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(NEW YORK) — The first wave of extreme weather conditions from a powerful storm system is making its way across the U.S., bringing heavy rounds of rain and snow to multiple regions.

The storm brought high surf to much of California’s coast before it dumped precipitation over a large swath of the West.

As the first system moves over the East Coast, another will come on its heels, inundating the West once again.

Here is what to expect from the first storms to start the new year:
Storm system dumping rain and snow in the West

The first storm began to bring rain to the coasts of Oregon and Washington on Tuesday morning. It was snowing in the higher elevations from Washington to Northern California by Tuesday evening, with rain stretching through San Francisco.

It was raining or snowing throughout much of California by Wednesday morning.

Parts of the Sierras in the highest elevations could see up to 18 inches of snowfall from this storm, with wind gusts up to 45 mph. Winter storm warnings have been issued for areas including Yosemite National Park.

Ahead of the storm, the Sierras measured a below-average snowpack, the California Department of Natural Resources announced on Tuesday with the release of the first snow survey. The state obtains 30% of its water supply from the Sierra Mountain range, according to the department.

In Southern California, up to 8 inches could fall in the higher elevations of the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, as well as the Santa Barbara interior mountains.

Up to 2 inches of snow could fall along Interstate 5 at Tejon Pass on Wednesday and Wednesday night, with the potential for significant travel delays due to snow, ice and gusty winds.

Where the storm is heading next

The storm will continue east on Wednesday, with winter weather advisories issued in northern Arizona for between 4 and 10 inches of snow for regions including the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff. The timing for this snow is Wednesday night and especially Thursday morning.

The system will then bring the snow with it as it moves over the Rockies on Thursday morning and continues to push east.

Rain will begin from east Texas to Louisiana and Oklahoma on Friday morning, with the precipitation pushing past the Gulf states throughout Friday. The heaviest rain is expected near the coast.

While flash flooding is not a concern in this region due to the fast-moving pace of the system, the National Weather Service advises people who live in areas that flood easily to use caution. The storm will be dumping rain from Florida to Tennessee and the Carolinas by Saturday mornings. Snow is possible farther north, from Missouri to Virginia.

The storm will then trek up the east coast on Saturday evening. Rain is expected in Raleigh and Norfolk, with snow possible in Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

Saturday night and Sunday evening, the storm will continue to bring precipitation chances to the Northeast with a mix of rain and snow along the coasts and snow farther inland. For the New York City area, confidence in accumulating snow is highest across the Lower Hudson Valley and southern Connecticut. But it is still too early to have confidence in accumulation amounts.

This is the most significant snowstorm for much of the Northeast in more than a year and has the potential to break record streaks without a 1-inch daily snowfall along the I-95 corridor.

In New York City, it has been a record 688 days since there was at least 1 inch of snow accumulation — on Feb. 13, 2022. Philadelphia has gone a record 703 days without at least 1 inch of snowfall, and Baltimore has gone a record 716 days.

Washington, D.C., has not seen at least 1 inch of snow accumulation for 716 days, although not a record for the region.

Only 21% of the U.S. is covered in snow right now, which is the lowest for the start of a new year since 2012. The storm should help raise snow cover across the country.

Dangerous surf occurring in California

Rough waves are expected to hit California this week and through the weekend due to the back-to-back storms.

The high surf advisories begin Tuesday night and will continue through Thursday for much of the California coast, including recently hard-hit beaches and piers.

The northern part of the advisories extend from north of San Francisco to Big Sur, where large breaking waves could reach 23 feet. High surf advisories were in effect for the Bay Area on Wednesday morning and surrounding coastline.

The waves will not arrive to Southern California until Wednesday afternoon.

Beaches in Ventura County, San Luis Obispo County could see waves reach up to 15 feet, while San Diego beaches could see waves up to 10 feet Wednesday afternoon through Thursday.

While these waves are not expected to be as high as the last storm, they will still pose a danger.

Last week, strong waves in Ventura County, California, injured eight people after rogue waves crashed over the seawall and flooded coastal areas.

There will also be an increased risk of ocean drowning, as strong rip currents can pull swimmers and surfers out to sea. Large breaking waves can also cause injury, wash people off beaches and rocks, and capsize small boats near shore. These waves can also move large objects such as logs, crushing anyone caught underneath.

Localized beach erosion caused by the large waves crashing ashore is also possible, officials said.

Next cross-country storm will have different impacts

The next cross-country storm will begin affecting the Pacific Northwest with rain and snow on Saturday before it moves east through Jan. 10, forecasts show.

Heavy snow will fall near Kansas on Friday morning, while rain inundates regions near Houston and Dallas. The storm will then move across the Gulf Coast throughout the day on Friday, bringing the chance for minor flooding.

By Monday, the storm will have moved out of the West Coast and will be a heavy rainmaker as it treks east in the days that follow, bringing a chance for heavy flooding and strong winds.

The warmer temperatures could also contribute to rapid snow melt from the snow falling from the first storm, which will increase the flood threat.

While the next storm system could be a big snow-maker in the Midwest, the precipitation will likely turn to rain as it reaches higher temperatures in the Northeast. It will be warmer and therefore snow won’t spread as far south as with the first storm.

Another round of high surf on the West Coast is also likely over the weekend as the next major storm rolls in.

 

 

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(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection is reopening operations at four ports of entry in border towns.

Biden administration officials announced Tuesday that due to the decrease in migrants over the past few days, they will reopen operations in Lukeville, Arizona; Eagle Pass, Texas; San Diego, California; and Nogales, Arizona, on Jan. 4. CBP previously closed the entry ports over what the agency said was a surge in migrants at those locations.

“CBP will continue to prioritize our border security mission as necessary in response to this evolving situation,” the agency said in a statement Tuesday. “We continue to assess security situations, adjust our operational plans, and deploy resources to maximize enforcement efforts against those noncitizens who do not use lawful pathways or processes – such as scheduling an appointment via CBP One – and those without a legal basis to remain in the United States.”

On a call with reporters Tuesday night, senior administration officials touted the successes of a meeting last week between the Mexican government and Secretary State Antony Blinken and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. They pointed to the meeting as one of the reasons the Mexican government was helpful in tackling the flow of migration into the U.S. and said they would host officials from the Mexican government this month.

There were 500 encounters on Monday in the Del Rio, Texas sector, which encompasses Eagle Pass, a decline from the record number of daily encounters seen at the border last month, a senior official said.

Eagle Pass is where House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans will visit on Wednesday. Officials on Tuesday night’s call urged House Republicans to come to the table after a deal on border funding, which they said was headed in the “right direction,” is negotiated in the Senate.

A senior administration official said Speaker Johnson and House Republicans “should stop playing games and stop playing politics and work with them and the Senate to pass meaningful reforms.”

President Joe Biden weighed in on the negotiations on Tuesday, telling pool reporters that Republicans “ought to” give his Administration the money they asked for.

“We ought to do something,” he said as he returned to The White House.

Preliminary data show that 302,000 migrants were apprehended at the southern border in December, sources told ABC News — the highest monthly average in U.S. history.

A senior administration official said that since the end of Title 42 in May, they’ve removed or returned 460,000 migrants to their home countries, including 75,000 family units,

“This is almost the same number as we removed in all of fiscal year 2019, and in fact exceeds the number of removals and returns in each full fiscal year from 2015 to 2018,” a senior administration official said.

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(NEW YORK) — A federal judge decided on Dec. 31 that Mississippi can move forward in creating a state-run court system of unelected judges and prosecutors to preside over part of the majority-Black city of Jackson. However, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals separately temporarily blocked the court’s creation until Jan. 5.

This law, by the majority-white and Republican-controlled Mississippi Legislature, has been the source of controversy and contention in the state. Some residents and civil rights organizations claim it takes away Black residents’ right to vote for local officials.

What does this new system mean for Jackson?

Under this law, the state attorney general and the state Supreme Court chief justice will appoint attorneys and judges to serve the two courts, respectively, who would typically be voted for or appointed by local officials, as is the case with other Hinds County judicial officials.

These courts will serve the Capitol Complex Improvement District, which was created by the Mississippi Legislature to establish funding for infrastructure projects in downtown Jackson.

The legislation would also widen the Capitol Police’s jurisdiction.

The Republican-backed law was sponsored by state Rep. Trey Lamar, who argued that the effort would address crime in Jackson, as well as help with “a backlog, a need for assistance in the Hinds County judiciary.”

The controversy behind the law

Critics of the court system say it strips residents of their “constitutional rights” to vote for and elect their judges and prosecutors.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba called the law “the most oppressive legislation that we have seen in our city’s history” when it was passed in the state House in February 2023.

“It’s oppressive because it strips the right of Black folks to vote and it’s oppressive because it puts a military force over people that has no accountability to them,” he told reporters at the time. “It’s oppressive because there will be judges who will determine sentences over people’s lives. It’s oppressive because it redirects their tax dollars to something they don’t endorse or believe in.”

It was signed into law by Gov. Tate Reeves in April 2023.

“This legislation won’t solve the entire problem, but if we can stop one shooting, if we can respond to one more 911 call – then we’re one step closer to a better Jackson,” Reeves said in a social media post.

The civil rights group NAACP, alongside several Jackson residents, sued shortly after to stop the law’s Jan. 1, 2024, enforcement.

The complaint argued that the law is designed to “suppress and chill Black residents’ exercise of their First Amendment rights and strip Black residents of the political control they have fought to obtain and to which they are entitled.”

Black residents make up 82.8% of the city’s population, according to the U.S. Census.

“In violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, these laws target Jackson’s majority-Black residents on the basis of race for a separate and unequal policing structure and criminal justice system to which no other residents of the State are subjected,” read the complaint.

It continued, “Under this new regime and unlike in any other jurisdiction in Mississippi, in certain areas of Jackson, a citizen can be arrested by a police department led by a State-appointed official, be charged by a State-appointed prosecutor, be tried before a State-appointed judge, and be sentenced to imprisonment in a State penitentiary regardless of the severity of the act.”

Lamar waived off concerns, citing the court’s lower or “inferior” status, which means that decisions will be subject to scrutiny from a higher court.

“The people who voted for this bill are trying to make Jackson safer, that’s all they’re interested in and if you’re not committing crimes in Jackson, you really don’t have anything to worry about,” said Lamar.

The judge who decided to allow for the court’s creation, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, said plaintiffs failed to show they would be personally subjected to discriminatory treatment and therefore “lack standing to obtain the injunctive relief that they demand.”

However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit granted an administrative stay on the law’s enforcement pending appeal. The order noted that “nothing in this order is to be construed as indicating any view on the merits of any issue.”

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(WASHINGTON) — There were 302,000 encounters along the southwest border in December, marking the highest monthly total ever recorded, sources told ABC News.

Sources stressed the numbers are preliminary and could change.

The numbers — a hot-button election year topic — come as the Justice Department threatened to sue the state of Texas over its passage of SB. 4, which allows for state and local law enforcement to apprehend anyone who they believe is in the country illegally.

DOJ says it intends to sue on Wednesday if Texas doesn’t “forbear enforcement of SB 4.”

President Joe Biden “is destroying America,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in response to the threat of a DOJ lawsuit.

“The Biden Admin. not only refuses to enforce current U.S. immigration laws, they now want to stop Texas from enforcing laws against illegal immigration,” Abbott posted on X on Thursday. “I’ve never seen such hostility to the rule of law in America.”

CBP says it has surged personnel to hot spots.

“Encounter numbers continue to fluctuate, as smugglers and bad actors continue to spread falsehoods and show complete disregard for the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable migrants,” CBP said in a statement. “We remain vigilant and stand ready to ensure safety of our personnel, migrants, and local communities, and the security of our southwest border.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson and other congressional Republicans are headed to the border on the same day the lawsuit is intended to be filed. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is set to visit the border next week.

Marsha Espinosa, the former assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said the congressional trip would do less to achieve border security than fulfilling Biden’s funding requests.

“While the Biden administration has worked to rebuild the system that Trump demolished, ultimately only Congress can fix this,” Espinosa, now a partner at Conexión, said.

It is beyond frustrating that Republicans have ignored or voted against repeated requests for policy changes and funding, which in no doubt contributed to the situation we see today. They don’t need to travel thousands of miles to hold a press conference when all they have to do is walk to the House floor and vote to fund DHS or consider the bill Biden sent them almost three years ago,” she said.

Biden sent Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Mayorkas to Mexico last week to meet with the country’s president and their Mexican counterparts as both countries struggle to address urgent issues posed by surging irregular migration.

There are many factors as to why there has been an increase in the number of migrants along the border, experts note.

Smugglers and bad actors driven purely by profit will use anything to drive folks north — including possible or perceived changes in migration policies (just like they did with Title 42, possible government shutdowns, and other events) — to prey on vulnerable migrants, a law enforcement source told ABC News.

Additionally, a different law enforcement source told ABC News that the holidays play a factor, and anecdotally, there is misinformation about CBP One app, used by asylum seekers to schedule appointments, shutting down. CBP One, established by DHS to help with the processing of migrants earlier this year, is not shutting down, the source said.

Fake travel agencies emerging in cities like Dakar, Senegal, are also advertising travel to the U.S., according to a CBP official. They advertise visa-free travel to Europe for the Senegalese, which would then open up travel to the Western hemisphere if the offers were legitimate. These “travel agencies” sell complete packages to connect them to a smuggling organization that will then facilitate their movement up to the border, the CBP official said.

The top CBP official said they drop migrants off in remote locations to divert CBP resources.

“These smugglers are recklessly putting migrants into harm’s way: in remote locations across the border, onto the tops of trains, or into the waters of the Rio Grande River,” Troy Miller, the acting commissioner of CBP, said in a statement.

A different CBP official said smugglers and bad actors attempt to overwhelm border patrol to “guarantee” release of migrants.

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(NEW YORK) — Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence officer sentenced to military prison for one of the biggest classified material leaks in U.S. history, spoke out during a New Year’s Day performance at a poetry event in New York City about the year she spent in solitary confinement.

The 36-year-old anti-secrecy activist and whistleblower spoke Monday night at the Poetry Project’s 50th Annual New Year’s Day Marathon at New York City’s St. Mark’s in-the-Bowery, telling a standing-room-only crowd that her time in prison taught her “there’s a lot of power in silence.”

Manning began her performance by standing silently at a podium for three minutes before addressing the crowd.

“So, that was a few minutes of silence,” Manning then said. “I became very used to this experience that you just had, which is sitting there in silence for several minutes. I did that for almost a year.”

Manning, who came out as transgender in 2013, was imprisoned for seven years at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after being convicted in 2013 by a military tribunal under the Espionage and Computer Fraud and Abuse Acts. She also pleaded guilty to some of the charges stemming from the leak.

Manning was imprisoned from 2010 to 2017, when then-President Barack Obama, with just three days remaining in his second White House term, commuted the more than three-decade sentence she received.

Manning said Monday night that the silence she endured during solitary confinement has also benefited her since her release from prison.

“I think there’s a lot of power in silence. I think that there’s a lot of power in self-reflection, introspection,” Manning said. “And I wanted to share a little of that that I had because it’s very meaningful to me.”

She said she has spent the last year going through a “time of healing for myself, for my own experience of being in solitary confinement for a year.”

“I’ve been very active and engaging in a lot of different things,” said Manning, who published a memoir titled README.txt in 2022. “But I’ve been finding that sometimes, I need to take the time to once again find that moment of introspection and self-reflection, despite the fact that I’d love to say so much, I have so much to say. But sometimes we just have to look inside ourselves and I hope that you all can appreciate that as well.”

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges stemming from the unauthorized release of approximately 750,000 classified government documents to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.

Among the materials Manning leaked was information that included low-level battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, evidence of civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantanamo prison camp detainee profiles, and U.S. diplomatic correspondence.

In a 2017 interview with ABC News following her release from prison, Manning said she leaked the documents because she wanted to prompt a public domestic debate over the role of the military and U.S. foreign policy. She said she didn’t think leaking the documents would threaten national security.

When asked why she didn’t share her concerns up through the chain of command, Manning responded, “the channels are there, but they don’t work.”

Manning pleaded guilty to 10 of the charges stemming from the leak, and a military tribunal convicted Manning on other charges, including espionage, theft and fraud. The tribunal, however, found Manning not guilty of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy, which carries a life sentence.

Upon commuting Manning’s sentence in 2017, President Obama released a statement saying, in part, “I feel very comfortable that justice has been served and that a message has still been sent that when it comes to our national security.”

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(NEW YORK) — It was a birthday to remember for one New Jersey father this weekend.

Billy Humphrey, who turned 36 on Sunday, and his wife Eve Humphrey, both of Merchantville, New Jersey, welcomed twin sons on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

“I was very excited [about] the potential of having my boys on my birthday,” Billy Humphrey told “Good Morning America.” “We went in that day and I wasn’t quite sure if they’re going to come today or not, but having one of them at least on my birthday was a huge blessing and a gift.”

Eve Humphrey, 34, said she had gone to Virtua Voorhees Hospital in Voorhees, New Jersey, the day before but was sent home after a false alarm. She returned the following day after her water broke.

“My water broke. And I’m like, ‘Happy birthday. I think I have to go to the hospital,'” the mom of three and biology professor recalled telling her husband.

By Sunday night, Eve Humphrey was in labor. The couple first welcomed baby Ezra at 11:48 p.m. on Dec. 31, while his fraternal twin brother Ezekiel was born at 12:28 a.m. on Jan. 1 — meaning the boys were not only born on different days, but also in different years, one in 2023 and the other in 2024.

“It was a good experience. It was cool pushing out a baby while everyone’s counting down and saying ‘Happy New Year’ and, you know, it was like they had a birthday party,” Eve Humphrey said.

“I’m grateful everyone was healthy and things went pretty smoothly. So that’s the best thing you can ask for, especially because they’re a little bit early and everything, that they’re doing fine and I’m fine,” she added.

Ezra, who was known as baby A, was born weighing 6 pounds. Ezekiel, initially known as baby B, was born weighing 4 pounds, 15 ounces. The twins arrived earlier than their Jan. 26 due date, a couple of days after they reached the 36-week milestone.

The parents said they were both “shocked” when they first found out they were having twins last spring, even though twins do run in both sides of their families.

“[The doctor’s] like, ‘Oh, there’s two heartbeats.’ And I was like, ‘What is that? Like, are you sure?'” Eve Humphrey recalled about one of her early doctor appointments. “And she turned the screen around and let me see, and she’s like, ‘Yep, there’s two babies in there.’ And I was just like, in shock.”

“It was kind of difficult to take in for a little bit,” Billy Humphrey, a pastor, added. “They’re like, ‘We’re gonna have twins. OK. Alright. What does that mean? What does that look like?’ So, it was a lot of information to take in. Definitely glad she FaceTimed me. I probably would have thought she was trying to play some prank on me or something.”

The Humphreys said the twins are “doing great” today.

“They already have very different personalities and they look different from the get go,” Eve Humphrey said, adding that Ezra appears to be more calm while Ezekiel is more energetic.

The family hope to be discharged from the hospital as early as Tuesday, when the twins will then join their older brother Hezekiah, who coincidentally will turn 3 on Jan. 3.

“They’re doing really, really good. Eating well, all signs are looking good, so they’re definitely optimistic that we’re going to be able to go home today,” Billy Humphrey said.

“[I’m] looking forward to sharing birthdays together and celebrating together and everything that looks like,” he added.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Residents of Queens were awakened by a rare earthquake in New York City on Tuesday morning.

A magnitude 1.7 earthquake shook the borough of Queens, centered in the neighborhood of Astoria, at about 5:45 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was measured at a depth of 5 km, the USGS said.

There were no reports of injuries or serious damage, but it did reportedly cause some issues on Roosevelt Island, which is located in the East River between Manhattan and Queens.

A few buildings just south of the Roosevelt Island Bridge and Tram were experiencing power outages, Roosevelt Island residents told New York ABC station WABC.

Despite the reports, New York City officials said everything was functioning fine at 11:30 a.m.

“The elevators were out; we walked down. So much commotion going on. No one knew what was going on,” one resident told WABC.

“DOB, FDNY, NYPD, 311, MTA, Con Ed, and National Grid report no injuries, no impacts to transit, traffic, or utility services, and no structural stability issues at this time,” according to NYC Emergency Management.

Although earthquakes are rare in the New York City, a 2.2 magnitude quake shook Westchester County, just north of the city, last May.

The Queens quake was not the only one to shake the East Coast on Tuesday morning.

A 2.3-magnitude quake shook Rockville, Maryland, just northwest of Washington, D.C., at about 1 a.m., according to the USGS. It was measured at a depth of about 15.3 km, the USGS said. No injuries or damage were reported.

“It’s crazy I didn’t know there could be an earthquake in Maryland,” Potomac resident Nathan Sharpe told Washington ABC affiliate WJLA.

 

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(NEW YORK) — A driver fleeing an early New Year’s Day dispute struck seven pedestrians and injured one police officer before crashing on a New York City sidewalk in midtown Manhattan, according to police.

The driver, Mohamed Alaouie, of Fort Lee, New Jersey, was charged with three counts of attempted murder, reckless endangerment, criminal possession of a controlled substance, leaving an accident with a serious injury and driving while intoxicated, police said Tuesday.

The 44-year-old suspect was said to be in his vehicle in a dispute with another man at the intersection of West 33rd Street and 7th Avenue. Officers were investigating a possible crime in the area around 1:30 a.m. Monday morning when they attempted to intervene in the altercation.

Authorities said the suspect fled police and drove north — the wrong way — on the one-way avenue, striking multiple vehicles before fleeing at a high rate of speed westbound onto the sidewalk of West 34th Street.

During the blockslong driving spree, authorities said the driver struck a food truck that pinned a 39-year-old female pedestrian underneath it, police said. He also struck at least six other pedestrians. They were all taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.

One police officer was transported to NYU Langone Medical Center for minor injuries and is in stable condition.

The driver was transported to Bellevue Hospital in critical but stable condition, authorities said.

The investigation is ongoing.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Residents across the U.S. are bracing for multiple powerful storms forecast to impact a large swath of the country with heavy rain and snow.

The systems will bring high surf to much of the West Coast before they trek east.

Here is what to expect from the first storms to start the new year:

Impacts from first storm system have already begun

The first storm began to bring rain to the coasts of Oregon and Washington on Tuesday morning. By the evening, it will be snowing in the higher elevations from Washington to Northern California, with rain stretching through San Francisco.

It will be raining or snowing throughout much of California by Wednesday morning, with the system bringing snow as it moves over the Rockies on Thursday morning and begins to push east.

Rough waves are expected to hit California this week and through the weekend due to the back-to-back storms.

The high surf advisories begin Tuesday night and will continue through Thursday for much of the California coast, including recently hard-hit beaches and piers.

The northern part of the advisories extend from north of San Francisco to Big Sur, where large breaking waves could reach 23 feet.

Beaches in Ventura County, San Luis Obispo County and Santa Barbara County could see waves reach up to 18 feet.

San Diego beaches could see waves up to 10 feet Wednesday afternoon through Thursday.

While these waves are not expected to be as high as the last storm, they will still pose a danger.

Last week, strong waves in Ventura County, California, injured eight people after rogue waves crashed over the seawall and flooded coastal areas.

There will also be an increased risk of ocean drowning, as strong rip currents can pull swimmers and surfers out to sea. Large breaking waves can also cause injury, wash people off beaches and rocks, and capsize small boats near shore.

Both storm systems will dampen the weekend

The next storm system will start as the first one is making its way across the country.

Heavy snow will fall near Kansas on Friday morning, while rain inundates regions near Houston and Dallas. The storm will then move across the Gulf Coast throughout the day on Friday, bringing the chance for minor flooding.

From the Florida panhandle to Alabama and Georgia, the South will start experiencing heavy rainfall by Saturday morning. Some snow may fall in parts of Ohio and Kentucky, but accumulations will heavily depend on moisture availability and temperature.

The storm could bring snow to the Northeast on Sunday, depending on whether temperatures stay cold enough.

The next cross-country storm will begin on the West Coast on Saturday and will bring more rain and snow as it moves east through Jan. 10, forecasts show.

While the next storm system could be a big snow-maker in the Midwest, the precipitation will likely turn to rain as it reaches higher temperatures in the Northeast.

Another round of high surf on the West Coast is also likely over the weekend as the next major storm rolls in.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Embattled Harvard University President Claudine Gay has resigned, she announced on Tuesday.

“It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president,” she said in a lengthy letter to the school community. “This is not a decision I came to easily. Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries.”

“But, after consultation with members of the Corporation, it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual,” the statement continued.

The resignation comes amid allegations of plagiarism over Gay’s academic writings and following backlash over her response at a congressional hearing to questions about antisemitism on U.S. college campuses, which sparked calls for her to step down as president.

The news was first reported by The Harvard Crimson.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

 

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