More than 885,000 Americans filed for unemployment last week, with more than 20 million already collecting some form of unemployment benefits. A COVID-19 relief bill may be on the way.
Fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli will spend the rest of his sentence behind bars after a judge in the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal denied his request for compassionate release. Earlier this month, Giannulli's attorney filed a motion for the designer to complete his sentence at home after spending 56 days in solitary quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic, which his lawyer said took a significant toll on his "mental, physical and emotional well-being." "The conditions under which Mr. Giannulli has been incarcerated are far more extreme than what the Court recommended," Giannulli's attorney wrote in a bid to modify the prison sentence.
"I was stunned at the tepid response from Department of the Army, which was reluctant to send the D.C. National Guard to the Capitol," acting Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee told the House Appropriations Committee in written testimony obtained by ABC News. "I was able to quickly deploy my force and issue directives to them while they were in the field, and I was honestly shocked that the National Guard could not -- or would not -- do the same," he added. Contee spoke to the deadly toll of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, noting that five people -- including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick -- died as a result of the siege.
The article of impeachment accusing former President Donald Trump of "incitement of insurrection" has now been sent from the House to the Senate. There will be arguments from constitutional scholars over whether a former president can be tried on impeachment, but another more political debate has surfaced over doing so in this moment of time in America. Many in the GOP have settled on the talking point that holding Trump to account for his words and actions is going to divide the country even further and is in opposition to President Joe Biden's message of unity and healing.
A former North Carolina police officer who was fired and criminally charged last year after he allegedly gathered a group of armed people and tried to enter the home of a Black teen who he thought was a suspect in the case of a missing person, has been sued by the victim's family Tuesday. Attorneys for Monica Shepard and her 18-year-old son Dameon filed the civil suit in North Carolina Tuesday contending that their clients were racially profiled and terrorized by former deputy Jordan Kita, and 14 other white defendants, some of whom were armed, who said they were looking for a missing woman. Kita was off-duty but in uniform and had his sidearm when he came to the Shepard's Pender County home on May 3, 2020, along with the group, according to the suit.
In the span of just few months, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio went from openly discussing his plans to help Republicans defend the 2022 Senate map, to announcing he would not seek reelection and instead plans to retire at the end of his term. While the news shocked his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill, the announcement also signaled the starting point of another competitive campaign cycle. Portman is the third Republican senator from a key swing state to announce his retirement -- Sens.
Matt Mauser is a musician and songwriter based in Southern California. In January 2020, he lost his wife, Christina, in the same helicopter crash that took the lives of NBA icon Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna. Mauser continues to perform while raising his three children, Penny, 13, Tom, 11, and Ivy, 5, and he has launched The Christina Mauser Foundation, which supports single mothers, women and girls in sports through scholarships and other financial aid.
A Wisconsin pharmacist pleaded guilty to two federal charges Tuesday and admitted that he tampered with over 500 doses of a coronavirus vaccine, the Department of Justice announced. Steven Brandenburg, 46, of Grafton, Wisconsin, faces up to 20 years in person on two counts of attempting to tamper with consumer products with reckless disregard for the risk that another person will be placed in danger of death or bodily injury, the Justice Department said in a statement. Brandenburg admitted to removing 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine from cold storage at Advocate Aurora Health Hospital on Dec. 24 and Dec. 25, leaving them out to spoil overnight, according to federal prosecutors.
With California ending a regional stay-at-home order issued because of strained capacity in the state's intensive care units, current COVID-19 data suggests that the local Latino community has been hit the hardest of all. The state reported 4,131 ICU-related COVID cases last month, which has since increased to 4,475. California, as of Tuesday, also reported more than 27,000 new cases and at least 328 deaths.
President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that his administration is working with coronavirus vaccine makers to buy another 200 million doses that would arrive this summer -- raising the total to 600 million and ensuring the U.S. will eventually have two shots of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for nearly every American. Biden also said the federal government will be increasing the number of doses shipped to states -- from 8.6 million doses a week to 10 million a week for the next three weeks, and will start notifying states how many doses they will receive three weeks in advance.
As officials push to make sure there are enough COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate the nation's vulnerable long-term care residents, many nursing homes are facing the opposite challenge: how to make sure extra vaccine doses don't go to waste. When the federal government calculated the number of doses that would be needed for nursing homes, they estimated that every facility was at 100% occupancy. "When we actually came on site, what we've learned is that many of the facilities aren't at 100% occupancy," said Walgreens Group VP of Pharmacy Rina Shah.
President Joe Biden has made it clear one of his first priorities in office is getting students back into the classroom, but after an almost year-long debate over the safety of schools during the pandemic, the new administration could face an uphill battle as the trajectory of the virus in the United States remains uncertain. During Biden’s first week in office, his administration announced its strategy to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, which included several initiatives aimed at reopening schools and an appearance by the first lady, Jill Biden, who addressed the nation’s educators alongside the presidents of two teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. The president said on Monday that he believes “we should make school classrooms safe and secure,” adding that schools need new ventilation systems and testing for students and teachers.
All travelers flying into the U.S. must now provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test, taken no more than three days before their flight, or they will be denied boarding. The order was initially announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Jan. 12 and formalized in an executive order President Joe Biden signed last week. International travel is still down considerably compared to last year, but there was an uptick in Americans flying to beach locales like Mexico that did not require them to quarantine upon arrival.
Platforms such as Pinterest are changing that with the help of augmented reality. The company recently released its AR Try On for eyeshadow feature which allows you to virtually browse, try on shades and purchase in-stock products that work best for your skin tone. To access the latest Try On capabilities, Pinners simply open the Pinterest app and click the camera icon in search.
Elliot Page, and their spouse of three years, Emma Portner, have issued a joint statement to announce their plans to end their relationship after three years of marriage. "After much thought and careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to divorce following our separation last summer," the couple said in a statement obtained by ABC News. Last month, Page declared that their name was Elliot and they are trans.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed four executive actions pertaining to racial equity, including phasing out the use of private prisons at the federal level. "We have never fully lived up to the founding principles of this nation, to state the obvious, that all people are created equal and have a right to be treated equally throughout their lives," Biden said just before signing the actions. Biden signed an order directing the attorney general to not renew contracts the Department of Justice has with privately-operated criminal detention facilities.
On the campaign trail, Joe Biden guaranteed his White House would "look like the country." As he enters the White House, he's taken steps towards keeping that promise -- assembling a historically diverse slate of top-level nominees. Half of the president's Cabinet picks are women and the majority are people of color.
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority said in a statement Tuesday that it's notified Grindr of its intent to fine the company 100 million Norwegian krone (approximately $11.7 million). The agency said Grindr has the opportunity to comment until Feb. 15, and then it will make its final decision. The regulators accuse Grindr of illegally sharing users' personal data from the free version of the app with third parties for marketing purposes.
Adidas introduced its debut maternity collection featuring performance tops and tights for women throughout all stages of pregnancy. Expertly created, the new Adidas maternity collection was created closely with women at different trimesters and includes lightweight, high-stretch fabric around the stomach and chest areas, allowing the activewear to be worn throughout pregnancy as well as postpartum. Retailing between $25-$45, key pieces from the Adidas maternity activewear collection include the Adidas Maternity 7/8 Tight which has a tailored waistband and lighter fabric to minimize pressure on the belly.
Antony Blinken, a longtime aide to Joe Biden and former deputy Secretary of State, has been confirmed by the Senate to be America's next top diplomat. Blinken, confirmed on Tuesday 78-22, takes over an agency beleaguered by budget cuts and low morale, but has vowed to reinvest in American diplomacy. The former second-in-command at the agency is a longtime aide to Biden -- a close personal relationship that will be key to effectively speaking on behalf of the president while overseas.
Top EU officials have expressed "deep dissatisfaction" and mulled legal action against the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, after reports emerged over the weekend that the vaccine supplier would provide 60% less doses in the first quarter of 2021 to the 27-state bloc. The row emerged when a senior European official told Reuters that the company was experiencing production problems, and that they had informed the EU that only 31 million COVID-19 vaccines would be supplied to the EU by the end of March. The vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, has not yet been approved by the European Medicines Agency.
