(NEW YORK) — Helen Macura has always wanted a dog, but the Prohibition-era home she has lived in since 1945 isn’t safe for a potential pet. Her childhood dream of owning a dog finally came true a couple years ago, when Helen was in her late 90s.
Today, at 101 years old, Helen says she is grateful for her robotic dog that she has affectionately named “Friendly.”
Friendly is battery-powered and resembles a golden retriever puppy. He is one of the 31,500 robotic pets already given away by the New York State Office For Aging (NYSOFA). The pup barks, turns his head and raises his paw. Importantly, he does not run out the door onto her busy street.
On June 3, NYSOFA announced that it will give away 4,725 additional robotic pets to seniors in ongoing efforts to combat senior loneliness. Greg Olsen, the acting director of NYSOFA, said that loneliness has grave health consequences for seniors and it “can literally kill you.” Robotic pets are one tool to help alleviate loneliness.
Critics may argue robotic pets are “botsourcing” — or outsourcing — human connection to robots, but Olsen said robotic pets can be a way to connect with other humans by being a common topic of conversation.
Ted Fischer originally envisioned robotic pets for seniors while working at a children’s toy company. The product was intended for school-aged children but “about 20% of the reviews were not mom buying it for their four-to-eight-year-old daughter, but buying it for an aging loved one,” Fischer said.
Fischer’s convictions about the benefit of robotic pets for seniors led him to launch Ageless Innovation, a company that creates products for people of all ages to play.
Olsen remembers first seeing a robotic pet his daughter bought online in 2018. He immediately thought it would be a fantastic product for “some of our isolated and lonely older adults that are already on our caseload.” Olsen found Fischer online, and a partnership was formed.
Since 2018, NYSOFA has purchased subsidized robotic pets for seniors from Ageless Innovation using state general funds. Pets include not only robotic cats and dogs, but also birds — affectionately termed “walker squakers.” The pets have been popular, and certain counties have even had to create waiting lists for seniors who want the pets.
“I recommend that every home should have one,” said Macura, referencing her robot dog. Some nights when she cannot sleep, she sits in the living room and talks to Friendly.
“I’m talking to somebody. I do have companionship. There’s somebody here listening to me,” she said. “He’s warm and he’s comfort.”
Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, has researched the health effects of loneliness for the last 25 years. Her research was cited in Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s 2023 declaration of an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.”
“The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day,” the advisory states, a reference to Holt-Lunstad’s work.
She explained, “When we are alone or not part of a group, it takes more effort to either be vigilant to threats in our environment or to just meet the everyday demands of life.”
Holt-Lunstad continued that the stresses of being socially disconnected “can increase activation in our brain.” Over time, increased activation in the brain can signal the bone marrow to create an inflammatory response. Chronic systemic inflammation has been linked to a host of diseases, said Holt-Lunstad.
The surgeon general’s advisory enumerates these outcomes, stating that loneliness “is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death.”
Holt-Lunstad said that loneliness is a biological motive, like hunger and thirst. Loneliness “signals some kind of change that needs to be made,” she said.
The solution to loneliness is social connection. The connection must be consistent and, “in a way, it’s very parallel to physical activity. One time is not going to be enough,” said Holt-Lunstad.
Olsen and Fischer understand that a robotic pet might not provide high-quality social connection for every senior. Olsen said these pets are only one tool that NYSOFA is using.
But for certain seniors, robotic pets can make difficult transitions easier by centering the experience around the pet. “It sort of becomes about the pet as opposed to the thing” that is scary, said Fischer.
Macura hopes more seniors have access to robotic pets. “Especially the older senior citizens that are living alone. They should have companionship, good companionship,” she said.
(GAZA) — In Israel, right-wing settlers question the delivery of aid to Gazans, while Israeli peace activists advocate for the passage of aid trucks.
A Palestinian truck driver is back on the road delivering flour, sugar and salt to Gaza after being attacked by right-wing Israeli settlers last month.
Tamer Muhtaseb and his partners were attempting to deliver much-needed goods at the Tarqumiya checkpoint between the West Bank and Israel, when he was assaulted, according to Muhtaseb, by Israeli settlers who he says sabotaged his truck by throwing bags of flour onto the road.
“They forced us to get out of the car, they started to throw the aids, if I got close to the car, they would hit me,” Muhtaseb said. “If you say any word they beat you; they handcuffed me.”
The Israel Defense Forces has told ABC News that they condemn attacks on truck drivers.
Before aid reaches Gaza, it changes hands multiple times. Muhtaseb and the other Palestinian drivers line up their vehicles at the last checkpoint in the West Bank before transferring their goods onto Israeli trucks for transportation through Israel.
The trucks are supposed to reach one of the five gate crossings from Israel to Gaza, but even then they face more protests.
ABC News got a chance to speak with a woman settler at the Tarqumiya checkpoint who said she is trying to block the aid from going to the hands of Hamas.
“The people who receive this food, they raped and murdered our children, and we should not give them food,” the unidentified woman said. “This money today finances Hamas in Gaza.”
She also said, “It’s not hate, and the settlers don’t hate them. Rather, it’s the opposite. The settlers want to live in peace.”
Many Israelis believe that some of the aid Gazans receive is stolen by Hamas, something aid groups deny.
Since the start of the war, the issue of aid has been deeply divisive and highly politicized. Aid groups say that Israel could be doing far more to ensure that desperately needed aid is reaching Gaza. Israeli peace activist Alon Lee Green is advocating for the passage of aid.
“We’ve been witness to so many escalating attacks here,” Green said. “We’ve seen those right-wing attacking the trucks. They even set trucks on fire. Sent two Palestinian drivers to the hospital. It’s a fight over the soul of our own society.”
UN agencies are sounding the alarm over high starvation levels, especially in the northern part of the strip.
The UN World Food Program has paused its distribution of humanitarian aid from an American-built pier off Gaza due to safety concerns following one of the deadliest days of the war. It’s the latest setback for the $300 million pier, which had only just returned to operation after being damaged by rough seas.
However, Israel insists that enough aid is being authorized for delivery and that aid groups are the ones creating logistical challenges that result in a bottleneck.
“I’ve been working in Palestine for five years,” Andrea de Domenico, head of the UN Humanitarian Office, said. “And I’ve gone through three wars in Gaza and constant problems and situations in the West Bank. And I learned that everything is politicized in this place. I’m pretty much convinced that there is an intent to set us up for failure.”
Some aid groups argue that land routes are the most efficient way to deliver aid. Although settler disruptions may not significantly impact aid delivery to Gaza, peace activists like Green patrol the area to ensure that aid faces one less hurdle on its journey to the people of Gaza.
Green was asked if it feels like they are screaming into a void.
“In the first weeks and months of the war, because we felt very isolated and very alone and attacked from every direction,” Green said. “But more and more forces are joining us in the call for a ceasefire, in the call for humanizing all the people that live here.”
“People that have been killed in Gaza are not bringing us more safety,” Green said. “And seeing people starving in Gaza is just something that will create more violence that not only Palestinians will pay the price of, but also Israelis will be hurt. I mean, we are bound to somehow live on this land together.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that mediators will keep working to finalize a ceasefire deal after Hamas proposed changes to a U.S.-backed plan. Some proposed changes were considered “workable,” while others were not.
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Friday invalidated a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, ruling the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exceeded its authority in creating the regulation.
The 6-3 opinion was authored by Justice Clarence Thomas. The court’s three liberal justices, led by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissented.
The court ruled a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a “machinegun” under federal law because it does not fire more than one shot “by a single function of the trigger.”
Thomas added, “even if it could, it would not do so ‘automatically.'”
The ATF rule was created in the wake of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history when a gunman opened fire at Las Vegas music festival in 2017. Fifty-eight people were killed and more than 850 others wounded.
In an aerial view, flood waters inundate a neighborhood on June 13, 2024, in Hallandale Beach, Florida. As tropical moisture passes through the area, areas have become flooded due to the heavy rain. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Relentless rain has inundated South Florida this week, flooding neighborhoods, stranding drivers and canceling flights — and the threat isn’t over.
North Miami has been overwhelmed by 21.7 inches of rain this week.
Some areas have recorded more than 2 feet of rain since Tuesday.
On Friday, another 5 inches of rain is possible.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is warning of potentially significant flash flooding from Miami to Hollywood to Homestead to the Everglades.
Flood watches will remain in effect through Friday evening for Fort Myers, Naples, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
Then, over the weekend, some light rain is in the forecast.
A view damaged floating pier, set up by US to facilitate quicker delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians, after it has been suspended due to adverse weather conditions and rising sea levels in Gaza City, Gaza on May 27, 2024. (Photo by Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. military is planning to suspend operations to its temporary pier off Gaza on Friday, temporarily moving the structure to an Israeli port to ride out high seas and rough waves expected to hit the region in coming days, according to an official.
It’s the third time in a month that the structure has been deemed inoperable due to weather and the latest setback for the ambitious $230 million humanitarian project involving 1,000 US troops.
“We are doing everything we can to make it work,” the official said.
The difficulties come as time is running out for the U.S. to make use of the pier, which was initially slated as a 90-day project that would likely lose its ability to transit aid at the end of August when heightened sea levels and more frequent storms would force military officials to take it down.
Announced by President Joe Biden in his State of the Union in March, the project was supposed to bring some 2 million meals a day into hunger-stricken Gaza while Israeli officials held up aid trucks at ground crossings, citing security concerns that some of the aid could reach Hamas.
More than 2,500 metric tons of humanitarian aid have been delivered via the pier so far. But U.S. officials acknowledged that much of that aid hasn’t made it to its distribution points.
The U.N. said it suspended deliveries last week entirely due to nearby Israeli military operations that posed security concerns. The U.N. has not said when distribution might resume.
CNN first reported the U.S. military’s plans to move the pier to Ashdod on Friday. It will be the second time the pier has had to be relocated due to weather; the first time, the pier broke apart and had to be repaired. This time, the pier is being moved as a precautionary measure to prevent the temporary floating pier from breaking apart in bad weather.
Maui fire survivors upset with living conditions from FEMA’s housing program. — ABC News
(LAHAINA, Hawaii) — Nearly a year after wildfires devastated Maui and displaced many of its residents, Charles Nahale is still searching for a permanent place to call home.
Nahale is one of the more than 1,300 fire victims who find themselves enrolled in FEMA’s Direct Lease program, which aims to convert short-term rental units into long-term housing for up to two years for fire survivors, but has been fraught with challenges.
Since the Lahaina fire displaced him last August, Nahale has relocated five times. He didn’t like the first property he was assigned.
“The contract reflected something completely different from what the actual space of the unit was,” Nahale said of the first place he was offered. “For example, the space was a studio. The contract says it’s a one-bedroom and newly remodeled, which it wasn’t. The bed was practically in the kitchen.”
FEMA has allocated $197 million to three companies, none of which are based in Hawaii, to administer the Direct Lease program. These companies are tasked with the complex process of finding and leasing ready-to-occupy residential properties from owners before subleasing them to displaced residents as temporary housing. According to FEMA, they are also responsible for ensuring units comply with HUD standards and is functional, inspection, providing on-call maintenance, and coordinating repairs.
As of early June, 1,041 units are occupied by fire survivors. However, 177 units remain unoccupied while FEMA pays property owners and management companies thousands of dollars a month per property.
Nahale says once he matched with his first property, he waited three months for a background check through the property management company.
“I was told when I had that happen, that it would take no more than three weeks to do. It took three months. And while I was in the shelter, the hotel, waiting to be placed in this unit, they were paying for the unit, which was three months and over $5,000 a month, and the hotel I was in.”He says he was heartbroken when he finally was able to view the apartment for the first time, and says it was unsuitable.
“The contract reflected something completely different from what the actual space of the unit was,” Nahale said. “The space was a studio. The contract says it’s a one bedroom and newly re- remodeled, which it wasn’t. Drawers were falling apart. The curtains were broken. The bed was practically in the kitchen. Talk about breakfast in bed.”
Charles said he spent hours with FEMA representatives trying to get out of that property.
“These two representatives at FEMA, they seemed to put the fear of God in us, that if you don’t take this property, you’re going to be kicked out, most likely, and you’ll be on your own.”
He says he was re-matched to a second property, but found the new apartment still needed repairs.
“We’re sitting at this table — two FEMA representatives going over the contract, so three of us are sitting at this table. While we’re sitting here, this piece of granite, this stone, falls and breaks into two pieces,” Nahale said. You can see the crack.”
FEMA assured Nahale they would make the necessary repairs instead of having him move for the third time. He says the management company is fixing fixed some of the issues, but not all of them, including termite damage. While making repairs, Nahale said FEMA was paying 5100 dollars a month for the property, while paying for his hotel shelter.
Days after an interview with ABC News, Nahale had to vacate his hotel shelter with a day’s notice. With Nahale now in housing limbo, the Red Cross stepped in to pay for the outstanding repairs in his FEMA unit.
Nahale’s problems with FEMA and the properties aren’t specific to him. Other people have expressed their frustration, including Timothy Putnam, known as “Timster” on the island, who has been matched four times to different units.
“The first unit was a cute little unit. But it didn’t come up to code electrically,” Putnam said. “The second unit was horrifying, rat infested, with a lot of urine on mattresses, and incredibly dirty. That was super simple. I didn’t have to say no to that one because the FEMA agents that were there were horrified, as well. The third unit, you know, was far from where I wanted to be because I just started working again on the west side. And the commute was going to be difficult, but at least it was a roof over my head.”
Since moving in, Putnam has faced rodent and insects in his unit.
In a statement, FEMA told ABC News: “All units require an inspection and we make sure the house is safe, livable, sanitary and functional before anyone moves in.” But in May a FEMA representative told Maui residents they had found a number of units under FEMA contract that were not yet filled were found unsuitable.
“We went and reinspected them all over the last two and a half weeks and found quite a number of ’em that needed some upkeep, some because they were just empty and there are a few bugs, some probably should not have been in our program. Quite a number of them. We stopped our agreement with those property owners because we found the initial inspection was inadequate. That’s on us. That’s our fault,” the FEMA representative said.
Both Putnam and Nahale mentioned that after they expressed dissatisfaction with the units, they were told by FEMA representatives they should live with it since it probably wouldn’t be any better elsewhere. Despite horrid living conditions, they both felt pressured to make the best out of their situation.
Still, Putnam says he’s grateful. “I do have a roof over my head and I have since August 17th because of Governor Green, State of Hawaii, FEMA, and the Red Cross. They have kept me housed and it’s a pretty amazing thing. Right? So, there’s a lot of flaws in the system, but overall, I’ve been looked after, and I’m grateful for that.”
Putnam recently learned he would be re-matched to a property closer to his job.
FEMA leaders admit they have faced challenges matching their inventory to families’ needs, such as proximity to school and work, number of bedrooms and accessibility.
“There are some circumstances where people have rejected the offer 3, 4, 5, even 6 times to go into housing, and that’s a challenge,” Gov. Green said at a press conference in March. “I do understand how difficult it is to have to commute it all uh but many of um these units they they simply have to be occupied.”
Then a development in late May, when several property owners in the direct lease program told ABC News that their property management company suddenly terminated their rental agreements because “the unit has remained unmatched to an applicant.”
ABC News contacted FEMA, but they declined an on-camera interview and could not confirm how many leases were ended.
The agency pointed out that 1,041 people have been placed under the program. There are also 177 empty and ready-for-move-in units. They say 35 families continue to search for a match.
However, residents and local real estate agents tell ABC they have felt excluded from the process, possibly contributing to the unoccupied units in outside of West Maui.
“I have a friend who has been a real advocate for Lahaina and the fire survivors. He has a condo in Lahaina and he’s been trying to get me in there. For eight months I think we’ve been trying. We have tried every avenue to get me there, uh, in his place. FEMA won’t allow owners of condos who are participating in their program to choose who goes into these units,” Nahale said. “I believe we would have had hundreds of people in units on the west side if they allowed that to happen,” he added.
Putnam said he questions how sustainable living on Maui truly is, and says the program has affected an already difficult rental market.
“The rental market was slim and prices were going up. The fire happens. That takes away so many rentals,” Putnam said. “Now there’s less properties for people that weren’t displaced that need it on Maui. And the supply/demand is all whack, prices are going through the roof. I don’t think it’s sustainable. I don’t think the average person’s gonna be able to live here for much longer.
Nara Boone, co-founder of Maui Housing Hui, a nonprofit that educates the community on their rights, says this problem is probably the biggest issue that Maui has faced in decades.
“It comes down to the fabric of our community being shredded and changing every facet of it because people cannot afford to live here,” Boone said.
Boone says people who were not displaced by the fire, have found themselves homeless in the aftermath of the fire. “Landlords that wanna take advantage of this federal money and raise their rents are just either going radio silent or refusing to renew people’s leases, to then, you know, offer a new lease to somebody else at a higher rate” Boone said.
Zoltan Balogh, a Maui resident for 20 years, lived in a rental in Kula. He said his property was spared during the fires in his area. Last December Balogh arranged a 3 month sublease for his one-bedroom rental to spend time with his daughter in Montana.“On December 29th my landlady sent a text saying that she and her father were choosing not to renew my lease, and they would be signing a contract with FEMA,” Balogh said. “That lease would begin on January 7th, which was nine days later. This was all while I was here in Montana, 3000 miles away.”
Zoltan said he hired a lawyer, and his landlord later agreed to give him 45 days to vacate.
“But what I did have to do is leave my daughter, lose what ended up being six weeks of work here,” Balogh said. “Shipping things from Maui is, it just wasn’t at all a financial option for me. So, I essentially gave or sold everything I owned after, again, most of 20 years, and that was that.”
Zoltan says he is technically homeless now and can couch surf until he finds permanent housing. He filed a complaint with the Hawaii Attorney General Office.
“When you are evicting people to get more money, that’s greed. It’s pretty simple,” Balogh said. “You’re displacing people to place people who lost their homes,” Balogh said.
The state attorney general found Balogh’s landlord did not violate any laws by evicting Balogh and told ABC in a statement “it was determined that the action of terminating a fixed-term lease does not violate the Governor’s Emergency Proclamation (EP).” But Zoltan alleged he never signed a fixed term lease.
“You just stated you’re evicting this person with nine day’s notice to place a FEMA recipient,” Balogh said. “How are you saying this is okay and closing my- my file?”
The Hawaii Attorney General’s Office has confirmed to ABC News that they have received at least 227 housing-related complaints; including 29 FEMA abuse allegations and 198 related to housing violations of the Governor’s Emergency Proclamation. 28 violations were investigated and corrected, and 37 investigations remain ongoing.
“The violations have already happened. They’re already without their home, and what’s their recourse now?” Boone questioned. “The attorney general’s office has not enforced as much as we would like them to enforce.”
FEMA provided a statement to ABC News about their policy regarding FEMA abuse: “Our policy is clear. If we discover a landlord has inappropriately evicted a tenant in good standing so they may pursue a lease from FEMA, we will not work with that landlord.”
According to Boone, Maui residents continue to battle with landlords illegally increasing rent after the fires.
“With FEMA’s payments of the rents, proposed payments of rents, in general throughout Maui County, our rents have doubled and sometimes tripled, and it’s just become way too much for a lot of people to try to pay. So, there’s a lot more homelessness right now. There’s a lot more people living in their cars,” Boone said.
In May Hawaii Gov. Josh Green stepped in and issued his eleventh emergency proclamation with added protections for tenants against landlords attempting to raise rent due to operational costs, evict tenants to move themselves or their family in, or sell the property.
“I think that it has finally kind of tightened the reins for landlords and made … put the onus on them to prove, uh, the reason that they’re evicting someone,” Boone said. “It seems like the governor is listening, but we need him to close the other loophole. The biggest loophole is this termination of leases. That’s the only way, really, to stop the, this bleeding that’s happening.”
For now Nara says landlords can help house people on Maui by converting their dwellings to meet HUD housing quality standards, so there’s more inventory available.
In addition, Gov. Green announced plans to build temporary housing in Lahaina that is expected to be ready this year.
Putnam says he’s grateful to FEMA that he has a roof over his head, no matter its flaws.
“I guarantee they’re doing as best as they can. But, a wise man once said, the 10 most feared words in the English language are, “I’m here from the government and I’m here to help.”
But Nahale isn’t as hopeful.
“FEMA help ends in February of 2025, and they have us in places where the rents are so high,” he said. “Every day it’s getting a little closer and you, you get into knots wondering what’s gonna… how I’m going to survive. What’s gonna happen now?”
(FORT WORTH, Texas) — A Texas man was charged with making threats to an FBI agent, according to information provided by the Justice Department on Thursday.
Timothy Muller, 43, of Fort Worth, is alleged to have called an FBI Special Agent and left a threatening voicemail, followed up by subsequent text messages threatening the agent and his family, officials said in a release.
“You can run, but you can’t [expletive] hide,” he allegedly said in a June 11 voicemail. “So here’s how its gonna go: [T’s] gonna win the re-election and then we’re gonna [expletive] go through the FBI and just start throwing you…into jail. OR, you can steal another election and then guns will come out, and we’ll hunt you…down and slaughter you like the traitorous dogs you are in your own [expletive] homes.”
The T refers to former President Donald Trump, according to a source familiar with the case.
The FBI says the agent “was known to have been involved in an investigation into a laptop belonging to H.B.,” who it notes was “convicted following a trial related to a 2018 firearm purchase” shortly before the call. ABC News believes H.B. is Hunter Biden.
The man was charged Thursday with interstate threatening communications and influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a federal official.
“The last thing you’ll ever hear are the horrified shrieks or your widow and orphans,” Muller allegedly said, according to the complaint.
The complaint also says the agent, who was involved in a high-profile investigation, received a text message on his phone shortly after the threatening voice message.
“You’re going to jail – if your lucky,” Muller is alleged to have written to the special agent. “But I suspect you won’t be. How’s the family? Safe?”
In a follow-up text, Muller allegedly continued the threatening language.
“Nobody is afraid of you [expletive],” Muller allegedly wrote. “Quite the opposite b—-. We want you so bad we can [expletive] taste it.”
The FBI says it traced the number back to Muller of Fort Worth.
Muller was arrested outside of his home Thursday morning and was detained pending a hearing next week.
A lawyer for Muller didn’t respond to ABC News request for comment.
The Bud Light logo is seen on a truck semitrailer, Oct. 21, 2022, in Maryland. — Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — When conservative activists set aflame boxes of Bud Light and urged a boycott in response to an endorsement from a trans influencer last spring, they sent sales of the beer plummeting in a rare success in the long history of consumer movements.
Even more improbably, the backlash continues to hammer Bud Light and strain independent local wholesalers more than a year later, according to third-party sales data shared with ABC News as well as interviews with six Anheuser-Busch wholesalers.
Most of the wholesalers, small- and medium-sized businesses that draw a significant portion of their revenue from Bud Light, said they remain weakened by the decline in sales and uncertain about when, if ever, the brand will fully recover.
The owner of an Anheuser-Busch wholesaler in the Northeast, whose child is trans, told ABC News they have taken a 30% pay cut to make up for the losses and are considering retirement.
“It was really hurtful personally,” the owner said. “I’m trying to understand what my kid is going through and then this happens.”
“It’s still very upsetting,” the owner added, noting the company’s Bud Light sales declined by 50% in the immediate aftermath of the boycott. “It’s very difficult to come in every day and look at those sales numbers, knowing I have a responsibility for everyone here.”
Another executive at a wholesaler in the Mid-Atlantic said they have spent sleepless nights devising ways to shed costs without laying off employees; and a top official at a distributor in the Southeast said they expect sales of Bud Light will remain down for at least two more years.
Still, the wholesalers added, harassment of employees and drinkers has faded, indicating the boycott fervor has died down and the brand reputation of Bud Light has begun to mend. Many of the wholesalers said sales had improved lately and Bud Light remains their top-selling beer.
The wholesalers requested anonymity because they didn’t want to be publicly identified speaking about the financial consequences of the boycott. In all, roughly 500 independent distributors sell Anheuser-Busch products nationwide.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, a spokesperson at Anheuser-Busch touted the success of Bud Light and the company’s relationship with wholesalers.
“Bud Light continues to be the number one selling beer brand in the country because for decades it has been synonymous with programs and activations that consumers love, including partnerships with the NFL, NHL, UFC, and College Football,” the spokesperson said.
“As we have for nearly a century, we continue to work side-by-side with our 350+ wholesaler partners to drive growth for our collective business and provide best-in-class service to our consumers and retailers across the country,” the spokesperson added.
Sales of Bud Light declined by roughly 25% over the weeks following a product endorsement from Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer, which sparked backlash among many conservatives last April, according to data from Bump Williams Consulting and Nielsen NIQ obtained by ABC News.
In a video posted on Instagram, Mulvaney held a specially designed can of Bud Light featuring an illustration of her. The can, Mulvaney said, included a message congratulating her on “365 days of womanhood.”
Until April of this year, sales of the beer stayed stuck at the same level while the boycott persisted, Dave Williams, the president of Bump Williams Consulting, told ABC News.
“Sales cratered and sat there. They didn’t get any worse but they sure as heck didn’t get any better,” Williams said. “I don’t think there are a lot of examples where the king of the castle, someone in such prominence, took such a public and drastic hit in beer.”
In recent months, sales have shown signs of improvement but remain well below pre-boycott levels, Williams added, noting that some customers appear to have returned to the brand as the social stigma has waned while others remain steadfast in their opposition.
“The goal is to retain the consumers they have and hopefully try to win some back.”
An executive at a wholesaler in the Southeast said Bud Light sales plummeted by at least 20% in the aftermath of the boycott and remained at that level for the rest of 2023. The blow to the balance sheet hurt company morale and raised questions about the firm’s future, the executive said.
“We’ve got employees who expected a career helping to build this brand and this business,” the executive added. “To have that undone was a bit of a shock, to say the least.”
In recent months, hostility toward the brand has faded, sales have stabilized and morale has improved, the executive added, acknowledging that sales still stand well below pre-boycott levels.
“Once a consumer drops off a product — where there is a readily available and similarly priced substitute — a habit has formed and it’s difficult to shake that habit,” the executive said. “We have to give them a reason to come back.”
Williams said Bud Light has returned to its spot as the top-selling U.S. beer by volume, even if revenue has lagged. Meanwhile, other Anheuser-Busch beer brands are performing better than they did before the boycott.
Some wholesalers expressed optimism about Bud Light’s outlook and praised Anheuser-Busch for providing financial support in response to the sales slump. They also downplayed the boycott’s impact, attributing much of the sales decline to a wider shift away from beer to other alcoholic drinks.
“The beer industry — no matter what product you’re selling — is down in sales,” Tom Davis, director of operations at Maryland-based Katcef Brothers, Inc., an Anheuser-Busch wholesaler, told ABC News. “That has a bigger impact on beer sales than anything.”
An Anheuser-Busch spokesperson shared a statement from a wholesaler with ABC News.
“Anheuser-Busch recognizes the vital role their wholesaler partners play in the business, and last year they stepped in to provide critical resources to ensure we were positioned to continue serving our consumers and communities across the country,” Sarah Matesich Schwab, President of Ohio-based Matesich Distributing, said in the statement.
“There’s lots of positive momentum in the system, and we are focused on strengthening our partnership so that we can continue to grow and succeed together,” Matesich Schwab added.
The enduring impact of the Bud Light boycott defies a decadeslong history of largely ineffective consumer boycotts, Maurice Schweitzer, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business who studies consumer movements, told ABC News.
The continued struggle of Bud Light owes to the easy availability of similar products as well as the highly polarized political environment nationwide, Schweitzer said.
“Given the history of boycotts and its history of ineffectiveness, it is really surprising that this one has had the staying power that it has,” Schweitzer told ABC News.
“In this moment, we’re so politicized,” Schweitzer added. “The weather is political, the employment rate is political and now beer is political.”
(NEW YORK) — While experts and advocacy groups applauded the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Thursday to not restrict nationwide access to the abortion pill mifepristone, they warn access to medication abortion remains at risk — as does the very foundation of the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of all medications.
The court unanimously struck down a lawsuit seeking to restrict nationwide access to mifepristone, one of the two pills used in an abortion medication regimen. The court ruled that a group of doctors have no grounds to bring the lawsuit that sought to roll back the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.
While it is only recommended for up to 11 weeks of pregnancy, the abortion pill regimen is the least expensive form of abortion care and has become the most common form of abortion care in the U.S.
Medication abortion accounted for 63% of U.S. abortions in 2023, according to a study from the Guttmacher Institute in March, and its use is growing. Medication abortions accounted for just 53% of all abortions in the U.S. in 2020, according to Guttmacher, a research and policy group that advocates for reproductive health.
Women in states where abortion care has ceased or is restricted can still access the pills by mail under Thursday’s ruling — the biggest impact from the Supreme Court’s decision.
“The idea of limiting access to mifepristone will just further exacerbate disparities that we’re already seeing in terms of reproductive health care,” said Dr. Reshma Ramachandran, a family physician, health services researcher and assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine.
Women who take the abortion pill can also go back to work or their daily lives quicker and patients see less days of bleeding and the likelihood of profound blood loss, Ramachandran said. The need to be seen by a physician is also reduced with the abortion pill regimen, compared to surgical abortions, she added.
At least 17 states have ceased nearly all abortion care since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade nearly two years ago.
Impact on abortion care Ramachandran called the Supreme Court decision “a relief.”
“While it is great that they dismissed it, the rationale for it is not as comforting because that just introduces the possibility that other groups where standing can be established could raise the same challenge and could work to limit access to mifepristone,” said Ramachandran.
“I’m very cognizant that this still allows for additional challenges to come forward before the courts,” Ramachandran said.
The American Civil Liberties Union also warned that the ruling was not the end of challenges to the abortion pill.
“Although the Court refused to allow these particular people to bring this case, anti-abortion politicians are waiting in the wings to attempt to continue pushing this case before an extremist judge in Texas in an effort to deny people access to medication abortion care,” Jennifer Dalven, director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement.
The Guttmacher Institute also warned that mifepristone plays a key role in ensuring that many people safely self-manage their abortions, saying people need to remain “vigilant” with the anti-abortion movement continuing to try and risk care nationwide.
“We are relieved by this outcome, but we are not celebrating. From the start, this case was rooted in bad faith and lacking any basis in facts or science. This case never should have reached our nation’s top court in the first place and the Supreme Court made the only reasonable decision by leaving access to medication abortion using mifepristone unchanged,” Destiny Lopez, the acting co-CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, said in a statement.
The Supreme Court has not yet issued a decision on another case on its docket this term that could have a wider impact on lifesaving emergency abortion care across the country, including states that ban the procedure. The other case — Moyle v. U.S. — centers on Idaho’s total abortion ban, which prohibits the procedure at all stages of pregnancy, with exceptions to save the life of a pregnant woman or in cases of rape or incest.
A Biden administration lawsuit challenging the ban argues that it violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act — a federal law that requires emergency room physicians at hospitals that receive Medicare funds to provide stabilizing health care to all patients whose health is in jeopardy.
It is now up to the court to determine whether the law, known as EMTALA, supersedes Idaho’s abortion ban and protects physicians’ ability to provide lifesaving abortion care. A decision in that case will be more consequential to abortion access across the country.
Impact on FDA approval process At the heart of FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine — the case decided Thursday — was a fear that a Supreme Court decision could inject judges into decisions made by the experts at the FDA, not just for mifepristone but potentially other drugs.
“A number of us have been watching these court cases, and have been worried about the idea that judges — without clinical or technical expertise — would be weighing in on the scientific decisions that are being made by the FDA,” said Ramachandran, who is also the chair of Doctors for America’s task force on FDA policy.
At least for now, the ruling keeps the power in the hands of the FDA.
“It’s a very lengthy process to be able to get drug approval. There’s multiple review teams of scientists, doctors, statisticians, basic scientists, they’re all involved in looking at the data and making a determination if the drug is safe and effective for the indicated use before it comes into the market,” Ramachandran said.
“As a doctor, I look to the FDA and providing reassurance that what they approve is truly safe and effective. … It’s very much a rubber stamp,” Ramachandran said.
The FDA is also then responsible for ensuring the safety of drugs once they are on the market, according to Sanket Dhruva, an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco School of Medicine who studies FDA regulation of drugs and medical devices.
The FDA went “above and beyond in terms of regulatory standards approval for mifepristone,” because of the politicization of abortion care and the anticipation that there would be a number of different stakeholders looking at the drug, Ramachandran said.
Had the court ruled differently, there was wide concern that it would set the dangerous precedent that judges — who may not have the requisite expertise — would limit patient access to products, Ramachandran said.
“It would also rather politicize the FDA’s approval process, [for] drugs for gender-affirming care, for instance, and other reproductive health care — medications, contraception — which is kind of bizarre,” Ramachandran said.
Had the Supreme Court ruled differently it could have been “catastrophic” for drug development and regulation in the U.S., Dhruva said.
“It could have potentially cast out on the FDA being the determinant of what drugs meet the safety and effectiveness threshold to be on the United States market,” Dhruva said.
“There could have been larger issues for the drug development ecosystem because the industry might also have been more reluctant to invest in the whole process of drug development if there was this risk that the FDA might approve it. But then stakeholders — whoever had whatever interest — might come to the courts and the courts might invalidate the FDA’s ability to approve a device,” Dhruva said.
If the court had determined that the FDA’s authority over safety and fitness of drugs could be overturned, it would have led to a “significant thawing of industry investment in pharmaceuticals,” and threatened the development of new drugs, Dhruva said.
“I think it would have significantly threatened the development of drugs for conditions that we really need,” Dhruva said.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson hold a press conference at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, April 12, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Donald Trump made a rare appearance in Washington on Thursday to lay out his second-term agenda to Republican lawmakers as he continues to stress party unity in the wake of his historic felony conviction and a month from becoming the party’s official nominee.
The former president spent the day just blocks away from the U.S. Capitol to attend a slate of meetings with GOP allies.
First, he huddled with House Republicans at the Capitol Hill Club. The meeting was behind closed doors, but multiple sources told ABC News the former president praised House Speaker Mike Johnson as doing a “good job.”
Trump also criticized the Department of Justice as “dirty bastards” as he aired grievances about his legal challenges.
The meeting unfolded as the Supreme Court handed down a major decision preserving access to the abortion pill mifepristone. Sources told ABC News Trump did not mention the decision directly, but did discuss his view that abortion access should be decided by the states. He also insisted he believed in three exceptions to abortion restrictions: rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.
Politically, Trump told Republicans they could have a 40-seat majority in the House if they weren’t so “afraid” of the issue, according to sources.
He also went after Democrats like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Rep. Liz Cheney, sources said. Both Pelosi and Cheney, despite being on opposite sides of the aisle, are staunch critics of the former president.
Later on Thursday, Trump met with Senate Republicans at the National Republican Senatorial Committee headquarters. After the meeting, he touted party unity in on-camera remarks but took no questions from reporters.
“This is an outstanding group of people. I’m with them 1,000%, they’re with me 1,000%. We agree just about on everything and if there isn’t, we work it out,” Trump said.
In a show of force, Trump was joined by a large group of senators, including Sens. Rick Scott, Josh Hawley, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, and many others. Sens. Tim Scott and J.D. Vance, two vice presidential hopefuls, were also there to support Trump.
“We want to see just success for our country,” Trump said. “And we don’t have success right now.”
Trump has stayed off the U.S. Capitol campus entirely since he left office shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
His return on Thursday prompted President Joe Biden and Democrats to highlight the riot. The Biden-Harris campaign released a new advertisement claiming Trump is trying to “burn it all down” with footage of the Capitol riot.
The former president said while Democrats accuse Republicans of being “a bad example of democracy,” they’re the ones who “are getting away with murder.”
The Senate Republican discussion marked the first time since 2020 that Minority Mitch McConnell and Trump met face-to-face.
McConnell and Trump have a rocky relationship, heightened after McConnell recognized President Joe Biden’s victory in the wake of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
But McConnell, walking back to the U.S. Capitol building afterward, called it a “positive meeting.”
“He and I got a chance to talk a little bit and shook hands a few times,” McConnell said. “He got a lot of standing ovations. It was an entirely positive meeting. Mitt Romney was there as well.”
Johnson has more openly embraced Trump, who was crucial in supporting him when he faced the threat of being ousted by conservative GOP House hard-liners, saying coordination with Trump is important heading into November’s election and a potential second Trump presidency.
“I think it’s important for the country, to have us, to have close coordination,” Johnson said at a news conference on Wednesday. “I believe he’ll have, can be, the most consequential president of the modern era, because we have to fix effectively every area of public policy.”
At that news conference, Johnson also told ABC News he supports a bill that would allow current or former presidents to move state charges against them into federal court — a measure aimed at showing support for Trump after being found guilty in his hush money trial in a New York state court.
“I think that’s an idea that makes sense. It makes sense to most Republicans, and I think almost everyone will be in favor of that.”
After the Thursday morning meeting, Johnson said that Trump “didn’t bring up that specific piece of legislation.”
“He did talk about his concern about the lawfare that’s been waged against him — and we all know it — and I made the point in my introduction that it’s backfired fantastically,” Johnson said. “President Trump has become a symbol of pushing back against corruption, the deep state of the weaponization of judicial system and that’s a very encouraging development. So, I think that he made the point every time they indicted him, his polls went up.”
However, not every Republican fully welcomed back Trump when he came to the nation’s capital.
Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who have been vocal Trump critics, blamed previous conflicts as a reason for why they couldn’t attend the meeting with Trump.
The two voted with Democrats to impeach Trump for his actions related to Jan. 6.
As he was in Washington, Trump also participated in a moderated discussion at a quarterly meeting of the Business Roundtable, a group consisting of more than 200 CEOs. Business Roundtable spokesman Michael Steel said the group invited both presumptive presidential nominees, but with Biden overseas to attend the G7 summit, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients joined the meeting in his absence.
