(WASHINGTON) — NASA kicked off its first Earth Day celebration since the COVID-19 pandemic Friday at Washington, D.C.’s Union Station. The weekendlong event allows attendees to navigate informational exhibits led by NASA specialists on topics such as planet rotation, volcanic eruptions and NASA’s newest scientific expeditions.
Bill Nelson, NASA’s administrator and highest-ranking official, made an appearance announcing a mission control initiative focused on NASA’s state-of-the-art climate-monitoring system called the Earth Information Center, which is expected to launch in the next few years.
Nelson, who championed environmental causes as a Democratic senator from Florida for 18 years, said NASA’s role in curbing climate change is bringing a data-driven approach to everybody, including all levels of government, universities, schools, the private sector and the “everyday American.”
“The reason we want to bring this to the public is this is our home,” Nelson said. “This is the planet, it’s the only one we have. We want to keep it.”
He said attempting to change laws relating to climate raises challenges in political viability.
“Sometimes, politically, that’s hard because it’s entrenched in special interests,” Nelson said. “But we’ve got to keep trying.”
While still in the conceptual phase, the center would be funded by the president’s most recent budget proposal for fiscal year 2023. The $2.4 billion could fund real-time climate- and weather-monitoring systems easily accessible to the public.
Nelson said it’s wonderful to see kids’ eyes light up when they interact with the exhibits.
NASA hopes to inspire children like 8-year-old Connor Everitt to explore their scientific passions. Connor said he dreams of becoming an engineer and is inspired by NASA’s innovations.
“Anything that we can do to inspire them to have a greater tomorrow for the entire world is a good thing,” his father, Cole Everitt, said.
(NEW YORK) — Textbook publishers say they have been left in the dark about why their mathematics books were rejected by the Florida Department of Education, with the state claiming the textbooks sought to “indoctrinate” students.
ABC News contacted the eight publishers who were rejected on the basis of “special subjects” — including critical race theory, a discipline often practiced in higher education that analyzes the role of racism in U.S. legal systems.
Other “special subjects” included Common Core education standards, as well as Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) techniques. SEL is a practice that infuses social and emotional development skills with various school subjects.
Several companies say they’ve not yet heard from the state about the reasoning behind the rejections or how they implemented said “special subjects” in their textbooks.
The Florida Department of Education says that since some content is copyrighted, it is unable to publicly release examples about the reasons textbooks were rejected. However, they released examples that were given to the department that show statistics on racism, mentions of social awareness and discussions on emotional learning frameworks.
Florida has rejected almost 41% of the textbooks submitted for the upcoming school year, the department said in a statement last week.
For grades K-5, 71% of materials were rejected. In grades 6 through 8, 20% were rejected. In grades 9 through 12, 35% were rejected, according to the department.
The state Department of Education says that 21% of all rejected books incorporated “prohibited topics” or “unsolicited strategies,” including apparent instances of critical race theory.
In June 2021, the department sent an addendum to the bid specifications for mathematics textbooks to these publishers.
“In an effort to make sure Florida students have the highest quality instructional materials, we are advising publishers and school districts to not incorporate unsolicited strategies, such as social emotional learning and culturally responsive teaching,” the letter stated.
Some of the biggest textbook publishers in the country were later included in the long list of rejections, including McGraw Hill, Cengage Learning, Savvas Learning Company — formerly known as Pearson K12 Learning — and Macmillan Learning.
“Savvas has a long and successful track record of working with the Florida Department of Education to ensure that our instructional materials deliver high-quality, research-based pedagogy designed intentionally to align with the current Florida standards for mathematics,” a Savvas spokesperson told ABC News.
Several of the companies said they are not clear as to what needs to be fixed or how they broached “special subjects” against the state’s wishes.
“At Macmillan Learning, everything we do is in service of our common goal with educators — to see students succeed,” a Macmillan Learning spokesperson told ABC News.
“We were surprised and disappointed to learn that a statistics text from Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers (the Advanced Placement and 9-12 High School division of Macmillan Learning) was not on the approved list of titles from the State of Florida with no explanation,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the company’s “Statistics and Probabilities with Applications” textbook received “considerable demand from districts and schools throughout the state” and earned a high score of 4.6 out of 5 on Florida’s Subject-Specific Standards Score.
Publishers now must appeal this decision, or revise the submissions to meet Florida’s expectations.
Some teachers may be limited in how many books they can choose from. From the latest list of approved books, grades K-2 teachers seemingly only have one book they can choose.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed publishers for the alleged inclusion of certain subjects.
“It seems that some publishers attempted to slap a coat of paint on an old house built on the foundation of Common Core, and indoctrinating concepts like race essentialism, especially, bizarrely, for elementary school students,” DeSantis said in the announcement of rejected books.
ABC News’ Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(PHOENIX) — There are at least 11 large wildfires currently raging in the Southwestern U.S. — largely in Arizona and New Mexico.
The Tunnel Fire in Arizona has burned 21,087 acres and is 3% contained as of Friday. This is one of multiple large wildfires burning in the state, with the Crooks Fire also burning south of Prescott.
Dangerous fire weather conditions are expected in the coming hours across portions of Colorado and New Mexico where an extreme fire danger alert is in place.
Strong winds, very dry and warm conditions will fuel potentially dangerous weather that could spark new fires and make any existing fires difficult to battle.
Wind gusts could top 60 to 70 mph along with relative humidity values falling into the single digits in spots.
Widespread drought conditions persist across much of the West into the Plains. Over 93% of New Mexico is facing severe drought conditions.
A severe weather threat will unfold across a large swath of the Plains Friday evening into the night. Severe thunderstorms will be possible from the Texas panhandle up into the Dakotas.
Severe thunderstorms moving into the region may bring damaging wind gusts and large hail. Tornadoes could also occur.
The bulk of these storms will begin around 8 to 9 p.m. ET and will persist into the overnight period in some areas.
Weather alerts are in effect across more than a dozen states from California to Minnesota.
There are widespread red flag and high wind warnings in effect across several states, including Denver, Colorado and New Mexico.
A wind advisory remains in place for Flagstaff, Arizona, and surrounding areas until 8 p.m. MT, with more wind gusts on the way.
Winter weather alerts are in effect across parts of the Rockies into the northern Plains. A blizzard warning is in effect from Miles City, Montana, to Minot, North Dakota.
Flood watches are in effect for parts of the Upper Midwest as well. Storm impacts are winding down along the West Coast as the system moves eastward and into the Plains.
On Saturday, the severe thunderstorm threat will stretch from Oklahoma up to Minnesota with more damaging wind gusts, large hail and the possibility of tornadoes.
(NEW YORK) — Dozens of New York City Education Department employees are being placed on unpaid leave as of Monday for submitting fake coronavirus vaccine cards.
“Fewer than 100″ employees submitted the fake vaccination cards, the DOE said Friday. A union official estimated about 70 employees were impacted.
The United Federation of Teachers, the union representing educators in the city, is preparing to challenge the move, saying some teachers claim they were wrongly accused and placing them on unpaid leave violates “the basic notion of due process.”
“It is wholly improper for the DOE to unilaterally remove UFT members from the payroll based on mere conjecture that vaccination documentation is fraudulent,” Beth A. Norton, general counsel for UFT, wrote in a letter to the city.
“The UFT demands that the DOE immediately rescind the aforementioned notices and confirm by the close of business April 22, 2022 that the affected UFT bargaining unit members will remain on the payroll on April 25, 2022 and thereafter,” the letter added. “Should the DOE fail to comply with this demand and the due process procedures, the UFT is prepared to initiate litigation to challenge the DOE’s improper actions.”
The Department of Education defended its actions in a statement.
“Fraudulent vaccination cards are not only illegal, they also undermine the best line of protection our schools have against COVID-19 — universal adult vaccination,” The Education Department said in a statement. “We immediately moved to put these employees — fewer than 100 — on leave without pay.”
New York City has engaged in a prolonged legal battle with teachers over its vaccine mandate. The mandate went into effect on Oct. 4, 2021, at the behest of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio. The city required all public school teachers — in the largest school system in the country — to receive at least one dose of the vaccine.
The city said 95% of staffers had complied with the rule by Oct. 4.
But a legal battle raged on in the courts even after the mandate went into effect, with a group of teachers appealing all the way to the Supreme Court. Just this week, the nation’s highest court refused to hear the case without explanation.
ABC News’ Mark Osborne contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A man opened fire from his apartment window in a “sniper-style” shooting in Washington, D.C., on Friday, injuring four people, before the suspect took his own life.
D.C. police responded to the Cleveland Park and Van Ness areas around 3:20 p.m. and found three shooting victims — two men and a 12-year-old girl, authorities said.
The two men are in critical but stable condition, while the child was hospitalized in stable condition with a minor gunshot wound, police said at a Friday evening press briefing. One of the men was a retired Metropolitan police officer, authorities said.
A fourth victim who sustained a gunshot wound later came forward to police. The victim — a woman in her mid-60s — had a graze wound to her upper back and received medical treatment on site, police said.
The suspect died by suicide in his apartment when police closed in, according to Metropolitan Police Department Police Chief Robert Contee.
Contee said a tripod was set up in the fifth floor apartment and the man appeared to be targeting people at random on the street below.
Six guns were found in the suspect’s apartment, including both long guns and handguns, as well as “multiple, multiple rounds” of ammunition. Contee said dozens of shots were fired, but they were still collecting evidence of exactly how many.
Police identified 23-year-old Raymond Spencer, of Fairfax, Virginia, as a person of interest “based upon the things we have seen on social media,” Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Chief Stuart Emerman told reporters during an update Friday night.
While Contee would not officially confirm that Spencer was the person found dead in the apartment, he said they were no longer looking for anyone in connection to the shooting.
Contee confirmed that a social media video of the shooting appeared to be credible, but was unsure if it was streamed live or recorded and later posted.
“Today, evil reared its ugly head in our community,” Contee said.
“It speaks to the depravity of some of the individuals we have to face in our community. … There could’ve been more damage done, more lives lost,” Contee later added.
Earlier in the evening, while still searching for Spencer, Emerman said, “We’d like to speak to Mr. Spencer, figure out if he has any role in this or any connection to this. Hopefully that’ll lead us in a direction to identify what happened here and why.”
Contee said they still do not have a motive in the shooting. The suspect was not previously arrested, Contee added.
Students from the Edmund Burke School who were on lockdown during the incident are now being reunified with families, officials said Friday night.
“We have experienced this too much in our country. The epidemic of the gun violence, the easy access to weapons has got to stop,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said. “People should not be scared taking their children to school.”
The FBI Washington Field Office confirmed in a statement to ABC News that it is assisting police in the response.
“The situation is ongoing and the FBI will provide appropriate personnel and resources, as requested and needed,” the office said.
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Washington Field Division are also helping with the shooting investigation.
ABC News’ Luke Barr and Jack Date contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The New York City mother of two whose body was found inside a duffel bag had asked her alleged killer to leave her house “multiple times” before she was stabbed to death, according to prosecutors.
The suspect, handyman David Bonola, was arrested early Thursday, days after he allegedly stabbed Orsolya Gaal over 50 times, slashed her throat and dumped her body in her son’s hockey bag, the NYPD said.
Bonola, 44, and Gaal 51, had been having an off-and-on affair for two years, according to police.
Bonola allegedly killed Gaal in her Queens home early Saturday while her 13-year-old son was upstairs, officials said.
“Because she knew him, she let him into the house. He then engaged her in a verbal dispute and unfortunately she had to ask him to leave multiple times,” assistant district attorney Josh Garland said.
Prosecutors said Bonola allegedly dragged Gaal’s body through “a quiet residential neighborhood,” leaving a trail of blood leading back to her home.
“Two boys are left without a mother and a young teenager faces the added trauma of being home when this heinous murder took place,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
Police said Bonola offered to speak to authorities on Wednesday and made incriminating statements during questioning. Bonola was arrested just before 1 a.m. Thursday.
Bonola appeared in court Thursday and was ordered held without bail on second-degree murder charges. He was placed on suicide watch at the request of his defense attorney and is due back in court next week.
(GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.) — Nearly three weeks after the killing of 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya, his family, friends and activists are coming together to celebrate his life and call for justice in his death.
His funeral will take place Friday at 11 a.m. local time at the Renaissance Church of God in Christ in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Civil rights activist Al Sharpton, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Lyoya family, Commissioner Robert Womack and bishop Dennis McMurray are expected to speak at the service, which is open to all masked attendees.
Lyoya, a native of Congo, was shot by an officer following a struggle outside a house in Grand Rapids on April 4 after he was pulled over for a faulty license plate, according to police.
Video of Lyoya’s death was recorded on an officer’s body camera, dashcam video, security cameras and a bystander’s cellphone and released by the police amidst community pressure last week.
The footage shows a white police officer, whose name has not yet been released, struggling with Lyoya after chasing him on foot following a traffic stop. The officer eventually forces Lyoya to the ground and is heard shouting “stop resisting,” “let go” and “drop the Taser,” before shooting him in the head.
The Grand Rapids Police Department has not yet named the officer involved in Lyoya’s death and says the investigation is “ongoing.” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said the investigation will be “thorough.”
Protesters have peacefully demonstrated in Grand Rapids since the release of the video footage, calling for justice for Lyoya.
(NEW YORK) — The megadrought that has plagued the West for several decades is not only expected to persist, but drought conditions will also likely intensify and expand east, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
About 55% of the continental U.S. is experiencing drought conditions, which will likely worsen in the Great Plains, particularly the central and southern Plains, such as Texas and Oklahoma, NOAA scientists said during a monthly climate call Thursday.
These areas will be experiencing extreme fire danger on Friday as conditions are worsened by the arid landscape and ground fuel that allows wildfires to explode. The region will likely see well below the average precipitation as the summer months approach, according to NOAA.
Many places in the West have been experiencing drought for three consecutive years without any significant recovery in sight.
California and Nevada are already breaking records for dryness this year, after they both had their driest period of January through March on record. This is the time of year that the region typically receives the most rain and snow, making the statistic all the more concerning, the scientists said. California’s snowpack is currently at 30% of its average.
So far in 2022, California has only received 15% of its normal precipitation. In 2021, California received 65% of its normal precipitation during this same period.
This year will likely be among the top 10 warmest on record, according to NOAA. Globally, March was sixth warmest on record, and record warm March temperatures were observed across 5% of the global area, according to NOAA.
In Antarctica, where summer just transitioned to fall, one station reached its highest temperature ever recorded, and temperatures at one point were up to 70 degrees above average, the scientists said.
Research indicates that climate change is contributing to the extent, severity and duration of the drought in the Western U.S. The drought is likely to cost the U.S. billions of dollars in 2022, the scientists said.
(PHILADELPHIA) — Health officials in Philadelphia voted Thursday evening to drop the city’s indoor mask mandate, just days after the requirement officially went back into effect on Monday.
“Due to decreasing hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts, the city will move to strongly recommending masks in indoor public spaces as opposed to a mask mandate. Given the latest data, the Board of Health voted tonight to rescind the mandate,” a representative from Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney’s office told ABC News on Thursday.
It is still unclear exactly when the mandate will officially be lifted.
Philadelphia first ended its mask mandate in the beginning of March before reinstating it a little over a month later. The new mask mandate that went into effect Monday required masks in all indoor public spaces, including schools, childcare settings, businesses, restaurants, and government buildings.
“I sincerely wish we didn’t have to do this again. I wish this pandemic was over just as much as any of you but I am very worried about our vulnerable neighbors and loved ones,” Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said during a press conference when the new mandate was first announced April 11. “My hope that our actions today will slow the spread of COVID and help us avoid seeing our ERs, once again, gets so crowded, that people can’t get timely care when they need it.”
The abrupt shift comes just hours after Kenney had defended the decision to reinstate the city’s mask mandate during a Thursday interview with Washington Post Live.
“Our health professionals recommended that we do a mandate again, because their data have shown that mandates get people to wear them more than just highly recommended,” Kenney said in the interview. “Our case counts were 240% higher than they were when we got rid of the mask mandate a month ago. … Our belief is that wearing masks again will tamp down the case counts and hospitalizations … and allow us … to get back to more normalcy.”
The city’s mask mandate had drawn sharp criticism from some residents, with some local business owners going as far as to file a lawsuit against the city in an effort to overturn the requirement.
When asked about the pushback, Kenney insisted that he believes wearing a mask is the “simplest” action someone can take to keep their community safe.
“The mask issue … has become such a politicized issue. It’s the most simplest thing you can do to keep yourself safe and to keep people safe. And the politicization of this issue … has just made everyone crazy about it. It’s not a big burden to wear a mask,” Kenney told Washington Post Live. “I’m sad to say that this nation has devolved into a selfish bunch who want what they want for themselves and are sometimes not willing to help each other out as Americans.”
(COVINGTON, Ga.) — A small plane crashed in the lot of a General Mills plant in Georgia shortly after takeoff Thursday evening, killing all aboard, authorities said.
The plane took off from the Covington Municipal Airport around 6:45 p.m., Covington Police Department Captain Ken Malcom said during a press briefing.
Witnesses told police it appeared that the aircraft, believed to be a Cessna twin-engine propeller plane, was having trouble gaining altitude and that it sounded like there was engine trouble.
Malcom said the plane then suddenly veered and crashed into the lot of the General Mills plant, located about a mile from the airport. The plane went down in an isolated area that stored tractor-trailers, some of which caught fire, he said.
There were no survivors, Malcom said. It is unclear how many people were aboard the plane, and police are working to determine who the victims are, he said.
No one was injured on the ground, according to Malcom, who noted that many lives were potentially saved since the plane didn’t crash directly into the plant.
Fire personnel was still working to put out the fire at the scene several hours after the crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.
