Page 6546 – 105.7 WDNY

Olympian, swim groups look to turn the tide on the country’s racial gap in drowning

August 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — For generations, Black Americans have grappled with a troubling reality when it comes to swimming.

Black Americans drown at a rate 50 percent higher than their white counterparts, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It’s a grim statistic rooted in systemic racism that’s led to a persistent lack of access to pools and swim classes for Black children, according to experts.

Anthony Patterson, the president of the Pennsylvania-based nonprofit Nile Swim Club, said the lingering problem is a civil rights issue.

“I think that it’s a lack of access,” Anthony Patterson, the president of the Pennsylvania-based nonprofit Nile Swim Club, told ABC’s “Nightline.”

Nile Swim Club has been providing free swim lessons to kids for the past four years, part of its “No Child Will Drown In Our Town” campaign, and he said that it is imperative that more Black kids learn these life-saving skills.

“It’s up to us,” he said. “It appears that counting on other folks to teach our children how to swim is not happening in our community.”

Achieving this goal means that the country will have to confront and undo the systemic racism that led to it, according to Patterson.

Nearly 64% of Black children in the country have little or no swimming ability, compared to 40% of white children, according to USA Swimming, the national governing body for the American sport of swimming.

The swimming deficit in the Black community can be traced back to slavery. During which, enslaved Africans were forbidden from swimming. Over time, Black Americans were historically denied access to pools and beaches.

During the Jim Crow era, pools were segregated and there were far fewer affordable swim classes for Black families, according to historians.

The Nile Swim Club, located in Yeadon, was created in 1958 in response to that segregated environment after two Black families found out they were deliberately being denied access to a whites-only swim club, according to Patterson.

“Our founders decided instead of fighting and protesting and forcing them to have us join their club, they decided, ‘You know what? We’ll go back to our community [and] raise the money we need,’ and pretty much purchased these four and a half acres of land and put the Nile Swim Club here,” he said.

Patterson said this segregation is still going on in swim clubs across the country.

In 2012, the Justice Department found the historically white Valley Club in Pennsylvania discriminated against Black children during a camp pool trip in 2009. The club is now defunct.

Imani Kingcade sent her two sons, James and Cairo, to the Nile’s free swim program and told “Nightline” it made a huge difference.

“Cairo just had a big fear of water, period,” she told “Nightline.” “He didn’t want the water coming down on him.”

The boys graduated from the program this summer.

The Nile Swim Club isn’t the only organization helping Black kids improve their swim skills.

Jim Ellis, 74, created the Philadelphia Department of Recreation Swim Team in 1971, and became the first all-Black swim team in the country. He still coaches young swimmers and told “Nightline” that he’s heard too many misconceptions about Black swimmers over the years.

“African-Americans can’t swim. Their bones are too heavy. They’re not built right. Well, I’m African American, I’ve been swimming all my life. So this is a stereotype,” he told “Nightline.”

Ellis said many Black swimmers have proven their worth in the competitive field.

Cullen Jones is one of them.

Jones has won four Olympic medals, two gold and two silver, as well as several gold medals at other international swim competitions. He made history when he won the gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle relay in the 2008 Olympics and became the first Black American swimmer to do so.

Jones told “Nightline” that there is still a way to go before Black American competitive swimmers are given more chances.

“Access is a very easy way for a lot of people to be like, oh, this is the reason why Black people don’t swim. That [swimming] is something that has been pushed out of our culture. There are [Black] swimmers in other countries. Black people swim. It’s a U.S. problem that we believe that this is something we don’t do,” he said,” he said.

Jones, a New Jersey native, said he learned how to swim after nearly drowning while visiting a water park with his family when he was young.

That incident prompted his mother to insist he learn to swim. Now retired from competitive swimming, Jones is determined to make swim lessons more accessible to all. He works as a water safety advocate with USA Swimming’s “Make a Splash” campaign.

“Anyone can drown. I can drown, Michael Phelps can drown. What we like to do is say that we are becoming safer around the water,” he said.

“We’re seeing progress,” Jones added, “And for any person that is interested, fearful, I won’t tell you my mom’s age, but she’s learning to swim. So it’s never too late to get out there and learn to swim.”

Missing hiker found dead in Utah’s Zion National Park

August 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(SPRINGDALE, Utah) — A hiker who went missing after flash floods hit Utah’s Zion National Park last week has been found dead, park officials said Tuesday.

Jetal Agnihotri, of Tucson, Arizona, was found in the Virgin River on Monday and was later pronounced dead by a medical examiner, park officials said.

“Our deepest sympathy goes out to the friends and family of Jetal Agnihotri,” Zion National Park superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh said in a statement.

The National Park Service initially received multiple reports of park visitors being swept off their feet by a flash flood in the Narrows in the Zion Canyon at around 2:15 p.m. on Friday.

One hiker was sent to the hospital, while rangers found several hikers isolated near Riverside Walk due to high flood water, the National Park Service said.

Agnihotri was reported missing Friday evening after she was overdue from a trip in the Narrows. She was found in the Virgin River near the Court of the Patriarchs, which is about 6 river miles south of the Narrows, park officials said.

The National Park Service was assisting the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and Zion’s rescue team as they searched parts of the Virgin River, located south of the park, for Agnihotri this week.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office’s water team investigated the fast-flowing and deep areas of the river, while dog handlers looked into areas with vegetation and log jams, park officials said.

More than 170 responders ultimately participated in the four-day search and rescue operation, park officials said.

Amid the search, Agnihotri’s family was anxiously awaiting news.

“We don’t know what she’s going through, where she is,” her brother, Pujan Agnihotri, told Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX as the search entered day three.

Pujan Agnihotri had praised the National Park Service for its efforts in the search for his sister, whom he described as “strong-minded” and “independent.”

“We have confidence in […] whatever decision she would have taken,” Pujan Agnihotri said. “Unfortunately, this flash [flood came] out of nowhere, there [were] no caution signs, there was no closure during the flash flood.”

ABC News’ Nadine El-Bawab and Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.

IRS conducting ‘comprehensive review of existing safety and security measures’ amid threats to employees

August 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Internal Revenue Service said it is conducting a comprehensive review of its security systems amid recent threats against IRS employees.

Some of the rhetoric comes after many Republican lawmakers and media figures claimed, without evidence, that the $78 billion being sent to the IRS over 10 years as part of the Inflation Reduction Act is so more agents can be hired to audit the middle class.

“This includes conducting risk assessments based on data-driven decisions given the current environment and monitoring perimeter security, designations of restricted areas, exterior lighting, security around entrances to our facilities and other various protections,” IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig wrote to employees and obtained by ABC News.

“We also monitor threat intelligence and have increased engagement with TIGTA, Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement officials so we’re ready to implement additional countermeasures and notifications to employees if circumstances warrant,” Rettig wrote.

The commissioner said it is personal.

“I’ll continue to make every effort to dispel any lingering misperceptions about our work. And I will continue to advocate for your safety in every venue where I have an audience,” he said. “You go above and beyond every single day, and I am honored to work with each of you.”

There has been much debate about an increase in IRS agents.

The Internal Revenue Service does not plan to use the nearly $80 billion it’s set to receive in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to hire 87,000 new agents in order to target middle class Americans, a Treasury Department official told ABC News last week and documents verify, rejecting a claim widely circulated by Republican lawmakers and right-wing media personalities.

In a letter to Rettig, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the agency is planning on hiring auditors who can enforce the tax laws against high-income Americans and corporations, not the middle class, along with employees to provide customer service to taxpayers. The majority of hires will fill the positions of about 50,000 IRS employees on the verge of retirement, which will net about 20,000 – 30,000 workers, not 87,000.

“New staff will be hired to improve taxpayer services and experienced auditors who can take on corporate and high-end tax evaders, without increasing audit rates relative to historical norms for people earning under $400,000 each year,” Treasury Department spokesperson Julia Krieger said in a statement last week.

The billions heading toward the IRS are part of the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by President Joe Biden earlier this month.

Whistleblower alleges Twitter deceived regulators on security and spam, Twitter says it’s a ‘false narrative’

August 23, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Former Twitter head of security, Peiter Zatko, alleged in a whistleblower federal complaint last month that the social media giant had numerous wide-ranging information security system lapses, according to a copy of the complaint made public on Tuesday.

According to the complaint, the company prioritized growth over policing spam and bots on the platform, as some employees stood to receive $10 million bonuses based on increasing daily users.

In response, Twitter blasted Zatko, who worked at the company from November 2020 to January 2022, saying he was spreading a “false narrative about Twitter” and was fired for “ineffective leadership and poor performance.” The company also said Zatko’s public remarks are “riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context.”

In a statement, attorneys representing Katko rebuked the characterization from Twitter.

“Mr. Zatko repeatedly raised concerns about Twitter’s grossly inadequate information security systems to the Company’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors throughout his tenure,” they said.

They also said, “On January 19, 2022, a mere two weeks after Mr. Zatko clashed with Mr. Agrawal and Mr. Kordestani about these issues, Twitter abruptly terminated his employment.”

The complaint, first reported by The Washington Post, becomes public as Tesla CEO Elon Musk — the richest person in the world, according to the Forbes Billionaires list — has sought to terminate his $44 billion bid to acquire Twitter over concerns about spam accounts on the platform.

Twitter sued Musk last month in an attempt to force him to complete his purchase of the company after he declared in early July he was walking away from the deal.

Alex Spiro, an attorney at law firm Quinn Emanuel who represents Musk in that suit, said the firm has subpoenaed Zatko, who goes by the nickname “Mudge.”

“We found his exit and that of other key employees curious in light of what we have been finding,” Spiro said in a statement.

Whistleblower Aid, the lawyers that are representing Zatko, told ABC News in a statement “the disclosure speaks for itself and Mudge stands by everything in it.”

Whistleblower Aid confirmed Zatko’s complaint and the authenticity of the document published by The Washington Post. Zatko sent his complaint in July to the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice.

The complaint makes a host of allegations about Twitter’s failure to secure its platform.

The complaint alleges that Twitter made false and misleading statements to users and the FTC about the company’s efforts to protect the privacy and integrity of the platform for more than a decade.

In turn, Twitter violated a settlement that the company reached with the FTC in 2011 in which the company agreed to create a “comprehensive information security program,” the complaint says.

According to the complaint, the misleading remarks made by Twitter include a tweet from CEO Parag Agrawal in May, in which he said that the company is “strongly incentivized to detect and remove as much spam as we possibly can.”

A Twitter spokesperson told ABC News: “Mr. Zatko was fired from his senior executive role at Twitter in January 2022 for ineffective leadership and poor performance. What we’ve seen so far is a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context.”

“Mr. Zatko’s allegations and opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on Twitter, its customers and its shareholders. Security and privacy have long been company-wide priorities at Twitter and will continue to be,” the spokesperson added.

The whistleblower complaint is the latest in a series of major developments for Twitter and Musk as they remain locked in a legal dispute over his decision to terminate his acquisition of the company.

Previously, Musk has claimed that Twitter has not provided him with an accurate estimate of the number of bots on the platform. Twitter has rebuked that claim, saying it has provided Musk with information in accordance with conditions set out in the acquisition deal.

Last month, a Delaware court determined that the trial in a lawsuit brought by Twitter against Musk should take place in October, granting an expedited timeline for the case.