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(ELLSWORTH, Maine) — The Maine secretary of state’s office is investigating after 250 blank election ballots were found in a resident’s Amazon order last week, saying misconduct has not been ruled out, while maintaining the safety of the state’s election process.

The same day that an unnamed resident reported the bizarre delivery, the town of Ellsworth — 40 miles away — reported 250 missing absentee ballots, according to officials.

During a press conference this week, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who is running for governor, said her office has partnered with the FBI, the U.S. Postal Service and other state agencies to lead the probe.

“This year, it seems that there may have been attempts to interrupt the distribution of ballots and ballot materials, but we are stronger and better than anyone who tries to do our elections harm. Time and time again, election officials and law enforcement rise to meet the challenges we face,” Bellows said.

“I have full confidence that law enforcement will determine who is responsible, and any bad actor will be held accountable. We will not stop until we have answers,” Bellows added.

Early in-person voting began in Maine on Monday for the Nov. 4 election, where constituents will decide on a referendum that could tighten restrictions on absentee voting in the state.

Bellows maintained the safety of this election at the press conference.

“Even if the most enterprising criminal were able to fabricate Maine ballots or Maine absentee ballot envelopes or if that chain of custody were broken, our elections would remain free, safe and secure because of the checks and balances in absentee voting itself,” Bellows said at the news conference.

Amazon told ABC News in a statement that the company is cooperating with relevant investigators on the situation.

“We’re cooperating with the law enforcement agencies investigating this incident. Based on our initial findings, it appears that this package was tampered with outside of our fulfillment and delivery network, and not by an Amazon employee or partner,” an Amazon spokesperson said.

Amazon’s initial findings match the description shared by the woman who received the blank ballots originally. She told officials that the package appeared to have been previously opened and retaped before she received it and handed it over to the Newburgh town office.

Bellows and Maine’s elections previously garnered national attention when she called for the removal of now-President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot in 2024, which was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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(NEW YORK) — An asteroid just flew closer to Earth than many satellites, according to space agencies.

The space object, named 2025 TF, zoomed over Antarctica at a distance of just 265 miles above the Earth’s surface last Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 8:47 p.m. ET, the European Space Agency said on Monday. The International Space Station orbits at a similar altitude.

The majority of satellites are low earth orbit, at altitudes between 100 miles and 1,242 miles, the research project Aerospace Security notes.

The small asteroid is between 3.2 feet to 9.8 feet across and didn’t pose significant danger to the planet, the ESA said. However, the agency noted that it could have produced a fireball if it struck Earth’s atmosphere and became a meteorite once it hit the ground.

Astronomers didn’t notice the asteroid until a few hours after it passed, according to the ESA. The Catalina Sky Survey, a mission funded by NASA to track near-Earth objects, first spotted the object. Shortly after that, it was observed by astronomers at the ESA’s Planetary Defence Office.

“Tracking down a metre-scale object in the vast darkness of space at a time when its location is still uncertain is an impressive feat,” the ESA said. “This observation helped astronomers determine the close approach distance and time given above to such high precision.”

The object is not expected to fly by Earth again until April 2087, according to NASA.

Another small asteroid — named 2025 TQ2 — flew within Earth’s vicinity the day after 2025 TF’s approach, according to the Minor Planet Center. The asteroid zoomed over Canada at a distance of about 3,014 miles last Thursday, Oct. 2, according to EarthSky.org.

Space agencies track thousands of near-Earth objects, but they are only considered Potentially Hazardous Asteroids if they are larger than 500 feet in diameter and get closer than 4.65 million miles of Earth, according to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies.

Between Sept. 23 and Sept. 28, 10 asteroids passed near Earth at a distance closer than the moon, according to data from NASA.

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(CHICAGO) — As members of the Texas National Guard boarded a plane on Monday, as state and city leaders in Illinois were holding a news conference asking them to stay away from Chicago.

It was not immediately clear when the Guardsmen would arrive in Chicago. Texas Gov. Abbott on Monday shared a photo on social media showing 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.”

Earlier in the day, 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 state 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 a 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 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.”

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(INDIANAPOLIS) — The 69-year-old truck driver who police say was seriously injured during an altercation with former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez is “thankful to be alive and is recovering at home with his wife,” his attorney said.

Sanchez, a Fox Sports color commentator, was initially arrested for multiple misdemeanors in connection with this weekend’s confrontation in Indianapolis. On Monday, after investigators learned of the severity of the victim’s injuries, prosecutors announced Sanchez was also charged with a felony: battery involving serious bodily injury.

Perry Tole was the victim of a “violent,” “unprovoked” attack from Sanchez and tried to defend himself by stabbing the former NFL player, Erik May, an attorney for Tole, told ABC News.

Sanchez, 38, suffered several stab wounds while Tole “suffered a severe laceration to the side of his face, penetrating all the way through his left cheek,” according to court documents.

Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV obtained this photo, with the black bar in place, showing who his family says is the alleged victim in the hospital.

“You can see from the pictures that he’s got an enormous wound, cut on his face,” that impacted his jaw, mouth and tongue, May said.

“The scarring that he has and is gonna have, it effects his speech right now. Obviously, he’s in a lot of pain, there’s a lot of swelling,” May said, explaining that is one of the reasons why Tole is not giving interviews.

“Mentally, what he and his wife are going through has been considerable,” May said. “He’s just really shaken up.”

Tole’s son is getting married next week and “he’s not gonna be able to attend the wedding, so he’s sad about that,” victim attorney Eddie Reichert added.

The incident unfolded early Saturday morning, when Sanchez allegedly approached Tole, who was doing his assigned work at a hotel loading dock and told him he couldn’t park there, according to police and prosecutors. Sanchez allegedly climbed into the victim’s truck and kept him from calling for help, according to court records.

The victim said Sanchez shoved him when he tried to get his phone, and he felt he was “in physical danger,” so he pepper-sprayed Sanchez, according to court documents.

When Sanchez allegedly advanced toward him again, the victim said he thought, “this guy is trying to kill me,” so he pulled out a knife, “and when Mr. Sanchez came at him,” the victim stabbed Sanchez several times, according to court documents.

The victim said he went “flying back into the dumpster and falling onto the pallets on the ground,” and that he “was not aware of what Mr. Sanchez was physically doing to him, whether he was punching him or otherwise striking him,” court document said. The victim said he could only see Sanchez’s feet “coming at him,” and once the victim stood up, he stabbed Sanchez again, the documents said. 

Tole has filed a civil suit against Sanchez and Fox.

Sanchez’s brother said in a statement, “This has been a deeply distressing time for everyone involved. Mark and our family are incredibly grateful for the concern, love, and support we’ve received over the past few days.”

“Mark remains under medical care for the serious injuries he sustained and is focused on his recovery as the legal process continues,” the statement said.

The sentence for the felony charge could be one to six years, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said.

Sanchez, a first-round draft pick of the New York Jets in 2009, is next due in court on Nov. 4.

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(PORTLAND, Ore.) — The Portland police chief is disputing President Donald Trump’s claim that the Oregon city is a “war zone” that is burning down and “war-ravaged” by protesters and violent criminals, amid legal challenges to the White House’s deployment of National Guard troops.

“No, I would not say Portland’s war-ravaged,” Portland Police Chief Bob Day told ABC News on Monday, calling the narrative that the city is under siege by protesters “disappointing.”

“It’s not a narrative that’s consistent with what’s actually happening now,” Day said. “Granted, 2020 and ’21, that conversation made a lot more sense. But in the last couple of years, under my administration, we’ve seen great strides made in the area of crime and safety.”

A U.S. district judge over the weekend temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to Portland, where the White House sought to have troops protect federal buildings.

Day said the demonstrations centered on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility take up a single block of the 145-square-mile city. He said in the past three months, there have been a few dozen arrests at the facility for assault and vandalism, but that his department is able to manage it with regional support.

“We have been engaged. We have been addressing violence. We have been addressing vandalism,” he said.

Sending in the National Guard would increase attention and potentially draw outsiders “looking to create some energy,” he said.

“The National Guard is not needed at this time for this particular problem,” Day said. “We are grateful for their service, respectful of the National Guard. These are citizen soldiers, Oregonians, or our neighbors, our friends. But for that role, we don’t need them right now.”

On Sept. 27, Trump directed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to provide “all necessary troops” to Portland amid protests at the city’s ICE facility.

The State of Oregon and the City of Portland sued, with officials in the city and state denouncing the action as unnecessary. U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut on Saturday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending the National Guard to Portland, finding that conditions in Portland were “not significantly violent or disruptive” to justify a federal takeover of the National Guard, and that the president’s claims about the city were “simply untethered to the facts.”

The Trump administration swiftly appealed the order and sent 200 California National Guard troops to Portland, leading Immergut to issue a second restraining order on Sunday that temporarily bars any federalized members of the National Guard from being deployed to Oregon.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained Monday that Trump is working within his authority as commander-in-chief to deploy the National Guard to Portland because he has deemed the situation there “appropriate” to warrant the action.

“For more than 100 days, night after night after night, the ICE facility has been really under siege by these anarchists outside,” she said during a press briefing. “They have been disrespecting law enforcement. They’ve been inciting violence.”

Trump on Monday continued to rail against the city, calling Portland a “burning hellhole” and likened the situation there to an “insurrection.”

“Portland is on fire. Portland’s been on fire for years, and not so much saving it,” he said while taking questions in the Oval Office on Monday. “We have to save something else, because I think that’s all insurrection. I really think that’s really criminal insurrection.”

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(EDISTO ISLAND, S.C.) — A South Carolina judge’s house went up in flames Sunday, hospitalizing three and destroying the home.

Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein was walking her dogs on the beach in Edisto Island, S.C., about an hour south of Charleston, when the fire began, according to officials. Her husband, former state Sen. Arnold Goodstein, their son, Arnold Goodstein III, and one other occupant were forced to jump from the burning building from an elevated first floor to escape the blaze, officials said.

The three occupants were rescued by kayak from the home’s backyard due to the area’s marshy terrain, Colleton County Fire-Rescue told ABC News. One occupant was airlifted to Medical University of South Carolina hospital in Charleston and the other two were taken there via ground transportation, according to Colleton County Fire-Rescue.

The current condition of the victims is not known.

The South Carolina Supreme Court said in a statement that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) responded to the scene and is investigating the cause of the fire. “Local law enforcement partners have been alerted and asked to provide extra patrols and security. The Judicial Branch will remain in close communication with SLED,” the statement added.

“SLED’s investigation is active and ongoing,” the agency told ABC News.

Last month, Goodstein blocked the South Carolina Election Commission from providing the Department of Justice with millions of voter files that included personal names, addresses, driver’s license numbers and social security numbers, according to court documents.

President Trump issued an executive order in March prohibiting non-citizens from registering to vote, leading the DOJ to request the information of more than 3.3 million registered voters in South Carolina. Goodstein’s decision, however, was reversed a few days later by the State Supreme Court, according to court documents.

Goodstein was first elected to her Circuit Court judgeship in 1998, according to the South Carolina Judicial Branch.

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(CHICAGO) — The state of Illinois and city of Chicago filed a lawsuit Monday morning seeking to block President Donald Trump’s federalization and deployment of the National Guard. 

“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the complaint said. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — Rite Aid has shuttered all of its stores after more than six decades in business.

The pharmacy chain made the announcement in a post on its website, stating, “All Rite Aid stores have now closed. We thank our loyal customers for their many years of support.”

ABC News has reached out to the company for comment, but did not immediately hear back.

Despite its long history in the pharmacy industry, Rite Aid has faced mounting financial challenges in recent years. The company most recently filed for bankruptcy protection in May, just eight months after emerging from a previous Chapter 11 filing in September 2024.

At the time, Rite Aid — which operated more than 1,200 stores across 15 states from California to Vermont — said it planned to keep stores open while selling off assets to avoid disrupting customers’ prescription services.

The company also announced it had secured $1.94 billion in new financing from existing lenders to stay operational during bankruptcy proceedings.

Rite Aid had first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2023, allowing it to reduce billions in debt and close hundreds of underperforming stores. Alongside declining sales, the company has also faced more than 1,000 federal, state, and local lawsuits alleging its pharmacies improperly filled prescriptions for painkillers, according to the New York Times.

In March 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint accusing Rite Aid of filling “unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances” that showed multiple red flags for misuse — allegations the company has denied.

As part of its first bankruptcy reorganization, Rite Aid reached a settlement with the Justice Department in June 2024 resolving those allegations under the False Claims Act and Controlled Substances Act. Under the settlement, the company agreed to pay the government $7.5 million and have a general unsecured claim in Rite Aid’s bankruptcy case, which are being handled through the court process. Rite Aid did not admit to any wrongdoing.

The company’s second bankruptcy filing in May 2025 paused most of the remaining opioid-related lawsuits including cases brought by state and local governments as well as individual plaintiffs which are now being handled through the bankruptcy’s claims process while Rite Aid works through its wind-down plan — a plan that remains under court review amid ongoing objections from the U.S. Trustee.

Rite Aid has denied the allegations in those lawsuits and in a statement in 2023 said it sought an “equitable” resolution of opioid claims through the Chapter 11 process.

Founded in 1962 as Thrift D Discount Center in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Rite Aid grew into the nation’s third-largest standalone pharmacy chain before its final closure.

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(BROOKLYN, N.Y.) — Almost 60 protestors were arrested on Yom Kippur after blocking traffic on New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge, authorities confirmed to ABC News.

The hundreds of people present at Thursday’s protest were members of the Rabbis for Ceasefire group that is comprised of Rabbis and Rabbinical students who support the free Palestine movement, according to the group.

The protest comes amidst the ongoing Israel-Hamas War in Gaza that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, as reported by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, sparking demonstrations and protests all over the world calling for a ceasefire.

After being called to the scene of the Brooklyn Bridge demonstration, NYPD officers arrested almost 60 protestors as they clapped and sang in Hebrew, according to social media videos shared by protesters.

NYPD could not confirm if all of the protestors have been released from custody yet, or if they will be criminally charged.

The protest began a few hours earlier at Brooklyn Borough Hall, according to the group’s social media, with a Yizkor service, which is a special Jewish ceremony for those who have died. Yom Kippur is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, also known as the “Day of Atonement.”

NYPD told ABC News the protestors blocked all lanes of traffic on the bridge for one hour.

Rabbis for Ceasefire seeks to “collaborate with the broad Jewish Left ecosystem and multiracial, interfaith coalitions to practice a Judaism we can be proud of for future generations. R4C creates space for our communities to be with our horror, outrage, grief, shame, and fear while speaking spiritual and political truth,” according to their website.

The group sought to use the holiday to shine a spotlight on their activism, the website said.

“This Yom Kippur, though our grief, outrage, and despair, let us turn our most holy of holy days into a mass mourning, collective atonement, and dignified action,” the group wrote on their page about the protest.

The ongoing Gaza war erupted after Hamas led a surprise terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people there and taking 251 others hostage, according to figures from the Israeli government.

President Donald Trump on Monday outlined a peace plan to end the war. Hamas responded on Friday, saying it will consider releasing all remaining hostages if Israel withdraws from Gaza completely and “proper field conditions are met.” 

More negotiations will need to take place to finalize the deal.

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(MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz.) — A suspect has now been arrested after two teenagers were found fatally shot in May on an isolated hiking trail in Arizona, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office said Thomas Brown, 31, has been arrested on two counts of first-degree murder in the killings on Mount Ord, a popular remote hiking and camping area.

The victims had been identified as 18-year-old Pandora Kjolsrud and 17-year-old Evan Clark.

Both teens were shot multiple times, according to law enforcement.

“What a senseless, violent act, the murder of two young teenagers while out camping,” Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan said at a press conference Friday.

The suspect admitted to having an interaction with the two teens while they were hiking, but there is “no evidence” to suggest there was any association between the teens and the suspect.

“They were likely complete strangers,” Capt. David Lee said at the press conference.

“I can’t find the words to express how sorry we are for what they’ve gone through and for the continuing victimization that a crime like this causes those families,” Lee said.

The teens were first reported overdue on May 26 after a woman told law enforcement that her daughter was out camping with friends and her last known location was Mount Ord, between the cities of Mesa and Payson, Lee said.

A responding sergeant found a vehicle in the area — later identified as Clark’s — and tried to make contact with occupants but was unable to. The sergeant then requested backup, Lee said.

The additional deputies continued their search until they found a campground further up the mountain, Lee said.

“In that campsite, they noticed conditions that suggested there was evidence of something being dragged away from that camp area. They would then locate the bodies of Pandora Kjolsrud and Evan Clark, who were pronounced deceased on the scene,” Lee said.

The sheriff’s office at the time said the deaths were being treated as “suspicious.”

In the following days, detectives received many tips, including one that Brown was camping on Mount Ord on that day. Another tip from a different group of campers said they encountered an individual “acting very strangely,” Lee said.

“The tip from those campers detailed some very specific observations that caused our detectives to heighten our focus and focus our detective’s investigative efforts into Thomas Brown’s involvement,” Lee said.

Brown told law enforcement he was camping on Mount Ord from the May 23 to 26, saying his wife was with him, but that she left the morning of May 25 and he stayed behind, Lee said.

Police believe Brown acted alone, Lee said.  

Brown provided law enforcement “false and misleading information” regarding his involvement with evidence and the comparison of his statements and physical evidence led to his apprehension, according to Lee.

Simone Schultz, Kjolsrud’s mother, spoke at the press conference, describing her daughter as a “beautiful, brilliant light in this world.”

“The light and love and beauty she gave us will be in our hearts forever, and the darkness that she encountered on that day when she met her killer will not define her life; his darkness will never overcome her light,” Schultz said.

“I have full faith in our judicial system to evaluate the evidence in this double homicide and find the perpetrator guilty of the violent murders he committed against two innocent teenagers,” she said. “My daughter’s life matters, and I look forward to the day the perpetrator is convicted and punished for his crimes.”

The two teens were students at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, according to a letter the principal wrote to parents at the time.

“This last week Evan was taken from me, and my level of grief feels insurmountable. I find myself at a complete loss to imagine a life without him,” Sandra Malibu Sweeney, Clark’s mother, said in a statement shortly after he was found dead. “It is a small comfort to share some things about this boy who was on his way to becoming a wonderful man.”

She continued, “Evan wasn’t a typical teenager. He was funny, bright, kind and entrepreneurial. He was an old soul who was sensitive and loving. Evan wrote me letters, the last of which he gave me on Mother’s Day that was so touching it made me both laugh and cry. He was special. He deserved a long life.”

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