(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Multiple casualties have been reported following a shooting in Louisville, Kentucky, according to police.
Additional information was not immediately available.
Story developing…
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Jon Rahm wins Masters green jacket
(AUGUSTA, Ga.) — Jon Rahm has a new jacket to add to his wardrobe.
The 28-year-old Spanish golfer won his first Masters on Sunday. He shot three strokes under par in the final round of the tournament to clinch the coveted green jacket.
The win marked Rahm’s second major.
Watch highlights from his win and the rest of the Masters tournament below:
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Netflix throws cold water on ‘Sex/Life’ after two seasons, and more
Netflix has decided to cancel the hit drama series Sex/Life after two seasons, according to Deadline. A Netflix spokesperson tells the outlet that the show’s second season brought the series to a happy conclusion, wrapping up the main character storylines. They added that the streamer is proud of the work by all the cast, crew, and those involved. Sex/Life, which stars Sarah Shahi, Margaret Odette, Mike Vogel and Adam Demos, and is based on a book by B.B. Easton, follows the complicated love life of a woman named Billie…
Michael Lerner, an actor known for his work in films such as Barton Fink and Elf, has died at the age of 80, his nephew and The Goldbergs actor Sam Lerner announced in an Instagram post Sunday. “We lost a legend last night,” he wrote. “RIP Michael, enjoy your unlimited Cuban cigars, comfy chairs, and endless movie marathon [sic].” Lerner was best known for his role as the intimidating Hollywood studio boss Jack Lipnick in the Coen brothers’ Barton Fink, a performance that earned him critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Lerner also appeared in numerous other films, including Godzilla, Harlem Nights, Blank Check, and Eight Men Out, as well as in TV shows such as The Twilight Zone and Law & Order…
Season 14 of Valerie Bertinelli‘s cooking show Valerie’s Home Cooking will be its last. Taking to Instagram on Saturday to promote the show’s 14th season, which started airing Sunday, Bertinelli revealed, “Yeah, Food Network canceled us last summer. I have no idea why. I didn’t say anything last summer because, honestly, I was hoping they would change their mind.” Valerie’s Home Cooking first aired in 2015 and features Bertinelli sharing her favorite recipes and cooking tips with viewers…
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
‘Bare Minimum Mondays’ work trend sheds light on self-care
(NEW YORK) — As young professionals navigate the workforce with an emphasis on valuing self-care and work-life balance, behavioral trends like “quiet quitting” and pushes for a four-day workweek have emerged. Now, the latest career trend to take hold of the internet is “Bare Minimum Mondays.”
“I think what I’m seeing at least is a trend that started with quiet quitting. Now we’ve got Monday’s bare minimum Mondays and a big, a big push towards a four-day workweek. It clearly is an indication that people are burned out and trying to find ways to re-energize themselves while doing the things they have to do to get a paycheck,” Tessa White, a career expert, told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
The term “Bare Minimum Mondays” was coined by TikTok content creator Maris Mayes, who said the idea is to ease into the work week by prioritizing self-care over productivity on Mondays.
The #BareMinimumMondays hashtag has racked up more than two million views.
Physical therapist Logan Lynch decided to take Mayes’ advice and said she no longer takes patients on Mondays.
“I’m very familiar with hustle culture and the grind and doing everything all the time. So to have a mindset, to have a system to kind of give yourself a break, I really resonated with that,” Lynch told Good Morning America.
Lynch said the new parameters actually increase her productivity.
“I have been trying to put into place boundaries around my work and knowing that it’s OK to take a little extra rest time,” Lynch said.
Mother and entrepreneur Juliana Walker said that the Bare Minimum Mondays strategy has helped her be more intentional with her time.
“I started getting migraines on Mondays and I was overworking myself and bringing myself up into the ground,” the mother of one told Good Morning America. “So that’s when I started scheduling doctors’ appointments, haircuts, getting my nails done.”
According to a Gallup poll from November, 68% of Gen Z and millennials reported feeling more stressed overall compared to their older counterparts and 54% of young workers reported they were also less engaged at work than their senior co-workers.
With the pandemic blurring the lines between work and home, younger workers are setting more boundaries between their professional and personal lives. White said whether you like it or not, younger workers “rebelling” against traditional career structures have already redefined employer relationships.
“They’re insisting on work-life balance and insisting that mental health is important as a result of where they’re at in this generation,” she said. “They don’t have a lot to lose by actually laying it out on the line and saying, ‘I really want to have a better experience at work.'”
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Molly Shannon returns to ‘SNL’ with the Jonas Brothers as musical guests
Molly Shannon, former Saturday Night Live cast member, hosted the show’s April 4 episode, with the Jonas Brothers as musical guests.
This marks the second time Shannon has hosted the sketch comedy show, where she was a cast member between 1995 and 2001. She last hosted in 2007.
“It’s so great to be back,” she began in her monologue, before reflecting on her family and the memoir she put out last year.
Shannon appeared in several sketches throughout the night, including a “Sally O’Malley” skit that brought back one of her most popular SNL characters. She also reprised her stand-up comedian character Jeannie Darcy in a bit about a Netflix comedy special.
In addition to appearing in the “Sally O’Malley” skit alongside Shannon — in which they hired the high-kicking 50 year-old as their choreographer — the Jonas Brothers hit the stage to perform two songs: Their newly released single “Waffle House” and closing out with “Walls.” This marks the group’s third appearance on SNL, having previously been musical guests in 2009 and 2019.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Federal judge bans abortion pill: What the ruling means for women across the country
(NEW YORK) — Well before a federal judge in Texas issued his ruling on the abortion drug mifepristone, abortion providers across the country said they had been preparing for what they called a “worst-case scenario.”
In his April 7 decision, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas ruled in favor of Alliance Defending Freedom — a conservative Christian legal advocacy group — that asked him to reverse the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, an oral medication typically taken with misoprostol to end a pregnancy.
The advocacy group’s lawsuit said mifepristone is unsafe and that the FDA didn’t study it closely enough before approving its use. The FDA and mainstream medical doctors insist this isn’t true, and that there have been no safety concerns during the 23 years the drug has been on the market.
Now, Kacsmaryk’s issuing of a nationwide injunction on mifepristone — set to take effect by Friday — may impact as many as 64 million women of childbearing age in the U.S.
“This is something that can cause confusion. It’s something that can cause fear,” Dr. Gopika Krishna, a board-certified OB-GYN in New York, told ABC News of both the lawsuit and the judge’s decision. “And that affects our patients and our patients’ understanding of what’s available to them and what options are safe.”
Here are six questions answered by abortion providers and reproductive policy experts about how the judge’s decision may impact women:
1. If I live in a state where abortion is legal, does the Texas abortion pill ruling impact me?
Yes, the injunction on mifepristone is nationwide, affecting even states where abortion, including medication abortion, is legal.
That means drug manufacturers will have to halt production and distribution of mifepristone for the U.S. market.
Eventually, after supply of the drug dwindles, patients will not be able to access mifepristone from any provider, whether it’s via telehealth or inside a clinic.
In states where abortion is legal, providers would only be able to offer in-clinic surgical procedures or opt to provide medication abortions using only one other medication, misoprostol. Doctors say that method is safe and mostly effective but can also cause more side effects.
2. When does the ruling go into effect?
For now, mifepristone remains accessible because Kacsmaryk gave the federal government seven days to appeal his ruling.
On the same day Kacsmaryk’s decision was released, April 7, the Department of Justice and drugmaker Danco Laboratories, which produces the brand name version of the drug, appealed it to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
“Today’s decision overturns the FDA’s expert judgment, rendered over two decades ago, that mifepristone is safe and effective,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “The Department will continue to defend the FDA’s decision.”
GenBioPro, the manufacturer of generic mifepristone, responded to Kacsmaryk’s ruling and said they were confident in the legality of the drug.
“Nothing in the court’s order changes the decades of science and evidence regarding mifepristone’s safety and efficacy. As we review the court’s order, we will continue to make our product available,” Evan Masingill, CEO of GenBioPro, said in a statement.
3. What is mifepristone and what role does it play in medication abortion?
A medication abortion involves the use of two medications, mifepristone and misoprostol, taken orally.
It is not a surgical procedure, and the FDA says both medications are safe enough to be mailed to a patient following a telehealth or in-person visit from a certified provider.
In most cases in a medication abortion, mifepristone is taken first to block the hormone progesterone. Then 24 to 48 hours later, a second pill, misoprostol, is taken to empty the uterus.
“Mifepristone is a medication that’s been on the market for decades. It has many, many scientific articles and research that have supported it’s safety, and it’s something that is used quite often for abortion care but in other situations as well,” said Krishna, also a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health. “Misoprostol is a medication that, again, has been used for many, many years, has lots of good evidence and data supporting its safety, and it’s a medicine that we use not only in abortion care but in other aspects of OB-GYN care as well.”
In addition to its use in abortion care, mifepristone is also used currently for miscarriage care, according to Krishna. It remains unclear how the judge’s ruling will impact miscarriage care. The plaintiff had asked for the judge to only block the drug for purposes of abortion, but it’s possible availability will dry up since it’s primary purpose was to end a pregnancy.
The medication is also FDA-approved to treat patients with Cushing’s syndrome, a disorder in which the body makes too much of the hormone cortisol, according to the National Institutes of Health. That medication, however, is manufactured and provided to patients at a different dose. The judge’s ruling would still allow for the availability of that drug.
Guidelines from the FDA, which first approved medication abortions in 2000, advise that abortion-inducing pills are safe to use up to 70 days, or 10 weeks, of pregnancy, though evidence shows it can be safe even later in pregnancy, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
While the FDA has continued to approve mifepristone for abortion care, individual states can still set laws about dispensing mifepristone within their state.
Last week, Wyoming became the first state to ban medication abortions separate from a ban on all abortion services.
4. Does the Texas ruling mean medication abortion is no longer available?
The Texas judge’s ruling means that, for now, the FDA-approved method of medication abortion — using both mifepristone and misoprostol — is available. But that could change by Friday unless the higher court intervenes.
Abortion providers told ABC News though that they are prepared to offer misoprostol-only medication abortions in states where it is allowed.
“We are preparing a misoprostol-only regimen,” said Dr. Ashley Jeanlus, a board-certified OBGYN in California. “The misoprostol regimen is a bit longer and it utilizes more pills to complete it, so we’re just adjusting our clinic to be able to help patients that way.”
More than one dozen states currently restrict access to medication abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute .
5. What is misoprostol?
Misoprostol is a medication that the FDA currently approves for the use of treating gastric ulcers.
However, there are several off-label uses for obstetrical and gynecological purposes including treating postpartum hemorrhaging and softening and opening the cervix for patients ready to give birth vaginally, experts told ABC News.
When it comes to its use in pregnancy, misoprostol causes the uterus to contract and dilates the cervix, which will expel an embryo.
A misoprostol-only regimen for abortion not only takes longer to complete, but can also come with more side effects, including nausea and diarrhea, Dr. Laura Laursen, an OB-GYN at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, previously told ABC News.
Studies though show that while using misoprostol with mifepristone is more effective, using misoprostol-only is safe. One 2019 study found “misoprostol alone is effective and safe and is a reasonable option for women seeking abortion in the first trimester,” while a larger review of data published in 2020 also found it safe and effective in terminating a pregnancy.
Rachel Jones, principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, said in many cases, it will not be a quick fix for abortion providers to pivot to using a misoprostol-only regimen.
“It’s not a regimen that has been used in clinical settings in the U.S. very often,” Jones said, adding, “And anytime a medical practice is changed, it takes it a while for everything to get in place and running smoothly.”
Krishna said she worries the judge’s ruling means providers like herself will not be able to offer patients comprehensive reproductive care.
“As clinicians, we really want to make sure that we are offering our patients all of these options and they can make a decision based on what they feel is best for them, not a decision that they have to make because of what’s limited to them by law,” she said. “So there are options for medication abortion with the removal of mifepristone, but it is still something that we’re really worried about because it’s the medically unnecessary removal of a medication that we know is safe.”
6. Could the Texas judge’s abortion pill ruling be overturned?
Yes, the ruling can go through an appeals process, meaning it would move to higher courts for other judges to decide.
Jones said that for abortion rights advocates, there is “not a lot of hope” for the appeals process given previous rulings by courts that would see the case.
Ultimately, the case could go as high as the U.S. Supreme Court, the same court that last year overturned Roe v. Wade, the constitutional right to abortion that had been the law in the U.S. for almost 50 years.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Fate of eight Ohio cops in question as grand jury probes Jayland Walker shooting
(AKRON, Ohio) — A special grand jury will be seated Monday to decide whether to indict any of the eight Akron, Ohio, police officers involved in the death of Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old Black man who was shot more than 40 times following a 2022 attempted traffic stop, an episode that sparked riots in the city last summer.
Bracing for the Summit County grand jury’s decision, businesses in downtown Akron began boarding up windows over the weekend and the city has erected a fence and barricades around the courthouse where the special grand jury will be empaneled specifically to hear evidence in the Walker case.
“The city of Akron has been preparing for the grand jury results since last summer,” Stephanie Marsh, a spokesperson for the city, said at a news conference Friday. “The most important part of our preparation has been building relationships with our community members and establishing better lines of communication.”
Authorities are hoping to avoid a repeat of what occurred last summer when police used tear gas to disperse angry demonstrators gathered outside police headquarters and arrested about 50 protesters on charges of rioting, failure to disperse, disorderly conduct and misconduct at an emergency. The charges against most of those arrested were later dropped.
Anticipating “strong reactions to the impending grand jury decisions,” city officials have created a demonstration zone near the courthouse “to allow for residents to safely demonstrate, protest and exercise their first amendment rights to freedom of speech, assembly, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances,” reads a statement issued on the city’s recently relaunched critical information website.
Prosecutor explains grand jury process
Craig Morgan, the city of Akron’s chief prosecutor, took the unusual step on Friday of holding a livestream seminar to explain to the community the basics of the grand jury process.
“A grand jury does not determine guilt or innocence,” Morgan said. “The purpose of the grand jury is to determine whether sufficient probable cause exists to charge a person or persons with a particular offense or offenses.”
Morgan said the state Attorney General, which is prosecuting the case, is presenting evidence to the special grand jury because in Ohio, most “felony matters flow through the grand jury at the beginning of the process.”
“This is done often in situations involving extremely lengthy investigations, investigations that involve a high volume of evidence and complex legal issues,” Morgan said.
Nine Summit County registered voters will be empaneled as primary grand jurors and three to five people will be picked to serve as alternates, Morgan said. At least seven jurors are required to vote yes in order to issue an indictment, also referred to as a true bill.
Morgan warned that any protesters who resort to violence will be arrested and prosecuted.
“The types of things that will cause a protest to transition into people being arrested is when windows are being smashed and fires are being set, people are being subjected to physical harm,” Morgan said.
He said it is expected to take a week for prosecutors to present the case to the grand jury.
“The variable, the unknown, that we don’t have is we don’t know how long it will take jurors to deliberate,” Morgan said.
Shot 46 times
The fatal shooting involving Walker unfolded just after midnight on June 27, 2022, when two police officers attempted to stop Walker for a minor vehicle equipment violation, police said. Walker led officers on a brief car chase before exiting out the passenger side door while his vehicle was still moving and attempted to run, authorities alleged.
Walker was unarmed when he was fatally shot while running away from eight officers, who opened fire on him, body camera footage released by the city showed.
An autopsy determined Walker suffered 46 gunshot wounds, according to the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office. Walker had injuries to his face, heart, both lungs, liver, spleen, left kidney, intestines, pelvis, iliac artery and several bones in his legs, according to the medical examiner.
About a week after Walker’s death, officials released police body camera footage from the incident. During a news conference, Akron Police Chief Steve Mylett freeze-framed a section of the footage capturing a flash of light coming from Walker’s car and said it appeared to be the muzzle flash of a gun fired from the driver’s side of the vehicle and aimed at pursuing officers.
In a second body camera video, officers are heard radioing that a shot was fired from Walker’s car. The footage shows an officer following Walker’s Buick off Route 8 and continuing the pursuit on side streets.
Mylett said as Walker jumped from his vehicle and ran, he appeared to reach for his waistband, turn toward the officers and move an arm forward, prompting the officers to open fire.
While the video confirmed Walker was unarmed when he was shot, Mylett said the body camera footage also captured a handgun with a separate loaded magazine and what appeared to be a gold wedding band left on the driver’s seat of Walker’s car.
While the eight officers who fatally shot Walker were initially placed on administrative leave, they were all reinstated to active duty in November. The officers were assigned to administrative duties due to a staffing “crisis,” according to Mylett said.
‘How do you need that many bullets for one person?’
Walker’s family is hoping justice will prevail and the officers are all indicted.
“That was too much. Too much. How do you need that many bullets for one person?” Walker’s mother, Pamela Walker, told ABC News in last July. “And he was a slight-build guy. He was 6 (foot) 2, but he only weighed probably 160 pounds. And I’m sure probably two of their bullets would have killed him anyway. And you needed eight people to be shooting at him like that? I can’t even fathom how you can stand there and just empty out your gun on someone who’s running away from you, who was running away whether he had a gun or not.”
None of the officers involved in the Walker shooting or their attorneys have spoken publicly about the case.
Akron’s Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge No. 7, the union that represents the officers, released a statement early in the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s independent probe of the shooting defending the actions of the officers.
“The decision to deploy lethal force as well as the number of shots fired is consistent with use of force protocols and officers’ training,” the union said.
According to the union, the officers “reasonably believed that Mr. Walker presented an immediate threat of serious physical harm or death and lawfully, based on their training as well as state and federal law, discharged their weapons.”
The union’s statement added, “We believe the independent investigation will justify the officers’ actions, including the number of shots fired.”
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Temporary shelter-in-place issued after fishing vessel carrying freon catches fire in Tacoma, Washington
(TACOMA, Wash.) — The Tacoma Fire Department has issued a temporary shelter-in-place for some areas near Tacoma, Washington, as authorities continue to respond to a fishing vessel that has been on fire since Saturday and is carrying diesel and freon.
Since the Kodiak Enterprise caught fire Saturday morning while moored in the Hylebos Waterway of Tacoma, the fire has since progressed, and is now about 100 feet from the boat’s freon tanks, the Coast Guard said in their latest release Sunday.
Freon can be toxic if inhaled “in large quantities or in a confined space,” the Coast Guard said, but the release of freon in the atmosphere does not pose any risks to the general health and safety of the public at this time.
The temporary shelter in place is in effect for residents living in northeast Tacoma, Browns Point and Dash Point neighborhoods. The city asked those living in these areas to remain indoors and limit exposure to smoke.
“Residents concerned about smoky conditions can provide additional protections by keeping doors closed and shutting outside air vents,” Jim Ferrell, mayor of neighboring city, Federal Way, told residents living in the Twin Lakes and Green Gables neighborhoods on Twitter. “Residents may also want to avoid any strenuous activity or exercise outdoors.”
The Tacoma Fire Department, U.S. Coast Guard, Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington Department of Ecology are responding at this time. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Five-year-old girl shot and killed on California freeway, police say
(SANTA CRUZ, Calif.) — A 5-year-old girl was shot and killed on a Bay Area freeway Saturday night just before 7 p.m., the California Highway Patrol said.
The shooting on Interstate 880 near Dixon Landing Road was one of two reported in the area, Santa Cruz Police said.
Three suspects were arrested in Santa Cruz County, officials said. Santa Cruz Police said they initiated a car stop after locating a vehicle at about 9:30 p.m. that they suspected of being involved with the shootings.
“The vehicle did not yield, and a pursuit was initiated,” police said in a statement. “During the pursuit on Hwy 17, officers observed the vehicle’s occupants discarding a firearm from the car. The suspect driver stopped a short distance later.”
Police later recovered the firearm thrown from the vehicle, they said.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
A steep rise in temperatures will kick off the spring thaw across the Northeast this week
(NEW YORK) — A storm, for once, isn’t going to move cross-country this week, however, near-record-breaking temperatures will.
A major warming trend is expected to move across much of the country in the next few days, with temperatures coming in close to normal for the first half of the week but forecast to soar to summertime levels by Thursday and Friday.
Phoenix is expected to hit the high 90s this week, with Tuesday reaching 99 degrees and Las Vegas will reach 90 degrees on Monday.
Temperatures in Denver will hit the mid-80s on Tuesday and Wednesday. Billings, Montana, will reach 82 degrees on Tuesday, before an expected nearly 30-degree drop the following day, where the temperature is forecast to reach 55 degrees.
Meanwhile, a series of storms moving onshore in the Pacific Northwest will be dropping more rainfall.
As that storm moves eastward, the rainfall combined with above-normal temperatures will be melting much of the thick snowpack, which could contribute to flooding issues from Montana to Nevada throughout the week, with many rivers west of the continental divide likely seeing an abundance of water due to snow melt in the coming weeks.
Dozens of record-high temperatures may break across the East Coast, with cities like Philadelphia, New York and Boston heading into the 70s and 80s.
Philadelphia will reach 80 and 84 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
New York City is expected to reach 75 degrees on Wednesday, 77 on Thursday and 79 degrees on Friday.
Syracuse, New York, is forecast to hit a high of 84 degrees on Friday, while temperatures in Manchester, New Hampshire, will reach 81 degrees.
Last month, much of upstate New York and New Hampshire received heavy snow, with more than 2 feet of snow falling in several regions along the East Coast because of a nor’easter in March.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.