News – Page 746 – 105.7 WDNY

Immigrant advocacy groups file lawsuit after legal orientation programs are shuttered

January 31, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A group of immigrant advocacy centers and nonprofits has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security for shutting down legal orientation programs for immigrants, including people detained at ICE detention facilities.

The lawsuit was filed a week after the Department of Justice told legal service providers who receive federal funding to stop providing legal orientation and other work intended to support immigrants at immigration court and detention facilities.

“With increased detentions, rapid deportation processes, and new detention centers, legal access to these detention centers to ensure these activities are being carried out following applicable laws has never been more important,” the lawsuit says. “The Programs at issue here are thus essential: they provide basic due process to noncitizens and they ensure lawyers are regularly inside detention centers to observe or be told about potential legal violations.”

The groups argue that legal orientation programs were stopped without advanced notice and that many of the nonprofits lost access to detention facilities across the country.

“By denying Program providers access, Defendants ensure that no legal service providers’ eyes are watching what the government does inside,” the complaint says.

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment when contacted by ABC News. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the 51-page complaint, the groups argue that because immigration courts don’t guarantee individuals the right to counsel, the programs are necessary because they give noncitizens facing deportation critical access to basic legal information.

The programs that were shut down include the Legal Orientation Program; the Immigration Court Helpdesk; the Family Group Legal Orientation Program; and the Counsel for Children Initiative, which provides legal representation to children in immigration court proceedings.

“The information the Programs provide is the most basic level of the due process to which noncitizens in removal proceedings are entitled,” the complaint says.

In major reversal, Kennedy tells senators he won’t take money from vaccine lawsuit

January 31, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — After a bruising round of confirmation hearings this week that left Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation in doubt, the nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services declared in a written statement to senators on Friday that, if confirmed, he will divest his financial stake in an ongoing civil lawsuit against a vaccine manufacturer.

Kennedy’s commitment to walk away from the potential windfall is a major reversal for the nominee, who in his ethics plan submitted to federal officials earlier this month told lawmakers he was entitled to those proceeds so long as the U.S. government wasn’t involved.

Democrats had seized on Kennedy’s financial stake in the lawsuit, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., warning that he could use his perch in government to make it easier for lawyers – including himself – to sue vaccine manufacturers and drug makers in court.

The lawsuit alleges marketing fraud against pharmaceutical company Merck for its HPV vaccine, Gardasil, which Merck denies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains that the vaccine has been proven safe, with more than 160 studies finding no concerns.

“Kennedy can kill off access to vaccines and make millions of dollars while he does it,” Warren said at Kennedy’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

“Kids might die, but Robert Kennedy will keep cashing in,” she added.

Kennedy struggled to lock-up conservative support for his nomination after testifying this week. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal’s right-leaning editorial board praised Warren, writing that her questioning “expose[d]” Kennedy.

The next day, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said he was “struggling” with Kennedy’s nomination, noting at one point that Kennedy was “financially vested in finding fault with vaccines.”

Kennedy told senators in his testimony Thursday that he was giving away his rights to the fees in the lawsuit against Merck. However, it was unclear whether he misspoke because his ethics agreement still maintained that he was entitled to the fees.

In written answers provided to the Senate Finance Committee on Friday, Kennedy clarified that an amendment was forthcoming.

“An amendment to my Ethics Agreement is in process, and it provides that I will divest my interest in this litigation,” he said.

Kennedy has earned millions of dollars in referral fees from law firms in the past for lawsuits unrelated to vaccines, including one involving a pesticide. He had not earned money yet from the Merck case, which only recently was taken up in civil courts.

In his testimony, Kennedy said he wanted to retain the right to sue drug companies even if confirmed.

“You’re asking me to not sue drug companies, and I am not going to agree to that,” he said.

Trump administration compiling list of FBI agents to potentially fire or force out: Sources

January 31, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is compiling a list of agents and other FBI officials from around the country who they believe should be fired or forced to resign in the coming days, several sources told ABC News.

Trump administration officials are especially looking at whether anyone tied in any way to former special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 and classified documents investigations of President Donald Trump should be included in the firings, according to the sources. They are also looking for anyone who may be resistant to carrying out some of the administration’s new initiatives, sources said.

Firings could begin as early as Friday, but a list is expected to be finalized on Monday, sources said.

The list of those who could be fired includes the heads of dozens of field offices across the country and could include scores of agents in the FBI’s Washington, D.C., Field Office alone, sources said.

An FBI spokesperson said in a statement to ABC: “The FBI is declining to comment on any questions regarding FBI personnel matters. We have also instructed the public affairs officers in our field offices to decline to comment as well.”

Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, was pressed Thursday during his confirmation hearing as to whether FBI agents who worked on Smith’s investigations would be protected from “retribution,” should he be confirmed.

“Every FBI employee will be held to the absolute same standard, and no one will be terminated for cases,” Patel said. “All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution.”

The FBI Agents Association said the actions “contradict the commitments” Patel made to the association ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing, saying Patel said FBI agents “would be afforded appropriate process and review and not face retribution based solely on the cases to which they were assigned.”

“If true, these outrageous actions by acting officials are fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump and his support for FBI Agents,” the FBI Agents Association added in a statement. “Dismissing potentially hundreds of Agents would severely weaken the Bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the Bureau and its new leadership for failure.”

In the Oval Office later Friday, Trump was asked by reporters about Justice Department employees who may be fired or forced out in the coming days and he appeared to indicate it could be a “good thing.”

“If they fired some people over there, that’s a good thing because they were very bad,” Trump said. “They used the Justice Department to correct their political opponents, which in itself is illegal.”

Asked if he specifically requested any action, Trump denied, “No, but we have some very bad people over there. It was weaponized at a level that nobody’s ever seen before”

ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.

Trump administration funding freeze blocked by federal judge

January 31, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Rhode Island has formally blocked the Trump administration’s spending freeze, saying in an order this afternoon that the funding freeze is likely a violation of the Constitution.

“During the pendency of the Temporary Restraining Order, Defendants shall not pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate Defendants’ compliance with awards and obligations to provide federal financial assistance to the States, and Defendants shall not impede the States’ access to such awards and obligations, except on the basis of the applicable authorizing statutes, regulations, and terms,” Judge John McConnell Jr. wrote.

“The Court finds that the record now before it substantiates the likelihood of a successful claim that the Executive’s actions violate the Constitution and statutes of the United States,” he added in the 13-page decision in the lawsuit filed by 22 state attorneys general.

Earlier this week, McConnell signaled he would issue a temporary restraining order barring the Trump administration from freezing federal loans and grants, raising concerns the White House would try to enact the same policy described in the now-rescinded Office of Management and Budget.

The administration issued the memo Monday night and gave agencies a 5 p.m. deadline on Wednesday, however, a Washington, D.C., federal judge temporarily blocked it from going through following a lawsuit.

Even after the OMB rescinded the memo on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X, claiming, “This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction. The President’s EO’s on federal funding remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented.”

The post by Leavitt, and possible attempt to sidestep an injunction, drew mention in McConnell’s order, with him writing, “Defendants shall also be restrained and prohibited from reissuing, adopting, implementing, or otherwise giving effect to the OMB Directive under any other name or title or through any other Defendants (or agency supervised, administered, or controlled by any Defendant), such as the continued implementation identified by the White House Press Secretary’s statement of January 29, 2025.”

McConnell had harsh words for the Trump administration and justified his order — despite the OMB’s change of policy — based on Leavitt’s post.

“The evidence shows that the alleged rescission of the OMB Directive was in name-only and may have been issued simply to defeat the jurisdiction of the courts,” he wrote.

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

OMB general counsel faces backlash following federal funding freeze order: Sources

January 31, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — When the Office of Management and Budget issued a sweeping order this week freezing trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans, senior White House officials had not reviewed it beforehand, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The order was rescinded following legal challenges and intense backlash amid widespread confusion and disruptions to critical services like Medicaid.

And now, amid the fallout, finger pointing has begun inside the administration, sources said, with the attention turning to Mark Paoletta, OMB’s general counsel, who played a key role in drafting the order.

Top White House policy adviser Stephen Miller and staff secretary Will Scharf were among those who had been left out of the review process, sources said.

The fallout has already led to discussions about reassigning Paoletta away from his position as OMB’s general counsel, though no final decision has been made, according to multiple sources.

Sources said senior advisers were caught off guard and frustrated that they had not reviewed the memo before its release, seeing its rollout as a stain on what had otherwise been smooth messaging around President Donald Trump’s rapid rollout of executive orders.

Meanwhile, some rank-and-file officials at OMB were themselves left confused both when the memo was issued and after it was rescinded, sources said.

OMB officials did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

On Wednesday, a federal judge signaled he would issue a temporary restraining order barring the Trump administration from freezing federal loans and grants. That’s now raised concerns that the White House will try to enact the same policy described in the now-rescinded memo.

District Judge John McConnell Jr. had harsh words for the Trump administration following a social media post by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in which Leavitt said it was the memo that was being rescinded, not the freeze itself.

“This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze,” Leavitt posted on X, defending the policy after the memo was rescinded. “It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction. The President’s EO’s on federal funding remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented.”

Despite the Office of Management rescinding their directive, Judge McConnell said he believed there was “sufficient evidence” that the government still plans to carry out the policy based on Leavitt’s social media post.

“That’s my read of the tweet. I can’t believe I’m saying that, but that’s my read of the tweet,” Judge McConnell said.

Woman randomly stabbed while walking down Los Angeles street, suspect at large: Police

January 31, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) — Police in Los Angeles said they are looking for a man who stabbed a woman while she was walking down a street and then fled.

The Los Angeles Police Department this week released surveillance footage that captured the disturbing attack as they attempt to identify the suspect.

The incident occurred midday on Jan. 18 in the area of Santa Monica Boulevard and Edgemont Street in East Hollywood, according to the LAPD.

The victim was walking with two other individuals when the suspect approached her from behind and stabbed her twice, police said. He then fled east on Santa Monica Boulevard to the Vermont/Santa Monica MTA Station, police said.

Paramedics responded and transported the unidentified victim to a local hospital, where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Police released an 11-second video of the attack and an image of the suspect while asking for the public’s help in identifying him. The woman could be seen grabbing her head and doubling over following the assault.

An LAPD spokesperson told ABC News on Friday that there are no updates in the case at this time.

Police described the suspect as a Hispanic man in his 30s with black hair and brown eyes, standing 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighing 180 pounds.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the LAPD’s Rampart Detective Division at 213-484-3631 during regular business hours or 877-527-3247 during non-business hours and weekends. Those wishing to remain anonymous can go to lacrimestoppers.org.

5 years since COVID declared public health emergency in US, still killing thousands

January 31, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Friday marks five years since the COVID-19 virus was declared a public health emergency by the United States. But five years later, the virus is still killing thousands, according to experts.

“One of the things we have learned is that COVID came to us new, and now is integrated into our way of life,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “COVID is not going away, and it still causes a substantial amount of illness each year.”

While the world might not be in a global pandemic anymore, Sean Clarke, a professor of nursing leadership at New York University, said COVID is still a constant presence.

“The virus is still persistent and still moving. It’s still not a trivial thing,” Clarke told ABC News. “It hasn’t vanished, it’s just at a different point.”

Since 2020, over 7 million lives have been lost to the virus, according to the World Health Organization. Social distancing, wearing masks and introducing COVID-19 vaccines led the WHO to declare on May 5, 2023, that the virus was no longer a global health emergency. However, that didn’t mean COVID-19 could be immediately disregarded, said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“It is with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency,” Ghebreyesus said in 2023. “However, that does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat.”

There have been 2,861 reported COVID-19 deaths in the world in the last 28 days, according to the WHO, with the U.S. making up 2,100 of those deaths. Hospitalizations and emergency department visits are also on the rise, and death rates for COVID-19 are at 1.8%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Despite five years of research developments, treatments and diagnostic tests, Schaffner told ABC News that COVID-19 will always be around, with two peaks each year — one in the summer and one in winter.

“We are going to have to keep living with this virus as we live with others,” Schaffner said.

The thousands of deaths and rise in hospitalizations will not decrease until more people take advantage of getting vaccinated, Schaffner told ABC News.

While COVID-19 vaccines are available for adults and children, vaccination rates are low. As of Jan. 4, less than 25% of adults were vaccinated with the updated 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccine, according to the CDC.

“There are still people who are being admitted who’ve never been vaccinated at all and others who are not up to date in their vaccinations,” Schaffner said. “That’s unfortunate because the data continues to show that vaccination is the single most important preventive measure.”

Since COVID-19’s introduction, many patients have reported experiencing long COVID-19, where symptoms continue for years after the initial infection. According to the Mayo Clinic, some researchers have estimated that 10% to 35% of people who have had COVID-19 went on to have long COVID.

Schaffner said the way to diminish cases of long COVID is to keep up with vaccinations, which will reduce the chance of acquiring the virus and eliminate the possibility of developing long COVID.

“Anything we can do to reduce the occurrence and the severity of that acute infection will result in a reduction in the risk of long COVID,” Schaffner said. “Vaccination helps prevent and reduce the severity of the initial infection, it also reduces the risk of you getting long COVID.”

Looking at the next five years, Schaffner said the virus will continue to evolve or mutate, which will lead to updated vaccines on an annual basis. But, COVID-19 might also become even more intense, Schaffner said.

“This virus could mutate again and become more severe,” Schaffner said. “We don’t know if that’s going to happen. But when it comes to viruses, it’s very hazardous to predict the future, because they’re so unpredictable.”

DOJ probing sheriff over undocumented immigrant’s release

January 31, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — In what appears to be part of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign against sanctuary cities, the Justice Department is investigating a sheriff in upstate New York who released an undocumented man later taken into custody by federal agents.

The US Attorney’s office for the Northern District of New York “is looking into the circumstances” surrounding the release by Tompkins County Sheriff Derek Osborne of Jesus Romero-Hernandez, a 27-year-old Mexican citizen.

Romero-Hernandez pleaded guilty to a state assault charge and was sentenced to time served, necessitating his release. He left local custody in Ithaca before Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrived to pick him up on a federal complaint charging him with illegally re-entering the United States after a prior removal.

Ithaca adopted a sanctuary law in 2017.

ICE, the U.S. Marshals Service and Homeland Security Investigations later apprehended Romero-Hernandez.

“The Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office in Ithaca, NY, a self-described sanctuary city, appears to have failed to honor a valid federal arrest warrant for a criminal alien with an assault conviction,” Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said. “I applaud the U.S. Attorney’s commitment to investigate these circumstances for potential prosecution.”

Tompkins County and the Tompkins County Sheriff’s office issued a joint statement refuting the DOJ’s claims.

The officials said ICE was “notified of when the individual in question was going to be released and had every opportunity to come to the jail to obtain the individual in question without any need for a pursuit or other incident.”

“There was no interference with federal immigration enforcement efforts. DOJ’s assertion that the Tompkins County Sheriff did anything to put federal law enforcement officers in danger is false and offensive,” the offices said.

Bove convened all 93 US attorney’s offices on a phone call on Thursday to convey that they should focus on surging resources toward immigration enforcement. He likened the threat posed by undocumented immigrants to the threat posed by terrorists.

It represents a significant shift for the Justice Department redirecting law enforcement resources away from previous national security priorities and toward immigration enforcement.

Eric Adams’ attorney meets with Justice Department over future of federal case: Sources

January 31, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Mayor Eric Adams’s criminal defense attorney was at Justice Department headquarters in Washington on Friday to discuss the future of the mayor’s criminal bribery case, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Adams’ attorney Alex Spiro attended the meeting along with federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, including acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon and acting chief of the criminal division Perry Carbone, the sources said.

Spiro was seen by an ABC News reporter departing the Justice Department following his meeting but he declined to comment when asked whether DOJ leadership agreed to drop Adams’ case.

Adams, the first sitting New York City mayor to be indicted, has pleaded not guilty to taking luxury travel benefits in exchange for helping expedite the opening of the Turkish consulate in Manhattan, among other crimes.

Federal prosecutors accused Adams of accepting more than $100,000 in improper benefits over nearly a decade, many of which came in the form of flight upgrades and stays in luxury hotels, none of which were publicly divulged as required.

The indictment also alleged Adams and a staffer knowingly worked with Turkish nationals to send foreign money to straw donors for his mayoral campaign and used that money to rake in over $10 million from New York City’s matching funds program.

Adams has insinuated that the indictment was politically motivated by President Joe Biden, without any evidence.

He has had several meetings with President Donald Trump since the election but has denied that the talk of dropping the charges or a pardon has come up. Adams canceled appearances at two New York City Martin Luther King Jr. Day events at the 11th hour to attend Trump’s inauguration.

Trump has also criticized the investigation into Adams.

The criminal trial is slated to begin on April 21.

Drone operator charged for hitting ‘super scooper’ plane during Palisades Fire: DOJ

January 31, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(CALIFORNIA) — A California man has agreed to pay more than $65,000 in restitution and faces up to a year in federal prison for operating a drone that collided with a firefighting aircraft during the early days of the Palisades Fire, prosecutors announced Friday.

Peter Akemann, 56, of Culver City, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft for the Jan. 9 drone collision, which damaged the Canadian “super scooper” and took it out of commission for several days amid the devastating fire, according to federal prosecutors in Los Angeles.

According to the plea agreement, filed Friday, Akemann admitted his reckless operation of the drone interfered with the firefighting aircraft’s operations and “posed an imminent safety hazard” to the two-person crew.

The impact of the collision caused an approximately 3-inch-by-6-inch hole in the aircraft’s left wing, prosecutors said. The aircraft, which is designed to scoop water from bodies of water and drop it on fires, was able to land safely and was taken out of service for approximately five days for repairs, prosecutors said.

“We’re in the largest wildfire ever to hit Southern California. We need all the planes that we can have at the time. And now we have one down for five days,” acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally said during a press briefing on Friday. “That has a real impact on operations.”

Investigators recovered parts of the damaged drone and were able to trace that to a specific drone, which led them to Akemann, prosecutors said.

Akemann launched the drone from the top of a parking garage in Santa Monica out of curiosity to observe the wildfire damage, but lost sight of it after it flew about 1.5 miles, according to McNally.

The Federal Aviation Administration had issued temporary flight restrictions at the time that prohibited drone operations near the Los Angeles County wildfires.

There is no evidence that the collision was intentional, according to FBI Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis.

McNally said the message to the public is “deterrence.”

“If you fly a drone around wildfires and you do so recklessly, law enforcement is going to find you and we’re going to hold you accountable,” he said.

Akemann has not yet entered a guilty plea. He is expected to appear in court Friday afternoon.

“Mr. Akemann is deeply sorry for the mistake he made by flying a drone near the boundary of the Palisades fire area on January 9, 2025, and for the resulting accident,” his attorneys, Vicki Podberesky and Glen Jonas, said in a statement to ABC News. “He accepts responsibility for his grave error in judgment and is cooperating with the government in effort to make amends.”

As part of the plea agreement, Akemann has agreed to pay full restitution to the government of Quebec, which supplied the super scooper, and the company that repaired the plane — estimated to be at least $65,169.

He has also agreed to complete 150 hours of community service in support of the Southern California wildfire relief effort, prosecutors said.

The misdemeanor offense carries a prison sentence of up to one year in federal prison. Any prison sentence will ultimately be determined by a judge, McNally said.

“I’ll highlight the fact that he has agreed to plead guilty and accept responsibility, which I think is important here,” McNally said.

Akemann’s attorneys said there are a “number of mitigating factors” that will be brought up in court, including his “reliance on the DJI Drone’s geo fencing safeguard feature and the failure of that feature.”

The Palisades Fire ignited on Jan. 7 and has burned more than 23,400 acres in Los Angeles County. It is now 98% contained, according to Cal Fire. Nearly 8,000 structures are estimated to have been damaged or destroyed by the fire.

The cause remains under investigation.

+ More