Transcripts For KGO America This Morning 20240713 : vimarsan

Phones camera. A consumer alert ahead of the Holiday Shopping season. How scammers are draining the money from gift cards without you noticing. Plus, megastars hitting the court at halftime. All you have to do is wait a second for a wild dance party. The clock is ticking good wednesday morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We begin with the most anticipated witness of the impeachment investigation taking the hot seat this morning. The u. S. Ambassador to the European Union who appeared to have instant access to President Trump is set to testify today. Ambassador Gordon Sondland was a key player at the center of the president s dealings with ukraine, which involved withholding military aid. His testimony will follow four other officials who made it clear that the president s phone call to ukraine was far less than perfect. Abcs Megan Tevrizian begins our coverage from capitol hill. Megan, good morning. Reporter good morning, kenneth and janai. Republican megadonor turned ambassador Gordon Sondland has emerged as a critical witness in this impeachment inquiry. In recent weeks he changed his testimony and now recalls delivering a quid pro quo to the ukrainians. This morning, the stakes are rising in the impeachment inquiry against President Trump. Gordon sondland will be the single most important witness to testify. Reporter not only was sondland on that july 25th call between President Trump and ukraine, he also has a close relationship with the president. On tuesday National Security official tim morrison testified former National Security adviser fiona hill might have coined it a gordon problem. I decided to keep track of what ambassador sondland was doing. I didnt necessarily always act on things gordon suggested. Reporter tuesdays testimony began with Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a decorated veteran and top ukraine official on the National Security council and jennifer williams, an aide to Vice President mike pence. Both were on the president s phone call with ukraine and both testified it was concerning. It involved discussion of what appeared to be a domestic political matter. It is improper for the president of the United States to demand a Foreign Government investigate a u. S. Citizen and a political opponent. Reporter republicans on the panel questioned vindmans loyalty accusing him of trying to protect the whistleblower. Mr. Vindman, you testified in your deposition that you did not know the whistleblower. Ranking member, its Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, please. Reporter later former special envoy to ukraine kurt volker told congress he wasnt awared investigations being demanded targeted the bidens and the 2016 elections which he casted as conspiracy theories. Theyre not things that we should be pursuing as part of our National Security strategy with ukraine. Reporter and while this testimony was going on yesterday, President Trump at the white house attacked Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman in realtime seeming to undermine his military service and said hed never seen him before. Kenneth, janai. All right, megan, thank you. Abc news live coverage of the impeachment hearings will resume at 9 00 a. M. Eastern on air and online. And were following two breakings story at this hour. The first overseas where two American Service members have been killed in a Helicopter Crash in afghanistan. The taliban claims it shot down a chinook helicopter, but u. S. Officials say theres no indication that enemy fire caused the crash. We will keep you posted on that with any details. And back here at home also breaking overnight, a Chicago Police officer has been shot in the head. Authorities say the bullet went through the officers skull leaving him in serious condition. It happened during a police chase after a bank robbery. The suspect opened fire before being killed. A 15yearold bystander was also wounded. Now to the disturbing case of a 16yearold girl in georgia accused of planning a church massacre. She allegedly plotted to kill black parishioners until a classmate spoke up preventing the possible attack. This morning members of this historically black church in gainesville, georgia, are stunned after police say a 16yearold girl planned a racially motivated attack at the house of worship. Its just very disturbing. I just think it was like of the devil. Reporter investigators say the teenage who is white plotted to kill black parishioners with knives or other sharp objects and she allegedly kept a notebook detailing her plans, collected kitchen knives to carry out the attack and researched White Supremacy online. Abc news has learned the girl recently went to the church but services had been moved to another venue that night so the building was empty. By the grace of god and by divine intervention at the time she went to the church, there was nobody there. This is one time im glad nobody showed up for church. Reporter Authorities Say they were tipped off after students warned School Counselors at Gainesville High school about the girls plans. Shes charged with criminal attempt to commit murder, but she will likely not face a hate crime charge because georgia is one of four states that does not have official hate crime laws on the books. Church leaders suspect therdere parishioners at a church in charleston in 2015. No longer in the United States of america can you go to church and feel safe and secure. In 2017 and 2018 the fbi recorded more than 14,000 hate crimes. 60 were motivated by race. Authorities are working to find out who is behind a racist manifesto at Syracuse University posted in a forum online. They say someone tried to send the white supremacist whitings to students phones. Police are boosting security after a string of racial incidents. New yorks governor says an independent monitor should be hired to investigate. New charges have been filed after the death of a fraternity pledge. Collin wiant died last november and nine men, most fraternity members, are now facing charges from hazing to reckless homicide. When we heard the initial feeling was, you know, just that there are no winners here and, you know, there are no winners when hazing is involved whatsoever. They have filed a wrongful death lawsuit claiming their son was hazed and forced to inhale nitrous oxide. A coroner ruled thats what killed him. Time for a look at your weather for this wednesday morning. Good morning. Were tracking a deep trough across the southwest u. S. Bringing some much needed rain but some of it will be heavy especially across arizona and that could lead to a flooding threat. On the Northern Edge of the storm weve got some colder air working on in that will lead to some snow from the sierra mountains into the rockies. Highest elevations could see more than a foot of snowfall. It is going to be dry and breezy, though, from the bay area northward toward redding and that is going to lead to a high fire threat. Im Accuweather Meteorologist adam del rosso. Coming up, the toy that smells like ice cream now being called one of the most dangerous toys on the market. Also ahead, a consumer alert. How to stop scammers from draining the money off your gift cards. But first the changes being made after a woman was nearly sucked out the window of a southwest airl were back with video of a close call in the boston area. Wow, look at that. A ladder crashed through the windshield of this car on interstate 95 passing all the way into the backseat. Amazingly the driver suffered only a few cuts. Wow. Federal safety officials want boeing to redesign engine covers on some of its 737 jets after a texas mother died from injuries suffered on a southwest flight. Jennifer riordan was nearly sucked out of the plane last year when a broken fan blade sent shrapnel through the window at 30,000 feet. The ntsb is now recommending boeing redesign engine covers on all 6,800 of its ng planes in service. Boeing says its working on design enhancements to satisfy the recommendation. As the Holiday Shopping season gets under way, scammers are coming up with new ways to cash in, and gift cards are at the top of their list. Experts say they are using hacking techniques to get around security measures like hidden p. I. N. Numbers and wipe out your gift card before you have a chance to use it leaving your balance at zero. These bots are going ahead and requesting balances on millions of different gift card accounts. And theyre checking to see if those gift card account numbers are legitimate. If they have Funds Available or balances, and if they do, those cybercriminals can go ahead and scrape those funds from those gift cards. Get this, Hacking Software can make up to 2 million attempts per hour to guess p. I. N. Combinations for gift cards. Experts recommend you treat gift cards like cash, keeping them protected and out of sight. Good to know. Your Android Phone may be sharing your photos without permission. The Security Firm checkmarks has revealed a flaw that allows an app to bypass the restrictions and access your phones camera and feick phones all without your knowledge. A hacker may also be able to tell where the video was recorded. Checkmarks says samsung and google have now addressed the security flaw but other phones may still be vulnerable. The new list is out of the worst toys for this Holiday Season when it comes to keeping kids safe. The nerf dart gun is high on the list because the projectiles can cause eye injuries and another gun looks just like the real thing. Parents are also being warned about nickelodeons new slime that smells like ice cream. Experts say it could easily be mistaken for food. Well, coming up, what is so unusual about this years flu season. But first what were now learning about the jail guards on duty the night sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died in his cell. And later with just days to go before thanksgiving, the story of the turkey who wont stop following the mailman. Whether your beauty routine is 3or 57,. Make natures bounty hair skin and nails step one. Its the number one brand uniquely formulated for silky hair, glowing skin and healthy nails. Natures bounty, because youre better off healthy. Wheyou know your holidayt of tshopping is complete. , its time to celebrate. [baby crying] pampers is the first and only diaper with air dry channels they stay up to 3 times drier, so babies can sleep soundly. All night. Pampers. Only roomba i7 uses two multisurface rubber brushes. And picks up more pet hair than other robot vacuums. And the filter captures 99 of dog and cat allergens. If its not from irobot, its not a roomba™. Aso this Holiday Season treatr yhim the best. Show them love this holiday with tasty blue buffalo treats. Available wherever you buy pet food. Back now with a badly burned koala in australia and the woman who rescued it. Oh, she saved that injured animal from a brush fire with her own shirt then doused it with water. The koala is recovering at a hospital. This morning the woman and the koala were reunited. Theyre calling that bear lewis. I love that. We turn now to the Major Development in the Jeffrey Epstein case. The jail guards who were supposed to be watching him the night he died have now been charged. Authorities say rather than checking on epstein, the guards were asleep and shopping online. The jail guards in charge of watching sex offender Jeffrey Epstein when he died from an apparent suicide said nothing when they left a new york courthouse tuesday. We believe that when all the evidence is presented about how the system was ran and how there was they were severely shortstaffed at all times, maybe youll have a different appreciation for what was going on. Tova noel and Michael Thomas are accused of repeatedly failing to conduct 30minute inmate checks and falsifying jail records to make it look like they had. Thomas allegedly told a supervisor, we messed up. We didnt do any rounds. Prosecutors say Video Surveillance shows the guards sat at their desk and appeared to have been asleep at times browsing the internet for furnitore and s allege epstein had been removed from suicide watch less than three weeks earlier was left alone in his cell for eight hours before he was found just after 6 30 in the morning with a noose around his neck. Epsteins death ended the possibility of his sex trafficking trial, which could have featured several prominent figures. On capitol hill tuesday, a Senate Committee grilled the new director of the bureau of prisons about epsteins death. She testified that shes limited in what she can say because of ongoing investigations. With all due respect, you still have an obligation to speak to the girls who were raped by this guy today. It isnt just about the individual inmate who might kill themselves its about the fact that that about bastard wasnt able to testify against other coconspirators. If i dont have information i cant share anything with you. Reporter the pathologist hired by epstein to investigate his death said the evidence points to homicide. But prosecutors say security footage shows no one entered the area where epstein was housed that night. Do you concur with the opinion that it was a suicide . That was the finding of the coroner, sir. Okay. Do you have any evidence to suggest otherwise . I do not. And the jail guards are charged with falsifying prison records which could carry a fiveyear sentence if convicted. Both pleaded not guilty. A miami professor who literally wrote the book on organized crime and Money Laundering has now been charged with Money Laundering. Professor bruce bagley had even testified before congress as an expert. But hes now accused of using private Bank Accounts to launder millions in dirty money for criminals in venezuela. If convicted he could face 20 years in prison. In some health news, its shaping up to be a worse year for the flu than usual. The cdc is reporting flu activity in 30 states. That is the most in a decade for this early in the season. California, louisiana and maryland, you see there in red, are seeing widespread flu activity. Doctors urge everyone six months and older to get a flu shot. In sports the nba is a melo place again. Carmelo anthony returned last night as a portland trail blazer after sitting out the past year and hit his first shot and finished with ten point, the blazers, however, lost to the pelicans. Check out this kid who put on a basketball shooting clinic at the lakers game. Max is just 10 years old and during this 30second shooting contest, he knocked down a pair of threepointers from nba distance. You see him there. The crowd went crazy. He only missed one shot. Good job, max. Also incredible the laker girls showed off their new recruits during the halftime show. Venus williams showed off her moves. Rob gronkowski was out there as well, only a few hours saying hell stay retired for at least this year. Those short, we wear shortshorts. James corden also got a few steps in. Gronk could also have a second career as a dancer. Up next a new way to avoid politics on thanksgiving. But first game of thrones star Emilia Clarke opens up on being pressured to do nude scenes. One mans strategy to get his wife to stop shopping. Thousands of women with metastatic Breast Cancer, which is Breast Cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. Ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr her2 metastatic Breast Cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. Ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients. Patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. Ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs that can lead to death. Tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including trouble breathing, shortness of breath, cough, or chest pain. Before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. Common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. Be in your moment. Ask your doctor about ibrance. Itintroducing the new braava jet m6 robot mop. With an adjustable Precision Jet spray and advanced pad system braava jet breaks up messes and gets deep in corners. Braava jet. Only from irobot. But shouldnt somebody this is be listening . Pression. So. Lets talk. Were built for hearing whats important to you, one to one. Edward jones. Its time for investing to feel