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(LAKE FOREST, Ill) — Jim Lovell, the commander of the famed Apollo 13 mission, has died, according to NASA. He was 97.

“We are saddened by the passing of Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13 and a four-time spaceflight veteran,” the space agency said. “Lovell’s life and work inspired millions. His courage under pressure helped forge our path to the Moon and beyond—a journey that continues today.”

Lovell died Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois, according to a statement from acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy.

In 1968, as Apollo 8’s command module pilot, he became, with Frank Borman and William Anders, one of the first three astronauts to fly to and orbit the Moon.

A veteran of several missions, Lovell became the commander for Apollo 13, which nearly avoided disaster after an oxygen tank in the service module exploded two days into the mission.

Lovell was portrayed by Tom Hanks in the Ron Howard-directed “Apollo 13,” which depicted the events surrounding the mission.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 25, 1928, Lovell attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison and the U.S. Naval Academy. He was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1962.

He served as a backup pilot for the Gemini 4 flight and backup commander for the Gemini 9 flight, and was selected as the backup commander for Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission.

In December 1965, he and Borman launched into space on the history-making Gemini 7 mission. The flight included the first rendezvous of two manned maneuverable spacecraft.

The Gemini 12 mission, commanded by Lovell with pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, began on Nov. 11, 1966. This 4-day, 59-revolution flight brought the Gemini program to a successful close.

Lovell served as the command module pilot and navigator on the six-day journey of Apollo 8 in late December 1968. Lovell, Borman and Anders became the first humans to leave Earth’s gravitational influence and the first to reach the Moon, with the crew orbiting the Moon ten times without landing.

As commander of the Apollo 13, he became the first person to journey twice to the Moon. Launching on April 11, 1970, and scheduled to last 10 days, the mission was aborted due to a malfunction in the oxygen tank in the service module two days into the mission.

Lovell and fellow crewmen, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise, working with Houston ground controllers, then converted their lunar module into an effective lifeboat. Their emergency activation and operation of lunar module systems conserved both electrical power and water in sufficient supply to assure their survival while in space.

The Apollo 13 crewmembers returned safely to Earth on April 17, 1970.

Lovell retired from the Navy and the space program on March 1, 1973. He worked in the telecommunications industry and retired as executive vice president of Centel Corporation in 1991.

He was a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

He was married to his wife Marilyn for over six decades until her death in 2023. He is survived by four children.

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(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) — An employee at an Alaska airport has been arrested for allegedly stalking fellow staff members by placing GPS tracking devices underneath their vehicles, according to the state department of transportation.

Dustin Madden, a 40-year-old airport operations specialist at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, was arraigned on Thursday afternoon “in connection with an investigation involving unauthorized GPS tracking devices placed on employees’ personal vehicles,” the Alaska DOT said in a press release on Thursday.

Officials said Madden’s arrest follows “multiple reports” from airport staff members who “discovered GPS trackers on their personal vehicles while parked in the airport’s employee parking lot.”

Madden was charged with four misdemeanor counts of stalking and one felony count of tampering with evidence, but officials said “further charges may be forthcoming.” Two of the stalking incidents known by officials occurred in July, with a third in 2024 and a fourth in 2022, according to court records.

The suspect had been an employee at the airport since Sept. 30, 2020, and is now on administrative leave, officials said.

He remains in custody at the Anchorage Correctional Complex, according to jail records.

DOT officials are asking for anyone impacted by this incident to contact authorities, as officials said they believe “there may be additional victims who have not yet come forward.”

If someone does discover a tracking device on their vehicle, officials said to not remove or tamper with it, to contact law enforcement immediately and allow officials to “respond, coordinate appropriate next steps and work to preserve the device as potential evidence.”

“The Anchorage International Airport is committed to ensuring a safe, respectful and secure workplace, and acts of surveillance, intimidation or harassment will not be tolerated. Security and privacy protocols are under review to ensure strong protection of staff and visitors, and Anchorage Police and Fire are increasing patrol of parking areas,” the department of transportation said.

It is unclear whether Madden has an attorney who can speak on his behalf. Court records indicate his next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 26.

The Anchorage Department of Transportation and the Anchorage International Airport Police and Fire did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.

Anyone who was affected by the incident or has relevant information is urged to contact airport police at 907-266-2411.

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(BOSTON) — Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins was arrested Thursday on federal extortion charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

Federal prosecutors allege the 67-year-old Massachusetts sheriff had pressured a cannabis company executive for a secret investment deal worth $50,000.

Tompkins, who had led the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department since 2013 and oversaw about 1,000 employees, was arrested in Florida and charged with two counts of extortion, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

According to federal court documents, Tompkins had used his position as sheriff to force his way into buying pre-IPO (initial public offering) stock in a Boston cannabis company at a discounted price. When the investment later lost value, prosecutors alleged he demanded and received a full refund of his money.

The scheme started in 2019 when the cannabis company, which wasn’t named in court documents, wanted to open a store in Boston, the indictment stated. The company needed Sheriff Tompkins’ help, according to the indictment, as his department would refer former inmates to work at the store, which was required by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission for their state license.

Federal investigators said Tompkins allegedly took advantage of this partnership. According to the indictment, he pressured a company executive, reminding them that he had helped with their license application. The executive feared Tompkins would end their partnership if they didn’t give in to his demands for stock, prosecutors said.

After getting the shares in November 2020, court documents showed Tompkins initially saw his $50,000 investment grow to about $138,000 when the company went public.

However, when the stock price later fell, prosecutors alleged Tompkins demanded his money back. The executive paid him through five separate checks, with some labeled as “loan repayment” to hide what the payments were really for, according to the indictment.

The executive agreed to the demands for repayment, fearing Tompkins would use his position to harm their business operations, according to the indictment.

“What the Sheriff saw as an easy way to make a quick buck on the sly is clear cut corruption under federal law,” FBI Boston Division Special Agent in Charge Ted E. Docks said in a statement.

If found guilty, Tompkins could face up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley said in a statement that the case showed her office’s commitment to fighting public corruption.

“Elected officials, particularly those in law enforcement, are expected to be ethical, honest and law abiding – not self-serving,” Foley said in the press release.

According to federal officials, Tompkins will first appear in court in Florida before facing the charges in Boston at a later date.

ABC News reached out to Tompkins’ attorney who did not immediately respond for comment.

The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department declined to comment when contacted.

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(NEW YORK) — The Justice Department is seeking to unseal the exhibits shown to the federal grand juries in New York that indicted Jeffrey Epstein and his former companion Ghislaine Maxwell in addition to the transcripts of testimony, according to a court filing Friday.

Justice Department officials have conceded that much of what is in the transcripts is already publicly known, but the exhibits contain names that did not appear in the transcripts, the filing said.

The government is now trying to notify those individuals “to the extent their names appear in grand jury exhibits that were not publicly admitted at the Maxwell trial,” the filing said.

The Justice Department asked the court to give it until Aug. 14 to make the necessary notifications. The filing did not say how many individuals needed to be contacted.

The Trump administration has been seeking to release materials related to the investigation into Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in jail in 2019, following the blowback it received from MAGA supporters after it announced last month that no additional files would be released.

Attorneys for victims of Epstein and Maxwell have criticized the administration’s approach to transparency, saying in a letter to the court that it “reinforces the perception that the victims are, at best, an afterthought to the current administration.”

The victims say they are generally supportive of transparency, but that they want the chance to review the records and propose additional redactions.

Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and other offenses in connection with Epstein.

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(NEW YORK) — Prosecutors in the state case against Luigi Mangione denied on Friday violating the medical privacy rights of the accused UnitedHealthcare CEO killer, as his attorneys alleged, arguing they sought nothing more than “entirely unremarkable” information from his health insurer.

The defense accused prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office of violating Mangione’s rights protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act when they subpoenaed Aetna for information and “partially reviewed confidential, private, protected documents.” The defense sought to suppress the information.

The district attorney’s office said in a filing on Friday that there was nothing “secretive or nefarious” about a subpoena that sought “entirely unremarkable” information like Mangione’s account number and time period of coverage.

In response, Aetna turned over more information than prosecutors requested, prosecutors said.

“Given these circumstances, defendant’s real complaint is not about the subpoena itself, but about Aetna’s response to the subpoena, which included documents that the People had not requested,” Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann said. “The People issued a valid subpoena to Aetna for an appropriately limited set of relevant information. Through no fault of the People, Aetna seemingly provided materials outside the scope of the subpoena. The People then properly identified the error and notified the Court and the defense and deleted our copy of said materials.”

The defense compounded Aetna’s mistake by sending prosecutors an email attaching the entire Aetna file that prosecutors had already deleted, Seidemann said.

“The defense nonetheless seeks to punish the People for the administrative mistakes of others, claiming that the People have perpetrated a ‘lie and a fraud’ against defendant — an inflammatory and dubious accusation without any basis,” Seidemann said.

Prosecutors urged the judge to grant no relief to Mangione and instead set a date for trial.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state charges alleging he murdered United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside the Midtown hotel where the executive was about to attend an investor conference last year. Mangione has also pleaded not guilty to federal charges that could result in the death penalty.

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(NEW YORK) — A federal appeals court on Friday overturned U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s attempt to initiate contempt proceedings against the Trump administration related to the March deportation of hundreds of migrants to El Salvador, in what the panel’s majority described as an “extraordinary, ongoing confrontation between the Executive and Judicial Branches.”

In a 2-1 decision, Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao — both Trump appointees — vacated Judge Boasberg’s contempt-related order that sought to determine if members of the Trump administration deliberately defied a court order after the president invoked the Alien Enemies Act in March.

“The district court’s order raises troubling questions about judicial control over core executive functions like the conduct of foreign policy and the prosecution of criminal offenses. And it implicates an unsettled issue whether the judiciary may impose criminal contempt for violating injunctions entered without jurisdiction,” Judge Katsas wrote in a concurring opinion.

The Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act — an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.

Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order and ordered that the planes be turned around, but Justice Department attorneys said his oral instructions directing the flight to be returned were defective, and the deportations proceeded as planned.

Boasberg subsequently sought contempt proceedings against the government for deliberately defying his order.

Judge Katsas, in Friday’s decision, wrote that the “ambiguities” in Judge Boasberg’s original order blocking the removal of the migrants make it impossible to definitively say that the Trump administration acted in contempt.

“At the time of the alleged contempt, just hours after the TRO hearing and before any transcript of it was available, the district court’s minute order could reasonably have been read either way. Thus, the TRO cannot support a criminal-contempt conviction here,” he wrote.

In a searing dissent, Judge Cornelia Pillard defended Judge Boasberg’s attempt to initiate contempt proceedings to “vindicate the authority of the court” after the “apparently contumacious conduct.” 71045364″The rule of law depends on obedience to judicial orders,” she wrote. ” Yet, shortly after the district court granted plaintiffs’ emergency motion for a temporary restraining order, defendants appear to have disobeyed it. Our system of courts cannot long endure if disappointed litigants defy court orders with impunity rather than legally challenge them. That is why willful disobedience of a court order is punishable as criminal contempt.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated Friday’s ruling on social media, calling Judge Boasberg’s order “failed judicial overreach at its worst.”

“Our @TheJusticeDept attorneys just secured a MAJOR victory defending President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal alien terrorists. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed what we’ve argued for months: Judge Boasberg’s attempt to sanction the government for deporting criminal-alien terrorists was a “clear abuse of discretion,” Bondi wrote. “We will continue fighting and WINNING in court for President Trump’s agenda to keep America Safe!”

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(NEW YORK) — Record-breaking heat continues for parts of the desert Southwest into the weekend, with sweltering temperatures beginning to expand east into the Heartland.

Extreme heat warnings remain in effect for parts of the desert Southwest — including Palm Springs, California; Phoenix; and Tucson, Arizona.

High temperatures are expected to reach well into the 100s and up to 115 in spots.

Heat advisories are also in effect on Friday for other areas of the Four Corners region stretching into the Plains as the heat begins to shift east.

Places under these heat advisories include Albuquerque, New Mexico; Dallas, El Paso and Amarillo, Texas; Oklahoma City; Wichita, Kansas; Denver; and Sioux City, Iowa.

High temperatures between 100 and 110 are possible for these areas for on Friday.

Record-high temperatures are possible for Albuquerque through Saturday.

The heat is expected to be less extreme for the desert Southwest this weekend.

Later this weekend into next week, widespread heat will return to the Northeast and much of the country.

Later this weekend into next week, extreme heat will be possible for parts of northwest California, western Oregon and southwest Washington. Places from Yreka, California, up to Portland, Oregon, may see high temperatures push into the 100s and low temperatures only between 60 and 70 Sunday through Monday.

On Thursday, Phoenix saw a high temperature of 118 degrees. This not only was the hottest temperature recorded for the month of August, it is also tied for the ninth-hottest day all time since records began in 1895.

Fire weather danger persists
Red flag warnings are in places across five states in the West — Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico — for critical fire weather conditions that are keeping a strong foothold this week.

Single-digit humidity and wind gusts between 35 to 55 mph are possible anywhere in these areas, though it depends on exact location.

These conditions will be conducive to rapid fire spread with any new or existing wildfires in these areas.

Fire weather conditions are expected to remain critical through at least Saturday, but may persist into the beginning of next week.

A red flag warning is also in effect for Medford, Oregon, due to dry and breezy conditions.

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