News – Page 2860 – 105.7 WDNY

Bipartisan bill would create push alert for active shooter incidents

February 5, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A new bill proposed this week would develop a federal alert system for active shooter situations, which have increased by over 1200% between 2000 and 2020.

The FBI defines an active shooter as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.” Though they account for a small percentage of gun deaths, 333 active shooter incidents in the United States resulted in 2,851 deaths between 2000 and 2019, according to an FBI report released last year.

On Tuesday alone, there were active shooter incidents at Bridgewater College in Virginia, where two officers were killed, and at South Education Center in Minnesota, where one student was killed and another was left in critical condition.

A bill proposed in the House the same day would help sound the alarm when such incidents occur so that people nearby an active shooter incident would be sent up-to-date information on their phones.

Reps. David Cicilline, D-R.I., and Fred Upton, R-Mich., proposed the bill, which aims to improve law enforcement officers’ ability to quickly disseminate information during active shooter situations. The AMBER Alert system, which this bill is modeled after, is a public alert triggered when a child is endangered or abducted.

The mechanics of the alert system are not spelled out in the legislation, but a coordinator from the Department of Justice would be responsible for determining best practices.

“It’s really about protecting law enforcement, protecting communities from gun violence, making sure that people have accurate and instantaneous information when there’s an active shooting to save lives,” Cicilline told ABC News.

Similar alert systems like the one proposed in the bill have been established in Michigan, Rhode Island and Texas, but the new legislation would provide a more uniform, national approach.

While several attempts at federal gun control legislation have been stalled in the Senate due to Republican opposition in recent years, this bill — which doesn’t directly impact gun ownership — was brought to the House floor by the bipartisan duo optimistic about garnering similar support in the Senate.

“I think it’s fair to say that when we pass this bill out of the House, there will be significant bipartisan support. We have been in discussions with both Democrats and Republicans,” Cicilline said.

Upton was one of eight House Republicans who voted in favor of the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 that would require a background check for all firearm purchases. Despite passing in the House on March 11, 2021, the bill has yet to receive a vote in the Senate, where it’s unlikely to garner the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

The Active Shooter Alert Act focuses on reducing harm during a shooting event instead of aiming to prevent the active shooter from acquiring a gun in the first place.

“Look, to the extent that anyone thinks that this bill alone is going to do all that we need to do to reduce gun violence in this country, of course, that’s not true,” Cicilline said.

In fact, mass shootings, which can include active shooter situations, represented a mere 1% of all of the 191,897 gun deaths that occurred from 2015 to 2019, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that identifies mass shootings as cases in which four or more people are shot and tracks them through public data, news reports and other sources. They also accounted for only 2.8% of the 74,565 gun homicides during that same five-year period.

The bill is on pace to be up for a vote in the House during Police Week, which runs from May 15 through May 21, according to the bill’s sponsors.

ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.

‘My son Amir was a law-abiding citizen’: Family of Amir Locke speaks out at press conference

February 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(MINNEAPOLIS) — The parents of Amir Locke spoke out at a press conference Friday alongside civil rights attorneys Ben Crump, Jeff Storms and Antonio Romanucci following the killing of the 22-year-old earlier this week.

Locke was fatally shot by Minneapolis police officers in an apartment early Wednesday morning. Body camera footage released on Thursday shows officers executing a “no-knock” search warrant before coming across Locke, who had been sleeping under a blanket on the couch. He is seen holding a gun as he begins to sit up, still covered with the blanket, before he is shot less than 10 seconds after officers entered the room.

Locke was not named in the “no-knock” warrant, Crump said at the press conference. The warrant was being executed on behalf of St. Paul police, who were searching for a homicide suspect.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner has ruled Locke’s death a homicide.

“My son Amir was a law-abiding citizen who did not have a criminal history,” his father, Andre Locke, said at the press conference. “My son Amir was loved by many of us, by our family and many people, everyone that he came in touch with. My son Amir did what was right. He did all the things that he was supposed to do.”

Locke’s parents became emotional discussing their son’s killing, saying that he was a good kid working in the music industry and an entrepreneur who wanted to help the youth.

His mother, Karen Wells, said she struggled to watch the body camera footage.

“I could not watch it,” she said. “But when I finally was able to see parts of that video when they released it yesterday — a mother should never have to see her child executed in that type of manner.”

The officer who shot and killed Locke was identified by police as Mark Hanneman. In accordance with policy, he’s been place on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation into the incident.

Crump, who is representing the Locke family with Storms and Romanucci, said that he was “shocked,” as he reflected on Locke’s death. According to MinnPost, Minneapolis announced that it had changed its policy on “no-knock” search warrants and restricted their use after Breonna Taylor was killed in a similar situation in 2020. Minneapolis was one of several cities to make the change.

Minneapolis police still use “no-knock” search warrants in limited cases. Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman said at a Thursday press conference that “both a no-knock and a knock search warrant were obtained … so that the SWAT team could assess the circumstances and make the best possible decision.”

“If we learned anything from Breonna Taylor, it is that ‘no-knock’ warrants have deadly consequences for innocent, law-abiding Black citizens,” Crump said.

“We have a city that just refuses to learn,” Storms added, referring to George Floyd’s 2020 murder in Minneapolis and David Smith’s 10 years earlier.

Romanucci said that Locke was “doomed to die,” because of the way that the police department carried out the raid.

“Had they announced who they were and why they were there, this tragedy could have been averted,” he said at the press conference. “But because they executed in the manner in which they did, Amir was doomed to die.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey issued a moratorium on “no knock” warrants late Friday.

“No matter what information comes to light, it won’t change the fact that Amir Locke’s life was cut short,” Frey said in a statement. “To ensure safety of both the public and officers until a new policy is crafted, I’m issuing a moratorium on both the request and execution of such warrants in Minneapolis.”

Locke’s family said at the press conference that he had a license to carry the gun in his possession on Wednesday, though this has not been confirmed by ABC News. His father also said he was mentored by relatives who had a background in law enforcement.

The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus issued a statement on Friday addressing the shooting, saying that it was “completely avoidable.”

“Black men, like all citizens, have a right to keep and bear arms. Black men, like all citizens, have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizure,” said Chair Bryan Strawser. The organization called for an independent investigation into the circumstances around Locke’s death.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison will work with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office to review Locke’s death, the office said in a press release Friday.

Locke’s parents are committed to getting justice for their son.

“As his mother, I will make sure that as long as I’m on this side of this world, I’m going to fight every day, throughout the day, 365 days, to make sure that Amir Rahkare Locke gets justice for being executed by the MPD,” Wells said.

“We know that we are not going to let them sweep Amir’s death under the rug, as they attempted to initially. His family, led by his mother and father, are gonna fight to say that Amir Locke’s life matters,” Crump added.

The Minneapolis Police Department declined to provide comment.

ABC News’ Miles Cohen and Whitney Lloyd contributed to this report

The independent investigators tracking Russia’s military buildup

February 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(KYIV, Ukraine) — TikTok isn’t just for dance memes — it’s now being used by amateur investigators to track the Russian military buildup along Ukraine’s borders.

Among those researchers is the Conflict Intelligence Team, or CIT, a tight-knit collection of investigators based between Russia and Ukraine.

CIT practices open-source intelligence, a method of gathering and analyzing information that, as its name suggests, draws on publicly available data like social media posts and satellite imagery.

“It’s basically a bunch of independent bloggers slash researchers slash military equipment enthusiasts,” said Kirill Mikhailov, one of a handful of the group’s core members. Mikhailov, 33, is from Russia but currently lives in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The group came together in 2014, he said, during the early days of fighting in eastern Ukraine between that country’s military and pro-Russian separatists. Mikhailov said the group’s audience is primarily “people in Russia who need to be informed about this stuff,” but the group’s work is also translated into English for Western audiences.

CIT’s research has been cited widely in recent months, including in a January 15 analysis of Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine by two experts from the nonprofit CNA, a think tank that advises the US military.

The group’s work has also appeared in recent publications by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

Thomas Bullock, an analyst at the private intelligence firm Jane’s, pointed to CIT as one of the best outfits currently tracking Russia’s military buildup.

Gathering data amid Russia-Ukraine tensions

The Biden administration has warned that Russia may fabricate a pretext to invade Ukraine, a charge Russia denies. The government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has downplayed the likelihood of a Russian invasion.

Amid this tension, which is spanning across the globe, Mikhailov explained one way how CIT gathers some of its data.

“Ideally, every train in Russia is logged in some central database,” Mikhailov said.

A train’s departure is checked against social media images — certain Russian-language TikTok hashtags abound with videos of trains carrying multiple launch rocket systems, troop carriers, and tanks — which researchers match visually to stations along the trains’ routes.

The type of hardware on a train, Mikhailov said, can in some cases be matched to specific military formations. CIT and other researchers have spotted in social media videos equipment allegedly used by units of Russia’s storied 76th Guards Air Assault paratrooper division, for example, due to the specific vehicles being used, their distinctive paint jobs, or unit markings.

This kind of information can be cross-referenced against the known home base of a military unit.

Researchers also supplement their findings with satellite data or, in some cases, social media comments.

“If a TikTok goes viral — like, super viral — then we can get lucky,” Mikhailov said, as the videos attract comments from soldiers’ relatives.

These comments can contain useful nuggets of information, Mikhailov said, like suggestions that a loved one’s military deployment will be longer than the routine exercises publicly announced by Russia’s military.

“There is no hiding” in today’s global military landscape, according to Robert Abrams an ABC News contributor and the former commander of U.S. forces in Korea.

Open-source intelligence is more pervasive than ever now; everyone has a cellphone and satellite images are cheaper to obtain.

“From a military perspective, you have to really think through how you are going to protect your position and your movements and what your capabilities are,” said Abrams. “You don’t have to just worry about aircraft flying with side or forward looking infrared radar, you now have to worry about Joe Schmoe on the street corner with a cellphone.”

Verifying gathered information

When the U.S. military makes decisions based on publicly available information — the kind used by CIT — that data is cross-referenced with other forms of intelligence, like human sources or intercepted communications, Abrams said.

“You don’t make decisions and assessments on one report or one source of intelligence. As a general rule, you want to cross-cue with another form of intelligence,” Abrams said.

To avoid disinformation, Mikhailov said CIT’s researchers aim to collect social media posts from genuine eyewitnesses.

Satellite imagery also helps verify the data CIT collects, Mikhailov said.

But one method used by CIT of validating their findings has recently become trickier, after, Mikhailov said, an intervention by Russia’s authorities.

Eight-digit numbers on the side of a train car can aid CIT in isolating a specific train and obtaining a history of its movements. That data is now harder to come by, Mikhailov said.

“They’ve been blocking our accounts, they’ve been limiting some specific types of requests, like you could request to see all trains that are currently at a station. It’s not available at this point,” Mikhailov said.

The most significant recent change, Mikhailov said, was the removal of data about journeys by trains carrying military cargo.

This wasn’t the first time a new roadblock has been thrown up for open-source researchers. In 2019, Russian lawmakers approved a bill blocking troops there from using smartphones while on duty and from posting personal details online.

Mikhailov said researchers are adapting to the latest setbacks.

“We have found some workarounds and loopholes they haven’t plugged yet,” he said.

Travis McMichael withdraws guilty plea in federal case over Ahmaud Arbery murder

February 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(ATLANTA) — Travis McMichael withdrew on Friday his guilty plea in the federal case against him in the death of Ahmaud Arbery. The trial goes forward on Monday.

Gregory McMichael, Travis’ father, informed a federal court Thursday evening that he was withdrawing his guilty plea to federal hate crime charges connected to Arbery’s death after a federal judge this week rejected the terms of a plea agreement reached with the Justice Department.

A lawyer for Gregory McMichael, the father of Travis McMichael, who shot Arbery in February 2020 three times at close range, informed U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Wood in a filing that he was ready to stand trial.

Wood rejected a plea deal in which federal prosecutors guaranteed the men would be able to serve the first 30 years of confinement in federal prison. She told the men she wanted an answer by Friday.

They will go to trial next week with their co-defendant William “Roddie” Bryan, who was not offered the same plea deal.

In accepting the change, the court agreed not to allow the statements made by the men last Monday in association with the plea, where they had admitted to targeting Arbery because he was Black.

Gregory McMichael, 66, and his 36-year-old son were convicted of state murder charges last year along with Bryan, 52, and were all sentenced to life in prison, the McMichaels without the possibility of parole.

The McMichaels and Bryan will be required to serve their state sentence before they serve a federal sentence, if they are convicted.

During a hearing on Monday in U.S. District Court in Brunswick, Georgia, Wood said she felt “uncomfortable” approving a plea deal that locked her into giving the McMichaels a three-decade sentence in a federal penitentiary. She noted that the case was in its early stages and said, “I can’t say that 360 months is the precise, fair sentence in this case.”

The federal trial will include evidence of the McMichaels’ prior racist behavior, which was excluded from the state trial.

Wood’s decision came on the heels of Arbery’s parents, Wanda Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery, giving impassioned statements in court. They asked the judge to deny the men their wish to go to federal prison, which is safer and better funded than most state prisons, according to legal experts.

“Granting these men their preferred conditions of confinement would defeat me,” Cooper-Jones told Wood. “It gives them one last chance to spit in my face after murdering my son.”

At Monday’s hearing, assistant U.S. attorney Tara Lyons said Travis and Gregory McMichael agreed to plead guilty to count one of a multi-count indictment alleging they interfered with Arbery’s right to enjoy the use of a public road he was jogging on “because of Arbery’s race and color.” Lyons said the agreement called for other charges to be dismissed, including attempted kidnapping and discharging a firearm during a violent crime.

The agreement also called for the McMichaels to waive their right to appeal in both the federal and state cases.

Arbery, 25, was fatally shot after the McMichaels saw him jogging in their Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia. They said they assumed Arbery was a burglar, armed themselves and chased him in their pickup truck. The McMichaels’ neighbor, Bryan, joined the pursuit, blocking the victim’s escape path with his truck.

Bryan also used his cellphone to record Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery with a shotgun, video that became integral to their state murder convictions.

NewsCorp hit with cyberattack, allegedly from China

February 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Rupert Murdoch-owned media conglomerate NewsCorp was hit with a cyberattack, and a leading cybersecurity firm, Mandient, brought in to investigate concluded the activity was likely from China, NewsCorp said Friday.

In an email to all NewsCorp employees, David Kline, NewsCorp’s chief technology officer and Billy O’Brien, its chief information security officer, said “attack activity” was discovered Jan. 20 on a system used by several of the company’s business units.

They said they believe the activity affected a “limited number of business email accounts and documents from NewsCorp headquarters, News Technology Services, Dow Jones, News UK, and New York Post.”

The company said the threat, however, is contained and “the systems housing customer and financial data were not affected. In addition, we have not experienced related interruptions to our business operations.”

They said they have also notified federal authorities.

NewsCorp said that some data was taken by a foreign government. Mandient is alleging China is involved.

“Mandiant assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China’s interests,” said Dave Wong, vice president, incident response at Mandiant.

NewsCorp said its “highest concern” is the protection of journalists and their sources.

A person familiar with the situation said journalists were among the targets of the alleged attack.

“We will not tolerate attacks on our journalism, nor will we be deterred from our reporting, which provides readers everywhere with the news that matters. We believe it is important that other media organizations be made aware of this threat in order to take appropriate precautions, and we are providing technical details of the attack to the Media Information Sharing and Analysis Organization,” Kline and O’Brien wrote to employees.

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned this week of the dangers of China stealing U.S. innovation — a topic he has continued to beat the drum on since becoming the agency’s director.

“The Chinese government steals staggering volumes of information and causes deep, job-destroying damage across a wide range of industries—so much so that, as you heard, we’re constantly opening new cases to counter their intelligence operations, about every 12 hours or so,” Wray said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Monday.

“Here in the U.S., they unleash a massive, sophisticated hacking program that is bigger than those of every other major nation combined,” he said without directly speaking about the NewsCorp hack. “Operating from pretty much every major city in China, with a lot of funding and sophisticated tools, and often joining forces with cyber criminals, in effect, cyber mercenaries. In just one case, one example, a group of MSS-associated criminal hackers stole terabytes of data from hundreds of companies.”

How Black families can achieve financial freedom

February 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — In the United States, Black families have an estimated one-eighth of the wealth that white families have, according to research from the McKinsey Institute of Black Economic Mobility.

Federal policies, such as the Homestead Act of 1862, the 1935 Social Security Act and redlining by the Federal Housing Administration, have in part contributed to the wealth gap, according to Kezia Williams, founder of The Black upStart, an initiative to train African American entrepreneurs across the country.

Williams is now on a mission to change the statistics and help Black families build their wealth between generations.

“It’s not that Black people are not working hard. It’s not that we’re not earning income. It’s not that we’re disinterested in wealth acquisition,” Williams explained on “Good Morning America.” “But it’s just that there are laws and policies that have provided head starts for some families, but not Black families.”

Teach financial literacy and support Black-owned businesses

To overcome such barriers, Williams emphasizes the need to learn about financial literacy and teach children and young people early on. “We need to teach things like investing credit and also entrepreneurship,” Williams said.

In addition to building a knowledge base, Williams emphasizes “making a daily practice” of supporting Black-owned businesses, which have been heavily impacted by the pandemic.

“We need to make sure that we keep Black business doors open because Black entrepreneurs are more likely to create black jobs and also give back to Black communities,” Williams said.

If you have kids, the earlier you plan for their futures, the better off they could be in terms of financial success. Williams recommends considering opening up accounts such as a custodial Roth IRA and a 529 college savings plan when children are young so any funds can grow over time through interest.

It may seem extremely early to think about a child’s future retirement but it’s a smart way to think. A custodial Roth IRA lets a parent or custodian add money to an individual retirement account on behalf of a minor and manage it until the child becomes an adult. Investing funds early in this type of account means a child can benefit from compound interest and when they go to take money out of the account in the future, the funds may not be taxed. For custodial Roth IRAs, Williams suggests researching small-, mid- and large-cap funds to include in the account.

Putting money into a 529 college savings plan lets families and kids sock away funds that will grow tax-free. Other family members could contribute to a college savings plan and in some cases, the plan can also be transferred to other children.

Middle school and high school students get an early lessons in finance: What kids need to know about money and debt

Boost your income

Another way to build wealth over time is to look for ways to increase income streams outside a traditional 9-to-5 job. Williams suggests clients invest their “free” time and sell their skills during evenings or weekends whenever possible to take advantage of the rise of the gig economy.

In a recent Caring.com study, more than 70% of Blacks surveyed say they haven’t started the estate planning process. Lynn Richardson, a financial coach and author of “Estate Planning Made Simple,” recommends everyone who doesn’t have a will or plan in place to get started immediately.

“Everybody has an estate plan. It is not just for the wealthy. Your clothing, your furniture, your jewelry, your real estate, your automobiles, your electronics, your bank accounts — all of that is a part of your estate plan,” Richardson said. “And with proper planning, we can ensure that our loved ones can live the lives that we see for them even when we are not here.”

So how should people get started with estate planning? Experts recommend discussing the topic with family members and Portia M. Wood, an estate planning lawyer, suggests asking yourself these three questions too.

In addition, Wood recommends preparing these documents in order to ensure the estate planning process goes smoothly: a financial power of attorney form, an advance health care directive and a living will.

Richardson also recommends that everyone should consider life insurance policies. “GoFundMe is not a substitute for life insurance. As early as the age of 18, if you have enough life insurance, you can then put that life insurance into an annuity. That annuity can then pay your heirs a trust for the rest of their lives and then that income can pass onto their children and so on and so forth,” Richardson said.

At the end of the day, Richardson emphasized, “Time is of the essence and every single one of us has the ability to create an estate plan for ourselves and our loved ones so we can have peace at night when we go to sleep.”

House votes to spend tens of billions to compete with China in manufacturing

February 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The House on Friday passed sweeping legislation that will invest billions of dollars into American manufacturing and scientific research in a bid to take on China’s growing economic dominance.

The bill was approved along party lines, 222-210.

One Democrat, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, voted against the bill, saying in a statement she objected to “problematic, poorly-vetted provisions” relating to trade.

Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger was the sole Republican to vote “yes” with Democrats.

Passage of the bill comes nearly eight months after the Senate passed its own version last year. The two chambers will now go to conference over the bill to align the legislation into one final text that must pass both chambers again before it can reach President Joe Biden’s desk.

“The America COMPETES Act will ensure that America is preeminent in manufacturing, innovation and economic strength, and can out-compete any nation,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said ahead of Friday’s vote.

House leaders are urging swift action on the reconciliation process — they’ve said their goal is to get it to Biden as soon as possible so he can tout the big win during his State of the Union address on March 1.

The House bill would provide $52 billion over five years to boost semiconductor research, manufacturing and design. This investment comes amid a global shortage of semiconductors, also known as chips, which are essential for the production of cars, smartphones, and medical equipment.

“The semiconductors are microchips that power virtually everything in our everyday lives. From our cell phones to automobiles, refrigerators, the internet, the electric grid without semiconductors, these things do not function in a modern economy,” Biden said during his remarks on the January jobs report.

“The House of Representatives just passed … over $90 billion for research and development, manufacturing and all those elements of the supply chain needed to produce products right here in America so we can keep delivering more announcements like the one we’ve had this past few weeks.”

Biden also claimed that this legislation aims at lessening the fiscal impact of economic inflation that many Americans are experiencing with high food and gas prices.

The bill also provides $45 billion over six years in grants and loans to improve the supply chain issues.

The bill also includes numerous provisions seeking to apply diplomatic pressure on the Chinese government for its human rights violations against the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region.

While Republicans have been largely supportive of the measure over the last several months, House Republican leadership urged members to vote against the legislation on Friday, saying the bill is “too weak” on China.

ABC News’ Noah Minnie contributed to this report.

Single suicide bomber killed US troops and Afghans in ISIS-K attack at Kabul airport, Pentagon finds

February 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport last August that killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghans was the result of a single explosive device detonated by an ISIS-K terrorist, a months-long military investigation has found, it was announced Friday.

The Pentagon had originally described the attack as “complex,” with multiple ISIS-K fighters firing on the crowd as well after the explosion.

The top U.S. commander for the Middle East said the evidence gathered in the investigation — including analysis by medical examiners and explosive experts, as well as interviews with more than 130 people — shows his initial assessment was wrong.

“The fact that this investigation has contradicted our first impression demonstrates to me that the team would enter this investigation with an open mind in search of the truth,” said Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command.

During the briefing defense officials narrated what they called “the only known footage of the blast itself,” which they said appears to show a “single individual dressed in all black” stepping forward from the crowd.

The blast seems to emanate from this individual, they said.

The investigators found that several misapprehensions on the day of the attack led to the error.

For instance, witnesses heard gunfire, and saw what appeared to be gunshot wounds on victims.

But investigators found warning shots fired by friendly forces to disperse crowds after the explosion echoed and created the illusion of a firefight, and the apparent gunshot wounds were caused by five-millimeter ball bearings that were propelled from the suicide bomb by 20 pounds of military-grade explosives, tearing through the densely-packed crowd at the airport’s Abbey Gate.

Adding to the confusion, Marines helping process Afghan civilians at the gate close to the explosion were disoriented by the large blast, and some were tear gassed when the ball bearings from the bomb punctured CS canisters worn on their own equipment, officials said.

“The battlefield is a confusing and contradictory place, and it gets more confusing the closer you are to the actual action,” McKenzie said.

Delta CEO: Put convicted unruly passengers on national ‘no-fly’ list

February 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — After the worst year in history for unruly airline passengers, Delta’s CEO is asking the Department of Justice to help create a national “no-fly” list for anyone convicted of federal offenses related to an on-board disruption.

CEO Ed Bastian wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday asking for his support in banning unruly passengers from all commercial carriers.

Bastian believes banning unruly passengers from all commercial flights will send a strong signal to the flying public that not following crew member instructions comes with severe consequences.

“This action will help prevent future incidents and serve as a strong symbol of the consequences of not complying with crew member instructions on commercial aircraft,” he wrote.

Unruly passenger incidents onboard Delta planes have increased nearly 100% since 2019, according to Bastian.

To date the airline has placed almost 2,000 people on Delta’s internal no-fly list for refusing to wear a mask and has submitted around 1,000 banned names to the Transportation Security Administration to pursue civil penalties.

Delta has previously asked other U.S. airlines to share their internal no-fly lists so that people who endangered their crew can’t do so on another airline.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has seen a troubling spike in unruly passenger incidents with airlines reporting a staggering 6,304 reports of misconduct since January 2021. The agency is still enforcing its zero-tolerance policy for in-flight disruptions which could lead to fines as high as $52,500 and up to 20 years in prison.

In November, the FAA revealed some unruly passengers could start to face criminal prosecution after establishing an information-sharing protocol with the Department of Justice.

Last month, federal charges were brought against three passengers who allegedly “viciously assaulted” a Delta security officer at John F. Kennedy Airport by “beating him to the floor with his radio and then kicking and punching him in the face and body while he was down,” according to Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

All three pleaded not guilty, and were released on $25,000 bond.

“This is one of four incidents that have resulted in federal charges against abusive customers in the last 30 days,” Bastian said.

The Department of Justice declined to comment.

ABC News’ Luke Barr and Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.

House committee records show Trump, Jim Jordan spoke the morning of Jan. 6

February 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has obtained White House records showing then-President Donald Trump spoke with Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio that morning, a source confirmed to ABC News Friday.

The source said call logs records, part of the documents the National Archives handed over to the committee, found that Trump called Jordan from the White House residence and they spoke for 10 minutes, and while Jordan has said he did speak to Trump that day, it was not previously known they spoke that morning, before the attack and the counting of electoral votes.

One entry shows a request from Trump to get Jordan on the phone. A second entry detailed the length of the call.

The records also show Trump did not leave the White House until 11:40 a.m. on Jan. 6 to speak to his supporters on the Ellipse.

ABC News asked Jordan earlier Friday as he was racing out of the Capitol with suitcases in hand, “If you say you have nothing to hide, why not cooperate with investigators?”

“We laid everything out in the letter you guys can read our letter and the biggest point we made in the letter was when you already have a committee that has proven they will alter evidence and then lie to the American people about it that’s a big concern but we lay that out and other concerns in the letter,” Jordan replied.

He also refused to answer whether he would comply with a subpoena from the committee.

“We’ll see what happens we’ll see what the committee does. I’ve got to get to the airport,” he said.

The House select committee sent a letter to Jordan in December requesting he appear for an interview with the panel about his communications with Trump on and before Jan. 6.

Jordan, who has attacked the committee’s integrity, was among the House Republicans nominated to serve on the select committee by House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., blocked him from being seated on the panel given his past false statements about the election results — which led McCarthy to withdraw all his selections to the committee.

Jordan is also one of 147 House Republicans who voted against certifying the election for President Joe Biden and has refused to cooperate with the House investigation into Jan. 6.

He has previously acknowledged that he spoke with the president the day of the riot but Friday’s development that the committee has record of a 10-minute call with Trump provides more insight into the records the committee has obtained.

The Ohio congressman admitted last July that he — like McCarthy — spoke to Trump on the phone on Jan. 6.

Asked in an interview with Ohio Spectrum News reporter Taylor Popielarz if he spoke to Trump before during or after the attack, Jordan said he didn’t remember.

“I spoke with him that day. After? I think after. I don’t know if I spoke with him in the morning or not. I just don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know when those conversations.”

Fox News host Brett Baier also pressed Jordan around the same time on whether he spoke to Trump that day, and Jordan repeatedly deflected, saying he’s “talked to the former president umpteen times — thousands, countless times.”

Baier followed up, “But I mean on January 6, congressman.”

“Yes,” Jordan said. “I mean, I’ve talked to the president so many — I can’t remember all the days I’ve talked to him, but I’ve certainly talked to the president.”

Conversations in Trump’s orbit, such as the call with Jordan, are key to what the committee is seeking to investigate.

Jordan, a leader and founding member of the Trump-aligned House Freedom Caucus, was among the GOP lawmakers who planned to challenge the election results on the House floor. He has said he had “nothing to do with” the attack on the Capitol.

After the election, the Ohio Republican focused most of his efforts challenging the legality of the pandemic-era voting changes in many states rather than some of the more outlandish and unproven theories of election fraud pushed by some Trump supporters.

ABC News’ Libby Cathey contributed to this report.

+ More