Volunteers with Samaritan’s Purse search for meaningful personal items for members of the Alvarado family in the rubble of their home which burned in the Eaton Fire on February 05, 2025 in Altadena, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — An arrest has been made in connection with the Palisades Fire, which caused widespread destruction in Los Angeles County and killed a dozen people earlier this year, sources close to the investigation confirmed to ABC News.
Federal and local law enforcement officials are scheduled to announce a “significant development” in the criminal investigation into the fire on Wednesday.
The fire erupted on Jan. 7, burning more than 23,000 acres over more than three weeks and destroying nearly 7,000 structures, according to California fire officials.
It ignited the same day as the Eaton Fire, which burned more than 14,00 acres in Los Angeles County, destroying more than 9,400 structures and killing 19 people, according to officials.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump is ramping up a war of words with the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois, suggesting in a social media post on Wednesday that they “should be in jail” for refusing to protect ICE agents.
Trump’s social media post came as Texas National Guard troops arrived in Illinois on Monday night and were preparing to be deployed in Chicago.
“Illinois will not let the Trump administration continue on their authoritarian march without resisting,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said on Tuesday as the Texas National Guard troops appeared at an Army Reserve training center in the Chicago suburb of Elwood.
“We will use every lever at our disposal to stop this power grab because military troops should not be used against American communities,” Pritzker said.
The military deployment drew outrage from Democratic leaders, as well as from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“Donald Trump declared war on Chicago. That’s what he did. What the Trump administration is doing is intentionally fomenting chaos,” Johnson said on Tuesday. “The federal government is out of control. This is one of the most dangerous times in our nation’s history.”
Trump fired back on Wednesday on social media.
“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE Officers!” the president wrote. “Governor Pritzker also.”
Johnson responded in a social media post on Wednesday, writing, “This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested. I’m not going anywhere.”
Pritzker also reacted to Trump’s post, writing on social media on Wednesday, “I will not back down.”
“Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power,” Pritzker said. “What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”
The back-and-forth between the Illinois leaders, both Democrats, came as after Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Chicago. The act, which dates back to 1807, empowers the president to nationally deploy the military and federalize National Guard units to suppress civil disorder, insurrection, or an armed rebellion against the federal government.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, Trump said he did not yet see the need to use the Insurrection Act, but “if I had to enact it, I’d do it, if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.”
Meanwhile, the Texas National Guard has been seen at an Army Reserve training center in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, ABC News has learned.
Groups of soldiers were seen walking the grounds of training center in Elwood, with most of the troops apparently having arrived on Monday night, according to ABC News’ Chicago station WLS.
Pritzker said at a news conference on Monday that over the weekend, he called on Abbott “to immediately withdraw his support of this decision” to send the Texas National Guard members to Chicago.
Earlier Tuesday, Abbott had replied to Pritzker on social media, saying, “I fully authorized the President to call up 400 members of the Texas National Guard to ensure safety for federal officials.”
The deployment drew outrage from Democratic leaders, as well as Chicago Mayor Johnson.
“Donald Trump declared war on Chicago. That’s what he did. What the Trump administration is doing is intentionally fomenting chaos,” Johnson said on Tuesday. “The federal government is out of control. This is one of the most dangerous times in our nation’s history.”
Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Members of the Texas National Guard have been seen at an Army Reserve Training Center in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, ABC News has learned.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday shared a photo on social media showing what he called the state’s “elite” National Guard boarding a plane, but he did not say where they were headed.
Groups of soldiers have been seen walking the grounds of that Elwood training center, with most of the troops apparently having arrived on Monday night, according to ABC News’ Chicago station WLS.
“Illinois will not let the Trump administration continue on their authoritarian march without resisting,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said. “We will use every lever at our disposal to stop this power grab because military troops should not be used against American communities.”
Pritzker said at a news conference on Monday that over the weekend, he called on Abbott “to immediately withdraw his support of this decision” to send the Texas National Guard members to Chicago.
Earlier Tuesday, Abbott had replied to Pritzker on social media, saying, “I fully authorized the President to call up 400 members of the Texas National Guard to ensure safety for federal officials.”
The deployment drew outrage from Democratic leaders, as well as Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“Donald Trump declared war on Chicago. That’s what he did. What the Trump administration is doing is intentionally fomenting chaos,” Johnson said on Tuesday. “The federal government is out of control. This is one of the most dangerous times in our nation’s history.”
(WASHINGTON) — Federal prosecutors investigating former FBI Director James Comey for allegedly making false statements to Congress determined that a central witness in their probe would prove “problematic” and likely prevent them from establishing their case to a jury, sources familiar with their findings told ABC News.
Daniel Richman — a law professor who prosecutors allege Comey authorized to leak information to the press — told investigators that the former FBI director instructed him not to engage with the media on at least two occasions and unequivocally said Comey never authorized him to provide information to a reporter anonymously ahead of the 2016 election, the sources said.
Comey, who was indicted last month on charges of making a false statement and obstruction related to 2020 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, is due to appear in a Virginia courtroom for the first time for his arraignment Wednesday — but Justice Department officials have privately expressed that the case could quickly unravel under the scrutiny of a federal judge and defense lawyers.
According to prosecutors who investigated the circumstances surrounding Comey’s 2020 testimony for two months, using Richman’s testimony to prove that Comey knowingly provided false statements to Congress would result in “likely insurmountable problems” for the prosecution.
Investigators detailed those conclusions in a lengthy memo last month recommending that the office not move forward in charging Comey, according to sources familiar with the memo’s contents.
Lindsey Halligan, a Trump loyalist hand-picked to replace the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who resisted bringing prosecutions against Trump’s political foes, still moved forward in presenting the case before a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, and secured two out of three counts she sought against Comey over his 2020 congressional testimony.
During grand jury proceedings, prosecutors have no obligation to present evidence favorable to a defendant — but such evidence must be handed over to the defendant before trial.
Halligan’s deputy raised similar concerns about the case the same week the former White House aide-turned-prosecutor asked a grand jury to indict Comey, bolstering the conclusion that no single piece of evidence could demonstrate that Comey lied to Congress and warning against relying on Richman, who she described to colleagues as a hostile witness, sources said.
Prosecutors further expressed concerns about the department’s ability to take the case to trial quickly due to problems identifying all the relevant materials that would need to be handed over to Comey’s lawyers, sources said. They also raised alarms over the potential for Comey’s defense to cite the statute of limitations for the case, which derives from testimony in 2017 and was only reinforced by Comey during his 2020 testimony in response to a question from Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
Comey, who is expected to plead not guilty to the charges, denies wrongdoing and has argued that he is being targeted for political reasons. His indictment came just days after Trump’s unprecedented demand that his Justice Department act “now” to bring cases against the former FBI director and others.
“Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, and Leticia???” Trump wrote in a social media post last month, directly addressing Attorney General Pam Bondi and referring to California Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James. “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
Halligan alleges that Comey intentionally misled Congress in 2017 and 2020 when he testified that he never authorized another person at the FBI to provide information to the media anonymously. The allegation is that Comey authorized Richman to speak to the press anonymously, contradicting his testimony.
Trump later accused Comey of breaking the law by sharing his memos, arguing they contained classified information, though Richman later told ABC News in a statement that none of the documents had any classification markings.
When prosecutors met with Richman in September, he told them that he never served as an anonymous source for Comey or acted at Comey’s direction while he was FBI director, sources familiar with his interview told ABC News. In at least two cases when Richman asked if he should speak with the press, Comey advised him not to do so, sources said.
Investigators who reviewed material from Comey’s emails, including his correspondence with Richman, could not identify an instance when Comey approved leaking material to a reporter anonymously, sources told ABC News.
Richman, a longtime friend of Comey, has previously acknowledged his role as an intermediary between Comey and reporters after Comey was fired from his role as FBI director, including leaking memos written by Comey about his interactions with Trump following his termination.
Federal prosecutors have focused their inquiry on Comey’s actions as FBI director — including the alleged leak of information about the Trump and Clinton campaigns ahead of the 2016 election — to find evidence that Comey intentionally mislead Congress.
As ABC News previously reported, career prosecutors in the office not only determined that the vast amount of evidence they collected in their investigation would be insufficient to convince a jury to convict him at a trial, but would also fail to meet a lower standard of reaching probable cause to even bring a case.
(CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis.) — From the deck his father built by hand, Eric Halfen watches strangers comb through the artifacts of his life. The auctioneer’s chant ricochets across the yard, where everything from board games and mugs to the family’s home itself is being sold.
Eric grew up in this home in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. His father, Terry Halfen, poured the cement for the foundation and laid the bricks one by one. When Terry was diagnosed with cancer in late 2023, Eric moved back home to care for him.
Terry was being treated at the nearby hospital, Sacred Heart in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, but it shut down with little notice last year, terminating almost 1400 employees. The city demanded the state open an investigation and called the closure “abrupt and devastating.” But the state never opened one.
“It caused doctors to leave the area,” Eric said. “They didn’t have the proper doctor to do the procedures.”
So every day, Eric drove hours to a hospital farther away — sometimes six hours in a day for multiple trips — to sit by his father’s bedside. This past June, the family finally brought Terry back home. Just 48 hours later, he was gone.
Eric said that had Sacred Heart stayed open, “it would’ve been a lot less traumatic on him.”
While Eric can’t say for certain that it would have helped his father live longer, doctors and paramedics tell ABC News they’ve already seen conditions worsen in irreversible ways — even deaths — because of the region’s shuttered hospitals.
On the same day Sacred Heart closed its doors in Eau Claire, another hospital — St. Joseph’s in Chippewa Falls — also shuttered in neighboring Chippewa Falls because of financial difficulties.
There were only four major hospitals in the region. Now half are gone, sending shockwaves through the community and the rural areas they served.
A nationwide crisis
What’s happened to this part of western Wisconsin is part of a much larger crisis. Across the country, hospitals are vanishing, and a new wave of Medicaid cuts could accelerate the collapse.
President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill slashes nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid funding over the next decade. The administration says this cuts wasteful spending and will create a $50 billion fund for rural hospitals. But many health experts say that’s not nearly enough.
Already, nearly 100 rural hospitals have closed or eliminated inpatient services in the last decade, threatening health care access to some of the more than 16 million people living in rural communities who rely on Medicaid.
While the full impact of Medicaid cuts could take years to unfold, doctors say the system is already buckling. Many rural hospitals are already operating on razor-thin or negative margins, and they see these looming Medicaid changes could push them over the edge.
A representative for Hospital Sisters Health System, the owner of those two shuttered hospitals in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls, said in a statement to ABC News that closing them down “was one of the most difficult and heartbreaking decisions.”
“These hospitals served their communities for more than a century and we recognize the personal impact this has had on the patients, colleagues and families who relied on us for care,” the statement continued, citing challenges including shrinking margins, workforce shortages, a growing number of patients without commercial insurance coverage, declining population and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Closures that are occurring across the country should be a wake-up call about the crisis rural health care providers are facing,” the representative said.
Impacted care
Dr. Brady Didion, a family physician who used to practice at St. Joseph’s, remembers the cascading fallout after the hospitals closed.
“People missing out on care, people having delayed care, diagnoses weren’t made. Appropriate imaging lab and surgical services weren’t made,” he said. “A lot of people and families suffered.”
Didion later left the area and now practices at a rural hospital 50 miles away, where he still feels the impact. The closure of Sacred Heart and St. Joseph’s means fewer places to transfer critical patients, with the remaining hospitals past capacity.
“I know that we have had delays in care such that it resulted in someone getting irreversible progression in their disease state or even dying,” Didion said. “I’ve literally been up all night on the phone trying to call to get someone care who needed it in our small hospital because these places were full.”
Day to day, that means keeping sicker patients longer, leveling with families about wait times and planning transfers that can take hours instead of minutes.
“It’s not just inconvenience — it is really loss of time, which in a critical disease state is super important and it can be a loss of life,” he said.
Toll on patients and staff
When a hospital closes, the rest of the community is left to pick up the pieces — including emergency services.
Chippewa Falls Fire Station Chief Jason Thom told ABC News his crews no longer have the option of stabilizing critical patients at St. Joseph’s Hospital, which once sat just down the street.
Now, he says, transport times often stretch an hour, or they rely on helicopters, but those aren’t always available.
The longer rides, Thom adds, take a toll on both patients and staff.
“It could be detrimental to the patient because we can do a lot of things; however, we can’t do everything. If they require a surgical procedure or in the event of somebody having a heart attack… we can maintain and get them there as quickly as we can. At that point, hope for the best that those patients are going to survive,” Thom said.
Inside the remaining hospitals, the spillover is visible.
“One of the local hospitals — the ambulance garage, it has two bays in it, which used to be for the ambulances to pull in and unload patients — is now set up basically as a triage area with beds in it for the overflow,” Thom says. “Waiting rooms are typically full. Patient rooms are full.”
The paramedics at the station say they are seeing patients wait longer to call 911 — and by the time they do, they’re often much sicker. The longer drives, combined with overwhelmed emergency departments, compound the delay.
Many residents can’t get regular doctor appointments now, and some hesitate to seek help because they can’t afford a ride home from a hospital that’s farther away.
“They’re more sick when we see them,” Brooke Sommerfeld, a paramedic at the station, told ABC News. “And so you’re kind of watching them… decompose almost in the back of the ambulance when you have them,” she said.
“It’s overwhelming,” she adds. “We know what we’re doing; we are trained in our skills, but at the same time, when you know… ultimately what they need is somewhere an hour away… it makes us feel almost helpless.”
(CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis.) — From the deck his father built by hand, Eric Halfen watches strangers comb through the artifacts of his life. The auctioneer’s chant ricochets across the yard, where everything from board games and mugs to the family’s home itself is being sold.
Eric grew up in this home in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. His father, Terry Halfen, poured the cement for the foundation and laid the bricks one by one. When Terry was diagnosed with cancer in late 2023, Eric moved back home to care for him.
Terry was being treated at the nearby hospital, Sacred Heart in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, but it shut down with little notice last year, terminating almost 1400 employees. The city demanded the state open an investigation and called the closure “abrupt and devastating.” But the state never opened one.
“It caused doctors to leave the area,” Eric said. “They didn’t have the proper doctor to do the procedures.”
So every day, Eric drove hours to a hospital farther away — sometimes six hours in a day for multiple trips — to sit by his father’s bedside. This past June, the family finally brought Terry back home. Just 48 hours later, he was gone.
Eric said that had Sacred Heart stayed open, “it would’ve been a lot less traumatic on him.”
While Eric can’t say for certain that it would have helped his father live longer, doctors and paramedics tell ABC News they’ve already seen conditions worsen in irreversible ways — even deaths — because of the region’s shuttered hospitals.
On the same day Sacred Heart closed its doors in Eau Claire, another hospital — St. Joseph’s in Chippewa Falls — also shuttered in neighboring Chippewa Falls because of financial difficulties.
There were only four major hospitals in the region. Now half are gone, sending shockwaves through the community and the rural areas they served.
A nationwide crisis
What’s happened to this part of western Wisconsin is part of a much larger crisis. Across the country, hospitals are vanishing, and a new wave of Medicaid cuts could accelerate the collapse.
President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill slashes nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid funding over the next decade. The administration says this cuts wasteful spending and will create a $50 billion fund for rural hospitals. But many health experts say that’s not nearly enough.
Already, nearly 100 rural hospitals have closed or eliminated inpatient services in the last decade, threatening health care access to some of the more than 16 million people living in rural communities who rely on Medicaid.
While the full impact of Medicaid cuts could take years to unfold, doctors say the system is already buckling. Many rural hospitals are already operating on razor-thin or negative margins, and they see these looming Medicaid changes could push them over the edge.
A representative for Hospital Sisters Health System, the owner of those two shuttered hospitals in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls, said in a statement to ABC News that closing them down “was one of the most difficult and heartbreaking decisions.”
“These hospitals served their communities for more than a century and we recognize the personal impact this has had on the patients, colleagues and families who relied on us for care,” the statement continued, citing challenges including shrinking margins, workforce shortages, a growing number of patients without commercial insurance coverage, declining population and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Closures that are occurring across the country should be a wake-up call about the crisis rural health care providers are facing,” the representative said.
Impacted care
Dr. Brady Didion, a family physician who used to practice at St. Joseph’s, remembers the cascading fallout after the hospitals closed.
“People missing out on care, people having delayed care, diagnoses weren’t made. Appropriate imaging lab and surgical services weren’t made,” he said. “A lot of people and families suffered.”
Didion later left the area and now practices at a rural hospital 50 miles away, where he still feels the impact. The closure of Sacred Heart and St. Joseph’s means fewer places to transfer critical patients, with the remaining hospitals past capacity.
“I know that we have had delays in care such that it resulted in someone getting irreversible progression in their disease state or even dying,” Didion said. “I’ve literally been up all night on the phone trying to call to get someone care who needed it in our small hospital because these places were full.”
Day to day, that means keeping sicker patients longer, leveling with families about wait times and planning transfers that can take hours instead of minutes.
“It’s not just inconvenience — it is really loss of time, which in a critical disease state is super important and it can be a loss of life,” he said.
Toll on patients and staff
When a hospital closes, the rest of the community is left to pick up the pieces — including emergency services.
Chippewa Falls Fire Station Chief Jason Thom told ABC News his crews no longer have the option of stabilizing critical patients at St. Joseph’s Hospital, which once sat just down the street.
Now, he says, transport times often stretch an hour, or they rely on helicopters, but those aren’t always available.
The longer rides, Thom adds, take a toll on both patients and staff.
“It could be detrimental to the patient because we can do a lot of things; however, we can’t do everything. If they require a surgical procedure or in the event of somebody having a heart attack… we can maintain and get them there as quickly as we can. At that point, hope for the best that those patients are going to survive,” Thom said.
Inside the remaining hospitals, the spillover is visible.
“One of the local hospitals — the ambulance garage, it has two bays in it, which used to be for the ambulances to pull in and unload patients — is now set up basically as a triage area with beds in it for the overflow,” Thom says. “Waiting rooms are typically full. Patient rooms are full.”
The paramedics at the station say they are seeing patients wait longer to call 911 — and by the time they do, they’re often much sicker. The longer drives, combined with overwhelmed emergency departments, compound the delay.
Many residents can’t get regular doctor appointments now, and some hesitate to seek help because they can’t afford a ride home from a hospital that’s farther away.
“They’re more sick when we see them,” Brooke Sommerfeld, a paramedic at the station, told ABC News. “And so you’re kind of watching them… decompose almost in the back of the ambulance when you have them,” she said.
“It’s overwhelming,” she adds. “We know what we’re doing; we are trained in our skills, but at the same time, when you know… ultimately what they need is somewhere an hour away… it makes us feel almost helpless.”
(BROWN COUNTY, Ind.) — A K-9 unit with the Brown County Sheriff’s Office in Indiana located two missing 11-year-old kids who became separated from their mother and were lost in the woods, police said.
First responders were dispatched to the area of Sundance Lake in Hoosier National Forest at approximately 5:48 p.m. on Sunday afternoon after they received a report that two 11-year-old children “became separated from their mother and were lost in the thick woods,” according to a statement from the Brown County Sheriff’s Office.
“Our department, along with the Department of Natural Resources – Law Enforcement, Nashville Police Department, Harrison Township Fire Department, and Southern Brown Volunteer Fire Department all began searching the area,” police said.
The initial search turned up nothing but when Deputy Cody Loncaric arrived in the scene with his K-9 partner named Knox, the dog immediately began his first track in a field close to where the juveniles went missing, officials said.
“Knox began his first track in the field which was approximately 550 yards in length,” authorities said. “K-9 Knox pointed first responders in the right direction and helped to successfully locate the two missing juveniles.”
Police did not say who long the two children had been missing for or how long but took the opportunity to credit the search team who were able to find the kids deep within the thick forest.
“We are beyond thankful for the great teamwork put together by all involved,” officials said.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker speaks at a news conference October 06, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. Scott Olson/Getty Images
(CHICAGO) — Members of the Texas National Guard have arrived in Illinois, according to sources familiar with their whereabouts and video taken of them at an Army Reserve training facility in a Chicago suburb.
The Texas National Guard boarded a military plane on Monday afternoon in Texas, as state and city leaders in Illinois were holding a news conference asking them to stay away from Chicago.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday shared a photo on social media showing what he called the state’s “elite” National Guard boarding a plane, but he did not say where they were headed.
“Illinois will not let the Trump administration continue on their authoritarian march without resisting,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said. “We will use every lever at our disposal to stop this power grab because military troops should not be used against American communities.”
Pritzker said at a news conference on Monday that over the weekend, he called on Abbott “to immediately withdraw his support of this decision” to send the Texas National Guard members to Chicago.
Earlier Tuesday, Abbott had replied to Pritzker on social media, saying, “I fully authorized the President to call up 400 members of the Texas National Guard to ensure safety for federal officials.”
During a news conference on Tuesday morning, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he had not received no advance information on the whereabouts of the Texas National Guard troops.
“We have not heard directly, of course, from the president or his administration and my expectation is that, regardless of what this administration is doing, I’m going to remain firm and committed to protecting the rights and the civility of our nation and will start right here in Chicago,” Johnson said.
“We do know that much like what we’ve seen in other parts of the country, there is a process that the National Guard goes through before they’re actually released into the streets of Chicago or anywhere,” Johnson added.
Johnson said that what he does know is that the deployment of National Guard troops in Chicago is “illegal, unconstitutional, it’s dangerous, it’s wrong.”
The state of Illinois and city of Chicago filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to block the federalization and deployment of the National Guard.
The foundational principle separating the military from domestic affairs is “in peril” as Trump seeks to deploy the National Guard to cities across the country, lawyers for Illinois and Chicago wrote in the lawsuit.
“Let me be clear, Donald Trump is using our service members as political props and as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,” Pritzker said during a news conference.
To support his point, Pritzker played a video of an ICE raid conducted last week on an apartment complex in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, which he claimed was filmed by federal authorities with high-definition cameras for social media purposes. He said it was the same video that Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted on social media on Saturday.
“They brought Black Hawk military helicopters and more than 100 agents in full tactical gear,” Pritzker said.
He added, “In the dead of night and seemingly for the cameras, armed federal agents emerged from the Black Hawk helicopters, rappelling onto the roof of that apartment building.”
The governor alleged the Trump administration is following a playbook to “cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protesters are a mob by firing gas pellets and tear gas canisters at them. Why? To create the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act so that he can send military troops to our city,” Pritzker said.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, Trump said he did not yet see the need to use the Insurrection Act, but “if I had to enact it, I’d do it, if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.”
(NEW YORK) — A week into the government shutdown, air traffic controller sick calls are beginning to cause delays and cancellations as a number of airport towers and control facilities don’t have enough staff to properly handle all flights.
Controllers are considered essential workers and are exempt from being furloughed during a shutdown. An estimated 13,294 controllers will continue to work without pay during the shutdown, according to the Department of Transportation’s shutdown plan.
California’s Burbank Airport was hit hardest Monday and was forced to close its tower from 4:15 p.m. through 10 p.m. PDT because it had no air traffic controllers, according to FAA documents.
The airport remained open but flights were delayed on average more than 2.5 hours. Controllers from a San Diego facility handled traffic into and out of Burbank during the tower closure.
“Clearance is closed. Ground’s closed. Local’s closed. The tower is closed due to staffing. You just contact SoCal on the 1-800 number in the green book for your clearance,” a controller can be heard informing pilots on air traffic control recordings, referring to a published listing of airport information.
Several other ATC facilities also experienced staffing issues on Monday. The Philadelphia TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control), Denver Center, Detroit TRACON, Indianapolis Center, Phoenix Airport, and the Phoenix TRACON also had staffing advisories from the Federal Aviation Administration. More than 600 flights Monday were delayed in and out of the Denver Airport and over 200 at Phoenix Airport.
“There have been increased staffing shortages across the system. When that happens, the FAA slows traffic into some airports to ensure safe operations,” the agency said in a statement to ABC News.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), the union representing controllers nationwide, said it’s working with the FAA to mitigate any disruptions in the national airspace.
“It is normal for a few air traffic controllers to call in sick on any given day, and this is the latest example of how fragile our aviation system is in the midst of a national shortage of these critical safety professionals,” NATCA said in a statement to ABC News.
While ATC staffing is at critical levels across the country, it’s rare for it to have impacts on flights due to staffing shortages in places like Arizona or California, according to FAA documents reviewed by ABC News.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a press conference on Monday that sick calls from controllers have been spread out across the region and not from one specific airport or ATC facility, but acknowledged that staffing levels at certain facilities are down as much as 50 percent.
“We don’t have one facility that has had long-term issues with the sick leave. But that is concerning to me. And if someone has to take sick leave, to drive Uber to make the difference, those are decisions they’re going to make themselves. But of course, that’s concerning for us,” Duffy said.
“These are high-skilled, high-performing, safety-driven professionals that I don’t want them driving for work,” Duffy added. “I don’t want them finding a second job to pay the bills. I want them to get paid for the work they’re doing today, keeping our planes in the air and our skies safe.”
Duffy met with controllers handling Newark’s airspace Monday and said they expressed concerns over the added financial stress of the shutdown in an already demanding job.
“The consistent message from these controllers was they’re not just now thinking about the airspace and the jobs they have to do in these towers or TRACON centers across the country. They’re thinking about, ‘am I going to get a paycheck?’” Duffy said. “So now what they think about as they’re controlling our airspace is, ‘how am I going to pay my mortgage? How do I make my car payment? I have a couple kids at home, how do I put food in the table? I’m working six days a week — do I have to take a second job and drive Uber when I’m already exhausted from doing a job that’s already stressful to think about.’”
Air traffic controllers will receive a partial paycheck on October 14 but will not be paid on October 28 if the shutdown continues, according to NATCA. Under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 (GEFTA), controllers will receive back pay after the shutdown ends.
The staffing crisis also led to some heated political exchanges on social media. California Governor Newsom posted on X, saying, “Thanks, @realDonaldTrump! Burbank Airport has ZERO air traffic controllers from 4:15pm to 10pm today because of YOUR government shutdown.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy fired back at Newsom, posting, “News Flash! Your Democrat friends shut down the government because they want to make Americans pay the health care for illegals. And no state has more illegals than California! You care more about illegals than our hard-working American air traffic controllers. If you’re looking for someone to blame, look in the mirror – we all know it’s your favorite thing to do.”
Another aspect of air travel impacted by the shutdown, which is on the verge of running out of funding, is the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. Duffy said the EAS program, which provides airlines with subsidies to fly to rural areas that otherwise wouldn’t have air service because the route wouldn’t be profitable, will run out of funding on Sunday, Oct. 12.
“Air carriers that continue to operate EAS flights beyond October 12, 2025, would do so at their own risk as the Department may not be able to pay the contracted subsidy,” the DOT said in a notice. The notice also says that if carriers continue to operate during the funding lapse, they could be reimbursed on a “pro rata basis,” meaning they might not receive the full amount owed.
The biggest impacts would be felt in Alaska, where air travel is the primary mode of transportation. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski posted on X, saying, “The critical assistance these routes provide makes a disruption on any scale detrimental to these communities, and the local air carriers serving them.”
Murkowski said she is working with the administration to find a solution.
A memorial is seen surrounding the Robb Elementary School sign following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 26, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(UVALDE, Texas) — One of the two senior police officers charged in connection with the failures on the day of the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school mass shooting will go on trial Jan. 5, the judge overseeing the case told ABC News.
Judge Sid Harle said there has been an agreement to move the case of former school officer Adrian Gonzales from Uvalde to Corpus Christi for trial on 29 counts of abandoning and endangering a child.
A pretrial hearing in the case, scheduled for Oct. 14, has been canceled now that trial arrangements are under way.
Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in the May 2022 rampage at Robb Elementary School. Law enforcement waited some 77 minutes at the scene before breaching a classroom and killing the gunman.
Also charged is former Uvalde school police chief Pete Arredondo, who was the on-site commander on the day of the shooting. Arredondo faces 10 counts of child endangerment and abandonment on behalf of the injured and surviving children in classroom 112.
The judge said Arredondo’s case remains on hold pending the outcome of ongoing litigation between the Uvalde District Attorney’s Office and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which has refused to allow its personnel to cooperate with the investigation into the shooting, according to the litigation.
