Tampa Mayor Jane Castor helped reel in 70 pounds of cocaine while fishing last month in the Florida Keys, her office confirmed on Tuesday.

The drugs had an estimated street value of $1.1 million, according to Chief Patrol Agent Walter Slosar with the U.S. Border Patrol’s Miami sector.

Slosar said on social media on July 24 that the cocaine was “discovered by a recreational boater” over the weekend and seized by Border Patrol agents. He shared a photo of the haul — 25 bricks each stamped with a purple butterfly.

The identity of the “recreational boater” wasn’t revealed until now.

Castor was mahi-mahi fishing off the Florida Keys with her family when they spotted the package, the mayor told the Tampa Bay Times in an article published on Tuesday.

“Mayor Jane Castor is never off duty. This time, working with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office,” the City of Tampa said on Facebook on Tuesday while sharing a link to an article about the incident.

Castor is no stranger to law enforcement — the former police officer served as Tampa’s first female chief of police before becoming mayor, according to her mayoral biography.

More suspected cocaine has since been found in waters off the Florida Keys. On Sunday, lobster hunters found a brick that was turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

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The Bell 206L-4 helicopter was later found fragmented and partially submerged in Lake Itinik, a large oval-shaped body of water that measures 3 miles wide in some places, according to the report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

There was no indication in the report of what caused the helicopter to crash into the lake in clear conditions. The cause typically is detailed months later when federal investigators file their final report.

The last of the helicopter’s data transmissions sent every three minutes indicated it was traveling in a northwesterly direction at an altitude of 144 feet above mean sea level at 107 mph, the report said.

The terrain around the lake is flat, featureless Arctic tundra. The report said the lake is reported to be at 56 feet above sea level.

The July 20 crash claimed the lives of a pilot and three scientists with Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources, working in the Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys. The helicopter is owned and operated by Maritime Helicopters of Homer, Alaska. It was under contract to take scientific crews to various remote locations on the North Slope so they could conduct field work.

The wreckage was recovered from the lake on July 30 and taken by helicopter to Utqiagvik for examination. It was later taken to Anchorage, where further examinations are pending.

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“We’re at capacity. We have been providing those food, shelter, clothing, food, educating children, making sure they get the level of dignity they deserve. But we cannot kid ourselves,” Adams told ABC News.

According to the mayor’s office, 57,200 asylum seekers are currently in the city’s care and nearly 100,000 migrants have arrived since last spring. A portion of the migrants have come from Texas as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to bus migrants to so-called sanctuary cities.

“Before we started busing illegal immigrants up to New York, it was just Texas and Arizona that bore the brunt of all the chaos and all of the problems that come with it. Now the rest of American is understanding exactly what is going on,” Abbott said last August.

Adams criticized Abbott’s remarks to “Nightline.”

“[It’s] dehumanizing to treat fellow human beings in this magnitude as political stunts, it’s a wrong thing to do. And I say that with a clear understanding, no city should be going through this,” Adams said.

Migrants arriving to the city from all over the world in recent days told ABC News that they came to New York City for a variety of reasons – to stay and find work or after hearing there are resources being provided to them.

Around 3,000 asylum seekers are being housed in midtown Manhattan at the Roosevelt Hotel, which also serves as an intake center for the migrants, according to the city. Last week, a line of around 130 asylum seekers waiting to be processed began to form around the hotel, before they were moved to a church in queens on Thursday, Adams’ chief of staff said at a news conference.

Many of the people in line told ABC News they didn’t actually know what they were standing in line for, just that it was the very first step to seeking asylum.

Gledis González and her family recently arrived at the Roosevelt.

“We got here without knowing. We asked around, and then came here. And we’re told it’s a process where we might be sent somewhere else, or could stay here. We are waiting to be relocated, because there is no space here for us to stay,” González said.

Asylum seekers can apply for a work permit between five and six months after they submit their asylum applications.

“The delay is because we need to be in a permanent place and have an address, so that we can get our resident cards, and paperwork to start looking for job,” Jesús Longart, González’s husband, said.

Expediting that process is on the mayor’s long to-do list.

“Every migrant I heard from, they said, ‘We don’t want your free food. We don’t want you to clothe us. We don’t want you to wash our clothing. We don’t want you to give us anything. We want to work,’” Adams said.

But Adams says in order to expedite the work permitting process, he needs help from the federal government.

“All we need is the White House to give us that TPS (temporary protected status) to allow the men and women to work. The congressional delegation is calling for it. Local leaders are calling for it. Everyone is calling for it. It is something within our powers and there’s no reason we’re not doing it,” Adams said.

Adams, along with New York’s senators and the city’s House Democrats, met in July with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in Washington, D.C. Mayorkas said he would appoint a liaison to the city to coordinate on migrants.

Meanwhile, some New York residents have taken matters into their own hands, including Mammad Mahmoodi and his partner Sasha Allenby, founders of the local nonprofit EVLovesNYC. The couple first began cooking free meals for those in need at the start of the pandemic. Now with the help of around 40 volunteers, their focus has since shifted to delivering meals to thousands of migrants around the city.

“I genuinely feel that we are in the most prosperous city in the world. There are enough resources to provide for everyone. You know, if you look at it, in the grand scheme of things, we have a total of 107,000 people so far. That is less than 1.5% of the population of New York City that have come,” Mahmoodi told ABC News.

ABC News’ Mack Muldofsky, Izzie Mendez, Armando Garcia and Anneke Ball contributed to this report.

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The changes to the Hillsborough County Public Schools’ curriculum guides were made with Florida’s new laws prohibiting classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in mind. Other reasons included revised state standards and an effort to get students to read a wide variety of books for new state exams, the school district said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

Several Shakespeare plays use suggestive puns and innuendo, and it is implied that the protagonists have had premarital sex in “Romeo and Juliet.” Shakespeare’s books will be available for checkout at media centers at schools, said the district, which covers the Tampa area.

“First and foremost, we have not excluded Shakespeare from our high school curriculum. Students will still have the physical books to read excerpts in class,” the statement said. “Curriculum guides are continually reviewed and refined throughout the year to align with state standards and current law.”

The decision in Tampa is the latest fallout from laws passed by Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature and championed by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis over the past two years.

In Lake County, outside Orlando, the school district reversed a decision, made in response to the legislation, to restrict access to a popular children’s book about a male penguin couple hatching a chick. The School Board of Lake County and Florida education officials last week asked a federal judge to toss out a First Amendment lawsuit that students and the authors of “And Tango Makes Three” filed in June. Their complaint challenged the restrictions and Florida’s new laws.

The lawsuit is moot because age restrictions on “And Tango Makes Three” were lifted following a Florida Department of Education memo that said the new law applied only to classroom instruction and not school libraries, according to motions filed Friday by Florida education officials and school board members.

“And Tango Makes Three” recounts the true story of two male penguins who were devoted to each other at the Central Park Zoo in New York. A zookeeper who saw them building a nest and trying to incubate an egg-shaped rock gave them an egg from a different penguin pair with two eggs after they were having difficulty hatching more than one egg at a time. The chick cared for by the male penguins was named Tango.

The book is listed among the 100 most subjected to censorship efforts over the past decade, as compiled by the American Library Association.

The “Don’t Say Gay” legislation has been at the center of a fight between Disney and DeSantis, who is running to be the 2024 GOP presidential nominee and has made the culture wars a driving force of his campaign. DeSantis and Republican lawmakers took over control of the district after Disney publicly opposed the legislation.

The College Board has refused to alter its Advanced Placement psychology course to comply with Florida’s new laws, even though it includes content on gender and sexual orientation. The College Board said last week that it hoped Florida teachers would be able to teach the full course.

With students preparing to return to school this week in many school districts, it remained unclear whether any modifications to the course would be expected to comply with Florida’s rules.

___

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP

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Bankman-Fried, the former founder and CEO of cryptocurrency FTX, was slapped with a host of charges last year focused on an alleged multi-billion dollar fraud against company investors, which could land him in prison for decades.

Among those allegations, the charges included campaign finance violations accusing Bankman-Fried of seeking influence in Washington and in state capitals by improperly using customer and investor money to make political donations.

The campaign finance charge was dropped after officials in the Bahamas, where Bankman-Fried was arrested, said they had not agreed to extradite him based on that count.

In a letter to the judge on Tuesday, however, prosecutors said they intend to file a superseding indictment next week that will seek to incorporate Bankman-Fried’s alleged campaign finance scheme into seven other existing charges.

“The superseding indictment will make clear that Mr. Bankman-Fried remains charged with conducting an illegal campaign finance scheme as part of the fraud and money laundering schemes originally charged,” the letter said.

“The defendant’s use of customer deposits to conduct a political influence campaign was part of the wire fraud scheme charged in the original indictment. And as part of the originally charged money laundering scheme, the defendant also concealed the source of his fraudulent proceeds through political straw donations,” the letter added.

In response to an inquiry from ABC News, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys Mark Cohen and Christian Everdell declined to comment.

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to all charges he faces, including defrauding customers and lenders of FTX. The trial is scheduled for October.

Bankman-Fried stepped down from his role at FTX in November 2022 amid a rapid collapse that ended with the company declaring bankruptcy. Prosecutors charged Bankman-Fried the following month with an array of alleged crimes centered on a scheme to defraud investors.

Soon after, Bankman-Fried agreed to waive his right to deny extradition to the U.S., clearing the way for his trial in U.S. court. Since then, Bankman-Fried has stood under house arrest at his parents’ Palo Alto, California, home as he awaits trial.

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to 13 charges, including fraud, conspiracy and bribery, after federal prosecutors said he misappropriated billions of dollars from FTX before it went bankrupt.

Prosecutors allege he used the money to cover losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research, to buy lavish real estate and to make political donations.

Bankman-Fried, in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in November, denied knowing “there was any improper use of customer funds.”

“I really deeply wish that I had taken like a lot more responsibility for understanding what the details were of what was going on there,” Bankman-Fried told Stephanopoulos. “A lot of people got hurt, and that’s on me.”

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During a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Montgomery Police Department Darryl Albert announced assault charges for the following men: Zachery Shipman, 25; Richard Roberts, 48; and Allen Todd, 23.

One of the men was in police custody and the two others were expected to turn themselves in to police by Tuesday afternoon.

The fight began when a crew member of a city-owned riverboat attempted to move a pontoon boat blocking the ship from docking along the riverfront around 7 p.m. on August 5.

Social media video showing a man shoving a crew member went viral on social media. 

“The people of Montgomery, we’re better than that. We’re a fun city and we don’t want this type of activity to shed a dark eye on what this city’s all about,” Albert said.

The incident escalated when several people could be seen joining the brawl and attacking the employee.

Albert said during the press conference that the FBI joined its investigation into the incident.

“Help the brother!” one person recording the fight could be heard saying.

Police are also seeking to interview Reggie Gray, 42, who was allegedly seen on social media using a folding chair in the incident.

In total, 200 people were on the riverboat, according to Albert. 

Police said that more charges could be filed in the incident.

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Aug 8 – Los Angeles municipal employees went on a 24-hour strike on Tuesday to protest what their union calls bad-faith bargaining by government officials over a new contract, the latest in a series of job actions affecting the city.

Hundreds of city workers, including mechanics, lifeguards and traffic officers marched in picket lines at city hall and the Los Angeles International Airport, saying city management has engaged in unfair labor practices during negotiations over recruitment, retention and hiring issues.

“We are here demanding respect,” Raymond Mesa, a member of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 721, told KTLA 5 outside of city hall. “We are going back to the bargaining table on Monday and we are sending them a message that they need to take this seriously.”

The union represents about 11,000 city workers.

Los Angeles officials have refused to honor previous agreements, sent negotiators to the bargaining table without the authority to bargain and have restricted union access to work sites, it said.

Some city services will be unavailable during the one-day strike, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.

A number of the city’s 55 swimming pools will shut down, trash pickups will be pushed back by a day and the city’s 311 information call center may experience delays. Passengers departing from Los Angeles Airport should arrive an hour earlier than usual in case of delays, Bass said.

“The City of Los Angeles is not going to shut down,” the mayor said.

The walkout is the latest in series of organized labor job actions in Los Angeles. Hollywood writers have been on strike for three months, and actors went on strike three weeks ago. In July, thousands of hotel workers in Los Angeles staged a three-day strike over wages, benefits and working conditions.

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Pence had initially appeared to be at risk of not making the debate, which is only open to those who have garnered the support of 40,000 individual donors.

The Pence campaign said it told Fox News – which is hosting the debate – on Monday that it had met the target. Pence is stuck in single digits in opinion polls, far behind former President Donald Trump, who has said he plans to skip the debate.

“Mike Pence made quick and easy work of the donor threshold and he’s looking forward to a substantive debate,” spokesman Devin O’Malley said in a statement. “Hopefully, former President Trump has the courage to show up.”

As well as Trump, Pence and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, at least five other candidates appeared to be on track to qualify: former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, U.S. Senator Tim Scott and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

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A SWAT team fatally shot Daton Viel, 28, on Friday after he shot and critically injured two Orlando police officers during a traffic stop around 11 p.m. Investigators believe Viel’s vehicle may have been tied to a homicide in Miami.

Less than a year ago, on Dec. 1, 2022, Viel offered a ride to the 14-year-old girl walking to a local high school. She accepted, and when she got into his vehicle, he drove her to a park and allegedly raped her inside his vehicle before driving back to the school.

Once he dropped her off at the school, the victim told friends and school staff, who contacted law enforcement, Orange County records show.

Surveillance footage captured a red, four-door sedan entering the school’s front office parking lot once at 10:14 a.m. and again at 10:46 a.m., when the victim can be seen exiting the vehicle.

Medical staff examined the victim and obtained a sexual assault kit. Detectives then conducted an analysis of male DNA found on the victim and linked it to Viel, who was charged with sexual battery of a person between the ages of 12 and 18, lewd or lascivious molestation and lewd or lascivious exhibition.

He was released on $125,000 bond in that case, as FOX 35 Orlando first reported.

“The only individual who can be blamed for incidents like these is the individual who took those actions,” Monique Worrell, U.S. State’s Attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, said during a Monday press conference. Worrell defended her office, repeating that bond is at the discretion of the court, not the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“Whether or not someone gets released on bond is in the discretion of the court, and bond is a right. It is not something that the state gets to decide or not decide,” Worrell said when asked whether the prosecutor’s office could have argued for no bond. “We can certainly make arguments. Ultimately, it’s the decision of the court, and in this case, the court decided that a $125,000 bond was appropriate.”

At the time of his arrest in the rape case, Viel was on probation for burglary, trespassing on a construction site and criminal mischief charges stemming from a December 2019 incident. He had also violated probation for alleged crimes out of Georgia earlier this year.

Additionally, there was a warrant out for Viel’s arrest in Orange County in July after he was caught driving a red Ford Fusion with a stolen license plate on June 30 near the University of Central Florida campus.

“The offender reported he’d come to the campus to see a girlfriend and he knew he shouldn’t be driving because his license was suspended, and he did not have any insurance on the car,” an amended complaint stated. “While Officer Smith was removing the stolen license plate from the vehicle, UCF Dispatch relayed the offender had an active warrant from Orange County for Trespassing.”

When officers told Viel to put his hands behind his back, he fled the scene. Police yelled commands at the suspect to stop, but he ignored them and got away.

“There were three warrants, and we just could not get to him,” Worrell said Monday. “…Until Saturday morning, he was never taken into custody.”

On Friday, after Viel shot at two Orlando officers, he initially fled the scene and then carjacked another vehicle in an effort to get away, and a vehicle pursuit ensued, according to a statement released from the Orlando Police Department. 

Viel barricaded himself inside a room at a Holiday Inn and refused to surrender despite multiple attempts by police to persuade him to give up. At 8:58 a.m., the suspect opened fire on SWAT officers “multiple times,” according to Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith. Police returned fire and hit the suspect, killing him.  

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

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Picket lines went up before dawn at Los Angeles International Airport and other locations and a rally was planned for later in the day at City Hall. SEIU Local 721 said airport custodians, heavy duty mechanics and engineers are among the more than 11,000 LA city workers who are striking.

The union said its members voted to authorize the walkout because the city has failed to bargain in good faith and also engaged in labor practices that restricted employee and union rights.

“City workers are vital to the function of services for millions of Angelenos every day and to our local economy,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement Monday. “They deserve fair contracts and we have been bargaining in good faith with SEIU 721 since January. The city will always be available to make progress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

It’s the latest strike to overtake the nation’s second largest city in recent months. Hollywood writers have been striking since May, and actors joined them last month. Los Angeles hotel workers have staged staggered walkouts all summer, and earlier this year school staff walked picket lines and there was also a contract dispute at Southern California ports.

“The City of Los Angeles is not going to shut down,” Bass insisted. But her office said some services would be affected, including parking enforcement and some traffic operations. This week’s trash pickup will be staggered by one day citywide until normal service resumes Monday, officials said.

Los Angeles International Airport officials urged travelers to allow for extra time for travel to and from LAX during the strike.

“LAX is working diligently with our airport partners to ensure that our operations will continue as close to normal as possible and to mitigate the impacts of the work action to our guests,” airport spokesperson Dae Levine said in an email Monday.

The union said it expects about 300 lifeguards working at dozens of city swimming pools would strike. Rose Watson, spokesperson for the Department of Recreation and Parks, said Monday afternoon that it wasn’t immediately clear whether pools would be closed.

Approximately 300 Port of Los Angeles employees were expected to participate in the walkout, according to port spokesperson Phillip Sanfield. “The Port of Los Angeles respects the fair bargaining rights of all employees,” Sanfield said in an email Monday. “With an anticipated job action, Port of Los Angeles operations will continue.”

The union approved a one-year deal with the city in November 2022 with the understanding that they would return to the bargaining table in January, said SEIU Local 721 Chief of Staff Gilda Valdez. With the broader agreement in place for the next year, the city and the union would then negotiate over a number of “specials,” or smaller specific proposals, Valdez told The Associated Press.

But the city reneged on the promise to negotiate on those issues and “only gave us some small agreements that basically amount to peanuts,” Valdez said. The union filed an unfair labor practice claim with the City of Los Angeles Employee Relations Board over this issue, along with previous claims filed over several other issues.

“This strike is a very strong message: ‘come to the table,’” Valdez said, noting that the union’s members had worked throughout the pandemic to keep the city running.

The union plans to return to the bargaining table with the city the week of August 14 to resume talks, she said.

In Northern California, two unions that represent nearly 4,500 San Jose city employees voted Monday to authorize a three-day strike for next week.

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Aug 8 – Wall Street dropped on Tuesday as financial stocks fell after Moody’s overnight cut credit ratings on several small- to mid-sized U.S. banks and said it could downgrade some of the country’s biggest lenders.

The agency cut the ratings on 10 lenders by one notch and placed six banking giants, including Bank of New York Mellon (BK.N), US Bancorp (USB.N), State Street (STT.N) and Truist Financial (TFC.N), on review for potential downgrades.

Moody’s also warned that the sector’s credit strength would likely be tested by funding risks and weaker profitability.

Big banks Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N) eased 2.7% and 3.6%, respectively, while Bank of New York Mellon and U.S. Bancorp shed 2.6% and 4.9%.

“Moody’s putting some banks on warning adds to Fitch’s downgrade of the U.S. Treasury market last week and gives investors additional reason to be cautious,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

“It also means that the concern that we had in March over those three bank defaults, is not over yet.”

The banking index (.SPXBK) fell 3.3% in early trading and has lost 4.7% so far this year, compared with a 16.8% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index (.SPX), after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank earlier this year sparked a crisis of confidence in U.S. lenders.

After the S&P 500 and Nasdaq logged their worst week since March, Wall Street rallied on Monday as investors built positions ahead of Thursday’s highly awaited U.S. inflation report.

On Tuesday, Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker, a voting member this year, said barring any abrupt change in the direction of recent economic data, the U.S. Federal Reserve could be at a stage where it could leave interest rates unchanged.

At 9:42 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) was down 279.54 points, or 0.79%, at 35,193.59, the S&P 500 (.SPX) was down 32.51 points, or 0.72%, at 4,485.93, and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) was down 117.38 points, or 0.84%, at 13,877.02.

Ten of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors declined, led by losses in energy (.SPNY) firms, as crude prices fell after disappointing trade data from top-consumer China.

Drugmakers globally rose after Denmark-based Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO) said that its obesity drug Wegovy reduced the risk of heart disease.

Eli Lilly (LLY.N) surged 15.3% after the pharmaceutical firm posted upbeat quarterly profits, ahead of its decision to use diabetes drug Mounjaro as a weight-loss treatment.

Dish Network (DISH.O) surged 4.3% after the pay-TV provider disclosed plans to merge with satellite communications vendor EchoStar (SATS.O).

United Parcel Service (UPS.N) lost 1.3% after the U.S. economy bellwether cut its annual revenue forecast.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 4.81-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 2.55-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded four new 52-week highs and nine new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 13 new highs and 78 new lows.

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Bansari reports on the global financial markets and writes Reuters’ daily flagship market reports on equities, bonds and currencies. An economist by training and winner of the Arthur MacEwan Award for Excellence in Political Economy, she has written for renowned global papers and magazines including The Diplomat, Boston Globe, Conversation, Huffington Post and more.

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The Republican-backed constitutional measure would raise the threshold to approve an amendment from 50% to 60% of the vote, while also implementing more stringent standards for amendments to get on the ballot in the first place.

Tuesday’s ballot question, known as Issue 1, does not specifically address abortion, but the timing is no accident. If it passes, a super-majority of voters would be required to approve a November referendum that seeks to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.

Polls have found that the percentage of voters who favor the abortion amendment is just shy of 60%, suggesting Issue 1 could determine the outcome. Political groups on both sides of the abortion issue have poured millions of dollars into the state ahead of the vote.

Tuesday’s election, scheduled by the Republican-controlled legislature, is the latest statewide battle over abortion more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a nationwide right.

Ballot initiatives have become powerful tools for abortion rights activists in states where abortion opponents, usually Republicans, control the legislature or hold the governor’s office.

Voters in Kansas and Kentucky, both solidly conservative states, rejected measures last year that would have declared that their state constitutions do not protect abortion rights.

Early voting turnout in Ohio appeared to be extraordinarily high for an August special election. As of Friday, more than 575,000 early votes had been tallied, according to the Ohio secretary of state’s office, already nearing the total number of ballots cast in last year’s August primary election for state legislative seats.

There were long lines at some polling locations over the weekend, according to local news reports.

Early voter turnout in Ohio appeared to be extraordinarily high for an August special election. The Ohio secretary of state’s office said more than 575,000 early votes were cast as of Friday, already nearing the total number of ballots cast in last year’s August primary election for state legislative seats.

Some polling locations were reported to have long lines over the weekend.

MILLIONS IN SPENDING

Republican Governor Mike DeWine signed a six-week abortion ban into law in 2019, which went into effect following the Supreme Court’s decision. The ban was put on hold in September after a legal challenge from abortion clinics; the Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to decide the case.

Some groups opposed to Tuesday’s ballot question have emphasized that the referendum goes beyond abortion, arguing it is simply undemocratic to curb citizens’ power.

“This is much larger than one issue; it’s much larger than one party or one election,” said Jen Miller, the executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. “This is about a freedom that Ohioans have had for more than a century.”

For instance, good government groups are working on a ballot question for 2024 that would amend the constitution to prevent gerrymandering, the process by which one party manipulates district lines to entrench power. If Tuesday’s referendum succeeds, getting that issue on the ballot would be far more challenging.

Last year, Ohio Republicans drew sharply partisan state legislative and congressional maps and defied court orders to revamp them; November’s elections were held using maps that had been ruled unconstitutional.

Abortion rights opponents have called the November referendum extreme, claiming its vague language would allow minors to get abortions and gender-affirming surgery without parental consent.

Supporters note that the amendment makes no mention of gender-affirming treatment or parental consent.

Tuesday’s election has drawn millions in outside spending, including from so-called “dark-money” groups that are not required to disclose their donors.

Illinois Republican mega-donor Richard Uihlein has donated at least $4 million to the pro-Issue 1 campaign, according to campaign filings. Other groups supporting Tuesday’s referendum have collected funds from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and The Concord Fund, a conservative dark-money group.

The anti-Issue 1 side has gotten support from the Tides Foundation, a California-based social justice organization, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a liberal dark-money group.

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Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Philadelphia on Tuesday to celebrate the new labor reforms at a union hall. The trip marks the latest in a string of visits by Harris and President Joe Biden to this key electoral battleground state to court unions, a core constituency.

The changes to the Davis-Bacon Act issued by the Labor Department seek to boost wages and protections as the federal government spends billions of dollars on new roads and bridges, and expanding industries like computer chips and green energy spurred by several pieces of legislation.

“The rules are more important than ever to ensure fair wages for workers and ensuring good wages for them,” a senior administration official said.

The Davis-Bacon Act, first established in 1931, tasks the federal government with establishing wage floors – known as prevailing wages – that apply to construction projects partially or fully funded by the federal government. It applies to more than one million construction workers on $200 billion of such projects, the administration said.

President Joe Biden ordered the review of the labor law early in the administration and the Labor Department proposed the rule in March last year. It will become effective in roughly 60 days.

Trade groups have long criticized the prevailing wage requirements under the Davis-Bacon Act, saying they are burdensome and discourage small businesses from seeking federal contracts.

The rule changes the way prevailing wages are calculated, basing them on wages paid to at least 30% of local workers, rather than a 50% threshold set in 1983 by then-President Ronald Regan.

The prevailing wage rate is based on an average rate in a region, and eliminating some lower-wage workers in the calculation will boost the wage floor, a senior administration official said.

The Labor Department must currently periodically survey contractors and other parties to update prevailing wage rates, but will now be able to adopt prevailing wages determined by state and local governments, issue wage determinations for jobs when data is lacking and update outdated wage rates.

The rule will add a new anti-retaliation provision in contract clauses to protect workers who raise concerns from being fired or punished and strengthens the government’s ability to withhold money from a contractor in order to pay employees their lost wages.

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The drawing, which is scheduled for 11 p.m. ET, tops Mega Millions’ previous high of $1.537 billion, according to the lottery. A single ticket sold in South Carolina won that prize.

The cash payout option is estimated at $757.2 million, the lottery said, adding that “at this level, jackpots are hard to predict with complete accuracy.”

The jackpot is larger than all but two other U.S. lottery drawings, a $1.586 billion Powerball in January 2016 and a $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot in November 2022.

There have been 31 drawings held since the Mega Millions jackpot was last won in New York on April 18, according to the lottery.

“It’s exciting to watch Mega Millions grow,” said Georgia Lottery President and CEO Gretchen Corbin, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, in a statement.

She added, “As the jackpot climbs ever higher, we thank our players and retailers for their support, which benefits the many good causes funded by our participating lotteries.”

The previous four $1 billion Mega Million jackpots were won in 2018, 2021, 2022 and January 2023.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $2 for one play.

Players must match all five numbers plus the Mega Ball number to claim the jackpot. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.

ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this story.

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A new cleanup effort has been ordered.

The discovery “is the first from an extensive sampling of active U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile bases to address specific cancer concerns raised by missile community members,” Air Force Global Strike Command said in a release Monday. In those samples, two launch facilities at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana showed PCB levels higher than the thresholds recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency.

PCBs are oily or waxy substances that have been identified as a likely carcinogen by the EPA. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a blood cancer that uses the body’s infection-fighting lymph system to spread.

In response, Gen. Thomas Bussiere, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, has directed “immediate measures to begin the cleanup process for the affected facilities and mitigate exposure by our airmen and Guardians to potentially hazardous conditions.”

After a military briefing was obtained by The Associated Press in January showing that at least nine current or former missileers at Malmstrom were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare blood cancer, the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine launched a study to look at cancers among the entire missile community checking for the possibility of clusters of the disease.

And there could be hundreds more cancers of all types, based on new data from a grassroots group of former missile launch officers and their surviving family members.

According to the Torchlight Initiative, at least 268 troops who served at nuclear missile sites, or their surviving family members, have self-reported being diagnosed with cancer, blood diseases or other illnesses over the past several decades.

At least 217 of those reported cases are cancers, at least 33 of them non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

What’s notable about those reported numbers is that the missileer community is very small. Only a few hundred airmen serve as missileers at each of the country’s three silo-launched Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile bases any given year. There have been only about 21,000 missileers in total since the Minuteman operations began in the early 1960s, according to the Torchlight Initiative.

For some context, in the U.S. general population there are about 403 new cancer cases reported per 100,000 people each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma affects an estimated 19 of every 100,000 people annually, according to the American Cancer Society.

Minutemen III silo fields are based at Malmstrom, F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming and Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.

Missileers are male and female military officers who serve in underground launch control centers where they are responsible for monitoring, and if needed, launching fields of silo-based nuclear weapons. Two missileers spend sometimes days at a time on watch in underground bunkers, ready to turn the key and fire Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles if ordered to do so by the president.

The Minuteman III silos and underground control centers were built more than 60 years ago. Much of the electronics and infrastructure is decades old. Missileers have raised health concerns multiple times over the years about ventilation, water quality and potential toxins they cannot avoid as they spend 24 to 48 hours on duty underground.

The Air Force discovery of PCBs occurred as part of site visits by its bioenvironmental team from June 22 to June 29 in the Air Force’s ongoing larger investigation into the number of cancers reported among the missile community. During the site visits a health assessment team collected water, soil, air and surface samples from each of the missile launch facilities.

At Malmstrom, of the 300 surface swipe samples, 21 detected PCBs. Of those, 19 were below levels set by the EPA requiring mitigation and two were above. No PCBs were detected in any of the 30 air samples. The Air Force is still waiting for test results from F.E. Warren and Minot for surface and air samples, and for all bases for the water and soil samples.

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There were 439,431 reported outages across the country as of 5:41 a.m. ET, namely in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia and Tennessee, according to data collected by PowerOutage.us. That figure reached 1 million at one point on Monday night due to the storms.

There were more than 600 damaging storm reports nationwide on Monday, mostly from New York state to Georgia. Damaging storms and a tornado were also reported in Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska, according to the National Weather Service.

Monday’s stormy weather was blamed for at least two fatalities — a 28-year-old man who was struck by lightning in Florence, Alabama, and a 15-year-old who was hit by a falling tree in Anderson, South Carolina, according to local authorities.

After pummeling America’s heartland over the weekend, the storms brought torrential rain, destructive winds, massive hail and loud thunder to the eastern part of the country on Monday afternoon and evening. Straight-line winds gusted to 71 miles per hour in Georgia and 63 mph in Maryland, where power lines and trees came crashing down. Grapefruit-sized hail was reported in Virginia.

Downed electric poles trapped 33 adults, 14 children and a pet dog inside 34 vehicles on a major highway in Westminster, Maryland. It took several hours for them to be rescued, but there were no reported injuries, according to state authorities.

Meanwhile, thousands of flights were canceled or delayed, impacting airports in major cities like Atlanta, New York, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Boston.

Most of the severe weather has since departed the East Coast, but the latest forecast shows a lingering storm system in New England could bring isolated severe thunderstorms with gusty winds and even an isolated tornado. Much of New England also remains under a flood watch until Tuesday evening as heavy rainfall could trigger flash flooding.

The main threat of severe weather shifts to the Great Plains on Tuesday, particularly Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas, where an isolated tornado and huge hail is possible. Other areas under threat on Tuesday will be from Mississippi to Georgia, where damaging winds will be possible, according to the latest forecast.

The stormy weather will continue into Wednesday and over the weekend with plenty of rain in the forecast. Areas from the Midwest to the Deep South could see localized flooding.

ABC News’ Matt Foster and Lauren Minore contributed to this report.

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Aug 8 – President Joe Biden’s top labor adviser, Celeste Drake, has stepped down, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter, as the administration attempts to maintain labor peace and avoid threatened strikes during an election year.

Drake is leaving the White House to serve as the Deputy Director-General of the International Labor Organization (ILO), based in Geneva, Switzerland, and starts in her new role on Aug. 14, according to the source, who did not wish to be named.

The ILO did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Drake’s departure comes at a critical time for an administration dealing with a summer of labor unrest, with estimates from national labor unions showing more than 650,000 U.S. workers were on or threatened strikes in the first half of 2023.

Hollywood actors and writers are currently on strike, and auto worker unions last month warned they are prepared to do the same unless Detroit’s Big Three automakers – General Motors (GM.N), Ford Motor (F.N) and Chrysler parent Stellantis (STLAM.MI) – agree to fair contracts. Workers at UPS (UPS.N) and its Teamsters union just signed a tentative labor deal.

Biden, 80, is tying his 2024 re-election bid to the health of the economy, highlighting job growth, rising wages and easing fears of a recession. Any major strike, especially of a key link in the supply chain or industry, could hurt the Democratic president’s pitch.

At the White House, Drake advised Biden and his team on labor negotiations that had a direct impact on the country’s supply chain and the economy, current and former White House officials said.

She carried the title of deputy assistant to the president as well as deputy director of the White House’s economic policymaking arm, the National Economic Council (NEC).

“She was involved deeply on some of the most consequential labor negotiations that we’ve seen from ports to railways, and also in crafting policy around how to support workers,” said Brian Deese, former director of the NEC, adding that her tenure came at a “very complicated and consequential time.”

Drake helped direct a team of top White House officials and three cabinet secretaries, including former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, during the rail negotiations that helped Biden block a strike that could have devastated the American economy.

Even though a majority of the unions involved in the negotiations approved the deal, some workers and labor allies criticized Biden, a staunch union backer, for the contract that increased wages but lacked paid sick leave.

A competitive market for workers, increased job site risks during the pandemic, high housing and food costs, tech disruptions, expiration of cyclical contracts and union-friendly policies from the Biden administration are fueling a workers’ rights movement in the country.

Responding to concerns around the timing of her departure, Deese said the White House has planned for this transition and it will be able to maintain its “strong focus on labor.”

The White House did not comment on Drake’s potential successor.

The source said a replacement for Drake is expected to be named soon.

Another key Biden labor adviser, Erika Dinkel-Smith, was recently promoted to the position of senior labor adviser within the White House’s Office of Political Strategy, the source added. Gene Sperling, Biden’s longtime adviser, who oversaw the implementation of the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package, has also been appointed co-ordinator between the administration, the auto workers unions and the companies, the source said.

A former trade specialist at the labor confederation AFL-CIO, Drake joined the administration in April 2021 as the first ever director of the Made in America Office at the White House’s Office of Management & Budget.

She then transitioned to the NEC in summer 2022, where she served as deputy assistant to the President and deputy director of the NEC for labor and economy.

She took over the position from Biden’s former top labor adviser Seth Harris.

In a statement, Biden’s acting secretary of labor, Julie Su, described Drake as one of the administration’s “leading authority on labor policy” and one of its “greatest champions for working families.”

Biden’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, praised Drake’s “sharp policy focus” and “deep relationships” and said “nobody could have served better” as Biden’s voice in working with unions.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat who has built a rising national profile as the leader of Texas’ largest county, announced Monday that she was taking a temporary leave of absence for treatment of clinical depression.

In a statement addressed to the county’s nearly 5 million residents and posted on social media, Hidalgo said she checked herself into a facility outside Texas in late July for inpatient treatment. She said she had been coping with depression “for some time” and that it had been undiagnosed until last month.

“My experience has been difficult, but I am taking it as an opportunity to be open about my own struggle, my own challenges, and to encourage others, who need help, to seek treatment,” Hidalgo wrote. Hidalgo, 32, said she is hopeful she will be able to resume her normal schedule by early September.

In February, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania checked himself into a hospital to receive inpatient treatment for clinical depression. He left Water Reed National Military Medical Center after six weeks.

Hidalgo was 27 years old and had never previously held elected office when she pulled a stunning upset in 2018 to win the top job in one of the nation’s largest counties. A Colombian immigrant who came to the U.S. in 2005, Hidalgo has governed as a progressive in a county that was controlled by Republicans just a decade ago and is seen as an up-and-coming figure in the party.

In Texas, the title of “county judge” is a misnomer. They are not judges in courtrooms but rather presiding officials in their counties who have a big say in spending and are in charge of local emergency response.

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U.S. equity markets saw their first positive day in August on Monday, but then along came Chinese trade data.

Nasdaq and S&P500 futures , are both back in the red, European shares are down (.STOXX), and Hong Kong stocks took another kicking.

Italy’s 40% windfall tax on banks’ net interest income, and Moody’s Monday downgrade of several U.S. banks were not helping investor sentiment either.

China’s imports and exports fell much faster than expected in July, data on Tuesday showed, with imports down 12.4% year-on-year, missing a forecast fall of 5% in a Reuters poll and off a 6.8% decline in June.

Exports contracted 14.5%, steeper than an expected 12.5% decline.

Parsing the export data, David Chao, global market strategist at Invesco, says the miss was driven by lower prices rather than lower volumes, and that Chinese export volumes remain surprisingly robust.

Though, he says, “looking at other export-related data such as export orders, the outlook appears weak.”

As for imports, that’s a simple case of deteriorating domestic demand, the latest of many signs of Chinese consumers’ nervousness.

Even Chinese imports from Russia fell year-on-year in July, the first fall since Feb 2021.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (.HSI) bore the brunt of the losses, down 1.8%, while the Australian dollar was the biggest faller in G10 currencies, down 0.8%. The Aussie is often treated as a liquid proxy for Chinese assets.

The other thing that got people talking in morning trading in Europe was Italy’s new windfall tax.

The country’s right-wing government had repeatedly criticised banks for failing to pass onto depositors the higher cost of money, but took action only after the latest round of record earnings reported by banks at the start of August.

An index of euro zone banks (.SX7E) sank by as much as 3.4%, the most since the banking chaos of mid March, with Italian lenders BPER Banca (EMII.MI) tumbling 7.4%, Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) plunging 6.8% and FinecoBank Banca Fineco (FBK.MI) skidding 7.2%.

Banks are also top of mind for U.S. investors after Moody’s, late on Monday, lowered credit ratings of several small to mid-sized U.S. banks and said it may downgrade some of the nation’s biggest lenders.

Moody’s cut the ratings of 10 banks by one notch and placed six banking giants, including Bank of New York Mellon (BK.N), US Bancorp (USB.N), State Street (STT.N) and Truist Financial (TFC.N) on review for potential downgrades.

Tuesday looks quiet on the U.S. data front, but traders are bracing for the big one – Thursday’s CPI data.

Key developments that should provide more direction to U.S. markets later on Tuesday:

– U.S. trade balance (June) and NFIB Business Optimism Survey (July)

– Fed’s Harker and Barkin speak

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

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Penny has raised more than $2.9 million in defense funds against the charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection with the death of Neely aboard a New York City subway train in May. Penny has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His next court appearance is October 25.

The collected money that doesn’t go toward legal funds — which could “easily cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” according to Andrew M. Stengel, a defense lawyer in New York City — will be donated “to a mental health advocacy program in New York City,” according to the fundraising page.

According to court documents and statements, Neely, a homeless man, entered the train at the 2nd Avenue station and began making verbal threats to passengers. According to one witness who recorded and posted about the incident on Facebook, Neely had said: “‘I don’t have food. I don’t have a drink. I am fed up. I don’t care if I go to jail, and if they give me life in prison … I am ready to die.’”

Neely boarded the train and, shortly after, Penny put Neely in a chokehold, which lasted for several minutes.

Penny, 24, pleaded not guilty to the charges and is free on $100,000 bail.

Neely’s family raised $150,099 for funeral and burial expenses before closing their GoFundMe to new donations.

GoFundMe restricts certain fundraisers

Fundraisers like Penny’s are not allowed on GoFundMe and is instead hosted on another fundraising website.

According to a statement released by GoFundMe in 2021, the website’s Terms of Service prohibit raising money for the legal defense of an alleged violent crime.

The company has removed fundraisers in connection with the defense before and during the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, who claimed he shot three men, two fatally, in self-defense when he attended a 2020 protest in Wisconsin against police brutality.

Rittenhouse was acquitted on two felony counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, as well as charges of first-degree reckless homicide and first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide. GoFundMe also removed fundraisers for truckers protesting COVID-19 restrictions in Canada who were accused of violence.

People in legal trouble who have been prevented from raising money through GoFundMe have leaned on other fundraising sites that allow people like Rittenhouse and Penny to house fundraisers as long as “the stated purpose of the fundraising effort is itself a lawful purpose,” according to a site representative.

Support for Penny

Some conservative elected officials have supported Penny’s actions, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. DeSantis promoted Penny’s fundraiser on his social media, saying, “America’s got his back.”

Those who study vigilantism and its historically violent use against marginalized communities say they are alarmed by the outpouring of support for Penny as well as other controversial figures accused of violent self-defense.

Amy Kate Bailey, a University of Illinois at Chicago professor and sociologist, said she fears the encouragement could promote further vigilante efforts.

“White men in this country, particularly those who can put on the mantle of being a veteran, I think typically get lots of support,” said Bailey in an interview with ABC News. “There was lots of support for this kind of violence and particularly this violence that cloaked itself in the mantle of protecting the community.”

Top online fundraising campaigns

These fundraising campaigns are overshadowed by some of GoFundMe’s largest campaigns, which include: America’s Food Fund at $45 million; Stand With Ukraine at $37 million; TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund at $24 million; Official George Floyd Memorial Fund at roughly $15 million and more.

The other top campaigns include millions of dollars given to the victims of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and a fund for first responders during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fundraising site Penny used told ABC News that their largest campaign to date was for the Canadian trucker convoy last year “that raised approx $10M USD,” followed by Penny’s fundraiser.

The so-called “freedom convoy” in Canada protested a federal requirement that truck drivers be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 if they want to avoid a 14-day quarantine upon re-entry from the United States in 2022, according to the Associated Press.

The news organization reported protesters formed a blockade of vehicles to close off traffic at the Ambassador Bridge, which is the busiest border crossing between Canada and the United States.

GoFundMe said the reports of the convoy’s “violence and other unlawful activity” prompted an end to the fundraiser.

However, the funds raised for the truckers were refunded after the Canadian government criminalized the receiving of funds for the trucker campaign and attempted to seize the funds to redistribute, according to the fundraising website.

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The Fairway Police Department announced Monday that Officer Jonah Oswald, 29, died after he was critically wounded in a shooting Sunday morning. Oswald, who leaves behind a wife and two young children, was a four-year veteran of the police department.

“I am heartbroken at the tragic loss of Officer Jonah Oswald, who made the ultimate sacrifice while carrying out his oath to serve and protect,” Fairway Chief of Police J.P. Thurlo said in a statement. “Officer Oswald was an integral part of our team and made significant contributions to our department and to the Fairway community. We will remember him as a warm-hearted individual whose hard work and passion touched the lives of many.”

“On behalf of the entire Fairway Police Department, and the City of Fairway, I extend our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to Officer Oswald’s family and friends,” the statement continued. “We recognize that their loss is immeasurable, and our thoughts and prayers are with them.”

Lenexa police responded to reports of a stolen car at a QuikTrip convenient store located at 95th Street and Interstate 35 in the city of Lenexa at about 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, KCTV reported.

When officers arrived, the suspect driving the stolen vehicle allegedly struck a police car and drove off heading north on I-35. The driver arrived at another QuikTrip location on Lamar Avenue and the two people in the vehicle ran inside.

Multiple law enforcement agencies responded to the incident, including the Fairway Police Department, Kansas Highway Patrol and the Mission Police Department.

A shooting took place between the suspects and law enforcement, which is when Oswald was struck by gunfire. He was transported to a hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead on Monday.

One of the suspects, 40-year-old Shannon Wayne Marshall, was shot and killed, KCTV reported.

The other suspect, 32-year-old Andrea Rene Cothran, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. She was due in court Monday afternoon.

The case remains under investigation.

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Moody’s cut the ratings of 10 banks by one notch and placed six banking giants, including Bank of New York Mellon (BK.N), US Bancorp (USB.N), State Street (STT.N) and Truist Financial (TFC.N) on review for potential downgrades.

“Many banks’ second-quarter results showed growing profitability pressures that will reduce their ability to generate internal capital,” Moody’s said in a note.

“This comes as a mild U.S. recession is on the horizon for early 2024 and asset quality looks set to decline, with particular risks in some banks’ commercial real estate (CRE)portfolios.”

Moody’s said elevated CRE exposures are a key risk due to high interest rates, declines in office demand as a result of remote work, and a reduction in the availability of CRE credit.

The agency also changed its outlook to negative for eleven major lenders, including Capital One (COF.N), Citizens Financial (CFG.N) and Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB.O).

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank earlier this year sparked a crisis of confidence in the U.S. banking sector, leading to a run on deposits at a host of regional banks despite authorities launching emergency measures to shore up confidence.

Still, Moody’s cautioned that banks with sizable unrealized losses that are not reflected in their regulatory capital ratios are vulnerable to a loss of confidence in the current high-rate environment.

The sweeping report comes against the backdrop of tightening monetary conditions after the fastest pace of interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve in decades slows demand and borrowing.

The higher rates have also raised the spectre of recession and put pressure on sectors such as real estate to adjust to post-pandemic realities.

Federal Reserve survey data released last week showed U.S. banks reported tighter credit standards and weaker loan demand from both businesses and consumers during the second quarter.

Morgan Stanley analysts said the loan demand is likely to continue to weaken, with the rate of change slowing further.

Rating agency peer Fitch has downgraded the United States by a notch to AA+ due to fiscal deterioration over the next three years and repeated down-to-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations.

The downgraded banks by Moody’s include M&T Bank (MTB.N), Pinnacle Financial Partners (PNFP.O), Prosperity Bank and BOK Financial Corp (BOKF.O).

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Lananh Nguyen is the U.S. finance editor at Reuters in New York, leading coverage of U.S. banks. She joined Reuters in 2022 after reporting on Wall Street at The New York Times. Lananh spent more than a decade at Bloomberg News in New York and London, where she wrote extensively about banking and financial markets, and she previously worked at Dow Jones Newswires/The Wall Street Journal. Lananh holds a B.A. in political science from Tufts University and an M.Sc. in finance and economic policy from the University of London.

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The woman was swimming at Beach 59th Street at around 5:50 p.m. ET when she was bitten by a shark in the left leg, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation confirmed to ABC News.

Lifeguards quickly removed the woman from the water and gave her first aid. The woman was taken in critical condition to Jamaica Hospital, the parks department said. She remains in critical condition, a hospital representative confirmed to ABC News on Monday night.

NYC Parks said in a statement that “shark bites in Rockaway are extremely rare,” adding: “We remain vigilant in monitoring the beach and always clear the water when a shark is spotted.”

Following the shark bite incident, lifeguards at Beach 59th Street cleared everyone from the water. The New York Police Department used a helicopter to survey the area, but they didn’t see any sharks, according to NYC Parks.

Authorities, including the parks department, the NYPD and the Fire Department of New York, will surveil the beach on Tuesday. Due to the surveillance, the beach will not be open until at least 11 a.m.

“We hope for a full recovery for this swimmer,” NYC Parks said.

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At issue is a rule broadening existing policy ending the debt of students who borrowed money to attend colleges and universities that are determined to have misled them on matters such as whether their courses would actually prepare them for employment in their field or the likely salary they would earn upon obtaining a degree.

Career Colleges and Schools of Texas, an association of for-profit higher learning institutions, filed a lawsuit against the rule in February. Among its complaints was that the rules are so broad that they cover even unintentional actions by a college. They also said the rule unconstitutionally gives an executive branch agency, the Department of Education, what amounts to the power of a court in deciding whether to grant claims for debt relief.

Administration lawyers said relief granted by the department could be appealed in federal court.

The colleges asked a Texas-based federal judge to block the rule while the case plays out. The judge refused in a June ruling. But three 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges on Monday issued a brief order granting an injunction. The order said the panel would hear arguments in November.

The three judges on the panel in New Orleans are Edith Jones, nominated to the court by former President Ronald Reagan; and two nominees of former President Donald Trump, Stuart Kyle Duncan and Cory Wilson.

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The bizarre discovery came Friday at the Pharr International Bridge cargo facility in Pharr, Texas. CBP officers with the Office of Field Operations encountered a tractor trailer arrived from Mexico. 

An officer referred the vehicle for further inspection. A physical inspection of the cargo resulted in the discovery of 2,232 packages weighing nearly 500 pounds. 

The packages contained what the CBP officers believe was approximately $4.36 million worth of methamphetamine.

CBP OFO seized the narcotics and the tractor trailer. Special agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) opened a criminal investigation. 

“This massive shipment of narcotics will not make it to American streets thanks to our CBP officers who used their intuition and all our available tools and resources to stop this smuggling attempt,” Port Director Carlos Rodriguez said in a statement. 

“The criminal element continues to attempt to smuggle in the cargo environment, but our CBP officers remain vigilant and will continue to do their best to thwart these smuggling attempts.”

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