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(NEW YORK) — As bird flu continues to spread across the U.S., stores around the country are reporting a shortage of eggs amid soaring prices, high demand and supply limits.

More than 150 million poultry birds have been killed across all 50 states in an attempt to combat bird flu since 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The number of birds affected by the virus has been rising in recent months, with roughly 7 million affected in November, 18 million in December and 23 million in January, according to the latest figures from the USDA.

Over the last 30 days, 150 flocks were confirmed to test positive for bird flu, according to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Once a bird is infected, the only way to stop the virus from spreading further is to depopulate or cull the entire flock. It can take time for a flock to repopulate to lay eggs, affecting their price.

The Consumer Price Index, published Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed prices were 3% higher in January compared to a year ago. Prices for eggs increased 15.2% — the largest increase in egg prices since June 2015, according to the bureau.

As grocery stores and supermarkets limit the number of cartons of eggs that can be purchased, some people have resorted to stealing in order to get their hands on eggs.

Stores enforce purchase limits

Chains across the country have enforced limits on how many eggs customers can buy due to the high demand and shrinking supply.

“Due to ongoing issues with the supply of eggs, we are currently limiting egg purchases to one dozen per customer, per day, in all Trader Joe’s stores across the country,” a representative for Trader Joe’s confirmed to “Good Morning America” on Monday.

Other retailers, including Sprouts Farmers Market and Costco, have also implemented purchase limits on fresh eggs. Photos taken at Costco showed the warehouse giant limiting egg purchases to three per member.

This week, Lidl US announced it would also limit egg purchases to two per customer across all its stores.

“The following egg brands sold at Lidl US stores are currently limited to 2 per customer to ensure fair distribution: Green Valley, Simpson’s Eggs, and Puglisi’s Farm,” a Lidl US spokesperson said. “Specialty egg brands, including cage free, free range and organic, do not have limitations at this time at Lidl US.”

Despite concerns about the safety of eggs available in stores, experts say it’s highly unlikely to contract bird flu from commercially sold eggs.

Some turn to egg heists

Earlier this month, 100,000 organic eggs worth an estimated $40,000 were stolen from a facility in Green Castle, Pennsylvania.

Tom Flocco, CEO of Pete and Gerry’s Eggs, told “Good Morning America” in an exclusive interview last week that the company was going to boost security.

“I’ve worked in other industries before where things get stolen from factories,” Flocco said. “It happens. It’s terrible. I’m not happy about it, but it does happen. It could happen once; it could happen again. We are putting additional measures in place.”

Additionally, at Luna Park Café in Seattle, hundreds of dollars worth of eggs and other breakfast foods were stolen, according to the Seattle Police Department.

In the early morning hours on Feb. 5, two male suspects were caught on surveillance video entering a refrigerated shed at the restaurant, police said. The men stole 540 eggs worth $387, as well as bacon, ground beef, blueberries and liquid egg products, the SPD said.

A café employee said they saw one of the suspects return to the property, but he got back in the van and fled when he realized he’d been spotted, police said.

ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud, Kelly McCarthy, Joshua Richardson and Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Authorities in New York City are searching for a man who allegedly impersonated a federal immigration enforcement agent before trying to rape a 51-year-old woman in broad daylight, according to police sources.

The victim was waiting for a cab outside a Brooklyn CityMD just before 11 a.m. Tuesday when the suspect approached and said he was an ICE agent and needed to talk to her, according to police sources.

The man allegedly forced her into a basement stairwell, punched her and tried to rape her, the NYPD said.

He took her phone, her purse and a chain before fleeing the scene, police said.

The woman suffered lacerations to her face, bruising and scratches, and was hospitalized in stable condition, police sad.

The suspect never showed any identification, according to police sources.

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(LOS ANGELES) — A new atmospheric river is bearing down on California, including fire-ravaged Los Angeles, where residents are bracing for the possibility of mudslides and landslides.

The storm moves into the Golden State on Wednesday, with the heaviest rain falling on Thursday and Friday.

Some areas could see as much as 5 to 10 inches of rain while the Sierra Nevada mountain range could see 5 to 8 feet of snow.

A flood watch is in effect from the San Francisco Bay area to Los Angeles.

The biggest concern for mudslides and landslides will be on the burn scar areas from last month’s devastating Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles. These burn scar spots could see 3 to 5 inches of rain over the next three days.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city is preparing by clearing catch basins of fire debris; offering residents over 6,500 sandbags; setting up over 7,500 feet of concrete barriers; and having systems in place to capture polluted runoff.

Landslides from burn scars could be a threat in the region for years to come.

Post-wildfire landslides can exert great loads on objects in their paths, strip vegetation, block drainage ways, damage structures and endanger human life, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Additionally, wildfires could destabilize pre-existing, deep-seated landslides over long periods. Flows generated over longer periods could be accompanied by root decay and loss of soil strength, according to the USGS.

ABC News’ Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — A group of nonprofits suing the Trump administration over its 90-day foreign aid freeze is accusing government officials of “accelerating their terminations of contracts and suspensions of grants of USAID and State Department partners,” according to court documents filed Wednesday.

The aid groups, who filed their suit Tuesday, said many of them “received new purported termination notices, including yesterday and this morning” and suggested that government officials “may be doing so specifically in response to this lawsuit.”

The groups asked a federal judge to either issue a temporary restraining order to prevent further terminations, or schedule an emergency hearing on Wednesday to address the matter.

Defendants in the suit include President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Acting USAID Administrator Peter Marocco, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, the State Department, USAID, and OMB.

The plaintiffs claim that Trump’s aid freeze amounts to an “unlawful and unconstitutional exercise of executive power that has created chaos” around the globe, according to the suit.

The lawsuit alleges that the foreign aid freeze is unlawful, exceeds Trump’s authority as president, and is causing havoc.

“One cannot overstate the impact of that unlawful course of conduct: on businesses large and small forced to shut down their programs and let employees go; on hungry children across the globe who will go without; on populations around the world facing deadly disease; and on our constitutional order,” the lawsuit says.

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(NEW YORK) — As the Mid-Atlantic digs out from a significant snowstorm, a new winter storm is underway in the Plains that will move through the Midwest before reaching the East Coast.

On Wednesday morning, the second storm is hitting Kansas City, Missouri, and Des Moines, Iowa.

The storm will reach Chicago later in the morning, dropping 4 to 6 inches of snow.

An ice storm warning has been issued for Toledo, Ohio, where ice accumulation could cause power outages.

The storm will move into the Northeast on Wednesday evening, bringing mostly rain to the Interstate 95 corridor and an icy mix to New England and upstate New York.

On the southern end of the storm, heavy rain could bring flash flooding from Louisiana to North Carolina.

Strong tornadoes are possible in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

This comes after another snowstorm walloped the Mid-Atlantic on Tuesday.

Virginia recorded more than 14 inches of snow and West Virginia recorded 13 inches. Trees are toppling in Virginia due to the coating of snow and ice and over 170,000 customers in the state are without power on Wednesday morning.

Public schools are closed on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., where there’s more than 6 inches of snow on the ground.

Philadelphia saw 2.6 inches of snow and New York City saw 1.4 inches.

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(NEW YORK) — New York City is known for its towering skyscrapers and bustling streets, but lurking beneath the glitz and glamour of the city that never sleeps are 3 million resilient rats that have cemented their place as native New Yorkers.

According to Orkin, the pest control service, New York has been ranked as the third rattiest city in the country behind Los Angeles and Chicago. Now local officials are taking up the battle against the city’s furry rodents.

In 2023, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the city’s first Rat Czar, drawing national attention. Since then, many citywide initiatives have been explored.

Director of Rodent Mitigation Kathleen Corradi, aka the Rat Czar, is taking on the task of educating fellow New Yorkers with a new program called Rat Walks. It’s a program available in all boroughs where attendees learn everything about rats, their habits, and what human behaviors encourage the rodents to stick around.

In October, Corradi told participants attending a rat walk, “We’re doing a lot in this administration to make sure we’re containerizing, make sure we’re changing behaviors around waste management.”

Given a $3.5 million budget, Corradi is tasked with reducing the city’s rat population. Still, she says it’s up to New Yorkers, too, “The only way we are successful is getting an educated public change in behaviors and addressing those conditions that support rats. Extermination will always be a part of the conversation, but we know the long-term success relies on front-end equation, and that’s where we’re really focusing and empowering New Yorkers,” she told ABC News.

Several New Yorkers living in rat mitigation zones spoke to ABC News about seeing rats in their neighborhood. “The rats were all over the place, like just ‘Ratatouille,'” Shea Sullivan, a NYC resident, told ABC News. Samir, a superintendent, told us the situation in some of his apartment buildings was getting so out of hand that he had to drown rats himself, “I drowned them in water and killed them. This is ridiculous. It has to be changed completely.”

As New Yorkers are dealing with rats in their homes or neighborhoods, others are taking a different approach to tackling the issue.
New York City Council Member Shaun Abreu launched Bill 736, or “Flaco’s law.” The bill passed on Sept. 26, 2024, and will implement rat contraceptives in areas where trash is containerized. He told ABC News that rat birth control can help curb rat populations, but only if trash is fully contained so the rodents don’t have anything else to eat.

Two years ago, his office also introduced Rat Mitigation Zones, securing $11.5 million to fund the initiative.

“Through my legislation two years ago, the city established five rat mitigation zones, and in these rat mitigation zones citywide rat sightings have gone down by 14%, at least, based off of 311 complaints,” Abreu told ABC News.
In 2024, his office also introduced a residential pilot program to containerize trash in Harlem, an area largely infested with rats. “You have these giant bins out on the street and since we’ve implemented that last September, trash is now in containers. Now they’re not out for a rat buffet anymore. 311 complaints for rat sightings have gone down by 55%. No other intervention has been done this past year,” he told ABC News.

With the passing of Bill 736, rat contraceptives are expected to be rolled out on New York City streets by April 26, 2025.
The company WISDOM Good Works is expected to partner with the city to manage and maintain the distribution of rat birth control. “We’ve been working with City Council offices as well as city agencies that will be enforcing the bill,” the director of operations at WISDOM Good Works, Alaina Gonzalez-White, told ABC News.

She says that the birth control pellets are safer for all wildlife, not just rats. “It’s formulated to target the reproductive system of an animal the size of a rat. Anything that eats that rat will no longer be eating a poisoned meal.” PETA supports the initiative.

Ashley Byrne, senior campaigner for PETA, told us the end of rat poison, known as rodenticide, would mean saving the lives of pets that may come in contact with rats. “Ultimately, slaughtering rats doesn’t work. The only long-term and humane solution is prevention. No animal deserves to experience the slow suffering and miserable death that results from ingesting rat poison.”

Abreu shared his mission to combat rat populations more humanely, saying, “My goal personally is not for rats to go extinct. Our goal is (to) coexist in a way where rats aren’t showing up. I think our message is very much in line with the PETA message. We believe in New York City, we should throw everything we can at the problem from shutting off the food supply, but also targeting rat reproduction at the source.”
 

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(WASHINGTON) — Three weeks into Donald Trump’s breakneck effort to remake the federal government, the rapid pace of lawsuits pushing back against his orders — and a number of legal setbacks for the Trump administration — have challenged the Department of Justice, seemingly overwhelming the government lawyers tasked with defending the president in court.

In a court filing Monday night, Justice Department lawyers acknowledged making two significant errors last week during a court hearing about the dismantling of the foreign aid agency USAID. While DOJ attorneys last week claimed that 500 employees at USAID had been put on leave and that only future contracts had been put on pause, more than 2,100 employees had actually been placed on leave while both future and existing contracts were frozen, according to the filing.

“Defendants sincerely regret these inadvertent misstatements based on information provided to counsel immediately prior to the hearing and have made every effort to provide reliable information in the declaration supporting their opposition to a preliminary injunction,” DOJ lawyers wrote to the judge overseeing the case.

During the USAID hearing last week, Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, expressed frustration that the government had not provided him sufficient information.

“I need to know what the government’s official position is right now. What is happening?” Nichols said. “Is the government paying people or not?”

The Trump administration has faced a torrent of lawsuits over the last two weeks, with judges over the last two days blocking them from enforcing a federal buyout program, cutting funding for health research, and removing public health data from government websites.

After a New York judge blocked Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department records on Saturday, both DOGE head Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance began to publicly float the idea of defying the court orders.

Justice Department representatives did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

During a hearing in the Treasury Department case, the DOJ claimed that Marko Elez — a SpaceX employee-turned-DOGE cost-cutter who briefly resigned last week after the Wall Street Journal reported on racist social media posts — was a “special government employee” within the Department of the Treasury.

In a filing Monday, the DOJ corrected themselves to note that Elez was actually a full-fledged Treasury Department employee — a “Special Advisor for Information Technology and Modernization” according to the filing — who is subject to additional ethics requirements.

During a hearing last week on whether the DOJ should be blocked from disseminating a list of federal agents and employees who worked on cases involving the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, a DOJ attorney was unable to say with confidence whether the government might eventually release the list, frustrating the judge overseeing the case.

“You represent the government,” U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb said sternly. “The White House wants this information. Does the government have present intent to publicly release names of FBI agents that worked on Jan. 6 cases?”

“People who have the list don’t have present intent,” replied the attorney, Jeremy Simon, who then had to ask for a series of short recesses as he was pressed to provide answers on the government’s stance.

At one point Simon needed to excuse himself into the hallway to speak by phone with his superiors.

The legal challenges began immediately after Trump ignited his barrage of Day-1 executive orders. During a hearing on the administration’s short-lived federal funding freeze, a DOJ attorney appeared unable to provide a clear answer about the extent of the White House’s new policy.

“It seems like the federal government currently doesn’t actually know the full scope of the programs that are going to be subject to the pause. Is that correct?” U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan asked the attorney.

“I can only speak for myself, which is just based on the limited time frame here, that I do not have a comprehensive list,” replied DOJ lawyer Daniel Schwei. “It just depends.”

And during the first court hearing about Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, the position of defending Trump’s order put Brett Shumate, the acting assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s civil division, in a federal judge’s firing line.

“In your opinion, is this executive order constitutional?” U.S. District Judge John Coughenour asked Shumate during the hearing.

“Yes, we think it is,” Shumate said, drawing the judge’s rebuke.

“I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar can state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It boggles my mind,” Coughenour said. “Where were the lawyers when this decision was being made?”

A constitutional law expert told ABC News that DOJ attorneys have been rebuked by judges of all stripes.

“They are doing this regardless of geography and regardless of who appointed them,” said Loyola Marymount University law professor Justin Levitt. “So you’ve seen pushback from Reagan appointees, you’ve seen pushback from Bush appointees, you’ve seen pushback from Obama appointees and Trump appointees and Biden appointees, and that’s going to continue.”

Levitt said the results have generally not been in the Trump administration’s favor.

“As far as I can tell, they’re winless in the courts,” he said.

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(NEW YORK) — Refrigerators, beers and bicycles stand at risk of higher prices as a result of tariffs on steel and aluminum announced by President Donald Trump this week, experts told ABC News.

The tariffs, which take effect next month, slap a 25% tax on all foreign steel and aluminum, repeating a policy Trump initiated during his first term in office.

Trade experts told ABC News the tariffs will likely raise prices for some goods made out of the two metals, since importers typically pass along a share of the cost of those higher taxes to retailers and, in turn, down the line to consumers.

“This will feed through the economy,” Kyle Handley, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, told ABC News. Higher prices could manifest in as little as three months or as long as a year, Handley added.

In response to ABC News’ request for comment, the White House said the policy would boost economic performance.

“In his first administration, President Trump instituted an America First economic agenda of tariffs, tax cuts, deregulation and an unleashing of American energy that resulted in historic job, wage and investment growth with no inflation. In his second administration, President Trump will again use tariffs to level the playing field and usher in a new era of growth and prosperity for American industry and workers,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said.

Here are the prices that may increase as a result of tariffs on steel and aluminum:

Cars and trucks

Steel is the top material by weight in a car, accounting for about 60% of its weight, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Once steel imports face stiff taxes, experts forecast the price of steel paid by U.S. manufacturers will rise, meaning higher input costs for carmakers. Those companies, they added, are likely to hike prices for consumers as a means of offsetting some of those costs.

“There’s a lot of metal in a Ford truck,” Handley said. “If it’s more expensive, they’ll have to charge more for the car.”

Ford declined to respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Speaking on Tuesday at the Wolfe Research conference, an investor gathering, Ford CEO Jim Farley said potential tariffs on steel and aluminum are causing “cost and chaos,” according to a transcript of the event shared by Ford.

Bill Hanvey, president and CEO of Auto Care Association, a trade group representing thousands of firms across the vehicle supply chain, criticized the steel tariffs.

“Many specialty steel products used in our industry are not readily available from domestic sources, making access to global supply chains essential,” Hanvey said in a statement.

Soda and beer

Aluminum tariffs risk higher prices for beverages packaged in aluminum cans, such as beer and soft drinks, some experts said.

The previous set of tariffs on aluminum cost the U.S. beverage industry $1.7 billion between 2018 and 2022, according to the Beer Institute, an industry trade group.

“Paying a tariff-laden price on all aluminum drives up the cost of doing business and makes consumer goods more expensive,” the Beer Institute said in 2022.

In response to the tariffs imposed by Trump this week, the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild warned on X: “Our small brewery owners and customers will pay the price.”

Some soda companies may also feel the pinch. Speaking on an earnings call on Tuesday, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey said the company may focus on a different packaging material if aluminum prices rise.

Home appliances

Major home appliances — such as refrigerators and washing machines — rely in part on steel, making them vulnerable to potential price increases, Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, told ABC News.

“You would certainly expect to see those goods get a little bit more expensive,” Miller said.

In the aftermath of steel and aluminum tariffs during Trump’s first term, major appliances showed price increases of between 5% and 10% between June 2018 and April 2019, Miller added, citing a monthly government data release. Those price hikes far outpaced an overall inflation rate of around 2%.

Though prices for major appliances started to decline in the latter part of 2019, Miller noted, forecasting at the very least a halt in the price drops.

Bicycles

Steel and aluminum make up a key component of bicycles, raising the likelihood of price increases, Handley said.

“Bicycles will definitely be more expensive,” Handley said, pointing to the aluminum used for bicycle frames and components. In some cases, he added, those raw materials depend on steel.

Last month, trade organization People For Bikes expressed concern about 25% tariffs issued for Canadian and Mexican goods, as well as a 10% tariff on Chinese goods. Within days, Trump paused the tariffs on Mexico and Canada for one month, though they remain on the table.

“As a result of the new administration’s policies, the international trade landscape has become, and will remain, increasingly turbulent,” Matt Moore, policy counsel at People For Bikes, wrote in a blog post.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has removed a career Justice Department official from his role as the acting head of the DOJ’s National Security Division after the longtime prosecutor served in the position for less than a month, sources told ABC News.

Devin DeBacker, who in that role was an acting assistant attorney general, served for only a few weeks in the position, which helps oversee the Justice Department’s efforts to fight global terrorism, root out domestic extremism, stop foreign espionage operations, enforce U.S. sanctions, and investigate leaks of classified information.

In the first few days of the new Trump administration, as previously reported by ABC News, DeBacker tried to ease concerns within the department’s National Security Division after two of its most experienced prosecutors were removed.

But on Monday, Justice Department leadership told DeBacker that he would no longer be leading the division, according to sources familiar with the matter. It’s unclear why DeBacker was removed, and a Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment about the matter.

Under the first Trump administration, DeBacker served in the White House counsel’s office and then the Justice Department. He left at the start of the Biden administration, but rejoined the Justice Department a year later, becoming chief of the National Security Division’s foreign investment review section.

Sources said he is expected to continue in that role.

On his LinkedIn page, DeBacker describes himself as “a strategic counselor and senior government executive with deep experience in national security, complex litigation and investigations, and crisis and risk management.”

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(NEW YORK) — At least 26 states are under alerts for snow, ice and flooding as three winter storms cross the country over the next few days.

The first storm is moving into the Ohio River Valley on Tuesday with snow coming down from Paducah, Kentucky, to Evansville, Indiana; as well as in Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky.

A winter storm warning has been issued from Louisville to Atlantic City, New Jersey, including Washington, D.C. An ice storm warning is in effect for parts of West Virginia.

This winter storm will move out of Ohio Valley and into the Mid-Atlantic states by early afternoon Tuesday, reaching D.C. between noon and 1 p.m.

Total snow accumulation will be around 3 to 5 inches in Louisville and the Ohio River Valley, about 3 to 6 inches in Washington, D.C., proper and 4 to 8 inches possible south and west of D.C.

Snow will be light further north, with only 2 to 3 inches possible in Philadelphia and possibly 1 to 2 inches in New York City. New England should miss this storm system completely.

Further south, a flood watch has been issued from Texas to Georgia as heavy rain could cause flash flooding.

Second storm

The second storm will develop over the Rockies and the Plains later Tuesday, with a heavy swath of snow spreading north into the Great Lakes.

Snow is forecast from Denver all the way to Chicago and Detroit, where winter storm watches and warnings have been issued.

The snow will spread into Kansas City, Missouri, early Wednesday morning. The steady snow will reach Chicago late Wednesday morning into the afternoon.

The storm system will reach the East Coast by Wednesday evening with a wintry mix that will turn to rain from D.C. to New York City and Boston.

Further inland, several inches of snow are possible from the Catskill Mountains in New York to the Green and White mountains in New England.

This storm will also bring heavy rain across the South, with flash flooding possible from Louisiana to western North Carolina.

Third storm

The third storm is still in the Pacific Ocean, but it will begin to bring rain to the West Coast on Wednesday morning, including in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The core of the storm will move into California on Wednesday night into Thursday morning with very heavy rain for the San Francisco Bay area.

The heaviest rain will begin to move into Los Angeles and Southern California starting Thursday morning and will last into Thursday evening.

A flood watch has been issued for California, including Los Angeles. Flash flooding, mudslides, landslides and rockslides are expected by Thursday and Friday.

The storm will cross the Rockies on Friday and will move into the Midwest with more heavy snow by Saturday morning.

By Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning, rain and snow will reach the East Coast. This storm looks more wet than white for the Interstate 95 corridor.

Bitter Cold

Ten states from Washington to Wisconsin are under cold weather alerts Tuesday morning, including an extreme cold warning from Montana to Minnesota — where wind chills could drop as low as 55 below zero through Thursday morning.

Record cold temperatures are forecast from Washington to Montana over the next few days.

The unseasonably cold weather will spill into the Northeast by early next week, with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees below normal.

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