(LAKELAND, Fla.) — A mass shooting in a Florida city has left 10 people wounded, the Lakeland Police Department announced on Monday.
According to police, two victims are critically injured and eight face non-life-threatening injuries.
“One is in surgery and the other is either in surgery or headed to surgery,” Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor said at a press conference on Monday.
Police responded to calls of a shooting at a location near Iowa Avenue North and Plum Street at 3:43 p.m.
All the victims were adult men between 20 and 35 years old, according to Taylor.
Lakeland Police did not identify any suspects, but believe that four alleged shooters fired guns on both sides of the street from their vehicle, which Taylor described as a four-door Nissan.
Police believe the shooting wasn’t random and the victims were targeted.
“We don’t believe there’s any reason that the public would need to be concerned right now,” Taylor said. “We think that the individuals in the car shot at and shot who they wanted to shoot.”
Authorities added that they located marijuana at the scene, hinting that marijuana was being sold at the time of the incident, but there is no information on whether the suspected sale of marijuana and the shooting are linked.
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration will end both the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency on May 11, the White House informed Congress on Monday night.
The current public health emergency is in place through April, while the national emergency is in place until March. They began in 2020, soon after the onset of the pandemic.
“At present, the Administration’s plan is to extend the emergency declarations to May 11, and then end both emergencies on that date. This wind down would align with the Administration’s previous commitments to give at least 60 days’ notice prior to termination of the PHE,” the administration wrote in a letter to Congress.
“To be clear, continuation of these emergency declarations until May 11 does not impose any restriction at all on individual conduct with regard to COVID-19,” the administration wrote. “They do not impose mask mandates or vaccine mandates. They do not restrict school or business operations. They do not require the use of any medicines or tests in response to cases of COVID-19.”
The impact of the public health emergency ending will come into clearer focus over the next three months, as different agencies in the federal government determine which related programs can be continued without the order in place — and how to unwind programs that can’t.
One potential impact will be on hospitals and doctors’ offices, which have come to rely on higher rates for Medicare patients and more flexibility around bed capacity rules when there’s a surge of patients.
States will also soon be exempt from sharing data with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has mandated information like case counts and COVID-19 deaths during the public health emergency — a change that could lead to a cloudier future picture of COVID-19 in the U.S.
A senior administration official told ABC News that the CDC will reach out to states in the coming months to encourage them to continue sharing that information voluntarily.
The public health emergency also affects the health care coverage Americans have come to rely on for free COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests. While vaccines will remain largely free for people with insurance even after the emergency ends — so long as they’re administered by an in-network provider — free treatment and tests could be less of a guarantee.
A senior administration official predicted the change will be relatively minor, and that instead the larger change in COVID-19 coverage will come later this year, when the government stops buying and distributing vaccines, tests and treatments for free for all Americans and insurance companies begin to take up the cost, moving the whole system to the private market.
People on Medicaid may also face changes in their health care coverage after April 1, when states will once again be able to remove enrollees who no longer qualify for the program.
States have so far been barred from ending people’s Medicaid coverage for the duration of the pandemic, even if enrollees’ circumstances change and they no longer qualify, as a tenet of the public health emergency. According to a group of Republican governors, who in December pressured the Biden administration to end the public health emergency, the Medicaid expansion has led to an increase of approximately 20 million people on the program’s rolls since the start of the pandemic.
At least 13% of Medicaid recipients could get removed from their coverage once the rules change, according to research compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) from around 20 states.
The end of the public health emergency could also bring the end of Title 42 — the order that has allowed the Trump and Biden administrations to turn many migrants away at the border by citing the potential spread of the virus.
The Biden administration supports “an orderly, predictable wind-down of Title 42, with sufficient time to put alternative policies in place,” the government said in Monday’s announcement.
(NEW YORK) — Bipartisan outrage continued following the Friday release of graphic footage of police officers beating Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee, earlier this month — with lawmakers saying such a brutal reaction was “unconscionable.”
“Justice for Tyre Nichols must be swift and complete,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., wrote in a tweet, calling Nichols’ death “brutal and violent.”
“A dangerous culture of violence has permeated far too many police departments in this country. Time and time again, it is lethal,” Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said in his own statement. “Tyre Nichols should still be here today. We must change the culture that perpetuates these tragedies and bring those accountable to justice.”
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., a past negotiator in Congress on potential policing reform, called for punishments for those involved.
“We have been here too many times before. We cannot continue down this path. America cannot stand silent,” Scott said in a statement. “This was a man beaten by the power of the state. We must unite against this blatant disregard for human life especially from those we trust with immense power and responsibility.”
Nichols, who was 29, died three days after being attacked by police. Seven officers have since been fired or relieved of duty and five of those officers have been charged with second-degree murder and other crimes. Attorneys for two of them have said they will plead not guilty.
The video, from both police and area cameras, showed officers deploying pepper spray and a stun gun on Nichols and repeatedly hitting him. One officer was heard on his body camera video saying twice, “I hope they stomp his a–.”
The video has also renewed discussions on Capitol Hill about a compromise on federal legislation to change policing in America — a goal lawmakers in both parties have sought since George Floyd’s murder in 2020 in Minneapolis.
The Congressional Black Caucus is in talks about a meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House as early as this week to discuss reform, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
Senators have also reignited negotiations, but there’s little optimism from either side that any solution could garner the necessary support to pass.
Nonetheless, Biden has urged Congress to act.
“I think we should do it right now. We should have done it before. As you know, I did it by executive order for the federal side, but I can’t do it otherwise without the help of the rest of the Congress,” he said Monday.
The House in the last Congress passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and the president has said repeatedly that he would sign it, though it never made it through the Senate — and neither did similar proposals.
Negotiations among Sens. Scott and Cory Booker, D-N.J., and others faltered over qualified immunity, which shields police from lawsuits, and how officers should be prosecuted, ABC News reported at the time.
“We need a national conversation about policing in a responsible, constitutional and humane way,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “These men and women with badges put them on each day and risk their lives for us. I know that. But we also see, from these videos, horrible conduct by city officers and unacceptable situations. We’ve got to change.”
Durbin, the Senate Judiciary Committee chair, called the discussions between Scott and Booker the “right starting point.”
Durbin said Monday that he’s entering into talks with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on a proposal that could change the laws that protect officers from lawsuits. Graham, in a tweet on Sunday, proposed changing the qualified immunity statutes so that officers remained protected but departments could be sued.
According to Durbin, Graham planned to reach out to Scott, and Durbin said he would bring in Booker.
“I want to rekindle this conversation,” Durbin said Monday. “And if others want to participate, they’re welcome as far as I’m concerned.”
Scott, who had said in his statement that America needed to act, pledged in a floor speech on Monday that he stood ready, as he always had. But he suggested partisan divides were preventing any agreement and faulted Democrats for disagreeing with his earlier plan.
“We should have simple legislation that we can agree upon that has been agreed upon in the past, but too often too many are too concerned with who gets the credit,” he said. “I know that when a conservative Republican starts talking about policing in America some people seem to just turn the channel. That’s wrong.”
However, some other leading Republicans have said new legislation is not necessarily the answer.
“I’m not sure there’s any law you can pass that would prevent what happened,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who serves on the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, said Monday.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, echoed that on Sunday: “I don’t know that there’s any law that can stop that evil that we saw.”
(BALTIMORE) — President Joe Biden on Monday traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, to kick off a $6 billion rail tunnel reconstruction project primarily funded by his bipartisan infrastructure law — an improvement he said would make a big difference to Amtrak commuters like himself.
The new tunnel will replace the aging Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, and remove what the White House says is the largest bottleneck between New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
“This tunnel is nearly, as I said, 150-years-old. It’s a Civil War era — Ulysses S. Grant was president. The structure is deteriorating, the roof is leaking, the floor is sinking. This is the United States of America, for God’s sake. We know better than that,” Biden said, standing next to an Amtrak Acela train.
Recounting how, in his daily trips between Washington and Delaware as a senator, he’d “been through this tunnel a thousand times,” he added, “when folks talk about how badly the Baltimore tunnel needs an upgrade, you don’t need me to tell you. I’ve been there and you’ve been there, too.”
Once completed, Biden said, tunnel capacity is expected to triple and trains traveling through it will be able to go up to 110 miles per hour instead of the current 30 miles per hour.
The new tunnel will be named after Frederick Douglass, who, Biden said, “boarded this train to freedom right here in Baltimore.”
“He escaped slavery, he traveled the country by rail, fighting for abolition and civil rights,” Biden said. “So, that’s fitting we honor him in this way.”
Biden’s visit to Baltimore on Monday was the first in his a series of trips this week highlighting the infrastructure law. He will travel to New York City Tuesday to talk about the Hudson Tunnel Project and to Philadelphia on Friday to discuss removing lead pipes.
The new Baltimore tunnel will be equipped with two tubes along an alignment with softer curves; ventilation and emergency egress facilities; new signaling systems, overhead catenary and track; five new roadway and railroad bridges in the area surrounding the tunnel; and a new ADA-accessible West Baltimore MARC station, according to the White House.
“The Frederick Douglass Tunnel will be all electric,” Biden said. “This can be game changing for the environment.”
The president also announced the signing of different project agreements.
“Today we’re announcing this project, we’re gonna build on our project labor agreement,” Biden said. “These agreements are agreements that contractors and unions put in place before the construction begins.”
The Baltimore-Potomac Tunnel Replacement Program is expected to generate 30,000 jobs, including approximately 20,000 direct construction jobs. An additional $50 million investment from Amtrak will go towards local workforce development and community investments, including pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs to ensure that local workers in West Baltimore can access these jobs, according to the White House.
(NEW YORK) — Johnson & Johnson cannot use bankruptcy court to resolve civil lawsuits that claim its iconic baby powder caused cancer, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The opinion foiled Johnson & Johnson’s plan to shift onto a new entity, LTL Management LLC, some 38,000 lawsuits that alleged the talc in Johnson’s Baby Powder has caused ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.
LTL Management filed for chapter 11 protection in hopes of resolving the claims that have already cost Johnson & Johnson $1 billion.
The pursuit of bankruptcy protection by LTL Management does not meet the bankruptcy code’s intended purpose, since LTL Management is not in financial distress, the court opinion said.
“Good intentions— such as to protect the J&J brand or comprehensively resolve litigation—do not suffice alone,” the opinion added.
Johnson & Johnson, which maintains its baby powder is safe and does not cause cancer, said it would challenge the ruling.
“LTL Management LLC initiated this process in good faith and our objective has always been to equitably resolve claims related to the Company’s cosmetic talc litigation,” the company said in a statement.
“Today’s ruling does not reflect the facts established during the Bankruptcy Court’s trial regarding the appropriateness of LTL’s formation and filing, nor the Company’s intention to efficiently resolve the cosmetic talc litigation for the benefit of all parties, including current and future claimants,” the company added.
Critics had urged the court to reject the legal maneuver fearing it could prompt other big companies to avoid bringing mass tort lawsuits before juries.
Brian Glasser, an attorney at Bailey & Glasser and trial counsel to the Official Committee of Talc Claimants in the Johnson & Johnson bankruptcy, welcomed the court ruling.
“J&J has no special right to put talc victims in a bankruptcy box. It now has to face these claims in front of juries around the nation,” Glasser said in a statement.
Talc, a mineral used in a host of cosmetic products, forms under similar environmental conditions as asbestos, causing the two to occasionally mix in mines.
In 2019, Johnson & Johnson recalled a shipment of baby powder when a sample tested positive for a trace amount of asbestos, the Food and Drug Administration said. Sales of the talc-based product ended in North America the following year.
The company announced last year that it would stop using talc in its baby powder worldwide in 2023. The ingredient would be replaced with cornstarch, the company said.
(NEW YORK) — Before you start on that charcuterie board, check your meats to ensure they’re safe to consume.
Over 50,000 pounds of ready-to-eat sausage products were recalled Sunday due to possible listeria contamination, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced.
The agency’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, along with Daniele International LLC, a Rhode Island-based food manufacturer, announced that the recall affected nearly 52,914 pounds of products, which “may be adulterated with Listeria monocytogenes.”
“FSIS discovered the problem during routine inspection activities where Listeria monocytogenes was found on surfaces in which the product came into contact,” the recall stated.
The affected products were produced on dates spanning from May 23, 2022 through Nov. 25, 2022, and were shipped to retailers nationwide through Jan. 17, 2023, FSIS announced.
Eight SKUs under various brand labels are subject to the recall and bear the establishment number “EST. 54” inside the USDA mark of inspection, according to the agency:
– 6-ounce plastic tray of “FREDERIK’S by meijer SPANISH STYLE charcuterie sampler tray” with sell by date 4/15/23.
– 6-ounce plastic tray of “Boar’s Head CHARCUTUERIE TRIO” with sell by dates 4/13/23, 4/14/23, and 4/15/23.
– 7-ounce plastic tray of “COLAMECO’S PRIMO NATURALE GENOA UNCURED SALAMI” with sell by date 12/23/23.
– 7-ounce plastic tray of “COLAMECO’S PRIMO NATURALE BLACK PEPPER UNCURED SALAMI” with use by dates 12/22/23, 12/30/23, and 1/17/24.
– 1-pound plastic tray of “DEL DUCA SOPRESSATA, COPPA & GENOA SALAMI” with sell by dates 4/13/23 and 4/14/23.
– 1-pound plastic tray of “DEL DUCA CALABRESE, PROSCIUTTO & COPPA” with sell by date 5/6/23.
– 1-pound plastic tray of “DEL DUCA GENOA SALAMI, UNCURED PEPPERONI & HARD SALAMI” with use by date 5/4/23.
– 12-ounce plastic tray of “Gourmet Selection SOPRESSATA, CAPOCOLLO, HARD SALAME” with sell by date 4/14/23.
Click here for additional label information and product details provided by the USDA and Daniele International LLC.
“FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers’ refrigerators. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase,” Sunday’s recall announcement stated.
As of time of publication, USDA officials said there had been “no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.”
“Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a healthcare provider,” the recall added.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), listeria can cause severe illness “when the bacteria spread beyond the gut to other parts of the body” after a person consumes contaminated food.
“Listeria is especially harmful if you are pregnant, aged 65 or older, or have a weakened immune system due to certain medical conditions or treatments,” the CDC states. “If you are pregnant, it can cause pregnancy loss, premature birth, or a life-threatening infection in your newborn. Other people can be infected with Listeria, but they rarely become seriously ill.”
Those at lower risk of severe illness can experience “mild food poisoning symptoms like diarrhea and fever, and usually recover without treatment,” the CDC adds.
ABC News’ Good Morning America has reached out to Daniele International LLC for comment on the recall.
“It Matters to Her” is Scotty McCreery‘s sixth top 25 hit in a row. In fact, his five previous hits have all topped the chart, starting with 2017’s “Five More Minutes.”
But this one in particular is a nod to his wife, Gabi, whom he married in 2018. Last October, the couple welcomed their first child, a son named Avery.
“This was a song that I loved writing, and I love the message behind it,” Scotty says of the latest single from his album Same Truck. “And when I first got the demo back, I was in the gym.”
“And I typically have a playlist going for the gym,” he continues, “but I just listened to this one on repeat for like 20 times before I was done. I was like, ‘Man, I really love it. Gotta get it on the record!'”
As you might expect, Mrs. McCreery is a fan of the song, too.
“I played it for Gabi and she loved it, as well,” Scotty recalls. “She particularly liked one line and that was the ‘shut up and listen to what she has to say’ line. She was like, ‘Now that’s a winner right there!’ So she did love the song for sure.”
Scotty’s currently on the Damn Strait Tour, named for his previous #1. Later this year, he hits the road with Brooks & Dunn on the Reboot trek.
“This Is Why,” the comeback single from Hayley Williams and company, has reached the top spot on the ranking this week, ending the 13-week reign of Blink-182‘s “Edging.”
Paramore previously peaked on Alternative Airplay at #3 with their 2007 breakout single “Misery Business,” which was also the band’s first-ever entry on the chart.
Paramore waited 15 years, six months and one week between their debut appearance and their first #1 on Alternative Airplay, the longest such gap since Stone TemplePilots took 17 years and two weeks to hit #1 in 2010 with “Between the Lines” after first charting in 1993 with “Plush.”
“This Is Why” is the title track and lead single off Paramore’s upcoming sixth album, the long-awaited follow-up to 2017’s After Laughter. The record, which also includes the songs “The News” and “C’est Comme Ça,” arrives February 10.
A lot has changed for GloRilla in the past few months, including some of the people around her. In a recent interview with The Cut, she explained the effect her higher income has had on some of her past bonds.
“Me blowing up changed a lot,” she said. “Money change the people around you.”
“It don’t change you, per se,” she continued. “It fasho change people around you, though.”
GloRilla’s way of dealing with some of the differences she’s seen in some people is to sever ties with them. Speaking to the outlet, she said, “I don’t got a problem cutting people off, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. But I have no problem cutting people off once I see what type of stuff they be on.”
“They just got to go. Because it ain’t no room for that no more,” she continued. “I’m on a whole ’nother level now, and if you’re still on bullsh**, then I just don’t want to talk to you.”
GloRilla’s claim to mainstream fame started with the success of her viral song “F.N.F (Let’s Go),” which went viral on TikTok and landed on “best of” lists for 2022. She’s since released songs like “Tomorrow 2” featuring Cardi B and has been nominated for awards, including one at the 2023 Grammys.
Though she’s “trying to slowly get myself to liking the red carpet” and describes herself as “not a good picture-taker,” GloRilla says she’s excited to attend music’s biggest night.
“I’m super-excited and super-nervous because a lot of people don’t get to go to the Grammys, you know what I’m saying?” she expressed. “But I’m just super grateful. And it happened to me superfast. I’m still taking it all in.”
Not only is Slipknot‘s Iowa considered one of the biggest and most influential albums of the 2000s metal scene, apparently it can also help identify certain medical conditions.
Speaking with Revolver, Knot turntablist Sid Wilson recalls when he played Iowa for Papa Roach‘s original drummer, Dave Buckner, before it first came out. Upon listening to it, Buckner had a reaction that Wilson was very much not expecting.
“[Buckner] comes up on the bus and I think we were into maybe the third track,” Wilson remembers. “And I just watched his face and he started getting uneasy, and he’s looking around at the ground and stuff. And then he looks up and I’m looking at him, and his face collapses. One whole side of his face. And it drooped out like when you have a seizure.”
Wilson adds that Buckner’s “whole face collapsed and it just stayed down there.”
“His eye, everything,” Wilson shares. “The music collapsed his face.”
Upon seeing Wilson’s interview, Buckner reached out to Revolver to explain what had really happened to him.
“[Slipknot] played us the album in the mixing room with the volume cranked to 11,” Buckner says. “I left the room with my ears ringing, and when I woke up the next day and the left side of my face was hanging off my skull, totally paralyzed! I thought I had a stroke during the night!”
During an emergency visit to the doctor, Buckner found out he had Bell’s palsy, a nerve disorder that can cause paralysis in the face.
“Causes can include blunt force trauma, extremely loud noise, and, apparently, Slipknot!” Buckner says. “Slipknot music literally melts faces.”
