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Parents remember 7-year-old daughter who died after contracting COVID-19

February 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A Tennessee family is speaking out to share memories of their 7-year-old daughter, who died Feb. 7, less than 72 hours after testing positive for COVID-19.

“She was just a happy, healthy, normal, beautiful soul,” Jennifer Graviss said of her daughter, Adalyn. “She was just so sweet, an amazing kid.”

Jennifer Graviss and her husband Adam Graviss, of Knoxville, Tennessee, said Adalyn, whom they described as an active and healthy child, had been feeling fine until early in the morning of Feb. 4, when she complained of feeling hot.

When they took her temperature and saw it was 102 degrees, they said they gave her an at-home COVID-19 test, on which she tested positive.

Adalyn, a second-grade student, stayed home from school that day and appeared to be feeling fine, according to her parents. It was not until the following night, they said, that she started struggling to walk and speak.

“It was right around the nine o’clock hour when we noticed her speech was all but gone, though she was still responding to us,” said Adam Graviss. “By 10 o’clock, I was in the emergency room [with her], and she was unresponsive at that point.”

“It was just so fast,” he continued. “Hours before going to the hospital, she was running in the front yard.”

Adalyn was quickly transported to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, where she was put on an ECMO machine, a lifesaving device that pumps and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body.

“Even while it was happening, it didn’t seem real,” Adam Graviss said of his daughter’s rapid decline. “Her levels were improving and then she just took a turn for the worse.”

In addition to a severe case of COVID-19, doctors diagnosed Adalyn with both severe myocarditis, inflammation of the heart, and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), inflammation of the brain and spinal cord that can quickly cause neurological damage, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

ADEM attacks the body quickly and often follows a viral or bacterial infection, according to the NIH.

Amid the surge of the omicron variant in the U.S., infectious disease experts noticed a pattern of brain inflammation, or encephalomyelitis, following cases of COVID-19, particularly among children, according to Dr. Isaac Thomsen, a pediatric infectious disease expert who helped care for Adalyn at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Thomsen said Adalyn’s case of ADEM was one of the most rapid and severe cases he has seen in his career. He said she was also the first pediatric patient he has treated who presented with both COVID-related ADEM and severe myocarditis at the same time.

“The combination is probably what ultimately cost her her life, “Thomsen said. “That is pretty rare among viruses, this ability of COVID to hit both of those [the heart and the brain] at the same time.”

Adalyn was not yet vaccinated against COVID-19. At age 7, she had just become eligible for the vaccine in November and her parents said they were still considering it. The Gravisses said Adalyn was diligent about following COVID-19 safety protocols, including wearing a face mask at school and washing her hands.

Jennifer Graviss gave birth to the couple’s second child, a baby named Ella, on Jan. 28, and she said the whole family quarantined at home outside of Adalyn going to school in the time before and after the baby’s birth.

“We were just very cautious,” said Jennifer Graviss, adding that Adalyn was particularly cognizant. “If a kid was coughing she would ask to be moved because she didn’t want baby Ella to get it.”

Adalyn also had no known underlying health issues that would cause or predict such severe illness, according to her parents as well as Thomsen.

“This is a big reason of why we don’t roll the dice on a virus like this,” Thomsen said of COVID-19’s unpredictably when it comes to who it affects and how severely. “This is not something to mess around with.”

“The takeaway for parents is this is a virus that we have got to take very seriously and one we have a safe and effective vaccine for,” he said.

Children ages 5 and older are now eligible to receive Pfizer’s two-dose vaccine. Children ages 12 and older are also eligible to receive a Pfizer vaccine booster shot.

Remembering a beloved daughter, big sister

The Gravisses said they are still shocked that they are now planning funeral arrangements for their beloved daughter, who became a big sister to Ella just one week before her death.

“She waited for years to be a big sister,” said Jennifer Graviss. “Every night she would pray for God to give her a baby to be a big sister, and that’s what we’re so thankful for, that she was able to experience that for five days.”

Jennifer Graviss said that Adalyn treated Ella like her own baby doll, dressing her up and waking up an extra 30 minutes before school every day so that she could have more time to hold her.

“She would just sing to her and she would sit there and tell her stories like, ‘I’m going to be your best friend. Sissy’s going to show you so much, how to dance and how to play basketball and as soon as you’re big enough, we’re going to church,'” she said of Adalyn. “She just wanted to be with the baby all the time.”

Adam Graviss said he is comforted knowing Ella will have her big sister as her protector, saying, “She’s going to have the coolest guardian angel looking over her, protecting her.”

The Gravisses said their daughter loved things like playing basketball and dancing, going to church and being around her friends. The family held a celebration of life for Adalyn last week for her school friends, basketball teammates and fellow Girl Scouts and dance classmates.

“All her friends are wearing shirts that say, ‘Love Like Adalyn,'” Jennifer Graviss said. “She just had the biggest heart. She loved her friends. She hugged teachers that weren’t even her teacher every morning. She would stop by the [school] office and give an update every day about baby Ella.”

One of Adalyn’s former teachers started a GoFundMe for the family to help cover Adalyn’s medical and funeral expenses.

Jennifer Graviss and her husband said they are now finding comfort in seeing how vibrant a life Adalyn led and in knowing they have “no regrets” because of the time and attention they gave their daughter.

“We did everything with her, everything she wanted to do, from going to Disney World to playing basketball in the driveway in the dark to playing UNOs tournaments every night,” Jennifer Graviss said. “She was just a happy girl.”

Jennifer Graviss noted that while Adalyn loved everyone, she had a special fondness for her dad.

“She did everything with [her] daddy,” she said, adding that Adalyn encouraged her dad to watch YouTube videos to improve at putting her hair in a bun for dance class. “Every basketball game that she’d make a shot, she’d look back for daddy to be cheering her on. They were best buds.”

“We just never wanted to be without her,” Adam Graviss said. “We would have people all the time asking to babysit her and let us go out for a date night, but we never did. We just wanted to be with her.”

He continued, “She was just really fun, and we just took her everywhere. That’s what makes it so hard. She was our best friend.”

Snapchat adds new feature to keep college students safe on campus

February 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Many college students returned to in-person learning this past fall and for some sophomores, it was their first time on campus since the pandemic began.

This situation is concerning for groups like It’s On Us, an organization dedicated to preventing sexual assaults on college campuses and providing support for assault survivors.

“We have students who are academically sophomores, but socially and culturally freshmen coming to campus. When campuses reopened for the first time to in-person living and learning since March 2020 without strict COVID restrictions, we saw a surge of sexual assaults take place,” Tracey Vitchers, the executive director of It’s On Us, told Good Morning America.

According to It’s On Us, one in four college women will be sexually assaulted during their time on campus and for students of color, with disabilities, undocumented or those who identify as LGBTQ+, those rates are higher.

To help combat the surge and prevent future assaults, It’s On Us partnered with social media app Snapchat to bring awareness to a new feature on the platform called Live Location.

“The new Live Location sharing feature with Snap Map will allow parties to both opt in to sharing their Live Location with one another. If you have an Android, your friend has an iPhone, you’re going to be able to share your Live Location with them through the Snap Map.”

It’s a feature former Dance Moms star and college student Nia Sioux and her mother, Dr. Holly Hatcher-Frazier, are helping to test out for It’s On Us.

“As a parent, it’s comforting to know that there is a tool out there. So for me, it’s just knowing that she can determine when she turns it on, when she turns it off, who has access to it,” Hatcher-Frazier told GMA.

Sioux added: “You have to be friends with that person. You’re not just sharing your location with just anyone. … It’s been really comforting to know that there are these apps that are actually taking action and doing their part in helping making sure that everyone’s safe.”

Aside from its partnership with Snapchat, It’s On Us is also working with the online dating app Tinder to launch what they call the first “online dating safety and sexual assault awareness peer to peer prevention program nationwide.”

According to Vitchers: “This online dating safety peer to peer program is really critical because we found in conversations with students that traditional sexual assault prevention lessons that were being given by their school were not covering online dating safety, when that is really the future of how most young people are meeting and engaging with each other in a dating or other romantic way.”

Shamrock Shakes will be back at McDonald’s later this month

February 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Spring and St. Patrick’s Day are around the corner, which means it’s almost McDonald’s Shamrock Shake and Oreo Shamrock McFlurry season.

The iconic creamy, frozen treats will officially return to McDonald’s menus on Feb. 21 for a limited time.

The Shamrock Shake is made with vanilla soft serve ice cream, blended with McDonald’s proprietary “Shamrock Shake flavor” and finished with whipped topping. The McFlurry version that made its debut in 2020, combines vanilla soft serve spun with Oreo cookie pieces.

“The only thing more refreshing than the delicious taste of a Shamrock Shake is the way that minty green hue makes the ‘will-winter-ever-end’ blues go away,” McDonald’s wrote in a press release.

In over 50 years of the Shamrock Shake’s existence, McDonald’s has “never given away the secret ingredient” of its shake’s color. So this year, the brand dropped it’s official “hex code for the unmistakably minty color of Shamrock SZN.”

“When the Shamrock Shake and Oreo Shamrock McFlurry make their return to U.S. menus later this month, show us how you’re celebrating with #cbf2ac and #ShamrockShakeSZN,” the brand encouraged die-hard fans of the dessert. “Starting Feb. 21, our Shamrock green hex code just might unlock another tasty secret. That is, if you know where to look. Be one of the first to figure out the mystery and you could get a little something special from us.”

COVID-19 live updates: US daily cases drop from 807,000 to 134,000 in one month

February 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 930,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 64.5% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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

Feb 18, 8:40 am
Hawaii is only state without plans to lift mask mandates

Hawaii is the only U.S. state that has not announced intentions to end indoor mask mandates.

States across the country have moved to end masking requirements as cases of COVID-19 continue to drop.

Some governors have ended universal indoor and outdoor masking mandates, while others have lifted statewide face covering requirements for schools.

In a newsletter Wednesday, the Hawaii State Department of Education said there are no current plans to drop mask mandates in classrooms.

Three other states — California, Maryland and New York — as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, have also not announced end dates for their indoor school face covering mandates.

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Feb 17, 7:10 pm
New Mexico ends mask mandate

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Thursday that the state’s mask mandate for indoor areas is over, effective immediately.

Masks will still be required for some settings, “including hospitals, long-term care facilities and detention facilities.” School districts were allowed to determine if their mandates for classrooms would remain in effect, according to the governor’s office.

“Given the continued drop in hospitalizations and the lessening of the burden on our hospitals, it’s time to end the mask mandate. With vaccines, boosters and effective treatment options widely available, we have the tools we need to protect ourselves and keep our fellow New Mexicans safe,” Grisham said in a statement.

As of Thursday, 73.5% of eligible New Mexico residents were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Feb 17, 6:55 pm
North Carolina governor urges school districts to drop mask mandates

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper urged local officials and school districts to end their mask mandates next month.

Mask use indoors has not been universally required in North Carolina since last spring, when the Cooper ended statewide requirements. Each school district in the state has made their own masking requirements.

If COVID-19 trends continue to decline, the governor is encouraging all school districts to drop their mandates starting March 7.

“It’s time to focus on getting our children a good education and improving our schools, no matter how you feel about masks,” Cooper said at a news conference.

As of Thursday, 62.7% of eligible North Carolina residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos, Ben Stein and Leonardo Mayorga

Feb 17, 6:23 pm
Washington state to end mask mandate in March

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced that based on the state’s COVID-19 case and hospitalization rates, the mandate for masks in indoor settings would end March 21.

“We are approaching a place fairly shortly where we will not have to be wearing masks generally in these in these conditions,” he said during a news conference. “And we think this is both good for our health and our education of our children and the total reopening of our economy.”

Inslee added that businesses and schools would be allowed to issue their own mask mandate after March 21 if they choose to.

The governor also announced that the requirement for vaccine verification at large events will end on March 1.

ABC News’ Zach Ferber and Matt Fuhrman

Feb 17, 5:48 pm
California outlines endemic plan

Gov. Gavin Newsom and California health officials have released a plan to deal with COVID-19 once it becomes an endemic.

The plan, dubbed “SMARTER,” will focus on seven areas: shots, masks, awareness, readiness, testing, education and medicine.

Officials said that clear “on and off ramps” for future restrictions, such as mask mandates, will be created specifically for variants.

California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said case rates could determine future restrictions if the state faces a more deadly variant in the future, while hospital capacity could be the primary indicator if California faces a less virulent variant similar to omicron.

The state will publish a one- to two-page summary of the state’s current recommendations on COVID-19 in the next couple of days, according to Ghaly.

ABC News’ Matt Fuhrman

Kim Potter, who killed Daunte Wright, to be sentenced on manslaughter convictions

February 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(MINNEAPOLIS) — Former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter will receive her sentence on Friday, Feb. 18 following her conviction in the death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was fatally shot during a traffic stop.

A Minnesota jury convicted Potter, 49, of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11, 2021, incident. She had pleaded not guilty to both charges.

The maximum sentence for first-degree manslaughter is 15 years and a $30,000 fine and for second-degree manslaughter — 10 years and a $20,000 fine.

In a court filing on Tuesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office announced they are seeking 86 months, or 7 years and 2 months, prison time for Potter. Sentences in the state are served concurrently, so Potter would only serve the higher sentence.

The prosecution also asked that in the event the court sentences Potter to probation, that she serve at least one year in prison “to reflect the seriousness of Daunte Wright’s death,” and that the probation last at least 10 years, according to court documents.

Potter fatally shot Wright after initially pulling him over for an expired registration tag on his car. She then determined he had an outstanding warrant for a gross misdemeanor weapons charge and tried to detain him, according to former Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon, who resigned after the incident.

As officers tried to arrest him, Wright freed himself and tried to get back in his vehicle. That’s when, according to Potter’s attorneys, she accidentally grabbed her firearm instead of her stun gun and shot him.

Wright’s death reignited protests against racism and police brutality across the U.S., as the killing took place just outside of Minneapolis, where the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd, was taking place at the time.

Potter took the stand on the last day of her trial, breaking down in tears and apologizing. “I’m sorry,” she said through sobs, “I didn’t want to hurt anybody.”

The jury deliberated for about four days before reaching a verdict on Dec. 23.

Russia-Ukraine live updates: Putin to oversee massive nuclear drills on Saturday

February 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The United States continues to warn that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day” amid escalating tensions in the region, with President Joe Biden telling reporters Thursday that the threat is now “very high.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, making urgent remarks to the U.N. Security Council, challenged Moscow to commit to no invasion.

More than 150,000 Russian troops are estimated to be massed near Ukraine’s borders, U.S. officials said. While Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin claim that some troops have begun to withdraw, Biden said more Russian forces have moved in, contrary to Moscow’s claims.

It remains unclear whether Putin has made a decision to attack his ex-Soviet neighbor.

Russia has denied it plans to invade and issued new demands Thursday that the U.S. and NATO bar Ukraine from joining the military alliance.

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

Feb 18, 7:45 am
US to sell Poland $6 billion of tanks, more military aid

The United States announced Friday its plans to sell $6 billion of new military aid to Poland, amid the threat of war between neighboring Ukraine and Russia.

The proposed sale includes 250 Abrams main battle tanks, 250 short-range jamming systems that counter improvised explosive devices, 26 combat recovery vehicles, nearly 800 machines guns and much more, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of State.

The announcement came as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with his Polish counterpart in Warsaw to discuss concerns regarding the massive buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine, which U.S. and NATO officials say position Moscow for an imminent invasion. Poland is a key eastern European ally to the U.S. and a fellow member of NATO.

“Some of those forces [are] within 200 miles of the Polish border,” Austin said during a joint press conference in the Polish capital on Friday. “If Russia further invades Ukraine, Poland could see tens of thousands of displaced Ukrainians and others flowing across its border, trying to save themselves and their families from the scourge of war.”

Austin said the U.S. now has an additional 4,700 troops in Poland “who are prepared to respond to a range of contingencies.”

“They will work closely with our State Department and with Polish authorities should there be any need to help American citizens leave Ukraine,” he added.

The planned sale of more military aid to Poland “will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a NATO Ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe,” according to the State Department.

“The proposed sale will improve Poland’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing a credible force that is capable of deterring adversaries and participating in NATO operations,” the State Department said in a statement Friday. “Poland will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.”

-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan

Feb 18, 6:21 am
Kremlin expresses concern about escalation in Donbas

Russia is concerned about the ongoing escalation of tensions in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and believes the events unfolding there post a major potential threat, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

“What is happening in Donbas is very disquieting news, which provokes concern,” Peskov told reporters during a daily call. “It is potentially very dangerous.”

When asked how Putin has been sleeping amid the rising tensions, Peskov said: “Equally well.” He then added after a brief pause: “But with one eye open.”

-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva

Feb 18, 5:56 am
Putin to oversee massive nuclear drills on Saturday

Russian President Vladimir Putin will personally oversee massive drills of his country’s strategic nuclear forces on Saturday, including test launches of ballistic and cruise missiles, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced Friday.

The defense ministry said in a statement that the drills were “planned” as part of large-scale military exercises currently taking place across Russia. Saturday’s drills are meant to check “the preparedness of military commands and crews of missile systems, warships and strategic bombers to accomplish their missions and at verifying the reliability of weapons of strategic nuclear and conventional forces,” according to the defense ministry.

“The exercise will involve forces and hardware belonging to the Aerospace Forces, the Southern Military District, the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern Fleet, and the Black Sea Fleet,” the defense ministry said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin will be at the defense ministry’s Situational Center during the drills Saturday and that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko might join him.

“Even test launches of this type are impossible without the head of state,” Peskov told reporters during a daily call Friday. “You all know about his famed ‘black briefcase,’ ‘the red button’ and so on.”

Peskov said the drills shouldn’t cause concern among other countries because they were notified of the upcoming exercises in advance.

When asked whether such drills could exacerbate tensions, Peskov replied: “Exercises and training launches of ballistic missiles are quite a regular training process. It is preceded by a whole series of notifications forwarded to different countries via various channels. All this is precisely regulated and no one has any questions or concerns.”

The drills will also coincide with the finale of the major joint military exercises in neighboring Belarus.

U.S. military officials have previously warned that Russia could conduct these drills now, saying the timing might be in order to signal to the West not to interfere in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It’s also another opportunity for posturing as Putin has done many times before, placing himself at the end of demonstrations of military might. In recent years he has repeatedly hailed a range of new Russian nuclear super weapons, including a nuclear-powered cruise missile and hypersonic weapons.

-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Patrick Reevell

Feb 18, 4:25 am
Lukashenko to meet Putin in Moscow

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, as their countries continue to hold massive joint military exercises that Western countries fear could be used to cover up preparations for a possible invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

While Russia and Belarus have said that Russian troops will leave after the drills conclude Sunday, the United States remains concerned they may stay.

Earlier this week, Lukashenko indicated that he and Putin would decide at their meeting Friday how long Russian troops would stay in Belarus. Video released by Belarusian state media showed the authoritarian leader arriving at Moscow’s airport Friday morning.

Russia has moved an unprecedented number of troops into Belarus as part of its wider military build-up near Ukraine. There is an estimated 30,000 Russian troops in Belarus, which is only a few hours drive north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

Concerns have been heightened because Russia has moved most of the troops from its Eastern Military District in Russia’s Far East, some 6,000 miles away. Among them are many units required for an offensive, including long range artillery, fighter bombers, attack helicopters and airborne troops.

-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell

Feb 17, 9:28 pm
Biden to host meeting of allied leaders Friday: Canada PM’s office

President Joe Biden will host a closed-door meeting on Ukraine Friday with several U.S. allies, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office.

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, the UK, the EU and NATO will participate in the meeting, Trudeau’s office said while sharing the prime minister’s Friday iterinary.

A White House official confirmed to ABC News that Biden will have a phone call Friday afternoon with transatlantic leaders “about Russia’s buildup of military troops on the border of Ukraine and our continued efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy.”

Also on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and hold a meeting with the leaders of the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as she travels to Germany for the annual Munich Security Conference, the White House said.

Judge sets trial date for case against Trump inaugural committee

February 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A Washington, D.C., judge on Thursday set a September trial date for a case brought by the D.C. attorney general against former President Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Yvonne Williams scheduled the trial to begin on Sept. 26 — a date that will fall a few weeks ahead of the pivotal 2022 midterm elections in November.

The move comes three days after Williams reversed another judge’s earlier decision removing Trump’s family business from the suit.

The D.C. Attorney General’s Office alleges that Trump’s 2017 Presidential Inaugural Committee misused nonprofit funds to pay for event space at the Trump Hotel and other expenditures. The case rests, in part, on the claim of “private inurement” — the question of whether the inaugural committee used its funds for private benefit rather than nonprofit purposes.

A superior court judge dismissed a portion of a lawsuit in November 2020, saying the AG’s office had not met the standard of proof that would allow that part of the suit to proceed. The ruling removed the Trump Organization as a named defendant in the case, yet kept the former president’s Washington hotel as a named defendant, as well as the inaugural committee itself — before Williams reinstated the Trump Organization as a defendant on Monday.

Also during Thursday’s hearing, Trump’s legal team asked the judge to not allow the D.C. attorney general to depose former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in the inaugural committee case, claiming it would be a “broader fishing expedition.”

Judge Williams ultimately said she would “allow a limited deposition of Mr. Weisselberg.”

Senate averts government shutdown after amendments to repeal COVID mandates fail

February 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Senators narrowly avoided a government shutdown Thursday evening, passing a short-term funding bill one day before funds were set to lapse.

The bill, which continues funding at current levels, will keep the federal government operating until March 11. Congressional leaders are hopeful that by that time, negotiators will have ironed out an agreement on a yearlong package of funding bills.

Leaders on both sides of the aisle have assured the public for several days that the government would not shut down on Friday, but negotiations came down to the wire as GOP lawmakers looked to use the budget bill as an opportunity to challenge Democrats’ COVID-19 mandates.

Challenges to pandemic mandates are becoming increasingly popular among Republican lawmakers, who are looking to capitalize on growing fatigue over COVID-19 across the country.

But blocking such amendments proved challenging for Democrats, who stalled consideration of the short-term funding bill because several of their members are not currently in Washington. Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Mark Kelly of Arizona are out of town managing family emergencies. And Sen. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico is recovering from a stroke. Ultimately some Republicans — Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Mitt Romney of Utah and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma — were also missing from the chamber, evening out the numbers and allowing Democrats to move the vote forward.

If any amendment had been successful, the funding bill would have had to be returned to the House, which is currently on recess and would not have been able to return to pass a modified version of the legislation before government funding expired Friday evening.

Neither of the two COVID-19 mandate amendments ultimately passed, but they did receive support from nearly every Republican in the chamber.

One amendment, offered by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, would have revoked federal funds for schools that left mask mandates in place for children. The other, led by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, would have ended the federal vaccine mandate.

Another amendment, which would have required the United States to balance its budget, also failed.

Lawmakers have already passed multiple short-term funding extensions to buy key negotiators in both chambers additional time to agree on a massive bill to keep the government funded through the end of the fiscal year.

Leaders say they’re narrowing in on a deal, but no formal agreement has been announced.

Judge rules Trump must testify in New York attorney general’s probe

February 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A judge has ruled that former President Donald Trump and his two eldest children must testify in the investigation by the New York state attorney general into the family’s business practices.

The argument that Trump, his eldest son Donald Jr. and his eldest daughter Ivanka put forth to try and quash subpoenas for testimony and evidence “completely misses the mark,” Judge Arthur Engoron of the New York State Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The judge gave the Trumps 21 days to sit for depositions.

The Trumps had argued that it was improper for the attorney general’s office to issue subpoenas for its civil investigation while the Manhattan District Attorney’s office is still conducting its separate criminal probe.

“This argument completely misses the mark. Neither OAG nor the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has subpoenaed the New Trump Respondents to appear before a grand jury,” Judge Engoron’s decision said. “The New Trump Respondents’ argument overlooks the salient fact that they have an absolute right to refuse to answer questions that they claim may incriminate them.”

The judge noted that when Trump’s son Eric sat for a deposition two years ago as part of the same investigation, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 500 times.

“Today, justice prevailed,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James of the decision. “Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump have been ordered by the court to comply with our lawful investigation into Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization’s financial dealings. No one will be permitted to stand in the way of the pursuit of justice, no matter how powerful they are. No one is above the law.”

Trump, in a statement, blasted the probe following the judge’s ruling.

“She is doing everything within their corrupt discretion to interfere with my business relationships, and with the political process,” he said of James. “It is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in history — and remember, I can’t get a fair hearing in New York because of the hatred of me by Judges and the judiciary. It is not possible!”

Alan Futerfas, an attorney for the Trump family, told ABC News that the Trumps intend to appeal the decision.

Trump argued the investigation into his business practices is overtly political and cited statements James made during and after her campaign for attorney general about her intentions to investigate the former president and his family’s real estate firm.

The judge found those statements had no bearing on the legitimacy of the subpoenas.

“Attorney General James, just like respondent Donald J. Trump, was not deprived of her First Amendment rights to free speech when she was a politician running for a public office with investigatory powers,” the decision said.

“The abhorrent statements made by Letitia leave no doubt that this is yet another politically motivated witch-hunt,” Trump attorney Alina Habba said in response to the ruling. “The court clearly had its mind made up and had no interest in engaging in impartial discourse on this critically important issue.”

Austin to pay $10 million to protesters injured by police after George Floyd’s death

February 17, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Austin to pay million to protesters injured by police after George Floyd’s death

(AUSTIN, Texas) — The City of Austin has agreed to pay a combined $10 million to two demonstrators who were injured during by police during the 2020 racial justice protests that took place in the city.

Two protesters, Justin Howell and Anthony Evans, were severely injured when police used “less-lethal” ammunition as a form of crowd control during protests that took place after the deaths of George Floyd and Michael Ramos, who was killed by an Austin Police officer, according to two civil lawsuits filed against the city.

Members of the Austin City Council voted Thursday to approve the settlements to Anthony Evans, who will be paid $2 million, and Justin Howell, who will receive $8 million, marking the largest settlement amount ever paid for a use-of-force case in Austin, ABC Austin affiliate KVUE-TV reported.

Howell was critically injured on May 31, 2020, when an officer shot him with “less-lethal” ammunition in downtown Austin, then-Police Chief Brian Manley told KVUE-TV the next day. Howell, who was a 20-year-old political science major at Texas State University at the time, suffered a fractured skull. He filed a civil lawsuit against the city in the Western District of Texas in August 2021.

Evans was peacefully protesting at the Austin Police Department headquarters on June 6, 2020, when he was hit with bean bags and foam bullets deployed by officers, KVUE-TV reported. Evans spent his 26th birthday undergoing surgery on his face, telling the station that his jaw looked like he “got hit by a car.” Evans underwent two surgeries, had a metal wire placed in his mouth for six weeks and now has a permanent titanium plate in his jaw, he told KVUE-TV.

Evans filed his lawsuit against the city in the Western District of Texas in October 2020.

In a statement to KVUE-TV, a City of Austin spokesperson said the city was settling lawsuits filed by two individuals who “suffered significant injuries” in the protests. The “significant dollar amounts” included in the settlement stem from the plaintiffs’ “need for ongoing and long-term care,” the spokesperson said.

“We have reviewed the totality of the circumstances surrounding the protests, and we believe it is in the best interest of these plaintiffs and the City of Austin to resolve these cases now,” the statement read. “We have other claims and lawsuits that have been filed as a result of injuries during the protests, and we will review each of those matters individually.”

Eleven Austin officers were disciplined for their actions during the protests after Manley completed his review of all known complaints and incidents involving officers during the demonstrations.

The Austin Police Department was not adequately prepared for the size of the crowd during the 2020 protests and did not anticipate the injuries that would occur from the “less-lethal” rounds, Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon said in a statement. The department now prohibits less-lethal ammunition for crowd control.

“I understand the Council’s decision to settle these two cases now, and our hearts go out to these two individuals who received serious injuries during the May 2020 protests,” Chacon said.

ABC News’ Ben Stein contributed to this report.

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