Stock image of fire hose. (Visoot Uthairam/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 12,000 residents and over 2,000 structures have been evacuated after a wildfire broke out Tuesday in Washington state, spreading to 250 acres. No injuries have been reported.
The fire was 0% contained as of Tuesday night.
Officials said there “was an urgent need for evacuations,” in a press conference on Tuesday.
“Our teams are working hard to protect your homes. Stay out of the area. Please don’t come back, that makes it very challenging for our crews,” Spokane Fire District 9 Fire Chief Brian Mather said.
The active fire is expected to last a couple of days, according to Mather.
“Wind-driven fires are very, very dangerous. They’re dangerous to work in. They move very rapidly,” Mather said.
“We have a lot of fuel in that area, it’s a very densely populated area, and it’s tough conditions,” Mather said.
There are 10 to 15 aircraft assigned to the fire with more expected, officials said.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said he has been briefed on the fire and is monitoring the situation closely.
“I just requested a fire management assistance declaration from FEMA, which I expect to be approved this evening. This gives our state access to federal funding for extraordinary costs in fighting this fire,” he wrote in a post on X.
The fire started on Tuesday at around 12:30 p.m., according to Spokane County officials. A red flag warning was issued around 10:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, the Spokane Fire District said.
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Arthur has formed in the Gulf near the middle Texas coast, according to the National Weather Service. It is the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Rex A. Heuermann pleads guilty in court to the murders of eight women during a 17-year killing spree on April 8, 2026 in Riverhead, New York. (James Carbone/Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann addressed by victims’ families at sentencing: ‘Disgusting coward’
Anguished relatives of the Gilgo Beach, New York, serial killing victims aimed decades of anger at their loved ones’ killer, Rex Heuermann, as they read victim impact statements at his sentencing on Wednesday.
“I can’t even put into words the eviscerating hatred I have for you,” said Jasmine Robinson, cousin of victim Jessica Taylor, who would have turned 43 on Wednesday. “You fill me with so much repugnance.”
Another cousin, Violet Swager, remembered Taylor as “fierce, kind, compassionate, beautiful and intelligent.”
She said to Heuermann, “You chose small women because you’re nothing more than a weak, disgusting coward.”
In April, Heuermann, 62, pleaded guilty to killing seven women: Taylor, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Valerie Mack and Sandra Costilla. He also admitted to killing an eighth woman, Karen Vergata, though he was not formally charged in her death.
Brainard-Barnes’ sister Missy Cann broke down in tears as she read a statement prior to the imposition of the sentence.
“You are a coward who preyed on vulnerable, innocent women,” Cann said.
Mack’s parents, Ed and JoAnn Mack, said Heuermann robbed their daughter of the chance to achieve her dreams.
“I would like to say to Mr. Heuermann, what you have done to our family is beyond what words can express,” JoAnn Mack said. “Even though justice is done, it cannot replace what you have taken from us.”
At the April hearing, Heuermann agreed to serve three consecutive life sentences followed by four consecutive sentences of 25 years-to-life, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said the New York City architect targeted sex workers, strangled them and dumped their bodies near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach over the course of 17 years.
Heuermann “walked among us, play acting as a normal, suburban dad, when in reality, all along, he was obsessively targeting innocent women for death,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in April.
The Gilgo Beach cases went unsolved for years, until Heuermann’s arrest in 2023.
Since then, Heuermann has been in custody at the Riverhead Correctional Facility. While in jail, Heuermann has been reading books about murder and serial killers, and he’s communicated with Keith Hunter Jesperson, a 1990s serial killer known as the Happy Face Killer, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon told ABC News.
Defense attorney Michael Brown said in April that the decision to plead guilty belonged solely to Heuermann. Brown said Heuermann would likely have more to say at sentencing.
Part of Heuermann’s plea agreement also requires him to be interviewed by the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit.
Rex A. Heuermann pleads guilty in court to the murders of eight women during a 17-year killing spree on April 8, 2026 in Riverhead, New York. (James Carbone/Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann addressed by victims’ families at sentencing: ‘Disgusting coward’
Anguished relatives of the Gilgo Beach, New York, serial killing victims aimed decades of anger at their loved ones’ killer, Rex Heuermann, as they read victim impact statements at his sentencing on Wednesday.
“I can’t even put into words the eviscerating hatred I have for you,” said Jasmine Robinson, cousin of victim Jessica Taylor, who would have turned 43 on Wednesday. “You fill me with so much repugnance.”
Another cousin, Violet Swager, remembered Taylor as “fierce, kind, compassionate, beautiful and intelligent.”
She said to Heuermann, “You chose small women because you’re nothing more than a weak, disgusting coward.”
In April, Heuermann, 62, pleaded guilty to killing seven women: Taylor, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Valerie Mack and Sandra Costilla. He also admitted to killing an eighth woman, Karen Vergata, though he was not formally charged in her death.
Brainard-Barnes’ sister Missy Cann broke down in tears as she read a statement prior to the imposition of the sentence.
“You are a coward who preyed on vulnerable, innocent women,” Cann said.
Mack’s parents, Ed and JoAnn Mack, said Heuermann robbed their daughter of the chance to achieve her dreams.
“I would like to say to Mr. Heuermann, what you have done to our family is beyond what words can express,” JoAnn Mack said. “Even though justice is done, it cannot replace what you have taken from us.”
At the April hearing, Heuermann agreed to serve three consecutive life sentences followed by four consecutive sentences of 25 years-to-life, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said the New York City architect targeted sex workers, strangled them and dumped their bodies near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach over the course of 17 years.
Heuermann “walked among us, play acting as a normal, suburban dad, when in reality, all along, he was obsessively targeting innocent women for death,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in April.
The Gilgo Beach cases went unsolved for years, until Heuermann’s arrest in 2023.
Since then, Heuermann has been in custody at the Riverhead Correctional Facility. While in jail, Heuermann has been reading books about murder and serial killers, and he’s communicated with Keith Hunter Jesperson, a 1990s serial killer known as the Happy Face Killer, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon told ABC News.
Defense attorney Michael Brown said in April that the decision to plead guilty belonged solely to Heuermann. Brown said Heuermann would likely have more to say at sentencing.
Part of Heuermann’s plea agreement also requires him to be interviewed by the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit.
Rex A. Heuermann pleads guilty in court to the murders of eight women during a 17-year killing spree on April 8, 2026 in Riverhead, New York. (James Carbone/Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann addressed by victims’ families at sentencing: ‘Disgusting coward’
Anguished relatives of the Gilgo Beach, New York, serial killing victims aimed decades of anger at their loved ones’ killer, Rex Heuermann, as they read victim impact statements at his sentencing on Wednesday.
“I can’t even put into words the eviscerating hatred I have for you,” said Jasmine Robinson, cousin of victim Jessica Taylor, who would have turned 43 on Wednesday. “You fill me with so much repugnance.”
Another cousin, Violet Swager, remembered Taylor as “fierce, kind, compassionate, beautiful and intelligent.”
She said to Heuermann, “You chose small women because you’re nothing more than a weak, disgusting coward.”
In April, Heuermann, 62, pleaded guilty to killing seven women: Taylor, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Valerie Mack and Sandra Costilla. He also admitted to killing an eighth woman, Karen Vergata, though he was not formally charged in her death.
Brainard-Barnes’ sister Missy Cann broke down in tears as she read a statement prior to the imposition of the sentence.
“You are a coward who preyed on vulnerable, innocent women,” Cann said.
Mack’s parents, Ed and JoAnn Mack, said Heuermann robbed their daughter of the chance to achieve her dreams.
“I would like to say to Mr. Heuermann, what you have done to our family is beyond what words can express,” JoAnn Mack said. “Even though justice is done, it cannot replace what you have taken from us.”
At the April hearing, Heuermann agreed to serve three consecutive life sentences followed by four consecutive sentences of 25 years-to-life, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said the New York City architect targeted sex workers, strangled them and dumped their bodies near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach over the course of 17 years.
Heuermann “walked among us, play acting as a normal, suburban dad, when in reality, all along, he was obsessively targeting innocent women for death,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in April.
The Gilgo Beach cases went unsolved for years, until Heuermann’s arrest in 2023.
Since then, Heuermann has been in custody at the Riverhead Correctional Facility. While in jail, Heuermann has been reading books about murder and serial killers, and he’s communicated with Keith Hunter Jesperson, a 1990s serial killer known as the Happy Face Killer, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon told ABC News.
Defense attorney Michael Brown said in April that the decision to plead guilty belonged solely to Heuermann. Brown said Heuermann would likely have more to say at sentencing.
Part of Heuermann’s plea agreement also requires him to be interviewed by the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit.
Luigi Mangione appears at an evidence suppression hearing at Manhattan Supreme Court on May 18, 2026 in New York City. Mangione is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan in December 2024. (Photo by Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Attorneys for Luigi Mangione plan to present an “affirmative psychiatric defense” at his state trial, alleging he was suffering an “extreme emotional disturbance” at the time of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Judge Gregory Carro said at a hearing Wednesday.
Carro ordered Mangione’s attorneys to turn over his psychiatric records to prosecutors immediately.
Carro also agreed to dismiss one of the criminal counts related to possession of a large capacity ammunition magazine.
Prosecutors consented to drop the charge after a ruling earlier this year that prohibited them from using the magazine at trial because it was improperly searched by the officers who arrested Mangione in Pennsylvania.
Mangione pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges after he was arrested for allegedly gunning down Thompson, a husband and father of two, on a Midtown Manhattan street in December 2024.
Mangione’s state trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 8 and his federal trial is set for next year.
Luigi Mangione appears at an evidence suppression hearing at Manhattan Supreme Court on May 18, 2026 in New York City. Mangione is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan in December 2024. (Photo by Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Attorneys for Luigi Mangione plan to present an “affirmative psychiatric defense” at his state trial, alleging he was suffering an “extreme emotional disturbance” at the time of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Judge Gregory Carro said at a hearing Wednesday.
Carro ordered Mangione’s attorneys to turn over his psychiatric records to prosecutors immediately.
Carro also agreed to dismiss one of the criminal counts related to possession of a large capacity ammunition magazine.
Prosecutors consented to drop the charge after a ruling earlier this year that prohibited them from using the magazine at trial because it was improperly searched by the officers who arrested Mangione in Pennsylvania.
Mangione pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges after he was arrested for allegedly gunning down Thompson, a husband and father of two, on a Midtown Manhattan street in December 2024.
Mangione’s state trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 8 and his federal trial is set for next year.
Luigi Mangione appears at an evidence suppression hearing at Manhattan Supreme Court on May 18, 2026 in New York City. Mangione is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan in December 2024. (Photo by Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Attorneys for Luigi Mangione plan to present an “affirmative psychiatric defense” at his state trial, alleging he was suffering an “extreme emotional disturbance” at the time of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Judge Gregory Carro said at a hearing Wednesday.
Carro ordered Mangione’s attorneys to turn over his psychiatric records to prosecutors immediately.
Carro also agreed to dismiss one of the criminal counts related to possession of a large capacity ammunition magazine.
Prosecutors consented to drop the charge after a ruling earlier this year that prohibited them from using the magazine at trial because it was improperly searched by the officers who arrested Mangione in Pennsylvania.
Mangione pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges after he was arrested for allegedly gunning down Thompson, a husband and father of two, on a Midtown Manhattan street in December 2024.
Mangione’s state trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 8 and his federal trial is set for next year.
Flint Hills, Kansas near Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. (Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — America has lost about half of one of its most prominent and iconic landscapes, and protecting what’s left is key to ensuring healthy ecosystems and biodiversity in the future, experts told ABC News.
The continental U.S. has lost about half of its historic grasslands prior to European settlement, according to a press release from America’s Grasslands Coalition, a network of conservation organizations, researchers and government agencies that aims to restore North America’s native prairie and grassland ecosystems. An estimated 98% of native tall grass prairies has been eradicated, Ryan Sensenig, a grassland ecologist at the University of Notre Dame, told ABC News.
While grasslands are typically associated with the Great Plains, they used to exist in nearly every region of the U.S., Dwayne Estes, co-founder and executive director of the Southeastern Grasslands Institute told ABC News.
Grasslands were common everywhere from the Atlantic coastlines to the Mississippi River and into the Rocky Mountains and the West Coast, according to experts. Regions that are not typically associated with grasslands, including New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, were covered in them, Estes said.
They are part of the very fabric of North America’s natural heritage, “from sea to shining sea,” Patrick Keyser, director of Tennessee’s Center for Native Grasslands, told ABC News.
Grasslands continue to be threatened, experts say
Today, grasslands continue to disappear at an “alarming rate,” the coalition said.
Invasive plant species have infiltrated many of the natural grasslands, said David Wedin, director of the University of Nebraska’s Center for Grassland Studies. And most recently, development of housing, shopping malls and interstate highways — and now data centers — are popping up in areas that would have been grasslands, Keyser said.
Currently, grasslands cover about 1 million square miles in the continental U.S., according to America’s Grasslands Coalition. This includes savannahs and shrublands.
The most prominent pockets of native grasslands that still exist today are in the Flint Hills of Kansas, which contains about 4.5 million acres of grasslands, and the Nebraska Sandhills, which has about 12 million acres of grasslands.
The area of Nebraska is still an intact grassland. Much of the land is privately owned cattle ranches, but there is still a lot of native grassland and species left there, Wedin said.
Central Montana also contains scattered patches of native grasslands, Keyser said.
There are more than 1,000 native grasses that have been documented in the U.S. The two species of dominant native grasslands in the U.S. include the big bluestem, a robust grass that can grow to 10 feet tall and make for “excellent” cattle forage, and the little blue stem, a much smaller plant that is common on sandier, drier soils, Keyser said.
When US grasslands began to vanish
Indigenous communities relied on grasslands to survive, Sensenig said. They would practice prescribed burning to maintain the grasslands and enhance its biodiversity, Sensenig said. Native Americans would use the plant species for basket-weaving and currency and feed on the grazers, such as bison, elk and deer, Sensenig added.
“Eastern Massachusetts was historically dominated by grasslands before European settlement, and in that area people used to eat these things called prairie chickens regularly,” Keyser said, adding that prairie chickens require extensive grassland for their habitat.
Other evidence of grasslands on the East Coast includes thousands of insect and plant species that are tied to grasslands that still exist in the region, Estes said.
Grasslands east of the Mississippi River have been gone for “a very long time,” Estes said.
As early as the 1690s, grasslands began to disappear from places like Philadelphia and Baltimore, even before the nation was founded, Estes said.
In the 1700s and 1800s, pioneers began to clear land where there were fewer trees to create their farms. They tended to prioritize semi-open areas, Keyser said.
“Eastern grasslands were lost so long ago that basically they’ve been erased from society’s collective memory,” Estes said. “They were lost before the camera was invented.”
Grasslands continued to be eradicated as settlers migrated West.
The Transcontinental Railroad later brought settlers into the Great Plains in the 1870s, and gasoline-powered tractors led to widespread plowing of the native grasslands in the region, Keyser said.
“So, consequently, what had been a grassland ecosystem became a cornfield,” Keyser said.
Why grasslands are so important
Grasslands play a vital role in supporting wildlife, storing carbon, sustaining food systems and maintaining ecosystem balance, according to America’s Grasslands Coalition.
Grasslands also store huge amounts of carbon, which helps to regulate the atmosphere, Sensenig said. It is important for soil conservation, water regulation and wildlife habitat, Wedin said.
Grasslands are thought to store 30% of the world’s soil-based carbon — and 80% of that carbon is beneath the ground in the soil, Sensenig said.
Keystone herbivore species such as the American bison, elk and mule deer live in grasslands and help to regulate the rich plant biota for other creatures to thrive, Keyser said. Birds, pollinators and smaller mammals, such as prairie dogs, also depend on the open, grassy ecosystem and assist in maintaining the biodiversity, Estes said.
Grassland ecologists are concerned about the gradual degradation of grasslands due to lack of management and climate change and other changes to the environment, such as intensive modern agriculture, Wedin said.
“These sorts of chronic, low-level threats have a cumulative impact on our grasslands,” Wedin said.
Nearly half of 2,014 Americans surveyed are unfamiliar with grasslands, according to findings released Wednesday by America’s Grasslands Coalition.
Increasing appreciation and awareness of America’s grasslands is key to accelerating conservation action, according to the coalition.
The upcoming 250th birthday of America is an integral time to raise awareness of the importance of grasslands, Ginette Hemley, senior vice president of wildlife conservation at the World Wildlife Fund, said in a statement.
“As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, this is a moment to recognize the landscapes that have shaped the nation,” Hemley said. “From iconic species like bison to the communities that depend on them, grasslands are part of that heritage — and protecting them is part of our shared future.”
Former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama speak with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts at the Obama Presidential Center on June 13, 2026. (Michael Le Brecht IL/ABC News)
(CHICAGO) — For former President Barack Obama and former first Lady Michelle Obama, the opening of the Obama Presidential Center Friday is the culmination of their shared journey from Chicago’s South Side to the White House.
In their first joint network TV interview since leaving office in 2017, the couple reflected on their accomplishments in their eight years in the White House and the hope they have for the country ahead.
“People are a little discouraged right now,” Barack Obama told ABC News’ Robin Roberts in an interview that aired Wednesday on “Good Morning America.” “But, again, I believe that we go through these cycles, and there’s going to be a younger generation that pops up and there are going to be leaders who pop up.”
The former president said since leaving office, he has largely refrained from inserting himself too much into public policy debates as he sees himself these days as less of a “player” and more of a “coach” for the new generation of leaders.
“You pick and choose your spots. I’m not suggesting I’ve done it perfectly,” he said, going on to cite the example of how George Washington stepped away from politics after his time in office.
“He kind of said, ‘All right, I’ve done my stint. And now I’m going, you know, back home,'” Barack Obama said of the nation’s first president. “I think Michelle, you know, very much would prefer a quieter life for us. And on the other hand, there’ve been some folks who would like to see me out every day, right, banging the drum.”
With the Obama Presidential Center, part of the hope, he said, is to “encourage the next generation of leadership.”
The center’s campus encompasses 19 acres in Chicago’s Jackson Park, just steps from the University of Chicago. At a cost of $850 million, it includes 3.7 acres of parkland, offices for the Obama Foundation, an auditorium for public events, public art and athletic facilities, and a new branch of the Chicago Public Library.
In collaboration with the National Archives and Records Administration, the Obama presidential archives are fully digital.
The center’s centerpiece is a four-story museum that places the Obama years within a greater context of social change, starting with the Declaration of Independence and spanning the civil rights and labor movements, as well as the grassroots political movement in Chicago that led to Barack Obama’s political ascent.
Obama on his greatest accomplishment in office When asked by Roberts what he considers the greatest accomplishment of his two terms in office, Barack Obama cited the passage of the Affordable Care Act in March 2010, which expanded Medicaid, provided greater consumer protections, and lowered health insurance costs, especially for households at or below the federal poverty level.
He said the legislation continues to show that his administration represented all of America.
“For all the resistance from our political opposition, the Affordable Care Act has now helped 50, 60 million people, and continues to help people even though the current Congress has tried to weaken it and taken away some of the subsidies that were really helping a lot of working people,” the former president said. “I’m very proud of the message we sent to the country that we’re representing everybody.”
In addition to his legislative accomplishments, museum also tells the story of Barack Obama’s political ascendancy and how the core messages of “hope” and “change” were critical to his campaign for his first term.
Despite the harsh partisanship of today’s political culture, Michelle Obama said those messages are still possible.
“People just have to be fed up enough. They have to want more,” she said. “And I think the presidential center hopefully will remind people of just how close we are to moving this country in the direction that we want to move it in.”
Michelle Obama said an exhibit in the center that reflects on the Obamas’ position as the first Black first family in the history of America reflects that.
“You have one exhibit where people thought that it could never happen, that a Black man, a Black family would never live in the White House. That America would never accept that,” she said. “And lo and behold, the whole country, you know, the vast majority of the country believe differently.”
Amid the museum’s focus on the promise of democracy, Barack Obama said Americans, in times of disagreement, can focus on making their voice heard with their vote.
“The premise of this country is everybody gets a right to say, ‘No, I don’t agree with that. I challenge that. No, Obama, I think you’re making a mistake,’ you know?” he said. “And then we have a conversation about it, and then it gets settled in an election. And if enough people decide I didn’t know what I was doing, then you move on to the next person.”
Tune into the ABC News special “The Obama Legacy: First Joint Interview Post-White House,” streaming Thursday, June 18, on Disney+ and Hulu.
The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of ABC News.
