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Parents refuse to give up hope in search for missing 26-year-old daughter

December 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(DALLAS) — Mercedes Clement was last seen in surveillance video on Oct. 11, 2020, walking across the parking lot of the Koko Apartments in Dallas, Texas, with a man.

She hasn’t been seen or heard from again.

“In the beginning, it didn’t matter if it was a street lead or if it was an anonymous tip or if it was a psychic, we followed the lead,” said Clement’s mother, Alicia Gazotti.

She and her husband, Clement’s stepfather Emiliano Gazotti, have been searching for their 26-year-old daughter for a little over a year. They haven’t given up.

“Mercedes, she was just a gift. She was always saving her money for the homeless people, always just had this huge heart of gold, always,” said Alicia Gazotti.

On the night her daughter went missing, Gazotti said that around 10:30 p.m., Clement made some worrisome phone calls to friends.

“She called a couple of her friends and she told one girl in particular she was scared, she needed a ride to her car. Her friend said it was just eerily quiet,” said Gazotti. “And the phone disconnected and that was it. About the fourth day, when there’s no anything. Then I got worried.”

“The next day we got a piece of mail that her car had been towed and a lot of alarm bells went off for me then,” said Gazotti.

Gazotti said she went to the tow yard that same day to pick up the car, and she was alarmed to find most of her daughter’s belongings still inside.

“Her purse was in her car, her wallet was in her car, her car key was on the front seat, her bra was on the passenger seat,” said Gazotti. “We just knew something was wrong.”

In the following days, she said she tried to retrace her daughter’s steps and visited the Koko Apartment Complex where her daughter’s car had been towed from. She found crucial surveillance video she would later provide to the police.

On Oct. 26, 2020, Gazotti said she and her husband officially filed a missing persons report.

“Mercedes Clement’s case victimology, that’s very important in an investigation,” said Patty Belew, a homicide detective with the Dallas Police Department.

After nearly nine months, Belew was assigned ro Clement’s case after it was transferred from a missing persons case to homicide. She said the case was transferred because investigators suspect foul play.

“A missing persons is a warrant to locate and usually they’ll canvas a little bit and then that’s pretty much it and then they’ll move on. When it’s a homicide, then we’re out just constantly digging, trying to get information,” said Belew. “I believe that [what] we’re looking at is something has happened to her.”

During their investigation, detectives found that the surveillance camera, which captured the last time Clement was seen, had stopped recording the night of her disappearance for seven hours.

“The video we had, we’re told that it had a glitch in it. So it stopped recording, unfortunately,” said Belew.

According to Belew, she had asked the camera’s video company if glitches were normal and they said, “Not so much.”

Also in the surveillance video, detectives said they noticed the purse Clement is seen with while walking into the apartment complex is the same purse that was later found in her car.

“So either she brought it back or the people who took her put it in the car, and their intentions were to come back to the car, but the car was towed before they were able to do that,” said Belew.

The detectives with the Dallas Police Department said they are currently investigating multiple people of interest, including acquaintances from her past she knew when she was involved in drug use. They’ve also identified the man Clement was last seen with as 36-year-old Tanner Losson.

“We’ve tried to question him and he’s basically refused to speak with us,” said Belew.

Losson is currently in Dallas County Jail on unrelated charges. He did not respond to a request for comment.

“The guy that she was with, he’s not talking. He’s not talking to anybody. He maintains he doesn’t know anything,” said Gazotti.

Gazotti said she’s afraid her daughter’s case may run cold.

“I think that the media, police, missing persons units- there’s always a stigma around certain people, if they look a little different or if they’re living a different life,” said Gazzotti. “They don’t get treated with that same urgency or that same consideration or that same care.”

Of the 500,000 reported missing persons, almost half were people of color, according to the FBI.

The Dallas Police Department told ABC News that shining a spotlight on Mercedes Clement’s case could bring in tips they need to solve it and that if anyone has information about Mercedes Clement, they can call the North Texas Crime Commission at 1-877-373-TIPS.

Gazotti said she refuses to give up the search for her missing daughter.

“My daughter’s life mattered,” she said. “Everyone deserves to be found. Everybody deserves closure.”

The unvaccinated are ‘looking at a winter of severe illness and death’: White House

December 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The White House’s chief coordinator for the U.S. coronavirus response has a strong warning for unvaccinated Americans ahead of a projected surge in cases over the next few weeks.

If you’re vaccinated, “we’ve done the right thing, and we will get through this,” White House COVID coordinator Jeff Zients said.

“For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.”

In a briefing with reporters on Friday, Zients and the White House COVID-19 task force, which includes Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky and chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci, highlighted the importance of initial vaccines, which offer strong protection against severe illness, but strongly emphasized the need for fully vaccinated Americans to go out and get their booster shots, which offer the best protection against the new omicron variant.

“The optimum protection is fully vaccinated plus a boost,” Fauci said.

“So the bottom line of what we’ve been telling you all along: It is critical to get vaccinated. If you are vaccinated, it is critical for optimal protection to get boosted,” he said.

Asked if the task force is considering recommending people get boosters earlier than six months after their final shot, the current standard, Fauci said it’s “on the table.”

“You still get protection that’s reasonably good against hospitalization [with two shots]. We want to make that better with the booster,” he said.

“Whether or not we’re going to change what the time interval between your last vaccination and your boost, we always have these on the table for discussion, but right now there has not been a decision on that,” Fauci said.

Only 30% of fully vaccinated Americans have been boosted so far, and about half of fully vaccinated seniors over the age of 65 have been boosted.

But Zients said those numbers are slightly higher among eligible Americans — people who are six months past their final shot.

“The right way to think about the percent boosted is those eligible. And we’ve now boosted about 60 million Americans. That’s about 40% of the eligible Americans. Importantly, of those over 65 we are now more than 60%. And that’s important because they are the most vulnerable,” Zients said.

Still, that means the percentage of boosted Americans with optimal protection against omicron is quite low, at about four in every 10 vaccinated people. And around 40% of the country still remains completely unvaccinated.

The warnings from the White House come in the lead up to Christmas and New Year’s — the first since vaccines became widespread in the US. The holiday season has coincided with the presence of omicron, the most transmissible variant to date.

Yet the holiday guidance from the White House COVID task force continues to be that Americans can and should gather, given the existence of vaccines — a powerful mitigation tool against the virus.

But vaccines alone are not sufficient to ensure full protection, the CDC director warned, and Americans should return to the basics to steer clear of a holiday outbreak among family members.

That includes indoor masking in all public places, ruling out indoor dining or bars, social distancing, hand-washing and spending time in well-ventilated areas. But historically, the country has had a hard time sticking to these measures and is particularly fatigued two years in — circumstances that do not bode well for avoiding a surge this holiday season.

“I think we’re in a very different place this year than we were last year, and we really do want people to be able to gather and gather safely,” Walensky said.

“We have the tools now to do it and what we’re really saying is please rely on those tools. Get vaccinated. If you’re eligible for a boost, get boosted. And importantly, a week before the holidays, indoor mask in these areas that have — 90% of our counties have substantial or high transmission,” Walensky said.

“Use the next week to make sure you’re practicing those safe prevention mitigation strategies, so that when you come together for the holidays, that people have been not exposed to the virus because in fact they’ve been vaccinated, boosted and masked. And for that extra reassurance as we have more disease in this country right now, do a test and make sure that you’re negative before you mix and gather in different households,” she said.

Democrats leave for the holidays with much unfinished business

December 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Democrats are leaving Washington for the holidays having fallen short on a slew of President Joe Biden’s top domestic priorities and staring down the barrel of a politically-contentious 2022 in which the balance of power in Congress is up for grabs and trending red.

After months of intra-party gridlock, the Senate is closing out its first session without voting on the president’s cornerstone social spending package with no clear path forward on how the bill might progress to the floor in the new year.

“The president requested more time to continue his negotiations. So we will keep working with him, hand in hand,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor amid a rare Friday session, acknowledging for the first time that Biden’s Build Back Better bill will not come to the floor before the holidays.

West Virginia moderate Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin has proven to be the most intransigent of obstacles for Democrats who hoped to quickly expedite the social spending bill, which includes funding for in-home care, universal pre-K, an extension of the Child Tax Credit and Medicare expansion.

Manchin has for months opposed the cost of the $1.75 trillion bill, citing concerns that the real cost of the programs over time would plunge the nation trillions further in debt and spike inflation rates at a time when the cost of consumer goods is skyrocketing.

In particular, Manchin has insisted on extending the expanded Child Tax Credit for the full 10 years of the overall plan — a $1 trillion proposal — while also demanding that the price tag remain under $2 trillion, a dilemma that could only result in deeper cuts elsewhere among prized programs.

Despite ongoing negotiations with Schumer and Biden, Manchin hasn’t been persuaded to come off his position. His vote, and that of every Democrat in the Senate, is necessary to both start debate on and pass the final package.

Biden acknowledged as much in a separate statement released Thursday evening.

“My team and I are having ongoing discussions with Senator Manchin; that work will continue next week. It takes time to finalize these agreements, prepare the legislative changes, and finish all the parliamentary and procedural steps needed to enable a Senate vote. We will advance this work together over the days and weeks ahead; Leader Schumer and I are determined to see the bill successfully on the floor as early as possible,” Biden said.

Immigration reform, another key Biden campaign promise, has also hit snag. Democrats had hoped to work a pathway to citizenship into the proposal, but the Senate parliamentarian, who must assess whether certain items are admissible under the rules governing passage of the package, has ruled against multiple efforts.

On Thursday, the parliamentarian dealt Democrats yet another blow, ruling against their latest effort that sought to provide five-year work permits and deportation protection to undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for at least a decade.

Other December priorities also fell by the wayside as the Senate spent the month grappling with government funding, a must-pass defense authorization bill and a hike to the federal debt limit. All of these issues had to be attended to before the Senate left, and stalls on each priority ate valuable floor time.

Lawmakers will leave Washington this week also failing to address election reform after Republicans mounted a near-unanimous blockade on multiple legislative efforts. Under the current Senate filibuster rules, at least 60 lawmakers must consent to passage of federal voting rights legislation, and GOP opposition has all but doomed the reform efforts.

Democrats made a last-minute push for voting rights earlier this week, convening calls with Biden aimed at pushing moderate holdouts to consider reforming Senate rules to bust the GOP filibuster.

But Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., aren’t prepared to make exceptions to the Senate rules, even for voting rights.

Sinema “continues to support the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, to protect the country from repeated radical reversals in federal policy which would cement uncertainty, deepen divisions, and further erode Americans’ confidence in our government,” her office said in a statement Wednesday.

During Friday’s policy lunch, Democrats drilled down on the Senate rules, hearing from two former Senate rules experts. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said that there are somewhere “between five and nine different plans or permutations of plans, some extremely complex, some pretty straightforward and simple” on getting voting rights passed through the chamber. But so far, there’s no obvious path forward.

“We’re talking about 50 very strong-minded, extremely independent elected officials, each with a separate constituency who are really looking into their consciences,” Blumenthal told reporters. “I think we’re very close, because I think that voting rights is so absolutely critical. I’m hopeful that the New Year will bring us closer together.”

Many Democratic lawmakers see substantive action before the November midterms as necessary to shore up their razor-thin majorities in both chambers of Congress. But Republicans are using the intraparty squabbling among Democrats as an opportunity.

They’ve painted Biden’s social spending agenda as an all but certain increase in inflation.

“I think the big story of the year is inflation,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell Thursday. “The single biggest thing we could do for the American people is to kill the reckless tax and spending spree.”

McConnell said he thought 2022 would be “a good environment” for Republicans looking to retake the majority, adding, “The places that will be making this decision are Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio, Missouri, Nevada and Arizona, and we’ll be out there doing battle. And I think we’ll have the wind at our back.”

Asked about the wildest of wild cards for Republicans — former President Donald Trump, who has consistently attacked McConnell’s leadership — the Kentucky Republican dodged. “Good try,” he told ABC News.

Biden demands action on voting rights at South Carolina State University commencement

December 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Friday dug into Republican opposition to advancing federal voting rights legislation during a commencement address at South Carolina State University.

His remarks came ahead of a renewed push on voting rights, even as he acknowledged Thursday night that another major legislative priority of his administration, the Build Back Better social spending bill, will need to wait until 2022.

“I’ve never seen anything like the unrelenting assault on the right to vote. Never,” Biden said Friday during his address to the graduates.

Showing some clear frustration, Biden said, “We have to protect that sacred right to vote, for God’s sake.”

The president mentioned his key role in getting an extension of the original Voting Rights Act passed with bipartisan support in 1982, saying that at the time he thought the nation was “finally beginning to move.”

“But this new sinister combination of voter suppression and election subversion, it’s un-American, it’s undemocratic, and sadly, it is unprecedented since Reconstruction,” he said.

He said his administration has supported Democratic efforts to reform voting rights since “day one” and that there is “unanimous support” within the party, but with the filibuster in Congress blocking its efforts, Biden again criticized Republicans for not even wanting to debate voting rights legislation.

“But each and every time it gets to be brought up, that other team blocks the ability even to start to discuss it. That other team — it used to be called the Republican Party. But this battle is not over. We must pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. We must!” Biden said.

Earlier this year, Biden expressed support for altering filibuster rules to pass voting rights legislation, but he did not make the same call Friday.

The president also focused on “hate and racism” in his remarks.

There is currently a “reckoning on race not seen since the 50s and 60s,” he said, adding that the graduates are entering a “tumultuous and consequential moment in modern American history.”

He pointed to the Orangeburg, South Carolina, massacre of 1968 and the mass shooting at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. He said there was a “through-line” of hate and racism that extended to the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Those marchers were “carrying torches and Nazi banners, screeching [the] most antisemitic and anti-Black rhetoric in history,” Biden said.

Referencing former President Donald Trump, he said that “when asked what he thought about it, Trump said, ‘well there’s some very good people there.'”

“Hell very good people! They’re racist, they’re fascist,” Biden said.

Biden also invoked the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, saying that he gets asked by world leaders, “Is America going to be alright” after witnessing those scenes play out.

After his speech, Biden was presented with an honorary doctorate from the university.

The university also gave a degree to Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Democrat representing South Carolina. Clyburn graduated from South Carolina State University in December 1961 but only received his diploma by mail and did not walk across the aisle until Friday’s ceremony.

In remarks before Biden spoke, Clyburn told the audience about how his late wife, Emily Clyburn, who he met after they were both jailed for civil rights demonstrations while students at the university, encouraged him to support President Joe Biden in the 2016 Democratic primary.

“Not long before she passed away a little over two years ago, she said to me: If we want to succeed in this upcoming election, we’d better nominate Joe Biden,” Clyburn said.

“She passed away before the South Carolina primary, but what she said to me in that night stayed on my mind… And I followed her directions, just I had for the fifty-eight years that we were married.”

Clyburn’s endorsement of Biden in 2020 is credited as a deciding factor in helping him clinch the presidency.

Striking Kellogg’s workers to vote on tentative deal as lawmakers double down support for unions

December 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The Kellogg Co. said it’s reached a tentative agreement that could end the ongoing strike of some 1,400 workers, as lawmakers and even President Joe Biden have weighed in to support members of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.

The work stoppage commenced Oct. 5. Union members are set to be presented with the new tentative deal this weekend and vote at the local level, with results expected to be released by Tuesday, according to Corrina Christensen, director of public relations and communications for the BCTGM union. The union declined to comment on the details of the new agreement at this time.

Kellogg’s said in a statement that the new contract includes $1.10 per-hour wage increases plus cost of living adjustments and more. The company also said employees at its U.S. cereal plants are among the highest paid in the industry, with average earnings in 2020 for “the majority of hourly employees” approximately $120,000.

“We value all of our employees. They have enabled Kellogg to provide food to Americans for more than 115 years,” Chairman and CEO Steve Cahillane said in a statement. “We are hopeful our employees will vote to ratify this contract and return to work.”

The strike at the company that produces breakfast staples such as Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies comes as an apparent labor shortage has given workers new leverage in negotiating with employers while the pandemic ebbs in the U.S.

News of the new tentative deal also comes after Kellogg’s signaled in a statement on Dec. 7 that it plans to “hire permanent replacement employees in positions vacated by striking workers,” saying the prolonged work stoppage “has left us no choice.”

The move to replace striking workers drew condemnation from Biden late last week, and progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., announced that he will be in Battle Creek, Michigan, on Friday to meet with union members.

“Collective bargaining is an essential tool to protect the rights of workers that should be free from threats and intimidation from employers,” Biden said in a statement last week. “That’s why I am deeply troubled by reports of Kellogg’s plans to permanently replace striking workers from the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International during their ongoing collective bargaining negotiations.”

The president called permanently replacing striking workers an “existential attack on the union and its members’ jobs and livelihoods.” He expressed his “unyielding support for unions” and urged “employers and unions to commit fully to the challenging task of working out their differences at the bargaining table in a manner that fairly advances both parties’ interests.”

In what many view as a show of solidarity from fellow workers across the U.S., one Go Fund Me page launched to support the striking workers has raised nearly $140,000 from over 3,000 donors.

Sanders blasted Kellogg’s in an op-ed published by Fox News on Thursday as the “poster child for the culture of corporate greed.”

“Last year, Kellogg’s made over $1.4 billion in profits. It paid its CEO, Steven Cahillane, nearly $12 million in total compensation, a significant increase over recent years,” Sanders wrote. “One of the reasons that Kellogg’s had such a profitable year during this pandemic was the extraordinary sacrifices made by their employees who, in significantly understaffed factories, were asked to work an insane number of hours.”

The senator lamented how these workers are now being treated as “disposable” after they were revered as “heroes” for helping feed America during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The workers’ struggle against Kellogg’s is a lot more than just 1,400 employees on strike in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Nebraska,” Sanders wrote. “It’s about what this country and our economy is supposed to stand for.”

Trump ally Roger Stone invokes 5th Amendment in appearance before Jan. 6 committee

December 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Roger Stone, longtime adviser to former President Donald Trump, appeared Friday before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, where he said he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in response to every question asked of him.

“I did invoke my Fifth Amendment rights to every question, not because I have done anything wrong, but because I am fully aware of the House Democrats’ long history of fabricating perjury charges on the basis of comments that are innocuous, immaterial, or irrelevant,” Stone said after emerging from his hour-long session with the committee.

The committee on Nov. 22 subpoenaed Stone for records and testimony, along with four other people linked to the planning of pro-Trump rallies in Washington on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, prior to the Capitol attack.

Investigators are interested in Stone’s involvement planning and attending the events, as well as his soliciting of donations to pay for security at the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally, the committee said.

Stone was also seen outside Washington’s Willard Hotel on the morning of Jan. 6 with members of the Oath Keepers militia group, including some members who were later at the riot on Capitol Hill.

Stone has denied any involvement in the attack on the Capitol and has said he had no “advance knowledge” of the march on the Capitol or efforts to disrupt the counting of electoral votes.

“I stress yet again that I was not on the Ellipse [at the rally preceding the Capital attack],” Stone said following his appearance Friday. “I did not march to the Capitol. I was not at the Capitol, and any claims, assertion or even implication that I knew about or was involved in any way whatsoever, with the illegal and politically counterproductive activities of Jan. 6 is categorically false.”

Stone also criticized the committee’s probe into the Jan. 5 rally where he spoke.

“What disturbed me is an investigation into my activities on Jan. 5, which is constitutionally protected free speech, the constitutional right of free assembly, and the constitutional right to redress the government regarding grievances,” he said. “I don’t like to see the criminalization of constitutionally protected political activity. I think it is a slippery slope.”

In February 2020, Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison after he was found guilty of obstructing justice, witness tampering and five counts of lying to Congress in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. However his sentence was commuted in July of 2020 by then-President Trump.

Also questioned this week by the Jan. 6 committee were Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lawrence, two activists involved in planning the rallies in Washington ahead of the riot.

In an interview with CNN, Stockton said “the buck’s got to stop at President Trump” and that he “knew better” than to rally supporters about the election results and encourage them to march on the Capitol.

Other witnesses, including Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich had their sessions postponed as they “engage” with the committee over subpoenas for records and testimony, the committee said.

On Thursday, the committee subpoenaed Phil Waldron, a retired colonel linked to a controversial 36-page PowerPoint presentation titled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 Jan,” that was prepared prior to Jan. 6.

A 38-page presentation with the same title that is available online includes several proposals for challenging and overturning the election results, including recommendations to declare a “national security emergency” or declare all electronic ballots “invalid.”

The document also recommends that Vice President Mike Pence, who presided over the certification of electoral votes on Jan. 6, reject electors from states “where fraud occurred,” and that he recognize alternate electors sent to Washington by GOP legislators, or that he delay the certification of the election.

A committee aide declined to comment on the document, which the committee obtained from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, including whether it resembled the presentation with the same name available online.

The committee has issued more than 50 subpoenas and conducted more than 300 interviews as part of its inquiry, and is expected to begin “weeks” of hearings in the new year, according to committee members.

McConnell to survey tornado damage in Kentucky

December 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to travel throughout Western Kentucky on Friday and Saturday to meet with local leaders and residents in the storm-ravaged state he’s represented in Congress for 36 years.

“It is still difficult to comprehend the vast scope of this storm,” McConnell said on the Senate floor earlier this week. “This is the worst storm to hit Kentucky in my lifetime.”

McConnell is expected to meet with volunteers and speak to reporters in Bowling Green on Friday before traveling Saturday to Madisonville and two of the hardest-hit areas — Dawson Springs and Mayfield — where President Joe Biden also surveyed storm damage this week.

The Republican leader’s trip comes two days after Biden’s, whose efforts in Kentucky McConnell has praised — a rare bipartisan gesture from the conservative leader.

“Kentucky’s congressional delegation came together to send multiple letters to the president in support of disaster relief. In response, President Biden cut through the red tape to approve our request at an accelerated pace, providing the rapid support we need to recover,” McConnell said on Monday.

In an interview with a Kentucky Spectrum news reporter ahead of heading home, McConnell applauded officials he says “got on the ground very quickly” — but also offered praise for another group that many Republicans have maligned.

Asked about the House select committee’s ongoing investigation into the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, McConnell said he’s watching it play out.

“It was a horrendous event, and I think what they are seeking to find out is something the public needs to know,” said McConnell, whose condemnation of the attempted coup has drawn the ire of former President Donald Trump.

Biden’s supporters have touted his response as a significant change from that of his predecessor, whose administration put up bureaucratic obstacles that stalled billions in hurricane relief to Puerto Rico, according to an Inspector General report. Trump also suggested that increased federal funding to states hurting early on from the impact of coronavirus was unfair to Republicans, “because all the states that need help — they’re run by Democrats in every case.”

“I don’t think the Republicans want to be in a position where they bail out states that are, that have been mismanaged over a long period of time,” Trump said last May.

Biden, having already approved a major disaster declaration for the state, announced during his visit to Kentucky that the federal government would boost its support to cover 100% of the disaster recovery there for the next 30 days, from debris cleanup to paying overtime for first responders.

Rep. James Comer — who represents Kentucky’s 1st District — was the only congressional Republican to accompany Biden on his visit to the area, which heavily leans Republican, though McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., were invited to travel with the president, according to the White House. The two Kentucky senators were in Washington on Wednesday for votes, and Paul surveyed storm damage in Bowling Green on Sunday.

“There’s no red tornadoes or blue tornadoes,” Biden said during his visit where he recommitted federal support. “There’s no red states or blue states when this stuff starts to happen. And I think, at least in my experience, it either brings people together or really knocks them apart.”

For many families, federal aid can’t come soon enough.

At least 77 people were killed in Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear said Friday, in deadly storms that spanned across five states.

Officials predict the death toll will rise.

Kim Potter trial updates: Potter testifies in her own defense

December 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The trial of former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter charged in the death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was fatally shot during a traffic stop, continues with Potter taking the stand to testify in her own defense.

Potter, 49, is charged with first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 incident. She has 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, it’s 10 years and a $20,000 fine.

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.

Dec 17, 1:23 pm
Prosecution questions Kim Potter on training

Kim Potters was asked about the department’s Taser policy, which she said states “that all training should include performing reaction hand draws or cross draws to reduce the possibility of accidentally drawing and firing a firearm.”

She also maintained that she received extensive use of force training.

“Part of the reason for that is weapons confusion, right?” the prosecution asked.

“Yes,” Potter replied.

“And that was known in the field and has been known for a number of years,” the prosecution continued.

“We talked about it,” Potter said.

Potter wore her Taser on her left side and her firearm on her right side, according to her testimony. She said it’s been like this since 2016.

She said she has never deployed her Taser but has pulled it out for de-escalation purposes.

Dec 17, 1:06 pm
Potter describes fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright

Kim Potter was emotional on the witness stand as she described the fatal traffic stop. She shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright, who was being arrested by officers and attempted to flee.

“I remember a struggle with Officer [Anthony] Luckey and the driver at the door,” Potter testified. “The driver was trying to get back into the car … I went around Officer Luckey as they’re trying to get back in the door.”

She added, “They’re still struggling and I can see Officer Johnson and the drivers struggling over the gearshifts because I can see Johnson’s hand and then I can see his face.”

She then described Sgt. Mychal Johnson, who was holding Wright from the passenger side of the car.

“He had a look of fear on his face — nothing I’d seen before,” she said. “We’re trying to keep him from driving away. It just went chaotic. And then I remember yelling, ‘Taser, Taser, Taser,’ and nothing happened and then [Wright] told me I shot him.”

Dec 17, 12:57 pm
Kim Potter on why she pulled over Wright

Kim Potter said she would not have stopped Wright over the air freshener nor the expired registration tabs if she were not field training.

“An air freshener, to me, is not just an equipment violation,” she testified. “The COVID times, the high COVID times, the Department of Motor Vehicles was so offline that people weren’t getting tabs and we were advised not to try to enforce a lot of those things because the tabs were just not in circulation. Part of field training is that my probationer would make numerous contacts with the public throughout the day,” she said, regarding Officer Anthony Luckey, who she was training at the time.

She said that traffic stops can be dangerous for police officers.

“Sometimes there’s guns in the car,” she testified. “Sometimes there’s uncooperative people, you don’t know who you’re stopping.”

Dec 17, 12:33 pm
Potter says she likely never deployed her Taser

Kim Potter said she rarely took her Taser out and doesn’t believe she ever deployed it.

She testified that she sometimes took her Taser out to de-escalate a situation “or to prepare for what might be behind the door. Sometimes an officer has a gun and sometimes an officer has a Taser out.”

She said she received her new Taser almost a month before the fatal killing of Daunte Wright. She also said the training she had at the department was focused more on firearms than on Tasers.

Dec 17, 1:02 pm
Potter talks about her experience as a field training officer

Kim Potter was asked about her background with the Brooklyn Center Police Department. She was hired in 1995, making her a 26-year veteran of the department.

She was a field training officer for at least 10 years, she testified.

She said she was a field training officer because she “felt that I had knowledge and mentorship that I could help young officers develop into somebody I would want to work and my partners would want to work with.”

She was serving as a field training officer when she fatally shot Wright.

She was also on the domestic abuse response team, serving as a crisis negotiator within the domestic abuse program.

“Officers would go out on domestic abuse situations or domestic calls and if there was a victim of a crime or an arrest made — or not an arrest made — we would follow up the next day with the victims to see that they were getting the things they needed like domestic advocates, walking them through getting order for protections that they had questions, and then helping them, and checking in with them through the court process,” she testified.

As a crisis negotiator, Potter said she would respond to calls where people may be in danger to negotiate with the subject and get them to submit to being arrested.

She had also worked in crime prevention work and said she received a Taser and firearm training.

Dec 17, 1:04 pm
Kim Potter takes the stand

Kim Potter is testifying in her own defense about the April 11, 2021, events that led to the death of Daunte Wright, who she shot and killed during a traffic stop. She is charged with first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter. The defense said Potter meant to use her Taser on Wright but instead grabbed her firearm when she shot him in the driver’s seat of his car, a mistake her lawyers call an “action error.”

The defense has maintained that Potter was within her rights to use deadly force on Wright since he could have hurt or killed another officer with his car.

Dec 09, 3:09 am
Minnesota governor prepares National Guard ‘out of an abundance of caution’

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced that he is preparing the Minnesota National Guard to provide public safety assistance if necessary during Kim Potter’s trial, as requested by Hennepin County and the city of Brooklyn Center.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we are prepared to ask members of the Minnesota National Guard to be available to support local law enforcement with the mission of allowing for peaceful demonstrations, keeping the peace, and ensuring public safety,” Walz said in a statement Wednesday evening.

A press release from Walz’s press office stated that, “at this time, the Minnesota National Guard will not be proactively assuming posts throughout the Twin Cities.” Guard members will only operate in support of local law enforcement “should they be needed,” according to the press release.

Dec 08, 6:49 pm
New body-cam footage shows Potter moments after shooting Wright

New body-worn camera footage played in the courtroom while the prosecution questioned Brooklyn Center officer Anthony Luckey showed the moments after Kim Potter shot Daunte Wright.

In the video, taken from Luckey’s body-worn camera, Potter can be seen falling to the curb.

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” she said, before hyperventilating for several minutes with her face buried in the grass.

Luckey’s and Sgt. Mychal Johnson’s arms can be seen reaching down to Potter.

“Just breathe,” Luckey can be heard saying.

“I’m going to go to prison,” Potter said.

“No, you’re not,” Luckey said.

“Kim, that guy was trying to take off with me in the car!” Johnson said in the video.

Potter then sat up on the grass and repeatedly said, “Oh my God,” as her colleagues waved traffic by and discussed shutting down the street.

Court has wrapped for the day and will resume at 9 a.m. local time Thursday.

-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik

Dec 08, 5:57 pm
Brooklyn Center officer recounts fatal shot that killed Daunte Wright

Brooklyn Center officer Anthony Luckey said during his testimony that he was to the right of Kim Potter when she fatally shot Daunte Wright.

He said he was holding on to Wright when he heard Potter yell “Taser,” several times.

“It was pretty much some intense thing when it happened,” Luckey said. “When she yelled, ‘Taser, Taser,’ that’s when I went back into the vehicle, realized that she said ‘Taser, Taser’ and right when I pulled back, that’s when the round went off.”

Then, he said he saw the flash of a gun and heard the bang. He said he was hit with a projectile.

Luckey said he did not know whose gun had gone off initially, but said he knew it wasn’t a shot fired by Wright.

“I just knew that it wasn’t Daunte’s because I was able to see his hands,” Luckey said.

DHS recommends schools ‘remain alert’ amid unfounded threats on TikTok

December 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The Department of Homeland Security is urging schools to stay vigilant Friday amid unfounded threats of violence spreading on social media.

“DHS is aware of public reporting that suggests possible threats to schools on December 17, 2021,” the agency tweeted Friday morning. “DHS does not have any information indicating any specific, credible threats to schools but recommends communities remain alert.”

In New York City, the NYPD said Thursday the department was aware of “posts circulating on TikTok concerning a potential school shooting on Friday,” but there was “no credible information to suggest this threat is specific to any school in New York City.”

The NYPD said it was sending extra resources to NYC schools as a precaution.

Other schools have closed due to the threats. In Wisconsin, the Platteville School District said it canceled school Friday due to a potential threat of violence.

In California, the Los Angeles Unified School District said classes will be in session Friday despite the threats.

“There is no reason to believe our schools are in any danger,” the district said Thursday.

Santa Monica police said they’ll be highly visible at schools Friday even though there aren’t specific threats.

The FBI’s Los Angeles field office said, “While we continue to monitor intelligence, we are not aware of any specific threats or known credible threats to schools in the Los Angeles region at this time.”

TikTok said it’s “working with law enforcement to look into warnings about potential violence at schools even though we have not found evidence of such threats originating or spreading via TikTok.”

The DHS said it’ll continue to monitor the threats and asked people to report suspicious activity to law enforcement.

ABC News’ Josh Margolin, Luke Barr and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

Australia mourns 5 ‘angels’ killed in bouncy castle accident

December 17, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Australia is coming together as a nation following Thursday’s bouncy castle tragedy in which five children were killed.

A gust of wind lifted the castle into the air, causing several children at the Devonport school in north Tasmania to fall from about a height of about 32 feet.

Police identified the victims as 11-year-old Addison Stewart and 12-year-olds Peter Dodt, Zane Mellor, Jye Sheehan, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones and Jye Sheehan.

Three other children are still in critical condition, while one child who was injured has been discharged from hospital.

There are still more questions than answers over what happened. Police said they would be investigating whether the bouncy castle was properly tethered to the ground.

“There’s no doubt this incident will leave its mark and I know people are sending their thoughts and prayers from right across the country and even further afield,” Tasmania Police Commissioner Darren Hine said.

He added, “Tasmanians are already coming together to support each other at this very difficult time.”

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave his deepest sympathies to families and the people of Devonport, a city of fewer than 30,000 people.

“This is a tight-knit community,” Morrison said. “There would be few people, if any, in Devonport, that would haven’t had a connection to one of those families, to that school, to the first responders those impacted by this terrible, terrible tragedy.”

Hillcrest Primary School posted a message on Facebook on Friday, saying that “no words can truly express how we are all feeling” and advising anyone struggling with what happened to seek counseling.

Hundreds of flowers, soft toys and cards have been left at the entrance of the school, with one note saying: “May you five angels be surrounded by sunshine.” A candlelight vigil has been held and Christmas lights were switched off in honor of the young victims.

An online crowdfunding page for the victims’ families has raised more than $740,000.

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