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(NEW YORK) — Former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst died Sunday, her family confirmed. She was 30 years old.

In a statement, Kryst’s family wrote, “In devastation and great sorrow, we share the passing of our beloved Cheslie. Her great light was one that inspired others around the world with her beauty and strength.”

“She cared, she loved, she laughed and she shined,” Kryst’s family added. “Cheslie embodied love and served others, whether through her work as an attorney fighting for social justice, as Miss USA and as a host on Extra. But most importantly, as a daughter, sister, friend, mentor and colleague — we know her impact will live on.”

Kryst died by apparent suicide in New York City, where she lived.

Just hours before the incident, she shared a photo of herself on Instagram and wrote in the caption, “May this day bring you rest and peace.”

Kryst was crowned Miss USA as Miss North Carolina in May 2019. She earned her law degree and an MBA at Wake Forest University. Following her graduation, Kryst became licensed to practice law in both North Carolina and South Carolina and worked as a civil litigation attorney. She also worked pro bono for clients who were low-level drug offenders.

Kryst also became a correspondent for Extra and was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards.

In response to the news of her death, Extra paid tribute to the former Miss USA winner and said, “our hearts are broken.”

“Cheslie was not just a vital part of our show, she was a beloved part of our ‘Extra’ family and touched the entire staff,” Extra wrote on their Instagram page. “Our deepest condolences to all her family and friends.”

Kryst spoke out about mental health during her reign as Miss USA, saying she spoke with a counselor and took steps to protect her mental health.

“I do a lot to maintain my mental health, and the most important thing that I did is talk to a counselor,” she wrote in a post on the Miss USA Facebook page in 2019. “When I’m not talking to a counselor, I take time at the end of every single day to just decompress. I unplug. I shut my phone off. I don’t answer messages. I just sit and watch my favorite movies.”

Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent, said Monday on Good Morning America that when someone dies by suicide, people may wonder if they missed warning signs. But there should be no blame.

“If you’ve lost someone to suicide, this is not your fault,” said Ashton, who wrote the book Life After Suicide after her ex-husband died by suicide five years ago. “It can be difficult to pick up on these because what’s on the surface may not reflect what’s on the inside.”

If someone is worried about a friend or loved ones’ mental health, specific signs that people can look for include a person giving away their possessions and pets, saying they are a burden, showing behavioral changes like being more withdrawn or expressing feelings that they’ve lost hope, according to Ashton.

“The first and most important thing is you have to actually ask them, ‘Are you having thoughts of suicide or self-harm?'” said Ashton. “This will not put an idea in their head. If they answer yes, take that seriously. Do not leave them alone. Assure them there is always hope and help.”

Ashton continued, “Acknowledge that you can see they’re in pain. If necessary, bring them to an emergency room and get professional help.”

If you are in crisis or know someone in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. You can reach Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada) and The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386.

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(BOSTON) — Boston is digging out from the record-tying snowfall left behind by this weekend’s massive nor’easter.

Boston tied its record for most snow in one day in January with a whopping 23.6 inches.

The Boston suburb of Sharon, Massachusetts, saw even more snow, with 30.4 inches recorded in Saturday’s storm.

More than 100,000 customers lost power at the height of the storm, mostly in Massachusetts. About 3,000 customers remained without power in Massachusetts Sunday night.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu lifted the city’s snow emergency Monday morning and said schools will be open.

Bu it’s not just New England feeling the freeze this weekend.

Temperatures plunged as low as the 20s in Florida on Sunday, reaching 25 in Palmdale and 28 in East Naples.

Temperatures fell to record lows of 30 degrees in Vero Beach, 32 in Fort Pierce and 35 in Fort Myers.

Temperatures in the Sunshine State will start to warm up on Monday.

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(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 884,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 63.8% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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

Jan 31, 7:38 am
‘Partygate’ report delivered to Boris Johnson, UK government says

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has received a highly anticipated report from an investigation into allegations that he and his staff attended parties during England’s strict lockdown, the U.K. government said Monday.

A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office told ABC News in a statement that senior civil servant Sue Gray “has provided an update on her investigation to the Prime Minister.”

Johnson is expected to address members of Parliament during Monday afternoon’s session.

The prime minister is facing calls for his resignation over claims he and his staff flouted COVID-19 restrictions they imposed on England in 2020 and 2021 by holding parties at 10 Downing Street, his official residence and office in London.

London’s Metropolitan Police Service is also investigating the so-called “partygate” allegations.

Jan 31, 4:37 am
New York City offering free home delivery of antiviral pills

New York City’s health department is now offering free, same-day, at-home delivery of COVID-19 oral antiviral medications, Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday.

“Delivering the antiviral pills to you at home if you’re an eligible New Yorker and it’s for free,” Adams said during a press conference at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. “We want you to take advantage of this. This is a great deal and a great program we put together, and it’s proven to keep people out of the hospital, particularly those who are at-risk or seriously ill. It’s a win-win for us.”

The city’s pharmacy partner, Alto Pharmacy, will deliver antiviral pill treatments Paxlovid, developed by Pfizer, and Molnupiravir, made by Merck, according to a press release from the mayor’s office. Both medications were approved in December for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat COVID-19.

“New York is one of the only places in the nation where we are doing this free deliver,” Adams told reporters.

With a limited supply of pills, the city restricted delivery to only residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have mild or moderate symptoms.

“Oral antiviral pills, like Paxlovid and Molnupiravir, taken for five days help stop the virus from reproducing, which reduces the amount of virus in the body and prevents symptoms from getting worse,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave A. Chokshi said during Sunday’s press conference.

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(HARRISBURG, Pa.) — A future where motorists share streets and highways with driverless cars may still be years away, but transportation experts are saying now’s the time for elected leaders to plan for that scenario.

Pennsylvania is the latest state to test drive the idea.

The state’s Senate Transportation Committee approved a non-partisan bill on Jan. 26 that would expand regulatory rules concerning the operation and testing of highly automated vehicles, aka HAVs, and allow them to operate without anyone inside.

Legislators could vote on the bill later this year — if approved, it would go into effect 90 days.

Transportation policy experts told ABC News that while there’s clearly a need to create legal guardrails before the vehicles become commonplace, a unified national framework would be most efficient.

Bryan Reimer, director of MIT’s Advanced Vehicle Technology Consortium, told ABC News that while state actions are good in the short term, it’s more important if they can spur a bigger movement.

“It is clear we need to create a responsible disclosure when things happen with automated vehicles,” he told ABC News. “There needs to be a discussion.”

The Pennsylvania Lawmakers who sponsored SB 965 have said that they created it to boost their state’s HAV industry, which includes a self-driving test lab at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and eight private companies.

Under current Pennsylvania law, a human must be in the driver seat of an autonomous vehicle while it’s in operation. The new bill removes that requirement.

Some states, such as Texas, Florida and Georgia, already allow HAVs to be operated without a human inside as long as the vehicle is registered with the state.

Pennsylvania State Sen. Wayne Langerholc Jr., SB 965’s lead sponsor, told reporters at a Jan. 5 news conference that companies are heading to other states with more lenient rules on driverless vehicles.

“We dare to stay ahead of the curve,” Langerholc said.

Similar to laws in other states, Pennsylvania’s proposal would require vehicle owners to register within the state and remain at the scene of any accident involving another vehicle or a pedestrian.

Vehicle owners also must “submit proof of financial responsibility to the department self-certifying that the highly automated vehicle is covered by insurance or proof of self-insurance in an amount not to exceed $5 million,” according to the bill’s current language.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Yassmin Gramian, a supporter of the bill, said the autonomous vehicle industry already has generated 6,300 jobs for the state — and SB 965 becoming law would mean adding even more.

The bill has the support of several groups, including the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce.

“There’s added economic benefit that will be created and produced for many years,” Gramian said during the Jan. 5 news conference. “We cannot wait and become reactive anymore. The industry is moving very fast.”

While the bill has broad support from legislators, one Pennsylvania-based transportation researcher told ABC News that leaders haven’t covered all of their bases.

Philip Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, warned lawmakers in an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the bill’s current language lacks specific guidance in several areas.

Specifically, Koopman told ABC News, the bill lacks details on the potential legal liabilities of HAV companies linked to incidents, particularly if said vehicle doesn’t have a single owner or operator.

The current bill “is filled with ambiguities,” Koopman added. “If an ordinary citizen gets hurt, or possibly killed, it’s unclear who to get compensation from.”

MIT’s Reimer also said the bill doesn’t address the training that local law enforcement will need to properly regulate HAVs and investigate incidents. The National Transportation Safety Board currently investigates all crashes involving self-driving vehicles.

“I would argue states generally don’t have the technical expertise to regulate a feature set that falls predominantly under federal regulations,” he added. “It’s not just about waiting for police response. They need to get the data from the companies and look at software.”

Koopman also noted that, according to its current language, the bill would supersede any local regulation on autonomous vehicles, such as those put in place by former Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto that stipulated companies must issue constant reports about self-driving field tests.

“One of the things is,” Koopman continued, “we have a system that is working fairly working well now.”

Koopman, who worked for the U.S. Department of Transportation and is a member of a committee that developed autonomous vehicle safety standards for the Society of Automotive Engineers International, said he’s reached out to state lawmakers to get more clarification on the bill’s safety measures.

Although Langerholc said the bill would incorporate the SAEI standards, Koopman noted that the bill’s current language does not.

“If they want to use public roads as a laboratory, they need to provide something in return and lay out the rules now,” Koopman said. “Otherwise we’re going to head to more court battles.”

As of Friday, Koopman said none of the bill’s sponsors has returned his request to speak. Langerholc’s office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from ABC News.

The transportation experts said that as more states begin considering their own HAV-related regulations in the coming years, the best solution still would be federal guidelines to protect both people and commerce.

“It is a failure of national policy,” Reimer said, “that states are creating this patchwork system.”

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(LAS VEGAS) — Nine people died on Saturday in a “chaotic” traffic collision involving six vehicles in North Las Vegas, officials said.

“We have not seen a mass-casualty traffic collision like this before,” Alexander Cuevas, public information officer for the North Las Vegas Police, told reporters late Saturday.

Fifteen people had been involved in the incident, Cuevas said. Two were transported from the scene to University Medical Center, where one later died, he said. The other remained in critical condition, he said.

Officials said speed was a factor in the crash. It was unknown whether impaired driving had been a factor, they said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday that it is sending a go-team to investigate the crash in coordination with the North Las Vegas Police Department.

A Dodge Challenger heading north “at a high rate of speed” on Commerce Street ran a red light prior to the crash at about 3 p.m., Cuevas said citing statements from witnesses.

“And, with that, it struck multiple vehicles and, unfortunately, it was a chaotic event,” Cuevas said.

Several vehicles were pushed off the road into a vacant lot near the intersection of Commerce Street and Cheyenne Avenue, officials said.

The driver of the Challenger was among the dead, officials said. The deceased ranged from young juveniles to middle-aged adults, Cuevas said. Their identities will be released by the coroner’s office, police said.

“Our thoughts and our prayers are with the families who are experiencing a tremendous and unnecessary loss due to a careless, senseless act,” Pamela A. Goynes-Brown, a member of the North Las Vegas City Council, said.

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(NEW YORK) — Tens of millions of Americans across more than a dozen states are under winter weather alerts Saturday morning from South Carolina to Maine.

Snowfall rates upwards of 2 inches per hour are hitting Atlantic City, New Jersey, and other parts of the Jersey Shore at times, while eastern Connecticut is seeing a rate as fast as 3 inches per hour.

A plow clears a walkway in the snow during a Nor’easter storm in New York, Jan. 29, 2022.

In addition to the snowfall, strong wind gusts of 50 to 70 mph are expected along parts of the Northeast coastline.

Some states have declared emergencies as they brace for the worst of this storm system coming Saturday afternoon.

Whipping winds, treacherous travel, potential power outages and frigid temperatures are all concerns associated with the winter nor’easter. Nearly 120,000 customers are without power in Massachusetts, and over 3,550 flights have been canceled within, into, and out of the United States Saturday, according to Flightaware.

In Connecticut, airports are “down at this point,” Gov. Ned Lamont said during a briefing midday Saturday. Metro-North is running on limited hourly service, and Amtrak is not operating, officials said.

Snow totals, treacherous conditions

Parts of Connecticut to Maine may see up to 18 to 24 inches of snow, with the possibility of up to 30 inches near Boston Metro — a potential recordbreaker. For the city of Boston, the most snowfall in one day in January on record is 22.1 inches on Jan. 27, 2015, and the most snow fall in one day on record overall is 23.6 inches on Feb. 17, 2003.

There are extremely hazardous travel conditions for coastal New Jersey; Suffolk County, New York; Rhode Island and coastal Massachusetts where the heaviest snow totals and whiteout conditions with gusty winds will persist.

The I-95 corridor north of New York City toward Boston and Portland, Maine, are under major impacts, with whipping winds gusting 45 mph to 70 mph near the Boston Metro.

Below-zero wind chills

Parts of the Great Lakes and New England will experience bitterly cold temperatures with wind chills near 25 below zero.

The Northeast will feel frigid Saturday night as wind chills plunge to 2 and 5 below zero in New York City and Boston, respectively.

Cold weather is even heading south to Florida with temperatures in the 30s.

Coastal concerns

There are coastal concerns about storm surge and tidal influence especially along the coastal towns in Suffolk County, New York, which could see 4- to 8-feet waves during high tide Saturday night into Sunday morning.

Boston may also get battered with largest wave swells at 15 to 20 feet.

A worker clears snow in Times Square during a Nor’easter storm in New York, Jan. 29, 2022.

However, there is one silver lining to this winter storm: The storm system remained easterly, meaning less heavy snow and weather-related snarls for states west of Interstate 95.

The storm system is expected to move out of New York City by the afternoon and from Boston by the evening.

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio, Daniel Peck, Hilda Estevez and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Millions of Americans are bracing for a snow storm that’s expected to hammer the East Coast with blizzard conditions this weekend.

Blizzard warnings are in effect from coastal Virginia up to Maine, including several major cities such as Ocean City, Atlantic City, Boston and Portland. Seventeen states, from the Carolinas to Maine, are on alert for a strong nor’easter to blast coastal areas with heavy snow and gusty winds.

The snowfall is forecast to start on the East Coast late Friday night and continue into Saturday evening in New England, before the storm exits the area, according to ABC News meteorologists.

Snowfall totals are estimated to be higher than previously expected due to a number of factors. The storm is expected to move closer to shore, bringing heavy bands of snow inland, with a snowfall rate of 2 to 3 inches per hour. Moreover, the light and fluffy nature of this snow will help it stack up higher than the wet, heavy snow that typically comes with coastal storms.

The latest forecast has 12 to 20 inches of snow for Boston, 6 to 12 inches for New York City, 4 to 6 inches for Philadelphia and 1 to 2 inches for Washington, D.C.

The frigid air in the forecast will allow the snow to accumulate quickly and create very slick conditions on roads.

Meanwhile, the wind chill on Saturday morning could make the temperature feel like it’s in the single digits for the Interstate 95 corridor and in the teens for the Carolinas, according to ABC News meteorologists.

There’s also the possibility of coastal flooding, from Maryland to New Jersey and into parts of Long Island and New England. With wind gusts forecast to be over 50 mph for many areas from Maine to New Jersey, the strong winds could blow ocean water onto the shore and create flooding.

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(NEW YORK) — Millions of Americans are bracing for a snow storm that’s expected to hammer the East Coast with blizzard conditions this weekend.

The storm, set to begin Friday night, will stretch from the Carolinas to Maine.

Blizzard warnings are in effect from coastal Virginia up to Maine, including Atlantic City, Long Island, Connecticut, Boston and Portland. This marks the first blizzard warning for Boston and the Jersey Shore in four years.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has declared a snow emergency and warned residents to stay home.

The snowfall is forecast to start on the East Coast late Friday night and continue into Saturday evening in New England, before the storm exits the area, according to ABC News meteorologists.

Snowfall totals are estimated to be higher than previously expected due to a number of factors. The storm is expected to move closer to shore, bringing heavy bands of snow inland, with a snowfall rate of 2 to 3 inches per hour. The light and fluffy nature of this snow will help it stack up higher than the wet, heavy snow that typically comes with coastal storms.

The latest forecast has 12 to 20 inches of snow for Boston, 6 to 12 inches for New York City, 4 to 6 inches for Philadelphia and 1 to 2 inches for Washington, D.C.

The frigid air in the forecast will allow the snow to accumulate quickly and create very slick conditions on roads.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has declared a state of emergency. He warned residents to be mindful of heavy snow and high winds as well as the possibility of tidal flooding and power outages.

Meanwhile, the wind chill on Saturday morning could make the temperature feel like it’s in the single digits for the Interstate 95 corridor and in the teens for the Carolinas, according to ABC News meteorologists.

Wind gusts are forecast to be over 50 mph for many areas from Maine to New Jersey on…
There’s also the possibility of coastal flooding, from Maryland to New Jersey and into parts of Long Island and New England. With wind gusts forecast to be over 50 mph for many areas from Maine to New Jersey, the strong winds could blow ocean water onto the shore and create flooding.

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(PITTSBURGH) — A bridge has collapsed in Pittsburgh Friday morning, sending three people to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.

Three or four vehicles were on the bridge at the time and everyone in those cars has been extricated, Pittsburgh Fire Chief Darryl Jones said.

Ten people reported minor injuries including the three victims hospitalized in non-life-threatening condition, Jones said.

First responders trying to help in the icy conditions were among the injured, he said. Responders rappelled down about 150 feet to reach the collapse site, Jones said.

Crews are working to make sure there are no victims under the collapsed bridge, Jones said.

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald called the bridge a major artery for the city.

The cause of the collapse is under investigation, Jones said.

This incident comes as President Joe Biden heads to Pittsburgh to tout his Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which is set to provide $1.63 billion to Pennsylvania in federal funding for bridges, the third highest figure for any state. The bridge program will provide $27 billion across the country.

Pennsylvania has 3,353 bridges in poor condition, the second most after Iowa, according to federal data.

But the Biden administration has repeatedly said it is up to local officials to determine which bridges receive how much money.

Biden has been informed about the bridge collapse and will continue with Friday’s planned trip, White House officials said.

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

ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.

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