(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Wednesday asked all 18 of former President Donald Trump’s appointees to the boards of the nation’s military academies, including former adviser Kellyanne Conway, press secretary Sean Spicer and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, to resign by Wednesday evening or be dismissed.
Trump had filled some of the positions at West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy, in the final couple months of his presidency. They come with three-year terms, which President Joe Biden is cutting short.
A White House official confirmed the White House sent letters out today and that the appointees had until 6:00 p.m. to resign, or they would be terminated.
The boards of visitors are like boards of trustees who oversee affairs at a university; the president can appoint six people to each, while Congress appoints the rest.
Several of Trump’s appointees were highly political and controversial, and some pushed back on Twitter.
The former director of the White House budget office, Russ Vought, appointed to the board of the Naval Academy, posted the letter he received on Twitter, with the caption, “No. It’s a three year term.”
Spicer, appointed to the Naval Academy as well, tweeted his letter, too, suggesting Biden should focus on Afghanistan.
Conway, meanwhile, appointed to the board of the Air Force Academy, said Biden should resign instead — then suggested she was kidding.
“I will let others evaluate whether they think Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified or not political, to serve on these boards,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. “But the president’s qualification requirements are not your party registration. They are whether you’re qualified to serve and whether you are aligned with the values of this administration.”
Biden wanted “nominees and people serving on these boards who are qualified to serve on them and who are aligned with [his] values,” Psaki said.
Among others being asked to resign are those Trump appointed to the board of the U.S. Military Academy, McMaster and former Gen. Jack Keane, who often appears on Fox News.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — With six days to go until ballots are due, Vice President Kamala Harris returned to the Bay Area Wednesday afternoon to stump for Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom ahead of Tuesday’s recall election.
Newsom is facing a two-part question on next week’s recall ballot: whether voters would like to recall him and who they would like to replace him with.
Harris, who appeared with Newsom before President Joe Biden is set to do so next week, told the crowd at a rally with union workers that helping get out the vote for the governor was a priority.
“I came home for one purpose, it was really important for me to come home to stand and speak in support of my dear friend,” she said.
“We want our leaders in California to have a vision of what is possible, to see the opportunity of a moment to inspire and uplift all people. That’s what the people of California have always wanted. And that’s why the Republicans’ recall will fail,” Harris continued.
Harris is the latest big-name Democrat to stump for Newsom. Shortly before the rally his campaign began airing an ad featuring former President Barack Obama, who encouraged Californians to vote against the recall. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have also appeared on the air in support of Newsom, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., rallied with him to get out the vote earlier this month.
Newsom has come under fire from critics and recall hopefuls for his response to the coronavirus pandemic, including recent vaccine and mask mandates in some public settings across the state.
Harris lauded his decision making when it came to the pandemic.
“Gavin stepped up to the moment. Over 22 million Californians have been vaccinated because of the programs that he led and put in place, because he was not afraid. He didn’t say, “This problem is too big for me.’ He didn’t say ‘My state is too big for me.’ No, and he led with courage,” she said.
Newsom and other Democrats have attempted to nationalize the race by highlighting the thin margins in the Senate — and what could happen if a Republican governor is able to make an appointment should Sen. Diane Feinstein’s seat become open.
“What’s happening in Texas, what’s happening in Georgia, what’s happening around our country with these policies that are about attacking women’s rights, reproductive rights, voting rights, workers rights, they think if they can win in California they can do this anywhere, but we’re gonna show them they can’t,” Harris said Wednesday.
So far, according to data collected by Political Data Inc., a firm that works with campaigns in California, 29% of California’s 22 million active voters, who all received ballots in the mail, have returned them. Based solely on partisan breakdown of ballot returns, Democrats and Republicans are returning ballots at similar paces, 33% and 30%, respectively, although the number of Democratic voters in the state is nearly double that of Republicans.
Newsom, during his remarks introducing Harris, painted Larry Elder — the controversial recall candidate who said he believes the minimum wage should be $0 and that women are not as smart as men — as the type of governor Californians should expect if the recall passes and pointed to the risks he believes the state would be in if Elder were to be his successor.
“He said the first thing he’ll do after he gets sworn in — he said the first thing he’ll do before his first cup of tea — is he will sign an executive order, eliminating mask wearing for our kids in public schools and eliminating vaccine verification for health care workers. Consider the consequences of that,” Newsom said.
Although many voters said they are still undecided on who they’d choose as a replacement, Elder, a nationally syndicated conservative radio host, leads most public polling of the recall field.
Newsom also referenced the balance of power in Washington if Elder had been governor last year and appointed a Republican to fill Harris’ seat.
“Would there have been that last stimulus? Would there be Majority Leader Chuck Schumer? Think of the consequences, California. That’s what’s at stake … you have the opportunity to determine the fate and future of this state. And I would argue impact the fate and future of the United States of America. This is a consequential election,” he said.
Every voter in California was mailed a ballot for this election, so there is less pressure on Newsom when it comes to cultivating high turnout in order to defeat the recall. The latest poll from the Public Policy Institute of California released last week showed 58% of Californians opposing the recall.
In that poll, 49% of respondents said that they either will not vote on the second question to choose a replacement candidate or they do not yet know who they’d like to pick.
Newsom also nodded to former President Donald Trump’s grip on the Republican Party and the lies about a stolen election that have turned into a platform for many in the GOP.
“What a remarkable moment it is in American history. But we have a chance, and an opportunity, to make history of our own here in the state of California. By rejecting that — well, that cynicism, rejecting that fear, by rejecting that kind of dismissiveness. California, we are better than that, we have the opportunity by voting no on this recall. We’re better than that,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 650,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 62.3% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 08, 6:45 pm
Kentucky reaches record number of hospitalizations
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced new grim COVID-19 data and said the state has reached a record high positivity rate of 14.1%, and a hospitalization rate of 2,424.
There are 674 residents in ICUs, Beshear said.
In the last 24 hours, 4,468 newly coronavirus cases and 30 new deaths, including that of a young teen, were reported, according to the governor.
“No matter what age you are, this thing is deadly and it’s out there. You need to get vaccinated and you need to wear your mask,” he wrote on Twitter.
Today I am sad to share another tough report in our battle with COVID-19. For Wednesday I am announcing 4,468 newly reported cases and 30 new deaths, including a 15-year-old from Shelby County. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/jMOWZtcT6B
Nearly 94% of all NFL players and 99% of the league’s football-related staff members are at least partially vaccinated, ESPN reported Wednesday.
The season begins Thursday night with a match between the Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The league has mandated that coaches and staff be vaccinated and has been going back and forth with the NFL Players Association about a requirement for players.
Currently, unvaccinated players are being tested daily and required to follow a series of protocols, while those fully vaccinated are tested once a week. Still, the NFL Players Association has now demanded all players be tested daily, regardless of their vaccination status.
Sep 08, 3:53 pm
Biden to lay out next steps on testing, vaccine requirements, school safety
President Joe Biden will lay out a six-prong strategy to combat the delta variant on Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
“He’s going to outline the next phase in the fight against the virus and what that looks like, including measures to work with the public and private sector, building on the steps that we’ve already announced, the steps we’ve taken over the last few months, requiring more vaccinations, boosting important testing measures and more, making it safer for kids to go to school,” Psaki said Wednesday.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Sep 08, 2:38 pm
Over 95% of US counties reporting high community transmission
More than 95% of U.S. counties are now reporting high community transmission, the highest level since CDC tracking began, according to federal data.
The average daily case rate (per 100,000) is now higher among children ages 5 to 17 than all adult age groups.
Death rates are continuing to surge with about 1,000 Americans dying from COVID-19 each day, according to federal data.
Americans between the ages of 18 and 49 made up about one-third — 34.4% — of the patients hospitalized as of Aug. 28.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Sep 08, 2:32 pm
Over 95% of US counties reporting high community transmission
More than 95% of U.S. counties are now reporting high community transmission, the highest level since CDC tracking began, according to federal data.
The average daily case rate (per 100,000) is now higher among children ages 5 to 17 than all adult age groups.
Death rates are continuing to surge with about 1,000 Americans dying from COVID-19 each day, according to federal data.
Americans between the ages of 18 and 49 made up about one-third — 34.4% — of the patients hospitalized as of Aug. 28.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Sep 08, 1:30 pm
Fauci: 3rd shot likely going to become standard regimen
In an interview with the podcast “In the Bubble,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told former White House adviser Andy Slavitt that he predicts three doses will become the standard dosing regimen for COVID-19 vaccines going forward.
Fauci cited new data from Israel that vaccine protection against hospitalization dropped in recent months from some 97% to 77% or 78%.
The vaccines still provide extraordinary protection, but the combination of the delta variant and waning immunity with time are causes for concern, he said.
Fauci added that that he thinks it will probably be the end of 2022 or early 2023 before much of the world is vaccinated.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Sep 08, 1:06 pm
Kentucky hospitals on brink of rationing care: Governor
Kentucky is “quickly approaching that point” where hospitals will need to start rationing care, Gov. Andy Beshear warned on CNN.
Over two-thirds of Kentucky’s hospitals have critical staffing shortages, the governor said. FEMA and National Guard teams have been called in and nursing students have been deployed across the state, he said.
“We’ve got one hospital in Morehead called St. Clair that’s closed three operating rooms to expand ICU bed space,” he said. “We had a hospital in Danville, Kentucky, that’s not used to treating really sick patients, that had a morgue for two — and had seven individuals pass away in their hospital over one weekend.”
“We’ve set up tents outside Pikeville Medical Center to triage whether people really need to be in the hospital or not,” Beshear continued. “We’re in a very precarious situation.”
-ABC News’ Brian Hartman
Sep 08, 11:09 am
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade participants must be vaccinated
All participants in this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade must be vaccinated and wear face coverings, the department store announced Wednesday. Singers, dancers and musicians may be exempt from wearing face masks.
The number of participants will see a 10 to 20% cut this year and social distancing will be followed, Macy’s added.
Last year, much of the parade was pre-taped due to the pandemic. There were no high school band performances and limited spectators on the street.
The marching band and other specialty group performances that were initially set to perform last year will get to participate in this Thanksgiving’s parade, Macy’s said.
Sep 08, 10:40 am
Supreme Court to resume in-person oral arguments
The Supreme Court will resume in-person oral arguments on Oct. 4 for the first time since the pandemic began.
All arguments will be in person from Oct. 4 through the rest of the year. The courtroom will only have staff, counsel of cases on the docket and hard-pass court reporters there in person, with the court staying closed to the general public.
The court says it will continue to offer a real-time live audio feed of arguments.
-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer
Sep 08, 10:03 am
Only 20% of people in low, lower-middle-income countries have had 1st vaccine dose
Just 20% of people in low and lower-middle-income countries have received their first vaccine dose, compared to 80% of people in high and upper-middle income countries, according to the World Health Organization and COVAX, the initiative aiming to provide equitable vaccine access across the world.
“The global picture of access to COVID-19 vaccines is unacceptable,” COVAX said, adding that its ability to reach lower income countries is “hampered by export bans, the prioritisation of bilateral deals by manufacturers and countries, ongoing challenges in scaling up production by some key producers, and delays in filing for regulatory approval.”
COVAX said it expects to have access to 1.425 billion doses of vaccine this year, with about 1.2 billion available for lower income economies participating in COVAX’s Advance Market Commitment.
“This is enough to protect 20% of the population, or 40% of all adults, in all 92 AMC economies with the exception of India. Over 200 million doses will be allocated to self-financing participants,” COVAX said. “The key COVAX milestone of two billion doses released for delivery is now expected to be reached in the first quarter of 2022.”
Sep 08, 6:02 am
US surpasses 40 million cases and 650,000 deaths
The United States has recorded more than 40 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 650,000 deaths from the disease since the start of the pandemic, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. surpassed the grim milestones on Tuesday, as the highly contagious delta variant continued to spread across the nation. The U.S. has reported more COVID-19 cases and deaths than any other country in the world.
Sep 07, 9:56 pm
Pediatric cases reach highest point of pandemic
The U.S. reported 251,781 COVID-19 cases among kids during the week ending Sept. 2 — the highest week of pediatric cases since the pandemic began, according to the weekly report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
After declining in the early summer, new cases among kids are rising “exponentially,” the organizations wrote, with the weekly figure now standing nearly 300 times higher than it was in June, when just 8,400 pediatric cases were reported over the span of one week.
Last week children represented 26.8% of all reported COVID-19 cases. Regionally, the South had the highest number pediatric cases, accounting for approximately 140,000 of last week’s cases.
The rate of pediatric hospital admissions per 100,000 people is also at one of its highest points of the pandemic, up by 600% since the 4th of July, according to federal data.
Severe illness due to COVID-19 remains “uncommon” among children, the two organizations wrote in the report. According to the nearly two dozen states which reported pediatric hospitalizations, 0.1%-1.9% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in hospitalization. Similarly, in states which reported virus-related deaths by age, 0.00%-0.03% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in death.
However, the AAP and CHA warned that there is an urgent need to collect more data on the long-term consequences of the pandemic on children, “including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects.”
About 37.7% of children ages 12 to 15 and 46.4% of adolescents ages 16 to 17 have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Sep 07, 9:50 pm
About 1 in every 500 Americans has died from COVID
The country’s daily death average continues to surge, now standing at more than 1,100 deaths reported a day. This marks the nation’s highest average in nearly six months.
On Tuesday, the death toll crossed 650,000 Americans lost to the virus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, meaning that 1 in every 504 Americans has died from the virus.
The U.S. COVID death toll is now more than 218 times higher than the number of lives lost during the U.S. attacks on Sept. 11. It is also rapidly approaching the total number of American deaths that were recorded during the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Prior to the Labor Day holiday, the U.S. daily case average stood around 150,000 cases a day. About a year ago, around Labor Day, the country was averaging about 38,000 new cases a day.
Sep 07, 6:36 pm
Tucson pauses vaccine mandate for city employees following AG legal threat
Tucson, Arizona, officials announced a pause on the city’s policy to require its public employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine after Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich called it illegal and threatened to cut funding if the city went through with the plan.
Tuscon City Manager Michael Ortega said in a statement the city council is evaluating the mandate’s legal position.
“Until we have a better understanding of our legal position in relation to today’s report, I have instructed staff to pause on the implementation of the policy,” he said.
Brnovich said Tuscon’s rule violated Gov. Doug Ducey’s July executive order that banned any state or local office from requiring their staff get a vaccine against the coronavirus or any vaccine that has only received an emergency order.
“COVID-19 vaccinations should be a choice, not a government mandate,” he said in a statement.
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said in a statement that the attorney general was “prioritizing his political ambitions over his responsibility to objectively interpret the law.”
As of Tuesday, over 606,000 residents in Pima County, Arizona, the county that includes Tucson, have had one COVID-19 shot, according to the Pima County Health Department. That represents roughly 56.7% of the county’s 1.07 million population, according to the U.S. Census numbers.
The county has recorded more than 4,000 new cases since Aug. 5, according to health department data.
Sep 07, 5:57 pm
Idaho hospital officials plead with public to get vaccinated as they run out of beds
Idaho hospital officials are pleading for the public to get vaccinated and take COVID-19 warnings seriously after the state declared a crisis in its standards of care.
Kootenai Health, a northern Idaho hospital, currently has 113 patients with COVID-19, an increase from the 90 patients they had last week, officials said. Administrators had to set up 22 beds in a conference room to deal with the influx of patients.
Dr. Robert Scoggins the chief of staff at Kootenai Health, said the hospital was not built for a pandemic this size. Currently, 39 patients are in the intensive care units and 19 are on ventilators, all on high levels of oxygen, he said.
The hospital said it could see as many as 140 patients in the coming weeks.
“The message that I’d like to send out to people is that we’re near the limit that we can handle in this facility,” Scoggins said in a news conference. “We’ve done a lot of things to expand our care to take care of more patients, but it keeps growing. If we had everyone in the community vaccinated, we would not be in this position.”
-ABC News’ Flor Tolentino and Nicholas Kerr
Sep 07, 4:00 pm
Louisiana hospital reports significant decline in number of patients
In hard-hit Louisiana, the Ochsner Health System is seeing a significant decline in COVID-19 patients, now down to 530 — dropping by nearly 250 patients in the last week, hospital CEO and president Warner Thomas said.
But in the wake of deadly Hurricane Ida, releasing patients from hospitals has been difficult, as some patients have no homes to return to, he said.
Sep 07, 3:30 pm
Oregon hospitals ‘scrambling’ with cases, hospitalizations ‘hovering at or near pandemic highs’
Hospitals in Oregon are “scrambling” to stay afloat with cases and hospitalizations “hovering at or near pandemic highs,” the state epidemiologist, Dean Sidelinger, said at COVID-19 briefing Tuesday.
Oregon saw 16,252 new cases in its most recent weekly report – which is 13 times higher than the reported cases for the week ending July 4, Sidelinger said.
Hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions are “alarmingly high” and hospitals are at a “saturation point” where they aren’t “able to provide care to everyone arriving at their door,” Sidelinger warned.
Sep 07, 3:08 pm
Former NBA player on 10th day in ICU
Former Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers player Cedric Ceballos, 52, tweeted that he’s on his 10th day in the ICU battling COVID-19.
On my 10th day in ICU, COVID-19 is officially kicking my but, I am asking ALL family, friends , prayer warriors healers for your prayers and well wish for my recovery.
If I have done and anything to you in the past , allow me to publicly apologize.
My fight is not done…..
Thx pic.twitter.com/r9QZBpfmEI
Military medical personnel head to Idaho, Arkansas, Alabama
About 60 military medical personnel are heading in three, 20-person teams to Arkansas, Alabama and Idaho to help treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients following a request from FEMA, the U.S. Army North said.
The personnel, including doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists, were sent to hospitals in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Ozark, Alabama; and Little Rock, Arkansas.
Six teams had previously been dispatched to six other hospitals: three in Louisiana, two in Mississippi and one in Dothan, Alabama.
Sep 07, 1:43 pm
Crisis Standards of Care enacted as ‘last resort’ at 10 Idaho hospital systems
A Crisis Standards of Care plan has been enacted at 10 hospital systems in Idaho, which is only done as a “last resort,” Dave Jeppesen, director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, said in a statement Tuesday.
The hospitals were chosen due to their “severe” shortages in beds and staffing as a result of a “massive increase” in COVID-19 hospitalizations, state officials said.
Crisis Standards of Care “means we have exhausted our resources to the point that our healthcare systems are unable to provide the treatment and care we expect,” Jeppesen said. “This is a decision I was fervently hoping to avoid.”
“When crisis standards of care are in effect, people who need medical care may experience care that is different from what they expect,” state officials said. “For example, patients admitted to the hospital may find that hospital beds are not available or are in repurposed rooms (such as a conference room) or that needed equipment is not available.”
Sep 07, 12:37 pm
75% of American adults have had at least 1 vaccine dose
Seventy-five percent of U.S. adults have now had at least one vaccine dose, Cyrus Shahpar, the White House’s COVID-19 data director, tweeted Tuesday.
Sunday-Tuesday just in: +1.51M doses reported administered over Saturday’s total, including 681K newly vaccinated and 105K additional doses. As usual, lower reporting over the holiday weekend. Just hit 75% of adults with at least one dose!
Sixty-four percent of U.S. adults are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.
Sep 07, 10:36 am
Biden to layout administration’s strategy to combat delta
President Joe Biden on Thursday will deliver remarks on his plan to stop the spread of the delta variant and to boost vaccinations, the White House confirmed Tuesday.
Biden “will lay out a six-pronged strategy … working across the public and private sectors,” a White House official said.
On Friday, while addressing August’s disappointing jobs report, Biden said, “there’s no question the delta variant is why today’s jobs report isn’t stronger. … Next week, I’ll lay out the next steps that are going to — we’re going to need to combat the delta variant, to address some of those fears and concerns.”
Part of the strategy Biden referenced Friday is to ask states and local governments to consider using federal funding to extend unemployment benefits in hard-hit areas.
“I want to talk about how we’ll further protect our schools, our businesses, our economy, and our families from the threat of delta,” Biden said Friday. “As we continue to fight the delta variant, the American Rescue Plan we passed continues to support families, businesses and communities. Even as some of the benefits that were provided are set to expire next week, states have the option to extend those benefits and the federal resources from the Rescue Plan to do so.”
Sep 07, 7:05 am
3rd person dies in Japan after receiving contaminated Moderna vaccine
A third person has died in Japan after receiving a dose from one of three batches of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine that have since been recalled due to contamination, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
The 49-year-old man died on Aug. 12, one day after getting his second shot of the two-dose vaccine. His only known health issue was an allergy to buckwheat, the Japanese health ministry said in a statement Monday.
Two other men, aged 30 and 38, also died in August within days of getting their second Moderna shot. In all three cases, the men received doses from a batch manufactured in the same production line as another lot from which some unused vials were reported to contain foreign substances at multiple inoculation sites in Japan.
The deaths remain under investigation, and the Japanese health ministry said it has yet to establish any casual relationship with the vaccine.
The contaminated lot and two adjacent batches were suspended from use by the Japanese health ministry last month, pending an investigation. Moderna and its Japanese distribution partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. ultimately recalled the three lots, containing about 1.63 million doses, after an investigation confirmed the foreign matter to be high-grade stainless steel from manufacturing equipment.
The Japanese health ministry said that, based on the companies’ analysis, it is unlikely the stainless steel contaminants pose any additional health risk.
Moderna and Takeda have yet to release statements on the third fatality, but the companies have previously said there is currently no evidence that the other two deaths were caused by the vaccine.
(NEW ORLEANS, La.) — The nation is still grappling with the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, which made landfall Aug. 29 and knocked out power to more than 1 million customers in Louisiana.
At least 82 people have died due to the storm — which hit Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane — as well as the devastation it left across eight states.
In Louisiana, 26 have died due to the storm’s wrath. The Louisiana Health Department confirmed two more storm-related deaths Tuesday in St. Tammany Parish: a 68-year-old man who fell off a roof while making repairs to damage caused by Ida and a 71-year-old man who died due to a lack of oxygen during an extended power outage. On Wednesday, they announced an additional 11 deaths, all in Orleans Parish and nine from heat-related illness due to power outages. The two others died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
In the Northeast, at least 52 have died. The Harrison Police Department in Westchester County, New York, confirmed on Monday the recovery of a woman’s body who went missing during last week’s flooding.
President Joe Biden surveyed the damage of Ida’s remnants in New York and New Jersey on Tuesday.
Biden said that amid the storm’s destruction, there was also an “opportunity” to open the country’s eyes and get people to heed the urgent warnings from scientists, adding, “I think we’ve all seen –even the climate skeptics are seeing — that this really does matter.”
Biden has touted the extreme weather as a critical reason why Congress should pass his infrastructure package.
Recovery efforts continue in the South, where 70% of the 948,000 Entergy utility customers who lost power finally had it restored, the company said Wednesday.
In Louisiana, 301,000 customers remained with outages Wednesday evening, and in New Orleans, 83% of customers who lost power had it restored and 35,000 customers remain in the dark, Entergy said. On Wednesday evening, Entergy said it hoped to have 90% of customers in New Orleans back on line that night.
A team of 26,000 workers is restoring downed and damaged power lines. However, some hard-hit areas, including Lafourche Parish and Plaquemines Parish aren’t forecast to have power restored until Sept. 29, according to the company’s estimation.
In Louisiana and Mississippi, 30,679 poles, 36,469 spans of wire and 5,959 transformers were damaged or destroyed — that’s more than Katrina, Ike, Delta and Zeta combined.
Access to water remains a major problem in the state, with boil water advisories still in place in the parishes of Jefferson, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. Tammany, St. John the Baptist, Plaquemines and Tangipahoa.
Tuesday marked the last day for locals to evacuate to Ida shelters in northern Louisiana.
About 14,000 people in Lafourche Parish were left homeless after Ida razed through and destroyed 75% of the structures there.
“We are working feverishly, as hard as we can to get all people what they need to keep their lives going and to rebuild our community,” Lafourche Parish President Archie Chaisson said to CNN on Monday.
Nursing home deaths are also a mounting concern in the state.
Among those who died in Louisiana, seven were nursing home residents who were transferred to a warehouse in Independence in Tangipahoa Parish and later died. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has opened an investigation into the deaths. Only five of the seven deaths were confirmed by the state to be storm-related.
The Louisiana Health Department is investigating nursing homes that transferred patients there and ordered all of them to shut down Saturday.
On Tuesday, officials announced they revoked the licenses for seven nursing homes that evacuated to the facility ahead of Ida. Those nursing homes were: River Palms Nursing and Rehab in Orleans Parish, South Lafourche Nursing and Rehab in Lafourche Parish, Maison Orleans Healthcare Center in Orleans Parish, Park Place Healthcare Nursing Home in Jefferson Parish, West Jefferson Health Care Center in Jefferson Parish, Maison De Ville Nursing Home in Terrebonne Parish, Maison Deville Nursing Home of Harvey in Jefferson Parish.
“Ultimately, lives were lost — these were grandparents, neighbors and friends, and we know families are hurting. We as a Department are taking formal regulatory action,” the LDH said in a statement.
On Saturday, during wellness checks at eight New Orleans facilities, five nursing home residents were found dead, the city said in a news release. None of those have been confirmed to be storm-related. In response, the city determined all eight facilities were “unfit” and evacuated nearly 600 residents to hospitals and shelters.
Also in Louisiana, at least four people have died and 141 were treated in hospitals for carbon monoxide poisoning in the wake of Ida, according to the Louisiana Department of Health, prompting officials to urge the public for safe generator use.
Officials advise placing generators at least 20 feet away from a home and assure all air entry points near the unit and home are properly sealed.
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The number of job openings hit a record high of 10.9 million on the last day of July, the Department of Labor said Wednesday, as businesses struggle to lure back workers in the wake of COVID-19’s shock to the economy.
The latest figure on job openings beats the record high of 10.1 million that was just set the previous month in June, but may not yet reflect the impact of the delta variant’s spread on the labor market. Still, the fresh data paints a complicated picture of economic recovery as job openings soar despite unemployment levels remaining elevated.
Job openings increased across the economy, with major increases in health care and social assistance, finance and insurance, as well as accommodation and food services, the DOL said.
In addition to job openings reaching a high, the number of people leaving their jobs is also at record high levels. The quits rate in July was 2.7%, the BLS said Wednesday, tying with June and April of 2021 for the highest on record.
Economists have attributed the recent labor crunch to lingering health concerns over the virus that may have some workers not wanting to return to the workplace, a child care crisis that has disproportionately impacted working women, as well as harder-to-quantify factors as many Americans reassess what they want from a job after living through a once-in-a-century pandemic that has left more than 600,000 Americans dead.
The unemployment rate in August was 5.2%, a reflection of major improvements in the labor market compared to before the vaccine rollout, but still above the pre-pandemic 3.5% seen in February 2020. Broken down further, employment has risen by some 17 million jobs since April 2020, but the economy is still down some 5.3 million jobs compared to February 2020.
Despite the unemployment rate remaining elevated, many firms have reported struggles hiring staff — which has resulted in average wages rising, especially among service industries or jobs requiring face-to-face contact. The average hourly earnings for workers in August was some $30.73.
The latest data from the DOL also comes as enhanced pandemic-era unemployment benefits expired this week for millions of Americans. Despite the rhetoric from many Republican lawmakers, however, data indicates that yanking pandemic unemployment benefits — as a handful of states have already done — did not contribute to job growth. Researchers at JPMorgan found “zero correlation” between job growth and state decisions to drop the federal unemployment aid, the Associated Press reported.
(AFGHANISTAN) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called on the Taliban to allow chartered aircraft to depart Afghanistan with Americans and Afghans ready to board, but said there were “limits” to what the U.S. can do to ensure they fly out.
For over a week now, the Taliban have not permitted at least six chartered flights to leave, saying some evacuees do not have the proper documents to depart. The standoff is turning dire for some passengers, with one aid group organizing a group of Afghan women and girls telling ABC News the situation is “uncontrolled” and “uncomfortable.”
The militant group, which has publicly said it will allow safe passage to foreigners trying to leave the country, unveiled an “interim” government on Tuesday that includes several top leaders already under U.S. and United Nations sanctions.
Blinken said the new Taliban cabinet “certainly does not meet the test of inclusivity,” but would only say its top members had “very challenging track records.”
The Biden administration has struggled to evacuate U.S. citizens and at-risk Afghan partners in the eight days since U.S. military and diplomatic personnel withdrew from the country, ending America’s 20 years of war in Afghanistan.
That includes for at least 19 U.S. citizens and hundreds of Afghans in the northern city Mazar-e-Sharif, where chartered aircraft have been waiting at the airport for over a week now, according to aid groups involved in organizing them.
“Those flights need to be able to leave and the United States government, the State Department – we are doing everything we can to help make that happen,” Blinken told reporters Wednesday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he met some of the thousands of Afghan refugees evacuated by the U.S.-led operation that ended on Aug. 30.
Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sunday that the flights were being held “hostage” as the Taliban demanded concessions from the U.S., while some advocates blamed the U.S. for not clearing the flights. Blinken said Wednesday there was “a fair amount of confusion” about the situation — with State Department officials saying the U.S. is not involved in approving landing or overflight rights and doing what it can to help the chartered flights get approvals.
“While there are limits to what we can do without personnel on the ground, without an airport with normal security procedures in place, we are doing everything in our power to support those flights and to get them off the ground. That’s what we’ve done, that’s what we’ll continue to do,” Blinken said alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
State Department officials said U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been sending urgent messages to the Taliban’s leadership to demand that they abide by their commitments on safe passage, and that the U.S. has so far no security concerns based on the manifests provided by advocacy groups.
But Marina LeGree, the founder and executive director of Ascend, a U.S.-based nonprofit seeking to empower Afghan women and girls through mountain climbing, blamed the State Department for standing in the way at times.
“We’ve given you all the details of these people and you cleared them and call them to come, and now you’re saying, ‘You have to have travel documents and don’t worry if you do, you get to go’? That’s a complete abdication of responsibility, and it’s just – it’s morally repugnant,” LeGree told ABC News Wednesday.
In total, there are more than 1,000 people now seeking a seat on these chartered flights, she added, complicating efforts to ensure Americans and vulnerable Afghans can safely evacuate first and degrading conditions at the airport itself where many have been waiting for days.
One hundred and ninety miles to the southeast, some conditions in Kabul are deteriorating as well. A top U.N. official said Wednesday her office is receiving daily reports of women’s rights being rolled back, including barring them from leaving home without a man or going to work.
“With the announcement yesterday, the Taliban have missed a critical opportunity to show the world that is truly committed to building an inclusive and prosperous society,” said Alison Davidian, the deputy representative in Afghanistan for U.N. Women, the global agency’s entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women.
That announcement is the formation of an “interim” government, led by Taliban commanders that played prominent roles in its previous government that ruled much of Afghanistan in the late 1990’s.
Instead of naming a woman to any position, the Taliban also dissolved the previous U.S.-backed government’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs and reinstated its Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which acted as a religious enforcement force.
Blinken said the U.S. was still “assessing the announcement,” but expressed concern that the list of ministers “consists exclusively of individuals who are members of the Taliban and their close associates and no women” and that some have ties to other terrorist organizations like al Qaeda and the Haqqani Network.
“It certainly does not meet the test of inclusivity,” he added, noting some individuals have “very challenging track records.”
Challenging is an understatement. Sirajuddin Haqqani, for example, has been put in charge of domestic affairs as acting Interior Minister. The leader of the sanctioned Haqqani Network, which is responsible for ruthless terror attacks across Afghanistan, he has a $10 million bounty on his head by the FBI.
Asked whether the U.S. government is still pursuing his capture, Blinken didn’t directly address the question – instead saying the U.S. will engage the Taliban “for purposes of advancing the national interests” of the U.S. and its allies and “in ways that are fully consistent with our laws,” including U.S. sanctions on the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and Haqqani himself and others.
As he and other U.S. officials have said repeatedly, Blinken reiterated that the U.S. will judge the new government “by its action.”
But he was pressed by an Afghan journalist Tuesday on that. After Taliban fighters have beaten female protesters and journalists covering demonstrations against them, shut down media outlets and raided homes, and more, TOLO News’s Lotfullah Najafizada asked Blinken, “What else do you want to see?”
“We will see by its actions whether it corrects course on any of these incidents of abusive conduct,” Blinken said.
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court is returning to its iconic courtroom in October to hear in-person oral arguments for the first time since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the justices to conduct business over the phone.
Oral arguments scheduled for the October, November and December sessions will be in the courtroom with access limited to essential court personnel, counsel and journalists, the court announced Wednesday.
The justices began meeting in person in April for private meetings to discuss cases, and all nine justices are fully vaccinated. But with the continuing coronavirus pandemic and a surge in cases due to the delta variant, the court will remain closed to the public.
While oral arguments have been held over the phone for the last year and a half, real-time oral arguments have been available to the media for broadcasting to the public. The court anticipates that won’t change with a return to in-person operations, according to the announcement.
That marks a major shift in the court’s transparency because prior to the pandemic, only those sitting in the courtroom had real-time access to the proceedings. Audio recordings of oral arguments were made available to the public at the end of each week, and transcripts of arguments were made available the same day.
The court that is returning to the bench in October is not the same as the one that left in March 2020. Before Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September of last year, the court’s conservatives held a narrow 5-4 majority.
Now conservatives have a powerful 6-3 majority after the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, nominated by former President Donald Trump, about a week before the 2020 presidential election — causing an uproar among Democrats over the last-minute appointment. Coney Barret has yet to hear in-person arguments since joining the court.
The court will return from its summer recess to hear arguments Oct. 4 in the cases of Mississippi v. Tennessee, which will determine if Mississippi has sole control of the state’s groundwater, and Wooden v. United States, which will determine whether crimes committed in a sequential spree are considered separate occasions, according to SCOTUSblog.
Oreo just announced the release of a limited-edition Pokémon cookie pack.
The Pokémon x Oreo cookie pack pays tribute to some of your favorite Pokémon, including Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle.
There are 16 designs and each Oreo will be embossed with a different character.
Some cookies will be harder to find than others, just like in the Pokémon world.
“The rarity of the designs embossed on the cookies range from easy to find to hard to find, and the hardest to find (Mew) is featured on an extremely limited amount of the total cookies produced,” Oreo said in a press release.
Along with the collaboration, there will be an art installation with more than 8,000 3-D replicas of the cookies on the Venice Beach Boardwalk in Los Angeles until Oct. 3.
The Pokémon x OREO cookie pack will be available at retailers nationwide starting Sept 13.
(VIRGINIA) — Like many educators this fall, Jill Biden headed back to the classroom at Northern Virginia Community College Tuesday as the first presidential spouse to hold a full-time job while also serving her duties as first lady.
She was also the first second lady to continue with her full time career while her husband was serving as vice president.
Biden is teaching two sections of an introductory academic writing course this semester, with one section fully in-person and the other being a hybrid model of in-person and online learning, according to the college’s course catalogue.
Throughout the pandemic Biden has advocated for the importance of returning to in-person instruction, writing for ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “I know that classrooms are so much more than places where our children learn math and reading.”
Elizabeth Natalle is a founding and board member of the First Ladies Association for Research and Education, an organization that promotes and publicizes the contributions of first ladies.
She said Biden’s dual career as a first lady and a professor is not only historic but it more accurately reflects the reality of American women which is a reality that embodies both being a working professional and having families.
“I think Jill Biden is very purposefully being quite vocal about her title, about her professionalism, about her work as a way to inspire and be a role model for American women and for girls growing up,” she said.
Having been an educator for over 30 years and continuing to teach during her husband’s two terms as vice president, Biden had already established some precedent that she could do both, according to Anita McBride, the director of the First Ladies Initiative at American University, which studies the influence of first ladies on politics, policy and public diplomacy.
“It’s something that she made clear that ‘It’s not just what I do, it’s who I am,’ and she prepared the country for the fact that she would continue to do so,” McBride said.
Over the past few presidencies, the country has been inching towards having a first lady who also has a job to balance with presidential spousal duties, McBride said. And Biden is not unlike other first ladies in her efforts to move America forward on its views about working women.
“You can point to almost any first lady in our history and show where they have risen to the occasion and tried to move the country forward and just push the envelope a little bit further on various issues,” she said.
Biden, who goes by “Dr. Biden” in class, has her doctorate of education in educational leadership from the University of Delaware. Last December, an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that garnered explosive reactions called on Biden to drop the title.
The op-ed’s author, Joseph Epstein, wrote that the use of doctor by Biden “sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic.”
In a tweet, Biden responded by saying “Together, we will build a world where the accomplishments of our daughters will be celebrated, rather than diminished.”
Natalle said that first ladies are embroiled in a paradox of public criticism for either being too involved in political matters and not focusing on other duties or not being involved enough — and Biden is no exception.
“First ladies, no matter what they do, find themselves between a rock and a hard place,” she said.
While Biden has been vocal about continuing to teach and the importance of returning to in-person learning, she keeps a low profile about her second job as first lady.
The two courses she is teaching are listed on the semester’s course schedule as being taught by “Tracy, J.” — which is her middle name.
According to her Rate My Professor profile, which is a website that allows students to review college professors, one student wrote that “I mean, who — in her position — would continue here with all that’s going on in her family’s very public life? But in the classroom she’s simply Dr. Biden.”
She is also classified as a “tough grader” but also a “wonderful teacher” by student reviews.
Natalle hopes that Biden’s commitment to continue in her profession will create a lasting impact.
“I hope that she sets a precedent for future first spouses, whether that’s a man or a woman, to be a working person who’s respected for that,” she said.
(NEW YORK) –There was mid-flight chaos on one American Airlines flight over the Labor Day holiday after a passenger began growling and berating the flight attendants on board.
“What? What? What? What are you going to kick me off this flight?” the 61-year-old man taunted the flight crew.
At one point, a flight attendant had to block him from gaining access to the galley.
“Now!” the flight attendant shouted. “Sit Down Now!”
Once the plane landed in Salt Lake City, authorities boarded the aircraft and took the passenger, who they said was intoxicated, into custody.
“Really? Really? Really?” the man says as he is taken off the plane.
“His behavior was so bizarre,” Dennis Busch, a fellow passenger, told ABC News. “Not particularly threatening towards us other passengers but it was very surreal.”
The man was later cited for disorderly conduct and public intoxication.
Monday’s incident is just the latest in a surge of aggressive behavior on planes.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it has received nearly 4,200 reports of unruly passengers since the start of the year. More than 3,000 of them are people who refuse to wear a mask.
The subsequent fines for unruly behavior during flights have soared in 2021, with the FAA reporting last month that it has proposed more than $1 million in penalties this year alone.
Airline crews have reported incidents in which visibly drunk passengers verbally abused them, shoved them, kicked seats, threw trash at them, defiled the restrooms and in some cases even punched them in the face.
The FAA had hoped 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, would be enough to deter potential offenders, but they’ve still seen hundreds of incidents per month.
In-flight tensions are unlikely to wane as the mask requirement for planes was extended from September into January.
FAA Administrator Steve Dickson has urged airport police to arrest more people who are unruly or violent on flights.
“While the FAA has levied civil fines against unruly passengers, it has no authority to prosecute criminal cases,” Dickson told airport executives.
He said they see many passengers — some who physically assaulted flight attendants — interviewed by local police and then released “without criminal charges of any kind.”
The agency has looked into more than 682 potential violations of federal law so far this year — the highest number since the agency began keeping records in 1995. But it is unclear how many people have actually paid the FAA’s proposed fines.
ABC News’ Sam Sweeney, Gio Benitez, and Amanda Maile contributed to this report.
