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(FORT WORTH, Texas) — Opal Lee was only 12 years old when a racist white mob stormed and set fire to her home on 940 East Annie Street in Fort Worth, Texas. The violence raged on June 19, 1939 — the date now known as “Juneteenth,” the annual holiday that celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S.

“The whites didn’t want us in the neighborhood,” Lee told ABC News.

“The police were there and when my dad came from work with a gun, the police told him if he busted a cap that they would let the mob have us,” she added.

Her family had moved from Marshall, Texas, to Fort Forth, where they purchased a home in an all-white neighborhood. And only five days later, a violent white mob destroyed it.

“Those people tore the house asunder. They drove the furniture out and burned it. They did despicable things,” she said.

Lee, who is known as the “grandmother of the movement,” became a lifelong activist for social justice and now, nearly 85 years later, the 97-year-old matriarch found herself back on 940 East Annie, where a large group of people gathered again.

But this time they were all there to celebrate the reclamation of her family’s home with a wall-raising ceremony.

“Today, Oh, it was groundbreaking,” Lee said, after taking part in the wall-raising ceremony organized by Habitat for Humanity.

“I know my mom would be smiling down and my dad, well, he’d think we finally got it done.”

Lee said that she spent years wondering what had happened to her family’s land and, upon inquiring about the lot at 940 East Annie, she learned that Habitat for Humanity, which has worked to revitalize much of her old neighborhood in Fort Worth, owned the land.

“I went to Habitat to buy it and they wouldn’t sell it to me. They gave it to me,” Lee said.

Lee, who had also served on board of Trinity Habitat for Humanity in the past, hoped to buy the land from Habitat. But when she reached out to the organization, Lee said that the CEO Gage Yager told her that he would not only like to give Lee her family’s land back, but that the organization would also work to build Lee and her family a home on the land.

Lee’s granddaughter Renee Toliver told ABC News that since Lee already owns a home, Habitat for Humanity – an organization that builds homes for those without housing – couldn’t use their own funds to build the home, so Lee’s own nonprofit, led by Toliver, took on the mission to fundraise for the project. It didn’t take long before History Maker Homes, a local construction company, and a local branch of Capital Bank donated the funds to make the home a reality.

“I don’t really know how to act except to thank God for all that has happened,” Lee said.

According to Lee, the target date for her to move into her new home is June 19, which would not only mark “Juneteenth,” but also 85 years since her family was violently driven out of their home.

“So far, it seems to be paid for to be able to get in it in June,” she said. “I don’t know how to express my thankfulness in how joyful I am. And I keep telling people at my house, all I’m taking is my toothbrush to go to the new house.”

ABC News’ Tesfaye Negussie and Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — The Texas Medical Board released guidance on what qualifies for an exception to the state’s multiple abortion bans, weighing in on how physicians can provide care in medical emergencies.

While the board voted to publish the guidance publicly, they will vote on adopting the guidance in the future. The guidance was released publicly, with the board asking physicians, patients and the public to weigh in with comments on whether it addresses physicians’ confusion.

Texas, which has multiple abortion bans in place, is one of 14 states that have ceased nearly all abortion services since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights.

Despite being called on to elaborate on the wording of the bans, the Medical Board said it is not their jurisdiction to determine what the law should be, but they sought to elaborate on how physicians should provide care.

“I just want to remind everybody that we cannot make law. We can help clarify existing law,” Dr. Sherif Zaafran, president of the Texas Medical Board, said during a public meeting Friday.

Physicians should determine what care is medically necessary based on their “reasonable medical judgment,” Zaafran said.

The board’s guidance includes telling physicians to document their decision-making and the circumstances of a patient’s illness in their medical record in cases of medical emergencies that pose the danger of death or risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function, according to the rules.

The record-keeping of the physician’s thought process and medical decisions is what would determine whether the physician’s actions met the standard of care or not, Zaafran said.

The rules also said physicians should determine whether there is “adequate time to transfer the patient by any means available to a facility or physician with a higher level of care or expertise to avoid performing an abortion.”

However, the board said it would not release a list of medical conditions that would qualify for the exceptions, despite singling out ectopic pregnancies.

“If you put a list out there, that may be a list that is accurate in one setting but inaccurate in another setting,” Zaafran said.

The new rules proposed exclusions for procedures to remove ectopic pregnancy, the remains of a dead fetus, or procedures meant to save the life of the unborn fetus, saying they are not all abortions. The treatment for an ectopic pregnancy is an abortion.

After a portion of the rules was read during the board meeting on Friday, the floor was opened up to members of the public wishing to comment on it. Three women suing Texas over its abortion bans, who say the bans put their lives in danger, shared their stories with the medical board, and their disappointment that the guidance did not cover cases of fatal fetal anomalies.

Taylor Edwards told the board that her physician’s medical judgment was for her to get an abortion but she was not allowed to receive one

“I had to flee the state,” Edwards said. “That shouldn’t be what’s happening in Texas.”

“I am currently pregnant today because I got an abortion,” Edwards said.

Kaitlyn Kash, whose fetus had skeletal dysplasia, was told her baby was unlikely to survive until birth or would suffocate soon after being born, but she could not get an abortion in Texas.

“I probably would have taken my own life to end my child’s pain,” Kash said.

“I’ve tried to get the courts to help to explain what would happen in my situation as a plaintiff in the Zurowski [v. State of Texas] case. And they said that we needed to wait for you, and now you’re saying it’s not your responsibility either. So where else am I supposed to go?” Kash said.

The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, Amanda Zurawski, told the board the guidance is very confusing and she is concerned it would add further burdens on physicians — with documentation requirements — and potentially delay care.

“On the one hand, we have the Supreme Court telling us that this decision is up to you, and the clarity should be something that you provide. However, today it sounds like you’re saying the opposite and that it’s not within your jurisdiction, and that the Supreme Court should actually be the ones to make these decisions,” Zurawski said.

Stephen Brint Carlton, Texas Board executive director, responded that the documentation should not delay care and can be done retroactively.

“I don’t believe it’s contemplated by the board that someone is in an immediate medical emergency and the physician needs to stop saving the patient and treating them to go and document a bunch of stuff. This can come after saving the patient’s life,” Carlton said.

An attorney working with the Center for Reproductive Rights in their legal challenges against the state of Texas over its abortion bans told the board he fears the new rule does little to change the current state of things and does not protect lifesaving care for pregnant mothers.

The Center for Reproductive Rights released a statement criticizing the proposed rules, saying they “fall short of clarifying abortion exceptions.”

“The rules Texas Medical Board proposed today contain more of the same rhetoric we have been hearing for years: that physicians should just read the language of the exception and exercise their reasonable medical judgment, even when we know from Kate Cox’s case that the Attorney General will continue to second guess that judgment,” Molly Duane, the CRR’s lead attorney, said in a statement.

“The proposed rules also create a new and extremely burdensome documentation system that physicians must use when providing abortions under the exception that includes documenting whether there was ‘adequate time to transfer the patient’ ‘by any means available’ to a different facility to avoid having to perform an abortion. This is not what medical providers and patients need,” Duane said.

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(CAMEL VALLEY, Calif.) — A 30-year-old woman who went on a day-trip hike in coastal California has now been missing for four days, according to authorities.

Search and rescue teams are scouring the trails around the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center for Caroline Meister, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office said.

Meister left for her hike around 10 a.m. Monday and was reported missing that night, the sheriff’s office said.

Meister planned to hike a trail that loops back around to the Zen Center, according to the sheriff’s office, but she also mentioned hiking the Windcave Trail.

She was only carrying enough food for the day and wasn’t dressed or equipped to stay overnight, authorities said.

Meister has been living and working at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center for the last year and a half, so her parents remain hopeful for her return, they told Monterey Bay affiliate KSBW.

“She’s very familiar with the area. She’s also an avid hiker,” her father, John Meister, told KSBW.

Meister has long, brown, wavy hair and was wearing teal-colored boots and carrying a blue bag, authorities said. She stands at 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds.

Anyone who was hiking in the area of the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center on Monday and may have seen Meister is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 831-755-5111. Anyone who plans to hike that area is urged to be on the lookout, the sheriff’s office added.

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(NEW YORK) — Mega Million’s jackpot has surged to $977 million after no winners were selected in Tuesday night’s drawing. The next drawing is Friday night at 11 p.m.

The numbers drawn Saturday night were: 24, 46, 49, 62 and 66 and gold Mega Ball 7.

There have been 29 consecutive drawing without a jackpot winner. The last jackpot was won on Dec. 8.

The jackpot prize has a cash value of $467 million which can be offered as a one-time lump sum payment or an immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments.

The odds of winning the jackpot is 1 in 302,575,350, according to Mega Millions.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $2 for one play.

The largest Mega Millions jackpot prize ever won was $1.6 billion prize won on Aug. 8, 2023.

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(NEW YORK) — Scientists have discovered a new ancient amphibian species that could bridge the gap in understanding how modern-day frogs and salamanders developed.

The fossilized skull of the 270-million-year-old amphibian ancestor was first unearthed in 1984 in a rock formation in Texas. However, it spent decades sitting in a collection at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History waiting to be studied.

In 2021, a group at the Smithsonian finally began examining the fossil to determine what prehistoric creature the fossil belonged to. The findings were published Thursday in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Paleontologists have playfully named the new species Kermitops gratus in honor of the Kermit the Frog, created by Jim Henson.

Calvin So, a doctoral student at the George Washington University and the paper’s lead author, said naming the creature after the beloved character is also an opportunity to get the public excited about the discovery.

“Using the name Kermit has significant implications for how we can bridge the science that is done by paleontologists in museums to the general public,” he said in a release. “Because this animal is a distant relative of today’s amphibians, and Kermit is a modern-day amphibian icon, it was the perfect name for it.”

Researchers said they discovered the fossil was a type of temnospondyl, a primitive amphibian that lived more than 200 million years ago mainly during the the Carboniferous, Permian and Triassic periods.

The one-inch-long fossil has many unique characteristics that scientists realized made it different from previously discovered species. It has large, oval-shaped eye sockets and a skull with a short region behind the eyes but an elongated, curbed snout.

This head shape suggests the animal ate grubs — which are the larval form of certain beetle species — and other small insects, similar to frogs and salamanders.

There are some differences between Kermitops and present-day amphibians. The team discovered the skull has palpebral bones, or eyelid bones. Meanwhile, amphibians have moveable eyelids and have a third eyelid called a nictitating membrane that provides lubrication and protection.

Additionally, researchers found evidence of teeth, though not in the same place as modern-day frogs, most of which have small teeth on the upper jaws and roof of their mouths.

The Smithsonian team said that the history of amphibians and their ancestors documented through fossils is “fragmentary” due to their small and delicate bones, which has made it a challenge to study the evolution to their modern-day counterparts. The discovery of Kermitops, however, could help answer some questions about the evolutionary path.

“Kermitops offers us clues to bridge this huge fossil gap and start to see how frogs and salamanders developed these really specialized traits,” So said.

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(NEW YORK) — Two suspected squatters have been taken into custody for questioning after they allegedly killed a woman who walked in on them living in her mother’s New York City apartment, police sources told ABC News.

The victim, Nadia Vitel, a 52-year-old woman from Spain, came to the U.S. to prepare her mother’s Manhattan apartment for a family friend, sources said. The Kips Bay apartment had been vacant for the last few months after Vitel’s mother died, sources said.

When Vitel went inside, she found a man and a woman living there, the sources said.

A struggle ensued, and it appears Vitel was thrown into a sheetrock wall, sources said.

The two suspects then allegedly stole Vitel’s Lexus and drove to New Jersey and then Pennsylvania, where they crashed near Harrisburg, sources said.

They were taken into custody on Friday in York, Pennsylvania, sources said.

On March 14, Vitel’s worried son, who hadn’t heard from his mother in two days, accessed the Kips Bay apartment with the superintendent and other relatives, and found his mom’s body, sources said. Vitel’s body was in a duffel bag in a closet, with her foot sticking out of the bag, sources said.

Vitel died from blunt force trauma to the head and her death was ruled a homicide, officials said.

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(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — The body of missing college student Riley Strain was recovered from the Cumberland River in West Nashville Friday morning following a two-week search, according to Nashville police.

“No foul play-related trauma was observed,” police said.

There’s no evidence to suggest anything besides Strain accidentally falling in the river, Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters on Friday.

Strain’s body was spotted by workers at the river Friday morning, Drake said. The autopsy will likely be done Friday, he said.

Strain, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Missouri, went missing on March 8 after a night out at several Nashville bars. Strain and his Delta Chi fraternity brothers were visiting Nashville for their fraternity formal.

While the friends were out that night, Strain FaceTimed his mom and didn’t sound intoxicated, Strain’s stepfather, Chris Whiteid, told ABC News.

Strain and his mom exchanged more texts after the FaceTime call, Whiteid said. The last text Strain sent to his mom that night was, “I love you.”

Surveillance cameras and police body cameras captured Strain’s last known movements from about 9:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Strain was reported missing on March 9 and authorities launched a massive search by foot, by drone and by boat.

The United Cajun Navy also arrived in Nashville to help organize volunteer searches.
 

Strain’s stepfather told ABC News on Wednesday that the family was beginning to have difficult conversations.

“Put yourself in our shoes,” Whiteid said. “Your family, your brother, your sister — they’ve been missing for almost two weeks.”

“Everybody knows it, everybody’s thinking it — those conversations are starting to happen,” he said. “It’s not what we want. And I understand that people want to know what we’re feeling — we’re feeling frustrated, we’re feeling hurt, we’re feeling depressed.”

“Nobody knows what happened,” he said.

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(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Two weeks after college student Riley Strain went missing after a night out at several Nashville bars, his body was recovered in the Cumberland River in West Nashville, police said.

“No foul play-related trauma was observed,” police said.

Here’s how the case has unfolded:

March 8, 9:35 p.m.
Strain, 22, and his Delta Chi fraternity brothers from the University of Missouri were in Nashville for their fraternity formal and went out in the city’s Broadway area on March 8.

“He was excited ’cause he was out, and he was sending me pictures at the different bars they were going to. And he was having fun with his fraternity brothers,” his mom, Michelle Whiteid, told ABC News.

At 9:35 p.m., Strain was escorted out of country star Luke Bryan’s bar, Luke’s 32 Bridge.

“At 9:35 p.m., our security team made a decision based on our conduct standards to escort him from the venue through our Broadway exit at the front of our building,” Luke’s 32 Bridge said in a statement. “He was followed down the stairs with one member of his party. The individual with Riley did not exit and returned upstairs.”

March 8, 9:46 p.m.
At 9:46 p.m., surveillance video showed Strain walking alone as he stumbled down a street. An additional angle showed Strain running and falling down.

March 8, 9:47 p.m.
Police released video showing Strain at 9:47 p.m., crossing the street with a group and checking his phone. He then stopped and changed directions for a moment before proceeding down the street behind the group.

March 8, 9:50 p.m.
Around 9:50 p.m., police officer Reginald Young came across Strain while responding to a car burglary on Gay Street, south of the Woodland Street Bridge, according to Nashville police.

As Strain walked by alone, the officer asked how he was doing. Strain responded, “I’m good, how are you?”
 

March 9
Strain’s friend reported him missing on March 9, according to Nashville police.

The friend told officers that their group last saw the 22-year-old around 10 p.m. the night before when he was kicked out of Luke Bryan’s bar, police said. The friends started looking for Strain, but couldn’t find him.

March 17
On March 17, two volunteer searchers found Strain’s bank card on the embankment between Gay Street and the Cumberland River, near Riverfront Park, police said.

“My stomach sank, her stomach sank, and we both looked at each other like, is this — is this real?” one of the volunteers, Brandy Baenen, told ABC News.

“I just hope that we find Riley,” Baenen said. “And I also hope that in some way that maybe this inspires other people to help — anyway they can in any other case, because it really could be anybody. Riley put on that button-up shirt that day and those boots, and he was probably so excited to go out with his frat brothers. Something that they probably been planning for so long. Nobody expected this to happen.”

March 22
On the morning of March 22, Strain’s body was found in the Cumberland River in West Nashville, police said.

“No foul play-related trauma was observed,” police said.

An autopsy will be conducted.

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(NEW YORK) — The first weekend of spring is being ushered in with snow in the Midwest and New England, and heavy rain in major Northeast cities.

Montana to Minnesota saw 4 to 8 inches of snow overnight as a second storm slammed Texas with hail.

These storms will combine over the Northeast Friday night into the weekend, flooding the Interstate 95 corridor with rain and dumping heavy snow from western New York to New England.

A flood watch has been issued for Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, Boston and Portland, Maine, for Friday night through Saturday evening.

Some areas could see up to 4 inches of rain in a short period of time.

Urban flash flooding is likely and driving could be extremely dangerous.

Further north, a winter storm warning has been issued for New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, where 1 to 2 feet of snow is possible in the mountains.

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(NEW YORK) — Regina, a mother of three daughters, lives in one of the poorest counties in one of the country’s poorest states — Mississippi. She holds down a job during the day and is attending nursing school. Life for her is hard, but she manages as best she can.

In late 2022, that changed. Regina noticed that Ashley, her middle daughter, began withdrawing — she quit her cheer team and stopped going outside. Then Ashley started to get really sick, vomiting a lot.

“We took her to the hospital and rushed her in and they took her to the back …The nurse [was] like ‘You pregnant.’ And that’s when I just broke down and started crying,” Regina said.

Ashley, who was 11 weeks pregnant at the time, said she was raped by a stranger in the yard of the family’s home.

“She’s just 12. She don’t know nothing about having no babies. Nothing,” Regina said.

But amid confusion over what abortion care is allowed in Mississippi, Regina says she was unaware Ashley qualified for an abortion in Mississippi under the law’s exception for cases of rape. Yet, even if she was aware, it’s unlikely Ashley would have been able to get an abortion in Mississippi; with heavy restrictions in effect and the high penalties on physicians who violate the abortion ban, it is unlikely she would have found a doctor willing to perform a procedure.

Ashley, now 13 years old, is the mother of an 8-month-old baby boy nicknamed Peanut.

In addition to her homework, the seventh-grader now prepares bottles and changes diapers when she gets home.

To protect their privacy, ABC News is using the same pseudonyms as TIME Magazine, which first reported this story.

The OB-GYN on call the night Ashley went to the hospital, Dr. Erica Balthrop, says the conversation they had still weighs on her.

“You see this timid little girl — she’s literally a little girl — and she was like a deer in the headlights. She had no idea what was going on,” Balthrop said.

“That was probably one of those days that will just stick in my head. Forever,” she said. “It’s sad … I think about a woman — a girl with no rights of her own, basically. She can’t make a decision about her own body.”

Regina and Ashley reported the rape to law enforcement — which should have allowed her to get abortion care in the state.

Mississippi’s strict abortion ban has narrow exceptions for cases of rape and to save the life of the mother, but — caught in the confusion caused by a web of conflicting laws — Regina says she was unaware her daughter could have qualified for an abortion in Mississippi under the exception. Mississippi has several conflicting laws and even experts, doctors and patients are having a hard time navigating them

Regina said when she asked about their options, Dr. Balthrop told her the closest abortion clinic was in Chicago — with Mississippi boxed in by states with bans in place.

“That’s like $800; $1,500 to have an abortion up there. And I’m like, I have to drive, I leave work. I can’t afford that,” Regina said.

So the family was out of options. Regina decided to keep her daughter’s pregnancy private, homeschooling Ashley.

Police arrested the accused rapist last year. Regina says they used DNA from the baby to prove the link. He remains behind bars, charged with felony rape.

“He took my child’s innocence,” Regina said.

“She didn’t have to go through this. It’s not her time to go through this,” she said.

Only four abortions in the state in 2023

One expert says the family was failed by the system.

“It could be fair to say that there is a lot of confusion and misinformation about abortion across the country … People hear that it’s banned and they think that they don’t have options in the state,” Alina Salganicoff, senior vice president and director of Women’s Health Policy at Kaiser Family Foundation, told ABC News.

Had Regina known about the exception, Salganicoff says finding a physician to perform the procedure could also have been a challenge.

“Physicians have so much at stake in terms of losing their medical license, financial penalties, and, in some cases, criminalization leading to jail time. So it is very concerning for them to take the risk of performing an abortion unless they are absolutely certain that they won’t be penalized for this,” she said.

Dr. Balthrop acknowledged many providers in the state would not be willing to take the risk.

“Most people wouldn’t do it here in the state. They would refer you out,” Balthrop said.

Mississippi is just one of at least 14 states that have ceased nearly all abortion services in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade being overturned. The impact of bans has been drastic on women and girls seeking abortions in those states.

In 2023, the state only recorded four abortions performed under the exceptions, according to documents ABC News obtained from the Mississippi Department of Health. The department said the state does not track whether any of the abortions were in cases of rape.

That is compared to about 3,800 abortions provided in Mississippi in 2021.

One study estimates that across the 14 states that have ceased nearly all abortions, there may have been nearly 65,000 pregnancies caused by rape, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“The reality is that rapes are underreported… and so when you have a situation where you have an abortion ban that requires a report, women are much less likely to use that pathway to get an abortion when they feel they need one,” Salganicoff said.

ABC News reached out to Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves’ office, several state lawmakers and the state’s senators and congressional representatives in Washington regarding this story, but none responded.

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