(MCCURTAIN COUNTY, Okla.) — One person died in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, and several others were injured after tornadoes impacted the state Friday, an official confirmed to ABC News.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said he was “praying for Oklahomans impacted by today’s tornadoes,” in a tweet Friday night.
He added that search and rescue teams and generators were being sent to the area.
Praying for Oklahomans impacted by today’s tornadoes.
Storms hit in Bryan, Choctaw, and Le Flore counties, among others. Additional flash flooding in some areas.
Search & rescue teams and generators forwarded to the Idabel area.
In the Dallas/Fort Worth region, multiple tornado warnings had been in effect on Friday, with people advised to seek shelter immediately due to life-threatening conditions.
“Atmospheric conditions are favorable for severe storms,” the National Weather Service for Fort Worth, said.
At least 10 people were injured after a confirmed tornado swept through Lamar County, Texas, the sheriff’s office said. They were being treated at a local hospital. Two people were in critical condition as of Friday night.
At least 50 homes were damaged or destroyed in the county, according to the sheriff’s office. A disaster has been declared in the county.
“If you do not live in the storm affected areas of Lamar County, please stay away. If you don’t have to leave home, please stay home,” the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office advised residents on social media Friday night.
A tornado was also observed near Sulphur Springs in Hopkins County, Texas.
The Hopkins County Sheriff’s Office said four homes were damaged following reports of a tornado in the southwestern region of the county. No injuries have been reported at this time.
(NEW YORK) — Election security is on the minds of many Americans in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections. The aftermath of the 2020 elections coupled with an increased threat of foreign interference through election tampering, fraud, and intimidation have forced the federal government to create an election security umbrella that never existed before.
That umbrella is, in large measure, coordinated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with support from the Department of Homeland Security’s Critical Security and Infrastructure Agency as well as the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. military Cyber Command.
For the FBI, the threats can be in person, in writing, via phone, or made online. They can include:
– Voter suppression, where bad actors spread disinformation about voting using various methods such as social media platforms, texting, or peer-to-peer messaging applications on smartphones. They may provide misleading information about the time, manner, or place of voting. This can include inaccurate election dates or false claims about voting qualifications or methods, such as false information suggesting that one may vote by text, which is not allowed in any U.S. jurisdiction.
– Threats against election workers, which includes any threat to an election worker or volunteer that causes fear, danger or intimidation.
– Voter fraud, by giving false information when registering to vote (such as false citizenship claims), by voting when ineligible to vote, and by voting more than once or using someone else’s name to vote.
– Election fraud, which includes changing a ballot tally or engaging in other corrupt behavior as an elections official; providing a voter with money or something of value in exchange for voting for a specific candidate or party in a federal election; threatening a voter with physical or financial harm if they don’t vote or don’t vote a certain way; and trying to prevent qualified voters from voting by lying about the time, date, or place of an election, i.e., voter suppression.
– Campaign fraud, which includes excessive campaign contributions above the legal limit, conduit contributions or straw donor schemes, contributions from prohibited sources, cording between Super PACs and independent expenditure organizations and a candidate’s campaign, and using campaign funds for personal or unauthorized use.
The threats can emanate from domestic and foreign sources, including state and non-state actors and radical U.S.-based groups. In every case, these attempts are meant to sway voters and the election process in one direction or another.
In August of 2020, then-Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanna warned that China, Russia and Iran were attempting to sway American voters and influence the election. The same holds true today as these same state actors, once again, are trying to usurp the U.S. election process.
To combat this, in addition to its broad partnerships, the FBI has created a robust and expansive election intelligence effort aimed at identifying and mitigating any threat to the election process. This includes the creation of the Foreign Influence Task Forces, which brought the FBI’s national security and traditional criminal investigative expertise under one umbrella to prevent foreign influence in our elections.
Additionally, as has been done in the past, on Election Day the FBI will spin up command posts across the nation that will monitor and respond to investigative tips as well as real time election issues.
These command posts are staffed by investigators and analysts from the FBI and its partners, including local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, that coordinate and work together to thwart any evidence of election tampering, fraud or abuse.
Since all alleged Election Day offenses get referred to the FBI for investigation and potential prosecution by the Department of Justice, the Justice Department will run a nationwide Election Day Program, where an assistant U.S. attorney is appointed by the United States attorney in that district as the election coordinator.
All of this is in an effort to ensure that the election is safe and that any nefarious actors are identified and stopped, in order to protect the voting process.
Donald J. Mihalek is an ABC News contributor, retired senior Secret Service agent and regional field training instructor who served during two presidential transitions and multiple campaigns. He was also a police officer and served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves.
Richard Frankel is an ABC News contributor and retired FBI special agent who was the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Newark Division and prior to that, the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force. He was also the Associate Director of a National Intelligence / Senior FBI Detailee to the Office of the Director National intelligence.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Nearly six months after a gunman armed with an AR-15 killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the community remains divided on the topic of gun control.
Many of Uvalde’s families have grown up hunting, so guns have been built into the county’s culture and economic lifeblood for generations.
But the May 24 school shooting has left some longtime residents and gun owners rethinking their views. Jesse Rizo, a Uvalde rancher who lost his 9-year-old niece Jackie Cazares in the shooting, told ABC News that the shooting showed residents that they need to take a head-on approach to address the problem.
“It’s something that was dormant. It’s something that nobody wanted to touch. But now it’s inevitable,” he told ABC News.
Some residents, however, contend the shooting may prompt gun control actions that they say go too far.
“I really, I really don’t feel like banning any gun is going to solve any problem,” Jason Molitor, who owns Ox Ranch, an exotic-game hunting property outside of Uvalde, told ABC News.
Uvalde:365 is a continuing ABC News series reported from Uvalde and focused on the Texas community and how it forges on in the shadow of tragedy.
Rizo and other gun control advocates contend that the solutions they’re pushing for won’t be a burden for those businesses and will save lives.
Rizo, who has been vocal in town meetings and rallies over the past six months, said that the difference in opinions on gun control is part of the pain that the Uvalde community is facing since the massacre.
“I don’t know one person here who didn’t grow up without a weapon at a young age. All of us. All my friends,” he said.
Molitor said he held his first firearm when he was 5 and shot his first deer three years later. The rancher said he uses his AR-15s to hunt hogs, contending that the assault rifle is the best way to shoot the passel.
“We consider the pigs as an invasive species, a nuisance, and they multiply,” he said. “You want the larger capacity magazines so we can try to get more of them.”
Molitor, who noted that one of his ranch employees lost his son in the Robb Elementary shooting, said he supported some gun control policies such as raising the age to purchase a firearm and more background checks, but he opposed proposals to ban assault rifles.
He said such a move could affect his business and other hunting ranches in the area, which he estimated drives $10 million to $12 million into the Uvalde economy.
“We’d like to see something done to stop [mass shootings] from happening, but as far as starting to take guns and guns rights away from people? That’s just a slippery slope that I think really concerns a lot of gun owners,” Molitor said.
Gun control activists and some of the families impacted by the shooting have called for policies such as banning assault rifles like the one used in the shooting, increasing the legal age for purchasing a firearm and stricter background checks.
Rizo said arguments about taking a person’s gun away are scare tactics spread by the opponents of control policies.
He added that the shooting and the death of his niece made him and his family see the issue in a different spectrum, and he urged other residents to hear the families out.
“The main focus should be on the children and on the teachers that lost their lives that day. If you can keep that as your compass and as your guiding light, then that’s what’s important,” Rizo said.
Rizo acknowledged that it will take a lot of time and a lot of work before residents can find that common ground on gun control, but he said, “with patience, people begin to understand each other.”
In the meantime, Rizo said he is considering donating his hunting ranch and turning it into a memorial for the Robb Elementary victims.
“I want to give the community,” he said. “I want to give them hope and inspiration.”
Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The Powerball jackpot reached an estimated $1.6 billion on Friday, making it the largest jackpot ever, lottery officials said.
The record-setting jackpot has ballooned after 39 consecutive drawings yielded no grand prize winner, lottery officials said.
The next drawing is Saturday night, marking the 40th Powerball drawing since the jackpot was last won in Pennsylvania on Aug. 3. The cash value of Saturday’s jackpot is $782.4 million, according to the latest figures.
If a player’s ticket matches all six numbers drawn on Saturday night, it will be the largest jackpot won in U.S. lottery history — surpassing the previous world-record-setting $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot in 2016.
If no one wins Saturday’s jackpot, it will tie the game record for the number of drawings in a row without a grand prize winner, Powerball said.
Although there was no jackpot winner in the last drawing on Wednesday night, more than 7.2 million tickets won cash prizes totaling $74.9 million. The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.9, according to Powerball.
The jackpot grows based on game sales and interest. But the odds of winning the big prize stays the same — 1 in 292.2 million, Powerball said.
Jackpot winners can either take the money as an immediate cash lump sum or in 30 annual payments over 29 years. Both advertised prize options do not include federal and jurisdictional taxes, Powerball said.
Tickets cost $2 and are sold in 45 U.S. states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More than half of all proceeds remain in the jurisdiction where the ticket was purchased, according to Powerball.
Powerball drawings are broadcast live every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. The drawings are also livestreamed online at Powerball.com.
(NEW YORK) — Minnesota elections officials are working to coordinate law enforcement responsibilities on Election Day after the husband of a GOP nominee for the state’s top election post was heard on a leaked recording calling for off-duty law enforcement officers to police poll workers at election sites — in apparent violation of state regulations.
In an audio recording of a Tea Party Patriots meeting in Champlin, Minnesota, last month, Marty Probst, the husband of Minnesota GOP Secretary of State candidate Kim Crockett, is heard urging conservative supporters to send sheriffs and deputies to form an Election Day “SWAT team.”
“If you got friends or family or whatever in sheriff deputies or sheriffs, we need them on Election Day,” Probst said. “That’s part of the SWAT team to get out when certain places don’t follow the rules that they are supposed to.”
The comments represent a growing trend across the country, in which some supporters of former President Donald Trump, driven by misinformation surrounding the results of the 2020 election, are recruiting off-duty law enforcement and ex-military personnel to serve as poll watchers.
“They won’t be able to steal this election the same way they stole 2020!” tweeted Joseph Flynn, president of The America Project, one of the organizations leading the effort to recruit first responders for that purpose.
The Minnesota meeting included several high-profile attendees from the Minnesota Republican Party and the Republican National Committee. Following Probst’s remarks, RNC Minnesota Election Integrity Director Lukas Severson said, “He brought up a great point there — we are still looking for folks who would like to join us in our War Room to answer calls from the hotline.”
Cassondra Knudson, the spokesperson for incumbent Secretary of State Steve Simon, told ABC News that Minnesota law does not allow law enforcement to be situated in a polling place for any purpose other than responding to a call for assistance.
“We’re working in coordination with the [Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension] to ensure law enforcement know their role on Election Day,” Knudson said. “Minnesota has guidelines for who can be in be in polling places and how they can behave. This would not allow for law enforcement to be situated in a polling place for any purpose other than responding to a call for assistance.”
“Recruiting people based on lies is problematic,” Sean Morales-Doyle, acting director of voting rights at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, told ABC News last month. “Skepticism is one thing, but coming to that job believing that the election was stolen and on the lookout for nonexistent conspiracies and fraud is problematic.”
In addition, said Morales-Doyle, “There’s a history of problems with intimidation by poll watchers in this country — specifically a history of efforts to use off-duty law enforcement and poll watchers to accomplish racially discriminatory intimidation, so it gives me concern when you see that kind of recruitment.”
The recording of the Tea Party Patriots meeting was obtained and published by the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Other high-profile attendees included Minnesota GOP Deputy Chair Donna Bergstrom and Minnesota RNC Committeewoman Barb Sutter.
Neither Probst nor representatives for Crockett’s campaign responded to ABC News’ requests for comment.
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Billy McFarland, the convicted founder behind 2017’s Fyre Festival, which rocked social media, is apologizing for his role in controversial music festival.
“I need to apologize. And that is the first and the last thing that needs to be done,” McFarland said. “I let people down. I let down employees. I let down their families. I let down investors. So I need to apologize. I’m wrong and it’s bad.”
McFarland pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in federal court in 2018, and admitted to using fake documents to attract investors, who put more than $26 million into his company, Fyre Media, the host of the Fyre Festival.
He has since served almost four years of a six year sentence, including two stints in solitary confinement, but is now out of prison on supervised release. He recently told ABC News’ Good Morning America that he’s had time to reflect on his wrongdoings while in prison.
“I was wrong. I messed up. And I was so driven by this desperate desire to prove people right … I think I was just so insecure that I thought the only way to prove myself to them was to succeed,” he said. “That led me down just this terrible path of bad decisions.”
“I started lying to get the money and I would literally wake up every day to a document that we called, ‘Urgent Payment Sheet.’ And it had an amount of money that I had to acquire before the bank closed that day to stop the company from going underwater,” he continued. “So I was literally day-by-day doing whatever it took. And looking back, it was so incredibly stupid.”
In 2017, word spread of a music festival that promised “an immersive” experience on a small island in the Bahamas. The event was touted by top models and social media influencers and nearly 5,000 hopeful attendees bought in.
Tickets ranged from $500 to $12,000 and customers were led to expect extravagant accommodations and celebrity chef-cooked meals. Instead, the first guests to arrive to the scheduled two week experience received boxes with plain cheese sandwiches and lodging in the form of Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.N. disaster tents.
As chaos quickly ensued on the island and the event’s failure went viral on social media, Fyre Festival co-founders McFarland and rapper Ja Rule were forced to cancel the event.
Ja Rule later apologized in a note on Twitter, writing, “I’m heartbroken at this moment. My partners and I wanted this to be an amazing event. It was NOT A SCAM … I truly apologize as this is NOT MY FAULT… but I’m taking responsibility. I’m deeply sorry to everyone who was inconvenienced by this.”
Ja Rule has never been charged in connection with the festival and he was later dismissed as a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed by attendees.
“I think the hardest thing for me is the trust that I violated and whether it was friends, investors, or employees, people gave up a lot to try to make this happen,” McFarland told GMA. “How do I call them now and look them in the eye when I let them down?”
McFarland has roughly $26 million in restitution to pay investors, vendors and concert-goers. His earnings will be garnished until it’s all been paid back.
Moving forward, McFarland is trying something new, launching a venture called “PYRT.” He said he knows he’ll need time to “slowly” win back trust, but said he’s changed and plans to keep evolving.
“I went way too fast before. So I need to do everything now in a manageable way that I can actually make work,” he said, adding, “I hope I continue to change for the next 40 years. So I’m certainly not done changing yet.”
(NEW YORK) — The reported rape of a woman who was jogging along Manhattan’s West Side Highway has once again put the spotlight on the dangers women may face while running outdoors.
The woman told authorities she was jogging at about 5:30 a.m., Thursday, when a man grabbed her from behind, choked her and knocked her to the ground, the New York Police Department said. She said he raped her, stole her wallet and phone and then fled on foot, according to police.
The victim was taken to a hospital in stable condition, police said. Authorities have taken a 29-year-old man into custody for questioning in connection with the rape, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The attack in New York City came less than two months after Eliza Fletcher, a 34-year-old teacher and mother of two, was abducted and killed while on an early morning run in her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.
“WE ARE SICK & TIRED OF HAVING TO WATCH OUT FOR MEN JUST BECAUSE WE BREATHE. Carry keys to stab someone, carry tasers, stun guns, mace, bear spray, loud alarms. Knowing self-defense, becoming a gun owner, never going anywhere alone. HOW ABOUT MEN DO BETTER,” a Twitter user wrote at the time.
“Women runners worry most about 2 things before a run-whether they’ll be abducted/assaulted/murdered or if they’ll be subjected to cat calls and being sexualized. Men worry about whether they should poop before or after their run. We are not the same,” another wrote.
A self-defense expert’s advice for women
A 2017 survey by Runner’s World magazine found that more than half of women who run said they are concerned that they could be physically assaulted or receive unwanted physical contact during a run.
It is impossible to prevent every attack and women should not feel the pressure to do so, Jennifer Cassetta, a self-defense expert, public speaker and health coach, told ABC News in 2018, after the deaths that year of Wendy Martinez, in Washington, D.C., and Mollie Tibbetts, in Iowa.
What women can do is empower themselves so they feel stronger and more confident out in the world, according to Cassetta.
She shared these three tips for women:
1. Know the weapons you have on your body and how to use them
Run or walk powerfully with your shoulders back and head up, making eye contact with every person in your path, Cassetta recommended.
If you are attacked, dropping down to a squat or a lunge will drop your center of gravity and make you harder to throw to the ground, according to Cassetta.
She said if you’re able to fight back, aim for the attacker’s eyes, throat and groin, explaining, “Scratch or gouge the eyes, give a punch to the throat to disrupt breathing and give a punch or a knee or an elbow to the groin.”
2. Be aware of your surroundings
Women should be “alert but calm” when they’re out and about, scanning for red flags and not getting too deep into thought, Cassetta said.
“When we’re being alert, our intuition is our inner GPS, it gives us signals and sends us messages,” she said. “If we’re too caught up in our to-do list or what we’re stressed about, we can’t hear it.”
Cassetta also recommended designating a friend or family member as your “safety buddy,” the person you text to let know when and where you are running and when you will return.
3. Arm yourself
Cassetta recommended women arm themselves with self-defense tools such as pepper spray and a personal alarm.
“They make you that much more aware because you’re holding onto it and aware of it,” she said, adding, “If you have pepper spray, make sure you know how to use it and have it accessible.”
Fletcher’s death while out for a run quickly drew comparisons to the deaths of at least six women who in recent years were also each killed while running in their city or neighborhood streets: Sydney Sutherland, 25, whose body was discovered two days after she disappeared after going for a run in Jackson County, Arkansas; Tibbetts, who was found stabbed to death after going for a run near her Iowa home; Martinez, who was stabbed to death while jogging in a busy, well-lit area of Washington, D.C.; Karina Vetrano, who was found dead after going on an evening jog near her New York home; Vanessa Marcotte, who was killed as she was out jogging in broad daylight in Massachusetts; and Ally Brueger, who was shot in the back while running in Michigan.
In 2018, another athlete, a 22-year-old collegiate golf player, was killed while she was golfing alone on a course in Ames, Iowa.
(NEW YORK) — New York City Marathon runners are in for a shock, as the forecast for the Sunday race shows unseasonably hot and humid conditions with parts of New York City potentially reaching up to the mid-70s.
The organization hosting the race, the New York Road Runners (NYRR), has put out a warning for runners as they take their final steps in preparing for the 26.2-mile course.
“Start the race well hydrated and remember to drink fluids when you are thirsty,” the email to runners read. “Fluid stations are located throughout the course and handheld and waist hydration packs are permitted.”
The runners are also mentally preparing for the unexpected heat.
Tatyana McFadden, a five-time TCS New York City Marathon champion and 20-time Paralympic medalist, told ABC News that she’s been focusing on her hydration in the days before the race.
“Luckily we start a lot earlier,” McFadden said.
The race starts at approximately 8 a.m.
“Take your hydration seriously … You’ll be probably a lot more dehydrated, much more than probably your runs you had a couple of weeks ago. Key in that hydration and rest leading up to the marathon,” McFadden added.
Olympian and America’s marathon record-holder Daniel Do Nascimento told ABC News that he thought he expected to be cold for the race — but got lucky with the burst of heat that he’s used to being in.
“When I saw that it was going to be hot, it’s a great opportunity for me because I’m from a tropical country that’s so hot,” said Do Nascimenti, from Brazil.
However, he’d been training in Kenya though, which has a cooler climate.
NYRR gave runners some tips for racing on a day like the warm and humid one runners should be expecting this year.
They suggest wearing light fabrics, and don’t start off the race too fast. Also, if you start to heat up, they urge runners to slow down their pace.
“If you feel faint, dizzy, disoriented, or your skin is clammy and abnormally hot or cold, slow down or stop running,” race organizers recommend. “If symptoms continue, stop running and seek help at a medical station (located every mile starting at mile 3).”
They also recommend wearing hats or skin coverings.
“Be aware that you may not be acclimated to the weather we expect on Sunday,” the email read.
Medical, food, misting and fluid stations will be located throughout the marathon course.
(DENVER) — Authorities in Colorado are investigating a “suspicious, powdery substance” found in a ballot mailed to the Adams County elections office in what officials say “appears to be an attempt to disrupt the elections process.”
Hazmat units, paramedics, firefighters and other law enforcement agencies were called to the county offices after the ballot was received Wednesday, and initial testing of the substance was negative for explosives, biological agents and narcotics, Adams County clerk Josh Zygielbaum said Thursday.
But Zygielbaum said the powder contained a “concerning, unknown chemical,” so samples have been sent for further testing.
FBI officials in Denver confirmed Thursday that they are supporting local law enforcement in the investigation.
“It really drives home what we’ve been concerned with, but we’ve got great plans in place and will ensure that the election goes off without a hitch,” Zygielbaum told ABC News. “And even if we have individuals who are going to try to disrupt the process, we will work around them to make sure it gets done.”
“The voter’s anonymity is protected and their constitutional right to vote is in place,” Zygielbaum said. “Should it be determined safe, we will move forward with processing this ballot.”
The incident comes as election officials across the country continue to see a rise in threats and harassment with the approach of Election Day.
Zygielbaum told ABC News in May that he wears a bulletproof vest to work — one of the many safety measures he says he’s been forced to take as the state has emerged as a battleground in the shadowy world of election conspiracy theories.
Appearing this week on an episode of ABC News’ Impact x Nightline, Zygielbaum was asked by ABC News’ Terry Moran what that says about the state of the country.
“It says that our democracy isn’t as healthy as it should be right now,” he replied.
(TULSA, Okla.) — Forensic scientists have uncovered 24 additional unmarked graves in an Oklahoma cemetery, three of them containing child-sized coffins, as part an effort to identify victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, officials said.
The unmarked burial sites were discovered in Tulsa’s Oaklawn Cemetery after excavations resumed there on Oct. 26, according to city officials who authorized the investigation.
The latest discovery was made Tuesday in the graveyard just southeast of downtown Tulsa, officials said.
“Three additional child-sized burials were discovered…in the southern block (of the cemetery),” the city said in a news release.
Twenty-one other burial sites were unearthed in the western section of the cemetery since the new excavation got underway last week, according to the city’s statement.
Four of the graves are being excavated by hand to determine if the remains should be exhumed for further analysis.
Remains from one of the graves were found in a simple coffin and exhumed on Tuesday to be analyzed in an on-site lab.
“Experts continue to be narrowly focused on which graves will be exhumed and have determined that no child-sized burial will be,” the city’s statement reads.
This is the second excavation to occur at the cemetery. An excavation last year uncovered 19 unmarked burial sites, officials said.
Historians suspect that 75 to 300 people, most of them Black, were killed in the Tulsa Race Massacre, which the Oklahoma Historical Society calls “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.” The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics officially recorded 36 deaths.
Following World War I, Tulsa was known for its affluent African American residents and black-owned businesses in an area called the Greenwood District, which was also referred to as “Black Wall Street.”
White mobs attacked Black residents in the neighborhood and burned down more than 1,000 homes and businesses during two days of riots that broke out between May 31 and June 1, 1921, prompted by allegations that a 19-year-old Black shoe shiner assaulted a white female elevator operator.
In 2018, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum announced the city would reexamine the unmarked graves identified in a 2001 state commissioned report. In addition to Oaklawn Cemetery, the city has designated three other potential areas to excavate, including a park in northwest Tulsa near the Arkansas River and the Rolling Oaks Memorial Gardens cemetery.
