March 14, 2021 • No Comments • National News

Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBY: JULIA JACOBO, ABC NEWS

(NEW YORK) — College students are continuing to flock to beaches to celebrate spring break despite the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although universities around the country either scaled back the traditional holiday week or canceled it altogether, the Sunshine State saw an influx of traveling students over the weekend.

On Friday night, two Miami Beach Police officers dispersed a large crowd using pepper balls after two officers were injured, the police department tweeted. Authorities reported instances of bottles being thrown at police and a woman riding on top of a car.

Thirty additional arrests were made Saturday night, police said.

Earlier this month, Miami Beach City Manager Raul Aguila warned spring breakers to stay out of town, and a message to the cellphones of tourists warning them to “Vacation Responsibly.”

“If you want to party without restrictions, then go somewhere else. Go to Vegas,” Aguila said during a virtual city meeting.

On Saturday, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer advised the community to enjoy the weather while maintaining COVID-19 safety guidelines.

In Texas, Galveston was also a hot spot for spring breakers, where thousands of people flocked to the beach to soak in the warm weather, ABC Corpus Christi affiliate KIII-TV reported.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a plan to lift mask mandates and allow businesses to operate at 100% capacity on March 2.

Many people in Galveston chose not to wear the face coverings at the beach, Fort Worth resident Kelly Roberson told KIII.

“We don’t need the government entity to come out here and tell us you need a mask or you don’t need a mask,” Roberson said.

The Transportation Security Administration screened 1,357,111 passengers on Friday and another 1,223,057 passengers on Saturday, according the the agency.

Spring break travel last year may have fueled the spread of the virus as it gained momentum in March 2020, a study out of Ball State and Vanderbilt University that used GPS smartphone data to track the movement of a sample of more than 7 million U.S. college students found.

Some colleges are getting creative in their attempts to get students to stay in town. The University of California, Davis is offering students $75 to not travel during spring break.

Other colleges, including the University of Michigan, University of Tennessee, University of Florida and Baylor University amended their calendars in the fall to do away with spring break completely due to the pandemic.

The behavior of Americans in the months of March and April will be critical in preventing another surge of the virus, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said earlier this month. Walensky has warned states against reopening too soon as the number of infections plateau.

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March 14, 2021 • No Comments • National News

Berkshire Community CollegeBY: ARIELLE MITROPOULOS, ABC NEWS

(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) — Over this past year, world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma has been working to provide comfort and support to those who may be struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Saturday, he transformed a Massachusetts vaccination clinic into a temporary concert hall, in a moment that residents called a symbolic representation of “the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Ma, 65, received his second shot, alongside his wife, Jill Hornor, at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday.

When he arrived at the clinic carrying his cello, the nurse who gave him his vaccine asked whether he would be willing to use his 15-minute observation period to offer a short concert to those in the waiting area.

The famed cellist was “delighted,” Richard Hall of the Berkshire COVID-19 Vaccine Collaborative, told ABC News, as he wanted to “give something back to the community.”

Donning a cap and T-shirt, Ma sat masked and socially distanced from others as he played an array of classical selections, including Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria” and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, Prélude.

“I think that everyone there was touched just listening to him play,” Hall said.

Berkshire County, Massachusetts, is known for its arts community, and after a year in which the arts have been largely silenced, “it was quite special to just listen to him play the cello,” Hall said.

A year ago, when the pandemic began, Ma began an online series titled “#SongsOfComfort,” in an effort to offer solace and ease anxieties “in the face of fear and isolation.”

“In these days of anxiety, I wanted to find a way to continue to share some of the music that gives me comfort,” Ma wrote on Twitter, exactly a year before he received his second shot.

His social media project, which started as short, self-shot videos filmed from home, soon expanded into a worldwide effort that has reached more than 18 million people, according Ma’s website.

In December, Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott released an album titled “Songs of Comfort and Hope.”

“Songs are little time capsules of emotions: they can contain long-lost dreams and desires, and feelings of great spirit, optimism, and unity,” Ma and Stott wrote in announcing the album. “Songs bring a sense of community, identity, and purpose, crossing boundaries and binding us together in thanks, consolation, and encouragement.”

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March 13, 2021 • No Comments • National News

BlakeDavidTaylor/iStockBy MARLENE LENTHANG, ABC News

(HILLTOWN TOWNSHIP, Penn.) — A Pennsylvania mother allegedly sent deepfake photos and video of her teenage daughter’s cheerleading rivals depicting them naked, drinking and smoking to their coaches in a bid to get them kicked off the team, the Hilltown Township Police Department said.

Raffaela Spone, 50, allegedly sent the manipulated photos and video to at least three of her daughter’s teammates and their coaches on the cheerleading team, the Victory Vipers, in Chalfont, Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub’s office said, according to the The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Spone also anonymously sent messages to the victims urging them to kill themselves, according to the paper’s report of the district attorney’s charges.

The Hilltown Township Police Department confirmed the report to ABC News. The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment.

Spone was arrested on March 4 and is charged with three counts of cyber harassment of a child and three counts of harassment, according to Hilltown Township police. An attorney for Spone could not be immediately identified.

There’s no indication that her high school-aged daughter knew what her mother was doing, the report said citing court records.

One victim’s parents contacted Hilltown Township police in July saying the girl received harassing text messages from an anonymous number, per The Philadelphia Inquirer’s reporting.

The girl and her coaches were sent photos that appeared to depict her naked, drinking and smoking a vape pen, according to police. Her parents told police because they feared the videos could lead to her daughter being kicked off the team, the paper reported.

Two more families came forward saying their daughters received similar messages, according to the Inquirer. Those victims were sent photos of themselves in bikinis, according to the report.

Police determined the videos were deepfakes — digitally altered images that appear to be authentic. The images were created by mapping the girls’ social media photos onto other images, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

In the investigation, police traced the phone numbers the girls received harassing messages from, which led them to a website that sells numbers to telemarketers.

They followed the data to an IP address, police said, which showed activity from within Spone’s Chalfont home.

Detectives searched Spone’s smartphone and found evidence linking her to the numbers used to send the harassing texts and images, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Victory Vipers told ABC News they cooperated with the police investigation, have a “very strict anti-bullying policy” and “all athletes involved, are no longer apart of our program.”

“Victory Vipers has always promoted a family environment and we are sorry for all individuals involved. We have very well-established policies, and a very strict anti-bullying policy in our program,” coaches Mark McTague & Kelly Cramer said. “When this incident came to our attention last year we immediately initiated our own internal investigation and took the appropriate action at the time. This incident happened outside of our gym.”

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