(NEW YORK) — The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, urged two Arizona lawmakers to help reverse President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory in the state, according to emails reviewed by ABC News — suggesting that the conservative activist played a larger role in pushing to overturn the election than was previously publicly known.
Thomas, whose political activism following the 2020 election has faced growing scrutiny given her proximity to the Supreme Court, emailed Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and Arizona State Rep. Shawnna Bolick in the days following the election in November, asking them to “fight back against fraud” and “do your Constitutional duty!” according to records.
The emails were obtained by ABC News on Friday through a records request to the Arizona House of Representatives. Their contents were first reported by The Washington Post.
“Please stand strong in the face of political and media pressure,” Thomas wrote in separate emails to the two GOP lawmakers on Nov. 9, 2020. “Please reflect on the awesome authority granted to you by our constitution. And then please take action to ensure that a clean slate of electors is chosen for our state.”
In another pair of emails to Bowers and Bolick, sent days later on Nov. 13, Thomas wrote, “As state lawmakers, you have the Constitutional power and authority to protect the integrity of our elections — and we need you to exercise that power now!”
“Never before in our nation’s history have our elections been so threatened by fraud and unconstitutional procedures,” Thomas added, according to the emails.
Bolick, according to records reviewed by ABC News, replied to Thomas on Nov. 10, 2020, saying, “I hope you and Clarence are doing great!” and providing instructions on how to file a complaint for those who “experience voter fraud.”
Bolick on Friday took to Twitter to fire back at news coverage of Thomas’ emails.
“The dishonest media wants to distract attention from election fraud & our efforts to secure elections,” she wrote. “Let’s cut through the conjecture & put this to bed. Here is the public records request from Washington Post & my emails, which show me responding as I would to any constituent.”
The emails reviewed by ABC News do not show any response from Bowers.
Reached by ABC News Friday, a spokesperson for Bowers, Andrew Wilder, said in a statement, “The emails appear to have been among the hundreds of thousands of messages sent to the Speaker’s office during that period. Speaker Bowers did not see, much less read, the vast majority of those messages, including the form email sent by Mrs. Thomas.”
Although a self-described Trump supporter, Bowers said following the election that he had seen no evidence of voter fraud. For his actions to protect election integrity in Arizona, Bowers this Sunday will receive the 2022 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, presented by the Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation, alongside four other recipients that include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Neither Thomas nor her attorney responded to a request for comment from ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Louisiana on Friday ordered the Biden administration to continue implementing pandemic-related restrictions at the border that effectively close humanitarian relief options for asylum seekers.
The restrictions were slated to end on Monday.
The restrictions were first implemented under the Trump administration by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which issued an order that derives its authority from a decades-old public health law known as Title 42.
The ruling today grants the GOP-led states’ motion for a preliminary injunction against the Title 42 rollback. The injunction is expected to remain in place until the case concludes, the government fixes its approach or until the government gets a more favorable decision on appeal if one is made.
The decision by Judge Robert R. Summerhays, a Trump appointee, comes as the Biden administration’s homeland security apparatus remains strained by a historic level of unauthorized migration in the southwest.
Immigration authorities arrested and stopped migrants 234,088 times along the southwest border last month, the highest monthly total in the reams of publicly available Customs and Border Protection data. That number includes a 183% increase in the number of inadmissible migrants trying to get through U.S. land ports since March.
During April, DHS says they removed 96,908 migrants under the Title 42 authority and 15,171 migrants under Title 8, which was the primary deportation authority before the pandemic.
It’s unclear what impact the use of Title 42 has on overall migration, despite claims from Republicans in Congress that it works as a successful deterrent.
Suspected unlawful entries at the border have come at a record pace over the past two years that the Title 42 order has been in effect. Meanwhile, the number of repeat border crossing attempts is up nearly fourfold since the first year the Title 42 was implemented.
One explanation behind the increase in repeated unlawful entries is the lack of long-term consequences for those processed and immediately expelled from the U.S. Under normal immigration processing, an order of removal comes with specific restrictions on re-entry and prosecutable consequences for those who try again.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas held meetings with top immigration officials at the border this week as he oversees preparations the department is taking in case the level of migration elevates further. At a press conference to discuss the trip he noted the Justice Department will decide whether to appeal the Louisiana court’s decision.
Mayorkas this week outlined the Department’s plan for the border transition away from Title 42 which involves surging homeland security resources, improving processing capacity and efficiency, ramping up consequences for increased border crossings, cracking down harder on transnational criminal smuggling networks and strengthening alliances across Central and South America.
“We have a multi-pronged approach to a very dynamic situation,” Mayorkas said. “We are addressing it across the Department of Homeland Security, across the federal government with our state and local partners, and with our partners and allies south of our border.”
Mayorkas said authorities will be increasing criminal prosecutions along the southwest border to apply the sort of consequences that Title 42 does not allow, including multi-year bans on re-entry for unauthorized migrants.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. officials are still working out details for the first flight to import baby formula, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Friday, as parents continue to struggle to find supply amid the nationwide shortage.
The White House announced “Operation Fly Formula” on Thursday as an effort to transport baby formula from abroad that meets U.S. health and safety standards. The first shipment — said to be the equivalent of up to 1.5 million 8-ounce bottles — will come from Nestlé S.A. in Zurich, Switzerland and arrive in Plainfield, Indiana.
“I don’t have a specific update for you in terms of exactly what carrier it’s going to be and exactly what time and date but obviously this isn’t classified information and as soon as we have it properly sourced and all the details worked out, we’ll get that to you,” Kirby said during a press briefing.
Kirby added he doesn’t think it’s “going to be very long” before the flight is actually in the air. “We’re talking days at most,” he said.
The mission will likely use chartered commercial aircraft arranged by U.S. Transportation Command, but military “gray tail” planes could also be used if it is deemed to be the most efficient solution.
Nestlé told ABC News the first shipment will include 132 pallets of Nestlé Health Science Alfamino Infant and Alfamino Junior, as well as 114 pallets of Gerber Good Start Extensive HA — all of which are hypoallergenic formulas for children with cow’s milk protein allergies, one of the most common food allergies in babies.
The administration has been under intense scrutiny for its response to the crisis, which had been building for months.
In another effort to diffuse the situation, President Joe Biden on Wednesday invoked the Defense Production Act to prioritize ingredients needed for formula production. The 1950 law — first used to build up arms supplies following North Korea’s invasion of South Korea — compels suppliers to provide needed raw materials to formula manufacturers ahead of other customers ordering those goods.
But administration officials on Thursday struggled to say exactly how the Defense Production Act will help in this scenario, sidestepping questions on what raw ingredients formula companies need that they’ve said they’re not able to get.
The out-of-stock percentages have worsened for formula products, according to the data racking firm Datasembly. For the week ending May 15, nearly 45% of products were unavailable in stores across the U.S.
Coronavirus-related supply chain issues plagued the industry but a recall and plant closure from Abbott — one of the nation’s top manufacturers — exacerbated the shortage.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf was grilled by lawmakers during a hearing Thursday on the agency’s handling of Abbott. Inspection reports and a whistleblower document suggest the FDA became aware of potential problems at the Abbott plant last fall.
Califf told lawmakers the Abbott plant is on track to reopen within two weeks. Once the facility is reopened, the company has said it would take an additional six to eight weeks before product is back on the shelves.
“We know many parents and caregivers are feeling frustrated,” Califf said. “This crisis has shown us the impact of having a single manufacturer cease production for a brief period, and unless we strengthen the resilience of our supply chain, we could be one natural disaster or quality mishap or cyber attack from being here again.”
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Another child in the U.S. has died in connection with the mysterious cases of severe hepatitis that have been occurring among children around the country and the globe, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Friday.
Investigators learned of the additional death on Thursday, Dr. Jay Butler, deputy director for infectious diseases for the CDC, told reporters during a phone briefing.
Officials had previously reported that the deaths of five other children were under investigation in connection to the disease.
“Unfortunately, the illness in many of these patients is severe … and the extent of the injury to the liver can be quite extensive. And so, this is clearly a severe disease that we’re taking very carefully for that reason, and the proportion of these, despite treatment, do unfortunately die,” said Dr. Umesh Parashar, chief of the viral gastroenteritis branch at the CDC’s Division of Viral Diseases.
As reported earlier this week, the CDC is now investigating at least 180 cases of severe hepatitis with unknown cause among children across 36 states and territories — an increase from the 109 cases that were reported earlier this month. Fifteen of the 180 children who are connected to the investigation in the U.S. have required a transplant, officials said Friday. At this time, there is no epidemiological link between the cases.
The “vast majority” of these cases are retrospective, as far back as October 2021, officials said, while only 7% of cases have been over the past two weeks.
“I know we’re all eager for information, especially regarding what’s causing these illnesses in young children. We continue to work with clinicians and our state and local public health partners to gather more detailed data, but I want to caution that it does take time to assess the evidence,” Butler explained.
“This is an evolving situation and an ongoing investigation, but it’s important to note that severe hepatitis and children remain rare,” Butler said.
Investigators continue to work to identify whether the outbreak represents a true increase in the number of severe hepatitis cases in children, or whether an existing pattern has now been uncovered, thanks to improvement in detection of these cases.
“While rare, children do sometimes get serious hepatitis, and it’s not uncommon … for the cause to be unknown,” Butler added.
There is no evidence to suggest, so far, he said, that the word “spike” is appropriate to describe the current emergence of cases.
“The question of whether or not this is something that has been ongoing for even longer, and we’re just recognizing that now I think is a very reasonable one. So, I think ultimately, really all we can say for sure at this point in time is we’re not seeing a dramatic increase in the number of cases,” Butler said
The “leading hypothesis” remains adenovirus, with evidence “accumulating” that it may have a role, though that exact role continues to be investigated. Also, under consideration is whether a prior infection of COVID-19 is playing a role, as well as the impact of mitigation measures, as many children have not been exposed to viruses in recent years due to quarantines, and thus, there may be a “catch-up” factor, Butler added.
There are numerous other lines of investigation into whether there could be a further connection with COVID-19, or other co-factors, officials reported.
Butler reiterated that any connection to COVID-19 vaccines seems “really unlikely to be playing a direct role,” particularly given that most of these children are too young to receive the vaccine.
The CDC continues to encourage parents to be on the lookout for the symptoms of hepatitis, such as vomiting, dark urine, light colored stool and yellowing of the skin, and to contact their child’s pediatrician if they are at all concerned.
(NEW YORK) — New York City health officials are investigating a possible case of monkeypox as they reported more infections across the globe.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a press release Thursday that the patient is being cared for at NYC Health + Hospitals / Bellevue in midtown Manhattan.
Officials say they will conduct preliminary tests and if the patient is positive, the sample will be sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmatory testing.
“The Department’s epidemiologists will follow up with any individual who may have been in contact with the patient while infectious,” the release said.
It’s unclear what symptoms the patient is experiencing and what their age, sex and ethnicity are.
The news comes as the CDC sent out a health alert Friday warning doctors and local health departments to be on the lookout for patients who may have symptoms of monkeypox and report those cases to the CDC.
The CDC reiterated that the “risk to the public appears low.”
Monkeypox is a very rare disease typically not found outside of countries in central and western Africa.
However, several cases have been detected around the world since a patient in the United Kingdom tested positive on May 7 following travel to Nigeria.
The World Health Organization confirmed Friday there are approximately 130 confirmed or suspected monkeypox cases in nations where the disease is not endemic.
Of those cases, about 80 were confirmed — including one case in an adult male in Massachusetts — and 50 suspected.
The agency said it is working with those countries to provide guidance, and more cases are likely to be reported.
Humans can contract monkeypox from infected animals, such as through a bite or scratch, but it can also be transmitted through direct contact with an infected animal’s skin, blood or feces, or indirect contact through contaminated surfaces. Humans can also be infected when hunting wild animals or preparing bush meat for consumption.
The disease can also spread from person-to-person via large respiratory droplets in the air, through skin lesions, bodily fluids, or contact with contaminated material.
#Monkeypox has so far been reported from 11 countries that normally don’t have the disease. WHO is working with these countries & others to expand surveillance, and provide guidance.
There are about 80 confirmed cases, and 50 pending investigations. More likely to be reported. pic.twitter.com/YQ3pVJVNVQ
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 20, 2022
The WHO said tips for preventing infection include isolating if you have symptoms, avoiding contact with anyone who has symptoms, wearing a mask if you come into contact with an infected individual, and thoroughly cleaning hands and surfaces.
Monkeypox is not commonly reported among Americans and detected cases have been among people who traveled to countries where the virus is endemic.
In 2003, 47 confirmed and probable cases were reported among six U.S. states, the first human cases reported outside of Africa
All the infections occurred after coming into contact with pet prairie dogs, which became infected “after being housed near imported small mammals from Ghana,” the CDC stated.
In July 2021, a case was confirmed in a Texas resident who had recently returned from Nigeria and in November 2021, another case was found in a Maryland resident who had also traveled to Nigeria.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
(CHICAGO) — An investigation is underway after a Chicago police officer shot a 13-year-old boy during a foot pursuit who authorities allege was involved in two recent carjackings.
The incident occurred Wednesday night on the city’s West Side. Police tracked the license plate of a vehicle stolen two days earlier in Chicago to the area shortly after 10 p.m., according to Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown.
As officers attempted to stop the vehicle, the teenager got out of the car and fled, as several officers pursued him on foot, Brown said.
“The subject flees to a gas station parking lot … and turns toward the officer,” Brown told reporters during a briefing Thursday. “The officer then discharges his weapon, striking the individual once.”
Officers rendered first aid and moved the boy away from the nearby gas pumps due to concerns over a possible explosion following the gunfire, Brown said.
He was transported to an area hospital in serious but stable condition, according to the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, an independent agency that is investigating the shooting. He was also placed in custody for the stolen car, Brown said.
No weapon was recovered from the scene, Eaddy said.
The officer’s body-worn camera was on at the time of the shooting, according to Brown and COPA spokesperson Ephraim Eaddy. COPA also has third-party footage of the incident, Eaddy said.
COPA is unable to release any video of the shooting because it involves a juvenile, the office said. In the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo last year, it released the body camera footage at the request of Toledo’s family.
Brown said he was limited in what he could discuss around Wednesday’s shooting, including the contents of the body-worn camera footage, amid the investigation.
“We cannot draw conclusions to an investigation that just started last night,” he said Thursday. “We’re not going to answer how many shots were fired. The ballistics evidence will say that. We’re not going to answer anything else about the shooting.”
It is not clear at this time where the teen was shot, said Brown, who added he would defer to medical personnel’s findings for that.
“We’re not going to speculate. This investigation will reveal the facts,” he said, adding that COPA has his department’s full support.
The driver of the stolen vehicle fled the scene in the car and has not been apprehended, police said. The car was found abandoned a couple of miles from the scene of the shooting and was being processed for evidence, Brown said.
Several witnesses told Chicago ABC station WLS that the teen had his hands up before he was shot.
When asked by a reporter whether the shooting was justified, Brown said it was too soon to jump to conclusions, and that the officer and suspect had yet to provide a statement.
“There’s a lot of evidence, a lot of work that needs to be done,” he said. “Jumping to conclusions is just not fair to any of the people involved because you might jump to the conclusion that is wrong.”
At the same time, Alderperson Emma Mitts, who represents the 37th Ward where the shooting occurred, was left questioning the use of force.
“Why would you want to shoot if you can easily go and chase him?” Mitts told WLS. “The 13-year-old did not have a weapon that was recovered from the scene. So now that brings up concern to why and what happened. Certainly we don’t want an officer out here shooting our children for no reason, that’s insane.”
In a statement, COPA said it was “committed to a full and thorough investigation into the officer’s use of force to determine if their actions were in accordance with Department policy and training.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she has been in contact with Brown and COPA regarding Wednesday’s shooting.
“I have full confidence that COPA will investigate this incident expeditiously with the full cooperation of the Chicago Police Department,” she said in a statement.
No information on the officer who discharged his weapon has been released at this time. The officers involved will be placed on routine administrative duties for 30 days, the police department said.
Police believe the 13-year-old boy was involved in the carjacking of that vehicle, as well as a second carjacking that occurred on Tuesday in Oak Park, Brown said. In that incident, a car left running with a 3-year-old girl in the back seat was stolen, and the mother was dragged after grabbing onto the car before falling and breaking her clavicle, the superintendent said.
The car was soon recovered with the child still safely inside, he said.
(NEW YORK) — When Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old white man charged in connection with the murders of 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, was a senior in high school, he allegedly wrote a paper saying that he wanted to commit murder-suicide, according to authorities.
That prompted the assistant principal of Gendron’s high school to call New York State Police and report Gendron, according to law enforcement. After a day-and-a-half mental health evaluation a year ago, Gendron was released and his behavior wasn’t flagged to authorities before he allegedly carried out the mass shooting last Saturday.
Gendron has pleaded not guilty.
Law enforcement sources tell ABC News how they handle mental health evaluations and police investigations regarding disturbed people and their access to firearms is very much a work in progress.
They point to how easily Gendron allegedly sidestepped an investigation to see if he was dangerous following the incident at his high school.
Buffalo suspect had made references to murder-suicide, sources say
A review by ABC News of the 589-page document allegedly containing messages first posted on the social media platform Discord appears to show that Gendron simply misled law enforcement and mental health officials when confronted after writing that senior class paper that he had thoughts of murder-suicide.
In the document, Gendron writes of landing in a hospital emergency room in May 2021 for 20 hours because he referenced murder-suicide in terms of how he planned to mark his graduation from high school — as part of an economics assignment.
He told law enforcement and mental health officials he been joking. According to the social media messages, that was a lie. He allegedly wrote in Discord that the murder-suicide reference was specifically about his developing plans to murder minorities whom he believed were replacing white people in American society.
Gendron said the murder-suicide quote in his school assignment may have even been a cry for help but he lied so he could keep his plan in motion, because killing, he said, was precisely what he was planning.
Ohio shooter made hit-list in high school
Previous mass shooters have often left clues or raised concerns with others and, in some cases, authorities have missed signals that could have otherwise prevented an attack.
On a summer night in August 2019, Connor Betts opened fire at the entrance of Ned Peppers Bar in downtown Dayton, Ohio, killing nine, including his brother, and wounding 17 before responding officers shot him to death.
Betts, according to the U.S. Secret Service, “had a history of concerning communications, including harassing female students in middle and high school, making a hit list and a rape list in high school, telling others he had attempted suicide, and showing footage of a mass shooting to his girlfriend.”
Betts had an “enduring fascination with mass violence,” the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit concluded in a report released in November.
“The FBI’s BAU assessed the attacker’s enduring fascination with mass violence and his inability to cope with a convergence of personal factors, to include a decade-long struggle with multiple mental health stressors and the successive loss of significant stabilizing anchors experienced prior to August 4, 2019, likely were the primary contributors to the timing and finality of his decision to commit a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio,” the report stated.
One reason that family and friends did not alert authorities about Betts was potentially because of “bystander fatigue,” according to the report.
Bystander fatigue occurs when people around the suspect don’t pay attention or take any action “due to their prolonged exposure to the person’s erratic or otherwise troubling behavior over time,” according to the Behavioral Analysis Unit.
FBI warned about accused Parkland high school shooter
Nikolas Cruz has pleaded guilty to walking into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 18, 2018, and opening fire inside the school killing 17 and wounding 17 more.
More than a month before the shooting, the FBI was warned about Cruz by a person close to him through the FBI’s public access tip line, according to an FBI statement in 2018.
“The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting,” the FBI statement says.
The information, the FBI admitted, should have been forwarded to the FBI Miami field office and assessed as a “threat to life,” where it would’ve been investigated.
The school shooting was one of the deadliest in American history.
The FBI was later sued by the families of the Parkland shooting for not appropriately assigning the call to the Miami Field Office. In March, the Justice Department, while not admitting the full guilt of missing the signals Cruz exhibited, settled with the families for $127 million.
A jury will decide whether to sentence him to death or life in prison without chance of parole.
In October of that same year, Robert Bowers is accused of walking into the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and killing 11 people. Bowers, according to a criminal complaint charging him with the crime, made comments shortly after he was arrested to investigators about wanting to kill people who are Jewish.
Bowers, according to authorities, made posts on the social media site gab and early as July 2018 posted and reposted photos with antisemitic tropes, as well as a photo of a target that he reportedly shot by with a handgun, according to authorities.
Bowers was not known to law enforcement before October 2018, the then FBI Special Agent in Charge told reporters at the time. Moments before he carried out the shooting, Bowers posted antisemitic statements on the platform.
Bowers is facing trial for the 2018 shooting and has pleaded not guilty.
Charleston church shooter reportedly went on bigoted rant
Three years earlier, in 2015, Dylann Roof walked into the Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed nine African-American parishioners attending Bible study.
Friends told the New York Daily News that two weeks before the shooting, Roof went on a bigoted rant while drunk about “segregation and killing people.”
“He said he was planning for about six months to do something crazy,” said Joseph Meek, a friend of Roof. “He wanted it to be segregated. He wanted it to be white with the white, Black with the Black. All the races segregated.”
Meek, according to the Daily News, took a gun away from Roof two weeks before the shooting unfolded.
“I only took it away because he was drunk. I didn’t take him seriously,” Meek said. “I do feel a little guilty because I could have let someone know,” Meek told the Daily News.
Roof is appealing his capital punishment sentence.
Signals before mass shootings common
Alerting someone or giving a warning sign before a mass shooting is common, according to the U.S. Secret Service, which published a report in 2020 titled Mass Attacks in Public Spaces. The report found that nearly 65% of the mass attacks they studied in 2019 the attacker had threatened someone in the past, and 57% of attackers made some form of communication prior to the attack that should’ve elicited concern but didn’t.
“These concerning communications included making paranoid statements, sharing videos of previous mass attacks, vague statements about their imminent death, and one attacker telling his school counselor that he had a dream about killing his classmates,” the report says.
Javed Ali, former senior counterterrorism director at the National Security Council, told ABC News the shooting in Buffalo underscores the challenges law enforcement has in identifying shooters.
“The horrific attack in Buffalo underscores the challenges for law enforcement in identifying and preventing mass-casualty lone wolf terrorist attacks, with this being the latest in a string of similar ones committed by other white supremacists in the United States,” Ali, now an associate professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, said.
“In these attacks, white supremacist lone wolves focused on different victims — including African Americans, Latinos, Jews — based on their belief in anti-immigrant and racist tropes found in conspiracies like the “great replacement theory” or other sources like manifestos written by infamous attackers such as Anders Brevik and Brentan Tarrarent that fuel white supremacy across the globe,” Ali said.
Breivik is a Norwegian who killed 77 people in 2011 and Brenton Tarrant carried out the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand, shootings at two mosques, murdering 51 people.
(NEW YORK) — Mothers across the U.S. are banding together to respond to the baby formula shortage emergency and execute short-term solutions in local communities while corporations and the federal government scramble to address the crisis on a national level.
Kerissa Miller, a mom from Kennewick, Washington, started the Find My Formula, Tri Cities WA Facebook group on May 11 to pay it forward after another mom helped her by donating much-needed formula for her 6-month-old son.
Miller’s son MJ was born two months early and needs to be fed a special baby formula made specifically for premature babies. Similac’s NeoSure is one of the formulas impacted by the Abbott Nutrition recall in February. Miller said she isn’t able to breastfeed her son and her son’s pediatrician also told her there weren’t any other formula substitutes that would work for him.
The Facebook group helps parents and caregivers like her in southeastern Washington ask for formula, share information on formula stock at local stores and facilitate formula donations for each other.
“Moms message us and call us crying. They’re on their last can of formula so the need is extremely urgent,” Miller told “Good Morning America.” “When these moms go on Facebook looking for formula, they’re at such a desperate state that delivery is really the only option to help that baby get fed right away.”
Miller and a team of several moderators as well as three delivery drivers, including Mac Jaehnert, set out every day to respond to Facebook posts from parents in need and coordinate formula pickups and drop-offs.
“We’ve fed hundreds of babies just by gifted formula to us. There’s no other option,” Miller said. “Pediatricians can’t supply the need. There’s just no formula to go around so we’re just depending on moms to donate formula to us to feed each other’s babies. It’s a crazy world we live in where Facebook feeds our babies.”
In just nine days, the public Find My Formula, Tri Cities WA group has ballooned to over 560 members. Some days, Miller said she drives up to six hours with her son to make formula deliveries after she gets off her eight-hour night shift as an environmental wastewater operator simply to help.
“All we have right now is community so we’re just doing everything that we can to help the babies because this has affected the wealthy, the middle class and the poor,” Miller, who is also currently four months pregnant, said.
“I’ve delivered formula to mansions and those moms can purchase it but they can’t because it’s just not available. And the moms that are suffering the hardest are the moms on WIC,” she added, referencing the federal benefits program for low-income Americans. “It’s just a crisis that you never knew existed in America.”
“All I can do is just go pick up a can of formula and go drop it off before I go to bed.”
Marcela Young has also been dedicating her time to ease the formula crisis. Young is a mom to an 8-month-old and although her son doesn’t need baby formula, seeing stories of other families impacted by the shortage resonated with her.
“I don’t formula feed personally, but I do know a lot of moms that do and just the feeling of not being able to help your child is just very close to home,” Young told “Good Morning America.”
Young, a consultant in the Houston area, remembered that one of her former classmates had started a company that lets people create interactive maps online and quickly realized the map tool could be one way for her to help others.
That’s how the 29-year-old launched her “Fighting the Formula Shortage” map last week. The map, hosted by Proxi, is viewable on a computer, phone or tablet, and lets anyone add any point to a global map and organize it under several categories: “need formula,” “can donate formula,” “need breast milk,” “can donate breast milk,” “formula in-store” and “milk bank.”
“The way the map works is you add a point anywhere in your country. You don’t have to put your actual address,” Young explained, adding that anyone who adds a new point will also receive a welcome email afterward.
But Young also tries to help arrange connections whenever possible.
“People do reach out and say, ‘Hey, I have this pin that I’m looking at near my area. They need formula. I see formula at my store, I would like to ship it to them or I’d like to take it to their house or wherever to meet up,’” Young said. “Then I, as the admin of the map, can see their information if they decided not to share it, and then put them in contact with each other. I make sure that the person receiving it knows who’s going to contact them and I try to make sure that the other one knows who needs it.”
Young has spread the word about her map through her friend network and on social media on the Fighting Formula Shortage Facebook and Instagram pages. As with many groups online, Young also warns others to stay vigilant about potential scammers.
“First and foremost, be careful, be safe,” Young said. “If you’re going to do something virtually with someone, ask a lot of questions. If you’re going to meet with someone locally, please do it in a public place. That way, you’re avoiding different issues out there.”
“There’s a lot of good in humanity still,” she added. “And it’s been really nice to see people stepping up and willing to spread [the] word, spread resources.”
(CHICAGO) — Nine people were shot, two of whom died, in a chaotic scene outside a McDonald’s on Chicago’s Near North Side Thursday. Police said they have arrested a suspect.
A dispute broke out between two groups at approximately 10:41 p.m. eventually leading one individual to fire shots into the crowd, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown told reporters at a press conference Friday.
Police do not know what caused the fight, Brown said.
Officers pursued the suspect into a Chicago Transit Authority train stop and arrested a suspect as well as a person who Brown said obstructed the officers.
A woman fleeing in a group along with the alleged shooter came in contact with the third rail at the train stop and has been hospitalized, Brown said.
Police said surveillance footage showed that an individual had handed the shooter the gun, but they have not yet been able to identify that person, according to Brown. A gun was recovered from the scene, police said.
“If the person who did this doesn’t have a gun, this is just a personal conflict that may or may not lead to fights, [but] no one being killed,” Brown said.
Brown said police have installed two fixed posts of officers and a revolving post of officers in the area. The shooting took place in a crowded downtown area near Loyola University Chicago and the city’s so-called Magnificent Mile home to upscale shops and historic buildings.
Brown said there is an ongoing “gun crime crisis” in Chicago and across the country.
“Our officers have taken more guns that are illegally possessed off the streets of Chicago than we have in our history,” Brown said.
Police recovered 11,400 guns in 2020, and over 12,000 in 2021, both record-breaking years. Police are on pace to surpass last year’s record, Brown said.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the shooting “an outrageous act of violence.”
“It is simply awful, and unacceptable that once again another tragedy occurs because firearms are in the hands of people who simply do not care about themselves or the value of another’s life,” Lightfoot said in a statement.
She added, “Our police department is hard at work to make sure those responsible for last night’s incident are held accountable, for the safety and well-being of us all.”
(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday announced the Justice Department is taking action to combat hate crimes through the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, mentioning how last weekend’s mass shooting in Buffalo is being investigated as such a crime.
DOJ is investigating whether the shooter who gunned down 10 Black people last Saturday at a Buffalo supermarket targeted the victims because of their race.
Garland told an audience that included Black and Asian community leaders that “an entire community was terrorized.”
“Last weekend’s attack was a painful reminder of the singular impact that hate crimes have not only on individuals but on entire communities,” he said. “They bring immediate devastation. They inflict lasting fear,” he continued.
“We are employing every resource we have to ensure accountability for this terrible attack, to ensure justice for grieving families and provide support for the community,” he said.
Garland pledged to use “every available tool” to investigate hate crimes overall, saying they are “evolving” and that federal prosecutors must evolve strategies to combat them.
DOJ is required to do so by congressional mandate in the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act.
“No one in America should fear violence because of who they are,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said. “This department will not tolerate any form of terrorism, hate based violence or unlawful discrimination.”
DOJ says they are partnering with the Department of Health and Human Services to lay out steps “law enforcement, government officials, community based organizations and others can take to raise awareness of increased hate crimes and incidents, and to use this increased awareness as a tool for prevention and response,” according to a Justice Department official who briefed reporters on Thursday.
One example, the DOJ official said, was addressing the need for language and cultural competency when engaging with communities affected by hate crimes
Garland also announced grant solicitations “including to programs established under the new Hire No Hate Act to support states to create state run hate crime reporting hotline and to support increased law enforcement reporting to the National Incident based Reporting System.”
On the same day as Garland’s announcement, leaders from the NAACP were set to meet with him, and they released a two-page plan to stop another mass shooting.
“We’re focused on preventing the next attack. We need to act. Democracy and white supremacy cannot coexist and will never coexist,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement. “It’s one or the other. We’re fighting for democracy.”
An NAACP source told ABC News the “spread of white supremacy across social media platforms” would be a main topic of discussion.
ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson contributed to this report.
