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Migrants detail harrowing, hopeful journey from Texas to NYC

August 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK)– Thousands of migrants seeking asylum who endured a 2,000-mile journey over several days, with little to no belongings or family, aboard buses sent from Texas now find themselves facing challenges establishing their new lives in New York City.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, since early May, has been sending busloads of migrants out of Texas to cities with Democrat leaders, including New York City and Washington, D.C. The Republican governor says he started the busing programs in response to the Biden administration’s immigration policies which he claims inadequately secure the border, forcing states like his to bear the brunt of migrant waves.

Many of the migrants are still arriving almost daily in the Big Apple, including 18-year-old student Brayan Amaro, who began his journey alone in his home country of Venezuela.

“The journey was terrible; going through all those countries was terrible because there was extortion, you had to pay . . . you had to pay all the police,” Amaro told ABC News. “There was not one of them that wasn’t corrupt…”

“I’m still a boy who’s very young. I hope to have better opportunities here,” Amaro said. “If I can keep on studying. All of that.”

Amaro says this will be his opportunity to “get ahead and be a better person than in Venezuela.” Migrants arriving from Texas at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan are greeted by volunteers from aid groups, nonprofits and the city’s immigration office.

“Many of them are seeking asylum at the border,” Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, told ABC News. “Instead of people being taken at a place of their choice, or what would be the most logical place for their claim to be processed, they’re being sent to New York and D.C., where they may not have any family, where they may not have a lawyer that they would choose to be represented by.”

Nonprofit organizations continue to step in and distribute resources to welcome migrants arriving with their few belongings.

Ariadna Phillips, the founder of South Bronx Mutual Aid, and a group of volunteers lead efforts to secure transportation for migrants.

“This is just regular people here in New York banding together to make sure that, you know, our friends that are coming in are feeling safe and welcome and appreciated,” Phillips told ABC News.

For many migrants like licensed nurse Joana Alvarez, New York City is not the final destination.

“I have my mother and my father. Look, it was for them, I came for them,” Alvarez said in Spanish.

Like Amaro, Alvarez made the journey through Venezuela to Texas’ border on her own. With Phillips’ support, Alvarez is set to board another bus headed for upstate New York, where she will stay with a host family that she has yet to meet.

“In New York, we have what’s called the right-to-shelter city, where if anyone comes to our city, we have a moral and legal obligation to provide shelter, and we’re doing that every day,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told ABC News.

Abbott’s busing operation led to the arrival of more than 6,000 asylum seekers in New York City alone, according to Adams. The high demand placed unforeseen strain on the city’s social services, calling for the opening of 13 emergency shelters to house the incoming migrants.

Adams said this “crisis calls for coordination” between the two administrations, but they have still been unable to collaborate on the issue.

In New York City, overwhelming support is being traced back to nonprofits, which are bearing the brunt on the unprecedented migrant influx and the decreased availability of resources and services.

A mother from Colombia, now based in the South Bronx with her four children, arrived on a bus from Texas a few days ago. The bus ride, she said, was “a little hard,” with not even a bathroom for her children to use.

“We lasted three days in the bus with hunger, with thirst,” the mother told ABC News in Spanish.

With the help of one organization, she’s been able to make strides toward opportunity and stability for her new life with her family in New York City.

“To be able to give a, offer a good future for my kids,” the mother said in Spanish. “So that in that same way we’re able to support other people who arrive here as well, just like how they have supported me.”

‘Multiple fatalities’ reported after 2 small planes collide mid-air at California airport, city officials say

August 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WATSONVILLE, Calif.) — “Multiple fatalities” were reported after two small planes collided mid-air at a California airport on Thursday, officials said.

The crash occurred shortly before 3 p.m. local time at the Watsonville Municipal Airport in Watsonville, an agricultural area located about 50 miles south of San Jose, officials said.

The two planes were attempting to land when they collided, the city of Watsonville said on social media. “We have reports of multiple fatalities,” it said.

A single-engine Cessna 152 and a twin-engine Cessna 340 “collided while the pilots were on their final approaches,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

Three people were on board the planes — one in the Cessna 152 and two in the Cessna 340 — the agency said, though it did not provide an update on their conditions. No injuries were reported to anyone on the ground, it said.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said it responded to an aircraft collision on Aviation Way near the airport and secured the scene with the Watsonville Police Department.

An investigation is underway by the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

David Ellefson announces collaborative album with Jeff Scott Soto

August 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson has announced a collaborative album with Sons of Apollo frontman and onetime Journey vocalist Jeff Scott Soto.

The record is titled Vacation in the Underworld and will arrive October 7.

Vacation in the Underworld is the first joint album from Ellefson and Soto under their Ellefson-Soto monkier. The duo launched first launched the project in March 2021, when Ellefson was still in Megadeth. Ellefson was fired from the thrash outfit two months later, in May 2021, after sexually explicit video of him leaked online.

Since his dismissal from Megadeth, Ellefson has started a number of different bands, including The Lucid and Dieth. He’ll also be playing Megadeth songs this fall on tour with his band Kings of Thrash.

Here’s the Vacation in the Underworld track list:

“Vacation in the Underworld”
“Like a Bullet”
“Sharpen the Sword”
“The Reason”
“S.T.N.”
“The Revolution”
“Celebrity Trash”
“Live to Die Another Day”
“The Day Before Tomorrow”
“Hercules”
“Rise to Win”
“Out of the Blue”*
“Lone Star*
“Writing on the Wall”*

*Bonus track

Who-themed VW camper van inspired by “Magic Bus” to be auctioned next week

August 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Here’s exciting news for Who fans with some disposable cash available: A 1965 Volkswagen camper van that was customized and restored in 2008 with a design inspired by the band’s 1968 hit “Magic Bus” is going up for bid at U.K.-based Silverstone Auctions on Saturday, August 27.

The vehicle, which was designed by the band’s longtime art director, Richard Evans, was originally raffled off in 2008 to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust, for which Who singer Roger Daltrey has long been a patron. The Magic Bus currently is estimated to fetch between 60,000 and 80,000 pounds, or between about $72,000 and $95,000. A large donation from the money raised by the sale will go toward the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The van’s exterior paint job features The Who’s bull’s-eye logo on both sides, as well as images of the band’s four original members, while a large Union Jack flag appears on the roof. The inside boasts red, white and blue upholstery, with an embroidered Who logo appearing on the backrest of some seats. Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend have signed the cab’s two sun visors, while Evans autographed an interior wall of the van.

As an added bonus, the winning bidder will receive a limited-edition model of the Magic Bus, as well as some special merch.

Visit SilverstoneAuctions.com for more details about the sale.

New COVID guidelines ease in-person work but won’t spur return to office, experts say

August 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Apple on Monday made headlines as the latest major company to call its workers back to the office, setting a deadline for early next month that will require workers to do their jobs in person three days each week, Bloomberg reported.

The move came days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines that softened the recommended precautions for preventing the spread of COVID.

The guidelines, announced last Thursday, recommended institutions screen otherwise healthy individuals for the virus in most settings, and the new rules set aside the 6-feet standard for social distancing.

Further, the guidelines relaxed a five-day quarantine period for unvaccinated individuals after an exposure to COVID. Instead, following an exposure, unvaccinated people should forego the quarantine but wear a mask for 10 days and test after five days, the CDC said.

The change in CDC policy will make it easier for employers to bring workers back to the office, shifting the public health responsibility to individual workers and away from businesses, while allowing all workers to stay on the job after a COVID exposure, public health experts told ABC News. The move reflects an approach that aims to mitigate spread but not prevent infection entirely, as widespread immunity and treatments reduce the risk of severe illness, they added.

However, the CDC guidelines will not spur a rapid shift back to in-person work, or even any shift at all, since public health concerns no longer make up the primary reason behind remote work, economists told ABC News. Rather, the widely held preference among employees for some degree of remote work — combined with the leverage afforded to workers as employers struggle to fill openings — should preserve the current level of remote work, the economists added.

“Even as COVID recedes as a reason for all these work arrangements, they’ve now developed a momentum of their own,” Julia Pollak, a labor economist for job site ZipRecruiter, told ABC News. “It’s difficult to put the genie back in the bottle.”

In recent months, the U.S. economy has reached a stable level of roughly 30% of all paid working days done from home, said Jose Maria Barrero, a finance professor at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, a private university in Mexico City, who co-authors a regular survey on remote work. When limited to jobs for which it is possible to work from home, such as managerial-style roles, the proportion of paid working days done at home rises to between 50% and 60%, he added.

Early in the pandemic, employees wanted to work remotely far more than businesses wanted to accommodate them, Barrero said. Over time, however, that gap has narrowed considerably, in part because companies have conceded to the preferences of workers, who retain significant leverage in a tight labor market. In light of how stable the level of at-home work has become, even if economic or public health conditions change, the proportion of workdays done in-person will likely remain consistent, he said.

“We’re actually pretty close to what the post-pandemic normal is going to be,” Barrero said.

That view of a permanent remote workplace contradicted the newfound ease for employers under the recently released guidelines. However, the outlook aligned with the reaction to the guidelines voiced by several epidemiologists, who said the new rules reflect a shift toward living with covid as a permanent feature of everyday life, much like remote work.

The removal of quarantine for unvaccinated people upon exposure, for instance, shows a willingness to accept that people have largely given up stringent limits in the activity of their personal lives, Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told ABC News.

“This is much more real-world guidance,” he said. “Because people live in a certain way outside of work, that means exposures are ubiquitous.”

Meanwhile, workplaces benefit from the widespread immunity that has resulted from vaccine uptake or contraction of covid, said Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Plus, remedies like vaccine boosters and treatments limit the likelihood of severe illness in the event of an infection, she added.

“There is a major shift in how people consider Covid-19, and getting infected with this virus,” El-Sadr told ABC News. “The shift has been happening slowly and this solidifies that shift to a different frame of mind.”

Still, the relaxation of workplace precautions like testing of asymptomatic people risks making businesses vulnerable to outbreaks, especially if the U.S. experiences another surge in cases, said Julia Raifman, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health.

“Each of the tools we have are important — none of them are sufficient on their own to mitigate the harms of covid,” she said. “We need all of them.”

In either case, the ranks of those working at the office are not likely to grow anytime soon, said Barrero, the Mexico City-based economist.

“The question of return to work is much bigger than the pandemic, infections, and COVID at this point,” he said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott doubles down on busing migrants to NYC amid feud with Mayor Eric Adams

August 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defended sending buses of migrants from the Texas-Mexico border to Democrat-led cities amid a feud with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who accused Abbott of using migrants as “political pawns” amid a crisis on the southern border.

Abbott and Adams spoke with “Nightline” co-anchor Byron Pitts in interviews that aired on Wednesday, where Adams criticized the Republican governor for not coordinating the arrivals of migrants with NYC officials and Abbott doubled down on his policy to bus migrants out of Texas.

“We’ve got to secure our border because the Biden administration is not securing it,” Abbott said. “And then the reason why we began putting people on buses in the first place is because the Biden administration, they were literally dumping migrants off in small little towns of 10 or 25,000 people, and they were completely overwhelmed.”

Meanwhile, Adams criticized Abbott for not coordinating with NYC officials as buses of migrants arrived over the past two weeks.

“It’s the worst type of politics,” Adams said. “It’s hateful politics to raise his national profile and, you know what, you should not be doing it by taking away the respect and dignity of people who are in need.”

According to Adams, more than 6,000 migrants seeking asylum have arrived in NYC since May – many of whom were sent there due to Abbott’s busing policy.

Adams said during a June 21 press conference that the city will find shelter for migrants arriving from Texas under the state’s “right to shelter” law.

But as thousands of asylum seekers arrived in New York City over the past couple of months, the shelter system has been strained and city officials acknowledged that the NYC Department of Social Services violated New York City’s right to shelter mandate when it failed to place four families in shelters overnight.

Asked about Adams’ accusation that the policy to move migrants to New York City is political showmanship and “un-American,” Abbott accused Adams of “playing politics” and called him a “hypocrite.”

“He’s also being a hypocrite because New York City is a self-declared ‘sanctuary city,’” Abbott said. “And so why he’s ever complaining for one moment about these people being bused into a city goes against his own self-declaration of being a sanctuary city.” The term “sanctuary city” refers to municipalities like New York City that are willing to defy federal immigration laws in order to protect undocumented immigrants.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has requested help from the National Guard to deal with the crisis.

A defense official told ABC News in a statement on Aug. 5 that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin “has declined to approve the DCHSEMA request for DCNG to provide personnel and the DC Armory to assist the NGO, SAMU First Response, with transportation and reception of migrants arriving in the DC area.”

“We have determined providing this support would negatively impact the readiness of the DCNG and have negative effects on the organization and members,” the official said, adding that there is sufficient funding through FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program to address the crisis.

But Bowser renewed her call for help from the National Guard later that week.

“We need help from our federal partners as we seek to stabilize and manage our operating environment in this critical moment,” Bowser tweeted on Aug. 11. “I have been honored to work with the men and women of the DC National Guard many times and today we renewed our request for their assistance.”

Asked if he may also request help from the National Guard, Adams said, “We’re going to do everything that’s possible at this time.”

“We believe that we can continue to carry out our moral and legal responsibility,” he added. “We are calling on Washington. It is Washington’s purpose to assist the states and cities during these difficult times. So we are looking for help from Washington, D.C.”

Adams urged Abbott to coordinate with NYC officials as buses continue to arrive in the city.

Asked if he had spoken directly with Abbott, Adams said, “no, I have not.”

“He should have picked the phone up, and we should communicate because, as I stated, this is a crisis,” Adams said.

Pressed on whether he would work with Adams to coordinate migrant arrivals, Abbott said that he previously sent Adams a letter and urged him to visit Texas to witness the “chaos” of the migrant crisis in the state firsthand, but Adams did not take him up on the offer.

“Before we began busing illegal immigrants up to New York, it was just Texas and Arizona that bore the brunt of all of the chaos and all the problems that come with it. Now, the rest of America is understanding exactly what is going on,” Abbott said.

The feud between Adams and Abbott comes amid a heated policy battle between the Republican governor, who is currently seeking reelection, and the Biden administration over a surge of migrant arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border.

ABC News’ Armando Garcia, Beatrice Peterson, Luis Martinez and Kyla Guilfoil contributed to this report.

Music notes: Meghan Trainor, Ed Sheeran, Madonna and Nick Jonas

August 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Meghan Trainor teased her new single “Don’t I Make It Look Easy” on her Instagram Story. The doo-wop song is about how she fakes a picture-perfect life on social media. “You won’t ever see me cry/ ‘Cause I got a filter for every single line/ Don’t I make it look easy, baby?” she sings in the feisty track.

Proud Pokémon fan Ed Sheeran is cheering on those competing in the Pokémon World Championships in London. He shared a video to Instagram to tell those who have traveled across the globe for a shot at glory to have fun, and that he and his trusty Squirtle — his favorite Pokémon character — is rooting for them.

Madonna isn’t done celebrating her 64th birthday and invited all six of her children to party with her in Sicily. The “Vogue” singer shared a myriad of photos to her Instagram, revealing she threw a surrealism-themed bash that saw attendees donning gold masks and lavish accessories.

Nick Jonas will headline City of Hope’s Orange County’s Hope Gala on September 10. The gala will raise funds to help develop new cancer treatments. “As someone whose family has been impacted by cancer, I am honored to lend my voice to the important cause,” he said in a statement. His father, Kevin Jonas Sr., was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2017 and is in remission.

Music notes: Nick Jonas, Meghan Trainor, Selena Gomez and Ed Sheeran

August 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Nick Jonas will headline City of Hope Orange County’s Hope Gala on September 10. The gala will raise funds to help develop new cancer treatments. “As someone whose family has been impacted by cancer, I am honored to lend my voice to the important cause,” he said in a statement. His father, Kevin Jonas Sr., was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2017 and is in remission.

Selena Gomez was seen with Kylie Jenner‘s ex-boyfriend Tyga and fans are going nuts. TMZ said the two were spotted at The Nice Guy in West Hollywood, but a source insists the two are not dating. Apparently they were with different groups of people, but they all wound up hanging out in the end.

Young Thug and Gunna engage in first conversation since RICO arrests

August 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Young Thug and Gunna briefly caught up with each other for the first time since being arrested in May. The two — who were taken into custody for violating Georgia’s RICO act — were finally able to chat during a virtual court hearing on Thursday. A clip of their exchange has been shared on social media.

“Hey Wunna, you good?” Thug asked, to which Gunna responded, “Yeah, I’m good. You good?” Thugger then appeared to poke fun at Gunna’s weight loss, teasing, “You lost a little bit about that now.” The conversation came to an end soon after, as court officials noted the rappers hadn’t turned off their mics after the hearing.

Young Thug, Gunna and other members of Thug’s Young Stoner Life group are accused of being a violent street gang responsible for murders, armed robbery and other violent crimes. Gunna is believed to have a command role in the group, which prosecutors say Thug co-founded in 2012. Both rappers have been denied bond multiple times, with Thug receiving another rejection Thursday.

Chris Brown says his meet and greets “set the tone” for how artists should treat their fans

August 18, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(Note Language) Chris Brown is taking pride in his intimate meet-and-greet sessions, as he believes they’ve changed artist-fan interactions for the better. Taking to his Instagram Story, he credited himself for moving artists to care more about their supporters.

“I’m happy that my meet and greets are starting to inspire artists to actually give a f*** about their fans,” Brown wrote. He acknowledged that he “didn’t invent the wheel or meet and greets” but boldly claimed he “damn sure set the tone.”

Chris has been on the road for his One of Them Ones tour, where he’s been making memorable moments with those who paid roughly $1,000 for his VIP packages. Viral photos have shown him hugging and posing in whatever way his fans choose.

“I have the coolest fans on the planet…I appreciate the f*** outta them,” Chris previously said of his pictures. “These are memories that will last with them forever. Unlike most of these lame-a** artists that won’t make eye contact with the people who made it possible to even have a career. I only exist because these fans saw something in me I never thought was possible… So Ima go all out for my fans!!!”

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