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Putin demands Kursk total victory ahead of Moscow talks with Trump envoy

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a command center in Kursk on Wednesday, ordering troops there to “destroy” all Ukrainian formations remaining in the contested border region.

“Your task is to completely destroy the enemy, which has entrenched itself in the Kursk region and is still conducting warfare here, and fully liberate the Kursk region’s territory within the shortest possible time,” Putin said while clad in military fatigues.

“The previous status along the borderline must be restored,” the president said. “I do expect that all combat objectives facing your combat units will be attained unconditionally and the Kursk region’s territory will be fully cleared of the enemy in the near future.”

Ukrainian forces pushed into Kursk in August in a surprise offensive, seizing the town of Sudzha and surrounding villages. Kyiv’s troops have repelled months of Russian counteroffensives, but recent weeks have seen their salient crumble and Russian forces retake significant ground.

On Wednesday, Russian troops raised their flags over central Sudzha as Ukrainian forces hurriedly retreated back toward the shared border.

Russia’s battlefield successes in Kursk come as the U.S. pushes both Moscow and Kyiv to return to peace negotiations. This week, Ukraine and the U.S. agreed to a potential 30-day ceasefire, with American representatives also putting the proposal to a non-committal Kremlin.

Russian officials have indicated that they will not engage in peace negotiations while any of Kursk remains under Ukrainian control. Kyiv had hoped to use its occupation of the territory as leverage in talks, though its footprint there is now rapidly shrinking.

On Wednesday, Putin said he will give “special thought in the future to creating a security zone along the state border” to prevent repeat Ukrainian incursions. Prisoners taken on Russian territory would be treated “as terrorists,” Putin said, adding that “foreign mercenaries” are not protected under the Geneva Conventions.

President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Moscow this week as the administration pushes for a ceasefire and broader peace deal. The ball is now “truly in their court,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said of Russia following the U.S.-Ukrainian agreement to a 30-day ceasefire proposal.

The Kremlin was non-committal. Officials were “scrutinizing” the publicly released statements, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Russia, he added, “doesn’t want to get ahead of itself” on the potential ceasefire.

On Thursday, Peskov confirmed that American negotiators are traveling to Moscow. “Contacts are planned,” Peskov told a press briefing, adding of the potential outcomes, “We will not prejudge, we will tell you later.” Peskov did not say whether Witkoff would meet with Putin.

Trump’s push for peace — which has been twinned with fierce public criticism of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — has been welcomed by America’s allies, though leaders have been perturbed by the president’s apparent alignment with Russia’s false narratives about the conflict.

Rubio will meet with G7 foreign ministers in Quebec, Canada, on Thursday. His presence at the meeting will also be overshadowed by Trump’s spiralling trade war with America’s northern neighbor, plus the president’s repeated suggestion that Canada be absorbed by the U.S. and become its 51st state.

The G7 event “is not a meeting about how we’re going to take over Canada,” Rubio said Wednesday, as quoted by the Associated Press.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, though, said that “in every single meeting, I will raise the issue of tariffs to coordinate a response with the Europeans and to put pressure on the Americans.”

“The only constant in this unjustifiable trade war seems to be President Trump’s talk of annexing our country through economic coercion,” Joly said. “Yesterday, he called our border a fictional line and repeated his disrespectful 51st state rhetoric.”

ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova, Patrick Reevell and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.

Woman charged with holding ‘severely emaciated’ stepson in captivity for over 20 years: Police

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WATERBURY, Conn.) — A woman was charged for allegedly holding her “severely emaciated” stepson in captivity for over 20 years, since he was 11 years old, and forcing him to endure “prolonged abuse, starvation, severe neglect, and inhumane treatment,” police said.

The discovery of the now 32-year-old man happened on Feb. 17, when Waterbury Police Department officers in Connecticut, along with personnel from the Waterbury Fire Department, responded to a report of an active fire at a residence on Blake Street at approximately 8:42 p.m.

The fire was quickly extinguished by authorities and two occupants were found inside the home at the time. The first person was identified as 56-year-old Kimberly Sullivan, the owner of the property who called authorities for help, and the second person was identified as a 32-year-old man who was later determined to be Sullivan’s stepson.

Sullivan was evacuated to safety following the fire but the male occupant, who had suffered smoke inhalation and exposure to the fire, had to be assisted from the home by Waterbury Fire Department personnel and was placed in the care of emergency medical services.

However, the case immediately took a turn when police began to speak with the man.

“While receiving medical care, the male victim disclosed to first responders that he had intentionally set the fire in his upstairs room, stating, ‘I wanted my freedom,’” officials said in their statement regarding the case. “He further alleged that he had been held captive by Sullivan since he was approximately 11 years old.”

“Following these alarming statements, the Waterbury Police Department Major Crimes Unit, in collaboration with the Waterbury State’s Attorney’s Office, launched an extensive investigation,” authorities continued. “Detectives determined that the victim had been held in captivity for over 20 years, enduring prolonged abuse, starvation, severe neglect, and inhumane treatment.”

The 32-year-old was also found in a “severely emaciated condition and had not received medical or dental care” during his time in captivity inside the home over the past two decades, according to police.

“Investigators further discovered that he had been provided with only minimal amounts of food and water which led to his extremely malnourished condition,” police continued.

As a result of the investigation, Sullivan was identified as a suspect, and an arrest warrant was issued on Tuesday.

Sullivan was located by police on Wednesday and taken into police custody by the Waterbury Police Department on charges of assault in the first degree, kidnapping in the second degree, unlawful restraint in the first degree, cruelty to persons and reckless endangerment in the first degree, police said.

“The suffering this victim endured for over 20 years is both heartbreaking and unimaginable,” said Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo. “This case required relentless investigative effort, and I commend the dedication of our officers and the Waterbury State’s Attorney’s Office. Their unwavering commitment ensured that justice is served, and the perpetrator is held fully accountable for these horrific crimes.”

Sullivan was subsequently arraigned in court and her bond was set at $300,000. She is now expected to be placed in the custody of the Connecticut Department of Corrections while she awaits trial.

The investigation is currently ongoing.

EPA takes aim at water, air and toxics protections as part of massive deregulation campaign

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Calling it the “biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history,” the Environmental Protection Agency rolled out sweeping moves Wednesday aimed at walking back environmental protections and eliminating a host of climate change regulations, some decades in the making.

Taken together, the agency’s actions indicate a wholesale reorientation of the agency away from government support of renewable energy, carbon reduction programs and air, water and soil regulations while threatening to gut the government’s past scientific findings at the core of most climate regulations.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin rolled out over two dozen policy announcements, through a series of press releases and public statements. The list of proposed changes includes rolling back emission regulations on coal, oil and gas production and a promise to work across the federal agencies to reevaluate the government finding that determined that greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide and methane, not only heat the planet but are a threat to public health.

“We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more,” Zeldin wrote in a statement on EPA’s website.

The backlash from the environmental community was swift.

“If they get their way, they will wreck our air, our water, burn down our homes, and hand future generations an unlivable climate. From moms in the 1970s who wanted their kids to be able to play outside without getting asthma to young people in the 2020s who went on hunger strike to force Congress to pass a climate bill, generations of Americans have fought and sacrificed for these regulations,” the youth-led climate advocacy group Sunrise Movement wrote in response.

“Corporate polluters are celebrating today because Trump’s EPA just handed them a free pass to spew unlimited climate pollution, consequences be damned. The Biden administration put the first-ever carbon limits on dirty coal and gas plants, cutting toxic air pollution, saving lives, and avoiding $270 billion in climate damages. Rolling back these protections is a direct attack on the communities that have been forced to breathe toxic air from polluting plants for decades,” climate advocacy organization Evergreen Action Senior Power Sector Policy Lead Charles Harper wrote in a statement.

Changes to the rules and regulations announced Wednesday will still have to go through the federal regulatory process and will likely have to stand up to numerous court challenges from environmental groups. However, today’s flurry of actions makes good on the president’s campaign promises to gut many of the long-established rules and regulations initially created to protect our water, air, soil and human health.

Endangerment finding

One of the most significant announcements was that the EPA would engage in the”formal reconsideration” of the agency’s endangerment finding.

In 2009, the EPA issued an “endangerment finding” determining that greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, and others, pose a danger to public health and the environment. This ruling, prompted by the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, gave the EPA the legal authority to regulate these emissions under the Clean Air Act (CAA).

This finding represents the legal underpinning for many regulations concerning greenhouse gas emissions, including emissions standards for vehicles, power plants and oil and gas production — all of which Zeldin said the agency would also reevaluate as it reconsiders the finding.

If the Trump Administration decides the endangerment finding is no longer applicable and that determination survives court challenges, 16 years’ worth of emissions regulations, including those enacted under President Biden, could be jeopardized.

Vehicle emissions standards

Zeldin also took aim at Biden-era vehicle standards, saying the EPA would terminate the tailpipe emissions regulations announced by the previous administration last year.

While the Trump Administration has repeatedly referred to these standards as an EV “mandate”, there was no such mandate put in place by the Biden administration.

The Biden Environmental Protection Agency implemented tailpipe emissions standards last March that established an average of allowed emissions across a vehicle manufacturer’s entire fleet of offered vehicles. The standards would have only impacted cars from model years 2027 to 2032 and allowed for a range of usable technologies, including fully electric cars, hybrids and improved internal combustion engines. These standards applied to light and medium-duty vehicles. A separate set of standards were released for heavy-duty vehicles.

As Zeldin’s EPA announced reconsideration of these standards, it released a statement saying, the regulations imposed, “$700 billion in regulatory and compliance costs,” alleging they took away, “Americans’ ability to choose a safe and affordable car for their family and increases the cost of living on all products that trucks deliver.”

Impacts on coal

Another of the policies being reconsidered is the “Clean Power Plan 2.0,” which targets emissions from coal and natural gas power plants.

At the time, the agency claimed the new regulations would represent a massive reduction in pollution and save hundreds of billions of dollars in climate and public health costs as it would force power plants to control 90% of their carbon pollution through methods like carbon capture and tightened the emissions standards for toxic metals like mercury that are released from coal-fired plants.

In one of many press releases sent on Wednesday, the EPA called the rules “overreaching” and “an attempt to shut down affordable and reliable electricity generation in the United States, raising prices for American families, and increasing the country’s reliance on foreign forms of energy.”

Social cost of carbon

Also among the 31 actions announced by the agency is a revisiting of the “social cost of carbon,” with Zeldin saying the previous administration used the metric to “advance their climate agenda in a way that imposed major costs.”

In 2010, the EPA under then-President Barack Obama released its first estimate for what it called the “social cost of carbon,” or SC-CO2. This metric meant to capture in dollars the long-term damage created by carbon dioxide emissions each year.

It estimated, in effect, the cost of damages related to climate change, including changes in agricultural productivity, human health, property damages from added flood risk, changes in energy costs and other considerations.

The Biden Administration later updated the estimate process to include consideration of additional factors, leading to an increase in the national SC-CO2. In December 2023, the Biden EPA updated the metric at a dramatically higher rate — $190 per ton of carbon, compared to the administration’s earlier estimate of $51 per ton.

“To Power the Great American Comeback, we are fully committed to removing regulations holding back the U.S.,” Zeldin said in the announcement.

Death of Kentucky teen sparks investigation into possible sextortion scheme

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(GLASGOW, Ky.) — Eli Heacock was like many 16-year-olds.

The Glasgow, Kentucky, teenager enjoyed playing tennis, telling “dad jokes” and spending time with his father, who his mom said was “his best friend.”

“He was our tornado. He kept us on our toes all the time,” said his mother, Shannon Heacock.

But everything changed in an instant after Eli Heacock died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Feb. 28, his mom told ABC News.

Since his death, his mom said local and federal investigators have said they believe Eli Heacock may have been targeted in an alleged sextortion scheme.

“Eli was on a good track. We had no reason to believe there was an issue at all. We knew nothing about sextortion or how it works,” Eli Heacock’s father, John Burnett, told ABC News.

Sextortion is a term “used to describe a crime in which an offender coerces a minor to create and send sexually explicit images or video,” according to the FBI. Once the offender receives the explicit content from the child, they then threaten to release the compromising content “unless the victim produces additional explicit material,” the FBI said on its website.

One type of sextortion is “financially motivated sextortion,” which follows a similar pattern, but is motivated by the goal of financial gain, not sexual gratification, the FBI said. After receiving explicit material, the offender will threaten to release the content unless a payment is made, the FBI said.

Financial sextortion has resulted “in an alarming number of deaths by suicide,” the FBI said on its website.

But, the explicit pictures do not need to be taken by the child to qualify as sextortion, Burnett said. In his son’s case, he said the offender made AI-generated images of Eli Heacock, sent them to the teenager and demanded $3,000 or else the pictures would be released or his family would be harmed.

“Their intention was to convince Eli their sincerity that they could, in fact, harm him or someone he loved with pictures that they generated,” Burnett told ABC News.

His mother said she regularly checked her son’s phone, but the interaction occurred during the night and the situation must have “put him in panic mode.”

In the text messages she saw, her son sent a portion of money to the offender, to which the anonymous user replied, “This is not enough.”

Eli Heacock’s twin sister discovered her brother’s body, ran to her parents and said “Eli was hurt,” Shannon Heacock said.

The 16-year-old was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to his injuries on Feb. 28, his mother said.

“How can your lives change that fast over merely $3,000 someone wanted off the internet from a kid? I play a lot of ‘What if I did this? What if I did that?’ We don’t need anybody to add to our guilt because we carry it very heavily right now,” Shannon Heacock told ABC News.

Upon arriving at the hospital, a local FBI detective reviewed Eli Heacock’s phone, recognized it as a potential sextortion case and put the teenager’s phone on airplane mode, his mother said.

The investigation into Eli Heacock’s death is still in its beginning stages, his father said, with both local detectives and federal investigators reviewing the contents of the 16-year-old’s phone.

The family has also been in contact with Rep. Steve Riley, a lawmaker in the Kentucky House of Representatives, who has championed a bill in the Kentucky legislature making sextortion a felony and establishing penalties for those convicted of the crime. The bill is now on its way to Gov. Andy Beshear to be signed into law, Shannon Heacock said.

The Heacocks are not the only family mourning the loss of a loved one after a sextortion scheme. In 2023 alone, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received 26,718 reports of financial sextortion — up from 10,731 reports in 2022.

Shannon Heacock urges parents to check their children’s phones at all times because, in her experience, “even the happiest child is hiding something.”

“It’s no longer to be scared of the white van that drives around, you have to be scared of the internet,” Shannon Heacock said.

If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises please call or text 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org.

Pope spends 12th anniversary as head of Catholic church in hospital as recovery continues

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(ROME) — Pope Francis has begun his 28th consecutive day in hospital on the 12th anniversary of when he was elected pope in 2013 following five ballots in a papal conclave.

While no events are planned to mark the pontiff’s 12 years as head of the Catholic church, it is a public holiday in the Vatican, as it is each year, to mark the anniversary.

Pope Francis’ condition remained “stationary” on Wednesday, with tests confirming his improvement, according to the Vatican.

A chest X-ray performed on Tuesday confirmed improvements recorded over the past few days, the Holy See, the Vatican’s press office, said in its Wednesday evening update.

The pope continues to undergo high-flow oxygen therapy during the day and “noninvasive mechanical ventilation during his night rest,” the Vatican said.

Pope Francis’ prognosis was “lifted” on Monday, meaning he is no longer in imminent danger, but the clinical picture remains complex.

The 88-year-old pontiff will continue “for additional days, the pharmacological medical therapy in a hospital environment” due to the “complexity of the clinical picture and the significant infectious picture presented at hospitalization,” the Vatican said.

Francis’ doctors said there are positive signs of the pontiff’s recovery, but caution remains, according to Vatican sources, after he was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia.

Swatting call about possible armed person at San Bernardino hospital sparks massive police presence

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — Reports of a possibly armed person at a San Bernardino, California, hospital sparked a massive law enforcement response Wednesday evening, but authorities later cleared the scene and said it appeared to be the result of a “swatting” call.

The incident began unfolding at the Loma Linda University Hospital Center in the San Bernardino area, east of Los Angeles, around 6:15 p.m. local time.

The Bernardo County Sheriff’s Office said in an post on X it was aware of “reports of a possible armed individual” at the hospital and said deputies were on scene and working to clear the facility.

Police and fire department vehicles surrounded the facility and news helicopters hovered nearby.

About two hours later, authorities said the scene had been cleared.

No shots were fired.

“There are no reported injuries, and the incident appears to be a swatting call,” the sheriff’s office said.

A swatting call refers to an intentional false report to authorities intending to cause a large law enforcement presence.

Fired Education Department worker: ‘We got the sense that we were disposable.’

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Joe Murphy, whose position as a management and data analyst was eliminated when the Department of Education laid off nearly 50% of its workforce Tuesday evening, said on Wednesday that he and his colleagues are filled with a sense of “sadness” and “disbelief.”

“We got the sense that we were disposable in a certain sense, especially those of us in the data space,” he told ABC News.

According to Murphy, everyone he worked with directly had their positions terminated.

The 56-year-old from Dumfries, Virginia, said he has spent almost 20 years in education data, previously working for the National Center for Education Statistics, in addition to serving as a contractor for a formula grant data collection space in the Education Department.

In the Department of Government Efficiency’s latest efforts to cut federal costs, some 1,315 Education Department employees were affected by the “reduction in force” notices, leaving 2,183, according to senior officials at the agency.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the job cuts on Wednesday, referring to them as “a promise made and a promise kept.”

“There is no reason that we should be spending more than most developed countries in the world. And our education system is failing,” she added. “The president wants to return education back to the states, empower those closest to the people to make these very important decisions for our children’s lives. And this is a first step in that process.”

Though Murphy said the terminations were expected, he said the experience has still been disconcerting.

“Nothing surprises me anymore, but it’s still kind of shocking and impactful,” he said.

“I do not know where I go forward from here … I am suddenly belched out into a job market that has been at the very same time, severely constricted and also completely flooded with people who have a similar skill set to mine. I’m 56 years old,” Murphy continued, adding that he has spend “more than a third of [his] entire life” in this line of work.

“Felt really weird to wake up this morning and be like, wow, what am I gonna do?” he said.

Murphy emphasized how the most important and rewarding aspect of his job, which falls under the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, was serving the nation’s children.

“It’s really for the kids, and what we do is for the kids. And so many of us feel that way,” he said, adding that he “wish[es] things went differently.”

“That’s the thing I have the greatest sense of pride in. I would think, you know, doing a good job and getting the data to the programs in the right timely fashion — good, accurate data, so that they can make decisions on behalf of, you know, 100,000 schools in this country and 18,000 districts and 50-something state education agencies,” he explained.

When asked if he believes children will continue to receive needed educational benefits and services, Murphy projected a bleak outlook and expressed his belief that “we’re politicizing the department of education and the education of our students.”

He also expressed concern over whether his work will even be able to continue.

“So, all that work that we did for the programs, I don’t know who’s going to do it now or be able to do it. The folks in the programs were already overwhelmed. They were so grateful to us for the work that we did for them in distilling down this massive amount of data to a few answers with groundwork that they laid together with us,” he said. “So, I don’t know where that’s going to get done.”

Murphy is a member of the American Federation of Government Employees union, which he says he joined only recently due to the change in administrations from Biden to Trump.

“When it seemed to be going south and everybody was taking over after the inauguration, I said, okay, well, I’m gonna go ahead and sign up,” he said, explaining how he was affected by the “last two months of being led by threats and intimidation.”

“I don’t necessarily disagree with the idea that the federal government needed some improvements and some restructuring to some degree,” Murphy acknowledged. “But how you do it really matters, and you can’t just … the federal government is not a private business, and you can’t run it that way.”

High school runner who hit opponent in head with baton faces assault and battery charge

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A high school track athlete faces a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery after a now-viral video showed her hitting a competitor’s head with her baton during a relay event.

Alaila Everett, a senior at I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, was running the second leg of the 4×200-meter relay when her baton struck Kaelen Tucker, a junior from Brookville High School, in the head. It happened March 4 during the Virginia State High School League Championships at Liberty University in Lynchburg.

Bethany Harrison, the commonwealth’s attorney for the city of Lynchburg, confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday that a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery was issued against Everett in the matter.

Additional details on the case were not immediately available.

Video of the incident showed Tucker staggering and reaching for her head after being hit before going off the track. She dropped her baton and was attended to by medical personnel shortly after the incident. She would later be diagnosed with a concussion, she told ABC affiliate WVEC in Hampton, Virginia.

“I was so in disbelief,” Tucker told WVEC. “I didn’t know what happened.”

Everett contended that baton strike was an accident in an interview that aired Tuesday on “Good Morning America.”

“I would never do that on purpose,” Everett said. “That’s not in my character.”

The 18-year-old said that during the race, her arm became stuck, and her baton inadvertently struck Tucker as they neared the corner of the track.

“Her arm was literally hitting the baton — until she got a little ahead, and my arm got stuck like this,” she said while holding a baton to emphasize the movement.

The Everetts say they believe their video shows that Tucker’s proximity to their daughter led to an accidental collision. According to the family, Tucker was running too close to Everett when she tried to cut ahead, which caused Everett to lose her balance and the baton to make contact with Tucker.

Following the incident, the athletic director at I.C. Norcom High School and Everett’s father apologized to the Tucker family in a phone call, according to Tucker’s parents.

The Virginia High School League told ABC News on Monday that it is reviewing the incident.

“The VHSL membership has always made it a priority to provide student-athletes with a safe environment for competition,” the league said in a statement.

The Portsmouth NAACP said it is also reviewing the incident as well as “racial slurs and death threats” toward the Everett family.

“We are committed collectively to ensuring that the criminal justice system, which we feel is not warranted in this situation, is executed fairly and based on due process,” the organization said in a statement on Wednesday while calling for Everett to be “void of any criminal proceedings.”

“From all accounts, she is an exceptional young leader and scholar whose athletic talent has been well-documented and recognized across our state,” the Portsmouth NAACP said. “She has carried herself with integrity both on and off the field and any narrative that adjudicates her guilty of any criminal activity is a violation of her due process rights.”

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.

Trump’s White House Tesla showcase for Musk raises ethics concerns

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s controversial showcase of Tesla cars in front of the White House has set off alarms around Washington over what some see as an infomercial for the billionaire’s car company on high-profile government property.

Ethics experts ABC News spoke with are raising concerns that the Tuesday event could blur or even cross the lines of what’s considered proper conduct by elected officials.

“It could be reasonably assumed by some that the White House and the president’s endorsement is up for sale,” William F. Hall, an adjunct professor of political science at Webster University, said Wednesday.

The event happened hours after Trump posted he was going to buy a Tesla following the company’s mass protests and a major decline in stock value and sales across the world. When reporters asked Trump about the optics of the event, he didn’t deny that he was doing it to help Musk’s bottom line.

“I think he’s been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people. And I just want people to know that he can’t be penalized for being a patriot. And he’s a great patriot, and he’s also done an incredible job with Tesla,” he told reporters, adding that Musk hadn’t asked him for anything. Musk later thanked Trump on X.

Hall, who previously served in the Justice Department as a field director during the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations, said it is not uncommon for presidents to lend support to American companies but that it’s usually done outside of the White House at other locations such as at a factory or an office space.

“As the elected leader of our nation, I think it would not be at all difficult for the average American who might have viewed that to reasonably interpret that he was endorsing this product,” he said.

Delaney Marsco, Director of Ethics for the Campaign Legal Center, a non-profit legal group, told ABC News that ethics laws primarily focus on executive employees serving under the president but not on the president himself.

She said that was because lawmakers who wrote those rules did not anticipate any president disregarding longstanding standards of what’s expected and acceptable.

“One of the things we have relied on in ethics norms are the norms about what is right. President Trump doesn’t abide by those norms,” she said.

Marsco added that Musk’s vaguely-defined role as a presidential adviser, as well as his being the CEO of tech companies that do business with the government, also raised serious concerns given Tuesday’s event. She noted she expected that Musk’s behavior wasn’t being questioned just on the political front.

“I’m sure shareholders are concerned about this line being blurred, and it’s equally confusing for the public,” she said.

Tesla’s stock dived over the last couple of weeks but saw a slight increase after Trump checked out Musk’s vehicles at the White House. Hall noted that Tesla and Musk have been on the receiving end of protests due to his actions and words since he got more involved with Trump.

The president claimed he was going to write a check for one of the cars full price and provide it for the White House staff, however, it was not clear as of Wednesday evening if that actually happened.

The ethics experts warned that the move may set an unprecedented standard for future presidents, one that diminishes the objectivity of the executive branch.

“The federal government isn’t in the business of endorsing products to buy. The federal government is supposed to be making policy decisions that better the lives of the American public not making endorsements of the president’s friends or the president’s donors,” Marso said.

Marsco added that there is nothing stopping Trump or future presidents from making these unethical decisions, however, those ethics laws governing the executive branch can be strengthened by lawmakers, especially if there is outcry from the public.

“When you start talking about ethics some people don’t understand the ethic laws and what they entail … but the public isn’t stupid,” she said. “They know what a conflict of interest is and what the government is supposed to do for them. The public knows this is not the right use of the office of a president, to endorse a product that is a friend and a major political donor.”`

SpaceX mission to bring home Starliner astronauts postponed due to hydraulic issue

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — SpaceX postponed a mission on Wednesday to bring the next crew set to work on the International Space Station (ISS) and begin the return of a pair of astronauts back to Earth.

The launch’s postponement was announced on Wednesday evening ahead of what would have been the scheduled launch time.

There was an issue with the hydraulic system on the launch side. It is a ground issue with the launch tower and not a problem with the spacecraft, according to SpaceX.

SpaceX said it’s now targeting a launch on Friday at 7:03 p.m. ET.

Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams have been in space since June 2024 after they performed the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner. When they launched, they were only supposed to be on the ISS for about a week.

However, NASA and Boeing officials decided to send the uncrewed Starliner back to Earth in September after several issues and keep Wilmore and Williams onboard until early 2025 when Crew-10 was ready to launch on the Dragon spacecraft. Wilmore and Williams are set to return in the Crew-9 capsule.

The pair integrated with the ongoing Crew-9 mission aboard the ISS and could not return to Earth until Crew-9 completed its six-month mission and were replaced by Crew-10.

Wilmore and Williams assisted the crew with research and other responsibilities. However, NASA officials said the pair were using up more supplies meant for the ISS crew.

Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said that NASA teams spent all summer looking over the data on Starliner and felt there was too much risk with regard to the vehicle’s thrusters.

During a press conference in September, Wilmore said he and Williams did not feel let down by anything during the mission.

“Let down? Absolutely not,” Wilmore said. “It’s never entered my mind. It’s a fair question. I can tell you, I thought a lot about this press conference … and what I wanted to say and convey.”

“NASA does a great job of making a lot of things look easy,” he said, adding, “That’s just the way it goes. sometimes because we are pushing the edges of the envelope in everything that we do.”

If the mission is successful, it’s unclear when exactly Wilmore and Williams will return to Earth on Crew-9.

The crew consists of two NASA astronauts, an astronaut from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and an astronaut from Russia’s Roscosmos.

SpaceX will share a live webcast of the mission beginning one hour and 20 minutes prior to liftoff on its website and on its X account. NASA will also air coverage on its X account.

“During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew will conduct new research to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit humanity on Earth,” SpaceX said on its website.

SpaceX’s contracted missions are part of the larger Commercial Crew Program at NASA, which are certified to perform routine missions to and from the ISS.

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