National

(TOPEKA, Kan.) — While the mysterious white powder inside scores of envelopes sent to Republican lawmakers and officials in at least three states has been deemed harmless, investigators say the mailings could still get someone killed.

“This isn’t just a statement that somebody is trying to make. This is costing us the ability to save lives in Kansas,” said Tony Mattivi, director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which led what Mattivi called the “unprecedented investigation” when more than 100 envelopes containing the powder and a threatening note were discovered this month in Kansas.

After more letters were sent to officials in Tennessee and Montana — and even to Donald Trump, according to federal officials — the FBI took over the case.

In an interview with ABC News, Mattivi described how for four days the Kansas Bureau of Investigation was forced to focus nearly all of its resources on responding to the letters.

“We just don’t know at the early stages how much of a threat it is … We have no choice,” Mattivi said.

At one point, “every single bomb squad [and] every single hazmat unit in the state of Kansas, whether federal, state or local” was dealing with this case, Mattivi said. “This was a massive resource drain.”

According to Mattivi, his agency was stretched so thin responding to the letters that it was unable to intercept a substantial shipment of fentanyl that agents knew was coming.

When the agency did try to grab the shipment, it was too late — and having another law enforcement agency take action earlier wasn’t an option because that would have required “significant coordination” and time, which the agency didn’t have, Mattivi said.

“We have no idea how many overdoses and deaths are going to take place when we had a realistic likelihood of being able to intercept that shipment in the first place,” Mattivi said of the missed fentanyl bust.

“This threat, it was not harmless,” Mattivi said of the mailings.

The letters obtained so far appear to be largely the same: They come in standard white envelopes with false return addresses, and contain a white powder along with a cryptic letter telling recipients, “It is important not to choke on your ambition,” according to officials and a copy of one letter posted online.

One Kansas state lawmaker who received a letter said it had a fake return address for a local church — a ploy he believes was designed to make it appear it was from a constituent. In at least some cases, names on the return addresses were believed to be those of transgender people who had died, recipients told ABC News.

“Someone put a lot of thought and a lot of effort into the research that they did,” Kansas state Rep. Stephen Owens said.

Asked if whoever’s sending the letters is specifically driven by politics, considering that so many recipients are Republican, Mattivi said: “We’re looking at a wide range of motives. Nothing’s off the table at this point.”

The FBI, in a statement, said, “Law enforcement and public safety officials are working to determine how many letters were sent, the individual or individuals responsible for the letters, and the motive behind the letters.”

Mattivi expressed confidence that those responsible will be caught.

“I’m optimistic that we’re going to make an apprehension here,” he said.

ABC News’ Jay O’Brien contributed to this report.

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(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — A Delta plane landed safely at Charlotte Douglas International Airport Wednesday morning without its front landing gear, according to the airline.

Passenger Chris Skotarczak told ABC News there was no chaos on board during the landing, and he praised the crew for their work.

No injuries were reported among the two pilots, three flight attendants or 96 customers on board the Boeing 717, Delta said. The flight had left from Atlanta earlier in the morning.

Delta said its pilots received a “nose gear unsafe” indication and flew by the Charlotte airport’s air traffic control tower to allow air traffic control an opportunity to “visually inspect the plane.” That showed the nose landing gear doors were open, but the nose gear itself remained in the up position, Delta said.

Pilots declared an emergency on board and passengers said they were briefed by flight attendants. Passengers said it was a smooth landing, even though they were told to brace for a rough touchdown.

Passengers said clapping erupted once the plane touched down and they then deplaned using the slide.

Delta said in a statement: “While this is a rare occurrence, Delta flight crews train extensively to safely manage through many scenarios and flight 1092 landed safely without reported injuries. Our next focus is to take care of our customers on this flight, including retrieving their bags and seeing them to their final destinations safely. We apologize to our customers for what they experienced.”

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the flight landed with its nose gear up and said it will investigate.

ABC News’ Sam Sweeney, Amanda Maile and Lena Camilletti contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is now suing the writer who sued him for defamation.

Trump is accusing E. Jean Carroll of defaming him when, after a jury held him liable for sexually assaulting her but not raping her as she initially claimed, Carroll appeared on television and insisted he did rape her.

“In response to that specific inquiry, Counterclaim Defendant disregarded the jury’s finding that Counterclaimant did not rape her, and replied: ‘Oh yes he did, oh yes he did,'” the lawsuit said.

Trump’s counterclaim said Carroll’s statements following her successful battery and defamation lawsuit caused “significant harm to his reputation,” making him deserving of compensatory and punitive damages.

The former president’s lawsuit also took aim at statements Carroll said she made privately to defense attorney Joe Tacopina at the conclusion of the trial.

“Specifically, Counterclaim Defendant stated in the Interview that she emphatically told Mr. Tacopina at the conclusion of the trial that ‘he did it and you know it,’ again reaffirming her claim that Counterclaimant raped her. Counterclaim Defendant made these statements knowing each of them were false or with reckless disregard for their truth or falsity,” Trump’s lawsuit said.

A jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages in May. Trump’s attorney recently put $5.5 million into an account controlled by the court while the defense pursues an appeal of the jury’s verdict and damage award.

In a statement, Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, called Trump’s counterclaim an attempt to delay accountability.

“Donald Trump again argues, contrary to both logic and fact, that he was exonerated by a jury that found that he sexually abused E Jean Carroll by forcibly inserting his fingers into her vagina. Four out of the five statements in Trump’s so-called counterclaim were made outside of New York’s one-year statute of limitations. The other statement similarly will not withstand a motion to dismiss,” Kaplan said.

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(NEW YORK) — Millions of Americans are on alert for unhealthy air quality as smoke from wildfires in neighboring Canada drifts to the United States.

Wildfires have burned more than 17.7 million acres across Canada so far this year, with no end in sight. There are nearly 500 active wildfires throughout the country and almost 260 have been deemed out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center. The smoke has been making its way to the U.S. for over a month.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jun 28, 7:45 AM EDT
Chicago air quality hits ‘very unhealthy’ category

As Canadian wildfire smoke infiltrates the midwestern United States, the air in Chicago has deteriorated to the Air Quality Index’s> “very unhealthy” category.

The AQI in hazy Chicago reached 250 on Tuesday afternoon. Any number over 100 is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups.

“We recommend children, teens, seniors, people with heart or lung disease, and individuals who are pregnant avoid strenuous activities and limit their time outdoors,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson warned in a statement. “For additional precautions, all Chicagoans may also consider wearing masks, limiting their outdoor exposure, moving activities indoors, running air purifiers, and closing windows.”

The smoke is forecast to clear on Friday when showers and thunderstorms hit the region.

Earlier this month, the AQI in the northeastern U.S. reached near maximum with levels in the high 400s.

Jun 28, 7:03 AM EDT
20 US states under air quality alerts

As of Wednesday morning, 20 U.S. states are under air quality alerts from Minnesota down to Georgia and as far north as western New York.

Wildfire smoke from neighbouring Canada is currently blanketing large swaths of the United States, from Iowa to western Pennsylvania to North Carolina and most everywhere in between. Only Chicago is getting a small reprieve on Wednesday morning due to a lake breeze, which isn’t expected to last for long.

Later on Wednesday, the smoke is expected to cover areas from Minnesota to Washington, D.C. and down to the Carolinas.

By early Thursday morning, the smoke will be seen in Minneapolis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Pittsburgh. But by the afternoon, it will linger from Detroit to Atlanta and east to Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.

New York City could be impacted as well, but most of the smoke from the Canadian wildfires is expected to stay in western New York state, Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(SAN ANTONIO) — One year after 53 people, including six kids, were killed in an abandoned sweltering tractor-trailer near San Antonio during an alleged smuggling attempt, the Justice Department announced it has indicted and arrested four men for the incident.

Riley Covarrubias-Ponce, Felipe Orduna-Torres, Luis Alberto Rivera-Leal and Armando Gonzales-Ortega were all arrested and charged on several counts including conspiracy and alien smuggling resulting in death, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

The four men allegedly participated with three other suspects, Homero Zamorano and Christian Martinez who were previously indicted and arrested, and a seventh unidentified suspect in a human smuggling organization that attempted to bring 66 people into the United States on June 27, 2022, the indictment said.

The migrants and their families, a majority from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, paid between $12,000 and $15,000 each to be brought into the country, the indictment said.

The indictment detailed how the men allegedly worked together to use trucking routes, local guides, stash houses, trucks and trailers to transport the group. To make sure they properly kept track of the group, each migrant was given the code word “clave” to recite at different points in their journey, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors said the men knew the tractor-trailer they were using on that day did not have a working air conditioning unit. As the temperature rose, the people in the back became desperate, screaming and banging on the walls for help, according to the indictment.

It was the deadliest incident of human smuggling in U.S. history, according to investigators.

Eleven people found inside the tractor were hospitalized but survived, investigators said.

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite spoke at length during a news conference about the efforts with Joint Task Force Alpha, whose mission is to investigate human rights violations and push for prosecution. Since June of 2021, they’ve had 80 convictions.

“Our message is simple,” Polite said. “When you put people’s lives at risk, when you ignore the screams of humanity for profit, we will aggressively go after you.”

The trial for Zamorano and Martinez is set for Sept. 11. All six charged so far face life in prison if convicted. Attorney information for the suspects wasn’t immediately available.

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(NEW YORK) — Marine veteran Daniel Penny is expected to appear in court Wednesday in connection with the chokehold death of Jordan Neely aboard a subway train.

He was indicted by a grand jury on June 14, but his exact charges remain sealed until Penny appears in court, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. Penny was initially arrested on a second-degree manslaughter charge.

Video showed Penny, 24, putting Neely in a chokehold on May 1. Several witnesses observed Neely making threats, assistant district attorney Joshua Steinglass told the judge during Penny’s initial appearance in court on May 12.

Some witnesses told police that Neely was yelling and harassing passengers on the train, authorities said.

Police sources told ABC News that Penny was not specifically being threatened by Neely when he intervened and that Neely had not become violent and had not been threatening anyone in particular.

Neely was homeless at the time of the incident.

“While we respect the decision of the grand jury to move this case forward to trial, it should be noted that the standard of proof in a grand jury is very low and there has been no finding of wrongdoing. We’re confident that when a trial jury is tasked with weighing the evidence, they will find Daniel Penny’s actions on that train were fully justified,” said Penny’s attorney Steven Raiser in a statement following the indictment.

Attorneys for Neely’s family applauded Penny’s indictment.

“The grand jury’s decision tells our city and our nation that ‘no one is above the law’ no matter how much money they raise, no matter what affiliations they claim, and no matter what distorted stories they tell in interviews,” the attorneys said in a statement.

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(SAN ANTONIO) — One year after 53 people, including six kids, were killed in an abandoned sweltering tractor-trailer near San Antonio during an alleged smuggling attempt, the Justice Department announced it has indicted and arrested four men for the incident.

Riley Covarrubias-Ponce, Felipe Orduna-Torres, Luis Alberto Rivera-Leal and Armando Gonzales-Ortega were all arrested and charged on several counts including conspiracy and alien smuggling resulting in death, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

The four men allegedly participated with three other suspects, Homero Zamorano and Christian Martinez who were previously indicted and arrested, and a seventh unidentified suspect in a human smuggling organization that attempted to bring 66 people into the United States on June 27, 2022, the indictment said.

The migrants and their families, a majority from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, paid between $12,000 and $15,000 each to be brought into the country, the indictment said.

The indictment detailed how the men allegedly worked together to use trucking routes, local guides, stash houses, trucks and trailers to transport the group. To make sure they properly kept track of the group, each migrant was given the code word “clave” to recite at different points in their journey, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors said the men knew the tractor-trailer they were using on that day did not have a working air conditioning unit. As the temperature rose, the people in the back became desperate, screaming and banging on the walls for help, according to the indictment.

It was the deadliest incident of human smuggling in U.S. history, according to investigators.

Eleven people found inside the tractor were hospitalized but survived, investigators said.

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite spoke at length during a news conference about the efforts with Joint Task Force Alpha, whose mission is to investigate human rights violations and push for prosecution. Since June of 2021, they’ve had 80 convictions.

“Our message is simple,” Polite said. “When you put people’s lives at risk, when you ignore the screams of humanity for profit, we will aggressively go after you.”

The trial for Zamorano and Martinez is set for Sept. 11. All six charged so far face life in prison if convicted. Attorney information for the suspects wasn’t immediately available.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(HOUSTON) — Emergency room visits in Texas have increased from the same time last year, as the state battles extreme heat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the week of June 18 to June 24, the region averaged 837 heat-related visits per 100,000 emergency department visits compared to 639 visits per 100,000 emergency department visits during the same period in 2022, CDC data shows.

There were 827 heat-related emergency room visits per 100,000 visits on Sunday and 832 visits per 100,000 visits on Monday, according to the data.

The Houston Fire Department generally averages three heat-related incidents a day, but those numbers have also increased, according to ABC’s Houston affiliate KTRK.

There have been 93 incidents so far this month, according to KTRK, which is monitoring the emergency calls.

On average, 702 heat-related deaths occur each year in the U.S., with roughly 9,235 people hospitalized due to heat, and 67,512 emergency department visits caused by heat, according to the CDC.

The emergency calls have also extended to the Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

The organization said in a press release it’s received twice the number of calls since the beginning of June about pets experiencing heat distress compared to last year.

Between June 1 and June 20, the Houston SPCA received 243 heat-related reports, compared to the same time frame in 2022, the organization revealed.

“We are keeping a close watch on the weather since temperatures are back into the 100s again. That means every second counts when rescuing and treating heatstroke especially the most vulnerable animals including seniors, young animals, as well as brachycephalic breeds such as bulldogs, shih tzu and pugs,” Dr. Roberta Westbrook, chief veterinarian and animal medical officer at Houston SPCA, said in the press release.

Harris County Constable Precinct 1 and the Houston SPCA rescued a dog that was directly in the sunlight in a wire kennel outside on June 19, where a surface thermometer registered the temperature at 117 degrees, the Houston SPCA said.

The Houston SPCA and the Harris County Constable Precinct 1 also answered calls on June 20 of a senior chihuahua with serious skin issues wearing a sweater outside in Southwest Houston, where a surface thermometer registered the temperature at 106 degrees, according to the Houston SPCA.

Many parts of Texas have been experiencing triple-digit temperatures in recent weeks.

Dallas reached 105 degrees on Tuesday, according to AccuWeather, and is forecast to reach 106 degrees on Wednesday.

The temperature in Houston reached 101 degrees on Tuesday, and is projected to hit 102 degrees on Wednesday, according to meteorologists.

Extreme heat causes more fatalities in the U.S. than hurricanes, tornadoes and flooding, according to statistics from NOAA and the National Weather Service.

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(NEW YORK) — A federal judge seemed disinclined on Tuesday to allow former President Donald Trump to move his criminal prosecution in New York into federal court.

“The act for which the president has been indicted does not relate to anything under the color of his office,” Judge Alvin Hellerstein said toward the end of a nearly three-hour hearing. The judge said he would issue a written ruling.

“I intend to write and issue a decision within two weeks,” the judge said.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Trump in 2017 wrote monthly reimbursement checks to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, from his personal funds having nothing to do with his official duties as president, a prosecutor said during the hearing in arguing to keep Trump’s criminal prosecution in State Supreme Court in Manhattan instead of federal court, where Trump’s defense attorneys say it belongs.

“Writing personal checks, even if he did it in the Oval Office, is not an official act,” the prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, said.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has argued that Trump’s alleged falsification of business records was done to conceal the true nature of a $130,000 hush payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and was not “related to the color of his office,” the standard required to remove the case from State Supreme Court in Manhattan to federal court.

“The president’s duties are not all-encompassing,” Colangelo, said. “We know the president can, even when he’s president, have personal papers.”

Trump has argued his case belongs in federal court because his allegedly criminal conduct occurred from February to December 2017, while he was in office.

“There’s not a clear line between his personal and professional affairs,” defense attorney Todd Blanche said.

Once Trump was elected, he hired Cohen to help separate his private and professional dealings, so the defense argued reimbursement payments to Cohen were properly recorded as payment for legal services.

“Was there a retainer agreement?” Judge Hellerstein asked repeatedly.

“The checks,” Blanche answered, referring to the $35,000 monthly reimbursement checks, before conceding he was unaware of a signed retainer.

Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, testified that Cohen left the company to assume the role of personal attorney to President Trump and was paid $35,000 monthly.

“My understanding was to reimburse him for the payments he had made for the Clifford settlement and to compensate him for the role that he was playing as counsel,” Garten said.

On cross-examination, Garten conceded he had seen no retainer agreement for Cohen, only the invoices that prosecutors allege were falsified.

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(HOUSTON) — The idea of recycling urine to make clean drinking water might make those with even the strongest stomachs a little queasy, but NASA has managed to do just that.

The federal agency announced astronauts aboard the International Space Station have been able to recover 98% of the water that crews take into space with them by recycling everything from urine to sweat.

As NASA prepares for longer missions — including to the moon and potentially beyond — engineers have been working on how to make sure astronauts have basic needs met without resupply missions, including how to recycle food, air and water.

This also helps ensure each crew member has an average of one gallon of water they need per day to drink, use in food preparation and for hygienic purposes, including brushing teeth.

“This is a very important step forward in the evolution of life support systems,” said Christopher Brown, a member of the team at Johnson Space Center that manages the space station’s life support system. “Let’s say you collect 100 pounds of water on the station. You lose two pounds of that and the other 98% just keeps going around and around. Keeping that running is a pretty awesome achievement.”

The recycling is done through the Environmental Control and Life Support System, otherwise known as ECLSS, which is a system of hardware that provides clean air and water to the ISS.

Part of the ECLSS is the Water Recovery System that produces drinking water. One component uses advanced dehumidifiers that captures moisture created by the breath and sweat of the crew, which is turned into drinking water.

The other component pre-treats urine and then uses technology to distill it into water that can be recycled. However, this distillation still leaves behind some urine brine, a byproduct that NASA says still has some water that can be reused.

This is where the Brine Processor Assembly comes into to play to extract any remaining water from the brine. Before this added component, only about 93% or 94% of water could be recycled instead of the current 98%, according to ECLSS water subsystems manager Jill Williamson.

The collected water is put through a filter to break down any remaining contaminations. Sensors pick up any impurities and water deemed unacceptable for drinking is reprocessed, according to NASA.

Iodine is also added to the water that the sensors deemed acceptable to prevent microbial growth. It is then stored until it comes time for the crew to use it.

“The crew is not drinking urine; they are drinking water that has been reclaimed, filtered and cleaned such that it is cleaner than what we drink here on Earth,” Williamson said. “We have a lot of processes in place and a lot of ground testing to provide confidence that we are producing clean, potable water.”

She added that recycling as many resources as possible will help as NASA prepares for lengthier and farther missions.

“The less water and oxygen we have to ship up, the more science that can be added to the launch vehicle,” she said. “Reliable, robust regenerative systems mean the crew doesn’t have to worry about it and can focus on the true intent of their mission,” Williamson said.

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