A memorial dedicated to the 19 children and two adults murdered on May 24,2022 during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School is seen on January 05, 2026 in Uvalde, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) — A judge sided with defense lawyers on Thursday and is instructing jurors to completely disregard the testimony of a former teacher who is a key prosecution witness in the trial of former Uvalde, Texas, school police officer Adrian Gonzales.
Former teacher Stephanie Hale returned to the witness stand for an hour on Thursday in an effort to salvage her testimony, but defense lawyers ultimately argued that allowing her testimony to stand would endanger Gonzales’ right to a fair trial.
“There’s no doubt that this was crucial to the [defense] strategy,” Judge Sid Harle said. “I don’t think I have any choice, having denied the mistrial — other than to craft a remedy that will protect the due process rights and hopefully avoid any appellate review that would result in this case being reversed — so I am reluctantly going to instruct the jury to disregard her testimony in its entirety.”
Before instructing the jury, the judge personally thanked Hale for her testimony and emphasized that she was not at fault.
“I want to emphasize that you did absolutely nothing wrong. It’s not on you,” the judge said. “I want to tell you, just from personal experience, memories of traumatic events change.”
When Hale was on the stand Thursday, defense attorney Jason Goss attempted to point out that her original account — provided to state investigators four days after the May 2022 shooting — differed from what she told the jury on Tuesday.
“Seeing a shooter, and being shot at, are important details, you would agree with that?” Goss said.
“It depends on who you are,” she responded. “I don’t know. I guess possibly.”
Gonzales, who was one of nearly 400 law enforcement officers to respond to the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, is charged with 29 counts of child endangerment for allegedly ignoring his training during the botched police response.
Gonzales has pleaded not guilty. His legal team says he did all he could to help students and maintains he’s being scapegoated.
If convicted on all counts, Gonzales could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the shooting. Investigations faulted the police response and suggested that a 77-minute delay in police mounting a counterassault could have contributed to the carnage.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Criminal Court on August 13, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A judge in New York has rejected Harvey Weinstein’s bid for a new trial, ruling juror complaints about decorum in the deliberation room were adequately addressed.
Weinstein was convicted of the 2006 sexual assault of Mimi Haley, a one-time production assistant on the Weinstein-produced reality show “Project Runway.”
The defense said two jurors subsequently claimed they were pressured to convict.
Judge Curtis Farber decided on Thursday, “The Court’s response to the jurors’ complaints appropriately balanced the competing interests of investigating the allegations while avoiding any unnecessary taint of the deliberating jury.”
Weinstein is now consulting with his attorneys about when he will be re-tried for the rape count he faces in connection with an alleged 2013 assault of Jessica Mann. The judge declared a mistrial on that one count after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. The Manhattan district attorney’s office said it would retry Weinstein on that count.
Weinstein, 73, remains in custody at Rikers Island in New York City after nearly six years of confinement. A representative for the disgraced Hollywood producer said he is “medically fragile and in legal limbo.”
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins speaks with ABC News, Jan. 7, 2026. ABC News
(NEW YORK) — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said she wants to “get Americans away from the highly processed packaged foods,” saying those foods are driving the obesity epidemic in America, following the release on Wednesday of new federal dietary guidelines.
“This is a whole flipping of the narrative,” Rollins said in an exclusive interview on “Good Morning America” that aired on Thursday. “It’s a flipping of what we’ve known over the last couple of decades.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the new federal dietary guidelines on Wednesday, encouraging Americans to limit highly processed food and reduce refined carbohydrates.
The new recommendations essentially turn the old food pyramid upside down, encouraging Americans to eat whole foods like fruits and vegetables, to incorporate healthy fats, to prioritize protein-rich meals including red meat and to consume full-fat dairy and whole grains with no added sugars.
“Today was a reset of all of that in these dietary guidelines focusing on eating real food, nutrient dense foods, saturated fat, meats, fruits and vegetables, whole milk, all of that now becomes front and center,” said Rollins. “And that’s real, that’s unprecedented.”
Other recommendations include limiting added sugars and highly processed foods like potato chips or cookies, as well as sweetened beverages like energy drinks, soda, and diet sodas due to their artificial sweeteners.
The guidance puts a new focus on what the administration is calling “healthy fats,” such as full-fat dairy like yogurt and cheese, and using olive oil, beef tallow or butter as a cooking oil, a recommendation that Kennedy Jr. has championed This is in contrast to the American Heart Association recommendation to “limit high-fat animal products including red meat, butter, lard and tallow, which are linked to increased cardiovascular risk.”
“Our goal is to get Americans away from the highly processed packaged foods, which is the driver in the obesity epidemic that’s facing our country right now,” Rollins told “GMA” on Thursday.
Some of these choices, however, could be costly for many Americans as they face rising grocery prices, including ground beef, which has risen 16% over the past year, according to officials.
“This is just about a general awareness amongst America on what is healthy and what we should be eating,” Rollins continued.
The guidelines also say Americans should “limit alcoholic beverages.” Previously, the dietary guidelines said adults ages 21 and over should stick to two drinks or fewer per day for men and one drink or fewer per day for women.
“The recommendation is just minimize, minimize, minimize, minimize,” Rollins said. “We’re not saying everyone should stop eating sugar and stop drinking anything. That’s not it. It’s just working to trend away from where we’ve gotten to in the last couple decades.”
The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are updated every five years, come as Kennedy has made nutrition policy a cornerstone of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
“Let’s focus on these good, nutritious foods,” Rollins said. “This will change everything.”
Crew-11 mission astronauts walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building before heading to pad 39A for launch to the International Space Station (ISS) at the Kennedy Space Center on August 1, 2025 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A mission to the International Space Station may end early due to a medical situation involving one of the astronauts aboard the station.
NASA announced that it was postponing Thursday’s spacewalk because “the agency is monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that arose Wednesday afternoon aboard the orbital complex.”
The space agency then followed up with a statement saying, “Safely conducting our missions is our highest priority, and we are actively evaluating all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew-11’s mission.”
The crew of four was gearing up for the first spacewalk of 2026, which was slated for Thursday morning.
“These are the situations NASA and our partners train for and prepare to execute safely. We will provide further updates within the next 24 hours,” the agency wrote.
If NASA needs to end the Crew-11 mission early, there are two spacecraft capable of returning humans to Earth docked to the station, including the SpaceX Dragon that brought the crew to the ISS in August. There are currently seven astronauts aboard the station, and three would remain should Crew-11 return early. The launch window for the Crew-12 mission opens Feb. 15.
NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman were scheduled to work outside of the ISS for more than six hours to install a modification kit and route cables for a future roll-out solar array, according to the agency. They were also planning to add jumper cables, photograph the hardware and collect five microorganism samples near the station’s airlock.
At the time, the agency said it was not appropriate to share additional details due to medical privacy reasons, but confirmed the situation was stable and that a new date for the spacewalk would be announced later.
While NASA hasn’t revealed which astronaut is affected by the medical issue, the crew consists of two American astronauts, one Japanese astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut. The American astronauts were scheduled to participate in the postponed spacewalk.
The four members of Crew-11 traveled to the ISS on Aug. 1, 2025, aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. It was the first time in space for two of the four crew members — NASA astronaut and mission commander Cardman and Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist Oleg Platonov. The mission is NASA astronaut and mission pilot Fincke’s fourth trip to the station and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut and mission specialist Kimiya Yui’s second trip.
NASA selected Cardman to be part of the 2017 class of astronauts. A Williamsburg, Virginia, native, she holds degrees in biology and marine sciences.
Fincke is a space veteran, having spent more than a year in orbit and having performed nine spacewalks. The retired Air Force colonel previously served as an ISS commander and mission specialist.
Yui, a mission specialist, is returning to the ISS for a second visit after previously spending 142 days aboard the station as part of Expeditions 44 and 45.
Platonov, a graduate of the Krasnodar Air Force Academy, became a cosmonaut in 2018 and will serve as a mission specialist.
“I cannot tell you enough how meaningful it is to have a crew that is as kind and as thoughtful and as wonderful as they are incredibly technically competent, incredible astronauts, cosmonauts coming from multiple agencies, many different backgrounds. They make my job very, very easy as commander,” Cardman said during a pre-launch press conference.
The crew marked a historic milestone for the ISS in November, when NASA celebrated 25 years since the first crew arrived at the station.
The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program that partners with private companies to deliver humans to and from the ISS. According to NASA, Crew-11 is the “11th crew rotation mission of SpaceX’s human space transportation system and its 12th flight with astronauts.”
Confiscated “ghost guns” are displayed before a news conference with New York Mayor Eric Adams and Attorney General Letitia James and others to announce a new lawsuit against “ghost gun” distributors on June 29, 2022 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — New York would become the first state to require manufacturers of 3D printers to block production of guns and gun parts under new legislation Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed Wednesday.
The proposed legislation would also make it a crime to possess or sell the digital blueprints needed to produce 3D-printed firearms without a license to do so.
“From the iron pipeline to the plastic pipeline, these proposals will keep illegal ghost guns off of New York streets, and enhance measures to track and block the production of dangerous and illegal firearms in our state,” Hochul said in a statement announcing the proposal.
Some 3D printing companies, including Thingiverse, have already begun deploying technology to rapidly detect and remove the digital blueprints for guns.
Earlier this year, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sent letters to 3D printing companies asking them to help combat the spread of homemade guns, which he called a “growing threat.” Luigi Mangione allegedly used a 3D-printed gun and silencer in the December 2024 assassination-style killing of United Healthcare chief executive Brian Thompson.
Bragg called on the companies to remove online blueprints, known as CAD files, that can be used to print firearms and gun parts without a background check. The district attorney’s office conceded that the measure will not stop the proliferation of ghost guns, but said the goal is to make it harder for people to find the designs to create them.
“These illegal firearms are being manufactured in homes and used in crimes right now, which is why I have been working with my colleagues in Albany and the private sector over the past several years to stop their proliferation. Passing these measures will reduce crime and strengthen public safety for all New Yorkers,” Bragg said in the governor’s statement.
In addition to criminalizing the unlicensed possession of CAD files for guns and requiring manufacturers to use technology to block the printer from creating guns, the proposed legislation would also mandate the reporting of 3D printed guns to a state police database, and would require gun manufacturers to design pistols so they cannot be quickly and easily modified for automatic fire.
Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Criminal Court on August 13, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Harvey Weinstein is due to return to a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday for a hearing that could determine whether he receives a new trial.
Weinstein was convicted of the 2006 sexual assault of Mimi Haley, a one-time production assistant on the Weinstein-produced reality show “Project Runway.” Haley testified the “unthinkable” happened to her when Weinstein held her down on a bed and forced oral sex on her after she told him no.
The defense said two jurors subsequently claimed they were pressured to convict.
Judge Curtis Farber is set to decide whether he needs to hear testimony from those jurors before deciding whether to grant Weinstein’s motion for a new trial.
If the judge denies Weinstein’s motion for a new trial, defense attorneys said there are grounds to appeal his conviction.
Weinstein has not been sentenced on the Haley count and remains in custody at Rikers Island in New York City after nearly six years of confinement. A representative for the disgraced Hollywood producer said the 73-year-old is “medically fragile and in legal limbo.”
The jury was unable to come to a verdict on a charge that alleged Weinstein raped actress Jessica Mann in 2013. The Manhattan district attorney’s office said it intends to re-try Weinstein on that count, and during Thursday’s hearing, Farber is expected to decide when to move forward.
Mann broke down on the witness stand as she recounted meeting Weinstein when she was 27 and moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. In March 2013, Mann said she was visiting New York when she accompanied Weinstein to a hotel room. She said he injected himself with an erectile medication and raped her. The defense questioned whether Mann was out for money and said she had consensual sex with Weinstein at other times.
(SALT LAKE CITY) — Police in Salt Lake City said two people are dead and six others wounded after a shooting outside a funeral on Wednesday evening.
No suspects are in custody and an active manhunt is underway, Salt Lake City Police Department public information officer Glen Mills said.
Police received a call for the shooting shortly after 7:30 p.m. local time at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel on Redwood Road.
Police said a funeral was taking place at the chapel when an altercation broke out in the parking lot and shots were fired.
Of the surviving victims, three are in critical condition and three are in unknown condition.
Police are still determining if there was one suspect or multiple suspects.
In a statement, Sam Penrod, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the church was aware of a “serious incident” outside the church meetinghouse while a memorial service was taking place.
“We extend prayers for all who have been impacted by this tragedy and express deep concern that any sacred space intended for worship should be subjected to violence of any kind,” the statement said.
Demolition of the East Wing of the White House, during construction on the new ballroom extension of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Thursday is expected to present the latest plans for the East Wing renovation project, in a public meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission.
An organization established by Congress to manage Washington-area federal projects, the NCPC has an agenda item for the “East Wing Modernization Project” on the schedule for its Jan. 8 meeting, which is open to the public and will be livestreamed.
In December, the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit to stop the East Wing construction project by claiming the administration had circumvented the required review process for federal projects.
In a hearing in that case, the administration told a federal judge it would submit plans for the project to the relevant federal oversight bodies.
The judge said he would hold a follow-up hearing on the White House’s process in January and declined to stop construction at the time.
Days later, the administration submitted formal applications and plans for the renovation project to the NCPC and the Commission of Fine Arts, a White House official confirmed to ABC News at the time.
In its filing in the case brought by the historic preservation group, the Justice Department argued that without a permanent ballroom, the White House can no longer meet the needs of the president as he fulfills his constitutional duty to “receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers.”
“It is entirely fitting, then, that the presidential residence and workplace be equipped for that purpose. Given modern needs, the White House is not,” the Justice Department argued.
Even as it determined in late August that the White House ballroom would have “no significant impact” on the surrounding grounds, the National Park Service did highlight some of the adverse effects of the project, presaging concerns that have since been echoed by preservationists, architects and designers.
“The new building’s larger footprint and height will dominate the eastern portion of the site, creating a visual imbalance with the more modestly scaled West Wing and Executive Mansion,” the NPS report noted. “Adding a second story to the East Colonnade will further modify the setting, contrasting with the single-story design of the West Colonnade and changing the traditional spatial organization and sightlines of the grounds.”
Such changes, the report indicated, “will adversely alter the design, setting, and feeling of the White House and grounds over the long-term,” while the destruction of the East Wing would result in “the permanent loss of a component that has been integral to White House operations since 1942.”
Still, the “environmental assessment” — prepared by the deputy director of the park service and signed by its comptroller — concluded that the benefits of a new ballroom for state functions would outweigh the adverse effects “by reducing reliance on temporary event infrastructure, minimizing wear on the grounds, and improving functionality for large gatherings.”
The White House announced the ballroom construction project in late July, and demolition began suddenly on the East Wing in late October, when workers were spotted tearing down the wing of the White House that contained the first lady’s offices.
Trump has repeatedly increased the size and cost of the construction 90,000 square foot ballroom project. Last month, he said it would cost $400 million, after an initial estimate of $200 million. The White House has said the project will be funded by private donations.
The president has also moved to fill both advisory boards supervising the ballroom project with his own aides and appointees.
He also spent some of his vacation working on the project: Last Friday in Florida, he visited Arc Stone & Tile, an Italian stone importer, and spent roughly an hour at the showroom before purchasing onyx and marble for the ballroom.
The White House expects to make its final presentations to the Commission of Fine Arts in February, and to the National Capitol Planning Commission in March, and will submit its final plan for the project by the end of January, a White House official told ABC News.
Representative Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland and ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, during a hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the former No. 2 Democrat in the chamber who has served for decades, is set to announce his retirement from Congress, his office confirmed to ABC News.
Hoyer will formally announce his decision not to run for reelection on the House floor at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Hoyer, 86, spent two decades as Nancy Pelosi’s deputy and is set to retire as the California Democrat also prepares to leave Congress at the end of the year — amid a debate in the party about turning over leadership to a new generation.
Their relationship dates back to the 1960s when they served as congressional interns together, decades before they competed to lead Democrats.
The genteel dean of the Maryland delegation, who helped send billions of federal dollars to his state as an appropriator, was often a key negotiating partner for Republican leaders who maintained better relations with him than the hard-charging Pelosi.
Many Democrats are now turning to see if 85-year-old Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the longtime No. 3 Democrat on the team, will follow through on plans to run for reelection next year.
Linda McMahon, US education secretary, during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Yuri Gripas/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon granted Iowa a first-of-its-kind waiver to use millions of unrestricted federal dollars on education in a move that inches the Trump administration closer to its goal of transferring education power and decision-making to states.
“States should lead — Washington should support their sound approaches and get out of the way,” McMahon announced on Wednesday. “We hope that as we partner with congressional leaders to return education to the states we can work with them [Iowa] to expand these opportunities for states and local leaders to run their education systems.”
The over $9 million waiver will help the Hawkeye State save millions in “compliance costs” over four years as the money flows directly back into the classroom, McMahon said in a post on X.
“Iowa now has the flexibility to cut paperwork and simplify a hundred percent of state activities funding streams. It can invest in proven strategies to build a world-class teacher pipeline, close achievement gaps, and open post secondary opportunities to prepare for a great career,” McMahon said.
Under the waiver, certain federal requirements will be dropped so that less strings are attached giving the state more flexibility in using the aid. Prior to the formal waiver request, the state submitted a Unified Allocation Plan to show how it would use its funds to improve academic outcomes for Iowa’s education programs. The plan includes supporting effective educator development, English language acquisition, among other topics, according to state education leaders.
The approval of the waiver bolsters McMahon’s mission to reduce the federal government’s role in education nationwide. But education is already a local-level issue in the U.S. On average, state and local education agencies provide about 90% of public school funding across the country.
The agency is also working with about six additional states on their waiver requests, an Education Department spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.
Title VIII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 allows states and tribes to submit requests to waive any statutory or regulatory requirement seeking to “reduce administrative burden” and align programs with the needs of its students, according to a release from the Department of Education.
In addition to Iowa’s $9 million in flexible federal funding, the Education Department approved the state’s application for “Ed-Flex authority,” which allows the state to grant individual school districts waivers from certain federal requirements without first having to submit individual waiver requests, according to the release from the department.
McMahon made the announcement during her “Returning Education to the States Tour.”
During her first year as the nation’s top education official, McMahon has made about two dozen stops in states across the country aiming to identify the best educational practices on the local level and work with local leaders to scale those practices nationwide, she says.
Wednesday’s announcement allows state leaders to focus federal dollars on work that best improves the achievement of Iowa students, according to the release from the department. For the announcement, McMahon was joined by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, director of Education McKenzie Snow, and surrounded by about a dozen students at Broadway Elementary School in Denison.
Reynolds touted Iowa’s education models, including teaching the science of reading and using evidence-based math and reading practices. She stressed that the move Wednesday means “moving the dial” towards returning education to the states.
“The more red tape that we cut from the federal level, the more Iowa can increase education quality,” she added.
“I look forward to continuing to improve student outcomes, reduce red tape for schools, support teachers, and ensure federal education dollars are focused toward state and local priorities where they make the greatest difference,” Reynolds said in a statement.
However, critics of the Trump administration’s education initiatives say they believe abolishing the agency and giving sole power to the states could harm the millions of students across the country.
The top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee slammed McMahon’s approval of the education waiver for allegedly ignoring the law and abandoning marginalized students.
In a statement, Ranking Member Bobby Scott, D-Virginia, urged the Department to “refrain” from granting similar waivers to other states.
“Congress must not sit idly by as the Trump administration makes every effort to drag students, educators, and parents back into an era where students were denied the opportunities and resources they needed to succeed,” Scott said.
