(SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.) — Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who has stayed largely out of the political limelight since leaving office, is set to deliver remarks on Wednesday in San Francisco as the Trump administration celebrates its accomplishments of its first 100 days.
Harris will be speaking at the 20th anniversary celebration for Emerge, an organization that supports Democratic women running for office.
The former Democratic nominee for president has had few public appearances since departing the White House, and has limited her political activity.
But her remarks come as she is set to possibly re-enter politics in the coming months. Harris has been mulling a run in California’s gubernatorial race and will make a decision by the end of summer, two sources familiar with her plans told ABC News in March.
Some Democrats have also floated her as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, although some of her longtime supporters have told ABC News they are torn over that prospect.
Whether she runs for either office or not, Harris’ public remarks thus far have sometimes included veiled and explicit swipes at the Trump administration and the president himself.
In remarks at a women of color leaders summit in early April, she weighed in on the second Trump administration, saying “there is a sense of fear that has been taking hold in our country” but that “courage is also contagious.”
And in remarks at the NAACP Image Awards in February, Harris framed the “chapter” America is in as one that “will be written not simply by whoever occupies the oval office nor by the wealthiest among us. The American story will be written by you. Written by us. By we the people.”
Harris and her spouse Doug Emhoff have been the target of recent actions by President Donald Trump.
Trump issued a memo in March that revoked the security clearances and access to classified information of his previous presidential opponents — Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris — as well as more than a dozen former administration officials. On Tuesday, Emhoff said he had been dismissed from the board of trustees of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as the White House confirmed it had removed board members.
-ABC News’ Averi Harper, Zohreen Shah, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
(LA QUINTA, Calif.) — Former NFL star John Elway’s longtime business partner and former agent died Wednesday after reportedly falling from a golf cart.
Jeff Sperbeck, 62, died Wednesday after an accident Saturday evening in La Quinta, California, the Riverside County Coroner confirmed to ABC News.
It was not confirmed yet who was driving the golf cart.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL Fire) responded to a 911 call about a person falling from a golf cart on the 53200 block of Humboldt Blvd in La Quinta. Emergency personnel transported the injured person to a nearby trauma center with serious injuries, officials said.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the incident, though sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News the investigation is in its preliminary stages. Because the incident occurred in a private community and involved a golf cart rather than a regular vehicle, standard traffic laws may not apply.
Elway, a Hall of Fame quarterback, spent his entire 16-year NFL career with the Denver Broncos, leading the team to two Super Bowl victories.
The NFL star later served as the Broncos’ general manager and executive vice president before transitioning to a consultant role, which ended in March 2023.
Sperbeck had represented over 100 football players in his 30-year career as an NFL agent.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday appeared ready to clear the way for creation of the nation’s first religious charter school funded directly with taxpayer dollars.
The justices heard arguments in a landmark dispute from Oklahoma, where the state Supreme Court last year blocked the Catholic Church from receiving a charter school contract on grounds that it violated state and federal constitutional bans on government-sponsored sectarian education.
A decision overruling the state high court would have ripple effects nationwide, especially in the 45 states that are home to 8,000 charter schools serving more than 3.8 million kids.
The state’s Republican attorney general argues that charter schools are public schools – open to all and subject to close supervision – and, as such, operate as extensions of state government subject to principles of separation of church and state.
Lawyers for the prospective school — St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School — insist that it is privately created and controlled and that excluding it from generally available charter school funding is religious discrimination.
For more than two hours, the justices debated application of the First Amendment’s competing religion clauses to the case, weighing both its prohibition of state establishment of religion and its protection of free exercise of religious faith.
The court’s three liberal members were united in the view that charter schools are quintessentially public institutions that cannot advance a specific ideology using taxpayer funds.
“The essence of the Establishment Clause was, we’re not going to pay religious leaders to teach their religion,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Justice Elena Kagan noted that the Oklahoma law creating a charter school program explicitly says they must be nonreligious.
“These are state-run institutions,” Kagan said. “With respect to a whole variety of things, the state is running these schools and insisting upon certain requirements.”
Conservatives suggested they had a fundamentally different view of charter schools — as contractors for a public service rather than an arm of the government.
“The argument that St. Isidore and the board has made is that it’s a private entity that is participating in a state program,” noted Justice Clarence Thomas. “It was not created by the state program.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh expressed concern that a ruling against St. Isidore on First Amendment grounds could call into question other government contracts with religiously affiliated organizations.
“I think a concern here is that religiously operated senior homes or food banks or foster care agencies or adoption agencies or homeless shelters, many of which get substantial funding from the government, would potentially … become state actors and, thus, not be able to exercise their religion,” Kavanaugh said.
A series of recent Supreme Court decisions has endorsed the idea that taxpayer-funded public benefit programs, from school vouchers to state-run scholarships, must be equally available, even if a person or organization has a religious affiliation.
Many of the justices said those precedents apply to the Oklahoma case.
Kavanaugh emphasized that religious charter schools would provide families with “options” but not confine students to a religious education.
“A student in Oklahoma is free to choose a public school, correct? No student is required to attend a charter school, correct?” he said.
“That’s right,” replied Gregory Garre, the attorney representing the state.
Justice Neil Gorsuch suggested that individual states opposed to religiously affiliated charter schools could tailor their laws to prevent that — and potentially curtail a charter’s independence.
“I can imagine some states might respond to a decision in your favor by imposing more requirements on charter schools,” Gorsuch said to attorney James Campbell representing the plaintiffs.
Chief Justice John Roberts posed critical questions of both sides. At one point, Roberts opined that a St. Isidore charter school would pose a striking “comprehensive involvement” between church and state. Later, he likened the relationship to Catholic Charities’ contract with the City of Philadelphia to provide adoption services; a 2021 high court decision said the city could not exclude the religious agency from the foster care program.
“How is that different from what we have here?” Roberts asked Oklahoma attorney Gregory Garre. “You have an education program, and you want to not allow them to participate with a religious entity.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused from the case last year but did not explain her decision. Veteran court watchers have noted her close ties to the University of Notre Dame and personal relationships with law professors there who are involved in the case.
Her absence creates the possibility of a gridlocked 4-4 court, in which case the Oklahoma state Supreme Court ruling would stand. Roberts is widely seen as being the decisive vote.
“Today’s oral arguments made clear that states must not treat religious individuals and institutions as second-class citizens,” said Carrie Severino, a former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas and president of JCN, a conservative legal advocacy group. “I expect the court will follow precedent and allow St. Isidore to offer educational choice for Oklahoma’s students.”
Opponents of religious charter schools said they feared a major ruling is on the horizon and could be transformative.
“If today’s arguments are any indication, the Supreme Court may be on the verge of abandoning one of the bedrock principles of our democracy,” said Rev. Dr. Shannon Fleck, executive director of Faithful America, a left-leaning Christian advocacy group. “Let’s be clear, this was always a test case, and today, the constitutional protections that have guarded true religious freedom for generations are at risk.”
(SYRACUSE, N.Y.) — A group of students from a high school in Syracuse, New York, surrendered to authorities on Wednesday for an alleged hazing incident described by the local district attorney as “incomprehensible.”
All 11 implicated students surrendered themselves to police over the incident after being given a 48-hour deadline, the district attorney’s office confirmed to Syracuse ABC affiliate WSYR.
“I cannot really adequately express to this community the level of stupidity and lack of judgement involved in this case,” Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick said during a press conference on Tuesday.
Fitzpatrick said he decided to prosecute charges against 11 students at Westhill High School who allegedly hazed a younger student on April 24.
In the evening hours of April 24, the students — most are members of the boys varsity lacrosse team — allegedly decided they would “haze or play some sort of prank on some of the younger members of the lacrosse team,” Fitzpatrick said.
One victim told officials he thought he was going to have an “enjoyable evening with the upperclassman, go to a lacrosse game and finish the evening with something to eat at McDonald’s,” Fitzpatrick said.
But, on their way home from eating food, the driver of the car claimed he was lost, stopped in a remote part of the county, which is when “accomplices jumped out of the woods pretending to be kidnappers,” Fitzpatrick said.
These accomplices, who were other students, were dressed in black and armed with “at least one handgun and at least one knife,” Fitzpatrick said.
The victim had a pillowcase placed over his head, was tied up and placed in the trunk of the car, according to the DA.
“I’ve seen the video tape of what happened to this young man, it is not a rite of passage, it is not a trivial matter,” Fitzpatrick said. “I find it incomprehensible that in this day and age that somebody thought they could have gotten away with something like this.”
Investigators say there were four other potential victims, but they were able to flee the area.
Fitzpatrick, who described the incident as “hazing on steroids,” had given the 11 suspects 48 hours to turn themselves into the sheriff’s department.
The DA said Tuesday that if the suspects decided to surrender to police before Friday, their cases would either be handled through the family court system or would not fall under their criminal records.
He added that if the students refused to cooperate, they would be arrested, prosecuted as adults and charged with kidnapping in the second degree.
Fitzpatrick said the incident “goes way beyond hazing,” likening it more to “criminal activity.”
“If you want to welcome someone onto your team and toughen them up, maybe an extra hour of practice might be appropriate as opposed to taking someone at gunpoint, stuffing them in the back of a car and traumatizing them for the rest of their life,” Fitzpatrick said.
Westhill Schools Superintendent Steven Dunham sent an email to families regarding the incident, saying the school made the “difficult decision to cancel the remainder of the Westhill High School varsity boys lacrosse season,” even though the majority of those on the team were not involved in the alleged hazing.
“Some may argue that all student-athletes shouldn’t be punished for the actions of a few. While I understand the perspective, we must address the culture of the program, and the most appropriate way to do that is with a reset,” Dunham said.
Dunham said the school will address the behavior that “negatively impacts members of our school community promptly and appropriately according to our Code of Conduct.”
Office of the President of Ukraine via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump reflected on the dramatic meeting he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy inside St. Peter’s Basilica just before the pope’s funeral on Saturday, when asked by ABC News anchor and Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran in an exclusive interview Tuesday in the Oval Office.
Noting the striking photograph of the two men “talking peace” that “went around the world,” Moran asked Trump, “Take us into that moment.”
“The moment was a moment of solace in a sense, because — tremendous numbers of people are dying. A lot of his people are dying,” Trump answered. “They’re being killed, and I feel very badly about it,” he said.
It was the first time Trump and Zelenskyy had met face-to-face since their heated argument in the Oval Office in February.
At the time, Zelenskyy contended the Russian president needed stronger pushback from Ukraine’s allies.
“I really count on your strong position to stop Putin,” Zelenskyy said to Trump at the February meeting.
Moran noted that Trump has since appeared to have changed his thinking about Putin’s intentions, bringing up what Trump said in a social media post after his conversation with Zelenskyy in St. Peter’s.
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, in cities and towns, over the last few days,” he said in the post. “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war. He’s just tapping me along.”
Trump repeated those comments in the interview.
“It’s possible. Yeah, that’s possible. Sure,” he said. “He could be tapping me along a little bit. I would say that he would like to stop the war.”
When Moran asked if Trump truly believed Putin wanted to end the war even with the continued attacks, Trump claimed that negotiations would have been much worse under a different president.
“You think Vladimir Putin wants peace?” Moran asked.
“I think he does, yes. I think he does,” he answered.
“Still?” Moran said.
“I think because of me … ” Trump continued.
“Even with the raining missiles on …?” Moran asked.
“I think he really– his– his– his dream was to take over the whole country. I think because of me, he’s not gonna do that,” Trump answered.
Asked if he trusts Putin, Trump said, “I don’t trust a lot of people. But I do think this. I think that he … let’s say he respects me,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — In his interview with ABC News on his 100th day in office, President Donald Trump was asked about one of his biggest supporters sounding the alarm about his aggressive migrant deportation plan.
Joe Rogan told his audience of millions on his April 17 episode that “rounding up gang members and shipping them to El Salvador with no due process” was “dangerous.”
“We gotta be careful that we don’t become monsters while we’re fighting monsters,” Rogan said.
Responding to that quote in an interview with ABC News anchor and Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran on Tuesday — who asked whether Rogan was right — Trump said he was.
“Oh, I agree with that a hundred percent, yeah,” the president said. “We want to be careful. We are careful.”
When asked about the various court challenges to the deportations and court orders admonishing his administration for not following the law, Trump pushed back, calling those being deported “criminals.” He claimed Venezuelan “criminals are now living happily in the United States of America, and we’re getting ’em out.”
“And I was elected to get ’em out, and we’re getting them out, getting them out fast, and we’re getting them out legally,” he said.
Moran stressed that “in our country even bad guys get due process,” but Trump contended the situation is different for migrants in the country illegally.
“If people come into our country illegally there’s a different standard. These are illegal. They came in illegally,” the president said.
“But they get due process,” Moran said.
“Well, they get a process where we have to get ’em out, yeah,” Trump said.
The president was asked about the unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ordered the administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a migrant from El Salvador who was deported from Maryland to a notorious prison there because of an “administrative error,” according to the Justice Department.
Trump alleged that Abrego Garcia was a violent gang member, even though judges have said such claims have not been proven in court by prosecutors in the weeks since he was arrested.
“You could get him back. There’s a phone on this desk,” Moran said.
“I could,” Trump said.
“You could pick it up, and with all … ” Moran continued.
“I could,” Trump said again, interrupting Moran.
“… the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, ‘Send him back,’ right now,” Moran said.
“And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that,” Trump said. “But he’s not.”
When Moran said “the buck stops in this office,” Trump responded, “I follow the law. You want me to follow the law. If I were the president that just wanted to do anything, I’d probably keep him right where he is.”
When questioned again about the Supreme Court ruling, Moran saying, “the Supreme Court says what the law is,” Trump said he was elected in November to crack down on illegal immigration.
“Listen. I was elected to take care of a problem that was — it was — a, a unforced error that was made by a very incompetent man,” Trump said, referring to former President Joe Biden.
Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The federal judge overseeing the wrongful deportation case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Wednesday denied a motion from the Trump administration to further delay discovery in the case.
The order came a week after the judge paused expedited discovery for seven days after the Trump administration asked her for the stay.
The judge, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, earlier this month slammed the administration over its inaction over Abrego Garcia’s wrongful detention and ordered government officials to testify under oath through expedited discovery.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who has been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
Following her order Wednesday, Judge Xinis set new deadlines for the government to respond to requests.
By May 5, the government must answer and respond to all outstanding discovery requests and supplement their invocations of privilege consistent with the court’s previous orders, Xinis ruled.
The depositions of four government witnesses who plaintiffs say have knowledge of the circumstances in the case must be completed by May 9, she ordered.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers may seek the court’s permission to conduct up to two additional depositions, Judge Ximis said.
The plaintiffs have a deadline of May 12 to renew their motions for relief, which previously asked the court to order the government to comply with the order to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., and to order the government to show cause why it should not be held in contempt for failing to comply with the court’s prior orders.
The government will have until May 14 to respond to that motion, Xinis said.
The Trump administration, while acknowledging that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in error, has said that his alleged MS-13 affiliation makes him ineligible to return to the United States. His wife and attorney have denied that he is an MS-13 member.
In 2019, an immigration judge determined that Abrego Garcia was removable from the U.S. based on allegations of his gang affiliation made by local police in Maryland. But Abrego Garcia was subsequently granted withholding of removal to his home country.
Judge Xinis early this month ruled that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, and the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that ruling, “with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
Tuesday, in an exclusive interview with ABC News to mark his 100th day in office, President Trump said he “could” secure the return of Abrego Garcia, and “if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that” — before adding, “I’m not the one making this decision.”
(PITTSBURGH) — Four people have died in Pennsylvania as severe storms hammered much of the U.S. on Tuesday night.
A long-lived destructive thunderstorm wind event, known as a derecho, traveled more than 500 miles from eastern Indiana through central Pennsylvania on Tuesday afternoon. Wind gusts reached 80 mph as the more than 60-mile-wide storm complex knocked down trees and power lines along its destructive path.
In Franklin Township in eastern Pennsylvania, high winds knocked down a tree, which then fell onto a car, killing a passenger inside, according to Pennsylvania State Police.
In State College in central Pennsylvania, a 22-year-old man was fatally electrocuted when he was putting out a mulch fire caused by live wires knocked down in the storm, officials said.
Two other victims died in the Pittsburgh area in western Pennsylvania, according to Allegheny County officials.
Many schools in western and central Pennsylvania are running on a delay or have canceled classes Wednesday as more than 400,000 customers in the state remain without power.
The four fatalities came as severe weather hammered much of the country from Texas to New York on Tuesday night.
Wind gusts climbed over 100 mph in Texas and neared 90 mph in Missouri.
Three confirmed tornadoes struck Oklahoma and Missouri, uprooting large trees, damaging buildings and destroying roofs.
The severe weather threat continues on Wednesday, impacting Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
A tornado watch has been issued for parts of northeast Texas, eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. Damaging wind gusts up to 70 mph and scattered, large hail are also possible.
One to 5 inches of rain is possible Wednesday from Fort Worth, Texas, to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and more than 6 inches is possible in parts of southeast Oklahoma.
This comes after 2 to 5 inches of rain fell Tuesday from north Texas to Oklahoma City to Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the last week, this area has seen 800% of its normal rainfall for this time of year — so adding more rain on top of that will easily spark flash flooding. Oklahoma City is expected to break its record for wettest April ever on Wednesday.
On Thursday, there’s a chance for severe storms bringing damaging winds and hail from San Antonio to Buffalo, New York.
By Saturday, the system will be much less severe, but light rain is expected from the Gulf to the Northeast.
(FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.) — A case of active tuberculosis has been confirmed at a Florida high school, according to state health officials.
The Florida Department of Health in Broward County (DOH-Broward) identified the infected individual, who was recently on campus at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, John J. Sullivan, chief of communications and legislative affairs for Broward County Public Schools (BCPS), told ABC News in a statement.
“In collaboration with DOH-Broward, Broward County Public Schools has identified and notified individuals who may have been in close contact. With parental consent, DOH-Broward will be on-site to provide testing. Impacted students and staff have been directly contacted,” the statement read.
Additionally, the school principal sent a letter to the community on Tuesday, making them aware of the case, BCPS told ABC News.
“No further action is needed unless you are contacted directly. Once again, if you have not been contacted directly or your child has received a letter to present to you, there is no action required at this time,” the letter read, in part. “We certainly thank you for your understanding as we continue to navigate through this.”
It’s unclear if the individual is a student, faculty member or staff member.
It comes after Kansas health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the state experienced one of the largest recorded tuberculosis outbreaks in U.S. history earlier this year.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by a type of bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, according to the CDC. It is one of the world’s leading infectious disease killers, the federal health agency says.
TB is spread in the air from one person to another. When a person with TB coughs, speaks or sings, germs are expelled into the air — where they can linger for several hours — before another person breathes in the air and becomes infected.
Signs and symptoms include a cough that lasts for three weeks or longer, coughing up blood or phlegm, chest pain, weakness, fatigue, weight loss, loss of appetite, fever, chills and night sweats, according to the CDC.
Some people become infected with TB germs that live in the body for years without causing illness. This is known as inactive TB or latent TB.
People with inactive TB do not feel ill, do not have symptoms and cannot spread germs to other people, the CDC says. However, without receiving treatment, people with inactive TB can develop an active infection.
Last year, the U.S. saw more than 8,700 cases of TB, according to CDC data. Although TB cases have been steadily declining since the mid 1990s, rates increased in 2021, 2022 and 2023, with 2023 matching pre-pandemic levels.
There are several treatment regimens for TB disease that may last anywhere from four months to nine months depending on the course of treatment. Health care providers may consider specific regimens for patients with co-existing medical conditions such as diabetes or HIV.
A vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is commonly given to children in countries where TB is common, although it is generally not recommended in the U.S. due to the low risk of infection with the bacteria, variable vaccine effectiveness among adults, and the vaccine’s potential interference with TB tests, the CDC notes. The BCG vaccine often leaves a scar where the recipient was given the shot.
(SYRACUSE, N.Y.) — The district attorney in Syracuse, New York, is giving a group of high school students 48 hours to turn themselves in for an alleged hazing incident that he describes as a “criminal matter.”
“I cannot really adequately express to this community the level of stupidity and lack of judgement involved in this case,” Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick said during a press conference on Tuesday.
Fitzpatrick said he decided to prosecute charges against 11 students at Westhill High School who allegedly hazed a younger student on April 24.
In the evening hours of April 24, the students, who are members of the boys varsity lacrosse team, allegedly decided they would “haze or play some sort of prank on some of the younger members of the lacrosse team,” Fitzpatrick said.
One victim told officials he thought he was going to have an “enjoyable evening with the upperclassman, go to a lacrosse game and finish the evening with something to eat at McDonald’s,” Fitzpatrick said.
But, on their way home from eating food, the driver of the car claimed he was lost, stopped in a remote part of the county, which is when “accomplices jumped out of the woods pretending to be kidnappers,” Fitzpatrick said.
These accomplices, who were other students, were dressed in black and armed with “at least one handgun and at least one knife,” Fitzpatrick said.
The victim had a pillowcase placed over his head, was tied up and placed in the trunk of the car, according to the DA.
“I’ve seen the video tape of what happened to this young man, it is not a rite of passage, it is not a trivial matter,” Fitzpatrick said. “I find it incomprehensible that in this day and age that somebody thought they could have gotten away with something like this.”
Investigators say there were four other potential victims, but they were able to flee the area.
The incident, which Fitzpatrick describes as “hazing on steroids,” said the 11 suspects that were involved have 48 hours to turn themselves into the sheriff’s department.
If the suspects decide to surrender to police before Friday, their case will either be handled through the family court system or will not fall under their criminal records, Fitzpatrick said.
But, if they refuse to cooperate, the suspects will be arrested, prosecuted as adults and charged with kidnapping in the second degree, the DA said.
He said that this incident “goes way beyond hazing,” likening it more to “criminal activity.”
“If you want to welcome someone onto your team and toughen them up, maybe an extra hour of practice might be appropriate as opposed to taking someone at gunpoint, stuffing them in the back of a car and traumatizing them for the rest of their life,” Fitzpatrick said.
Westhill Schools Superintendent Steven Dunham sent an email to families regarding the incident, saying the school made the “difficult decision to cancel the remainder of the Westhill High School varsity boys lacrosse season,” even though the majority of those on the team were not involved in the alleged hazing.
“Some may argue that all student-athletes shouldn’t be punished for the actions of a few. While I understand the perspective, we must address the culture of the program, and the most appropriate way to do that is with a reset,” Dunham said.
Dunham said the school will address the behavior that “negatively impacts members of our school community promptly and appropriately according to our Code of Conduct.”
