(OXFORD, Mich.) — Three people, all believed to be students, were killed in a shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan, on Tuesday, authorities said.
Six others were shot and injured, including a teacher, authorities said. Their conditions were not immediately clear.
The suspected shooter, a 15-year-old male student, was taken into custody within five minutes, authorities said. A handgun has been confiscated, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said.
Authorities said they believe he acted alone. The teen has not mentioned a motive, authorities said.
Over 100 calls poured into 911 as the shooting unfolded, authorities said. The entire incident lasted five minutes, authorities said.
Oxford is about 40 miles north of Detroit.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — A woman prosecutors have referred to as “Jane,” one of the three alleged minor victims whose allegations against Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell are detailed in a federal indictment, testified on the second day of her trial.
She told the jury that she met Maxwell and Epstein while attending summer camp at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, the beginning of what prosecutors earlier called “a nightmare that would last for years.”
After returning home to Palm Beach, Florida, “Jane” said, she began visiting Epstein at his seaside mansion, where she testified that she had her first sexual contact with Epstein in 1994 when she was just 14. According to “Jane,” Epstein abruptly took her to his pool house, pulled down his pants and “proceeded to masturbate on me” while she remained “frozen in fear.”
The abuse continued, “Jane” said, during subsequent visits to Epstein’s house, and Maxwell contributed, she alleged, by “leading me to a massage table and showing me how Jeffrey likes to be massaged.”
On Tuesday morning, Epstein’s former pilot, Larry Visoski, testified that he met “Jane” in the cockpit of Epstein’s plane, though he later acknowledged he did not know how old she was at the time and could not recall whether she had actually taken a flight.
Maxwell faces a six-count indictment for allegedly conspiring with and aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls between 1994 and 2004. She has been held without bail since her arrest in July 2020 and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LAS VEGAS) — More than 40 years after a teenage girl’s murder in Las Vegas, her suspected killer has been identified through DNA evidence and genetic genealogy.
Kim Bryant, 16, was kidnapped, raped and killed on Jan. 26, 1979, police in Las Vegas said.
The teen was last seen at a Dairy Queen restaurant near her high school and was reported missing after she didn’t return home, police said.
Her body was found one month later in a desert area, police said.
For decades, her slaying went unsolved.
Semen from a suspect was recovered during Bryant’s autopsy, but the DNA sample could not be identified at the time, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Raymond Spencer said at a news conference on Monday.
“We first attempted DNA on this particular case back in 2008. We were not able to get a DNA profile,” Kimberly Murga, director of laboratory services for the Las Vegas police, said at the news conference. “Technology has continued to advance and revolutionize. We again attempted DNA on different items of evidence in January of this year. We were able to obtain a foreign male DNA profile on some evidence and we put that DNA profile into CODIS — the Combined DNA Index System — and at that time we obtained no hits.”
That’s when the department turned to advanced genetic genealogy testing, she said.
Through genetic genealogy, DNA left at a crime scene can be used to identify a suspect’s family members, who voluntarily submit their DNA to a genealogy database. This allows police to create a more detailed family tree than if they were limited to using law enforcement databases like CODIS. Genetic genealogy gained visibility as an investigative tool in 2018 when the “Golden State Killer” was arrested.
Employees of Othram Inc., a private laboratory, built a genealogical profile of Bryant’s unknown killer through his family tree, Michael Vogen, director of case management at Othram, said at the news conference.
Othram and police eventually narrowed the search to a relative who was willing to give a DNA sample, officials said.
That sample allowed investigators to zero in on their suspect, Johnny Peterson, who died in January 1993, police said.
Peterson was 19 and living in Las Vegas at the time of the murder, Spencer said. Peterson had previously attended Bryant’s school, though it’s not clear if they had interacted, Spencer said.
In April 1980, Peterson was arrested for sexual assault, but that case was dismissed, Spencer said.
Peterson was never on the department’s radar as a suspect in Bryant’s case, Spencer said.
For Bryant’s family, Spencer said, “Nothing is gonna make the pain go away, but at least the family has some closure.”
(NEW YORK) — A spacewalk by two U.S. astronauts was called off on Tuesday morning due to the risk of space debris, NASA announced in a statement.
NASA astronauts Kayla Barron and Thomas Marshburn were scheduled to leave through the International Space Station’s Quest airlock at 5:30 a.m. EST to replace a part on the space station, according to a NASA blogpost.
“Marshburn and Barron will work at the Port 1 truss structure, where the antenna is mounted. The antenna recently lost its ability to send signals to Earth via NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System,” NASA said in the blog.
However, four hours before the scheduled spacewalk, the ISS tweeted that the repair would be delayed until more information was available.
The source of the debris hasn’t been confirmed. Two weeks ago Russia had conducted an anti-satellite test that created a “dangerous” debris field in the orbit.
The spacewalk was scheduled to last 6 1/2 hours and be Barron’s first and Marshburn’s fifth spacewalk, NASA said.
(NEW YORK) — Julie Anne Genter, a Green Party member of the New Zealand Parliament, is a keen cyclist who used her skills to bike to the hospital in the middle of the night while in labor Sunday. Within an hour of setting off, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
“I genuinely wasn’t planning to cycle in labor,” she wrote on Instagram later that day, “but it did end up happening.”
Genter shared photos of her nighttime journey on a cargo bike, smiling through contractions while locking up in the Wellington, New Zealand, hospital car park.
“My contractions weren’t that bad when we left at 2 a.m. to go to the hospital,” she said on Instagram. “Though they were 2-3 min apart and picking up in intensity by the time we arrived 10 minutes later.”
At 3.04 a.m., her daughter was born.
Originally, the plan was for her partner Peter Nunns to cycle with her in front, Genter told New Zealand outlet Stuff. When they realized there was too much weight with her hospital bag, Genter “just got out and rode.”
Genter is a dual U.S.-NZ citizen. She grew up in Los Angeles and moved to New Zealand in 2006 as a post-grad scholar at the University of Auckland. She credits her L.A. upbringing with her interest in transportation and urban design. She worked in transport and urban planning before becoming a Member of Parliament in 2011 where she has been an advocate of cycling and increasing bike infrastructure. Her baby girl was born two days after her 10-year anniversary in parliament.
This is the second time the lawmaker has cycled to the hospital to give birth. She did so in 2018 for the birth of her first child, although on that occasion, labor was induced, she said.
New Zealand’s parliament is one of the most gender-equal in the world, electing 49% female members in its 2020 election. It also has a reputation for being family-friendly.
The country’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave birth to her daughter Neve while in office in 2018, making headlines as one of the first sitting world leaders to do so. Genter followed her lead, bringing her firstborn to a UN meeting a year later.
In 2019, the Speaker of Parliament, Trevor Mallard, appeared in headlines around the world when he cradled and fed a bottle to a baby boy during a general debate.
Mallard told ABC News at the time that inclusivity is something that he focused since becoming speaker in 2017. “When I became speaker, I made it clear that I wanted the parliament to be much more family-friendly than it had been,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — A bitter cold is gripping the South with states from Florida to Georgia experiencing wind chills in the 30s.
The wind chill — what temperature it feels like — plunged Tuesday morning to 24 degrees in Raleigh and 31 degrees in Atlanta, Charleston and Montgomery.
A freeze warning has been issued as far south as Tallahassee, where the actual temperature fell to 30 degrees.
The wind chill dropped Tuesday morning to 15 degrees in Boston and 25 degrees in New York City.
Milder air will thaw the East Coast by Wednesday and Thursday. Temperatures are expected to reach the middle to upper 50s for Boston and New York City and near 60 degrees in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, on the West Coast, more heavy rain is expected for Washington state and Oregon, where some areas could see 3 to 6 inches over the next few days.
Two weeks ago, over 1 foot of rain pummeled the Pacific Northwest within days, bringing rivers into major flood stages and flooding roads and neighborhoods.
(NEW YORK) — As holiday shopping season ramps up, Walmart CEO John Furman addressed the concerns of prices and how long supplies will last.
Furman told Good Morning America that President Joe Biden, who met with retail executives this week, and his administration have “been a great help.”
“We’re all working together to make sure that customers have what they need over the holiday season and ended our third quarter up in inventory,” Furman said. “It took a lot of work on behalf of our team and they’re working really hard.”
As the calendar dwindles down on 2021, Furman said that “it’s always a good idea to shop early” and “just like every year there’s something hot, a hot toy — like game consoles — but we have a couple things we can help with.”
“Last week we had our biggest day ever in terms of delivery,” he said of their Walmart Plus membership program. “But there’s some categories like Christmas decor — that are selling quick.”
Other trends that Furman said Walmart has seen and prepared for, are people “spending a lot more time together in groups.”
For Thanksgiving alone, he said “we sold over 10 million turkeys, which is about 2 million more than last year, so it tells you a bit about how many families are getting together and spending time together.”
The Federal Trade Comission has launched a probe into the supply chain issues, which Furman said Walmart just learned about, and said he is optimistic about the company’s position in the market.
“A lot of what you see in stores and online, all the products and what’s available, these are the results of plans, in most cases, that started over a year ago. Our merchants work about 12 months out to determine what they think the trends are, what people will be looking for,” he said. “And we’re proud of our inventory position at this point.”
(NEW YORK) — Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Travel Tuesday? Tuesday marks a potentially big day for saving if you’re looking to snag a deal on a trip in 2022.
“A lot of folks in the travel industry are trying to encourage people to not just buy things over the holiday weekend, but buy experiences as well,” Scott Keyes, Scott’s Cheap Flights founder and author of Take More Vacations, said. “Buy travel and treat yourself to that gift of those lifetime memories from trips you take.”
Paul Couch, a city surveyor from Akron, Ohio, is looking to do just that. He will be scouring the airlines’ websites for a reasonably-priced getaway this travel holiday.
“I’m hoping for the best,” he said. “Just kind of checking the different locations out and if something strikes my eye, you know a place I haven’t been to, then I’ll look for travel dates and book a flight and hotel and all that.”
In 2019, before the pandemic, online booking platform Hopper said it saw more flights discounted on Travel Tuesday than on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
“We typically see about 34 deals per second here at Hopper,” Hopper economist Adit Damodaran told ABC News. “That’s 30% more than we usually see on any other day throughout the year. So, that’s really a great time to be booking those flights for 2022.”
Several airlines have announced promotional discounts over the last few days: JetBlue is offering $50 off one-way and $100 off round trip tickets; Aer Lingus is offering up to $200 off economy fares and up to $300 off business class fares from the U.S.; Air New Zealand, Fiji Airways, Icelandair, and many more are offering discounts for certain destinations.
But Keyes says the real “hidden secret of the travel world” is that the best deals actually come from un-advertised sales.
“Just in the past two or three days alone, we’ve seen flights nonstop to Hawaii for $158 round trip nonstop, to Costa Rica for $176 round trip nonstop, down to Aruba for $226 round trip,” he said. “These are fares that have been popping up that are not getting any advertising dollars behind them. You’re not going to see them in your inbox from the airlines promoting them, but they’re quietly offering these fares, and so the key is to be able to find out about them before they disappear.”
If you’re looking for a deal tomorrow, Keyes recommends looking at the fine print.
“You’re going to see a lot of airlines say ‘25% off,’ ‘50% off,’ ‘This is one of our biggest sales of the year,'” he warned. “But oftentimes, that doesn’t include taxes and fees, all of these types of things that oftentimes can make up the majority of what a ticket costs. So, seeing what the actual price looks like, and then trying to compare it to well, is this a good deal? Is this significantly cheaper than what I might have expected to pay last week or what I might expect to see next week?”
And don’t worry if you can’t find that perfect price, Keyes says, you still have plenty of time.
“Cheap flights are constantly popping up throughout the year, and so don’t put extra pressure on yourself to book something on Travel Tuesday,” he said. “If it just seems like an OK deal you can rest assured that constantly deals are going to continue to pop up throughout the rest of this year and certainly into next year.”
(NEW YORK) — Period pain is a fact of life for many women, yet many don’t know that what they are experiencing might not be normal.
“When it comes to period pain, a lot of people just don’t know what they don’t know,” Dr. Nita Landry, a Los Angeles-based OBGYN, said. “Which makes sense, because the only period that you’ve ever had is your period.”
In some cases, people may expect their period to be painful based on what they’ve seen on social media or heard repeated in pop culture — that experiencing pain is just part of having a period.
In other cases, it may be because their mom or grandmother or aunt told them that painful periods “are just the way it is” for women in the family, according to Landry.
“It could be that everybody is experiencing period pain that was never properly diagnosed, and it was never properly treated,” Landry said. “So then everybody ends up suffering unnecessarily.”
More than half of women who menstruate have some pain for one to two days of their cycle, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
For most women, the pain is mild, but for others it can be debilitating, which is a sign it’s time to seek help, Landry said.
“Periods are not fun, that’s not really a secret,” she said. “But, they are not supposed to make you miserable either. They should not be debilitating.”
Here are five facts to know about periods and pain:
1. There are different types of period pain.
The technical term for period pain is dysmenorrhea.
Primary dysmenorrhea is the most common type of dysmenorrhea and is caused by natural chemicals in the uterus lining. It is the cramping pain that comes before or during a period, according to ACOG.
Secondary dysmenorrhea is also a recurrent, cramping pain, but it is the result of an underlying medical issue in the reproductive organ.
“For example, if a person has endometriosis, which is where tissue that’s similar to the inside lining of the uterus gets outside of the uterus, or if someone has uterine fibroids, which are benign growths in the wall of the uterus, then those conditions can lead to secondary dysmenorrhea,” Landry said.
With secondary dysmenorrhea, the pain often lasts longer than normal period cramps and can worsen over time.
“When you think about pain with periods and what’s normal, pain can start about a day or so before a woman’s menstrual period starts, but it typically tapers off within two or three days,” Landry said. “If you find that your pain is extending beyond your menstrual period, then that’s not normal.”
2. Period pain is caused by a hormone-like chemical called prostaglandins.
Women experience pain during their periods because of a natural, hormone-like chemical called prostaglandins.
During a menstrual cycle, prostaglandins cause the uterine muscle to contract, which compresses some of the blood vessels that pump blood into the uterus.
“Blood is going to carry oxygen, so when you decrease blood flow to the uterus, you’re going to have a lower level of oxygenation, and, as a general rule, your body does not like to be deprived of oxygen,” she explained. “Whenever you are deprived of oxygen, you can experience pain.”
“So when we think about pain with periods, you have the uterine contractions, the contractions will decrease blood flow, less blood flow means less oxygen and less oxygen translates as pain,” she said.
Some people may naturally produce larger amounts of prostaglandins, which means they will likely experience more pain during their periods, and some people may be more susceptible to pain, according to Landry.
And just because a person has a light period flow does not mean they can’t experience painful cramps during their cycle, she noted.
“Please don’t make the assumption that, ‘My periods hurt, but my flow is not that heavy so it’s not a big deal,'” Landry said. “It’s still a big deal because pain is pain, and who wants to live with period pain if there’s something that can treat you effectively?”
3. Lifestyle habits can make period pain better or worse.
If you do not have an underlying issue, factors like what you eat and how you handle stress can also have an impact on the pain you experience, according to Landry.
“Being under a lot of stress actually makes your period worse,” she said, and, “Fatty foods increase the production of prostaglandins, and that’s going to increase period cramps.”
Smoking can also make period pain worse, because it constricts blood vessels, which decreases blood flow to the uterus, Landry said.
On the other hand, she said, exercise is a lifestyle habit that is helpful in lessening pain during the menstrual cycle, as is getting good sleep.
“A lot of things can come into play when it comes to determining why some people have more painful periods compared to others or even why the same person may experience different levels of pain during their periods from menstrual cycle to menstrual cycle,” Landry said.
4. These are red flags to look for when it comes to period pain.
The biggest warning to look for when it comes to period pain, according to Landry, is how it is impacting your life.
“If you are missing school or if you are missing work or you’re just missing life in general, that’s a red flag,” she said. “That’s not how your period is supposed to be.”
Other red flags include period pain that gets progressively worse or that continues past your menstrual cycle or changes with age.
“If you didn’t have period pain before, but you’re 25 or older and you start to experience a different type of pain, that’s also a red flag,” she said. “Because that could indicate that there’s an underlying issue that developed more recently that needs to be addressed.”
Landry said the most important thing is for women to talk to their health care provider about their period pain.
“If your health care provider tells you that period pain is normal even though you’re missing school, you’re missing work, you’re missing out on life, then talk to another health care provider,” she said, “I don’t want you to suffer unnecessarily.”
5. Period pain can be treated.
For mild period pain, Landry recommends adjusting lifestyle habits such as diet, exercise and stress management and using natural remedies like a warm bath or a heating pad.
Women can also take over-the-counter pain relievers, called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), in the first one to two days of their period to reduce the production of prostaglandins.
Women with bleeding disorders, asthma, aspirin allergies, liver damage, stomach disorders or ulcers should not take NSAIDs, according to ACOG.
Hormonal therapies, like birth control, are also frequently used to treat period pain.
Landry said there is also research to support the idea that some vitamins, including vitamins B and E as well as magnesium and Omega 3 fatty acids, may be helpful when it comes to easing period pain.
Some women also find alternative remedies such as acupuncture and acupressure helpful, too, according to Landry.
“There are so many different treatment options that your doctor can talk to you about,” she said. “Make sure you give them a chance to tell you about all of them before you decide to grin and bear [the pain].”
GoodMorningAmerica.com is tackling a different taboo women’s health topic each month, breaking down stigmas on everything from mental health to infertility, STDs, orgasms and alcoholism.
(DAYTON, Ohio) — The suspect who carried out a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, on an early August morning in 2019 had an “enduring fascination with mass violence,” the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit concluded in a report released Monday.
Just after 1 a.m. on Aug. 4, 2019, Connor Betts killed nine people and wounded 27 when he opened fire in downtown Dayton.
It was the second mass shooting that weekend, after 23 people were killed at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, the day before.
After a mass shooting or incident, it is typical for the FBI to use its Behavioral Analysis Unit to try and determine a motive or find other factors at play when an attacker carries out an incident.
The FBI concluded in its report that Betts “likely violated federal law” by lying to federal investigators about his drug use when he purchased the gun used in the attack.
The agency also concluded that Betts likely suffered from mental illness.
“The FBI’s BAU assessed the attacker’s enduring fascination with mass violence and his inability to cope with a convergence of personal factors, to include a decade-long struggle with multiple mental health stressors and the successive loss of significant stabilizing anchors experienced prior to August 4, 2019, likely were the primary contributors to the timing and finality of his decision to commit a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio,” the report stated.
There were no specific warnings that Betts would one day commit a crime, the FBI said, despite having “suicidal and violent fantasies” for over a decade.
“This underscores the importance of bystanders’ attentiveness to more subtle changes an individual may exhibit that could be indicative of their decision to commit violence, such as a change in personal circumstances, an increase in perceived stressors, or language indicating they may be contemplating suicide,” the FBI said.
One reason that family and friends did not alert authorities about Betts was potentially because of “bystander fatigue,” according to the report. Bystander fatigue occurs when people around the suspect don’t pay attention or take any action “due to their prolonged exposure to the person’s erratic or otherwise troubling behavior over time,” according to the Behavioral Analysis Unit.
The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Cincinnati field office said there were some technical issues with the investigation that made it harder to get to the bottom of what happened.
“Finding answers for the victims and their families has been a driving motivator each day,” FBI Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge J. William Rivers said in a statement.
“From the start, this has been a thorough and deliberate investigation. Due to technical challenges accessing lawfully acquired evidence that was encrypted, this investigation has taken significantly longer than expected,” he said. “However, we are confident that it has uncovered the key facts and that we have done everything in our ability to provide answers to all those impacted by this horrible attack.”
