(STOCKTON, Calif.) — A suspected serial killer in the California city of Stockton was arrested Saturday and police say they believe he was “out hunting” when he was nabbed.
“We are sure we stopped another killing,” Chief Stanley McFadden, of the Stockton Police Department, said at a news conference Saturday.
Wesley Brownlee, 43, was arrested in connection with six unprovoked murders of men ages 21 to 54 over the last few months. He was booked on a homicide charge Saturday.
Police said that surveillance teams followed Brownlee while he was driving, and stopped in area of Village Green Drive and Winslow Avenue around 2 a.m. Saturday morning.
“Our surveillance team followed this person while he was driving. We watched his patterns and determined early this morning; he was on a mission to kill. He was out hunting,” McFadden said.
McFadden added, “As officers made contact with him, he was wearing dark clothing and a mask around his neck. He was also armed with a firearm when he was taken into custody.”
Brown will be arraigned Tuesday and more charges are likely, police said.
The San Joaquin County’s Office of the Medical Examiner identified the victims. Paul Yaw, 35, was killed on July 8; Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, died on Aug. 11; Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21, was killed on Aug. 30; Juan Cruz, 52, was the Sept. 21 victim; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, was slain on Sept. 27.
The men were alone at the time when they were fatally shot, officials said. All of the killings took place at night or in the early morning hours, police said.
Another shooting, of a 46-year-old Black woman at Park Street and Union Street in Stockton at 3:20 a.m. on April 16, 2021, was also linked to the investigation, police said earlier this month. The woman survived her injuries in that shooting, they said.
Police said that a motive is not known for the killings but it is believed to have been intentional.
ABC News’ Mark Osborne and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(PORTLAND, Ore.) — Oregon has had a Democratic governor for 35 years — but this year’s race could very well break that streak thanks to a potent cocktail of local and national issues but, mostly, because of a boisterous third-party candidate drawing double-digit support from voters.
With weeks left until Election Day, race observers and operatives call the contest a jump ball between Democrats and Republicans.
“I’m very concerned,” said Greg Peden, who worked as an aide to former Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber. “I think this is the tightest race we’ve seen and the most complex race we’ve seen, and I don’t think anybody can really predict even now how exactly this ends up.”
Running to replace term-limited Gov. Kate Brown are former state House Speaker Tina Kotek, the Democratic nominee, and Republican rival Christine Drazan, a former state House minority leader.
But strategists of both parties say that the real twist behind the election’s tightness is the third-party candidacy of former state Sen. Betsy Johnson, who was a Democrat while in office and is now running as an independent.
She was a staunch moderate over her 20 years in the state House and Senate, a reputation that has followed her onto the campaign trail and could be helpful in a state with more non-affiliated voters than registered Democrats.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average, Johnson is earning about 16% support, keeping both Drazan and Kotek in the mid- to high-30s. Kotek had been considered the favorite early in the cycle, given Oregon’s blue hue, but since late September it’s Drazan who has eked out a razor-thin lead.
While Democrats win in Oregon at the federal level with ease, the state has hosted several tight gubernatorial contests, with the past two being decided by about 6 and 7 points, respectively. Still, Republicans have not won the governorship since 1982 and President Joe Biden most recently took the Beaver State by 16 points just two years ago — resulting in Oregon being left out of the core of most prognosticators’ battleground maps this cycle.
In launching her third-party campaign last fall, Johnson acknowledged that “taking on the entrenched two parties will be difficult and expensive” but cast herself as “independent-minded, pro-choice [and] pro-jobs.”
Kotek and Drazan’s campaigns diverge on some priorities — Kotek’s focus includes abortion access and climate change while Drazan highlights resource management and public education — but both of them tout three of the same issues: the economy and the working class; housing and the homeless; and public safety.
Crime and housing have become major concerns in the state at the same time that many in Oregon and elsewhere are grappling with historically high inflation.
Pulling from Democratic and Republican platforms, Johnson has consistently voiced support for abortion access while lambasting crime and homelessness in Portland and describing herself as a “lifelong responsible gun owner and collector.”
Johnson’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment for this story but she told Fox News earlier this month that “people are frightened and they’re mad” and on education said, “Let’s not worry about pronouns. Let’s worry about mathematics.”
Johnson also brings significant personal wealth to the race and has received $3.75 million from Nike co-founder Phil Knight.
“Oh, absolutely,” Oregon Democratic strategist Jake Weigler said when asked if Kotek would have the advantage in a two-person race without Johnson. “It would probably be a more competitive race than the Democrats have had in the past … But I think it would be a completely different conversation.”
Johnson’s estimated appeal among disaffected voters unwilling to back Drazan also dovetails with another challenge for Kotek.
FiveThirtyEight reported earlier this month that Gov. Brown, who has served since 2015, is not widely popular, which some Democrats worry tarnishes the party brand — and Kotek by extension.
“The race is agonizingly tight because Betsy is taking more votes from Tina than from Christine. But it’s also in part because people equate Tina with Gov. Brown, who has a low approval rating. That is unfair because they are completely different people, with different styles of governing,” said one former Democratic state legislator.
Republicans are also bullish that Drazan will be able to go on offense on some policies, seizing on economic worries and the scars over the violence and social justice-related unrest in Portland — which have all taken place while Democrats have complete control in Salem.
Oregon had the seventh-highest homeless population in 2020, according to federal government data, and Portland has experienced an increase in crimes like murder and assault, according to the city’s police. Drazan has blanketed the airwaves with ads featuring tents lining Portland streets and broader questions about Oregonians’ satisfaction with the current state of affairs, all while staying away from thornier issues like her support for Donald Trump or abortion restrictions.
“Oregonians really feel like this just is not being addressed, and the state doesn’t want to be known for that. We don’t want people afraid to come to the state because they’re afraid of crime, but it’s a reality,” said Oregon GOP strategist Rebecca Tweed. She argued that “businesses are leaving, people are stopping visiting, regular day-to-day folks just don’t feel safe anymore. So it’s certainly a much bigger issue.”
Still, Kotek has hefty advantages
Chief among them is Democrats’ inherent edge in the state. Johnson appears to have hit a ceiling in voter surveys, and there are almost 300,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. And Democrats have decades of institutional knowledge on how to win gubernatorial races.
“On the polling, it looks like a toss-up, but when you look at the advantage in terms of registration numbers and past history, even with close elections, I think that advantage still has to lie with Kotek,” said Pacific University political science professor Jim Moore. “That’s a big hill to climb for the Republicans.”
On policy, Kotek is hammering hard on abortion access, pressing Drazan to take a more definitive stance on how she’d approach the issue as governor. And Kotek is trying to tie her Republican opponent to the most radical flank of the GOP, highlighting Drazan’s expressed support for the entire ticket, which includes a Senate candidate who has talked approvingly about elements of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
That strategy is reflected in an advertising blitz, including in a clip comparing Drazan’s policies on abortion to remarks from Supreme Court justices who indicated during their confirmation hearings that they’d back Roe v. Wade before ultimately voting to overturn it.
“We have a very high-propensity voting population of women, they tend to be more progressive. We have more Democrats just in population alone. And if female Democrat voters show up to vote, it’ll be a very difficult campaign for Drazan,” Tweed, the Republican strategist, conceded. “If I’m Tina Kotek, I’m talking about that issue all day every day until the election’s over … and if I’m Drazan, I’m trying to lean away from it as much as I can.”
“We’re already seeing that shift,” Tweed added. “I think that’ll only increase from here on out.”
Kotek has also not shied away from crime and homelessness, releasing ads and a proposal to increase housing. Drazan, too, leads her platform with a plan for “the crisis in our streets” and to “restore community safety.”
Those dynamics are setting the stage for a combustible finish to the surprisingly tight race.
The Democratic Governors Association has invested about $5 million this cycle, while its Republican counterpart has invested $4.1 million, and each of the three candidates have fearsome war chests. In another sign of broader GOP interest in the race, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin — who last year won in a blue state — is campaigning with Drazan in Aurora on Tuesday, and Knight switched camps from Johnson to give Drazan $1 million.
Biden is set to appear with Kotek on Saturday after attending a “grassroots volunteer event with the Oregon Democrats” on Friday, according to the White House.
Turnout is also anticipated to be high given that every active registered voter is mailed a ballot — starting on Wednesday — and ballots can then be dropped off as late as 8 p.m. local time on Election Day.
“We’re not going to know the outcome of this very close race until maybe Friday of that week or maybe even later,” said Greg Leo, the former executive director of the Oregon GOP. “It’s gonna be a very long couple of days after the polls close.”
(NEW YORK) — Rap lyrics have been used by prosecutors in the U.S. for decades as alleged evidence in criminal cases, helping put rappers behind bars. But it wasn’t until lyrics were used in the indictment of hip-hop stars Young Thug and Gunna on gang-related charges that the controversial practice sparked a movement in the music industry and fueled a wave of support for legislation seeking to limit the practice.
“I will protect Black art like it’s my family because it’s my family,” Kevin Liles, the former president of Def Jam Recordings, told “Nightline,” adding that to him, this is not just about the lyrics – “our culture is on trial.”
Liles is backing federal legislation that would limit the use of rap lyrics in court and is joined by the top power players in the music industry, including the Recording Academy, the Recording Industry Association of America, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Records, Atlantic Records, Warner Music Group and the Black Music Action Coalition.
TONIGHT ON NIGHTLINE: R&B/Hip-Hop executive and activist @KevinLiles1 discusses rap music as it finds itself in the crosshairs of the justice system pic.twitter.com/oDJsqaAPQT
“I’m proud that the Recording Academy … that many of my friends – rock friends, pop friends, country friends, alternative friends, and jazz friends have joined the movement of protecting Black art,” Liles said.
The music industry also backed a California bill that was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month that limits the use of rap lyrics as evidence in court. A bill banning the practice is being proposed in New Jersey and one that limits the practice stalled in the New York state assembly last year.
Hip-hop artist Fat Joe, who is advocating for such legislation, told “Nightline” that the practice is “unfortunate.”
Referencing lyrics from rapper Rakim, “we like to exaggerate, dream and imaginate,” the Grammy-winning New York rapper said. “This is all art, and to actually use something that was just made up and use it against you in a trial, it’s very dangerous.”
TONIGHT ON NIGHTLINE: Rapper @FatJoe on his fight to get prosecutors banned from using hip hop lyrics against artists in court. pic.twitter.com/HIWrJIXnRn
Hip-hop artist E-40 backed the legislation in his home state of California and spoke with Newsom about the importance of the bill.
“Just like people write books, we write lyrics and make music and songs,” he told “Nightline. “Music is our art…and the goal is to protect our heart and our creative expression.”
TONIGHT ON NIGHTLINE: Rapper @E40 on his fight to stop hip hop lyrics from being used in court against the artists behind them. pic.twitter.com/cGoKu5ccjB
Attorney Areva Martin told “Nightline” that the growing movement could lead to change on the legislative front.
“As rappers become businessmen and as they become involved in social justice and social action movements, I think we are going to see some changes, at least in liberal states and liberal counties,” she said.
Referencing the lyrics of hip-hop artists in criminal charges – some of which mention acts of violence or criminal activity – is a practice that has drawn criticism from both freedom-of-speech advocates and the musicians themselves, who argue that introducing lyrics into case with the implication that they are reflections of reality, discounts rap as a form of artistic expression.
“Violence in music is nothing new. Whether it’s outlaw country music or rap music. But what I saw in my childhood is that rap was treated radically different,” said Atlanta hip-hop artist Killer Mike, who has been advocating against the practice for years.
According to Erik Nielson, the co-author of the 2019 book “Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America,” rap lyrics used by prosecutors in court usually lack a factual connection to an alleged crime and are often used as a form of character evidence that could prejudice a jury and prevent a defendant from getting a fair trial.
“It’s absolutely racist,” Nielson said. “Rap music is the only art form that’s targeted this way.”
Nielson, who has served as an expert witness in close to 100 cases across the country in which rap lyrics were used as alleged evidence in court, has been advocating against the use of rap lyrics in court for years. He said that the indictment of Young Thug brought national attention to the controversial practice.
“This practice targets amateurs, up-and-coming artists who don’t have name recognition and who typically don’t have the resources to mount a vigorous defense,” Nielson said. “Young Thug is one of the most prominent artists to be caught in this web.”
Young Thug, whose legal name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams, was initially charged with one count of conspiring to violate the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and one count of participating in street gang activity, according to charging documents obtained by ABC News. He now also faces six additional drugs and weapons charges after law enforcement searched his home following his arrest.
“Mr. Williams has committed no violation of law, whatsoever. We will fight this case ethically, legally and zealously. Mr. Williams will be cleared,” Young Thug’s attorney Brian Steel told ABC News.
Meanwhile, Grammy-nominated rapper Gunna, whose real name is Sergio Kitchens, was charged with one count of conspiring to violate the RICO Act.
“Mr. Sergio Kitchens, known as Gunna, is innocent. The indictment falsely portrays his music as part of criminal conspiracy,” the rapper’s attorneys, Steve Sadow and Don Samuel, told ABC News.
Both rappers pleaded not guilty and were repeatedly denied bond.
Their trials were scheduled for January 2023, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis requested a 2-month delay.
Although the scope of the indictment, which names 28 individuals, goes far beyond the lyrics, the use of rappers’ lyrics as part of the alleged evidence is what has drawn pushback from the music industry.
“We gotta stop somewhere,” Liles said. “… that next kid that’s coming up on YouTube, that next kid that’s thinking about being creative, I’m fighting for them too.”
But Willis argued that Young Thug is the ringleader of the YSL gang and his lyrics are fair game.
The district attorney defended the use of lyrics as alleged evidence in the YSL indictment, saying in a May 10 press conference, “the First Amendment does not protect people from prosecutors using it as evidence.”
“We put it as overt within the RICO count because we believe that’s exactly what it is,” she added.
The DA’s office did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Colleges and universities offering the abortion pill on campus could help reduce barriers to abortion care access, even in states that currently have protections for this care, students advocating for abortion rights say.
Students in California and New York told ABC News that increasing the points of access to care, such as requiring schools to provide medication abortions, would likely go a long way toward lightening the burden on clinics that are being overwhelmed with patients traveling from other states.
A 2019 law signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom will require state colleges and universities to provide abortion pills on campus starting on Jan. 1. This summer, Massachusetts also enacted a law requiring public universities to submit a plan for providing medication abortions on campus by November 2023.
A similar bill is in the works in New York State. It would require that all student health centers on college and university campuses in the state offer medication abortion services free of charge.
The University of California, Berkeley, already offers medication abortions at its student health center for pregnancies up to 10 weeks. Recently, Barnard College, a women’s only school in New York, announced it would offer medication abortions starting in Fall 2023.
The decision at Barnard came after over two years of pressure from student groups on campus, led by a group called the Reproductive Justice Collective.
The RJC found a need for access to abortion pills on campus for three main reasons: overwhelmed New York abortion clinics; the high cost of abortion care; and long travel time to reach clinics off campus, Niharika Rao, a student at Barnard and activist with the RJC, told ABC News in an interview.
Rao said that clinics in New York are overwhelmed and have long wait times, with many patients coming from Pennsylvania and Ohio for care. Long wait times can often lead to patients needing more complicated and expensive abortion care.
Medication abortion is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for up to 10 weeks into pregnancy, but some studies have shown it is an effective method of abortion up to 11 weeks.
The closest Planned Parenthood clinic to Barnard’s campus is a 40-minute train ride away, according to Rao.
Rao said many students hope that abortion services at Barnard will be subsidized by the university and be more affordable to students than care at clinics unaffiliated with the school.
“If students who are obviously going to Planned Parenthoods now are able to access this type of care on their campus, then we’re hoping that reduces the load on [New York’s] clinics. It also hopefully reduces the funding pressure on our abortion funds,” Rao said.
The RJC is also advocating for medication abortion to be available on campus for students at other New York schools including Columbia University, New York University and CUNY system schools.
Even in states like New York that protect abortion rights, “very real barriers to care and access still exist, despite the fact that abortion is very much legal. And if we want to be a sort of pro-choice, abortion friendly state, then we have to reconcile and deal with those barriers,” Rao said.
When campuses require that a student go off campus for care, that often means they miss school, miss assignments, have to pay for travel, have to miss jobs or internships, according to Tamara Marzouk, director of abortion access at Advocates for Youth, a non-profit that helps youth, including the RJC, organize around reproductive justice issues.
While California is a state that protects abortion rights, students told ABC News that similar barriers to abortion care exist there as well.
Abortion care being offered on campuses would especially make a difference for undergraduate students who may not have local providers they trust or a means of transportation to get them to off-campus services, MacKenna Rawlins, a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego, and the vice president of external affairs for the school’s Graduate and Professional Student Association, told ABC News.
That being said, Rawlins said she has not seen a lot of student activism surrounding abortion care on her campus after Roe fell, which she largely attributes to the perceived “safety net” of living in California, where there are protections for the right to abortion.
Lauren Adams, a student at the University of California, Berkeley, told ABC News that she feels supported by her university but also recognizes her responsibility to demand more protections and fight for women in other states where the right to abortion is being taken away.
Student in nearly 30 states staged protests earlier this month, demanding their universities step in and protect their reproductive rights, months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights.
(OKMULGEE, Okla.) — The Okmulgee Police Department recovered four male bodies from a river on Friday. The discovery came as police search for four close friends in Oklahoma after their mysterious disappearance last Sunday.
Mark Chastain, 32; Billy Chastain, 30; Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29, were last seen leaving one of their homes in Okmulgee around 8 p.m. Sunday reportedly riding bicycles, according to the Okmulgee Police Department. Both of the Chastain men and Sparks were reported missing by one of their spouses during the overnight hours on Monday, police said. Stevens’ mother contacted authorities a few hours later also to report her son’s disappearance.
The bodies recovered from the river are being taken to the medical examiner’s office in Tulsa for autopsy.
No identifications were made at the scene and the medical examiner will have to make the official identifications, according to police.
In a press conference, Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said a passerby noticed suspicious items in the river near Sharp Road and reported it just before 2 p.m. on Friday.
Officers responded and discovered what appeared to be multiple human remains partially submerged in a river, he said.
The families of the missing men were notified of the discovery, but police were not able to make an identification at the scene.
Both of the Chastain men and Sparks were reported missing by one of their spouses during the overnight hours on Monday, police said. Stevens’ mother contacted authorities a few hours later also to report her son’s disappearance.
The Okmulgee Police Department gathered video and additional GPS information and followed up on potential sightings on Thursday, but said they were unable to confirm any reported sightings of the men.
According to investigators, two of the men are believed to have cellphones with them, however, attempts to contact them go straight to voicemail.
Chastain’s cellphone was tracked to an area south of Okmulgee, but was turned off or lost power at some point. Officers checked the area, but found no sign of the men, police said.
(ATLANTA) — The president of iHeartMedia Atlanta has left after videos of him allegedly using racial slurs came to light, the radio broadcast company said Friday.
Drew Lauter is heard in the videos taken by a company executive in August 2021 appearing to shout racial slurs, and fatphobic and sexually explicit remarks while riding in a vehicle with other iHeartMedia employees.
Meg Stevens, the senior vice president of programming at iHeart Atlanta, issued a statement to ABC News on Friday confirming that Lauter is no longer employed by iHeartMedia.
“Allegations of this nature go against both our company values and our policies and we take them very seriously,” the statement read. “As soon as they were brought to our attention we acted quickly, retaining an outside investigator to conduct a thorough review, and when we received the outside investigator’s findings we immediately took decisive action. The employee is no longer with the company.”
Lauter has not responded to ABC News’ requests for comment.
Attorneys Jason Castle and Roosevelt Jean represent an unnamed Black executive who took the videos. Castle claims iHeartMedia was aware of the incident the day it happened, but immediate action was not taken. The company and an outside investigative firm were provided with copies of the videos weeks ago, but the firm is still finalizing a report on the incident, he told ABC News.
No legal action has been taken against iHeartMedia or Lauter, but Castle says his client is considering litigation.
“To our knowledge, that incident as captured by our client on video was representative of other instances that gave rise to a hostile work environment, a discriminatory environment, a sexually harassing work environment,” Castle said.
He told ABC News that for his client, this matter is not just about him personally, but about shedding light on the environment at his workplace.
“Our client doesn’t have to comment on, or interpret, or characterize because the comments themselves are clear. The person who said them is clear. The question is, when is it ever appropriate for statements, comments, and those actions in the workplace? When is it ever appropriate?”
(SAVANNAH, Ga.) — Under the Friday night TV lights and locked in a tight political battle, Georgia’s Senate candidates debated for the first, and likely, only time.
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and former football star and Republican nominee Herschel Walker met in Savannah, Georgia, on Friday, just three days before the start of early in-person voting.
The candidates sparred on the economy, abortion, and Herschel Walker got reprimanded by one of the moderators for using what she described as a “prop.”
It was the first time Walker hit the debate stage after skipping debates during the GOP primary and comes in the wake of allegations, first reported by the Daily Beast, that he paid the cost of a woman’s abortion more than a decade ago. Subsequent reports identified the woman as the mother of one of Walker’s children. ABC News has not independently confirmed the report.
Walker, has denied ever paying for an abortion and in an interview with ABC News’ Linsey Davis, said he knows the identity of the woman making the claims, though he maintains she is lying.
He doubled down on that response on the debate stage tonight, though his position on abortion shifted from the campaign trail.
After previously saying he supports a total abortion ban with no exceptions, Walker said Friday he backs the Georgia heartbeat bill, which allows exceptions, including rape and incest if a police report is filed.
“I support the Georgia heartbeat bill because that’s the bill of the people… I’m a Christian, but I’m also representing the people of Georgia,” Walker said.
Asked if he supports any limits on abortion, Warnock dodged, saying he saying he trusts women to make that decision.
“I have a profound reverence for life and a deep respect for choice.”
Debate moderators questioned both candidates about allegations made against them.
Warnock was asked about claims made against him by his ex-wife that his duties as a senator interfered with his parenting abilities.
“I went through a divorce,” Warnock said. “And while that was a painful period. What came out of that was two amazing children that I just talked to before I came on the stage. And my children know that I am with them and for them, and that I support them.”
Walker argued he’s been transparent while Warnock hasn’t. Walker referred to writing a book which mentioned acts of violence in his past which he claims was a by-product of dissociative identity disorder.
“You can get help. All you got to do is ask, and I’ll always, always be a champion for mental health,” Walker said.
Though, Walker added, he’s “doing well” and is ready to serve in the Senate.
“You don’t have to have treatment for it,” Walker said. “I continue to get help if I need help, but I don’t need any help. I’m doing well.”
Warnock did not attack Walker on the recent abortion allegations. However, he did say, “My opponent has a problem with the truth,” after Walker accused him of not supporting police officers.
“I’ve never pretended to be a police officer,” Warnock fired back.
The comment caused Walker to flash a badge. It was not clear what the badge was.
“I am- work with many police officers,” Walker said, eliciting a testy response from the moderator.
“Mr. Walker, you are very well aware of the rules tonight and you have a prop. That is not allowed, sir,” the moderator said.
“Well it’s not a prop. This is real,” Walker said, doubling down though he eventually put the badge away.
The candidates also answered questions on the issues.
With the economy still at the forefront of voters’ minds, when asked if he takes responsibility for rising prices, Warnock dodged, instead touting his legislative achievements.
“There’s no question that people are feeling pain at the grocery store, at the pump, at pharmacy counters,” Warnock said. “I stood up for ordinary hardworking Georgia families time and time again,” he added before talking about his work to cap the cost of insulin for Medicare recipients.
“He should tell the people of Georgia why he thinks they should have expensive insulin,” Warnock said of Walker.
Trying to emphasize that food prices are still high, Walker said if you’re not, “eatin’ right, insulin is doing you no good.”
It was a blunder Warnock took advantage of.
“I think we’re hearing from my opponent tonight. That it’s their fault. That prices of insulin are being gouged. I don’t think it’s their fault. I think it’s the fault of these pharmaceutical companies.”
The candidates were also asked to look ahead and voice if they would support a possible Biden or Trump run in 2024, which they took very different approaches answering.
Warnock, who has sought to distance himself from Biden while out on the campaign trail, said he has not thought that far ahead.
“You’re asking me whose gonna run in ’24? The people of Georgia get to decide who’s going to be their senator in three days,” Warnock said.
On the other hand, Walker said he would support Trump running in 2024 because “he’s my friend.” Though he broke from the former president, who endorsed him, by saying Joe Biden and Sen. Warnock won the 2020 Election.
In the weeks leading up to the debate, Walker has sought to downplay expectations of how he’ll match up against Warnock, an established orator serving as the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached. Though Friday, he embraced his lack of political experience as a positive.
“For those of you who are concerned about voting for me- a non-politician- I want you to think about the damage politicians like Joe Biden and Raphael Warnock have done to this country,” Walker said.
Warnock spent the night laying out what he said were “deep differences” between himself and Walker, focusing on the policies he has pushed and passed while serving in the Senate.
“We have nearly 11 million people. And only two people get to represent us in the United States Senate. Just two. And when I think about that, it is an awesome responsibility. One that humbles me and inspires me to work as hard as I can for hardworking families every single day. And I’ve worked with Democrats and Republicans in order to do that work.”
Heading into the final stretch of the campaign, both candidates are set to make their pitch to voters in a race that could determine the balance of power in Congress.
New polling, released from Quinnipiac University Wednesday, shows despite recent allegations against Walker, Georgia’s Senate race is still close. Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock leads Walker 52% to 45%, an essentially unchanged margin from Quinnipiac’s Sept. 14 poll where Warnock held an advantage over Walker 52% to 46%.
(WASHINGTON) — A “beta test” of the application for student loan relief went live on Friday evening, launching the Biden administration’s sweeping program to cancel student debt for tens of millions of Americans.
The Department of Education’s test application is a long-awaited first step of the policy announced in late August, allowing people with federal student loans to apply for up to $20,000 of debt relief, depending on what kind of financial aid they received and how much money they make.
During the beta testing period, according to a department spokesperson, borrowers will be able to submit applications for the student debt relief program and won’t need to reapply if they submit their application during the beta test.
This period will help the department monitor the application site’s performance through “real-world use” ahead of the official application launch later this month, the department says it can refine processes and uncover any possible bugs.
The highest amount of debt relief — up to $20,000 — will go to people who received Pell Grants for college, a type of aid given to students from low-income families. All other borrowers with federal loans will qualify for up to $10,000 in relief.
The relief covers anyone who made less than $125,000 in the 2020 or 2021 tax year, or less than $250,000 as a couple.
Borrowers should apply before mid-November in order to see their loans canceled by the time the pause on student loan payments lifts on Jan. 1, 2023, the White House has said. That pause has been in place since the beginning of the pandemic. The application for debt relief will also close at the end of the year, sunsetting on Dec. 31, 2023.
But there are a subset of borrowers who were ruled out of the program in a late change by the Biden administration, as it tried to dodge lawsuits. Anyone with a Perkins loan or a Federal Family Education Loan — both loans that are guaranteed by the federal government but handled by private banks — can no longer get aid.
The Biden administration estimated that the rule change, made in late September, disqualified about 700,000 people from the policy.
The administration has pointed out that it was a small minority of people compared to the potential reach this policy could have. As advocates have pointed out, though, the policy’s success depends on how many people hear about it and how easy it is to apply.
The policy is expected to apply to 43 million Americans, and 20 million could have their debt completely wiped out, the White House estimates. It’s expected to cost around $400 billion over 30 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The application rollout comes as the policy has been challenged multiple times in court, largely by conservative organizations and states who argue that the Biden administration doesn’t have the authority to cancel student loan debt.
So far, none of the lawsuits have halted the program, which the Biden administration argues is on firm legal footing under the HEROES Act — an act that provides broader-than-usual authority to the Secretary of Education during emergency periods, such as COVID-19.
And President Joe Biden, though he acknowledged the plan might be controversial, has also defended it as the right thing to do.
“Now, I understand not everything I’m announcing today is gonna make everybody happy,” Biden said in a speech at the White House when the policy was announced.
(NEW YORK) — Missy Jenkins Smith was a student at Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1997 when a shooter opened fire, killing three of her classmates and injuring her and four others.
Last month, she testified in front of the Kentucky parole board about how the events 25 years ago continue to impact her today.
“I could speak for hours about what my life has been like every minute of every day for the last quarter century without the use of my legs,” she said during the hearing. Smith is paralyzed from the chest down and now relies on a wheelchair.
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Jenkins Smith’s testimony came as the board was considering whether to release shooter Michael Carneal on parole. Carneal, who told the parole board that he heard voices on the day of the 1997 shooting and also heard voices just a few days before appearing before the panel, was denied parole and will serve out his life sentence. He also said, “I’m sorry for what I did.”
The shooter, who was 14 years old at the time, has since received multiple mental health diagnoses. He would have been the first school shooter to be released on parole.
ABC News’ “Impact x Nightline” team spoke with survivors and families of the victims for the latest episode in the series.
The shooting was one of the first school shooting tragedies, preceding the shootings at Columbine High School, Newtown Elementary, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and, most recently, Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.
Bill Bond, who was the high school principal at the time, remembered where he was when Carneal began shooting. “I’m sitting in my office,” he told ABC News. “And I hear, ‘Pow. Pow.'”
Bond left his office and entered the lobby of the high school, where he saw “one of my own students had a pistol in his hand,” he told ABC News. “Kids were running, and he was shooting. And they were falling.”
Bond confronted the shooter. “I was just moving slow, steady forward, so it didn’t panic him,” he said.
“And all of a sudden, he just looks at the pistol, and just lays it down,” Bond said. “And all he said was, ‘I’m sorry.’ And I wasn’t in a forgiving mood. All I said was, ‘Shut up.’ And that was all I said to him. ‘Shut up. Sit down.'”
Three mothers had to bury their children in the subsequent days, and an entire community was left to grieve.
“Almost 25 years later, I’m still hearing stories of Kayce’s acts of kindness,” said Sabrina Steger, who lost her daughter Kayce Steger in the shooting. “She’s just an amazing girl. I was lucky to be her mama.”
The victims were Nicole Hadley, Jessica James and Kayce Steger, ages 14, 17, and 15, respectively.
“The community healing as a whole, I don’t think it happened,” Kelly Hard Alsip, another one of the survivors of the shooting, told ABC News. “I think that it will always live inside us.”
“I’m very grateful for it,” survivor Christina Ellegood told ABC News, referring to the parole board decision. “But still very lost on how to feel and how to react to it.”
“We live. We thrive,” said Kelly Hard Alsip. “But it never leaves.”
(NEW YORK) — Billionaire Elon Musk says his space company SpaceX cannot keep funding its Starlink satellite internet service in Ukraine “indefinitely” and has sent a letter to the Pentagon to make that point.
SpaceX’s Starlink terminals have been an important resource for Ukraine’s military on the battlefield and it remains unclear what will happen if the service is stopped.
CNN was first to report that SpaceX had sent a letter to the Pentagon that it reported said “We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time.”
Late Friday, Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, confirmed receipt of the letter that touched on the funding of Starlink.
“We can confirm the Department received correspondence from SpaceX about the funding of Starlink, their satellite communications product in Ukraine,” Singh said in a statement. “We remain in communication with SpaceX about this and other topics.”
Earlier, Singh had indicated to reporters that other commercial satellite options might be looked at.
“There’s not just SpaceX, there are other entities that we can certainly partner with when it comes to providing Ukraine with what they need on the battlefield,” said Singh. “I’m not going to show our hand right now on exactly what those are or who we’re talking to.”
Shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Musk offered free terminals that link with Space X satellites to help the beleaguered country maintain internet communications with the rest of the world.
It is estimated that there are now more than 12,000 Starlink internet terminals inside Ukraine providing a vital communications system for front line troops fighting Russian troops throughout Ukraine.
In tweets posted Friday, Musk stated that the maintenance and continued growth of the Starlink system in Ukraine is costing his company as much as much as $20 million a month.
“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households,” Musk tweeted.
In a separate tweet he explained that “In addition to terminals, we have to create, launch, maintain & replenish satellites & ground stations & pay telcos for access to Internet via gateways.”
“We’ve also had to defend against cyberattacks & jamming, which are getting harder,” he added.
In another tweet, Musk suggested that the Starlink row with the Pentagon was due in part to an insulting tweet by Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany who used an expletive to characterize Musk’s proposal to end the war by allowing Russia to keep Crimea.
“We’re just following his recommendation,” Musk tweeted Friday.
