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Mother charged with murder after bodies of 2 girls found in suitcases in Cleveland field: Prosecutors

March 6, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(CLEVELAND) — A 28-year-old mother has been charged with murder days after the bodies of two girls were found in suitcases in a field in Cleveland, police said.

Aliyah Henderson was charged with two counts of aggravated murder in connection with the deaths of her daughters, according to prosecutors.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office said the girls were determined to be half-siblings and identified them as Amor Wilson, 10, and Mila Chatman, 8, both of Cleveland.

Prosecutors alleged that Henderson caused the death of her daughters, and their “badly decomposed” bodies were discovered in shallow graves in suitcases.

Cuyahoga County Judge Jeffrey Johnson set her bond at $2 million during her arraignment on Friday, citing the nature of the allegations and “my concern for the safety of the public.” She did not enter a plea.

Detectives began investigating the deaths on Monday, following the “horrific” discovery, according to Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd.

An individual spotted one of the bodies inside a suitcase while walking a dog in a residential neighborhood on Monday evening and reported it to police, according to Todd.

Responding officers located a second body in another suitcase nearby, Todd said. Both suitcases were in a shallow grave in a field near a school, she said.

The manner and cause of death are still pending, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday.

It was unclear how long the girls had been at the location, just that “it was some time,” and that there were no clear indicators of the cause of death, Todd told reporters Tuesday.

“This is a traumatic event for our officers, for the community,” Todd said.

Police said Thursday that the cause of death had not yet been determined.

The investigation led detectives to execute a search warrant at a residence located within a block of the field on Wednesday, where they “recovered substantial evidence related to the case,” the Cleveland Division of Police said.

A person of interest was detained on Wednesday, with Cleveland Police Sgt. Wilfredo Diaz telling reporters it was a “significant break” in the case.

Todd said in a statement Thursday that “careful and methodical work” in the case “allowed our detectives to develop the evidence needed to make quick identification of a person of interest, ultimately resulting in an arrest.”

A child located inside the searched home has been taken into custody by the county’s Department of Children and Family Services, police said. The child appeared to be in good health, police said.

Early voting begins in Virginia’s redistricting election, which could determine control of the House in midterms

March 6, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(RICHMOND, Va.) — Early voting begins Friday in an unusual off-cycle election in Virginia that could have major implications for control of the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections.

Voters in Virginia are heading to the polls for a statewide election, set for April 21, on a constitutional amendment that would allow their legislature to redraw the state’s congressional map.

This would let the Democratic-controlled legislature implement a new proposed map that would make four GOP-held congressional districts favor Democrats. Given the razor-thin margins of the House — where Democrats only need to net three seats in November to regain control — even flipping that many seats in Virginia could be decisive for control of the chamber.

It’s a gambit that Democrats both in Virginia and nationally say is necessary after Republican-led redistricting in 2025 gave the GOP nine redrawn seats that now favor Republicans across four states.

Former President Barack Obama, in a video released Thursday to promote a yes vote on the amendment, claimed that Republicans pursued mid-decade redistricting “for a simple reason: to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms this fall … This amendment gives you the power to level the playing field in the midterms this fall.”

Republicans have called the plan to redraw seats a political power grab, decrying the move as going against the will of voters in Virginia who previously voted in favor of a redistricting commission.

Rep. Ben Cline, one of the Virginia Republicans whose seat is among those targeted, wrote on X on Wednesday, that “The Democrats’ plan to steal Congressional seats and disenfranchise Virginians is unconstitutional, but we’re going to have to defeat it at the ballot box on April 21.”

Democrats in Virginia’s legislature have already passed their proposed congressional map through the legislature and it has been signed by the governor; it gets implemented if voters approve the amendment. While the map is technically not on the ballot, Democrats have argued that it’s important that voters see the new lines that they are essentially voting on.

Virginia’s Supreme Court ordered twice to let the election proceed in the face of legal challenges to how Democrats passed the amendment through the legislature, although litigation continues to play out.

Dow drops 650 points as Iran war sends oil prices surging

March 6, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 650 points in early trading on Friday as the Iran war continued to spike oil prices.

The Dow fell 657 points, or 1.3%, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 1%.

In a post on social media on Friday morning, President Donald Trump appeared to rule out a compromise with Iran.

Trump said there would be “no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”

Oil prices soared as traders feared a prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a trading route that facilitates the transport of about one-fifth of global oil supply.

U.S. crude oil prices topped $88 on Friday, marking a staggering 35% increase from a week earlier.

The stock selloff on Friday extended losses from a day earlier, when the Dow closed down 785 points.

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

Jobs report shows US unexpectedly lost jobs in February

March 6, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The U.S. economy lost jobs in February, marking a major reversal of fortunes for the labor market and nearly erasing all of the job gains delivered a month earlier, government data on Friday showed. The reading came in well below economists’ expectations.

The U.S. lost 92,000 jobs in February, according to the report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which marked a significant dropoff from 130,000 jobs added in the previous month.

The unemployment rate ticked up from 4.3% in January to 4.4% in February, the BLS said. Unemployment remains low by historical standards.

The new jobs report arrived as markets roil and gasoline prices surge in response to the war with Iran. The Middle East conflict cast fresh uncertainty over the economic outlook.

A hiring cooldown last year prompted interest rate cuts at the Federal Reserve and concern among some observers about the nation’s economic prospects. The U.S. added an average of about 15,000 jobs per month in 2025, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed.

Sluggish hiring has coincided with elevated inflation, threatening a period of “stagflation.”

Those economic headwinds helped set the conditions before the outbreak of war with Iran, which spiked oil prices and risked price increases for a host of diesel-fuel transported goods.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 785 points on Thursday as U.S. crude prices rose to their highest level since June.

Still, the overall economic picture remains mixed.

A government report in February on gross domestic product (GDP) showed the economy grew at a tepid annualized pace of 1.4% over the final three months of 2025. That reading indicated a dramatic cooldown from the strong annualized growth of 4.4% recorded in the previous quarter, U.S. Commerce Department data showed.

Price increases, meanwhile, have softened. In January, inflation fell to 2.4%, its lowest level in nine months. It remains slightly higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.

The Iran war threatens to slow U.S. economic growth since oil-driven price increases could weigh on consumers and businesses, analysts previously told ABC News.

The potential combination of higher inflation and slower growth could also pose a challenge for the Fed, putting pressure on both sides of its dual mandate to manage prices and maintain maximum employment.

If the Fed opts to lower borrowing costs, it could spur growth but risk higher inflation. On the other hand, the choice to raise interest rates may slow price increases but risks a cooldown of economic performance.

The central bank held interest rates steady at its most recent meeting in January, ending a string of three consecutive quarter-point rate cuts. Policymakers will make their next interest-rate decision on March 18.

Former Presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden to honor late Rev. Jesse Jackson at Friday service

March 6, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Three former American presidents and a former vice president are set to honor the late Rev. Jesse Jackson at a memorial service in Chicago on Friday morning – a “Celebration of Hope” that is being held by the family of the pioneering civil rights leader, who died on Feb. 17 at the age of 86.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris are expected to deliver remarks at the homegoing services on Friday, according to the Jackson family. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former first lady Jill Biden are also expected to attend the services, the family said.

ABC News reached out to representatives for Clinton, Obama, Biden and Harris for further comment.

“Jesse Jackson, Sr. marched beside Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights for all people. He traveled the world fighting economic and gender inequity. Until his last days, he fought for better healthcare, education, and peace in Chicago, Illinois, the United States, and beyond,” the Jackson family said in a statement on Wednesday. “I hope everyone who joins us to honor his legacy will also continue to champion these causes. That would be the best possible tribute and celebration they could offer.”

Friday’s public homegoing service will take place at the House of Hope event center. A private service will take place on Saturday morning in Chicago.

The services come after thousands paid their respects to Jackson as he lay in honor at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago last week. He was also honored in his birth state of South Carolina on Monday, where he laid in state at the state house in Columbia.

“Jesse Jackson, Sr. changed the United States — and the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement. “We are deeply honored to know there are people from every walk of life who want to join us to pay their respects.”

Other scheduled speakers at the service on Friday include Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Ill., and Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts. Singer and actress Jennifer Hudson and gospel legends Bebe Winans and Pastor Marvin Winans are also expected to perform on Friday. Stevie Wonder is set to perform at the private service on Saturday.

Jackson died after experiencing health issues over the past several years, including a battle with Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurological disorder.

Jackson’s children honored their father’s legacy at a press conference last month, reflecting on his 1984 and 1988 presidential runs and how he dedicated his career to advancing economic justice and building political power for Black Americans.

Jackson’s son, Jesse Jackson, Jr., called for unity in the Feb. 18 press conference ahead of his father’s funeral services.

“Do not bring your politics out of respect to Rev. Jesse Jackson and the life that he lived to these home going services,” he said. “Come respectful and come to say thank you, but these homegoing services are welcome to all Democrat, Republican, liberal and conservative, right wing, left wing, because his life is broad enough to cover the full spectrum of what it means to be an American.”

US sinking of Iranian ship raises questions of legality

March 6, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The sinking of an Iranian warship Tuesday by a U.S. submarine thousands of miles from the war zone in international waters raises questions about whether the attack was legal under the rules of war.

Military law experts said the Iranian ship, which was in the Indian Ocean in international waters off Sri Lanka, would have been a lawful target had the U.S. declared war. The fact that it hasn’t done so makes the issue a murky one.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the attack an “atrocity.”

“The U.S. will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set,” he said.

Experts say the incident highlights the reason that a declaration of war by Congress is needed for the growing conflict, which has involved more than 12 countries, as Iran continues launching drones and missiles at countries beyond the Persian Gulf region.

The House of Representatives on Thursday voted against a war powers resolution. Similar legislation failed Wednesday in the Senate. Both votes largely followed party lines.

The submarine strike in international waters “underscores why Congress should have approved this in the first place,” said Retired Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham, a former judge advocate general in the U.S. Air Force, “because this is a war [in which they’re] going to go after the Iranian Navy,” even when naval assets are outside the Middle East.

“The Iranian Navy is not small, right? It could be in places like outside of Sri Lanka and international water.”

Under the laws of armed conflict, were the U.S. and Iran in a declared war, the warship would represent a lawful target, former U.S. government lawyers told ABC News.

The issue with the submarine’s attacking the warship in international waters, VanLandingham said, was “political” in nature and not legal.

“When you’re going to have such global implications — that’s one of the reasons the founding fathers said Congress gets to decide wars of choice,” she said.

Brian Finucane, who was attorney-adviser at the State Department from 2011 to 2021, also said the submarine attack would have been lawful if the conflict was authorized.

According to Finucane, the U.S. would have an obligation under the Geneva Conventions to conduct search and rescue operations for survivors of the sinking.

A source familiar with Tuesday’s operation said the submarine took measures to support life-saving efforts before and after the ship sank in line with international law.

The military’s compliance with that international law was called into question when a second strike on an alleged drug boat killed survivors in international waters in the Caribbean Sea in September.

“The fundamental legal problems under both U.S. and international law” of the submarine engagement, Finucane said, “relate to the underlying use of force in this war against Iran.”

Authorization by Congress for the war is required by law because the U.S. offensive against Iran is not a response to an imminent threat, experts said.

President Donald Trump and his administration have said Iran posed such a threat. Secretary Marco Rubio said the threat became more imminent because Israel planned to strike Iran and Iran would retailiate against Israel and the U.S.

While the president has called the conflict a “war,” senior officials in his administration — and top leadership in Congress — have refrained from using the word.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said Wednesday the U.S. “is not at war now.”

The Pentagon’s top policy official, asked whether the U.S. was at war with Iran in a congressional hearing Thursday, would not use the term.

“I think we’re in a military action at this point,” said Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby. “I will leave to Congress and lawyers from the administration, et cetera, to determine.”

Ambiguity about the conflict’s label from across the government comes as Pentagon officials say the conflict will only “accelerate” in intensity — and potentially grow in scope.

The U.S. military mission is in a “throttle-up” posture, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who would not confine the campaign to a time limit.

“The only limits we have in this is President Trump’s desire to achieve specific effects on behalf of the American people,” Hegseth said.

Jobs report shows US unexpectedly lost jobs in February

March 6, 2026 by WDNY Radio

The U.S. lost 92,000 jobs in February, according to the report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which marked a significant dropoff from 130,000 jobs added in the previous month.

The unemployment rate ticked up from 4.3% in January to 4.4% in February, the BLS said. Unemployment remains low by historical standards.

The new jobs report arrived as markets roil and gasoline prices surge in response to the war with Iran. The Middle East conflict cast fresh uncertainty over the economic outlook.

Sluggish hiring has coincided with elevated inflation, threatening a period of “stagflation.”

Those economic headwinds helped set the conditions before the outbreak of war with Iran, which spiked oil prices and risked price increases for a host of diesel-fuel transported goods.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 785 points on Thursday as U.S. crude prices rose to their highest level since June.

Still, the overall economic picture remains mixed.

Price increases, meanwhile, have softened. In January, inflation fell to 2.4%, its lowest level in nine months. It remains slightly higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.

The Iran war threatens to slow U.S. economic growth since oil-driven price increases could weigh on consumers and businesses, analysts previously told ABC News.

Epstein files: DOJ releases previously withheld FBI reports about sex abuse allegation against Trump

March 6, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice on Thursday released three previously withheld FBI interview reports from 2019 related to a woman who made uncorroborated allegations that she was abused by Donald Trump in the 1980s, when she was a minor.

In a statement on social media, the Department of Justice said the interview summaries — known as FBI 302 reports — were initially withheld from the January release of millions of pages of DOJ documents related to Jeffrey Epstein because they were believed to be duplicative of other documents.

“What we found through extensive review is that a published 302 — additionally disclosed in a published spreadsheet — had subsequent 302s that were coded as ‘duplicative.’ After this was brought to our attention, we reviewed the entire batch with the similar coding and discovered 15 documents were incorrectly coded as duplicative,” the DOJ account said.

The statement did not appear to explain why, beyond possible human error, the records were marked as duplicative. As of Thursday evening, the DOJ database still does not include the handwritten notes from the interviews themselves.

According to the reports, the FBI interviewed the woman four times between July and October 2019. During each of the interviews with the woman, whose identity is redacted, she made allegations of abuse against Epstein.

In her second interview with federal investigators, she claimed that Epstein once took her to either New York or New Jersey where he introduced to Trump when she was between the ages of 13 and 15 years old. According to the report, she claimed Trump abused her during that trip.

In the fourth interview in October 2019, the woman declined to provide additional details about the alleged interaction with Trump when asked by agents, according to the summary of that interview.

Her statements to the federal agents allege that the incident with Trump took place in the early-to-mid 1980s — a period when Epstein and Trump did not appear to be in contact.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing related to his relationship with Epstein or any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity.

In her initial interview with the FBI, the woman claims she was sexually abused by Epstein after being hired for what she thought was a babysitting job, but she said there were no children present. Similar abuse occurred, she said, on several more occasions, according to the summary of the first report, which was released by the DOJ in January.

The witness said multiple alleged incidents with Epstein took place in South Carolina, a location not known to have been frequented by Epstein. The timing of the allegations would place them two decades before law enforcement in Florida began investigating Epstein for sexual exploitation of minors.

Before the additional records were released Thursday, Congressional Democrats had accused the Justice Department of illegally withholding the documents to protect the president.

“It is unconscionable, it is illegal, and [Attorney General] Pam Bondi and the president need to answer where those files are,” California Democrat Robert Garcia, D-Calif. said last week.

In a statement in January, the Department of Justice said that some investigative files in the massive tranche released would include unsubstantiated claims about Trump.

“Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the statement said.

Former Presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden to honor late Rev. Jesse Jackson at Friday service

March 6, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(CHICAGO) — Three former American presidents and a former vice president are set to honor the late Rev. Jesse Jackson at a memorial service in Chicago on Friday morning – a “Celebration of Hope” that is being held by the family of the pioneering civil rights leader, who died on Feb. 17 at the age of 86.

ABC News reached out to representatives for Clinton, Obama, Biden and Harris for further comment.

Friday’s public homegoing service will take place at the House of Hope event center. A private service will take place on Saturday morning in Chicago.

Jackson died after experiencing health issues over the past several years, including a battle with Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurological disorder.

Jackson’s son, Jesse Jackson, Jr., called for unity in the Feb. 18 press conference ahead of his father’s funeral services.

Epstein files: DOJ releases previously withheld FBI reports about sex abuse allegation against Trump

March 6, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The Department of Justice on Thursday released three previously withheld FBI interview reports from 2019 related to a woman who made uncorroborated allegations that she was abused by Donald Trump in the 1980s, when she was a minor.

In the fourth interview in October 2019, the woman declined to provide additional details about the alleged interaction with Trump when asked by agents, according to the summary of that interview.

Her statements to the federal agents allege that the incident with Trump took place in the early-to-mid 1980s — a period when Epstein and Trump did not appear to be in contact.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing related to his relationship with Epstein or any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity.

Before the additional records were released Thursday, Congressional Democrats had accused the Justice Department of illegally withholding the documents to protect the president.

“It is unconscionable, it is illegal, and [Attorney General] Pam Bondi and the president need to answer where those files are,” California Democrat Robert Garcia, D-Calif. said last week.

In a statement in January, the Department of Justice said that some investigative files in the massive tranche released would include unsubstantiated claims about Trump.

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