News – Page 509 – 105.7 WDNY

British surgeon volunteering in Gaza hospital details ‘dire situation’

June 4, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(GAZA and LONDON) — This is not the first time Dr. Victoria Rose has visited the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, but she said the current situation on the ground is the worst she’s ever seen it.

Rose, a London-based consultant plastic surgeon, has been volunteering in weekslong stints at Gaza hospitals since the ongoing Israel-Hamas war erupted in October 2023. Most recently, she spent the month of May operating on the wounded at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, the largest referral hospital — and now the only one still functioning — in southern Gaza.

“I think it’s mainly the volume of patients that are coming in now. When we were here in August, we were seeing a lot of bomb victims, but not as many as we’re seeing now,” Rose told ABC News during an interview at the hospital on Saturday.

“We are seeing patients, we’re getting them on the operating table, we are cleaning the wounds and we are making a plan for their reconstruction,” she added. “And then we’re sending them back to the ward and then we’re not getting a chance to get them back and do the reconstruction because so many more new bomb injuries come in and then we start again. So it’s very difficult to keep up with this ongoing workload that’s coming through the door.”

Rose said Israeli forces have been relentlessly bombing the area in recent weeks and, as a result, Nasser Medical Complex has seen a surge in patients. ABC News was allowed into the hospital’s operating room as Rose performed extensive surgery on an 18-year-old patient, who she said “had quite a significant injury to his right arm” from a blast.

“If they just stop bombing us for a couple of days, it would mean that we could catch up with the backload,” Rose said. “I woke up this morning at 2 a.m. to nonstop bombing and all I could think about is the number of patients that that’s going to bring through the door that we can’t cope with here.”

The Israel Defense Forces launched an extensive new ground operation in Gaza last month targeting Hamas militants and what it called “terrorist infrastructure sites above and below ground.”

At least 54,381 people in Gaza have been killed and 124,054 have been wounded, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, since the war began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking hundreds hostage. At least 20 hostages remain in Hamas captivity.

Bed occupancy at Nasser Medical Complex is currently over 100%, while 47% of essential drugs are out of stock at the hospital along with 65% of all consumable items, according to Rose.

“So we really are on our knees at the moment. We don’t have anything,” she told ABC News. “And on top of that, we have a really, really depleted health care staff.”

“We’ve lost a lot of them because they’ve been displaced and they’ve had to move, so they can’t get to the hospital,” she continued. “We’ve a lost a lot them because they have been detained or they’ve left Gaza. The staff that we have are tired. They’ve been working nonstop since the war started. So it’s a really difficult situation all around.”

The hospital is located about a mile from where active fighting is currently taking place between Israeli forces and Hamas militants, according to Rose, who fears that Israeli troops will “encircle us” and “cut us off completely” rather than evacuate the complex.

“So it’s a really dire situation because if Nasser goes out of function, all of the patients that you see here on the ICU department will die — and this is one of three ICUs that we have at Nasser,” Rose said, referring to the critically ill patients lying in beds behind her. “Plus, the fact that none of the other hospitals around us — even combined — could take the number of patients that we have here.”

Rose said she’s also seen the effects of malnutrition on the civilian population, particularly children, after Israel’s 11-week blockade on all food and other essential supplies entering Gaza. Since May 19, Israel has allowed a limited amount of humanitarian aid into the Hamas-governed Palestinian territory, but the United Nations and other organizations have repeatedly warned it’s far from enough and that famine is imminent.

“We have had a patient in our operating theater where we’ve had to cancel the procedure because he was so malnourished and we didn’t feel that he would survive the surgery,” Rose told ABC News. “The other thing that we are noticing is that people are not able to heal their wounds as effectively as they should do. So because of the malnutrition, they’re not getting the essential nutrients and vitamins they need.”

Cell turnover — the process of producing new skin cells — “is poor, so they’re not healing,” Rose said.

She added, “Coupled with that, there’s a massive spike in infection this time compared to when we were here in August. Everybody’s wounds get infected and that’s a real sign of malnutrition.”

ABC News’ Helena Skinner contributed to this report.

‘Immoral’: Republican senator challenges Trump’s spending bill over deficit concerns

June 4, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A key Republican senator is pushing back against President Donald Trump’s major spending bill, warning that it would add trillions to the nation’s debt.

On Wednesday, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin told ABC News he cannot support what Trump calls his “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” despite pressure from the White House to pass it by July 4.

“I refuse to accept $2 trillion-plus deficits as far as the eye can see as the new normal,” Johnson said. “We have to address that problem, and, unfortunately, this bill doesn’t do so.”

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said the bill would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit. While Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought claimed there are “massive levels of savings in this bill,” Johnson disagreed.

“We went from $4.4 trillion in spending in 2019 to over $7 trillion this year,” he said, adding that the slight reduction proposed in the bill is “barely a rounding error in this massive spending.”

The senator told ABC News he isn’t worried about political fallout from opposing Trump’s bill.

“I’m worried about our kids and grandkids, the fact that we’re mortgaging their future. It is wrong. It’s immoral,” Johnson said.

Instead of one large bill, Johnson wants to split it into two smaller pieces. His plan would first deal with matters like border security, defense and extending current tax laws. Then, he wants Congress to take time to carefully review government spending and find ways to cut waste.

On possible criticism from Trump, Johnson said he had a “very cordial conversation” with the president about his concerns.

“I want to see President Trump succeed. I’m a big supporter,” Johnson said, but he added that fixing the budget “is going to take time.”

The bill also faces criticism over its impact on healthcare, with CBO estimates showing around 11 million people could lose health insurance coverage.

As the July 4 deadline approaches, Johnson remained firm in his position.

“You have to do the things we agree on,” he said, listing border security, defense and extending current tax law as priorities. “Then come back, do the hard work of forensically auditing spending on these programs, and get serious about reducing that deficit trajectory, bending it down, rather than having it skyrocket upward.”

RFK Jr. to tell medical schools to teach nutrition or lose federal funding

June 4, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he plans to tell American medical schools they must offer nutrition courses to students or risk losing federal funding from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Speaking at an event in North Carolina in April, Kennedy lamented, “There’s almost no medical schools that have nutrition courses, and so [aspiring physicians] are taught how to treat illnesses with drugs but not how to treat them with food or to keep people healthy so they don’t need the drugs.”

He added, “One of the things that we’ll do over the next year is to announce that medical schools that don’t have those programs are not going to be eligible for our funding, and that we will withhold funds from those who don’t implement those kinds of courses.”

The idea, which Kennedy mentioned in passing at an event focused on plastics in the environment, lacks details but has drawn optimism from some nutrition experts who have for years sought ways for medical schools to teach more nutrition content.

An HHS official told ABC News that Kennedy “is committed to understanding and drastically lowering chronic disease rates and ending childhood chronic disease, which includes fresh thinking on nutrition and over-reliance on medication and treatments.”

The official did not respond to requests for more information about Kennedy’s plan, like whether he would require medical schools to follow a specific curriculum. Nor did the official say whether Kennedy has begun speaking with medical schools about the issue.

A study published in the Journal of Biomedical Education in 2015 surveyed 121 American medical schools in 2012-2013 and found that medical students spend, on average, only 19 hours on required nutrition education over their four years.

This does not account for education during residency or fellowship training after medical school, or continuing medical education required throughout a doctor’s career to maintain a medical license or board certification.

Those numbers have frustrated some nutrition experts, who argue doctors should focus more on preventing diet-driven conditions like obesity and diabetes and less on prescribing drugs that treat the problems.

“I think there’s a great sense of urgency that we have to do something about this,” said Dr. David Eisenberg, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who told ABC News that requiring nutrition education at all medical schools is “long overdue.”

“I think the public imagines that physicians are required to know a lot more than they are trained to know about nutrition and giving practical advice about food to patients,” added Eisenberg.

When presented with Kennedy’s threats to withhold funding, some medical schools reached by ABC News said they already offer sufficient nutrition education.

“We have an extensive nutrition curriculum as part of our medical school training,” Sarah Smith, a spokeswoman for Weill Cornell Medicine, said in an email.

A spokesperson for the University of North Carolina School of Medicine touted the school’s Department of Nutrition, which the spokesperson said is “recognized as a global leader in research and training, and is unique in that it is the only nutrition department in the U.S. that is situated in both a school of public health and a school of medicine.”

A representative for the Association of American Medical Colleges, which counts more than 170 medical schools among its members, declined to comment but told ABC News that an e-survey of medical schools the group conducted last year found that every school that responded reported “covering nutrition content in some form.”

Still, the 2015 study, conducted by two researchers from the University of North Carolina and one from Harvard, painted a damning picture of the state of nutrition education at America’s medical schools.

“Many US medical schools still fail to prepare future physicians for everyday nutrition challenges in clinical practice,” the authors wrote.

Dr. Jo Marie Reilly, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, told ABC News that since the 2015 study (the most recent “scoping review” of medical schools’ nutrition offerings, she said), medical schools have gradually begun offering more nutrition education.

The problem, though, according to Reilly, is the absence of a consistent set of standards for medical schools to abide by.

“Every school has got their own thing,” she said.

That could be changing: Reilly and Eisenberg are among a group of medical and nutrition experts who last year published proposed recommendations in JAMA Network Open for a national curriculum, which would involve 36 “nutritional competencies” for medical students to meet.

“Nothing before this had said, well here’s what we want [medical students] to know, this is what we think we should teach. Now we have those,” Reilly told ABC News.

“We’re moving in the right direction, but we have quite a ways to go,” she said.

Kennedy has long spoken of the need to address chronic disease through changes to what Americans eat.

Withholding or withdrawing federal funding from medical schools, if HHS were to do so, would follow similar moves from departments across the new Trump administration.

This spring, HHS was among several departments which canceled grants to Columbia University in protest of what it called the school’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” The university said it planned to work with the federal government to restore its funding.

Co-conspirator arrested in Palm Springs fertility clinic explosion, officials say

June 4, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(PALM SPRINGS, Calif.) — The FBI has arrested a co-conspirator in last month’s car bombing outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic, with officials saying he provided large quantities of ammonium nitrate to the suspect killed in the blast.

Daniel Park has been charged with conspiracy to manufacture an unregistered device and terrorism, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. Park was arrested Tuesday night at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York after being detained in Poland on May 30, officials said at a press conference Wednesday.

The primary suspect in the case, 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus, was found dead next to the detonated vehicle, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s LA field office said last month.

Park allegedly shipped from Seattle approximately 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate, an explosive precursor commonly used to construct homemade bombs, to Bartkus as part of a plot related to the pair’s nihilist beliefs, according to officials. Park also allegedly paid for an additional 90 pounds of the substance in the days leading up to the Palm Springs attack, officials said.

Federal investigators allege the materials were used in the car bombing. Investigators have already conducted searches at Park’s home, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Park also allegedly spent two weeks visiting the main suspect’s home in late January and early February of this year, the officials said. The two are believed to have been conducting experiments together in the main suspect’s garage.

Park is expected to appear in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday afternoon before he’s transported to California, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Prosecutors are asking that he be held without release. The suspects targeted the fertility clinic because they believed that new life should not be created, investigators said at the press conference Wednesday.

“The subject had nihilistic ideations, and this was a targeted attack against the IVF facility,” Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said last month. “Make no mistake, we are treating this, as I said yesterday, as an intentional act of terrorism.”

While Park allegedly traveled to Bartkus’ house in January and February, investigators do not believe he was in the area at the time of the bombing. He allegedly fled to Europe after the bombing, officials said.

At least four other people were injured in the explosion last month. The explosion led to a fire and the collapse of a nearby building.

The clinic, the American Reproductive Center of Palm Springs, said no members of its staff were harmed, and its lab — including all eggs, embryos and reproductive materials — were undamaged in the attack.

The clinic is currently seeing patients at a temporary location across the street from its main building.

“We’re grateful to share that consultations, follow-ups, and ultrasounds are continuing with minimal disruption, and our team has made a nearly seamless transition. We’re also in the process of finalizing our new IVF lab and surgery center, and we look forward to resuming those services very soon,” the clinic said in a statement on social media last week.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Trump to shore up support among Senate GOP at White House meeting

June 4, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Senate Republicans will try to chart a path forward for the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” during a series of meetings on Wednesday — including one where the President Donald Trump will work to shore up support for the megabill that advances his legislative agenda

Republican members of the powerful Senate Finance Committee will go to the White House to meet with Trump at 4 p.m. Wednesday, multiple White House and Hill sources confirm.

The Finance Committee is responsible for writing the tax policy components of the bill, including the extension of the Trump 2017 tax cuts, a key priority for the package.

The House-passed legislation also boosts spending for the military and border security — while making some cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other assistance programs. It could also add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, according to a new analysis out Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The Senate Finance Committee’s Republican members are expected to attend the meeting, including Majority Leader John Thune and GOP Whip John Barrasso, who are both on the panel. Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who is at odds with the White House and is pushing for deeper cuts than those in the bill the House sent to them, is expected to be at the meeting as a member of the committee, too.

Appearing on ABC News Live Wednesday, Johnson attacked the bill, saying it “doesn’t meet the moment.”

Senate Republicans are separately expected to meet behind closed doors as a conference on Wednesday to discuss the parameters of the bill as a group.

Thune has so far not made clear what his strategy will be for moving the package through the upper chamber. As things currently stand, Thune can only afford to lose three of his GOP members to pass the package, and right now, he has more members than that expressing serious doubts about the bill.

Trump’s meeting with the committee is an opportunity for the president to attempt to sway those senators who have concerns about the bill. Earlier this week, Trump worked the phones and took meetings with many of those senators including Republican Sens. Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, Rick Scott and Johnson.

Trump also met with Thune to talk through moving the House-backed bill through the Senate as expeditiously as possible. Lawmakers aim to send a bill to Trump by the Fourth of July.

“At the end of the day, failure is not an option,” Thune said at a news conference Tuesday, adding that he thinks the conference can meet the timing goal.

Trump works to allay senators’ concerns at the same time Elon Musk attacks the bill online, calling it a “disgusting abomination” in a post on X Tuesday. Musk even chastised those who supported the bill.

“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” Musk wrote.

Trump says he had ‘good’ call with Putin but peace not ‘immediate’

June 4, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — President Donald Trump said he spoke to Russian President Putin on Wednesday, describing their call as “good” but “not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.”

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the leaders discussed Ukraine’s large-scale drone operation that targeted Russian military airfields on Sunday and “various other attacks” during their approximately 65-minute call.

“President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” Trump said.

With U.S.-brokered Ukraine-Russia peace talks still floundering despite another round of negotiations in Istanbul on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his top officials are applying more pressure on Trump to increase the cost of what they see as Russian obfuscation.

Trump returned to office in January having vowed to end the war in 24 hours. But months of failed talks — with Kyiv and Moscow clearly still far apart on their peace demands — have left the president and his administration publicly frustrated.

Trump has threatened both — Ukraine with the withdrawal of all aid and Russia with more sanctions — with punishment if his peace-making efforts fail. Both Ukraine and Russia have sought to frame the other as the main impediment to a peace deal.

Ukraine aligned itself with Trump’s May appeal for a full 30-day ceasefire, a proposal Putin has refused. In the weeks since, Zelenskyy has pushed Trump to meet Russia’s obstinance with sanctions.

Following Monday’s talks — which lasted just over an hour — Kyiv embarked on a renewed push.

“I want to thank all Americans, all Europeans who support this approach of pressuring Russia into peace — it is extremely important,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Tuesday night, following the latest round of deadly Russian drone and missile attacks on his country — and after two headline-grabbing attacks by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Russia’s strategic bomber fleet and the Kerch Strait Bridge.

“Putin does not change his behavior when he does not fear the consequences of his actions,” Zelenskyy added. “Russia must feel what war truly means. Russia must bear the losses from the war. They must really feel that continuing the war will have devastating consequences for them.”

The two sides did agree to further prisoner exchanges during the latest Istanbul talks. But both Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Andriy Yermak — the influential head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office — pushed back on the notion that the negotiations moved the needle toward a lasting ceasefire agreement.

Yermak said in a post to social media that he spoke with Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff about the talks, telling him, “Russia’s position remains unconstructive.”

“I emphasized that Russia is stalling and manipulating the negotiation process in an attempt to avoid American sanctions and has no genuine intention of ceasing hostilities,” Yermak said. “Only strong sanctions can compel Russia to engage in serious negotiations.

Sybiha said Russia “has not responded to our document outlining Ukraine’s vision for ending the war,” in a post on X summarizing Ukraine’s official conclusions from the second round of talks.

“Instead of responding to our constructive proposals in Istanbul, the Russian side passed a set of old ultimatums that do not move the situation any closer to true peace,” he said.

“This contradicts Russia’s previous promises, including to the United States, that it would put forward something realistic and doable this week in Istanbul,” Sybiha added, also calling for new U.S. sanctions on Moscow.

Trump is also facing pressure at home. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham — long influential in advising the president’s foreign policy — is among those pushing a sanctions bill through the Senate that would slap 500% tariffs on any country that buys Moscow’s energy products.

On Sunday, following a visit to Kyiv with Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Graham wrote on X, “Russia indiscriminately kills men, women and children. It’s time for the world to act decisively against Russia’s aggression by holding China and others accountable for buying cheap Russian oil that props up Putin’s war machine.”

The Kremlin urged patience. “It would be wrong to expect any immediate decisions or breakthroughs here,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday of the latest talks. “But work is ongoing. Certain agreements were reached in Istanbul, and they are important. Indeed, first and foremost, it is about people. These agreements will be implemented.”

But Dmitry Medvedev — the former Russian president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council — gave a darker read on the negotiations. The talks, he wrote on Telegram, “are not meant to achieve a compromise peace based on some imaginary and unrealistic conditions invented by others, but rather to secure our swift victory and the complete destruction” of Zelenskyy’s government.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday that Tuesday’s explosion at the Kerch Strait Bridge caused no damage, after the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claimed responsibility for the latest attack on the structure.

“Well, there was an explosion, nothing was damaged, the bridge is working, the Kyiv regime continues its attempts to attack the objects of peaceful infrastructure,” Peskov said at a briefing. “The Russian side takes appropriate precautions.”

The SBU said it attacked the bridge — which links occupied Crimea to Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region and is a prominent symbol of Moscow’s control over the occupied peninsula — with underwater explosives early on Tuesday, in an operation that “lasted several months.”

The SBU claimed that the explosion “severely damaged” the “underwater supports of the piers.” The official account for the bridge said the structure was “temporarily closed” after the explosion.

The long-range strikes that have unsettled Trump continued. Ukraine’s air force reported 95 Russian drones launched into the country overnight, of which 61 were shot down or neutralized. Impacts were recorded in seven locations, the air force said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed seven Ukrainian drones overnight.

The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine issued a security alert Wednesday warning Americans about the increasing intensity of Russian attacks. The embassy urged U.S. citizens to “exercise appropriate caution” and be prepared to “shelter immediately” if an air alert is announced.

ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Nataliia Popova and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.

Boulder attack latest: Number of victims climbs to 15

June 4, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(BOULDER, Colo.) — The number of victims in the Boulder, Colorado, Molotov cocktail attack has climbed to 15, prosecutors said.

Fifteen people, ranging in age from 25 to 88 years old, as well as one dog were hurt in the Sunday afternoon attack outside the Boulder courthouse, the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

The suspect tried to buy a handgun at a sporting goods store in November but was denied, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

Mohamed Soliman — who was arrested Sunday after allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails– tried to buy the weapon on Nov. 22, 2024, but was denied based on National Instant Criminal Background Check System, according to the bureau.

The reason for his denial wasn’t disclosed. He didn’t appeal the denial, the bureau said.

About a month later, on Dec. 30, 2024, CBI denied his application for a concealed handgun permit.

After Soliman was arrested, he allegedly told investigators that he took a concealed carry class to learn how to fire a gun, but “had to use Molotov cocktails [for the attack] after he was denied the purchase of a gun due to him not being a legal citizen,” state court documents said.

Soliman said he used YouTube to learn how to make the Molotov cocktails, documents said. Sixteen unused Molotov cocktails were within “arm’s reach” when he was arrested, the FBI said.

Soliman is accused of attacking a group advocating for the hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas.

Soliman has been charged with a federal hate crime and state charges, including 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder, according to court documents. He appeared in court virtually on Monday. He has yet to enter a plea.

Soliman told police “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” court documents said. “SOLIMAN stated he would do it (conduct an attack) again.”

He “said this had nothing to do with the Jewish community and was specific in the Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine),” documents said.

Soliman, a husband and father of five, was born in Egypt and lived in Kuwait for 17 years before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, court documents said.

Soliman has been in the U.S. on an expired tourist visa, officials said. He was granted a work permit, but that had also expired in March.

His wife and children are in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the family is being processed for expedited removal, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Soliman allegedly said he had been planning Sunday’s attack for one year but waited until his daughter graduated from high school last Thursday to carry it out, state and federal documents said.

ABC News’ Kevin Shalvey, Emily Shapiro and Luke Barr contributed to this report.

Baby saved by gene-editing therapy ‘graduates’ from hospital, goes home

June 4, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(PHILADELPHIA) — KJ Muldoon, a 10-month-old baby who sparked nationwide headlines after receiving a first-of-its kind gene-editing treatment, was released from the hospital this week.

KJ has spent the majority of his life at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia after being diagnosed with a one-in-a-million, deadly genetic disease shortly after birth. Working quickly, his doctors were able to use new gene-editing technology called CRISPR, designing a bespoke treatment just for him.

The treatment, first infused into his body at seven months old, seems to have worked. KJ’s body, which was fighting a toxic buildup of ammonia, began to thrive and he quickly gained weight appropriate for a baby of his age.

Wearing a cap and gown to symbolize his “graduation” from the hospital, baby KJ was discharged home to his parents and siblings on Tuesday after spending 307 days at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Doctors and nurses gathered for a “clap out” on his way out the hospital doors, and he was escorted home by local law enforcement.

KJ’s metabolic condition, called carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 1 deficiency, affects about 1 in 1.3 million people. The disease kills 50% of babies by early infancy.

KJ “had the most severe variant,” Dr. Ahrens-Nicklas, one of KJ’s doctors at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told ABC News.

“This meant that we had to expedite the pathway for personalized therapy we were already working on,” he said.

Gene therapy treatments have already been approved for more common genetic diseases, including the blood disorders sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, which affect tens of thousands of patients in the U.S. Those treatments are sold by major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

KJ’s disease is so rare that his doctors were on their own. But thanks to the technology available at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, his doctors believed they could use a streamlined approach to make their own bespoke therapy, in-house.

CRISPR gene-editing technology was the perfect tool for a rare genetic disease like KJ’s, and potentially future babies born with slightly different genetic errors.

“Think of it like a GPS signal,” Dr. Kiran Musunuru, director of the Penn Cardiovascular Institute’s Genetic and Epigenetic Origins of Disease Program, told ABC News. “You can change where the GPS is going depending on what specific sequence of genes you want to change.”

Musunuru says there is still a lot of work to be done on this bespoke treatment to make it feasible, but he is hopeful that more babies with ultra-rare conditions can be treated this way.

ABC’s Dr. Keerthana Pakanati contributed to this report.

Manhunt continues for father police say killed 3 young daughters near Washington campground

June 4, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WENATCHEE, Wash.) — The manhunt continued on Wednesday for 32-year-old Travis Decker, who is accused of killing his three young daughters near a campground in Washington, with officials saying he could be “anywhere within the nation.”

Paityn Decker, 9; Evelyn Decker, 8; and Olivia Decker, 5, were killed after they left home for a “planned visitation” with Decker at approximately 5 p.m. on Friday, according to the Wenatchee Police Department.

At approximately 3 p.m. on Monday, officials located Decker’s vehicle unoccupied near the Rock Island Campground in Chelan County, Washington, police said in a press release on Tuesday. Additional law enforcement officers responded to the scene and found the bodies of the three girls, but “Decker was not located,” police said.

A $20,00 reward has been offered for any information leading to Decker’s arrest, police said during a press conference on Tuesday evening.

Local officials are working with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Marshal’s Office in their search for Decker.

“We will not rest until we have located him,” Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said during the press conference. “He can be anywhere within the nation, so that’s why we have our federal partners on scene helping us bring in additional resources.”

Decker, who is homeless and has been living in his vehicle or at various motels or campgrounds in the area, is currently wanted for three counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree kidnapping, police said. He is a former member of the military with “extensive training,” but it is unknown whether he is currently armed, officials said.

“Travis, if you’re listening, this is your opportunity to turn yourself in, do the right thing, do what you need to do and take accountability for your actions. We’re not going to rest, and we’re going to make sure we find you. You will be brought to justice, those young ladies deserve it,” Morrison said.

Prior to discovering the girls’ bodies, police said visitation had been a part of the family’s parenting plan, but Decker went “outside the parameters of it which is not normal and cause for the alarm.”

On Tuesday, officials revealed the mother of the girls, Whitney Decker, contacted police on Friday with a civil complaint, saying there were concerns of Decker being “financially stressed recently” and gave authorities information on the his vehicle. In a statement provided to ABC News, Whitney Decker said she was “concerned” about the safety of her children and that she “just wants the girls back home safe and sound.”

Detectives later learned Travis Decker and his daughters did not arrive at a “planned 5K running event” on Saturday.

At the time, the investigation had not met Amber Alert criteria, officials said, but an Endangered Missing Persons Alert had been issued through the Washington State Patrol. Before the discovery of the girls’ bodies, officials said they were granted arrest warrants for Decker on three counts of custodial interference.

Details regarding the daughters’ cause of death will be kept private until officials said they can “ensure that the information we are sharing is not going to compromise the investigation.”

Decker, who is described as 5 feet, 8 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes, was last seen wearing a light shirt and dark shorts, according to police. Decker’s father is flying in to speak with detectives, officials said.

Officials said anyone who has any information on Decker or knows of his whereabouts should call 911 immediately. Another press conference regarding the search for Decker will be held on Wednesday evening, officials said.

CBO says Trump’s bill will add $2.4T to deficit, leave 11 million without health insurance

June 4, 2025 by WDNY Radio

CBO says Trump’s bill will add .4T to deficit, leave 11 million without health insurance

CBO says Trump’s bill will add $2.4T to deficit, leave 11 million without health insurance — Tim Graham/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — a massive tax and immigration bill to fund much of President Donald Trump’s agenda — could add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, according to a new analysis out Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The CBO released updated estimates on the legislation as focus turns to the Senate, where a handful of Republican members are expressing concerns about the deficit and changes to Medicaid.

The budget office is projecting 10.9 million more people will be uninsured in 2034 because of changes to health care.

The budget office also estimates the bill will cut taxes by $3.7 trillion and cut spending by $1.2 trillion. The CBO has not yet completed an analysis of the macroeconomic effects of the bill.

The White House preemptively defended the bill just before the CBO release, with deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller accusing the nonpartisan office of being “lefty” and touting the legislation as a “dream bill.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise slammed the CBO report at a press conference with Republican leadership on Wednesday morning, taking issue with it not recognizing potential economic growth, which it will do in a later, separate estimate.

“I get we have to play by the rules of the referee, but the referee is wrong. The referee is trying to sack our quarterback,” Scalise said.

The bill narrowly passed the House in May, but now some GOP members are signaling regret on their stamp of approval. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch Trump ally, wrote in a social media post that she wasn’t aware of a provision related to AI regulations and that she would have voted against the bill had she known it was included. Greene called for the measure to be removed by the Senate.

Meanwhile, President Trump is set to meet with the Senate Finance Committee at the White House later Wednesday in his push to have the megabill passed.

The president’s lashed out at GOP senators who are threatening to complicate that, including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

+ More