(PRINCETON, N.J.) — An undergraduate student at Princeton University has been reported missing, the school said.
“The Department of Public Safety is seeking information on the whereabouts of an undergraduate student, Misrach Ewunetie, who has been reported missing,” Princeton officials said on Twitter on Tuesday.
Ewunetie, 20, was last seen at about 3 a.m. on Friday, the school said.
“Anyone with information on her whereabouts should contact the Department of Public Safety at (609) 258-1000,” the school said.
She was last seen near Scully Hall on the school’s New Jersey campus, according to an alert sent to the Princeton community on Monday.
“She is 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. She has brown eyes, black hair and light brown complexion,” the university said.
(SAVANNAH, Ga.) — Police in Savannah, Georgia, believe missing toddler Quinton Simon was left in a dumpster and authorities have now started scouring the local landfill for his body.
Police last week said they believe 20-month-old Quinton is dead and authorities named his mother, Leilani Simon, as the primary suspect. The little boy has been missing since Oct. 5.
No charges have been filed, Chatham County police chief Jeff Hadley said at a news conference Tuesday, adding that Leilani Simon remains the only suspect.
“We’re not ready to charge anyone yet. We still have work to do,” he said.
Hadley said Tuesday that police have started an “extensive search of the waste management landfill” in Chatham County. He said authorities believe Quinton “was placed in a specific dumpster,” which was eventually brought to the landfill.
The FBI’s Will Clarke said, “We are not just randomly searching this landfill,” stressing that evidence led police to the large property.
The landfill is the only focus of the current search, Hadley said.
Clarke added that authorities are not scouring the entire landfill.
He said, “We’ve brought in experts in landfill searches to guide us to the specific area where we’ll be searching.”
FBI agents from Atlanta and Quantico, Virginia, are on the scene to help conduct the “systematic search,” Clarke said.
Hadley called it “a physically, mentally and emotionally grueling task,” but he added, “I have every belief that we will find his remains here at the landfill.”
Quinton was last seen at his Savannah home around 6 a.m. on Oct. 5 by his mother’s boyfriend, the chief said. After Quinton’s mother woke up, she reported him missing around 9:40 a.m., he said.
(LOS ANGELES) — A California jury has found Paul Flores guilty in the murder of 19-year-old college student Kristin Smart in 1996.
His father, Ruben Flores, was found not guilty of accessory to murder in connection with the crime.
Paul Flores, a former classmate of Smart, was charged with murder, while his father was charged with being an accessory to the crime. Prosecutors say he helped hide Smart’s body on his property in Arroyo Grande before moving it in 2020.
Smart went missing walking home from a party at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Her body has never been found, but authorities arrested Paul and Ruben Flores in April 2021 and found alleged evidence related to Smart’s murder in their homes.
Paul and Ruben Flores were tried at the same time, but with separate juries hearing the case together. A verdict was reached in Ruben Flores’ case on Monday; that decision was sealed until Paul Flores’ jury reached its verdict Tuesday and they could be announced simultaneously.
Latest headlines:
-Paul Flores found guilty on count 1
-How attorneys summed up their case
-Juror dismissed after giving confession to priest
Here’s how the news developed. All times Eastern.
Oct 18, 6:03 PM EDT
Ruben Flores: ‘There were a lot of made-up things’
Ruben Flores said he was “relieved” about his not-guilty verdict as he left the courthouse Tuesday.
“There was a lot of made-up things,” Ruben Flores told reporters. “You look through it and there is no evidence against anybody, me or Paul.”
When asked if he had any comments for Kristin Smart’s family, he said, “I feel bad for them because they didn’t get no answers about what happened to their daughter, and we don’t know what happened to their daughter.”
Ruben Flores’ attorney, Harold Mesick, said his client never should have been charged and that the verdict was the “just outcome.”
He said “there is a reasonable inference to be drawn” that Smart might still be alive, and that prosecutors never proved her death.
Commenting on the split verdict, Ruben Flores said the jurors who found his son guilty “were carried away with feelings about the family.”
Oct 18, 5:31 PM EDT
Smart family to join press conference
Kristin Smart’s family will join a press conference on the verdicts with the San Luis Obispo County’s district attorney’s office and sheriff’s office that’s scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, ABC News has learned.
Oct 18, 5:09 PM EDT
Ruben Flores found not guilty of accessory to murder
A jury has found Ruben Flores not guilty of accessory to murder after the fact.
Paul Flores was not in the courtroom for his father’s verdict.
Oct 18, 4:58 PM EDT
Sentencing set for Dec. 9
The sentencing for Paul Flores has been scheduled for Dec. 9. He has been remanded into custody with no bail.
The court is waiting on one juror in Ruben Flores’ trial to return to the courthouse and is in recess until 5 p.m.
(NEW YORK) — Microsoft announced layoffs on Monday for nearly 1,000 employees worldwide, the company confirmed to ABC News.
The move marks the latest sign of weakness among some of the largest U.S. tech companies amid persistent inflation, recession fears and stock market woes.
This year, shares of Microsoft have fallen nearly 30%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index, meanwhile, has fallen more than 31%.
The job cuts announced by Microsoft on Monday came across different positions, levels and geographic regions, Microsoft confirmed.
“Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly,” the company told ABC News in a statement. “We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the year ahead.”
Axios first reported the layoffs.
While significant, the job losses announced on Monday affected less than one half of one percent of the company’s 221,000 employees worldwide.
The cuts followed a round of layoffs in July that impacted less than 1% of the company’s workforce.
The most recent quarterly earnings released by Microsoft, in July, fell short of investor expectations, recording $51.9 billion in revenue compared with an expected $52.4 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Prior to this year, Microsoft saw blockbuster growth during the pandemic, as consumers and businesses turned to its products amid a spike in time spent at home.
Between March 2020 and December 2021, Microsoft’s stock price rose about 107%.
This year, however, an economic slowdown and a continued shift back to some pre-pandemic consumer habits has hurt many tech companies. Shares of cloud-computing competitor Amazon have fallen about 30% this year, while shares of Facebook-parent Meta have dropped 61%.
Microsoft will report its latest quarterly earnings next Tuesday after markets close.
(LOS ANGELES) — The Los Angeles City Council elected Paul Krekorian as its new council president a week after the previous president resigned following a leaked recording of her making racist and offensive comments about the family of a fellow council member.
“Paul is a committed and conscientious leader who can bring a smart, collaborative, and effective approach to a painful moment when Angelenos deserve steady leadership on the City Council,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement Tuesday. “I am confident that he’ll assemble a leadership team of bridge builders, and I’ll work closely with the Council to help heal the wounds caused by the hateful words of a few.”
The city council has been embroiled in controversy after a recording posted anonymously to Reddit earlier this month captured then-council President Nury Martinez making allegedly racist and offensive comments about a fellow council member’s son.
Protesters called on Martinez to resign and have continued to call for the resignations of Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, the two other city council members heard on the recording.
“Our collective mission must be partnering to press forward on the causes of racial justice and inclusive government — and pushing for new reforms to bring greater transparency, fairness, and decency to how business is conducted and people are treated by those who represent them at City Hall,” Garcetti said in a statement.
(ALBANY, N.Y.) — Amazon workers at a warehouse in Albany, New York, voted overwhelmingly against unionization on Tuesday.
The union loss marks a second consecutive defeat at a U.S. Amazon facility for the Amazon Labor Union, or ALU, the worker-led labor organization behind the historic first-ever victory at an Amazon warehouse in New York City in April.
The result delivers a blow for the yearslong labor campaign that has brought union drives and worker protests to Amazon warehouses nationwide.
In the union election in Albany, 406 workers voted against unionization and 206 workers voted for it, a National Labor Relations Board official said after the vote count.
ALU has filed 27 charges of illegal conduct undertaken by Amazon over the course of the labor campaign, including the violation of agreed-to election rules with threats to fire workers who planned to serve as election observers, the union said in a statement on Monday.
“Despite all the union-busting and unfair labor practices, we recognize that a union election is just one step in a much longer struggle,” Sarah Chaudry, a worker at the warehouse in Albany, also known as ALB1, told ABC News in a statement.
“I will continue to fight for my fellow workers’ rights until we have our union at ALB1 and until all Amazon workers secure their right to a union,” Chaudry said.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement to ABC News in July, the company expressed its general opposition to union campaigns.
“Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union. They always have,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said. “As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees. Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”
The Albany facility, where about 800 workers were eligible to vote, has the highest injury rate of almost 30 Amazon warehouses in New York state, according to an analysis of government data published in May by the left-leaning National Employment Law Project.
The warehouse experienced about 22 injuries per 100 workers between 2020 and 2021, the NELP report found.
ALU, an independent union initially fueled by fundraising on a GoFundMe page, carried out a monthslong organizing campaign at Amazon’s 6,000-employee warehouse on Staten Island that proved to be one of the most significant labor victories in the U.S. in recent decades.
After the union victory, Amazon filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to overturn the outcome, including allegations that NLRB officials showed a favorable bias toward the workers and that union leaders bribed colleagues in an effort to win their support.
In September, a hearing officer for the National Labor Relations Board recommended that the vote should stand. A final ruling has not been handed down.
The union election in Albany marked the third union vote at an Amazon warehouse for the ALU this year. In May, the ALU lost a union election at a warehouse on Staten Island.
(UVALDE, Texas) — A teenager was arrested in Uvalde, Texas, in connection to a threat they allegedly made to carry out a shooting at Uvalde High School, the school district said.
Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District sent an email to faculty and parents on Tuesday morning stating the individual made the threat via social media, which was reported on the bullying prevention app STOPit.
“The Uvalde PD working in conjunction with Texas Department of Public Safety investigators located and arrested the juvenile last night,” the email reads.
Uvalde Police Department’s Lt. Javier Martinez confirmed the arrest of a male high school student on Monday evening, but told ABC News, “He was threatening another student. He wasn’t threatening to shoot the school.” He provided no further comment, stating only that “DPS is working the incident with our assistance.”
The Uvalde Police Department told ABC News in a statement Tuesday that a 16-year-old was taken into custody on felony terroristic threat charges. The suspect, who won’t be identified because they are a minor, admitted to police they threatened another juvenile over social media, according to the police department.
The Uvalde school district and Texas Department of Public Safety did not immediately return ABC News’ requests for comment.
In the email sent to faculty and parents, the district said it immediately notified law enforcement of the report of the threat received via the app. The UCISD website states, “STOPit allows you to privately report bullying going on at school. Throughout the school year, students from any campus will be able to use this app to report dangers, threats, and bullying they may be experiencing.”
“We understand that this message may cause additional stress for some of you, however we believe it is important to communicate these situations when they occur. We will continue to work with state and local law enforcement agencies to help keep our students and staff safe,” the email to faculty and parents says.
The threat came just shy of five months after the school shooting at the district’s Robb Elementary which resulted in the deaths of 19 students and two teachers. The community has been on edge since, as bombshell details of the shooting have emerged amid the prolonged investigation, which many families say has yet to provide the accountability and transparency victims’ they continue to plead for.
(NEW YORK) — Thousands of customers in the Great Lakes are without power on Tuesday after heavy snowfall combined with leaves still on trees caused many branches to fall on power lines.
Across the U.S., 28 states are under frost and freeze alerts from Colorado to New York. Actual temperatures are in the 20s and even teens. In the upper Midwest, temperatures in the 30s are widespread, with record cold dipping into the Ohio Valley and parts of the mid-South. Wind chills are in the single digits in North Dakota and Minnesota.
The freeze reaches the Gulf Coast on Wednesday, where temperatures could fall into the upper 20s and lower 30s.
Up to 18 inches of lake-effect snow fell in northern Wisconsin and up to 14 inches of snow fell in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on Monday.
Marquette, Michigan, saw record snowfall of 9.1 inches Monday.
Chicago received its first snow of the season on Monday and Indianapolis saw its first snowfall on Tuesday.
Lake-effect snow also fell in northern Indiana, with some areas getting as much as 4 inches.
Dozens of record-low temperatures are expected across the South on Wednesday. Raleigh, North Carolina, could see its first frost of the season.
Some of the cold will swing into the Northeast with temperatures expected to be in the upper 30s on Wednesday morning.
Frost and freeze alerts have been issued for the Northeast, including Philadelphia, but the frosty conditions will stay away from Washington, D.C., New York City and Boston for now.
Temperatures in the West could reach, if not break, records highs on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Seven cities are expected to see near-record or record-high temperatures on Tuesday, with twice as many near-record or record-high temperatures forecast on Wednesday. Twelve cities are expected to see record or near-record high temperatures on the West Coast Thursday.
But temperatures are expected to be much cooler over the weekend and wet weather is on the way with mountain snow.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is stepping up efforts to make abortion rights a major focus for Democrats as the midterm election cycle enters its final weeks.
Biden will highlight the contrast with Republicans on the issue when he speaks Tuesday at an event hosted by the Democratic National Committee at the Howard Theatre in Washington.
There, a DNC official said, he will announce that the first bill he will send to the next Congress, if held by Democrats, would codify Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion decision the Supreme Court overruled in June.
“President Biden will speak about the choice that voters face this November between Republicans who want to a national abortion ban that would criminalize doctors for performing care, and Democrats who want to codify Roe into law to protect women’s reproductive freedom,” the official said. “He will say that if the American people elect more Democratic Senators in November and keep the House Democratic, the first bill he will send to the next Congress will be to codify Roe — and he will sign it around the 50th anniversary of the Roe decision.”
Biden has advocated changing the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster so the Democrats could pass legislation protecting abortion access. But two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, are opposed to eliminating the longstanding chamber rule.
“If you give me two more senators in the United States Senate, I promise you, I promise you, we’re going to codify Roe and once again make Roe the law of the land,” Biden said at the National Education Association last month.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, discussing Biden’s upcoming speech during Monday’s briefing, criticized Republican lawmakers seeking restrictions on abortion access.
Since the Supreme Court’s decision, at least a dozen states have ceased nearly all abortion services. At the federal level, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has also floated legislation that would prohibit the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy except in cases of rape, incest or risk to the physical health of the mother.
“The assault on women’s access to reproductive healthcare by Republican officials is an assault,” Jean-Pierre said. “And the president is going to speak about that, as he has been for the past several months.”
Despite the heated rhetoric surrounding abortion rights in critical House and Senate races across the country, a new poll suggests it may not be the winning issue Democrats hope it will be to help them keep majority control in Congress.
The New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday found independent voters, especially women, are shifting to the Republican Party ahead of next month’s elections.
In September, the poll found women who identified as independents backed Democrats by 14 points. In the latest poll, these voters backed Republicans by 18 points.
The economy remained the top issue for likely voters, with 26% saying it’s the most important problem facing the country and 18% saying the same about inflation. Just 5% of likely voters said abortion was the nation’s most important issue.
House Democrats passed two bills in July to protect abortion access and enshrine Roe v. Wade in federal law. But the legislation has yet to be taken up in the Senate.
(NEW YORK) — A French industrial company pleaded guilty Tuesday to providing material support to terrorism by paying millions of dollars to ISIS in order to keep its cement plant in Syria operable.
LaFarge SA and it’s now-dormant Syrian cement affiliate pleaded guilty to a single count brought by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York that charges the company with conspiracy to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations.
The company conceded it knowingly and intentionally conspired to support the Islamic State and the Al-Nusra front.
“Guilty,” LaFarge chief executive, Magali Anderson, said before Judge William Kuntz.
From August 2013 to November 2014, LaFarge and LaFarge Cement Syria knowingly and willfully agreed to a conspiracy to make and authorize payments for the benefit of armed groups in Syria, Anderson said in a plea allocution.
“The individuals responsible for this conduct have been separated from the company since 2017,” Anderson said.
LaFarge agreed to pay $777 million in fines and forfeiture and serve three years probation as part of its plea agreement with the government. It also agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.
“We deeply regret that this conduct occurred and have worked with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve this matter,” LaFarge said in a statement.
