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(BOISE, Idaho) — A new Idaho bill would make it illegal to aid minors in traveling across state lines for abortion care while concealing it from their parents. The proposed bill is set to be voted on by the state Senate.
The proposed bill names a crime called “abortion trafficking,” which criminalizes any adult who aids or obtains abortion pills for a minor in another state while seeking to conceal it from their parents or legal guardians.
Nearly all abortions have been banned in Idaho, with exceptions for medical emergencies, rape and incest. However, women are required to file a police report and show it to the medical provider before they can get abortion care in cases of rape or incest. The state also requires parental consent or notification for minors seeking abortion care, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
The bill makes it a crime for any adult to procure or obtain abortion pills for a pregnant minor “by recruiting, harboring, or transporting the pregnant minor within this state” while intending to conceal the abortion from the pregnant minor’s parents or guardians, according to the bill.
Anyone found guilty of committing abortion trafficking could face from two to five years in state prison.
The proposed bill passed through the Idaho House of Representatives earlier this month with a 57 -12 vote. If approved by the state Senate, it heads to Gov. Brad Little’s desk for approval before it can become law. A representative for Little declined to comment on the bill or if Little would sign it into law.
The bill would also allow civil lawsuits to be brought by the family of the minor who sought the abortion care or the father of the fetus. Civil suits could also be brought against medical professionals who provide abortion care, asking for at least $20,000 in damages.
Last week, an Idaho hospital announced it will end labor and delivery services in part due to the “political climate.”
Last June, Little celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights.
“I join many in Idaho and across the country today in welcoming the high court’s long-awaited decision upholding state sovereignty and protecting pre-born lives. The decision provides clarity around landmark cases at the center of passionate debate in our country for nearly five decades. This is now clear – the ‘right’ to an abortion was a judicial creation,” Little said at the time.
The high court’s decision paved the way for an anti-abortion trigger law approved by Little to go into effect last summer.
“Abortion is not a right expressed in the U.S. Constitution, and abortion will be entrusted to the states and their people to regulate,” he said.
Idaho’s six-week abortion ban is one of the strictest in the country. As part of a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, a judge blocked part of the ban in August that would have prohibited providers from providing abortions in medical emergencies.
Little criticized the lawsuit, which he claimed is “interference with Idaho’s pro-life law and another example of Biden overreaching yet again,” he said in a statement in August.
“Here in Idaho, we are proud that we have led the country in protecting pre-born lives. I will continue to work with Attorney General Lawrence Wasden to vigorously uphold state sovereignty and defend Idaho’s laws in the face of federal meddling,” Little said.
(NASHVILLE. Tenn.) — When the suspected shooter drove into the parking lot of Nashville’s Covenant School at 9:53 a.m. local time on Monday, a maintenance worker was standing outside with a leaf blower and a group of children were at a playground, some enjoying the sunny spring morning on a swing set, according to security video from the hilltop campus.
The suspect, identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, circled the nearly empty parking lot in a four-door Honda Fit, driving by the playground before parking.
Hale sat in the car composing an Instagram message to Averianna Patton, a former middle school basketball teammate, and sent the message at 9:57 a.m., writing, “I’m planning to die today. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!”
“You’ll probably hear about me on the news after I die,” Hale wrote, according to the message Patton shared with ABC News. “This is my last goodbye. I love you,” Hale wrote, adding a heart emoji. “See you again in another life.”
A police spokesperson told ABC News that Hale was assigned female at birth, identified as transgender, and pointed to a social media account linked to Hale that included use of the pronouns he/him.
Hale once attended the Covenant School, a preschool to sixth-grade institution run by the Presbyterian church, and did not have a criminal record. But law enforcement officials said medical professionals treated Hale for an emotional disorder.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Hale left home on Monday morning with a red bag. Before walking out the door, Hale’s mother asked what was in the bag, Drake said.
“I think she just dismissed it because it was a motherly thing and didn’t look in the bag because, at the time, she didn’t know (the suspect) had any weapons and didn’t think any differently,” said Drake, adding that the investigation revealed Hale had purchased seven weapons, including two assault-type rifles and a pistol Hale was armed with during the rampage that left three adults and three 9-year-old children dead.
School surveillance video captured the suspect at 10:10 a.m. using one of the high-powered rifles to blast through the locked glass doors on the side of the school and stepping through the broken glass to enter the main school building.
Drake said the school custodian, 61-year-old Mike Hall, a father of seven children and a grandfather to 14, was standing in the hallway and was fatally struck by at least one of the shots the suspect fired through the glass entrance doors.
Other security video clips from inside the school showed the suspect walking by the church office before circling back and briefly entering the apparently empty office through an unlocked door and emerging, pointing the barrel of a gun down the hallway and then going through a set of unlocked double doors.
Drake said the suspect encountered Katherine Koonce, the head of the Covenant School, outside of Koonce’s office. The chief said Koonce was fatally shot in a hallway after possibly getting into a confrontation with the shooter.
Police said that at 10:13 a.m. someone from inside the school called 911, reporting shots fired.
The hallways, offices and classrooms, according to the videos, appeared empty as the suspect — wearing a red ball cap turned backward, camouflage pants, sneakers, black gloves and wielding two assault-type rifles, one being held and the other slung over a shoulder — walked around, entering doors.
At 10:20 a.m., a security video showed Hale walking down a hall, passing an office with a sign reading “Children’s ministry.”
“Based on what I know about the school and the neighborhood around it, those that fled would have been able to flee into some pretty serious cover and concealment areas pretty quick based on the terrain. But those that were not able to do that and locked down the building, from what I understand, did that correctly as well,” Brink Fidler, president of Defend System, an active shooter training company that performed drills with staff at Covenant School last year, told ABC News.
While teachers hid with students in rooms and closets, others fled the campus on foot, according to witnesses.
Actress Melissa Joan Hart told ABC News she was driving near the school with her husband when they noticed children coming out of a wooded area and stopped to help.
“We helped a class of kindergarteners cross a busy highway. They were climbing out of the woods,” Hart said. “They were trying to escape the shooter situation at their school. So, we helped all these tiny little kids cross the road and get their teachers over there. And we helped a mom reunite with her children.”
Katie Robbins, who lives near the school, told ABC News she watched the chaos unfold from her window.
“My heart almost exploded,” Robbins said. “Like, ‘Oh my God, it’s happening here.”
Robbins said she saw a group of children and their teacher sprinting from the school, crossing the street and huddling at the gate outside her home.
“A little boy said, ‘Help me get inside. How can I get inside?'” Robbins recalled. “I just wanted to help him and help all of them get inside, get away.”
She said she and a neighbor helped them get out of harm’s way.
The first officers arrived on the scene at 10:21 a.m. and entered the school two minutes later. Drake said 14 minutes elapsed between officers getting the first 911 call and when the suspect was killed.
Officer Rex Englebert, one of the first officers to arrive on the scene, immediately went to the rear of his police SUV cruiser and retrieved an assault-type rifle from a bag, according to footage from his body-worn camera that was made public on Tuesday.
“The kids are all locked down, but we have two kids that we don’t know where they are,” a school staff member is heard in the body-camera footage telling Englebert, as he approached the front door of the school.
The staffer relayed to Englebert a report she received over her cellphone from inside the school and instructed the officer how to get to the stairwell leading to the second floor, saying, “all the way down this hall. At the end of this hall is Scholarship Hall. They just heard gunshots down there, and then up the stairs are a bunch of kids.”
Englebert went to the front door and was handed a key by another school staffer standing there, according to the body-camera video. Englebert called out for three officers to join him as he used the key to open the door, yelling, “Let’s go!”
As Englebert and other officers entered the school, sirens were going off, according to the body camera footage. As the officers went classroom-to-classroom searching for the suspect and victims, one was heard yelling about the suspect, “We don’t know where he is.”
Then the officers heard gunshots. “Sounds like it’s upstairs,” Englebert is heard saying.
At least five officers are then seen going up a stairwell to the second floor at 10:24 a.m. as the gunshots grew louder. Englebert appeared to take the lead, followed by several officers, including officer Michael Collazo, who was armed with a handgun, according to his body camera video.
When they reached an open area, the officers spotted and engaged the suspect, who was standing near a broken window, at 10:25 a.m. Someone yelled, “Reloading” as Englebert shot the suspect and Collazo also opened fire. According to law enforcement sources, the suspect was killed at 10:27 a.m.
(NEW YORK) — The video game industry is one of the most lucrative tech sectors in the world, bringing in $159.3 billion globally, according to the International Trade Administration. But not everyone is getting a piece of that pot.
Only 4% of game creators identify as Black, according to a study by the International Game Developers Association.
Now some Black developers and historically Black universities are looking to change those statistics and, in turn, improve representation in the games themselves.
“We’re going to see diversity in all types of gaming, from the controllers that we use, to the storylines that are being told, to the characters that you’re seeing,” Jaycee Holmes, the director of curriculum for the nonprofit CodeHouse told ABC News. “More seats at the table means more quality gaming and experiences.”
Holmes’ brother Ernest, a software engineer at Google, co-founded CodeHouse to introduce more young Black students to the world of computer science and coding. Ernest Holmes told ABC News that he was shocked when he got to Google’s offices and saw there weren’t many minorities.
“I just do that. I want to be a part of the change to make something amazing happen,” he said.
CodeHouse has set up an annual event that invites 3,000 Atlanta high school students to meet with developers from tech companies such as Google and Netflix, and allows the young developers to get a hands-on look at how their apps and products are made.
CodeHouse isn’t the only organization helping to make these connections.
At Spelman College’s Innovation Lab, Black students are learning the foundations of video game creation. The school recently invited students from a dozen other HBCUs for a weekend crash course in game development and 65% of the students who attended had no experience in game design or development, according to Anetha Evans, a Spelman student lab leader.
Madeline Brown, a Spelman computer science major who won honors at the event, said she looks forward to connecting the world through her games.
“I wanted to be able to show a Black woman’s experience through gaming, and so I feel like gaming allows for people to step in somebody else’s shoes, and so it builds empathy with communities that you often times wouldn’t have interactions with,” she said.
(WEST READING, Pa.) — A Pennsylvania woman who lives next to a chocolate factory that exploded Friday has filed a lawsuit accusing the company of negligence that led to the fatal explosion.
Betty Wright claimed that she was home at the time of the explosion and was “lifted from her feet and blown across the room causing severe and permanent injuries,” according to the lawsuit.
Seven people died and several others were injured after the explosion at the factory in West Reading.
According to officials, the explosion caused destruction to one building nearby and damaged another. West Reading Mayor Samantha Kaag said the incident was so strong it pushed a building back four feet.
According to the lawsuit, Wright sustained cervical, lumbar, hip and leg injuries in addition to anxiety and the loss of property and belongings as a result of the explosion.
Wright alleged she suffered “a significant wage loss” and impairment to earning capacity or potential, according to the lawsuit. She also said she lost access to her apartment and belongings.
She says the company failed to “properly inspect, repair and/or test the property to prevent this catastrophic explosion,” according to the lawsuit.
“Proper maintenance, monitoring, inspection and/or testing by [R. M. Palmer] would have revealed the existence of the potential explosive condition,” the lawsuit says.
Wright also alleged that at no point prior to the explosion did the company warn her of the “dangerous and explosive hazard that was present in or around her apartment which was in the zone of danger,” according to the suit.
She is asking for damages in excess of $50,000, according to the suit.
An investigation into the cause of the explosion will be conducted, officials said last week.
“In the initial incident report from Berks County to PEMA, a reference to a gas leak was included. It is really important to note that incident reports from counties are a snapshot in time of the understanding of the incident at the time the report was made,” Ruth A. Miller, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency’s communications director, said in a statement last week.
On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board said it is launching a safety investigation looking into the natural gas explosion and fire.
The company established a crisis hotline for anyone who needs support and will be offering employees grief counseling, according to a statement on Facebook.
The company did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment about the lawsuit, but released a statement Saturday regarding the explosion.
“Everyone at R.M. Palmer is devastated by the tragic events at one of our West Reading facilities and we are focused on supporting our employees and their families. We have lost close friends and colleagues, and our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of all who have been impacted,” the company said on its website.
(LAFAYETTE, Ind.) — A 1-year-old boy was allegedly fatally shot by his 5-year-old sibling at an apartment in Indiana, police said.
Police received a report of a shooting at an apartment complex in Lafayette around 3 p.m. local time on Tuesday.
Responding officers found the 1-year-old dead from a gunshot wound at the residence, police said.
“Detectives with the Lafayette Police Department determined that the child was shot by his five-year-old sibling, who was able to gain access to a weapon in the apartment,” the Lafayette Police Department said in a statement.
The weapon was a handgun, according to police.
An autopsy was performed on Wednesday and the preliminary cause of death is one gunshot wound, Tippecanoe County Coroner Carrie Costello said.
The coroner identified the victim as 16-month-old Isiah Johnson.
There are no further updates in the investigation at this time, police said.
“This continues to be an active investigation by our department,” Lafayette Capt. Brian Phillips said in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday.
Lafayette is located about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
(WEST READING, Pa.) — The cause of a deadly fire is under investigation after seven people were killed and several others injured in an explosion at a chocolate factory in Pennsylvania, police and city officials said.
The explosion occurred Friday evening at the RM Palmer Company in West Reading, located about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia. It caused destruction to one building nearby and damaged another. Images of the scene showed smoke and flames billowing from the factory.
One person had been found alive overnight in the rubble, giving first responders hope that more survivors would be rescued, though two additional bodies were recovered from the rubble at the site of the factory Sunday night, West Reading Police Chief Wayne Holben said at a press conference.
Tower Heath said earlier its hospital in West Reading initially received 10 patients from the explosion.
The victims killed in the incident ranged in age from 30 to 63 and were all from Pennsylvania.
They were identified by the Berks County Coroner’s Office as Michael Breedy, 62, of Marion Township; Diana Cedeno, 44, of Reading; Domingo Cruz, 60, of Reading; Susan Halvonik, 63, of Upper Providence Township; Judith Lopez-Moran, 55, of Reading; Xiorky Nunez, 30, of Reading, and Amy Sandoe, 49, of Ephrata.
“Forensic medical examinations are continuing to determine the cause and manner of death for all victims,” the coroner’s office said.
An investigation to determine the official cause of the fire will be conducted, officials said.
“In the initial incident report from Berks County to PEMA, a reference to a gas leak was included. It is really important to note that incident reports from counties are a snapshot in time of the understanding of the incident at the time the report was made,” Ruth A. Miller, PEMA’s communications director, said in a statement.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday said it’s launching a safety investigation looking into the natural gas explosion and fire.
West Reading Mayor Samantha Kaag issued an emergency declaration Saturday to access more resources for emergency responders on the scene.
Kaag, a former volunteer firefighter, called the incident “pretty scary,” adding that it was so strong it pushed a building back 4 feet. The mayor said the factory building was “pretty leveled” and crews will “probably” be working through the weekend to clear the debris.
In a statement Saturday, RM Palmer said it is “devastated by the tragic events.”
“We have lost close friends and colleagues, and our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of all who have been impacted,” the company said. “We are sincerely grateful for the extraordinary efforts of all of the first responders and for the support of our Reading community, which has been home to our business for more than 70 years.”
The company said it will continue to coordinate with local and national agencies to assist in the recovery process. It added that it has been unable to get in touch with the families of impacted employees at the time due to downed communication systems but “will be providing additional information and making contact with employees, impacted families, and the community as soon as possible.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was on site Saturday surveying the damage and “to pledge our support as the community recovers,” he tweeted.
A woman who lives next to the chocolate factory has filed a lawsuit accusing the company of negligence that led to the fatal explosion.
RM Palmer did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment about the lawsuit.
(SANTA FE, N.M.) — Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies is stepping away from prosecuting the fatal on-set “Rust” shooting, her office announced Wednesday.
The move comes after state Rep. Andrea Reeb announced she would be stepping down as special prosecutor in the case as well.
In their place, Carmack-Altwies appointed long-time New Mexico attorneys Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis to serve as special prosecutors in the case over the fatal October 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, her office said. Actor Alec Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter for Hutchins’ death.
“My responsibility to the people of the First Judicial District is greater than any one case, which is why I have chosen to appoint a special prosecutor in the ‘Rust’ case,” Carmack-Altwies said in a statement. “Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis will unflinchingly pursue justice in the death of Halyna Hutchins on behalf of the people of First Judicial District.”
With the appointment of the new special prosecutors, Carmack-Altwies will step aside from prosecuting the case, “allowing her to focus on the broader public safety needs in New Mexico’s First Judicial District,” Heather Brewer, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said in a statement.
There will be no further comment on the case at this time, Brewer said.
ABC News’ Vera Dryman contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Three children and three adults were killed in a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday.
The alleged shooter, who was identified by police as 28-year-old Nashville resident Audrey Elizabeth Hale, was killed by officers.
Here is the timeline of what took place, according to investigators. All times are local.
9:53 a.m.: The suspect’s vehicle is seen on surveillance cameras arriving at the school and parking in the parking lot.
9:57 a.m.: The suspect sends a message on Instagram to a former basketball friend from middle school, where the suspect stated, “I am planning to die today.”
10:10 a.m.: The suspect is seen in surveillance footage shooting through the front door and entering the building.
10:13 a.m.: Nashville Police receive the first call of an active shooter inside Covenant School.
10:21 a.m.: The first responding officers arrived on campus, law enforcement officials said.
10:23 a.m.: The first officers enter the school, according to investigators. Police body-worn camera footage shows officers going room-to-room looking for the shooter, clearing classrooms and speeding past at least one body in a hallway.
10:24 a.m.: A team of five officers arrived on the second level and followed the sound of gunfire toward the shooter, according to police body-worn camera footage.
10:25 a.m.: Two officers engaged the suspect, and the suspect is reported down, according to law enforcement officials.
10:27 a.m.: The suspected shooter is declared dead, investigators said.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has called for prayers in the wake of Monday’s deadly mass shooting at a Nashville elementary school, while noting that “there will be a time to talk about the legislation.”
“I am calling on the people of Tennessee to pray. For the families of victims, for the Covenant family, for those courageous officers, for the family of the shooter, for those who are hurting and angry and confused,” Lee, a Republican, said in a video address on Tuesday evening. “Prayer is the first thing we should do, but it’s not the only thing.”
A shooter gunned down three children and three adults at the Covenant School in Tennessee’s capital city on Monday morning. Responding officers shot and killed the suspect — identified as Audrey Hale, 28, of Nashville — about 14 minutes after the initial 911 call came in, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
“Law enforcement officials and educators across our state have been working for years, especially in the last year, to strengthen the safety of schools. That work was not in vain — the courage and swift response by the teachers, officers and this community without a doubt prevented further tragedy,” Lee said in his video address. “There will be a time to talk about the legislation and budget proposals we’ve brought forward this year. And clearly there’s more work to do.”
“But on this day after the tragedy, I want to speak to that which rises above all else,” he added. “The battle is not against flesh and blood, it’s not against people. The struggle is against evil itself.”
A candlelit vigil will be held in Nashville Wednesday evening in honor of the victims of the shooting. First lady Jill Biden is scheduled to attend, the White House said.
Police have identified the slain children as 9-year-old students Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs. The adult victims were identified as 61-year-old custodian Mike Hill, 60-year-old head of school Katherine Koonce and 61-year-old substitute teacher Cynthia Peak.
In his video address, the Tennessee governor revealed that his wife, Maria, has been friends with Peak and Koonce “for decades.”
“Cindy was supposed to come over to have dinner with Maria last night after she filled in as a substitute teacher yesterday at Covenant,” Lee said.
The Covenant School, a private Christian school for children in preschool through sixth grade, has about 209 students and 40 to 50 staff members. It does not have a school resource officer, according to police.
In a statement released Monday night, the Covenant School said its community “is heartbroken.”
“We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our church and school,” the school said. “We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing.”
The suspect was a former student and Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters on Tuesday that it appears that, while the school was likely targeted, “students were randomly targeted.”
Drake had told reporters on Monday that Hale was female and identified as transgender but didn’t immediately provide more details. A police spokesperson later told ABC News that the suspect was assigned female at birth but pointed to a social media account linked to Hale that included the use of the pronouns he/him.
The suspect was armed with two assault-style rifles, a handgun and “significant ammunition” at the time of the attack, police said. Investigators have since searched Hale’s home in Nashville, where they seized “a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other evidence,” according to police.
Drake said the suspect had legally purchased seven guns from five different local stores and hid some of those weapons at home. Hale was under a “doctor’s care for an emotional disorder,” the police chief said, and Hale’s parents “were under the impression that was when she sold the one weapon” they believed Hale owned.
Hale also had a detailed map of the school as well as “writings and a book we consider to be like a manifesto,” Drake told ABC News in an interview Tuesday on “Good Morning America.”
“We have not been able to determine a motive as of yet,” the police chief said. “The investigation is very much still ongoing.”
Video from the school’s surveillance cameras shows the suspect arriving in a vehicle and parking in the parking lot at 9:54 a.m. ET. Minutes later, the suspect is seen shooting through a door on the side of the school and entering the building. Hale allegedly went from the first floor to the second floor, firing multiple shots, according to police.
Police received a 911 call about an active shooter at the school at 10:13 a.m. ET. As officers responded to the scene, the suspect fired on police cars from a second-floor window, police said.
Video from two of the responding officers’ body-worn cameras shows them entering the school, following the sound of gunfire to the second floor and finding the suspect in a lobby area near a window. After an officer shouts “reloading,” officers Rex Engelbert, a four-year veteran, and Michael Collazo, a nine-year veteran, both fire at the suspect.
President Joe Biden and other Democrats have once again called on Congress to take action on gun legislation, including passing a nationwide ban on assault weapons. Meanwhile, Republicans have once again slammed Democrats for trying to exploit a tragedy for political purposes.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted in September 2019 found 89% of Americans support universal background checks and 86% support red flag laws. The poll found broad bipartisan support, as well; mandatory background checks and red flag laws won support from at least eight in 10 Republicans and conservatives, and as many or more of all others.
Another ABC News/Washington Post poll released in February found the public more divided over assault weapons with 47% supporting such a ban and 51% opposing it — reflecting a nine-point drop in support since 2019.
ABC News’ Libby Cathey, Alex Faul, Matt Foster, Ben Gittleson, James Hill, Doug Lantz, Molly Nagle, Darren Reynolds, John Santucci and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Thirteen states are on alert for strong winds and heavy snow as a major storm moves east.
A major storm hitting the California coast brought damaging winds, heavy rain and heavy snow. The western storm will bring rounds of showers and thunderstorms from the Bay Area to Los Angeles Wednesday.
The rain will arrive in LA in the morning, with thunderstorms possible in the evening and overnight. Some of the thunderstorms could produce gusty winds and small hail.
Wind gusts at the Mammoth Mountain Ski resort reached 98 miles per hour. In Oakland, wind gusts reached 52 miles per hour and at the San Francisco airport, they reached 44 miles per hour.
Northern Bay area and extreme northern California got the most rain, with some areas reporting more than 3 inches. The highest snowfall total so far was near Mount Shasta, California, where 25 inches fell.
The snow was so heavy on I-80 over Donner Pass, California, that the interstate was temporarily shut down. An additional 1 to 2 inches of rain is possible in parts of California through Wednesday night.
Additional 1 to 2 feet of snow is expected in the California mountains in the next 24 to 36 hours. Up to 18 inches of snow are expected in southern California mountains outside of LA and San Diego.
This storm will then cross the Rockies on Thursday and Thursday night with 1 to 2 feet of snow possible there.
On Friday, 47 million people could face severe storms, with damaging winds, tornadoes and huge hail.
On Friday afternoon and evening, the storm system will reemerge over the Plains and will bring a new severe weather outbreak from Iowa and Wisconsin, all the way to Mississippi and Alabama, which were hit with deadly tornadoes last weekend. Cities in the bullseye this Friday will be Des Moines, Iowa; Chicago St. Louis; Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee; Little Rock, Arkansas; and just north of Jackson, Mississippi.
