Category Archives: US

US

US coronavirus: Covid-19 hospitalizations reach record high, HHS data shows

Leave a comment

Covid-19 hospitalizations in the United States have reached a new record high, surpassing the previous peak from January 2021, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

There are 145,982 people currently hospitalized with Covid-19 — about twice as many than two weeks ago. There are nearly 24,000 ICU beds in use for Covid-19 patients.

Hospitalizations reached a previous peak about a year ago, with more than 142,000 people hospitalized with Covid-19 on January 14, 2021. During the Delta surge over the summer, Covid-19 hospitalizations peaked at about 104,000 on September 1, 2021.

[Original story, published at 6 a.m. ET]

The spread of the Omicron variant is causing widespread disruption across the US as hospitalizations reach a level not seen since the 2020-21 holiday surge.
More than 141,000 Americans were hospitalized with Covid-19 as of Monday, according to data the Department of Health and Human Services, nearing the record of 142,246 hospitalizations on January 14, 2021.
The burden is straining health care networks as hospitals juggling staffing issues caused by the increased demand coupled with employees, who are at a higher risk of infection, having to isolate and recover after testing positive.

In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam declared a limited state of emergency Monday as the number of ICU hospitalizations more than doubled since December 1. The order allows hospitals to expand bed capacity and gives more flexibility in staffing, he said, adding that it also expands the use of telehealth as well as expands which medical professionals can give vaccines.

In Texas, at least 2,700 medical staffers are being hired, trained and deployed to assist with the surge, joining more than 1,300 personnel already sent across the state, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement to CNN.

Kentucky has mobilized the National Guard to provide support, with 445 members sent to 30 health care facilities, the state announced.

“Omicron continues to burn through the commonwealth, growing at levels we have never seen before. Omicron is significantly more contagious than even the Delta variant,” said Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, noting the earlier variant that spurred a surge of cases in the summer and fall months.

“If it spreads at the rate we are seeing, it is certainly going to fill up our hospitals,” he said, and Kentucky is “down to 134 adult ICU beds available.”

In Kansas, the University of Kansas Health System, which announced a record number of Covid-19 patients, is “shifting staff from areas that can support the supportive functions of direct patient care,” UKHS chief operating officer Chris Ruder said. “So that may be running a lab, it may be a simple patient transport. Those types of things we can use other individuals to help with.”

Mitigation measures such as mandatory masking are also being revived in some areas.

Delaware Gov. John Carney signed a universal indoor mask mandate Monday due to the increase in hospitalizations, with some hospitals “over 100% inpatient bed capacity amid crippling staffing shortages,” he said in a statement. Churches and places of worship are exempt from the mandate, while businesses should provide masks to customers and have signage about indoor mask requirements.

“I know we’re all exhausted by this pandemic. But at the level of hospitalizations we’re seeing, Delawareans who need emergency care might not be able to get it. That’s just a fact. It’s time for everyone to pitch in and do what works. Wear your mask indoors. Avoid gatherings or expect to get and spread Covid. Get your vaccine and, if eligible, get boosted. That’s how we’ll get through this surge without endangering more lives,” Carney said.

Schools face Omicron issues

The debate over safety in schools from Covid-19 continues to play out as only about one in six children ages 5 to 11 is fully vaccinated, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As Los Angeles prepared to return to school on Tuesday, approximately 62,000 students and staff had tested positive for Covid-19 and will have to stay home, data from the Los Angeles Unified School District showed Monday, equating to a 14.99% positivity rate. The positivity rate of Los Angeles County at large, by comparison, has spiked to 22%.

In Chicago, educators will return to school Tuesday and students are slated for in-person learning Wednesday following a nearly week-long dispute. The Chicago Teachers Union had voted to teach remotely last week, and the school district responded by canceling classes for four days.
The agreement, announced late Monday, included metrics for when a classroom would need to go remote due to Covid-19 levels.
In areas where schools have returned to in-person learning after the holiday break, the time needed for those with Covid-19 to recover has impacted some essential services.

In Greensboro, North Carolina, the school district suspended school bus transportation for eight of its high schools beginning Monday due to the “severe bus driver shortage made worse by rising Covid-19 cases,” according to a statement from Guilford County Schools.

“As of this weekend, we don’t have enough bus drivers to continue serving all students, so we had to make some really difficult choices,” said school district chief operations officer Michelle Reed.

To offset the strain on parents and guardians, the district has developed a partnership “that will allow high school students to ride city buses for free,” according to the GCS statement.

Other industries continue to be hit

Not only has the strain of the Omicron surge taken its toll on health care workers and educators, but other sectors also are struggling due to the high infection rate.

Some municipalities have seen nearly a quarter of their trash collection workforce call in sick in recent weeks due to Covid-19, leading to delays, according to the Solid Waste Association of North America.

“This coincided, unfortunately, with increased trash and recycling volumes associated with the holidays. However, we hope that as volumes decline and sanitation workers return to work, these delays will prove temporary,” executive director and CEO David Biderman said in a statement Monday.

In travel, US airlines canceled thousands of additional flights over the weekend due to Covid-19 callouts and winter storms, and cruise line Royal Caribbean International announced it has canceled voyages on four ships because of “ongoing Covid-related circumstances around the world.” Last week, Norwegian Cruise Line canceled the voyages of eight ships.

Public transit systems in major metropolitan areas such as New York City and Washington, DC, have had to scale back service with employees ill from Covid-19.

In Detroit, 20-25% of SMART bus service is canceled or delayed, the agency said in a statement Saturday.

And Portland, Oregon’s buses are “facing the most significant operator shortfall in agency history” and reduced bus service by 9% beginning Sunday, the agency said.

CNN’s Rosa Flores, Claudia Dominguez, Jason Hanna, David Shortell, Pete Muntean, Deidre McPhillips, Melissa Alonso, Hannah Sarisohn, Cheri Mossburg and Jenn Selva contributed to this report.

Read original article here

US

COVID home tests: Insurance companies to start reimbursing Americans on Saturday for up to 8 tests per month

Leave a comment

Americans with private insurance will be able to ask for reimbursement for rapid COVID-19 tests beginning Saturday — but any tests purchased before January 15 will not qualify. 

The requirement from the Biden administration allows eight tests a month per person covered by the insurance  policy. For instance, a household of two people covered by one private health insurance plan would be able to request reimbursement for 16 tests every month. 

The new requirement will cover any over-the-counter COVID-19 test given emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. That list includes the Abbott BinaxNOW at-home tests, iHealth COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test, Siemens Healthineers’ rapid COVID-19 antigen self test, and the Flowflex COVID-19 antigen home tests, among dozens of others. (See here for the full list, which continues to expand.) 

Americans with health insurance will not require a health care provider’s order and will also not need to rely on “any cost-sharing requirements such as deductibles, co-payments or coinsurance, prior authorization, or other medical management requirements,” according to a Health and Human Services Department release.

Individuals will likely have to log onto their health insurance companies’ websites to file a claim. 

The new requirement is one of the steps the Biden administration is taking to make rapid tests more accessible, although critics of the plan say the administration should make the tests free at the point of purchase, and should offer retroactive reimbursement. But Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure maintained that the reimbursement will still be useful. “Today’s action further removes financial barriers and expands access to COVID-19 tests for millions of people.”

The administration is strongly “incentivizing” insurers and health plans to enable people to get home tests through “preferred pharmacies, retailers or other entities with no out-of-pocket costs,” said a White House release on the plan. The incentive for insurers is that if they do not set up such a “preferred” system of COVID test retailers, then the insurance company will have to reimburse the full price of the test. 

So, for instance, if an insured individual purchases a box with two tests that costs $34, and the insurer has not set up a preferred system, the insurer would reimburse the full amount of $34. 

But if there is a preferred network set up, if a person buys tests outside of the network, insurers would only be required to reimburse “at a rate of up to $12 per individual test.”  Many of the home tests available come with two per box and tend to cost a little over $20.

The White House has also said it’s launching a website where Americans will be able to request free rapid tests to be delivered to their homes, but the website hasn’t yet launched. The White House is finalizing contracts with companies, including Revival Health Inc. and Goldbelt Security, LLC, to assemble the tests. 

Bo Erickson contributed to this article.

Kathryn Watson

Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital based in Washington, D.C.

Read original article here

US

Biden Will Endorse Changing Senate Rules to Pass Voting Rights Legislation

Leave a comment

One bill introduced by Democrats, the Freedom to Vote Act, would, among other provisions, take the teeth out of state-led efforts to restrict mail-in or absentee voting, make Election Day a holiday, and stop state legislators from redrawing districts in a way that advocates say denies representation to minority voters. Another, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, would restore crucial anti-discrimination components of the Voting Rights Act that were stripped away by the Supreme Court in 2013.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, acknowledged that expectations around the speech were high: “He wouldn’t be going to Georgia tomorrow if he wasn’t ready and prepared to elevate this issue and continue to fight for it,” Ms. Psaki told reporters on Monday.

But the president’s advisers have been far less specific about what solutions he might offer, and a bipartisan path forward is all but impossible. Mr. Biden, who spent 36 years in the Senate and sees himself as a consensus builder, has faced resistance from Republicans on voting rights legislation.

Last week, Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said Republicans could have until Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to drop their opposition to debate and votes on the issue, or face the prospect of overhauling Senate filibuster rules.

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, promised a scorched-earth response should Democrats go that route: “Since Sen. Schumer is hell-bent on trying to break the Senate, Republicans will show how this reckless action would have immediate consequences,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement on Monday.

Republicans have argued that Democrats are using the voting rights legislation to try to gain partisan advantage by seeking to impose their preferred rules on states that have long regulated their own elections. But activists say that critique ignores glaring examples of voter suppression. Voting rights groups in Georgia have already filed a federal lawsuit that accuses legislators of redrawing a congressional district to benefit Republican candidates and deny representation to Black voters.

On Tuesday, Mr. Biden will lean on the power of symbolism when he travels to Georgia. Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris will visit the crypt of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King. They will visit the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where both Dr. King and Mr. Lewis, the Georgia congressman and civil rights icon for whom the legislation is named, were eulogized. Sen. Raphael Warnock, the state’s first Black senator and a Democrat who is seeking a full term this year after a runoff victory, is a senior pastor there.

Read original article here

US

Chicago Reaches Deal With Teachers’ Union to Return to Classrooms

Leave a comment

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a deal with the Chicago Teachers Union on Monday that would return students to classrooms on Wednesday after a dispute over coronavirus safeguards canceled a week of classes in the country’s third-largest school district.

“No one is more frustrated than I am,” Ms. Lightfoot said after the deal was reached. She added: “I’m glad that we’re hopefully putting this behind us and looking forward. But there does come a point when enough is enough.”

The deal, which city officials said included provisions for additional testing and metrics that would close schools with major virus outbreaks, was approved by the union’s House of Delegates on Monday night and was expected to be voted on later in the week by rank-and-file teachers.

Teachers were expected to return to school buildings on Tuesday, with students joining them the next day. Leaders of the union described the agreement as imperfect and were highly critical of Ms. Lightfoot, but they said the deal was needed given the conditions teachers are facing in the pandemic.

“This agreement is the only modicum of safety that is available for anyone that steps foot in the Chicago Public Schools, especially in the places in the city where testing is low and where vaccination rates are low,” said Stacy Davis Gates, the union’s vice president.

School leaders across the United States have scrambled to adjust to the highly infectious Omicron variant, which has pushed the country’s daily case totals to record levels and led to record hospitalizations. Most school districts have forged ahead with in-person instruction, as the Biden administration has urged, sometimes quarantining individual students or classrooms as outbreaks emerge. Some large districts, including in Milwaukee and Cleveland, have moved class online.

But the debate in Chicago proved uniquely bitter and unpredictable, with hundreds of thousands of children pulled out of class two days after winter break when teachers voted to stop reporting to their classrooms. Rather than teach online, as the union proposed, the school district canceled class altogether.

Chicago Public Schools leaders have insisted that virus precautions were in place and that pausing in-person instruction would unfairly burden parents and harm students’ academic and social progress. Union members said that the schools were not safe, that more testing was needed and that classes should be temporarily moved online.

The Chicago area, like much of the country, is averaging far more new cases each day than at any previous point in the pandemic. The Omicron variant is believed to cause less severe illness than prior forms of the virus, with vaccinated people unlikely to face severe outcomes. Still, coronavirus hospitalizations in Illinois have exceeded their peak levels from last winter and continue to rise sharply.

Members of Ms. Lightfoot’s administration have defended the school system’s efforts to make classrooms safe and have emphasized that children rarely face severe outcomes from Covid-19. But their efforts to reassure parents and teachers have sometimes faltered. The district instituted an optional testing plan over winter break, but most of the 150,000 or so mail-in P.C.R. tests given to students were never returned; of the ones that were, a majority produced invalid results.

Read original article here

US

Voters move to block Trump ally Madison Cawthorn from re-election | Republicans

Leave a comment

A group of North Carolina voters told state officials on Monday that they want Republican congressman Madison Cawthorn to be disqualified as a congressional candidate, citing his involvement in the 6 January attack on the Capitol.

Cawthorn questioned the outcome of the presidential election during the “Save America Rally” before the Capitol riot later that day that resulted in five deaths.

At the rally, Cawthorn made baseless claims that the election had been stolen from Donald Trump, and has been accused of firing up the crowd, many of whom went on to storm the Capitol.

Lawyers filed the candidacy challenge on behalf of 11 voters with North Carolina’s board of elections, which oversees a process by which candidate qualifications are scrutinized.

The voters say Cawthorn, who formally filed as a candidate last month, cannot run because he fails to comply with an amendment in the constitution ratified shortly after the civil war.

The 1868 amendment says no one can serve in Congress “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress … to support the constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same”.

The written challenge says the events on 6 January “amounted to an insurrection”, and that Cawthorn’s speech at the rally supporting Trump, his other comments, and information in published reports, provide a “reasonable suspicion or belief” that he helped facilitate the insurrection and is thus disqualified.

“Challengers have reasonable suspicion that Representative Cawthorn was involved in efforts to intimidate Congress and the Vice-President into rejecting valid electoral votes and subvert the essential constitutional function of an orderly and peaceful transition of power,” the complaint read.

The complaint went on to detail the ways Cawthorn allegedly promoted the demonstration ahead of time, including him tweeting: “The future of this republic hinges on the actions of a solitary few … It’s time to fight.” The complaint also details reports of Cawthorn meeting with planners of the 6 January demonstration and possibly the Capitol assault.

Cawthorn, 26, became the youngest member of Congress after his November 2020 election, and has become a social media favorite of Trump supporters. He plans to run in a new district that appears friendlier to Republicans. He formally filed candidacy papers just before filing was suspended while redistricting lawsuits are pending.

Last September, Cawthorn warned North Carolinians of potential “bloodshed” over future elections he claims could “continue to be stolen”, and questioned whether Biden was “dutifully elected”. He advised them to begin amassing ammunition for what he said is likely American-v-American “bloodshed” over unfavorable election results.

“When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes your duty,” he said, in addition to describing the rioters who were arrested during the January 6 insurrection as “political prisoners”. He said “we are actively working” on plans for a similar protest in Washington.

Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech for People, a national election and campaign finance reform group backing the challenge to Cawthorn, told the Guardian the complaint was “the first legal challenge to a candidate’s eligibility under the disqualification clause filed since post civil war reconstruction in the 19th century.”

He said: “It sets a line that says that just as the framers of the 14th amendment wrote and intended, you can’t take an oath to support the constitution and then facilitate an insurrection against the United States while expecting to pursue public office.”

Fein said the challenge will be the first of many against members of Congress associated with the insurrection. Free Speech for People and the group Our Revolution announced last week they would urge state administrators to bar Trump and members of Congress from future ballots.

He said: “This isn’t just about the voters of that district. The insurrection threatened our country’s entire democratic system and putting insurrectionists from any state into the halls of Congress threatens the entire country.”

The challenge asks the board to create a five-member panel from counties within the proposed 13th district to hear the challenge. The panel’s decision can be appealed to the state board and later to court.

The challengers also asked the board to let them question Cawthorn under oath in a deposition before the regional panel convenes, and to subpoena him and others to obtain documents.

John Wallace, a longtime lawyer for Democratic causes in North Carolina, who also filed the challenge, told the Guardian: “The disqualification of Representative Cawthorn certainly should provide a deterrent to others who might try and obstruct or defeat our democratic processes.”

Cawthorn spokesperson Luke Ball said “over 245,000 patriots from western North Carolina elected Congressman Cawthorn to serve them in Washington” – a reference to his November 2020 victory in the current 11th district.

Now “a dozen activists who are comically misinterpreting and twisting the 14th amendment for political gain will not distract him from that service,” Ball wrote.

Read original article here

US

College admissions lawsuit: 16 top colleges sued for alleged violation of federal antitrust laws by colluding on their financial-aid practices

Leave a comment

The complaint, which was filed Sunday, alleges that these private national universities have “participated in a price-fixing cartel that is designed to reduce or eliminate financial aid as a locus of competition, and that in fact has artificially inflated the net price of attendance for students receiving financial aid.”

The suit is asking for class-action status to cover any US citizen or permanent resident who paid tuition, room, or board at these institutions within varying timeframes from 2003 to the present. The plaintiffs want a permanent injunction against this alleged conspiracy, and that they are also seeking restitution and damages to be determined in court.

The suit centers around the application of Section 568 of the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994, which allows institutions to collaborate on financial aid formulas if they don’t consider the student’s financial need in admission decisions.

The lawsuit alleges nine schools (Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern, Notre Dame, the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt) have “made admissions decisions with regard to the financial circumstances of students and their families, ” thereby disfavoring students who need financial aid.”

It claims seven other colleges mentioned in the suit (Brown, the California Institute of Technology, Chicago, Cornell, Emory, Rice and Yale) “may or may not have adhered to need-blind admissions policies, but they nonetheless conspired with the other Defendants.”

“All Defendants, in turn, have conspired to reduce the amount of financial aid they provide to admitted students,” the complaint read.

CNN reached out to all 16 colleges in the lawsuit for a response. Yale University told CNN in an email that “Yale’s financial aid policy is 100% compliant with all applicable laws.” In response to CNN’s request for comment, the California Institute of Technology said, “Caltech is currently reviewing the lawsuit and cannot comment on the specific allegations. We have confidence, however, in our financial aid practices.”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology also responded, saying, “MIT is reviewing the filing and will respond in court in due time.”

The suit alleges the colleges fixed prices through a formula that was based on a shared methodology, a “set of common standards for determining the family’s ability to pay for college.”

“This methodology assesses the income and assets of a given financial-aid applicant and their family to determine the applicant’s ability to pay and thus the financial contribution that the applicant and their family is expected to make. The applicant’s assessed ability to pay therefore is a key determinant in the net price of attendance,” according to the complaint.

“Under a true need-blind admissions system, all students would be admitted without regard to the financial circumstances of the student or student’s family,” the complaint read.

Read original article here

US

Robert Durst, real estate tycoon convicted of murder, dies

Leave a comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Robert Durst, the wealthy New York real estate heir and failed fugitive dogged for decades with suspicion in the disappearance and deaths of those around him before he was convicted last year of killing his best friend, has died. He was 78.

Durst died of natural causes Monday in a hospital outside the California prison where he was serving a life sentence, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Durst had been held in a hospital lockup in Stockton due to a litany of ailments.

Durst was convicted in September of shooting Susan Berman at point-blank range at her Los Angeles home in 2000. He was sentenced Oct. 14 to life in prison without parole.

Durst had long been suspected of killing his wife, Kathie, who went missing in New York 1982 and was declared legally dead decades later.

But only after Los Angeles prosecutors proved he silenced Berman to prevent her from telling police she helped cover up Kathie’s killing was Durst indicted by a New York grand jury in November for second-degree murder in his wife’s death.

Westchester County prosecutors, who had been trying to get Durst transferred there to face the charge, said they planned to reveal new details about the case in coming days.

“After 40 years spent seeking justice for her death, I know how upsetting this news must be for Kathleen Durst’s family,” District Attorney Miriam Rocah said in a statement. “We had hoped to allow them the opportunity to see Mr. Durst finally face charges for Kathleen’s murder because we know that all families never stop wanting closure, justice and accountability.”

Los Angeles prosecutors told jurors Durst also got away with murder in Texas after shooting a man who discovered his identity when he was hiding out in Galveston in 2001. Durst was acquitted of murder in that case in 2003, after testifying he shot the man as they struggled for a gun.

Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said Los Angeles jurors told him after the verdict that they believed Durst had killed his wife and murdered Morris Black in Texas.

Durst’s undoing was in large part due to his hubris.

After beating the charge in Texas, in a bid to rehabilitate his image, he reached out to filmmakers who had portrayed his life — not favorably — in the 2010 big screen feature, “All Good Things,” starring Ryan Gosling as Durst. He offered to sit down for a series of lengthy interviews about his life.

It was a decision he told jurors he deeply regretted.

Durst, who later said he was using methamphetamine during the interviews, made several damning statements including a stunning confession during an unguarded moment in the six-part HBO documentary series “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.”

The show made his name known to a new generation and brought renewed scrutiny and suspicion from authorities.

The night before the final episode aired, Durst was arrested in Berman’s killing while hiding out under an alias in a New Orleans hotel, where he was caught with a gun, more than $40,000 cash and a head-to-shoulders latex mask for a presumed getaway.

The finale’s climax came with him mumbling to himself in a bathroom while still wearing hot mic saying: “You’re caught! What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

The quotes were later revealed to have been manipulated for dramatic effect but the production — done against the advice of Durst’s lawyers and friends — dredged up new evidence including an envelope that connected him to the scene of Berman’s killing as well as incriminating statements he made.

Police had received a note directing them to Berman’s home with only the word “CADAVER” written in block letters.

In interviews given between 2010 and 2015, Durst told the makers of the “The Jinx” that he didn’t write the note, but whoever did had killed her.

“You’re writing a note to the police that only the killer could have written,” Durst said.

His defense lawyers conceded in the run-up to trial that Durst had written the note, and prosecutors said it amounted to a confession.

Clips from “The Jinx,” and “All Good Things” had starring roles at trial.

As did Durst himself. He took the risk of again taking the stand for what turned out to be about three weeks of testimony. It didn’t work as it had in Texas.

Under devastating cross-examination by prosecutor Lewin, Durst admitted he lied under oath in the past and would do it again to dodge trouble.

“‘Did you kill Susan Berman?’ is strictly a hypothetical,” Durst said from the stand. “I did not kill Susan Berman. But if I had, I would lie about it.”

The jury promptly returned a guilty verdict.

It long appeared he would avoid any convictions.

Durst went on the run in late 2000 after New York authorities reopened an investigation into his wife’s disappearance, renting a modest apartment in Galveston and disguising himself as a mute woman.

In 2001, the body parts of a neighbor, Black, began washing up in Galveston Bay.

Arrested in the killing, Durst jumped bail. He was caught shoplifting a sandwich six weeks later in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he had gone to college. Police found $37,000 cash and two handguns in his car.

He later quipped that he was “the worst fugitive the world has ever met.”

He would testify that Black had pulled a gun on him and died when the weapon went off during a struggle.

He told jurors in detail how he bought tools and downed a bottle of Jack Daniels before dismembering Black’s body and tossing it out to sea. While he was cleared of murder, he pleaded guilty to violating his bail, and to evidence tampering for the dismemberment. He served three years in prison.

Durst had bladder cancer and his health deteriorated during the Berman trial. He was escorted into court in a wheelchair wearing prison attire each day because his attorneys said he was unable to change into a suit. But the judge declined further delays after a 14-month pause during the coronavirus pandemic.

At his sentencing, Durst entered the courtroom with a wide-eyed vacant stare. Attorney Dick DeGuerin said he was “very, very sick” — the worst he looked in the 20 years he spent representing him.

Near the end of the hearing after Berman’s loved ones told the judge that her death upended their lives, Durst coughed hard and appeared to struggle to breathe. His chest heaved and he pulled his mask down below his mouth to gulp for air.

He was hospitalized two days later with COVID-19 and DeGuerin said he was on a ventilator. But Durst apparently recovered and was transferred to state prison where mug shots showed no sign of a ventilator.

The son of real estate magnate Seymour Durst, Robert Durst was born April 12, 1943, and grew up in Scarsdale, New York. He would later say that at age 7, he witnessed his mother’s death in a fall from their home.

He graduated with an economics degree in 1965 from Lehigh University, where he played lacrosse. He entered a doctoral program at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he met Berman, but dropped out and returned to New York in 1969.

He became a developer in the family business, but his father passed him over to make his younger brother, and rival, Douglas the head of the Durst Organization in 1992.

Durst broke ties with his family, reaching a settlement with a family trust. He was estimated to have a fortune of about $100 million.

Douglas Durst testified at trial that he feared his brother wanted to kill him.

“Bob lived a sad, painful and tragic life,” he said in a statement Monday. “We hope his death brings some closure to those he hurt.”

In 1971, Robert Durst met Kathie McCormack, and the two married on his 30th birthday in 1973.

In January 1982, his wife was a student in her final year at medical school when she disappeared. She had shown up unexpectedly at a friend’s dinner party in Newtown, Connecticut, then left after a call from her husband to return to their home in South Salem, New York.

Robert Durst told police he last saw her when he put her on a train to stay at their apartment in Manhattan because she had classes the next day.

Prosecutors said Berman, the daughter of a Las Vegas mobster, posed as Kathie Durst to call Albert Einstein College of Medicine the next morning to say she was sick and wouldn’t be at her hospital rotation. The call provided an alibi for Robert Durst because it made it appear his wife made it safely to Manhattan after he saw her.

He would divorce her eight years later, claiming spousal abandonment, and in 2017, at her family’s request, she was declared legally dead.

Kathie McCormack Durst’s family said they plan to provide an update on Jan. 31 — the 40th anniversary of her disappearance — into an investigation of others who helped cover up her killing, attorney Robert Abrams said.

Robert Durst is survived by his second wife Debrah Charatan, whom he married in 2000. He had no children.

Under California law, a conviction is vacated if a defendant dies while the case is under appeal, said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School.

Attorney Chip Lewis said Durst had appealed.

___

Associated Press writer Michelle A. Monroe in Phoenix contributed.

Read original article here

US

Nord Stream 2: Democrats scramble to sink Cruz’s plan to impose sanctions over pipeline

Leave a comment

The effort comes as a number of Democrats are weighing whether to break from the administration and back the Cruz measure, wary about appearing soft on Russia amid rising tensions with Ukraine and eager to send a strong message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, including over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Approving the plan would amount to an embarrassment to the Biden administration, which has argued that the sanctions would undercut US efforts to deter the threat from Russia.

Democrats are quietly drafting an alternative plan — led by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat — and are encouraging their members to support that Democratic plan instead of Cruz’s. That plan would impose sanctions on Russia, but only if it invaded Ukraine, according to Democratic senators.

It’s unclear if the administration backs the Menendez measure — and all the precise details of the bill — but it’s been the subject of growing talks among Democrats, including in a private meeting in the Senate on Monday night with senior State Department official Victoria Nuland.

“I think it’s much stronger,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said of the Menendez measure, noting that he included language dealing with Baltic region in the plan. “It’s a strong message to Putin — much better than the Cruz approach.”

Menendez told reporters Monday that his plan is the “mother of all sanctions legislation” that would impose sanctions against individuals and industry sectors “if Russia invaded Ukraine.”

Cruz forced a concession from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for a vote by this week on his Nord Stream 2 bill after holding up swift confirmation of dozens of Biden’s nominees to be ambassadors and to fill other high-level State Department posts. If it were to pass the Senate, it’s unclear if it would be brought up by the Democratic-controlled House.

Still, some Democrats are weighing backing the plan, putting the bill closer to the 60 votes needed for passage.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat facing reelection in the fall, told CNN on Monday she backs the Cruz measure.

“I’m going to be consistent,” the Nevada Democrat said. “Listen, I think we need to be strong in support of Ukraine against Russian interference and aggression quite honestly. I’ve been consistent in my positions all along.”

Sen. Joe Manchin, the moderate West Virginia Democrat, said Monday he didn’t know if he’d back the Cruz plan. “That’s what I’m going to get educated on,” when asked if he backs the measure.

Cruz believes the newly constructed 750-mile pipeline, which is not yet operating, would empower Putin and allow him to hold dangerous leverage over Europe by controlling the flow of much-needed natural gas there. The Ukrainian government has come out in support of his plan.

But the Biden administration, which has had shifting positions on the need for sanctions against the project, is now arguing the West will have better leverage over threatened Russian aggression against Ukraine if the pipeline is operating because Germany would be able to turn it off if Russia actually invades its neighbor.

“Some may see Nord Stream 2 as leverage that Russia can use against Europe; in fact, it’s leverage for Europe to use against Russia,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who organized the Monday briefing with Nuland, criticized Cruz’s bill while also making clear he didn’t know if it would get the necessary 60 votes to advance to final passage.

“This is not good policy for the United States Senate to allow Ted Cruz to break us from our transatlantic partners in the middle of a delicate negotiation over the future of US-Russia, and Europe-Russia policy,” Murphy said.

It remains to be seen whether that argument will unify Democrats, many of whom have voted in favor of sanctions against the project in the past, and prevent Cruz’s measure from getting the 60 votes it needs to pass. For foreign policy hawks and some Democrats running for reelection, the desire to vote to punish Russia is strong.

Speaking on the floor Monday, Durbin criticized Cruz’s bill as a “weaker response to the crisis on Ukraine’s border” and said it would “only serve to complicate the efforts to repair relations with our European ally, Germany, which has crucial energy needs.” He also that Cruz measure would set a “dangerous precedent” because if would make it harder for Biden to waive the sanctions if he decides doing so is in the best interest of the United States.

Cruz’s agreement with Schumer said a vote had to take place by Thursday. Aides and senators won’t say exactly when the vote will happen but it’s expected this week. Right now, there is no vote set on the Menendez alternative, although that could change before the vote on Cruz takes place.

Cruz’s legislation would “require the imposition of sanctions with respect to entities responsible for the planning, construction, or operation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and their corporate officers,” according to a summary of the bill.

CNN’s Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.

Read original article here

US

Bronx fire: Hospitals work to save critically injured after 17 killed, including 8 children, in massive fire on East 181st

Leave a comment

TREMONT, Bronx (WABC) — Hospitals are desperately working to save the lives of more than a dozen people critically injured by smoke in a fire that killed 17, including eight children, in the Bronx, while the investigation is focused on a door that should have closed automatically but did not.

The identities of those who died have still not been released, but authorities said the children who died were a 4-year-old girl, two 5-year-old girls, a 6-year-old boy, two 11-year-old girls, a 12-year-old boy, and one additional child whose age hasn’t been confirmed.

Ten children remain hospitalized in various conditions.

WATCH | Bill Ritter interviews Bronx official on deadly apartment fire

FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the deceased were taken to seven different hospitals, and he explained a revision from 19 to 17 fatalities as the result of a double count in two cases.

However, he said there remain critically injured victims and he braced the community for a possible increase in the death toll.

About 200 firefighters battled the five-alarm blaze that started on the third floor of the 19-story Twin Parks North West apartment building, located at 333 East 181st Street in the Tremont section, just before 11 a.m. Sunday.

At least 44 people were injured, with 13 said to be “clinging to their lives” in nearby hospitals. Several are intubated.

WATCH | Investigation into why safety doors failed in deadly Bronx fire:

Nigro said the FDNY is certain the cause was a malfunctioning electric space heater that set a mattress on fire.

While the fire was contained to the duplex where it started on the second and third floors and the adjacent hallway, the smoke traveled throughout the building. It was the smoke that caused the fatalities.

Mayor Eric Adams said his takeaway from the fire is “close the door,” and that the city would be reminding New Yorkers of that message.

RELATED | Operation 7: Save a life fire safety tips and links

The door to the fire apartment and one on the 15th floor did not shut automatically as they should have, allowing smoke to escape and billow throughout the building.

Mamadou Wague told Eyewitness News reporter Josh Einiger that fire started in his third floor duplex, where he lives with his wife and eight kids, one of whom was trapped on a burning bed.

Wague has burns on his nose from when he leapt through the flames to rescue his daughter, who is burned but alive.

“We were sleeping and my kids were screaming, saying ‘Fire, Fire!'” he said. “So I see the fire in the mattress, and I told everybody, ‘Get out, get out.'”

Smoke alarms were operable, but the open door allowed heavy smoke to spew out through the building and into the stairwells as residents tried to escape.

“They are self closing but the door on 15 and the door to the fire apartment were not functioning as they should,” Nigro said. “The door was not obstructed. The door when fully opened stayed fully opened because it malfunctioned.”

WATCH | Congressman Ritchie Torres speaks out after deadly Bronx fire

A city official says the building’s owners told them all the doors are self closing and that building workers confirmed the self closing mechanism was operational on the fire apartment door when the lock was repaired last July,

Investigators tested the self closing mechanisms on all doors in the building Sunday and most worked, though the door on the fire apartment did not, as well as a couple others.

Firefighters described a hellish scene.

“It was absolutely horrific,” Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro said. “I talked to many veteran firefighters who said it was the worst fire they had seen in their lives. They were doing CPR on people outside. It was absolutely horrific. Members operated with upmost heroism. Unfortunately, not all fires have a positive outcome. It’s horrible. This fire will be with these members forever.”

The patients are spread out among hospitals like Jacobi Medical Center, Westchester Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell.

“My heart is with the loved ones of all those we’ve tragically lost, all of those impacted, and with our heroic FDNY firefighters,” Governor Kathy Hochul said. “The entire state of New York stands with New York City.”

Tysenn Jacobs returned to her home Monday, hoping to retrieve medication.

“I dropped on my knees and started to pray to God, ‘God, please help us.’ It was too much,” she said. “I lived in this building over 30 years. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Meanwhile, neighbors are rushing to help.

“My kids and I agreed to donate jackets, baby clothes, cereal, whatever we had at home that we could spare, I’m giving away now,” area resident Johnanna Bellevue said. “We live here. We’re a community, so one hand washes the other.”

ALSO READ | How you can help families affected by Bronx fire

The building was emptied of residents Sunday night, but some residents were able to return to Twin Parks North West Monday night to both retrieve items and move back in if they choose to do so.

However, this does not apply to the floor where the fire started as the DOB has not yet lifted their Partial Vacate Order which applies to the third floor of the building.

Some of the returning residents carried the supplies they’d amassed over the past two days, checked in with police and went back to their homes … or what’s left of them.

“Yeah, but it’s still glass everywhere, windows are broken it’s freezing in there, don’t wanna be in there,” survivor Jovane Green said.

But there’s an even bigger reason why Green won’t be spending the night.

“You hear the screaming the people that was ready to jump, everything. It’s all I see,” Green said.

Monday night might have been too soon for him to go back home. But he may never be ready.

“I’m gonna think about it every time I walk in there. You’re just gonna remember everything that happened, all the lives that was lost. Every time I walk in there,” Green said.

Many of the victims are Muslim immigrants from the West African nation of Gambia, and Mayor Adams urged all to seek help and assured their information would not be passed on to federal immigration authorities.

“We just want, right now, to give the families the support they deserve,” he said. “And let the marshals do their job to determine what happened here.”

He praised the firefighters who responded to the scene, calling them heroes.

“Many of them, their oxygen tanks were on empty,” he said. “But instead of turning back and exiting the building, they pushed through, through the smoke.”

It is New York City’s deadliest blaze in three decades.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimates that portable electric heaters are involved in about 1,100 fires per year, while the National Fire Protection Association claims space heaters were most often responsible for the home heating equipment fires, accounting for more than two in five fires, as well as the vast majority of deaths (81%) and injuries (80%) in home fires caused by heating equipment.

RELATED |NYC’s four deadliest fires since 1990 have all been in the Bronx

———-
* More Bronx news
* Send us a news tip
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
* Follow us on YouTube
Submit a News Tip

Copyright © 2022 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.



Read original article here

US

Coalition of Georgia voting rights groups won’t attend Biden’s speech in Atlanta

Leave a comment

Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, and representatives of several voting rights groups are urging Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to remain in Washington on Tuesday if they don’t have a clear plan to advance voting rights legislation.

“We don’t need even more photo ops. We need action, and that action is in the form of the John Lewis Voting Rights (Advancement) Act as well as the Freedom to Vote Act, and we need that immediately,” Albright told reporters on Monday.

Some of the groups urging Biden to skip his Atlanta trip are the Asian American Advocacy Fund, GALEO Impact Fund Inc. and New Georgia Project Action Fund.

Biden and Harris are expected to travel to Atlanta on Tuesday in an effort to galvanize support behind the voting rights legislation. Democrats in Congress are preparing to advance the two measures, which will require a weakening of Senate filibuster rules in order to pass.

Albright told reporters that Biden should forgo speeches and “give a clear call” for the filibuster rules to be modified.

The President has previously stated he would back a rule change on the filibuster to pass voting rights bills, but he hasn’t specified the parameters for the changes or laid out his reasoning in extensive detail. On Tuesday, he is preparing to spell out more clearly what those changes could look like, according to people familiar with his plans.

The groups will be continuing their work to advance voting rights in the state and plan to deliver a response to Biden’s message on Tuesday, Albright said.

Phi Nguyen, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, addressed the President and vice president, saying, “We beg you to stay in Washington tomorrow because we don’t need you here in Georgia.”

“We need legislation that will ensure that our democracy accurately reflects the growing diversity of this state and of this country. Mr. President and Madam Vice President, we beg you to ground that plane the same way that we continue to beg you to ground the planes of so many of our community members who are being deported because we still lack a pathway to citizenship,” Nguyen said.

Vyanti Joseph, organizing director for the Asian American Advocacy Fund, said Harris had met with some groups last year and shared her willingness to “keep pushing on voting rights.” So far, Joseph said, advocates “have not seen any progress on those promises.”

“It is not the time for another visit. Georgia voters need voting rights today so we can continue to do our work here,” Joseph said.

“Part of Georgia activists and advocates have been responding to attack after attack on our voting rights with little support from the White House. We call on our President and vice president today to stay in Washington and to act quickly,” Joseph added.

Pressure from advocates has been intensifying on Biden and lawmakers to act on federal voting rights bills that have stalled in Congress.

Last month, Martin Luther King III, his wife, Arndrea Waters King, and their daughter, Yolanda Renee King, called for “no celebration” of MLK Day without the passage of voting rights legislation.

The Kings plan to mobilize activists on MLK weekend and march across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington, DC, on January 17.

Read original article here