New calls made for research on social media’s impact on kids
WASHINGTON — Child safety advocates say an explosive report that Facebook failed to disclose data showing its products negatively affect the mental health of teenagers should be the final straw for lawmakers worried about social media’s impact on young users.
Democrats and Republicans zeroed in on child safety as a bipartisan area of concern this year, even before a Wall Street Journal article published last week detailed internal research showing that teens — especially girls — blamed Instagram, a Facebook subsidiary, for anxiety and depression.
“Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse,” noted an internal presentation from 2020 that the newspaper obtained. Researchers found the mental health issues were often in relation to bullying or body image that, in some cases, led to eating disorders.
The report drew a swift response from Capitol Hill, with leaders on the Senate Commerce Committee disclosing they were in contact with a whistleblower from Facebook and pledging to “use every resource at our disposal to investigate what Facebook knew and when they knew it — including seeking further documents and pursuing witness testimony.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, the top Republican on Commerce’s consumer protection subcommittee, said in a CNBC interview Sunday that she and Chairman Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., would hold a hearing on online child safety in the coming weeks that would include executives from Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube, which is owned by Google.
—CQ-Roll Call
Illegal voting allegation against Herschel Walker’s wife dismissed
ATLANTA — The State Election Board dismissed a complaint Tuesday that the wife of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker had voted illegally in Georgia while living in Texas.
The case against Julie Blanchard ended after an investigation by the secretary of state’s office found insufficient evidence to prove that she was ineligible to cast an absentee ballot in Georgia from her and Walker’s home in Texas.
The State Election Board voted 4-0 to close the case.
Election investigators reviewed Blanchard’s voting eligibility in response to a complaint made days before Walker, a former University of Georgia football star, entered the race for the U.S. Senate last month. It’s illegal for nonresidents to vote in Georgia in most circumstances.
Blanchard is a Georgia resident, property owner and eligible voter, according to the investigation’s findings. She has a Georgia driver’s license, pays state income taxes and runs a business in the state.
The investigation found that Blanchard considers Georgia her home, but it didn’t address whether she meets requirements in Georgia law for voters to reside where their “habitation is fixed.”
Blanchard owns a home with Walker in Westlake, Texas, and she also owns property near Buckhead in Fulton County.
She hasn’t disclosed which was her primary residence. Voters who move to another state with the intention of making it their residence lose their eligibility to vote in Georgia.
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Teen boy pleads guilty to murder of Barnard College student
NEW YORK — A teenage boy pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder for his role in the December 2019 stabbing of Barnard College student Tessa Majors.
Luchiano Lewis, 16, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree robbery nearly two years after Majors’ tragic killing inside Morningside Park.
Manhattan prosecutors charged Lewis as an adult. He has been in jail since February 2020.
Lewis told Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Thomas Farber he didn’t know Majors had been “stabbed let alone killed” during the robbery until he read it in the news the next day.
The teen said he and two school friends — Rashaun Weaver and a 13-year-old who pleaded guilty to robbery as a minor — had plans to rob someone inside Morningside Park on Dec. 11, 2019.
After their first attempt on a man failed, the group targeted Majors, Lewis said, who was jogging down a set of steps in the park on W. 116th St. near Morningside Drive.
“She had just walked up the long set of stairs and was walking toward us, but she was looking down at her phone. We were walking on the right side with the rails. When she passed us on our left, I saw Rashaun whisper something to (the 13-year-old), but I couldn’t hear what he said,” said Lewis, stuttering throughout his lengthy statement to the court.
“Rashaun turned around, ran up behind Tessa Majors and kicked her hard in the back. I watched her stumble. Rashaun started screaming, ‘Give me your money, run your pockets, I’m not playing.’”
The teen said Weaver, who has pleaded not guilty to murder, “tussled” on the steps with Majors for some time before Lewis became spooked by an onlooker. They all fled the scene.
—New York Daily News
Deaths of SC twins left in car ruled accidental; no charges filed
COLUMBIA, S.C. —The Richland County Sheriff's Department will not charge a parent in the death of twins who died after being left in a vehicle.
"We did an intense investigation," Sheriff Leon Lott said at a Tuesday news conference at the department's headquarters on Two Notch Road. "No questions (were) left unanswered."
The case was one of the most emotionally difficult in his 25 years as sheriff, Lott said.
During an interrogation with investigators, the father was distraught and showed emotion that could not be faked, Lott said.
The 20-month-old identical twin brothers were Brayden and Brycen McDaniel, Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford said on Sept. 2, the day after the boys died. Their deaths have been ruled an accident, Rutherford said Tuesday.
The toddlers died of heat stroke after being left in a vehicle for more than nine hours, according to Rutherford. After the police investigation, the 5th Circuit Solicitor's Office said charges were not warranted in the case.
"This father just made a mistake," Rutherford said.
The temperature inside the vehicle on Sept. 1 was around 120 degrees, Rutherford said.
—The State (Columbia, S.C.)
