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(NEW YORK) — Residents from the Great Plains to the southern Atlantic Coast are bracing for flash flooding on Monday after up to 14 inches of rain fell in a short amount of time over the weekend in parts of Wisconsin, prompting numerous water rescues in Milwaukee.

Severe thunderstorms early Monday were moving through Kansas and northern Oklahoma, packing 60 mph winds and producing rainfall rates of 1 to 3 inches per hour.

Heavy rain is also expected along the Atlantic Coast and could produce possible flash flooding in coastal areas of the Carolinas on Monday, including the cities of Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina.

The heavy rain is forecast to extend from the Florida panhandle to the Big Bend area of Florida, possibly bringing flash flooding to the area on Monday afternoon.

On Monday night and into Tuesday, thunderstorms are expected from northern Texas through Oklahoma and southwestern Missouri, possibly producing flash flooding in those areas.

Meanwhile, parts of the Midwest, including Wisconsin, are recovering from storms over the weekend that toppled trees, flooded homes and left numerous drivers stranded on flooded roads.

Between 8 and 14 inches of rain fell in just a few hours in the Milwaukee area on Saturday and into Sunday. The extreme rainfall flooded neighborhoods, made many roads impassable and led to water rescues. The storm that hit Milwaukee was also accompanied by gusts of over 80 mph that toppled numerous trees and power lines.

During a news conference on Sunday, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier “Chevy” Johnson said thousands of people in Milwaukee were affected by the severe flooding. Johnson said parts of the city saw more than a foot of rain in “a short period of time.”

“It’s something that Milwaukee hasn’t seen in perhaps a decade or more,” Johnson said.

Between 8 p.m. on Saturday and 7 a.m. Sunday, the Milwaukee Fire Department and neighboring fire departments received 614 separate emergency calls, including 65 that required water rescues, Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said at the news conference.

In the Milwaukee suburb of Franklin, the Root River reached a record level of 11.7 feet, causing it to spill its banks and flood nearby neighborhoods, officials said.

The Franklin Fire Department responded to a 911 call at about 4:27 p.m. local time, reporting that a teenage boy was missing after being swept into the Root River, authorities said.

Police officers and firefighters searched the river and found the teenager holding onto a tree branch and standing on a submerged log in the rapidly moving water about 100 yards downstream from where he was washed into the river, according to the statement from the Franklin Fire Department.

Rescuers made voice contact with the teenager, officials said.

“Although they could not initially see the subject, responders stayed in constant contact, reassuring him to stay calm and continue to hold onto the tree until rescuers arrived,” according to the fire department’s statement.

The Franklin Fire Department divers deployed an inflatable Zodiac boat to rescue the teenager, who was treated at the scene by paramedics, reunited with his family and taken to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin for further medical evaluation, officials said.

“This incident serves as a stark reminder of the dangers posed by flood waters,” the fire department said. “Never walk or drive through flooded roadways or around barricades. Moving water as shallow as 6 inches can knock an adult off their feet, and 2 feet of moving water can sweep away most vehicles.”

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(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York has denied the Trump administration’s motion to unseal grand jury testimony from the criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

The Trump administration has been seeking to release materials related to the investigation into Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in jail in 2019, following the blowback it received from MAGA supporters after it announced last month that no additional files would be released.

Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and other offenses in connection with Epstein.

In his 31-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York criticized the Department of Justice for using “demonstrably false” reasoning to justify the release of grand jury testimony.

The transcripts would “not reveal new information of any consequence” about Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes, according to Judge Engelmayer, who suggested that the Trump administration’s push to release documents might be an intentional “diversion.”

“Its entire premise — that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them — is demonstrably false,” he wrote.

Engelmayer wrote that the transcripts contain material already in the public record and lack any firsthand information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes. The records do not identify anyone other than Epstein or Maxwell who had sexual contact with a minor, mention any clients, shed light on their methods, or provide new information about Epstein’s death, Engelmayer wrote.

“Insofar as the motion to unseal implies that the grand jury materials are an untapped mine lode of undisclosed information about Epstein or Maxwell or confederates, they definitively are not that. A ‘public official,’ ‘lawmaker,’ ‘pundit,’ or ‘ordinary citizen’ ‘deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter,’ and who reviewed these materials expecting, based on the Government’s representations, to learn new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes and the investigation into them, would come away feeling disappointed and misled. There is no ‘there’ there,” the judge wrote.

Engelmayer also suggested that the only reason that might justify the release of the records would be to “expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal.”

“A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion — aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such,” he wrote.

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(NEW YORK) — Extreme heat is heading to both coasts, bringing dangerously high temperatures to the Northeast, Northwest and Southwest.

In the Northeast, heat alerts are in place for parts of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and upstate New York.

Parts of Maine could reach record-high temperatures on Monday, with Caribou forecast to hit 95 degrees. Manchester, New Hampshire, and Burlington, Vermont, could each break daily record-high temperatures on Tuesday, potentially hitting 97 degrees and 93 degrees, respectively.

In New York City, an air quality alert is in effect on Monday as the temperature rises. The alert is due to the hot weather trapping human-made air pollution, not wildfire smoke from Canada.

The West is also facing extreme heat.

In the Northwest, heat alerts are in place through Tuesday for Portland, Oregon; Seattle and Spokane, Washington. Temperatures are forecast to hit 99 degrees in Portland and Sacramento, California, and 107 degrees in Medford, Oregon.

In the Southwest, cities including Las Vegas and Phoenix are under extreme heat warnings, with temperatures expected to climb as high as 113 or 114 degrees through Tuesday. And in Death Valley, California, the temperature could reach a scorching 122 degrees on Monday and Tuesday.

Click here for tips to stay safe in the heat.

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A woman was killed and five other people were hurt when gunfire erupted early Sunday at a large outdoor gathering on Chicago’s West Side – one of three separate shootings to occur in the same neighborhood in fewer than three hours, according to police.

The shooting occurred just before 2:48 a.m. local time on North La Cross Avenue in the South Austin neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago, according to an incident report from the Chicago Police Department.

“Officers responded to a call of a large gathering and found multiple people shot,” police said in the report.

When officers arrived at the scene they found six people suffering from gunshot wounds, officials said.

A 22-year-old woman was discovered with a gunshot wound to the back and was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago, where she was pronounced dead, police said. The victim’s name was not immediately released.

Five other people suffered gunshot wounds in the incident, including two 18-year-old boys and a 17-year-boy. One of the 18-year-old victims was shot in the chest and left arm. Police said he was in critical condition at Stroger Hospital in Chicago, while the 17-year-old sustained a gunshot wound to the left thigh and was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in critical condition. The other 18-year-old was treated at the scene for a graze wound to his left hand, police said.

A 29-year-old man shot in the right leg was also in critical condition at Loretto Hospital in Chicago, according to police.

The shooting also left a 29-year-old woman with a gunshot wound to her right elbow, according to police, who said she was taken to Rush Hospital in good condition.

No arrests had been announced as of Sunday afternoon. A motive for the shooting remains under investigation, according to police.

At least two other shootings occurred in the same Chicago neighborhood on Sunday morning. Police have not said if the shootings are related.

About three blocks from the North La Cross Avenue mass shooting, an 18-year-old boy was shot in the back on West Maypole Avenue at about 4:37 a.m. and later died at Stroger Hospital, police said. A second 18-year-old boy was also shot in the arm during the shooting, according to police.

The two teenagers were shot after getting into an argument with a gunman who fired at them from a vehicle, police said. No arrests have been announced.

About an hour before the mass shooting on North La Cross Avenue, police responded to a reports of shots fired about a block away on North Lamon Avenue and found a 20-year-old woman suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to her arm, according to police. The woman was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where she was in good condition, police said. No arrests have been announced.

The Chicago shootings occurred less than a day after one person was killed and five others wounded, including a 5-year-old girl, in a mass shooting at an outdoor gathering in Baltimore, Md. A motive for that shooting remains under investigation, according to police.

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(BALTIMORE) — Six people are dead after a house fire broke out in Waldorf, Maryland, early Sunday morning, officials said.

Around 8:40 a.m., the Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department and several surrounding departments responded to a report of a dwelling fire with entrapment.

The victims were two adults and four children, according to officials. There were nine residents who lived at the house; one adult escaped and two others were not home at the time of the fire.

The origin of the fire remains under investigation, but there was no evidence of a criminal act, the Maryland State Fire Marshal said in a post on X.

“In Charles County, we do have fires every now and then, but with the loss of life, that this is … this is pretty devastating,” said Bill Smith, Charles County Volunteer Fire and EMS public information officer.

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(BALTIMORE) — A 38-year-old man was killed and five other people were wounded, including a 5-year-old girl, in a “mass shooting” in a Baltimore neighborhood Saturday night, police said.

The gunfire broke out shortly before 8:50 p.m. as people near the intersection of Spaulding and Queensberry Avenues gathered outside to have a crab feed, Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley told reporters at a news conference late Saturday night.

The 5-year-old girl was struck in the hand. “Thankfully, it doesn’t appear that her injury is very serious,” Worley said.

A 38-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to a hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead early Sunday, according to a police update.

The other victims are a 23-year-old woman and three men, ages 32, 33 and 52, according to police, whom police said on Sunday are “believed to be suffering from non-life-threatening injuries.”

Police have not released any details about the suspect in the shooting.

“We have little information at this point. All we know is there’s multiple rounds fired, multiple victims,” Worley said Saturday.

A motive for the shooting remains under investigation, according to Worley, who said it appeared the people had gathered outside and were eating crabs “and it looks like somebody just opened fire.”

Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to contact them directly or via the city’s the Metro Crime Stoppers tip line.

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All evacuation warnings have been lifted regarding the Canyon Fire in California after firefighters appeared to gain the upper hand in battling the wildfire, which broke out amid a heatwave and rapidly spread to over 5,300 acres in two days and destroyed at least seven structures, including two homes, authorities said.

As of Sunday morning, fire crews had increased containment on the blaze from 28% on Saturday evening to 62%, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). The fire also spread into Los Angeles County, endangering homes and forcing thousands of evacuation over the weekend near the city of Castaic.

“As of this morning, all evacuation warnings in Los Angeles and Ventura counties have been lifted,” Cal Fire said in an updated statement on Sunday morning.

As of Sunday, the fire had burned 5,370 acres, according to Cal Fire.

On Thursday, a local emergency proclamation issued by officials enabling the county to “expedite access to critical resources and cut through bureaucratic red tape to enhance firefighting and recovery efforts,” according to a statement from Los Angeles County.

The Canyon Fire had grown to over 5,000 acres in a matter of hours and was 25% contained, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department Friday morning. On Thursday, the fire had burned 1,500 acres.

At least two homes and five small outbuildings were burned in the flames, officials said.

More than 1,100 firefighters are battling the blaze, which broke out in extremely hot weather — accompanied by minimal humidity — which officials said are the perfect conditions for the flames to increase.

Evacuation zones and shelters
At the height of the fire on Friday and Saturday, more than 5,700 homes and structures in Los Angeles County were threatened and and nearly 8,000 residents were forced to evacuate, officials said.

Many residents of Ventura County were also initially under evacuation orders or evacuation warnings, which have all been cancelled, officials said.

The emergency declaration issued by officials granted authorities the flexibility to “coordinate across agencies, mobilize additional firefighting personnel and equipment, and streamline procurement processes,” officials said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, according to Cal Fire.

Firefighters were also making progress in containing the Gifford Fire, which as of Sunday had burned 114,621 acres, mostly within the Los Padres National Forest in Solvang, California, according to Cal Fire. The wildfire, which began on Aug. 1 and became the largest wildfire in the years, was 21% contained as of Sunday morning, officials said.

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(ATLANTA, GA) — A police officer was killed when a gunman opened fire near the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters and the Emory University campus in Atlanta on Friday afternoon, according to authorities.

Patrick Joseph White, 30, of Kennesaw, Georgia, has been identified as the suspected shooter in the incident, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. He died during the incident.

The Atlanta Police Department said the suspect was found dead from a gunshot wound, which may have been self-inflicted. No civilians were shot in the incident, police said.

“There is extensive evidence to collect due to the complex scene. Numerous interviews are being conducted. This investigation will take an extended period of time,” GBI said in a statement.

The officer who was killed, DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose, was fatally shot after responding to the reported gunfire.

He was taken to the hospital in critical condition where he was pronounced dead, officials said at a press conference Friday evening.

“Officer Rose served DeKalb County with courage, integrity, and unwavering dedication. Even in the face of danger was he diligent in his duty to protect our community,” the police department said in a statement posted online late Friday night.

At the earlier press conference, Lorraine Cochran-Johnson, DeKalb County CEO, said it was a “dark day” for the county. The officer leaves behind a wife, who is pregnant, and two children, she said.

The gunfire broke out at 4:50 p.m., prompting a shelter-in-place order at the university and a lockdown at the CDC headquarters.

Responding DeKalb County police officers located the suspect on the second floor of the Emory Point CVS Pharmacy across the street from the CDC building and attempted to engage the person when gunfire was exchanged, police said.

During the shooting, the suspect fired multiple rounds at the CDC building, breaking windows, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said during an earlier press conference

There were 92 children at a day care center on the CDC campus at the time, who were unharmed, police added.

In the aftermath of the shooting, four other people were transported to an area hospital for stress and anxiety-related reasons, the police chief said.

Shortly after the shooting was reported, a shelter-in-place order was put in place on the Emory University campus and later lifted. “RUN. HIDE. FIGHT. Avoid the area,” the university said in an alert Friday afternoon.

CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez shared a statement on X on Friday night, saying she and the agency as a whole are “heartbroken by today’s attack on our Roybal Campus, which remains on lockdown as authorities investigate the shooting.”

“Our top priority is the safety and well-being of everyone at CDC,” Monarez continued. “We are actively coordinating with federal, state, and local partners to fully investigate the shooter and this tragic crime.”

In an email to CDC staff, obtained by ABC News, Monarez encouraged employees to “prioritize your well-being, seek support, and reach out for assistance as needed.”

Monday will be a remote workday for all CDC employees, according to the email.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp released a statement on X thanking first responders for rushing “toward the danger to subdue the shooter and save lives.”

“We ask that you join us in holding them in our prayers, along with those harmed this evening near the CDC Center,” Kemp wrote.

FBI Atlanta and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are investigating the incident.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr released a statement Friday, saying, “We’re horrified by the news out of Emory University and praying for the safety of the entire campus community.”

The White House was monitoring the situation, an official told ABC News.

ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Luke Barr and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.

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(PHOENIX) — Multiple areas across the country are expected to have dangerous heat and fire weather concerns this weekend with over 35 million Americans on alert for dangerous heat.

Extreme Heat Warnings remain in effect for Phoenix, Arizona, Palm Springs, California, and lower elevations of the Grand Canyon National Park. High temperatures there will once again be well into the 100s and go up to 115 in spots during the weekend.

Heat advisories are also in effect on Saturday for other scattered areas of the Southwest, with more widespread Heat Advisories stretching across the Plains as the heat begins to expand out.

Places under these heat advisories include: Albuquerque, New Mexico; El Paso and Dallas, Texas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Little Rock, Arkansas; Wichita, Kansas; Springfield, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri.

High temperatures between 100 and 110 are possible for these areas on Saturday. Record high temperatures are possible for Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Flagstaff, Arizona, later Saturday.

The extreme heat peaked on Friday for parts of the Desert Southwest and is expected to ease this weekend.

There are also fire weather alerts in places across four states in the West — Oregon, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming — for critical fire weather conditions keeping a strong foothold into the weekend.

Single digit humidity and gusty winds are possible, which will be conducive for rapid fire spread with any new or existing wildfires in these areas.

While the extreme heat and the fire weather concerns are lingering for select parts of the Southwest this weekend, both will generally continue to wane into the beginning of next week.

Heat is also building up in the Northwest, where there’s an extreme heat warning in effect for Medford, Oregon, as well as from Eugene to Portland, Oregon.

High temperatures between 97 and 110 degrees are possible during the weekend into the beginning of next week. Very warm, low temperatures between 65 and 70 degrees are possible for these areas, providing little relief at night from the extreme heat.

Other areas of the Northwest are under heat advisories this weekend for high temperatures between 93 and 112, as well as low temperatures only getting into the 60s and 70s. These areas include Spokane, Washington; Lewiston, Idaho; Longview, Washington; and Mount Shasta, California.

Next week, widespread heat will return to the Northeast and much of the country.

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(WASHINGTON) — After the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to enforce its ban on transgender service members, Master Sgt. Logan Ireland, who has served in the Air Force for 15 years, was faced with the options of separating from the military voluntarily or being processed for involuntary separation – a prospect that comes with losing half of his separation pay.

When Logan was presented with the option of applying for early retirement at 15 years, he applied and was relieved when the Air Force approved his request and gave him an early retirement date of Dec. 1, 2025.

“It’s kind of like your golden ticket. So I felt solid,” Ireland told ABC News.

But on Monday, Ireland said he received a memo from Brian Scarlett, who is performing the duties of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs, indicating that early retirement at 15-18 years for transgender service members would be denied.

“After careful consideration of the individual applications, I am disapproving all Temporary Early Retirement Authority (TERA) exception to policy requests in Tabs 1 and 2 for members with 15-18 years of service,” the memo said, adding that those denied early retirement would need to be processed for separation instead.

Military service members are eligible for full retirement benefits after they complete 20 years of service. Anything less than that requires an approved exemption. Air Force personnel who had 18 but less than 20 years of service were approved for early retirement because they were close to the 20 years, while several dozen senior Airmen who had between 15 and 18 years of service also sought approval for this early retirement, the Air Force said. Early retirement would allow them to receive part of their pension.

The memo, which was reviewed by ABC News, includes a “script” for commanders to communicate with applicants regarding TERA denial and separation, and explains that the Department of the Air Force (DAF) “prematurely notified some DAF members that their TERA applications under the gender dysphoria provision had been approved.”

The Air Force said in a statement to ABC News, “Approximately a dozen service members between 15 and 18 years of service were prematurely notified that their TERA applications under the gender dysphoria provision had been approved, but higher level review was required under the DoD gender dysphoria policy for those members.”

Ireland, who has served multiple overseas tours to countries like Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea, said that the reversal was a “betrayal.”

“The first feeling I felt was betrayal. I’ve given my life to the service,” he said.

“I was promised this. I had my retirement orders in hand,” he added. “I’ve been starting to process what life looks like outside of uniform, and now we don’t know what that looks like.”

According to the Scarlett memo, transgender service members who choose to voluntarily separate will receive separation pay at twice the rate of those who choose involuntary separation.

The memo from Scarlett also says that while service members like Ireland would not be eligible for early retirement, they will still be “entitled to an honorable discharge characterization, separation benefits and transition assistance.”

Air Force Cmdr. Emily Shilling, who is the president of Sparta Pride — an organization advocating for about 2,400 transgender people in the military and those who hope to join — criticized the move in a phone interview with ABC News on Thursday, saying that the Air Force “reneged on their promise.”

Shilling said that some applications for early retirement had already been approved, but now the lives of those service members who have dedicated close to two decades of service to their country have been upended again.

Shilling, who will be eligible for retirement at 20 years in September, previously told ABC News that she chose to self-identify as transgender and begin the process of voluntarily separating from the military, but said that she made the decision “under duress.”

“I was coerced into it because we knew that the voluntary separation would give me an honorable discharge with some portion of my retirement, and I’d be able to keep all of my benefits,” Shilling said. ABC News reached out to the Air Force but a request for comment was not returned.

The Department of Defense offered transgender service members the opportunity to voluntarily separate before they were forced out through involuntary separations. Incentives were offered for voluntary separations that amounted to double the benefits that they might have received if they were involuntarily separated.

Shilling and Ireland both decided to fight the ban in federal court, each becoming lead plaintiffs in separate federal lawsuits – Shilling vs. Trump and Ireland vs. Hegseth. A third lawsuit, Talbott vs. Trump, also challenges the ban, which was announced in a Jan. 27 executive order by President Donald Trump, who directed the Defense Department to revise the policy allowing transgender troops to openly serve.

“Expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” the Trump order said, arguing that receiving gender-affirming medical care is one of the conditions that is physically and mentally “incompatible with active duty.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed this sentiment in a Feb. 7 memo, saying that “efforts to split our troops along lines of identity weaken our Force and make us vulnerable.”

Professor Nathaniel Frank, a cultural historian and researcher at Cornell University who studies the history of LGBTQ+ people in the military, told ABC News that decades of research dispute the administration’s arguments that transgender individuals are not fit to serve.

“There’s never been any evidence found that gay or transgender service members present any problems to unit cohesion or readiness, and that the evidence finds the opposite, that the prohibitions against trans people are what harm readiness and cohesion because they undermine trust,” Frank said.

Despite the legal challenges, the Supreme Court ruled in May that the administration can enforce the ban as the lawsuits move forward.

In response to the letter denying his early retirement, Ireland signed a memo on Wednesday indicating that he understands that his TERA exception to policy application was denied.

The memo, which was reviewed by ABC News, included a box in which Ireland was asked to indicate whether he does or does not intend to submit a voluntary separation request.

Ireland checked the box that says, “I do not,” electing involuntary separation instead.

“One thing the military failed to teach me was how to retreat,” Ireland told ABC News. “I’m not going down without a fight.”

ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

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