National

(SWANSBORO, N.C.) — Make way for the ducks of Swansboro, North Carolina.

The town’s population of Muscovy ducks has “exponentially multiplied” since last year, and hundreds have taken up residence in the town’s downtown area, according to Swansboro Mayor John Davis.

The insurgency of ducks has coincided with the town’s peak tourist season and recent federal wildlife protections, pitting the demands of Mother Nature against the red tape and requirements of the town’s seasonal economy.

“People love to see the ducks, and it is part of what people are used to seeing when they come to downtown Swansboro, but the nuisance level has kind of hit a crescendo,” Davis described to ABC News.

Susan Casper, 82, who runs a local marina in town, described that her workers and customers have to deal with the repercussions of the duck population on a daily basis.

“Every morning, our docks are covered with duck [poop]…..Nobody wants duck poop on their boat,” she described.

The ducks themselves have called Swansboro home for years, according to residents.

Having to stop one’s car to allow a family of ducks to pass is a normal occurrence, and residents advise checking under one’s tires before leaving a parking spot, according to Mercedes Ryba, who works at a local boutique.

The town’s proximity to water and its ample supply of natural food sources makes it a good habitat for ducks, according to Davis. Add a steady supply of tourists who are willing to feed the friendly birds, and the small town had a duck baby boom.

“We’ve created an optimum environment for them to reproduce,” Davis said.

The town does not have reliable numbers for the total number of ducks in the town over the last few years, but the number of ducks rescued by local Possumwood Acres Wildlife Sanctuary suggests a gradual increase in the downtown area, according to the sanctuary’s rehab coordinator Courtney Cole.

The sanctuary rescued 16 ducks in 2020, 21 ducks in 2021 and 51 ducks in 2022. In 2023 alone, the sanctuary has rescued 32 ducks so far, and Cole estimates they will surpass 2022’s number of rescued ducks.

The exact cause of the increase is unclear, but Cole said warmer winters and a lack of natural predators might have contributed to the boom.

Additionally, the town now lacks much recourse to limit the population. During past spikes, the town was able to relocate the birds to nearby farms, according to Davis.

However, the migratory birds were added to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 2010, according to North Carolina’s Wildlife Resources Commission. While North Carolina state law treats the birds akin to domestic animals rather than a protected species, the town itself is limited by the complicated framework of regulations.

Notably, the option to simply relocate the ducks is off the table according to Davis.

“I would hate to see us get in a situation where we’re having to euthanize the ducks,” Davis said.

As the town navigates the red tape of the problem, the implications of the sheer number of ducks in a crowded tourist town is unavoidable, according to residents.

A local florist in downtown Swansboro described the volume of duck poop can be unsanitary, as it is tracked into local businesses. Davis described how the situation is impacting the town’s public works department, that is regularly tasked with cleaning the remnants of ducks hit by cars.

“You have somebody that comes out first thing in the morning to grab the paper, and they have a deceased duck basically in their front yard,” Davis said.

However, Cole said the town might be able to embrace relatively simple solutions to resolve its problem. Notably, removing eggs prior to hatching and limiting feeding areas, which will not only limit the duck population, but also confine them to a more manageable area, according to Cole.

“We all love the ducks,” one local worker said, optimistic the town can quickly find a solution.

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(NEW YORK) — Robert Hadden, the former Columbia University gynecologist who prosecutors said “abused his position of power to assault patient after patient, year after year,” is slated to be sentenced to 20 years in prison, but a federal court judge is mulling a request from his attorneys to speak.

Hadden was convicted in January for sexually abusing four of his patients, including a minor, and two who were pregnant.

Judge Richard M. Berman ordered that Hadden serve the four 20-year sentences, the maximum amount for “enticing and inducing individuals to travel interstate to engage in illegal sexual activity,” concurrently.

“This case is like no other in my experience in terms of horrendous, beyond extraordinary, depraved sexual assault,” Judge Berman said at the sentencing.

However, the judge didn’t formally impose the sentence after he agreed to consider a last-minute request from Hadden’s attorneys to have their client speak when court resumes Tuesday morning.

If the judge approves the request, it would mark the first time that Hadden has spoken in court about his charges.

Prosecutors previously asked for at least 25 years in prison contending that “the magnitude of the defendant’s crimes is staggering and warrants a commensurate sentence.”

“In this case in particular, the court must impose a sentence that will reflect the seriousness of the offense, provide just punishment and general and specific deterrence, promote respect for the law, and protect the public from further crimes by the defendant,” the prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

Hadden, who worked at Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, pled not guilty in September 2020 after he was indicted in federal court on charges he enticed and induced victims to his medical offices and subjected them to unlawful sexual abuse.

Federal prosecutors alleged Hadden also assaulted “dozens of female patients, including multiple minors” between 1993 and 2012 while pretending to medically examine them.

“Over the course of his 25-year career as an OB/GYN, Hadden sexually abused dozens of victims, some repeatedly, hiding behind his position of power, authority and trust as a physician, as well as the guise of purported gynecological exams, in order to carry out countless acts of sexual abuse and assault,” prosecutors said.

Hadden developed a relationship with his victims before engaging in a course of increasingly abusive conduct, which he tried to mask under the guise of legitimate medical care. He invited victims to meet with him alone in his office, sent nurses and medical assistants out of the examination room for periods of time and, according to the indictment, enticed and coerced four women to travel to New York City from another state to engage in illegal sexual activity.

He was convicted on January 24, during a three-week trial.

The defense conceded Hadden caused victims “immeasurable” pain but asked for a far lower sentence.

“In its zeal to persuade this court to give Mr. Hadden the equivalent of a life sentence, no matter what the facts or law, the government takes extreme positions better suited to our current political discourse than a brief from a litigant with special responsibilities in our system of justice,” defense attorneys wrote in their sentencing memorandum.

Some of Hadden’s victims were outside the courthouse Monday and consoled each other after learning of the sentence.

In October, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian announced it had reached $230 million settlement with more than 200 of Hadden’s patients who reported instances of sexual abuse or misconduct.

ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A “swarm of boulders” was sent careening into space after NASA successfully disrupted the orbit of an asteroid last year, according to the space agency.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, or DART, collided with Dimorphos, a small asteroid that is the moon of a bigger space rock, Didymos, at about 14,000 miles per hour.

Not only did the test successfully change the trajectory of the orbit but about 37 boulders were shaken off the asteroid in images captured by the Hubble telescope, NASA said.

The boulders range in size from three feet to 22 feet across and are drifting away from the asteroid at about half a mile per hour.

David Jewett, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has been tracking changes after the DART mission with the Hubble telescope, told ABC News the trail of the impact had been studied for months and no boulders were noticed.

“So, you know, the impact was at the end of September and I noticed the boulders in data from December, so it’s a long time after — you would think — everything should be over,” he said. “Impact is an impulse, it’s an instantaneous bang. So you would think, naively, you will be able to see it all straight away.”

What’s more, he said the boulders were not in any predictions for what the impact would look like.

The boulders were likely already scattered across the surface of the asteroid rather than chunks of the asteroid that broke off after the impact, according to NASA.

While the boulders are not a threat to Earth, the images are a reminder that future asteroid impact missions could have similar aftereffects.

Jewitt said this is among the first times scientists know just about all details of the impact and are able to see what happens when it’s caused by humans.

“We’ve seen other examples of impact between one asteroid and another and the trouble there is we don’t know when the impact occurred,” Jewitt said. “We see the debris but at some uncertain time after the impact, so the interpretation is clouded by not knowing when it happened, not knowing how big or how energetic the two asteroids were when they collided and so on, so it’s not very well characterized.”

“So, this is a case where, you know, we know the mass of the spacecraft, we know the speed of the spacecraft, so we know the energy. We know quite a lot about the impact,” he continued. “And then the idea is to look at the consequences of a well-calibrated impact to see how the asteroid responds.”

Jewitt added this will be something the European Space Agency’s upcoming Hera mission will investigate.

The Hera mission will examine the asteroid for future asteroid deflection missions, although the mission is launching on October 2024 and will not reach the sight of the impact until December 2026, according to the ESA.

“They’re gonna fly through these boulders on the way to seeing the targeted asteroid called Dimorphos and so … maybe they can study some of these boulders and figure out their properties better than we can get them from the ground,” Jewitt said. “It’s just a question of characterizing the products of a manmade impact into an asteroid to the best possibility that we can.”

ABC News’ Max Zahn contributed to this report.

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(CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio) — An Ohio K-9 officer has been put on administrative leave, and his dog placed in a kennel, following an incident this month in which the animal was captured on body-camera footage attacking a truck driver as he was surrendering to state troopers with his hands up following a highway chase, an official told ABC News on Monday.

Circleville, Ohio, K-9 Officer Ryan Speakman was placed on leave as the city’s five-member Use of Force Review Board investigates the circumstances of the incident that occurred on the Fourth of July on a highway outside Columbus, Circleville Mayor Donald McIlroy told ABC News.

“It’s an unfortunate situation and we look to get it resolved very, very soon,” McIlroy said.

McIlroy said he had viewed parts of the body-camera footage released by the Ohio State Highway Police that captured the police dog mauling the truck driver, 23-year-old Jadarrius Rose of Memphis, Tennessee.

“We have a use of force review board that is looking at it,” McIlroy said. “Once that is completed and I get it, then I will be making some decisions on when we release that report to the media.”

McIlroy said Speakman has been on paid administrative leave since at least Thursday, but could not say for sure when his leave started.

He said the dog involved in the arrest of Rose has been put in a kennel while the investigation unfolds.

Rose was treated at a hospital following the K-9 attack and released into the custody of the state Highway Police. He was booked at the Ross County Jail on charges of failure to comply, a fourth-degree felony, according to the highway police.

A 911 call Rose made during the chase could shed some light on why he refused to pull over when troopers initially attempted to stop him.

“Right now, I have police officers following me for a long time and I am trying to figure out why they have their guns pulled out,” Rose said in the 911 call released by Ross County, Ohio, authorities. “I am just a truck driver. I was about to comply with them, but they all had their guns drawn out. There are like 20 police cars behind me. And I don’t feel safe.”

According to online records, Rose has been released from the Ross County Jail. It is unclear if he has hired an attorney.

Efforts by ABC News to reach Rose and Speakman for comment were unsuccessful.

McIlroy said he expects his city’s Use of Force Review Board, which is comprised of community members, to complete its report by the end of this week or next Monday.

“This is the first time anything like this has happened. So, it’s new to us and this is why we have this review board,” McIlroy said. “And once that review board is finished, we’ll make some determinations where we’ll go forward.”

Asked if he is aware of any disciplinary action taken against Speakman in the past, McIlroy said, “Yes.” When asked to provide details, he said, “That’s in his file” and directed ABC News to the city’s human resources department to file a public records request.

McIlroy said he is not sure if Speakman was wearing a body camera at the time of the incident, but added that if so, he would be open to releasing that footage to the public.

The incident unfolded in Ross County, Ohio, at about 9:30 a.m. on July 4, according to a police incident report. Troopers from the state Highway Police Department’s Motor Carrier Enforcement Inspector unit attempted to pull Rose over for what they described as an alleged traffic defect violation, according to the incident report.

Rose allegedly refused to pull over and led troopers on a chase through three counties before police put stop sticks, or spike strips, in the roadway ahead of the chase and blew out Rose’s tires, forcing him to stop on U.S. Route 23 in Pickaway County and surrender to troopers, according to the report.

The body-camera video released by the state Highway Police shows the Circleville police dog arriving at the scene and initially being held back by Speakman as troopers yelled to Rose, “Get on the ground or you’re going to get bit.”

The footage shows Rose complying with orders to get on his knees with both hands in the air. A police trooper can be heard in the video repeatedly yelling, “Do not release the dog with his hands up.”

The dog, however, was apparently let loose and attacked Rose, grabbing his arm as he screamed, “Get it off,” and appeared to be in pain.

Other officers, including the dog’s handler, rushed to Rose as he was being attacked in the grassy center median and pulled the animal off Rose, according to the video.

It is not clear in the footage why the dog was deployed to attack Rose.

Speakman, 29, was sworn in as a Circleville Police Department officer in February 2020, according to an article in the Circleville Herald. Prior to joining the Circleville police force, Speakman was a deputy for the Ross County Sheriff’s Office, according to the article.

“There are people out there that can’t defend themselves and there’s people out there that just need a friend,” Speakman told the newspaper at the time. “It may be just as simple as a handshake or a hug. It’s not about writing tickets or arresting people. It’s about doing police work and serving the community to build it up and reaching out to the people.”

In February 2022, Speakman was featured in an article in The Scioto Post newspaper in Circleville, introducing the city’s two newest police dogs, a Belgian Malinois Shepherd named “Serg” and a German Shepherd named “Dex.” But it is unclear if either dog was the one who attacked Rose.

The union representing the Circleville police officers told WSYX that it is asking “everyone reserve judgment” and declined further comment.

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(MARTHA’S VINEYARD, Mass.) — The body of a missing paddleboarder recovered from a pond in Martha’s Vineyard on Monday morning was an employee of former President Barack Obama, the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) said.

Divers for the MSP Underwater Recovery Unit retrieved the body of 45-year-old Tafari Campbell at Edgartown Great Pond.

“Tafari was a beloved part of our family. When we first met him, he was a talented sous chef at the White House –creative and passionate about food, and its ability to bring people together,” President Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama said in a statement. “In the years that followed, we got to know him as a warm, fun, extraordinarily kind person who made all of our lives a little brighter.”

The Obamas asked Campbell to continue working with them after they left the White House and he “generously agreed,” they said in a statement.

“He’s been part of our lives ever since, and our hearts are broken that he’s gone. Today we join everyone who knew and loved Tafari — especially his wife Sherise and their twin boys, Xavier and Savin — in grieving the loss of a truly wonderful man.”

Campbell was visiting Martha’s Vineyard at the time of his death, police said. The Obamas were not at the home when the incident occurred, according to MSP.

The victim’s body was located by Massachusetts Environmental Police Officers, according to MSP.

The underwater recovery unit retrieved the victim’s body about 100 feet from the shore and 8 feet underwater, according to state police.

The paddleboarder went missing in the pond on Sunday, but authorities suspended the search after several hours to “allow dive teams, flight crews, and other responders to re-equip and assess next steps” after they could not find the man, MSP said.

The Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit is investigating the incident for the Cape and Islands District and Edgartown Police.

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(HOOVER, Ala.) — Carlee Russell, the Alabama woman who returned home on July 15 after she was reportedly missing for two days, was never missing, Hoover Police Department Chief Nicholas Derzis told reporters at a news conference Monday.

Derzis read a statement he said was provided to police by Russell’s attorney, Emory Anthony, acknowledging “there was no kidnapping.”

“My client has given me permission to make the following statement on her behalf. There was no kidnapping on Thursday, July 13th 2023. My client did not see a baby on the side of the road. My client did not leave the Hoover area when she was identified as a missing person. My client did not have any help in this incident. This was [a] single act done by herself,” the statement, as read by Derzis, said.

“We ask for your prayers for Carlee as she addresses her issues and attempts to move forward. Understanding that she made a mistake in this matter, Carlee again asks for your forgiveness and prayers,” the statement continued.

Derzis said police have a meeting with Anthony scheduled to discuss the case, and they are in discussions with the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office over “possible criminal charges related to this case.” He said there is no meeting with Russell or her family at present.

Derzis added that police will announce potential charges “when and if they are filed.”

The press conference on Monday came after police told the public last Wednesday that Russell searched for Amber Alerts and the movie “Taken” on her phone before her disappearance.

Russell also made searches related to bus tickets in the hours before she went missing, Derzis said.

“There were other searches on Carlee’s phone that appeared to shed some light on her mindset,” Derzis said, adding he would not share them out of privacy.

“Taken,” the 2008 movie starring Liam Neeson, centers around a young woman who is abducted and the quest to save her from her kidnappers.

ABC News has reached out to Anthony and Russell’s family for comment.

Russell told police that she was taken by a male and a female when she stopped to check on a toddler she saw on the highway, Derzis said last Wednesday.

“She stated when she got out of her vehicle to check on the child, a man came out of the trees and mumbled that he was checking on the baby. She claimed that the man then picked her up, and she screamed,” he said at the time.

Asked if investigators saw a man abduct Russell in the surveillance video of the interstate, Derzis said that they did not.

Russell called 911 on July 12 at around 9:30 p.m. ET to report a toddler on Interstate 459 in Alabama before her disappearance, but the Hoover Police Department said in a press release last Tuesday that investigators did not find any evidence of a child walking on the side of the road.

“The Hoover Police Department has not located any evidence of a toddler walking down the interstate, nor did we receive any additional calls about a toddler walking down the interstate, despite numerous vehicles passing through that area as depicted by the traffic camera surveillance video,” the press release said.

“People have to understand that when someone says something like this, we put every available resource — everybody comes from a state, local, federal — it’s just a lot of work,” he said last week.

Derzis was also asked last week if the next time a woman of color goes missing, the case may not be taken seriously. He replied: “We investigate every crime to the fullest just like we have this one.”

ABC News’ Nadine El-Bawab and Mariama Jalloh contributed to this report.

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(MARTHA’S VINEYARD, Mass.) — The body of a missing paddleboarder was recovered from a pond in Martha’s Vineyard on Monday morning, the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) said.

Divers for the MSP Underwater Recovery Unit retrieved the body of a 43-year-old man at Edgartown Great Pond.

The victim’s body was located by Massachusetts Environmental Police Officers, according to MSP. The man’s name isn’t being released at this time, police said.

The underwater recovery unit retrieved the victim’s body about 100 feet from the shore and 8 feet underwater, according to state police.

The paddleboarder went missing in the pond on Sunday, but authorities suspended the search after several hours to “allow dive teams, flight crews, and other responders to re-equip and assess next steps” after they could not find the man, MSP said.

The Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit is investigating the incident for the Cape and Islands District and Edgartown Police.

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(NEW YORK) — Robert Hadden, the former Columbia University gynecologist who prosecutors said “abused his position of power to assault patient after patient, year after year,” was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison.

Hadden was convicted in January for sexually abusing four of his patients, including a minor, and two who were pregnant.

Hadden will serve the four 20-year sentences, the maximum amount for “enticing and inducing individuals to travel interstate to engage in illegal sexual activity,” concurrently, per Judge Richard M. Berman’s order.

“This case is like no other in my experience in terms of horrendous, beyond extraordinary, depraved sexual assault,” Judge Berman said at the sentencing.

Prosecutors previously asked for at least 25 years in prison contending that “the magnitude of the defendant’s crimes is staggering and warrants a commensurate sentence.”

“In this case in particular, the court must impose a sentence that will reflect the seriousness of the offense, provide just punishment and general and specific deterrence, promote respect for the law, and protect the public from further crimes by the defendant,” the prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

Hadden, who worked at Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, pled not guilty in September 2020 after he was indicted in federal court on charges he enticed and induced victims to his medical offices and subjected them to unlawful sexual abuse.

Federal prosecutors alleged Hadden also assaulted “dozens of female patients, including multiple minors” between 1993 and 2012 while pretending to medically examine them.

“Over the course of his 25-year career as an OB/GYN, Hadden sexually abused dozens of victims, some repeatedly, hiding behind his position of power, authority and trust as a physician, as well as the guise of purported gynecological exams, in order to carry out countless acts of sexual abuse and assault,” prosecutors said.

Hadden developed a relationship with his victims before engaging in a course of increasingly abusive conduct, which he tried to mask under the guise of legitimate medical care. He invited victims to meet with him alone in his office, sent nurses and medical assistants out of the examination room for periods of time and, according to the indictment, enticed and coerced four women to travel to New York City from another state to engage in illegal sexual activity.

He was convicted on January 24, during a three-week trial.

The defense conceded Hadden caused victims “immeasurable” pain but asked for a far lower sentence.

“In its zeal to persuade this court to give Mr. Hadden the equivalent of a life sentence, no matter what the facts or law, the government takes extreme positions better suited to our current political discourse than a brief from a litigant with special responsibilities in our system of justice,” defense attorneys wrote in their sentencing memorandum.

Some of Hadden’s victims were outside the courthouse Monday and consoled each other after learning of the sentence.

In October, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian announced it had reached $230 million settlement with more than 200 of Hadden’s patients who reported instances of sexual abuse or misconduct.

ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The Coast Guard is searching for a man who jumped overboard from a Carnival cruise ship, officials said.

The 30-year-old went overboard on Sunday morning while the Carnival Elation was about 95 miles east of Melbourne, Florida, and heading back to Jacksonville after a cruise to the Bahamas, according to the Coast Guard and Carnival Cruise Line.

The passenger was reported missing to the ship’s crew on Sunday afternoon after his companion couldn’t find him, according to the cruise line.

Carnival said its crew determined the man jumped after reviewing security footage.

Carnival said it’s “providing support to the guest’s family,” adding, “our thoughts are with them and the guest.”

The incident was the second time in two months that a person went overboard on a Carnival cruise ship off the coast of Florida. A 35-year-old Virginia man apparently fell off the Carnival Magic about 186 miles east of Jacksonville in late May. The Coast Guard called off the search without success in early June.

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(NEW YORK) — A deadly heat wave that has persisted for weeks continues to grip a swath of the United States.

The National Weather Service has issued heat alerts that are in effect on Monday for 40 million Americans across at least a dozen states, from Montana to Texas and Florida.

The latest forecast shows scorching temperatures will linger in the Southwest while intensifying in the Midwest this week. A heat dome that has been stationary over the Southwest is expected to stretch into the Midwest on Monday, as the ridge builds into the Heartland.

Although temperatures will be warming in the Northeast this week, they are expected to cool off and be seasonal or even chillier than average by the weekend and into early August. Meanwhile, the South is expected to remain hot as the Southwest may get a slight reprieve from the excessive heat.

On Monday, temperatures are forecast to reach or exceed 110 degrees in Palm Springs, California; Phoenix, Arizona; and Tucson, Arizona. Heat index values — a measure of how hot it really feels when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature — are expected to be in the 100s from Texas to Florida again.

Arizona’s capital is on a record stretch of 24 consecutive days with temperatures at or above 110 degrees. Overnight temperatures in Phoenix have also not dropped below 90 degrees for at least 14 days. Meanwhile, Tucson has been at or above 100 degrees for 38 days in a row and may on Monday tie its record of 39 days, which was set in 2013.

Las Vegas has tied its record, set in 1961, of 10 consecutive days at or above 110 degrees. Temperatures in Nevada’s most populous city are forecast to be at 109 degrees on Monday, potentially just shy of breaking the record.

El Paso, Texas, has been on a record-smashing stretch of 38 straight days with temperatures at or above 100 degrees. This is expected to continue this week and may finally come to an end over the weekend. The city’s previous record of 23 consecutive days was set in 1994.

So far this month, at least four heat-related fatalities have been reported in Texas’ Tarrant County, which includes Fort Worth. The victims ranged in age from 26 to 79 and either had no air conditioning at home or were either working outdoors at the time of their death, according to Dallas ABC station WFAA, which cited the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Miami, Florida, which is under an excessive heat warning on Monday, has had a heat index high of 100 degrees for a record 43 days in a row, well past the previous record of 32 days in 2020. The city also had its hottest day in more than three years on Sunday with a high temperature of 98 degrees.

Grand Junction, Colorado, hit a daily record of 105 degrees on Sunday, marking the second day this summer that temperatures there were at or above 105 degrees — only the fifth summer on record to do so and the first since 2021.

Later this week, temperatures in much of the Midwest are forecast to reach near 100 degrees, with some heat index values up to 110 degrees. Just a week ago, temperatures in the area only topped out in the 70s and 80s.

The last 21 days on Earth have been the hottest on record.

The Northern Hemisphere had its hottest day on record on Sunday at at 22.48 degrees Celsius, or 72.46 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the record for the eighth straight day. Before July 16, the previous all-time record — set last year — was 22.18 degrees Celsius, or 71.9 degrees Fahrenheit.

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