Washington State News

Stabbing attack at Sydney mall leaves at least six people dead, including suspect, police said

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 03:57:31 +0000

A man began stabbing people at a busy Sydney shopping center Saturday before he was fatally shot, leaving multiple people including a small child injured, police said.

The suspect attacked nine people at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, which is in the city’s eastern suburbs, before a police inspector shot him after he turned and raised a knife, Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters. Five of the victims and the suspect died, he said. He had no details on the condition of the injured.

Cooke said he believed that the suspect acted alone, and he was “content that there is no continuing threat.” He said officials didn’t know who the offender was. “This is quite raw,” he said, and a ”lengthy and precise” investigation was just beginning.

He said there was “nothing that we are aware of at the scene that would indicate any motive or any ideology.” When asked whether officials were ruling out terrorism, he said: “We’re not ruling anything out.”

Cooke said the police inspector, a senior officer, was alone when she confronted the suspect and engaged him soon after her arrival on the scene, “saving a range of people’s lives.”

Video showed many ambulances and police cars around the shopping center, and people streaming out.

Paramedics were treating patients at the scene.

Witness Roi Huberman, a sound engineer at ABC TV in Australia, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident.

“And suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didn’t know what to do,” he said. “Then the very capable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked. She then locked the store and then she then let us through the back and now we are out.”

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5 card skimmers found in DC within 3 weeks, police say

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 00:05:35 +0000

A credit card skimmer found at a D.C. grocery store Wednesday night is just one of five skimmers found around the city recently, and the Metropolitan Police Department has released surveillance images of two men they believe may be responsible.

John Perry-Miller came across a skimmer at self-checkout in the Safeway on Wisconsin Avenue NW in Georgetown.

“I notice at the little thing I’m at, the keypad was sparkling, like brand new,” he said.

“So, I yanked on it, and it was loose,” he said. “And so, I called over the attendant and he was like, ‘No it’s not a skimmer,’ and I said, ‘It’s a skimmer!’ And so, we yanked it off together all the way, and he was like, ‘Oh my God.’”

On Friday, police said four other skimmers have been discovered.

The first was found March 25 by an employee at a Harris Teeter on First Street NE in NoMa.

A week later, on April 1, police got a call from an employee at another Harris Teeter on M Street SE in Navy Yard.

Less than an hour after police received the report of the skimmer found in Georgetown Wednesday, another was reported found in the 4500 block of 40^th Street NW.

Then Friday morning, another was discovered at Safeway on Corcoran Street NW near Dupont Circle.

How to identify card skimmers

While police try to track down the thieves here’s what to do to protect against being skimmed:

Make sure the device doesn’t move.
Compare the machine to the one next to it.
Check the alignment of the card reader.
Look inside of the card reader before using it.

Anyone who finds a skimmer or suspected one should call 911.

Anyone who may be a victim should notify their bank or credit card company immediately.

Family believes Maryland man was killed helping employee remove disruptive men from restaurant

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 23:01:44 +0000

The family of a man stabbed at a Maryland restaurant says he was always quick to intervene and help when he saw someone was about to get harmed, and they believe that quality led to his death.

The family told Telemundo 44 they think 23-year-old Lusvin España of Hyattsville died trying to stop two men causing trouble at El Paraiso in Chillum, where España was having dinner with his boss and coworkers, including his brother, who left before the stabbing.

Cellphone video shows España and a restaurant employee trying to get the two men to leave before 11 p.m. Wednesday. The men appear angry and combative.

Moments later, España and the employee were stabbed.

The victims were taken to the hospital, where España died, according to Prince George’s County police. The restaurant employee is expected to survive.

Family say Espana had a heart as big as his smile and was grateful to be able to use his physical strength to work hard in the construction business to help his family.

“When this tragedy happened, he was coming back from work,” his mother, Glenda Maribel España, told Telemundo 44. “He was not out partying; he was coming back from work.”

Officers found the suspects — 34-year-old Alexis Romero of Fairmont Heights and 27-year-old Edwin Meija-Sandoval of Silver Spring — not far from the scene, police said.

España did not know the suspects, according to police.

“We want justice,” said España’s brother, Nolvin Josue España. “My brother is not coming back, but we need justice so this does not happen to anyone else.”

Romero and Mejia-Sandoval are charged with first- and second-degree murder.

Families of Gorge festival shooting victims sue Live Nation for security failures

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 22:07:32 +0000

The families claim the event’s organizers could have, and should have, prevented the deaths.

Program launches to help Port of Baltimore businesses keep employees

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 21:46:31 +0000

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced on Friday the start of a program to help Port of Baltimore businesses retain employees in the aftermath of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.

The $12.5 million program aims to prevent layoffs while recovery work continues. The program was created by executive order and authorized by emergency legislation the governor signed on Tuesday.

“We must do everything in our power to support the 8,000 Port workers whose jobs have been directly affected by the collapse of the Key Bridge — and the thousands more who have been touched by this crisis,” Moore, a Democrat, said in a news release.

The program is being run by the state’s labor department.

“The Worker Retention Program will keep Port businesses in operation and workers able to earn income and support their families as the U.S. Army Corps and others work to get the shipping channels reopened,” said Maryland Secretary of Labor Portia Wu.

Under the program, entities eligible for up to $200,000 in grants include businesses that employ up to 500 workers, unions, trade associations, and organizations that have had operations hindered or completely halted by the port slowdown.

Up to $7,500 can be spent per worker on wages or other support.

Businesses that receive funding under the program must demonstrate an effort to the fullest extent to avoid layoffs and maintain workforce hours, rates of pay, and benefits that were in effect before the port’s reduced operations.

Allowable expenses include supportive services for workers, such as subsidizing child care and transportation costs as well as payroll expenses as part of participation in the Work Sharing Unemployment Insurance Program.

The governor’s office said other relief programs that were authorized by the legislation signed into law this week will start on April 22.

One of them provides grants of up to $100,000 to eligible businesses that have had operations impacted or shipments disrupted at the port. To be eligible, businesses must demonstrate economic and financial injury through a reduction in business revenue and activity, or increased costs to business operations.

The Department of Commerce: Port of Baltimore Emergency Business Assistance Program will begin accepting applications.

Baltimore Key Bridge Collapse Apr 10

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Maryland General Assembly Apr 8

Maryland lawmakers OK bill to aid to port employees after Baltimore bridge collapse at session’s end

news Apr 8

Dali container removal will take weeks, a key to Port of Baltimore reopening

Another program will make a total of $15 million in loans and grants available to businesses that have been affected by a loss of revenue or increased costs, under the Neighborhood BusinessWorks program administered by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.

The Small Business Grants Program will have $5 million to offer grants up to $50,000 to small businesses within a 5-mile radius of the Key Bridge, and the Business Loan Program will have $10 million to offer loans up to $500,000 to businesses impacted by the Key Bridge collapse or reduction in Port activity statewide.

The container ship Dali was leaving Baltimore, laden with cargo and headed for Sri Lanka, when it struck one of the bridge’s supporting columns last month, causing the span to collapse into the Patapsco River. Six members of a roadwork crew were killed.

Community of ‘car geeks' finds new lead in fatal hit-and-run case

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 21:17:09 +0000

Police in Northern Virginia received an important lead from an unexpected source in a fatal hit-and-run in December.

Mary Wong, 63, was just a few yards from her home in Springfield when she was hit two days after Christmas.

“There’s a lot of people that care for her, and they’ve taken that away,” said her son, David Wong.

But police didn’t have much to go on other than debris collected from the scene — fragments of a damaged headlight.

“Our detectives decided, hey, we need to share this as kind of a last-ditch effort,” said James Curry of Fairfax County police.

Photos were posted on X, and eventually were seen by Jason Torchinsky, who co-founded The Autopian, a digital forum for car enthusiasts. He posted them, asking for help identifying the vehicle the fragments came from.

“Like when you see an actor in a movie and you can’t quite place where they’ve been before,” he said. “It’s that same kind of feeling. When you recognize it from somewhere, and you get enough car geeks working together on this kind of thing, and you can figure out almost anything.”

His readers researched and concluded the car was likely a Dodge Avenger made between 2008 and 2014, Torchinsky said. They shared their findings with Fairfax County police, who released a stock photo of the type of car they’re searching for.

“You kind of raise your eyebrow. Could it possibly be?” Curry said. “And then you see the two images, and like, Oh my gosh, it’s almost like a sure thing. But we still have to do an investigation. So, we have a new direction that we go with this investigation, it’s a positive lead, but that’s what we’ll continue to follow up on.”

The new lead provided much-needed hope for the Wong family.

“There’s a lot to hope for, and at this point we’re just hoping for some sort of miracle or some sort of chance that someone out there just happened to be there or happens to know something that no one else knows,” Wong said.

Fairfax County police say the new lead already generated tips. Anyone with information that could be helpful should call police.

In-N-Out announces plan to open its first location in Washington state. Here’s when

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 21:09:29 +0000

The burger joint is working through construction issues for its Washington location, which would be its fifth in the Pacific Northwest.

Arlington bar receives bomb, death threats over drag story time

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 19:57:57 +0000

Families seeking fun at a popular LGBTQ+ bar in Northern Virginia last weekend became the latest victims in a wave of hateful threats happening across the country when a bomb threat was called in over a drag story time.

Drag queen Tara Hoot’s Family Fun Story Time performance at Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant in Arlington was delayed Saturday because of an emailed bomb threat that forced a temporary evacuation.

“It’s a little unsettling to get an email like that and, more recently, a threat on my life,” owner Freddie Lutz said.

Police searched but found nothing, and the show went on.

Lutz said there was also a threat to his home and his bar in Rehoboth as well as the death threat.

“It said, ‘We don’t care that you’re gay. We don’t care about your gay bar. We don’t care that you gay people get together. But we want you to stay away from our children,’” Lutz said.

He describes his business as a straight-friendly gay bar that’s been there for more than two decades. The drag story time was the first one ever held there.

“This was a drag queen singing songs, reciting children’s books to little kids with rainbows and bubbles,” Lutz said. “There’s nothing sexual in this show.”

Arlington police and the FBI are investigating the threats.

“Somebody gave permission to these people to crawl out of the woodwork, and the vitriol and the hatred is just something — I never,” Lutz said.

Alexa Rodriguez of The TransLatin@ Coalition, which has also received bomb threats and hate mail, calls it a dangerous escalation in communities across the country.

“I won’t be afraid anymore,” Rodriguez said. “They won’t erase us or do anything to us, because we will fight back.”

Lutz plans to have another drag story time on May 4, which will focus on love and peace.

Employee and boss relationships in Washington among the weakest in U.S., new study says

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 19:45:53 +0000

A new study surveyed 5,000 employees across the country to determine the strength of employee and boss relationships.

‘I want to be a part of that change': Community safety ambassadors will give MPD new approach to policing

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 18:54:09 +0000

You may soon see a new type of police responder on the streets of Washington, D.C.

The D.C. police department is launching a new team of crime fighters they’re calling community safety ambassadors. They won’t have guns or badges, but they might be the first to show up when you call 911, depending on how serious the problem is.

The hope is that the program will free up dozens of sworn officers for more serious issues.

“I’m a stakeholder in my community. I want to better my community,” explained Davina Carson, one of 16 of those new community safety ambassadors currently in training at the D.C. Police Academy. “I want to be a part of that change that makes it better, and I also want to be that gap, that bridges the police to the community.”

Lindsay Appiah, D.C.’s deputy mayor for public safety, says once the ambassadors hit the streets in a few weeks, they’ll help with police duties like traffic and crowd control at big events, or responding to low level 911 calls like minor car crashes where a police report is needed — but not an actual sworn officer.

“Things that we really believe that we can train civilians, right, these community safety ambassadors, to respond to so that we can really free up sworn officers for the type of policing work that our community expects and needs from them,” said Appiah.

Carson has been a civilian employee for D.C. police for two years, but applied to be a safety ambassador as soon as she heard about the program.

For her, it wasn’t just to be a bridge between police and her community.

“I also have a 14-year-old son. I want him to feel safe,” Carson said. “When he calls the police, I want them to be able to show.”

Roderick Milstead oversees the ambassador program and tells News4, once fully staffed, it will free up 46 sworn officers to be on the streets full time.

“When we get full capacity, we should have 40 CSIs, four supervisors, and 20 of these pretty patrol, or not patrol cars, 20 CSA cars patrolling the city,” Milstead said.

Carson hopes the community will embrace the safety ambassadors once they hit the streets..

“I want them to know that we’re here to help. We’re here to make the community better and to also bridge the gap between the community and MPD, you know? And to free them up so they can be arrived on the scene in a timely manner,” Carson said.

The current group of community safety ambassadors range in ages from 24 to 65, and they are still hiring.

A Virginia woman bought her dream car. Then the repo truck came — for someone else

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 17:24:15 +0000

You can buy just about anything on platforms like Facebook Marketplace, Ebay and Craigslist — but how do you know you’re getting the whole truth from the seller before you hand over your money?

A Virginia woman says she found herself in a financial mess after discovering that the used car she bought from a private seller wasn’t what she’d been told.

Barbara Aboagye, from Woodbridge, Virginia, thought that she’d hit the jackpot, and found “a dream come true,” she told News4.

“I saw this car, a 2015 Porsche Macan,” she said. “And I love it.”

There it was, Aboagye’s dream car, listed on Facebook Marketplace by a private seller from Pennsylvania, for $25,000.

The two arranged to meet, and according to Aboagye, the seller handed her a clean title. That means there were no liens on the car, and he owned it outright.

She then secured a loan with her bank. The seller got his check, and she got her car.

For 19 months, Barbara said she’s been paying down her loan and hasn’t missed a single payment. She even paid double some months.

But the joyride came to a screeching halt when, in early spring, she looked out the window and noticed her beloved Porsche was gone.

“I was like, oh my God, what is going on? Is this stolen?” Aboagye said.

She was even more confused when she called police and they told her it wasn’t stolen — it had been repossessed.

“I said, what is going on? How come?” she said.

Aboagye’s bank told her they didn’t repossess the car, and confirmed she was current on her payments.

So if her bank didn’t order the repo, who did?

After weeks of getting no straight answers, Aboagye contacted NBC4 Responds. We went to her house to see if we could get to the bottom of the mystery, and she gathered all of her paperwork for us.

After several hours and several phone calls to all the parties involved, we found the answer: The car was still under the seller’s name when it was repossessed.

That’s the same name that was on the supposedly clean title she was given.

The seller purchased the Porsche from Carvana in 2020, and financed it through Bridgecrest — Carvana’s finance company. According to Bridgecrest, the seller was delinquent on paying the loan, only making three payments in 2022.

The company said it repossessed the vehicle not knowing about the fraudulent sale.

When Aboagye called the man she bought the car from, he told her the car was paid for.

Bridgecrest is “working with law enforcement to understand what occurred and the unlawful actions the seller took to fraudulently sell the vehicle for which he never paid,” the company told News4.

Since Aboagye was able to purchase and register the car unknowingly using a fraudulent title, the vehicle identification number was linked to her home address, which is where the tow truck was sent to repo the car.

“I’m shocked,” Aboagye said. “I’m speechless. I hear stories and stuff like that but I never knew I would be a victim one day.”

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According to Ira Rheingold, the director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, title washing is the most common scam for vehicle titles.

“The person who sold the consumer the car clearly was the person who committed the fraud,” Rheingold said.

Title washing is when unscrupulous sellers “wash” a title to remove information, like liens or salvage.

“Fraudsters are out there. They’re always looking to take advantage of folks,” Rheingold said.

Luckily for Aboagye, her journey had a happy ending. While her repossessed dream car had been sent to an auction house, and was about to go on the auction block, both Carvana and Bridgecrest agreed to release the car so she could take it home.

“I feel so relieved,” Aboagye said as she got back behind the wheel. “Super happy. I can’t thank you guys enough. I am so grateful.”

News4 contacted the seller numerous times, but he never responded.

As for Bridgecrest, they told News4 they contacted several law enforcement agencies but haven’t heard back from any of them. They have not pursued any civil action against the seller.

How can I protect myself from title fraud?

When buying a car from a private seller, experts have a few tips:

Ask for a photo ID and compare the names to those on the title to be sure they match.
If the title is a duplicate, be wary and ask more questions. Ask where the original is and if you can see it.
Get a CARFAX report. If it shows the car was salvaged, the title should reflect that. If it doesn’t, walk away from the sale.

Driver sentenced to 10 years for hit-and-run that killed Lorton man

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 16:46:29 +0000

A driver who pleaded guilty to a hit-and-run crash that killed a man in Lorton, Virginia, in 2020 was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison.

Joey Lanza was 28 when he was hit and killed in February 2020 outside his own home.

More than four years later, his family feared that a judge would let driver Guillermo Vazquez walk free. But she instead gave him the maximum sentence: 10 years with two years suspended on active probation.

Lanza’s family and friends filled several rows of the courtroom in Fairfax. They hoped their presence would convey the magnitude of their loss and the extent of their pain.

“It’s just been so hard, and it’s just been killing us a little each day,” Lanza’s mother, Mitzi Nickle, said.

“It never leaves. It never leaves. It’s something you deal with every day,” his father, Joe Lanza, said.

Friends say Lanza was concerned that drivers often sped on Old Colchester Road in front of his home. A witness said he was hit by a car as he ran to the road to try to slow down a driver.

The force of the crash shattered the windshield of Vazquez’s Honda Prelude. Prosecutors say he kicked it out and kept going. He went to police two days later, after a photo taken after the crash was made public.

In court on Friday, Vazquez turned to speak directly to Lanza’s family.

“I wish it could be me instead of him. You’re not going to believe me. I’m not that bad,” he said tearfully.

Vazquez pleaded guilty but in the years since the crash, he continued to rack up traffic offenses, court records show.

In victim impact statements, Lanza’s family pointed to the great loss they suffered and Vazquez’s driving record. They urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence.

The judge’s sentence was met with emotional outbursts on both sides. There was an audible gasp and tears of relief from some of Lanza’s family members. Vazquez’s teenage children began sobbing. As he was handcuffed, he turned to them and repeated “I love you” over and over again.

Lanza’s loved ones left court with the hope that the judge’s sentence sends a powerful message about driving safely that can reach everyone.

“I appreciate the fact that the judge paid particular attention to his record before and after. I think that was the key. His driving behavior was the same. He didn’t learn. He doesn’t take law enforcement seriously, and I think he will now. The judge did what she had to do,” Lanza’s father said.

“I think the judge made a stand for the community and she didn’t want anyone who would continue to possibly put other people’s lives in danger on the road to still be out there,” his mother said.

Man killed in Northeast DC mass shooting was with his young sons

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 16:38:12 +0000

The man killed when two shooters opened fire on a crowd in Northeast D.C. on Wednesday evening was with his young sons at the time, his mother told News4.

Aubrey McLeod, 29, was taking his sons to football practice when gunfire erupted on 21st Street NE, Marlea Tolson said. Five other people were injured, including two children unrelated to McLeod.

“I’m forever changed. I will never be the same,” Tolson said.

The other five shooting victims survived, including a 9-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy.

The 9-year-old was shot in the foot and is too afraid to sleep, his mother said.

“Everyone’s always crying and it’s just a lot. My heart is really hurting for my child,” she said.

The family is staying in a hotel while they seek housing elsewhere.

Northeast DC Apr 10

1 killed, children among 5 hurt in Northeast DC shooting

gun violence Apr 11

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D.C. police data shows that in the past year, eight people have been killed within a half-mile radius of where the shooting Wednesday occurred, in the Carver-Langston neighborhood.

“We cannot go back to that apartment. My son is terrified. My two other kids, they are scared,” the mother said.

Police are still searching for the shooters. McLeod’s mother said she’s praying for them.

“I ask God to be with them and be with their souls,” she said. “What they have taken, what they have removed from my body, I don’t want their parents or their loved ones to experience it.”

McLeod worked on a food truck with his father and was excited to be starting a new career flipping houses.

Man shot and wounded after basketball court fight at gym in Lanham

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 16:25:27 +0000

A man was shot and seriously injured after a fight on a basketball court inside an LA Fitness gym in Lanham, Maryland, on Thursday night, authorities say.

The shooter opened fire in the gym on Ruby Lockhart Boulevard, near the Woodmore Towne Centre stores and restaurants.

Glenarden and Prince George’s County police say the shooting stemmed from a fight between two men inside the gym. Police say the victim was shot multiple times.

The shooter drove away in a white vehicle, investigators said. The shooting victim was taken to a hospital and was in critical condition. Multiple people witnessed the shooting, detectives said.

People who frequent the gym said they’re upset.

“You can’t even go to the gym? That’s your free space, and you can’t even work out in peace?” one man said.

The gym was temporarily closed, signs on the front door on Friday said.

Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to contact police.

LA Fitness did not immediately respond to an inquiry.

Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.

IRS: You have ‘options' if you can't pay your taxes by the April 15 deadline

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 15:09:10 +0000

If you can’t cover your taxes in full, you should still file your return by April 15 and pay what you can, according to the IRS.
You can apply for an IRS payment plan, or “installment agreement,” to pay your balance over time.
While you will still accrue interest and late-payment penalties after April 15, the failure-to-pay penalty is cut in half under an installment agreement.

Tax Day is almost here and you have “options” if you can’t pay by the deadline, according to the IRS.

April 15 is the federal due date for most taxpayers to file returns and pay levies — even with a tax extension, which pushes the filing deadline to Oct. 15.

That’s the “biggest misconception” about an extension, according to Josh Youngblood, an enrolled agent and owner of The Youngblood Group, a Dallas-based tax firm. “The extension does not give you more time to pay.”

There are exceptions to that rule. Some taxpayers in disaster areas have an automatic extension and more time to pay due to IRS relief.

File your return by April 15 even if you can’t pay

If you can’t cover your taxes in full, you should still file your return by April 15 and pay what you can, according to the IRS.

Here’s why: “Your interest and penalties are compounding quicker” if you owe taxes and don’t file, said Eric Bronnenkant, certified financial planner and head of tax at Betterment, a digital investment adviser.

The failure-to-file penalty is 5% of your unpaid taxes per month or partial month, capped at 25% of your balance due. By comparison, the late payment penalty, or the failure-to-pay penalty, is 0.5% per month or partial month, with a maximum fee of 25% of unpaid taxes.

The IRS also charges interest based on the current rates.

The IRS has ‘various payment options’

If you still have a tax balance by April 15, you can apply for “various payment options” online and get an “immediate response” of acceptance or denial, the IRS said in a news release on Friday.

IRS online payment plans, or “installment agreements,” include:

Short-term payment plan: This may be available if you owe less than $100,000 including tax, penalties and interest. You have up to 180 days to pay in full.

Long-term payment plan: This may be available if your balance is less than $50,000 including tax, penalties and interest. You must pay monthly, and you have up to 72 months to pay off the balance.

You can apply for either plan online, by phone or by mail by sending Form 9465. However, experts say the online option is quick and easy.

“They’re trying to get people back in the system,” Bronnenkant said.

However, you can’t have multiple payment plans from different tax years.

“They don’t want people on continuous payment plans,” he said.

While you will still accrue interest and late-payment penalties after April 15, the failure-to-pay penalty is “cut in half” under an installment agreement, according to the IRS.

You can learn more about the IRS plans, including setup fees and payment options, here.

Pasco group faces lawsuit after damning WA audit claims secret meetings, missing money

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 12:00:00 +0000

“This particular agency seems to have gone rogue,” Olympia plaintiff Arthur West said.

Failing to fix migrant labor system threatens farmers, workers and U.S. food supply | Editorial

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Politicians must put aside differences on border issues and prioritize the needs of the farmers who feed the nation.

Arlington nonprofit serving domestic violence victims criticizes Youngkin's gun bill veto

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 11:22:26 +0000

An Arlington nonprofit that helps survivors of abuse is criticizing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin for vetoing several gun-related bills.

That nonprofit, Doorways, says there is a legal loophole that allows individuals banned from possessing guns to transfer the guns within their home or to third parties without properly notifying authorities.

Advocates say leaving that loophole open puts victims in danger.

“We’re disappointed by these roadblocks and continue to ask for the governor’s support and partnership in expanding survivor access to safety statewide,” said Jonathan Yglesias, policy director for the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance.

“We’re also very saddened [by] the chances of more funding cuts in times when more survivors are seeking support,” said Diana Ortiz, president and CEO of Doorways. “And we’re really saddened by the missing opportunities to enhance the current laws to protect survivors.”

According to Doorways, domestic violence homicides make up 32% of all homicides in Virginia. Of those domestic violence homicides, 65.5% are committed with a firearm.

Instead of more restrictions, Youngkin is pushing for stricter penalties for gun crimes, and more funding for mental health.

For more information about the warning signs of domestic violence and what you can do to help yourself or a loved one escape, click here.

Man shot in Bailey's Crossroads during attempted robbery, police say

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 07:15:58 +0000

A man was shot in an attempted robbery early Friday in the Bailey’s Crossroads area of Fairfax County, Virginia, police said.

The victim was shot in the upper body about 5:30 a.m. on the 3400 block of Charles Street, police said. That’s just off Leesburg Pike and north of Columbia Pike.

The victim was rushed to a hospital and is expected to survive, police said.

A swarm of police vehicles were seen blocking Charles Street over an hour later.

Police didn’t immediately release a description of the suspected shooter.

Stay with News4 for more on this developing story.

A criminal probe continues into staff at a Virginia school where a 6-year-old shot a teacher

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 06:24:31 +0000

A criminal investigation into staff members at a Virginia school where a 6-year-old shot his teacher could shift to why the troubled child’s disciplinary records disappeared after the violence.

A special grand jury recently concluded its probe into the shooting, which resulted in charges against a former school administrator who is accused of dismissing concerns the boy had a gun. But prosecutors in Newport News said Thursday they’ll continue investigating, including into the missing files.

Investigators had searched for the student’s records after he shot teacher Abby Zwerner in her first grade classroom, the grand jury said in its report released this week. Every other student’s file was located, but not his.

The student had a long history of violence at Richneck Elementary, including choking other children as well as his kindergarten teacher, the report states.

“We’ll work with the school system to try to ferret out how this happened,” Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn said at a news conference. “And based on the facts of the law, if we believe somebody else needs to be charged, trust me when I tell you, they will be charged.”

LaQuiche Parrott, director of elementary school leadership, returned one copy of the student’s records that she said was in her home or car, the report states.

The grand jury said she had a “suspicious lack of memory” regarding that file.

“It is at its best a complete lack of competence as to how things were run and recorded, and at its worst a cover-up for the child’s past disciplinary record by the school administration,” the grand jury states.

The grand jury said authorities should consider filing obstruction of justice charges against Parrott. However, Gwynn noted that the statute of limitations for the misdemeanor charge is one year. The shooting occurred in January 2023.

Parrott did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment from The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, former Richneck assistant principal Ebony Parker is facing charges of felony child neglect. The grand jury report states that she showed a “shocking” lack of response to multiple warnings the boy had a gun in the hours before he shot Zwerner.

Parker attended a court hearing Thursday morning to discuss who her attorney would be. But the matter was continued until next month. Parker did not comment to reporters and ran from cameras outside the courthouse.

A few hours later, attorneys for Zwerner called for investigations into the shooting by the U.S. Department of Education and the Virginia Department of Education in the wake of the grand jury’s report.

The report also bolsters Zwerner’s $40 million lawsuit against Newport News Public Schools.

“We’re going to have to prove every fact in our own case,” one of Zwerner’s attorneys, Kevin Biniazan, noted. But he said the grand jury report “provides resources to the truth. It provides resources to unearthing and revealing the facts and the circumstances that will lead to a just and righteous outcome.”

The criminal probe in Newport News is among a small number of recent criminal investigations in the U.S. that are signaling a shift toward greater accountability of adults — teachers, parents and police — when it comes to preventing school violence.

“In tragic school shootings, civil lawsuits are very common whereas criminal charges have been much more rare — although this is changing,” said Amanda Nickerson, a school psychology professor at the University at Buffalo.

Nickerson, whose research focuses on preventing school violence, said caregivers are facing greater scrutiny for how they respond to possible threats.

“Although each case is unique, what seems to make the difference in criminal cases are when the warning signs for violence are clear and prevention could have stopped the injury or death,” Nickerson said.

In recent years, a handful of criminal investigations have focused on school employees. But they’ve had mixed outcomes.

For example, a former school resource officer in Florida was acquitted last year of all charges, including felony child neglect, after he was accused of hiding during the Parkland high school massacre in 2018.

In 2021, a prosecutor in suburban Detroit criticized Oxford High School’s decision to keep teenager Ethan Crumbley in school before he killed four students. But more than two years later, the probe ended without charges of school employees in Oakland County, Michigan.

“We did not find sufficient evidence to support criminal charges,” David Williams, chief assistant prosecutor, said last month.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in Uvalde, Texas, are still investigating the police response to the 2022 elementary school shooting, which is one of the deadliest in U.S. history. The gunman was killed roughly 77 minutes after police arrived on the scene

Parents are also facing scrutiny.

The mother of the 6-year-old who shot Zwerner was convicted in two separate cases. Deja Taylor got two years in prison for felony child neglect. She also received 21 months in federal prison for using marijuana while owning a gun, which is illegal under U.S. law.

Ethan Crumbley’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were sentenced Tuesday in Michigan to at least 10 years in prison. They were accused of not securing their son’s gun and acting indifferently toward his deteriorating mental health. They are the first parents convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting.

While national statistics are hard to come by, at least seven criminal cases against parents have been filed in the last eight years after a child brought a gun to school and it was fired, intentionally or not.

___

Associated Press reporter Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas, and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this article.

Opioid overdose deaths in DC reached new high in 2023, report says

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 22:49:59 +0000

A new report from the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner shows opioid overdose deaths in the District hit a record high last year.

The medical examiner’s office studied 2,595 opioid-related deaths from 2017 through 2023.

In 2023, there were 518 opioid overdose deaths in the District, according to the report. That marked a 12% increase from 2022, amounting to 43 deaths per month.

Compare that to 274 homicides in D.C. in 2023 — a statistic that received significant negative attention.

“I believe part the reason we haven’t had more attention called to this issue is because of who it’s impacting,” Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker said. “Many of them Black and brown. Many of them happening in wards 7 and 8.”

He has been pressing for more action, and quickly.

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“More direct outreach in communities that are plagued by overdoses,” Parker said. “One of the things I’m proudest of is I was able to secure direct outreach in Ward 5 to address the opioid crisis in this community in Ivy City, but I’m calling on the mayor to do more.”

Fentanyl was the most-used opioid in overdose deaths, according to the report.

The report also warned about the drug xylazine, which is being mixed with fentanyl and is resistant to the overdose-reversing drug naloxone.

Former Virginia sheriff's deputies charged with homicide in 77-year-old man's traffic stop death

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 22:17:50 +0000

Two former Virginia sheriff’s deputies now face felony homicide charges in connection with the death of a 77-year-old man with dementia during a 2022 traffic stop.

After deputies pulled over Ralph Ennis for speeding near Front Royal, he was pushed into a trailer hitch and fell to the ground, striking his head, body camera video shows. He died two weeks later.

Former Warren County deputies Zachary Fadely and Tyler Poe initially were charged with involuntary manslaughter. This week, a grand jury indictment upgraded the charges to felony homicide.

Both men are free on bond.

Ennis, a Navy veteran, worked for years in Northern Virginia as a bricklayer before he and his wife, Linda, moved to Pennsylvania in 2010. Linda Ennis told News4 that her husband had been struggling with dementia. He was the subject of a Silver Alert for missing senior citizens just a month before he died.

According to the Warren County Sheriff’s Office, deputies began following Ennis with their emergency lights activated in the early morning hours of April 2, 2022. He was driving 63 mph in a 55 mph zone and was driving erratically, the sheriff’s office said. They say he wouldn’t pull over at first, but Ennis finally stopped when he pulled his pickup truck up to a 7-Eleven. He followed deputies’ commands to get out of his vehicle, but then, they said, he did not to comply when they told him to drop his keys and put his hands behind his back.

The deputies advanced and put Ennis’ hands behind his back. The Warren County Sheriff’s Office initially said Ennis fell over the trailer hitch of his truck. However, body-worn camera video later revealed that deputies slammed Ennis into the pickup truck and tackled him to the ground.

Body cam video from a Front Royal officer who was at the scene showed a Warren County deputy run toward Ennis, who appeared to be stumbling around. The deputy then grabbed Ennis and slammed him face-forward into the back of Ennis’ truck. Then that deputy and another one appeared to tackle Ennis to the ground.

The Prince William County commonwealth’s attorney is serving as a special prosecutor in the case.

A congressman wanted to understand AI. So he went back to a college classroom to learn

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 21:55:58 +0000

Don Beyer’s car dealerships were among the first in the U.S. to set up a website. As a representative, the Virginia Democrat leads a bipartisan group focused on promoting fusion energy. He reads books about geometry for fun.

So when questions about regulating artificial intelligence emerged, the 73-year-old Beyer took what for him seemed like an obvious step, enrolling at George Mason University to get a master’s degree in machine learning. In an era when lawmakers and Supreme Court justices sometimes concede they don’t understand emerging technology, Beyer’s journey is an outlier, but it highlights a broader effort by members of Congress to educate themselves about artificial intelligence as they consider laws that would shape its development.

Frightening to some, thrilling to others, baffling to many: Artificial intelligence has been called a transformative technology, a threat to democracy or even an existential risk for humanity. It will fall to members of Congress to figure out how to regulate the industry in a way that encourages its potential benefits while mitigating the worst risks.

But first they have to understand what AI is, and what it isn’t.

“I tend to be an AI optimist,” Beyer told The Associated Press following a recent afternoon class on George Mason’s campus in suburban Virginia. “We can’t even imagine how different our lives will be in five years, 10 years, 20 years, because of AI. … There won’t be robots with red eyes coming after us any time soon. But there are other deeper existential risks that we need to pay attention to.”

Risks like massive job losses in industries made obsolete by AI, programs that retrieve biased or inaccurate results, or deepfake images, video and audio that could be leveraged for political disinformation, scams or sexual exploitation. On the other side of the equation, onerous regulations could stymie innovation, leaving the U.S. at a disadvantage as other nations look to harness the power of AI.

Striking the right balance will require input not only from tech companies but also from the industry’s critics, as well as from the industries that AI may transform. While many Americans may have formed their ideas about AI from science fiction movies like “The Terminator” or “The Matrix,” it’s important that lawmakers have a clear-eyed understanding of the technology, said Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and the chairman of the House’s AI Task Force.

When lawmakers have questions about AI, Obernolte is one of the people they seek out. He studied engineering and applied science at the California Institute of Technology and earned an M.S. in artificial intelligence at UCLA. The California Republican also started his own video game company. Obernolte said he’s been “very pleasantly impressed” with how seriously his colleagues on both sides of the aisle are taking their responsibility to understand AI.

That shouldn’t be surprising, Obernolte said. After all, lawmakers regularly vote on bills that touch on complicated legal, financial, health and scientific subjects. If you think computers are complicated, check out the rules governing Medicaid and Medicare.

Keeping up with the pace of technology has challenged Congress since the steam engine and the cotton gin transformed the nation’s industrial and agricultural sectors. Nuclear power and weaponry is another example of a highly technical subject that lawmakers have had to contend with in recent decades, according to Kenneth Lowande, a University of Michigan political scientist who has studied expertise and how it relates to policy-making in Congress.

Federal lawmakers have created several offices — the Library of Congress, the Congressional Budget Office, etc. — to provide resources and specialized input when necessary. They also rely on staff with specific expertise on subject topics, including technology.

Then there’s another, more informal form of education that many members of Congress receive.

“They have interest groups and lobbyists banging down their door to give them briefings,” Lowande said.

Beyer said he’s had a lifelong interest in computers and that when AI emerged as a topic of public interest he wanted to know more. A lot more. Almost all of his fellow students are decades younger; most don’t seem that fazed when they discover their classmate is a congressman, Beyer said.

He said the classes, which he fits in around his busy congressional schedule — are already paying off. He’s learned about the development of AI and the challenges facing the field. He said it’s helped him understand the challenges — biases, unreliable data — and the possibilities, like improved cancer diagnoses and more efficient supply chains.

Beyer is also learning how to write computer code.

“I’m finding that learning to code — which is thinking in this sort of mathematical, algorithmic step-by-step, is helping me think differently about a lot of other things — how you put together an office, how you work a piece of legislation,” Beyer said.

While a computer science degree isn’t required, it’s imperative that lawmakers understand AI’s implications for the economy, national defense, health care, education, personal privacy and intellectual property rights, according to Chris Pierson, CEO of the cybersecurity firm BlackCloak.

“AI is not good or bad,” said Pierson, who formerly worked in Washington for the Department of Homeland Security. “It’s how you use it.”

The work of safeguarding AI has already begun, though it’s the executive branch leading the way so far. Last month, the White House unveiled new rules that require federal agencies to show their use of AI isn’t harming the public. Under an executive order issued last year, AI developers must provide information on the safety of their products.

When it comes to more substantive action, America is playing catchup to the European Union, which recently enacted the world’s first significant rules governing the development and use of AI. The rules prohibit some uses — routine AI-enabled facial recognition by law enforcement, for one — while requiring other programs to submit information about safety and public risks. The landmark law is expected to serve as a blueprint for other nations as they contemplate their own AI laws.

As Congress begins that process, the focus must be on “mitigating potential harm,” said Obernolte, who said he’s optimistic that lawmakers from both parties can find common ground on ways to prevent the worst AI risks.

“Nothing substantive is going to get done that isn’t bipartisan,” he said.

To help guide the conversation lawmakers created a new AI task force (Obernolte is co-chairman), as well as an AI Caucus made up of lawmakers with a particular expertise or interest in the topic. They’ve invited experts to brief lawmakers on the technology and its impacts — and not just computer scientists and tech gurus either, but also representatives from different sectors that see their own risks and rewards in AI.

Rep. Anna Eshoo is the Democratic chairwoman of the caucus. She represents part of California’s Silicon Valley and recently introduced legislation that would require tech companies and social media platforms like Meta, Google or TikTok to identify and label AI-generated deepfakes to ensure the public isn’t misled. She said the caucus has already proved its worth as a “safe place” place where lawmakers can ask questions, share resources and begin to craft consensus.

“There isn’t a bad or silly question,” she said. “You have to understand something before you can accept or reject it.”

‘It was their responsibility': Grieving parents want to know how teenager died in Virginia jail

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 20:46:46 +0000

The parents of a Northern Virginia teenager want to know how their son died last month after only days in the Prince William County Adult Detention Center.

Juan Campos’ parents call the 18-year-old a great kid who loved sports, was a black belt in tae kwon do and talked about joining the U.S. Marine Corps but struggling with drug addiction.

He was found dead in his jail cell March 28 after just a week in custody.

“We can’t believe that he’s gone,” said his stepfather, Barry Solarz. “This should not have happened.”

Campos borrowed the family’s truck from their home in Stafford County, his parents said, and when he didn’t return after two days, his parents called police. He was found in Prince William County and taken into custody March 20 when police found a small, blue pill in the truck.

Solarz says they were convinced he would be safe in custody and get medical treatment if he suffered from withdrawal.

“We naively and innocently felt relieved,” Solarz said. “We thought at that point that he would get help, he would be looked after.”

“They knew that he was going through withdrawal,” he said. “It was their responsibility to keep our son safe, and they failed to do that.”

Campos’ parents say they expected to have the money to post his bond by March 29, the day after he died.

“I would only ask him to stay calm, to go rest, that Mom will do everything possible to find out what happened,” said his crying mother, Milena Campos.

“And we will find out what happened,” his stepfather said. “We will find out.”

Prince William County police await a report from the medical examiner’s office. They said there are no signs of foul play.

A condolence letter from the jail’s acting superintendent to Campos’ parents calls his death a “medical crisis.”

News4 asked the jail if it has treatment protocols for detainees who are addicted to drugs. The jail has yet to respond to that question.

Elementary teacher found stabbed to death, Washington officials say. Husband is a suspect

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 19:39:16 +0000

“She has three beautiful and very small children who now don’t get to know her.”

‘Strong kids': Boys ages 3 and 6 in ICU after Virginia house fire

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 19:24:26 +0000

Two young boys rescued from a house fire in Virginia Wednesday morning are in intensive care with life-threatening injuries.

Their father, James Brice, says 3-year-old Zachariah and 6-year-old William were unresponsive for 45 minutes after firefighters pulled them from their burning, smoke-filled home in the 13900 block of Whetstone Manor Court in Clifton.

“We’re super thankful for the firefighters not giving up and performing as many rounds of CPR as they did,” Brice said tearfully. “Sorry. I’m probably gonna get emotional.”

Brice was at work — as was his wife — when he learned his house was on fire and his two youngest sons were still inside. As he rushed home, he learned of their rescue. They had life-threatening injuries.

The boys and their 8-year-old brother, Logan, were in the care of their grandparents when the house caught fire. Logan called 911, and his grandparents tried to get to his brothers but couldn’t, neighbors said.

The grandparents visited Zachariah and William in the ICU at Children’s National Hospital on Thursday, where they were intubated.

“They broke down in tears,” Brice said. “They wanted to be in that spot and not them. So, that was definitely one of the hardest.”

William and Zachariah were not burned, but smoke inhalation severely damaged their lungs and prevented oxygen from getting to their brains. They have symptoms of brain death, Brice said, but that’s not a final prognosis and they will be tested further Friday.

“One of the doctors told me, ‘You’ve got strong kids,’ and I was like, I hope so. Thank you so much. That’s what we’re praying for; that’s what we’re living for,” Brice said.

The community opened two donation centers for the family. The family’s church held a prayer service Thursday evening where it accepted donations of items the family lost in the fire.

An online fundraiser raised more than $70,000, with one person commenting that the Brice family has done so much for others and there’s no question now about helping them.

The fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire.

Maryland lawmakers approve creation of Purple Alerts for missing people with disabilities

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 17:57:28 +0000

A bill passed in the Maryland General Assembly on Wednesday aims to help families when a loved one with disabilities goes missing.

The Purple Alert bill is just a signature away from becoming law in the state. Under the bill, like for an Amber Alert or Silver Alert, authorities could broadcast widespread messages when people with some disabilities or cognitive impairments, such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or Down syndrome, go missing.

The bill comes after Rashawn Williams, a Maryland man who has Down syndrome, was missing for nearly a week last year. He was finally found in a back room of a Metro station.

In October of last year, his father, Jimmy Hall, lived through an experience no parent wants to imagine; his son was gone for days.

“He was in complete darkness. No food, no water, no facilities. Poor air quality,” Hall said. “He was in solitary confinement for nearly a week,”

Hall dedicated his time to make sure a new tool is available for families who, one day, could find themselves in the same situation.

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“Rashawn fell through the loophole because he was too old for an Amber Alert, and too young for a Silver Alert,” Hall said. “So now that gap is closed.”

Maryland State Police would set up the Purple Alert program. Like for an Amber Alert, police would provide information on highway message boards about the person missing. All the bill is waiting for now is a signature from Gov. Wes Moore.

“We just jumped up and started shouting and crying,” Hall said about the moment lawmakers approved the bill.

“We were just so happy because, the voice Rashawn didn’t have, the next family will now have that voice,” Hall said.

He and his son plan to be there when the governor signs the bill.

DDOT opts against bike lane for Connecticut Avenue

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 17:33:59 +0000

The D.C. Department of Transportation revealed on Thursday that a controversial bike lane project along busy Connecticut Avenue NW will not go forward.

A bike lane had been recommended for nearly three miles between the Maryland line and Woodley Park, and there were years of study. But a road redesign with safety in mind will start without a bike lane, DDOT Director Sharon Kershbaum said.

”We will share our new plans with the public and engage with them on the safety project on Connecticut Avenue. But the decision right now is to do the safety project without a bike lane,” she said.

It is expected that pedestrian improvements and more parking will be included in the safety redesign of Connecticut Avenue. DDOT said it’s looking at other options for a new north-south bike lane in Ward 3.

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Kershbaum faced a marathon session of questioning at the Wilson Building on Thursday, as D.C. faces a major budget gap and leaders try to make tough decisions about what cuts they should make.

Circulator bus service is expected to end at about this time next year, and Metrobus will assume some of the routes, as News4 has reported was expected.

Kershbaum said the Circulator has not recovered ridership since the pandemic and the buses are aging.

DC Councilmember Charles Allen expressed concern about the plan.

“I’m being asked, and this council is being asked, to cut more than $100 million and eliminate the Circulator with absolutely no promise of what’s going to actually happen,” he said.

25 bizarre things you forgot about the OJ Simpson murder trial

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 17:25:42 +0000

Originally appeared on E! Online

How time flies when the world’s gone mad.

Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were killed outside the front door of her Los Angeles condo while her children slept upstairs in June of 1994, a sickening crime that led to one of the defining cultural happenings of the late 20th century: People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson.

The O.J. Simpson murder trial, that is.

Within days after the double murder of O.J.’s ex-wife and her friend Goldman — who was a waiter at the restaurant where Brown Simpson had dined with her family earlier that night and had dropped by to bring the glasses her mother had left behind — a whole new vernacular rocketed into the national consciousness: Brentwood. Rockingham. Bundy. Low-speed chase. Bruno Magli. DNA. Kardashian.

Simpson, who passed away at the age of 76 on April 10 following a cancer battle, pleaded “absolutely, 100 percent not guilty” on July 22, 1994. The jury was sworn in on Nov. 9, 1994, and opening statements wouldn’t commence until January of 1995.

American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson: Fact v. Fiction

By the time the verdict was read on Oct. 3, 1995, the Simpson trial had cost the city of Los Angeles upward of $10 million and was every bit the circus that you may or may not remember.

The basic facts are well-known. Prosecutors thought they had a slam-dunk case thanks to DNA evidence from blood collected at the scene of the crime and at Simpson’s home two miles away.

“That trail of blood from Bundy through his own Ford Bronco and into his house in Rockingham is devastating proof of his guilt,” Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark said in her opening statement.

Complicating the People’s supposedly open-and-shut case, Mark Fuhrman, the detective who first spotted a blood-spattered glove outside Simpson’s estate at 360 Rockingham Avenue that looked like one found near the bodies, had a history of using racist language and had boasted about beating up suspects.

AP Photo/Vince Bucci

Much to Clark and co-prosecutor Christopher Darden‘s disbelief, Simpson’s defense team, led by Johnnie Cochran, dismantled the jurors’ trust in the seemingly irrefutable DNA, and in the police who investigated Simpson — a trust already on shaky ground in the wake of the 1992 acquittal of four white police officers charged with excessive force after they were caught on video beating Rodney King, a Black man, on the side of an L.A. freeway.

And so, in the end, Simpson was found not guilty of murder. But a lot of screwy stuff happened before the world got to that point, nearly 29 years ago. Here’s a sampling:

O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson pose at the premiere of the “Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Isult” in which O.J. starred on March 16, 1994 in Los Angeles, California.

Close watch

O.J. Simpson met Nicole Brown in 1977 and divorced his first wife, Marguerite, in 1979. He married Brown Simpson on Feb. 2, 1985; their daughter Sydney was born eight months later, and son Justin was born in 1988.

“You guys never do anything,” Brown Simpson told police when they arrived at the Simpson home at 360 N. Rockingham Ave. in L.A.’s posh Brentwood neighborhood, responding to a domestic abuse call in the the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 1989, according to reports about that night. “You never do anything. You come out. You’ve been here eight times. And you never do anything about him.”

Simpson insisted he didn’t beat Brown Simpson, only pushed her out of bed. Then, told he needed to go with the officers to the police station, he drove off instead. A few days later, Brown Simpson went to the station and said she didn’t really want them to proceed with a prosecution, but she consented to out-of-court mediation.

On May 24, 1989, Simpson was sentenced to 24 months of probation, ordered to perform 120 hours of community service and pay fines totaling $470, and was told to attend counseling twice a week (he was allowed to do it by phone) after pleading no contest to misdemeanor domestic violence.

Brown Simpson eventually moved out with Justin and Sydney and filed for divorce in February 1992. They settled that October, with O.J. agreeing to pay her a lump sum of $433,750, plus $10,000 a month in child support, and she retained the title of a rental property. She eventually bought a condo at 875 S. Bundy Drive in Brentwood and moved there in January 1994.

All the while, Simpson was alternately threatening her and trying to get back together. According to prosecutors and witnesses, Simpson had stood outside and looked through her window on multiple occasions, including one time when she was having sex with a boyfriend. Per Jeffrey Toobin’s 1996 book “The Run of His Life,” in a diary entry from June 3, 1994, Brown Simpson detailed a recent threat from Simpson: “‘You hang up on me last nite, you’re gonna pay for this…You think you can do any f–king thing you want, you’ve got it comming [sic]…” and so on.

She called a battered women’s shelter in Santa Monica on June 7, 1994, to lament that her ex was stalking her. Five days later she was dead.

Steve Granitz / Contributor / GETTY IMAGES

Tinted window

TIME came under fire for darkening O.J’s complexion when the publication ran his mug shot on the cover in June 1994, with critics arguing it was cheaply playing up the Black-male-murder-suspect angle and pointing out that Newsweek had run the photo without altering the color.

Managing editor James R. Gaines relayed in a statement posted on an AOL message board (remember AOL Time Warner?) that “no racial implication was intended, by TIME or by the artist” — but that yes, the photo given out by the LAPD had specifically been handed to an artist to turn into cover art for the story, which would include interpreting it as he saw fit.

“It seems to me you could argue that it’s racist to say that blacker is more sinister,” Gaines said, “but be that as it may: To the extent that this caused offense to anyone, I obviously regret it.”

AP Photo/Reed Saxon

The publishing industry

Dozens of books have been written about this case, including Simpson’s inexplicable 2007 tome “If I Did It: Confessions of a Killer,” but his first contribution to the canon was “I Want to Tell You,” which came out on Jan. 7, 1995, when the trial was barely underway.

The book purportedly comprised the defendant’s answers to the thousands of letters he’d received since going to jail, an attempt to get ahead of the picture the prosecution planned to paint of a vicious abuser who had finally made good on all his threats. It sold more than 650,000 copies.

Ripped from the headlines

Twenty-one years before the Simpson saga got the slick, Emmy-winning treatment in “The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” and Ezra Edelman won an Oscar for the epic documentary “O.J.: Made in America, The O.J. Simpson Story,” starring Bobby Hosea and Jessica Tuck, which was mainly about O.J. and Brown’s volatile relationship, was rushed to Fox.

The New York Times called it “not a movie the defense team would want the jury to see” and an accidental counterbalance to Simpson’s “self-serving” book.

Fox made a point of not airing the TV movie until the jury had been sequestered.

Former NFL running back O.J. Simpson hiding in the car after failing to turn himself in for the murder of his ex-wife. Brentwood, CA 6/17/1994 Photo by Peter Read Miller /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

Missing perspective

An over-confident Marcia Clark didn’t put Jill Shively, who told a grand jury that she saw Simpson, in his white Bronco, speeding down Bundy shortly after 10:45 on the night of the murders, on the stand during the trial. Moreover, Clark instructed the grand jury to dismiss Shively’s testimony, saying she couldn’t in good conscience have them consider information she didn’t have full faith in.

Clark was actually pissed that Shively had sat down with Hard Copy before she was due to give testimony, and the prosecutor figured she had plenty of other witnesses and evidence to nail Simpson with. Who needed one more connecting him to the location in a time frame that fit the crime?

Lee Celano / Contributor / GETTY IMAGES

Facts vs. Fiction

Simpson bombed a lie detector test defense attorney Robert Shapiro arranged for him to take, registering a minus-24, according to “The Run of His Life.” Polygraph results aren’t admissible in court, but can play a role in directing the course of an investigation — and in helping defense attorneys determine the best strategy.

Alan Dershowitz, who mainly advised the defense team from across the country while teaching at Harvard, told the New York Daily News in 2016, when FX’s “The People v. O.J. Simpson” had everybody talking, that the fact the polygraph test results went public suggested there may have been a violation of attorney-client privilege.

“There were only four in the world who knew about the lie-detector test,” Dershowitz said. “I was not one of them. The four people were Robert Kardashian, who died, Bob Shapiro, O.J. Simpson and the man who conducted the lie-detector test.”

However, maybe there were more.

Defense team member F. Lee Bailey, no big fan of Shapiro then or now, told Huffington Post’s Highline in 2019 about his co-counsel, “He f–ked up the case on day one by giving O.J. a polygraph test that was totally impossible. You never give those under the circumstances, and he called me immediately saying, ‘What do I do next?’ And I said, ‘Well, first you stop being an a–hole. You call before you give the polygraph test, for Christ’s sake!’ I saw the charts before he tore them up, and they were nothing but junk.” (Shapiro did not comment on Bailey’s remarks.)

POOL / Pool / GETTY IMAGES

Search for an accomplice

The prosecution was convinced that Simpson didn’t pull it off alone, TIME later reported, and they assigned officers to keep an eye on Simpson’s childhood friend and confidante Al Cowlings and Simpson’s grown son Jason, from his first marriage, but never gathered evidence that proved the defendant had an accomplice.

Cost of living

After leading police on a 50-mile chase that traversed multiple L.A. freeways, Simpson in the backseat and Cowlings behind the wheel of the former football star’s white Ford Bronco, Simpson surrendered at his home and was taken into custody on June 17, 1994. He remained jailed without bail for the duration of the trial. The time he spent on suicide watch cost taxpayers $81,000, after which the price of incarceration averaged out to $55.69 a day.

According to the L.A. County auditor’s office, the case cost the city about $800,000 a month.

Front seat driver

Before Marcia Clark invited Christopher Darden onto her

‘Our kids aren't safe': Mother speaks after her child survived DC shooting that killed 1, wounded 5

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 17:01:23 +0000

Families in Northeast D.C. are reeling from shock and fear after a mass shooting Wednesday evening killed a man and left five other people hurt, including a 9-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy.

Gunfire erupted on 21st Street in the Carver-Langston neighborhood. Police are still searching for two shooters and a light blue Toyota sedan with no front tags, dark windows and black rims. The shooters jumped out of the car and fired into a crowd, police said.

The mothers of two shooting victims told News4 they’re devastated.

Aubrey McLeod, of Largo, Maryland, was the man who died, police said. He was the father of three children, who are 2, 3 and 8, his mother said.

The mother of the 12-year-old boy who was shot and wounded said her son was shot, he tried to run home for help and then he was hit by a car.

“He’s definitely in a lot of pain. He has a lot of burns across his body from when he was hit by the car,” she said.

The mother said her son was released from the hospital Thursday morning but still has a long road to recovery. She said she’s looking to leave the neighborhood and find a new home as soon as possible.

“I have to go. I can’t. It’s not safe for my children,” she said.

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Metropolitan Police Department statistics for the half-mile radius where the shooting occurred show that in the past year there have been eight homicides, 45 assaults and 147 stolen vehicles.

“This is another example, and I’ve been through it before in this space of violence, that we cannot, we just cannot accept in our communities,” Chief of Police Pamela Smith said Wednesday night. “My condolences go out to the families and friends who were impacted by this senseless gun violence.”

The mother of the 12-year-old who was shot said the arrests of the shooters can’t come soon enough. She said she couldn’t understand why they opened fire though they saw children in the crowd.

“If you saw these children outside, why even follow through with what you obviously had planned? It doesn’t make sense. Like, our kids aren’t safe because you guys are acting crazy,” she said.

The mass shooting comes just four days after the District opened its brand-new crime center. Officers are able to monitor security cameras for around the region in real time. Police say that’s how they obtained images of the getaway vehicle quickly.

A Maryland mom's alleged killer fled the US. He was caught after her family's social media campaign

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 16:47:51 +0000

A young woman who was just 11 when her mom was stabbed to death in Maryland has spent the past decade pursuing justice. Now, she believes it’s been served — in part because of her family’s social media campaign.

The suspect, who’s been on the run for nearly a decade, is now in custody in Mexico.

“I’m ready to get it over with,” said the victim’s daughter, Kiany DeJesus. “I’m ready for him to be in those handcuffs and so he can get out of my face, and I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

Her mom, 28-year-old Emilia Ignacio, was found slain in a car in Greenbelt back in April 2014. The person now in custody is Ignacio’s ex-boyfriend, Juan Miguel Roman-Balderas.

DeJesus said she and her mom had lived with Roman-Balderas for about five years. But he was abusive, she said. Her mom had broken up with him and was in a new relationship at the time of the murder, she said.

Authorities said Roman-Balderas fled the country. Efforts to find him failed for nearly a decade.

DeJesus is grown up now. She says her family’s social media campaign led to the arrest of her mom’s alleged killer, Juan Miguel Roman-Balderas.

“I’m ready to tell my story,” DeJesus said. “I’m ready to tell her story; I’m ready to tell my family’s story. At some point, we have to be brave and we have to speak up.”

Relatives have been posting about the cold case on social media for the last year. DeJesus said someone in Mexico recognized Roman-Balderas’ photo and that led to his arrest.

Greenbelt police confirmed he is awaiting extradition to face first-degree murder charges.

DeJesus described her feelings on the arrest as “a mixture,” saying she was relieved, happy and sad. “I was really overwhelmed,” she said.

She has struggled with trauma, PTSD and anxiety, and described Roman-Balderas as abusive during the years she and her mom lived with him.

“I’ve had times where I got my my hand put on the stove and burned if I, like, took quarters and stuff like that,” she said. “He would beat my dog.”

She says Roman-Balderas was taken into custody back in December, so it’s been hard waiting for the legal process to play out, but she’s ready for what comes next.

“That’s all we want, is just justice,” she said. “We just want to be able to take that final breath of relief and just put it away.”

The Weekend Scene: Japanese Street Festival, Emancipation Day and more around DC

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 14:48:32 +0000

Subscribe to The Weekend Scene newsletter to get our picks delivered straight to your inbox — every Wednesday

This weekend, are you headed to one of D.C.’s favorite brunches, sandwich shops or bars?

Well, show it some love!

Each year, the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington hands out RAMMY awards – it’s essentially the Oscars for local restaurants. The big celebration happens in July when the winners are announced at a gala in the Washington Convention Center.

But first, NBC4 and Telemundo 44 are asking you for some help. We’re excited to bring YOU into the mix for the publicly-voted awards. These are some of our favorite categories and hopefully yours, too!

See the nominees and vote at nbcwashington.com/RAMMYs now!

Whatever your weekend plans, the weather is looking nice. Sunday’s forecasted high is 78°, Storm Team4 says.

Weekend highlights

Sakura Matsuri – Japanese Street Festival
Sat. and Sun., Pennsylvania Avenue, NW between 3rd and 7th Streets, $15 in advance/$20 day-of

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Thu, 11 Apr 2024 14:00:00 +0000

There is no natural equity among wild birds in the Pacific Northwest. | Opinion

DC man finds possible card skimmer while checking out at Safeway

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 12:45:53 +0000

John Perry-Miller was shopping at a Safeway in D.C. Wednesday night when he noticed the credit card keypad at a self-checkout kiosk was “sparkling, like brand new.”

“So, I yanked on it, and it was loose. And so, I called over the attendant and he was like, ‘No it’s not a skimmer’ and I said, ‘It’s a skimmer!’” Perry-Miller said. “And so, we yanked it off together all the way and he was like ‘Oh my god…’ and I said ‘see! It’s a skimmer.’”

Perry-Miller, who shops at the Georgetown store three times a week, posted a photo of the shocking moment on X. It then took off.

“@Safeway I just pulled a skimmer off my self-checkout machine at the Georgetown Safeway on Wisconsin Ave NW in DC. The store just underwent a massive renovation to overhaul their security.,” @JohnPerryMiller wrote on X.

Perry-Miller said he was tipped off by the keypad’s buttons that looked different from the last time he visited the store. In the photo the left keypad looks super clean, while the right keypad is a bit worn down.

“Exactly! And you can see with the picture. I mean, look at the buttons underneath it,” Perry-Miller said.

“The real buttons?” News4 asked.

“There’s a night and day difference,” he said.

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News4 contacted Safeway, but the company did not confirm if Perry-Miller had stumbled on to a credit card skimmer device.

“Safeway takes these issues seriously and is investigating this matter, in coordination with law enforcement, to ensure appropriate action has been taken. In addition, we have implemented additional controls and associate training to help prevent this type of activity in the future,” Safeway said in a statement.

Skimmers can steal info like card numbers, pins and security codes. In March, a D.C. woman who noticed her EBT card had been drained said her card had been skimmed. The last place she had used the card was a Giant grocery store in Northeast D.C.’s Brentwood neighborhood.

As for Perry-Miller, he’s thankful his warning about skimming reached lots of people.

“I’m glad that I can make sure people are aware of this because I do think that it’s important that people are checking,” he said.

Next time you check out, take an extra second to check the credit card reader before swiping or inserting your card. The FBI recommends looking for anything loose, broken or crooked. Cash, Apple or Google Pay are also safe alternatives.

“After this experience, I’ll probably be using cash!” he said.

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Former Defense Secretary James Mattis accepts WSU’s inaugural Thomas S. Foley Award

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 12:00:00 +0000

At the center of Mattis’ message was for Americans to reject disunity.

OJ Simpson, onetime football star acquitted of murder in notorious case, dies of cancer at 76

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 10:59:21 +0000

O.J. Simpson, a former football star who was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her friend in what became known as “The Trial of the Century,” but who was then found liable for their deaths in a civil procedure, has died after a battle with cancer, his family said.

He was 76.

Simpson’s journey — from football stardom to celebrity as an actor and broadcaster, and finally to criminal notoriety — made him, in the words of one of his lawyers, one of the most famous people on the planet.

His family announced his death on his X account, tweeting “On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.”

Born Orenthal James Simpson, he grew up in public housing in San Francisco’s Portrero Hill neighborhood, going on to play running back for the University of Southern California. In 1968, his senior year, he won the Heisman Trophy.

After college, Simpson was drafted in the NFL as the No. 1 pick by the Buffalo Bills. He became the first running back to gain 2,000 yards in a season in 1973 and became a Hall of Famer. He spent 11 years in the league, mostly with the Bills, and was considered to be one of the greatest running backs of all time. He retired from the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers in 1979.

He then branched out from sports into entertainment and broadcasting, acting in movies like “The Naked Gun” trilogy. He also served as a Hertz rent-a-car pitchman and a football commentator.

Then, in 1994, Simpson was accused of the double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman at Simpson’s home in Brentwood, California. In what became known as “The Trial of the Century,” Simpson was acquitted of the double slayings. The trial itself was a spectacle, the focus of breathless gavel-to-gavel TV coverage, with Simpson represented by a legal “Dream Team” that included the late Johnnie Cochran Jr. and F. Lee Bailey.

Three years later, however, Simpson was found liable for the deaths by a California civil court jury and ordered to pay $33.5 million to the victims’ families.

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In a separate case more than a decade later, Simpson was convicted by a jury in Las Vegas and sentenced to prison for leading five men, including two with guns, in a 2007 confrontation with two sports collectibles dealers in a cramped room at an off-strip Las Vegas casino hotel.

Simpson insisted he only wanted to retrieve personal mementoes and items stolen from him following his acquittal in the double killings.

After serving nine years in a Nevada prison for the armed robbery, Simpson was granted good behavior credits and discharged from parole on Dec. 1, 2021. The then-74-year-old continued to reside in the gated Las Vegas community where he had moved after being granted parole. Simpson became a frequent poster to Twitter, now X, offering sports takes and photos from the golf course, where he spent much of his post-incarceration free time.

Early in 2024, it was reported that Simpson had been diagnosed with and was being treated for prostate cancer.

Simpson is survived by his five children: sons Jason and Aaren and daughter Arnelle from his first marriage; and son Justin and daughter Sydney from his marriage to Nicole Brown Simpson.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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‘Shocking': Assistant principal ignored warnings that 6-year-old boy had gun before he shot teacher, report says

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 07:37:38 +0000

A former assistant principal at a Virginia elementary school showed a “shocking” lack of response to multiple warnings that a 6-year-old had a gun in the hours before he shot his teacher, according to a grand jury report released Wednesday.

“The child was not searched. The child was not removed from class. The police or SRO was not called,” the report said, referring to a school resource officer.

The report was released a day after the former administrator, Ebony Parker, was charged with eight counts of felony child neglect, one for “each of the eight bullets that endangered all the students” in teacher Abby Zwerner’s classroom, Newport News prosecutors said in a statement.

The 31-page report offers fresh details about the January 2023 shooting and serious wounding of Zwerner, which occurred after the boy brought his mother’s gun to school in a backpack. And it catalogs missed opportunities to provide more resources to the often-misbehaving student, as well as tools Parker could have used to remove him from class, such as alternative school, in the months before the shooting.

“Dr. Parker’s lack of response and initiative given the seriousness of the information she had received on Jan. 6, 2023 is shocking,” the grand jury report said. “This is only heightened by the fact that she was well aware of the child’s past disciplinary issues and had been involved in the decisions to address his behavior” in both the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years.

One parent testified that during the latter of those two school years, her son was choked twice by a fellow classmate, but the parent was never given the boy’s identity or told that he had a history of such behavior, including choking his kindergarten teacher. It was the same boy who shot Zwerner, the report said.

The report accused Parker of criminal responsibility because she “neglected to take any action” the day of the shooting after receiving reports that the boy may have had a gun.

“Over the course of approximately two hours Dr. Parker acted in complete disregard for the safety of all the children in Ms. Zwerner’s class, all the children the child played with at recess, and all the children who could have been shot in the school,” the report said.

Parker, 39, posted $4,000 in secured bail Wednesday and did not yet have an attorney listed for her, the Newport News Circuit Court clerk’s office said.

The grand jury report provides a granular, often minute-by-minute accounting of each time the special grand jury said Parker disregarded concerns. For instance, one teacher spoke of a “visibly scared and shaking” child who reported seeing bullets from the boy’s 9mm handgun during recess.

A counselor, Rolonzo Rawles, then told Parker the same story, according to the report.

“Mr. Rawles, now the third person and fourth time this message had been relayed, went back to Dr. Parker and communicated that the child either had a gun or ammunition at least,” it said.

Parker refused to let the boy be searched after his backpack was examined, the report said, describing the child sitting as his desk with “a loaded firearm tucked into his jacket.”

“Ms. Zwerner was then left alone with 16 first-grade students in her class that day, of which one had been reported by three different students over the course of two hours to have a firearm,” it added.

In the weeks after the shooting, Newport News Public Schools announced that Parker had resigned.

She and other school officials also face a $40 million negligence lawsuit from Zwerner, whose accusations dovetail with many of the details in the grand jury’s report.

The similarities were emphasized Wednesday by Zwerner’s attorneys, Diane Toscano, Kevin Biniazan and Jeffrey Breit, who said the grand jury report “reveals a systemic failure that led to the shooting.”

Zwerner was sitting at a reading table in front of the class when the boy fired the gun, police said. The bullet struck Zwerner’s hand and then her chest, collapsing one of her lungs. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and has endured multiple surgeries as well as ongoing emotional trauma, according to her lawsuit.

The children who were in her class that day are also struggling emotionally.

One student “will not talk to anyone about what happened,” according to the report, while another boy covers his ears any time someone asks him about it.

“He is afraid that the child will come back someday and hurt him,” it said. “His mother is currently in therapy as a result.”

Yet another boy who reported the 6-year-old having the gun is also in therapy, struggling with the guilt that the shooting was his fault, according to the report.

And a woman whose daughter witnessed the shooting and was subsequently denied a request to transfer to a different school was said to have sold her house and drained her savings — all “so that her daughter could go to school without feeling afraid.”

Many children were denied transfers per school policy, according to the report, which recommended allowing them in cases where a medical professional confirms a child is still struggling.

The report also found that police responding to the shooting were unable to access the school immediately because the door-buzzer system was broken. They banged on the door for a full minute before a custodian let them in.

The grand jury recommended that all Newport News schools have an automatic system, such as key fobs or swipe cards, to allow law enforcement instantaneous entry.

1 killed, children among 5 hurt in Northeast DC shooting

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 21:43:34 +0000

One man was killed and five others, including boys age 9 and 12, were hurt Wednesday when two men shot into a crowd of Northeast D.C. neighbors enjoying a warm spring evening, authorities said.

The gunfire quickly scattered the crowd. Children who had been playing on the sidewalk and neighbors ran for their lives into nearby apartments, News4’s Jackie Bensen reported.

D.C. Chief of Police Pamela Smith said at about 6:15 p.m. the suspects drove up and shot into a crowd in the 1100 block of 21st Street NE and then took off in a light blue Toyota sedan with no front tags, dark tints and black rims.

The Toyota was “possibly occupied with two shooters inside,” authorities said.

This occurred at the Fairway Park Apartments in the Carver-Langston Neighborhood off Maryland Avenue.

“Shortly after this shooting occurred, a 12-year-old boy arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound,” Smith said.

Ambulance crews on the scene kept locating victims.

“Five patients total,” a dispatcher said.

A man was declared dead at the scene, police said. His identity was not immediately released.

Two boys, ages 9 and 12, one woman and two men were shot and taken to hospitals. They are expected to survive their injuries.

“This is another example, and I’ve been through it before in this space of violence, that we cannot, we just cannot accept in our communities,” Smith said. “My condolences go out to the families and friends who were impacted by this senseless gun violence.”

Anyone who believes they see it or who has any information is asked to call police at 202-727-9099 or text 50411.

More information on the motive for the shooting or descriptions of suspects was not provided. Police said the new real-time D.C. crime center was used to capture photos of the wanted vehicle.

According to information gathered by the News4 I-Team, this is the fourth mass shooting in the District this year. A mass shooting is defined as four or more people shot or killed, not including the gunman.

This is a developing story. Refresh for updates.

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From Tim Cook to the Clintons, US state dinner for Japan attracts top figures in business, politics

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 20:18:35 +0000

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida cracked jokes and invoked a touchstone of American culture as he quoted from “Star Trek” at Wednesday’s state dinner, telling guests at the White House that he hoped the “unshakable relationship” between his country and the U.S. would “boldly go where no one had gone before.”

“I would like to propose a toast to our voyage to the frontier of the Japan-U.S. relationship with this word: boldly go,” Kishida said, quoting the iconic opening monologue of the original “Star Trek” series.

White House Executive Chef Cris Comerford holds the dishes to be served during a press preview at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 9, 2024.

Kishida, who spoke in English, and President Joe Biden exchanged warm toasts to each other and the decades-long, alliance between their nations as top figures from business, sports and politics — including an ex-president — looked on. The two leaders, who expressed a genuine friendship, pledged to continue to knit together their countries’ interests in the face of global challenges.

Biden, 81, said he and Kishida, 66, came of age as their countries forged a strong bond in the decades after they were pitted against each other in World War II.

“We both remember the choices that were made to forge a friendship,” Biden said. “We both remember the hard work, what it has done to find healing.”

Tables are decorated during a press preview at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, for the State Dinner for Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday.

“Tonight,” Biden continued, “We pledge to keep going.”

As the White House served up a maximum dose of pomp to honor its close U.S. ally, notable guests included Bill and Hillary Clinton, who were on familiar turf for the event. The former president declared it “feels great” to be back before casting an appreciative eye at a portrait of his wife from her first lady days that was on display nearby.

Guests in bright spring colors and lots of shimmery gowns chatted politics and talked shop as they strolled in — that meant eclipse chatter from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson (“fabulous” view in Ohio!) and an assessment of Biden’s electoral prospects in Wisconsin from Gov. Tony Evers (looking good!).

First lady Jill Biden arrives to speak before previewing the food and decorations at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 9, 2024.

But on a day when the inflation news from Washington was less than encouraging, Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell shot past reporters without stopping to chat. Olympic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, in a purple gown, said she didn’t expect to be out campaigning for Biden but nonetheless seemed bullish on his reelection. Actor Robert De Niro supplied the night’s Hollywood quotient and seemed to channel one of his tough-talking characters when he was asked for his thoughts about the 2024 election.

“What do you think?” he retorted.

On a warm spring evening, the Bidens came stepped onto the North Portico to welcome Kishida and his wife, Yuko, who stood out in a flowing royal blue gown on the red carpet.

Inside, Jill Biden, wearing a beaded sapphire gown, had transformed the State Floor of the White House into what she called a “vibrant spring garden” for the evening. The floor of the famous Cross Hall was decorated with images giving the nearly 230 guests the feel of walking over a koi pond, a nod to fish that symbolize “friendship, peace, luck and perseverance,” the first lady said at a media preview Tuesday.

Tables are decorated during a press preview at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 9, 2024.

Guests at the head table with the Bidens and Kishidas included the Clintons, De Niro and Japanese pop duo Yoasobi.

Kishida, in his toast at the dinner, enthused over the splendor.

“First and foremost, to be honest my breath is taken and I’m speechless in front of such a huge number of prominent American and Japanese guests,” he said.

A state dinner is a tool of U.S. diplomacy, an honor doled out sparingly and only to America’s closest allies. In the case of Japan, the president has granted that honor for just the fifth time to an ally that he sees as a cornerstone of his policy toward the Indo-Pacific region.

Kishida is on an official visit to the United States this week. The state dinner is Biden’s first this year.

The guests included plenty of Biden family members, including granddaughter Naomi and her husband, Peter Neal. Business moguls also were in force, including JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Labor luminaries United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain and United Steelworkers President David McCall were also in attenddance. Both unions have endorsed Biden for reelection.

Sample of the desert are passed out during a press preview at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 9, 2024.

Dry-aged rib eye steak, cherry blossoms and the music of Paul Simon were also part of the evening. Simon opened his after-dinner performance by playing guitar and singing two of his major hits, “Graceland” and “Slip Slidin’ Away.”

Guests dined on a meal that was designed to highlight the “bounty of spring” in Japan and the United States: a first course of house-cured salmon that was inspired by a California roll and an entree of rib eye with shishito pepper butter, fava beans, mushrooms and onions. Dessert was salted caramel pistachio cake with a matcha ganache and cherry ice cream.

Some of Jill Biden’s favorite flowers, including sweet peas, roses and peonies, were arranged alongside imported cherry blossoms to decorate a mix of round and rectangular dinner tables in the East Room in shades of pink. A few floral centerpieces topped out at 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall.

Tables were set with a mix of place settings representing the administrations of Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and George W. Bush. Glass and silk butterflies danced over the tables.

Simon is one of Jill Biden’s favorite artists, the White House said, adding that she chose him as a special tribute to Kishida because the prime minister also admires his music.

Simon’s career spans six decades, including performing as part of a duo with his childhood friend Art Garfunkel. The 82-year-old New Jersey native has earned numerous accolades, including multiple Grammys and a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Kishida is the fifth world leader Biden has honored with a state dinner following counterparts from France, South Korea, India and Australia.

DC launches defibrillator rebate program

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 19:58:14 +0000

The D.C. government launched a program to help pay for automated external defibrillators for locations like apartment buildings and houses of worship, especially in African American neighborhoods.

Sgt. Terrika Hooks, a paramedic with D.C. Fire and EMS, is part of the team helping raise awareness about CPR and having AEDs in more places.

She’s trained to save lives, but when her father suffered a heart attack, she wasn’t there, and nobody nearby knew CPR or had access to an AED. She and her mother, Tracey Hooks, believe her father would still be with them if there had been an AED nearby or if someone knew CPR.

“Well, he could have had a second chance,” Tracey Hooks said.

D.C. is offering a $400 rebate to businesses and organizations that install an AED and register it with the District. AEDs typically cost between $800 and $1,400.

The focus will be getting more AEDs east of the Anacostia River, where there’s a huge disparity not only in AEDs but also survival rates when someone goes into cardiac arrest. The PulsePoint app, which shows the locations of registered AEDs, illustrates the lack of devices east of the river.

“And remarkably, still, over the last several years, the survival rate from cardiac arrest among African Americans is less than half that of whites,” D.C. Fire and EMS Medical Director Dr. Robert Holman said. “And some of this gap in AED use is simply due to access.”

Any AED purchased in the past 90 days also qualifies for the rebate.

Google Maps sends patients to a school miles away from their doctors' appointments

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 18:48:51 +0000

A Google Maps glitch sends families going to the doctor at the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services to a school miles away, causing them to miss their appointments.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ address is 1401 Rockville Pike in Rockville, but the Google Maps iPhone apps guides users to Grace Episcopal Day School in Kensington — six miles away.

“I use Google Maps all the time and I’ve never had it take me five miles away from my destination that I’m searching for,” Grace Episcopal Head of School Jennifer Danish said.

Over about an hour Wednesday, News4 met three people who went to the school thinking they were going to see an eye doctor.

“It’s, like, really surprising, ‘cause we walked up here, and we saw Grace on,” Caroline Gaudencio said. “We had no idea.”

The school estimates almost 100 people have shown up there because of the glitch over the past couple of months.

“We feel terrible, and I feel responsible, even though I know it’s not my fault,” Danish said.

The problem became so common, the school put signage on the front door with the address for the Subway across the street from HHS.

Many people showing up don’t speak English, so the school’s Spanish teacher, Marisa Martucci, says she often leaves class to translate.

“That was stressful,” she said, laughing. “That was really stressful. But, you know, we try to help. Community. We try to do our best.”

DHHS said it appears Google Maps has fixed the glitch, but the fix doesn’t show up until the search history is cleared.

First, open the app and tap the profile picture in the top right corner. Then hit settings and scroll down to Maps history. Set it to autodelete to clear everything out. It can be changed back afterward.

DHHS staff will help people with clearing their Google Maps app if needed, Montgomery County said.

Google said it’s looking into the matter.

Accused Tri-Cities child rapist may have more Eastern WA victims, detectives say

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 18:35:08 +0000

The Benton County Sheriff’s Office is asking people to contact them.

Baltimore longshoreman turns to his art to make ends meet after bridge collapse

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 17:52:43 +0000

A longshoreman turned to his art to help himself and others who’ve lost work at the Port of Baltimore when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed.

Wendell Shannon, a second-generation longshoreman at the port, realized almost immediately following the collapse of the bridge that his financial situation was about to collapse as well.

“I knew that the paychecks would abruptly stop and I just had to figure it out just like the rest of my longshoremen brothers and sisters,” he said.

Port operations and the ships that mean work are at a standstill, and it could be months before the entire Port of Baltimore reopens.

But the port workers are a strong unit, Shannon said.

“One of the things that I’d say clicked was this quote: ‘Do what you can with what you have,’” he said. “So, I just tapped into everything that was available at the time.”

For Shannon, that meant his gift as an artist. He’s selling prints and canvasses that he’s been fortunate to paint over the years at the port, and some of the proceeds will go to families and the longshoremen at the Port of Baltimore.

He showed a commissioned piece titled “Solidarity.”

“That’s a term that we use down at the port, which is what happens to one happens to all,” Shannon said.

“An experience like this just impacted us all to come together and realize how human we are, how fragile life is,” he said.

A lot of work is happening to help the thousands of workers at the port whose pay has stopped, said Shannon, who has two sons to support.

“It’s not can we,” he said. “We have to. However long it takes, that’s what we’re gonna have to do.”

The state of Maryland estimates about 140,000 jobs are linked to the critical shipping hub. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the port produces an estimated $2 million in wages each day for the workers who make a living there.

Japan gives DC 250 cherry trees, replacing those to be removed for Tidal Basin seawall repairs

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 17:36:16 +0000

Spring is a time for renewal and fresh starts, and Japan and the United States celebrated both with a Wednesday morning announcement: Japan gave the U.S. 250 new cherry trees.

President Joe Biden shared the news with reporters gathered at the welcome ceremony for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and first lady Yuko Kishida. The new trees will replace those that must be removed from the Tidal Basin later this spring, before the National Park Service can begin work rehabilitating the crumbling seawall in the area.

The visit, ceremony and press conference took place ahead of a Wednesday night state dinner, a tool meant to boost diplomacy between America and its closest allies. The gift of 250 new cherry trees — meant to honor the U.S.’s 250th birthday in 2026, Biden said — reinforces the sentiment.

“Let me end with this. It’s spring in Washington,” Biden said to reporters. “The sun is shining. And every spring, cherry blossoms bloom across the city thanks to a gift from Japan of 3,0000 cherry trees over a century ago. People travel all over our country and the world to see these magnificent blossoms.”

Those initial 3,000 trees came after years of collaboration between American travel writer Eliza Scidmore, U.S. Department of Agriculture plant explorer David Fairchild and U.S. First Lady Helen Herron Taft, as they worked to beautify D.C. in the early 1900s.

The first healthy trees came to the District in 1912 as a gift from the mayor of Tokyo and were planted in March of that year. The trees have been a symbol of the bond between the two countries ever since.

“Last night, the Prime Minister and Mrs. Kishida, Jill and I, took a stroll down the driveway across the lawn here at the White House to visit three cherry blossom trees,” Biden said. One of those trees, he said, was planted by the Japanese and U.S. first ladies together in 2023, while the other two are from the new cohort.

Biden shared that the new trees will be planted “not far from the Martin Luther King Memorial. And like our friendship, these trees are timeless, inspiring and thriving.”

2 men killed in separate hit-and-runs in Montgomery County, just days apart

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 16:31:49 +0000

Two deadly hit-and-run crashes have devastated two separate families in Montgomery County, Maryland, just days apart. Both cases remained unsolved as of Wednesday evening, and police were looking for answers.

Both crashes occurred in the past week, with one on Veirs Mill Road and the other on Randolph Road.

One of the victims, 27-year-old Jacques Price, was the father of a 5-year-old son.

Investigators say Price was riding his skateboard Monday morning near Veirs Mill Road and Monterrey Drive when the driver of a white Acura TL hit him.

Price’s father, Marcus Glivings, said their family is devastated. Price was a hard worker who loved skating and music, his dad said.

“He was one of the best sons that you can have,” Glivings said.

Police are searching for the driver and their Acura, which likely has damage to the front right corner. It is missing portions of the bumper and likely has broken or missing lights. The car could be parked somewhere out of sight, police said.

Price’s death came just three days after another deadly hit-and-run.

On Friday night, police say, the driver of a 2023 Honda Odyssey drove over a curb on Randolph Road at Kimblewick Drive, striking 52-year-old Ronaldo Franzese.

The driver of the Odyssey remained on the scene. But after Franzese fell to the ground, another car also hit him, and the second driver sped off on New Hampshire Avenue.

Police believe that investigators have found the vehicle involved in the crash on Friday. It was a white Acura, but a different one than the car involved in Monday’s crash, police said.

The two crashes are the first deadly hit-and-runs in the county this year. Last year there were 34 deadly car crashes. Thirteen pedestrians were killed. One of those crashes was a hit-and-run.

Price’s father said he’s seeking answers about what happened to his son.

“It’s surreal. We just want justice to be served and find the person that did this,” he said.

Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to contact police.

‘Beauty with a cause': Dutch Tulip Days blooms at Netherlands ambassador's DC residence

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 12:56:29 +0000

More than 15,000 tulips are adorning the halls of the home to the Netherlands ambassador to the United States.

It’s a beautiful backdrop set against the serious themes that will be discussed during this year’s Dutch Tulip Days from April 10 to 12.

“We tried to combine beauty with a cause,” Birgitta Tazelaar, Netherlands ambassador, said.

This year’s themes revolve around believed and shared values between the Netherlands and the U.S., sustainability, innovation and freedom, Tazelaar said.

“We celebrate freedom because we should not take it for granted. And we only have to look at Ukraine to see what freedom actually means,” Tazelaar said.

There’s a nearly 10-foot-tall 3D-printed replica of the Netherlands Carillon in Arlington, Virginia. The original was gifted from the Dutch to the U.S. for support during and after World War II.

The replica is meant to represent freedom. It’s recycled waste and plant-based material structure represents sustainability.

A garden box highlights sustainability with plants native to the Netherlands that require less water and fertilizer.

There are tulips in yellow, red, white and purple along the grand staircase of the home.

Over the next three days, the residence will host hundreds of visitors, including politicians, entrepreneurs and invited members of the public.

“We’ll talk about innovation during these days when it comes to, for example, the semiconductor industry and cyber security. Those are also that they demand a lot of innovation in order to protect ourselves,” Tazelaar said.

Once Dutch Tulip Days ends, the thousands of tulips will be donated to various charities around D.C.

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Ranking the best and worst quarterback draft classes in NFL history

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 12:06:39 +0000

A new crop of quarterbacks enters the NFL every year.

Sometimes, the fresh faces burst onto the scene and make an immediate impact in the league. Other times, the lights are too bright and the entire class flames out.

With the 2024 NFL Draft just around the corner, Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels and J.J. McCarthy hope to join the former group rather than the latter.

Before the action begins in Detroit, here’s a look at the three best and three worst NFL draft classes of the last 50 years:

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Best: 1983

Notable picks: John Elway (No. 1), Jim Kelly (No. 14), Tony Eason (No. 15), Ken O’Brien (No. 24), Dan Marino (No. 27)

As the only class (so far) with three Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterbacks, 1983 certainly reigns supreme.

Elway was drafted by the Baltimore Colts before forcing a trade to the Denver Broncos, where he won two Super Bowls and 1987 MVP. Kelly nearly pulled a similar move, but he joined the Buffalo Bills in 1985 after two seasons in the USFL. He led the squad to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances, all losses, before being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002. Marino, the third Hall of Fame QB, dropped in the first round but became a nine-time Pro Bowler and the winningest QB without a Super Bowl win.

Eason and O’Brien are the forgotten first-rounders from this class, but both had respectable pro careers. Eason, drafted by the New England Patriots, started 51 games over eight seasons and finished sixth in MVP voting in 1986. O’Brien made 110 starts and two Pro Bowls after being selected by the New York Jets.

Worst: 2007

Notable picks: JaMarcus Russell (No. 1), Brady Quinn (No. 22), Kevin Kolb (No. 36), John Beck (No. 40), Drew Stanton (No. 43), Trent Edwards (No. 92), Matt Moore (undrafted)

It’s probably not a good sign when the best quarterback from a class ended up being undrafted.

Moore made just 32 career starts, with 49 touchdowns and 36 interceptions, and it’s pretty clear he was the star of this group. Russell was one of the biggest busts in NFL history, playing three seasons with the Oakland Raiders before he was out of the league. Quinn never reached his college heights after the Cleveland Browns selected him later in the first round.

Early in the second round, Kolb and Stanton had a few moments as fill-in starters, but neither saw much action. Edwards, a third-rounder, similarly got an opportunity for the Buffalo Bills early in his career but couldn’t figure it out.

Best: 2004

Notable picks: Eli Manning (No. 1), Philip Rivers (No. 4), Ben Roethlisberger (No. 11), J.P. Losman (No. 22), Matt Schaub (No. 90)

This group could soon join 1983 with three Hall of Fame quarterbacks.

The two classes had similar stories at the top, where Manning refused to play for the San Diego Chargers and was shipped to the New York Giants for Rivers. Both had solid careers in their respective homes – Manning winning two Super Bowls, Rivers posting overall better statistics. Roethlisberger was probably the best of the trio, winning two Super Bowls and totaling the most passing yards of the three.

Losman never made much of an impact after the Bills drafted him, making 33 career starts with 33 touchdowns and 34 interceptions. Schaub was an underrated fourth quarterback from this class, starting for seven seasons with the Houston Texans and making two Pro Bowls after beginning his career as Michael Vick’s backup.

Worst: 1996

Notable picks: Tony Banks (No. 42), Bobby Hoying (No. 85), Jeff Lewis (No. 100), Danny Kanell (No. 130), Damon Huard (undrafted)

There isn’t much to praise with this group.

Banks had the best numbers, but his career was defined by being the guy before the guy. He started for three seasons with the St. Louis Rams before he was replaced by Kurt Warner, who quickly led them to a Super Bowl. Then he started for a season and a half with the Baltimore Ravens before being replaced by Trent Dilfer, who went on to win the Super Bowl.

Beyond Banks, no one in this class started more than 27 games. Huard, undrafted out of Washington, was in the league for 12 seasons, mostly as a backup. Kannel started 10 games for the Giants in 1997 and 1998, but that was the extent of his NFL career.

Best: 2012

Notable picks: Andrew Luck (No. 1), Robert Griffin III (No. 2), Ryan Tannehill (No. 8), Brock Osweiler (No. 57), Russell Wilson (No. 75), Nick Foles (No. 88), Kirk Cousins (No. 102)

Even with Luck and Griffin’s injuries, this group has sneaky depth.

Luck was a four-time Pro Bowler, retiring at the peak of his powers after just seven seasons due to injuries. RG3 was the Offensive Rookie of the Year, got hurt in the postseason for Washington and was never the same. But even with those unfortunate stories for the top two picks, there were plenty of success stories later on.

Tannehill developed into a capable, longtime NFL starter with the Dolphins and Titans. Osweiler earned a big contract after respectably filling in for Peyton Manning, though he flamed out soon after. Wilson has had the best career of any 2012 quarterback, winning a Super Bowl and making the Pro Bowl nine times so far. Foles had a few solid seasons as a starter and will forever be remembered for his Super Bowl MVP run with the Philadelphia Eagles. Then there’s Cousins, who continues to produce into his mid-30s as a four-time Pro Bowler.

Worst: 2013

Notable picks: EJ Manuel (No. 16), Geno Smith (No. 39), Mike Glennon (No. 73), Matt Barkley (No. 98), Landry Jones (No. 115)

One year after a great quarterback class, one of the worst showed up.

Smith is fighting to salvage this group. He finally got another chance as a starter in 2022 after a rocky start to his career with the Jets, responding with a Pro Bowl season for the Seahawks before earning a big contract.

Glennon is the only other player with more than 20 starts, but he has a 6-25 career record while playing for seven different teams. Manuel got a chance to play for the Bills as a rookie, quickly proving that he wasn’t a starting QB. Barkley is still bouncing around as a backup, though he’s only made seven starts in his 10-year career.

Sleeper: 2020

Notable picks: Joe Burrow (No. 1), Tua Tagovailoa (No. 5), Justin Herbert (No. 6), Jordan Love (No. 26), Jalen Hurts (No. 53)

If the first four seasons of this class’s career is any indication, it could soon be one of the best ever.

Burrow made the Super Bowl in just his second season, quickly turning around a Bengals franchise that hadn’t seen that kind of success in decades. When healthy, Tagovailoa posted above-average numbers in 2022 and 2023 for the Dolphins. Just behind him at No. 6, Herbert was Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2020, a Pro Bowler in 2021 and top-10 in MVP voting in 2022.

Later in the draft, Hurts quickly became a star. He had a breakout season for the Eagles in 2022, leading Philly to the Super Bowl and posting historic numbers in a close loss. Love got his first crack at starting in 2023 when the Packers traded Aaron Rodgers, and he helped the team win a playoff game after tossing 32 touchdowns in the regular season.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story was first published in April 2023.

Young kids rushed to hospital after Fairfax County house fire, neighbors say

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 11:14:38 +0000

A community is clinging to hope after a horrific house fire in Clifton, Virginia, badly injured two young children Wednesday, neighbors say.

Two people were rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries after being pulled from a burning home in the 13900 block of Whetstone Manor Court, Fairfax County Fire & EMS said. Three others have lesser injuries.

Fire officials would not confirm the ages or relationships of the five people who were in the home when the fire broke out. However, multiple neighbors said they were three children and their grandparents, who were watching the kids while their parents were at work. There was no school Wednesday due to the Eid holiday.

Thick, dark smoke cast a shadow on the firefighters racing to knock down the raging fire as two young kids were trapped inside. Firefighters found them fairly quickly and pulled them outside.

Neighbors told News4 they watched as EMS crew members performed CPR on two young children outside the home before they were rushed to a hospital by ambulance.

Video from the scene showed a badly charred home. The exterior of the first floor was blackened, and rescue ladders were extended to the second floor, where smoke damage was visible around the window frames.

Oldest child escaped from home and called 911, neighbors say

Fairfax County fire officials said they received a 911 call about 9 a.m. about smoke inside the home.

A neighbor ran out when she spotted the smoke and saw one of the children out on the lawn on the phone with 911. Fire officials would not confirm who made the 911 call, but multiple neighbors said it was one of the children who called while his siblings were still inside the burning home.

Soon after, the grandparents were able to make it out.

“I saw an elderly couple coming out from the house,” neighbor Nishit Sahay said. “They were extremely scared.”

Neighbors say the grandparents tried to get the other two kids out, but the fire was too intense.

When firefighters arrived, smoke was pouring from the home, and flames were beginning to show. At least three people were already accounted for at that point, they said.

“The fire started becoming intense,” Sahay said. “It was so intense that it took some time for fire people to take control of it. But they eventually do it, but the scary part is that [I] came to know that there were two children inside the home.”

The fire went to two alarms and was extinguished by noon, according to an X post by Fairfax County Fire & EMS.

Neighbors told News4 they regularly see the children on walks with their dad.

“He walks his children in front of the house every day with his dogs,” neighbor Raj Sinha said. “So I’m still processing it. It’s very hard.”

The family’s two dogs were also inside at the time of the fire. Firefighters rescued them, and they survived.

One of the badly injured children is elementary school-aged, and the other is under 5, they said. Neighbors are offering support to the kids’ father, who was at work when the house burned.

“Any help he needs or anything, my house is open,” Sinha said.

Neighbors have been walking around and checking on each other.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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Tax tips for college students and their parents

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 10:44:43 +0000

There are lots of things college students and their parents should keep in mind before filing their taxes, and while tax pros say it’s great for college students to start filing their own forms, parents and students should double check everything carefully before anyone pushes the “submit” button.

Be clear on who is a dependent

For dependent students filing taxes for the first time, it’s easy to overlook checking the “dependent” box, and they cannot then be claimed on their parents’ tax forms without the long and arduous task of amending the return merely for failure to check a box.

“College students need to be very careful that they understand whether or not their parents are eligible to claim them as a dependent,” says Tom O’Saben, director of tax content and government relations at the American Association of Tax Professionals. Merely not claiming a dependent does not make that taxpayer independent, he says.

Claim all eligible college and other education tax credits

There are two kinds of education tax credits. The American opportunity credit is for up to $2,500 a year (based on at least $4,000 spent on tuition, books and fees) for the first four years toward an undergraduate degree.

The second, a lifetime learning credit, can be used toward an undergraduate, graduate or professional degree and is for up to $2,000 (based on 20% of qualified education expenses.) A parent cannot claim both for the same dependent child (or a student can claim it) on a return for the same year, but if there are multiple dependents on the return they could be using either of the credits (but not both at the same time) for each student.

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Double check that all forms are in hand

While most tax-related forms arrive dependably in the mail, college students tend to work multiple jobs each year, and some college tax forms may need to be printed out from the college portal and are not mailed at all. So before filing, make sure your dependent student has confirmed that all tax forms are in for all jobs worked, and they’ve checked with the college for any additional tax forms.

Be clear about state residency

If a student is paying at least half of their own costs and is planning on claiming in-state tuition at their college in a state other than the one in which their parents live, they might want to check with the college financial aid office about residency requirements, O’Saben says.

In some cases, claiming your child as a dependent might not be the best move once the entire financial picture is taken into account.

“Just providing an address in the state your child’s college is in may not be enough to claim in-state tuition,” O’Saben says.

Make sure your college student files, if needed

Sometimes college students are still required to file their own return even if their parents claim them. Students and parents should check the rules for dependent filing and determine if the student is required to file their own return based on their gross income, says Kathy Pickering, chief tax officer at H&R Block.

Make the most of your 529 account

Qualifying distributions from a 529 account are tax-free and are not included in the child’s income, Pickering said. And while only eligible tuition, fees and books are included in the tax credit calculations, for 529 accounts, room and board are also included as eligible for withdrawals.

How to identify an AI imposter in video, audio and text as deepfake technology goes mainstream

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 10:30:01 +0000

OpenAI recently released its Sora video generation tool and, in a very limited release due to potential dangers, Voice Engine, an audio tool that can recreate an individual’s voice from 15 seconds of speaking.
Meanwhile, ChatGPT knockoff sites that generate deep fakes are proliferating on the dark web offering AI-generated video and audio that are getting better fast.
CEOs and other boardroom executives are expected to be frequent deepfake targets, and steps that companies are taking to identify AI imposters are good tips for any individual to learn for video, audio and text communications.

Carl Froggett worked as one of Citibank’s chief information security officers for over two decades, protecting the bank’s infrastructure from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. And while criminal trickery, from low-tech paper forgery to rudimentary email scams, has long plagued banking and the wider world of business, deepfake technology powered by generative AI is something previously unseen.

“I am very worried about deepfakes being used in business,” said Froggett, who is now the CIO of Deep Instinct, a company that uses AI to combat cybercrime.

Industry experts say that boardrooms and office cubicles are quickly becoming a battlefield where cybercriminals will routinely deploy deepfake technology in the attempt to steal millions from companies, and as a result, they are a good testing ground for efforts to spot AI imposters before they are successful in scams.

“The challenge we have is that generative AI is so realistic,” Froggett said.

Generative AI video and audio tools are getting deployed, and getting better, quickly. OpenAI released its video generation tool Sora in February and, at the end of March, it introduced an audio tool called Voice Engine that can realistically recreate an individual speaking from a 15-second soundbite. OpenAI said it launched Voice Engine to a small group of users given the dangers that the technology it poses.

A native of the United Kingdom, Froggett uses his regional British accent as an example.

“I use nuances and words you have never heard of, but generative AI consumes things I have made public; I am sure there is a speech I have given posted somewhere, and from it, it generates hyper-realistic voicemail, email, and video,” he said.

Experts cite a widely reported case in Hong Kong last year in which an employee of a multinational corporation was duped into transferring $25 million to a sham account run by cyber criminals after attending a Zoom call populated by her coworkers including the company’s CFO — except all the colleagues were convincing deepfakes. Experts believe that the case is illustrative of what is to come.

Even as OpenAI limits access to audio and video tools, dark websites have exploded in number in the past few months selling GPT knockoff products. “The bad guys have literally just gotten their hands on these tools. … they are just getting started,” Froggett said.

It only takes a 30-second or less snippet of someone talking to make a flawless deepfake, said Check Point Software president Rupal Hollenbeck, and cybercriminals are now able to gain access to AI-driven deepfake tools for dollars, if not pennies. “But that is just on the audio side. The same is now true for video, and that changes the game,” Hollenbeck said.

Steps that corporations are beginning to take to prevent successful deepfakes are instructive for how all individuals should conduct their lives in a gen AI world and interact with friends, family and coworkers.

How to identify an AI video imposter

There are many ways to spot an AI imposter, some relatively simple.

For starters, Hollenbeck says if there is any doubt about a person’s video veracity, ask them to turn their head to the right or the left, or look backward. If the person complies but their head disappears on the video screen, end the call immediately, Hollenbeck said.

“Right now, I am going to teach this to everyone I know, to have them look right or left. AI does not have the capacity to go beyond what you can see. AI is flat today, and that is very powerful,” she said.

But there’s no telling how long that will last.

Chris Pierson, CEO of Blackcloak, a company specializing in digital executive protection, thinks it is only a matter of time before deepfakes have 3D capability. “The models are improving so quickly that those tricks will fall by the wayside,” Pierson said.

He also says don’t be afraid to ask for old-fashioned “proof of life” video evidence of authenticity, like requesting the person on the conference to show a company report or even a newspaper. If they can’t follow those basic commands, that is a red flag.

How use of code words and QR codes can help

Old-fashioned code words can be effective too, but only transmit them through a separate medium and keep them in unwritten form. Both Hollenbeck and Pierson are recommending to the executive teams at companies the generation of a code word for each month, stored in encrypted password vaults. If there is any doubt about the person you are talking to, you can ask for the code word to be sent via text. And set a threshold to deploy the code word. For example, if anyone asks you to conduct a transaction over $100,000, then the code word tactic should be deployed.

For businesses, having corporate calls only on approved company channels also greatly reduces the risk of being duped by a deepfake.

“Where we are getting in trouble is going outside the network,” Pierson said.

Real-world examples of business deepfakes are increasing, Nirupam Roy, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Maryland said, and it’s not just about the criminal bank account transfers. “It is not difficult to imagine how such deepfakes can be used for targeted defamation to tarnish the reputation of a product or a company,” he said.

Roy and his team have developed a system called TalkLock that works to identify both deepfakes and shallowfakes — which he describes as relying “less on complex editing techniques and more on connecting partial truths to small lies.”

It may not be the answer to highly personalized, AI-generated scams, but it is designed for individuals (who can access an app) and corporations (given access to a verification module) to be able to spot AI manipulation. It works by embedding a QR code into audiovisual media such as live public appearances by politicians and celebrities, as well as social media posts, advertisements and news, that he says can prove authenticity. It combats a rising problem associated with unofficial recordings — for example, video and audio taken by audience members at events, which unlike official media, cannot be identified by metadata.

How to live a multi-factor authentication life offline

Even with more protections techniques, experts predict a spiraling arms race of deepfakes vs. deepfake tools. For companies, there are certain procedures that can be put in place to prevent the worst consequences of deepfakes that are less readily adaptable to individual life.

Eyal Benishti, CEO of Ironscales, an email security software company, said organizations will increasingly adopt segregation of duties so that no single person can be duped enough to harm a company. In particular, this means a division of labor processes for handling sensitive data and assets. For example, changes to bank account information used to pay invoices or payroll should require two people to change and (ideally) a third person for notification. “This way, even if an employee falls for a social engineering attack that requests they redirect an invoice payment, there will be stop-gaps as different stakeholders are brought in to fulfill their roles in the chain of command,” Benishti said.

At the most basic level, organizations and their people must start living their lives in a multi-factor authentication way, according to Hollenbeck, having multiple ways to verify reality. In the end, old-school still works, such as walking down the hall to see the boss in person. So far, that can’t be deepfaked.

“It used to be that seeing was believing, but not so much anymore,” Hollenbeck said.

It’s also wise to remember that deepfakes are simply the latest in a long line of scams, from three-card monte to the pigeon drop, that prey upon human vulnerabilities by creating a false sense of urgency. That means the best antidote to a deepfake, according to Pierson, may be the simplest: slow down. This is one tactic that is arguably easier for individuals to use in their personal life than for employees in work life.

“Slowing down almost always yields a definitive answer. Every company should have a safe harbor policy that if you ever feel like you are being rushed into making a decision, an employee should feel the right to decline, contact security, and be held harmless,” Pierson said. Often corporate culture doesn’t give employees much deference.

“We have to give people the advantage of being able to stop and say no. If they don’t feel like they can say no — and no one feels like they can say no — that is when mistakes happen,” Pierson said.