Jan. 6 rioter whose case was tossed after Trump pardon arrested on pending weapons charges
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(NEW YORK) — A Florida man who prosecutors alleged attacked police with an explosive device during the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol — and whose case was dropped following President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons and commutations issued Monday, was arrested Wednesday on pending federal gun charges, according to court records.
Daniel Ball, 39, was taken into custody Wednesday morning, according to an arrest warrant, on a separate indictment returned by federal prosecutors in Florida last summer that charged him for unlawfully possessing a gun as a felon.
He had at least three previous felony convictions — one dating back to 2017 for domestic violence battery by strangulation and two in October of 2021 — nine months after the Jan. 6 riot, for resisting law enforcement and battery on a law enforcement officer.
Ball was among the few defendants being held pretrial in connection with his Jan. 6 case, after prosecutors accused him of using an explosive device to assault officers trying to protect the Capitol in the Lower West End Tunnel.
Ball further was allegedly seen on video joining rioters in an unsuccessful attempt to break through a police line, before retreating to throw “dangerous weapons” at the line of officers, according to court records.
A federal judge ordered Ball detained in May of 2023 after determining he posed a serious ongoing danger to the general public if released, and to members of law enforcement in particular.
Ball has not entered a plea to the weapons charge and ABC News has reached out to an attorney listed as representing him for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Blood samples showed evidence of past bird flu infections in veterinarians despite the doctors never reporting symptoms or knowing they had been exposed, a new federal report published Thursday afternoon shows.
The findings suggest there could be people and animals with bird flu infections in other states that have not yet been identified, the authors said.
Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collected blood samples in September 2024 from 150 veterinary practitioners who work with dairy cattle.
The practitioners were tested for bird flu antibodies that would indicate past infection and asked about their cattle exposure in the past three months. Additionally, their exposures since January 2024 were assessed.
At the time the samples were collected, bird flu infection in dairy cattle had been detected in 14 U.S. states, with four human cases in people with dairy cattle exposure in three states.
As of Thursday, 68 human cases have been detected in 11 states with exposures coming from dairy cattle, poultry farms, culling operations and other animals, according to CDC data. Most human cases have been mild and those patients recovered after receiving antiviral medication.
Three of the survey participants had antibodies in their blood indicating previous bird flu infection. None of them reported respiratory or influenza-like symptoms or received testing for influenza since January 2024.
All three practitioners worked with multiple animals, including dairy cattle. Two also worked with non-dairy cattle with one providing care to poultry and one working at livestock markets.
None worked with dairy cattle that had known or suspected cases of bird flu although one of the practitioners worked with poultry that had tested positive.
The practitioners all reported wearing gloves or a clothing cover while caring for cattle but did not report wearing respiratory or eye protection.
Additionally, one of the practitioners only practiced in two states — Georgia and South Carolina – -with no known bird flu infection in cattle and no reported human cases.
“These findings suggest that there might be [bird flu]–infected dairy cattle in states where infection in dairy cattle has not yet been identified, highlighting the importance of rapid identification of infected dairy cattle through herd and bulk milk testing as recently announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture,” the authors wrote.
“Detection of [bird flu] antibodies in persons without reported symptoms suggests that surveillance of symptomatic exposed workers might underestimate human infection,” they added.
The authors highlighted the importance of getting the word out about recent recommendations from the CDC to offer post-exposure prophylaxis medication or treatment and testing to asymptomatic workers.
The report comes amid a second type of bird flu found in dairy cows for the first time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last week.
This strain of bird flu, known as D1.1, has only ever previously been detected in wild birds and poultry, indicating that it has only recently spread to cows.
(NEW YORK) — The Trump administration has instructed New York City to end its congestion pricing program, the first of its kind in the nation, by March 21 in a newly released letter.
The Federal Highway Administration said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority must stop collecting tolls by that date to allow for an “orderly cessation.”
The letter is dated Feb. 20, a day after the U.S. Department of Transportation said it pulled federal approval of the plan following a review requested by President Donald Trump.
New York officials have said they will not turn off the tolls without a court order.
“We have said that you may have asked for orderly cessation, which was the phrase that came in the letter to us. I will propose something in the alternative — orderly resistance,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said during remarks before the MTA board on Wednesday.
The MTA said it is challenging the Trump administration’s reversal in federal court, seeking a declaratory judgment that the DOT’s move is not proper.
The congestion pricing plan, which launched on Jan. 5, charges passenger vehicles $9 to access Manhattan below 60th Street during peak hours as part of an effort to ease congestion and raise funds for the city’s public transit system. During peak hours, small trucks and charter buses are charged $14.40 and large trucks and tour buses pay $21.60.
Hochul called the program’s early success “genuine” and “extraordinary” in her remarks to the MTA board.
The toll generated nearly $50 million in revenue in its first month, the MTA said this week.
From Jan. 5 to Jan. 31, tolls from the congestion pricing program generated $48.66 million, with the net revenue for that period $37.5 million when taking into account expenses to run the program, the MTA said.
The program is on track to generate $500 million in net revenue by the end of this year, as initially projected, the MTA said.
Congestion has also “dropped dramatically” since the program went into effect, Hochul said last week.
ABC News’ Clara McMichael contributed to this report.
(SEATTLE) — An 82-year-old man in Seattle woke up feeling very much alive until he and his wife opened a letter from his bank stating he was deceased.
Ned Johnson was mistakenly declared dead, which led to the cancellation of his Social Security benefits. It took him two months to prove the mistake, including numerous phone calls, letters to government officials and enduring a four-hour wait at his local Social Security office, he said.
And he told ABC News the problem is continuing to follow him.
“I’ve since learned that I’m on the Death Master File that apparently is going to chase me for the rest of my life,” Johnson told ABC News. “It means that when Social Security declared me as deceased, there’s a file that’s kept … that I’m listed on and, apparently, it doesn’t go away. So we’re struggling with a few issues now that are starting to crop up since we started this whole thing.”
The trouble began when Johnson’s wife, Pam Johnson, received a letter from Bank of America in February expressing condolences for her husband’s alleged death in November.
“First, I thought it was a scam because it was just a little letter, and they also attached a couple of documents for me to fill out to send back to Bank of America’s estate division,” she told ABC News. “So I verified that it was the estate division and the phone number was correct. And then the second letter we got right after that was showing that debit to our checking account.”
The situation finally began to be sorted out after Johnson visited his local Social Security Administration office. Ned Johnson said he thought his troubles were over, but he added, “This thing follows you follows you like a bad smell.”
He started receiving his Social Security checks once again, but he’s now facing another problem — the checks are coming but they’ve started to deduct some.
Pam Johnson said she and her husband are very lucky to be financially stable to make do with several missed checks. But others won’t be so lucky.
“I think the more important story is the people who do rely on it … the majority of people, a lot of them on Social Security, particularly at our age that really don’t have the wherewithal to navigate the system,” she said. “So for some people, it just would be impossible.”
The Johnsons’ ordeal comes as the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have targeted purported fraud in the Social Security system, including checks allegedly sent to deceased people.
Among changes Social Security recently announced intended to combat waste and fraud, recipients will soon have to verify their bank details in person or online, instead of over the phone.
“My advice would be, watch your bank account and be prepared to — if you get tagged with one of these issues — it’s going to take some time,” Ned Johnson said. “And you just have to be patient and persistent if you expect to get anywhere.”
ABC News reached out to the Social Security Administration for comment on the Johnsons’ situation, but the agency said privacy laws precluded it from discussing specific cases.
The agency pointed to a March 16 press release stating that 3 million deaths are reported to the agency every year and that less than one-third of 1% are erroneously reported.
