(NEW YORK) — A man has been missing for over a week after reportedly hiking along one of the most challenging trails in the Grand Canyon, according to the National Park Service.
Thomas Daniel Gibbs, 35, from Freehold, New Jersey, was reported missing on July 28 by his family and friends, according to a press release shared by the National Park Service.
Gibbs was last heard from on July 22 and is believed to have been traveling along the Grandview Trail, which is one of the most difficult paths in the Grand Canyon, according to the National Park Service.
The hiker’s Tesla Cybertruck was discovered in the Grandview Point parking lot on the South Rim of the canyon the same day he was reported missing, officials said.
Gibbs is described as 6 feet, 1 inch tall with brown hair and brown eyes, officials said.
Officials said anyone who was “in the Grandview Trail around July 22 and who may have seen Gibbs or has information on his whereabouts” should contact the NPS Investigative Services Branch Tip line at 888-653-0009. Tips can also be submitted online or via email at nps_isb@nps.gov.
Updates regarding the search for Gibbs will be provided “as soon as they become available,” officials said.
Gibbs’ disappearance comes as a fire continues to burn along the canyon’s North Rim. The Dragon Bravo Fire has now burned over 116,000 acres and is 12% contained as of Sunday, officials said.
ABC News requests for comment sent to Grand Canyon National Park and National Park Service officials did not immediately receive a response.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says he wants to oust and replace Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in an attempt to prevent Republican redistricting efforts and charge them with felonies. But that might be a challenge and take some time, the state’s attorney general said Monday.
Abbott said if legislators did not return to Texas by 3 p.m. CT, he would remove them then “swiftly” fill the vacancies.
“I believe they have forfeited their seats in the state legislature because they’re not doing the job they were elected to do,” he said Monday on Fox News.
The governor also said the Democrats could be committing felonies if they solicit funds to pay the $500 daily fines they face for skipping the session.
Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton said those threats might not be practical.
“We’d have to go through a court process, and we’d have to file that maybe in districts that are not friendly to Republicans. So it’s a challenge because every district would be different. We’d have to go sue in every legislator’s home district,” Paxton said in a Monday interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson.
Democratic Texas state Rep. Jolanda Jones, an attorney, said Abbott’s threat was merely “smoke and mirrors” during a press conference on Monday from Albany, New York.
“There is no felony in the Texas penal code for what he says. So respectfully, he’s making up some s—,” Jones said. “Subpoenas from Texas don’t work in New York, so he’s going to come get us how?”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said at the news conference that Democrats were “not breaking the law.”
“This is a legitimate process that has been used before,” Hochul said.
Democratic Texas state Rep. Mihaela Plesa, also speaking from Albany, said Abbott is “trying to manipulate the situation to make it play in his favor. It’s not going to work.”
Experts say Abbott’s threats are more effective as intimidation than as legally enforceable action.
“The governor doesn’t have unilateral power to charge members with bribery or to vacate their seats,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston.
But, “Even if it’s not the case that he can do this, it’s certainly the case that he’s made the high stakes very obvious to Democrats,” he added.
Despite the challenge, Paxton said he was “optimistic” the governor would prevail in the standoff with Democrats. Texas Democrats have said they plan to stay out of state until the end of this special session in two weeks, but Abbott is able to call another special session after that.
“If he keeps calling them back, it’s going to be a challenge for all 51 of them to stay out of the state for the rest of their lives,” Paxton said.
State Rep. Gene Wu, Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair, said Sunday that the lawmakers have received an “outpouring of support from people, from Americans around the country” to help pay their fines.
“My phone has not stopped ringing of people texting us, like, keep going, tell us what you need, give me the donation link,” Wu said during a press conference with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
(DYER COUNTY, Tenn.) — As the search continued on Monday for a 28-year-old man suspected in the homicides of four people in Tennessee, 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.
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 $17,500 reward has been offered for information leading to Drummond’s arrest.
Investigators believe Drummond is still in the Lake County area. Drummond’s white 2016 Audi was found last week in Jackson, Tennessee, where Drummond has ties, according to officials. A white 1988 Ford pickup truck linked to Drummond was found in Dyer County, Tennessee.
Efrain Villalobos is seen in a photo released by the Los Angeles Police Department. Los Angeles Police Department
(LOS ANGELES) — A man is in custody on attempted murder for allegedly shooting a driver who plowed his car through a crowd in Los Angeles last month, police announced Monday.
The arrest comes more than two weeks after what police called the “chaotic” incident outside the music venue The Vermont in East Hollywood.
Prosecutors allege the driver intentionally drove his vehicle onto a sidewalk and into the crowd gathered outside the club around 2 a.m. local time on July 19, injuring 37 people.
When the vehicle became disabled, bystanders in the crowd dragged the driver outside the car and began to physically assault him, according to police. At some point during the altercation, police said a man shot the driver once in the lower back then fled the scene on foot.
The shooting suspect — Efrain Villalobos, of Lawndale — was arrested on Sunday in the Redondo Beach area, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
He was booked for attempted murder and is being held without bail, police said Monday.
The case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for filing consideration, police said.
The identity of the shooting suspect was unknown in the wake of the incident, with authorities releasing images of the alleged gunman while attempting to identify him.
The LAPD identified Villalobos as the suspect on Friday while warning that he should be considered armed and dangerous.
Amid the search for the suspect, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell called the shooter’s actions “unlawful and dangerous.”
“We understand the emotions involved, but when the threat had ended and the suspect was no longer actively harming others, the use of deadly force was both unlawful and dangerous to everybody present,” McDonnell said at a press briefing last month.
The alleged driver, Fernando Ramirez, was charged with 37 counts of attempted murder and 37 counts of assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the car plowing. The 37 counts represent the 37 victims in the incident, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman.
Among the victims, eight suffered “great bodily injury,” such as serious fractures and lacerations, according to Hochman.
Ramirez remains in jail on more than $37 million bail, with an arraignment scheduled for Sept. 4.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — A showdown is unfolding in Texas as Gov. Greg Abbott threatens to remove Democrats who have fled the state in protest of Republican-led effort to create a new congressional map.
Abbott said Texas House Democrats have until 3 p.m. local time on Monday to return to the statehouse for the special session or risk losing their jobs. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton suggested Democrats who left should be arrested and forcibly brought back.
The response from the Texas House Democratic Caucus to Abbott’s threat was, “Come and take it.”
Democratic members who left the state are slated to hold various events throughout the day Monday in Democrat-led states.
The proposed congressional map, backed by President Donald Trump, could create up to five new Republican seats and help Republicans keep control of the House in the 2026 midterm elections. Consideration of the bill had been set for Monday, but cannot proceed if Democrats deny a quorum.
Democrats hold events in New York, Massachusetts and Illinois
The first press conference with Texas Democrats on Monday was with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in Albany.
“We won’t sit on the sidelines while Republicans try to rig the system to give Donald Trump more unchecked power,” Hochul said in a statement. “Texas Democrats are standing up for the future of our democracy, and I’m proud to stand with them in the fight against disenfranchisement.”
Texas House Democrats who have gone to Massachusetts for the National Conference of State Legislators summit will be joined by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for a press conference in Boston on Monday at 1 p.m. ET. Then, Texas House Democrats who have gathered in Illinois will hold a press conference with Democratic members of Congress in Chicago.
Pritzker on Sunday accused Trump of “rigging” the new Texas maps out of desperation and worry that due to his policies, he was in danger of losing House Republican majorities in Washington. The Illinois governor also warned the newly-proposed maps set a dangerous precedent across the country.
“This is not just rigging the system in Texas,” Pritzker said. “It’s about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come.”
Abbott, Paxton threaten action against Democrats
Abbott, in his warning to Texas House Democrats, said leaving the state in protest amounted to “abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office.”
“Real Texans do not run from a fight,” Abbott said in the statement. “But that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did. Rather than doing their job and voting on urgent legislation affecting the lives of all Texans, they have fled Texas to deprive the House of the quorum necessary to meet and conduct business.”
Abbott said if they didn’t return by 3 p.m. local time on Monday, he would invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House. He further went on to claim the lawmakers who left “may also have committed felonies” by fundraising in order to pay the $500 fine they risk accruing each day they are absent.
Paxton, in a social media post, wrote that “Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately. We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.”
What’s at stake
The new congressional map was proposed by Texas Republicans following a push by Trump for maps more favorable to Republicans to help the party keep the majority in the House in 2026. Currently, House Republicans are operating with a narrow majority.
Trump has said he wants Republicans to pick up five new seats in Texas and others around the country. Democrats have slammed the move and said it risks hurting minority voters.
As the redistricting battle heats up, a House Republican will introduce legislation to ban mid-decade redrawing of congressional maps nationwide.
California GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley will formally introduce the bill on Tuesday which will “nullify new maps adopted by states before the 2030 census, including any that are adopted this year.” The bill’s future remains uncertain, however, as it’s unlikely to be backed by House Republican leadership.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — A showdown is unfolding in Texas as Gov. Greg Abbott threatens to remove Democrats who have fled the state in protest of Republican-led effort to create a new congressional map.
Abbott said Texas House Democrats have until 3 p.m. local time on Monday to return to the statehouse for the special session or risk losing their jobs. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton suggested Democrats who left should be arrested and forcibly brought back.
The response from the Texas House Democratic Caucus to Abbott’s threat was, “Come and take it.”
Democratic members who left the state are slated to hold various events throughout the day Monday in New York, Massachusetts and Illinois.
The proposed congressional map, backed by President Donald Trump, could create up to five new Republican seats and help Republicans keep control of the House in the 2026 midterm elections. Consideration of the bill had been set for Monday, but cannot proceed if Democrats deny a quorum.
The first press conference with Texas Democrats on Monday was with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in Albany.
“We won’t sit on the sidelines while Republicans try to rig the system to give Donald Trump more unchecked power,” Hochul said in a statement. “Texas Democrats are standing up for the future of our democracy, and I’m proud to stand with them in the fight against disenfranchisement.”
Texas House Democrats who have gone to Massachusetts for the National Conference of State Legislators summit will be joined by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for a press conference in Boston on Monday at 1 p.m. ET. Then, Texas House Democrats who have gathered in Illinois will hold a press conference with Democratic members of Congress in Chicago.
Pritzker on Sunday accused Trump of “rigging” the new Texas maps out of desperation and worry that due to his policies, he was in danger of losing House Republican majorities in Washington. The Illinois governor also warned the newly-proposed maps set a dangerous precedent across the country.
“This is not just rigging the system in Texas,” Pritzker said. “It’s about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come.”
Abbott, in his warning to Texas House Democrats, said leaving the state in protest amounted to “abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office.”
“Real Texans do not run from a fight,” Abbott said in the statement. “But that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did. Rather than doing their job and voting on urgent legislation affecting the lives of all Texans, they have fled Texas to deprive the House of the quorum necessary to meet and conduct business.”
(SOLVANG, Calif.) — Over 1,000 firefighters continue to battle a wildfire in Southern California that has scorched over 65,000 acres, prompted evacuation orders and caused three injuries, according to officials.
The Gifford Fire, which began on Friday afternoon, is situated within the Los Padres National Forest in Solvang, California, impacting those within Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, officials said. As of Monday, the fire has engulfed 65,062 acres and is only 3% contained, according to Cal Fire.
While the flames have been centered around thick brush and rugged terrain, officials said 460 structures are threatened by this wildfire.
On Sunday, officials said the fire “showed significant growth as it aligned with topographical features, especially in grass-dominated areas.”
Evacuation orders and warnings are in effect for areas in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, and Highway 166 has been closed due to flames burning on both sides of the road, officials said.
Three people have been injured from the wildfire, including one civilian who was hospitalized for burn injuries and two contractor employees who were injured in a UTV rollover incident, officials said on Saturday.
An air quality alert in Cuyama, California, and an air quality watch for the rest of Santa Barbara County will remain in effect “until conditions improve,” the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District said on Saturday.
“If you see or smell smoke in the air, be cautious and use common sense to protect your and your family’s health. Everyone, especially people with heart or lung conditions, older adults, pregnant women and children, should limit time spent outdoors and avoid outdoor exercise when high concentrations of smoke and particles are in the air,” the air pollution control district said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, according to Cal Fire.
The fire is located west of the Madre Fire, which burned over 80,000 acres and was fully contained on July 26, officials said.
(LOS ANGELES) — Erik Menendez is back in prison — weeks ahead of his parole hearing — after an extended hospitalization, sources confirmed to ABC News.
On July 22, ABC News learned the 54-year-old was in the hospital. The younger Menendez brother was suffering from kidney stones, Los Angeles ABC station KABC reported.
Erik and Lyle Menendez, who are both serving their time at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, will soon take a new step toward release.
The brothers were initially sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. Lyle Menendez was 21 and Erik Menendez was 18 at the time of the murders.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman has fought against their release, calling the brothers’ claims of self-defense part of a litany of “lies.” But the brothers have the support of over 20 family members in their efforts to be freed.
This May, Erik and Lyle Menendez were resentenced to 50 years to life in prison, which makes them eligible for parole.
The brothers will appear at a parole hearing on Aug. 21.
(LOS ANGELES) — Two people were killed and six others were injured in a mass shooting at an apparent afterparty in downtown Los Angeles, authorities said.
Around 11 p.m. Sunday, officers saw someone run into a location that appeared to be a party with about 50 to 60 people in attendance, Los Angeles Police Department commanding officer Letisia Ruiz said. One person was arrested for possession of a firearm, police said, and officers locked down the scene, cleared it and left for another call.
Then, around 1 a.m. Monday, police received a radio call for shots fired, and officers responded to the location again and found several people struck by gunfire, Ruiz said. The eight gunshot victims were all adults, police said. One of the injured was listed in critical condition, police said.
Police have no suspect information and no motive, Ruiz said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Hundreds of wildfires still burning in Canada are expected to undermine air quality across the Upper Midwest and Northeast into Tuesday.
At least 738 wildfires are currently burning in Canada, with at least 201 out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
As a result, at least eight states from Wisconsin to Maine were under air quality alerts as of Monday morning due to wildfire smoke.
Heavy smoke will run through that corridor on Monday, with hazy skies expected from Green Bay, through Detroit and New York City to Boston.
Detroit and Chicago begin Monday listed among the world’s 10 worst major cities for air quality.
Those living under alerts should limit outside exertion and keep their windows closed, officials said. Alerts may remain in place through Tuesday with smoke still lingering.
