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Taco Bell manager called a 'guardian angel' after saving a choking baby

The heroic deed was caught on video.

via Mike Mozart/Flickr

A Taco Bell drive-thru.

Natasha Long, a mother in Pennsylvania, is calling Taco Bell Manager Becky Arbaugh her “guardian angel” after she saved her 11-month-old son who stopped breathing. Long was out running some errands with her son when she pulled into a Taco Bell drive-thru in Richboro when she realized that something was wrong.

"I ran out of the car and ran around and opened the car door," Long told ABC affiliate WPVI. "I pulled him out and he turned completely blue and was lifeless. At that point, I just completely blacked out. I didn't know what to do."

Arbaugh, who was busy working the lunch rush, heard Long call out for help. "I heard a scream, and then someone yelled out, 'Call 911, the baby isn’t breathing!'" she told Good Morning America. Arbuagh wasted no time running to Long’s aid while one of her employees dialed 911.

"I threw my headset and ran outside to the baby. The mom was panicked. I told her to give him to me and I performed CPR," Arbaugh recalled. "I was trying to calm her down and comfort her and reassure her that he will be fine."

"The baby finally started to breathe. The ambulance came pretty quickly and then they took over," Arbaugh said. "The EMT said I saved his life."

Pennsylvania Taco Bell manager helps save baby who couldn't breathe

Arbaugh, a mother of 2 boys and 2 girls, was well-versed in how to perform infant CPR and understood the importance of staying calm. "When my kids were little, my daughter had a similar incident, so I knew what she was feeling," she told WPVI. "I knew if I kept her calm and I stayed calm, there was no thought in my mind that the baby wasn't going to breathe again."

Taco Bell’s employees are proud of Arbaugh’s heroic deed. "We are incredibly proud of Becky from the Taco Bell brand’s Richboro, PA, location for her heroic act earlier this week. We are getting in touch to express appreciation for her quick actions and kindness,” the company said in a statement to People.

Since the incident, the women have been in contact with each other and are friends on Facebook. Long has been sharing pictures and videos of her son with Arbaugh to remind her of the precious life she saved. Even though Arbaugh performed the ultimate good deed, saving a baby’s life, she doesn’t consider herself a hero—just another mom looking out for her own.

"I’m just a mom helping a mom. I didn’t do anything different from what anyone else should be doing," Arbaugh told NBC. "I knew how that was, and I heard it, and I felt it instantly and I had to go and help her cause I knew it’s painful. You’re just so helpless as a mom when that happens."

This incredible story out of Pennsylvania is a reminder for every one of the importance of learning CPR. You never know when—just like Arbaugh—you may find yourself in the position to save a life.

To sign up for a class and learn how to perform CPR, visit RedCross.com.




"The baby finally started to breathe. The ambulance came pretty quickly and then they took over," Arbaugh said. "The EMT said I saved his life."

[Video]

Arbaugh, a mother of 2 boys and 2 girls, was well-versed in how to perform infant CPR and understood the importance of staying calm. "When my kids were little, my daughter had a similar incident, so I knew what she was feeling," she told WPVI. "I knew if I kept her calm and I stayed calm, there was no thought in my mind that the baby wasn't going to breathe again."

Taco Bell’s employees are proud of Arbaugh’s heroic deed. "We are incredibly proud of Becky from the Taco Bell brand’s Richboro, PA, location for her heroic act earlier this week. We are getting in touch to express appreciation for her quick actions and kindness,” the company said in a statement to People.

Since the incident, the women have been in contact with each other, becoming friends on Facebook. Long has been sharing pictures and videos of her son with Arbaugh to reminder of the precious life she saved. Even though Arbaugh performed the ultimate good deed, saving a baby’s life, she doesn’t consider herself a hero—just another mom looking out for her own.

"I’m just a mom helping a mom. I didn’t do anything different from what anyone else should be doing," Arbaugh told NBC. "I knew how that was, and I heard it, and I felt it instantly and I had to go and help her cause I knew it’s painful. You’re just so helpless as a mom when that happens."

This incredible story out of Pennsylvania is a reminder for every one of the importance of learning CPR. You never know when—just like Arbaugh—you may find yourself in the position to save a life.

To sign up for a class and learn how to perform CPR, visit RedCross.com.



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Dashcam footage reveals Pennsylvania judge allegedly using position to influence officer

LNP


A judge in Pennsylvania is facing scrutiny after dashcam footage of him at a traffic stop was recently made public, revealing his alleged attempt to influence the police officer with his position.

Judge Dennis Reinaker of Lancaster County was pulled over in East Lampeter Township on April 26 for tailgating the officer, police Chief Stephen Zerbe told LNP.

In the video, Reinaker is seen getting out of his car as the officer approaches.

"What do you think you're doing pulling me over?" Reinaker asks. "For blowing my horn?"

The officer instructs an angry Reinaker to return to his vehicle, which is when the judge makes the questionable comment.

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"You better check the registration on this plate soon, Mister," he says, pointing to his license plate before getting back into the black SUV.

The officer goes back to his own vehicle for a moment where he's likely running the vehicle's plates. He then walks back to Reinaker's car and says, "Have a good day, Judge."

Reinaker told WGAL he self-reported the incident to the State Judicial Conduct Board shortly after it happened. He also told the news outlet he regretted his behavior and shouldn't have gotten out of his car.

"I know better than that. I wish I hadn't," he said.

He also said he never intended to use his influence to get out of the traffic stop.

"I neither expect nor deserve any special treatment, and made no such request on this occasion...If my intent was to tell him who I was, I could certainly have done so," Reinaker told LNP.

"However, I am not immune to an instance of mild frustration during a morning commute. In this case, it was not clear to me why I was pulled over. I obeyed the officer's directives and intended no disrespect," he added.

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It is against the Judicial Code of Conduct for a judge to use his office for personal benefit.

"A judge shall not abuse the prestige of judicial office to advance the personal or economic interests of the judge or others, or allow others to do so," Rule 1.3., "Avoiding Abuse of the Prestige of Judicial Office," states, according to LNP.

"It is improper for a judge to use or attempt to use his or her position to gain personal advantage or preferential treatment of any kind. For example, it would be improper for a judge to allude to his or her judicial status to gain favorable treatment in encounters with traffic officials," an additional comment under the Rule explains.

This incident isn't the first time a judge has been accused of using his position to evade the law. Last September, a municipal court judge in New Jersey was censured by the state's Supreme Court for attempting to influence an officer who pulled him over for suspected drunk driving, the Associated Press reports.

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Fox News ran a racist segment about 'gypsies.' Here's what really happened.

On July 17, Tucker Carlson aired an inflammatory segment entitled "Gypsies: Coming to America," about rising tensions between residents of California, Pennsylvania —a small borough near Pittsburgh — and a group of Roma who recently settled there.

Carlson noted that about 40 "gypsies" are "seeking asylum, saying they suffered racism in their native Romania," and they were placed in the town "by the federal government," only to spurn local culture by engaging in "public defecation" and slaughtering chickens in view of residents.

It was an ugly segment, recalling some of the worst of anti-Roma propaganda. Unsurprisingly, it was based on a wildly ungenerous reading of the facts.

Carlson could have spoken to actual residents of California, Pennsylvania. He could have asked some of the recently arrived Roma about their struggles to communicate and integrate. He could have brought on an immigration expert to weigh in on the pros and cons of resettling members of a vulnerable population inside a different small, insular community.

Instead, he interviewed George Eli, a documentarian of Romani descent, who told Carlson that he "just learned of [the situation] through your producers."

"Immigration and immigrants are one thing," Eli said, admitting he was speculating. "But these people, they seem to be a little bit of not following the law."

Meanwhile, three days earlier, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette actually went to the borough and interviewed both locals and recent arrivals about the conflict.

[rebelmouse-image 19531027 dam="1" original_size="700x429" caption="Downtown California, Pennsylvania. Photo by VitaleBaby/Wikimedia Commons." expand=1]Downtown California, Pennsylvania. Photo by VitaleBaby/Wikimedia Commons.

What they found is, unsurprisingly, much more nuanced than the picture Carlson and Eli painted.

  • Yes, some residents are upset that many members of the few dozen Roma families have weak English skills and are "unfamiliar" with American culture. A few locals indeed claim to have witnessed some of the new arrivals' children defecating in public and others slaughtering poultry.
  • Nonetheless, there have been "no instances of violence or aggression" reported among the group of newcomers.
  • Vito Dentino, a local landlord who is renting properties to the asylum-seekers told the Post-Gazette they have been receptive of his advice. "They throw trash in their yards, but I’ve talked to them about that, and they clean it up. I think people around here are just overreacting."
  • Other locals are organizing education and outreach efforts to help integrate the Roma families into the town's culture.
  • Still others reject the idea that the asylum-seekers have been an issue altogether. "I have not had one problem with them," one lifelong resident told the paper. "I say hi to them. ... This is a community. Let's be human. This is not a fast process."
  • Others have already started making friends. "We sat on the porch and ate and I learned some words," said another, a 28-year-old local who joined some of the newcomers at their home for dinner. "And it was awesome."

Demonizing Roma people as "unclean" and criminal has a long and ugly history.

The fervor reached its apex under the Nazis, who subjected members of the ethnic group to forced labor, deportation, and eventually, murder. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates over 200,000 Roma were killed between 1939 and 1945.

Roma children in France, 1937. Photo by AFP/Getty Images.

A 2009 survey of European Union countries found that 1 in 4 Roma respondents had been assaulted, threatened, or harassed an average of four times within the past year.

Additionally, the Roma families were not settled in the town by the federal government, per Carlson's claim.

ICE told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the families who moved to the Pittsburgh borough were members of the asylum program, and the agency does not determine where they live.

Asylum-seekers are most frequently not detained, as many arrive in the U.S. on other visas. Most are allowed to remain and live freely while their application proceedings play out.

A civil debate on immigration and integration has to respect the desires and grievances on all sides.

Weighing the freedom of some to preserve a particular way of life against the freedom of others to live where and how they want is often — and understandably — challenging. But fear-mongering by reducing the behavior of an entire ethnic group to the most inflammatory acts of a small minority makes the integration process more fraught for all stakeholders.

Photo by David McNew/Getty Images.

Hate crimes against Muslims in April and June increased over 90% over the same time period in 2016, according to a Council on American-Islamic Relations analysis, amid President Trump's attempt to ban citizens of seven Muslim countries from entering the United States.

Rather than whipping up fear, we should be focused on finding solutions for all involved — citizens and immigrants alike.

Striking a balance between welcoming newcomers and preserving local traditions is not easy, and it rarely occurs without conflict. It happened during the wave of Irish immigration in the 1840s and the wave of immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. It's happening now.

But history demonstrates figuring out how to live together is not only possible, in many ways, it's inevitable.

Despite Carlson's incendiary commentary, its seems at least some of the residents of California, Pennsylvania, are well on their way there.

Update 7/27/2017: In an interview, George Eli explained that he took the interview to "educate" Carlson's audience and dispel stereotypes about American Roma, and he disagrees with the segment's portrayal of the California, Pennsylvania, families.

The documentarian, who co-chairs an effort to increase representation of American Roma in media, believes that some of his message got through, even if Carlson expressed other negative views about the community, "He did say, on camera, in front of his millions of viewers, 'Yeah, the Roma are not violent,'" Eli says. "To me, that’s a win."

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These nuns built a lovely little chapel. Right in the way of a pipeline. On purpose.

Over 300 people gathered in a cornfield chapel on Sunday, July 9.

Sister Janet McCann at the chapel's dedication. Photo from David Jones/Lancaster Against Pipelines, used with permission.

The chapel, a bare bones structure, rose out of a clear plot in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. There are no walls; its boundaries are marked by tall rows of growing corn. Any breeze that blew over the rows must have been welcome — the temperatures had been hovering around the 80s pretty much all week.

This was the scene as the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, a Catholic order of nuns, dedicated their new open-air chapel.

But this open-air chapel isn't just for prayers. It's a protest.

It's built directly in the path of an incoming natural gas pipeline.

The Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline will be an underground extension of the Transco pipeline and will cut across 183 miles of Pennsylvania — including directly through the nun's cornfield.

Sister Martha Wachtel, ASC. Photo courtesy of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, used with permission.

A federal commission gave Williams Partners, the company building the pipeline, permission to use eminent domain to claim the land, pending a July 17 hearing.

In response, the nuns teamed up with a local grassroots group called Lancaster Against Pipelines to organize and construct the chapel in protest.

"They're very fine people," Sister Sara Dwyer says.

The result is that, if Williams Partners really wants the land, they're going to need to tear down the pews and arbor first.

The chapel. Photo courtesy of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, used with permission.

The sisters say their protest is a religious one and the pipeline violates one of their ethics, which names the Earth as a sanctuary to be revered.

"It's not just about this pipeline," says Dwyer. "It's about drawing awareness to what fossil fuel usage has done to the poor, to communities, and to the planet."

"We see this as a moral, religious, and spiritual stand," Dwyer says.

This isn't the first time eminent domain has been used for pipelines.

The permission has been used on the Bakken and Dakota Access pipeline before. It might seem a little weird — most of the time you think of eminent domain (if you think about it at all) as something public, like a road or a bridge. A privately owned pipeline using it feels weird.

And those who feel this way are not alone. Backlash has led to proposed laws and litigation in multiple states.

Proponents of the pipeline hold that, once completed, it’ll help fuel more than 7 million homes and it will create jobs.

It's not clear whether the nuns' efforts will have an effect, but you've got to hand it to them — it's an audacious move.

In building their new chapel, these nuns have made their message crystal clear: If the pipeline really does want this land, they're going to have to fight for it.

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