August 28, 2020 • No Comments • National News

Anthony Peltier/iStockBy ADIA ROBINSON and KIARA BRANTLEY-JONES, ABC News

(WASHINGTON) — Thousands of protestors seeking criminal justice reform gathered at the National Mall on Friday under the rallying cry “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks,” a reference to the manner in which George Floyd was killed while in police custody in May and reminiscent of the 1963 March on Washington.

“We are tired of the mistreatment and the violence that we, as Black Americans, have been subjected to for hundreds of years,” Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement before the event. “Like those who marched before us, we are standing up and telling the police, telling lawmakers, telling the people and systems that have kept us down for years, ‘Get your knee off our necks.'”

Sharpton announced the march in June during his eulogy at Floyd’s Minneapolis memorial service. It occurs on the 57th anniversary of the original March on Washington and in conjunction with the NAACP’s virtual March on Washington.

Civil rights and social justice activists addressed the crowd and delivered speeches from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, demanding action to end major issues such as systemic racism. Speakers also called for the U.S. Senate to pass H.R.7120, known as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The bill, approved by the House but not by the Senate, would address issues regarding policing practices and law enforcement accountability.

“We must answer the call of institutional racism … now, today, this attack on us as people of color who died on the battles of warfare, who have died on the streets for civil rights, it will stop today,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas. “We will heal the nation, but we will not stop until the nation knows Black lives matter and reparations are passed as the most significant civil rights legislation of the 21st century.”

Joyce Beatty, vice chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, echoed a similar sentiment to protesters.

“Go vote! Go vote!” said Beatty. “Tell them to get their knees of of our necks.”

Martin Luther King III, who helped lead Friday’s march, told ABC News’ “2020” in an interview scheduled to air on Friday that normally there wouldn’t be a march for the 57th anniversary of his father’s historic march.

“But because of what is going on,” the oldest son of Martin Luther King Jr. said, “the climate in this nation — more civil rights demonstrations we’ve seen in our nation and really throughout the world that are finally acknowledging that Black Lives Matter — when you realize the reasons why, police brutality and misconduct is still occurring, it is beyond time for immediate action.”

“We all saw some things begin to move a short period of time after, tragically, George Floyd was killed, but we haven’t made the kind of steps that we need to, certainly not at the national level,” he added.

The “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks” March comes toward the end of a summer of unrest sparked by more Blacks being killed or severely injured by police. Floyd, 46, died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. Chauven was fired and now faces murder charges.

Protesters have called for the arrest and prosecution of the Louisville, Kentucky, officers involved in the March shooting of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT who was shot at least eight times when plainclothes officers fired “blindly” into her apartment as they executed a no-knock warrant, alleges a lawsuit by Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer.

Most recently, Jacob Blake, 29, was shot by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin Sunday night. According to Blake’s family, he was shot seven times in the back and is now paralyzed from the waist down.

The Department of Justice identified the officer as Rusten Sheskey Wednesday.

Speakers at Friday’s march are expected to include Sharpton, King and the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Eric Garner. Jacob Blake, the father of the man shot by police in Wisconsin, also is expected to speak, as first reported by USA Today.

People are expected to begin gathering at the Lincoln Memorial around 7 a.m. Speeches are scheduled to being at 11 a.m., followed by a march from the Lincoln Memorial to the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial.

Due to COVID-19 concerns, all participants are required to wear masks and get their temperatures checked before entering the event. While buses are bringing participants in from outside of the region, the organizers are discouraging people living in states on D.C.’s mandatory quarantine list from traveling there for the march.

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August 28, 2020 • No Comments • National News

ABC NewsBy MAX GOLEMBO, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — When Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana this week as a Category 4 storm with 150 mph winds, it was the strongest storm to hit the state since 1856.

For all continental U.S. landfalling hurricanes, Laura tied for the fifth strongest to ever hit the U.S. Pressure wise, Laura was the fourth-strongest hurricane in U.S. history.

Laura, while not as destructive as many forecasted, reached wind gusts of 137 mph in Lake Charles, Louisiana, caused a storm surge of 9 feet in the state and dropped 10 inches of rain in some areas.

The storm also produced four tornadoes.

Laura is still a tropical depression Friday morning, but is losing its tropical characteristics over Arkansas. However, the storm is still producing heavy rain and with the possibility of tornadoes.

As of Friday afternoon, 512,773 customers in Louisiana, 128,240 in Texas and 41,736 in Arkansas, remain without power in Laura’s aftermath, according to poweroutage.us.

A flash flood watch has been issued for Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois, where some areas could see 3 to 5 inches of rain.

What’s left of Laura will move through Mid-Mississippi Valley and into Ohio Valley Friday evening, bringing gusty winds, a flash flooding threat and a threat for a few tornadoes.

Laura will combine with a cold front and will bring heavy rain and a threat for flash flooding to the Northeast Saturday from Philadelphia to New York City and into southern New England.

Remnants of Laura will bring up to 5 inches of rain to the Mid-South region and up to 3 inches in the Northeast this weekend.

Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

August 28, 2020 • No Comments • National News

playb/iStockBy LUKE BARR, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Law school graduates in Florida were required to download software to take the bar exam virtually amid coronavirus — and a number of them now say they encountered significant data breaches, including, in some cases, attempted hacks on bank accounts because of the software.

A number of Florida students who planned to take the online bar exam in August 2020 claim there were attempts originating from Russia to gain access to sensitive accounts after they downloaded test software from ILG Technologies, and in some cases, they say their entire computers were wiped out after downloading the test administering software.

“There are now accounts emerging of examinees receiving emails from websites claiming that their information was used to log in or that a login attempt was detected from another country,” a number of students wrote in a letter.

The letter, obtained by ABC News does not specify how many students signed on.

Many of the Florida students who were set to take the bar said in an Aug. 10 letter sent to the Florida Board of Bar Examiners.

Two days before the Florida bar exam was supposed to take place, on Aug. 20, the Florida Board of Bar Examiners cancelled it altogether, saying in a video that taking the exam online was not “technically feasible,” but not going into details.

“Our inability to offer the Bar examination in August was a failure. We apologize for that failure,” Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady said in video released last week. “We acknowledge and accept the criticism that has been directed at the court and the Board of Bar Examiners.”

ILG Technologies is a Missouri-based company that specializes in administering both the online and in-person bar exam, with Illinois, Alabama and Texas among the states that use the software, according to the company’s website. Their development office is based in Turkey, according to the website.

“There is no evidence linking any security breach with ILG Software,” a representative for ILG told ABC News. “We actually have had our software audited via third party software security firm, based in Miami, Florida and the report came back negative for any virus or malware.”

The Florida State Supreme Court has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

Students were required to download the software four days before the exam, and quickly, their letter states, issues started to occur.

“Some have experienced a sudden influx of messages from foreign telephone numbers seeking Bitcoin, and many cannot access email accounts after their passwords were changed without their permission,” the letter, which includes 28 pages detailing reported problems students faced, says.

Shortly after signing up and downloading the software, one student, whose name was redacted for privacy, said they received a Gmail login attempt emanating from Russia.The letter also asserts that multiple students reported there were attempts to gain access to their Robinhood accounts, a platform for online investing. Some students said their bank accounts were accessed shortly after the software was downloaded.

“Examinees understand that their information could have been accessed from anywhere, but the co-occurrence of the ILG software download and these login attempts is disturbing when coupled with the lack of accountability from ILG,” the students continued.

ILG’s user agreement says they’re not responsible for any lost data or software.

Screenshots obtained by ABC News show apparent failures in the system’s artificial intelligence verification program, which is supposed to use photos to verify an ID or other form of identification. Students said the system was accepting any photo as a form of identification: In one instance, a user submitted an image of a dog, and another, a glass of what appears to be orange juice. The system approved both of those images, according to the letter.

Fourteen states and jurisdictions are set to take the bar in October, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners, and students ABC News spoke with worry they will not be able to adequately and fairly take that October exam due to technical difficulties.

Issues have been plaguing law graduates attempting to take the bar across the nation. In Michigan and Nevada, for instance, software programs — not run by ILG — crashed mid-exam.

“I don’t want to overly dramatize what happened but it caused a period of strong anxiety in the middle of a test day for myself and, I’m sure, for many other people,” Kerry Martin, a University of Michigan law school graduate, told the Detroit News.

“I can’t guarantee you that the path forward will be flawless, but I can guarantee you that we have learned from this mistake and that it will not be repeated,” Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Canady said in last week’s video.

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