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(NEW YORK) — Nearly 24 years after the 9/11 attacks, New York lawmakers say the health program created to care for survivors and responders is faltering and they’re demanding answers.

In a new letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand raised concerns about staffing shortages, frozen research grants and ongoing communication blackouts at the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP), which provides care to more than 140,000 people exposed to toxic dust at Ground Zero, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

“This is unacceptable,” the senators wrote. “Individuals with 9/11-related conditions should not have to rely on repeated uproars from the public and the media to obtain the care they are owed under the law and so desperately need.”

The senators pointed to a pattern of administrative setbacks over the past six months, including a hiring freeze, restrictions on staff travel, and the halting of key steering committee meetings. While some staff have been reinstated, they noted that the program still operates with fewer people than when Secretary Kennedy took office in February
The WTCHP was created under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act to provide long-term medical monitoring and treatment to those impacted by the attacks.

Last year alone, enrollment grew by 10,000 people and at least that many more are expected to enroll in the coming year, according to Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act, an advocacy group for 9/11 responders and survivors. But with only 80 staff members currently supporting the program — down from the authorized level of 138 — advocates say delays in care and treatment approvals are growing worse.

“I have always fought to keep the funding and maintaining of the World Trade Center Health Program a bipartisan cause, and while I continue to look for a Republican partner in the Senate, I am proud of the strong partnership I have with Representative Garbarino and his House Republican colleagues,” Senator Gillibrand said in a statement to ABC News.

She added, “Right now, the main issue is the care of the responders and survivors who put their lives on the line when our nation was in its darkest hour. We are seeing deep logistical issues in the program that Secretary Kennedy must address. The ball is in his court for how we can best assess next steps so that responders and survivors continue to receive the lifesaving care that this program provides and that they deserve.”

One critical concern the letter points to is the lack of communication. The senators say in the letter that an ongoing “temporary” communications ban, which is now in its eighth month, has disrupted routine meetings and cut off vital feedback from the 9/11 community. The senators say program staff are also barred from traveling to monitor clinics and contractors, which lawmakers warn could result in billing delays and lapses in care.

Also on pause is the petition process that allows for the consideration of adding new illnesses to the list of covered 9/11-related health problems, including cardiac and autoimmune condition, according to the senator’s letter. The program had promised decisions by March, but none have been announced.

The senators also questioned how a planned reorganization, which involves moving the WTCHP under a new agency called the Administration for Healthy America, will affect staffing, research and oversight.

Many 9/11 health advocates applauded the letter, agreeing it’s time to get the program moving after months of inaction.

“Given Secretary Kennedy’s record of chaos for the first six months of his administration and with the 24th Anniversary of 9/11 just a few weeks away, Senators Gillibrand and Schumer are calling attention to continuing issues with the World Trade Center Health Program that the Secretary must address,” said Benjamin Chevat, the executive director of Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act.

John Feal, a prominent 9/11 advocate and founder of the FealGood Foundation, said he is also grateful to the senators for their support of survivors.

“We shouldn’t keep having to have this conversation,” Feal said. “Kennedy needs to be held accountable, and I hope he honors this program and protects it from future cuts.”

Gary Smiley, a former firefighter who is a survivor of the attacks on the World Trade Center and now the WTC fire inspector’s liaison, agreed that Kennedy has not done enough for the program.

“The administration has promised us time and time again that this communications pause was temporary. Eight months is not temporary. Eight months is a failure to act,” Smiley said.

ABC News reached out to HHS for a response but did not receive one immediately. However, at a senate hearing in May, Kennedy acknowledged of the program that “We made a couple of mistakes,” and promised to address them.

“With the 24th anniversary of 9/11 approaching,” the senators wrote, “we must do everything in our power to uphold our promises to those still suffering from the aftermath of that day.”

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Red flag warnings remain in place for parts of Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming due to very dry conditions, low humidity and gusty winds and fires in these areas may undergo rapid development as new fires could begin quickly.

This comes as 741 wildfires continue to burn in Canada, with 304 labeled “out of control” and fires have burned more than 16 million acres in Canada this year — more than double their 10-year average to date.

This is already the third most destructive year for wildfires in Canada by acres burned since records began in 1983.

In fact, with only 1 million more acres needed to reach the number two spot, it is almost inevitable at this point that 2025 will likely be second on the list for most acres burned by wildfires in Canada since recording began, with first place being 2023 when more than 42 million acres burned.

Meanwhile, these western wildfires are creating smokey skies for millions, from Los Angeles to San Diego and to Las Vegas.

Air quality alerts are now in place for 10 states from Minnesota to Connecticut and, on Tuesday afternoon, Boston is expected to see a nice break from the smoke thanks to onshore winds keeping smoke inland as Detroit and New York City may catch more of a break due to winds from the east as well.

Smoke will be medium to heavy from Duluth to Green Bay to Buffalo to the Hudson Valley as smoke is expected to continue around the region on Wednesday as well.

Elsewhere, Tropical Storm Dexter continues to push out to sea without threat to land as an area with a 30% chance for tropical development remains off America’s southeast coast.

A low pressure system may develop later this week and then push west or northwest but, regardless of development, additional rainfall is expected for the late-week and weekend in the Southeast.

A disturbance has also moved off the coast of Africa and ,with gradual development over the Atlantic, a tropical depression may form late this week or weekend as the system continues moving west over the central tropical Atlantic with the National Hurricane Center giving this system a 50% chance for development over the next seven days.

On Tuesday, more than 9 million Americas in Georgia and Alabama are under a flood watch, including Atlanta, because heavy rainfall with rates of 2 inches per hour may lead to flash flooding.

Heat continues to be a problem around parts of the country as record high temperatures are possible in the Southwest, including for cities like Phoenix and Tucson, as an extreme heat warning is in place for more than 7 million Americans here with temperatures from 108 to 118 possible through Friday.

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(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Coast Guard has released its final report on the catastrophic implosion of OceanGate’s Titan submersible in June 2023, which killed five people on a deep-sea voyage to the Titanic wreckage.

The 335-page report, released Tuesday, comes nearly a year after the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation held a two-week hearing into the unprecedented implosion of the experimental vessel.

The board heard from more than two dozen witnesses during its September 2024 hearing. They included several former employees of OceanGate, whose co-founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, was among those killed.

The main purpose of the hearing was to uncover the facts related to the implosion — including the submersible’s design, operation and safety protocols — to help determine the cause of the incident and make recommendations to prevent similar casualties. The board also set out to determine if there was any evidence of misconduct, negligence or violations by anyone licensed or certified.

Ahead of the report’s release, the Coast Guard said in June that its Marine Board of Investigation was in the “final portion of its analysis phase” as part of its over two-year probe, and that the report would come out once the commandant’s review was completed.

The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the implosion and will make its own determination as to the probable cause. That investigation is ongoing.

In addition to Rush, those killed in the June 2023 implosion included French explorer and Titanic expert Paul Henri Nargeolet, British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman.

The submersible company suspended all exploration and commercial operations after the deadly implosion.

The Coast Guard’s hearing last year revealed one of the last messages sent from Titan to the surface vessel Polar Prince as the doomed submersible descended toward the ocean floor.

The short text messages were the only means of communication between the Titan crew and the personnel on the Polar Prince as the vessel attempted to reach the Titanic, which sits 3,800 meters below sea level.

At approximately 2,274 meters, the Titan sent the message, “All good here,” according to an animation created by the Coast Guard that showed the text communications.

The last communication from the submersible was sent at approximately 3,341 meters: “Dropped two wts,” meaning drop weights, according to the Coast Guard.

All communications and tracking from the submersible to Polar Prince were lost at 3,346 meters, according to the Coast Guard.

U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation Chair Jason Neubauer revealed during the hearing that the master of the Polar Prince told them that in hindsight, he believes he felt the ship “shudder” around the time when communications with the sub were lost.

The Coast Guard also released footage during the hearing that showed Titan debris, including the tail cone, aft dome, aft ring, hull remnants and carbon fiber debris, on the seafloor. The footage was from a remotely operated vehicle, which located the Titan debris approximately 500 meters from the bow of the Titanic following a four-day search.

The Coast Guard heard lengthy testimony from David Lochridge, the former director of marine operations for OceanGate, who had raised concerns about the Titan’s carbon fiber hull.

“I knew that hull would fail,” Lochridge said during the hearing. “It’s an absolute mess.”

He also testified that the company wasn’t interested in scientific research and only cared about making money, and that Rush “liked to do things on the cheap.”

Issues and concerns with the Titan and its transport were revisited in testimony throughout the hearing.

In 2022, the thruster controls malfunctioned and caused the vessel to spin once it reached the Titanic depth, though the pilot was able to retrain it himself and they completed the dive. In another dive that year, a loud bang was heard as the Titan ascended. The NTSB determined that the hull’s strain response changed after this loud bang incident in subsequent dives, an agency official testified.

In 2023, the Titan partially sank four weeks before the implosion following a night of high seas and fog, according to the Coast Guard. Days before the implosion, passengers slammed against the vessel during resurfacing when the platform malfunctioned.

One former OceanGate employee testified that there were also concerns about having to tow the sub on the open seas when they switched to using the Polar Prince in 2023.

The Titan had 70 equipment issues in 2021 that needed correcting, and 48 more in 2022, according to the Coast Guard.

The submersible made 13 successful dives to the Titanic wreckage until its fatal implosion.

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(NEW YORK) — Much of what the Justice Department wants a federal judge to unseal from the Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury investigation is already known and, at least so far, the attorney general is seeking to unseal nothing else, according to a new court filing Tuesday.

The Justice Department turned over a version of the Maxwell grand jury transcripts that identifies which information is not already publicly known. That annotated version shows that “much of the information provided during the course of the grand jury testimony — with the exception of the identities of certain victims and witnesses — was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported through the public statements of victims and witnesses,” the filing said.

The Justice Department is asking two federal judges in New York to unseal the grand jury transcripts in the Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein cases. It is not asking the judges to unseal the grand jury exhibits, though the attorney general asked for several more days to consider “its position with respect to unsealing of the grand jury exhibits,” the filing said.

The Epstein grand jury met twice on June 18, 2019, and July 2, 2019, before he was indicted on charges accusing him of sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of minor girls.

The Maxwell grand jury met on June 29, 2020, July 8, 2020, and March 29, 2021, before she was indicted on charges she conspired with Epstein to entice minors to travel so they could engage in illegal sex acts.

Maxwell was convicted and is serving a 20-year prison sentence at an all-female federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, where she was recently moved from a minimum security prison in Tallahassee, Florida.

The Justice Department said it has provided notice of the unsealing motions to all but one of the victims who are referenced in the grand jury transcripts. Federal prosecutors have been unable to contact that remaining victim.

“With respect to victims who are not identified in the grand jury transcripts but who have previously received victim notifications in the Maxwell and Epstein matters, the Government will over the coming days alert those victims to the fact of the unsealing motions,” the filing said.

On Monday, the court placed on the docket letters from anonymous purported Epstein victims criticizing the Trump administration’s approach.

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(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York declined on Monday to grant Sean “Diddy” Combs bail, finding no “exceptional reasons” to release him prior to his October sentencing.

Combs was convicted of transportation to engage in prostitution, which the judge said mandates incarceration. His sentencing is set for Oct. 3.

Judge Arun Subramanian said Combs remains a risk of flight and a danger to the community, pointing to the violence exhibited on 2016 hotel surveillance footage that shows him kicking and dragging Cassie Ventura.  

Defense attorneys said Combs transported male escorts not for profit or under duress but to join his “swingers lifestyle,” arguing those unique circumstances warranted release. The judge said that argument “might have traction” in a different case but not one that included evidence of violence, coercion or subjugation in connection with the prostitution.

“The record here contains evidence of all three,” Subramanian said.

“While Combs may contend at sentencing that this evidence should be discounted and that what happened was nothing more than a case of willing ‘swingers’ utilizing the voluntary services of escorts for their mutual pleasure, the Government takes the opposite view: that Cassie Ventura and Jane were beaten, coerced, threatened, lied to, and victimized by Combs as part of their participation in these events,” the opinion said. Combs also argued for release on bail because of the squalor and danger at the Metropolitan Detention Center. But the judge said jail staff “has been able to keep him safe,” even during an incident of threatened violence from an inmate, according to the opinion. The judge’s order did not elaborate on the nature of the threat or what jail staff did to mitigate it.

Combs has been incarcerated at the federal jail in Brooklyn for 11 months.

Following an eight-week federal trial, a jury convicted Combs last month of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution but acquitted him of more serious sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges.

Subramanian denied him bail following the verdict, citing then as well the violence that was “starkly depicted” in the 2016 hotel security footage.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Firefighters in Maui are battling a brush fire burning above Kaanapali, Hawaii, on Monday.

The fire is near the old Sugar Cane Train warehouse, the Maui Emergency Management Agency said.

Both lanes of Honoapiʻilani Highway between Puʻukoliʻi Road and Lower Honoapiʻilani Highway have been shut down amid firefighting efforts, according to the agency.

The Maui County Fire Department said in an update on X that the fire “is slowly being contained.”

Officials asked motorists to avoid the area. “Smoke continues to impact the highway, necessitating the continued road closure,” the department said.

The blaze is just a couple of miles north of where the devastating Lahaina wildfires occurred nearly two years ago.

The fires, which became the fifth deadliest in U.S. history, left over 100 people dead, destroyed thousands of structures and parched the local landscape.

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(DYER COUNTY, Tenn.) — A 28-year-old man being sought in the homicides of four people in Tennessee has been captured on a home security camera, police said Monday, as the search for the suspect continued.

Austin Robert Drummond was seen late Sunday night in Jackson, Tennessee, according to local police. The sighting was captured on a citizen’s camera system on the 700 block of Pipkin Road, police said.

The suspect is believed to still be in the area, the Jackson Police Department said while warning people to “remain vigilant” and “exercise extra caution.”

 

The primary suspect, Austin Robert Drummond, is considered armed and dangerous following the killings of 38-year-old Cortney Rose, Rose’s children, 20-year-old Adrianna Williams and 15-year-old Braydon Williams, and Adrianna Williams’ boyfriend, 21-year-old James “Michael” Wilson, according to authorities and family. The victims were killed on Tuesday and found along a road in Lake County, in northwest Tennessee, authorities said.

The same day, Wilson and Williams’ baby was left in a car seat in a “random individual’s front yard” in nearby Dyer County, according to the Dyer County Sheriff’s Office.

A motive for the killings remains under investigation.

Drummond is wanted on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, four counts of felon in possession of a firearm and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).

A total reward of up to $30,000 has been offered for information leading to Drummond’s arrest.

Amid the search, two additional individuals have been arrested on charges linked to the killings, authorities said.

Dyer County, Tennessee, District Attorney Danny Goodman said Dearrah Sanders and Brandon Powell were the latest suspects arrested in connection with the quadruple killing that included three victims from the same family. Goodman made the announcement at the arraignment on Monday of Tanaka Brown, who is charged with being an accessory to the killings after the fact and tampering with evidence.

Sanders is also charged with being an accessory after the fact, while Powell is charged with possession of schedule six drugs and criminal conspiracy, Goodman said. Also arrested in the homicide case was Giovante Thomas, who has been charged with being an accessory after the fact, authorities said.

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