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California to require free period products in public schools, colleges

October 12, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Beginning next school year, California public schools and colleges will be required to offer free menstrual products in restrooms under a new bill signed Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The bill, called the Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2021, applies to public schools serving students in grades six to 12, community colleges and the California State University System, according to the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Assemblymember Cristina Garcia.

“Our biology doesn’t always send an advanced warning when we’re about to start menstruating, which often means we need to stop whatever we’re doing and deal with a period,” she said in a statement. “Often periods arrive at inconvenient times. They can surprise us during an important midterm, while playing with our children at a park, sitting in a lobby waiting to interview for a job, shopping at the grocery store, or even standing on the Assembly Floor presenting an important piece of legislation.”

“Having convenient and free access to these products means our period won’t prevent us from being productive members of society, and would alleviate the anxiety of trying to find a product when out in public,” she said.

Garcia was also sponsor of legislation that was signed into law in 2017 that ensures low-income schools in California provide students with free menstrual products.

She said the new law that will provide free products to even more students was inspired by Scotland, which last year became the first country in the world to provide period products to all women for free.

“Just as toilet paper and paper towels are provided in virtually every public bathroom, so should menstrual products,” she said in a statement. “It is time we recognize and respond to the biology of half the population by prioritizing free access to menstrual products, and eliminating all barriers to them.”

Period poverty, when people cannot afford even the most basic of period supplies like pads and tampons, is an issue that affects women around the world.

At least half a billion women and girls globally lack facilities for managing their periods, according to a 2015 report from the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

Poor menstrual hygiene poses health risks for women, including reproductive issues and urinary tract infections.

The taboo around menstruation and the lack of access to menstrual products also hurts women economically because it costs them money for products and may keep them from jobs and school, advocates say.

In the U.S., where women make up more than half of the population, women are more likely than men to live in poverty, and they spend an average of 2,535 days in their lifetime, or almost seven years, on their periods, according to UNICEF.

A lack of access to menstrual products and education affects one in 10 college students in the U.S., according to a study released earlier this year.

Congress last year passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act that included a provision allowing people to use Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) dollars to buy menstrual products like pads, tampons, liners and menstrual cups.

Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., who was instrumental in adding that provision, re-introduced earlier this year in Congress the Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2021, which would, among other things, require employers with 100 or more employees to provide free menstrual products and would require all federal public buildings to provide free menstrual products in classrooms.

Shipwreck off Colombian coast kills three migrants, six are still missing

October 12, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(CABO TIBURON, Colombia) — Three people are dead and six are still missing after a ship sank in Cabo Tiburon, Colombia.

Units of the Colombian Navy in coordination with Panamanian authorities are carrying out the search and rescue operation of the passengers who were transported in a ship that was wrecked in the general area of Cabo Tiburon, in the municipality of Acandí, the Navy said.

The vessel was sailing with approximately 30 migrants, including Haitian, Cuban and Venezuelan citizens, they said.

The Colombian Navy said 21 people have been rescued, and the bodies of three dead women have been found. Two were Haitian and one was Cuban.

The Navy, with the support of the Panamanian authorities and fishermen in the region, continues the search and rescue of six missing migrants — three adults and three minors — who were on board the boat that would have set sail from a clandestine point near Necoclí.

It’s unclear what caused the incident.

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.

At least two dead in small plane crash in California neighborhood

October 12, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(SANTEE, Calif.) — At least two people were killed and two others were hospitalized when a small plane crashed in a neighborhood in Santee, California, near San Diego, on Monday, officials said.

Part of the plane struck the back of a home, city fire officials said. The crash impacted at least two houses, a UPS delivery truck and a fire hydrant, city officials said.

UPS confirmed that one of the deceased victims was one of their employees.

“We are heartbroken by the loss of our employee, and extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends. We also send our condolences for the other individuals who are involved in this incident, and their families and friends,” Steve Nagata, a UPS spokesman said in a statement.

The FAA said the twin-engine Cessna C340 crashed at 12:14 p.m. local time. It’s not yet clear how many people were on board.

There are at least two burn victims who are believed to be from a home, Santee Fire Chief John Garlow said.

Multiple structures and multiple cars were on fire. The blaze has since been extinguished, officials said.

Residents have been urged to avoid the area.

On Monday night the Yuma Regional Medical Center said a cardiologist affiliated with the hospital is one of the fatalities.

“We are deeply sad to hear news of a plane owned by local cardiologist Dr. Sugata Das which crashed near Santee,” Dr. Bharat Magu, chief medical officer at YRMC, said in a statement. “As an outstanding cardiologist and dedicated family man Dr. Das leaves a lasting legacy. We extend our prayers and support to his family, colleagues and friends during this difficult time.”

A tale of two counties: Texas communities illustrate deep divide in COVID-19 vaccination efforts

October 12, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(PRESIDIO COUNTY, Texas) — Americans remain deeply polarized over the renewed push to get the country vaccinated.

Nowhere is such a divide more evident than in Texas, where the vaccination rates tend to vary drastically from county to county.

Presidio County — a remote area of southwest Texas, home to approximately 7,800 people — while rural, boasts the state’s highest vaccination rate, with nearly every one of its eligible residents fully vaccinated.

In the county, cell service is often spotty, and the closest medical center is hours away from most homes, but residents who chose to get vaccinated said they saw it as a matter of life or death.

Rosendo Scott, a Vietnam veteran, who is battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, was more than willing to roll up his sleeve when he became eligible for a vaccine.

“We’re so isolated that we could easily just fall like dominoes, if something wasn’t done,” he told ABC News.

Big Bend Regional Medical Center serves approximately 25,000 residents in a vast 12,000 square mile area, Dr. Adrian Billing, chief medical officer at the hospital, said.

“It’s a 90-to-150-mile one-way trip to get to the emergency room, so I think some of that, just recognizing how limited we are for health care, contributed to our high vaccination rates,” Billing said.

Given the extremely high demand for vaccination, Billing said, all of the county’s available health care workers were pulled away from other duties in order to assist with the shots.

“We had to shut down our medical and dental service lines, and our behavioral health service lines, on these days that we did 500 or 600 vaccines at a time,” Billing said, adding that he has not recently seen a single vaccinated patient wind up in the hospital.

Scott explained that he has a very high level of trust in his health care providers, and thus, in their recommendation that he get vaccinated.

“I’m a believer in science,” Scott said.

The county’s impressive vaccination rate has kept residents safer, local leaders said, especially the community’s youngest members.

Scott’s wife, Allison, who is the principal of Marfa High School, in Presidio County, told ABC News that thanks to the county’s high vaccination rate, there have not been any coronavirus cases in the K-12 public school system since school started.

“So far — and this is our eighth week of school — we haven’t had a positive case, so we’re remaining hopeful,” she said.

However, more than 620 miles away, in Lamar County, the story is very different. Despite the availability of vaccines, only 40% of the residents have been fully vaccinated.

Klark Byrd, the managing editor of The Paris News, a small town newspaper, said he believes vaccine hesitancy in Lamar has been largely driven by residents’ “distrust in the government, distrust in the vaccine makers, [and] distrust, based on misinformation that’s found on social media sites.”

Given the low rate of vaccination in the county, Byrd has been printing op-eds, urging residents to talk to their doctors.

Although Byrd himself has not been vaccinated, due to a pre-existing health condition, he said he is taking all the necessary precautions to keep himself safe, with hand sanitizer, masks and social distancing.

“Sometimes, I’m the only one with a mask, and that’s concerning, but I maintain my distance with people. If I turn down an aisle at Walmart, and there’s a bunch of people, I will avoid that aisle and wait till it clears out,” he said.

Among the many who have opted not to get the shot is Kacy Cole.

Despite the fact that he has seen firsthand how serious COVID-19 can be, with several close friends and family, including his wife, contracting the virus, Cole said he has not reconsidered his anti-vaccine stance.

“It did not,” Cole told ABC News. “We prayed about it and we firmly believe that a lot of faith is involved in a lot of things we do.”

The decision of Cole, and other residents not to get vaccinated has been a tough pill to swallow for many front-line workers.

Dr. Amanda Green, the Lamar County health director and the local hospital’s chief medical officer, explained she wants to do her utmost to keep her community healthy, and the public educated about vaccines, but she tries to be realistic in her awareness that she may never be able to convince everyone.

“There are some people that I think they’ll just never change, no matter what,” Green told ABC News.

From Green’s perspective, such vaccine hesitancy can be a fatal choice. She pointed to Ronnie Stanley, the husband of a local nurse who chose not to get vaccinated. After falling ill to COVID-19, he wound up in the ICU, and died late last month.

“No one is invincible to this disease, it doesn’t care, it doesn’t discriminate,” Stanley’s widow, Amanda, told ABC News. She had urged him to get the shot, from the very beginning, but he was set in his ways, she said.

“He knew that it was as real as what it is, (but) he didn’t know that he would have been affected the way he did. I think had he known, then absolutely, he would have vaccinated and, you know, saved us all the torment that we’ve seen the last month. But yes, he was unvaccinated, and others believe that plays a big role in his death,” Amanda said

She is now seeking to convince those who are still hesitant, by telling his story.

“I don’t believe it has anything to do with politics,” she said about the COVID-19 vaccine. “I believe that this vaccine was created by brilliant doctors and scientists, and God gave them those abilities. And that’s what people need to understand, it’s a selfless act when you get vaccinated. It’s not for yourself, but it’s for those that you need to protect.”

Matt Amodio’s ‘Jeopardy!’ winning streak comes to an end

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — Matt Amodio’s “Jeopardy!” winning streak has officially come to an end.

Amodio, 30, lost during the Oct. 11 episode after 38 straight wins, with new champion Jonathan Fisher besting him. In total, Amodio won $1,518,601 across 39 appearances, earning $5,600 in his final episode as reigning champion.

“I always wanted to be a ‘Jeopardy!’ champion, and I accomplished that,” he said in a statement.

“l know going into every bar trivia game that I play that I’m going to come in with a little intimidation factor. But also, I just like the badge that it represents,” Amodio, a fifth-year computer science Ph.D. candidate at Yale University, continued. “As somebody who prioritizes knowledge and knowing things, this is really a good one to have following me everywhere.”

Amodio has earned his place in the “Jeopardy!” history books. He holds the No. 2 spot in terms of all-time consecutive wins, bested only by Ken Jennings’ 74 straight wins. He also holds the No. 3 spot in terms of prize money won in terms of non-tournament play, with only James Holzhauer ($2,462,216) and Jennings ($2,520,700) ahead of him.

This isn’t the end of Amodio’s “Jeopardy!” journey, though. He will return in the next Tournament of Champions.

COVID-19 live updates: Updates main headline to Abbott issues executive order banning vaccine mandates in Texas

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.

More than 713,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 66% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.

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

Oct 11, 6:41 pm

Abbott issues executive order banning vaccine mandates in Texas

Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that he issued an executive order that bans vaccine mandates “by any entity” in Texas.

The executive order prohibits entities from issuing a mandate to anyone who “objects to such vaccination for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19.”

“The COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective, and our best defense against the virus, but should remain voluntary and never forced,” Abbott said in a statement.

The governor also announced that the issue over vaccine mandates will be addressed in a special session of the state legislature.

As of Monday evening, 72.4% of Texas residents over 12 have received one vaccine dose, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Texas’s seven-day average for new daily COVID-19 cases is 7,447 as of Oct. 8, according to the CDC.

Oct 11, 3:33 pm

WHO advisory group recommends boosters for immunocompromised people

The World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization is recommending boosters for moderately and severely immunocompromised people. The group is also recommending a third dose of China’s Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines for people 60 and older.

The WHO’s Director-General had previously called for a moratorium on boosters, citing inequities in access to vaccines. High-income countries have administered 35 times more vaccine doses than low-income countries. Countries in the WHO Africa Region have only fully vaccinated 3% of their populations.

-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou

Oct 11, 3:09 pm

Philadelphia Marathon requiring in-person participants to be fully vaccinated

All in-person runners must be fully vaccinated two weeks ahead of next month’s Philadelphia Marathon, officials announced. Runners with only a negative test won’t qualify.

Oct 11, 12:41 pm

Daily death average nearly 8 times higher than in mid-July

Although daily deaths have declined by about 17% in the last four weeks, the U.S. is still reporting an average of 1,465 new deaths each day, according to federal data. Over the last four days alone, the U.S. reported another 7,500 confirmed COVID-19 deaths.

The death average is nearly eight times higher than in mid-July when the national average had dropped to a near pandemic low of 192 daily deaths, according to federal data.

But hospitalization admissions have dropped by about 11.4% in the last week, according to federal data.

There are currently about 65,000 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals, down from 104,000 patients in late August.

In the Mountain Region — Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming — hospital admissions are steadily trending up, federal data show. In the Northeast, hospital admissions are no longer trending down.

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Oct 11, 12:13 pm
Boston Marathon returns with COVID protocols in place

The Boston Marathon returned with 18,000 runners on Monday following a two-year hiatus.

The field size was reduced by 36% this year while another 28,000 runners participated in the race virtually.

Runners were required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test. Although masks were not mandated for the 26.2-mile course, face coverings were enforced on participant transportation, as well as for volunteers who interacted with participants.

According to the Boston Marathon Association, 95% of all Boston Marathon volunteers were vaccinated and 100% of Boston Marathon medical volunteers were vaccinated.

Afghan interpreter who helped rescue Biden in 2008 evacuated from Afghanistan

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — An Afghan interpreter who helped rescue then Sen. Joe Biden during a congressional delegation visit to Afghanistan in 2008 has been evacuated from the country, the State Department and the nonprofit that coordinated his travel confirmed to ABC News on Monday.

The interpreter and his family were among more than 200 “at-risk” people in Pakistan who have now been moved “to safety,” the Human First Coalition said in a statement.

The organization, comprised of volunteers efforting evacuations, thanked Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the State Department for their help facilitating their travel. It said Blinken held late-night phone calls and helped coordinate a “path” out of Pakistan for the group. It also thanked Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for welcoming the evacuees after they first got out of Afghanistan.

During his 2008 visit to Afghanistan, a helicopter carrying Biden, along with then-Sens. John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, made an emergency landing because of a snowstorm. A group of U.S. service members and their Afghan partners helped rescue them over land, including a man identified as Aman Khalili by the Wall Street Journal, which first reported his story.

After Biden ended the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and withdrew all troops and personnel in August, Khalili pleaded for help getting out — sharing this message for Biden with ABC News: “Please do not forget me and my family. Please find a way to get me out.”

In a statement to ABC News on Monday, the State Department also confirmed Khalili and his family had successfully been evacuated from Afghanistan and had “initiated onward travel from Pakistan.”

“They did so with extensive and high-level engagement and support from the U.S. government, and we are grateful for the many others who also supported him along the way,” a spokesperson from the Department of State told ABC News.

Khalili was one of thousands of Afghans who worked for the U.S. military and diplomatic mission, but had not been able to get a Special Immigrant Visa for their service. It’s unclear whether he was granted a visa now and where he and his family are headed.

Man says ‘divine’ intervention led him to lost boy in the woods

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(PLANTERSVILLE, Texas) — When Tim Halfin learned during Bible study about a toddler missing in the thick woods of southeast Texas, he said God told him to go search for the child.

In an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Monday, Halfin said he can only credit “divine” intervention for leading him on Saturday to find 3-year-old Christopher Ramirez, who survived nearly four days alone in the woods of Grimes County, about 50 miles northwest of Houston.

“It’s a miracle,” Christopher’s mother, Araceli Nunez, said during a news conference Monday after bringing her son home from the hospital.

Nunez later met with Halfin and thanked him for finding her son.

“Words cannot describe how I felt when I held him for the first time,” Nunez said of being reunited with her boy, who she held in her arms as he played with a toy car. “It was incredible.”

After hearing of the child’s disappearance, Halfin said he went to the woods around 11:45 a.m. Saturday near his home in Plantersville. About 10 yards in he heard what sounded like a child’s whimper.

“I said, ‘Christopher is that you?'” Halfin said. “Then he speaks again and I’m like, ‘Whoa, praise God.'”

Halfin said Christopher was calm and healthy.

“I don’t know what to make of it. All I know is he was found safe,” Halfin said. “When I picked him up, he was still talking. He wasn’t shaking, he wasn’t nervous. The things I would expect. Maybe he just sensed, ‘I’ve been found.'”

Halfin said he picked up the boy, who had shed his clothes and was completely naked, and called 911. Sheriff’s deputies took Nunez to him.

Speaking in Spanish as a sheriff’s sergeant interpreted, Nunez said she held her child and told him that she loves him.

Before meeting with Nunez, Halfin was shown a photo of the smiling little boy after he was reunited with his mother. “That’s what it’s all about right there.”

“That’s what it’s all about right there,” Halfin said. “That’s why everybody was praying. That’s why God laid it on my heart to go look, to reunite that boy with his mom.”

Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell said Halfin found Christopher about five miles from the child’s home, where he vanished after purportedly following a neighbor’s dog into the woods.

The boy was treated for dehydration and minor scratches on his face at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston before being sent home Monday afternoon.

“He ought to be the ultimate Army Ranger, Navy SEAL, Air Force when he wants to grow up. He’s already passed the first test,” said Sowell, who during the news conference presented Christopher with an honorary junior deputy badge.

Christopher vanished around 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the two minutes Nunez said she was carrying groceries into her house from her car.

The Sheriff’s Office immediately organized a search party after a neighbor told them she saw the little boy follow a dog into the woods.

Using drones, aircraft, K-9 units and numerous volunteer searchers on foot, the rescue party combed the woods night and day, but turned up no sign of the child.

“They told me, ‘We didn’t feel like we could sleep because we knew he wasn’t sleeping and he wasn’t found,'” Halfin said of search-and-rescue volunteers and law enforcement officers.

“I think the story is do not give up hope,” Halfin said. “Even though things look bleak, there’s always tomorrow.”

Human-inducted climate change may affect 85% of the global population, researchers say

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Scientists are beginning to paint a clearer picture on just how many people will be affected by climate change if current warming trends continue.

About 85% of the world’s population already lives in areas experiencing the affects of human-induced climate change, according to a study published in Nature on Tuesday.

Researchers in Berlin compiled data from more than 100,000 impact studies analyzing detectable environmental signals of human-inducted climate change, finding that the evidence for how climate change is impacting communities is continuing to grow.

“In almost every study where we have enough data, we can see, [the world] is getting hotter, and it’s getting hotter in a way that is consistent,” Max Callaghan, a researcher at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change in Berlin and one of the authors of the study, told ABC News.

The research also looked at how rising temperatures change precipitation patterns and affect crop yields and local ecosystems, and it found that human-attributable changes in temperature and precipitation are now occurring in 80% of the world’s land area, where about 85% of the global population resides, Callaghan said.

The impacts will be felt the strongest in the least developed countries, but little is known about exactly what those effects will look like, he added, describing the lack of data as an “attribution gap” that needs to be filled.

“In high income countries, almost all of those people live in an area where there is also lots of evidence about how that warming trend affects other systems,” he said. “But in low income countries… there is little evidence about how that warming trend is affecting other things.”

The new research is allowing scientists to attribute with near-certainty that global temperatures are increasing because of human influence on the planet, Callaghan said. While previous studies often focus on possible scenarios by 2050 or 2100, it is clear that climate change is “already happening.”

Countries will need to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the near future to mitigate the extremity of pending disasters, the researchers said.

“As long as we continue burning fossil fuels, things will get worse,” Callaghan said. “Until we reach net-zero, things will continue to get worse.”

Small plane crashes in California neighborhood engulfing home in flames

October 11, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(SAN DIEGO) — A small twin engine plane crashed in Santee, California, near San Diego, fully engulfing at least one home in flames, Santee Fire Chief John Garlow said.

There are at least two burn victims who are believed to be from the home, Garlow said.

The FAA said the twin engine Cessna C340 crashed at 12:14 p.m. local time. It’s not yet clear how many people were on board.

The plane also hit a UPS box truck and knocked out a hydrant, Garlow said.

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

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