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(NEW YORK) — “The Godmother” of Manhattan’s go-to spot for everything bling has neither a cat nor cannolis, but she has cemented her position as a leading jeweler in a field dominated by men.

Kerri Lavine, who earned her nickname after a photo captured her holding a cognac snifter in one hand and a cigar in the other, has been a longtime jeweler in the Diamond District, a strip of 47th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues that is home to over 2,600 businesses, according to the Diamond District Partnership, a business improvement coalition.

Lavine, the co-owner of Diamanti NYC who has been a jeweler for over 43 years, told ABC News that her business has always been a hustle — not only because she had to compete in one of the busiest jewelry shopping districts in the world, but also in an industry controlled by men.

“The only thing that matters is your reputation. You have one chance to give a first impression. If you lose that opportunity, it ruins you forever,” she said.

As more women get into the business and set up shop in the district, some are taking their hustle to new avenues and adding their own chapter to the district’s legacy.

The Diamond District has encompassed several locations in Manhattan since the 18th century, but its 47th Street location has been around since the 1940s, according to the Diamond District Partnership.

Some European Jewish refugees who fled to New York set up shops in the district and many of them are still in operation, the partnership said.

Lavine said that while the stores may have more modern amenities, such as lavish lights, more high-tech security and web retail options, owners still follow a lot of the old-time traditions of working with customers to find the right item and, more importantly, a bargain.

“Everything was always done on a handshake in our business. It was like you shook a hand, [and] you said ‘mazal,’ [it] meant the deal is done,” she said.

Lavine, who said she once had to duck for cover during a shootout in the district in the 1980s, said she has no intention of retiring.

“They’ll take me out in a wooden box on 47th Street because I don’t look at it going to work as a job,” she said.

She added that she’s excited by the growth of female jewelers in the area, including one of her younger colleagues, Julia Azeroual.

Azeroual, who specializes in watches, told ABC News that she’s drawn to the hustle of the industry and also feels pride in putting her own stamp on a sale.

“I came from nowhere, and I’m a woman and I put my name on it,” she said.

Azeroual said she, too, anticipates the challenge of working in a male-dominated industry

“And having the respect on men, that they’re like 20 years in the block. It’s the best thing ever. Your ego goes up,” she said.

And Azeroual’s talents go far beyond 47th Street. She started social media accounts for herself, Lavine and the store and they quickly took off, especially on TikTok.

Videos of the jewelers feature them showing off their bling, talking about their expertise and sharing their personalities to a new audience.

Lavine said she is pleasantly surprised when very young customers come in and recognize her from social media.

“The young kids today come to me like I’m their mother. ‘Help me. Talk to me. You’re the OG,'” she said, referring to the term “original gangster,” describing someone who has a pioneering impact on an industry.

Azeroual said her goal was to get more women in the watch industry and to become an even bigger seller than she is now.

“I would like to inspire more women in the business, to be honest, and to grow,” she said. “And to be first successful watch dealer woman on 47th Street or in the word, who knows?”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Environmental Protection Agency announced its new emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles on Friday, which the agency claims will avoid 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

The move comes in an election year when the Biden-Harris campaign is working to demonstrate achievements in their climate agenda.

The new standards impact vehicles such as freight trucks and buses manufactured for model years 2027-2032. This follows last week’s announcement of updated standards for light and medium-duty vehicles.

“In finalizing these emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles like trucks and buses, EPA is significantly cutting pollution from the hardest working vehicles on the road,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a news release. “Building on our recently finalized rule for light- and medium-duty vehicles, EPA’s strong and durable vehicle standards respond to the urgency of the climate crisis by making deep cuts in emissions from the transportation sector.”

The new performance-based standards reduce the allowed emissions across manufacturer fleets, but are technology-neutral, according to the EPA. This means manufacturers can utilize different combinations of emissions control technologies in order to meet the emissions requirements, including advanced internal combustion engines, hybrids, battery electric vehicles and others.

Over the period covered by the new standards, model years 2027-2032, the required emissions reductions will gradually increase each year.

The administration noted in its announcement of the new rules that heavy-duty vehicles are “vital to the United States economy,” but said that they do create about 25% of greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.

“The 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions avoided by these standards is equivalent to the emissions from more than 13 million tanker trucks’ worth of gasoline,” the EPA said in the release. “With this action, the Biden-Harris Administration is continuing to deliver on the most ambitious climate agenda in history while advancing a historic commitment to environmental justice.”

American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer celebrated the announcement in a statement on Friday.

“Transportation is the largest source of pollution driving climate change. These strong standards that will help drive toward a zero-emission future for trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles are a critical part of the solution The American Lung Association celebrates this new rule, which will improve the health of people across the U.S.,” Wimmer wrote.

The administration estimates the new standards will also provide $13 billion in net societal benefits via savings related to public health, the climate and for truck owners and operators.

“EPA’s clean truck standards will cut one billion metric tons of climate pollution by 2055. They’ll also reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxides by 53,000 tons in 2055,” the Environmental Defense Fund noted. “And they’ll save our country money — $3.5 billion in average annual savings for fleets, $300 million in average annual health benefits and $13 billion in total annual societal benefits.”

The Heavy-Duty Leadership Group, a self-described “informal alliance of the nation’s leading heavy-duty manufacturers and supply companies,” responded to the new standards Friday, emphasizing their own commitment to reducing emissions from their products. The companies also credited the EPA’s prior rules for “accelerating the industry’s adoption of advanced technologies while minimizing market disruption.”

Cynthia Williams, Ford Motor Company’s global director of sustainability, homologation and compliance, said the EPA’s new rule is “challenging,” but that “Ford is working aggressively to meet the moment.”

“Our industry is making important progress to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in both light- and heavy-duty vehicles,” Williams said in a statement. “We also need policymakers to pair emission standards with incentives and public investment so that we can continue to deliver on the next generation of vehicles and for our nation to lead the future of this industry.”

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(NEW YORK) — Numerous weather alerts have been issued for California, Nevada and Arizona, including a flood watch for Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego, with a significant storm on its way to the West Coast.

After a storm brought 10 to 13 inches of snow from California to Utah earlier this week, a bigger storm is on its way to Southern California with flash flooding, strong winds and heavy snow.

The heaviest rain will move into the San Fransisco Bay area late Friday morning into early afternoon before moving down the coast into Santa Barbara and Los Angeles by the evening and into Saturday morning.

On-and-off showers with thunderstorms will continue Saturday into Sunday for Southern California, including San Diego.

Most areas will see 1 to 3 inches of rain; locally, in the foothills of southern California, up to 6 inches of rain is possible. This could cause cause flash flooding, mudslides, rockslides and debris flow.

In the mountains, from the Sierras to southern California, about 1 to 3 feet of snow are expected.

By Sunday, part of the same storm system will move into the Rockies with heavy snow possible there — locally 1 to 2 feet.

By Monday, the storm will move into the Heartland with severe weather possible from Texas to Illinois. The biggest threat with these storms will be damaging winds, hail and a few tornadoes.

By Tuesday, severe weather will move into the Ohio River Valley and the Mid-South from Alabama to Ohio with damaging winds, heavy rain and isolated tornadoes.

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(LONDON) — Friday marks a year since Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia. The first American reporter to be imprisoned by Moscow since the Cold War, he remains trapped in jail while the United States struggles to find a deal with Russia to free him.

Gershkovich, 32, has now spent 12 months in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison on espionage charges that his newspaper, dozens of leading international media organizations and the U.S. government have denounced as false. He has pleaded not guilty.

The fight to free Gershkovich has become a cause championed by defenders of press freedom around the world, as well as a grueling personal battle for his family. His detention has also changed how international media cover Russia, with most leading outlets no longer basing correspondents in the country.

In an interview this week with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Gershkovich’s parents expressed hope that the Biden administration‘s efforts to have their son released, saying from prison he is also striving to keep their spirits up.

“I think if you let the pessimism in … the game is over,” Ella Millman, Gershkovich’s mother, told George Stephanopoulos in the interview. “And our saying in the family is we’re moving forward. Moving forward.”President Joe Biden has said bringing Gershkovich home is a top priority, and his administration has indicated it is continuing to negotiate with Russia to try to find a deal to release him.Gershkovich, who had worked as a journalist in Russia for several years and was accredited by the Russian foreign ministry, was detained by the FSB domestic intelligence agency last March while on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg. FSB officers seized him as he sat in a steak restaurant.

Since then, he has been kept mostly in a two-person cell in Lefortovo, a former KGB jail, awaiting trial. A court this week extended his pretrial detention for a fifth time. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

A native of New Jersey, Gershkovich worked for The New York Times as a news assistant before moving to Russia in 2017 to work first for The Moscow Times and later Agence France-Presse. His parents were Soviet Jewish émigrés, who left Russia in 1979, and Gershkovich grew up speaking Russian, later becoming fascinated with the country. He joined the Wall Street Journal in January 2022.

“Our main focus at the Journal has been to keep Evan’s story front and of mind, to remind people that an innocent journalist is behind bars, in prison of doing his job,” the Journal’s editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said in the “GMA” interview.

Gershkovich is one of several Americans seized by Russia in recent years — among them the WNBA star Brittney Griner — as part of an apparently intensifying campaign of hostage-taking. A former Marine, Paul Whelan, has been imprisoned since 2018 on espionage charges the U.S. and his family say are fabricated. Another U.S. journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has been in detention since October, charged under a law used to censor criticism of Russia’s military. Press freedom groups have condemned her arrest and joined RFE/RL in calling for her release.

Griner was released in a prisoner exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in December 2022.

In recent months, Russian officials have indicated that they view Gershkovich as a bargaining chip, hoping to exchange him for Russians held in Western countries. President Vladimir Putin, in an interview in February, said he wanted a deal with the U.S. to free Gershkovich. Putin signaled he may want to trade Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian man jailed in Germany as an FSB assassin.

The U.S. in December said Russia had rejected an offer that would have freed Gershkovich and Whelan.

President Biden has met with Gershkovich’s parents. He mentioned Gershkovich and Whelan in his State of the Union address in March, saying, “We’ll work around the clock to bring home Evan and Paul,” as Gershkovich’s parents sat in the audience.

“We were happy that both governments have expressed willingness to negotiate,” his father, Mikhail Gershkovich, told Stephanopoulos. “We are confident that [the White House is] doing everything they can, and we want them to continue to do that.”

The U.S. and the Kremlin have both indicated that talks about a deal are ongoing. Those close to the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who died in prison last month, have claimed there were discussions for a possible trade that would have freed Navalny, as well as Gershkovich and Whelan, in exchange for the Russian assassin, Krasikov.

The Wall Street Journal this week reported Biden and Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz had discussed such a trade but that Navalny had died before it could be proposed to Putin. Navalny’s team has accused Putin of killing Navalny to prevent the trade.

Tucker, the Wall Street Journal’s editor-in-chief, this week expressed confidence that a deal can still be reached.

“Evan will be released, but it’s complicated to get there,” she said. “There are a lot of different people and governments involved. So I think, you know, we just have to be patient, and optimistic.”

The Wall Street Journal has been leading an international campaign among his colleagues and friends to keep attention on Gershkovich’s case, including holding runs for him and 24-hour “read-a-thons” of his work. Time Magazine this month put Gershkovich on its front page.

Gershkovich is able to send and receive letters from prison, keeping in contact with friends and family, who say he retains his characteristic humor. He has even been arranging via others to have gifts delivered for friends’ birthdays and other occasions. The Journal has encouraged people to send letters to Gershkovich via its site.

“He remembers his friends’ birthdays. We received flowers from him for International Women’s Day on March 8,” his mother told ABC News. “He really cares. He wants to thank people for their care about him, for keeping his story front and center.”

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