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Democrats plan vote on abortion rights bill after Supreme Court doesn’t block Texas law

September 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The House will vote in late September to protect abortion rights, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said this week, after the Supreme Court rejected a request to block the new Texas law outlawing most abortions in the state after six weeks.

The court’s late-night ruling left Democrats in Washington and across the country scrambling to respond, sparking vows for action on Capitol Hill and renewed calls from activists for the expansion of the Supreme Court currently controlled by conservatives.

“It’s so stunning,” Pelosi said Thursday at an event in Texas, pledging a House vote when the chamber returns at the end of the month to “make sure that women everywhere have access to reproductive health that they need.”

Democrats have coalesced around the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would “enshrine the protections of Roe v. Wade into law,” Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., the lead author of the bill, told ABC News.

“If it were to pass, then abortion access would be protected everywhere, in every state,” Chu said, adding that the House is expected to vote on the measure the week of Sept. 20.

But the path forward is unclear in the Senate, where Democrats hold a majority with just 50 seats. Forty-eight Democrats back the bill; Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Joe Manchin of West Virginia are not co-sponsors.

Even with the support of pro-choice GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the proposal would still lack the votes to clear the chamber’s 60-vote threshold to reach the president’s desk.

While a Senate Democratic aide claimed “all options are on the table” in response to the Supreme Court’s decision, Chu was skeptical that the party could use the budget reconciliation process, which Democrats are using to pass President Joe Biden’s policy agenda with just 50 votes in the Senate around GOP opposition, to enact abortion protections.

“Whatever we pass with reconciliation has to have a direct impact on the budget, and I have to think that this would not qualify,” she said.

Even if Democrats did pass a bill to enshrine the protections of the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision, it wouldn’t be a “silver bullet,” said Kate Shaw, a constitutional law professor at Cardozo School of Law and ABC News legal contributor.

“As a constitutional matter, I do think Congress is on solid footing, but I also think it’s possible that this conservative Supreme Court, particularly if it was hostile to the effort to enshrine in federal law abortion protections, could be inclined to read Congress’s [authority] narrowly, which could result in this law being invalidated,” Shaw said.

With the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, and plans to take up a major abortion case later this fall brought by the state of Mississippi, some Democrats are pressuring party leaders to consider altering the number of justices on the highest court for the first time since 1869 — or change Senate rules to empower Democrats to pass abortion legislation with just 50 votes.

“We need to restore balance to the court after Donald Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell blatantly stole the seats of Justice Scalise and Justice Ginsburg,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said in a statement, referring to Senate Republicans’ refusal to fill the seat left vacant by the death of the late Justice Antonin Scalia until after the 2016 presidential election, and decision to confirm a replacement for the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the fall of 2020, before the election.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., a member of the progressive “squad” and co-sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, has been among those calling to expand the court.

“We need to abolish the filibuster and we need to expand the court,” Pressley told ABC News Friday night. “I’m not at all surprised by the extreme response of this court. The courts have not been on our side, and that’s why Congress must act.”

But Biden, a former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been wary of changing Senate rules or altering the composition of the Supreme Court, and instead set up a commission to study the issue.

“He’s waiting for the conclusion of [the commission’s] report, looks forward to reviewing it, seeing where they come out,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.

Democratic candidates and operatives also expect the Supreme Court’s actions to reverberate into the upcoming election cycles, likely turning abortion into a major issue for the party looking to defend gubernatorial seats in 2021 and the House and Senate majorities in 2022.

ABC News’ Trish Turner contributed to this report.

Paramedics and first responders share new accounts of Jan. 6 insurrection

September 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Lawmakers and prosecutors continue to piece together the events of the violent insurrection that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, and now, a new film offers a firsthand perspective from the firefighters and paramedics who responded.

The documentary-style video, produced by DC Fire and EMS and released on YouTube, offers an hour-by-hour account of their attempts to provide life-saving care amid a flurry of violence, turmoil and death.

“The resources we had in place were quickly overwhelmed,” Deputy Fire Chief Daniel McCoy says in the first few minutes of the film.

McCoy and his team surged resources to the park south of the White House where demonstrators and rioters first gathered. That morning, they also deployed personnel to survey the Capitol and surrounding area, anticipating the crowd would head in that direction.

Paramedic Sgt. Alethea Brooks described the chaos while she was trying to provide aide to the injured. Rioters spat at her and called her racial slurs multiple times, she said.

“You always know there are people that you have to help regardless, it doesn’t matter if you’re a murderer,” Brooks says. “It’s our job to not judge and we’re just here to help. But it definitely makes it harder when you know that the people that you’re helping are actually harming our brothers — our brothers in blue — and have no regard for me.”

Another paramedic, Rocco Gabriele, describes how his gear was taken by rioters and his supplies were dumped out while he was treating a patient.

“We did what we could with what we had and we did it fast,” he said.

Gabriele, Brooks and several of their colleagues described the extreme difficulties involved with providing care amid such a hectic scene.

During the fray, one of the people attempting to breach the inner halls of the Capitol was shot by a police officer. First responders had to carry her out before providing care because the paramedic team was worried for their own safety.

The violent nature of the crowd also made it difficult for first responders to access and treat many of the police officers who were injured. There were about a thousand documented assaults against law enforcement over the course of the day, according to recent legal filings from the Department of Justice.

Among the dead was Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered a stroke that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia said caused his death.

After paramedics had been alerted that Sicknick collapsed on an upper level of the Capitol building, they began working on a plan to get him out. Due to the state of emergency, the elevators were out of service so a team of National Guardsmen and Capitol Police carried him out in a wheelchair, one of the first responders recounted.

A congressional committee continues to investigate the events surrounding Jan. 6 and is attempting to obtain any relevant records it can find, such as call logs, as well as the type of first-hand accounts featured in the film.

Calls for change after 11 people in NYC basement apartments died during catastrophic floods

September 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The deaths of 13 people, all but two of whom lived in basement apartments, during New York City’s catastrophic flooding this week have renewed attention on the oftentimes illegal dwellings, with city officials looking to bolster evacuation efforts for vulnerable residents in extreme weather.

A record 3.15 inches of rain fell in one hour in the city Wednesday, all but stalling the city’s subway system and prompting dozens of water rescues. At least 13 people have been reported dead in New York City after the remnants of Hurricane Ida swept through the region.

The rapid rainfall inundated residences away from the city’s coastline not prone to flooding, damaging scores of homes and turning at least six basement apartments into death traps.

“The danger came from above,” as opposed to storm surge, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said during a press briefing Friday, while calling for more effective early warnings ahead of “wicked” weather that she said will undoubtedly become more frequent due to climate change.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday the city will be working on a “more severe kind of warning and more severe set of actions that will be a jolt to people.”

“What we saw in some of these basement apartments on Wednesday was people need to be evacuated who are far away from the coast, because of the sheer intensity and speed, the amount of rain that came in such a brief period of time,” he said, calling this extreme weather “a whole new ballgame.”

“We can say now that extreme weather has become the norm. We need to respond to it differently,” de Blasio told reporters.

The mayor said the city would need to impose travel bans more frequently, instructing people to leave the streets and get out of the subways, and evacuate more New Yorkers ahead of future storms.

To target those who live in basement apartments, changes could include cellphone alerts or door-to-door evacuations, the mayor said. But first, the city would need to create a database of what is conservatively estimated at more than 50,000 basement apartments, impacting at least 100,000 people, de Blasio said.

“We need to have an absolute accounting of all of them and then we can apply these door-to-door techniques if we need to,” he said. “We’ve got to have a clear database to work from and certainly begin with knowing the areas, which we do know, where they are prevalent.”

With many of the city’s basement apartments illegal conversions, oftentimes providing affordable housing to low-income New Yorkers and undocumented immigrants, the city would work with community organizations and other trusted messengers to reach residents, the mayor said.

“We have an illegal basement problem and then we have a problem that so many people end up in illegal basements are fearful to communicate for fear they might be evicted or, worse in their mind, deported,” de Blasio said. “It’s just an extraordinarily challenging set of circumstances.”

Five of the six apartments where 11 people died during the storm were illegally converted cellar and basement apartments, according to the city’s buildings department. Four of them were in Queens and one in Brooklyn. The lone legal basement apartment was in Queens, where a 48-year-old woman was found unconscious and unresponsive at a home near Corona.

Those who died in the illegal conversions included a 43-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man at a basement apartment in Jamaica, Queens; a 50-year-old man, a 48-year-old woman and a 2-year-old boy at a cellar-level apartment in Flushing, Queens; and a 66-year-old man at a cellar unit in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, based on statements from the city’s building department and New York Police Department.

City officials encouraged basement apartment residents to call 311 or 911 to report issues without fear of being vacated, unless they are facing life-threatening danger.

The risks posed to those living in basement apartments were raised in the city’s “stormwater resiliency plan,” released in May. It included an initiative to develop notifications for basement dwellings “to keep residents out of harm’s way” during extreme rain events, but the completion date wasn’t until 2023.

When asked about that timeline Friday, de Blasio said, “Clearly we have to change that.”

“This is a new deal we’re dealing with now, a new reality,” the mayor said. “We have to take the very muscular approaches that we have, the very forceful approaches like mandatory evacuation, like mandatory travel ban, and use those in ways we never had before, because events are just changing the paradigm constantly.”

On Friday, New York Attorney General Letitia James called on the city to provide emergency housing vouchers to all New Yorkers living in unregulated basement apartments, as extreme weather events have become “the rule, not the exception” due to climate change.

“We know that New York’s housing crisis has gone too far when tenants have to risk their lives just to have a roof over their heads,” James said in a statement. “To prevent these problems in the future, we must also ensure that basement units are safe for human occupancy and regularly inspected. Overcoming the twin threats of climate change and a housing crisis will not be simple, but we must ensure measures are in place to protect our neighbors and prevent a future catastrophe.”

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards also pointed to the city’s affordable housing crisis in the wake of the deadly flooding while pushing for more infrastructure investments in neighborhoods that have been “historically left behind.”

“The reason people are in basement apartments is because of the failure of New York City to really truly build out affordable housing,” he told Pix11 Friday morning. “I was a basement baby myself. … We lived in basements because it provided an affordable opportunity. So this was a failure on many levels, and we need to make sure we’re never back here again.”

ABC News’ Mark Crudele contributed to this report.

‘QAnon Shaman’ pleads guilty to felony charge for role in Jan. 6 Capitol riot

September 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — The Arizona man seen sporting a Viking helmet and fur vest during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol pleaded guilty Friday to one felony count related to his participation in the riot.

Jacob Chansley, the self-proclaimed “QAnon Shaman” who entered the Senate chamber and left an ominous note on a desk for then-Vice President Mike Pence, pleaded guilty to unlawfully obstructing an official proceeding — the most serious charge in the government’s indictment against him.

The other five charges against Chansley were dropped as part of a plea agreement he entered into with federal prosecutors.

Chansley is set to be sentenced November 17 and his conviction carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison — although another Capitol rioter who pleaded guilty to the same felony charge last month was only sentenced to eight months.

Chansley’s attorney, Al Watkins, said during a Friday hearing that he is seeking Chansley’s release pending sentencing, which a federal prosecutor said the government would oppose.

Chansley is one of the few rioters who has remained detained over the past eight months despite not being accused of participating in any violence against law enforcement during the riot.

Prosecutors argued he posed a danger to the public given his actions on Jan. 6, noting that he was among the first 30 members of the pro-Trump mob to enter the building and that he carried an American flag tied to a pole with a sharp object at the tip, which the government characterized as a “dangerous weapon.”

Upon entering the Senate chamber, Chansley could be seen in videos calling on other rioters to join him up on the dais where Pence was previously presiding over the counting of the electoral college vote.

Before being escorted out, Chansley left a note on the desk that said, “It’s Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!”

At least 600 individuals are currently facing federal charges in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to an analysis of public court records by ABC News.

As of Friday, approximately 60 accused rioters had either pleaded guilty or have plea hearings scheduled in the coming weeks.

Social media users mobilize to inundate tip line seeking Texas abortion law violations with spam

September 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(AUSTIN, Texas) — A website seeking anonymous tips on people violating Texas’ new law restricting abortions has been inundated with spam after viral calls from social media users.

The law, which went into effect on Wednesday, bans physicians from providing abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected (including embryonic cardiac activity). This can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. While the law prohibits the state from enforcing the ban, it instead authorizes private citizens to bring civil suits against anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion.

A “whistleblower” website set up by the anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life calls on community members to anonymously report anyone they think might be violating the law — which can even include a driver taking someone to a clinic.

As the online submission form spread across the internet, scores of social media users from TikTok to Twitter reacted by calling on people to flood the tip line with anything but violators.

One TikTok user said in a video that she had submitted 742 fake reports of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — a proponent of the law — getting an abortion.

“It would be a shame if TikTok crashed the Prolifewhistleblower.com website,” the caption stated. “Real shame.” The video garnered more than 80,000 likes and more than 480,000 views.

Another TikTok user even says he coded an iOS shortcut to let iPhone users submit false reports repeatedly. His video garnered more than 175,000 views.

The calls soon emerged on Twitter, Reddit and beyond — with users sharing images of themselves reporting fictional characters such as “Shrek” to uploading nonsensical memes online.

Diana, a New York-based social media user who asked to be identified by just her first name due to concerns speaking out could make her a target, told ABC News that she submitted an anonymous tip reporting a “Simpsons” character as an abortion physician.

Diana said she felt the law was a “huge blow to women’s rights” and a “huge step backwards.”

“It’s just a little step that I could do with my smartphone, it’s not like I did anything amazing, but there are people out there doing real work and I support them and I wish I was brave enough to do that,” she said.

“The purpose is to clog their inbox because it’s ridiculous,” she added. “You’re making your citizens turn against each other too, so it’s kind of two-fold if you ask me, you’re asking people to tattle on people that are — some of them may be trying to get life-saving services.”

“I think the main goal is to stop them from finding people that are trying to get life-saving services or personal health services,” she added, but said she would also be “happy” if her message even just angered someone on the receiving end.

This is not the first time social media users across the nation have banned together for a digital protest. Last year, TikTok users claimed responsibility for the dismal turnout at a Trump campaign rally — saying they mobilized to reserve tickets at the event they had no intention of attending.

Which states’ lawmakers have said they might copy Texas’ abortion law

September 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(AUSTIN, Texas) — In the wake of a severe new abortion law in Texas, some state lawmakers have said they will attempt to mimic the near-total abortion ban.

Texas’ law makes most abortions illegal after six weeks of pregnancy and encourages anyone to sue a person they believe is providing an abortion or assisting someone in getting an abortion after six weeks.

Although the law is being challenged — and although similar laws have been ruled unconstitutional following Supreme Court precedent — the Supreme Court rejected abortion providers’ call for an emergency injunction to block the law while courts hear the case. It went into effect this week.

This prompted several lawmakers to suggest they would look into similar laws in their own states, while existing similar bills got renewed attention.

Here’s a roundup of the states where these battles are playing out beyond Texas:

Arkansas:

Arkansas Republican state Sen. Jason Rapert, who represents the state’s 35th District and is running for lieutenant governor in 2022, tweeted on Thursday morning, “As the original sponsor of the first #HeartbeatBill to pass in America in 2013, today I have ordered a bill be filed in Arkansas to update our law to mirror the Texas SB8 bill.”

Rapert was a co-sponsor of Arkansas Senate Bill 6 (SB6) that was passed earlier this year and signed into law by Gov. Asa Hutchinson. S.B. 6 would create the “Arkansas Unborn Child Protection Act” and would ban most abortions in the state except to save the mother during a medical emergency.

That bill was blocked by a federal judge in July.

Florida:

Florida’s state legislature is not in session right now, but a Republican state lawmaker currently running for Congress in Democrat Stephanie Murphy’s district (FL-07), Anthony Sabatini, confirmed to ABC News on Thursday that he’s planning to introduce a bill that is the “exact same” as Texas’.

He said the bill is in the drafting stages.

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis hedged a bit more when asked by a reporter about the Texas law at a COVID-19 treatment press conference on Thursday.

“What they did in Texas was interesting, and I haven’t really been able to look enough about it,” DeSantis said. “They’ve basically done this through private right-of-action, so it’s a little bit different than how a lot of these debates have gone. So we’ll have to look; I’m going to look more significantly at it.”

South Dakota:

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem tweeted Thursday that she’s asked someone in her office to look into Texas’ new anti-abortion law and how it compares to South Dakota’s.

“Following the Supreme Court’s decision to leave the pro-life TX law in place, I have directed the Unborn Child Advocate in my office to immediately review the new TX law and current South Dakota laws to make sure we have the strongest pro life laws on the books in SD,” she tweeted from her official Twitter account.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports reproductive rights, in South Dakota abortion is banned at 20 or more weeks post-fertilization (22 weeks after the last menstrual period) except in cases of “life endangerment or severely compromised health.” The state also has a law on the books, as several others do, that would ban abortion if Roe v. Wade were overturned.

Idaho:

Idaho’s Republican Gov. Brad Little signed a legislature-backed bill in April that, like Oklahoma and Texas, would ban abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected. But the law would only go into effect 30 days after another federal appeals court allows “a restriction or ban on abortion for a preborn child because a detectable heartbeat is present on the grounds that such restriction or ban does not violate the United States constitution,” according to the bill’s text.

Indiana:

Republican legislators in Indiana expressed interest in mirroring the Texas law, but will not be broadening the upcoming special session of the legislature this fall to include discussing abortion legislation.

“We’re closely watching what’s happening in Texas in regards to their new pro-life law, including any legal challenges. Indiana is one of the most pro-life states in the country, and we’ll continue to examine ways to further protect life at all stages,” Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston said, according to a statement cited by the Associated Press.

If Indiana indeed begins debating similar legislation when the legislature meets in 2022, it will align with what reproduction rights advocates have said could be an upcoming flashpoint.

“Many state legislatures have adjourned and will resume meeting in 2022. This is when we anticipate we will see the majority of copycat legislation introduced,” Elisabeth Smith, Director of State Policy and Advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told ABC News by email Wednesday afternoon.

Oklahoma:

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Sitt signed various bills into law in April that would significantly limit abortions in the state, including by deeming performing most abortions to be “unprofessional conduct” that could get a physician’s license suspended, and a “heartbeat ban” similar to Texas’ new law that prohibits abortions if the fetus’ heartbeat can be detected, which can happen even only six weeks into pregnancy.

But on Thursday, in the wake of the Texas law, a group of reproduction rights groups and abortion providers, among others, sued to block the laws before they would take effect on Nov. 1. Before the Texas law, every other “heartbeat” ban was blocked by courts as unconstitutional following Supreme Court precedent.

“If allowed to take effect, these laws would end abortion access in Oklahoma, forcing patients to travel great distances and cross state lines to get essential health care,” Center for Reproductive Rights president Nancy Northrop said in a press release from the organization. “It’s unbelievable that in the midst of a global pandemic, Oklahoma’s lawmakers would have people drive hundreds of miles to access abortion services.”

After 4 nursing home deaths, Louisiana officials investigate Hurricane Ida evacuations

September 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(TANGIPAHOA PARISH, La.) — Louisiana officials are investigating a facility where nursing home residents were evacuated to after four residents died there ahead of Hurricane Ida.

The coroner determined three of the deaths to be storm-related, though the residents’ definitive causes of death have not been confirmed.

On Friday, Aug. 27, two days before Ida made landfall, the Louisiana Dept. of Health (LDH) learned of the four deaths at an unnamed facility in the Tangipahoa Parish.

After the hurricane hit, LDH was alerted to “deteriorating conditions” at this facility and officials “promptly visited” the site Tuesday — but were “expelled from the property and prevented from conducting a full assessment.”

Nola.com reports the facility was a warehouse “with overflowing toilets and piled up trash.” Officials and workers at the facility told Nola.com residents were trapped in “inhumane conditions.”

“We have significant concerns about conditions in this facility,” LDH said in a statement.

Unless under a mandatory evacuation order, nursing homes make the decision of when and where to evacuate, LDH said. These facilities are required to provide safe conditions for their residents.

LDH is removing 834 residents from seven nursing homes across four parishes. The most vulnerable residents are being moved first, the department said. As of Friday morning, LDH said it had moved 721 residents.

Twelve of the residents rescued required hospitalization, the department said.

“This is a serious and active investigation. We will be taking action against these nursing facilities, and will be making appropriate referrals to law enforcement,” LDH said in a statement.

Residents from the following nursing homes were evacuated to the facility under investigation: River Palms Nursing and Rehab, Orleans Parish; Maison Orleans Healthcare Center, Orleans Parish; Park Place Healthcare Nursing Home, Jefferson Parish; West Jefferson Health Care Center, Jefferson Parish; Maison DeVille Nursing Home of Harvey, Jefferson Parish; Maison DeVille Nursing Home, Terrebonne Parish; South Lafourche Nursing and Rehab, Lafourche Parish.

Ahmaud Arbery’s family welcomes indictment of ex-prosecutor over handling of son’s death

September 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(ATLANTA) — The parents of Ahmaud Arbery welcomed the indictment of a former district attorney for allegedly interfering with the arrest of one of the men involved in the shooting death of their son as well as showing favor to another.

Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was fatally shot while jogging on Feb. 23, 2020.

“Yesterday was a very huge win. I’m speechless,” Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said during a press conference on Friday.

She thanked Attorney General Chris Carr for staying in contact with the family and assuring them that justice would be served.

Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery, said that he is “grateful” for the indictment and that “everybody that had a hand on [Ahmaud’s] death needs to be brought to justice.”

According to the two-count indictment obtained by ABC News, former district attorney Jackie Lee Johnson was charged with violating her oath of office for allegedly “showing favor and affection to Greg McMichael during the investigation into the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery.”

McMichael is a retired investigator with the Brunswick District Attorney’s Office who previously served as a Glynn County police officer.

She is also charged with obstructing a law enforcement officer by allegedly “directing that Travis McMichael should not be placed under arrest,” the indictment said.

An attorney representing Johnson told ABC News on Friday they will not be commenting on the matter amid ongoing litigation.

“The path to justice for Ahmaud Aubrey and his family has been a long and arduous one, but the indictment is yet another step in the right direction,” Aubrey family attorney Benjamin Crump said during the press conference. “Former DA Johnson may not have pulled the trigger on the day Ahmaud was murdered, but she played a starring role in the cover up.”

Three white men in Georgia — Greg and Travis McMichael, a father and son, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. — were charged with murder for allegedly tracking down and fatally shooting Arbery.

All three pleaded not guilty and jury selection for the state trial is set to begin on Oct. 18.

According to a police report, McMichael claimed that he assumed Arbery was a person who committed “several break-ins” in their neighborhood when he and his son chased him down in a pickup truck.

Meanwhile, prosecutors allege Bryan struck Arbery with his vehicle while assisting the McMichaels in chasing him. Bryan also recorded cellphone video that captured Travis McMichael allegedly shooting Arbery with a shotgun during a struggle.

“The way he died, it just really devastated my family,” Marcus Arbery said. “I’m still struggling with it every day as a father because it’s my job to protect my children, and God knows I do that … I’m still hurt because all I got is pictures to look at him.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law in May repealing the state citizen’s arrest statute, therefore banning private citizens from arresting people they suspect committed a crime.

Arbery’s case did not gain national attention until a video of the shooting was leaked on social media, where it went viral.

An arrest was not made until more than two months after Arbery’s death. Amid national outcry, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case and arrested the McMichaels and Bryan.

Federal prosecutors filed hate crime and attempted kidnapping charges against the three men in April. They were arraigned in federal court in Brunswick, Georgia, in May and all three pleaded not guilty.

During the hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Benjamin Cheesbro read the federal complaint against the men, which alleges they “did willfully, by force and threat of force, injure, intimidate and interfere with Ahmaud Arbery, an African American man, because of his race and color.”

A trial is set for February 2022.

ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson and Abby Cruz contributed to this report.

Tennessee woman eases back to school stress for single moms by offering free hair braiding

September 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A Tennessee-based woman is easing back to school stress and boosting confidence by generously offering her hair braiding services for free.

Brittany Starks posted on Facebook: “Anyone know single parents who can’t afford to get their child’s hair done for school? I will braid it for free!”

Since posting, her inital ask has taken off like wildfire.

The single mother of two said she’s been homeless twice and in an unfortunate predicament where all of her children’s clothing was in storage and she faced the issue of trying to figure out how to make ends meet to get them what they needed before heading back to school.

Then, a family friend gave her children bookbags and clothes. “It was perfect,” she told “Good Morning America.” “So after that, I was thinking how can I give back?”

Once Starks realized how she could help other single mothers who may have been in similar situations to her own through offering free hair braiding, she thought only about seven people would reach out.

However, she’s now braided over 35 children’s hair.

Starks opened up about hearing some of the stories of the mothers of the children brought to her and mentioned how some had recently gone through a divorce and others were going through depression.

“I remember when I was depressed I wanted to die, and I know these moms probably don’t feel like doing anything as they are going through it trying to figure out ways to make themselves happy,” Starks said.

She continued: “There were also two little girls who didn’t go to school the first few days because they weren’t able to get their hair done.”

Starks also explained how some of the young girls would come in with a really quiet demeanor along with their heads down, but leave smiling and showing so much more of their personality after getting their hair styled.

Since offering her services at the beginning of August, Starks shared an updated social media post asking for help from other local braiders, due to the large number of children that have been reaching out to her.

She was able to book space at a church and other braiders such as Donna Garcia also offered their services. Together, they created a hair braiding event that Starks now looks forward to hosting monthly.

“The biggest response came after it went viral. I had other parents in other states reaching out to ask if I could braid their children’s hair,” said Starks.

While Starks said most of the hairstyles can be time-consuming, ranging from four to six hours and priced between $120 – $250 and up, seeing each parent and child smile makes every moment worth it.

“I didn’t expect all of this at all. I’ve been surprised and overwhelmed at the same time,” said Starks. “I just feel like it was such a big blessing and I feel like I’ve found my purpose in life.”

Mom battling COVID-19 gives birth after evacuating Hurricane Ida

September 3, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(Courtesy Ross and Angeline Eschette) Ross and Angeline Eschette pose with their newborn daughter at Nacogdoches Medical Center, in Nacogdoches, Texas.

(LOCKPORT, La.) — Ross and Angeline Eschette and their 7-year-old son evacuated their home state of Louisiana for Texas this weekend as Hurricane Ida prepared to hit.

The Eschettes will return to their home in Lockport later this week as a family of four after Angel Eschette gave birth while evacuated.

“She wanted to be part of the hurricane party,” Ross Eschette said of the couple’s newborn daughter, Adeline Grace, born on Aug. 30, just after Ida battered Louisiana as a fierce Category 4 storm.

Angeline Eschette’s original due date was Sept. 17, but her water broke overnight on Aug. 30 as they stayed with extended family members at a hotel in Nacogdoches, Texas.

The Eschettes, both natives of Lockport, a small town of about 3,000 people one hour outside of New Orleans, said they had weathered hurricanes before, but did not want to take any chances with Ida while expecting their second child.

“My No. 1 concern was to get as far away from the storm as possible, just to keep her from having the baby,” said Ross Eschette, 36. “In planning the evacuation, it wasn’t just let’s find a [hotel] room and go there, it was let’s find a hospital and then find a room nearby.”

The Eschettes said they not only had to evacuate their home and find a hospital away from home that they could be near, but also did so while Angeline Eschette, 33, dealt with a higher risk pregnancy due to gestational diabetes and was quarantining after testing positive for COVID-19.

“I was waiting to get vaccinated until after I gave birth. Even though they said there’s no harm, I still had my concerns about it,” she said. “But I was very lucky to not have a severe case.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month strengthened its recommendation for COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, stating that all women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or trying to get pregnant now or might become pregnant in the future should get a COVID-19 vaccine.

The Eschettes and their family members drove an RV six hours from their home in Lockport to Nacogdoches, where Angeline Eschette gave birth at Nacogdoches Medical Center.

Ross Eschette, who did not contract COVID-19, was able to stay with his wife and daughter in the hospital room, but was not allowed to leave due to COVID restrictions.

Adeline Grace was born healthy, weighing in at 8 pounds and one ounce, according to her parents.

Both of Adeline’s great-great-grandmothers are, by chance, named Ida, according to Angeline, who said she did not consider the name for her daughter.

“When Hurricane Katrina hit our area, everybody named their babies Katrina after that, so my nephew thought it would be funny to name her Ida and then said he was going to call her Ida Lynn,” said Angeline. “I said, ‘No, that’s not going on the birth certificate.'”

Both Angeline and Ross Eschette said they have had to balance their joy at the birth of their daughter with the heartache of the devastation caused by Hurricane Ida, particularly in Lockport.

The family said the hospitals in the area, including where Angeline planned to give birth, all had to evacuate their patients during the storm for various reasons.

“In the situation that we were in, we definitely made the right choice,” said Ross Eschette. “And we’ve been treated with the utmost respect [at Nacogdoches Medical Center]. They definitely made our experience everything we needed it to be.”

“I feel lucky to be safe in a place that was out of harm’s way and that I had a safe place to deliver,” added Angeline Eschette.

The couple said they have heard from neighbors that their home’s roof was severely damaged but their house is still standing. They expect electricity in their town to be out for the next three to four weeks.

As of Wednesday, over 884,000 customers remained without power in Louisiana, according to a report from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) obtained by ABC News.

“It’s hard for us to stay here for a while financially so we will try to make our way back home towards the end of the week,” said Angeline Eschette, who was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday. “We have a camper and they have a few campgrounds where we’re going to try to set up because we can’t go back home right now. Our town is just a disaster.”

Ross Eschette said he has been in touch with friends who stayed behind in Lockport to see what supplies are needed so that they can try to get them in Texas before they drive home.

“People are watching the news and seeing the devastation of what our hometown and the surrounding area are going through, but the number one thing about us is we are the most resilient people in the world,” he said. “We all come together and we’re going to rebuild better than ever. It’s definitely not going to stop us.”

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