An Indiana teen reported missing since April has been found safe in Florida, and police arrested two women in relation to her disappearance.
Indiana State police on Friday finally canceled a Silver Alert for 14-year-old Aaliyah Ramiraz, who had last been seen in Syracuse, Indiana on April 27.
Aaliyah Ramirez, 14, was found this week in Florida after going missing for four months. (Indiana State Police)
Palm Beach County Police arrested two women, whom they say are related to Ramirez: Allissa Sands, 25, and Elizabeth Sands, 47, who is Aaliyah’s grandmother, WPTA 21 reported.
CALIFORNIA AUTHORITIES TURN ON CELLPHONE DATA AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN MYSTERIOUS DEATHS OF FAMILY
No charges have been filed against the women, though, police have said.
Ramirez had last been seen on a doorbell camera video that captured her leaving home in April to walk to her bus stop, but she reportedly never arrived. Many believed that she had run away, but an official with the Syracuse Police Department told WANE that Ramirez was not a runaway and was believed to be in danger.
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State Police believed she might have been headed to Florida, which is where she was located, WOWO reported.
Her father, Anthony, told Dateline NBC in May he believed someone had abducted his daughter. The events leading up to police locating Ramirez have not been revealed, but it was known that she had family in the state.
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Police indicated that additional information would be available later on Saturday.
Andrade scores nearly a half-point higher on bars than she did in qualifications.
July 29, 2021, 7:36 a.m. ET
Rebeca Andrade nails her bars routine and sticks the dismount cold.
July 29, 2021, 7:35 a.m. ET
Tang Xijing, who had the second-highest balance beam score in the qualifying round, just fell off the beam.
July 29, 2021, 7:34 a.m. ET
It seems that we have more and more fans here at gymnastics with every women’s event. By the last day of the competition — the balance beam final next week — this place might just be as packed as it could be, considering Covid-19 restrictions. It could be that athletes and coaches are coming to watch after they finish their events. They have 48 hours to leave the country once their competitions are over.
July 29, 2021, 7:33 a.m. ET
I’m surprised Angelina Melnikova scored a few hundredths higher than Sunisa Lee on vault. I thought Lee’s vault was cleaner. Lee should have the edge over her on bars, and Melnikova should have the edge on floor exercise at the end of the competition. Melnikova qualified into the vault final, though, because of the two-per-country rule.
July 29, 2021, 7:31 a.m. ET
Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos of France wobbles badly on her front pike mount on balance beam. She manages to stay on the beam, but that’s a big deduction.
July 29, 2021, 7:27 a.m. ET
One rotation down, three to go. The top-ranked group heads to the uneven bars now. Rebeca Andrade is currently ranked first and Jade Carey second, but always take the rankings after a single event with a grain of salt — Andrade and Carey just competed on one of their best apparatuses, and the other gymnasts in their group didn’t.
July 29, 2021, 7:21 a.m. ET
Lu Yufei of China falls trying to connect two release moves on the uneven bars, a Tkatchev and a Gienger.
July 29, 2021, 7:20 a.m. ET
That’s a tough blow for Lu, who qualified to the uneven bars final and probably needed a good score on bars to be competitive in the all-around.
July 29, 2021, 7:16 a.m. ET
Because I’ve heard the floor exercise music for each Olympic gymnast seemingly a hundred times now here at the Tokyo Games, the bad music is starting to get to me. Yunseo Lee of Korea is on the floor now, performing to creepy music you’d hear in a horror movie about a creepy clown doll stalking children.
July 29, 2021, 7:15 a.m. ET
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil just made one of the most difficult vaults in the world look easy. It’s called a Cheng, which is a roundoff onto the springboard, a half twist onto the vault and a front flip with 1½ twists.
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesCredit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesCredit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesCredit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesCredit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
After pushing off of the vaulting table, Andrade soared so high into the air that it made her look weightless. She received 15.3 points, just one-tenth off of her score in qualification. That 15.4 score in qualification was the best score of the day — even higher than Simone Biles’s vault, which is usually the best, by far.
Andrade’s score was high enough to lead all gymnasts after one rotation.
July 29, 2021, 7:12 a.m. ET
Angelina Melnikova plays it safe with a double-twisting vault. She scores a 14.633, just slightly ahead of Lee.
July 29, 2021, 7:12 a.m. ET
The Swiss gymnast Giulia Steingruber has some seriously angry floor music. Head-banger lite.
July 29, 2021, 7:12 a.m. ET
Angelina Melnikova of Russia does a double-twisting Yurchenko. Like her teammate Urazova, her leg form is a bit messy, but she lands well. All of the top competitors are hitting so far.
July 29, 2021, 7:10 a.m. ET
Simone Biles could be mistaken for any other fan here (well, if there were paying spectators). She’s cheering, checking her phone and chatting with a friend. (Jordan Chiles, that is.)
July 29, 2021, 7:10 a.m. ET
Gorgeous pirouetting work from Tang Xijing of China on the uneven bars. She lost her balance slightly on one handstand but recovered well.
July 29, 2021, 7:10 a.m. ET
Nina Derwael of Belgium does a 1.5-twisting Yurchenko, which is one of the easiest vaults we’ll see today. Where Derwael really shines is on the uneven bars, where she had the highest score in the qualifying round.
July 29, 2021, 7:08 a.m. ET
Vladislava Urazova, from Russia, does a double-twisting Yurchenko with some leg form problems in the air but a solid landing. She landed a bit oddly, with her feet crossed, but stuck it nonetheless and doesn’t seem to be hurt at all.
July 29, 2021, 7:06 a.m. ET
Jade Carey also does a Cheng, with some leg separation as she comes off the springboard and a hop backward. 15.2 for her.
July 29, 2021, 7:03 a.m. ET
Andrade’s score on that vault in the qualifying round, 15.4, was the highest of the day. She scores one-tenth lower today, 15.3, but don’t be fooled — that is a MASSIVE score.
July 29, 2021, 7:03 a.m. ET
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil nails one of the most difficult vaults in the world, called the Cheng. It’s a roundoff onto the springboard, a half twist onto the vault, and a front layout with one and a half twists. It looks like her right foot might have been just barely out of bounds, but that would only be a one-tenth deduction.
July 29, 2021, 6:59 a.m. ET
Suni Lee just stuck a double-twisting Yurchenko. Great start for her. This vault isn’t as difficult as the ones we’ll see from some other gymnasts, but given that vault isn’t Lee’s best event, that performance couldn’t be better for her.
July 29, 2021, 6:58 a.m. ET
In one of the first routines of the day, Alice D’Amato of Italy, the 15th-ranked qualifier, just fell on balance beam.
July 29, 2021, 6:58 a.m. ET
Simone Biles, who pulled out of this competition because of mental health concerns, is in the stands with the rest of the U.S. team. They are here to see which gymnast not named Simone Biles will be the first to win an all-around at the world championships or the Olympics since 2013. Those gymnasts can’t be on the competition floor — this event is only for the all-arounders and their coaches.
July 29, 2021, 6:56 a.m. ET
Sunisa Lee will be the first competitor on vault. It’s her weakest event, and she typically performs a less difficult vault (a double-twisting Yurchenko) than her teammate Jade Carey. So, if you see Lee out of the first three places after this rotation, fear not.
July 29, 2021, 6:51 a.m. ET
The top-ranked group will start on vault and then rotate to bars, beam and floor. The second group will start on bars and rotate in the same order, finishing on the vault.
July 29, 2021, 6:50 a.m. ET
The competition is divided into four groups of six gymnasts each, which will rotate through the four apparatuses. The groups are determined by rank in the qualifying round — the gymnasts ranked 1-6 in one group, 7-12 in another, and so on — with one exception. Jade Carey, whose qualifying score would place her in the second group, will compete in the first because Simone Biles was already assigned to that group when she withdrew and Carey took her place.
July 29, 2021, 6:40 a.m. ET
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil on Sunday.Credit…Dylan Martinez/Reuters
With Simone Biles out of the competition, there are several contenders from outside the United States who could contend for the gold. Here are a few of them:
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil placed second in the qualification, where her competition went so well that, for a fleeting moment, it seemed her total score could have surpassed Biles’s. She earned a 15.4 that night after executing a near-perfect Cheng, a very difficult vault that only a handful of gymnasts can do.
Angelina Melnikova and Vladislava Urazova will represent Russia, which won the team event. Russia has never won an Olympic all-around title as an independent nation, though the Soviet Union had dominated the sport for decades. Both women are stellar on the uneven bars, but fell on the beam in the team final and cannot afford that mistake here.
China finished a disappointing seventh in the team event, so Tang Xijing and Lu Yufei will be looking for redemption. Tang finished second all-around to Biles at the 2019 world championship. Both women are capable of high scores on the bars and beam.
Nina Derwael of Belgium, Melanie de Jesus dos Santos of France, Mai Murakami of Japan, and the twins Jessica and Jennifer Gadirova of Britain all could win a medal, especially if the top contenders falter. Derwael qualified in seventh all-around and will also challenge Lee in what should be an exciting uneven bars final on Sunday. De Jesus dos Santos is the 2019 European champion, and Murakami was second to Biles at the 2018 world championship. The Gadirovas, like the Russians, already have Olympic medals; Britain won the bronze on Tuesday, its first team medal in women’s gymnastics since 1928.
Ellie Black, Canada’s best gymnast, withdrew from the competition on Wednesday after reinjuring her left ankle.
July 29, 2021, 6:20 a.m. ET
Jade Carey performs her floor routine during the qualification round.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
The American gymnast Jade Carey is so good on the floor exercise that she might debut the hardest tumbling pass ever to be attempted by a woman in competition: the triple-twisting double layout.
During the skill, Carey launches herself into a roundoff and back handspring before rising to complete three twists and two back flips. The feat is similar to Biles’s triple-double on the floor, but whereas Biles tucks her knees into her chest, Carey increases the difficulty by keeping her body straight.
So far, she has only attempted the skill in practice.
In the all-around final, Carey will slot into the spot once allotted to Biles, who was scheduled to close out the competition on the floor but withdrew, citing mental health challenges and “a little bit of the twisties” (a term that refers to a gymnast’s ability to sense where she is in space). That means Carey will have her three other scores — on the vault, uneven bars and beam — in hand. If the math shows that she is just out of the medals, the risk of trying the skill might be worth the reward.
If she were to land the triple-twisting double layout, it would be named the Carey.
July 29, 2021, 5:40 a.m. ET
Sunisa Lee on the balance beam during the team final.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Sunisa Lee and Jade Carey will represent the United States. Biles’s decision to step back created the spot for Carey, who would have qualified for the all-around final if not for a rule that allows only two gymnasts from any country to compete in the event.
Leeis the second-best all-around gymnast in the United States, behind Biles, and is a strong contender for a medal. During qualifying, she placed third among the 24 gymnasts but she did not do her most difficult uneven bars routine — the one she performed during the team final.
At the Olympic trials, she outscored Biles on one of the two days of competition, something no other gymnast had done since 2013.
Lee, 18, will also compete next week in the uneven bars and beam finals. She has a good chance of becoming the Olympic champion on the bars because her routine is the most difficult in the world. In the team final on Tuesday it scored a 15.4, tying for the highest mark in women’s gymnastics at these Games so far.
Carey did not win silver with the U.S. team on Tuesday because she secured her own spot in the Olympics, separate from the U.S.A. Gymnastics selection process, by ranking first on the vault in the multiyear World Cup series. She is capable of winning individual medals on vault and floor and has already qualified for both of those finals next week.
The yearlong postponement of the Olympics allowed Carey, 21, to improve her uneven bars and beam skills. As she steps up for the all-around, she will need to score her best on those two events to contend for a medal. But Carey will finish the day on the floor exercise, where she could debut a risky skill: a triple-twisting double layout. It would be the hardest tumbling pass ever performed by a woman.
The Americans MyKayla Skinner and Grace McCallum will not participate in the final because of the two-per-country rule. Skinner was fourth best among the Americans and 11th best among all gymnasts in the qualifying round, but a lower-ranked athlete from another nation will compete instead. McCallum was fifth best among the Americans and 13th best among all gymnasts, while Jordan Chiles finished a distant 40th overall.
Gabby Douglas, the 2012 Olympic champion, was similarly left out of the all-around in 2016, despite qualifying in third place behind Biles and Aly Raisman.
July 29, 2021, 5:03 a.m. ET
Sunisa Lee during the uneven bars in the team final on Tuesday night.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Simone Biles will not repeat as the Olympic all-around champion on Thursday after pulling herself from the event. The shake-up, which came after she withdrew from the team competition on Tuesday, opens the door for her teammate Sunisa Lee, or Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, or the Russians, or the Chinese, to win the individual title. Biles could still participate in the four apparatus finals next week.
The United States has won each Olympic all-around title since 2004, when Carly Patterson became the first American winner of the competition since Mary Lou Retton in 1984. Brazil has never won an Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics.
July 29, 2021, 5:02 a.m. ET
The women’s gymnastics all-around final begins Thursday at 7:50 p.m. local time in Tokyo, and is expected to last about two hours, with the winner determined following turns on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.
WATCH LIVE: In the United States, the competition begins at 6:50 a.m. Eastern time. It can be streamed live via the NBC Olympics site, Peacock or the NBC Sports app.
TAPE DELAY: Many fans will prefer to stream a replay or watch the tape-delayed broadcast, which will air on NBC at 8 p.m. Eastern time. To avoid spoilers, turn off mobile news notifications and try to stay off social media.
July 29, 2021, 5:01 a.m. ET
The all-around will test 24 individual athletes on vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. Their scores on each apparatus will be totaled to determine the most complete gymnast.
Each routine will receive a “D score” for difficulty (such as a 5.4 for the common double-twisting Yurchenko vault) and an “E score” for execution (starting at 10 and decreasing for errors). The two scores are combined, so that the double-twisting Yurchenko could merit a maximum possible score of 15.4.
For a more in-depth explanation, watch this helpful video:
State police issued a $210 fine for violations they say led to a crash Monday that damaged a bridge over Interstate 93 north of Boston. The bridge will require several months to repair. Troopers said the truck was over its permitted height. It was permitted for 14-feet but the height with the cargo was 14-feet and 9-inches. Additionally, troopers said the driver violated the permitted route, which did not include I-93 and required flag cars, which were not used. The two violations are considered civil offenses and each carries a $105 fine, state police said. Dove Transportation, LLC in Alabama owns the Peterbilt 367 that was hauling a large tank Monday afternoon when it slammed into a bridge over the interstate in Medford, State Police said.When the tank hit the bridge, the first beam was split in two and a second was bowed from the force of the impact. Repairs to the bridge structure will take several months and are expected to cause delays throughout the work period. The big, blue metal tank that the truck was hauling was also heavily damaged. State police said it was a water clarifying tank, like what is used for wastewater treatment. The truck was being driven by a 57-year-old Alabama man and had a 54-year-old Alabama woman as a passenger. The passenger was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with possible minor injuries following the crash.The Massachusetts Department of Transportation says it intends to hold Dove Transportation LLC legally and financially responsible for the damages and will be reviewing the company’s eligibility for obtaining permits in Massachusetts in the future.U.S. Department of Transportation records indicates that Dove Transportation is based in Alabama and has a staff of 12 drivers.Record show the company was involved in five previous crashes over the past 24 months. Two of those previous crashes occurred in Texas and others occurred in Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. None of those crashes caused injuries or fatalities but the vehicles involved did require towing, 5 Investigates found. Also over the past 24 months, Dove Transportation drivers and vehicles faced a total of 44 inspections. In the 22 inspections that involved vehicles, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records show that vehicles were placed out of service 63% of the time. Dove Transportation also has a “Conditional” safety rating from the FMCSA, as of July 4.WCVB called Dove Transportation, which declined to make a statement about Monday’s crash. The company also asked that reporters stop calling.
MEDFORD, Mass. —
State police issued a $210 fine for violations they say led to a crash Monday that damaged a bridge over Interstate 93 north of Boston. The bridge will require several months to repair.
Troopers said the truck was over its permitted height. It was permitted for 14-feet but the height with the cargo was 14-feet and 9-inches. Additionally, troopers said the driver violated the permitted route, which did not include I-93 and required flag cars, which were not used.
The two violations are considered civil offenses and each carries a $105 fine, state police said.
Dove Transportation, LLC in Alabama owns the Peterbilt 367 that was hauling a large tank Monday afternoon when it slammed into a bridge over the interstate in Medford, State Police said.
When the tank hit the bridge, the first beam was split in two and a second was bowed from the force of the impact. Repairs to the bridge structure will take several months and are expected to cause delays throughout the work period.
The big, blue metal tank that the truck was hauling was also heavily damaged. State police said it was a water clarifying tank, like what is used for wastewater treatment.
The truck was being driven by a 57-year-old Alabama man and had a 54-year-old Alabama woman as a passenger. The passenger was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with possible minor injuries following the crash.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation says it intends to hold Dove Transportation LLC legally and financially responsible for the damages and will be reviewing the company’s eligibility for obtaining permits in Massachusetts in the future.
U.S. Department of Transportation records indicates that Dove Transportation is based in Alabama and has a staff of 12 drivers.
Record show the company was involved in five previous crashes over the past 24 months. Two of those previous crashes occurred in Texas and others occurred in Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. None of those crashes caused injuries or fatalities but the vehicles involved did require towing, 5 Investigates found.
Also over the past 24 months, Dove Transportation drivers and vehicles faced a total of 44 inspections. In the 22 inspections that involved vehicles, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records show that vehicles were placed out of service 63% of the time.
Dove Transportation also has a “Conditional” safety rating from the FMCSA, as of July 4.
WCVB called Dove Transportation, which declined to make a statement about Monday’s crash. The company also asked that reporters stop calling.
HEBER CITY, Utah — Police have arrested three men in connection with the death of a young girl who was hit by a stray bullet Friday night inside her home.
According to family members, 7-year-old Zaydanielys Rodriguez Irizarry died at a local hospital after suffering a gunshot wound. Her father says the bullet came through the wall of their apartment.
WATCH: Family mourns loss of 7-year-old girl killed by stray bullet
Christopher Robert Oconnell, 34, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of manslaughter, as well as other potential charges.
Two other men, 36-year-old Colin David Howells and 21-year-old Trever Joe Pinter, were also arrested for alleged crimes, but not directly for the girl’s death.
When police responded to the girl’s family’s apartment at Wasatch Commons in Heber City, they found Oconnell nearby. Detectives say his speech was slurred, he was not complying, and he had a handgun on him.
Police say the three men were together in one of the neighboring apartments that night. Detectives also spoke with two women who were with the men. The women told police Oconnell was waving a gun around at one point.
During their investigation, police say they found a bullet hole in the wall of the apartment that continued into that of the 7-year-old’s family.
Family sent us these photos of Zaydanielys Rodriguez Irizarry, the 7-year-old girl who died last night after a stray bullet went into their apartment in Heber City and struck her.
A GoFundMe for the family is linked in this article: https://t.co/smZhwW8MbD pic.twitter.com/3EC347TAlT
— FOX 13 News Utah (@fox13) July 10, 2021
Oconnell admitted to being under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs. Detectives also say they found marijuana in the apartment where the bullet hole was found, adding that it was “in the same room and within reach” of firearms.
Howells was booked on suspicion of sexual battery and intoxication after the women told police he and Oconnell sexually assaulted them in Pinter’s apartment. Oconnell, however, was not booked for sexual assault, although the police report states that the women accused both men of doing so.
Oconnell’s additional counts include possession of marijuana, intoxication, carrying a weapon under the influence, and possession of a weapon by a restricted person. Court records show he pleaded guilty in 2017 to driving under the influence.
Pinter was arrested for obstruction of justice because police say he interfered with the investigation. Howells also faces an intoxication charge.
Pinter is allowed to be released on $1,500 bail with certain conditions, and Howells is as well with bail set at $2,000.
Oconnell was ordered to be held without bail.
The suspects have not yet been officially charged in court.
The FBI arrested Federico Klein, one of former President TrumpDonald TrumpHouse passes voting rights and elections reform bill DEA places agent seen outside Capitol during riot on leave Georgia Gov. Kemp says he’d ‘absolutely’ back Trump as 2024 nominee MORE’s appointees for State Department, on Thursday in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Samatha Shero, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Washington Field Office, confirmed the arrest to The Hill on Thursday evening, but referred additional questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C.
Klein’s arrest is the first known instance of one of Trump’s political appointees facing criminal charges in connection with the riot. It comes as some on the right seek to shift the blame away from Trump for the insurrection.
Trump was impeached for inciting the riots, but the Senate ultimately voted 53-47 to acquit him.
Over 300 people have been charged in connection with the riot that forced Congress to halt certification of President BidenJoe BidenThe West needs a more collaborative approach to Taiwan Abbott’s medical advisers were not all consulted before he lifted Texas mask mandate House approves George Floyd Justice in Policing Act MORE’s electoral college victory and resulted in the deaths of five people.
News of Klein’s arrest was first reported by Politico. According to the news outlet, he was taken into custody in Virginia.
According to a financial disclosure published by ProPublica, Klein was appointed to the State Department on Jan 22, 2017 as a special assistant. Prior to his appointment, he worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign, and reported making $15,000 in income.
At the State Department, Klein was a special assistant in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the State Department, and was a “Schedule C” political appointee, Politico reported.
Klein’s mother, Cecilia, told Politico in a telephone interview that she discussed the Jan. 6 events with her son, and confirmed that he was in Washington, D.C. that day.
She told Politico that she came away with the impression that her son hadn’t entered the Capitol but couldn’t recall whether he specifically denied it.
“As far as I know, he was on the Mall. That’s what he told me,” Cecilia Klein told Politico.
As Covid-19 vaccines continue to roll out across the country, many hospitals and clinics are giving priority to their own patients, leaving people who lack a primary-care doctor or a doctor affiliated with the right hospital struggling to find doses.
Many states chose to distribute the vaccine first to hospitals, which then became the primary deliverer of the shot to their own healthcare workers and others who qualified. In many cases, people have to have a primary-care doctor affiliated with the hospital, or receive care from the hospital, to receive a shot there.
That means that people living in poorer communities without major hospitals often face an even harder time finding access to the still-scarce vaccine. The problem highlights one of the challenges officials face in the effort to vaccinate people equitably.
When Texans aged 65 and older and with certain medical conditions became eligible for Covid-19 vaccines, Jovana Sanchez-Melendez, a 35-year-old university director of technology near Dallas who has an autoimmune disease, received an email from her doctor to sign up for an appointment.
New research could help explain why thousands of Covid-19 survivors are facing debilitating neurological symptoms months after initially getting sick. WSJ breaks down the science behind how the coronavirus affects the brain, and what this could mean for long-haul patients. Illustration: Nick Collingwood/WSJ
Ms. Sanchez-Melendez received the vaccine quickly. But she said she couldn’t get appointments for her parents, who work in front-line jobs as a custodian and a construction worker and have medical conditions that make them high risk for Covid-19. Her parents weren’t patients of a hospital that had doses.
“You have to know somebody who knows somebody who knows how to get it, and even then it’s not a sure thing,” Ms. Sanchez-Melendez said. Her parents eventually found doses, with her father getting his first shot Wednesday, about a month after she received hers.
Similar dynamics have been reported across the country, in states as disparate as California, New York, Iowa and Alabama. The situation has improved slightly in recent weeks as more hospitals are starting to make room for nonpatient registrations, health officials said. Also, in some states, major retail pharmacies such as CVS are now distributing doses, widening access.
Dennis Andrulis, a senior researcher for the Texas Health institute, said that nationally 27% of white men, 31% of Black men and 41% of Hispanic men don’t have a primary-care doctor. He said hospitals also tend to locate in more prosperous areas, leaving poorer neighborhoods with fewer options.
“You have a history of neglect on steroids,” Dr. Andrulis said. “If people have access to a doctor in their community, and insurance, the door is going to be more open to them.”
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Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said that some of the people who need the vaccine most—workers in dangerous, public-facing jobs—are least equipped to fight for doses if they don’t have a connection to a doctor. Bus drivers, custodians, grocery workers and others can’t spend their days refreshing computer screens looking for vaccine doses, the way people working from home on computers can, he said.
Many doctors and clinics without ties to a major hospital were left out of initial vaccine distribution efforts, Dr. Benjamin said. On Wednesday, he said the situation is evolving. “There is certainly an increase in availability, but many of the community-physician providers still don’t have easy access,” he said. “The retail pharmacies should help the situation some.”
In Texas, facilities giving priority to their own patients include some designated by the state as vaccine hubs. Hospitals said they have expanded access as they have been able to do so. A spokesman for UT Southwestern Medical Center, where Ms. Sanchez-Melendez received her vaccine, said it treats extremely sick patients and tried to give priority to those most likely to be hospitalized if they caught the virus. The hospital has allowed periodic access to sign-ups for nonpatients, and has set up a vaccination site in an area of southern Dallas historically underserved by healthcare.
John DeFilippo got his second Covid-19 vaccine shot in January.
John DeFilippo, a 72-year-old in Houston, signed up for vaccine appointments in January at the same time as his wife, Marylyn. Her doctor at Memorial Hermann Health System emailed her an appointment link. A few days later, he got a call from a representative at the hospital asking who his doctor was. Mr. DeFilippo had been treated at Memorial Hermann before and recovered from back surgery there, but his primary-care physician wasn’t directly affiliated. He said the hospital canceled his appointment.
A spokeswoman for the health system said it had such limited vaccine supply, and such a large qualifying population, that it has had to move through it in waves. “Like many health systems around the country, we started by offering vaccination to established, active patients,” the hospital said. “However, by mid-January, we were hosting a number of mass vaccination drive-through clinics around greater Houston.”
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Mr. DeFilippo said he was surprised, not only by the hospital’s policy but also that it would dedicate resources during the pandemic to tracking down and weeding out nonpatients.
“I’m not a stranger to the hospital, but I guess I’m not enough of a customer,” he said. “She must have researched me and my doctor—all for one patient.”
He said he was later able to obtain the vaccine from a different hospital.
Write to Elizabeth Findell at Elizabeth.Findell@wsj.com
Kevin Strong of California was charged with three crimes related to the attack, including knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building without lawful authority, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. He confessed to breaching the Capitol in an interview with investigators and was arrested on Friday, according to the Justice Department. Strong told law enforcement he hadn’t done any damage or attacked law enforcement, according to the affidavit.
Strong works for the Federal Aviation Administration and is a follower of the QAnon conspiracy movement, according to court documents. A day after the insurrection, an employee in the FAA’s internal investigation branch contacted the FBI and reported Strong to law enforcement.
Prosecutors say a tipster told the FBI that Strong has been “stockpiling items and telling others to get ready for martial law.” Based on that report, the FBI opened an investigation into Strong on December 30, according to the affidavit. The FBI says it searched Strong’s home on January 16 and seized two guns owned by Strong’s uncle and multiple digital devices, and that investigators found QAnon items during a search of his home.
Andrew Ericson of Oklahoma, 23, was charged with two misdemeanors related to the attack. Prosecutors say he live-streamed himself entering the Capitol, walking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and taking “what appeared to be a beer out of a refrigerator in an office,” according to someone identified in court documents as “Witness 1,” who watched the footage and recognized Ericson from a previous professional relationship.
Investigators say they tracked down Ericson after Witness 1 watched his livestream on Snapchat and provided his name to the FBI. Ericson was arrested Friday, according to an FBI affidavit and the Justice Department.
Ericson was charged with unlawful entry on restricted buildings or grounds and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
