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National

Boeing strike to continue after workers reject new contract

David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(SEATTLE) — Boeing machinists on Wednesday rejected a new contract proposal that would’ve ended a weekslong work stoppage against the embattled aerospace company — and the union said the strike will go on.

Sixty-four percent of workers voted to reject the new contract, according to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union representing 33,000 Boeing workers in Washington, Oregon and California.

Representatives for Boeing said Wednesday night the company did not have a comment on the vote.

The proposed contract would have delivered a 35% raise over the four-year duration of the contract, upping the 25% cumulative raise provided in a previous offer overwhelmingly rejected by workers in a vote last month. Workers had initially sought a 40% cumulative pay increase.

The proposal also called for hiking Boeing’s contribution to a 401(k) plan, but it declined to fulfill workers’ call for a reinstatement of the company’s defined pension. The contract would have included a $7,000 ratification bonus for each worker, as well as a performance bonus that Boeing had sought to jettison.

But union leaders said the concessions offered in the proposal were not enough to meet the demands of rank-and-file union members.

“This contract struggle began over ten years ago when the company overreached and created a wound that may never heal for many members,” said Jon Holden, president of IAM District 751 in Seattle, in a statement after the vote. “I don’t have to tell you all how challenging it has been for our membership through the pandemic, the crashes, massive inflation, and the need to address the losses stemming from the 2014 contract.”

The union said the strike will continue as they return to the bargaining table with the company.

Hours before workers cast ballots on Wednesday, Boeing released an earnings report showing the company had lost a staggering $6.1 billion over the most recent quarter due primarily to costs associated with the strike.

“We have some really big rocks that we need to get behind us to move the company forward,” Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a letter to investors on Wednesday.

Ortberg singled out the strike as an issue that must be addressed “first and foremost.”

“We have been feverishly working to find a solution that works for the company and meets our employees’ needs,” Ortberg said.

The company and its workers have faced significant financial losses during the nearly six-week strike.

Union members have received $250 per week from a strike fund, beginning in the third week of the work stoppage. That compensation marks a major pay cut for many of the employees.

Mid-ranking workers involved in the strike typically make $20 per hour, which totals $800 per 40-hour work week, while higher-paid members earn salaries upward of $100,000 per year, or nearly $2,000 per week.

“The question is whether the employees and their union determine that they have the power to get more from Boeing,” Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group, told ABC News. “It’s whether they think they can extract more from Boeing, or Boeing says, ‘You know what, this is it.'”

The strike was set to cost Boeing $108 million per day in lost revenue, amounting to as much as $5.5 billion in losses should the work stoppage last 50 days, investment bank TD Cowen said in a report reviewed by ABC News at the outset of the dispute. So far, the strike has lasted 40 days.

In September, Boeing announced furloughs and pay cuts for some white-collar employees in response to the strike. Last week, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg announced plans to cut 17,000 jobs, which amounts to about 10% of its global workforce.

“This is really painful for Boeing,” Richard Aboulafia, managing director of aerospace consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory, told ABC News.

The most recent IAM strike against Boeing in the Pacific Northwest, in 2008, lasted 57 days. Work stoppages undertaken by unionized Boeing employees in the same region have historically lasted an average of 60 days, a Bank of America Global Research analysis found after examining seven previous strikes, the earliest in 1948.

In the days leading up to Wednesday’s vote, the outcome remained unclear, Jake Rosenfeld, a professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, who studies labor, told ABC News.

“What are the workers going to do?” Rosenfeld said. “That’s a really tough question.”

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National

Famed grizzly bear killed after being struck by vehicle in national park as her cub is still missing

Image via National Park Service

(JACKSON, Wyo.) –A beloved grizzly bear has been struck and killed by a vehicle in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, officials said.

The famed grizzly bear — known simply as “Grizzly Bear 399”due to the identity tag attached to her ear — was fatally struck on Tuesday evening by a vehicle on Highway 26/89 in Snake River Canyon, just south of Jackson, Wyoming, and her identity was confirmed through ear tags and a microchip, according to a statement from the National Park Service on Wednesday.

“Grizzly bear 399 had a yearling cub with her, whose whereabouts are currently unknown,” park officials said. “At this time, there is no evidence to suggest the yearling was also involved in the incident, but the US Fish and Wildlife Service is monitoring the area.”

Vehicle collisions with wildlife, including grizzly bears, are not uncommon. From 2009 to 2023, there have been 49 grizzly bear mortalities due to vehicle collisions in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the National Park Service is now working with state and local agencies to gather more information surrounding this latest incident.

“People from around the world have followed grizzly bear 399 for several decades. At 28 years old, she was the oldest known reproducing female grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,” said Hilary Cooley, Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Wildlife vehicle collisions and conflict are unfortunate. We are thankful the driver is okay and understand the community is saddened to hear that grizzly bear 399 has died,” said Angi Bruce, Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director.

In 2024, including this incident, there have been 2 grizzly bear mortalities from vehicle strikes in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, with the average number of grizzly bear mortalities in the region due to vehicle collisions during 2009-2023 standing at 3.3 bears deaths per year, authorities said.

“The grizzly bear is an iconic species that helps make the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem so extraordinary. Grizzly bear 399 has been perhaps the most prominent ambassador for the species. She has inspired countless visitors into conservation stewardship around the world and will be missed,” said Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Chip Jenkins.

No additional information has been made available at this time and the investigation into the incident is currently ongoing.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

National

Man arrested in Arizona DNC office shootings: Police

mphotoi/Getty Images

(ARIZONA) — A suspect has been arrested in connection to three separate shooting attacks on a Democratic National Committee office in Arizona, according to Tempe Police Department.

Jeffrey Michael Kelly, 60, faces multiple charges that include unlawful discharge, shooting at a non-residential structure, terrorism and criminal damage.

Kelly is also accused of “hanging suspicious bags of white powder from several political signs lined with razor blades” in Ahwatukee, police said.

On three separate occasions between September and early October, Kelly allegedly fired gunshots at the campaign office, which is shared by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and the Democratic Party.

No one was injured in any of the three shootings, all of which police said occurred between midnight and 1 a.m.

Photos taken after the second shooting showed at least five bullet holes in the office’s windows and door.

After the third shooting, police released a photo of a silver Toyota Highlander believed to belong to the suspect and announced a reward of up to $1,000 “for any information that leads to the arrest or indictment of the suspect(s) involved in this crime.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Politics

911 calls from Trump assassination attempt in Butler County released

Jeremy Hogan/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — More than a dozen 911 calls from the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13 in Butler County, Pennsylvania, were released on Wednesday, reflecting moments of fear and confusion after a gunman opened fire at the outdoor rally.

“They just tried to kill President Trump,” a 911 caller reported.

“We have an emergency. We’re at the Trump rally,” another caller said.

The 15 recordings, some of which capture the sounds of chaos in the background, were released by Butler County.

The first call came in at 6:12 p.m., about a minute after shots rang out. Trump was eight minutes into his speech when the shooting began, according to officials.

“We’re at the Trump rally — gunshots,” a woman shouts above loud crowds.

“Yep, the police are on their way,” the dispatcher responds.

“You better get over here quick!” the woman says.

The gunfire killed Corey Comperatore, 50, and critically injured two other attendees, Jim Copenhaver and David Dutch.

“I have a woman on the line, her husband was shot at the Trump rally,” a dispatcher from neighboring Allegheny County reported.

Another call came from a woman who was trying to locate her husband, who, she told the call taker, had been shot and taken by paramedics.

Trump was left with a bloodied ear before a Secret Service sharpshooter killed the suspected gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.

The bipartisan House task force investigating the assassination attempt outlined the security failures of the U.S. Secret Service and lack of coordination with local law enforcement in an interim report released earlier this week.

The report revealed that there was “inadequate planning and coordination by the Secret Service with state and local law enforcement before and during the July 13 rally.”

The preliminary findings are based on 23 transcribed interviews with local law enforcement officials, thousands of pages of documents from local, state and federal authorities as well as testimony from a public hearing on Sept. 26, according to the task force.

The task force concluded that the attempt on Trump’s life was “preventable.”

Trump returned to the Butler site earlier this month for a rally marked by enhanced security measures around the fairground, during which he thanked the first responders and the community that rallied behind him in the wake of the assassination attempt.

ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Politics

Tennessee election officials iron out touch screen issues with unlikely tool: Coffee stirrers

Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — An unexpected challenge in Tennessee’s first week of voting involved touchscreens in the state’s two largest counties resulted in no recorded irregularities and an unlikely fix: coffee stirrers that allow voters to choose with precision their preferred candidate, local officials told ABC News.

The stirrers, which since 2020 have been doled out to voters to use as styluses, were ditched for environmental reasons – then readopted after the first days of early voting led some Tennesseans to accidentally select their undesired candidate because of small boxes next to the candidates’ names.

Some voters in Davidson and Shelby County, home to Nashville and Memphis, respectively, tried to pinprick that small box with their thumb or pointer finger, but – it being so near to the name of an opponent on a line above – they hit another candidate’s name.

The county has not experienced “any issues” in the last few days since poll workers reinstituted the stirrers and reminded voters they should check they’ve chosen their preferred candidate before printing their ballot – and a second time before scanning and submitting it, Davidson County Administrator of Elections Jeff Roberts told ABC News.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

National

911 calls from Trump assassination attempt in Butler County released

The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILE

(BUTLER COUNTY, Pa.) — More than a dozen 911 calls from the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13 in Butler County, Pennsylvania, were released on Wednesday, reflecting moments of fear and confusion after a gunman opened fire at the outdoor rally.

“They just tried to kill President Trump,” a 911 caller reported.

“We have an emergency. We’re at the Trump rally,” another caller said.

The 15 recordings, some of which capture the sounds of chaos in the background, were released by Butler County.

The first call came in at 6:12 p.m., about a minute after shots rang out. Trump was eight minutes into his speech when the shooting began, according to officials.

“We’re at the Trump rally — gunshots,” a woman shouts above loud crowds.

“Yep, the police are on their way,” the dispatcher responds.

“You better get over here quick!” the woman says.

The gunfire killed Corey Comperatore, 50, and critically injured two other attendees, Jim Copenhaver and David Dutch.

“I have a woman on the line, her husband was shot at the Trump rally,” a dispatcher from neighboring Allegheny County reported.

Another call came from a woman who was trying to locate her husband, who, she told the call taker, had been shot and taken by paramedics.

Trump was left with a bloodied ear before a Secret Service sharpshooter killed the suspected gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.

The bipartisan House task force investigating the assassination attempt outlined the security failures of the U.S. Secret Service and lack of coordination with local law enforcement in an interim report released earlier this week.

The report revealed that there was “inadequate planning and coordination by the Secret Service with state and local law enforcement before and during the July 13 rally.”

The preliminary findings are based on 23 transcribed interviews with local law enforcement officials, thousands of pages of documents from local, state and federal authorities as well as testimony from a public hearing on Sept. 26, according to the task force.

The task force concluded that the attempt on Trump’s life was “preventable.”

Trump returned to the Butler site earlier this month for a rally marked by enhanced security measures around the fairground, during which he thanked the first responders and the community that rallied behind him in the wake of the assassination attempt.

ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Politics

DOJ warns Elon Musk his $1M giveaway to registered voters may violate federal law

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — The Justice Department has sent a letter to tech billionaire Elon Musk’s America PAC warning that his $1 million sweepstakes giveaway to registered voters in swing states may violate federal law, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News Wednesday.

The letter from the Election Crimes Branch of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section was sent to Musk’s PAC in recent days, the source said.

Musk, who has been campaigning for former President Donald Trump, announced the lottery-style giveaway over the weekend, pledging to give away $1 million a day to a randomly selected swing-state resident who agrees to sign his PAC’s petition supporting the First and Second amendments.

To qualify, the person must be a registered voter — leading experts to question whether the lottery could violate federal law that bars individuals from paying people to register to vote.

As of Tuesday, Musk had given away three $1 million checks.

It’s unclear whether the Justice Department has determined that the giveaway is outright illegal.

The independent news site 24Sight News was first to report news of the letter Wednesday.

Officials with the Justice Department declined to comment to ABC News.

Representatives for Musk and his America PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

World news

At least 5 dead in ‘terrorist attack’ on aerospace facility in Turkey, officials say

Ismail Kaplan/Anadolu via Getty Images

(LONDON) —  Several people were killed in a “terrorist attack” at Turkish Aerospace Industries facilities near the capital of Ankara on Wednesday, Turkey officials said.

At least five people were killed and 22 injured in the attack, according to Turkey’s vice president, Cevdet Yilmaz. Among those injured were seven special forces members who responded to the attack, he said.

Two attackers — a man and a woman — were killed and Turkish authorities are working to identify them, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.

“I condemn this heinous attack,” Yerlikaya said in a post on X. “Our struggle will continue with determination and resolve until the last terrorist is neutralized.”

Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler alleged the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, was behind the attack. The Kurdish separatist movement is labeled a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.

“We give these PKK scoundrels the punishment they deserve every time, they do not come to their senses,” he said in remarks to the media on Wednesday. “I repeat what I always say, we will not let go of them until the last terrorist is eliminated.”

Yilmaz also said that PKK appears to be responsible for the attack, but that the investigation is still ongoing.

Security camera footage from the attack showed two armed attackers approaching the entrance of the facility carrying backpacks.

The Turkish Aerospace Industries site is about 25 miles outside Ankara.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called the incident “deeply concerning.”

“NATO stands with our Ally Turkey. We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and are monitoring developments closely,” he said in a statement on X.

White House national security adviser John Kirby also condemned the attack.

“Our prayers are with all of those affected and their families and, of course, also the people of Turkey at this very difficult time,” he said during a White House briefing on Wednesday. “While we don’t yet know the motive, or who is exactly behind it, we strongly condemn this act of violence.”

ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian, Morgan Winsor and Trisha Mukherjee contributed to this report.

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Entertainment

‘Fights, Camera, Action’: Netflix goes deep behind the scenes of ‘The Jerry Springer Show’

Netflix

Netflix is pulling the curtain back on one of the biggest pop culture touchstones of the 1990s, The Jerry Springer Show, ABC Audio has confirmed.

On Jan. 7, 2025, the streaming service will debut Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, which will feature “first-hand testimony and revelations from show insiders,” including interviews with former guests and producers who shed light on “the destruction it caused.”

Netflix teases that the “jaw-dropping, premium two-part series” will explore “how this daytime talk show became one of the biggest and most outrageous TV hits of the nineties.”

It teases further, “But behind the entertaining facade lay some darker truths. As we hear from the producers and ex-guests … a murkier picture begins to emerge of the destruction it caused, raising renewed questions about who was responsible, and how far things should go in the name of entertainment.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

National

Journalist targeted in alleged murder plot: ‘I’ve been given a second life’

ABC News

(NEW YORK) — A New York-based Iranian journalist who was the target of an alleged failed assassination attempt that federal prosecutors say involved an Iranian general said she has “been given a second life.”

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced criminal charges against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Brig. Gen. Ruhollah Bazghandi in connection with the alleged murder plot against Masih Alinejad, a prolific journalist and human rights activist who has been critical of the Iranian government, in particular the status of women’s rights.

The charges name Bazghandi and six other Iranian operatives who federal prosecutors said plotted to kill Alinejad.

In response to the charges, Alinejad said it was a “beautiful day” in a statement on X on Tuesday while posting a video of herself riding a bicycle, smiling, and saying, “I love my life.”

Asked by ABC News’ Diane Macedo about the joyful video during an interview on ABC News Live on Wednesday, Alinejad said, “I’ve been given a second life. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stay forever, but it is a beautiful day for me and I have to celebrate it because, look, the Iranian regime actually showed that how far they can go.”

“When I read the details, I was like, ‘Wow, the high-ranking member of Revolutionary Guards actually were in charge to kill me?'”

Alinejad said she met with members of the FBI and the Department of Justice about the case.

“When they named Ruhollah Bazghandi, I was screaming out of joy because it is beautiful,” she said. “You have to be a woman from Iran, from the Middle East, to understand when a killer [gets stopped], how it feels.”

“I smiled. But at the same time, I am very sad because I know that this is happening to my women inside Iran,” she continued. “They are facing the same killers every day.”

Alinejad, 48, fled Iran in 2009 in the aftermath of the country’s disputed presidential elections. Her 2018 memoir, “The Wind in My Hair,” detailed how she helped spark an online movement against the compulsory hijab as the founder of the My Stealthy Freedom campaign.

Alinejad, who lives in exile in New York City, said she has moved 21 times between safe houses in the past three years, following an alleged Iranian plot to lure and kidnap her in 2021.

Since at least July 2022, the Bazghandi network sought to assassinate Alinejad, as directed by individuals in Iran, according to the federal indictment, which was released on Tuesday.

The indictment details how the network of operatives surveilled Alinejad and quotes them talking about her in July 2022.

“I’m close to the place now brother I’m getting even closer,” the indictment quotes one operative as saying.

In response, another said, according to the indictment, “OK my brother dear don’t let her out of your sight. Let’s not delay it my brother dear.”

The operative — Khalid Mehdiyev — was disrupted when he was arrested near the victim’s home on July 28, 2022, while in possession of an assault rifle, along with 66 rounds of ammunition, approximately $1,100 in cash, and a black ski mask, according to the indictment.

The operatives were members of an Eastern European crime group allegedly contracted by the Bazghandi network to kill Alinejad, according to the indictment.

“The Islamic Republic hired criminals to do their dirty job on U.S. soil to get away with it, to get away from accountability,” Alinejad said. “But now, the law enforcement actually found the high-ranking members of the Revolutionary Guards that were behind this assassination plot.”

“I’m not carrying weapons. I’m only 45 kilos. But they were trying to kill me,” she said.

Tehran has not responded to the recent charges.

The FBI released a wanted poster for Bazghandi, who is based in Iran and is being sought on charges including murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement Tuesday that the indictment “exposes the full extent of Iran’s plot to silence an American journalist for criticizing the Iranian regime” and that the FBI will “work with our partners here and abroad to hold accountable those who target Americans.”

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

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