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(NEW YORK) — Anyone looking to ditch Amtrak or the long commutes to and from La Guardia, JFK, or Newark Airport when traveling between New York City and Washington, D.C., will now have another option—a float plane.
Tailwind Air will start flying two daily flights between the Skyport Marina near East 23rd Street in Manhattan and College Park Airport just outside D.C. The plane will take off from the water in New York and land on the runway at the Suburban D.C. airport in College Park, Maryland.
Tailwind said the flights will operate using eight-seat Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft. The flight time will be between 80-90 minutes and cost $395 one-way.
The airline is touting the ease of the smaller planes, saying passengers have up until 10 minutes before departure to check in for the flight.
“When factoring in the full journey—one hour and twenty minutes in the air (comparable to DCA-LGA service except with no need to access crowded and congested airports on both ends) or the three hours fifty minutes for the Acela—Tailwind Air will offer the fastest, least stressful, premium way to travel between DC and Manhattan. That, paired with the unforgettable views, makes this a compelling experience,” Tailwind Air co-founder Peter Manice said in a press release.
College Park Airport is 30-minute drive from Downtown D.C. and connects directly to Metro’s Green Line.
The first departure is Sept. 13.
“Bypassing the congestion of the northeast corridor between New York and Washington, DC remains the core mission of Tailwind Air,” Alan Ram, CEO and co-founder of Tailwind Air, said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — Adam Foss, a former prosecutor in Boston whose TED Talk brought him into partnership with singer John Legend on criminal justice reform, raped a woman in a New York City hotel, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said Tuesday.
According to court documents and statements made on the record in court, Foss, 42, met the 25-year-old woman at a Midtown Manhattan hotel after exchanging calls and texts for approximately one month. After the survivor repeatedly said no to Foss’s sexual advances, the two fell asleep, before he allegedly raped the woman as she slept.
Foss pleaded not guilty.
Bragg urged other potential victims of Foss to come forward.
“Our Special Victims Division is survivor-centered and trauma-informed, and we encourage anyone who believes they have been the victim of a sex crime to call our Hotline at 212-335-9373. Our prosecutors, investigators, and service providers are available to help.”
Foss was an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. The National Law Journal named him among the 40 most up-and-coming lawyers in the US. In 2013, the Massachusetts Bar Association voted Foss prosecutor of the year.
(NEW YORK) — At least eight children in the U.S. have now tested positive for monkeypox, after health officials in Harris County, Texas, confirmed to ABC News that a presumptive case had been identified in a child under the age of 2.
Officials reported the child has been completely asymptomatic, according to the child’s parents, with no other symptoms other than a residual rash. The child is expected to make a full recovery, and is doing “very, very well,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said during a press conference on Tuesday.
“I understand that it’s a very scary thing, and parents have concerns, and what we need to make sure is to be vigilant and understand the risks, not assume the worst. But this reminds us that this is very real,” Hidalgo said.
The family has also been fully cooperative, and is assisting with contact tracing, though the child has not been in any day care or school settings. Thus far, no one else in the child’s circle has been identified as positive for monkeypox, according to officials.
How this child contracted monkeypox is still unknown, Hidalgo said.
“I understand this is a very, very worrisome for parents, especially as school is starting back up knowing that a child in our community has now contracted or as a presumptive positive for the monkey pox virus. It opens up a lot of questions about how this is spread. It makes people very worried. It makes things very tangible,” Hidalgo added.
Although this is indeed a “rare” case, Hidalgo noted that “we always knew that any person in this community can contract monkeypox. We knew that it was possible for a child to be exposed. Anyone can get this virus, so this isn’t entirely unexpected.”
The news of the positive pediatric case in Texas comes after a child in Martin County, Florida, has tested positive for monkeypox, according to state health data. The child in Florida is between the ages of 0 and 4 years old, according to the state health data.
Officials in Maine also announced Friday that they, too, had confirmed a positive monkeypox case in a child. No further information about the case has been released due to concerns over patient privacy, officials said.
“Maine CDC [Center for Disease Control and Prevention] is working to identify any others who may have been exposed and make vaccination available to close contacts,” officials wrote in a press release.
In addition to the cases in children reported in Maine and Florida, two cases have been confirmed in California, as well another two in Indiana, and a case in a non-U.S. resident reported in Washington, D.C.
The majority of cases in the current monkeypox outbreak have been detected in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. However, health officials have repeatedly stressed that anyone can contract the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously warned that there has been some preliminary evidence to suggest that children younger than 8 years old are at risk of developing more severe illness if infected, alongside pregnant people and those who are immunocompromised.
However, last week, in an effort to protect the youngest Americans, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization that allows health care for children under 18 who are at high risk of monkeypox to be vaccinated.
Across the globe, nearly 32,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported, including nearly 12,000 cases in the U.S. — the most of any country, according to the CDC. All but one U.S. state — Wyoming — have now confirmed at least one positive monkeypox case.
Monkeypox primarily spreads through prolonged skin-to-skin contact with infected people’s lesions or bodily fluids, according to the CDC. In addition to lesions, which can appear like pimples or blisters, the most common symptoms associated with monkeypox are swollen lymph nodes, fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches.
(MERRICK, N.Y.) — Sal’s Shoe Repair in Merrick, New York, was doing more than fixing heels and worn soles.
The Genovese organized crime family operated an illegal gambling operation out of the shop, generating “substantial revenue,” which was then laundered through cash transfers, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said.
Nine purported members and associates of the Genovese and Bonanno organized crime families were charged Tuesday with racketeering and illegal gambling offenses for running gambling parlors out of other legitimate-seeming establishments in Queens and on Long Island, including a coffee bar and La Nazionale Soccer Club.
Salvatore Rubino, 58, known as “Sal the Shoemaker,” was among those arrested, prosecutors said.
A Nassau County police detective, Hector Rosario, is also among the defendants. He allegedly accepted money from the Bonanno family in exchange for offering to arrange police raids of competing gambling locations, according to the indictment. He is charged with obstructing a grand jury investigation and lying to the FBI.
“Current members of the five families demonstrate every day they are not adverse to working together to further their illicit schemes, using the same tired methods to squeeze money from their victims. Enlisting alleged assistance from a member of law enforcement also proves they are willing to do all they can to hide their illegal behavior,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael Driscoll said in a statement.
Beginning in May 2012, the Genovese and Bonanno families jointly operated a lucrative illegal gambling operation in Lynbrook, New York, called the Gran Caffe. The profits earned through this and other gambling locations generated substantial revenue, which was then laundered through cash transfers to the defendants and through “kicking up” to the crime families’ leaders, the indictment said.
“Today’s arrests of members from two La Cosa Nostra crime families demonstrate that the Mafia continues to pollute our communities with illegal gambling, extortion, and violence while using our financial system in service to their criminal schemes,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement.
Among those charged are Anthony “Little Anthony” Pipitone, a captain and soldier in the Bonanno family, and Carmelo “Carmine” Polito, acting captain in the Genovese family, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors detail one call Polito made in October 2019 to an associate asking him to relay a message to a debtor: “Tell him I’m going to put him under the f——- bridge.”
(WASHINGTON) — The newer the car, the safer it is for women drivers, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a new report Tuesday.
While the NHTSA’s earlier report, published in 2013, found women to be at a much higher risk of fatality in car crashes compared to men, the 2022 report said that newer car technology, in line with strengthened regulations, has decreased the disparity.
According to the National Roadway Safety Strategy published by the Department of Transportation in February, officials said that although men represent more than 70 percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes, the motor vehicle fatality risk is still higher for a woman than for a man of the same age.
The NHTSA’s new report states the estimated difference in fatality risk estimates for female versus male front row occupants is 6.3% for car models from 2010-2020. Older vehicles, with model years 1960-2009, have a disparity almost three times that at 18.3%.
For vehicles within model years 2015-2020, the disparity closed even further, coming in at 2.9%, the report said.
Newer generations of cars are equipped with dual air bags, which significantly reduces the fatality risk for women in crashes, the NHTSA said. Newer cars also have more advanced seat belts, the agency said, which further reduces women’s risk.
However, NHTSA’s Administrator, Steven Cliff, said that the department is still looking to improve the impact upon women who are in car crashes.
“Advancing equity, including across our transportation system, is one of the Biden-Harris Administration’s top priorities,” Cliff said in a press release. “While NHTSA’s new report shows significant declines in differences in crash outcomes between women and men, there is more work required to eliminate any disparities that remain.”
The NHTSA said a number of developments are in action to close the remaining gap, including the development of new biofidelic crash test dummies and of sophisticated computer modeling that can evaluate the effects of different types of crashes on a large range of human body types and sizes.
Further, the agency is researching the degree to which sex disparities in injuries exist in like crashes and the evaluation of new safety standards to eliminate all remaining disparities.
Historically, car crash tests used only male dummies, according to the NHTSA. The agency has used a 4 foot 11 inch tall and 108 pound “female dummy” in some tests since 2003, the NHTSA said. However, this sizing is not accurate to the average woman’s body in America.
According to the NHTSA, new federal funding through the major infrastructure bill passed in last year will help accelerate research on this front to further close the gap in fatality rates for men and women in car crashes.
(NEW YORK) — Novavax has submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster in adults that can be used on top of the its primary vaccine series or to mix and match with a different primary series, the company announced.
“It’s important for people to have a choice as they evaluate how to stay protected against COVID-19, and boosters are an invaluable tool to build upon immunity obtained from previous vaccinations,” Stanley C. Erck, President and Chief Executive Officer of Novavax, said in a statement on Monday.
“Based on the data presented to the FDA’s VRBPAC and the CDC ACIP, we believe our vaccine offers a broad, long-lasting immune response against a range of variants,” Erck said.
Although half a million doses of Novavax’s vaccine have now been distributed to states, following its authorization last month, just 9,700 doses of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine have been administered across the country, according to federal data.
The sluggish start may be, in part, due to the fact that the vaccines were not immediately made available after authorization, and thus, there could be some reporting delays.
Last month, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on the use of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine for Americans ages 18 years and older, making it the fourth COVID-19 vaccine to be made available to the American public.
The Biden administration secured 3.2 million doses of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine.
A number of health experts had expressed their hope that some of the individuals, who are still hesitant to be vaccinated, would be more inclined to get the Novavax vaccine, because it is based on a more traditional protein-based technology, one already used for the flu vaccine and other shots, while Pfizer and Moderna vaccine platforms tapped a new genetic technology — with messenger RNA — to produce their vaccines.
Early indicators suggest that the authorization has yet to convince a large swath of the 26 million unvaccinated American adults to get the shot.
However, experts say that although overall uptake may still be limited, there some Americans who have been vaccinated with Moderna, Pfizer, or Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccines, may feel more inclined to receive Novavax’s booster.
“Having vaccine options likely plays role in improving vaccination coverage. Given so many Americans have yet to receive their boosters despite the clear indication of their impact on reducing risk of severe complication from COVID-19, that improvement in vaccine uptake may be somewhat limited,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
Across the country, 110 million Americans — or more than half of those eligible to be boosted — have yet to receive their first booster shot, according to data from the CDC.
Similarly, although over 61 million people, over the age of 50, are eligible to receive their second COVID-19 booster shot, just a third of people have actually done so.
(WASHINGTON) — The Democratic chairs of the House Homeland Security and House Oversight committees on Tuesday threatened the Department of Homeland Security inspector general with a subpoena, accusing him of delaying responding to the committee’s request for answers regarding missing Secret Service text messages on and around the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“If you continue to obstruct, we will have no choice but to consider alternate means to ensure compliance,” Rep. Bennie Thompson and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, both Democrats, write to Joseph Cuffari in a letter dated Aug. 16.
This is the second letter they have jointly sent to the DHS IG requesting information, amid new allegations that career staff in Cuffari’s office prepared a notice to Congress earlier this year about their difficulty obtaining Secret Service text messages connected to Jan. 6, but the notice was not included in the government watchdog’s required regular report to lawmakers.
The DHS inspector general has been under scrutiny for his handling of the deleted Secret Service text messages on and around Jan. 6. He previously waited more than a year to notify the committee about the missing texts.
A Secret Service spokesman last month acknowledged text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, were deleted after being sought by the DHS inspector general.
A letter Cuffari sent last month to the heads of the House and Senate Homeland Security committees said the messages were deleted “as part of a device-replacement program,” despite the inspector general having requesting such communications.
Guglielmi, the Secret Service spokesman, subsequently dismissed any “insinuation” the agents had “maliciously” deleted the texts.
The agency sent out communications to employees on how to upload digital files on their local devices if they are government records, according to a source familiar with the Secret Service migration process.
The letter sent by the committee chairs lays out how they say the inspector general might have violated the Inspector General Act.
“In response to the Committees’ requests, you have refused to produce responsive documents and blocked employees in your office from appearing for transcribed interviews,” the members write. “Your obstruction of the Committees’ investigations is unacceptable, and your justifications for this noncompliance appear to reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of Congress’s authority and your duties as an Inspector General.”
The DHS IG has instructed the Secret Service to stop its internal investigation because his office has now turned the deleted text message issue into a criminal investigation, according to three sources familiar with the situation.
The congressional committees say Cuffari made no mention of the Secret Service’s retention issues in the semi-annual report to lawmakers, despite knowing about them.
The inspector general’s office has not responded to ABC News request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — On Monday, the U.K. became the first country to approve a bivalent vaccine booster shot for adults, which would target both the original COVID virus and the Omicron variant.
This vaccine, which is likely going to be available in the U.S. starting in the fall, is expected to provide increased and longer-lasting protection against COVID and the new variants.
Sony Salzman, coordinating producer for ABC News’ Medical Unit, sat down with ABC News’ podcast “Start Here” to discuss what people can expect from the new bivalent vaccine, and the way forward in the country’s vaccination strategy.
START HERE: Yesterday the U.K. became the first country on Earth to approve a new type of vaccine, a vaccine that was engineered with a more recent variant of COVID in mind. Let’s check in with ABC’s Sony Salzman from our Medical Unit. Sony, is this a turning point? What does this vaccine do?
SALZMAN: I think it is a turning point, Brad. I think what these new vaccines are going to do is shift us into the next phase of the pandemic, where like the annual flu shot each year or season, we have to kind of predict what the virus is going to do and engineer a vaccine that is the best defense against that virus.
The U.K. government just recently authorized a vaccine that is a combination shot, it is Moderna’s combo shot. This is called a bivalent vaccine. And what it does is it still protects against that original Wuhan strain that emerged in 2020, but then it also protects against the newer BA1 Omicron strain. And so it combines both of those in the hopes of providing enhanced protection against the variants that are circulating right now.
START HERE: Right, so [with] Omicron cases absolutely skyrocketed in this country because people just did not have the same level of immunity as this variant came onto the scene. So how do I get one of these vaccines, Sony? I want one of these boosters. What’s happening in the U.S.?
SALZMAN: So it is coming to the U.S., too, but what we’re gonna get here is actually slightly different. FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, they looked at presentations from Moderna and Pfizer and what they said is, you know, that’s all well and good, but even within Omicron, we have all these subvariants right? So Omicron BA1 was the first Omicron subvariant, but now here in the U.S. and globally, actually, BA5 is the dominant variant.
What the FDA did is they asked the companies to go back, look at the formula again, and re-tweak it a little bit so that it’s a better match against BA5, and that is the version that they have ordered. The expectation is that that would be authorized in September or perhaps October, and be available sometime in the fall.
START HERE: So that sounds great; I guess that it would be the strain that’s a little bit more recent, but will it work better? Because I gotta say Sony, I see school about to start and I’m thinking ‘dang, wouldn’t it be nice to get a new vaccine in play before kids are all indoors spreading it to each other’s families.’ Is there a balancing act here between timeline and efficacy?
SALZMAN: Well, you know, just to set expectations, Brad, I do think it’s really important to remember that even these vaccines that we’re talking about the ones that are re-tweaked, and they’re reformulated, and they’re better matches against these new variants. The virus itself has changed so much that we are not going to get a bulletproof vaccine that protects you against any breakthrough infection.
START HERE: That’s no longer the expectation for these vaccines…
SALZMAN: That’s no longer the expectation, that’s exactly right. So, you know, maybe at some point in the future, there is some really interesting vaccine science, early stages of development here but for these vaccines, and for the way that this virus has evolved, that is no longer the expectation.
The expectation is that they are going to have higher efficacy, particularly against severe illness, and also last longer so that kind of drop off doesn’t happen as quickly. So that’s the expectation here, but I want to be clear: either of these vaccines, whether you do a bivalent against BA1 or BA5, or anything to that effect, it’s going to be better. Every scientist I’ve talked to says that this is the way forward.
We need to be updating the vaccines to be a better match for the variants that are circulating presently. But it’s not going to be this kind of bulletproof approach where you have a vaccine that completely protects you against infection. That’s not the expectation.
START HERE: Gotcha. In the meantime, we are hoping to see these Omicron-specific boosters here in the U.S. sometime in September. Sony Salzman from our Medical Unit, thanks a lot.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in West Virginia on Tuesday rejected the plea deals of Jonathan Toebbe, a former nuclear engineer for the U.S. Navy, and his wife Diana, because she said they did not allow for enough prison time.
Jonathan Toebbe’s plea agreement called for a sentence of 12-17 years and Diana Toebbe’s plea agreement called for a sentence of three years after they pleaded guilty to offering to sell secrets about submarine nuclear propulsion systems to a foreign country.
Toebbe had faced life in prison for violating the Atomic Energy Act before reaching the agreement with federal prosecutors in West Virginia, where he put an SD card at a “dead drop,” according to the charging documents.
“These are serious crimes but we are talking about serious punishment. Twelve-and-a-half years is not a slap on the wrist,” defense attorney Nicholas Compton said.
The judge, though, said it was not in the best interest of the community to accept the plea agreements since the proposed sentences failed to account for the “grave harm” she said the Toebbes caused.
“Make no mistake these defendants have been charged with very serious crimes,” Judge Gina Groh said. “I find the sentencing options available to me to be strikingly deficient.”
The Toebbes, of Annapolis, Md., seemed to neighbors and co-workers as the typical suburban couple before they were arrested last October for allegedly scheming to sell secrets about Virginia-class nuclear submarines to a foreign country, which was not identified in court papers but was Brazil, a source told ABC News.
At the time of his plea, Toebbe conceded he sent a package to a foreign government, listing a return address in Pittsburgh that contained a sample of restricted data and instructions for establishing relationship to buy additional restricted data.
Toebbe said he began corresponding with someone he thought was a representative of the foreign government who was really an undercover FBI agent.
On June 8, 2021, the undercover agent sent $10,000 in cryptocurrency to Toebbe as “good faith” payment.
A few weeks later, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe traveled to a location in West Virginia, prosecutors said. There, with Diana Toebbe acting as a lookout, Jonathan Toebbe placed an SD card concealed within half a peanut butter sandwich at a pre-arranged “dead drop” location, they said.
After retrieving the SD card, the undercover agent sent Jonathan Toebbe a $20,000 cryptocurrency payment, prosecutors said. In return, Jonathan Toebbe emailed the undercover agent a decryption key for the SD card. A review of the SD card revealed that it contained restricted data related to submarine nuclear reactors, the indictment said.
Both the Toebbe’s withdrew their plea agreement after a judge rejected the agreement.
“Yes, your honor, I’d like to withdraw my plea,” Jonathan Toebbe said.
The judge on Tuesday set a trial date of Jan. 17, 2023, giving the parties time to negotiate a new plea agreement or proceed to trial.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed the Democrats’ massive climate, health and tax bill into law, marking a major accomplishment for his domestic agenda less than three months before midterm elections.
Speaking from the White House’s State Dining Room, Biden touted the Inflation Reduction Act as “further proof that the soul of America is vibrant, the future of America is bright and the promise of America is real and just beginning.”
“The American people won and the special interests lost,” he said before swiping at Republicans for their unanimous opposition to the law.
“That’s the choice we face. We can protect the already powerful or show the courage to build a future where everybody has an even shot,” Biden said.
Taking advantage of some political momentum, Biden interrupted his summer vacation for the signing just days after the House approved the measure, following Senate passage by just one vote amid some political drama. He has spent much of the past week in South Carolina. Biden arrived at the ceremony wearing a mask after spending his vacation with first lady Jill Biden, who has tested positive for COVID-19.
In attendance for the ceremony were Sen. Joe Manchin, a key negotiator of the package, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“I am confident this bill will endure as one of the greatest legislative feats in decades. It’ll lower costs, create millions of good paying jobs and is the boldest climate bill ever,” Schumer said during the event.
A larger celebration for the law is being planned for Sept. 6.
The White House also said that, “in the coming weeks,” Biden will host a Cabinet meeting focused on implementing the new law and will also travel across the U.S. to promote it.
The Biden administration has planned a cross-country rollout campaign for the legislation, which aims to make prescription drugs and health insurance cheaper; invest in clean energy and curb climate change; raise taxes on the wealthy; and cut the deficit.
Starting this week through the end of August, Cabinet members plan to travel to 23 states, on more than 35 trips, to tout the “Inflation Reduction Act,” according to the White House.
The administration also plans to roll out information online and on social media about the legislation’s impact, and to collaborate with members of Congress to host hundreds of events, the White House said.
The blitz will highlight will highlight other major legislative wins as well as part of a “Building a Better America Tour.”
In a memo the White House made public from Senior Adviser Anita Dunn and Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon to Chief of Staff Ron Klain, the administration plans to not only tout passage of the IRA, but also the CHIPS Act aimed at boosting the U.S. semi-conductor industry over China’s and easing a pandemic-cause shortage, the bipartisan gun control bill and the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Ahead of Tuesday’s signing, the White House on Monday put out what it said would be the Inflation Reduction Act’s impact.
According to the White House, about 1.4 million Americans who are on Medicare who usually spending more than $2000 per year on prescription drugs will see their costs capped at that amount. Overall, it says, there are about 50 million Americans on Medicare Part D who are eligible for that cost cap.
The White House said there are about 3.3 million Americans on Medicare who use insulin, who will benefit from the new $35 monthly price cap.
The White House also estimates about 5-7 million Americans could see their prescription drug costs decrease once Medicare begins negotiating costs.
Lower Obamacare premiums will be extended for the 13 million Americans insured under that program, the White House said.
And the White House also claims greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by a billion metric tons in 2030 thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act.
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky and Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
