Almost 50 years after beginning his professional music career, founding Toto keyboardist/singer/songwriter David Paich has released his debut solo EP, Forgotten Toys.
Paich co-produced the seven-track collection with longtime Toto frontman Joseph Williams, who also co-wrote and sang on three tunes, while founding Toto guitarist Steve Lukather contributed to multiple songs as well. David also enlisted a variety of other well-known musicians for the project, including Michael McDonald, ex-Eagles guitarist Don Felder, Brian Eno, Elton John guitarist Davey Johnstone, Ray Parker Jr. and Rolling Stones touring drummer Steve Jordan.
Paich tells ABC Audio that he’s “excited” about releasing Forgotten Toys, which he describes as a “collection of little gems.”
“I’m giddy and have butterflies, like I did…when we released the first Toto album,” David says. “I think it’s fresh. It’s new for me…I have my fingers crossed that people will enjoy it out there as much as I enjoyed making it.”
He adds, “[T]he reward…was the actual making of the record, with the players that I made it with. And it was so much fun and so inspiring.”
Paich notes that doing the EP outside of Toto gave him the chance to collaborate with “other musicians who have been family and friends for such a long time…[but] that I normally wouldn’t work with.”
For example, the track “Queen Charade” features Felder on slide guitar and Jordan on drums, with additional guitar from Lukather.
David says the tune, which he calls “my rock ‘n’ roll song,” was influenced by The Stones, noting, “It’s a little more reckless than Toto gets sometimes.”
(NEW YORK) — A new report is shining a spotlight on potential privacy concerns loopholes in apps that collect women’s personal health information following the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
Abortion is now nearly banned in at least 15 states as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision on June 24 to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe ruling — which legalized abortion at the federal level — and send the issue back to the states.
A report released Wednesday by the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization that advocates for online privacy, concluded that among 25 popular reproductive health apps, most apps were found to have very vague privacy policies surrounding how they will share data with law enforcement.
Eighteen of the products earned Mozilla’s label of “*Privacy Not Included” meaning users’ data may not be secure, and eight failed to meet the foundation’s “minimum security standards.”
Among the apps examined by Mozilla’s staff researchers were pregnancy apps, period trackers and wearables, all products that collect personal reproductive information like weight, birth plans, pregnancy journals and doctors’ appointments.
Only one app – Euki – was ranked in Mozilla’s “Best of” category. The app Natural Cycles earned a commendable mention by Mozilla.
Other wearables and apps that ranked near the top of Mozilla’s list include Garmin, Apple Watch, Whoop Strap 4, Oura Ring and Fitbit.
Caltrider said the privacy policies of the reproductive health apps researched were similar to the privacy policies of apps used for things like sharing recipes and photos.
“Anything that you share is no longer secure and that’s just an expectation that you should have if you share something with these apps and it’s not stored locally,” Jen Caltrider, a co-author of the report and the lead of Mozilla Foundation’s *Privacy Not Included online guide, told ABC News. “If the app collects information about your sexual activity, your sexual orientation, your moods, symptoms, pregnancy, your due date, any of it, just expect that that that information is no longer yours to control.”
Pregnancy and period-tracking apps have millions of users every month who utilize the technology to better understand and help control their reproductive health. The apps can tell you when to expect your next period, if you might be pregnant and how far along you are, when you are the most fertile for conceiving and what sorts of symptoms you usually experience.
Reproductive health apps’ ability to share data with law enforcement is of particular concern for women who live in states where abortion has been limited or banned, according to Caltrider.
“What we found was most companies had fairly vague statements, that it was hard to tell whether companies would voluntarily disclose data to law enforcement if they came asking,” said Caltrider. “Unfortunately there were a number of companies where we just couldn’t tell what their data sharing plans were, and that worries us.”
Leah Fowler, a research assistant professor at the University of Houston Law Center, told ABC News that consumers should not expect the health data they enter on apps to be protected in the same way it would be at a hospital or doctors’ office.
“When we think about data in a consumer context, it doesn’t have any of those special protections we tend to expect in other health contexts, like going to the doctor,” said Fowler, whose research focuses on health law and policy. “The information you might give an app when you’re playing Candy Crush or Angry Birds in many ways isn’t different than the type of data you’re giving an app in a health context, even if it feels particularly intimate and can become quite intimate when you’re talking about period and fertility trackers.”
Both Caltrider and Fowler said that period tracking, pregnancy and fertility apps can be smart, useful tools to use, as long as users do their own research.
“I think that each individual consumer has to do a cost-benefit analysis of how useful they find the product and the types of risks they may be exposed to depending on where they live,” said Fowler. “And I think that there are lots of products available that will allow them to use what are ultimately very useful, very popular tools without exposing them to as much risk. For example, one that might store data locally on your phone or that doesn’t participate in third-party data sharing.”
Consumers should be able to find an app’s privacy policy when they download the app on their phone, according to Caltrider.
She said to be wary of privacy policies that are either too short or too long, adding, “If companies can’t clearly articulate what data they’re collecting, how they’re using that data, who they’re sharing that with, it’s a flag.”
Both experts said another red flag warning is if a company uses the word “sell” or “share” in its privacy policy, meaning they can sell and share your information.
And if you go to download an app and can’t find the privacy policy, Caltrider said she would advise not downloading the app.
In addition, Caltrider said that apps made by companies based in Europe tend to have tighter privacy restrictions than do companies based in other locations, including the United States.
“I do encourage people to at least look and see if they have a privacy policy,” said Caltrider. “If you don’t want to read the whole thing, do a search and see if they have the word sell in there and talk about selling your data. See if they do targeted, interest-based advertising with third parties.”
She continued, “There are some little tells that will let users know oh, this company is treating my data more like a business asset and using it for purposes beyond just providing the service.”
Statements from companies
ABC News reached out to all of the companies listed in Mozilla’s report. Here are the responses we received.
Sprout
“It appears [the Mozilla Foundation] incorrectly stated the app does not have a Privacy Policy. It has always been and is freely available since the launch of the app on the app’s product page on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store — a Privacy Policy is required by Apple and Google and can be viewed in the corresponding app privacy and data safety sections. Customers can also access our Privacy Policy within the app and on our website: https://sprout-apps.com/privacy-policy.html.
Our Sprout Pregnancy app has always been privacy focused and is one of the only pregnancy apps on the market that does not require an account to use the app (no username or password) and the app data is only backed up to the user’s personal iCloud or Google Drive account.
We have also responded to Mozilla’s questions and you can contact them for additional information.”
Euki
“We are pleased that Euki is being recognized in this way. Our ultimate goal remains getting Euki to anyone who can benefit from a comprehensive, inclusive and of course secure app for sexual and reproductive health. Access to abortion services is essential health care, a critical part of our human rights, and abortion access must be protected. Euki can help and we want to ensure that it gets in the hands of anyone who can benefit from its unique features and privacy protocols.
Natural Cycles
“At Natural Cycles we have always been committed to protecting our user’s data as a regulated medical device and we’re fully supportive of Mozilla’s mission and assessment. We are of the mindset that every app – even if they have strong privacy protections like ours – should be working even harder to protect data on their user’s behalf. I can confirm our team is working rigorously to ensure that not only is Natural Cycles the most scientifically-backed fertility app, that we have the strongest data protections too.”
Clue Period & Cycle Tracker
“You can find Clue’s stance about privacy here from the co-CEOs: Data is power, and responsibility: what we believe as Clue’s Co-CEOs and here: Patient Data Privacy at Clue: A statement from the Co-CEOs.
Whoop Strap 4
“At WHOOP, our mission is to unlock human performance. We exist to improve the lives of our members, not invade them. We have invested heavily, and will continue to invest, in features and security to protect the privacy and security of our members’ data. We believe this should be the standard for all companies providing wearable devices and health tracking technology.”
Flo Ovulation & Period Tracker
“We understand that our users place trust in our technology to keep their sensitive information private, and the responsibility we have to provide a safe and secure platform for them to use. This is why Flo has never, and will never share any health data with any company but Flo. We will never make user data the source of our revenue because that would go against our core promise to our users.
In March 2022, Flo completed an external, independent privacy audit which confirmed Flo’s own practices are consistent with its publicly stated privacy policy. Beyond this, the independent audit specified, “From both a governance and operational perspective, Flo was able to demonstrate a commitment to the privacy and security of its users’ data and has devoted appropriate resources and personnel to ensuring it maintains those commitments.”
In an effort to further protect reproductive health information of our users, Flo recently announced the launch of ‘Anonymous Mode.’ Flo already uses security best practices, including encryption of all data and passcode protection, however this new feature deidentifies data on a deeper level by removing personal email, name and technical identifiers. In the event that Flo receives an official request to identify a user by name or email, Anonymous Mode will prevent Flo from being able to connect data to an individual, meaning Flo would not be able to satisfy the request.
Beyond this, we provide security measures designed to protect individual user data and privacy rights. As of last week, Flo is now the first period & ovulation tracker to achieve the ISO 27001 certification, the internationally recognized standard for information security. This certification affirms that Flo protects users’ data at the highest standard possible.
Flo remains committed to ensuring the utmost privacy for our users. Some of the additional measures we take include: – Data Encryption: Data is transferred to our servers in an encrypted form. – Data Separation: Personal user data (that can be used to identify an individual person, e.g., e-mail) is kept separately from data logged in the app (e.g., specific user inputs). This measure helps to prevent users from being identified. – Rigorous Supplier Due Diligence: We only work with suppliers who meet our minimum privacy and security standards – Regular Privacy Risk Assessments: We undertake regular risk assessments on all processing activities to ensure risks are identified and removed.
“We are very happy that Mozilla is [doing] audits like this. Personal privacy is something we take very seriously, and we are positive for all efforts that highlight the importance of privacy.
Not so happy about not performing better than what we did but when reading the audit, it clearly states that we at Preglife take privacy very seriously. Our privacy policy is well written, easy to understand, and I am confident that our wish to keep our user’s privacy secure shines through. The fact that we allow simple passwords is unfortunate but true. We don’t deny that. However, it is on our “to-do list” and something that we were about to fix within the coming weeks. But in the light of this audit and the increased need for privacy for our U.S. users, we will make this our top priority, meaning we will fix this ASAP.
In the audit Mozilla were unable to verify if we use encryption or not — but we do. All personal data that is transferred from the app is encrypted. All databases are encrypted.
Also stated in the audit, we allow users to use Preglife without creating an account. If you use Preglife in that way you never have to worry about any data loss since all data is stored locally on your handset. The downside is that if you lose your phone or if it breaks you risk losing valuable data. However, in the light of current events in the U.S., some users may feel that is a risk they are willing to take to be totally ‘off the grid.'”
Glow Nature & Glow Baby
“We strongly disagree with Mozilla’s review and we are working closely with Mozilla on their rating process, including sending them all the legal facts to address their concerns and claims.
We do not share personal data with anyone and will never sell user’s data. It’s simply against our core values. We have an extensive set of features and internal protocols that protect user data. We have also implemented 3rd party annual privacy and security assessments to ensure our platform provides the highest level of data protection for our users. Every single employee at Glow is required to go through privacy and security-related training.
Our number one goal is to build the best products for our users and doing anything that violates their trust would go against our values. Even in the case where we have been asked to provide information to law enforcement, we have always examined those requests in extreme detail and take action ONLY when it is protecting our users. We will continue to uncompromisingly protect our users’ privacy and personal health information. Period.”
ABC News’ Laryssa Demkiw, Michela Moscufo, MaryAlice Parks, Jeca Taudte, Sony Salzman and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — After federal prosecutors unsealed charges Wednesday against a Missouri man who allegedly sent a voicemail threat to an Arizona election official last year, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer confirmed the death threat and expressed confidence in the Justice Department task force on elections, despite the group’s indictments remaining in the single digits more than a year after it was formed.
“The reality is that all prosecution agencies receive gazillions more referrals than they have the capacity to investigate. So it is, perhaps, a result of shifting priorities within the department,” Richer told ABC News in a phone interview Wednesday. “It is an allocation of resources gain, and that’s not to say that they didn’t care about it previously, but this could signal a shift in priorities.”
Launched last year to address the rise in threats against election workers and officials, the task force, as of Aug. 1, has charged just four federal cases and joined one other case that was charged prior to its establishment. Richer’s case brings the total to six, with one conviction.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr. said at the beginning of August that agents have reviewed over 1,000 so-called hostile contacts, and only a fraction of those, approximately 11%, met the threshold for a federal criminal investigation, amounting to roughly 100 probes. Though the task force has faced criticism for not more aggressively prosecuting threats against election officials, Richer advised patience.
“I have great respect and patience, and even admiration for law enforcement that treads carefully and doesn’t bring something unless it is in the interest of justice in doing so,” Richer said. “Here, we’re complaining about people not operating within the confines of the law. They have to operate within the confines of the law.”
In the case involving Richer, Walter Hoornstra, 50, of Missouri, faces one charge of communicating an interstate threat and another count of making a threatening phone call, with the charges coupled carrying out a maximum of seven years in prison and $500,000 in fines.
“You call things unhinged and insane lies when there’s a forensic audit going on. You need to check yourself,” Hoornstra allegedly said on May 19, 2021, in a voicemail targeting Richer. “You need to do your [expletive] job right because other people from other states are watching your ass. You [expletive] reneg on this deal or give them any more troubles, your ass will never make it to your next little board meeting.”
A lawyer for Hoornstra did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Richer, a Republican who was elected as Maricopa County Recorder in 2020, said threats multiplied when he started pushing back on election fraud claims amplified by former President Donald Trump and Arizona State Senate President Karen Fann. Fann, notably, hired the Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based cybersecurity firm, which had no experience auditing elections, to oversee a widely-criticized review of results in Maricopa County as Trump’s false claims gained popularity with Arizona supporters.
“This was one of the first fever pitch moments,” he told ABC News, recalling receiving the voicemail. “And it was because the county started pushing back against some of the allegations.”
Last May, days before Hoornstra’s alleged threat, a “war room” account Richer alleges was run by the Cyber Ninjas Firm publicly and falsely claimed, without evidence, that Maricopa County had deleted election files unlawfully. When Trump amplified the false claim of deleted files to his base in a written statement, Richer rebuked him on Twitter — calling the former president’s comments targeting the state’s election “unhinged.”
“We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country,” Richer said in a tweet.
“We decided it was time to start pushing back against this because this was spilling over outside of what we had seen as the usual course of crazy politics,” Richer recalled to ABC News. “We had people quite literally calling for the heads of some of our IT members, for doing nothing.”
Richer is far from the only Arizona election official to be targeted.
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democratic nominee for governor, was the target of an alleged bomb threat from Massachusetts man James W. Clark, 38. Prosecutors on the DOJ task force charged Clark in July with one count of making a bomb threat, one count of perpetrating a bomb hoax and one count of communicating an interstate threat. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
“Election officials across the country are being threatened regularly for doing their jobs,” Hobbs said in a statement last month confirming she was the target of the threat. “It’s unconscionable and undermines our democracy. This harassment won’t be tolerated and can’t be normalized. We thank the FBI for their persistence on further investigating this incident.”
Richer continues to criticize the so-called audit and its supporters for dredging up “very real-world consequences for me, for the board, for our collective offices,” over an allegation that was “facially ludicrous.”
“The whole endeavor was supposed to be towards improving confidence, but I think it has damaged it, in fact,” he said.
He said he still gets thousands of negative messages a day.
Still, he called his job “worthwhile.”
“Most people don’t get to work, wake up and say, ‘I’m going to be part of one of the most meaningful conversations in the world right now.’ And I’m going to do it with people I like,” he said. “So yeah, that’s pretty lucky.”
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Three men were charged Thursday in connection with the 2018 death of notorious mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, federal prosecutors announced.
Bulger was allegedly bludgeoned to death in federal prison, according to prosecutors, by Fotios Geas, 55, also known as “Freddy,” and Paul J. DeCologero, 48, known as “Pauly.” Both are charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. A third man, Sean McKinnon, 36, is charged with making false statements to a federal agent and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Bulger was transferred to United States Penitentiary Hazleton in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, and shortly thereafter was murdered at the federal prison on Oct. 30, 2018.
Bulger, the leader of Boston’s Winter Hill gang, was on the run for 16 years before being caught by federal authorities, and later tried and convicted. Before being moved to a West Virginia lockup, the 89-year-old was housed in federal prison in Florida.
Geas is still incarcerated at USP Hazelton, according to prison records, and is serving a life sentence for a separate crime. DeCologero is no longer being held at USP Hazelton but remains housed in the federal prison system, and McKinnon was on federal supervised release at the time of the indictment and was arrested Thursday in Florida.
Bulger, who was serving a life sentence, was moved to West Virginia for no real reason, according to a lawsuit filed by his family.
He had suffered multiple heart attacks and was confined to a wheelchair, a source familiar with his condition told ABC News, leaving his attorneys puzzled over how Bulger’s medical condition suddenly improved so much that he was able to move prisons.
“Mr. Bulger’s physical/medical condition was fraudulently upgraded to effectuate a transfer and place to Hazelton on or about Oct. 29 or Oct. 30, 2018,” attorneys Hank Brennan and David Schoen wrote in an administrative claim against the Department of Justice, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News and was filed in 2019.
“To be clear, we do not believe that the transfer to Hazelton and placement in general population was simply dangerous, negligent, reckless and irresponsible; we believe it was also intentional and part of conspiracy among BOP, DOJ employees and others to intentionally cause Mr. Bulger’s serious injuries and death,” the complaint said.
Bulger’s death inside the federal prison is just one high-profile death that has not seen resolution, another other being the suicide of Jeffery Epstein in a Manhattan lockup.
The Bureau of Prisons has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
(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.”
(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.
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”*
Roger Daltrey with The Magic Bus in 2008; Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
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.
(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.
(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.
