(NEW YORK) — A small community in rural North Dakota is searching for answers after a farmer was found dead in his wheat field along with three other men in what authorities described as a murder-suicide.
The Towner County Sheriff’s Office said its deputies were dispatched to a wheat field south of Cando on Monday, after receiving a report of four unresponsive individuals. All four men had died from apparent gunshot wounds and a .357-caliber revolver was found near one of the bodies, according to the sheriff’s office.
“Evidence from the scene indicates that this incident was a murder-suicide and there is no known threat to the public,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the sheriff’s office released the identities of the deceased: Douglas Dulmage, 56, of Leeds, North Dakota; Justin Bracken, 34, of Leeds, North Dakota; Richard Bracken, 64, of Leeds, North Dakota; and Robert Bracken, 59, of Cando, North Dakota.
Dulmage owned the property and lived with his wife and two daughters in nearby Leeds, a town of about 500 people. The other three men, who authorities believe are related, worked for Dulmage and were helping him harvest the wheat, according to Fargo ABC affiliate WDAY-TV.
Dulmage’s body was found in his combine harvester, according to his close friend, Pat Traynor.
“He was a pillar of the community; it’s a total devastating loss,” Traynor told WDAY. “He epitomized what it was like to be in the country, in terms of friendliness, kindness, empathy, people helping each other.”
Dulmage was also a volunteer firefighter in his hometown and a longtime member of the North Dakota Farm Bureau. He currently served as the president of the Benson County Farm Bureau.
“It is hard to understand why something like this would happen in a rural farming community,” Daryl Lies, president of the North Dakota Farm Bureau, said in a statement Wednesday. “When evil presents itself, it can be devastating but we must remember there is more good than evil in our world. Doug’s dedication to agriculture and love for his family will forever be remembered.”
The community is planning on helping the Dulmage family with harvesting the rest of the crop.
“If we could all be a bit more like Doug, the world would be a much better place,” Traynor told WDAY.
(NEW ORLEANS) — A contract baggage handler unloading a Frontier flight has died after her hair became stuck in the belt loader.
The incident occurred Tuesday at approximately 10:20 p.m. at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans when the unnamed woman who was employed by GAT Airline Ground Support, which contracts with Frontier, was working to offload an inbound aircraft after it landed when her hair somehow managed to get stuck in the belt loader.
The circumstances surrounding the incident are unclear but GAT CEO Mike Hough confirmed to ABC News in a statement that the female victim was severely injured and subsequently died as a result of the incident.
“What we know so far is that her hair became entangled with the machinery of the belt loader,” said Hough. “We are heartbroken and are supporting her family and her friends as best as we are able.”
ABC News’ New Orleans affiliate WGNO-TV obtained a statement from Kevin Dolliole, director of Aviation for Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, regarding the incident.
“We are deeply saddened about the tragic loss of GAT Airline Ground Support team member,” Dolloile said. “The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport extends its sincere condolences to her family and friends, and also to our partners at GAT and Fontier Airlines. [The victim] was a part of our Airport family, and we will continue to support one another in any way we can during this trying time.”
Hough asked people to send well wishes to the victim’s family as well as to everyone at their New Orleans station in the aftermath of the accident.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday will speak in prime time about the “soul of the nation” as he ramps ups his political messaging ahead of the midterm elections this November.
Biden is set to make the remarks from outside Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia at 8 p.m. in what will be his second trip to the battleground state this week.
Biden will “speak about how the core values of this nation — our standing in the world, our democracy — are at stake,” according to a White House official.
“He will talk about the progress we have made as a nation to protect our democracy, but how our rights and freedoms are still under attack,” the official said. “And he will make clear who is fighting for those rights, fighting for those freedoms, and fighting for our democracy.”
The ramped-up rhetoric appears to mirror Biden’s 2020 messaging, in which he presented himself as a clear contrast to Donald Trump and the race itself as an inflection point for the nation.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday’s speech would be in the same vein as his messages to the nation after the Charlottesville clash involving white nationalists and on the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol.
Biden has repeatedly cited Charlottesville as the moment he decided he was going to run for president. In a 2017 article for the Atlantic, Biden said the deadly event was indicative that the “giant forward steps we have taken in recent years on civil liberties and civil rights and human rights are being met by a ferocious pushback from the oldest and darkest forces in America.”
“You think about the battle continues, and so what the president believes, which is a reason to have this in prime time, is that there are an overwhelming amount of Americans, majority of Americans, who believe that we need to … save the core values of our country,” Jean-Pierre told ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce during Wednesday’s press briefing.
Jean-Pierre pointed to the Supreme Court’s decision striking down abortion rights — in which Justice Clarence Thomas called for the reconsideration of rulings involving same-sex marriage, contraception and other unenumerated rights — as evidence the rights of Americans are in jeopardy.
Biden’s speech Thursday comes after a stop in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, earlier this week, where he went after “MAGA Republicans” for their response to the Jan. 6 attack and the FBI search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
“For God’s sake, whose side are you on? Whose side are you on?” a fired-up Biden pressed as he made the case for his administration’s plan for policing and crime prevention.
More criticisms of his Republican colleagues could be in store, as Jean-Pierre said Biden views MAGA Republicans as the “most energized part of the Republican Party” and won’t be “shy” about speaking out.
“The president thinks that there is an extremist threat to our democracy,” she said on Wednesday.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., will be in Scranton ahead of Biden’s speech on Thursday to offer a preemptive rebuttal.
“He will talk about what he has heard from the American people this summer regarding rising crime, record high inflation and other hardships brought on by the Democrats’ harmful policies,” read a media advisory from McCarthy’s team.
(BOSTON) — Boston Children’s Hospital received a bomb threat late Tuesday night following weeks of harassment and threats against doctors for providing gender-affirming care, according to officials.
“We remain vigilant in our efforts to battle the spread of false information about the hospital and our caregiver,” the hospital said in a statement to ABC News. “We are committed to ensuring the hospital is a safe and secure place for all who work here and come here. We will provide additional information as we are able.”
A threatening phone call came into the hospital around 8 p.m., according to the hospital and police. The Boston police bomb squad responded to the scene. There was no bomb found, the Boston Police Department told ABC News.
Officials said it is an ongoing investigation and it is unclear if the call is related to the ongoing harassment.
“We moved swiftly to protect our patients and employees, and we are working with law enforcement and outside experts as they closely investigate this situation,” the hospital said.
Boston Children’s Hospital is home to the nation’s first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program, according to the hospital. After it posted a now-removed informational video about the gender-affirming care it provides for patients, far-right social media accounts and commentators began harassing the institution, according to the hospital.
Gender-affirming surgeries are only offered for people 18 years old and older, and a patient must take various steps before they are eligible for surgery.
However, the hospital says that misinformation about this and its trans care has been spreading online — sparking backlash and threats against the center and its staff.
“We are deeply concerned by these attacks on our clinicians and staff fueled by misinformation and a lack of understanding and respect for our transgender community,” reads a past statement from the hospital to Boston.com concerning the attacks.
(NEW YORK) — A North Carolina mom is speaking out after she said her son’s school mistakenly placed him on a school bus he was never supposed to be on.
Tracy Williamson told ABC News’ Good Morning America she went to the school to pick up her 6-year-old son Avery at the end of his first day of school but couldn’t locate him.
When Williamson asked staff at her child’s school where he was, she said they told her he was on school grounds. However, she said she later learned he had been placed on a school bus by accident.
“I’m like, immediately, ‘So y’all lost my kid?’ So they’re like, ‘No, he’s not lost. He should be in the cafeteria,'” Williamson said.
But Avery was not on school property or even on the school bus anymore. Williamson said the bus driver had dropped him off and Avery was later found by a neighbor near his family’s home, crying.
“The bus driver let him get off the bus when he really shouldn’t have. So yeah, that’s when I was definitely in panic mode,” Williamson said.
Williamson said she couldn’t track her son down for at least two hours.
“The principal assured me, ‘OK, because he’s 6, he’s not allowed to get off the bus.’ So I’m like, ‘OK, the bus driver originally said [there were no kids on the bus],’ ” she added. “They’re like, ‘Well, maybe he fell asleep.’ The bus driver said, ‘No, I dropped that kid off.'”
Cumberland County Schools, the school district in which Avery’s school is located, responded to ABC News about the incident in a statement.
“Our top priority is the safety of our students. While we regret this situation happened, we are grateful that the student is safe,” the district said. “District and school officials are looking into this situation to determine exactly what happened and how we can prevent it from happening in the future.”
The American School Bus Council, a group of school bus providers, manufacturers and government officials, doesn’t keep track of how often children end up on the wrong school bus or get dropped off at the wrong location. The coalition does say, however, that kids are 70 times more likely to get to school safely on a bus than in a car.
A company called Zum is also currently working with school districts in four states — Illinois, Texas, Washington, and California — to manage student transportation and give parents the ability to track their children through a smartphone app that sends out notifications when school buses arrive at a location and when a child has boarded a bus.
(WASHINGTON) — Democrat Mary Peltola is projected to win the Alaska special general election for the state’s sole House seat, ABC News reports.
Peltola defeated two Republicans — former Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Nick Begich — and will be the first Democrat to represent the state in the House in nearly half a century, succeeding Rep. Don Young, who died in March.
Peltola will also be the first Alaska Native to represent the state in Congress.
“What’s most important is that I’m an Alaskan being sent to represent all Alaskans. Yes, being Alaska Native is part of my ethnicity, but I’m much more than my ethnicity,” Peltola said following the announcements of the results according to the Anchorage Daily News.
The election, which was called on Wednesday some two weeks after voting ended, was historic for a more technical reason: It was the first Alaska race that used ranked-choice ballots.
The process — which advocates said would encourage more consensus-building but Palin criticized as “convoluted” — worked like this: If a candidate in the election had initially won more than 50% of first-choice votes, they would have won the race outright. That didn’t happen in the special race on Aug. 17. (Peltola ended up with about 40%.)
Then, the candidate with the least amount of first-place votes — Begich — was eliminated and that candidate’s voters instead had their ballots redistributed to their second choice until one candidate got at least 50%.
Peltola is an indigenous Yup-ik Alaskan and former member of the Alaska House of Representatives. As a state lawmaker, she chaired the bipartisan Bush Caucus of rural politicians. In addition, she served in the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission before leaving for her congressional campaign.
On the trail, she prioritized climate change, responsible resource development and infrastructure for airports, ferries, highways and energy grids.
Peltola will only serve the remainder of Young’s term, which ends in January. She is on the ballot again in November — along with Palin and Begich — to try and win a full two-year term.
In a statement Wednesday, Palin repeated her criticism of ranked-choice voting, saying it “was sold as the way to make elections better reflect the will of the people” but that it has the “opposite” effect.
She said that “though we’re disappointed in this outcome, Alaskans know I’m the last one who’ll ever retreat. Instead, I’m going to reload. With optimism that Alaskans learn from this voting system mistake and correct it in the next election, let’s work even harder to send an America First conservative to Washington in November.”
(WASHINGTON) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Wednesday responded to the Justice Department in the dispute over Trump’s request for a “special master” to review materials the FBI seized at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump’s lawyers have argued to a federal judge in Florida that the review is needed to deal with matters they argue could be covered by executive privilege.
Late Tuesday, the Justice Department, ahead of a court hearing Thursday, laid out in extraordinary detail DOJ’s efforts to obtain highly classified records they allege were improperly stored at Mar-a-Lago since Trump’s departure from the White House, and the resistance — which they describe outright as obstructive conduct, that they were met with by Trump’s representatives in their efforts to have them handed over.
Judge Aileen Cannon has indicated she was leaning toward granting a request from Trump’s legal team to appoint a special master to intervene in the ongoing review of documents.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Last year saw record levels of major greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, released into the Earth’s atmosphere, according to an international climate report.
The annual State of the Climate report, published Wednesday in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society and led by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information, also found that global sea level and ocean heat reached record highs in 2021.
“The data presented in this report are clear — we continue to see more compelling scientific evidence that climate change has global impacts and shows no sign of slowing,” NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement. “With many communities hit with 1,000-year floods, exceptional drought and historic heat this year, it shows that the climate crisis is not a future threat but something we must address today as we work to build a Climate-Ready Nation — and world — that is resilient to climate-driven extremes.”
Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the “most significant driver of observed climate change since the mid-20th century,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, warming the climate as they build up in the atmosphere.
In 2021, the global annual average atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration was 414.7 parts per million (ppm) — 2.3 ppm greater than the amounts measured in 2020, according to the latest State of the Climate report. That marks the highest amount measured since 1958 — the start of the instrumental record — and in at least the last million years, based on paleoclimatic records, the report found. It was also the fifth-highest growth rate in the modern record.
Two other major greenhouse gases — methane and nitrous oxide — also saw record concentrations last year, according to the report. The annual increase in methane was the highest in the modern record, and the growth rate of nitrous oxide the third-highest, it found.
Last year was the fifth- or sixth-warmest on record, depending on the dataset referenced, with the last seven years (2015-2021) the seven warmest years on record, according to the report.
Global ocean heat content, measured from the ocean’s surface to a depth of more than 6,000 feet, saw record levels in 2021, “indicative of steadily increasing heat in Earth’s system,” according to the report. Meanwhile, the global sea surface temperature cooled compared to 2019 and 2020, due to the ongoing La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific, though it was higher than the 1991-2020 average, the report found.
For the 10th year in a row, the global average sea level rose about 4.9 mm to a new record high, according to the report. The level was about 97 mm higher than the average recorded in 1993, when satellite measurements began, the report stated.
Both global ocean heat content and global average sea level saw “year-on-year increases substantially exceeding their trend rates of recent decades,” the report stated.
Among other highlights, the report found that tropical cyclone activity was “well above average” in 2021, with 97 named tropical storms during the Northern and Southern Hemisphere storm seasons compared to the 1991-2020 average of 87. Last year’s storm season saw Hurricane Ida, a category 4 cyclone that was the costliest U.S. disaster last year and the fifth most expensive hurricane on record since 1980, with $75 billion in damage, the report noted.
The climate report, now in its 32nd issuance, is based on contributions from more than 530 scientists in over 60 countries.
“The 2021 AMS State of the Climate provides the latest synthesis of scientific understanding of the climate system and the impact people are having on it,” American Meteorological Society associate executive director Paul Higgins said in a statement. “If we take it seriously and use it wisely, it can help us thrive on a planet that is increasingly small in comparison to the impact of our activities.”
(JACKSON, Miss.) — Six hundred Mississippi National Guard members will deploy to Jackson starting Thursday to help with water distribution, officials said Wednesday, as they grapple with an ongoing water crisis plaguing residents.
No timeline was given when the water pumps at Jackson’s O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant will be fixed, but 72 hours of bad weather has caused significant service interruptions at the plant, Gov. Tate Reeves said at a press conference Wednesday.
“There is a tremendous amount of work to be done at the O.B. Curtis plant,” he said. “There will be future interruptions; they are not avoidable at this point.”
Jackson has been using backup pumps since the main pumps were damaged, Reeves said Monday.
Officials said there would be no reliable running water in Jackson, which will impact up to 180,000 people until the pump is fixed.
State officials also warned residents not to drink the water from the pipes if they could avoid it, adding that if they must use the water, then boil it first.
“Don’t open your mouth in the shower and don’t give your pets the water,” Jim Craig, the senior deputy and director of the state’s office of health protection, said at Wednesday’s news conference.
The city has been under a boil water notice since July 29.
Reeves declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, allowing state officials to better help in Jackson.
The White House approved Reeves’ request for federal assistance Tuesday night.
“An emergency exists in the State of Mississippi and ordered Federal assistance to supplement the state’s response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from a water crisis,” the White House said in a press release.
(JACKSON, Miss.) — Jackson, Mississippi’s water supply is wholly unsafe to drink, officials said on Monday, with water pressure so low from long-failing treatment systems compounded by river flooding this week that cooking and cleaning — and firefighting, flushing toilets and bathing — would be widely unavailable for the state capital’s 180,000 residents save for critical outside aid.
The emerging disaster has drawn attention to the strained relationship between the city’s Democratic leadership and the Republican governor and legislature.
When Gov. Tate Reeves held an emergency press conference on Monday with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, Jackson’s mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, was not in attendance even as Lumumba, separately, had been in discussions with the Department of Health that same day.
And on Tuesday, at a news conference of his own, Lumumba said that the issues had at last spurred aid for the Magnolia State’s largest city after years of petitioning Reeves and the GOP-controlled legislature.
“We feel like we’ve been going at it alone for the better part of two years — lifting up the fact that these are challenges that are, first and foremost, beyond partisan. These are human rights challenges,” Lumumba said Wednesday on ABC News Live.
Reeves did not invite Lumumba to his Monday presser, according to a spokesperson for the mayor, who said that as of Tuesday evening, the two men had not spoken directly about the water problems. They subsequently a useful conversation on Wednesday morning, after the mayor initially reached out to Reeves, who then returned his call.
President Joe Biden also spoke to Lumumba on Wednesday morning.
Both Reeves and Lumumba have made emergency declarations and Reeves deployed the National Guard to assist on Tuesday.
The infrastructure issues with Jackson’s water system, coupled with flooding from a nearby river which damaged one of the area’s major processing facilities, fueled the latest — but not the first — water crisis.
The city’s archaic system has been in the spotlight before for being on the risk of failure, most recently in the winter of 2021. The city had been under a separate boil water notice since late July for a water-quality issue.
“Even when we’re not contending at that present moment with low pressure … we are in a constant state of emergency,” Lumumba said at Tuesday’s news conference. “And so now we are excited to have finally welcomed the state to the table and all of the valuable resources that they bring.”
On ABC News Live, Lumumba said that “we’ve had great disparity in the funding of the resources of Jackson compared to other portions of our state, over generations.”
“I think that it is time that we represent a new model … that we demonstrate from the city level to the state level and beyond that we’re all on board in trying to make certain that residents, that people, human beings, don’t have to deal with the challenge of not having the basic resource of water,” he said.
On Monday, the five state senators who represent the city of Jackson called for a special legislative session.
That day, the state’s two other top Republicans, Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Phillip Gunn, also released statements laying blame with local leaders.
“It is apparent the cities served by the system do not have the assets to address this issue in a timely manner and effectively for the longer term. I believe it is time for the State to take an active role in finding a solution—both short term and long term,” Hosemann said.
Gunn said: “I’ve been contacted by hospitals, businesses, and schools pleading that something be done to address the water crisis in Jackson. Unfortunately, the city leadership has not presented a permanent solution or a comprehensive plan. These groups have turned to the state for help, and it seems we will have to evaluate what options might be available.”
Reeves, too, has faced scrutiny. Critics have long accused the governor of stoking the flames of cultural warfare during his two-year tenure rather than addressing some of the state’s critical needs — especially in Jackson. In the days before and during the flooding that worsened the water problems, Reeves was active on social media sounding off on a range of other issues including Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan and Second Amendment rights.
Since taking office in 2020, Reeves’ greatest legislative focus has been on income tax breaks in the state.
Jackson residents voted in 2014 to approve a 1 cent local sales tax to pay for improvements to their roads and water and sewer systems. After the winter water emergency in 2021, the city council sought another election, subject to legislative approval, that would double that tax to 2 cents.
Reeves weighed in at the time and invoked the city’s history of utility mismanagement. “I do think it’s really important that the City of Jackson start collecting their water bill payments before they start going and asking everyone else to pony up more money,” he said.
Gunn, the state’s House speaker, told a conservative radio show last week that the required $1 billion to fix the city’s water system — to help with repairs, upgrades and staffing, which is the No. 1 problem, officials have said — may be too large of a price tag for even the state.
“I’m on the verge of saying that the state has got to step in and take over,” he said. “But the size of the problem is so great that I’m not even sure the state can meet the needs. It’s going to require federal help.”
On Wednesday, Reeves announced that the federal disaster declaration for Jackson had been approved by the White House, freeing up further funds to assist residents.
“The White House is watching critically in terms of what is taking place here. And so we look forward to additional support from them,” Lumumba said at Tuesday’s news conference.
“We have open arms to welcome the coordination and welcome the support … This is what we’ve been asking for,” he said.
ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
