(AUSTIN) — U.S. Marshals found the black Jeep Grand Cherokee registered to Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, the Austin woman suspected of killing professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson in May, the law enforcement agency said Thursday.
Investigators with the U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force discovered that Armstrong sold the car to a CarMax dealership in Austin on May 13 for $12,200. Armstrong received a check from CarMax just one day after she was questioned by police, they said.
Wilson was found bleeding and unconscious at a friend’s house on May 11 after suffering multiple gunshot wounds, according to police. Despite first-responders performing life-saving measures, she was pronounced dead. Police issued a warrant for Armstrong’s arrest and have been looking for her since last month. She faces a first-degree murder charge.
Colin Strickland, who has been dating and living with Armstrong for three years, dated Wilson during a brief break in their relationship. Strickland and Armstrong resumed dating after that. The day Wilson was killed, she had met with Strickland to go swimming, according to police.
Investigators said Armstrong went to Austin International Bergstrom Airport on May 14, where she boarded a flight to Houston Hobby Airport. Shen then took a connecting flight to New York LaGuardia Airport. Her last known location is the Newark Liberty International Airport where she was dropped off on May 18, according to U.S. Marshals.
Investigators say a source told them Armstrong was provided with transportation to the Newark airport on May 18, but upon searching outbound flights from the airport they found no flight reservations under her name.
The U.S. Marshals Service has elevated the case to “major” and is offering a reward of up to $5,000 in addition to the $1,000 reward from the Capital Area Crime Stoppers, for any information that leads to her arrest. An anonymous donor is also offering up to $15,000 in reward money for her arrest, according to the agency.
Investigators put out a warrant out for Armstrong’s arrest on May 25 for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
U.S. Marshals described Armstrong as 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs about 125 pounds. She has long, curly light brown hair and hazel eyes.
Thursday’s hearing of the Jan. 6 committee is focusing on the pressure then-President Donald Trump and his allies put on the Justice Department to help overturn the 2020 election.
Here’s how the hearing is unfolding:
Jun 23, 4:46 pm
Trump, in emergency meeting, urged DOJ to seize voting machines, former officials say
Former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and his former deputy Richard Donoghue described Thursday how Trump tried to get the Department of Justice to seize voting machines in late 2020.
Donoghue said an “agitated” Trump called an emergency meeting on New Year’s Eve to make the request.
“There was nothing wrong with them so we told him no,” Rosen told the committee. “There was no factual basis nor was there any legal authority to do so.”
“Toward the end of the meeting, the president, again, was getting very agitated,” Donoghue recalled. “And he said, ‘People tell me I should just get rid of both of you, I should just remove you and make a change in leadership, put Jeff Clark in, maybe something will finally get done.’”
After detailing an effort by Jeffrey Clark to replace acting attorney general Jeff Rosen in order to help Trump overturn the election, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., turned to former top DOJ lawyer Steven Engel on other efforts by Trump to pressure the department.
After Trump sent a proposed draft lawsuit, done outside the department, to top DOJ attorneys that he wanted to send to the Supreme Court, Engel called it a “meritless lawsuit” and an “unusual request” that the department would never bring.
“Obviously, even the person who drafted this lawsuit didn’t really understand in my view the law, and or how the Supreme Court works or the Department of Justice,” Engel said.
Trump and the White House also asked the Department of Justice if it could point a special counsel to look at widespread election fraud — which did not exist — with Engel detailing why “that was not legally available,” before Kinzinger claimed Trump even offered the position of special counsel to campaign attorney Sidney Powell, as his pressure campaign continued.
Jun 23, 4:18 pm
GOP congressman fought for Clark’s ascension: ‘We gotta get going’
The committee outlined how Rep. Scott Perry, R-Penn., played a role in trying to elevate Jeffrey Clark, then an obscure DOJ official, to department leadership amid the resistance from other DOJ officials to Trump’s efforts to undermine the election.
Records from the National Archives obtained by the committee showed Perry and Clark met Trump on Dec. 22, 2020. Perry later told a local television news network he had worked with Clark before and “obliged” when asked by Trump to introduce him.
The committee later displayed text messages which showed Perry advising White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to help with Clark’s ascension.
“Mark, just checking in as time continues to count down. 11 days to 1/6 and 25 days to inauguration. We gotta get going,” Perry wrote to Meadows on Dec. 26, 2020.
The next text, sent 30 minutes later, showed Perry telling Meadows to “call Jeff.”
“I just got off the phone with him and he explained to me why the principal deputy won’t work especially with the FBI. They will view it as not having the authority to enforce what needs to be done.”
Jun 23, 4:14 pm
DOJ official warned Clark’s plan could lead to ‘grave, constitutional crisis’
Former acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue said he tried to convey to Jeffrey Clark that a draft letter he circulated seeking to ask Georgia’s governor and other top state officials to convene the state legislature into a special session to investigate claims of voter fraud — which didn’t exist — could launch the country into a “constitutional crisis.”
“I had to read both emails and the attached letter twice to make sure I really understood what he was proposing — because it was so extreme to me, I had a hard time getting my head around it initially,” he recalled, adding he and former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen had “visceral reactions to it.”
“I thought it was very important to get a prompt response rejecting this out of hand. In my response, I explained a number of reasons that this is not the department’s rule to suggest or dictate [to] state legislatures,” he said.
“More importantly, this was not based on fact. This was actually contrary to the facts as developed by department investigations over the last several weeks and months,” he added. “For the department to insert itself into the political process this way, I think, would have had great consequences for the country. It may very well have spiraled into a constitutional crisis — and I want to make sure that he understood the gravity of the situation because he did not seem to really appreciate it.”
Jun 23, 4:03 pm
Trump: ‘Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to us’
Drawing from handwritten notes, then-acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue documented that Trump told him to, “Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen.”
When Donoghue told Trump he couldn’t change the outcome of the election, he recalled Trump “responded very quickly.”
“And said, ‘that’s not what I’m asking you to do — I’m just asking you to say it is corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen,” Donoghue said.
He also said Trump told him the Justice Department was “obligated to tell people that this was an illegal, corrupt election,” despite officials repeatedly telling him no widespread fraud existed and that Biden was the legitimate winner.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger emphasized the gravity of Trump’s request.
“‘Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to us,'” he said. “The president wanted the top Justice Department officials to declare that the election was corrupt, even though, as he knew, there was absolutely no evidence to support that statement.”
Jun 23, 3:47 pm
Taped testimony previews showdown Oval Office meeting with Trump
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., played previous video testimony ahead of questioning live witnesses to preview how the committee would reveal findings from what took place inside a heated Oval Office meeting on Jan. 3, 2021, between Trump and top Justice Department officials.
“The meeting took about another two and a half hours from the time I entered. It was entirely focused on whether there should be a DOJ leadership change,” former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue recalled in taped testimony. “I would say, directly in front of the president, Jeff Rosen was to my right. Jeff Clark was to my left.”
“He looked at me and he underscored,” said former acting attorney general Jeff Rosen, “‘Well the one thing we know is you’re not gonna do anything, you don’t even agree that the concerns that are being presented are valid. And here is someone who has a different view, so, why shouldn’t I do that, you know?’ That’s how the discussion went, proceeded.”
Former White House attorney Eric Herschmann underscored the purpose of the meeting, where “Jeff Clark was proposing that Jeff Rosen be replaced by Jeff Clark — and I thought the proposal was asinine.”
Donoghue recalled that Clark “repeatedly said to the president that if he was put in the seat, he would conduct real investigations that would, in his view, uncover widespread fraud.”
Jun 23, 3:46 pm
DOJ denied all of Trump’s requests ahead of Jan. 6: Rosen
Former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen told the committee that Trump made several requests to the Department of Justice after Bill Barr left his position in December 2020.
According to Rosen, Trump called him “virtually every day” between December 23 and January 3.
Trump wanted the DOJ to appoint a special counsel for election fraud, set up a meeting with Rudy Giuliani, to potentially file a lawsuit in the Supreme Court, hold a press conference and to send letters to state legislatures furthering baseless claims of fraud.
“I will say that the Justice Department declined all of those requests that I was just referencing,” Rosen said, “because we did not think that they were appropriate based on the facts and the law as we understood them.”
Jun 23, 3:40 pm
Former White House attorney suggests Clark ready to commit felony
The committee played a video of former Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann recalling what he said he told Jeffrey Clark, a lower-level DOJ official overseeing environmental law enforcement, who supported Trump’s proposal to have him become acting attorney general to help overturn the election results.
“When he finished discussing what he planned on doing, I said ‘[expletive], congratulations. You just admitted your first step you would take as AG would be committing a felony,” Herschmann said. “‘You’re clearly the right candidate for this job.'”
“I told Clark the only thing he knew was that environmental and election both start with “e,” and I’m not even sure you know that,” he added.
In audio testimony, former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue also recalled telling Clark, “Go back to your office, we’ll call you when there’s an oil spill,” and calling the draft letter he wanted to send swing states to appoint alternate slates “a murder-suicide pact.”
Rosen and Donoghue were detailing a two-and-half Oval Office meeting where Trump repeatedly pressed but was eventually dissuaded from his plan to install Clark atop the Justice Department to pursue baseless allegations of voter fraud just days before Congress was set to convene to certify Biden’s victory.
Jun 23, 3:20 pm
Cheney: Public to hear about members of Congress who sought pardons
Vice-chair Liz Cheney focused her opening statement Thursday on teasing a draft letter that Trump and former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark wanted the department to send to Georgia officials citing already disproven allegations of fraud.
“As you will see, this letter claims that the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigations have ‘identified significant concerns hat may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the state of Georgia,'” Cheney said. “In fact, Donald Trump knew this was a lie. The Department of Justice had already informed the president of the United States repeatedly that its investigations had found no fraud sufficient to overturn the results of the 2020 election.”
ABC News obtained and published the draft letter in full last year. Read it here.
Cheney also said the public today will see video testimony by three members of Trump’s White House staff identifying certain members of Congress who contacted the White House after Jan. 6 to “seek presidential pardons for their conduct.”
Jun 23, 3:10 pm
Chair convenes hearing on Trump’s ‘brazen attempt’ to pressure DOJ
Three former top officials in the Justice Department — former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue and former top DOJ lawyer Steven Engel — sat before lawmakers Thursday as Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., convened the fifth public hearing this month.
“Today, we’ll tell the story of how the pressure campaign also targeted the federal agency charged with enforcement of our laws, the Department of Justice,” Thompson said, going to call it “a brazen attempt to use the Justice Department to advance the president’s professional and personal agenda.”
All three witnesses are expected to detail how they resisted Trump and his allies’ repeated entreaties to enlist the Justice Department in his failed bid to overturn his election loss.
Jun 23, 2:51 pm
Rep. Adam Kinzinger to lead hearing
Rep. Adam Kinzinger will lead questioning in today’s hearing, committee aides confirmed to reporters. Kinzinger is one of the two Republicans on the nine-member committee.
“The threat to our democracy is real. And today, we’ll see just how close we came to losing it all,” Kinzinger tweeted ahead of the hearing. “Tune in as we uncover President Trump’s pressure campaign on [the Justice Department] in his desperate attempt to subvert the will of the people to stay in power.”
Jun 23, 2:27 pm
Filmmaker with new Trump footage sits for deposition
British documentary filmmaker Alex Holder sat for a deposition with the committee earlier Thursday after a subpoena commanded him to turn over documentary footage — never-seen publicly — filmed for a series on Trump’s final months in office.
“I have no further comment at this time other than to say that our conversation today was thorough and I appreciated the opportunity to share more context about my project,” Holder said in a statement to ABC News.
Holder was “given unparalleled access and exclusive interviews with President Trump, Ivanka, Eric, and Don Jr., Jared Kushner as well as Vice President Pence; in the White House, Mar-A-Lago, behind-the-scenes on the campaign trail, and before and after the events of January 6th,” according to a statement from his spokesperson.
He received a subpoena last Thursday from the committee to turn over footage shot for his documentary series and submitted the materials requested earlier this week.
-ABC News Ali Dukakis
Jun 23, 2:37 pm
House GOP leader dodges questions on Trump, integrity of 2020 election
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at a news conference Thursday dodged questions about endorsing Trump in 2024 and whether there was any widespread election fraud in the 2020 election.
McCarthy also said he had no regrets about not allowing Republicans to serve on the Jan. 6 committee. Trump has said McCarthy made a “foolish” mistake by refusing to allow Republican members to join the panel after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocked several of his picks.
“I do not regret not appointing anybody at all,” McCarthy told reporters.
There are two Republicans serving on the House panel: Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. The two outspoken Trump critics were appointed by Pelosi.
-ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel
Jun 23, 2:14 pm
Federal agents search home of former Trump Justice Department official
Federal agents searched the Virginia home of former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark on Wednesday morning, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the activity told ABC News.
It was unclear which federal agencies conducted the search, just hours before the House Jan. 6 committee was set to hold a hearing on then-President Donald Trump’s effort to corrupt the Justice Department in what it says was his plot to overturn the election, but one neighbor who witnessed the law enforcement activity said they saw officials entering the residence early Wednesday.
Clark, a former assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources, emerged as a key player in Trump’s efforts to pressure the Justice Department in the wake of the 2020 election. He previously pleaded the Fifth Amendment in an appearance before the Jan. 6 committee and has declined to comment through an attorney when asked about specific details regarding his alleged coordination with Trump and others.
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Alexander Mallin, Luke Barr and Mike Levine
Jun 23, 1:56 pm
Hearing to detail Trump pressure campaign on DOJ
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and what led up to it is set on Thursday to bring into focus Trump’s relentless post-Election Day efforts to enlist the Justice Department in his failed bid to overturn his election loss.
The committee’s fifth hearing this month will feature testimony from three former top officials in the department who say they resisted Trump and his allies’ repeated entreaties, former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue and former top DOJ lawyer Steven Engel.
All three have previously confirmed that they joined a group of top White House lawyers in threatening a mass resignation if Trump didn’t back away from plans to oust Rosen and replace him with another obscure official in the top echelons of the department who was sympathetic to the Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 23, 2:58 pm
Ukraine granted candidate status for EU membership
The European Council has granted Ukraine and Moldova candidate status for EU membership, European Council President Charles Michel tweeted.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the announcement on Twitter, calling it a “unique and historical moment,” adding, “Ukraine’s future is within the EU.”
It could take years for Ukraine to become an EU member. Five other countries that have been granted candidate status are currently negotiating their EU membership: Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.
Jun 23, 2:08 pm
Russian forces advancing on Lysychansk in Luhansk region
Russian forces are advancing toward the city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region, putting the Lysychansk-Severodonetsk pocket “under increasing pressure,” the British Defense Ministry said. Some Ukrainian forces have withdrawn from Lysychansk, “probably to avoid being encircled,” the officials said.
The Ukrainian army claims Ukrainian soldiers stopped the Russian offensive in the southern outskirts of Lysychansk on Thursday, inflicting losses and forcing them to retreat, and that to resume the offensive, Russian forces put forward reserves.
-ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko
Jun 23, 1:05 pm
$450 million military aid package to be announced
The U.S. is expected Thursday to announce a new $450 million military aid package that will include more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as HIMARS.
Ukrainian Minister of Defence Oleksii Reznikov tweeted Thursday that the initial HIMARS package from the U.S. has arrived in Ukraine, and he thanked Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for the “powerful tools.”
The new aid package will include more small arms, grenade launchers, vehicles and patrol craft.
The U.S. has committed over $6 billion to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began, according to the Pentagon.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 23, 6:26 am
More than 8 million have fled Ukraine, UN says
More than 8 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, according to an update by the United Nations.
More than 4 million Ukrainians fled through Poland — by far the preferred route for the displaced, the U.N. report said. Hungary, the second most used route, reported just over 800,000 crossings.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Fidel Pavlenko and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jun 23, 6:08 am
Belarusian military flexes its muscle near Ukrainian border
The Belarusian Defense Ministry announced “mobilization exercises” on Wednesday in the Gomel region bordering Ukraine.
The military drills, scheduled to last until 1 July, will include special operations forces as well as freshly called up conscripts, Belarusian officials said on Telegram.
The Belarusian army has already been placing wooden dummies of tanks on the Ukrainian border to demonstrate their presence, Ukrainian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Alexander Motuzyanyk said on Wednesday.
Real weapons are arriving near the Ukrainian border, too, with a new batch of Russian missiles for the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system being brought to Belarus on Tuesday night, local monitoring groups reported. The delivery included at least 16 missiles, with the likely addition of one Pantsir missile defense system, the report said.
Still, Ukrainian officials maintain that “at this stage of the war,” there is no imminent threat “of the Belarusian army invading” Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, said on Wednesday as cited by local media.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Fidel Pavlenko and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jun 23, 5:39 am
EU shifts to coal as Russia tightens gas tap
The European Union will temporarily shift back to coal to cope with slowing Russian gas flows, an EU official said on Wednesday, as a tight gas market and rocketing prices set off a race for alternative fuels.
The International Energy Agency warned Russia could cut gas supplies to Europe completely this winter.
“Europe should be ready in case Russian gas is completely cut off,” IEA chief Fatih Birol told The Financial Times on Wednesday.
While Russia denies premeditated supply cuts, several European countries, including Germany and Italy, reported a dip in gas flow via pipelines from Russia over the past week.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Fidel Pavlenko and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jun 22, 7:31 am
Turkey raises hopes for grain exports
A four-way summit discussing ways to export grain blocked in Ukraine will be held in Istanbul in less than 10 days, Turkish presidential sources told local media on Tuesday.
According to Turkish officials, a military delegation will head to Russia this week to discuss details. On top of Russian and Ukrainian delegations, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the UN Secretary General António Guterres are likely to attend the Istanbul summit, local sources said.
The lives of about 400 million people in different countries depend on Ukrainian food exports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Tatiana Rymarenko, Fidel Pavlenko and Natalya Kushnir
(CAMBRIDGE, England) — Prince William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, visited a museum in Cambridge, England, Thursday to view their first official joint portrait.
“It’s quite big,” William said upon seeing the portrait of himself and his wife, which was painted by award-winning British portrait artist Jamie Coreth.
William and Kate, both 40, viewed the portrait during a visit to the University of Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum.
The portrait of the Cambridges will be on display to the public at the museum for the next three years, and will then travel to other local galleries as well as the National Portrait Gallery in London.
While at the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Cambridges’ portrait will be used “as a means of encouraging children and young people of all backgrounds from across the county to take an interest in art in all its forms,” according to Kensington Palace.
In the portrait, William is wearing a dark suit and blue tie, while Kate is wearing an emerald green dress by The Vampire’s Wife.
The dress appears to be the same one Kate wore to an evening reception at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin in 2020.
The new portrait of the Cambridges was commissioned last year by the Cambridgeshire Royal Portrait Fund as a gift to Cambridgeshire, a county in eastern England.
Coreth, the portrait artist, described the painting as a “gift for the people of Cambridgeshire.”
“It has been the most extraordinary privilege of my life to be chosen to paint this picture,” Coreth said in a statement. “I wanted to show Their Royal Highnesses in a manner where they appeared both relaxed and approachable, as well as elegant and dignified.”
He continued, “As it is the first portrait to depict them together, and specifically during their time as The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, I wanted the image to evoke a feeling of balance between their public and private lives. The piece was commissioned as a gift for the people of Cambridgeshire, and I hope they will enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed creating it.”
(ST. MICHAEL, Minn.) — A 30-hour standoff involving Wright County sheriff’s deputies and a suspect carrying a rifle came to end when authorities stormed the home in St. Michael, Minnesota, on Wednesday night.
The standoff began after the sheriff’s office received a complaint that a man and woman were verbally arguing and the man was carrying a rifle.
The sheriff’s office said it received the gun complaint at 12:37 a.m. on Tuesday regarding a domestic situation. The residence then remained under surveillance until emergency response units arrived at approximately 2:50 p.m. on Tuesday. Authorities were on the scene into Wednesday night, according to the sheriff’s office.
Police identified the suspect as 39-year-old Brandon Gardas. He has active arrest warrants for domestic assault and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to the sheriff’s office.
The standoff came to an end at approximately 8:30 p.m. Wednesday after law enforcement entered Gardas’ home. Officers shot Gardas upon entering the residence, police said.
He was airlifted to an area hospital and his condition is unknown. No police officers were injured.
Gardas fired several rounds at law enforcement during the standoff, authorities said.
Police said the area surrounding the home will remain secured for investigative purposes and asked the public to stay away from that area. Earlier Wednesday, police had told people in the immediate vicinity of the home to evacuate due to the “volatile nature” of the incident and said they rerouted several roads in the area for public safety.
(WASHINGTON) — Yellowstone National Park reopened three of its five entrances to visitors on Wednesday after unprecedented flooding closed the park on June 13 and reshaped many of its rivers, canyons and roads.
The south loop’s Cody, West Yellowstone and Grand Teton/Jackson entrances opened at 8 a.m. on Wednesday. The Madison, Old Faithful, Grant Village, Lake Village, Canyon Village and Norris areas of the park will again become accessible to visitors.
The park’s northern region, including Lamar Valley and Mammoth Hot Springs, will remain closed until at least early July, park officials said.
Many of the park’s famous wildlife-viewing areas will also be unavailable to visitors returning to the south loop region of the park.
Main routes into the Montana tourist towns of Gardiner, Red Lodge and Cooke City continue to be closed off.
A statement from the National Park Service said that park staff have engaged over 1,000 business owners, park partners, commercial operators and residents in the surrounding gateway communities to help create a plan for how to manage summer visitation while the park’s north loop remains closed.
“It is impossible to reopen only one loop in the summer without implementing some type of system to manage visitation,” the park’s superintendent, Cam Sholly, said in a statement.
The park has subsequently instituted an interim visitor access plan, coined the Alternating License Plate System (ALPS), to balance the demand for visitor access, park resource protection and economic interests of the local communities.
Park officials said the plan was suggested by those from gateway communities during a major public engagement with the park last week. They added that the National Park Service will actively monitor the new system while also building a new reservation system that can be implemented if needed.
According to ALPS, visitation will essentially be monitored based on a vehicle’s license plate.
For public vehicle entry, it will not matter if the last numerical digit on the plate is odd or even. For all others, entrance will be granted based on the odd and even numbered days of the calendar month, so that odd-numbered ending license plates will be able to enter on odd days and vice versa for those ending in even numbers.
For vehicles with personalized license plates that only contain letters, entry will be granted along with odd-numbered ending plates. Vehicles with a combination of letters and numbers that end in a letter will be granted entry on even-numbered days.
Park officials have stated that under this new plan, entrance station staff will turn away vehicles that do not follow the odd-even structure.
There are some exceptions. For one, current commercial use operators with active commercial use permits can enter on any day, including those with commercial tours and stock groups. Commercial motor coaches will also be permitted to enter regardless of their license plate makeup.
Visitors who have proof of overnight reservations in the park’s hotels, campgrounds and backcountry reservations may also be permitted entry regardless of the day’s number status. Essential services such as mail, employees and contractors will be able to enter any day as well.
Regardless of license plates, motorcycle groups will only be permitted into the park on even days.
The ALPS plan is temporary, as the park braces for its summer season while managing its partial-capacity status.
Sholly said that as repairs continue across the park, park officials will work to reopen new sections throughout the summer.
“It is critical for visitors to stay informed about this interim system as we evaluate its effectiveness. They should plan ahead and be patient with us as we are still managing significant recovery while moving into this operational phase,” Sholly said.
(ATLANTA) — Extreme heat is forcing the Atlanta Zoo to close its gates early on Wednesday and Thursday.
The heat index — what temperature it feels like — is forecast to skyrocket Wednesday to 100 degrees in Atlanta.
Some animals who call the Atlanta Zoo home may be brought inside earlier in the day than usual because of the high temperatures, said Rachel Davis, the zoo’s director of communications. Animals also have access to shade or water features like water-mist fans, she said.
“The Animal Care Teams carefully monitor and check in on all animal habitats at multiple times throughout the day,” Davis told ABC News via email. Some “are native to tropical environments in Africa or southeast Asia. Others, like giant pandas, which are native to cool, high-altitude forests in China, would already, just by virtue of the season, be spending time in their indoor dayroom habitats, which are kept in the 60s Fahrenheit year-round.”
Some zoo residents even get to indulge in frozen treats!
“These vary among species and their diets — for example, for gorillas it might be frozen fruit juice,” Davis said.
The zoo said its last entry time for Wednesday and Thursday will be 12:30 to 1 p.m, with normal hours expected to resume Friday.
(NEW YORK) — While many Americans have noticed sky-high gasoline prices, the lesser-known increase in diesel costs could be what drives the U.S. economy into a recession, experts told ABC News.
Oil prices, which on Wednesday afternoon stood at $105 per barrel, are likely to remain high through November, when they’ll moderate to around $100 per barrel, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Elevated diesel prices could persist even longer as heightened demand for diesel outlasts that for gasoline, experts said. Since nearly all products that people consume rely on trucks, trains, and other modes of transportation that use diesel fuel, the already-inflated prices for many goods will prove difficult to dial back in light of those elevated diesel costs, they said.
“No one really notices diesel prices in the U.S. because it’s really only used by industries,” said Damien Courvalin, head of energy research and senior commodity strategist at Goldman Sachs. “But that diesel represents a piece of your plane ticket, a piece of that box of cereal… that price is folded into aggregate inflation.”
The nationwide average price for a gallon of diesel stands at $5.81, which marks a staggering 80% increase since a year ago, when a gallon cost $3.22, according to AAA data. In California, the average price of a gallon of diesel is just below $7 per gallon, AAA data shows.
‘Diesel is my biggest concern’
While gasoline demand may decline leading into a recession, diesel demand often remains elevated, experts said. “In the pandemic we didn’t see diesel demand fall off the way we saw gasoline fall because we all ordered things off of the internet,” said Denton Cinquegrana, chief oil analyst at market research firm OPIS.
Many facets of U.S. industry rely on diesel-fueled transportation of goods, experts said. Typically, overall consumer demand drops during a recession. But diesel demand could remain at high levels in the lead up to a recession, especially in light of the prevalence of e-commerce and home delivery, experts said.
“Diesel is, quite frankly, my biggest concern, even more so than gasoline,” Cinquegrana said. “You could make behavioral changes when it comes to gasoline — you could carpool to work, some of us have the ability to work from home.”
But with diesel, high costs elevate the prices of everyday goods, since the higher cost of transportation is often passed down to consumers. In turn, consumers restrain their spending habits at grocery and other retail stores, slashing demand and exacerbating an economic slowdown, experts said. Consumer spending accounts for about 70% of U.S. gross domestic product.
“Those trucks run on diesel, and those costs get passed on to the consumer — that’s why the price of eggs, the price of milk, beer, go up,” Cinquegrana said. “It’s the price of diesel that kind of breaks the back of the economy eventually.”
Refineries are nearing capacity
The fundamental issue behind the high prices of both gasoline and diesel: demand is high and supply is constrained. Currently, U.S. refineries are producing about a million barrels less per day than they were pre-pandemic, according to the EIA.
In recent years, energy companies have slowed oil expansion in response to a call for fiscal discipline from shareholders. The rise of renewable energy alternatives has also posed a challenge for long-term investment in oil extraction.
While President Joe Biden is set to travel to Saudi Arabia next month, a prospective oil deal likely won’t help the U.S. in the short term.
“Their oil is in the ground,” said Courvalin, the head of energy research at Goldman Sachs. “None of us use that, we need refined oil — it needs to go through the refining process to get what we consume.”
Last week, Biden sent a letter to major oil refinery companies calling on them to take “immediate actions” to increase output. The letter accused the companies of taking advantage of the market environment to reap profits while Americans struggle to afford gas. It mentioned the possibility of Biden invoking the Defense Production Act, which requires companies to produce goods deemed necessary for national security.
But experts told ABC news that U.S. refineries are already near full capacity, and it would take a prolonged period to build new ones. Refineries are “very complex, highly regulated, and very expensive to build,” the EIA said. “Building new refineries to increase capacity is not something that can be done in a short time frame.”
“You have to realize that up until recently, nobody was screaming for more refining capacity in the world,” said Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group, a consulting firm. “In fact, if anything, refining capacity was starting to look like horses in buggies did in 1908.”
Biden should ‘go further’
The Biden administration’s short term response to the crisis has involved the release of oil from strategic reserves and a call for a gas tax holiday. The long term response has centered around a transition to clean or low carbon energy, but Cinquegrana criticized this proposal as “not appreciating how difficult an energy transition is.”
“What we really need is that higher investment – we talk about refining capacity: if there is none, then I cannot increase gasoline supply,” Courvalin said. “There is nothing the policy can do at this stage.”
The Biden administration has called for a federal gas tax holiday which would temporarily pause the federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents per gallon on diesel fuel.
“On the one hand, yes, it does reduce prices at the pump,” Courvalin said of the potential holiday. “But when you look at it from a commodity perspective, it also means we are still not balancing, just subsidizing what we are running out of.”
The American Petroleum Institute sent the White House its own 10-step proposal to alleviate supply shortages. Their recommendations ranged from lifting development restrictions on federal lands and waters to revising the NEPA permitting process.
“I would go even further,” McNally comments on the letter, “reversing the ban on cross-border pipelines, removing the prospective risk of onerous regulation of oil and gas companies and investment and so forth until we can legislate a proper climate change policy.”
Some of the major energy companies agree.
“In the short term, the US government could enact measures often used in emergencies following hurricanes or other supply disruptions — such as waivers of Jones Act provisions and some fuel specifications to increase supplies,” ExxonMobil suggested in a statement to ABC News.
“Longer term, [the] government can promote investment through clear and consistent policy that supports U.S. resource development, such as regular and predictable lease sales, as well as streamlined regulatory approval and support for infrastructure such as pipelines,” the company added.
(NEW YORK) — COVID-19 vaccines began to be rolled out for children between six months and 4 years old across the United States this week.
This means roughly 20 million babies, toddlers and preschoolers under age 5 are now eligible for shots after they were authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week.
As of Wednesday, 2.7 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s vaccines have been delivered nationwide, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told ABC News.
Parents looking to schedule appointments can visit vaccines.gov, a website jointly run by the HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and VaccineFinder from Boston Children’s Hospital.
Vaccines.gov launched Tuesday, a few days earlier than planned. There are currently 1,591 locations on the website that include a mix of children’s hospitals, doctor’s offices, community sites, clinics and pop-ups offering the shots.
To use the tool, people can click on the button on the homepage that reads, “Find COVID-19 Vaccines.”
On the next page, users enter their ZIP code and click on the type of vaccine, depending on the age group they would like to receive.
It’s important to select the correct age group because Pfizer’s three-dose vaccine for kids is three micrograms each, one-tenth the dose offered to adults, while Moderna’s two-dose vaccine is 25 micrograms each, one-quarter of its adult-sized dose.
Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said the number of locations is expected to increase to more than 10,000 in the coming weeks are more locations get their shipments delivered
“Of course, we understand there’s a lot of anxiety and parents have been waiting a long time to get these vaccines,” Brownstein said. “At some point, the supply will outstrip the demand. Any parent will have access in the coming days. It will take time to get vaccines, but there will be enough to supply.”
The Biden administration has said it eventually expects that 85% of kids under age 5 will live within five miles of a potential vaccination site.
“HHS has received orders for approximately 4.2 million doses to date,” the agency told ABC News. “We made 10 million doses of vaccine available for ordering initially, with millions more available soon, so supply should not be a barrier to someone getting their young child vaccinated.”
For those who may not have access to the internet or are not internet literate, they can call 1-800-232-0233, which offers help to schedule appointments in English, Spanish and other languages.
Brownstein also recommends that people contact their family physicians or pediatricians to either schedule an appointment or ask where to find appointments.
“It absolutely makes sense [to contact them],” he said. “That’s where you have a formal relationship.”
It could prove challenging to get this youngest age group vaccinated if it’s not convenient to do so.
According to the CDC, only about 30% of American children between ages 5 and 11 have been vaccinated compared to 75% of kids above age 12.
Adding to the challenge is that many young children will not be able to receive their vaccines at pharmacies, because many states do not allow pharmacists or trained pharmacy staff members to vaccinate children under 3 years old.
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 23, 6:26 am
More than 8 million have fled Ukraine, UN says
More than 8 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, according to an update by the United Nations.
More than 4 million Ukrainians fled through Poland — by far the preferred route for the displaced, the U.N. report said. Hungary, the second most used route, reported just over 800,000 crossings.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Fidel Pavlenko and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jun 23, 6:08 am
Belarusian military flexes its muscle near Ukrainian border
The Belarusian Defense Ministry announced “mobilization exercises” on Wednesday in the Gomel region bordering Ukraine.
The military drills, scheduled to last until 1 July, will include special operations forces as well as freshly called up conscripts, Belarusian officials said on Telegram.
The Belarusian army has already been placing wooden dummies of tanks on the Ukrainian border to demonstrate their presence, Ukrainian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Alexander Motuzyanyk said on Wednesday.
Real weapons are arriving near the Ukrainian border, too, with a new batch of Russian missiles for the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system being brought to Belarus on Tuesday night, local monitoring groups reported. The delivery included at least 16 missiles, with the likely addition of one Pantsir missile defense system, the report said.
Still, Ukrainian officials maintain that “at this stage of the war,” there is no imminent threat “of the Belarusian army invading” Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, said on Wednesday as cited by local media.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Fidel Pavlenko and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jun 23, 5:39 am
EU shifts to coal as Russia tightens gas tap
The European Union will temporarily shift back to coal to cope with slowing Russian gas flows, an EU official said on Wednesday, as a tight gas market and rocketing prices set off a race for alternative fuels.
The International Energy Agency warned Russia could cut gas supplies to Europe completely this winter.
“Europe should be ready in case Russian gas is completely cut off,” IEA chief Fatih Birol told The Financial Times on Wednesday.
While Russia denies premeditated supply cuts, several European countries, including Germany and Italy, reported a dip in gas flow via pipelines from Russia over the past week.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Fidel Pavlenko and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jun 22, 7:31 am
Turkey raises hopes for grain exports
A four-way summit discussing ways to export grain blocked in Ukraine will be held in Istanbul in less than 10 days, Turkish presidential sources told local media on Tuesday.
According to Turkish officials, a military delegation will head to Russia this week to discuss details. On top of Russian and Ukrainian delegations, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the UN Secretary General António Guterres are likely to attend the Istanbul summit, local sources said.
The lives of about 400 million people in different countries depend on Ukrainian food exports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Tatiana Rymarenko, Fidel Pavlenko and Natalya Kushnir
