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(NEW YORK) — Dazzling waves of color are lighting up the skies this week.

After green and pink displays of auroras lit up the sky Tuesday night, another Northern Light array is expected to bring a gleaming light show to the northern part of the U.S. Wednesday night.

The auroras are being caused by one of the strongest geomagnetic storms of the year, which occurs when electrons from the sun collide with Earth’s magnetic field to produce colored lights, according to NOAA.

“Aurora is the name given to the glow or light produced when electrons from space flow down Earth’s magnetic field and collide with atoms and molecules of the upper atmosphere in a ring or oval centered on the magnetic pole of Earth. The collisions produce light much like how electrons flowing through gas in a neon light collide with neon and other gasses to produce different colored light bulbs,” NOAA’s website reads.

Two dozen states could see the Northern Lights Wednesday night per NOAA’s aurora viewline map that includes Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Mike Bettwy, a meteorologist at the Space Weather Prediction Center, told ABC News that the auroras on Wednesday could be as clear as the ones on Tuesday.

“We had three coronal mass ejections leave the Sun since late last week. The third and final one is expected to impact our atmosphere later today and tonight. It is difficult to predict with a high degree of certainty or precision, but it is possible this will be as impactful as last night’s event. There were reports of aurora as far south as Tampa, Florida, overnight,” Bettwy said.

“While not unprecedented, it is quite unusual for the aurora to be visible at these low latitudes; probably only occurring once or twice per solar cycle,” he added.

The best time to see the aurora is between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., according to NOAA.

NASA recommends going to the darkest area and using a long exposure to get the best photos of the light show, per their guidance.

NASA did not immediately reply to requests for comment from ABC News.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department prosecutor handpicked by President Donald Trump to lead the criminal cases against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey is now the subject of a bar complaint that alleges she is unfit to be an attorney and that her actions constitute an “abuse of power.” 

The progressive watchdog group Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint against Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan on Tuesday and requested that the state bars in Florida and Virginia initiate investigations into her conduct. 

The complaint alleges that Halligan repeatedly violated the professional and ethical rules that govern the legal profession, including by making false statements and by bringing cases that are unsupported by probable cause. 

“Weaponizing the DOJ to prosecute the president’s enemies could destroy the democratic principles at the foundation of our Constitution,” the complaint said. “Ms. Halligan’s active participation in this course of action is an abuse of her governmental authority and is prejudicial to the administration of justice, adversely reflecting on her fitness as a lawyer.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which Trump named Halligan to lead on Sept. 20, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Trump tapped Halligan — a White House aide and former insurance lawyer with no prosecutorial experience — to the high-profile legal post after he forced out Trump-appointed U.S. attorney Erik Siebert who sources said had resisted bringing cases against Comey and James. Career prosecutors who investigated Comey and James recommending against bringing charges, ABC News previously reported. 

The indictments came after Trump, in a social media post, called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to act “NOW!!!” to prosecute James and Comey in what critics call a campaign of retribution against Trump’s perceived political foes. Vice President JD Vance has said any such prosecutions are “driven by law and not by politics.” 

“Ms. Halligan was well aware President Trump had installed her as Interim U.S. Attorney specifically to indict Mr. Comey and Ms. James and, within just a few days of joining the office, she did just that — despite career officials having found the cases insupportable,” the complaint said. 

“Halligan’s actions appear to constitute an abuse of power and serve to undermine the integrity of the Department of Justice and erode public confidence in the legal profession and the fair administration of justice,” said the complaint. 

Comey pleaded not guilty in October to one count of false statements and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020, while James, who successfully brought a civil fraud case against Trump last year, pleaded not guilty to charges of mortgage fraud.

A federal judge is already examining Halligan’s conduct after defense attorneys raised concerns with the legality of her appointment.

Most complaints to state bars result in no action or discipline being taken, although state bar investigations — which can take years — can result in suspension or disbarment.

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(NEW YORK) — Purdue Pharma begins several days of hearings Wednesday to finalize a $7.4 billion bankruptcy restricting plan that no longer fully protects the company’s owners, members of the Sackler families, from opioid litigation.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year blocked an earlier version of Purdue’s bankruptcy settlement because it gave the Sacklers immunity from lawsuits over the misleading marketing of OxyContin, the painkiller that Purdue began marketing in 1996.  

Purdue filed for bankruptcy in 2019 after thousands of cities, states, territories and individuals sued, alleging that the company and its owners fueled waves of addiction and overdose deaths.

Under the new plan, the Sacklers and Purdue boost their settlement contribution to $7.4 billion. The revised agreement settles all civil claims against Purdue, but individual creditors can choose to litigate claims against the Sacklers, who have long argued that although they regret their company’s role in the nation’s opioid epidemic, they are not directly or personally responsible for it.  

Purdue said the new plan received support from more than 99% of voting creditors.

“The high level of support for this Plan is gratifying after years of intense work with our creditors to craft a settlement that maximizes value for victims and communities and puts billions of dollars to work for the public good,” Purdue Chairman Steve Miller said in a statement last month. “Following the outcome of this vote, we are focused on preparing for the confirmation hearing and ultimately the emergence of a new company with a public-minded mission.” 

In addition to paying billions to creditors, the plan “will generate substantial further value” by creating a new company, Knoa Pharma, that “will provide millions of doses of lifesaving opioid use disorder treatments and overdose reversal medicines at no profit,” according to the Purdue statement.

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(DELAWARE COUNTY, Ind.) — A semitruck fatally struck a sheriff’s deputy in Indiana while he was assisting a stranded motorist along an interstate, according to local officials.

“This is a heartbreaking loss for our law enforcement family and for the entire Delaware County community,” Jeff Stanley, the chief deputy for the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, said in a statement on Wednesday.

The tragedy occurred in the early hours of Wednesday morning, after officials received calls at approximately 3:30 a.m. of a disabled vehicle along Interstate 69, officials said.

The Delaware County sheriff’s deputy, who was identified as Corporal Blake Reynolds, responded to the scene and found a semitruck partially in the roadway, officials said.

The deputy stopped behind the disabled vehicle to “provide protection for the driver” and activated his emergency lights, Indiana State Police Sgt. Scott Keegan said during a press conference on Wednesday.

While Reynolds was outside his vehicle, another semitruck traveling northbound “lost control and collided with the deputy’s vehicle and the disabled semi that was on the side of the road,” Keegan said, calling the crash a “tragic event.”

“Despite immediate emergency response efforts, the deputy did not survive his injuries,” Stanley said.

The driver who struck Reynolds was transported to a local hospital and was undergoing surgery, but Keegan said his medical condition is not known at this time.

The sheriff’s officials said no further details on the crash will be provided at this time “out of respect for the ongoing investigation and the family’s privacy.”

Reynolds joined the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office in 2022 and “quickly distinguished himself through his hard work, professionalism and leadership,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

“His passing is an immeasurable loss to his family, his brothers and sisters in uniform and the entire community he served with pride,” Stanley said.

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(NEW YORK) — At least 878 flights were canceled in the United States early on Wednesday, with the departures from the busy hubs of Chicago, Denver and Atlanta leading the list of the most cancellations, according to a flight-data tracker. 

Another 404 flights had been delayed as of about 5 a.m. ET, according to FlightAware. 

Chicago O’Hare International topped the tracker’s list of cancellations, with 44 as of about 4 a.m. local time. Next was Denver with 43 and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson with 37. 

Wednesday’s flight cancellations appeared set to continue a dayslong streak of chaos at American airports, which were operating under duress amid a federal government shutdown.

The Federal Aviation Administration continues to limit capacity at 40 major U.S. airports. Many federal employees, including Transportation Security Administration staffers, were working without pay as the partisan impasse dragged on in Washington.  

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

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(NEW YORK) — Millions of Americans from the Midwest to the Northeast to the South are facing the first deep freeze and snow of the season.

Parts of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan saw more than 1 foot of lake effect snow on Monday, with the Indiana State Police saying it “responded to hundreds of calls for assistance.”

Flurries even fell in Nashville, Tennessee, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The snow moved east on Tuesday, hitting Buffalo and Syracuse in upstate New York, as well parts of Pennsylvania. Hydetown, Pennsylvania, recorded more than 12 inches of snow while Central Square, New York, near Syracuse, saw more than 11 inches.

New York City saw light snow on Tuesday, and local emergency officials warned of reduced visibility on Tuesday afternoon due to the combined gusty winds and snow showers.

The lake effect snow will continue across western New York and northern New England through Wednesday. A winter weather advisory is in effect in Buffalo for an additional 3 to 5 inches of snow through Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, freezing temperatures are invading the Northeast and the South.

The cold blast brought record low temperatures to dozens of Southern cities, from Knoxville, Tennessee, to the Florida Keys.

Wednesday will be another chilly morning for the South. The wind chill — how cold it feels — will drop to 34 degrees in Jacksonville, Florida; 36 degrees in Charleston, South Carolina; 30 in Atlanta; 35 in Nashville, Tennessee, and Montgomery, Alabama; and 29 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Northeast will also be feeling the freeze, with temperatures feeling like the 20s to low 30s.

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(NEW YORK) — Rescuers are racing to find a miner who’s been trapped in a flooded West Virginia coal mine for days.

Crews are pumping out thousands of gallons of water per minute at the Rolling Thunder Mine to help locate the miner after the site flooded Saturday, according to West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey.

“Rescue operations continue at the Rolling Thunder Mine in Nicholas County, where crews are now pumping water at a rate of approximately 6,000 gallons per minute – a significant increase from earlier efforts as additional pumps became available,” Gov. Morrisey posted Tuesday on X.

“This is another step forward in the ongoing effort to reach the missing miner. As water levels continue to drop, crews are also advancing on the drilling portion of the rescue as they prepare for additional heavy equipment to arrive,” he added.

The identity of the miner has not been publicly released.

At a press conference Monday, Morrisey said dive teams were working to find pockets of air where the miner may be located.

“This has been an around-the-clock response since Saturday, and we’re going to continue to do everything imaginable to help,” said Morrisey. “We’re going to continue to push because we want to make sure that we give the miner every opportunity to live.”

Nicholas County Commissioner Garrett Cole posted a statement on Facebook Sunday night, saying that the missing miner was helping his crew escape to safety.

“According to state wide reporting, the missing miner is said to be a foreman of a crew who worked to ensure that everyone on his crew was getting out of the mine but got trapped behind,” he said.

Rolling Thunder Mine is operated by Tennessee-based Alpha Metallurgical Resources, which operates 19 underground and surfaces mines across West Virginia and Virginia, according to its website.

A spokesperson for Alpha Metallurgical Resources did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.

The weekend episode at Rolling Thunder Mine is the second mining incident in West Virginia this month, following the death of a miner at a different mine on Thursday, according to Morrisey.

“Our coal miners are among the hardest-working and most courageous people in our state. They represent the strength, humility, and resolve that define West Virginia. We owe these men and women an enduring debt of gratitude for the sacrifices they make every day to power our communities and our nation,” Morrisey posted on Facebook.

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(ALAMEDA COUNTY, Calif.) — Two people have been arrested in a man’s 1993 cold case murder, including the mother of his two children, Northern California authorities announced.

On June 17, 1993, Zachary Jackson, 30, was found shot to death in his home in Hayward, about 30 miles from San Francisco, Alameda County Sheriff’s Detective Pat Smyth said. Authorities believe Jackson was killed around June 14.

Now the mother of Jackson’s children, Veronica Fonseca, and her boyfriend from 1993, Anthony Fox, are in custody for his murder, Smyth said at a news conference on Monday.

“We believe they were both there and that Mr. Fox was the one who pulled the trigger,” he said.

In 1993, Jackson and Fonseca shared a 4-year-old daughter — who was in Jackson’s custody — and a 1-year-old son, who was in Fonseca’s custody, Smyth said.

Fonseca was interviewed several times during the initial investigation, but nothing at the time led investigators to believe she was involved, Smyth said. Fox wasn’t interviewed at the time, Smyth said, adding that investigators at first focused on a dispute between Jackson and his landlord.

“In 1993, they did not have a lot of the things that we have available to us today, investigatively, to find leads,” Smyth explained. “No electronic footprint like we have these days. They relied heavily on witnesses, fingerprint, that sort of thing. DNA was in its infancy.”

“Without any viable leads,” Smyth said, the case went cold.

In 2014, a tipster reported having information about who was responsible and identified Fonseca and Fox, Smyth said.

But over the next year or so, investigators “encountered a roadblock” that stalled the case, Smyth said.

Several more years passed, and in 2021, someone left an anonymous tip on the sheriff department’s website identifying Fonseca and Fox, he said.

Smyth interviewed the tipster, but he said there was still an “impediment in the case.” He did not elaborate on the impediment.

“The case really didn’t move forward until this year, when we developed an investigative plan to try to bring this case forward,” Smyth said.

Over the last few months, “there’s been a lot of investigative resources poured into this case,” Smyth said, and more witnesses cooperated and “told a similar story as to our previous tipsters.”

On Thursday, Fonseca was arrested in New York City and Fox was arrested in Iowa on charges of murder and first-degree residential burglary, according to Smyth and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. Fonseca and Fox have not yet been transferred to Alameda County, officials said.

Smyth declined to discuss the evidence against them but called the case a “good example of what happens when good people have the courage to come forward … coupled with law enforcement leveraging all investigative resources to bring a resolution.”

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(CHICAGO) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection commander-at-large Greg Bovino is expected to be leaving the city of Chicago in the coming days, multiple sources tell ABC News.

The Department of Homeland Security will continue to maintain a presence in the city, according to sources.

Bovino’s departure could mean he is set to go to another city, or return to the El Centro sector in Southern California, according to a source.

DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said the agency isn’t leaving Chicago.

“We aren’t leaving Chicago,” she posted citing statistics from “Operation Midway Blitz,” the surge of federal immigration enforcement in the city.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — More than 200 million people are waking up to an early blast of winter with the first major snowfall of the season and the coldest temperatures, too.

Parts of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan saw more than 1 foot of lake effect snow.

Flurries even fell in Nashville, Tennessee, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

On Tuesday morning, the snow is still falling in Buffalo and Syracuse in upstate New York, as well parts of Pennsylvania.

That lake effect snow in upstate New York will continue Tuesday and into Wednesday morning off Lakes Erie and Ontario. Two to 4 inches of additional snowfall is possible before it turns to rain on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, freezing temperatures are invading the Northeast and the South.

The cold blast is also expected to bring daily record low temperatures to dozens of cities in the Southeast, from Knoxville, Tennessee, to the Florida Keys.

Freeze warnings are in place Tuesday morning in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas.

The high temperature on Tuesday will only hit 48 degrees in Raleigh, North Carolina; 50 degrees in Atlanta; 53 degrees in Jacksonville, Florida; 57 in Orlando, Florida; and 68 in Miami. 

And the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England are facing wind gusts of 35 to 50 mph on Tuesday, making the cold temperatures there feel even colder.

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