(WASHINGTON) — Pentagon Protection Force Agency Officer George Gonzalez was a beloved son, brother and friend. He was a Yankees fan and a “one of the good guys,” according to an obituary shared by the agency.
Gonzalez was allegedly killed by a 27-year-old suspect who ambushed him while he was patrolling the Pentagon bus station last week, first stabbing him and then shooting him with his own weapon, according to law enforcement sources.
Gonzalez’s ambush and the fatal shooting of Chicago Police Officer Ella French, is part of the 47 police officer killings so far in 2021, according to the FBI’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted Program (LEOKA).
That’s more than in all of 2020, when there were 46, according to the data. And there have been nearly as many officers killed this year as the entirety of 2019 (48) and 2017 (48).
Out of the killings reported this year, 36 have involved a firearm, according to the data.
April was the deadliest month for law enforcement, with eight killings reported.
The FBI said in its report that the southern region was deadliest for law enforcement with 24 killings and 17 accidental deaths through the end of July. This contrasts with the Northeast, which had no officers killed.
Laura Cooper, the executive director of the Major City Chiefs Association (MCCA) which represents police chiefs from across the country, said the number of law enforcement deaths is “alarming.”
“We continue to witness horrific acts of violence being committed against those who we need to protect our communities,” Cooper explained. “These senseless acts have a chilling effect across the law enforcement community, and we wait for the day where line of duty deaths reach an all-time low.”
The FBI reports that accidental killings of police have also increased 20% though the end of July.
And law enforcement officers have also continued to die from COVID-19.
Apart from the accidental deaths, 54 died from complications due to the virus.
(NEW YORK) — As the number of COVID-19 infections surges across the United States, with unvaccinated children among the most vulnerable, parents across the country are left wondering what decisions to make to keep their families safe.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that the COVID-19 surge, spurred on by the delta variant, is happening as millions of children are heading back to school, forcing kids to brace, along with parents and teachers, for yet another unpredictable, unprecedented school year.
“The way to think about this is, this is a rapidly evolving and dynamically changing situation,” Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News’ chief medical correspondent and a board-certified OBGYN, said. “It requires flexibility and patience and resilience and an open-mindedness to use new data, new information, new knowledge to affect a better health outcome, not only for us as individuals or our children, but for those people around us.”
Ashton, a mother of two college-aged children, said she looks at the latest COVID-19 data not only as a medical doctor, but also as a mother looking out for her children.
“I wear multiple hats,” she said. “I’m speaking to my own children about their behavior, and even though they are both fully vaccinated, what steps can they take to lower their risk as low as possible?”
Here are Ashton’s answers to five of the most pressing questions from parents amid the COVID-19 surge.
1. Why does it seem children are more vulnerable to COVID-19 now, amid the delta variant?
Viruses such as COVID-19 stay alive in their hosts, in this case humans, by mutating, which is what has created the delta variant, according to Ashton.
“The delta variant is one of several variants, you could also think about it as a mutation, compared to the novel strain of the coronavirus,” she said. “And right now, this delta variant definitely appears to be significantly more transmissible … and there is a suggestion that it may be causing more severe illness.”
Currently, only children ages 12 and older are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. Among children younger than 12 and children of any age who are not vaccinated, the data shows an “almost exponential increase” in the number of pediatric cases of COVID-19, according to Ashton.
“The majority [of the cases], 80-90%, are thought to be the delta variant,” she said. “It is unclear at this point if the pediatric age group is more susceptible to the delta variant or if this is just the delta variant doing its thing and attacking the most vulnerable population, which is, in this case unvaccinated children.”
2. Why is there a renewed call for people, particularly children, to wear face masks?
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed its mask guidance and recommended that schools embrace universal masks, backtracking on an earlier recommendation that vaccinated students and staff could go without masks indoors.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), an organization of nearly 70,000 pediatricians, has also called for schools to enforce universal masking mandates.
The reason, according to Ashton, has to do with how much more transmissible the delta variant is than other strains of COVID-19.
“[The CDC] has done outbreak investigations using delta variant data and they have found that the viral load, or the amount of virus that is shed by someone who is vaccinated compared to someone who is unvaccinated, if they’re infected with the delta variant, is largely the same,” Ashton said. “There is very little risk of recommending children of this age group wearing a face covering, and we have seen the impact positive impact of benefits in reducing transmission and infection rates.”
She continued, “It’s always better, especially in the setting of a dramatic increase in case numbers, that we do more and not less, and that’s why you’re seeing these recommendations from the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics.”
The need for face mask wearing extends beyond school to family interactions, like when an unvaccinated child interacts with vaccinated grandparents, for example, according to Ashton.
Medical experts also recommend that unvaccinated people, including children, wear face masks in indoor settings and follow other guidelines, like social distancing and hand washing. They also recommend that families who may have children of different ages who are vaccinated and unvaccinated all wear face masks when in indoor settings like grocery stores and schools.
3. How do I know what activities are safe for my children?
Ashton said parents can consider six factors when deciding what activities are safe for their children: Time, space, people, place, vaccination status and mask wearing.
1. Time: “Will your child be in a given environment for a prolonged period of time. Right now, that number, according to the CDC, is set at 15 minutes cumulative time in 24 hours. We know that the more time exposure, the higher the risk.”
2. Space: “How much space will there be between your child and the people that your child will be around? We know three to six feet right now is kind of the number whereby the risk goes up if you’re in that area. It goes down if you’re greater than six feet away, so that’s important.”
3. People: “How much space there is around people in that environment? When you take into account those parameters, that can help you stratify risk.”
4. Place: “Is there ventilation where [your] children are going to be? Is it an indoor setting, which we know has a higher risk in general? Or is it an outdoor setting, where there is a better wind or ventilation? That is very important.”
5. Vaccination status: “Certainly an option for some parents, depending on the age of their children, is to only put their children in environments where they know that the majority or all of the people in that environment are fully vaccinated. That might not be possible if you’re talking about children under the age of 12.”
6. Mask wearing: “That is a variable that is under our control. So even if everyone is not masked, if your child is masked, that can add some degree of added protection.”
4. Why do we seem to have taken several steps backwards in the pandemic?
“We are still learning about this virus,” said Ashton, responding to parents who may be frustrated by the pace of progress more than one year into the pandemic. “We’re still learning about different populations and their risk to the virus and to different variants every single day.”
“As we learn more, we have to maintain the ability to pivot and adapt our behavior, because if you look at this pandemic, and certainly what’s going on right now, there are really just two variables at play,” she said. “There’s the way the virus is behaving, and there’s the way human beings are behaving. It’s challenging enough if one of those variables is changing, but if both are changing at the same time, it can really be a moving target of sorts.”
5. Is the COVID-19 vaccine worth getting now amid the delta variant?
Absolutely, according to Ashton.
“It is critically important to understand that the goal of these vaccines is to save lives and reduce the risk of hospitalizations,” said Ashton. “And even amongst the delta variant, the vaccines are still largely doing their job.”
“That does not mean 100% of the time. That does not mean there will not be breakthrough cases of people that you know, that I know who become infected with COVID-19,” she said. “What it does mean is that the chance of dying of COVID, requiring ICU admission or hospitalization is dramatically reduced.”
Ashton said people who are getting vaccinated are taking the “most critical step” toward protecting not just themselves but also children who cannot yet be vaccinated.
“We have now nine months of personal experience in this country with hundreds of millions of people having been vaccinated with an excellent safety profile,” she said. “Right now [the vaccine] is the best tool we have so not to use it would be a tremendous missed opportunity.”
(NEW YORK) — The contagious delta variant has complicated the country’s COVID-19 recovery, and health care experts are again suggesting Americans cover their faces.
They’re now advising all people, both unvaccinated and vaccinated, to wear marks in indoor and crowded settings. While the virus may have mutated, medical experts told ABC News people can wear the same masks they’ve used previously.
“The delta variant has raised the stakes,” Maureen Miller, an adjunct associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, told ABC News. “The most important thing about the masks is that you wear them properly.”
Miller, a former epidemiologist for the New York City Health Department, said the N95 is the most secure mask to block out the virus and the variants, but due to higher prices and strained supplies, most people should consider other options, such as the cloth masks and surgical masks found in most stores.
The key thing is making sure the mask completely covers one’s mouth and nose.
“If it’s not covering your nose, or if it’s on your chin, it’s not going to protect you,” Miller added.
Dr. Nicole Iovine, chief hospital epidemiologist with UF Health in Gainesville, Florida, also told ABC News that regular face coverings sold in stores should protect people from the delta variant. Iovine also said double-masking is a good strategy, especially if you’re unvaccinated.
“We should think about it as layers of protection,” she said. “If you’re unvaccinated, the only layer you can have is wearing a mask and staying isolated. If you’re vaccinated, you have strong protection, but with a mask on you’re very, very protected.”
Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said the most important rule about masking during the delta surge is being aware of one’s surroundings. Extra care must be taken in situations in which it’s easier for air droplets to spread.
“If you’re in a crowded, poorly ventilated room, it’s a bigger risk than being out in the woods,” he said.
Miller recommended that vaccinated Americans should be masked up in any location where they’re indoors and may be in contact with someone 12 years old or younger, because they’re not yet vaccine eligible.
“The delta variant threw us a nasty curveball and set us back a step,” Miller said. “All of the things that worked before — social distancing, mask-wearing — are all the things that will get us through this next round.”
Anyone seeking help to schedule a free vaccine appointment can log onto vaccines.gov.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As the federal investigation into Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz continues into the summer, sources tell ABC News that Gaetz’s one-time wingman has been steadily providing information and handing over potential evidence that could implicate the Florida congressman and others in the sprawling probe.
Former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, as part of his ongoing cooperation with prosecutors, has provided investigators with years of Venmo and Cash App transactions and thousands of photos and videos, as well as access to personal social media accounts, sources said.
Private messages exclusively reviewed by ABC News potentially shed new light on the process by which Greenberg allegedly met women online who were paid for sex, and introduced them to the Florida congressman and other associates.
Greenberg pleaded guilty in May to multiple federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who also had sex with her when she was underage. Greenberg agreed to provide “substantial assistance” to prosecutors as part of their ongoing investigation.
Gaetz, who currently sits at the center of the ongoing federal sex trafficking investigation into allegations that he had sex with a minor who he also met through Greenberg, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime.
ABC News has reviewed Google Voice text messages from September 2018 that appear to show Greenberg texting with a woman he met online. In the texts, Greenberg appears to discuss payment options and asks the woman, who was of legal age, if she would take drugs; he then sets up a get-together with himself, Gaetz, the woman, and one of her friends.
“I have a friend flying in and we are trying to make plans for tonight. What are your plans for later,” Greenberg wrote to the woman, whose identity ABC News is withholding for privacy purposes. “And how much of an allowance will you be requiring :)” Greenberg added.
The woman responded by telling Greenberg she has “a friend who introduced me to the website that I could bring” and said she “usually” requires “$400 per meet.”
Greenberg then sent the woman a photo of Gaetz taking a selfie with students at Pea Ridge Elementary from a 2017 visit, and wrote, “My friend,” indicating that Gaetz would be the friend joining him.
“Oooh my friend thinks he’s really cute!” the woman responded.
Greenberg then replied that Gaetz was “down here only for the day,” adding “we work hard and play hard,” before asking, “Have you ever tried molly,” referring to the drug MDMA, or Ecstasy.
As Greenberg was discussing payment for the get-together, the woman asked if Gaetz used the same website Greenberg had used to meet her. Greenberg replied, in part, “He knows the deal :),” referring to the Florida congressman. The former tax collector then said he would book a “suite Downtown” for the gathering.
Asked about the allegations reported in this article, Harlan Hill, a spokesperson for Gaetz, told ABC News, “After months of media coverage, not one woman has come forward to accuse Rep. Gaetz of wrongdoing. Not even President Biden can say that. That others might invite people unbeknownst to a U.S. Congressman to functions he may or may not attend is the everyday life of a political figure. Your story references people the congressman doesn’t know, things he hasn’t done and messages he neither sent nor received.”
“Rep. Gaetz addressed the debunked allegations against him — and their origin in an extortion plot — during his Firebrand podcast episode last week,” Hill added. “People should download and watch.”
Gaetz himself has also forcefully pushed back against reports of the investigation. After the self-described “sugar daddy” website Seeking.com released a statement claiming to have “no knowledge of Mr. Gaetz ever having an account on the website,” Gaetz said on Twitter that “we are seeing the collapse of the Fake News media’s lies.”
However, The New York Times reported in April that investigators believe it was Greenberg who initially met women through online sugar daddy websites — which connect people who go on dates in exchange for gifts and allowances — and then “introduced the women to Mr. Gaetz, who also had sex with them.”
Additional Facebook messages reviewed by ABC News paint a similar picture, showing Greenberg appearing to organize a gathering in July 2018 that included Gaetz and women the former tax collector had allegedly been paying for sex, at the home of Jason Pirozzolo, a Florida hand doctor who founded a medical marijuana advocacy group and, according to reports, allegedly accompanied Gaetz on a 2018 trip to the Bahamas that investigators are scrutinizing.
The Facebook messages also appear to show Greenberg offering to introduce a Florida media entrepreneur at the meet-up at Pirozzolo’s home, which Greenberg described as “our safe place.”
“You should come meet the group,” Greenberg wrote to the entrepreneur, according to the messages. He then mentioned the names of two girls repeatedly featured on the former tax collector’s Venmo transactions, which ABC News has reviewed.
“I think it would be a wise investment of time. You might already know Jason Pirrazolo … but I’d like for you to meet Congressman Matt Gaetz,” Greenberg wrote. “Gaetz is a wild man, but great dude.”
Greenberg said in the message that the party would have “6-7 chicks” and “just 3-4 guys.” He then provided directions to Pirrazolo’s house, adding, “It’s our safe place, all things considered.”
A few days after the date of the July gathering, the entrepreneur posted a photo on Instagram that appeared to come from a separate get-together and includes the two young women Greenberg had mentioned in his private messages. ABC News is withholding the names of the two women for privacy purposes.
It’s not immediately certain if the gatherings Greenberg was working to arrange in July and September of 2018, over the private messages reviewed by ABC News, ultimately took place around those specific dates. Greenberg had arranged similar gatherings at hotels in the Central Florida area and at friends’ houses, including Pirozzolo’s, with the congressman in attendance, multiple sources who attended the gatherings in the past told ABC News.
Contacted by ABC News, Greenberg’s attorney, Fritz Scheller, said, “The only comment I can make is Joel Greenberg has executed a plea agreement with the government and will continue to honor his obligations pursuant to that agreement.”
Pirozzolo’s attorney, David Haas, declined to comment when reached by ABC News, citing the ongoing investigation.
Last month, a judge granted a request by Greenberg to delay his sentencing for three months, citing the breadth of his continued cooperation with federal prosecutors.
“Mr. Greenberg has been cooperating with the Government and has participated in a series of proffers,” Scheller wrote in a filing requesting the delay. “Said cooperation, which could impact his ultimate sentence, cannot be completed prior to the time of his sentencing.”
Prosecutors did not oppose the delay and a judge approved it a day later.
While Gaetz has appeared to distance himself from Greenberg since news broke regarding the investigation, he previously described Greenberg to acquaintances as his “wingman” and also publicly floated the former tax collector as a potential congressional candidate.
“Joel Greenberg has gone into the Seminole County Tax Collector’s Office, he’s taken it by storm,” Gaetz said in a radio interview on WFLA in June 2017, in which he pushed Greenberg to run for Florida’s 7th congressional district.
“He’s been a disrupter,” Gaetz said of Greenberg. “And if you look at what people want in the country right now, they want that disrupter. And they want someone who is not going to adhere to the dogma that has strangled progress in Washington, D.C., for a generation.”
(NEW YORK) — Eight months after Iran banned imports of any vaccines developed in the United States or the United Kingdom, the country is in the grips of its deadliest coronavirus surge yet, prompting criticism of the government for prioritizing politics over public health.
Over the past week, a daily average of 493 people died from COVID-19, according to official statistics, a deadlier toll than the country experienced even during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, during which the country was badly hit. To date, the country has recorded over 4.2 million cases of coronavirus, with 95,647 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
After a surge in April this year, the country experienced a sharp decline in cases, but since July the numbers have been headed in the wrong direction. According to Our World in Data, only 11.2% of Iranians have received at least one dose of COVID vaccine, and only 3.3% have been fully vaccinated, mostly with China’s Sinopharm and AstraZeneca, which have been sent as part of humanitarian aids from Japan and other countries, as well as the domestically developed COVIran Barekat, which has not been recognized by international health bodies.
In January, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banned the purchase of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines made in the U.S. and U.K. Khamenei claimed that Americans wanted to “test the vaccines on other nations,” without providing any evidence or reasons to back up his claim.
However, in a televised speech on Wednesday, with the country now experiencing a fifth wave coronavirus infections, Khamenei indicated a potential change in heart with the onset of the more transmissible delta variant.
“Corona vaccines must be accessible for all people from any possible way, be it domestic production or through importing,” he said. “As the disease or the enemy takes on a new form, so should our defense.”
Disappointed by the response of their own officials, many Iranians have criticized the government on social media. Users have posted tweets, photos and videos to document the situation in hospitals across the country, using the hashtag #SOSIran. Users ask the international community to pay attention to the situation in Iran and address the Islamic Republic officials to stop the ban on importing vaccines.
“It was an ideological approach to a health issue from the beginning,” Sarvenaz, an Iranian psychiatrist whose full name cannot be published for security reasons, told ABC News. “It was a gesture to show that the Islamic Republic won’t import medical products from a country it has been calling the Great Satan and its biggest enemy. But it has cost thousands of lives.”
In the past, regime officials have attributed the shortage of medicines and supplies in the country to international sanctions, but now the ire of Iranians has turned to the government, with the ban on importing effective vaccines taking that excuse away.
With the delta variant of the coronavirus ravaging the country, graveyards, as well as hospitals, are struggling to deal with the surge.
In the holy city of Mashhad, the officials at city cemeteries have asked for taxi drivers to allow their cars to be used as hearses as the city has run out of enough hearses to carry dead bodies, the Islamic Republic’s News Agency reported on Wednesday.
On the ground, medical professionals have warned that hospitals are struggling to deal with the surge, even as vaccination rates remain low.
Dr. Morteza Gharibi, head of the emergency unit of Iran’s University of Medical Sciences in Markazi Province, told ABC News that that the hospital is running out of basic medication, and expects the death toll to climb even higher.
“Even if the vaccination gets accelerated — which I do not think [will] happen — it takes at least three weeks for the first shot to produce antibodies. It is already too late for that in this spike,” he explained.
“I foresee an estimation of around 1,200 daily COVID death cases in about three weeks in the country,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Houston 5, Colorado 1
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Minnesota 1, Chi White Sox 0
NY Yankees 5, Kansas City 2
Detroit 5, Baltimore 2
Oakland 6, Cleveland 3
Boston 20, Tampa Bay 8
Toronto 10, LA Angels 2
Seattle 2, Texas 1
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Miami 7, San Diego 0
NY Mets 8 Washington 7
St. Louis 4, Pittsburgh 0
LA Dodgers 8, Philadelphia 2
Milwaukee 10, Chi Cubs 0
Atlanta 8, Cincinnati 6
San Francisco 7, Arizona 2
Journey’s Jonathan Cain, Neal Schon & Arnel Pineda; Courtesy of Journey
In June, Journeyreleased a new single called “The Way We Used to Be” that will part of the band’s forthcoming studio album, which will be the group’s first collection of new, original songs since 2011’s Eclipse.
Journey guitarist Neal Schon tells ABC Audio that “The Way We Used to Be” began as a musical idea he came up with using a keyboard loop, to which he then added guitar, bass and string sounds before sending it to the band’s longtime keyboardist, Jonathan Cain, for him to fill out with lyrics and melodies.
Schon admits that when he first sent the tune to Cain, he didn’t think it sounded like a Journey song.
“I thought it was more like…a Bad English song or something for John Waite or Rolling Stones with a little harder edge,” Neal explains. “And I’m glad that 90 percent of the people that have heard it love it. Some others are just going, ‘Wow, that doesn’t sound like Journey.’ And I go, ‘Well, it wasn’t meant to be’…but it ended up on our album.”
Speaking about the band’s studio effort, Schon says, “There’s so much great material on this album that we’ve…produced and I’ve been working on for well over a year now with everybody.”
Neal tells ABC Audio that it was “a blessing” for him to get to record a lot of his parts live in the studio with Journey’s new drummer, Narada Michael Walden, who also is producing the album, while the other band members generally laid down there parts remotely.
As for when the new album might be released, Schon reports, “It could come out at the end of this year, or, if it doesn’t, I believe that it will come out sometime after the first [of January].”
Brie Larson reprises her role as Captain Marvel in the upcoming MCU film The Marvels, and she recently offered an update on her character — or at least what she’s allowed to tells us.
“Gosh, so much going on, a lot of really juicy things happening that I cannot say a word about,” the 31-year-old actress teased on SirusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show. “But, boy oh boy, is it good. And you’re going to be very excited about it.”
Larson also praised the film’s “amazing” and “awesome” director, Nia DaCosta.
“She just came in, was ready, had such an incredible take on this story and on this film,” Brie went on to explain. “And I’m so happy that she’s guiding this. I’m thrilled.”
The Marvels, the sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel, is set to open November 11, 2022.
Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
Bleachers has premiered a live video for “What’d I Do with All This Faith?”, a track off the Jack Antonoff-led band’s new album, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night.
The clip finds Antonoff and company performing atop the roof of Electric Lady Studios in New York City, with a special appearance by St. Vincent providing guest vocals. You can watch it now streaming on YouTube.
Bleachers has also shared a Electric Lady rooftop performance video for another Saturday Night song, “Big Life.”
Electric Lady, it seems, has become Antonoff’s favorite performance venue of late. He previously joined Lorde there for rooftop renditions of her new singles “Solar Power” and “Stoned at the Nail Salon.”
Bleachers released Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night in July. The album also features the single “Stop Making This Hurt,” as well as collaborations with Lana Del Rey and Bruce Springsteen.
Meanwhile, Antonoff has also announced that he’s “working with the promoters and venues” to install a COVID-19 vaccine or negative test requirement for the upcoming Bleachers tour.
“We’re not messing around,” Antonoff says. “Every show will be as safe as possible without any weirdo bulls***.”
All Good Things‘ single “For the Glory” is certainly living up to its name.
The band’s breakout track, which features Hollywood Undead‘s Johnny 3 Tears and Charlie Scene, has hit number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
“For the Glory” gives All Good Things their first-ever number-one single. It’s also the highest either Hollywood Undead member has charted on the Mainstream Rock Airplay ranking.
Interestingly, All Good Things is the fourth act to earn their first Mainstream Rock chart-topper in 2021. This year has also seen Mammoth WVH, Ayron Jones and, surprisingly, Rise Against conquer the ranking for the first time with “Distance,” “Mercy” and “Nowhere Generation,” respectively.
“For the Glory” will appear on All Good Things’ upcoming album A Hope in Hell, due out August 20. The record also includes the single “The Comeback,” featuring Craig Mabbitt of Escape the Fate.
