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(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Monday he’s asking the court to withdraw the previous district attorney’s motion for resentencing for the Menendez brothers, calling the brothers’ claims of self-defense “lies.”

“We are prepared to go forward” with the hearing regarding their resentencing case, Hochman said at a news conference Monday. “However, we are asking the court to withdraw the previous district attorney’s motion for resentencing, because we believe there are legitimate reasons and the interests of justice justifies that withdrawal.”

The resentencing hearing is set for March 20 and 21.

The request to withdraw the resentencing motion is “based on the current state of the record and the Menendez brothers’ current and continual failure to show full insight and accept full responsibility for their murders,” Hochman said in a statement. “If they were to finally come forward and unequivocally and sincerely admit and completely accept responsibility for their lies of self-defense and the attempted suborning of perjury they engaged in, then the Court should weigh such new insight into the analysis of rehabilitation and resentencing — as will the People.”

Lyle and Erik Menendez are serving life without the possibility of parole.

In October, then-LA County District Attorney George Gascón announced he supported resentencing for the brothers. Gascón recommended their sentences of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and said they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately with the new sentence.

The DA’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and help other inmates.

Weeks after Gascón’s announcement, he lost his race for reelection to Hochman.

When Hochman came into office on Dec. 3, he promised to review all the facts before reaching his own decision. He said that effort included speaking to all the prosecutors and defense attorneys involved as well as reviewing thousands of pages of court filings, trial transcripts and confidential prison records.

Hochman’s announcement on Monday comes days after one of the brothers’ cousins, Tamara Goodell, slammed the DA in a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Civil Rights Division.

Goodell accused Hochman of being “hostile, dismissive and patronizing” during two meetings in January with family members who want the brothers released. She said the “lack of compassion was palpable, and the family left feeling not only ignored but further intimidated and revictimized.”

Goodell wants Hochman removed and the case turned over to the attorney general’s office.

This case dates back to 1989, when Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, shot and killed their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez, in the family’s Beverly Hills home.

The defense claimed the brothers acted in self-defense after enduring years of sexual abuse by their father. Prosecutors alleged they killed for money.

Their first trial ended in a mistrial. Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted in 1996 following their second trial.

The brothers were sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole.

Besides resentencing, the brothers have been pursuing two other paths to freedom.

One is their habeas corpus petition, which they filed in 2023 for a review of two new pieces of evidence not presented at trial: a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse from his father, and allegations from a former boy band member who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by Jose Menendez.

Hochman announced in February that he’s asked the court to deny the habeas corpus petition, arguing the new evidence isn’t credible or admissible.

The third path to freedom is through the brothers’ request for clemency, which has been submitted to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

On Feb. 26, Newsom announced that he’s ordering the parole board to conduct a 90-day “comprehensive risk assessment” investigation into whether the brothers pose “an unreasonable risk to the public” if they’re granted clemency and released.

“There’s no guarantee of outcome here,” Newsom said. “But this process simply provides more transparency … as well as provides us more due diligence before I make any determination for clemency.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(SANFORD, Fla.) — A 17-year-old was arrested on Sunday after posting a video online allegedly plotting a shooting at a high school in Florida, according to the Sanford Police Department.

Officials said they received an anonymous tip on Saturday regarding a “video of an unknown male threatening to shoot up Seminole High School.”

The video “pictured the subject with multiple guns, vests and other items of concern,” authorities said in a statement on Sunday.

Timothy A. Thomas, 17, was ultimately confirmed as the student in the video, police said. Thomas was charged with intimidation through a written or electronic threat of a mass shooting or act of terrorism, police said.

Thomas is a student at Elevation High School, which is approximately 4 miles from Seminole High School. He was found at his residence and “taken into custody without incident,” officials said.

The weapons — which were seized after the teen’s arrest — were “extremely realistic Airsoft replicas,” according to police.

Sanford Chief of Police Cecil Smith applauded the “swift dedication and arrest” of the suspect.

“This fact action and teamwork most likely prevented a tragedy and saved multiple lives,” Smith said in a statement.

Serita Beamon, superintendent of Seminole County Public Schools, said she was “thankful” for law enforcement’s prompt response to the threats.

“The safety of our students and staff is our highest priority, and we will continue to take any potential threat seriously, and act quickly,” Beamon said in a statement.

Anyone with additional information about the incident should reach out to the Sanford Police Department or Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS (8477).

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(NEW YORK) — Climate change could threaten the future use of satellites and significantly reduce the number of spacecraft that can safety orbit Earth, according to new research.

Global warming is causing space debris to linger above the planet for longer periods of time, leaving less space for functioning satellites and posing a growing problem for the long-term use of Earth’s orbital space, a study published Monday in Nature Sustainability found.

While increasing levels of human-caused greenhouse gases cause a warming effect on Earth’s lower atmosphere, it has an opposite impact on the upper atmosphere, William Parker, a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and author of the study, told ABC News.

The radiation from greenhouse gas emissions is also causing Earth’s upper atmosphere to cool, according to Parker.

“We’re basically losing energy in the upper atmosphere, and that causes the cooling and the contraction,” he said.

The cooling effect has created a long-term contraction of the upper atmosphere — similar to how a balloon shrinks in a freezer, Parker said. Typically, the upper atmosphere slowly pulls space debris out of Earth’s lower orbit. But the cooling and contracting effect is causing less drag in the thermosphere, causing the space junk to linger longer, he explained.

The debris also poses a threat to every active satellite, Parker added.

“As long as it’s up there, it’s a persistent hazard,” Parker said.

There is currently “tons of debris” in Earth’s low orbit, said Parker, who has been researching the dynamics of spacecraft close to the Earth. That debris has been created by collisions, explosions between satellites and anti-satellite weapons tests that have occurred over the last several decades. Thousands of pieces of space debris are in orbit, but the number grows to the millions when counting smaller fragments measuring less than 10 centimeters, Parker said.

The longer the space debris remains in the upper atmosphere, the more crowded the space becomes, Parker said. And Earth’s orbital space is limited.

“It’s a complicated operating environment today,” Parker said.

Rising greenhouse gas emissions could reduce the total number of satellites that can safely orbit Earth by up to 66% by the end of the century under a high emissions scenario — equivalent to 25 million to 40 million satellites, according to the researchers.

Entities that operate in space may need to increasingly conduct active debris removal, which can cost tens of millions of dollars for a single operation and involve sending up a satellite to remove debris, Parker said.

In 2022, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission passed a rule that every satellite that’s launched from the U.S. has to be able to remove itself from orbit five years after the end of its mission.

A drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions will be necessary to prevent further complications with space operations, Parker said.

“An upside there is that reducing greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t just help us on Earth, it also has the potential to protect us from long-term sustainability issues in space,” he noted.

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(LOS ANGELES) — A cousin of Lyle and Erik Menendez is slamming Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, accusing him of being “hostile, dismissive and patronizing” to the family and asking for him to be removed from the case.

The cousin, Tamara Goodell, said Hochman’s conduct “eroded any remaining trust” in the DA’s office and she wants the case turned over to the attorney general’s office.

During Hochman’s Jan. 2 meeting with over 20 Menendez family members who want the brothers released, the relatives emotionally shared their “ongoing trauma and suffering,” Goodell said in a letter last week to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Civil Rights Division. But she said Hochman “proceeded to verbally and emotionally re-traumatize the family by shaming us for allegedly not listening to his public press briefings.”

Hochman’s “hostile, dismissive, and patronizing tone created an intimidating and bullying atmosphere, leaving us, the victims, more distressed and feeling humiliated,” she said.

Goodell alleged Hochman focused on how he was treated rather than the victims.

“The lack of compassion was palpable, and the family left feeling not only ignored but further intimidated and revictimized,” she said.

Goodell cited her rights as a victim under Marsy’s Law — California’s bill of rights for victims — specifically noting it states that a victim is entitled “to be treated with fairness and respect” and be “free from intimidation, harassment, and abuse.”

One day after that initial meeting with Hochman, Goodell said she and her son met with Hochman, other prosecutors in the DA’s office, the brothers’ attorney and the family’s attorney — and she said she left that meeting feeling “disregarded and disrespected.”

Goodell said when she raised concerns about the DA’s office’s impartiality, Hochman “became visibility agitated, dismissive and aggressive.”

Goodell said her son witnessed the DA’s “abusive, belittling, and unprofessional conduct, further compounding the emotional toll on our family.”

Goodell also alleged that Hochman said the brothers’ attorney “has represented ‘horrible people.” “This inappropriate remark reinforced his bias,” Goodell said.

Besides asking for Hochman to be removed and the case turned over to the attorney general’s office, Goodell said she wants Hochman “held accountable” for his behavior.

She said she also wants Kathleen Cady — who was appointed by Hochman as director of the DA’s Bureau of Victim Service — removed from the case and “a new, unbiased” representative assigned to victim services.

Cady was formerly the attorney for Milton Anderson, the one Menendez relative pushing to keep the brothers in prison. Anderson died last week.

Goodell said that when she brought up her concerns about Cady in the second January meeting, “Hochman coldly dismissed me,” and “interrupted me, speaking in a condescending and hostile manner.”

Hochman said in January that Cady is “walled off from the Menendez case.”

The DA declined to comment on Goodell’s letter.

The Menendez brothers are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1989 murders of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez. Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were 21 and 18, respectively, at the time, admitted to the murders but claimed they acted in self-defense after enduring years of sexual abuse by their father.

The brothers are pursuing three possible paths to freedom.

One is a request for clemency to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The governor announced in February that he’s ordering the parole board to conduct a 90-day risk assessment investigation into whether the brothers pose “an unreasonable risk to the public” if they’re granted clemency and released.

Another path is a habeas corpus petition the brothers filed in 2023 for a review of two new pieces of evidence not presented at trial. Hochman in February asked the court to deny the habeas corpus petition, arguing the new evidence wasn’t credible or admissible, and saying their claims of sexual assault do not justify killing their parents in self-defense.

The third is resentencing.

In October, then-LA County District Attorney George Gascón announced that he was recommending the brothers’ sentence of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately with the new sentence.

The DA’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and help other inmates.

Hochman, who became DA in December, is expected to release his position on resentencing imminently. He is holding a press conference at 10 a.m. local time Monday.

ABC News’ Kaitlyn Morris contributed to this report.

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(MANHEIM TOWNSHIP, PA) — A Beechcraft Bonanza crashed in Pennsylvania on Sunday afternoon with five people aboard, according to the Federal Aviation Authority.

The small aircraft went down near a retirement village south of Lancaster Airport, the Manheim Borough Police Department told ABC News.

The plane had just departed from the airport shortly before it crashed, authorities said during a briefing on Sunday evening, adding that the plane might have skidded about 100 feet after it first made contact with the ground.

No one was hurt on the ground, officials confirmed.

All five passengers were transported to Lancaster General Hospital, where trauma and emergency teams were at the ready to provide care, according to hospital spokesperson.

Two of the patients were later transported to Lehigh Valley Health Network’s burn center by PennSTAR flight crews, the spokesperson said, and one patient was transported there by ground ambulance. Two patients remain hospitalized at Lancaster General as of Sunday night, they added.

The plane crash occurred around 3 p.m., according to the FAA, which said it will investigate. The National Transportation Safety Board is also monitoring the situation

According to audio from Air Traffic Control, the pilot told the Lancaster Airport control tower that his plane “has an open door we need to return for landing.”

ATC then cleared the plane to return, but a few seconds later the controller told the plane to “pull up,” the audio revealed.

Images taken by witnesses and shared with ABC News showed flames and smoke billowing from the crash site in Lititz, Manheim Township.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro posted a statement on X.com saying, “Our team at @PAStatePolice is on the ground assisting local first responders following the small private plane crash near Lancaster Airport in Manheim Township. All Commonwealth resources are available as the response continues, and more information will be provided as it becomes available.”

Information will be released as it becomes available, the NTSB said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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