Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for United Justice Coalition
(DALLAS) — Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger became eligible for parole over the weekend, five years after being convicted of murder in the fatal 2018 shooting of Botham Jean. Jean’s family is calling for the parole board to reject early release for Guyger and to ensure that she serves her full 10-year sentence.
“We have to deal with that sentence for the rest of our lives. So for the person responsible for taking Botham away from us just unjustly and senselessly, the logical thing to do is to have her serve her full sentence,” Allisa Charles-Findley, Jean’s sister, told ABC News in an interview on Monday. “And 10 years, to me, it’s a light sentence for murder.”
Guyger fatally shot 26-year-old Jean on Sept. 6, 2018 while he was eating ice-cream in his Dallas, Texas, home after mistakenly entering his apartment believing it was her own. She was convicted of murder on Oct. 1, 2019, after a jury unanimously rejected Guyger’s self-defense claims in the fatal shooting.
Charles-Findley and her family, including her mother and brother Brandt, who publicly forgave Guyger in an extraordinary moment during her sentencing hearing in 2019, all want to see Guyger serve her full sentence and are planning to share their thoughts in interviews with the parole board next week, she told ABC News.
“Brandt’s forgiveness of Amber Guyger does not mean that she does not get to be punished for her crime,” Charles-Findley said. “Forgiveness doesn’t supersede punishment, so whether he forgave her or not, that has no bearing on her serving her full sentence for committing that crime.”
The date for Guyger’s parole hearing hasn’t been set, and her attorney didn’t immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Death of an innocent man: Timeline of wrong-apartment murder trial of Amber Guyger
Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Oct. 2, 2019 and became eligible for parole on Sunday — the day that would have been Jean’s 33rd birthday.
With Guyger ‘s parole eligibility, Charles-Findley said that her brother’s birthday this year was a “very difficult day” for the family as they honored his memory.
“Botham was a praise leader at church, so every single song just reminded me of him. I could hear him singing it,” she said. “So yesterday was hard. We spent it together at church. But after that, I just needed time alone and, like the past six years, I’ve spent Botham’s birthday just crying in bed.”
Guyger, who was fired from her job as a Dallas police officer in the wake of the shooting, was initially facing a maximum sentence of up to 99 years in prison in this case.
Her sentence initially disappointed Jean’s family, with some of them breaking down in tears and shaking their heads after it was announced.
“Ten years was a bitter pill to swallow, but eventually I accepted it,” Charles-Findley told ABC News. “So now, five years later, to have to deal with her being eligible for early release … it feels like just going through this whole trial all over again, because every single minute I have this pit in my stomach just wondering if she will be let go early, and how, how am I now supposed to accept it?”
Amber Guyger convicted of murder in wrong-apartment killing of innocent man
While delivering her victim impact statement ahead of Guyger’s October 2019 sentencing hearing, Jean’s mother, Allison Jean, said she has struggled to work or sleep and her family’s lives had not been the same since her middle child was killed.
“I have to keep the family together because everybody’s in pain,” she said.
Meanwhile, Guyger’s mother, Karen Guyger, said that her daughter hasn’t been the same since the shooting and she “wanted to take [Jean’s] place. She’d always tell me she wished she could have taken his place. She feels very bad about it.”
Jean’s then-18-year-old brother took the witness stand and spoke to Guyger.
“I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you,” Brandt Jean said.
Brandt Jean, who opened up about why he chose to forgive his brother’s killer in an exclusive interview with “Good Morning America” on Oct. 4, 2019, then asked the judge if he could give Guyger a hug — a request that the judge granted.
“This is what you have to do to set yourself free,” Brandt Jean told “GMA.” “I didn’t really plan on living the rest of my life hating this woman.”
Extraordinary act of mercy: Brother of Botham Jean hugs and forgives Amber Guyger after 10-year sentence imposed
Charles-Findley said that while her brother forgave Guyger because it was “necessary for him to be relieved of the burden,” she is “not there yet.”
“I haven’t started to process forgiving Amber Guyger. I know for me, my reasoning is, I don’t believe her story. I don’t believe she has been honest with the events that took place that night,” she said.
Charles-Findley has petitioned the U.S. Department of Justice to look into this case as she seeks “full accountability,” she noted.
“As his big sister, I will not stop until I just try my hardest to get full accountability for him because he deserves it. He did nothing wrong. Eating ice cream in your apartment, watching football is not a crime, no matter the color of your skin,” she said.The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
After her conviction, Guyger’s attorney filed multiple appeals, but they were rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeals — Texas’s highest court — in 2022, according to ABC Dallas affiliate WFAA.
Unless she is released on parole, court records indicated that Guyger has a projected release date of Sept. 29, 2029.
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Although President Joe Biden bluntly declared that “we need a cease-fire now” in Lebanon, his administration appeared to subdue its messaging on a push for a temporary truce between Israel and Hezbollah, as U.S. officials on Monday acknowledged Israel intends to scale up operations in Lebanon.
“Military pressure can, at times, enable diplomacy,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. “Of course, military pressure can also lead to miscalculation. It can lead to unintended consequences, and we’re in conversations with Israel about all these factors now.”
The shift in tone comes as the administration has acknowledged Israel has communicated plans to conduct what officials described as “limited” ground incursions into Lebanon aimed at taking out Hezbollah infrastructure — a follow-up to its major aerial attacks over the last several days, including one that killed the militant group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
It also coincides with the State Department’s public admission that it has again hit a wall in its efforts to push forward a cease-fire in Gaza because Hamas has refused to engage with Egyptian and Qatari mediators for weeks, leaving the Biden administration unable to pull together what senior U.S. officials advertised as a “final” proposal for a deal.
“We can’t get a clear answer from Hamas of what they’re willing to entertain and what they’re not willing to entertain,” Miller said.
Over the course of nearly a year, these two fronts of conflict sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel have exasperated U.S. diplomats who have sought to prevent war from engulfing the entire Middle East.
“The Biden team is definitely frustrated, but in many ways, it’s a frustration born largely out of its own wishful thinking and unwillingness to face some harsh realities in today’s Middle East,” Brian Katulis, a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Middle East Institute, told ABC News.
Katulis argued that Iran — a chief supporter of both Hezbollah and Hamas — and Israel’s right-wing government have been edging toward a regional war, and that the Biden administration “lacks the will and strategic focus to fundamentally shift those dynamics.”
“The U.S. is trapped in a reactive, crisis-management mode because it remains unwilling to use the force and leverage needed to produce the diplomatic outcomes it says it wants to achieve,” he said. “Darker days are ahead.”
Israel sees few benefits to curbing its military campaign in Lebanon, as it has already successfully eliminated several of its top targets and made progress toward restoring security on its northern border.
U.S officials say the Israeli government views a diplomatic alternative — a 21-day cease-fire backed by the Biden administration, France and several other countries — as counterproductive to its aim of allowing Israelis that have been displaced by Hezbollah’s near-constant stream of rocket fire to return to their homes as quickly as possible.
And while many have been wary about provoking Iran, some Biden administration officials and experts now see Tehran as increasingly unlikely to fully enter the fray.
“Iran’s options range from bad to worse against Israel, given its conventional military deficiencies and the blows its regional terror network has endured,” Behnam Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told ABC News.
Taleblu added that Tehran now appears likely to change course and take action only if it perceives the threat posed by Israel to be “existential and to the homeland.”
But even if the conflict in the Middle East doesn’t expand further, White House officials had hoped a negotiated truce between Israel and Hezbollah could resuscitate Gaza peace talks.
Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former State Department official, warned that the administration must worry that continued deadlock will weaken U.S. influence in the Middle East and beyond.
But he said there’s still an opportunity to make progress — if the Biden administration can reign in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“All wars are much easier to start than end, though, and it is not clear whether Netanyahu, his sharply divided cabinet or his ruling coalition have any idea how they might do that,” Alterman said. “He will need a broad, U.S.-led coalition to push him, and it needs to start coming together now.”
An ABC News graphic shows the latest weather conditions and warnings in the wake of Helene, on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. — ABC News
(NEW YORK) — The storm surge, wind damage and inland flooding from Hurricane Helene have been catastrophic, flooding neighborhoods, stranding residents, destroying homes and toppling trees in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.
Dozens have been killed.
Helene, which made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday night as a massive Category 4 hurricane, was the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the Big Bend on record.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Storm ‘unprecedented’ for western North Carolina
Helene is “an unprecedented storm” for western North Carolina, requiring an “unprecedented response,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Monday.
“We’re dealing with a situation that is unlike anybody’s ever seen in western North Carolina,” he said.
The damage is “extensive and devastating” and is “going to require significant resources, both in the short-term and the long-term,” the governor said.
Ninety-two rescue teams are out conducting search and rescues right now, Cooper said.
More than 300 roads are closed and some bridges have been destroyed, officials said.
Over 7,000 North Carolina residents have registered for FEMA individual assistance and that money is already flowing in, according to Will Ray, director of North Carolina Emergency Management.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell promised that the agency will “be here as long as it takes to finish this response and continue through the recovery.”
“We have the resources here in North Carolina to help,” Criswell said. “We will continue to send additional resources in.”
Full extent of damage still unclear: Homeland security adviser
Homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood Randall said the full extent of the damage from the hurricane is still unclear.
“It probably will take several more days, as communities begin to be opened up by the debris clearance on the roads, and we can get in, and really understand what’s happened to them,” she said.
Sherwood-Randall said about 600 people are unaccounted for.
“We’re very hopeful that some of those people just don’t have cellphones working and actually are alive,” she said.
Sherwood-Randall said 3,500 federal response personnel have been deployed to the region and additional personnel is expected to arrive in the coming days.
With communication remaining a major challenge, Sherwood-Randall said, “Today, FEMA will install 30 Starlink receivers in western North Carolina to provide immediate connectivity for those in greatest need.”
She also highlighted that in states that have received major disaster declarations, FEMA is working to distribute serious needs assistance, which gives “an immediate $750 direct payment to eligible households, to allow them to pay for essential items like food, baby formula, water, medications and other emergency supplies.”
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Sen. Rick Scott calls for Senate to reconvene to pass emergency aid
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is calling upon the Senate to reconvene to approve an emergency aid package for victims of Hurricane Helene.
“While I know from my experience with previous hurricanes that FEMA and [Small Business Administration] damage assessments take time, I am today urging Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to immediately reconvene the U.S. Senate when those assessments are completed so that we can pass the clean supplemental disaster funding bill and other disaster relief legislation, like my Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act, needed to ensure the full recovery of families in all impacted communities,” Scott said in a statement Monday.
Any additional funding, beyond the funding approved by President Joe Biden and able to be drawn down from FEMA, would need to be approved by both chambers of Congress.
The Senate let out on Wednesday after approving a stopgap funding bill to keep the government funded through Dec. 20. The Senate is not scheduled to return until Nov. 12. The House is also out of session and would need to return to approve any aid.
-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin
How to help
Click here for a list of charities and organizations that are supporting relief efforts, including the Red Cross and Americares.
Trump visits hard-hit Valdosta, Georgia
Former President Donald Trump visited hard-hit Valdosta in southern Georgia on Monday to distribute supplies and “stand in complete solidarity with … all of those suffering in the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Helene.”
“Valdosta has been ravaged,” Trump said. “The town is, very, very badly hurting, and many thousands are without power. They’re running low on food and fuel. We brought a lot of it down with us.”
“We’ll continue to help until you’re bigger, better, stronger than ever before,” Trump said.
The former president held a “moment of silence and prayer” for those killed in the storm.
Twenty-five people in Georgia have died in the storm, Gov. Brian Kemp said.
Trump said he’ll also visit North Carolina as the state works to recover from Helene.
Biden plans to visit storm zone Wednesday or Thursday
President Joe Biden said Monday that Helene is “not just a catastrophic storm — it’s a historic, history-making storm.”
Biden said he will travel to the impact zone as soon as possible, ideally Wednesday or Thursday. He said he’s been told it’d be disruptive to visit immediately, and he does not want to interfere with these areas accessing the relief they desperately need.
“Communities are devastated. Loved ones waiting, not sure if their loved ones are OK, and they can’t contact them because there’s no cellphone connections. Many more folks displaced have no idea when they’ll be able to be return to their home, if ever, if there’s a home to return to,” he said.
“There’s nothing like wondering, ‘Is my husband, wife, son, daughter, mother, father, alive?’ And many more who remain without electricity, water, food and communications,” he said.
Biden said he’s directed his team “to provide every available resource as fast as possible.”
Biden vowed, “We’re not leaving until the job is done.”
Helene ‘spared no one’ in Georgia, governor says
Hurricane Helene “literally spared no one” in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday.
Twenty-five people in Georgia have died in the storm, Kemp said. The victims include: a 27-year-old mother and her 1-month-old twin boys, who died when a tree fell on their home; Leon Davis, an assistant fire chief from Blackshear, who died when a tree fell on his car while he was responding to a call; and a 7-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl who died when a tree fell on their burning house, he said.
More than 500,000 customers in Georgia remain without power after Helene damaged over 5,000 poles, the governor said. Kemp said Georgia Power officials are calling Helene the most devastating storm they’ve faced.
Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit hard-hit Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday.
35 dead, hundreds unaccounted for in hard-hit Buncombe County, North Carolina
Thirty-five people are dead and 600 people remain unaccounted for in hard-hit Buncombe County, North Carolina, which encompasses Asheville, according to county officials.
County officials said people will go door-to-door to check on those who have been reported missing.
Shelters are at capacity, officials said.
The city of Asheville has partnered with Verizon to establish a temporary cellphone tower, officials said.
-ABC News’ Alex Faul and Jessica Gorman
600 people still unaccounted for in hard-hit Buncombe County, North Carolina
Six-hundred people remain unaccounted for in hard-hit Buncombe County, North Carolina, which encompasses Asheville, according to county officials.
County officials said people will go door-to-door to check on those who have been reported missing.
Thirty people in Buncombe County have been confirmed dead from the hurricane, the sheriff said Sunday.
Buncombe County remains under a state of emergency.
-ABC News’ Jessica Gorman
Helene remnants move into mid-Atlantic
After dumping more than 30 inches of rain on North Carolina and producing the biggest local flood in recorded history, the remnants of Helene are forecast to move on Monday into the mid-Atlantic.
As southeastern United States worked to clean up from Helene, some of its remnants are moving into Mid-Atlantic today with heavy rain forecast for West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland.
There is an elevated flood threat on Monday in Virginia and West Virginia, where the already saturated ground could get additional 1 to 2 inches of rain, which could produce flash flooding.
-ABC News’ Max Golembo
Harris planning visit to communities impacted by Helene
Vice President Kamala Harris intends to communities impacted by Hurricane Helene “as soon as it is possible without disrupting emergency response operations,” according to a White House official.
Harris, who was briefed by FEMA on the federal response to the hurricane, reached out to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
At a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday, Harris addressed those who were impacted by the hurricane by sending her “thoughts and prayers” and thanking first responders.
“I know that everyone here sends their thoughts and prayers for folks who have been so devastated in Florida, in Georgia, the Carolinas and other impacted states. And we know that so many have been impacted. Some have died, but I want to thank everyone for doing everything you can to think about them,” Harris said. “Send them your thoughts and your prayers. I want to thank the first responders who have done so much. I stand with these communities for as long as it takes to make sure that they are able to recover and rebuild.”
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie
Gov. DeSantis says power restored to all but 111K in Florida
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis shared a major update on power restoration progress in the state on Sunday.
DeSantis said a post on X that most customers who lost power after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend area last week, have had their electricity restored.
The governor said power was back for 2.3 million customers, and 99% of the state has power.
He added that power remains out for 111,000 customers.
Biden intends to visit hurricane zone this week
President Joe Biden spent his Sunday evening receiving briefings on the damage from Hurricane Helene, and speaking to local officials from the impacted areas.
In a statement, the White House said Biden intends to travel to the impacted areas this week, “as soon as it will not disrupt emergency operations.”
Additionally, Biden spoke by phone Sunday with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Valdosta, Georgia, Mayor Scott Matheson and Taylor County, Florida, emergency management director John Louk, according to the White House.
The president also reached out to additional officials across North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida and South Carolina.
“In each conversation, the President received updates on response and recovery efforts, and he shared how the Biden-Administration will continue providing support to impacted communities – for as long as it takes,” the White House said in the statement.
-ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky
Trump to visit Valdosta, Georgia
Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday to receive a briefing on the damage caused by Hurricane Helene, help distribute supplies and deliver remarks, his campaign said.
President Joe Biden said Sunday that the photographs showing Hurricane Helene’s damage are “stunning.”
When asked by reporters about his message to the victims, Biden said, “It’s tragic.”
“My FEMA advisor is on the ground in Florida right now. … We’re working hard,” Biden said.
Asked by ABC News if there are more resources the federal government could be providing, Biden responded, “No, we’ve given them. We have pre-planned a significant amount, even though they didn’t ask for it yet — hadn’t asked for it yet.”
-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart
25 dead in South Carolina
Hurricane Helene’s impact on South Carolina has been “devastating,” and the storm has claimed the lives of 25 people in the state, Gov. Henry McMaster said Sunday.
“We don’t want to lose any more,” McMaster said.
Nearly 1.3 million customers lost power in South Carolina at Helene’s peak. As of Sunday afternoon, more than 800,000 customers remain in the dark.
The governor emphasized that power companies are working around the clock to restore electricity. Thousands of workers are on the ground, but downed trees tangled in power lines are delaying efforts, he said.
-ABC News’ Jason Volack
FEMA sending more search and rescue teams to North Carolina
FEMA Director Deanne Criswell said the agency is sending more search and rescue teams to western North Carolina, where residents are facing “historic” flooding from Hurricane Helene.
“I don’t know that anybody could be fully prepared for the amount of flooding and landslides that they are experiencing right now. But we have had teams in there for several days. We’re sending more search and rescue teams in there,” Criswell told CBS’ Face the Nation.
Gov. Roy Cooper described Hurricane Helene’s damage in western North Carolina as “catastrophic.”
“This unprecedented storm dropped from 10 to 29 inches of rain across the mountains, leading to life-threatening floods and landslides,” he said Sunday.
Water systems have been impacted and some roads have washed away, hampering the ability for officials to set up food and water distribution sites.
“We have sent bottled water in, but we also have the Army Corps of Engineers that’s getting ready to start assessments today to see what we can do to help get those water systems back online quickly,” Criswell said.
“We’re also moving in satellite communications, Starlink satellites, into the area to help facilitate the lack of communication that part of the state is experiencing,” Criswell added.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump spoke at a furniture store in Hurricane Helene-ravaged Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday where he said the day wasn’t about politics — only to use the moment to continue to slam President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for their response to the natural disaster.
“As you know, our country is in the final weeks of a hard-fought national election. But in a time like this, when a crisis hits, when our fellow citizens cry out in need, none of that matters. We’re not talking about politics now. We have to all get together and get this solved. We need a lot of help. They have to have a lot of help down here,” Trump said of the Georgia community hit by the hurricane.
But Trump later suggested Biden and Harris weren’t doing enough in the aftermath of the hurricane, which hit several states including Georgia and North Carolina — two battlegrounds in the upcoming election.
“We do need some help from the federal government,” Trump claimed.
On Monday, Biden said he has directed his team to “provide every, every available resource as fast as possible” to the communities to help them rescue, recover and begin to rebuild.
Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood Randall on Monday said there are currently 3,500 federal response personnel deployed and supporting response efforts across the region, and additional personnel is expected to arrive in the coming days.
“Search and rescue efforts by state, local, and federal partners are ongoing, and nearly 600 additional personnel will arrive in the region in the coming days, increasing the total number of urban search and rescue personnel to over 1,250,” she told reporters.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and US Army Corps of Engineers are also getting generators ready to be deployed to states that request them.
While communication remains a major challenge for the impacted area, Sherwood-Randall said, “FEMA will install 30 Starlink receivers in western North Carolina to provide immediate connectivity for those in greatest need.”
Biden, while returning home from the beach on Sunday, was adamant that his administration was doing everything possible to help the affected communities.
Asked by ABC News is there are more resources the federal government could be giving, Biden responded, “no, we’ve given them.”
“We have pre-planned a significant amount, even though they didn’t ask for it yet — hadn’t asked for it yet,” Biden said Sunday.
The Trump campaign said it partnered with humanitarian aid nonprofit Samaritan’s Purse to bring relief supplies to the state. A campaign official claimed it brought one gas tanker and two trucks full of supplies.
“We’ve done this before, but we have a lot of truckloads of different items, from oil to water to all sorts of equipment that’s going to help them,” Trump said.
Harris cut short her campaign swing through Las Vegas to return to Washington to be briefed on the hurricane response by the FEMA.
Harris said she intends to visit communities impacted by Hurricane Helene “as soon as it is possible without disrupting emergency response operations,” according to a White House official. Harris, who was briefed by FEMA on the federal response to the hurricane, reached out to local officials, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
“We are deploying food, water and generators, and working to restore state and local leaders, we will provide whatever help they need in the days and weeks ahead,” Harris said Sunday while rallying in Las Vegas.
She will learn more from FEMA during meetings in Washington on Monday, according to a White House official.
Trump’s visit to Georgia comes after other recent criticism of Biden and Harris for their response to Hurricane Helene.
“She ought to be down in the area where she should be. That’s what she’s getting paid for, right? That’s what she’s getting paid for,” Trump said at his rally Sunday in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Trump has attacked Harris’ response to Hurricane Helene specifically, saying her delay in visiting the impacted region demonstrates that she isn’t qualified to become president.
On Monday, Biden said called Hurricane Helene “not just a catastrophic storm, it’s historic, history, making storm,” and pledged to visit the impacted area once he can do so without being “disruptive,” hopefully later this week.
“I also want you to know I’m committed to traveling to impacted areas as soon as possible. But, I’ve been told that it’d be disruptive if I did it right now, we will not do that at the risk of diverting or delaying any, any of the response assets needed to deal with this crisis,” Biden said Monday. “My first responsibility is to get all the help needed to those impacted areas.”
Asked if Trump’s visit to Georgia was causing a disruption, Biden replied “I don’t have any idea.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that Biden was “taking caution to avoid using critical resources that is needed right now, on the road, that, on the ground that people need,” and added that “should be everyone’s top consideration right now.”
Asked if there requests for the Trump to delay his visit, Jean-Pierre didn’t engage directly, repeating Biden’s desire to not take away from resources, but adding “he believes everybody should adhere-adhere to that.”
Hurricane Helene’s storm surge, wind damage, and inland flooding caused deviation and casualties in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee, flooding neighborhoods, stranding residents, demolishing homes and toppling trees. The storm has killed at least 107 people and left dozens missing.
ABC News’ Molly Nagle, Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Will McDuffie and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Tens of thousands of U.S. dockworkers are set to walk off the job early Tuesday morning, clogging dozens of ports along the East and Gulf coasts and potentially raising consumer prices ahead of the holiday season.
The ports account for more than half of the nation’s container imports, facilitating the transport of everything from toys to fresh fruit to nuclear reactors, JPMorgan senior equity analyst Brian Ossenbeck said in a report shared with ABC News.
A prolonged work stoppage of several weeks or months could rekindle inflation for some goods and trigger layoffs at manufacturers as raw materials dry up, experts said.
“A strike would be very, very disruptive,” said Jason Miller, a professor of supply-chain management at Michigan State University who closely tracks imports, told ABC News.
“You can’t take all this freight and either send it to other ports or put it on airplanes,” Miller added. “There is no plan B.”
The International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA), the union representing East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers, is seeking higher wages and a ban on the use of some automated equipment.
“ILA longshore workers deserve to be compensated for the important work they do keeping American commerce moving and growing,” the ILA told ABC News in a statement on Monday. “Meanwhile, ILA dedicated longshore workers continue to be crippled by inflation due to USMX’s unfair wage packages.”
The U.S. Maritime Alliance, or USMX, an organization bargaining on behalf of the dockworkers’ employers, declined to respond to an ABC News request for comment.
President Joe Biden retains the power to prevent or halt a strike under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to Biden on Monday urging the White House to intervene, which it has previously said it will not do. The White House told ABC News in a statement that it has been in contact with both the union and management in recent days.
“This weekend, senior officials have been in touch with USMX representatives urging them to come to a fair agreement fairly and quickly – one that reflects the success of the companies. Senior officials have also been in touch with the ILA to deliver the same message,” White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said.
A prolonged East Coast and Gulf Coast port strike could moderately increase prices for a range of goods, experts told ABC News. That upward pressure on prices would result from a shortage of products caught up in the supply chain blockage, leaving too many dollars chasing after too few items, they added.
Food products are especially vulnerable to an uptick in prices, since food could spoil if suppliers sent the products ahead of time to minimize the strike impact, as they have done for some other goods, Adam Kamins, a senior director of economic research at Moody’s Analytics, told ABC News.
Additionally, a significant share of the nation’s imported auto parts pass through the ports impacted by a potential strike, which could cause an increase in vehicle prices if the strike persists.
Price increases have slowed dramatically from a peak in 2022, but inflation remains higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%. A strike could prevent further progress, according to Kamins.
“We’re not talking about prices skyrocketing by any means, but I think it halts the momentum we’ve had over the last year or so getting inflation back in the bottle,” he said.
In 2002, a strike among workers at West Coast ports lasted 11 days before then-President George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act and ended the standoff. However, the last time East Coast and Gulf Coast workers went on strike, in 1977, the work stoppage lasted seven weeks.
Tuesday’s potential work stoppage follows high-profile strikes undertaken last year by auto workers as well as Hollywood writers and actors. Most recently, 33,000 Boeing workers walked off the job in early September, demanding better pay and retirement benefits.
“Trade unions all over the country have been going out on strike,” Sriram Narayanan, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, told ABC News. “We’re seeing that happen now at the ports.”
ABC News’ Elizabeth Schulze contributed this report.
(NEW YORK) — A New York judge on Monday vacated the conviction and dismissed the case against Jon-Adrian Velazquez, who spent more than 20 years in prison for a murder prosecutors now say he did not commit.
“Who am I? I’m a very lucky man. I’m lucky that so many people believed in me,” Velazquez, 48, who was formally released in 2021, said outside of the court.
According to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg’s office, two individuals committed a robbery of a gambling parlor on Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem on Jan. 27, 1998. During the robbery, retired police detective Albert Ward pulled a gun and a struggle ensued with one of the armed robbers, who identified himself as “Tee.”
“Tee” shot and killed Ward, according to Bragg’s office.
The then-22-year-old Velazquez was arrested, along with Derry Daniels, and convicted for Ward’s murder at trial in 1999. He served more than 23 years in prison until his sentence was commuted in 2021. On Sept. 30, 1999, over 18 months after he was arrested, Daniels pleaded guilty to a single count of robbery in the second degree and was sentenced to 12 years in prison as a repeat felon, according to his attorneys. Daniels was released in 2008.
In 2022, the city’s Post-Conviction Justice Unit compared Velazquez’s DNA to a betting slip that “Tee” handled before shooting Ward. Velazquez’s DNA was not found on the slip. This type of DNA comparison was not available at the time of Velazquez’s trial in 1999.
According to Bragg’s office, the reinvestigation into Ward’s murder found that the DNA testing results could have impacted the jury’s consideration of other trial evidence, including Velazquez’s alibi, the lack of evidence connecting him to the crime and inconsistent witness descriptions.
Velazquez was granted clemency in 2021 by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and spoke with President Joe Biden as an activist for criminal justice reform.
His case is featured in the 2023 movie, “Sing Sing,” named for the prison, about a wrongfully imprisoned man who “finds purpose by acting in a theatre group with other incarcerated men,” according to A24.
“JJ Velazquez has lived in the shadow of his conviction for more than 25 years, and I hope that today brings with it a new chapter for him,” Bragg said in a statement. The reinvestigation was conducted by the Office’s Post-Conviction Justice Unit and defense counsel for Velazquez.
The creation of the Post-Conviction Justice Unit in 2022 has led to 10 vacated convictions, Bragg said.
“These convictions have deep consequences for individuals and their loved ones, compromise public safety and undermine trust in the criminal justice system, which is why this work is of the utmost importance to me,” Bragg said.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump will visit the city of Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on the area over the last few days, while Vice President Kamala Harris is cutting short a campaign swing through Las Vegas to return to Washington to be briefed on the hurricane response by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
On Monday, Trump will receive a briefing on the hurricane as well as facilitate the distribution of relief supplies, his campaign said. He is then expected to deliver remarks to reporters in front of the Chez What Furniture Store, whose owners posted pictures online of their store completely demolished by the storm.
Harris said she intends to visit communities impacted by Hurricane Helene “as soon as it is possible without disrupting emergency response operations,” according to a White House official. Harris, who was briefed by FEMA on the federal response to the hurricane, reached out to local officials, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
“We are deploying food, water and generators, and working to restore state and local leaders, we will provide whatever help they need in the days and weeks ahead,” Harris said Sunday while rallying in Las Vegas.
She will learn more from FEMA during meetings in Washington on Monday, according to a White House official.
Trump’s visit to Georgia comes after his recent criticism of President Joe Biden and Harris for their response to the natural disaster.
“She ought to be down in the area where she should be. That’s what she’s getting paid for, right? That’s what she’s getting paid for,” Trump said at his rally Sunday in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Trump has attacked Harris’ response to Hurricane Helene specifically, saying her delay in visiting the impacted region demonstrates that she isn’t qualified to become president.
Biden, while returning home from the beach on Sunday, was adamant that his administration was doing everything possible to help the affected communities.
Asked by ABC New is there are more resources the federal government could be giving, Biden responded, “no, we’ve given them.”
“We have pre-planned a significant amount, even though they didn’t ask for it yet — hadn’t asked for it yet,” Biden said Sunday.
Hurricane Helene’s storm surge, wind damage, and inland flooding caused deviation and casualties in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee, flooding neighborhoods, stranding residents, demolishing homes and toppling trees. The storm has killed at least 107 people and left dozens missing.
(ERIE, Pa.) — At a rally in Pennsylvania on Sunday, former President Donald Trump suggested “one rough hour” of law enforcement would deter retail theft.
After falsely claiming crime is up in the U.S. under President Joe Biden, mostly due to migrant crime, Trump brought up seeing stores in New York City and San Francisco locking up their merchandise behind glass doors.
“See, we have to let the police do their job. And if they have to be extraordinarily rough –” Trump trailed off as his rally crowd cheered.
Trump went on to claim, without evidence, that people are walking out of stores with items like air conditioning units and refrigerators “on their back,” “And the police aren’t allowed to do their job,” he said.
“They’re told if you do anything, you’re going to lose your pension; you’re going to lose your family, your house, your car. The police want to do it. The Border Patrol wants to do it. … They’re not allowed to do it because the liberal left won’t let ’em do it,” he said on stage.
“You know, if you had one day, like, one real rough, nasty day with the drugstores as an example, where when they start walking out with–” Trump continued before pivoting to retail crime in San Francisco, falsely claiming his opponent in the presidential race — Vice President Kamala Harris — was responsible for reclassifying felony theft as misdemeanors if under $950, even though it was a proposition approved by California voters.
Trump, who said he recently had a tenant end a lease due to retail theft, said things are “so bad.”
“One rough hour — and I mean real rough — the word will get out, and it will end immediately, end immediately. You know, it will end immediately,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House is touting its American Rescue Plan (ARP) COVID emergency funding program as a win for public education with nearly 90% of its funds exhausted by Monday’s deadline, according to senior Department of Education officials.
The final $122 billion phase of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund (ESSER), a part of the ARP law signed by President Joe Biden in March 2021, was distributed to state and local education agencies to reopen schools and promote physical health, safety and mental health and well-being.
In total, that funding and two prior installments of ESSER during the 2020 pandemic is roughly $190 billion. It has been obligated or used on school recovery projects that are wrapped up. Senior Department of Education officials said about 12% of ARP projects that are still underway are expected to be finished by the end of a January, 2025, liquidation extension window.
The ESSER package that was doled out to states as discretionary funding sparked controversy over how the funds were being spent. Many conservatives speculated whether it was being utilized at all, blaming the federal Education Department for a lack of academic recovery and low test scores on national assessments coming out of the pandemic.
Education finance expert Jess Gartner, who has been tracking school spending projects, told ABC News that school districts had planned for the window closing on ESSER funding.
“The reality is, the vast majority of school districts turned the page on Fiscal Year 25 on July 1: that means budgets for the year are done and dusted. They were approved in May or June,” Gartner said, adding, “It’s not like September 30 is going to catch CFOs by surprise. You know, they’ve been planning for this deadline for three, four years, and they have a budget for the whole year that’s already in motion and fully approved.”
What is ESSER?
ESSER was granted by the Department of Education’s Education Stabilization Fund. It was meant to meet the challenges of the pandemic and academic recovery, according to the COVID relief data website.
In ESSER I, Congress allotted about $13 billion through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act when the pandemic first closed schools for in-person learning in March 2020.
In ESSER II, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act provided an additional $54 billion in December 2020.
The final installment of nearly $122 billion, or ESSER III, came under the American Rescue Plan Act — the fund enabled states to reopen schools and for students to recover from the pandemic. ARP provided additional FY 2021 funding for the Department of Education to assist states with addressing the impacts of COVID-19 on elementary and secondary schools.
ESSER III brought the total to about $190 billion in emergency funding for state and local education departments.
How is ESSER III being used?
That $122 billion was tacked onto the roughly $68 billion in money in ESSER I and ESSER II the previous year. As discretionary funding, states could distribute the allotment however they chose. In the last 3 1/2 years, school districts have used it on infrastructure projects, school enrichment and summer programs, and staff positions where needed.
Baltimore City Superintendent Dr. Sonja Santelises said her district’s large projects — critical in supporting an urban school population — included building bathrooms, expanding summer programs and providing tutoring sessions.
“We didn’t want to leave money on the table,” Santelises said. “There was an intentional decision [in some urban school districts] to invest one-time money in building back what was already an under-resourced infrastructure in the school district — these are the districts that are least likely to have the funding to do the capital projects,” she added.
Despite critics ridiculing the spending practices in some states — leading to tense debates about learning loss — education experts told ABC News the summer programming and high-impact tutoring proved to be vital in academic recovery. Students who were socially isolated and fell behind used robust tutoring programs to not only catch up, but to also return to school if they were showing attendance issues, according to FutureEd Director Thomas Toch.
“Tutoring creates connections between students and adults and one of the things that we’ve learned in the wake of the pandemic is that kids are feeling more alienated, more isolated, than ever,” he said. “An important sort of antidote to these high levels of chronic absenteeism is connecting kids to adults more fully than they have in the past.”
A recent Pew Research Center survey of public K-12 teachers found more than 90% of teachers said their students are chronically absent. Of the teachers surveyed, about half of them said in five years the American education system will be worse than it is now.
Despite gains from the academic recovery programs ESSER provided during the pandemic, Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research Faculty Director Tom Kane said students are potentially facing permanent damage from the closures if learning loss ceases to improve.
What happens to ESSER now?
The obligation deadline for the last portion of ESSER funding is today — Sept. 30 — more than four years after the start of the pandemic and three years after ARP became law.
New emergency funding will not be granted to aid in the effort to help school communities recover from COVID. As U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona fights attacks on public education writ-large, he told ABC News “the recovery dollars were intended to prevent further exacerbation.”
Jess Gartner believes school districts, by and large, handled the lump sum money well. With FY 2025’s budget already in the books, school district leaders shouldn’t panic and should be prepared to rely on the funds they would have typically received before COVID, Gartner said.
“These budgets are planned years in advance,” Garner told ABC News. “It’s kind of like if you were planning to buy a house, right? You don’t show up at the closing, like, ‘Oh man, how am I gonna pay for this?'” she quipped.
Now school districts have to make due with the chunk of funding they annually receive from the federal government, which is on average about 10%. Similar to before the pandemic, they will be supported by state and local governments, which make up roughly 90% of public school funding.
But the COVID-19 emergency exposed infrastructure and workforce problems that public schools were dealing with before the pandemic and were exacerbated on a large scale during it, education experts said.
Some leaders like Santelises are calling for more help as the pandemic’s impact on students continues.
“It’s the federal government’s responsibility to champion looking at the long term impact and to not take the posture that somehow three years you wave a wand and all the kids are back, ” Santelises said. “The kids are not all back.”
Heavy rains from hurricane Helene caused record flooding and damage in Asheville, NC, Sept. 28, 2024. — Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The death toll from Hurricane Helene is still climbing as Americans across the Southeast count the cost of last week’s massive storm.
The storm made landfall Thursday night as a Category 4 hurricane in Florida’s Big Bend region with sustained winds of 140 mph.
Helene intensified as it approached the U.S. coast, bringing with it devastating winds, massive flooding and enormous storm surge.
In North Carolina, extreme floods washed away homes and bridges. At one point, authorities closed 400 roads deeming them unsafe for travel. At least 30 people died and dozens are missing, state authorities said.
“This is an unprecedented tragedy that requires an unprecedented response,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said.
Members of the National Guard and relief teams from 19 states joined search and rescue missions in the state.
William Ray, the director of the North Carolina Department for Public Safety emergency management, said response teams “are working around the clock to make rescues, to access neighborhoods.”
In Asheville, there has been no cell service or water supply for several days. Zeb Smathers — the mayor of Canton, to the west of Asheville — told Good Morning America the situation was “apocalyptic, not just for Canton, but the entire region.”
The area is suffering from a total cell phone “blackout,” Smathers said, meaning residents are unable to check on loved ones or urge those at risk from further flooding to evacuate.
Parts of North Carolina were inundated with up to 30 inches of rain, triggering deadly flash floods and landslides.
In Lake Lure in the west of the state, resident George Carter told Good Morning America: “When you turn the corner and you see your community just full of buildings and trash and floating boathouses and floating homes, it just sort of takes your breath away.”
“It was scary,” he added.
Adam Jackon, from Tyron, North Carolina, said neighbors were trapped by falling trees.
There were “probably 50 trees blocking my neighbors from coming out,” he said. “I started helping them yesterday, the neighbors at the other end of the road. We got us out, but the other neighbors are trapped.”
The Painter family from Asheville, meanwhile, returned home to find 35,000 gallons of water in their basement. “It’s eerie,” Jacob Painter said. “I had a pit in the bottom of my stomach the whole time.”
“You’re stepping on mud and trying not to fall because it’s so thick and slippery,” Ciara Lantz-Painter said.
Randall Houghton spoke with Good Morning America near a devastated motorhome site. His camper was washed away by floodwaters, he said, forcing him to spend the night on the side of the road.
“It’s crazy,” said Houghton. “I anticipated something bad when she said the water is going to come over the top of the parking tables.”
At least two people were killed in Tennessee, though that number may rise as search and rescue efforts continue. More than 70 people are still missing, state officials said.
Among them is Steve Cloyd, whose jeep was found in the aftermath of the storm, according to his family.
His family’s hope, wife Keli told Good Morning America, is that Steve was able to escape the vehicle. “I need that big one, so I can breathe again, so my kids can breathe again,” she said.
“His Minnesota Vikings won today. So I want to sit here and watch those highlights with him.”
ABC New’s Joel Lyons, Dom Proto, Octavio Cadenas, Alex Colletta and Kimberly Randolph contributed to this report.
