(OAK LAWN, Ill.) — A woman in her 70s was recovering from injuries Thursday after being forcibly held at gunpoint while suspects ransacked her home.
The home invasion took place Tuesday evening in Oak Lawn, Illinois, when a female suspect pretending to be selling candy approached the residence, police said. The older woman declined to make a purchase and closed the door.
Upon answering a second doorbell, the victim encountered the female suspect, believed to be a teenager, standing next to a man who was armed with a handgun, authorities said. He forced his way into the residence, ultimately knocking the older woman to the ground.
Home Invasion 4600 block of 105th Pl occurred the evening of March 22nd. If you can help identify the individuals pictured please contact the OLPD Detective Division at 708-907-4051 pic.twitter.com/pEkwp6K9Hx
According to police, two men looted the home while the female suspect held the victim at gunpoint. The trio then fled to a getaway vehicle, a white Kia Optima, which was driven by a fourth suspect.
The woman was home alone during the incident. She sustained minor injuries in the robbery, according to police.
Authorities described one suspect as a short man, believed to be in his 30s, with short black hair and a heavyset build. The other man, believed to be in his 40s, is tall with a heavyset build and a round face. The female is tall and has a thin build. A description of the driver was not provided.
“The main priority of the police department is the safety of the community,” police said in a statement. “We will continue to actively pursue those involved in this case and all other acts of violence and crime. We plan on utilizing every resource at our disposal that will assist in the arrest of those involved.”
No arrests have been made at this time. Anyone who can identify the suspects involved in the incident are urged to contact the detective division at the Oak Lawn Police Department.
(ITHACA, N.Y.) — After a significant viral outbreak before winter break in December, COVID-19 infection levels at Cornell University had markedly declined, as the omicron surge receded, and students returned to campus for the spring semester.
However, as new case totals begin to tick up in the state of New York, the campus is once again reporting a viral resurgence. This week, Cornell elevated its COVID-19 alert system to “yellow,” indicating that transmission is rising, and prevalence of the virus is above predicted levels.
Between March 17 and March 23, Cornell recorded 515 positive COVID-19 infections among students, staff and faculty, according to data from the university.
“COVID-19 cases on the Ithaca campus are increasing beyond our predictions, indicating a substantial prevalence of the virus on campus,” Provost Michael Kotlikoff said in a statement on Wednesday. “This rising transmission is likely due to a number of factors, including relaxing mask requirements, the emergence of the BA.2 variant, and increased social activities.”
Data shows 97% of the student population is vaccinated, while 92% of those eligible are boosted.
At this time, all unvaccinated or unboosted students, faculty, and staff are required to participate in surveillance testing. Cornell provides symptomatic test kits to community members who are experiencing mild to moderate symptoms suggestive of COVID-19.
“The majority of positive cases being reported on campus are from symptomatic testing, which tells us that there are even more asymptomatic cases within our community,” Kotlikoff wrote.
The increase comes less than two weeks after the school dropped its mask mandate for most locations, though community members are still required to wear masks when in certain settings, such as classrooms and laboratories, at health care and testing facilities, and on public transportation.
Given the resurgence, the university strongly encourages community members to get tested before and after spring break, which is not for another week.
With increasing viral transmission occurring overseas, federal officials have been warning that the U.S. is likely to see an uptick in COVID-19 cases in the weeks to come, as the presence of the omicron subvariant, BA.2, spreads across the country.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday her agency is “carefully” watching New England and New York City for increases of the BA.2 variant after they found slight increases in the presence of COVID-19 in wastewater surveillance.
“Currently, we’re seeing a modest uptick of sites reporting an increase of virus levels in wastewater in some communities. In fact, over the past two weeks we have seen increasing wastewater signals in New York City and parts of New England, where we are now seeing increases in cases and some increased hospitalizations,” Walensky said during a White House COVID-19 briefing.
Walensky said officials have been focused largely on hospitalization metrics, to guide potential future guidance on masking and restriction measures.
“If cases do go up, we have the framework to implement additional layers of prevention strategies at the local level to swiftly protect individuals and communities,” Walensky said.
Many experts have been warning that the virus may be already spreading rapidly across the country.
Dozens of states have moved to shutter public testing sites, with more at-home COVID-19 tests now available in pharmacies, and through the federal testing program. Most Americans are not reporting their results to officials, and thus, experts said infection totals are likely significantly undercounted.
Nationwide, BA.2, now accounts for more than a third of new COVID-19 cases. Many top health officials, including Walensky and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, have said that they anticipate that over the next few weeks, BA.2 will become the predominant variant in the U.S.
Although breakthrough COVID-19 infections surged during the omicron wave, data from the CDC shows vaccines still dramatically reduced the risk of requiring hospitalization or dying of the virus.
In January, unvaccinated adults were 9 times more likely to die of COVID-19, compared to vaccinated individuals, and six times more likely to require hospitalization.
Additionally, unvaccinated adults were about 21 times more likely to die of COVID-19 in January, and 12 times more likely to require hospitalization, compared to fully vaccinated and boosted adults.
(WASHINGTON) — Americans who don’t have health insurance will now start to see some of the free COVID-19 testing options disappear, even if they are showing symptoms.
Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest testing companies in the country, told ABC News that patients who are not on Medicare, Medicaid or a private health plan will now be charged $125 dollars ($119 + a $6 physician fee) when using one of its PCR tests either by ordering a kit online or visiting one of the 1,500 Quest or major retail locations that offer the tests, such as Walmart or Giant Eagle.
More than 30 million Americans had no insurance during the first half of 2021, according to CDC estimates.
This week, federal funding to cover the cost of COVID-19 testing and treatment for uninsured Americans officially dried up; any further infusion of cash hinges on Congress passing the White House’s request for billions more in COVID relief, which is still stuck at an impasse.
Quest has begun notifying its clients and partners they can no longer expect to be reimbursed for uninsured claims, barring additional funding from Congress.
For some of the major retail pharmacies, things are still in flux.
Walgreens told ABC News no firm decisions have yet been made. The company said it is waiting on further guidance from the White House and federal agencies and is remaining “hopeful for a path forward that ensures uninterrupted access to COVID-19 services.” CVS told ABC News it is “fully confident” a solution will be found between Congress and the administration.
But unless Congress agrees to more COVID-19 funding, it is likely companies will have to either absorb the cost of uninsured customers — or begin charging them.
Meanwhile, groups such as the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, which represents major retail drug stores and supermarkets such as CVS, Costco Wholesale, Hy-Vee and Albertsons, have been sounding alarm bells on the issue and pushing the Biden administration and Congress to sort things out.
“Any premature lapse in funding that splinters care access threatens to disintegrate the robust, equity-driven COVID-19 pandemic response that has so far saved more than a million lives,” NACDS wrote in recent letters to the White House as well as Senate and House leadership.
With funding for the uninsured expired, the support structure to provide equitable access to COVID-19 testing and treatment is “in imminent jeopardy,” the group wrote, warning the funding cut “could create extreme confusion at the pharmacy counter” and “result in the tragedy of increasing disparities in access to critically needed care and patients forgoing care.”
Fostering equitable access to COVID-19 care for vulnerable groups is contingent on making sure sick people get the treatment they need in time, because antiviral therapies such as monoclonals or Paxlovid must be taken within a short infection timeframe. So, getting treated is contingent upon getting tested in that limited window, to receive what is already a shrinking supply of free treatments. Getting tested in time is also contingent on being able to afford the service, which is not a given, especially for lower income families.
“The loss of access, as a result of expiring COVID-19 care programs, could undermine the nation’s broader, comprehensive response efforts, and NACDS agrees that inaction at this pivotal time could set the nation back, leave the nation less prepared, and may cost the nation more lives,” the letter read.
The American Clinical Laboratory Association — the national trade association representing some of the leading clinical labs responsible for COVID-19 diagnostics (including Quest and LabCorp) — is similarly raising concerns.
“Without question, the exhaustion of these funds will threaten access to testing for the most vulnerable Americans at a critical time in our nation’s response effort,” Tom Sparkman, ACLA’s senior vice president of government affairs and policy, wrote to House and Senate leadership this week.
Sparkman told ABC News in an interview Wednesday the funding cuts for the uninsured is two steps backward in the pandemic progress.
“We are still in a public health emergency. We’re not out of the woods yet — we don’t want to start taking apart pieces of the response. We need to remain strong and vigilant, and the uninsured funding is a critical component of that,” Sparkman said. “It’s extremely concerning.”
“We can’t start rolling up the carpet,” he said. “Not learning the lessons from past surges — of keeping a higher level of surge capacity for testing, keeping those lines warm and available — I think that would be a mistake.”
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett and Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department unsealed two indictments Thursday charging four Russian government employees with two separate conspiracies — outlining their alleged involvement in hacking campaigns that targeted critical infrastructure networks in the U.S. and across the globe between 2012 and 2018.
Altogether, DOJ says the hacking campaigns “targeted thousands of computers, at hundreds of companies and organizations, in approximately 135 countries.”
The unsealing of the cases and their detailed hacking schemes, according to the Justice Department, are intended to serve as a warning amid the current tensions with Russia about the “urgent ongoing need for American businesses to harden their defenses and remain vigilant.”
“The conduct alleged in these charges is the kind of conduct that we are concerned about under the current circumstances and has been addressed by various parts of the federal government,” a senior FBI official told reporters Thursday. “These charges show the dark art of the possible when it comes to critical infrastructure.”
In the first case (reported earlier on this DL after its unsealing in D.C. district court), the Justice Department unsealed charges from June of last year against Russian government employee Evgeny Gladkikh who, along with unidentified co-conspirators, carried out hacking attacks that caused two separate emergency shutdowns at a foreign energy facility. They later failed when they allegedly sought to carry out a similar attack on a U.S. company that managed similar critical infrastructure entities.
In a separate case charged in August of last year, the Justice Department charged three officers in Russia’s FSB with carrying out a two-phased campaign to “target and compromise the computers of hundreds of entities related to the energy sector worldwide.”
“Access to such systems would have provided the Russian government the ability to, among other things, disrupt and damage such computer systems at a future time of its choosing,” the Justice Department said Thursday.
The hacking attempts, according to investigators, were part of Russia’s efforts to “maintain surreptitious, unauthorized and persistent access to the computer networks of companies and organizations in the international energy sector, including oil and gas firms, nuclear power plants, and utility and power transmission companies.”
The indictment alleges that in the first phase of the attacks, the FSB officers were able to install malware on “more than 17,000 unique devices in the United States and abroad, including computer networks used by some power and energy companies. In the second phase, they carried out targeted spearphishing attacks against more than 3300 individuals from more than 500 U.S. and international companies, including U.S. agencies like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
According to DOJ, they were actually able to successfully compromise servers that hosted websites visited by energy sector engineers — when engineers visited a compromised website their login credentials would in some cases be secretly captured by the Russian malware.
None of the individuals publicly identified by DOJ in the new indictments reside in the U.S., making it unlikely they will face arrest or extradition over the charges.
(NEW YORK) — A scathing review has been released evaluating the “failures” of the policies that guided Sweden’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The review, published in the journal Humanities & Social Sciences Communications Tuesday, discusses how, throughout the pandemic, Sweden attempted to avoid lockdowns and stay-at-home orders implemented by many of its neighboring countries.
The authors — from Sweden, Belgium, Norway and the U.S. — said Sweden was able to achieve this by portraying advice from independent scientists as “extreme,” keeping the public in the dark regarding facts about how COVID-19 spreads and not issuing any mandates.
This is despite the country’s history of collaboration between authorities and the scientific community and the general public’s high level of trust of those in power.
As a result, Sweden had a higher COVID death rate than the surrounding Nordic nations.
“The Swedish response to this pandemic was unique and characterised by a morally, ethically, and scientifically questionable laissez-faire approach, a consequence of structural problems in the society,” the team wrote. “There was more emphasis on the protection of the ‘Swedish image’ than on saving and protecting lives or on an evidence-based approach.”
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sweden’s Public Health Agency had published two pandemic planning documents in the last decade to prepare for such an event, according to the review.
Although both focused on the value of antiviral drugs and vaccines to treat and prevent cases, they also emphasized the importance of “limiting the consequences for individuals and society” and how “the negative effects on society must be as small as possible.”
So, when COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020, Sweden was determined to keep its economy up and running and emphasized individual responsibility rather than collective responsibility.
According to the review, the Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Social Affairs “mainly referred to the authority of the Public Health Agency,” a stark contrast from past collaboration between the government and scientists.
Unlike the strict lockdowns implemented by most of Europe, the PHA merely recommended staying at home if feeling ill, washing hands regularly, social distancing and avoiding unnecessary travel.
Meanwhile, restaurants, bars and shops remained open; children under 16 were required to attend school in person with no exceptions for those with at-risk family members; and no mask mandates were ever implemented.
The review noted that the PHA did eventually recommend face masks in hospitals and care homes in June 2020, but only when treating confirmed or suspected COVID patients.
The authors said the PHA discouraging the use of masks and claiming they were ineffective helped spread fear in the population and misinformed the public about how COVID spreads, that asymptomatic people can be infectious and that masks protect the wearer and those around them.
According to the review, there was also a lack of transparency from public health authorities. The number of ICU beds per region was not publicly available and schools often did not inform parents or teachers when students tested positive for the virus.
Then there were efforts to actively squash medical researchers who criticized Sweden’s strategy and accused authorities of not being properly prepared.
When researchers voiced their criticisms on social media, in interviews or in scientific papers, they were often reprimanded by their superiors for reasons such as not being allowed to use their university affiliation, even though this is against Sweden’s right of Academic Freedom of Speech, according to the review.
Additionally, the PHA also “discredited any critique and national/international scientific evidence” and the authors say the agency “cherry picked” scientific papers that agreed with its viewpoint.
Ultimately, this led to Sweden having worse COVID-19 outcomes than its neighboring Nordic countries.
In late December 2020, Sweden was recording an average of 44 COVID-19 deaths per 1 million people, according to Our World in Data.
By comparison, Denmark was recording 5 deaths per 1 million, Norway was recording 0.5 deaths per 1 million and Finland was recording 0.3 deaths per 1 million, the data shows.
One month earlier, a report from the Swedish Inspectorate of Health and Social Services found half the country’s deaths at the time were among nursing home residents.
About one year later in January 2022 — during the omicron wave — Sweden was faring better and recording 5 deaths per 1 million.
However, the other three countries were recording half as many deaths with Denmark recording the highest at 2.4 per 1 million, Our World in Data shows.
“The cost in terms of infections and deaths of this pandemic in Sweden has been larger in some other more densely populated and more centrally located countries, yet is still markedly higher than in the other Nordic countries,” the authors wrote. “This Swedish laissez-faire strategy has had a large human cost for the Swedish society.”
(NEW YORK) — The commercial passenger jet that crashed Monday in southern China plunged into a mountainside with such force it created a 66-foot deep crater and shattered into pieces, officials said Thursday.
Search crews have recovered 183 pieces of the China Eastern Airlines plane and the remains of 21 of the 132 people killed in the air disaster, Zhu Tao, director of the Aviation Safety Office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said at a news conference.
One piece of the aircraft roughly 4 feet long and 4 inches wide was found on farmland 6.2 miles from the core crash site in China’s Guangxi region. Officials would not speculate on how it ended up there but said they are expanding the search area.
Zhu said search crews were still looking Thursday for the Boeing 737-800’s second black box, believed to be the flight data recorder that was installed above the ceiling of the aircraft’s rear cabin.
The plane’s cockpit voice recorder, installed in the plane’s rear cargo compartment, was recovered from the wreckage on Wednesday and is expected to be analyzed at a lab, officials said.
Zhu said most of the wreckage of Flight 5735 is concentrated in and around an impact crater measuring nearly 100 feet wide and 66 feet deep.
Among the pieces recovered are an engine blade and engine pylon, the left and right horizontal stabilizers, pieces of the wings and the plane’s aileron autopilot actuators.
“We also found crew escape ropes and fragments of crew manuals and some crew documents normally found in the cockpit,” Zhu said.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
The plane crashed after taking off from Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province. The flight was headed to Guangzhou, a port city northwest of Hong Kong, Chinese officials said.
Early data shows the airliner plunged from 29,000 feet to 8,000 feet, leveled off and then went into a freefall, exploding into a fireball that was seen and filmed by people nearby. One video showed the plane nose-diving into the ground.
Air traffic controllers made repeated attempts to radio the flight crew when they noticed the aircraft’s rapid descent but were unable to restore communications with the crew before the crash, Chinese officials said.
U.S. intelligence doesn’t have a clear theory on what led to the plane crashing. A source tells ABC News they aren’t ruling anything out, including a possible intentional downing.
During Thursday’s news conference, Chinese officials said more than 300 family members of passengers on the doomed plane were gathered in Wuzhou in the Guangxi region and that China Eastern Airlines had dispatched 161 staff members to meet with them and provide assistance and comfort. More than 200 of the family members have been taken near the crash scene to mourn their lost loved ones, officials said.
(WASHINGTON) — New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker delivered an impassioned speech on the third day of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings Wednesday.
As Jackson wiped away tears, Booker applauded Jackson for her historic nomination to become the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court and her path to getting there.
“You got here how every Black woman in America who’s gotten anywhere has done, by being like Ginger Rogers: ‘I did everything Fred Astaire did but backward, in heels,'” Booker said.
Despite a long list of credentials, Jackson has faced a barrage of questions from Republicans trying to brand her record as “soft on crime” or entrenched in liberal activism. Some Republicans continuously interrupted Jackson’s responses to their questions or yelled in their arguments against her confirmation or credentials. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham stormed out of the hearing and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton called her a liar during their questioning.
In his speech, Booker said the harsh line of questioning against a Black woman didn’t come as a shock.
“It’s hard for me not to look at you and not see my mom, not to see my cousins — one of them who had to come here and sit behind you,” Booker said. “She had to have your back. I see my ancestors and yours.”
“Nobody’s gonna steal that joy,” Booker said in his speech. “Nobody’s taking this away from me.”
Some online celebrated Booker’s speech, including Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts, the author of, “Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration.”
“Watching Booker express Black joy, in that space, felt like an affirmation for all the times we’ve all had to laugh or dance or cry out in exaltation in the face of racism and white supremacist systems,” Lewis-Giggetts told ABC News. “Even in the midst of clear racism and racist dog whistles, Booker could look into the face of Judge Brown-Jackson, see the long line of Black people who came before her, and rejoice with her.”
She said it felt like a reminder that no matter what systems of oppression tell them, “we are worthy and valuable.”
April Reign, a former lawyer and now racial justice activist, co-founded the advocacy organization She Will Rise in an effort to get a Black woman on the Supreme Court. She says Black women are no stranger to the barriers and treatment that Jackson is facing.
“These attacks, unfortunately, feel very familiar to me and millions of Black Women in this country, who have had to hold our tongue, steady our gaze, and endure without anyone speaking up on our behalf,” Reign said. “As Black women, we have carried this country on our backs. It was gratifying to hear Sen. Booker acknowledge that, and remind Judge Brown Jackson, and all of us, that joy cometh in the morning.”
She said she will be forever grateful that there was a Black man in such a position of power to stand up for Jackson and Black women everywhere.
Booker ended his speech by calling Jackson his “harbinger of hope.”
He continued: “This country is getting better and better and better. When that final vote happens, and you were sent on to the highest court in the land I’m going to rejoice.”
“The greatest country in the world the United States of America will be better because of you.”
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — Big Apple athletes and performers who haven’t received their COVID-19 vaccine shots now won’t be barred from taking the court or stage. But some New Yorkers who are still required to show proof of vaccination are calling foul on what they see as a double standard.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Thursday that he was dropping the mandate that all city-based athletes and performers show proof of vaccination to take part in their game or event. Adams said his decision was based on the city’s low COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations and the city’s goal to restart its economy.
“We have to be on the field in order to win,” Adams said during a news conference at Citi Field, where unvaccinated Mets players will no longer have to worry about not playing when the baseball season begins next month.
Until Thursday’s announcement, unvaccinated athletes could not play home games, because venues required everyone to be vaccinated for entry. Visiting players and entertainers, however, were exempt.
This affected the Brooklyn Nets after its star point guard, Kyrie Irving, repeatedly refused to get vaccinated.
Irving was listed inactive during the first three months of the season but was called up in January for road games. He scored 43 points in his last game Wednesday against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Adams said the old rules put teams and performers at a disadvantage.
“This is about putting New York City performers on a level playing field,” Adams said.
Broadway performers represented by Actors Equity previously agreed to mandatory vaccinations.
“Broadway theatres anticipate no change in our protocols based on this announcement. We continue to evaluate our COVID safety protocols for audiences, cast and crew, in concert with our unions and medical experts,” Charlotte St. Martin, the president of The Broadway League, said.
The mayor added that the decision will help the venues and employees who work in the arenas and entertainment venues and local businesses.
But not everyone was thrilled with the mayor’s decision, particularly some unions representing city workers who are required to show proof of vaccination to work.
“There can’t be one system for the elite and another for the essential workers of our city. We stand ready to work out the details with the mayor, as we have been throughout this process,” Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, said.
City Council Speaker Adrienne E. Adams also expressed concerns about the “ambiguous messages” sent to New Yorkers about vaccine requirements.
“This exemption sends the wrong message that higher-paid workers and celebrities are being valued as more important than our devoted civil servants, which I reject. This is a step away from following sensible public health-driven policies that prioritize equity,” she said in a statement.
Earlier in the month, the mayor dropped the requirement for indoor businesses and venues, including movie theaters, to have their customers show proof of vaccination and wear a mask. He also dropped the mask mandate for schools and is set to drop the mask mandate for children 2- to 4-years old.
As of Thursday, 77.5% of all New Yorkers were fully vaccinated, and 36.3% of residents had received their booster dose, according to the city’s Health Department.
The mayor and health department have repeatedly stressed that the COVID-19 vaccines are the most effective way of preventing hospitalizations and death caused by the virus and encouraged more New Yorkers to get their shots.
(OXFORD, Mich.) — The 15-year-old boy charged with multiple counts of murder stemming from a November mass shooting at Michigan’s Oxford High School must remain in an adult jail, a judge ordered Thursday as the teen’s court-appointed guardian said it’s now up to the jail to provide him an education.
During a hearing held on Zoom, Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwame Rowe maintained his prior order that Ethan Crumbley is not to be transferred at this juncture to a juvenile facility.
“The court has not been presented with additional information or new information that will cause this court to disrupt its March 1, 2022 opinion and order. Therefore, the court will continue the defendant’s placement at the Oakland County Jail,” Rowe said.
Crumbley’s lawyer, Paulette Michel Loftin, informed Rowe that a psychiatric evaluation of the teenager has been completed and that a written report of the results is expected to be available in 45 days. Crumbley’s lawyers said in January that they plan to mount an insanity defense.
The boy is charged as an adult with 24 counts, including four counts of murder and a terrorism charge. He is being held in isolation at the Oakland County Jail under behavior watch, which is one step below suicide watch, and must be checked on every 15 minutes, officials said.
Officials said at a previous hearing that Crumbley is only released from his cell to shower or speak with visitors and his attorneys. He spends most of his time reading Harry Potter books, officials said.
Deborah H. McKelvy, Crumbley’s court-appointed guardian, raised concerns Thursday over prosecutors continuing to say in court filings that it’s the responsibility of the defendant’s parents to provide him an education.
Crumbley’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are both jailed on charges stemming from the Nov. 30, 2021, mass shooting their son allegedly committed at Oxford High School in the Detroit suburb of Oxford Township. The parents are charged with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter after allegedly neglecting or failing to notice warning signs about their son in the months before the shooting. They also allegedly bought their son a 9-mm Sig Sauer pistol as a present just days before he allegedly used it in the shooting.
Six other students and a teacher were injured in the shooting.
McKelvy, citing a Michigan statute, told Rowe “it’s important to keep in perspective” that it’s now the jail’s responsibility to provide Ethan Crumbley with an education.
“It’s no longer the parents’ responsibility,” McKelvy said.
McKelvy said she received an email on Tuesday from a senior assistant at the Corporation Counsel for Oakland County notifying Crumbley of the educational programs available to him in jail.
“He (Crumbley) is thinking about what path he wants to proceed with,” McKelvy said.
She said one option is through a cyber school and the other is through a program offered by the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, in which Crumbley could study for his high school equivalency exam or his GED with a laptop computer provided by the jail.
“Once he has achieved either the high school equivalency diploma or the GED, he then would be able to continue in that program to be able to do some community college courses,” McKelvy said.
Ven Johnson, a Detroit civil attorney who represents the parents of Tate Myre, one of four students Crumbley allegedly shot to death, agreed that under state statute, Oakland County must provide Crumbley an education until he’s 18.
“The parents can’t provide an education, imagine that,” Johnson told ABC News Thursday.
He said Myre’s parents, William and Sheri Myre, had no comment on the decision over Crumbley’s education, adding: “They’re too smart to get involved in that.”
Judge Rowe set Crumbley’s next hearing for April 21, for a required monthly reevaluation of whether he should stay in jail or be transferred to a juvenile facility.
(WASHINGTON) — Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, completed two full days of questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee: 13 hours on Tuesday and 10.5 hours on Wednesday.
Thursday marked the final day of the four-day confirmation hearing; the committee heard from outside legal experts, civil rights leaders and the American Bar Association.
Jackson is back on Capitol Hill Thursday to meet with senators ahead of her full confirmation vote.
Here is how the news is developing Thursday. Check back for updates.
Mar 24, 1:13 pm
Hearings adjourn, Jackson on track for full Senate vote before Easter
The Senate Judiciary Committee has adjourned after four days of Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Jackson, Biden’s first high court nominee and the first Black woman in history considered for the position by the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed earlier Thursday that her nomination is still on track for final consideration in the Senate before Easter.
“Once the committee concludes its work, I will move to have her nomination come to the floor in short order,” Schumer said. “There is not a shred of doubt in my mind she merits confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
While the White House had hoped the hearings would get Republicans on board to help confirm her, it’s still unclear if any will vote for Jackson, who is back on Capitol Hill Thursday to try to win more support.
In a sign that will be an uphill battle, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in his floor remarks that Jackson continued to “deflect” questions on her judicial philosophy and on court-packing and argued that she put senators through an “endless circle of evasion.”
Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the committee will consider her nomination on March 28, putting the committee vote on track for April 4 and allowing Democrats to meet their goal of a full Senate confirmation vote on Jackson by April 8 — when the Senate goes on recess.
-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin
Mar 24, 12:42 pm
Democrats reject GOP demands to see pre-sentencing reports
All Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, excluding Sen. Ben Sasse, have continued to rail against Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to allow them to see several pre-sentencing reports in child pornography cases Judge Jackson handled, claiming they can’t evaluate her judicial record without them.
Because pre-trial sentencing reports are kept confidential to protect victims’ privacy, Durbin has rejected the request which he called “reckless.”
“No one wants to harm children,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn. R-Tenn., to which Durbin interrupted, “Then leave the reports concealed.”
“If you are a parent of some child who has been exploited, and you recognize this judge’s name is perhaps presented at the trial, and realize that now the report that has been kept in confidence, all these years is not going to be handed over to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, what would you think as a mother?” Durbin said.
Durbin noted that it’s information the Senate Judiciary Committee has never requested.
Mar 24, 11:15 am
Congressional Black Caucus chair says Jackson’s confirmation will send the right message
In a passionate opening statement, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, lauded Judge Jackson’s record before the Senate Judiciary Committee and slammed what she called “unfair attacks” by Republicans — though several GOP members on the committee weren’t present to hear it.
“These bad-faith efforts exist despite a resume that arguably surpasses those of previous nominees,” said Beatty, who was called as a witness by the committee’s Democratic majority.
Beatty praised the history-making moment that would be Jackson’s confirmation and said Jackson “will be a judge that will serve all of America and all of America can be proud of.”
“Judge Jackson’s confirmation will send a message to Black women and little girls like my granddaughter Leah, whose mother is the first black woman to serve on the Tenth [Circuit] Court of Appeals, and Leah’s first known president was the Black man and now she sees a Black female vice president,” she said. “So if the guidance counselor tells her, ‘Your Goals are too high,’ she will remember how Judge Jackson soared against adversity as one of our nation’s brightest legal minds.”
Beatty also noted that Jackson was confirmed to a lifetime judicial appointment by the Senate on a bipartisan basis last year and that she clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer, who she’d be replacing, which she said wouldn’t change the court’s ideological makeup.
Mar 24, 10:55 am
‘Stellar’ reputation: American Bar Association committee finds no faults with Jackson
The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary praised Judge Jackson’s qualifications and her unanimous “well qualified” rating, the highest rating possible, before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
The peer review committee tasked with evaluating Jackson’s judicial qualifications to the Supreme Court said they conducted confidential interviews with 250 judges and attorneys with “firsthand knowledge” of Jackson and said that everyone they spoke to thought highly of the nominee.
“The question we kept asking ourselves: How does one human being do so much, so extraordinarily well?” said retired Judge Ann Claire Williams, the first Black woman to sit on Chicago-based federal district and appellate courts.
After several Republicans on the committee painted Jackson as “soft on crime,” the retired judges rejected that characterization and specifically addressed that they found no issues with her sentences in child pornography cases or with her representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees.
“We heard consistently from not only defense counsel but prosecutors how unbiased Judge Jackson is. We heard things like ‘doing things by the books,’” said D. Jean Veta, another member of the ABA Standing Committee.
Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton, who pressed Jackson on her sentences in previous days, did not show up.
Mar 24, 10:37 am
Durbin opens final hearing with praise of Jackson, Booker
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., opened the fourth and final day of Supreme Court confirmation hearings with praise of Judge Jackson for withstanding attacks this week he called “unfair, unrelenting and beneath the dignity of the United States Senate.”
“My lasting impression is a judge who sat there through it all, head held high with dignity and determination and strength,” Durbin said. “A lesser person might have picked up and told her family, ‘We’re leaving. This is beyond the pale.’ She didn’t — and it says an awful lot to me about her character and why the president was correct in choosing her to be the next Supreme Court justice.”
Durbin also praised his Democratic colleague Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who moved Jackson and others to tears with a speech Wednesday evening, and said that his wife told him when he got home that Booker “cleared the air, finally, and refocused on what we were doing and why we were here.”
“And I have to tell you, his statement will go down in the annals of this committee and the United States Senate for the impact that they had,” Durbin said.
Mar 24, 10:03 am
Jackson back on Capitol Hill
As the Senate Judiciary Committee questions representatives from the American Bar Association, Judge Jackson is also back on Capitol Hill Thursday, not for questioning but to make her rounds with senators that will soon be voting on her nomination to the Supreme Court.
A meeting with Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah is in the works but not yet confirmed, a source familiar told ABC News.
While Democrats have the votes to confirm Biden’s first high court nominee on their own, the hearings could prove critical to the White House goal of securing at least some Republican support and shoring up the court’s credibility.
Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the committee will consider her nomination on March 28, putting the committee vote on track for April 4 and allowing Democrats to meet their goal of a full Senate confirmation vote on Jackson by April 8 — when the Senate goes on recess.
-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer
Mar 24, 8:43 am
What to expect on the final day of hearings
Judge Jackson, the nation’s first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court, has cleared 19 hours of grueling questioning at the Senate Judiciary Committee and appears headed toward confirmation as a justice with support from all Democrats and a small number of Republicans.
“In my capacity as a justice, I would do what I’ve done for the past decade,” Jackson told the committee on her third day of testimony, “which is to rule from a position of neutrality, to look carefully at the facts and … to render rulings that I believe and that I hope that people would have confidence in.”
The historic hearings resume at 9 a.m. and will wrap for the week after the committee hears from representatives from the American Bar Association — which has given its highest rating to Jackson — and outside witnesses called by Democrats and Republicans on the committee. Senators have five-minute rounds for questions Thursday.
Judiciary Committee Democrats have invited Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus; Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and Jackson’s former classmate; Risa Goluboff, the first woman to serve as dean of University of Virginia Law School; Richard Rosenthal, an appellate attorney and longtime friend to Jackson; and Capt. Frederick Thomas, president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.
As several Republicans on the committee have painted Jackson as “soft on crime,” the GOP has called for their panel Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall; Jennifer Mascott, an assistant law professor at George Mason University; Eleanor McCullen, an anti-abortion rights activist; Keisha Russell of First Liberty; and Alessandro Serano, an activist against human trafficking.
