(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris’ emergence as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination is a historic moment for the United States, as she seems poised to become the first Black woman and Asian American to lead a major party ticket.
The 2024 general election will be the first since 1976 that does not include someone named Bush, Clinton or Biden on the ticket.
Harris quickly garnered support from influential Democrats and raised a record $81 million within 24 hours of President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race. From Sunday to Tuesday evening, Team Harris raised $126 million since the endorsement.
She is preparing for her most significant moment yet, as she hits the ground running and makes the case for why voters should elect her the next president.
Her story began in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was a first-generation American, born to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father who divorced when she was 6 years old.
She attended law school at UC Law San Francisco. She worked her way up the political chain, first as deputy district attorney in Oakland in the 1990s, prosecuting gang violence, drug trafficking and sexual abuse cases. In 2004, she became the first woman to serve as the district attorney in San Francisco. She later became California’s first female and person of color to be elected as attorney general before joining the U.S. Senate in 2017.
Harris gained recognition for her work on the judicial and intelligence committees. She held a strong stance on civil rights and abortion rights, which she questioned future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh about during his nomination hearing.
Harris ran for president in 2019. Although she was not elected as the Democratic nominee. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in debating Harris in 2019 criticized her, for example, saying there’s no excuse for her record as a prosecutor and she owed an apology to those who suffered under her reign.
Harris oversaw more than 1,900 marijuana convictions in San Francisco, according to previously unreported records, which became a point of criticism. Her critics pointed to her prosecutors appearing to convict people on marijuana charges at a higher rate than her predecessor, based on city data.
After she dropped out of the race in 2019, Biden chose her as his running mate.
Five years later, she now has the opportunity to become president of the United States.
“My biggest thing is making sure that Trump doesn’t get in the White House,” David Brown, a Democratic voter, said in an AP interview. “But I would want to know what her policies are, that’s the big thing for me.”
Harris has secured commitments from enough delegates to become the presumptive nominee if they all honor their commitment when voting, according to ABC News reporting.
And now speculation is turning to who her running mate would be – with prominent figures in battleground states rising to the top, such as Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
“Harris’ team, they’re already talking about picking someone from a potential swing state, somebody who hails from one of these critical states that Harris would need to win the presidency,” said Rachael Bade, a Politico reporter and an ABC News contributor. “They’re trying to figure out a way that she can extend her reach beyond her typical base.”
Other potential running mates for Harris are Governors Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Roy Cooper of North Carolina.
Though a source familiar tells ABC News’ Mary Bruce the pool is roughly 12 people being considered for Harris’ running mate. Harris is expected to make her announcement by Aug. 7.
Without wasting any time, Harris’ team is launching their first campaign ad hammering Republicans over their anti-abortion rights position.
As Harris steps into the spotlight, she will face criticisms of her past — from Republicans over issues like immigration and Democrats wary of her time as a prosecutor.
Biden had tasked Harris with leading diplomatic efforts in 2021 to address the root causes of migration in three Central American countries. The White House has praised her work, but Republicans have strongly criticized her on the immigration issue.
During her first overseas trip as vice president, she advised Guatemalan migrants not to come to the U.S., which drew criticism from immigration advocates.
With the Democratic convention just weeks away in Chicago, Republicans are taking aim at the likely nominee. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance made his first solo campaign appearance Monday and attacked Harris.
“If you want to lead this country, you should feel grateful for it,” Vance said. “You should feel a sense of gratitude and I never hear that gratitude come through when I listen to Kamala Harris.”
Vance took another jab at Harris and the Democratic Party at his rally in Virginia Monday evening.
“A couple of elite Democrats got a smoke-filled room and decided to throw Joe Biden overboard,” Vance said. “That is not how it works. That is a threat to democracy.”
Trump has expressed frustration over restarting his campaign now that Biden has exited the race. While Republicans and the Trump campaign used Biden’s age as a problem, with Biden out of the race Trump is now the oldest presidential nominee in history.
Trump himself was once a supporter of Harris. He donated $6,000 to her campaign for reelection as California attorney general, including a $5,000 check.
Both campaigns are gearing up for a fight with only three months left before voters go to the polls.
“We have doors to knock on, we have people to talk to, we have phone calls to make, and we have an election to win,” Harris said Monday in Wilmington, Delaware.
(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) — Sonya Massey, the Illinois woman fatally shot by a deputy while responding to her 911 call, died by homicide due to a gunshot wound to her head, according to an autopsy report released Friday by the Sangamon County coroner.
Though the autopsy report did not state the manner of death, Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon confirmed it was homicide.
“The cause of death; gunshot wound of the head. The manner of death; Homicide,” Allmon told ABC News in a statement.
The bullet that killed Massey, 36, entered at the lower eyelid of her left eye and exited through the posterior left surface of her upper neck, according to the autopsy report.
Sean Grayson, the former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy who shot Massey, was fired and charged with three counts of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct in Massey’s death. He pleaded not guilty.
Massey and a second, unnamed deputy responded to Massey’s 911 call reporting a possible intruder at her Springfield home on July 6.
Body camera footage released Monday shows Grayson, 30, yelling at Massey to put down a pot of boiling water.
The footage, reviewed by ABC News, shows Massey telling the two responding deputies, “Please, don’t hurt me,” once she answered their knocks on her door.
Grayson responded, “I don’t want to hurt you, you called us.”
Later in the video, while inside Massey’s home as she searches for her ID, Grayson points out a pot of boiling water on her stove and says, “We don’t need a fire while we’re in here.”
Massey then pours the water into the sink and tells the deputy, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”
Grayson threatens to shoot her, according to the video, and Massey apologizes and ducks down behind a counter, covering her face with what appears to be a red oven mitt. She briefly rises, and Grayson shoots her three times in the face, the footage shows.
The footage is from the point of view of Grayson’s partner, because Grayson did not turn on his own body camera until after the shooting, according to court documents.
A review by Illinois State Police found Grayson was not justified in his use of deadly force.
Grayson was discharged from the U.S. Army for “misconduct (serious offense),” according to documents obtained by ABC News.
ABC News has also learned that Grayson was charged with two DUI offenses in Macoupin County, Illinois, in August 2015 and July 2016, according to court documents.
Grayson’s attorney, Dan Fultz, declined to comment.
The news of his discharge and DUI offenses come days after it was revealed through Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board records obtained by ABC News that Grayson worked for six law enforcement agencies over the last four years.
(WASHINGTON) — As Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign gains momentum, many environmental advocacy groups say they’re “all in” to help her win the White House.
Groups like the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), Sierra Club, and NRDC Action Fund have already endorsed her campaign.
Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president for government affairs for the LCV, told ABC News that her organization is eager to support the Harris campaign and said she thinks the goal now should be “building on the progress” of the current administration.
“I think it’s more about building on the progress — the progress of the Biden-Harris Administration on climate and on conservation has been truly historic, and there’s clearly more progress to make,” Sittenfeld said. “And we know that Vice President Harris is committed to doing just that.”
Other environmental organizations, like the Sunrise Movement, known for representing younger voters, are pushing Harris to take her climate policies further than President Joe Biden did during his term.
“You have an opportunity to win the youth vote by turning the page and differentiating from Biden policies that are deeply unpopular with us,” several youth groups wrote in a letter to Harris, specifically citing approvals for new oil and gas projects under the Biden-Harris Administration.
Climate groups have praised several key accomplishments, including Harris casting the tie-breaking vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, a tentpole policy the Biden-Harris Administration calls the largest package of climate policies and spending in U.S. history. She also investigated fossil fuel companies as California attorney general, most notably Exxon Mobil over allegations they may have misled the public about the risks of climate change linked to burning fossil fuels.
As Harris considers who to select as her vice president, the climate and environmental records of the leading candidates for the VP job will surely be part of the evaluation process.
“We very much hope and expect that she will pick a running mate who shares her commitment, who will center these issues — that they will bring a whole government approach, especially to tackling the climate crisis that in the way that the Biden-Harris Administration has done over the last three and a half years,” Sittenfeld said.
Here’s where the four leading candidates to be Harris’ VP pick stand on some of the most important climate and environmental issues:
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has pushed a suite of policies in response to the negative impacts of climate change experienced by his state after it was devastated by hurricanes and severe flooding early in his tenure.
During his two terms as governor, Cooper signed executive orders establishing greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals for the state — aiming for a 50% reduction by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. He also ordered a reduction in energy consumption in state-owned buildings and increased the number of registered zero-emissions vehicles in the state.
Cooper has also made environmental justice initiatives a priority during his tenure, establishing the Governor’s Environmental Justice Advisory Council last fall.
Cooper testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Natural Resource Committee in 2019 to urge Congress to take action on climate change, noting the devastation his state experienced in the wake of Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence and Tropical Storm Michael in 2018, in addition to periods of severe flooding over the years.
“Just like many places in our country and across the globe, we are beginning to feel the harsh effects of climate change on our communities and on our economy,” Cooper testified. “Scientists have found that climate change makes weather more erratic. It makes storms larger and more powerful. And it intensifies heavy rainfalls and drought.”
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has largely avoided speaking explicitly about climate change in public remarks and favors what his administration calls a “balanced” approach to energy — using a mix of fossil fuels and renewables. Some reports have speculated that Beshear’s energy strategy and his mixed record on environmental issues may be a response to Kentucky’s position as one of the largest coal-producing and coal-burning states in the nation and being a Democratic governor in a largely Republican state.
Beshear says Kentucky becoming “the electric vehicle battery capital of the United States” is one of his “signature accomplishments” as governor, noting $8 billion in investments across two battery manufacturing plants that he says have created 7,000 jobs. He also signed legislation that made $30 million in state funding available for a new natural gas pipeline in the western portion of the state in 2022, calling the project a boon for economic development in the region.
“When world-class companies look to locate here, they need world-class infrastructure to support their needs. I’m happy to be alongside these other leaders to announce that that’s exactly what we’re going to do in building this line,” Beshear said at the time in a press release.
As governor, Beshear declined to apply for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program — making his state one of just a handful, and the only with a Democratic governor, to do so — with his administration saying at the time that some of Kentucky’s larger cities were better positioned to apply.
Earlier this year, he vetoed a bill that would make it more difficult to shut down retired coal plants in the state, writing that it was “inconsistent with Kentucky’s all-of-the above energy policy” and that it would delay new energy projects and “jeopardize economic development.” His veto was overridden by the state’s Republican-led General Assembly.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro
Gov. Josh Shapiro has emphasized the economic benefits of expanding alternative sources of energy in a state where natural gas production plays a huge role in its economy. Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the country, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Similar to President Biden, Shapiro emphasizes the potential to create jobs in many of his climate and energy policies. He secured $400 million in federal funding from the EPA to reduce pollution from industrial sources and create clean energy jobs.
Shapiro has faced criticism from some environmental groups for working with natural gas companies to develop climate and pollution monitoring programs in the state. Shapiro has promoted developing hydrogen energy hubs in the state and capping abandoned oil and gas wells which can be a source of methane gas and other pollution. He also developed his own plan to set a price on carbon that he said would reduce the state’s emissions and customers energy bills and updated the state’s energy standards to attract more investment in renewable energy.
That standard requires the state to get 50% of its electricity from diverse energy sources including solar, wind, small nuclear reactors, fusion, and hydropower by 2035, according to the website for his proposed budget. A report by the PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center found that Pennsylvania was 50th when it came to new renewable energy since 2013.
Gov. Shapiro was endorsed by Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania when he ran for office in 2022, with the group citing his investigations of oil and gas companies and his work to enforce environmental laws as the state’s attorney general.
Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly
Sen. Mark Kelly has served on multiple committees that deal with climate and environmental issues in the Senate, including the Committee on Energy & Natural Resources and the Environment and Public Works Committee. He has been outspoken about the need to address climate issues that are impacting his home state, such as extreme heat and drought.
He claimed credit for securing $4 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to help Colorado River basin states manage drought. He and Arizona Sen. Kristen Sinema also co-sponsored the Growing Climate Solutions Act to make it easier for farmers to participate in climate programs.
Kelly has cited his experience as an astronaut as part of his motivation for tackling climate change, saying that from space he saw how fragile the Earth’s atmosphere can be.
“All seven and a half billion of us, we live on an island in our solar system. Make no mistake we’ve got no place else to go and between my first flight and my fourth one it was a decade, and I saw some changes in our planet,” he said in a 2020 appearance on “The View,” specifically mentioning deforestation in places like the Amazon.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to get from fossil fuels to get from more renewable energy, I think we’ve got a decade or so to figure this out but we can’t continue to wait,” he added.
He was endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters in 2020 and 2022 and has a 93% lifetime approval score from the organization.
(WASHINGTON) — As Donald Trump pivots his focus to Vice President Kamala Harris, one point of attack toward his new 2024 opponent is an old ploy: mispronouncing and mocking her name.
Earlier this week, at his first rally since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Trump bungled Harris’s name dozens of times in the span of his nearly 90-minute stump speech. He told his supporters he wasn’t going to be “nice” anymore.
For years, Harris has been referred to by Trump, Republicans and conservative media like Fox News by only her first name rather than “vice president” or even “Harris” — and they they say it incorrectly.
“It’s one thing to mispronounce someone’s name on the first try, right? But to do it repeatedly and deliberately, it feels purposeful. It’s certainly done to make a point. It is othering, a way of saying you don’t belong here,” said Jean Sinzdak, the associate director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutger’s University.
“I would describe it as a racist and sexist attack on her because she’s been the vice president for three and a half years,” Sinzdak said. “It’s not hard to say her name. It’s not complicated.”
Her name is a nod to her Indian heritage on her mother’s side and in her 2019 memoir, Harris wrote that she pronounced it “Comma-luh” and that it means “lotus flower.”
Before that, when she ran for Senate in 2016, her campaign produced a video with children noting all the incorrect ways of pronouncing her name before saying it correctly. The clip has resurfaced over the past weeks as her presidential campaign enters suddenly entered full swing.
Still, Trump continues to say “Kah-MAH-la.”
When asked why, the Trump campaign, in a statement to ABC News, said “race and gender have nothing to do with why Kamala Harris is the most unpopular Vice President in history.”
Karoline Leavitt, the campaign’s national press secretary, went on to criticize Harris’s handling of immigration and accused her of lying about Biden’s cognitive abilities. “She is weak, dishonest, and dangerously liberal, and that’s why the American people will reject her on November 5th,” Leavitt said.
Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist, noted that over the years “Democrats, Republican, and even reporters, have mispronounced Kamala Harris’ first name. It’s a unique one.”
“But Trump doesn’t seem to care, and continues to do it as a demonstration of purposeful disregard for his opponent,” he said.
As Harris faces some racial and sexist attacks, including that she was a “DEI hire,” House Republican leaders privately told their conference to focus their attacks against Harris on her record, sources familiar with the conversation told ABC News.
But it seems unlikely Trump would follow such advice.
“Trump runs his own campaign and constructs his own message,” Madden said. “For him, it always devolves into the personal, so I expect it will be an element of his attack message all the way though the course of his campaign.”
Meanwhile, Harris appears to be flipping the script and leaning into the contrast of her name and identity versus Trump.
Her first campaign video featured images of supporters holding up “Kamala” signs and chanting “Kamala!” at one of her recent campaign rallies.
Her campaign’s rapid response social media page is simply called, “Kamala HQ.”
Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist and former adviser to Hillary Clinton, said Harris and her team are “using her first name as a tool of empowerment.”
“She owns it, it is hers and proudly,” Cardona said. “The Trump-Vance MAGA folks try to use it to demean and degrade her. They think that by mispronouncing it, it strips her of her power, when in fact what they are doing only betrays just how terrified they are of her and everything she is bringing to this race.”
Sinzdak agreed it was a smart strategy to turn the insult on its head.
“During the campaign cycle, when so much was made of the fact that the two candidates for the presidency were much older white men, it did not look like change or progress,” Sinzdak said. “This is a moment for Kamala Harris and her campaign to lean into an identity that is different and bring something exciting to the ticket. A lot of voters will respond to that, especially younger voters and women voters.”
Harris’ campaign declined to comment on the name controversy.
Still, Sinzdak and Cardona said they expect these kinds of personal attacks on Harris to continue in the coming months leading up to Election Day.
Cardona warned she thinks “this will be one of the ugliest, most racist, most misogynist, sexist campaigns that we will ever see.”
“But the other flip side of that is, I don’t think that Trump will now how to maneuver with her in this race, with I think its a huge, huge opportunity for her.”
ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Rachel Scott and Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim contributed to this report
(WASHINGTON) — When Jotaka Eaddy, the founder of Black women’s leadership network Win With Black Women, heard Sunday that President Joe Biden had decided he wouldn’t run for reelection, clearing the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic Party’s first Black woman presidential nominee, her first thought was “Oh my God, what a time to be alive.”
Her second? “Oh, our Zoom call tonight — I’m gonna have to shift the agenda.”
Formed in 2020, Win With Black Women has met by Zoom most Sundays for almost four years, drawing hundreds of attendees and support from names like Oprah Winfrey and Dionne Warwick. But Eaddy said they had never had a call anything like this past Sunday’s, which drew tens of thousands of viewers, raised more than $2 million for the just-launched Harris campaign, and inspired a similar call led by Black men the next night that raised $1.3 million more for Harris’ campaign.
“We thought, ‘Well, we probably gonna hit 1,000 [people]. And so we were prepared for 1,000,” Eaddy said. “I knew something was different when at about 8 o’clock … I couldn’t get in my own Zoom because it was at capacity.”
Win With Black Women’s Zoom call this past Sunday — joined throughout the night by prominent Black woman politicians such as Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty, California Rep. Maxine Waters and Former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile — could herald a surge of support from Black voters and organizers, women, in particular, who could make up lost ground for Democrats in critical battleground states and down-ballot races nationwide.
Black voters helping to swing red states blue
Many Georgia Democrats are looking to the change at the top of the Democratic ticket to help keep Georgia blue.
“For all of our clients, we will need to revise our projections for turnout upward,” Georgia Democratic strategist Amy Morton told her team Tuesday after a flood of Harris endorsements early in the week. “That’s the impact Harris will have on the ticket.”
Since Biden announced on Sunday that he was leaving the 2024 race, Harris has secured commitments from enough delegates to become the presumptive nominee if they all honor their commitment when voting, according to ABC News reporting. And Morton said having Harris as the nominee “is energizing” to the party and could lead to high turnout rates with voters.
“Black women have been critical to Democratic victories in Georgia for as long as I’ve been working in local space,” Morton continued. “And I think that having Harris at the top of the ticket is energizing for all Democrats.”
“I expect to see turnout in November that approaches 2020 levels,” she added. In 2020, the voter turnout rate was the highest for any national election since 1900.
Georgia played a crucial role in Biden’s 2020 victory, going blue for the first time since 1992 due in significant part to organizing efforts from former Georgia Rep. Stacey Abrams, who spent years spearheading get-out-the-vote efforts in Black communities.
In North Carolina, another Southern battleground state with a large Black population, many Democrats said they hope that Harris could reproduce the energy that powered former President Barack Obama to the party’s last presidential-election victory in the state in 2008.
“President Obama was the last one who was able to mobilize Black people the way that he did back when he ran for office in ’08 and ’12,” said Aimy Steele, who leads a North Carolina voter engagement organization focusing on Black and Hispanic voters.
Black voter turnout peaked in North Carolina in 2008 with a record 73% of Black registered voters turning out to vote, according to North Carolina’s Board of Elections. For comparison, 2016 saw 64% and 2020 saw 68% in the state.
But with Harris at the top of the ticket, Steele said, “I expect the same thing to happen again, if not exceed what he was able to do.”
Hoping to ensure that happens, several Black groups have responded to grassroots enthusiasm for Harris with new efforts to mobilize voters to the polls.
Quentin James founded Collective PAC, an organization that supports Black candidates at all levels of government around the country. James helped organize the Monday night Win with Black Men Zoom call — telling ABC News that the call was just the beginning.
“As someone who’s done a lot of fundraising, I’ve never raised $1.3 million over three or four hours from grassroots donors, I’ve never seen that kind of momentum,” James said. “The energy is inspiring. Each one of those people on the call can organize 10 people or 100 people, and we hope to mobilize all of them.”
On Monday, the presidents of the group of nine historically Black sororities and fraternities known as the “Divine Nine” wrote in a press release that they had agreed to collaborate on “an unprecedented voter registration, education, and mobilization coordinated campaign.”
Harris joined Divine Nine sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha when she attended Howard University, a historically Black university.
Alpha Kappa Alpha International President Danette Anthony Reed said there is enthusiasm among the sorority’s ranks for Harris as a candidate.
“We are just ecstatic and excited that a member of our organization, as well as the first woman of color, has the opportunity to become a candidate for president,” Reed said.
‘We know when we organize, mountains move’
Already the campaign is seeing the return on Harris’ momentum. The campaign has reported a record-breaking $126 million in donations in the 48-hours after Biden’s endorsement. The campaign said 74,000 of those who donated were from new recurring donors, with two-thirds of these recurring donors signing up for weekly donations. There has also been a surge of 100,000 volunteers, according to the campaign.
Although there are few polls out that have data to fully capture this moment, Harris is already seeing significantly higher numbers in favorability with Black voters.
In a memo outlining the campaign’s path forward Wednesday, Campaign Chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon wrote that the vice president has “multiple pathways to 270” thanks to her support among different groups of voters, including Black, Latino and women voters.
Recently, Harris delivered remarks to another Divine Nine sorority, Zeta Phi Beta, which, like AKA, was also founded at the vice president’s alma mater, telling the women that “we know when we organize, mountains move.”
Lois Lofton-Donivei, a teacher from Houston, Texas, heard Harris’ call and was ready to answer it.
“I’m ready to hit the pavement and to do whatever I can to get her elected as the first female president,” said Lofton-Donivei. “We’re finally acknowledging that women have the ability to lead.”
Justin Timberlake’s DWI case in Sag Harbor, New York, has been adjourned until Aug. 2.
At that time Justin will be arraigned on misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated and failing to keep right, WABC-TV reports. The new arraignment is due to a problem with the way Justin was initially charged. He did not appear in court on Friday, according to WABC-TV.
Justin will now appear virtually Aug. 2 in Sag Harbor Village Justice Court. He’s been accused of running a stop sign and swerving out of his lane while leaving The American Hotel in his BMW.
According to WABC-TV, in his first public comments since the arrest, Timberlake’s attorney Ed Burke contended Justin “was not intoxicated,” adding, “I’ll say it again. Justin Timberlake was not intoxicated. And we are very confident that charge, that criminal charge, will be dismissed.”
Burke argued in court that the case should be thrown out due to a “defective accusatory instrument,” which is another way of saying there was an issue with the way that Justin was charged.
“The police made a number of very significant errors in this case … and there are many others,” Burke continued. “Sometimes the police, like every one of us, make mistakes. And that’s the case in this very instance.”
According to the criminal complaint, Justin “was driving drunk, had bloodshot, glassy eyes, slowed speech, was unsteady on his feet and performed poorly on a field sobriety test.” He told the arresting officer he’d only had one drink and refused to take a chemical test, WABC-TV reports.
The next date of Justin’s Forget Tomorrow World Tour is Friday in Poland.
(LOS ANGELES) — Wildfires are exploding across the West, especially in California, where the Park Fire has now grown to be the biggest in the state this year.
There are currently 11 wildfires over 1,000 acres burning in California, according to Cal Fire. The largest of those is the Park Fire, burning in Butte and Tehama counties, just north of Chico, which grew to over 164,000 acres on Friday with just 3% containment.
Ronnie Dean Stout II, 48, has been arrested on suspicion of arson for starting the Park Fire after he allegedly pushed a burning car into a gully in Bidwell Park, near Chico, according to Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey.
There are more than 1,150 personnel, six helicopters and 153 fire engines assigned just to the Park Fire.
The Lake Fire, in Santa Barbara County, is the second-largest burning in the state at the moment at over 38,000 acres, though it is 90% contained after sparking July 5.
Meanwhile, farther north, the Durkee Fire in Oregon had grown to over 288,000 acres on Friday morning with 20% containment, according to the Oregon/Washington Bureau of Land Management. It was sparked on July 17 by a lightning strike and has grown to the largest fire in the country this year.
There are more than 500 people fighting the fire, as rain fell overnight in the area, providing some relief for firefighters.
Smoke spreads across several western states
The smoke from fires in Northern California and Oregon is spreading across several states, including Idaho, Montana and North Dakota, which will all see regions under “very heavy” smoke conditions — the second-worst level.
The Air Quality Index is expected to rise above 150 in Boise, Idaho, on Friday, which would put it in the “unhealthy” category, the fourth of six levels. In Butte, Montana, the Air Quality Index was forecast to be in the 100 to 150 range and “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”
(WASHINGTON) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a potential vice presidential contender, has emerged among labor unions as a popular pick to join Kamala Harris on the Democratic ticket, four union officials and a political consultant told ABC News.
Walz, a former public school teacher and union member, has drawn support for his record of pro-labor legislation in a blue-leaning state and his potential appeal with voters in nearby Midwest battlegrounds Wisconsin and Michigan, they said.
Still, some added, labor unions lack a consensus choice in part because it is difficult to determine which candidate will deliver the best chance of a Democratic victory in the November election.
“People are high on Walz,” Steve Rosenthal, president of political consulting firm The Organizing Group, who has spoken with unions about the potential vice presidential nominee, told ABC News. “People in the labor movement would be very comfortable with him.”
However, Rosenthal added: “Mostly people understand the desperate need to win. It’s not like there’s somebody who’s the union candidate and people have coalesced around that.”
Walz has signed into law a series of measures viewed as pro-worker. Last year, Minnesota established paid sick and medical leave, banned non-compete agreements and expanded protections for Amazon warehouse workers. In May, Minnesota enacted a measure providing a raise for Uber and Lyft drivers while averting a threat made by those companies to stop doing business in the state.
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, told ABC News that she considers Walz one of two top candidates for the vice presidential nod.
“He got the workers from Uber involved before passing the bill to support workers rights in the gig economy,” Nelson said. “That trust of workers and that understanding of the engagement of working people is absolutely something we’re looking for.”
In addition to Walz, Nelson said she backs Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear as a potential VP pick, citing his willingness to walk the picket line in a red state and his legislative record on issues important to the working class such as an expansion of healthcare access.
“Those two should really rise to the top,” Nelson said of Walz and Beshear, adding that she had communicated that view to the Harris campaign. “It makes a lot of sense to lean in harder on workers’ rights when the MAGA talking points are trying to say they’re for working people.”
Representatives for Walz and Beshear did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
Labor unions, a key part of the Democratic coalition, issued a flurry of endorsements for Harris over the days following her entry into the race. Harris spoke on Thursday in Houston at the national convention of the American Federation of Teachers, a teachers’ union.
“One of the best ways to keep our nation moving forward is to give workers a voice — to protect the freedom to organize,” Harris said.
A senior staff member at a private sector union that backs Harris, who has participated in labor discussions about the vice presidential pick, said enthusiasm about Walz among union officials has grown in recent days. The person requested that their name not be used due to the sensitivity surrounding the Harris campaign’s selection of a vice president.
“Walz may not be as splashy as some of the other potential folks, but I think he will really relate with working class voters, especially in the states we need to win in November,” the person said.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wa., a labor ally, said on Thursday that she favors Walz for the vice presidential nomination due in large part to his record on worker issues.
To be sure, labor officials have not agreed upon a preferred candidate for the position, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Service Employees International Union, the largest private sector union, declined to respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the vice presidential selection. The AFL-CIO, the largest labor organization, also declined to comment.
Concern emerged in recent days over the potential selection of Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly due to his previous unwillingness to back the PRO Act, a major labor reform measure. On Wednesday, Kelly said he would vote for the legislation if it came to the Senate floor. His comments were first reported by the Huffington Post.
A representative for Kelly declined to respond to a request for comment. In response to a previous request from ABC News, Kelly’s office said the Arizona senator has robustly backed labor.
“Senator Kelly is the son of two union police officers and has been a strong supporter of workers throughout his time in the Senate,” Kelly spokesperson Jacob Peters said.
Rosenthal, of The Organizing Group, said the shift in Kelly’s position warded off a concerted opposition campaign from organized labor.
“Had Kelly not taken the position he did, there would be a significant amount of pushback from labor unions,” Rosenthal said, later adding: “Overall, it’s really about winning.”
Jim McLaughlin, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99, the largest private sector union in Arizona, praised Kelly in a post on X on Wednesday. “Unions in Arizona know [Kelly] for his commitment to the state and to our nation,” McLaughlin said. “I respect Senator Kelly and am encouraged by the consideration he is being given by the [Kamala Harris] campaign.
At least one labor leader took issue with Kelly after his newfound support for the PRO Act. “If he changed his position on the PRO Act, he would’ve signed onto it,” Transport Workers Union President John Samuelsen told ABC News on Thursday.
“I’ve heard talk about Walz from other union presidents,” Samuelsen added. “And Tim Walz certainly sounds like a dream come true relative to Mark Kelly.”
A labor leader, who has endorsed Harris, voiced praise for Walz’s pro-labor legislative accomplishments and his potential appeal in the Midwest. At the same time, the person lauded Kelly as a skilled campaigner who would perform well as a running mate. The person requested that ABC News not use their name due to the sensitivity surrounding Harris’s selection of a vice presidential nominee.
The decision should ultimately come down to which of vice presidential choices best helps Harris win the election, the person added. “It’s hard to know,” they said.
(NEW YORK) — A special encore “20/20” airing Friday, July 26, at 9 p.m. ET, which originally aired in 2020, revisits the case of missing Utah mom Susan Powell. The show looks at the continued hunt for Susan’s body and the heartbreaking details surrounding the murders of her two sons at the hands of her husband, Josh, who died by suicide after killing the boys.
Chuck and Judy Cox have spent the past eight years in agony while trying to find some semblance of justice after their son-in-law, Josh Powell, murdered their two young grandsons.
When it finally seemed like they were on the verge of finding some closure earlier this year, the coronavirus pandemic brought everything to a halt.
“I don’t know anything else I could have done and they’re still dead. My daughter’s still missing, and now the children are dead,” said Chuck Cox. “I had them safe… They were in my care.”
His daughter, Josh Powell’s wife Susan Powell, was the mother of Braden and Charlie Powell. She disappeared under suspicious circumstances in 2009 and her body has never been found.
In February 2012, Josh Powell killed himself along with Braden, 5, and Charlie, 7, in a house explosion during a supervised visit. Josh Powell locked out the social worker from the home upon their arrival.
“Why take the kids, why? It makes absolutely no sense,” said Cox.
After the house explosion, Chuck and Judy Cox sued the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) in civil court, alleging that its negligence contributed to the deaths of their grandsons. The lawsuit was thrown out in 2015 but was appealed and revived in 2019 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The fact of the matter is they’re the only ones who could have protected the children at that point,” Cox said of the child welfare agency run by DSHS. “They’re the ones with responsibility.”
The wrongful death civil trial began in February in Tacoma, Washington, but was interrupted in March as COVID-19 swept through the nation.
“We have been robbed of three precious lives and it’s just devastating to think the same person did it,” Denise Cox-Ernest, Susan Powell’s sister, told ABC affiliate KOMO-TV in 2012.
What happened to Susan Powell remains a mystery to this day.
She was reported missing in December 2009 when the family was living in West Valley City, Utah. That night, Josh Powell claimed he had gone on a camping trip in the middle of the night with their sons. Susan Powell, he said, stayed home because she was tired.
“As soon as I heard that he was back and Susan was not with them, I instantly said to myself, ‘What has he done?’” Kiirsi Hellewell, Susan Powell’s friend. “Susan would have never allowed him to ever take the boys out in the winter to the desert, in the middle of the night. Never. I never believed his story at all.”
West Valley City Police Det. Ellis Maxwell, who led the investigation into Susan Powell’s disappearance, said that when investigators arrived at the house, there were no signs of a disturbance or physical altercations.
At the bank in which she’d worked, inside a safe deposit box that belonged to her, investigators discovered a handwritten will and testament. In the will, Susan Powell had written about how bad her marriage had become and that Josh Powell had taken out a $1 million life insurance policy on her.
“If I die,” her note said, “it may not be an accident.”
Police discovered a safety deposit box that contained Susan Powell’s makeshift last will and testament. She wrote about her “extreme marital stress” and a note to her boys: “I would never leave you!”
“That is our biggest piece of evidence,” Maxwell said. “It’s her last words. There was no doubt that this document was authored by Susan.”
Authorities also determined that Josh Powell had filed paperwork to withdraw money from her retirement account about 10 days after she had disappeared.
At the time of her disappearance, Susan Powell’s close friends said her marriage had been in turmoil for years and that she had even seen a divorce lawyer.
“She’d been really happy. He’d been a great husband, and she said that he really changed. He became not affectionate,” said the Cox family attorney, Anne Bremner.
Her friends also said Susan Powell would complain about a lack of intimacy from her husband.
“He kept her at arm’s length. He wouldn’t kiss her anymore. He wouldn’t touch her. He wouldn’t hold her hand,” said Hellewell.
“Josh and Susan’s marriage reaches rock bottom in the summer of 2008. Josh and Susan are constantly fighting. They’re arguing in front of the kids. Josh is exhibiting extreme control over Susan,” said Dave Cawley, the host of “Cold,” an investigative podcast on the case.
Hellewell said Susan Powell would email her a lot, saying she wants “to do everything in my power to save my marriage before I walk away.”
Chuck Cox said that after his daughter’s will was found, he felt “frustrated” that authorities didn’t arrest Josh Powell.
“I felt they had plenty of evidence to arrest him,” Chuck Cox said.
Police publicly declared Josh Powell as a “person of interest” about a week after his wife went missing. However, despite suspicions, Josh Powell was never charged in Susan Powell’s disappearance.
Those close to the family say Josh Powell acted strangely in the wake of his wife’s disappearance. He was observed cleaning his minivan and the garage.
“It was really odd to me because he was running around the house grabbing piles of towels and putting them in the washer And finally, we’re like, you’ve got to go to your interview with the police,” said Jennifer Graves, Josh Powell’s sister.
Friends and close relatives also said that he never participated in search efforts or showed urgency to find his wife.
“There was no point at which Josh ever seemed to even be concerned that Susan was missing,” said Hellewell. “He never participated in any of the massive, massive efforts that myself and relatives and friends launched to put out flyers in malls and parking lots.”
When detectives pushed Josh Powell on the details from the night his wife went missing, he said he could not remember the events leading up to her disappearance.
“I just don’t remember what activity we were doing,” he had told Maxwell.
Investigators also questioned then 4-year-old Charlie the day after his mother disappeared.
Charlie confirmed to investigators that he went “camping” the night his mother vanished, saying “my dad and my mom and my little brother” were also there.
“The children said, ‘Mommy was in the van but didn’t come back with us,’ a pretty significant thing for a 4-year-old to tell a detective,” said Rebecca Morris, who authored a book about the case titled “If I Can’t Have You.”
“My mom stayed at Dinosaur National Park. My mom stayed where the crystals are,” Charlie had also said.
Many people interpreted Charlie’s statement to mean that his mother was dead. However, the toddler also made comments that were clearly false, including taking an airplane to go camping.
“There’s a pile of circumstantial evidence,” said Maxwell. “Is there enough there to arrest him and book him into jail and hold him accountable? Absolutely, there is. Could we? No.”
Maxwell said that the Salt Lake County district attorney refused to file charges without a body until a year had passed.
ABC News reached out to the district attorney at the time, but they declined to respond to this claim and refused to comment on this case.
In January 2010, less than a month after his wife disappeared, Josh Powell said he had sought to get away from media attention and moved with his sons into his father Steven Powell’s house in Puyallup, Washington.
In an effort to get more information for authorities, Graves wore a wire and confronted her brother about his wife’s disappearance.
“Suddenly I just shoved Josh into the bathroom and at that point, I was like, ‘Drop all pretense. Just tell me where her body is,’” said Graves.
He continued to deny knowing anything about Susan Powell’s disappearance and the situation escalated. Steven Powell then kicked Graves out of the house.
“I regret not getting the confession, but I don’t regret going,” said Graves.
“Suddenly, I just shoved Josh into the bathroom,” Jennifer Graves recalled about confronting Powell. “At that point, I was like, ‘Drop all pretense. Just tell me where her body is.’“
In 2010, about a year after investigators first spoke to Charlie on the day after his mother’s disappearance, they sat down with the 5-year-old again and asked him about what he remembers from that night.
“We can’t talk about Susan or camping. I always keep things as secrets,” Charlie said in the interview. “I didn’t want to talk to you on this long, I mean this many minutes. Now I’m done.”
“The only thing we got out of [Charlie] that time was that he said that she went camping, but she didn’t come home with them. Then, he kinda clammed up after that,” said Det. Sgt. Gary Sanders of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.
All the while new details began to emerge about Steven Powell’s unusual fixation and inappropriate behavior toward his daughter-in-law, Susan Powell.
In a 2011 interview with ABC News, he alleged that Susan Powell had made sexual advances toward him.
“She told me that part of the reason they moved to Utah was to get away from her father-in-law, Steven Powell. She was like, ‘He is the most filthy, foul, sick, disgusting pervert the world has ever seen. He’s in love with me,’” said Hellewell.
“Susan was very, very sexual with me. She was very flirtatious,” Steven Powell told ABC News. “We interacted in a lot of sexual ways because Susan enjoys doing that. I enjoy doing that.”
“Why are you telling everyone that? That’s not to your benefit,” Graves said of her father. “But somehow in my dad’s own twisted mind, he thought that that was the greatest strategy to keep the dogs off Josh or something. I don’t know.”
Denise Cox-Ernest said her sister, Susan Powell, had complained about her father-in-law’s inappropriate advances and that she had told Josh Powell about them, too.
“She was extremely upset about that and disturbed, but even more disturbed when Josh just said that, you know, that’s his dad,” said Cox-Ernest.
Shortly after ABC News’ interview, Utah police searched the Powell family home in Puyallup, where Josh Powell and his sons were living at the time. Investigators found home videos taken by Steven Powell that showed secret recordings of his daughter-in-law’s body parts and video diaries in which he smelled her underwear and expressed his love and sexual feelings toward her. The search also yielded dozens of computer disks containing images of women and young girls that focused on their private parts, according to prosecutors.
Police arrested Steven Powell in November 2011 and charged him with voyeurism and possession of child pornography. Josh Powell was named as a “subject” in the child pornography investigation.
Following Steven Powell’s arrest, Josh Powell lost custody of his two sons. Chuck and Judy Cox were awarded temporary custody of the children in which they acted essentially as foster parents — the state had official custody — and Josh Powell was given weekly supervised visitation.
“Because of all the things that the police encountered in the search of the Steven Powell home, it became apparent, eventually, these boys were at imminent risk of harm,” Ted Buck, another attorney for the Cox family.
In February 2012, new evidence emerged that a laptop from Josh Powell’s Utah home contained images of cartoon pornography. A judge then ordered Josh Powell to undergo a psychosexual evaluation and take a polygraph test.
But before Josh Powell could take the evaluation or polygraph test, he killed himself and the two boys. On Feb. 5, 2012, a state caseworker brought the boys to Powell’s home for a supervised visit. He locked the official out, incapacitated the 5- and 7-year-old children with a hatchet, poured gasoline on them and around the house and then caused an explosion, according to authorities.
A few months later, in June 2012, Steven Powell was convicted on the voyeurism charges and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. The trial court had initially dismissed the charge for possession of child pornography in 2012, but the state’s court of appeals reinstated the charge in 2014. He was convicted of possession of child pornography in 2015 and spent another two years in prison.
Steven Powell served a total of seven years in prison before being released in July 2017. He died of heart problems a year later.
Maxwell believes that Josh Powell’s murder-suicide was “definitely an admission of guilt” for Susan Powell’s murder.
“She was going to divorce him. If he can’t have her, nobody will,” he said. “So he essentially kidnaps Susan and most likely murders her and disposes of her body. Where? I have no idea. Nobody knows.”
The Cox family civil case reconvened at the end of July this year. In August, the jury awarded the family a record $98.5 million award against the State Department of Social and Health Services.
Chuck Cox said he is going to use the reward money to honor his late grandchildren.
“I intend to … use the award to try and help other people, [so] that we can save more children,” said Chuck Cox.
The judge presiding over the case has since reduced the reward to $32 million — $16 million for Charlie and $16 million for their other grandson Braden. The Cox family will appeal the court’s decision to reduce the jury’s verdict, their attorney said.
Graves said Susan Powell’s story “will continue to live on and inspire others to move in the right direction. To move towards good relationships and get out of bad situations — abusive situations.”
(KYIV, Ukraine) — Solomiya Fomeniuk, 16, recalled the Russian missile strike on the Okhmatdyt pediatric hospital in Ukraine earlier this month with horror, but also as a case of miraculous survival.
The girl was one of five children in the dialysis department at the moment of the attack on July 8. Two people — a doctor and a teacher — died as a result of the strike. A 7-year-old boy died later after he was transported away from the site, officials said.
Solomiya is disabled due to spinal hernia. The girl was admitted to the Kyiv hospital in late May 2022 after kidney failure.
“It’s the best clinic in Ukraine with a dialysis department and the only one where we can actually live to receive treatment regularly,” Solomiya’s mother, Oksana Fomeniuk, told ABC.
July 8 started as usual, she said, adding that even when the sirens went off, it didn’t initially scare the parents nor hospital staff.
“We’ve been here for a while, there were at least two impacts nearby during the past two years, but we always thought that a hospital is a safe place,” she said. “We are always anxious of course, but the kids learned to be courageous and patient since dialysis lasts for 4 to 5 hours and they can’t move during the procedure”.
However, when the first missiles hit the ground a couple kilometers from the hospital Oksana and others quickly went down to the shelter while doctors and nurses decided to go into the room to switch the kids off from the dialysis equipment and take them downstairs too. At that moment the missile hit.
“The first thing I saw was a piece of ceiling above me,” Solomiya recalled. “The equipment around prevented it from falling on me. I even raised my hands to try to hold it. I couldn’t breathe, there was dust and hot air around. And this smell…”
The girl saw two injured female doctors and a nurse lying on the floor bleeding, she said.
“One doctor, Anastasia, shook up from our cries, stood up and came up to pull me from the rubbles,” Solomiya said. “She is so tiny herself, but somehow managed to carry me to the window where men who ran from the street were already helping.”
Most of all the girl was worried about her mom, she confessed. Oksana herself barely got out of the rubble as the missile hit right at the foundation of the building.
“I smelled death,” she said. “I was in the rubble by the knees and couldn’t breathe because of the dust and the smell of the fuel.”
Oksana managed to run out through the back door.
“The second thing that shocked me was the scale of the damage,” she said. “Everything was in a black smoke, the building was destroyed, others half damaged. And all I could think about was where my Solomiya were.”
Oksana saw pieces of furniture and mattresses around, a body inside the premise, children coming out of the building through the broken windows, nurses carrying them out — and said she couldn’t believe that her daughter was alive.
“The nurse was running and shouting that Solomiya was OK and she was taken to another building, but I only believed that when I saw her there. I’m telling you, God saved us. Because if my girl were in another bed, as before, she could have died.”
Svitlana Lukyanchuk, a 30-year-old nephrologist, was later identified as the woman who had died in the room. The head of the dialysis department, Olha Babicheva, was also severely injured, officials said.
Young surgeon Oleh Golubchenko also said he believed he was lucky to be alive. Photos and videos of him in a white bloody uniform as he helped to search the debris went viral.
“My grandma carefully washed and whitened the robe right on the day before. I think I haven’t even thrown it away yet,” Golubchenko said, laughing both bitterly and with relief.
He had been performing a halo rhinoplasty on a 5-month-old patient on the morning of July 8.
“It’s a complicated procedure, but very interesting for me as a specialist. I pre-planned everything on the weekend, designed a model of the expected result,” Golubchenko told ABC.
The surgeon, anesthesiologist Yaroslav Ivanov, second surgeon Ihor Kolodko and nurse Olha Baranovych were halfway through the surgery when the siren went off in Kyiv.
“We don’t start operations during the air raid alert, but if we have already started we have to continue because you can’t move the patient quickly, especially a kid. So we carried on, stayed calm and even joked,” Golubchenko recalled.
When the missile hit the nearby building the wave threw him a couple of meters away from the operating table. “I was shocked for a few seconds and then saw everyone on the floor, bleeding. I shouted, ‘Is everyone alive?’ Olha, the nurse, was apparently severely injured, I saw her face really damaged. Yaroslav was bleeding too but got up.”
The doctors rushed to their little patient covered by surgical gowns. The boy was intubated, so Golubchenko couldn’t check if he was actually OK.
“I ran in the corridor to find an Ambu bag. The boy’s mom was there, shouting hysterically … I found the bag, the anesthesiologist disconnected the boy and quickly carried him away, I followed him … on my way I stopped to help another nurse as she was bleeding, so I bandaged her … There was such a chaos, total mess,” he said.
When Oleh went outside, the first person to call him was his friend, Rostyslav, who is also a surgeon, as he heard of the strike.
“I asked him to pick my patient and finish the surgery,” Golubchenko said. “He literally was here in 15 minutes and took the boy.” Taras, the boy who had been in surgery, and his parents are well now, Golubchenko said.
Only later did Golubchenko notice that he himself was covered in blood.
“I just felt something warm on my back and legs. Those were all small wounds from the glass. The doctors took everything away and said I had a concussion. I think I escaped with a fright. Big fright,” the surgeon said, sighing. “You know, before the surgery, the patient’s father asked me whether I believed in God. What a question! But now my outlook has transformed. I’m telling you, I went to the church the following day and prayed as I could.”
It’s painful for Golubchenko to see his department damaged as it had been just renovated. It was even more painful for many Ukrainians. Okhmatdyt, which in Ukrainian means protection of motherhood and childhood, is the best pediatric hospital in Ukraine. The doctors say they received incredible support from the management, while parents admit everything was done from the heart here, with great love to kids so that they experience as much fun and comfort here as possible.
In just one day, people and businesses raised more than $7 million for Okhmatdyt through the joint project of the UNITED24 presidential fundraising platform and Monobank. Germany accepted kids from the Kyiv hospital and pledged about 10 million euros for the reconstruction of the hospital.
Oleh Holubchenko said he himself received calls from his American colleagues who have helped a lot, in particular Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft-focused organization, and American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association
Fomeniuk and her daughter, Solomiya, said their hopes for Solomiya’s kidney transplantation, which they have been waiting for since last fall, have now now faded a bit due to the strike. But they still showed their support for the hospital and optimism for the doctors, who they hope keep going.
The attack on Okhmatdyt on July 8 was one of more than 1,800 such strikes in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, according to the World Health Organizaition.
Oksana confessed she sometimes thinks that horrible strike didn’t actually happen and it was just a horror movie because it doesn’t seem real.
“The missiles flying in Kyiv are not something normal by default,” she said. “When kids who are fighting for their lives have to suffer even more during the attacks is something totally, totally over the line.”
