(LOS ANGELES) — A blizzard warning is in effect in California as a new storm system moves into the mountains with potential to deliver more than 10 feet of snow.
The heavy snow will begin blasting California’s Sierra Nevada mountains Thursday afternoon and evening, and will continue into the weekend.
Up to 12 feet of snow is possible.
Gusty winds could reach 80 mph, causing dangerous whiteout conditions on the road.
A backcountry avalanche watch has been issued for the central Sierra Nevada mountains, including the Lake Tahoe area. “High to extreme avalanche danger” is possible from Friday morning to Saturday night, the National Weather Service warned.
Along the California coast, rain is in the forecast for the San Francisco Bay area Thursday afternoon and evening. Some parts of Northern California could see 2 to 5 inches of rain.
The rain will move into Southern California, including Los Angeles, this weekend, with 1 to 2 inches of rain possible in the foothills.
The region could see some flooding, and with the ground already heavily saturated, landslides and mudslides are also possible.
(SPARTA TOWNSHIP, PA.) — The predominantly Amish community in Spartansburg, Pennsylvania, is shocked and scared after a 23-year-old pregnant Amish woman was killed this week, a community member told ABC News.
“Everyone is stunned — this doesn’t happen here,” said Charleen Hajec, a pharmacist who was born and raised in Spartansburg. “Everyone is talking. It’s scary and frustrating.”
On Monday afternoon, police responded to a home in Sparta Township, where they found Rebekah Byler dead, Pennsylvania State Police said.
Byler’s death is considered a homicide and “police are aggressively investigating,” authorities said. Her cause of death has not been released.
No suspects are in custody, Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson Cindy Schick told ABC News on Thursday.
Police are “looking into all leads,” Schick said, noting that “nothing is standing out” as a possible motive.
Police are interviewing community members and Schick said the Amish community is cooperating with the investigation.
Sparta Township is a small township in Crawford County, just outside of the borough of Spartansburg and about 35 miles southeast of Erie, Pennsylvania.
When Hajec heard what happened to the young Amish woman she said she couldn’t believe a murder would happen in Sparta Township, which she called a “tight-knit community.”
“The outside world doesn’t get in,” Hajec said. “To have something this tragic … it doesn’t happen here.”
An Amish man who knows Byler’s family, and asked to remain anonymous, told ABC News her death is devastating.
“We are people who believe in God and turn to him during a time like this,” he said.
Police have asked the public to report any suspicious people, cars or activity in the area of Fish Flats Road to the authorities at 814-663-2043.
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — One person is dead and six others have suffered gunshot injuries stemming from a disagreement over when a vehicle was to be returned, which resulted in an exchange of gunfire between two groups in Orlando, Florida, police said.
The six injured victims were transferred to the hospital and are now in stable condition and are expected to survive, according to Orlando Police.
Police have identified the deceased as 21-year-old James Jerry Dawn William III.
The incident began with a confrontation between two groups at around 3 p.m. the day of the shooting, in the same location, when officers received a call over an alleged assault with weapons, according to Orlando Police.
When officers arrived on the scene, it was reported that a disagreement occurred stemming from a vehicle not being returned by a mutually agreed-upon date. One of the individuals involved in the incident wanted to seek a prosecution over the alleged assault, but the suspect was not located, police said.
A trespass warning was issued for one of the individuals involved in the disagreement, according to police. Police suspect that one of the parties was involved in the shooting that occurred at 11 p.m. that night.
Officers from the Orlando Police Department responded to the area of Iron Wedge Drive and South Lake Orlando Wednesday night in reference to several shots fired and, upon arrival, located multiple victims, including one dead.
The investigation remains ongoing. Police said they are still in the process of sorting out the role of those injured in the shooting and identifying the suspects.
(AMARILLO, Texas) — Several large wildfires continue to tear through northern Texas, including one that has grown into the largest blaze in state history.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire that ignited in Hutchinson County remained active as of Thursday morning, having burned an estimated 1,075,000 acres and was just 3% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. The flames, which cover an area larger than the size of Rhode Island, have spread across state lines, with 1,050,000 acres burned in Texas and 25,000 acres burned in Oklahoma.
The East Amarillo Complex Fire, which burned also in Hutchinson County in 2006, had been the largest in the state’s history at just under 1 million acres, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Hutchinson County Public Engagement Coordinator Deidra Thomas confirmed there was at least one wildfire-related fatality in the small town of Stinnett, Texas, according to Amarillo ABC affiliate KVII.
The Windy Deuce Fire that ignited in Moore County was also still active as of Thursday afternoon, having burned an estimated 142,000 acres and was 50% contained. The Grape Vine Fire that ignited in nearby Gray County had burned an estimated 30,000 acres and was 60% contained as of early Wednesday, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
The raging wildfires have consumed swathes of the Turkey Track Ranch, a 120-year-old, 80,000-acre private property located along the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle. The sprawling, historic ranch has been up for sale and is listed at $180 million.
“The loss of livestock, crops, and wildlife, as well as ranch fencing and other infrastructure throughout our property as well as other ranches and homes across the region is, we believe, unparalleled in our history,” managers of the Turkey Track Ranch Family Group said in a statement Wednesday. “Our early assessment estimates that The Turkey Track Ranch has suffered and lost approximately 80% of our pastures, plains, and creek bottom vegetation. We continue to assess the total damage to other infrastructure and the loss of livestock.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday declared a disaster declaration for 60 counties due to “widespread wildfire activity throughout the state.”
The weather forecast for Thursday shows relative humidity will be high, with cooler temperatures and a chance of rain and snow for the Texas Panhandle, which would help with firefighting efforts. Wind gusts could get up to 30 miles per hour, but aren’t expected to be as extreme as they were earlier in the week.
However, unseasonably warm and windy weather is expected to return to wildfire-ravaged region this weekend, creating ideal conditions for critical fire danger. Temperatures in the Texas Panhandle are forecast to surpass 70 and even 80 degrees Fahrenheit from Friday through Sunday, while wind gusts could be 30 to 45 mph.
ABC News’ Max Golembo and Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.
In the four years since schools were shuttered in an effort to protect students from the onset of COVID-19, public education has been placed under a microscope and turned into a major political talking point.
Conservatives, led by political figures like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and groups like Moms for Liberty, have embraced a mantle of parental rights and claimed — in part because of the window that remote schooling opened into the classroom — that public school instruction has been hijacked by inappropriate curricula on LGBTQ topics, race and discrimination and more.
Opponents like the progressive group Red, Wine and Blue and leaders like California Gov. Gavin Newsom have pushed back on what they call efforts to de-emphasize focus on minority groups and social issues through controversial changes like Florida teaching middle-schoolers that slaves sometimes learned beneficial skills, as well as bans on books and more.
The classroom culture wars still rage in various states, but educational and parental advocates across the ideological spectrum who spoke with ABC News for this story worry that a pivot is needed away from those battles, some of which these groups first sparked, and back to education.
“Parents want to see our children read. It’s not a matter of banning a book if they can’t read it,” parent Jay Artis-Wright, a critic of what she called Republican-led culture wars and a former leader of Parent Revolution, a nonprofit organization empowering parents based in Los Angeles, told ABC News.
The slogans and school board shouting have exaggerated and overshadowed more pressing issues, according to Artis-Wright and other activists on both sides of the issue.
“Teaching kids to read in school should not be a political issue,” said Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, which has become widely recognized and polarizing. “It is not a partisan issue and I actually think it’s the greatest national security risk that we have as Americans: a nation of people that are illiterate.”
Moms for Liberty, founded in 2021, broadly says its mission is about “educating and empowering parents” and it includes numerous chapters that describe themselves as school board “watchdogs.” But the group has also come under fire, with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) saying they spread “hateful imagery and rhetoric against the LGBTQ community,” which Moms for Liberty leaders previously maintained to ABC News was “nonsense.”
Beyond politics, fears for students’ education are well-founded, according to national data and recent expert analysis.
More than a third of the nation’s fourth-grade students were below proficient readers in 2022, according to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), otherwise known as the “nation’s report card.”
NAEP’s math, history and civics scores all sunk in 2022, too. Fourth- and eighth-grade students saw their largest declines ever in math and eighth-grade students received the lowest history scores since 1994, when the history assessment was first administered.
In February, Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research Faculty Director Tom Kane issued a stark warning for parents.
Despite Kane’s Education Recovery Scorecard outlining one-year gains last school year, the study, based on state-level and NAEP results, found that the average district is still “one more year away from catching up in math” and “two more years from catching up in reading.”
“If we allow these achievement losses to become permanent, students will be paying for the pandemic for the rest of their lives, like in the form of lower college-going [and] lower earnings once they get out of college,” Kane, who co-authored the scorecard in collaboration with the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, told ABC News.
Liberal leaders say they are tired of the culture war critics who sometimes focus less on interrupted instruction and zero-in on discussions of race and gender ideology. A new Pew Research Center study found most of the American public believes parents should be able to opt their children out of learning about LGBTQ issues if the way these topics are taught conflicts with the parents’ personal views or beliefs, but only about a third believe parents should be able to opt their children out of similar discussions on race.
Pew also found nearly 70% of teachers said the topics of sexual orientation and gender ideology rarely or never came up in the classroom last school year.
National Parents Union (NPU) President Keri Rodrigues said the conversation should instead emphasize America’s illiteracy problem.
“Every child in America deserves the right to read proficiently by third grade,” Rodrigues told ABC News, adding, “if we can solve that, there are a whole host of things that will fall in line.”
Justice, with Moms for Liberty, said there’s no doubt that learning loss has affected “every student” and it’s a topic that is a “concern for the future of the kids.”
Artis-Wright also said schools must focus on issues beyond culture war topics, such as book banning and other flashpoint issues that a vocal group of advocates and parents have been pushing since the start of the pandemic.
“There needs to be this overall look of how we reimagine what school looks like coming out of the pandemic — from every perspective,” she said.
Republican Rep. Lisa McClain, who chaired a congressional hearing on K-12 education oversight at the start of the year, said this should not be a partisan topic. Parents like Rep. McClain and Artis-Wright hope to shift the focus to kids catching up in school, particularly in math and reading.
“Unfortunately, K-12 education headlines this year likely will fixate on laughable book ban claims or semi-hysterical mass layoff assertions due to the long scheduled end of federal … funding,” the director of parental rights group Education Freedom Center at the Independent Women’s Forum, Ginny Gentles, said during McClain’s Healthcare and Financial Services Subcommittee hearing in January.
“Choose instead to focus on students’ academic recovery needs,” Gentles added.
NPU’s Rodrigues was more blunt.
“We’ve been yelling and screaming about it [learning loss] now for years,” she told ABC News. “If we do not start to address these things with urgency by having radical transparency around where our kids are, where we’re trying to get them so that we can all be all-hands-on-deck to get them there, then we’re just going to continue to see more of the same.”
Struggling students should utilize summer programming, tutoring and after school contracts, according to Kane. He said it’s imperative for school districts to use the remaining Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) dollars in the American Rescue Plan before it’s too late. (The deadline for districts to tap this funding is September)
“We’ve got to make sure parents are well informed about just whether or not their child is below grade level,” Kane said, adding, “They can’t wait for the state tests to come back to tell them. Schools need to tell them this spring so they can sign up for the summer.”
Rep. McClain, a conservative mother of four, said America’s public schools could do “a lot better” as the issues persist nationwide.
“As parents we must advocate for our children,” she said, adding, “We must take these issues seriously: Our nation’s children — or the so-called ‘pandemic cohort’ — do not deserve to be left behind.”
Both sides, despite cultural differences, say they agree on this.
“Parents really are looking for, you know, quality educational options,” Progressive Policy Institute’s Reinventing America’s Schools Project Co-Director Curtis Valentine told ABC News.
“All parents want good schools, good teachers and good options.”
Several large wildfires continue to tear through northern Texas, including one that has grown into the second-largest blaze in state history.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire that ignited in Hutchinson County remained active as of Wednesday night, having burned an estimated 850,000 acres and was just 3% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. The flames, which cover an area roughly the size of Rhode Island, have spread across state lines into parts of Oklahoma.
Hutchinson County Public Engagement Coordinator Deidra Thomas confirmed there was at least one wildfire-related fatality in the small town of Stinnett, Texas, according to Amarillo ABC affiliate KVII.
The Windy Deuce Fire that ignited in Moore County was also still active as of Wednesday night, having burned an estimated 142,000 acres and was 30% contained. The Grape Vine Fire that ignited in nearby Gray County had burned an estimated 30,000 acres and was 60% contained as of early Wednesday, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
The raging wildfires have consumed swathes of the Turkey Track Ranch, a 120-year-old, 80,000-acre private property located along the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle. The sprawling, historic ranch has been up for sale and is listed at $180 million.
“The loss of livestock, crops, and wildlife, as well as ranch fencing and other infrastructure throughout our property as well as other ranches and homes across the region is, we believe, unparalleled in our history,” managers of the Turkey Track Ranch Family Group said in a statement Wednesday. “Our early assessment estimates that The Turkey Track Ranch has suffered and lost approximately 80% of our pastures, plains, and creek bottom vegetation. We continue to assess the total damage to other infrastructure and the loss of livestock.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday declared a disaster declaration for 60 counties due to “widespread wildfire activity throughout the state.”
The weather forecast for Thursday shows relative humidity will be high, with cooler temperatures and a chance of rain and snow for the Texas Panhandle, which would help with firefighting efforts. Wind gusts could get up to 30 miles per hour, but aren’t expected to be as extreme as they were earlier in the week.
However, unseasonably warm and windy weather is expected to return to wildfire-ravaged region this weekend, creating ideal conditions for critical fire danger. Temperatures in the Texas Panhandle are forecast to surpass 70 and even 80 degrees Fahrenheit from Friday through Sunday, while wind gusts could be 30 to 45 mph.
ABC News’ Max Golembo and Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.
At least one person is dead and several others have been injured following a shooting in Orlando, Florida, police said.
At approximately 11 p.m., officers from the Orlando Police Department responded to the area of Iron Wedge Drive and South Lake Orlando in reference to several shots fired and, upon arrival, located multiple victims, including one dead.
“We are working to identify all victims and their conditions,” Orlando police said. “This is an ongoing investigation, once we have more information we will make that available.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Illinois, Florida and California had the largest total increases in the number of abortions performed in the first 15 months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to data gathered in the WeCount report released by the Society of Family Planning on Wednesday.
Researchers estimate that more than 120,000 people were not able to get abortion care from a provider in their state in the first 15 months after Roe was overturned, according to Dr. Ushma Upadhyay, WeCount co-chair and professor at the University of California, San Francisco.
Illinois had more than 28,000 more abortions than expected in the first 15 months after Roe was overturned, compared to data prior to the Supreme Court decision. In June 2023 alone, Illinois saw a 45.4% increase in the number of abortions compared to April 2022.
Florida had over 15,000 more abortions than expected in the first 15 months after Roe was overturned. In June 2023 alone, Florida saw a 48.2% increase in the number of abortions performed in the state compared to April 2022, before Roe was overturned.
California had over 12,000 more abortions than expected in the first 15 months after Roe. The state saw an 11.2% increase in the number of abortions performed in June 2023 alone, compared to April 2022.
While the majority of the surges in the number of abortions were in states that bordered bans, the report also found increases in states distant from bans including New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, the report found that there were only 10 abortions performed in Texas in June 2023, a sharp 99.7% decline when compared to April 2022.
In the 14 states that have ceased nearly all abortion services, there were over 120,000 fewer abortions compared to before Roe was overturned. The states with the greatest decline in abortion volume include Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama, according to the report.
The report highlighted that 16% of all abortion care provided nationwide was provided via Telehealth. In September 2023 there were 13,770 Telehealth abortions.
“For people who are not able to travel from a state with an abortion ban some have gotten medication abortion through mail, as described in the telehealth data. Others have been forced to remain pregnant against their will,” Upadhyay said.
“We don’t know from our WeCount data, what happens to the people who can’t get out of their states and don’t get pills by mail, or how many of them are forced to stay pregnant,” Upadhyay said.
(MONTGOMERY, Ala.) — Authorities on Wednesday released images of an unknown person of interest as they investigate an explosive device left outside the Alabama attorney general’s office.
The device was detonated outside the AG’s office in Montgomery at about 3:42 a.m. Saturday, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said.
No injuries or damage was reported and the area was deemed safe, the agency said.
The ALEA, FBI and Alabama Attorney General’s Office are now asking the public to help them identify a person of interest who they say “may have information related to this crime,” the ALEA said in a statement Wednesday.
While a motive has not been released, the incident came one day after Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he wouldn’t prosecute in vitro fertilization providers or families in the wake of a state Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos should be considered children.
Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit information online here.
(AMARILLO, Texas) — Multiple fires are impacting the Texas Panhandle, including what has quickly grown to become the second-largest wildfire in Texas history.
Gov. Greg Abbott declared a disaster declaration for 60 counties on Tuesday due to “widespread wildfire activity throughout the state.” The largest of the blazes — the Smokehouse Creek Fire — has burned an estimated 850,000 acres since initially reported on Monday and was 3% contained as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
The massive blaze is the second-largest wildfire in the state’s history, with Texas A&M Forest Service records going back to 1988. The largest fire in the state’s history is the East Amarillo Complex of 2006, which burned 907,245 acres.
The Texas A&M Forest Service is also monitoring several other wildfires in the region. They include the Windy Deuce Fire, which is an estimated 90,000 acres and 25% contained as of midday Wednesday, and the Grapevine Creek Fire, which is an estimated 30,000 acres and 60% contained as of Tuesday night. The agency alerted the public about both fires on Monday.
Several factors came together to produce an extreme wildfire event in the area, according to the National Weather Service.
Tough terrain with fuel to burn
The Smokehouse Creek Fire began in the Canadian River Valley, more rugged terrain than the flat area of the Texas Panhandle that is harder to access, according to Mike Gittinger, head meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Amarillo.
“The initial fire attack by firefighters was delayed due to the topography,” Gittinger told ABC News. “Also, that area has more vegetation, since it’s near the river, not just grassland, hence more fuel for burning.”
Wet conditions over the spring and summer last year means more fuel to burn now, Gittinger said.
“Parts of the Texas Panhandle received up to 13 inches of rain in just 30 days — this was months worth of rain for the area,” Gittinger said. “Due to this factor, vegetation was able to grow and be available to burn with this fire.”
Hot, dry, windy conditions
February is shaping up to be one of the top-10 warmest on record for Amarillo. The temperature on Monday in Amarillo hit a record 82 degrees — helping dry things out more and enhance the fire.
Winds gusted to 50 mph on Monday and 70 mph on Tuesday in the Amarillo area, along with very low relative humidity, which also helped the fire spread.
Climatologically speaking, the Texas Panhandle is entering the peak of its wildfire season — March and April. At this time of the year, the vegetation was dormant, due to the earlier winter freeze, so it was extra dry.
Forecast
As the Smokehouse Creek Fire burns largely out of control, the next 48 hours are expected to see improving conditions — including lighter winds with increased humidity and a chance for rain and snow.
By this weekend, winds are expected to increase once again — gusting 30 to 45 mph — and temperatures are expected to return into the 70s, well above the average of 59 degrees. However, overall fire weather conditions are forecast to not be as critical.
