By JACK BROOK, Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Authorities have arrested a 33-year-old Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office maintenance worker in connection with the escape of 10 jail inmates, the Louisiana Attorney General’s office said Tuesday.

Sterling Williams admitted to law enforcement that one of the escapees “advised him to turn the water off in the cell” before the men slipped away through a hole behind a toilet, the Attorney General’s office said in a statement.

“Instead of reporting the inmate, Williams turned the water off as directed allowing the inmates to carry out their scheme to successfully escape,” it said.

Williams is charged with 10 counts of principle to simple escape and malfeasance in office.

Sheriff Susan Hutson has said she believes the jail break was an inside job and last week told reporters her agency had suspended three employees pending an investigation.

“It’s almost impossible, not completely, but almost impossible for anybody to get out of this facility without help,” she said of the Orleans Justice Center, a correctional facility where 1,400 people are being held.

The inmates escaped early Friday while the lone guard watching them went to get food.

At least one of the steel bars protecting plumbing fixtures “appeared to have been intentionally cut using a tool,” the sheriff’s office stated.

The inmates quickly shed their uniforms and changed into regular clothes.

The absence of the inmates, many charged with or convicted of violent offenses such as murder, was not reported for hours. Four have since been apprehended and six remain at large.

Since the escape, Hutson has pointed to long-standing deficiencies such as faulty locks and staffing shortages. But a growing number of state and local officials have said blame for the escape rests squarely on her for failing her responsibility to keep inmates locked up.

The New Orleans City Council is scheduled to discuss the jail break with the sheriff’s office and other authorities Tuesday.

Authorities in St. Croix County, Wis., are investigating the deaths of a man and a woman who were found Monday night during a welfare check.

Deputies were called to a house in Hersey, an unincorporated community in the town of Springfield, around 9 p.m. According to a press release from the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office, the woman’s family hadn’t been able to get a hold of her and were concerned.

When deputies arrived, they found the bodies of both the woman and the man, as well as a gun.

Family members told investigators that the man and woman knew each other, but details of their exact relationship weren’t provided. Names were not immediately released.

“At this time, it does not appear there is an ongoing threat to the community,” the release states. “This is an active and ongoing investigation.”

The Wisconsin State Patrol and the St. Croix County Medical Examiner’s Office are assisting with the investigation.

Related Articles

‘Sometimes you just got to do the right thing.’ It took a team effort to remove abandoned boat from St. Croix River.

Wisconsin angler fishing in Lake Michigan fog discovers remains of abandoned tugboat J.C. Ames

Wisconsin judge accused of helping a man dodge immigration agents seeks donations for attorneys

Here’s how a local nonprofit is connecting people with horses (for free)

Remains of woman missing since 2016 are found in St. Cloud area

By MATTHEW PERRONE and LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Annual COVID-19 shots for healthy younger adults and children will no longer be routinely approved under a major new policy shift unveiled Tuesday by the Trump administration.

Top officials for the Food and Drug Administration laid out new requirements for yearly updates to COVID shots, saying they’d continue to use a streamlined approach that would make vaccines available to adults 65 and older as well as children and younger adults with at least one health problem that puts them at higher risk.

But the FDA framework urges companies conduct large, lengthy studies before tweaked vaccines can be approved for healthier people. In a framework published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, agency officials said the approach still could keep annual vaccinations available for between 100 million and 200 million adults.

FILE – A vial of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine rests on a table at an inoculation station in Jackson, Miss., on July 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

The upcoming changes raise questions about people who may still want a fall COVID-19 shot but don’t clearly fall into one of the categories.

“Is the pharmacist going to determine if you’re in a high-risk group?” asked Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “The only thing that can come of this will make vaccines less insurable and less available.”

The framework, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, is the culmination of a series of recent steps scrutinizing the use of COVID shots and raising major questions about the broader availability of vaccines under President Donald Trump.

Related Articles

Races for Philly district attorney and Pittsburgh mayor take center stage in Pennsylvania’s primary

Trump comes to the Capitol to try to persuade a divided GOP to unify around his big tax cuts bill

Trump alleges ‘genocide’ in South Africa. At an agricultural fair, even Afrikaner farmers scoff

While Trump overhauls FEMA, Mississippi tornado survivors await assistance

Thomas Friedman: My first thought when I heard Joe Biden’s news

For years, federal health officials have told most Americans to expect annual updates to COVID-19 vaccines, similar to the annual flu shot. Just like with flu vaccines, until now the FDA has approved updated COVID shots when manufacturers provide evidence that they spark just as much immune protection as the previous year’s version.

But FDA’s new guidance appears to be the end of that approach under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, who has filled the FDA and other health agencies with outspoken critics of the government’s handling of COVID shots, particularly their recommendation for young, healthy adults and children.

Tuesday’s update, written by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and FDA vaccine chief Vinay Prasad, criticized the U.S.’s “one-size-fits-all” approach and states that the U.S. has been “the most aggressive” in recommending COVID boosters, when compared with European countries.

“We simply don’t know whether a healthy 52-year-old woman with a normal BMI who has had Covid-19 three times and has received six previous doses of a Covid-19 vaccine will benefit from the seventh dose,” they wrote.

Outside experts say there are legitimate questions about how much everyone still benefits from yearly COVID vaccination or whether they should be recommended for people at increased risk. An influential panel of advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is set to debate that question next month.

The FDA framework announced Tuesday appears to usurp that advisory panel’s job, Offit said. He added that CDC studies have made clear that booster doses do offer protection against mild to moderate illness for four to six months after the shot even in healthy people.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By JONEL ALECCIA, Associated Press Health Writer

U.S. health officials are investigating a new outbreak of salmonella illnesses tied to a Florida grower whose tainted cucumbers were linked to more than 550 illnesses last year.

Cucumbers grown by Florida-based Bedner Growers and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales have been linked to illnesses in at least 26 people in 15 states, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported late Monday. At least nine people have been hospitalized; no deaths have been reported.

The cucumbers were sold to restaurants, stores and food service distributors between April 29 and May 19 and may still be within their shelf life this week. Illnesses were reported between April 2 and April 28, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The outbreak was detected as part of a follow-up inspection in April to a 2024 outbreak that sickened 551 people and led to 155 hospitalizations in 34 states and Washington, D.C. In that outbreak, investigators found salmonella bacteria linked to many of the illnesses in untreated canal water used at farms operated by Bedner Growers and Thomas Produce Company.

In the current outbreak, officials found salmonella bacteria from samples on the farm that matched samples from people who got sick.

Health officials are investigating where the potentially contaminated cucumbers were distributed. Several people who fell ill ate cucumbers on cruise ships leaving ports in Florida, according to the CDC. Organic cucumbers are not affected, officials said.

Retailers should notify consumers who may have bought the tainted produce. If consumers don’t know the source of cucumbers, they should throw them away, officials said.

Symptoms of salmonella poisoning include diarrhea, fever, severe vomiting, dehydration and stomach cramps. Most people who get sick recover within a week. Infections can be severe in young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems, who may require hospitalization.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.