(NEW YORK) — It was a wild weekend along the East Coast, which had record high temperatures on Saturday and then up to a half-foot of snow in some areas on Sunday.
Bitter cold followed the snow to the region Monday where wind chills reached the single digits and even below zero for parts of the Northeast.
The freezing temperatures will last into Tuesday and then things will begin to warm up.
By mid-week, the attention will turn to a new storm moving from the west, with severe weather possible in the South from Texas Louisiana.
Damaging winds, hail and a few tornadoes are possible on Wednesday into Thursday from Dallas to Birmingham, Alabama. To the north, an icy mix of sleet and freezing rain is expected from Oklahoma to Indiana as well.
Snow is expected from Colorado to Michigan, which had up to a foot of snow already this week.
(NEW YORK) — An unruly passenger attempted to enter the cockpit of an American Airlines plane on Sunday, forcing the scheduled flight from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., to divert to Kansas City, the airline said.
“He’s trying to get in the cockpit,” the pilot told air traffic controllers. “We’ve got four passengers now trying to contain this gentleman.”
According to accounts from those on board, passengers held the man and eventually a flight attendant used a coffee pot to subdue him as the plane descended.
“We have two armed people on board that are securing him right now,” the pilot explained.
American Airlines said in a statement that “the flight landed safely at MCI at 2:28 p.m. local time, and law enforcement was requested to meet the flight on arrival.”
“We’re grateful to our crew members, who are consistently dedicated to the safety and care of our customers and who handled the circumstances with the utmost skill and professionalism,” the airline added.
The FBI in Kansas City confirmed the man had been taken into custody, but was unable to comment further due to the “ongoing matter.”
Authorities have not released his identity.
Sunday’s incident is just the latest in a troubling spike of unruly passenger cases with airlines reporting a staggering 6,375 reports of misconduct to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) since January 2021.
The agency is still enforcing its zero-tolerance policy for in-flight disruptions which could lead to fines as high as $52,500 and up to 20 years in prison.
In November, the FAA revealed some unruly passengers could start to face criminal prosecution after establishing an information-sharing protocol with the Department of Justice.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York said on Monday that he will dismiss former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s libel suit against the New York Times, but only after the jury now deliberating returns a verdict.
Deliberations in the case in U.S. District Court in Manhattan began late Friday and continued Monday.
Without the jury present in court, Judge Jed Rakoff told the attorneys in the trial that he has decided to dismiss the case because Palin had not met the high standard of showing that The Times had acted with actual malice when it published an erroneous editorial that erroneously linked Palin’s political action committee to a mass shooting.
In explaining his decision to dismiss the case, Rakoff said the inevitable appeal would benefit from knowing how the jury deliberations turned out.
Palin, 58, sued The Times in 2017, roughly nine years after she was tapped to be Sen. John McCain’s GOP vice presidential nominee, claiming the newspaper deliberately ruined her burgeoning career as a political commentator and consultant by publishing an erroneous editorial that defamed her.
The editorial that prompted the lawsuit was published just days after a gunman opened fire on GOP politicians practicing for a congressional charity baseball game in a Washington, D.C., suburb, injuring six, including Republican Rep. Steve Scalise.
The Times’ editorial board wrote on June 14, 2017, that prior to the 2011 Arizona mass shooting that killed six people and left then-Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords with a traumatic brain injury, Palin’s political action committee had fueled a violent atmosphere by circulating a map that put the electoral districts of Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs.
Two days later, The Times published a correction saying the editorial had “incorrectly described” the map and “incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting.”
During the trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Palin portrayed herself as the biblical David going up against the Philistine giant Goliath with just a slingshot. Palin, in her testimony, accused The Times of deliberately fabricating lies to sully her reputation.
“It was devastating to read a false accusation that I had anything to do with murder,” Palin testified. “I felt powerless — that I was up against Goliath. The people were David. I was David.”
During the trial, which was delayed for several days due to Palin testing positive for COVID-19, The Times former editorial page editor, James Bennet, testified that while he was responsible for the erroneous information in the editorial, it was an honest mistake and that he meant no harm.
“I’ve regretted it pretty much every day since,” testified Bennet, who resigned from his job in June 2020 over publishing a highly criticized op-ed by U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, advocating a military response to civic unrest in American cities.
The jury in Palin’s case was instructed to decide whether Bennet acted with “actual malice” or with “reckless disregard for the truth” when he inserted the disputed information into the editorial.
In his closing argument, The Times lawyer David Axelrod told the jury the case was “incredibly important because it’s about freedom of the press.”
Axelrod said the First Amendment protects journalists “who make an honest mistake” when they write about a person like Sarah Palin.
“That’s all this was about — an honest mistake,” said Axelrod, adding that Palin’s lawsuit made no claims that she was deprived of income because of the editorial.
(BRUNSWICK, Ga.) — A jury was seated and opening statements got underway Monday in the federal hate crimes trial of three white Georgia men stemming from the murder of Ahmaud Arbery a 25-year-old Black man who was out for a jog in 2020 when he was chased and gunned down.
The 16 jurors, including four alternates, were empaneled on Monday morning following a lengthy selection process that started on Feb. 7. The jury is comprised of eight whites, three Blacks and one Hispanic. Alternates are three white members and one Pacific Islander.
Opening statements in the high profile case against 64-year-old retired police officer Gregory McMichael, his 36-year-old son Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, commenced on Monday afternoon.
Prosecutor Bobbi Bernstein began her presentation by apologizing to the jury for having to read to them racial slurs and descriptions she said Travis McMichael used in text messages and on social media to describe Black people. Bernstein told the jury they will hear evidence that all three men used racially-charged language when discussing Black people in private.
Bernstein also said she will present evidence that Bryan told investigators that after Travis McMichael shot Arbery he allegedly heard him yell a racist epithet at the victim as he lay dying on the pavement, evidence that was excluded from the defendants’ state trial in which they were all convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Bernstein told the panel that while it is not illegal to use racial slurs, “these slurs can provide you with evidence as to why a defendant did what he did.”
She told the jurors that if Arbery had been white, “he would have been home in time for Sunday dinner.” Instead, she said, Arbery spent his last moments of life “bleeding to death, alone and scared in the middle of the street.”
Defense attorney Amy Lee Copeland attempted to distance herself from her client, Travis McMichael, conceding in her opening statement that the younger McMichael left a digital footprint of using “words that I don’t use and has opinions I don’t share.”
“But these words are not a crime,” Copeland said.
Gregory McMichael’s attorney, A.J. Balbo, said his client was not “an angel,” but was also not a racist. Balbo said Arbery was not followed because he was a Black man, but because he was “the man” the McMichaels recognized in security videos trespassing at a neighbor’s home that was under construction.”
“The killing of Ahmaud Arbery was a tragic and horrible event that didn’t need to happen and could have been prevented in so many ways,” Balbo told the jury.
Bryan’s attorney, Pete Theodocion, painted his client as someone who doesn’t look at people through a racial prism, saying there is no excuse for racism. He asked the jury not to look at evidence against the other defendants and use it against Bryan.
The trial in U.S. District Court in Brunswick, Georgia, is expected to last seven to 10 days.
All three men are charged with one count of interference with Arbery’s civil rights and with one count of attempted kidnapping. The McMichaels were also charged with one count each of using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm, and Travis McMichael faces an additional count of discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
If convicted, the men face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The McMichaels and Bryan were convicted last year on state murder charges in Arbery’s death. They were all sentenced to life in prison.
Arbery was fatally shot after the McMichaels saw him jogging in their Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia. They said they assumed Arbery was a burglar, armed themselves and chased him in their pickup truck. The McMichaels’ neighbor, Bryan, joined the pursuit, blocking the victim’s escape path with his truck and recorded video on a cellphone of Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery three times with a shotgun during a struggle.
If convicted in the federal case, the men must first serve their state sentences before being transferred to federal prison.
In the now-defunct plea deal filed with the court on Jan. 30, Gregory and Travis McMichael agreed to plead guilty to count one of an indictment alleging they interfered with Arbery’s right to enjoy the use of a public road he was jogging on “because of Arbery’s race and color.”
In exchange for the guilty pleas, prosecutors were to dismiss the other charges and allow the McMichaels to serve the first 30 years of confinement in federal prison before being transferred back to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve out the remainder of their state sentences.
The same plea agreement was not given to Bryan.
Judge Lisa Wood rejected the McMichaels’ plea deal after Arbery’s parents, Wanda Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery, strongly objected and claimed it was forged without their consent. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement that prosecutors were in constant communication with the Arbery family’s attorneys and had been assured the family would not object to the agreement.
Wood claimed she turned down the deal because it would have locked her into the three-decade federal prison sentence, saying she didn’t know if that was “the precise, fair sentence in this case.”
Following Wood’s decision, Gregory and Travis McMichael, who are being represented by court-appointed public defenders due to financial hardship, withdrew their guilty pleas and opted to go to trial.
(BRUNSWICK, Ga.) — A jury has been seated in the federal trial of three white Georgia men charged with hate crimes stemming from the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was out for a jog in 2020 when he was chased and gunned down.
The 16 jurors, including four alternates, were empaneled on Monday morning following a lengthy selection process that started on Feb. 7.
Opening statements in the high profile case against retired police officer Gregory McMichael, his 36-year-old son Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, are set to begin on Monday afternoon.
The jury is comprised of eight whites, three Blacks and one Hispanic. Alternates are three white members and one Pacific Islander.
The trial in U.S. District Court in Brunswick, Georgia, is expected to last seven to 10 days.
All three men are charged with one count of interference with Arbery’s civil rights and with one count of attempted kidnapping. The McMichaels were also charged with one count each of using, carrying and brandishing a firearm, and Travis McMichael faces an additional count of discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
If convicted, the men face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The McMichaels and Bryan were convicted last year on state murder charges in Arbery’s death. They were all sentenced to life in prison.
Arbery was fatally shot after the McMichaels saw him jogging in their Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia. They said they assumed Arbery was a burglar, armed themselves and chased him in their pickup truck. The McMichaels’ neighbor, Bryan, joined the pursuit, blocking the victim’s escape path with his truck and recorded video on a cellphone of Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery three times with a shotgun during a struggle.
If convicted in the federal case, the men must first serve their state sentences before being transferred to federal prison.
In the now-defunct plea deal filed with the court on Jan. 30, Gregory and Travis McMichael agreed to plead guilty to count one of an indictment alleging they interfered with Arbery’s right to enjoy the use of a public road he was jogging on “because of Arbery’s race and color.”
In exchange for the guilty pleas, prosecutors were to dismiss the other charges and allow the McMichaels to serve the first 30 years of confinement in federal prison before being transferred back to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve out the remainder of their state sentences.
The same plea agreement was not given to Bryan.
Judge Lisa Wood rejected the McMichaels’ plea deal after Arbery’s parents, Wanda Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery, strongly objected and claimed it was forged without their consent. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement that prosecutors were in constant communication with the Arbery family’s attorneys and had been assured the family would not object to the agreement.
Wood claimed she turned down the deal because it would have locked her into the three-decade federal prison sentence, saying she didn’t know if that was “the precise, fair sentence in this case.”
Following Wood’s decision, Gregory and Travis McMichael, who are being represented by court-appointed public defenders due to financial hardship, withdrew their guilty pleas and opted to go to trial.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 919,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 64.4% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 14, 8:00 am
Prince Charles’ wife Camilla tests positive
Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla, has tested positive for COVID-19 less than one week after her husband tested positive for the virus.
Clarence House said she is self-isolating.
Feb 14, 7:37 am
Walmart drops mask requirement for vaccinated workers
Walmart employees in the U.S. who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will no longer be required to wear masks.
“Unvaccinated associates will be required to continue wearing masks until further notice,” company officials said in a memo obtained by ABC News.
Friday’s policy update was effective immediately for most employees, aside from those working in regions where state or local rules require retail staff to wear masks, the memo said. Associates working in clinical settings or with patients will also still be required to wear masks.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and advise of any changes,” the memo said.
The company, the largest private retail employer in the U.S., will also end its COVID-19 emergency leave policy for most employees at the end of March, the memo said.
(BROOKHAVEN, Miss.) — A white father and son are facing criminal charges after allegedly chasing and firing at D’Monterrio Gibson, a 24-year-old Black FedEx driver, who said he was targeted while delivering packages in Brookhaven, Mississippi, on the evening of Jan. 24.
According to affidavits obtained by ABC News, 35-year-old Brandon Case, the son, has been charged with purposely, knowingly and feloniously attempting to cause bodily injury to Gibson after allegedly shooting at his delivery van.
While Gregory Case, 57, is charged with purposely, knowingly and feloniously conspiring with his son to commit aggravated assault after allegedly chasing Gibson with his pickup truck and trying to block him from driving away.
Gregory Case’s attorney, Terrell Stubbs, and Brandon Case’s attorney, Dan Kitchens, did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment, but according to the Brookhaven Municipal Court, both attorneys entered not-guilty pleas on behalf of their clients.
Gibson was not injured, but his van and some packages were struck with several bullet holes, according to a police report obtained by ABC News dated Jan. 25. Gibson and his supervisor at FedEx filed the report.
Gibson described the experience as “traumatizing” in an interview with Good Morning America on Sunday.
Gibson said he was driving around trying to find the right address – and finally figured it out. He said once he left the package, Gregory Case tried to use his pickup truck to stop him from leaving the neighborhood.
“He tries to cut me off and like instantly, my instincts kicked in. I swerved by him,” he told GMA.
As he tried to drive away, Gibson said he saw Brandon Case in the middle of the road pointing a gun at his delivery van.
“When he got past him, the guy started shooting towards his vehicle. The back of his vehicle was hit several times,” Carlos Moore, Gibson’s attorney, told ABC News.
Moore said that Gibson called 911 later that night and was directed to the Brookhaven Police Department, where a dispatcher told him that there was a report of a “suspicious person” at the address where he was delivering the packages before he was allegedly chased and targeted by the Cases.
Gibson said that he was wearing his delivery uniform at the time and was driving a van rented by FedEx marked Hertz.
“In this instance, this man was working while Black, and they thought that was suspicious and they evidently, concertedly decided they would accost this man,” Moore said. “And when he would not stop, they intended to kill them.”
Police have not responded to ABC News’ requests for comment, but Brookhaven Mayor Joe C. Cox told ABC News that the Brookhaven Police Department, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and federal agencies “will continue to investigate this matter.”
Gibson said FedEx told him to return to the office that night but sent him out on the same route the very next day.
He said that he was on unpaid leave. While FedEx offered to pay for counseling, Gibson said he was not offered unpaid leave until the story became public.
“FedEx takes situations of this nature very seriously, and we are shocked by this criminal act against our team member, D’Monterrio Gibson,” FedEx said in a statement to ABC News. “The safety of our team members is our top priority, and we remain focused on his wellbeing. We continue to support Mr. Gibson, including compensation, as we cooperate with investigating authorities.”
Killings of 2 aspiring NYC rappers spark debate about a controversial rap genre
The Cases are now out on bail, but Gibson’s attorneys are calling for the charges to be “immediately upgraded” and for the incident to be investigated as a hate crime.
“Black lives matter, and not only do they matter, but they matter as much as white lives,” Moore said.
Moore compared Gibson’s case to that of Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old unarmed Black man who was murdered while out on a jog in Brunswick, Georgia, on Feb. 23, 2020.
Three White men — father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, who chased and murdered Arbery were sentenced to life in prison on Jan. 7.
They are awaiting trial on federal hate crime charges.
“It seems that this is another father-son duo that thought something was suspicious and took the law into their own hands,” Moore said.
ABC News’ Joanne Aran and Miles Cohen contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 919,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 64.4% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 14, 8:00 am
Prince Charles’ wife Camilla tests positive
Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla, has tested positive for COVID-19 less than one week after her husband tested positive for the virus.
Clarence House said she is self-isolating.
Feb 14, 7:37 am
Walmart drops mask requirement for vaccinated workers
Walmart employees in the U.S. who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will no longer be required to wear masks.
“Unvaccinated associates will be required to continue wearing masks until further notice,” company officials said in a memo obtained by ABC News.
Friday’s policy update was effective immediately for most employees, aside from those working in regions where state or local rules require retail staff to wear masks, the memo said. Associates working in clinical settings or with patients will also still be required to wear masks.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and advise of any changes,” the memo said.
The company, the largest private retail employer in the U.S., will also end its COVID-19 emergency leave policy for most employees at the end of March, the memo said.
(NEW YORK) — A Charlotte, North Carolina, city bus driver has died after being shot while at the wheel and on his route with passengers aboard in what police are investigating as a possible road rage incident, authorities said.
Ethan Rivera, 41, a driver for the Charlotte Area Transit System, died at a hospital Saturday night, a day after being shot while operating a bus in a busy area of uptown Charlotte, police said.
No arrests have been announced as of Sunday as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police homicide detectives combed through surveillance video and urged witnesses to come forward with information that could help identify the shooter.
Rivera was on his route about 9:30 p.m. Friday when he was shot while stopped at a red light, authorities said. Police sources told ABC affiliate WSOC-TV in Charlotte that investigators are looking into whether the shooting is linked to a road-rage altercation with a motorist.
Police officers found the bus veered off the road with the mortally wounded driver still in his seat.
Four passengers aboard the bus were not injured, police said.
Rivera’s co-workers told WSOC that the shooting has left them upset and fearful for their own lives.
“We worry every day. We worry and we pray that we make it home the same way we made it to work,” said one driver, who asked not to be identified.
Another city driver said of Rivera, “He was a good co-worker. I think he’s been in Charlotte less than two years, but every time you saw him, he was always smiling. Always smiling.”
The shooting came just two days after a school bus operator in Minneapolis was shot in the head while driving home three children. None of the children were injured and the driver is expected to survive, police said.
No arrests have been made in the Minneapolis shooting and police are investigating whether the driver was targeted or struck by a stray bullet, authorities said.
(NEW YORK) — A nonprofit organization is tackling growing attacks on the Jewish community in a splashy way – by installing bright pink billboards across the country that denounce antisemitism.
The New Jersey-based organization, JewBelong, launched the #EndJewHate campaign last June with billboards in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Las Vegas and now, Miami, after flyers blaming Jews for Covid-19 were found distributed in two South Florida cities last month.
With messages like “I promise to love being Jewish 10x more than anyone hates me for it,” “3,500 years of antisemitism doesn’t make it right,” and “Does your church need armed guards? ‘Cause our synagogue does,” the organization hopes to spread awareness of antisemitism around the country.
Archie Gottesman worked in branding and marketing for over 15 years before co-founding JewBelong. Now the self-proclaimed Co-Chief-Rebrander-of-Judaism is taking notes from her previous experience designing witty billboards to draw attention to antisemitism.
“Jews belong in the conversation. Hate is painful. Hate is scary. It’s painful. It doesn’t allow us to become who we are,” said Gottesman. “It just makes us feel less than like all of those terrible things about marginalized groups, which again, this country is trying to work on and should be working on.”
According to a 2020 Pew Research Center report, there are 5.8 million Jewish adults in the United States, accounting for 2.4% of the United States’ adult population.
“One of the reasons that JewBelong is doing the campaign is not everybody realizes this, Jews are only 2% of the population in the United States,” said Gottesman. “We’re so tiny that it’s like, we need some help in terms of being able to get the message out there.”
According to the NYPD Hate Crimes Dashboard, there were 198 confirmed hate crime incidents against Jewish people in 2021, up from a still-alarming 121 incidents in 2020. The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism recorded 2,024 antisemitic incidents in their 2020 annual audit, making it the third-highest year on record since 1979.
Incidents like the recent hostage situation at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, have prompted the Department of Homeland Security to address the “continuing threat of violence based upon racial or religious motivations, as well as threats against faith-based organizations.”
British national Malik Faisal Akram took a rabbi and other congregants at the Texas synagogue hostage on Jan. 15 for several hours before he was killed by police, authorities said. The incident prompted American Jewish organizations to offer solidarity and calls to action across the country.
Organizations like the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League have since urged the confirmation of President Biden’s Special Envoy nominee Deborah Lipstadt, who called the rise in antisemitism “staggering” in her confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
Lipstadt, who is currently the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, previously served on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
“Dr. Deborah Lipstadt’s confirmation as the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism would send a powerful signal to governments around the world that the U.S. takes combating antisemitism seriously and calls on them to do the same,” the ADL stated on their website.
The Vice President of the ADL’s Center on Extremism, Oren Segal, told ABC News about the importance of taking this data seriously and recognizing antisemitism and hate.
“And I should note that in the fight against antisemitism, ADL’s mission recognizes that you have to stand up and combat all forms of hatred, right, that you know, where racism or misogyny and Islamophobia grow so does antisemitism, and vice versa,” Segal said.
“The other thing that is important is to, you know, have leaders, policymakers, elected officials, reject antisemitism wherever and whenever it arises,” he continued. “Right? So, one of the problems that we’re seeing today is the normalization of antisemitism. I would even argue inability to recognize it. And that’s why it’s really important that people speak out against that wherever it happens.”
Lipstadt declined ABC News’ request for comment.
JewBelong is focused on raising awareness with their campaign that has garnered appreciation from the Jewish community and allies alike.
“I think allyship is very, very important. And I think that we’re hearing a lot from that,” said Gottesman. “We’re hearing from people who are Jewish too, who feel like they are seen – people who say things like, I am so glad that I see those billboards up because it has been a really rough time right now and I’m glad to see someone is saying something.”
Gottesman told ABC News that a woman even traveled from miles away to see one of the billboards in New York.
“I’m going to come because I want to stand there and see the billboard. I saw it on social media, but I want to come and see it because it’s really important to me,” she says the woman told her. “And then she got back to us,” Gottesman added. “She said, ‘I did and I started to cry when I saw it because I really feel like it was so important to see.’”
Despite overwhelmingly positive reception, JewBelong has been on the receiving end of hateful messages, too according to screenshots of emails and social media comments that Gottesman shared with ABC News.“We’re getting people saying you know, Hitler should have finished you all off…” she said.
Nevertheless, JewBelong is determined to keep going. “The point is never to like, worry about the people who really hate you.” said Gottesman.
The group says people all over the country have reached to ask about getting a billboard in their cities and has plans to expand in the coming weeks, with one going up in downtown Toronto on February 28.
