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Family of Florida Tech student fatally shot by officers wants answers on use of force

December 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(MELBOURNE, Fla.) — The family of a Florida Institute of Technology student who was fatally shot on campus last week by police and school security officers is launching an independent investigation into the deadly use of force.

Police responded to the Melbourne campus shortly before 11 p.m. Friday after reports of a man armed with a knife attacking students.

A Melbourne Police Department officer and school security confronted the man, identified by police as 18-year-old Alhaji Sow, in a campus building. Both fired their weapons, striking him, after Sow allegedly “lunged” at the police officer with an “edged weapon,” Melbourne police said following the incident. He died at the scene.

Sow’s family has since hired a law firm to investigate the incident and why non-lethal methods were not used by the school security officer to subdue the teenager, attorneys said Wednesday.

“On a college campus, there will undoubtedly be mental health crises that will have to be addressed by the officials of that campus, and they do not always require lethal force,” Greg Francis, a partner at the firm Osborne & Francis, said during a press briefing with the family. “But campus security officers’ only mechanism of dealing with students is a gun. Untold lives will unnecessarily be lost and/or negatively impacted.”

Francis said the investigation will also look at the crisis management training for Melbourne police officers and Florida Tech security officers.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this unbelievably horrific situation. We’ll get answers for these parents and other students on the Florida Tech campus,” Francis said. “We do not want another life to be taken senselessly.”

Sow’s father told reporters that the family was looking forward to Sow coming home for the holidays. “But unfortunately, that is not going to happen,” he said. ” We just want to know why. Why Alhaji have to die like this? We want to know why.”

Francis said they are still investigating what prompted the incident, and that Sow had no history of mental illness.

According to the Melbourne Police Department, which released a timeline Wednesday of the alleged attacks, Sow was “acting erratic” and “attacked multiple students on campus” that night.

Sow allegedly attacked three women in a 15-minute time span, starting with a “physical struggle” with a friend at her campus residence hall around 10:30 p.m., police said. Sow allegedly slapped another woman as he ran from the residence and repeatedly punched another woman at a nearby campus parking garage, police said.

A 911 caller then reported a man believed to be Sow armed with a knife “attacking multiple people and chasing someone,” police said.

Sow allegedly broke into a dormitory, dropped the knife and struck a resident adviser several times before running out a back door, police said.

He then allegedly punched a man outside another residence hall before officers confronted him inside the building in a room, armed with a pair of scissors, shortly after 11 p.m., police said. Sow allegedly lunged at the police officer, “striking the officer’s leg and causing a minor injury,” the department said. The police officer and security officer then discharged their firearms, striking Sow multiple times, police said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting. The officer is a five-year veteran of the force, police said.

The incident was captured on the police officer’s body-worn camera though won’t be immediately released due to the ongoing investigation, the department said Wednesday.

The identities of the police officer and security officer are not being released at this time.

A Florida Tech spokesperson directed all questions regarding the incident to the Melbourne Police Department and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The university will conduct its own review once the law enforcement investigation is completed, school officials said.

Sow, of Riverdale, Georgia, was a sophomore studying aeronautical science, school officials said. He was in his first semester, after earning college credits in high school, said Francis, who called him an “exemplary student.”

The university held a vigil Tuesday night in the wake of the incident and is offering counseling and support to the school community.

“We are committed to doing all that we can to support our campus community,” Florida Tech spokesperson Wes Sumner said in a statement.

Study raises renewed alarm about missed cancer diagnoses during pandemic

December 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Oncologists have been warning about dangerous gaps in cancer care since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, a nationwide study based on data from Veterans Affairs hospitals is raising new alarms.

Since March 2020, COVID-19 has caused a disruption in surgeries and treatments for patients with cancer. At different periods during the pandemic, some states have also required health care facilities to suspend elective procedures, many of which include cancer screenings, to preserve resources during COVID surges.

“This is an area of tremendous concern,” Dr. Norman “Ned” E. Sharpless, director of the National Cancer Institute, said in an interview in Cancer Prevention Research. “The pandemic has affected cancer screening in a dramatic way…a massive screening deficit over the last 12 months—millions of screening events have been missed,” Sharpless added.

Compared with yearly averages in 2018 and 2019 as a baseline, the number of completed colonoscopies dropped by 45%; proportions of prostate biopsies decreased by 29% ;and cystoscopies for diagnosing bladder cancer decreased by 21% in 2020, according to the study, published online on the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s site.

The study’s researchers estimated that new diagnoses for prostate, lung, colorectal and bladder cancers among the veterans whose data was analyzed also plummeted by 13%, in 2020.

The declines in cancer screening and diagnoses were already striking in the initial months of the pandemic as the country reeled from the first wave of COVID-19 infections. Screening for breast, colorectal and prostate cancers dropped sharply in April 2020, and estimates based on statistical models highlight that 3.9 million breast cancer, 3.8 million colorectal cancer, and 1.6 million prostate cancer diagnoses may have been missed due to pandemic disruptions in care across the overall U.S. population, according to data from JAMA Oncology.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also reports that screening tests for breast cancer fell by 87% and 84% for cervical cancer in April 2020.

“Like other cancer centers, we observed a distinct downturn in routine cancer screening at the beginning of the pandemic, which has only partially recovered,” Dr. Brian McIver, deputy physician in chief of the Moffitt Cancer Center told ABC News. As a result, some patients were later diagnosed with more advanced stages of cancers that proper screening protocols may have diagnosed earlier, according to McIver.

Calculating the number of missed cancer diagnoses and the proportion of additional patients at risk is difficult and requires additional time for data collection — an endeavor that national organizations, like the NCI, are actively pursuing and monitoring.

Of course, cancer screening tests, which are administered to asymptomatic people and are regularly used for early detection of some types of cancer, are not the only way to catch cancer diagnoses. Patients often learn of their illnesses after developing symptoms and going to their doctors.

But hospitals continue to face challenges in catching up and counteracting existing deficits in important routine cancer screening tests and imaging, numbers of which still have not yet rebounded to pre-pandemic baselines.

“It’s unlikely we have the infrastructure to fully catch up,” said Sharpless in his interview. The situation is further complicated by patients’ own reluctance to seek medical care in the middle of the pandemic.

“There are a lot of moving parts. You have to increase your [healthcare] capacity above the pre-pandemic baseline…[and] the healthcare system is frankly overwhelmed right now,” said Dr. Craig Bunnell, chief medical officer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to ABC News. “[Then,] you have people who miss their screenings, [who may] continue to delay or skip [appointments] completely.”

“There’s no reason to believe that cancer incidence is decreased,” said Bunnell. Rather, cancers “are likely to be diagnosed at more advanced stages when the treatment options may be fewer.”

With the new omicron variant now spreading throughout the country and the potential for another surge of cases during the winter months, physicians urge patients to continue practicing safety measures and to keep their medical appointments if possible. “COVID-19 should not prevent any of us from receiving appropriate medical care, including relevant cancer screenings,” says McIver.

Adela Wu, a neurosurgery resident at Stanford Hospital, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.

‘Dune’, ‘The Power of the Dog’ top for movies, ‘Ted Lasso’ and ‘Succession’ for TV with American Film Institute

December 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Once again, the American Film Institute has made its picks for the year’s best in TV and film, and among this year’s honorees are Emmy winners Ted Lasso and Succession on the TV side, and the films Dune, and The Power of the Dog, and Steven Spielberg‘s West Side Story.

Each year, the organization singles out 10 entries for both the big and small screens, and a number of “special” honorees. Each of the 10 movies and 10 TV shows chosen, have been, “deemed culturally and artistically representative of this year’s most significant achievements in the art of the moving image.”

In addition, the AFI chose a handful of works, Kenneth Branagh‘s Belfast, and Netflix’s smash Squid Game for its yearly Special Award, “designated for works of excellence that fall outside of the Institute’s criteria of American film and television.”

The honorees will be celebrated at a private reception on January 7, 2022. On January 8, the AFI Movie Club will showcase them, along with new content exclusive to AFI.com.

Here are the 2021 AFI AWARDS Honorees:

AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR

Coda
Don’t Look Up
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
Tick Tick Boom
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story

AFI TELEVISION PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR

Hacks
Maid
Mare of Easttown
Reservation Dogs
Schimgadoon!
Succession
Ted Lasso
The Underground Railroad
WandaVision
The White Lotus

AFI SPECIAL AWARD

Belfast
Squid Game
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Maroon 5, Pink and more to be featured on Fox’s New Year’s Eve special

December 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

This New Year’s Eve, Fox is rounding up some memorable musical performances from throughout the year.

Fox’s New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast 2022 will feature pre-taped performances from Maroon 5, Pink, Imagine Dragons and more. Eighties rocker Billy Idol, who appeared on Miley Cyrus‘ album Plastic Hearts, is also performing on the show. As previously reported, Miley is hosting her own New Year’s Eve show over on NBC with Pete Davidson.

Ken Jeong and Joel McHale will be hosting Fox’s special live from Times Square, along with special correspondent Kelly Osbourne.

Fox’s New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast 2022 airs live Friday, December 31, beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, and Jamie Foxx united in ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ “Return of the Villains” spot

December 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, and Jamie Foxx, who played Spider-Man villains in three different films — respectively, 2002’s Spider-Man, 2004’s Spider-Man 2, and 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 — have reunited for a new promotional spot for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Dafoe reprises his role of Norman Osborn/Green Goblin; Molina returns as Dr. Otto Octavius/Doc Ock, and Foxx comes back as Maxwell Dillon/Electro — and unfortunately for Tom Holland‘s Spidey, a rip in the Multiverse sends them all into his reality.

“We got another chance to stir things up,” Foxx says.

“Doc Ock picks up where he left off,” Molina says. “He’s looking for revenge.”

Dafoe offers, “Goblin believes in a world of losers and winners, power is all that matters.”

Foxx says of his lightning-throwing character, “Electro is like, ‘The world did me wrong. And now I got this energy, I’m about to go get mine.'”

What no promotional spot will confirm, however, is persistent rumors that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield will also return to lend Holland’s Spidey a hand in beating their movies’ baddies.

Spider-Man: No Way Home, a co-production of Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios, swings into theaters December 17.

Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

Halle Berry receives Celebration of Black Cinema and Television Career Achievement Award, Kenan Thompson producing Mike Tyson live, and more

December 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Halle Berry received the Career Achievement award Monday night at the Celebration of Black Cinema and Television in Los Angeles, and the 55-year-old actress was honored to be surrounded by accomplished Black professionals at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel.

“To be in this room with so many of my peers and so many beautiful people of color just fills me up,” Berry said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “When I started 30 years ago there weren’t rooms like this where I could go and feel affirmed, esteemed. I was often alone; I was one of only a few Black people in the room searching to find my value and searching for my worth.”

Other winners included Ava DuVernay – Melvin Van Peebles Trailblazer Award; Anthony Anderson – Producers Award; Barry Jenkins – Director Award for Television, and Danielle Brooks – Actress Award for Television.

In other news, Saturday Night Live star Kenan Thompson announced he’s formed a production company, Artists for Artists, and his first project is with Mike Tyson, Deadline reports. The famed boxer, his wife Kiki Tyson, and his brother-in-law Azim Spicer, will produce Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth Part 2, a live stage tour, written by Kiki, that is a follow up to Tyson’s 2013 one-man show and HBO special.

Finally, Kandi Burruss and Kelly Price have joined the cast of the dating dramedy, A La Carte, which will debut in spring 2022 on AllBlk, according to Deadline.

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Elizabeth Holmes rests her case after testifying for 7 days in fraud trial

December 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — Elizabeth Holmes finished her testimony on Wednesday and her defense team rested their case in her criminal fraud trial.

All that’s left now are closing arguments. Then the jury will begin its deliberations.

For the jury to convict Holmes, the founder of the now defunct blood-testing startup Theranos, prosecutors must prove she knowingly misled investors about her company’s technology — a key element in the 11 fraud charges she faces.

Holmes could be sentenced to decades in prison if convicted. The 37-year-old has pleaded not guilty.

As both sides prepare for the last leg of the trial, here’s a look at some of what we’ve learned from the former Theranos CEO.

The buck stopped with her

Throughout the trial, Holmes’ team has suggested that her coworkers — namely the lab directors and her ex-boyfriend and former company COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani — were responsible for certain aspects of the company.

But prosecutors got Holmes to acknowledge that when it came to making decisions at Theranos, the buck stopped with her.

“But, ultimately all roads, as the CEO, lead to you?” U.S. Attorney Robert Leach asked Holmes on day five of her testimony.

“Yes,” Holmes said.

“And is it fair [to say] that the buck stops with you?” Leach continued.

“I felt that,” she replied.

On redirect, Holmes told her attorney Kevin Downey that she felt the buck stopped with her, but said she was not aware of all the decisions that were made at the company.

Relationship with Sunny Balwani

Holmes held back tears during her last day of direct examination as she told jurors that Balwani had repeatedly abused her during their near decade-long relationship. Balwani, her co-defendant in the case, had his trial severed from Holmes earlier this year after learning of the abuse allegations. He has denied those allegations.

On cross examination, Leach sought to poke holes in Holmes’ narrative. He said the couple had texted each other the word “love” at least 594 times in the more than 12,000 messages they exchanged.

“Was just thinking about you and meditating on my tigress,” Balwani texted Holmes in 2015, a message she read aloud in court at Leach’s behest, fighting back tears as she spoke.

Trade secrets

The government called investors to the stand and asked if they knew Theranos used third-party machines to conduct their blood testing. None of the former shareholders testified they did. But many of them said they were sold on the smaller blood-testing device Holmes had coined the “Edison” or the “miniLab.”

Holmes admitted on direct examination her “3.5” device could never run more than 12 clinical tests. Many of the company’s tests offered to patients at Theranos Wellness Centers in Walgreens stores were run on modified third-party machines, she said.

Asked why Holmes never shared that information with her investors, or even Walgreens, she chalked it up to trade secrets.

If Theranos’ proprietary info got out, “the big medical device companies like Siemens could easily reproduce what we had done,” Holmes testified. “They had more engineers than we did and a lot more resources.”

On cross examination, Leach barely broached the topic. But he did get Holmes to admit that it would be wrong if Theranos told investors that the company was not using modified third-party devices.

Holmes said she informed the FDA, her board of directors and the federal lab regulator, CMS, that she was running tests on third-party devices because, unlike the investors, they could assure protection of her intellectual property. Although, during the cross-examination, Leach pointed out that Gen. James Mattis, a then-Theranos board member, testified he was unaware of the modified third-party devices.

Altered documents

Prosecutors have repeatedly suggested Holmes doctored documents while she was running Theranos. In her testimony, Holmes owned up to — but reframed — some of those allegations.

On her second day of direct examination, she said she placed the logos of two pharmaceutical companies on blood-testing validation reports. She acknowledged she did this without the drugmakers’ permission and before she sent them to Walgreens.

“I wish I had done it differently,” she said on the stand Nov. 23 while being questioned by her attorney.

Leach later used that very same phrase six times on Nov. 30, the first day of his cross examination.

“Is that another thing you wish you had done differently?” he asked Holmes.

“One hundred percent,” she replied before later saying, “There are many things I wish I did differently.”

Leach also pointed to a third altered pharma report, which had been originally created by the drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline, after the company evaluated Theranos’ technology. Like the other reports, the changes Holmes said she made to this document included the company’s logo.

Downey characterized the issue of doctoring documents as a “sideshow” on Tuesday, suggesting that Holmes did not conceal the reports because two of the three altered versions were sent directly to the drugmakers.

“Witness the return of the legend” — Disney+ unveils new teaser for ‘The Book of Boba Fett’

December 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Star Wars fans are just weeks away from the Mandalorian spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett, and to keep them hanging on, Disney+ has released a new teaser.

Truth told, there’s not too much new footage in the sneak peek, but one cool sequence shows the bounty hunter suiting up in his trademark Mandalorian armor — with the help of some pit droids, the little skittish mechanics first seen in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

Also shown is Temuera Morrison scoping out the Tatooine palace of Jabba the Hutt in a scene apparently set before the events of Mando.

As that series’ second season finale showed, Fett and his fellow hunter, Ming-Na Wen‘s Fennec Shand, take over the palace headquarters of Jabba’s crime syndicate.

“Witness the return of the legend,” a title card reads.

The Book of Boba Fett debuts December 29 on Disney+.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Camila Cabello, JoBros and more to perform from White House for PBS holiday special

December 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Are you dreaming of a White House Christmas? A new holiday music special, In Performance at the White House: Spirit of the Season, will be airing on PBS later this month.

Camila Cabello, Jonas Brothers, Pentatonix and Norah Jones are among the artists who will be performing on the hour-long special. Each of the performances will take place in historic White House rooms. Viewers will also get an inside look at the White House holiday decor.

Actress Jennifer Garner will host the program, which will also feature special remarks from President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.

In Performance at the White House: Spirit of the Season will premiere Tuesday, December 21 at 8 p.m. ET on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings.

Sarah Hyland and Wells Adams react to becoming #CoupleGoals at the People’s Choice Awards

December 8, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Sarah Hyland and fiancé Wells Adams woke up on Wednesday to people gushing over their adorable interactions at the People’s Choice Awards, such as Wells adjusting Sarah’s two-piece white Vera Wang dress as they walked the red carpet.

“There was a lot going on in that dress! Things needed to be poofed and fluffed,” Wells told ABC Audio. “If I’m known for anything, it’s my ability to poof and fluff… My gravestone is going to be, like, ‘Really good on red carpets, making sure things are poofed!'”

The two are glad their innocuous exchange brought smiles to so many faces because, as the Bachelorette alum says, “It has been a tough year, but we’re ending it on such a positive and good vibe!”

Another positive vibe is Sarah’s new show, Play-Doh Squished, arriving Friday, December 10, on IMDb TV and Amazon Prime Video.

“It’s so stinking cute. It’s a Play-Doh competition show… It is so freaking cute and is perfect for the holidays for families,” Sarah, who hosts the series, raved. “We have this one little girl in the show. Her name is Dorothy and she’s a star. If you watch it for anything, you watch it for Dorothy.”

Sarah and Wells are also looking forward to hosting their family — and their dogs — for Christmas.

“I think there will be one to three or at least five dogs, if not more at our house,” said the Modern Family alum — and Wells interjected, “And they’ll probably jump up on the table and eat all of our food, which happens every year.”

Speaking of pets, the couple is teaming with Petco for a Facebook Live holiday shopping event to share gift ideas and help find homeless animals their forever family. It airs Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. PT.

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