(NEW YORK) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio treated his New York Police Department-provided security detail like a “concierge service” that drove around his son, staff members and guests even when he was not in the car and helped his daughter move out of her apartment, the city’s Department of Investigation alleged in a report released Thursday.
The investigative report by the city’s anti-corruption watchdog also accused the mayor of failing to reimburse the more than $300,000 his security detail spent on travel outside New York City during de Blasio’s unsuccessful 2020 run for president.
“Protecting the mayor and his family is a serious and significant job that should be guided by best practices, formalized procedures, and an understanding that security details are not personal assistants in a dignitary’s daily life but provide essential protection,” DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett said.
The NYPD inspector in charge of the Executive Protection Unit, Howard Redmond, “sought to obstruct” the investigation by refusing to turn over a City Hall-issued phone, trying to destroy his NYPD-issued phone and demonstrating a “lack of candor” during an interview, the report claims.
Redmond was referred to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for possible prosecution. While de Blasio is not facing prosecution, he could face potential ethics violations.
“We are reviewing the referral,” a spokesperson for Manhattan DA Cy Vance said.
In her response, de Blasio’s press secretary Danielle Filson called the report “unprofessional” and “inaccurate,” claiming that it was based on “illegitimate assumptions and a naive view of the complex security challenges facing elected officials today.”
(NORTH PORT, Fla.) — A massive search is continuing in Florida for Brian Laundrie, the boyfriend of Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old woman who went missing on a cross-country trip and who authorities confirmed as the body discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
The search for the 23-year-old Laundrie is centered around North Port, Florida, where investigators said Laundrie returned to his home on Sept. 1 without Petito but driving her 2012 Ford Transit.
Laundrie has been named by police as a “person of interest” in Petito’s disappearance. Laundrie has refused to speak to the police and has not been seen since Tuesday, Sept. 14, according to law enforcement officials.
The search for Laundrie is the latest twist in the case that has grabbed national attention as he and Petito had been traveling across the country since June, documenting the trip on social media.
Petito’s parents, who live in Long Island, New York, reported her missing on Sept. 11 after not hearing from her for two weeks.
Latest headlines:
-Second Moab Police body camera footage shows Gabby Petito claim Brian Laundrie grabbed her face
-FBI returned to Laundrie’s house for additional items
-Florida search ends for the night, police say they don’t know cost of effort
-Nothing found so far in Friday search
-Search for Brian Laundrie continues at Carlton Reserve
-Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern.
Oct 07, 11:41 am
Brian Laundrie’s father joins police in search for son: Attorney
The father of wanted fugitive Brian Laundrie joined law enforcement officers in the search for his son on Thursday, the family’s attorney told ABC News.
Chris Laundrie began assisting police Thursday morning in the ongoing search of the 25,000-acre Carlton Reserve, near his home in North Port, said attorney Steven Bertolino.
He said the father has been asked to point out any favorite trails or spots in the nature preserve that his son favored. Chris Laundrie and his wife, Roberta, verbally told investigators roughly three weeks ago where their son may have gone in the preserve, but now searchers believe the father’s on-site assistance may be more beneficial, Bertolino said.
The preserve has been closed to the public and the Laundries as well. The parents, according to Bertolino, have been cooperating since the search began.
Oct 06, 6:42 pm
Authorities to allow Laundrie’s father to assist with search, attorney says
Steven Bertolino, the Laundrie family attorney, told ABC News Wednesday that authorities are going to allow Chris Laundrie, Brian Laundrie’s father, to assist with the search at the Carlton Reserve.
Investigators don’t currently have more details on when he will join the search.
The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office told ABC News they provided aerial support Wednesday for a search of the area.
ABC News’ Whitney Lloyd and Alondra Valle
Oct 05, 11:11 pm
Brian Laundrie left parents’ home to hike day earlier than parents originally told investigators
Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino confirmed to ABC News Tuesday night that the family now believes Brian Laundrie left to hike the Carlton Reserve on Monday, Sept. 13. Previously, they had told investigators he left on Tuesday, Sept. 14.
“The Laundries were basing the date Brian left on their recollection of certain events. Upon further communication with the FBI and confirmation of the Mustang being at the Laundrie residence on Wednesday September 15, we now believe the day Brian left to hike in the preserve was Monday September 13,” Bertolino said.
ABC News’ Kristin Thorne and Alondra Valle
Oct 05, 4:50 pm
Brian Laundrie flew home to Florida in early August: Family attorney
An attorney for the family of Brian Laundrie confirmed to ABC News on Tuesday that the wanted fugitive flew home to Florida from Salt Lake City on Aug. 17 and flew back to Utah six days later to rejoin his girlfriend, Gabby Petito, on their cross-country road trip.
Steven Bertolino said Laundrie flew home to “obtain some items and empty and close the (couple’s) storage unit to save money as they contemplated extending the road trip.” Bertolino said the couple paid for the flights together as they were sharing expenses.
Laundrie’s trip back to the Tampa area came five days after he and Petito were stopped by police in Moab, Utah, when witnesses reported the couple was engaged in a domestic violence incident in Moab.
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 708,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.8 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 65.7% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Latest headlines:
-Hospitalizations drop but deaths remain high
-Pfizer submits kids vaccine emergency use authorization request to FDA
-LA passes vaccine mandate for indoor restaurants, bars, gyms, malls and more
-More Americans died of COVID this year than all of 2020
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Oct 07, 1:37 pm
78% of adults have had 1 dose: White House
Seventy-eight percent of adults have now had at least one vaccine dose, White House COVID-19 data director Cyrus Shahpar tweeted.
Oct 07, 12:35 pm
Hospitalizations drop but deaths remain high
Hospitalizations in the U.S. have dropped from 104,000 to about 69,000 over the last five weeks, according to federal data.
More than a third of the drop was in Florida, where there are about 13,000 fewer patients compared to just over one month ago.
Daily COVID-19-related hospital admissions are also down nationally by 13.6% in the last week, according to federal data.
But states like Alaska and West Virginia, are still experiencing record-breaking surges, while Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, Idaho and Texas still have ICU capacities near 10%.
Overnight, the U.S. reported nearly 2,000 COVID-19 related fatalities.
Around 1,400 virus-related deaths are being reported each day, which is nearly 7.5 times higher than in mid-July, according to federal data.
Texas is reporting thousands of deaths each week.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Oct 07, 9:00 am
United expects travel surge in December
United Airlines expects a travel surge and plans to fly 3,500 daily domestic flights in December, making it the largest schedule since the start of the pandemic.
Flight searches for the holidays are up 16% on the airline’s website and app compared to 2019.
Florida and ski resorts are expected to be the hottest destinations.
ABC News’ Sam Sweeney
Oct 07, 8:20 am
Pfizer submits kids vaccine emergency use authorization request to FDA
Pfizer has submitted an emergency use authorization to the FDA for use of its vaccine in children ages 5 to 11.
The FDA will have a public hearing on Oct. 26.
Shots for children 5 to 11 may be available by early November.
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — Officials shared new horrifying details in the case of 19-year-old Miya Marcano, revealing she was found bound at her hands and feet with duct tape.
A body found Oct. 2 in a wooded area near the Tymber Skan apartment complex in Orlando, Florida, was positively identified as Marcano on Tuesday, the chief medical examiner for Orange and Osceola Counties told ABC News.
Marcano, a student at Valencia College, had been missing for over a week when her body was found. She was last seen at the Arden Villas apartments’ complex in Orlando where she lived on Sept. 24.
Orange County Sheriff John Mina shared an update on the case Wednesday, saying: “Miya was found bound with black duct tape on her feet and hands, and her mouth was also covered with black duct tape.”
Marcano was found wearing jeans, bra and a robe. Mina said her purse was found nearby containing the shirt she was last seen wearing.
Mina reiterated that Armando Caballero, 27, “is the person responsible for her death” and officials are not looking for other suspects.
Caballero was a maintenance worker at Arden Villas who was found dead Sept. 27, three days after Marcano disappeared, from an apparent suicide, authorities said.
Authorities previously said Caballero had expressed a romantic interest in Marcano but she rebuffed his advances. Caballero possessed a key fob to access apartments and his was used at Marcano’s unit just before her disappearance, authorities said.
“There is no indication that there was sexual assault of any kind” and the cause and manner of death are yet to be determined by the medical examiner’s office, Mina said.
He said officials believe that Caballero was waiting for her inside her apartment on Sept. 24. He later killed her and hid her body at the area of the other Orlando apartment complex, based off information police have so far.
Officials are still trying to determine if she left her apartment alive and whether this was a planned attack.
Police announced the discovery of the body Saturday. Mina said police were led to the Tymber Skan apartment area based on Caballero’s cellphone records that showed he was there the day Marcano went missing around 8:20 p.m. to 8:40 p.m. Mina said that Caballero had once lived at the Tymber Skan apartments.
(ARAB, Ala.) — More than 10 inches of rain pounded northern Alabama over the last 24 hours, leaving some neighborhoods underwater.
A 4-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman died as a result of the flooding in Marshall County, located in northern Alabama, the county coroner’s office said.
In Hoover, near Birmingham, crews have been searching through the night for two people who were in a car that was swept away in the floodwaters. The vehicle is believed to be submerged, officials said, adding that divers are at the scene.
In Pelham, fire officials said they responded to 282 calls for service. Officials conducted 82 rescues from homes and over a dozen rescues from cars.
Schools in Pelham are closed Thursday due to the excessive flooding. A flash flood watch remains in effect through Thursday night.
The flash flooding threat will expand east Thursday into Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, where more than 3 inches of rain is expected.
Flash flooding is also possible in Tennessee and Florida.
(LONDON) — As the debate on masking in classrooms rages in the U.S, England, as with its risky move to fully reopen society in July, is chartering its own course. Despite competing scientific advice, in September millions of mostly unvaccinated children returned to school — with new government guidance. Masks, in the English classroom, are no longer recommended.
Part of the calculation stems from the success of the U.K.’s vaccination program — and the belief that parents who could potentially catch the virus from their children are mostly protected from two doses, which has led to criticism from some scientists.
More than 45 million people in the U.K. have received two doses of coronavirus vaccines, which amounts to 82.5% of the population over 16, according to government data.
Children aged 12 to 17 are now eligible for a first shot of the vaccine, and all people above 18 are encouraged to get both shots.
Since July, the weekly average of daily coronavirus cases has not fallen below 20,000. However, that has not been as bad as early predictions — Health Secretary Sajid Javid previously warned that with a full reopening cases could reach 100,000 a day, heights which have not been reached. Deaths have risen too, but the success of the vaccination rollout has prevented a return to the worst days of the pandemic, with 8,627 deaths recorded between July 1 and Oct. 1.
Yet with cases remaining high, parents have expressed concern about their children returning to school.
According to the most recent government guidance,: “As COVID-19 becomes a virus that we learn to live with, there is now an imperative to reduce the disruption to children and young people’s education – particularly given that the direct clinical risks to children are extremely low.” Pupils who test positive are still expected to self-isolate, but face coverings are not advised, as with other public spaces, with the emphasis instead on improved ventilation and hygiene.
However the government has not ruled out a reversal on this guidance in the case of increased outbreaks in schools. Asked by Sky News on Thursday if some of the contingency plans in case of outbreaks would include a return to mask mandates, the Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi, said he was considering a range of options including masking.
The risk of death in unvaccinated children, according to the U.K. government’s vaccine surveillance reports, remains very low. In one study published in July by researchers from University College London, and the Universities of Liverpool, Bristol and York during the first 12 months of the pandemic, 25 under 18-year-olds died from COVID in England, which amounts to a mortality risk of 2 in a million.
However, a study in the U.S. found that masking in classrooms significantly decreases the risk of COVID outbreaks.
Experts across the U.K. disagree even on the effectiveness of masks to protect kids from getting the virus. Professor Calum Semple, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, recently told BBC Radio 4 that ventilation was in fact the best measure to prevent infection.
“If I had to invest in a single activity to improve the environment both for the children and the adults, I’d be looking at improving the ventilation… improving air exchanges,” he said, adding “that would be a much more effective way to reduce transmission in schools.”
Dr. Deepti Gurdasani, an epidemiologist and senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, told ABC News that too little is known about the long-term risks in children to allow high exposure to schools in COVID, and that the government’s laissez-faire approach has been “reckless.”
“These sort of policies are essentially fueling transmission in the name of reducing education disruption and in fact making that education disruption worse,” Gurdasani said.
Many schools have continued to encourage mask-wearing, she said, despite the central policy that they are now compulsory.
“The measures are so basic and simple,” Gurdasani said, adding, “it’s extremely important to keep schools open. But if you want to keep them open, you cannot be anti-mitigation and anti-vaccine because that is the only way to keep them open.”
Although 99.9% of U.K. state-funded schools are now open, recent reports suggest more students have missed school for COVID-related reasons in September.
Just over 2% of pupils — 186,000 students — across all state-funded schools were out of school on Sept. 30 because of suspected or confirmed COVID infections, according to government data.
“We have to make our own risk assessment as parents or grandparents and we have to decide if we are comfortable with our children going to school and if we’re not why are we not,” said David Heymann, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “And if it’s because of the fear of getting infected ourselves, then we should get vaccinated. If it’s a fear about children not wanting to wear a mask, then we should find out whether children really do or don’t want to wear a mask.”
According to the information currently available, Heymann said, there appears to be greater risks in areas like nightclubs, which are now fully open in the U.K., but more data is needed on transmission in schools.
“The best way to be evaluating this is to look at children in school and their families, and if you could test students once a week and test their parents once a week and see if there is any increased transmission in them as compared to the general community,” he said. “Now there’s lots of ways of doing this, it’s just that we are so early on, it’s only 18 months and we don’t have all the data we need because of the lockdown of last year.”
(WASHINGTON) — With the fall of the Afghan government, the Biden administration has so far brought roughly 60,000 Afghans to the U.S., with plans for tens of thousands more to arrive in the next year.
But those high numbers belie a broken refugee resettlement program that has been struggling to bring new refugees to the U.S. — and now, new data shows just how bad the situation is.
In the 2021 fiscal year — from Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30 of this year — the U.S. admitted its lowest number of refugees in the program’s over 40-year history: just 11,411, according to newly released State Department data.
That means that in the last year, including President Joe Biden’s first nine months, the U.S. resettled fewer refugees than former President Donald Trump’s final full fiscal year, when 11,814 total refugees were admitted. Biden had pledged to admit up to 62,500 refugees during his young term, while Trump’s administration took several steps to dismantle the refugee resettlement program and bring admissions to a halt.
The Afghans who have been brought to the U.S. in the last two months do not count toward this total because they were granted entry under “humanitarian parole” — a short-term legal status — given the urgency of the unprecedented U.S. airlift that evacuated them from Kabul.
Those Afghans will now have access to support and services usually given to refugees because of the federal government funding bill that passed last week, but their future legal status is in question, as a White House proposal to fast track them to receive a green card was left out.
Either way, they’re not legally considered refugees. Just 872 Afghans were admitted under that category in the 2021 fiscal year, according to the data.
Trump admitted 604 Afghans as refugees in his final full fiscal year.
Biden had vowed to boost refugee admissions during the 2020 campaign and in his administration’s earliest days, but in the spring, he signed a memo that kept Trump’s refugee cap of 15,000 — the program’s lowest — only to then backtrack and raise it to 62,500 after outrage among Democrats and refugee advocates.
But those Trump-era efforts to dismantle the program led to this small number, and now they endanger Biden’s promise to admit 125,000 refugees in the fiscal year of 2022, which runs through next Sept. 30.
There had been some uptick in the number of admissions under the Biden administration — climbing from 283 in March to 1,533 in June to 3,774 in September — but advocates say the administration didn’t do enough to make repairs and expand those numbers.
“If we are to reach President Biden’s goal of welcoming 125,000 refugees, the administration must be aggressive and innovative in ramping up processing,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the largest U.S. faith-based resettlement agency. “We urge the Biden administration to do everything in its power to align refugee admissions with our core values as a welcoming nation.”
There have been warnings for months now that the U.S. refugee resettlement program has not recovered from the previous four years. In particular, the major resettlement agencies in the U.S. had been forced to slash staffing as federal funds dried up, the pipeline of potential refugees had been blocked by new rules advocates have called onerous, and the pandemic meant the required in-person interviews weren’t happening.
While several resettlement agencies in the U.S. say the Trump-era damage is obvious, they expressed some disappointment that Biden’s team hasn’t done more to reverse that, saying responsibility now lies with them.
“The U.S. is taking in fewer refugees than ever at a time when there are more refugees in the world than at any point in recorded history, which is unacceptable. The Biden administration will need to prioritize creating more efficient and equitable methods of processing for refugees in order to reach the ceiling of 125,000 refugees for the fiscal year that’s just begun,” said Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief, another Christian humanitarian group.
In his executive order last February, for example, Biden directed the Departments of State and Homeland Security to “consider all appropriate actions” to permit virtual interviews between USCIS case officers and refugee applicants, as the pandemic makes in-person interviews still challenging.
But eight months later, no changes have been made in that process. The number of refugee interviews conducted in the first quarter of this fiscal year was zero, according to USCIS data, compared to 1,373 in all of fiscal year 2020 and 44,538 in FY 2019. Data from USCIS is so far only available for the first quarter of FY 2021.
(WASHINGTON) — Americans will soon be seeing new, empowering faces on some U.S. quarters.
On Wednesday, the United States Mint announced its quarter designs for 2022, which feature five trailblazing American women.
The five women featured are Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood; Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman to soar into space; award-winning writer and civil rights activist Maya Angelou; Wilma Mankiller, the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and an activist for Native American and women’s rights; and Nina Otero-Warren, a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement and the first female superintendent of Santa Fe public schools.
“These inspiring coin designs tell the stories of five extraordinary women whose contributions are indelibly etched in American culture,” the United States Mint’s acting director, Alison L. Doone, said in a statement.
The designs are part of the American Women Quarters Program, a four year program featuring coins with reverse (tails) designs of women who have made their mark in American history.
For each year until 2025, the Mint will issue five quarters honoring individuals with a wide range of accomplishments and fields, including suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, humanities, science, space and the arts.
“Generations to come will look at coins bearing these designs and be reminded of what can be accomplished with vision, determination and a desire to improve opportunities for all,” Doone said.
(ARAB, Ala.) — More than 10 inches of rain pounded northern Alabama over the last 24 hours, leaving some neighborhoods underwater.
A child died as a result of the flooding in Arab, located in northern Alabama, the Marshall County Coroner’s Office said.
In Hoover, near Birmingham, crews have been searching through the night for two people who were in a car that was swept away in the floodwaters. The vehicle is believed to be submerged, officials said, adding that divers are at the scene.
In Pelham, fire officials said they responded to 282 calls for service. Officials conducted 82 rescues from homes and over a dozen rescues from cars.
Schools in Pelham are closed Thursday due to the excessive flooding. A flash flood watch remains in effect through Thursday night.
The flash flooding threat will expand east Thursday into Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, where more than 3 inches of rain is expected.
Flash flooding is also possible in Tennessee and Florida.
(NEW YORK) — As Americans continue to cook, do laundry and use more electricity at home amid the pandemic, utility bill prices are predicted to rise this winter.
Ken Gurny, a homeowner in New York told Good Morning America their family has tried to conserve energy since the pandemic sent their utility bill sky high.
But even as residents work to lower electricity consumption, the cost to heat homes is going up.
The National Energy Assistance Directors Association predicts gas bills in the U.S. could rise up to 30% this winter.
“Going forward this year, there are no signs of these prices coming down,” executive director Mark Wolfe told GMA.
The Natural Gas Association of America told GMA in a statement that while it does not expect shortages, “natural gas market prices are higher due to the economic recovery, strong natural gas demand from last winter, and slower than anticipated production.”
From January to March last winter, the Gurney family said they paid roughly $2,300 to heat their home which means this year, that number could go up by $700 for a total of $3,000 in the same time period.
Beyond putting on a sweater inside and lowering the thermostat, there are other savings strategies to consider.
A smart thermostat like the Nest lets people program a lowered temperature at specific times of day via a smartphone app. The company estimates it saves users 10-12% on heating costs each year.
Amazon has entered the market with its Alexa-compatible smart thermostat due on the market in November.
The U.S. Energy Department suggests a simpler fix: Swap out an old, dirty filter on the furnace to save between 5 to 15% on a heating bill.
The Natural Gas Association suggests: “if customers have trouble paying their natural gas bills, there are programs that can help.”
Wolfe said the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is a “federal program that helps people pay their energy bills, they have enough money to do so — but it’s not just for poor people, a family can have to $40,000 a year and still qualify.”
Additionally, experts suggest heat loss can be prevented by checking for cold spots with a thermal gun. Point the device at the ceiling, wall and doors to see where weatherstripping could help, replace insulation or patch up cracks.
More heating and cooling units will also run off electricity rather than gas or oil, providing greater energy efficiency and serving as better options for the environment.
