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Tylenol during pregnancy has no link to autism, large study finds

April 15, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Taking acetaminophen, also known by the brand name Tylenol, during pregnancy had no effect on children developing autism, according to a study of over 1.5 million children in Denmark published this week.

The study was published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Researchers analyzed 1.5 million children born between 1997 and 2022. About 1.8% of those who were exposed to Tylenol during pregnancy developed autism compared to 3.0% of those who were not exposed to Tylenol.

A prior study out of Sweden looked at siblings, finding no causal link between autism and Tylenol exposure during pregnancy. There are genetic associations and environmental triggers that are likely involved, but neither Tylenol nor vaccines has been shown to be the cause of autism.

The new study out this week comes after President Donald Trump and his administration had previously urged pregnant mothers to avoid Tylenol, without substantive evidence for the claims.

“With Tylenol, don’t take it. Don’t take it,” Trump said during a press event at the White House in September. “If you can’t live, if your fever is so bad, you have to take one, because there’s no alternative to that.”

The FDA then initiated a process to update the safety label on acetaminophen to suggest that its use during pregnancy and autism were linked.

At the time, Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, wrote in part of a statement, “We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism. We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers.”

At the time, medical organizations, like the American College of Obstetrician & Gynecologists, immediately pushed back, noting that Tylenol was one of the few options for pregnant women to treat pain and fever, which can be harmful when left untreated.

It is generally not recommended for pregnant women to take ibuprofen, Advil, during pregnancy due to the risk of complications.

Nevertheless, the claims made by the administration have led to confusion. A prior study found that Tylenol use in emergency departments dipped 16% immediately following the announcement by the administration.

ABC News reached out to Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, for a statement but did not immediately hear back.

Growing number of trauma, brain injuries linked to e-bikes and e-scooters at 1 hospital: Study

April 15, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — E-bikes and e-scooters led to a growing number of trauma injuries at one New York City hospital, according to a new study published Wednesday.

About 7% of all trauma visits between 2018 and 2023 at Bellevue Hospital Center were due to micromobility injuries. Micromobility is the use of small, lightweight and low-speed modes of transportation such as bicycles, e-bikes and e-scooters.

The study showed a growing share of patients who sustained these injuries had accidents linked to e-bikes or e-scooters.

Hospital data showed that, by 2023, over half of all trauma cases related to bikes or scooters involved an e-bike or e-scooter, an increase from just 8% in 2018, according to the study, published in the journal Neurosurgery.

The most common type of mechanism involved a collision with a motor vehicle followed by falls from the bike or scooter.

Bellevue is a Level 1 Trauma center in a large metropolitan city, designed to treat the worst kinds of injuries. Over the study period, about 30% of patients suffered a traumatic brain injury, 26% had injury to the skull or face and 50% required surgery.

“Our study shows that micromobility injuries are producing serious brain and spinal trauma that demands neurosurgical care at a scale we haven’t seen before,” corresponding study author Dr. Hannah Weiss, a resident in the Department of Neurosurgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said in a press release. “In a busy urban setting, we are seeing more and more of these injuries firsthand.”

Most patients seen for these injuries, nearly 69%, needed to be admitted to the hospital and nearly a third needed intensive care.

The majority of patients stayed at least three days in the hospital. Pedestrians who were struck had higher rates of traumatic brain injuries and were more likely to be admitted for intensive care.

“The data point to actionable solutions — helmet use, safer bike lane design and enforcement — that could prevent many of these injuries and better protect both riders and pedestrians, who in our study often sustained even more severe brain injuries than the riders themselves,” Weiss said.

About 20% of patients were intoxicated with alcohol, only 31% were using a helmet and injuries were more likely to occur in the evening hours, according to the study.

“Our findings make clear that urban infrastructure must continue to improve to keep pace with the rapid rise of electric bikes and scooters,” Dr. Paul P. Huang, an associate professor in the department of neurosurgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and chief of neurosurgery at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, said in a press release.

“Future studies should track these injuries across multiple cities and measure whether protected bike lanes, helmet programs, and speed enforcement actually reduce the number of brain and spine surgeries we perform,” Huang added,

Jade A. Cobern, MD, MPH, is a practicing physician, board-certified in pediatrics and general preventive medicine, and is a fellow of the ABC News Medical Unit.

4 rescued, including child, after hunting party gets stuck on ice floe in Alaska: Coast Guard

April 15, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(ALASKA) — Four people, including a child, who got trapped on an ice floe during a seal hunting expedition in Alaska were safely rescued, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday, calling it one of the most “challenging missions” the helicopter crew has ever flown.

The daring rescue occurred early Sunday, approximately 10 miles west of Chefornak, a remote village in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region in southwestern Alaska.

Alaska State Troopers reported to the Coast Guard at 4:24 p.m. on Saturday that a “group of four people on a subsistence seal hunting expedition required assistance after being trapped on the ice for over 24 hours,” the Coast Guard said in a press release.

The group managed to free the 18-foot vessel overnight, but moving ice prevented it from reaching the shore, the Coast Guard said.

An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak reached the scene at approximately 5 p.m. Sunday, and all four people — three adults and one child — were safely hoisted aboard, according to the Coast Guard, which released video footage of the rescue.

The conditions at the time included 28-degree air temperature and 29 mph winds, the Coast Guard said.

The individuals were transported back to Chefornak with no reported injuries, the Coast Guard said.

“Our entire crew agreed this was one of the most challenging missions any of us had ever flown,” Lt. Cmdr. Alexis Chavarria-Aguilar, pilot-in-command for the helicopter, said in a statement. “We battled nearly every Alaska-centric aviation weather hazard imaginable, such as flying over 800 miles in near-zero visibility through mountainous terrain, blowing snow and icing conditions.”

“It was a long, difficult night, but I’m so proud of everyone involved who worked seamlessly together to bring four people home safely,” he added.

The Coast Guard noted that the hunting party had three forms of communication on their vessel — including satellite-based — which “greatly enhanced” the aircrew’s ability to find and rescue them.

Live Nation illegally monopolized the market for tickets, jury finds

April 15, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Live Nation illegally monopolized the market for tickets, protecting its position through pressure and leverage, jurors in Manhattan federal court found Wednesday.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

S&P 500 hits record high as US-Iran ceasefire enters second week

April 15, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The S&P 500 hit a record high on Wednesday as the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran entered its second week, appearing to boost hopes of a resolution to the Middle East conflict.

The uptick in markets came hours after President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to wind down the conflict, saying the war is “very close to over” in a portion of an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that aired on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.5% on Wednesday, registering at 7,005.78 points. The index reached a previous high of 7,002.28 points on Jan. 28.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 125 points, or 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 1.1%.

Markets have swung dramatically over the weeks following the start of the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, as investors weathered a historic global oil shock and digested mixed signals from Trump.

Stocks moved higher on a largely consistent basis in April, however, in response to an apparent willingness on the part of both sides to end fighting and negotiate a temporary truce.

The U.S. continues to mount a naval blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, exerting pressure on Tehran by choking off a key source of revenue.

On Wednesday, the commander of the Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters of Iran’s armed forces said the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is a “violation of the ceasefire,” in a statement published by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

The war prompted Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway that facilitates the transport of about one-fifth of the global supply of oil and natural gas.

The disruption amounted to the “most severe oil supply shock in history,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report on Tuesday. Oil and gasoline prices soared, prompting some economists to warn of a possible recession.

U.S. oil prices have fallen from a recent peak achieved in the early days of the war, but costs remain nearly 40% higher than pre-war levels.

U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan over the weekend failed to secure a peace deal. Trump said that Iran’s alleged unwillingness to abandon its nuclear program was the key sticking point, and that the U.S. would respond with a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which began Monday.

Israel, meanwhile, has continued ground operations and intense strikes in Lebanon, where it is engaged with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he supported the ceasefire with Iran, but that Lebanon was not covered by the agreement, despite Iranian protests.

ABC News’ David Brennan, Meredith Deliso, and Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report.

SantaCon organizer charged for allegedly spending charity money on personal expenses

April 15, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Federal prosecutors arrested the organizer of New York City’s controversial SantaCon bar crawl Wednesday after they say he allegedly kept a lot of the holiday joy for himself.

Stefan Pildes, 50, is facing federal wire fraud charges that accuse him of siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars in charitable funds for his own use, including for concert tickets and vacations.

SantaCon is an event held annually in December in which thousands of attendees dress as Santa Claus and other holiday characters and travel to bars and restaurants throughout the day.

The event is billed as “a charitable, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus convention that happens once a year to spread absurdist joy” that charges attendees tickets that cost between $10 and $20, the indictment said.

“When one Attendee, for example, asked what she would receive for purchasing a ticket, the SantaCon Email responded, in part, ‘your donation goes to charity and it is only a few bucks and that good feeling will warm your heart faster than whiskey and gingerbread,'” the indictment said.

But of nearly $3 million Pildes raised since 2019, he allegedly diverted more than half to an entity he used as a slush fund, according to an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court.

Prosecutors allege Pildes used the money for personal expenses, including $365,000 to renovate a lakefront property in New Jersey, $124,000 toward the lease of a “luxury Manhattan apartment,” a “$100,000 investment in a boutique resort in Costa Rica founded by a personal friend,” and a nearly $3,000 birthday dinner, the indictment said.

Pildes was expected to appear in court later Wednesday, and it was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.

He is charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

The bar crawl has become a controversial event in Manhattan with complaints from local leaders and residents accusing some intoxicated Santa-dressed revelers of causing disturbances during the day

The NYPD has issued several summonses and made some arrests at past SantaCons.

-ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.

DHS employee killed while walking her dog in Atlanta shooting spree

April 15, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(ATLANTA) — A Department of Homeland Security employee was “brutally shot and stabbed to death,” Monday, according to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, in a shooting spree across the Atlanta area, in which one other person was killed and a third is in critical condition.

Lauren Bullis was walking her dog on Monday, when she was randomly attacked, allegedly stabbed and shot by Olaolukitan Adon Abel, a 26-year-old born in the United Kingdom who was naturalized in 2022, Mullin said.

“He possesses a prior criminal record that includes convictions for sexual battery, battery against a police officer, obstruction, and assault with a deadly weapon, vandalism and now stands accused of murdering @DHSgov employee Lauren Bullis by shooting and stabbing her while she walked her dog,” Mullin wrote on X.

Mullin said Abel was arrested for reportedly shooting a woman to death outside a restaurant before “randomly shooting a homeless man multiple times” outside a supermarket. ABC affiliate WSB reported that man is in critical condition.

Police said Abel, 26, shot and stabbed Burris about four hours later, according to WSB.

Police raided a home that the suspect rented near where Burris was attacked and arrested Abel, WSB reported, who faces at least six charges, including murder, aggravated assault and possession of a gun as a convicted felon.

FAA investigating after large chunk of ice crashes through California house and lands on couch

April 15, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — Federal authorities are investigating after a California resident reported that a large chunk of ice fell from the sky and crashed through the roof of a house and landed on a couch.

The incident occurred around 11:15 a.m. on Friday at a home in Whittier in Los Angeles County, according to local officials.

The resident reported hearing “what sounded like an explosion” and found a large block of dirty-looking ice on the living room couch, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office said in a press release on Tuesday.

The ice had crashed through the roof and ceiling, according to Hahn’s office, which released photos of the damage to the home.

No one was injured in the incident, Hahn’s office said.

Local law enforcement and fire personnel responded and classified the situation as a “suspicious circumstance,” and the resident submitted a report to the Federal Aviation Administration, according to Hahn.

The home is under the Los Angeles International Airport landing approach. Data from Flightradar24 shows there were planes flying over the house around the time of the incident, and there is a plane over the house approximately every 3 minutes.

Hahn has called for a “thorough and timely” investigation into the incident in a letter to the FAA. The letter, dated Tuesday, noted that a “large mass of ice penetrated the roof of a residential home, causing significant structural damage and posing substantial risk of injury or loss of life.”

“While such incidents are rare, the potential consequences are extremely serious,” Hahn wrote. “Whether the material originated from aircraft systems, waste leakage, or another source, this event raises important concerns about aviation safety over densely populated communities in Los Angeles County.”

The FAA said it is investigating, and that the agency investigates every report it receives alleging ice fell from an airplane and damaged property.

The homeowner, Thania Magana, had reached out to Hahn on Saturday, “requesting assistance ensuring this incident is properly investigated,” Hahn’s office said.

Magana told ABC Los Angeles station KABC that the ice smelled bad and she’s concerned that she touched it.

“We definitely want to know what it consists of and if it’s going to affect our health,” she told the station.

If the ice was due to a plane, Magana told KABC that she wants to “understand why it happens, because even right now as we’re speaking, there’s a plane flying over us and it’s scary.”

DOJ prosecutors turned away after unannounced visit to Fed construction site: sources

April 15, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Prosecutors from the U.S. attorneys office in Washington were turned away Tuesday after they made an unannounced visit to the Federal Reserve, where they allegedly requested a tour of renovations that have attracted scrutiny from the Trump administration, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.

The unusual visit prompted immediate backlash from an attorney for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who wrote a letter to D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office, citing the recent ruling from a federal judge that blocked subpoenas to the bank after determining DOJ’s criminal probe was driven by President Donald Trump’s political animus towards Powell.

Robert Hur, who formerly served as special counsel who investigated former President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents and now represents Powell, warned DOJ in the letter reviewed by ABC News that future efforts to initiate contact with Fed representatives should be negotiated through legal counsel.

“As you know, Chief Judge [James] Boasberg has concluded that your interest in the Federal Reserve’s renovation project was pretextual. Should you wish to challenge that finding, the courts provide an avenue for you; it is not appropriate for you to try to circumvent it,” Hur said. “I ask that you commit not to seek to communicate with my client outside the presence of counsel.”

According to Hur’s letter, attorneys from Pirro’s office, Carlton Davis and Steven Vandervelden, and a case agent showed up at the Fed’s headquarters, stating they wished to “check on progress” and that they asked for a “tour.”

A source said they were then told they could not access the site without preauthorized clearance from Fed management and were given the contact information for the Fed’s legal counsel, after which the three left the area.

“Any construction project that has cost overruns of almost 80% over the original construction budget deserves some serious review,” Pirro said in a statement on X after the prosecutors were turned away. “And these people are in charge of monetary policy in the United States?”

Pirro publicly vented her frustrations about Boasberg’s ruling that effectively blocked her office from investigating Powell, which she has vowed to continue appealing despite threats from Republican Sen. Thom Tillis to block any confirmation of Powell’s replacement until the criminal probe is resolved.

The probe centered on Powell’s testimony to Congress last year about cost overruns in a multibillion-dollar office renovation project.

Trump on Wednesday again threatened to fire Powell if he does not step down when his term as chair ends May 15.

“I’ll have to fire him, OK, if he’s not leaving on time — I’ve held back firing him. I’ve wanted to fire him, but I hate to be controversial, you know, I want to be uncontroversial,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo.

Legal experts have questioned if Trump has the authority to fire Powell. His attempt to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook last year is currently awaiting a decision at the Supreme Court.

The confrontational visit also comes as Pirro’s name has repeatedly been floated as a potential permanent replacement for Pam Bondi as the next attorney general.

Powell rebuked the investigation in a video message in January as a politically motivated effort to influence the Fed’s interest rate policy.

Pirro, at a press conference in March, denied that politics played any role in her probe of Powell and the focus was whether public money has been wasted as a result of the Fed’s renovations, and potential false statements to Congress by Powell about the operations.

Molotov cocktail apparently used to start fire at Tesla sales office: ATF

April 15, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(NEW ORLEANS) — An apparent Molotov cocktail was used to start a fire outside a Tesla sales office in New Orleans, according to federal officials.

The incendiary device sparked a blaze at the office’s front door just before 8 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and New Orleans police.

No one was injured, but the business suffered damage, police said.

No arrests have been made, police said.

ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

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