several bespoke EV hypercars — Rimac and Pininfarina’s Battista — and no one wanted any of them,” Cammisa said.

Bugatti has amazingly survived two world wars, worker strikes, the death of its founder, Ettore Bugatti, and his son, Jean Bugatti, the company’s designated heir, the sale of its Molsheim factory, bankruptcy and multiple owners. But the greatest threat to its existence may be the electric motor. Bugatti, however, has an “enduring appeal” that will keep fans wanting more from the company in the years to come, according to Carroll.

“An electrified Bugatti — that’s not the point of the brand,” he said. “There’s something very human about Bugatti’s superlatives and achievements. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bugatti never did an electric vehicle.”

Added Minoff: “Enthusiasts want the fastest, most visceral machine they can purchase. Electric vehicles are like appliances. Bugatti will continue to build these hyper luxury supercars.”

Air travel sets new pandemic record ahead of 4th of July holiday weekend

July 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Air travel continues to soar past pre-pandemic levels, as passengers contend with long waits, lines and cancellations this Fourth of July holiday.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reported it screened 2,196,411 people nationwide Friday, for the highest throughput since the start of the pandemic. That was also higher than the checkpoint volume for the same day in 2019.

The record comes a day after air travel exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the first time.

The influx comes as airlines and airports are experiencing staffing shortages. TSA said last month there were staffing shortages at more than 100 airports and warned travelers that there will be long lines as a result.

In addition to long lines for security and airport services, some travelers have had to contend with delays and cancellations.

By Friday afternoon, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport had 135 flights canceled and 458 flights delayed based on data from flight-tracking website Flight Aware, according to ABC Dallas affiliate WFAA-TV. Those were the highest numbers for any airport in the world at that time, WFAA reported.

Weather and thunderstorms in North Texas caused arriving flights that morning to be delayed, the station said.

At Denver International Airport, demand and staffing shortages were behind cancellations this holiday, ABC Denver affiliate KMGH-TV reported.

One family trying to depart from Denver had two flights canceled in two days.

“Me and my family are all stranded,” Whitney Cline told KMGH Friday. “I had a flight canceled last night, they’re like — rebook. So, then they rebooked it for me, and then they canceled it again this morning when I was at the airport.”

The tail end of the holiday could be even busier for the nation’s airports.

Friday was forecast to be the busiest departure day, while Monday the busiest day to return, according to travel-booking app Hopper. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby told ABC News he is expecting Monday to be a record-breaking travel day.

AAA forecasts that more than 47.7 million Americans will travel this Fourth of July holiday, from July 1 to 5 — which would make it the second-highest Independence Day travel volume on record.

Despite high gas prices, the company said 91% of holiday travel will be by car, with 43.6 million Americans expected to take to the roads.

As of Saturday, the national gas price average is $3.127 — the highest so far this year, and nearly a dollar higher than the same time last year, according to AAA.

Prices are only expected to climb.

“Gas prices have been trending more expensive, and there is no slowing down, even after the holiday weekend,” AAA spokesperson Jeanette McGee told ABC News. “We expect gas prices to continue to increase another 10, possibly 20 cents through the end of August.”

Surfside building collapse latest: Remaining structure demolished

July 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — The remains of the partially collapsed condo building in Surfside, Florida, was demolished at around 10:30 p.m. Sunday.

Earlier Sunday, police had urged citizens who live within the designated shelter-in-place area, between 86th St and 89th St and Abbott Ave and the shoreline, to remain indoors “effective immediately,” warning about dust from the demolition.

Some residents and animal welfare advocates had expressed concerned about the fate of pets left behind in the partially collapsed tower and the demolishing of the structure. But there are no animals remaining in the building, mayor of Miami-Dade County Daniella Levine Cava said during a news conference Sunday evening.

“As an animal lover and a pet owner myself my entire life, I have made it a priority since day one to do absolutely everything possible to search for any animals that may still in the building. And in the days since the collapse, the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Team has conducted three full sweeps of the place, including searching in closets, under beds, and all the other places that they could to see an animal that might have been in hiding … The latest information we have is that there are no animals, remaining in the building,” Levine Cava said.

The mayor also advised residents of nearby buildings to “close your windows, put your air conditioning on recirculation” in the case of dust of other fallout from the demolition. However, she said: “It is not expected anything other than some light debris would potentially affect all those buildings.”

The mayor of Surfside, Charles Burkett, called Tropical Storm Elsa predicted to hit the area, a “blessing in disguise ” because it initiated the discussion to demolish the remaining part of the building.

“That discussion has accomplished several things. It’s eliminated a looming threat, a dangerous threat for our rescue workers. It will potentially open up probably a third of the pile so we can all, you know, so the teams can focus not just on two thirds of the pile, but on the whole thing, which is important. And, you know, we want to make sure that we control which way the building falls and not, not a hurricane,” Burkett said.

Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said that once the building comes down, “there’ll be several different features that we’ll have to address obviously with the demolition and that’ll be the priority and securing the scene in that sense.” Afterward, the rescue mission will continue, Cominsky said.

The partial collapse occurred around 1:15 a.m. on June 24 at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach.

Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah. Since then, hundreds of first responders have been carefully combing through debris in hopes of finding survivors.

As of Sunday, the death toll has risen to 24 people. Rescuers were still searching for 121 people as of Sunday afternoon.

A letter from the board of directors of Champlain Towers East, obtained by ABC News, told residents on Sunday that they didn’t know when the other building would come down but “the most common estimate is sometime early evening today.”

The board advised residents to evacuate as soon as possible to avoid traffic.

Levine Cava said other residents nearby wouldn’t need to evacuate but were urged to stay indoors, close their windows and turn off their air conditioners to keep out dust from the demolition.

She said the demolition will be in the form of an “energetic felling,” which “uses small, strategically placed detonations and relies on the force of gravity to bring the building down in place, right on this footprint.”

Search and rescue teams will continue with their operations, “very shortly after the demolition,” Levine Cava added.

The mayor also noted that all of the crews are working to get as much work done before Tropical Storm Elsa arrives.

Preparations are now being made for Elsa, which weakened from a hurricane Sunday morning and is expected to come near southern Florida on Monday, into Tuesday. A cover has been placed on the part of the debris field that is closest to the building, Cava said.

On Saturday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for several counties in anticipation of Elsa. Heat, humidity, heavy rain, strong winds and lightning storms also have made the conditions difficult for rescuers, periodically forcing them to pause their round-the-clock efforts in recent days.

On Friday, two more bodies were found in the wreckage as crews search the area of the collapse, officials said. Two more bodies were recovered overnight, officials announced Saturday.

Two bodies were discovered Thursday evening, including that of a 7-year-old daughter of a Miami firefighter, according to Levine Cava. The firefighter was not part of the crew that discovered the girl’s body.

“It goes without saying that every night since this last Wednesday has been immensely difficult,” Levine Cava said during a press briefing in Surfside on Friday morning. “But last night was uniquely different. It was truly different and more difficult for our first responders.”

Meanwhile, 191 people who were living or staying in the condominium at the time of the disaster have been accounted for and are safe, according to Levine Cava, who has stressed that the figures are “very fluid” and “continue to change.”

The number of those accounted for has gone up as detectives continue to audit the list of people reported missing, a development that Levine Cava called “very good news.”

However, no survivors have been discovered in the rubble of the building since the morning it partially collapsed, and the hope that more people would be found alive appeared to be fading Friday.

Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said rescue workers are “emotional” after the discovery of a first responder’s own daughter, which “takes a toll.” But he said that won’t stop them from continuing to search for those who are still missing.

“I just was hoping that we would have some survivors,” Cominsky said at a press briefing on Friday morning.

Speaking on the signing of the emergency order to demolish the remainder of the building earlier this week, Levine Cava said the move will “help us move quickly.”

The structure was cleared by crews last week, and all search and rescue resources have since been shifted to focusing on the pile of rubble. But the two sites are side-by-side and the remaining building has posed challenges for the rescuers trying to locate any survivors or human remains in the wreckage.

“Given our ongoing safety concerns about the integrity of the building, we’re continuing to restrict access to the collapse zone,” Levine Cava said during a press briefing in Surfside on Thursday evening.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden traveled to Surfside on Thursday to meet with officials, first responders, search and rescue teams, as well as families of the victims. Recalling the 1972 car accident that killed his first wife and 1-year-old daughter as well as badly injuring his two sons, the president told reporters: “It’s bad enough to lose somebody but the hard part, the really hard part, is to not know whether they’ll survive or not.”

The cause of the partial collapse to a building that has withstood decades of hurricanes remains unknown and is under investigation.

Built in the 1980s, the Champlain Towers South was up for its 40-year recertification and had been undergoing roof work — with more renovations planned — when it partially collapsed, according to officials.

A structural field survey report from October 2018, which was among hundreds of pages of public documents released by the town of Surfside late Sunday, said the waterproofing below the condominium’s pool deck and entrance drive was failing and causing “major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas.”

A slew of lawsuits against the Champlain Towers South Condo Association have already been filed on behalf of survivors and victims, alleging the partial collapse could have been avoided and that the association knew or should have known about the structural damage. A spokesperson for the association told ABC News they cannot comment on pending litigation but that their “focus remains on caring for our friends and neighbors during this difficult time.”

The association’s board released a statement Friday saying its surviving members “have concluded that, in the best interest of all concerned parties, an independent Receiver should be appointed to oversee the legal and claims process.”

“We know that answers will take time as part of a comprehensive investigation,” the statement continued, “and we will continue to work with city, state, local, and federal officials in their rescue efforts, and to understand the causes of this tragedy.”

In the wake of the Surfside building collapse, the city of North Miami Beach ordered that another condominium close immediately amid safety concerns connected to the 40-year recertification process, officials said.

The Crestview Towers Condominium is “structurally and electrically unsafe,” based on the review of a recertification report submitted Friday, city officials said in a statement.

“The city of North Miami Beach has taken the steps that we recommended to review to make sure that the recertification process was being done in a timely basis. And as I understand it, as a result of that audit, they found a building that had not been recertified, and when the information came in, they took some steps,” Levine Cava said Friday evening.

Some 300 residents have to evacuate, according to ABC Miami affiliate WPLG-TV, while a full structural assessment is conducted.

The 156-unit condo was built in 1972.

One dead, three injured after raft overturns on water ride at amusement park

July 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(ALTOONA, Iowa) — One person is dead and three more have been hospitalized after a raft overturned on a water ride at an amusement park.

The incident occurred at approximately 7:35 p.m. on Saturday, July 3, at Adventureland Park in Altoona, Iowa — part of the Des Moines metropolitan area — when a boat on the Raging River ride overturned with six riders on it, according to a statement from Adventureland Park.

The overturned raft caused critical injuries to three people and left one with minor injuries, the statement continued.

“Altoona Fire and Police were on property and responded immediately,” said Adventureland Park in their initial statement on Saturday night. “We want to thank them as well as Des Moines, Ankeny, Bondurant, Pleasant Hill and Delaware Township Emergency Services for their fast response … Our thoughts are with the affected families at this time.”

Adventureland Park said the ride had been inspected the day before and “was found to be in good working order” at the time of the accident. The Raging River ride will now remain closed for a more thorough inspection.

Adventureland Park released a second statement on Sunday night after they learned of the passing of one of the injured riders.

“Adventureland is saddened to learn of the passing of one Guest involved in the Raging River accident on the evening of 7/3/21,” the park’s second statement said. “This investigation is ongoing and the ride remains closed. Adventureland is working closely with both the State and local authorities, and would like to thank them again for their efforts. At this time, we ask for your thoughts and prayers for the Guest and their family, as well as for our team members who were onsite.”

There have been no additional updates on the conditions of the other three survivors since the initial statement.

This, however, is reportedly not the first fatal accident to have taken place in connection with the Raging River ride at Adventureland Park.

According to the Des Moines Register, 68-year-old Adventureland Park employee, Steve Booher, reportedly died in 2016 while he was working on the ride as he was helping riders get out of the Raging River rafts at the end of the ride but fell onto the conveyor belt and suffered a fractured skull along with a major brain injury. Booher died four days later.

Iowa’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration subsequently fined the theme park $4,500 following Booher’s death, according to the Des Moines Register — the maximum the agency could assess for that type of violation.

The circumstances that led up to Saturday’s incident are currently unclear and the investigation is ongoing and the ride will remain closed during that time.

‘We’ve lived through some of our darkest days’: Biden reflects on 4th of July, COVID

July 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — Emerging from the White House to “Hail to the Chief,” President Joe Biden addressed the largest event of his administration to declare: “All across this nation we can say America is coming back together.”

“This year, the Fourth of July is a day of special celebration. For we are emerging from the darkness of years. A year pandemic and isolation. A year of pain, fear and heartbreaking loss. Just think back to where this nation was a year ago. Think back to where you were a year ago. And think about how far we’ve come,” Biden said to applause from the crowd of 1,000 military families and essential workers.

Throughout his remarks, Biden sought to draw a sharp contrast between where the country was a year ago, and today, praising the American people for helping to get the virus under control by rolling up their sleeves to get their vaccination shots — though the nation missed his goal of having 70% of Americans vaccinated with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by July 4.

While Biden used soaring rhetoric to celebrate the country’s success so far, he stressed the fight is not over, referencing the delta variants of the virus that have concerned medical experts, as cases spike in areas with low vaccination rates.

“Thanks to our heroic vaccine effort, we’ve gained the upper hand against this virus. We can live our lives, our kids can go back to school, our economy is roaring back. Don’t get me wrong. Covid-19 has not been vanquished. We all know powerful variants have emerged like the Delta variant,” Biden said.

“But the best defense against these variants is to get vaccinated. My fellow Americans, it’s the most patriotic thing you can do. So please, if you haven’t gotten vaccinated. Do it. Do it now. For yourself, for your loved ones, for your community, and for your country. You know, that is how we’ll stay ahead of these variants and protect the hard-won progress we’ve made,” the president continued.

“We never again want to be where we were a year ago today,” he added, with a wagging finger. “So today, while the virus hasn’t been vanquished, we know this: It no longer controls our lives. It no longer paralyzes our nation. And it is within our power to make sure it never does again.”

Pulling a card from his pocket, Biden struck a somber tone as he read the total number of U.S. COVID-19 deaths to date — 603,018 people lost their lives to the virus — and paid tribute.

“Each of them meant the world to someone they left behind. And those of you who have been through all this, know that to heal, you have to remember. We have to remember them. And we will. We commit to always remember them. That’s what we’ll do,” he said.

While partisan divisions have also caused a split in the vaccination views, Biden sought to pitch a message of unity, urging the country to come together to continue to get a handle on the virus and get back on track.

“You know, history tells us, when we stand together, when we unite in common cause, when we see ourselves not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Americans, then there is simply no limit to what we can achieve. None. Today we see the results of the unity of purpose. The unity of purpose we are forging — we’re our nation,” Biden said.

“For together we’re beating the virus,” he continued. “Together we’re breathing life into our economy. Together we will rescue our people from division and despair. But together we must do it. Over the past year, we’ve lived through some of our darkest days. Now I truly believe, I give my word, we are about to see our bright future.”

Earlier Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff paid a visit to some firefighters in Los Angeles, along with Congressman Ted Lieu and his wife, Betty.

“Let’s take a minute to also reflect on what you all did during that last year and a half to keep pushing and you didn’t stop. You didn’t have the ability to stay at home. You were there to serve. So it’s an important day to also reflect on — on the good, right? And the fight, and our commitment to it. So thank you all,” she said.

The group visited Los Angeles Fire Department Station 19 in Brentwood, California, and both Harris and Emhoff noted that it is their neighborhood station.

“It’s personal to us,” Emhoff said. “This is our neighborhood station, so thank you for everything you do for our neighborhood, our neighbors. I know we’ve been evacuated a couple of times, and you guys were ready to protect our family. And we really appreciate it.”

Sidewalks outside White House reopen to pedestrians, bikes

July 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — As the president looked to celebrate the country’s reopening following pandemic lockdowns, there was a reopening earlier Sunday just outside the White House: The sidewalks there are now open to foot and bike traffic.

“The portion of Pennsylvania Avenue and the White House sidewalk between 15th and 17th Streets NW has been reopened to foot and bicycle traffic. The Secret Service is committed to facilitating public access to Pennsylvania Avenue as well as protecting the safety of the public and agency protectees,” a Secret Service spokesperson told ABC News in a statement.

The spokesperson cautioned that the area will have to temporarily close again later this summer for a National Park Service paving project that will require Pennsylvania Avenue and adjacent areas to be closed.

This area was one of many that was closed to the public amid protests last summer following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Lafayette Square, the park north of the White House, quietly reopened in May after almost a year of being closed to the public.

The fight over the ‘Fight for $15’: A tipped wage worker, a restaurant owner and a representative

July 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Carrie Schweitzer has been a waitress since she was 12.

Now 50, she said back then employers didn’t check, so she lied and told them she was 17.

“I was 13 years old the very first time I had my backside pinched to get an extra tip,” Schweitzer told ABC News.

She’s been in the service industry most of her life, and most of her life the federal minimum wage for tipped workers has been $2.13 an hour. Where Schweitzer works now, in Philadelphia, she gets $2.83 an hour, still far below the $7.25 an hour mandated for other jobs. If she doesn’t earn the base minimum wage through tips, restaurants are legally mandated to pay the rest — although some do not.

In fact, the Labor Department did a two-year investigation of 9,000 restaurants nationwide and found that 84% of restaurants committed some type of violation. But one in nine restaurants violated the law by specifically committing a tipping infraction.

“If I was able to get a full-time wage, I would not have to jump through hoops and do embarrassing things for a tip,” Schweitzer said. “I wouldn’t have to put up with a man calling me ‘baby doll’ or ‘baby girl.'”

“But I’m a waitress,” she added, “so I’m there to be harassed.”

Like over four million Americans, Schweitzer earns most of her income from tips. But despite working more than 40 hours a week, her salary is low enough to qualify for food stamps and state-provided health insurance.

“Working full time and having to accept welfare makes me feel like I’m an unappreciated person,” she said. “There is no excuse for a woman — her entire lifetime — having to put up with verbal abuse and having to put up with sexual abuse just to get a tip to make a living.”

It’s a big reason why she’s pushing for a $15 minimum wage and ending the currently accepted subminimum wage offered to tipped workers.

The Fight for $15, a movement dedicated to raising the federal minimum wage, was a key talking point during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

But in the months since Democrats have gained control of Washington, their attempts to raise the minimum wage have sputtered. Attempts to include a minimum-wage hike in the COVID relief package failed. The Biden administration did what it could, raising the minimum wage for federal workers to $15 an hour.

“The minimum wage itself is woefully inadequate,” Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., told ABC News. “There’s no county in the United States where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.”

Scott, who introduced the Raise the Wage bill in the House, also emphasized that it would eliminate the subminimum wage.

“So the idea,” he said, “is to have everybody make at least the minimum wage as their base salary — and if they make tips over and above that, that’s fine.”

While some Republicans believe the minimum wage should gradually increase over time, others have said they fear that raising it could lead to job loss, higher prices or force small businesses to close.

But in 30 states and the District of Columbia, lawmakers have stepped in and passed a minimum wage above the $7.25 federal mandate.

When it comes to restaurants, though, margins are already slim and overhead costs are high.

At Virtue, an upscale Southern restaurant in Chicago, Erick Williams said that most of his waitstaff can make at least $50,000 a year.

Recently, the city of Chicago raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour and its subminimum wage to $9 an hour, the latter a win for restauranteurs like Williams.

“No business can sustain higher costs and lower profitability and remain in business,” he told ABC News.

But he also acknowledged that the current policy won’t solve the issues facing so many Americans like Schweitzer and more needs to be done.

“I imagine we would identify restaurants that are not bad actors, that are not earning their wages on the backs of their servers and allowing women to be subjected to abuse at tables,” he said. “I think those are the ones that need to be regulated differently.”

As the Fight for $15 continues, Scott told ABC News that debate on the House floor isn’t over and that Republicans still haven’t offered any concrete alternatives.

“They didn’t offer any,” said Scott, adding that they perhaps could “support something less, and then maybe we can negotiate something in the middle. But we haven’t — they haven’t — passed anything yet.”

Meanwhile, Schweitzer will continue working full time and receiving government assistance just to make ends meet.

“When I hear a lawmaker say that he does not want to raise the minimum wage,” Schweitzer said, “he is telling me he does not care about 50% of America. That’s it. He does not care about us.”

Premature fireworks ignition startles unsuspecting beachgoers in Maryland

July 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(OCEAN CITY, Maryland) — A Fourth of July fireworks celebration in Ocean City, Maryland, was canceled after some rockets ignited prematurely and shocked a crowd of beachgoers.

Firefighters responded to a call to the beach in the morning to discover fireworks going off. Beachgoers were seen fleeing and looking on with confusion.

No beachgoers were injured. An employee of the fireworks company received minor injuries but refused transportation to the hospital, investigators said.

City leaders announced later Sunday afternoon that all holiday fireworks displays would be canceled out of an abundance of caution.

The cause of the premature discharge is under investigation, with authorities closing off parts of the boardwalk to pedestrians.

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