welcome to matter of fact, coming up on the show, swatting calls. they're dangerous, they're scary, and they're happening more frequently. it really did terrify me. this georgia lawmaker is one of several who recently found themselves surrounded by police with guns drawn. it happened on christmas day. how lawmakers and the police are changing tactics to stop swatting. plus, the supreme court reenters the abortion debate. medication abortions account for more than half of all abortions in the united states. what is at stake as a nation's high court hears arguments in a case involving one of the most commonly used abortion pills. and my thing was winning retired baseball player cleon jones helped his team clinch a world series title, but now he's trying to score a different victory, one for his hometown. they see a rundown old community how an alabama community is launching a comeback.

those stories right now on matter of fact. swatting calls to police are often dramatic claims of violence or an active attacker on the scene, sending law enforcement rushing into action. but these calls are completely made up and that means an unsuspecting person and their family are often surprised with an intense police response. these calls aren't new, but they're happening more often. and now the fbi has launched a national database to track them. lawmakers are some of the most common targets, with former gop candidate nikki haley's parents recently, the subjects of a swatting attack in south carolina. in georgia, a rash of calls recently sent police rushing to several lawmakers homes. our correspondent dan dan lieberman traveled to atlanta, where those lawmakers are now coming together across the aisle to stop swatting. i opened my front door and i go out with my hands up and i can see there are three police

officers with guns drawn, pointed at me. and i just heard my wife start screaming that police were running up our steps. georgia state senators clint dixon and kimberly jackson are on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but are united by a shared experience. they both got a surprise visit from police over the christmas holiday. it happened on christmas day. uh, my wife was upstairs packing. the kids were playing with their toys. i heard the kind of police knock, and then i kind of quickly looked out the window, and i saw all of these police cars just lined up. my youngest daughter was in tears. my wife was very frantic. dixon, a republican, married with three kids in jackson, a democrat, married with a two year old son, were both victims of swatting, a form of harassment where an anonymous 911 caller tricks police into sending a swat team to someone's home. when there's no emergency. i'd heard about a federal politicians, you know, that had been swatting, and i'd never, never really understood until

until it really happened to me and my family. dixon and jackson were among at least seven georgia lawmakers who were swatted over the holiday season. the wave of incidents is part of what appears to be a rise in fraudulent 911 calls targeting public officials and celebrities. we're just in an emergency, we handle it like we would any other call. generally, that's about maybe 3040 officers that have to come out not to mention the officers that we need to evacuate the area. chief mirtha ramos leads the dekalb county police department, which responded to the 911 call to senator jackson's house. in terms of the dollar amount, what does it cost taxpayers to respond to a swatting call like the kind that we saw at senator jackson's house? it could cost into the thousands, depending on the number of resources that you're going to utilize. but it could be a situation where we could be out there for hours. so you're talking about resources that are off the street that are not taking care of their day to day responsibilities, potentially people that are on overtime. so all of that adds up. the police department now has a

new protocol to try and identify potentially fraud 911 calls. so when a call comes in, it will be flagged here. as you can see, it is bright yellow and it's alerting the dispatcher who the elected official is and how to contact them. well, the extra layer of verification is helpful. lawmakers like senator dixon want to see stiffer penalties for hoax callers and recently introduced legislation that would do just that. it becomes a felony if the call is to a dwelling or if there's bodily harm or death, and it is a minimum sentence of one year in prison. georgia lawmakers aren't alone in their efforts to make swatting a felony offense. anti swatting legislation has been introduced in at least 21 states. if you look at all the elements that usually occur in swatting, then you can see that it's a lot more serious than a misdemeanor. lauren shapiro is an associate professor at john jay college's department of security. fire and emergency management. 911 false calls has always been

considered to be a low level type of crime. in the same way that is your frigerator running. yes it is. go chase it. that level. but in reality, if you think about what happened, someone enters your home and throws you to the ground and accuses you of a crime. that's a felony because everything there puts people in danger for their lives. luckily for senator jackson, everything turned out okay. but listening to the 911 call leaves her shaken. my name is jamal. and, uh, i just, uh, stabbed my wife and said those police officers had their guns drawn because they expected somebody to come out with a gun. i think what ifs about all the different ways that this could have gone wrong, it really did terrify me. i mean, did it ever cross your mind after you got swatted? maybe i shouldn't do this anymore. it's not worth it.

i know, uh, and i could see that happening to some legislators. when it starts affecting your family, you know, my three young kids that that can make you think twice for me. you know, i feel like the lord's called me to be here for a purpose and going to see that through. for matter of fact, i'm dan lieberman in atlanta next, based on matter of fact, the food and drug administration was established more than 100 years ago. so why is one of its basic duties land it in front of the supreme court? plus this world series winner skipped the ticker tape parade because home is where his heart is. we want to share this with the community. how this former baseball player is now revitalizing his hometown town, and these groundbreaking maps were created using data from radar satellites in space. why the results have researchers issuing a major warning to people living along the east coast. what you're watching matter of

fact, america's number one nationally syndicated public affairs news magazine. the supreme court takes up one ♪♪ stay ahead of your moderate—to—severe eczema, and show off clearer skin and less itch with dupixent. the number one prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, that helps heal your skin from within. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your eczema specialist about dupixent. (vo) welcome to lobsterfest. is your party ready? ready to tango with tails ask your eczema specialist on tails on tails? try lobster lover's dream with two lobster tails and lobster & shrimp linguini. it's one of ten next-level lobster creations. but lobsterfest won't last, so hurry in. we all need fiber for our digestive health, but less than 10% of us get enough each day.

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of its biggest cases of the tirm on tuesday. it centers around mifepristone, one of the most commonly used abortion pills the food and drug administration approved mifepristone in 2000 and over the years, the fda has taken steps to expand access, allowing doctors to prescribe it via telehealth appointments. for example, last year, though, a us district judge in texas took issue with the fda's original approval. he also challenged the later moves that expanded access to the drug. a court deemed it was too late to over turn the fda's overall approval of mifepristone. but the case against the expanded access is moving forward to the nation's high court.

amy howe covers the supreme court, joins me in studio. usually we do this remotely, but it's so nice to have you in our home. thanks for joining me. thanks for having me. i feel like every time i talk to you, it's like, what is this really about? what are they actually arguing over? so this is a very technical case about the fda. when it decided to expand access to mifepristone, what it did or didn't look at in terms of evidence about the safety of these changes is changes like making mifepristone available through the 10th week of pregnancy instead of the seventh, allowing it to be prescribed by telehealth appointments and then allowing health care providers who aren't physicians to prescribe the drug. and so the the fifth circuit said that when it made these changes in 2016, the fda didn't cite a study t that looked at the cumulative effect of all of these changes and whether or not

it would still be safe to to take mifepristone. in light of all of these changes, the biden administration and danco, which is the manufacturer of mifepristone, said, you know, first of all, that we did cite such a study, but more broadly that the fda reasonably concluded that there were no safety problems based on all of the evidence that it had before this is not a constitutional question. this is a very technical question about the fda's decision that it was safe to make these changes to mif to mifepristone use, and is there an ultimate goal this was a case that came after dobbs and so if you remember in dobbs, the supreme court said there's not a constitutional right to an abortion. and so you know, i think 21 states and now have laws in place that either ban or, you know, significantly restrict access to abortion. so that means there's a lot of states where abortion is still legal, but medication abortion is using mifepristone account for more than half of all

abortions in the united states. and so this would make it more difficult to use mifepristone in the states where abortion is still legal. so ultimately, it's an obstacle to women who are trying to get an abortion, even in states where they've said, hey, we're safeguarding your right to an abortion. that's right. i know another one of the friend of the court brief said, even in the states that that protect the right to an abortion, there are areas where it's difficult. you might have to travel, for example, to obtain a surgical abortion. and so women rely on the availability of medication abortions to obtain abortion care. and this would make that harder. and then do you think there's an impact for the fda as a whole, even outside of the abortion issue? so there potentially is an impact for the fda as a whole. and danco, which is the manufacturer of mifepristone, says, look, drug manufacturers, others have relied on the fact that when the fda approves a drug, then courts aren't going to come along and sort of willy

nilly over turn that approval. and this would overturn on that expectation. they say it would be very destabilizing for the drug industry. there's also a friend of the court brief from patient advocacy groups like the american cancer society that say that this case, if the supreme court were to uphold the lower court's decision, would be a road map to sort of litigate these future challenges. and it could be things like the fda decides to take a drug that had been available only by prescription and make it an over-the-counter drug. then someone could go to court and try to challenge that. and and they could follow essentially this road map. amy howe, always nice to have you. and really nice to have you in person. great to be here in person. thanks so much for having me. coming up, it's an all too familiar story for many small towns in america. businesses and factories close and the people leave the property that they own started to diminish. but in alabama, this hometown

hero is making sure that's not how his community story ends. plus, rising sea levels were already threatening homes and coastal areas. but now researchers say they've discovered something that's making it worse. what they say needs to happen now to fix it. thursday is opening day for

america's pastime time. but as baseball season officially begins, one former major league player is going to

bat in a different way. left fielder cleon jones was part of the mighty mets, the team that won the 1969 world series. jones retired from baseball in 1976 and found a new passion. for the last 40 years, he's been revitalizing his hometown of africatown. our correspondent alexis clark went to the mobile, alabama neighborhood to see what he's doing to save the place that gave him his start. cleon jones's hometown africatown in mobile, alabama, a community that once had around 12,000 people, has dwindled to 2000. what was it like growing up in africatown? the most wonderful place? uh uh, in the world. your neighbors were like family. growing up, jones and his friends played baseball in the street or local park. i never owned a baseball glove until i was 13 years old. we had a broomstick and we had soda bottles, caps. but meager resources didn't stop. jones.

a gifted athlete, he was eventually scouted, joining the new york mets and playing in the 1969 world series. there's a fly ball hit out to left. waiting is jones. the mets are the world champion. jones skipped the victory ticker tape parade in new york city. instead, he and his wife angela chose to celebrate back home in africatown. my wife and i both said, we want to share this with the community and say thank you for what you've done for our family because you made us. jones says the years haven't been kind to africatown. there are railroad tracks on one side, an interstate highway on the other, and it's surrounded by polluting industry. two of the three nearby paper mills closed about 25 years ago, leaving just one with fewer jobs that the people have also left the property that they own, uh, started to diminish. uh, there was nobody to keep them up, revitalize africatown

is something that's often discussed at the weekly community meetings led by cleon and angela in a space called the den, right now we are food desert. the den is home to not just these meetings. it's also filled with the history of africatown and the slave ship, the clotilda. pick it up in 2019, ship wreckage in mobile bay was identified as a clotilda, helping to uncover the story of the 110 enslaved africans who were smuggled into the area. people are drawn to the africatown now because of the history, but when they come, they're disappointed. they see a rundown old community, jones and his family started the last out community foundation, which partners with the city and other organizations to help restore the neighborhood. we paint, we do yard work. we do it all. what is your dream for africatown? everybody can see the history, the sea, the tourism, the sea,

each and every church fully inhabited the way it used to be. that's my dream. a dream he and angela have shared for decades. 59 years is a long time. you get to 60, then we're going to. we're going to tie the knot again and mobile, alabama. i'm alexis clark, for matter of fact. ahead on matter of fact, several cities along the east coast are sinking at an alarming rate. what that means for the millions of people living there and these tiny fish make a very big noise. we explain the science behind these loud creatures to stay up to date with. matter of fact, sign up for our newsletter at matteroffacttv. of.

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dozens of cities along the east

coast are sinking at an alarming rate. take a look at these satellite images from nasa. the dark blue areas are sinking the fastest. a team of researchers at virginia tech's earth observation and innovation lab studied the land between 2007 and 2020. they found the ground beneath new york city, baltimore and norfolk, virginia, sank by an average of almost two millimeters each year. counties in delaware, maryland, south carolina, and georgia sank at twice or even three times that rate. more than 800,000 homes, and in infrastructure along the coast are at risk. charleston, south carolina, is one of the fastest sinking cities. the downtown area is just ten feet above sea level. what's causing these cities to sink land? experts say groundwater pumping when underground aquifers are drained or natural gas is extracted, there are empty spaces left behind. they say the best way to slow the sinking is to pause those

activities and stop building dams that prevent the natural flow of sediment that could fill in those gaps. the lab plans to map the gulf coast next. still ahead on matter of fact, small but mighty. how loud could such a tiny fish be? nice to meet ya. how loud could such a tiny fish be? the answer will surprise you. my name is david. i've been a pharmacist for 44 years. when i have customers come in and ask for something for memory, i recommend prevagen. number one, because it's safe and effective. does not require a prescription. and i've been taking it quite a while myself and i know it works. and i love it when the customers come back in and tell me, "david, that really works so good for me." makes my day. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. ♪♪ stay ahead of your child's moderate—to—severe eczema, and they can show off clearer skin and less itch with dupixent.

the number one prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, that helps heal your child's skin from within. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes, including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your child's eczema specialist about dupixent. it's time to get away and cache in, at cache creek casino resort,

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researchers at the einstein center for neuroscience in germany filmed the fish in action. and because the danionella cerebrum is translucent, they could also see how the fish makes that sound inside their tiny little bodies, they bang a specialized rib. it's called a drumming cartilage. again, just a gas filled organ. the fish were discovered in myanmar just a few years ago. so you think somebody would have heard them long before then? that's it for this edition of matter of fact, i'm soledad o'brien. i'll see you back here next week to watch more stories like this at any time, head to matteroffacttv.

today on "asian pacific america," it's not "barbie," it's "jilly," the asian american