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(WASHINGTON) — Americans will likely have one more COVID-19 vaccine to choose from after the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday.
The two-shot vaccine was authorized for use in people 18 years and older.
Novavax is the fourth COVID-19 vaccine to receive emergency use authorization in the U.S. by the FDA. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now expected to review data on the vaccine before providing its recommendation for authorization.
“Authorizing an additional COVID-19 vaccine expands the available vaccine options for the prevention of COVID-19, including the most severe outcomes that can occur such as hospitalization and death,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert M. Califf said in a statement on Wednesday. “Today’s authorization offers adults in the United States who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine another option that meets the FDA’s rigorous standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization.”
The FDA said it had determined that the Novavax vaccine met the criteria for authorization, and that the data showed that the potential benefits of the vaccine outweighed any potential risks.
“The American public can trust that this vaccine, like all vaccines that are used in the United States, has undergone the FDA’s rigorous and comprehensive scientific and regulatory review,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
Some health experts have suggested that some hesitant Americans may be more inclined to get the Novavax vaccine, as it is based on a more traditional protein-based technology, one already used for the flu vaccine and other shots, while Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine platforms use more modern genetic technology.
The company applauded the agency’s decision to authorize the vaccine for emergency use.
“Today’s FDA emergency use authorization of our COVID-19 vaccine provides the U.S. with access to the first protein-based COVID-19 vaccine,” Stanley C. Erck, president and chief executive officer of Novavax, said in a statement. “This authorization reflects the strength of our COVID-19 vaccine’s efficacy and safety data, and it underscores the critical need to offer another vaccine option for the U.S. population while the pandemic continues.”
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that the Biden administration had secured 3.2 million doses of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine will be made available for free to U.S. states and jurisdictions.
If the CDC signs off on use of the vaccine, the shots could be made available shortly thereafter.
To date, approximately two-thirds of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to federal data. However, more than 26.5 million American adults remain completely unvaccinated.
(NEW YORK) — For the first time since May, COVID-19-related hospital admissions are forecasted to increase again in the U.S., as highly infectious omicron subvariants continue to spread, according to updated forecasting models used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The models show that nearly 40 states and territories are currently projected to see increases in new hospitalizations over the next two weeks. States in the South, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, are expected to see the greatest increases in hospitalizations.
Nationally, between 3,200 to 13,800 daily confirmed COVID-19 hospital admissions are expected to be reported on Aug. 5. As of Wednesday, the U.S. is reporting nearly 5,800 virus-related hospital admissions each day, according to the CDC.
Hospitalization levels have already been increasing, with nearly 40,000 virus-positive Americans currently hospitalized, according to federal data. Totals are more than double the level they were at this time last summer, when the delta surge was beginning to emerge, and a growing number of COVID-19 positive people are also showing up to emergency departments, data shows.
In the South, where many states are forecasted to see notable increases, hospital admissions have risen by more than 20% in the last week.
Although the overall total remains significantly lower than at the nation’s peak, when more than 160,000 patients were hospitalized with the virus, hospitalizations are still at their highest point since early March.
The forecast also predicts that virus-related deaths will have either a stable or an uncertain trend in the next four weeks.
Even so, more than 5,700 deaths are still expected to occur nationally over the next two weeks. Texas, Oklahoma and California are projected to see the largest death tolls in the weeks to come.
“Deaths are still around 300, but hospitalizations are ticking up. This is something you don’t want to panic about, but we really need to pay attention to it because there are things that we can do to blunt that,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, a senior adviser to the president on the pandemic, told CNN on Wednesday.
Fauci and other federal health officials have been raising the alarm about omicron subvariant BA.5, which they say has been causing a resurgence of infections.
The U.S. is currently reporting more than 118,000 new cases a day, marking the country’s highest daily infection average since mid-February.
Fauci said the current reported case total is likely a “gross underestimate” as the majority of Americans are testing with home kits and not reporting their results to their local jurisdictions.
BA.5 is now the dominant variant in the U.S, accounting for an estimated 65% of new cases in the country. Scientists say it does appear to have a transmission advantage over the original omicron strain, although they do not believe it is more severe than prior strains.
“[BA.5] is certainly the most immune evasive. What we’re seeing is people who were previously infected getting reinfected at high rates, people who were vaccinated last year having a ton of breakthrough infections. It’s something we’re paying a lot of attention to,” White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America Wednesday.
However, Jha said the vaccines and boosters are still helping blunt the impact of severe disease.
Khloé Kardashian is expecting a second child via a surrogate, her representative confirmed Wednesday.
“We can confirm True will have a sibling who was conceived in November,” the representative said. “Khloé is incredibly grateful to the extraordinary surrogate for such a beautiful blessing.”
The timing means her second child was conceived before her now-ex, NBA star Tristan Thompson, revealed in December 2021 that he had fathered a child with another woman.
Their daughter, True Thompson, was born in 2018.
The reality TV star, 38, has been open about her fertility journey with her on-again, off-again boyfriend.
“[My doctor] said that I would be, like, a high-risk carrier for a pregnancy,” she said in a clip from Keeping Up with the Kardashians in March 2021. “I’m not gonna get into specifics on camera, but they said it’s an 80-something percent chance I’ll miscarry.”
Kardashian said her doctor warned her that she most likely wouldn’t be able to carry a fertilized embryo.
Her sister, Kim Kardashian, has been vocal about using a surrogate as well. Her third and fourth children were born via a surrogate, after she suffered from placenta accreta during her previous two deliveries.
(NEW YORK) — The richest person in the world said he wanted to own one of the most popular social media platforms — until he said he didn’t.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday moved to terminate his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. In response, Twitter sued Musk on Tuesday to force him to complete the deal.
The standoff marks the latest chapter in a monthslong saga that began in January when Musk started investing in Twitter.
Musk reached an acquisition deal with Twitter in April, but over the weeks since, he has raised concerns over spam accounts on the platform, claiming Twitter has not provided him with an accurate estimate of their number. Twitter has rebuked that claim, saying it has provided Musk with information in accordance with conditions set out in the acquisition deal.
In May, when Musk said the deal was on “temporary hold” over bot concerns, Dan Ives, a managing director of equity research at Wedbush, an investment firm, told ABC News the grievance could serve as a pretext for Musk to renegotiate or abandon the deal amid a market downturn that had proven especially pronounced for tech stocks.
Over the course of the saga, Musk has been cast as a suitor, critic and now legal adversary of Twitter, where he boasts more than 100 million followers. Below is a timeline of Musk’s bid to acquire the social media platform.
Late January – Musk begins investing in Twitter, according to information filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in April.
March 14 – Musk’s stake in Twitter reaches 9.2%, making him the largest shareholder in the company, according to a securities filing.
April 4 – In a securities filing, Musk discloses his stake in Twitter. Based on the price of Twitter shares at close of the previous trading day, his stake was worth $2.89 billion. Twitter shares rise more than 27% on the announcement.
April 5 – Twitter announces Musk will join the company’s board of directors.
“He’s both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need on @Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said on the platform. “Welcome Elon!”
April 10 – Musk says he will not join the Twitter board after all.
“There will be distractions ahead but our goals and priorities remain unchanged,” Agrawal said in a statement announcing Musk’s choice. “The decisions we make and how we make them remain in our hands, no one else’s.”
April 14 – Musk offers to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share, valuing the company at about $43 billion, according to a securities filing. The offer amounts to a 38% premium above where the price stood a day before Musk’s investment in Twitter became public.
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
April 15 – Twitter adopts a poison pill provision to prevent the Musk acquisition. A poison pill allows current stockholders to purchase additional shares at a discounted price, diluting the shares owned by Musk and making it more expensive for him to buy the company. In an announcement, Twitter said the poison pill will be triggered if any individual or entity acquires at least 15% of the company’s shares.
April 21 – Musk says in a securities filing that he has garnered commitments of about $46.5 billion in financing for a possible Twitter acquisition.
April 25 – Twitter accepts Musk’s offer to acquire the company and values the deal at $44 billion, according to an announcement from the company.
MORE: Twitter says it will sue Elon Musk to complete the $44B merger he just rejected and is “confident” it will prevail
April 29 – Over a three-day period after Musk and Twitter reach a deal, and he sells about $8.5 billion worth in Tesla stock to help finance the bid.
May 4 – Musk secures more than $7 billion in financing for the deal, including commitments from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and cryptocurrency exchange Binance, according to a securities filing.
May 6 – In a pitch deck for investors, Musk says he will quintuple Twitter’s revenue by 2028, increasing annual earnings to $26.4 billion, the New York Times reports.
May 10 – Musk says he would reverse Twitter’s ban of the account that belongs to former President Donald Trump. The remarks from Musk were made virtually at an auto conference.
May 12 – Twitter announces a temporary hiring freeze, pending Musk’s acquisition; and two top executives leave the company.
May 13 – Musk tweets that the Twitter deal is “temporarily on hold,” citing concern over what he says is the prevalence of bot and spam accounts on the platform.
Along with his tweet, Musk posts a Reuters report about a public filing from Twitter earlier in May that said fake accounts made up less than 5% of users on the platform. Apparently skeptical of the finding, Musk says he wants “details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”
Roughly two hours later, Musk says he’s “still committed” to the deal.
At the time, market analysts told ABC News the worry over fake accounts could serve as a pretext for Musk to bargain a lower price for the acquisition or abandon the effort altogether.
May 26 – Twitter shareholders bring a class-action lawsuit against Musk over alleged stock manipulation tied to the tumultuous acquisition process. At the time, Twitter’s stock had fallen more than 12% since Musk announced his bid.
June 6 – Musk threatens to pull out of the deal if Twitter doesn’t provide additional information about the prevalence of bots on its platform. In a statement, Twitter said it had been sharing information with Musk “in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement.”
July 8 – Musk moves to terminate his acquisition of Twitter, pointing to the issue of fake accounts.
“Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to ‘make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform'” and did not receive it, a securities filing said.
In an email on disclosed in a securities filing on Sunday, an attorney representing Twitter rejected Musk’s effort to abandon the acquisition. “The purported termination is invalid,” the attorney wrote, arguing that Musk had “knowingly, intentionally, willfully, and materially breached the Agreement.”
“As it has done, Twitter will continue to provide information reasonably requested by Mr. Musk under the Agreement,” the attorneys added.
July 12 – Twitter sues Musk in Chancery Court in Delaware to force him to complete the deal.
“Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests,” Twitter said in the lawsuit. “Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.”
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
If permitted to abandon the deal, Musk may be forced to pay a $1 billion termination fee.
Shares in Twitter were up more than 7% in early trading on Wednesday morning.
(NEW YORK) — Popular social media platform TikTok on Wednesday announced plans for a rating system aimed at protecting young users from inappropriate content.
The move comes after sharp criticism from lawmakers and advocates in recent months over the prevalence of harmful posts on the app, especially those that appear in the feeds of young users.
The rating system, called “Content Levels,” will categorize videos based on the age-appropriateness of their material, preventing users under 18 from seeing certain content deemed mature, the company said. The system will be launched in the coming weeks and operate like similar approaches in the film and gaming industries, TikTok added.
“We want to play a positive role in the lives of the people who use our app, and we’re committed to fostering an environment where people can express themselves on a variety of topics, while also protecting against potentially challenging or triggering viewing experiences,” the company said.
In February, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, both Democrats, sent a letter to TikTok saying its “algorithm of ‘nonstop stream of videos’ increases the likelihood that viewers will encounter harmful content even without seeking it out.”
The letter followed an investigation from The Wall Street Journal in December that found the platform surfaced tens of thousands of weight loss videos to a dozen automated accounts registered as 13 year olds within a few weeks of their joining the app.
Since last year, TikTok has been testing solutions that prevent users from seeing a flood of content focused on sensitive topics like dieting and sadness, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. In addition to the ratings system, the company is readying to launch a feature that will recognize and limit such sensitive topics from appearing in a user’s feed, it said.
In general, scrutiny over the harmful effects of content on social media, especially for young people, has intensified since leaks from whistleblower Frances Haugen last year revealed that an internal Facebook study had shown damaging mental health effects of Instagram for teen girls.
In September, Facebook suspended plans to offer a version of Instagram for kids.
The following month, officials from Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube told lawmakers they would work with them on proposals to help protect young users from harmful content on their platforms.
A bipartisan Senate bill introduced in February aims to tackle the harmful effects of social media for young people through a variety of measures, including mandatory privacy options that would allow users to disable addictive features and a tool for parents to track time spent on apps. So far, eight senators have signed on in support of the legislation.
A separate bipartisan Senate bill would fund a study of the effects of social media. Six senators have formally supported the bill.
(LOS ANGELES) — Gavin Newsom has never been afraid to throw an elbow.
During the surge of the COVID-19 delta variant, California’s Democratic governor sat on the glossy sound stage of The Late Late Show with James Corden, surrounded by Christmas lights, and slammed Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis over what Newsom called his lax coronavirus policies.
“California’s example versus Florida? It’s not even close in terms out of the outcome if you care about life, and you care about the economy,” Newsom told Corden, adding later that “clearly” DeSantis was running for president to scoop up the Trump-aligned Republican vote, pointing to DeSantis’ policies as a “litmus test” to win attention from conservative-aligned news networks.
His criticism of DeSantis is one of many made over the course of the pandemic, but Newsom’s recent $105,000 advertising buy that ran in Florida, certainly an unusual move for a politician who is running a reelection campaign of his own, has spun the question of presidential aspirations toward Newsom.
During an interview with ABC News’ Zohreen Shah prior to the ad placement, Newsom, 54, insisted he had no White House ambitions, although several unaffiliated California-based political advisers told ABC News that claim doesn’t totally hold water, and the ad campaign was a foolproof way to elevate his profile and test public appetite as President Joe Biden’s stock with Democrats continues to dive.
On Wednesday while in Washington to accept an award on education, Newsom told reporters he emphatically supported a Biden reelection bid.
Still, during his remarks, he continued to speak out on national issues, criticizing what he called Republican efforts to regulate topics in the classroom: “I don’t want to sugarcoat it. Education is under assault … And we have an obligation, moral and ethical obligation, to call out what’s going on as it relates to the suppression of free speech,” he said.
Picking a fight across state lines is “very vintage” Newsom, consistent with his appetite to be a part of the national conversation in elevating California above other states, said Jessica Levinson, a California-based legal expert and former president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission.
“He’s always talking about California as a nation-state. And I think he fancies himself the executive of a nation-state in some ways. And he really wants to put a stake in the ground and say California is different and better and therefore, I am different and better,” said Levinson.
His vision of his state as a shining “city on a hill” is clear from his Florida ad, in which he urges residents of the Sunshine State to “join the fight” against Republican leaders or “join us in California, where we still believe in freedom,” a clear knock at DeSantis’ “free state of Florida” mantra.
Levinson said Newsom has a penchant for wanting to be a beat ahead, almost defiant, of national Democrats on key issues, as when he began issuing same-sex marriage licenses as mayor of San Fransisco in 2004 to the chagrin of conservatives, and testing the waters with a high-profile attack on DeSantis is part of that calculus.
“And if that means my political career ends, so be it,” Newsom said nearly a decade ago.
But that defiance propelled him to the governor’s mansion, and now, possibly, if the tide shifts in his direction, toward the White House.
The idea that Newsom wouldn’t run for president is “total bull—,” said Levinson, who explained that he likely sees himself as the kind of lawmaker who could “fill a leadership vacuum” if given the opportunity.
And members of Newsom’s party may be looking for candidates to fill that vacuum as well. New polling from The New York Times/Siena College shows that nearly three-quarters of the Democratic party want a new nominee at the top of the ticket. Even more bleak for the White House, 94% of Democrats under 30 said they’d prefer a fresh face.
Dan Schnur, a veteran strategist in California who worked on Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid and former Gov. Pete Wilson’s team, told ABC News that Newsom’s toe-dip into the national news-cycle is great political posturing, given the uncertainty of the Democratic leadership.
“Whether Newsom runs in two years, or in 2028, he’s now a part of that conversation. If Biden, 79, decides not to run again, Newsom is ready to pounce. And if Biden does run for reelection, Newsom certainly can lay the groundwork for four years after that,” Schnur said.
Biden has made it clear he intends to run for reelection with Vice President Kamala Harris by his side, but slipping approval numbers and concerns over age and health are determinate factors that, coupled from pressure from within his own party, could force him to reconsider.
Some of that pressure has come from Newsom himself. A day after Politico reported the contents of a leaked Supreme Court draft that would overturn Roe, Newsom slammed Democrats for not taking decisive action to codify access to abortion with a biting exclamation: “Where the hell is my party? Where’s the Democratic Party?”
“Why aren’t we standing up more firmly, more resolutely?,” Newsom questioned. “Why aren’t we calling this out? “This is a concerted, coordinated effort and yes, they’re winning. They are, they have been … We need to stand up, where is the counter offensive?”
And casting himself as a hero is what Newsom does best, said Rob Stutzman, a Republican strategist who worked for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“Where Newsom thrives is when he’s able to be in contrast to a Republican that he can lead a progressive coalition against,” said Stutzman. “He’s going to go after the guy he perceives as the Republican frontrunner.”
Stutzman pointed out that national focus will once again be on states and governors partly due to decisions handed down by the Supreme Court on guns and abortion access. He pointed to the spotlight of Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, too, who is lauded for his response to the deadly July 4 Highland Park shooting outside Chicago.
On Tuesday, weeks after the shooting, Florida Democrats announced Pritzker will keynote the state’s leadership gala this weekend. Biden was the keynote speaker at the same event in 2017.
Stutzman says another theory floating around California is that Newsom may also be laying the groundwork to succeed veteran Democratic Sen. Diane Feinstein, who is 88-years-old. She’s yet to formally announce she’s retiring, and has chided suggestions that her age limits her performance in any way.
It’s likely that Newsom’s team would have placed the ad in Florida regardless of Biden’s standing, said Schnur, “but the fact that so many Democrats are disappointed that Biden wouldn’t be combative right now just makes it even better for Newsom.”
“This is the best hundred thousand dollars a California politician has ever spent,” said Schnur.
In this way, experts agreed, Newsom is able to occupy a space in the Democratic party that puts him in contrast to those in Washington who are seen as slow, ineffective, but positions him in a less-radical space than Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
As Newsom is expected to win his bid for reelection after beating back a recall attempt, there’s little to keep Newsom from leaving the state to campaign for other Democrats outside of California as DeSantis has done for down-ballot Republicans.
Seen from every angle, Newsom’s strategy here would appear to be a winning one, and allows him to keep all potential political options on the table.
“If he’s going to lock horns with DeSantis all of a sudden, is this a preview [for the 2024 election?,” said Stutzman. “If this was a Week One NFL game, is this a preview of the Super Bowl? People can imagine it. It’s plausible.”
Michael Mulvey for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The Washington metropolitan region is home to a number of basketball greats, including NBA star Kevin Durant and the late NCAA legend Len Bias.
Among them is Delonte West, a former college basketball third team All-American who was the 24th overall pick by the Boston Celtics in the 2004 NBA draft.
West played eight seasons in the NBA alongside names like Paul Pierce and Dirk Nowitzki with his final stint at the point guard position for the Dallas Mavericks in 2012.
“Basketball you know, for some it is just something to do. For me, it [was] a lifestyle growing up in the DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia region),” West told ABC News in April, in a rare interview.
Though West shined on the court, he suffered in silence. Despite clutch jumpshots and game-winning alley-oops, West was struggling mentally under the pressure to succeed, and any game-time highs were paired with personal lows.
Starting in 2013, West was acquired by the Texas Legends, part of the “minor league” NBA D-League (now known as the G League). He played with the team for the better part of the year before signing a 1-year deal with the Fujian Sturgeons in the Chinese Basketball Association. From there, he bounced around the international scene, heading back to the Texas Legends in 2015, before ultimately being waived in April that year.
Despite the constant back and forth, he said the game kept him going.
“Living a life of mental illness, they call it — I like to say mental superpowers — you know, basketball was always my escape.”
West was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2008.
Bipolar disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, is a mental disorder that causes “unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, concentration, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.”
An estimated 2.3 million Americans have bipolar disorder, and it affects people of all races. According to 2018 research available on the National Institutes of Health website, “people of African ancestry with bipolar disorder (either type I or II) have higher rates of misdiagnosis in comparison to people of non‐African ancestry with bipolar disorder.”
“It’s definitely been a spiritual journey you know, dealing with being bipolar,” said West. “A missed shot or lost game, it can turn it into a spiraling snowballing depression type of thing where, you know, to where it takes me hours or it took me hours just to leave the gym.”
West sought counseling and began taking medication but said the struggles between maintaining peace, calming his racing mind, and unleashing fury on the court were too tough to manage.
In 2012, the Mavericks suspended West twice, once for a reported locker room “outburst” and again for what the team’s president of operations, Don Nelson, called “conduct detrimental to the team.”
A series of off-court incidents accelerated his eventual exit from the game. A photo of West seen panhandling in Temple Hills, Maryland, went viral in 2016 leaving fans concerned, though West told the site Media TakeOut he had been helping an unhoused man in his neighborhood at the time, and was not homeless as some thought.
In 2020, photos of West reportedly panhandling made their way across social media. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban later picked him up at a Dallas gas station in an attempt to help get West back on his feet, according to ESPN, which confirmed the story with Cuban himself.
“Mr. Cuban, he’s been a guy in my life since I met him,” said West. “… He wanted me to be the best person I can be.”
“He’s been in my corner,” West added.
Cuban eventually helped reunite West with his mother and helped him financially, so West could focus on his family.
West has two children with wife Caressa Madden, whom he married in 2013.
“[Cuban] said, ‘hey, man, listen, I’m giving you a break away from the game,'” West said. “I’m going to handle your finances, you know, give you some time to raise these two babies.”
In 2020, West also entered a drug rehabilitation clinic with Cuban’s help.
“He said, ‘man the most important thing is that we get you feeling OK with yourself and being OK with life outside of basketball,’ because that’s the father my children need,” he said.
West was still hopeful that he might get back into basketball. In April, he was working out daily to prepare for Ice Cube’s Big3, a league made up of 12 teams of retired basketball players and international athletes, who play 3-on-3 games in an eight-week regular season. The league also hosts a playoff series and championship.
West had punched his ticket to the tournament at the D.C. open tryout, and eventually made it to the second round Las Vegas combine.
He went unselected.
“I was excited to have the opportunity,” West told TMZ Sports at the time. “I’ll be there next season. I’ll be there rooting guys on.”
Not every story has a fairytale ending, but West is still determined to make it meaningful.
Earlier this summer, he secured a freelance gig with ArmorGuard Coatings in Fredericksburg, Virginia, recently landing a flooring job at a Subaru dealership in the city.
“I told him that he can work with me full-time if he wanted but he told me he is still trying to do basketball,” ArmorGuard owner David Drake told ABC News.
So Drake offered West a solution that worked for both of them: When a job is available, and West is available, he can work for the company and still have the time to focus on basketball.
“I told him I’m just trying to help him and help myself,” Drake said. “I need a good worker and he’s a good worker.”
There’s a lot in the air for West right now, and he’s hopeful that things will start to fall into place soon.
His manager, Donovan Fordham, hopes so too.
“We’ve always known that Delonte’s journey back to a normal life, a place of inner peace and even a return to a basketball career would be one of constant challenges,” Fordham said in a statement to ABC News.
“But we both believe that, with the support of family, friends, former teammates and fans, he will overcome them and become the father, son, friend and teammate that we know he can be.”
Britney Spears scored a victory on Wednesday, with a court ruling that her father, Jamie Spears, must sit for a deposition in response to Britney’s accusations he hired a security firm that put his daughter under surveillance throughout her conservatorship, monitored her phone and bugged her bedroom to record her private conversations.
The ruling came Wednesday night, with Judge Brenda Penny ruling that Jamie must complete the deposition within the next 30 days, by August 12, in Los Angeles, Variety reports. He must also produce all documentation that is being requested by his daughter’s team.
The move favors the singer and indicates that the court believes it has reason to further inquire into shocking allegations, according to the outlet.
Still under consideration after Wednesday’s hearing is whether the “Toxic” singer will be deposed by her father’s team.
After first issuing a temporary order to deny Jamie Spears’ motion to depose his daughter, the judge decided to continue the motion, asking attorneys on both sides to present their arguments to the court on why the singer should or should not sit for a deposition, ahead of the July 27 hearing.
(NEW YORK) — A family alleges American Airlines tried to force them to pay roughly $30,000 to change their itinerary after the airline switched the family’s return ticket to leave from an airport in another country, according to a complaint filed by the family with the Department of Transportation and American Airlines.
Sam Taussig also claims his family was forced to charter a plane at their own expense to another island in order to return to the United States on American Airlines.
American involuntarily changed the family’s flights multiple times over the course of several months after the family purchased their tickets in January for their summer vacation, Taussig said. It wasn’t until July 4 when Taussig said he wanted to ensure his family was sitting together for their upcoming trip that he noticed not only was the family not together, but their flight was leaving from St. Lucia instead of Saint Vincent. There are no scheduled flights or ferries between St. Lucia and Saint Vincent.
“I called American Airlines thinking this must be some sort of clerical error and spent nearly three hours with the American Airlines customer service teams learning that I have, in fact, been bumped and seven of the nine family members were bumped to another flight departing from a different country at a different airport because of an oversold situation,” Taussig said in an exclusive interview with ABC News.
Taussig said he did receive an email from the airline that there had been a change to his flight, but he said the airport change notification was in tiny, fine print.
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“American Airlines was not very apologetic at all. They blamed me, the customer, for not catching this sooner,” Taussig said. “American Airlines offered a couple of different, I think, absolutely insane solutions where they said, well, we’ll have to split up part of your family and put most of you on a flight a week later, if not longer. And to do that, we’re going to charge you change fees, reissuing fees, certain other fees, which were not clear to me, and new fares, which totaled about $30,000 to get all of us back. And we’d be stuck on the island for a week with no offer of compensation for hotels or meal vouchers or anything like that.”
The airline ultimately found a flight leaving a day later from Barbados and asked him to pay thousands in fees, he said. Taussig said he refused to pay the fees, but was forced to book a private charter flight to get his family to Barbados.
“We researched a private charter to get us to a third country, Barbados, where American Airlines might be able to get us out the next day from our original departure day, where they then told us that it would be $3,000 in change fees to make that happen. And [American told us] we should be so lucky because this whole situation was putting the company out $3,000, even though they originally bumped us for an overbooking situation. So all in all, where we are today is out a couple of thousand dollars. On our dime, we’re flying to yet a different country to meet American Airlines to get back to the U.S.,” Taussig said.
In a statement to ABC News, American Airlines said: “We are concerned by the experience our customer is reporting. A member of our team has reached out to discuss their travel.”
“In this situation, there was obviously a significant change by the airline and the person could get an involuntary refund. And if they could construe it as being bumped, which is a little unclear, then they would also be entitled to bump in compensation. Now, in the United States, that means if it’s one to four hours, you get 200% of the one-way fare up to $775. If it’s all or four hours difference in delay from the original flight, you can get 400% of the one-way fare up to a maximum of $1,550,” Paul Hudson, president of Flyers Rights, a nonprofit dedicated to advocating for airline customers, told ABC News.
Taussig says he’s grateful he discovered this error before the family plans to leave for their vacation later this week, and says American Airlines still has not provided any compensation.
Taussig said he hopes his story fosters change at the airline and serves as a warning to other travelers.
“I hope American Airlines uses this as an opportunity to learn about the inefficiencies and arbitrary decisions that are just crazy for passengers and how their customer service agents either can’t or are unwilling to solve this situation. I hope American learns from this,” Taussig said. “I tell fellow passengers, fellow travelers, really pay attention to those schedule changes. Try to invoke your rights for travel waivers. Call the airline to make sure that you are flying out of the correct place at the correct time, that you’ll make your connections and get to where you’re going or where you’re coming home to on time and all together.”
The Department of Transportation says consumer complaints against airlines are soaring, up more than 300% compared to pre-pandemic levels. DOT regulations say passengers are entitled to a full cash refund if an airline cancels or makes a significant change to a ticket.
(NEW YORK) — Amtrak has announced an extreme heat warning for the Northeast region, signaling that trains running between New York and Philadelphia might experience delays.
“This is a typical protocol for warm summer months,” a spokesperson for Amtrak told ABC News.
High temperatures cause the rails and overhead wires to expand. The service is affected because the trains have to travel at lower speeds to avoid accidents.
A rail temperature of 131 degrees Fahrenheit, for example, requires the train to slow down to 100 mph or less, where an Amtrak train would usually travel between 125 and 150 mph.
With extreme heat also comes the risk of rails warping, which can cause train derailments, rolling black outs and subsequent service disruptions, according to Nick Bassill, a meteorologist at the University of Albany who regularly works with state governments and utility companies.
A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation wrote in an email to ABC News that “one issue that receives attention during summertime is ‘sun kink’ which is a track buckling condition that can occur during extended periods of extremely high temperatures where continuous welded rail is in use.”
A train derailment in the San Francisco bay area this May was due to “a rapid increase in ambient temperatures,” according to local transit authorities.
During the record-breaking heatwave in the Pacific Northwest last summer, in which temperatures reached 115°F, roads buckled and power cables melted. Amtrak announced delays in service during that period.
A 2019 article in the publication Transport Policy estimated that delays in the U.S. rail network due to temperature could cost between $20 and $60 billion by 2100.
Paul Chinowsky, professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, laid out three possible solutions in an interview with ABC News.
The first is upgrading the rails to be more temperature resistant, which Chinowsky said is already being enacted in Great Britain and France. In this case, the steel mix is changed to be less brittle, said Chinowsky.
The obstacle is that the United States has over 140,000 miles of rails, compared to 10,000 miles in the U.K. and 18,000 in France.
“We have started that a little bit, but not nearly at the rate that’s keeping up with the rising temperatures,” said Chinowsky.
Another option, which is already being implemented in the U.S., is a system of heat sensors which provide localized information about when and where trains need to slow down.
It enables a “more accurate analysis,” Chinowsky said, so that the train slowing could be targeted for a set number of miles and hours.
That way, “you don’t have to shut down the whole Northeast corridor,” he said.
A final opinion Chinowsky mentioned was planting trees, or using some other natural solution, to create shade. This could be implemented around train stations, Chinowsky said, although this planning is “still in the very early stage.”
“We’re not even in the worst part of the summer yet,” said Chinowsky. “So we’ll keep seeing [delays]. It’s going to get worse as we go along.”
