New York grand jury convened for possible new charges against Harvey Weinstein
(NEW YORK) — The Manhattan district attorney’s office has begun presenting evidence to a grand jury that could return a new indictment against Harvey Weinstein — as soon as Friday — over an alleged sexual assault that occurred sometime in a four-month time period between late 2005 and mid-2006 in a lower Manhattan residential building, according to a transcript of an unannounced court hearing this week.
Prosecutors also indicated during a hearing on Tuesday they were aware of two other potential offenses: a sexual assault in May 2016 in a hotel in Tribeca and a potential sexual assault that occurred at the Tribeca Grand hotel.
Providing notice to the defense of potential offenses does not guarantee what charges a new indictment might contain. The grand jury’s term is scheduled to end Friday, at which point prosecutors could put potential charges to a vote.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan DA’s office declined to comment.
Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, signaled during the hearing that Weinstein could testify himself before the grand jury.
“Mr. Weinstein is very, very seriously considering going — wheeling himself into the grand jury and letting the grand jurors see what he looks like these days,” Aidala said, according to the transcript.
Weinstein has denied any wrongdoing and has said his sexual encounters were consensual.
The New York Court of Appeals, in a 4-3 opinion, overturned his 2020 rape conviction. He remains held at Rikers Island while he appeals a conviction in Los Angeles.
The Manhattan DA’s office signaled this summer it would retry Weinstein and prosecutors revealed they had spoken to other alleged victims whose accounts were not part of the original case.
(NEW YORK) — Nearly one million spectators are expected to attend the US Open, which begins Monday in Queens, New York. Although a new assessment warns that large events “remain attractive targets for attacks by violent extremists and malicious actors,” the NYPD said there are currently no known causes for concern.
“There are no specific or credible threats to the US Open. However, we’re in a different threat environment than we were last year at this time. And so when we are collectively thinking through all of the measures that we’re putting in place around this US Open, we are mindful of what’s happening around the world,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner at a Monday press conference.
“We recognize that this is an environment where there’s a lot of protest activity,” Weiner added.
The focal point is Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the US Open will be played, but suspects could use “a broad range of tactics – including elevated position gunfire, vehicle ramming, edged weapons, and improvised explosive/incendiary devices (IED/IID), etc. – at a congested chokepoint areas, such as the Flushing Meadows pedestrian bridge between the Mets-Willets Point train station and the East Gate entrance of the USTA Tennis Center, requiring elevated situational awareness,” according to the threat assessment document obtained by ABC News.
Drones will hover over elevated subway lines to monitor for threats, according to officials. Police will also deploy dogs, explosive detection equipment and the bomb squad during the event.
“We cannot overstate how important it is for the people to be engaged, invested and aware. So if you are here at the US Open and you see anything that does not look right or does not feel right, call 911. Tell a police officer right away,” Police Commissioner Edward Caban said at the press conference.
Two protesters were arrested at last year’s US Open when they began shouting and one glued his feet to the ground during a match between Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova. Another spectator was ejected from a game a few days earlier after German player Alexander Zverev accused the man of quoting a phrase from Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A landmark bill to ban some dyes in food served at California public schools, aimed at protecting children’s health, is headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk to be signed into law after passing the state legislature on Thursday.
Assembly Bill 2316, also known as the California School Food Safety Act, would prohibit six potentially harmful food dye chemicals from being provided in the state’s public schools. It was approved by the California Assembly on Thursday after passing the state Senate earlier in the week.
“California has a responsibility to protect our students from chemicals that harm children and that can interfere with their ability to learn,” Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, who introduced the legislation back in February, said in a statement Thursday, adding, “This bill will empower schools to better protect the health and well-being of our kids and encourage manufacturers to stop using these harmful additives.”
Gabriel was previously successful in his efforts to ban potentially harmful food and drink additives in products sold throughout the state through the passage of the California Food Safety Act last year. The legislation bans potassium bromate, propylparaben, brominated vegetable oil and Red 3 from food that is manufactured, delivered and sold in the Golden State.
Newsom signed the bill into law last October, making California the first state in the U.S. to ban the additives.
Under the newly passed California School Food Safety Act, Red Dye No. 40, Yellow Dye No. 5, Yellow Dye No. 6, Blue Dye No. 1, Blue Dye No. 2 and Green Dye No. 3 will be banned from food served to students in public schools during regular hours.
The bipartisan bill was supported by the Environmental Working Group and Consumer Reports.
Studies suggest that consumption of the six dyes and colorants banned under A.B. 2316 may be linked to hyperactivity and other neurobehavioral problems in some children, as the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment outlined in a 2021 report.
While there are still thousands of chemicals allowed for use in our country’s commercial food system, many of those that have been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration have not been reevaluated for decades. Red 40, for example, was last evaluated for health risks in 1971.
Reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics align with this push to reassess the safety of artificial food coloring.
“Over the last several decades, studies have raised concerns regarding the effect of [artificial food colorings] on child behavior and their role in exacerbating attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms,” doctors write. “Further work is needed to better understand the implications of AFC exposure and resolve the uncertainties across the scientific evidence. The available literature should be interpreted with caution because of the absence of information about the ingredients for a number of reasons, including patent protection.”
Dr. Stephanie Widmer, an ABC News medical contributor, board-certified emergency medicine physician and toxicologist, told “Good Morning America” previously, while discussing California’s earlier harmful chemical ban, “These chemicals are all kind of in different foods and all exert different effects and different concerns.”
“Some of them are associated with neurological problems, some are reproductive problems, some have been linked to cancer,” Widmer said at the time. “It really depends on the substance.”
(BEL AIR, Md.) — Two people were found dead and another was injured after an explosion Sunday morning leveled a home and damaged multiple neighboring residences in a suburban Baltimore neighborhood, authorities said.
The blast was reported around 6:42 a.m. ET on Arthurs Woods Drive in Harford County, in the town of Bel Air, about 30 miles northeast of Baltimore, according to officials.
The two people killed in the explosion were identified Monday afternoon by the Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Office as 35-year-old Jose Rodriguez-Alvarado, a contractor for Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), and 73-year-old Ray Corkran Jr., the owner of the house that was destroyed.
Rodriguez-Alvarado was found in the widespread blast debris field and pronounced dead soon after firefighters arrived on the scene Sunday morning, according to the Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Office.
Search-and-rescue crews located Corkran’s body Sunday afternoon. It was buried under the rubble of his home, according to the fire marshal’s office.
“With the assistance of heavy machinery, investigators located the victim within the debris,” the fire marshal’s office said of Corkran.
Investigators said Corkran was the only person inside the house at the time of the explosion.
A female neighbor living adjacent to the home was also injured and treated at the scene, said Master Deputy Fire Marshal Oliver Alkire.
At least 12 families have been displaced by the blast, according to officials, who noted the total number of damaged structures is still being counted.
“While they continue to collect information on exact damages, the cost is expected to be in the millions,” according to the sheriff’s office.
A photo posted on X by Harford County Fire and Emergency Medical Services showed firefighters battling a small fire and searching the remains of the home, which was reduced to splintered pieces of wood, insulation and other debris.
“I’ve been on the job for 18 years and this was one of the largest explosions I’ve seen,” Alkire said during a news conference.
Alkire said firefighters from the Harford County Fire Department were responding to a report of a gas leak in the area when the explosion occurred.
Alkire said at least two BGE contract workers had responded to the area before the explosion to investigate an electrical issue. He said the workers were aware of reports of an odor of gas in the area when the explosion occurred.
Alkire confirmed that the house was for sale. Officials described the house as being a “total loss.”
The cause of the explosion remained under investigation Monday by the Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Office, the Harford County Sheriff’s Department and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. There is no evidence of criminal activity involved in the explosion and investigators are focusing on accidental causes, according to the Fire Marshal’s Office.
“Investigators will now focus on reviewing the evidence and data they collected yesterday. This includes physical items such as gas and electrical piping, interviews, video surveillance, and data from BGE,” the state fire marshal said in a statement Monday morning.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which investigates pipeline accidents that occur during the transport of natural gas or other hazardous liquids, announced Monday that it had also launched an investigation into the house explosion. An NTSB team has arrived in Bel Air and plans to spend a week “documenting the scene and conducting an initial visual examination of the pipeline and equipment involved,” the agency said in a statement.
“NTSB investigations involve three primary areas: human factors, the pipeline system, and the operating environment,” the board said.
Residents in the neighborhood reported hearing the loud explosion and feeling their houses shake, authorities said.
Jefferey Beyers, who lives near the home that was destroyed by the blast, told ABC News that he and his wife were awakened by a “deafening explosion coupled with the kind of feeling of an earthquake.” Beyers pointed out windows in his house that he said were blown out from the frames.
“I think it’s important to get to the bottom of it, like understand what happened so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again,” Beyers said.
Another neighbor, Marshall Garrett, told ABC News that he immediately rushed to the scene, beating the fire engines there. He described the scene as complete devastation and said it looked like something out of a movie.
“At first, we just saw the rubble,” Garrett said. “And then we started to see the flames streak out and the smoke goes in the air.”
ABC News’ Davone Morales, Perry Russom and Tia Humphries contributed to this report.