(MINNESOTA) — A statue of famed novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald was stolen from outside a Minnesota building where he once attended school, police said.
The statue, which had been located outside the Academy Professional Building in Saint Paul, depicted a young Fitzgerald seated with a couple of books in his lap.
Now all that remains of the statue of “The Great Gatsby” author is part of his right hand.
Police said the statue is believed to have been cut free. Its owner, Ed Conley, told ABC Twin Cities affiliate KSTP a cutting torch is believed to have been used to free the statue. The bolts were also cut, he said.
“Disappointed for sure,” Conley, the founder of the real estate company CCI Properties, told the station.
The statue, which was located on the steps to the Academy Professional Building, was last known to be there on Feb. 3 and was reported missing four days later, police said.
The building was once home to the St. Paul Academy, which Fitzgerald attended from 1908 to 1911 as a teen. Conley said Fitzgerald wrote for the school paper and participated in plays while he attended the school.
He commissioned local artist Aaron Dysart to make the statue of the author nearly 20 years ago when he bought the building, which now houses office spaces.
“It was really fun to just highlight that history,” Conley told KSTP.
The statue of the author has been a fixture on various tours in the city, Conley said.
It would cost around $40,000 to replace the bronze statue, Conley told KSTP, estimating the metal could fetch several hundred dollars at a scrap yard.
Conley told KSTP he hopes to “resurrect” the statue and “bring it back to the community and have people enjoy it again.”
The investigation into the theft remains ongoing and there are no updates on any suspects or arrests, a Saint Paul Police Department spokesperson told ABC News on Wednesday.
Police asked anyone with information or who “recalls seeing suspicious activity” outside the building between Feb. 3 and 7 to call 651-291-1111.
(OHIO) — An Ohio doctor has been charged with arson after allegedly setting fire to another doctor’s house, officials said.
Andrew Campbell, 33, was arrested following an investigation into the Dec. 7 blaze, which police told ABC News they “determined to have not been accidental in nature.”
On Tuesday, a grand jury indicted Campbell on six counts of aggravated arson.
Authorities are looking into a possible connection between the fire and an alleged affair between Campbell’s wife and Dr. Tahir Jamil, who was targeted with the arson.
Jamil told police he and Campbell’s wife had an affair from late July to early August 2024, according to the police report. On Aug. 7, she allegedly told Jamil her husband had discovered their relationship.
A spokesperson for the University of Toledo confirmed Campbell is a fellow in their Hematology-Oncology program.
He was placed on unpaid administrative leave after the school was informed of the charges, the spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.
“The University will decline further comment at this time as authorities conduct their investigation,” the spokesperson said.
(WASHINGTON) — Ahead of Linda McMahon’s hearing to become the next secretary of the Department of Education, America’s state teachers of the year for 2024 have said they worry the future of public education is under direct attack.
De’Shawn C. Washington, the 2024 Massachusetts teacher of the year, said he will be heartbroken if the Department of Education is dismantled under McMahon.
“This is a great opportunity to invest even more in our children right now, instead of retracting,” Washington told ABC News. “To pull further in, to watch those seeds grow and become a harvest, so that our country could thrive.”
President Donald Trump is preparing an executive order to abolish the Department of Education. The order, which has not been signed yet, reportedly calls for the education secretary to submit a proposal to diminish the department and urges Congress to pass legislation to get rid of it.
McMahon has vowed to carry out the president’s policies, and her allies have said they believe she has the business acumen to make budget cuts as she sees fit.
The looming department changes could be devastating for vulnerable students, according to Jeff Keller of Virginia. Keller warned shuttering the federal agency could mean students will have less protections and schools will have less oversight.
“When I think about what the Department of Education means, it means safeguarding kids’ civil rights,” Keller told ABC News.
“Whether that’s students with disabilities having the ability to get into the building and to get around the building … whether that’s safeguarding, you know, racial minorities to make sure that educational outcomes are equitable for them — I mean, I think it’s across the board,” Keller said.
Colorado’s Jessica May said she fears her students’ basic needs won’t be met if the department is abolished.
“What I am most afraid of is they are not going to get the attention and the care and the dedication that they need to survive, to live,” May said.
However, abolishing the Department of Education can only be done if Congress passes legislation to eliminate it. Clare McCann at American University said it is illegal to “uncreate” the department without congressional authorization — and it would require 60 votes in favor of the legislation in the Senate to pass.
Still, these teachers, who were all awarded their states’ top teaching honors in 2024, said they’re a nervous group right now.
Zach Arenz, the New York teacher of the year, predicted lost educators, increased class sizes and a widening achievement gap in which wealthy communities get wealthier through school voucher programs.
“All of these things are going to lead to a weak public education system,” he told ABC News. “If our public education system isn’t successful, there is no future.”
Arenz said he hopes teachers are listened to moving forward. Kentucky’s Kevin Dailey said he is also worried about student opportunities, arguing a conservative school voucher push would privatize the public school system and enrich private businesses.
“Kentucky schools receive over $1 billion a year in federal funds [from the Department of Education] in order to facilitate the growth of our communities,” Dailey told ABC News. “Kentuckians, not just teachers, not just public school students, but Kentuckians believe in strong public schools.”
McMahon is ‘in over her head’
McMahon, the president’s pick to carry out his vision for injecting school choice throughout the nation’s schools, will go before lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Thursday. Her nomination to become the next secretary of the Department of Education has been loathed by many top educators.
“She’s well in over her head,” Greg Kester, the 2024 Missouri teacher of the year, told ABC News. Kester has been teaching over 30 years and said McMahon is a step down from billionaire Betsy DeVos, Trump’s first education chief, arguing education isn’t McMahon’s “calling.”
However, McMahon earned a teaching certification from East Carolina University before pivoting to the wrestling arena. McMahon spent most of her career as a business executive and wrestling mogul, and the president has praised her for her knowledge of both business and education.
But Indiana’s Eric Jenkins told ABC News there’s a distinct difference between the two fields.
“There are similarities between business and education, but the core difference — the purpose,” Jenkins said. “So the purpose of a business is to increase profits. The purpose of education is to increase opportunity for all students.”
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency made sizable cuts to the Department of Education this week, slashing critical independent research contracts at the department’s Institute of Education Sciences worth nearly $900 million. Jenkins said he embraces a department that works to create efficiency — so long as the budget cuts don’t hamstring students.
“What brings us together, these different state teachers, regardless if they’re blue or red, is that we see those numbers actually as our students’ faces,” Jenkins said. “I think that’s where we’re coming from, is that we truly see the faces and the impacts that cuts are going to make.”
Conservatives such as Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, said McMahon has the business mindset to create innovative solutions for all students.
However, Virginia’s Keller said he disagrees, noting the nation’s next education chief should run the country’s public school system like it’s the “backbone” of society, not a corporation.
“I don’t think you got to be a K-12 teacher, but I do think you have to have a mindset that understands schools don’t exist for the benefits of teachers or the benefit of students: They exist for the benefit of society,” Keller said. “It’s not a business. We’re not in business. That’s not what schools are.”
(WASHINGTON) — During her first full day as director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard will travel to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, where she will hold 30 bilateral meetings with counterparts, including key U.S. allies Great Britain, France, Australia, and Germany, Alexa Henning, deputy DNI for strategy and communications told ABC News.
Gabbard, who was to be sworn into office Wednesday afternoon shortly after the Senate voted to confirm her, is expected to deliver remarks at a luncheon during the conference. She will be joined by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who are also attending.
During her confirmation hearing in January, Gabbard previewed her priorities as head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), stating that President Donald Trump’s reelection was aimed at breaking the cycle of failure within the intelligence community, ending “the weaponization/politicization of the IC and begin to restore trust in those who have been charged with the critical task of securing our nation.”
To assess the global threat environment, Gabbard will identify “where gaps in our intelligence exist, integrate intelligence elements, increase information-sharing, and ensure unbiased, apolitical, objective collection and analysis to support the president and policymakers’ decision-making,” according to a list of priorities obtained by ABC News.
Her priorities also emphasize the need to end polarization of the intelligence community, stating that her goal is to “ensure clear mission focus to the IC on its core mission of unbiased, apolitical collection and analysis of intelligence to secure our nation.”
The DNI also stresses that rebuilding “trust through transparency and accountability,” is a national security imperative, according to the document.
Like many government agencies in the second Trump administration, Gabbard’s focus is on reforming ODNI, which was created in response to intelligence failures leading up to 9/11. She aims to “assess and address efficiency, redundancy, and effectiveness across ODNI to ensure focus of personnel and resources is focused on our core mission of national security,” according to the document.
During the confirmation process, the former Hawaii congresswoman met with more than half of the Senate over two months. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed frustration with recent intelligence failures, according to sources with knowledge of proceedings. Gabbard continued meeting with senators on Capitol Hill up until the eve of her nomination.
Gabbard was grilled by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle about her reversal on a key surveillance tool, Section 702 of the FISA, and her refusal to label former National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden a traitor during contentious confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill last month.
The Senate confirmed her nomination, 52-48, on Wednesday. Gabbard, a former Democrat turned Republican, received no Democratic votes. The only Republican to vote against her was former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said, “The nation should not have to worry that the intelligence assessments the President receives are tainted by a Director of National Intelligence with a history of alarming lapses in judgment.”
Another key “no” vote came from independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose presidential campaign Gabbard endorsed in 2016 after stepping down as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
According to the document obtained by ABC News, Gabbard plans to work with lawmakers to ensure responsiveness to their requests for intelligence. Issues of concern include the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack in Israel; the 2024 Syrian rebel takeover; failures to identify the source of the COVID-19 outbreak, Anomalous Health Incidents (AHIs), also known as “Havana Syndrome,” Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) — objects in air, sea or space that defy scientific explanation — drones and more.
Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, has served 22 years in the Army National Guard and Reserve, including deployments to Iraq, Kuwait, and Djibouti. She is the first female DNI to have served in the military and plans to continue to serve in the Reserve, which ODNI regulations permit.
She plans to use her experience in the military and in Congress to bring “fresh eyes” as she assumes the role of America’s top intelligence official, according to the document.
(LONDON) — The United States is preparing to return cybercrime kingpin Alexander Vinnik to Russian custody as part of an exchange for American Marc Fogel, a U.S. official said Wednesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to identify Vinnik but acknowledged earlier Wednesday that a Russian citizen was freed in exchange for Fogel, who had been held in Russian since his arrest in 2021.
“This citizen of the Russian Federation will also be returned to Russia in the coming days,” Peskov said Wednesday.
Fogel was returned to the United States on Tuesday.
Vinnik’s lawyers, Arkady Bukh & Associates, said he remained in the U.S. on Wednesday afternoon.
“At the moment, we can confirm that a hearing has recently been held in the Federal Court of the State of Florida regarding Mr. Vinnik,” they said in a statement. “However, due to the judge’s decision, the materials of the hearing are classified, and we cannot comment on its course and content.”
Vinnik, the owner and operator of one of the world’s largest currency exchanges, was allegedly instrumental in facilitating the transfer of billions of dollars for criminals across the globe, supporting drug trafficking rings, ransomware attacks and the corruption of public officials.
Last year, Vinnik pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder billions of dollars through cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e. The Department of Justice alleged under Vinnik’s operation, BTC-e facilitated over $9 billion in worldwide transactions, serving as one of the main ways for cyber criminals to launder and move their criminal proceeds.
BTC-e has been implicated in multiple wide-ranging crimes, according to the Department of Justice, which alleges Vinnik himself was responsible for more than $120 million in losses.
As part of the deal, Vinnik is forfeiting $100 million of his criminal proceeds, an official said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “a very good deal for the United States of America and for the rest of the world.”
She continued, “As part of this exchange, he has forfeited more than $100 million that he obtained in that illegal crime. And in exchange, of course, we got Marc Fogel, who is a middle school teacher who kissed the American soil that kissed the ground last night when he returned to the United States of America. It was a great deal. And a great day for our country.”
Vinnik was arrested in Greece in July 2017 after he was charged in a 21-count indictment that implicated the Russian cryptocurrency operator in the infamous 2014 hack of Mt. Gox, which at one point handled more than 70% of the world’s bitcoin transaction. The DOJ alleges Vinnik laundered money he received as a result of the hack to conceal his involvement in the subsequent investigation of Mt. Gox’s collapse.
Vinnik and his lawyers have been outspoken about their interest in a potential prisoner swap, making the unusual request in 2023 to be released from a protective order so they could lobby for an exchange.
“Mr. Vinnik’s case is unquestionably one of significant public interest. He has been the subject of political negotiations over a prisoner swap with Russia at the highest levels of the government,” his lawyers wrote in a court filing.
Vinnik’s sentencing in California was scheduled to take place in June, though a federal judge held an abruptly scheduled status conference in the case Tuesday. Ahead of his sentencing, Vinnik was housed at Alameda County Jail in California and was transferred Tuesday, ABC News has learned.
President Donald Trump didn’t disclose on Tuesday the negotiations that led to Fogel’s release or say whether there had been any conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I can only say this: We got a man home whose mother and family wanted him desperately,” Trump said.
Mike Waltz, the White House national security adviser, said in a statement on Tuesday that Washington had “negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine.” His statement did not include details on the exchange.
Trump earlier on Tuesday had been asked if Russia had given the United States anything in return.
“Not much, no,” Trump said. “They were very nice. We were treated very nicely by Russia, actually.”
Peskov on Wednesday declined to say whether additional prisoner exchanges were expected in the future, but said that “contacts between the relevant departments have intensified in the last few days.”
Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in October 2024 that Fogel, an American teacher, had been “wrongfully detained,” the State Department confirmed to ABC News.
The U.S. tried but was unable to include Fogel in the large prisoner swap in August 2024 that freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, a State Department spokesperson said last year.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Michelle Stoddart, Nathan Luna and Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Belarusian journalist Andrei Kuznechyk was released from prison on Wednesday after serving more than three years in prison, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
The terms of the deal were not immediately clear.
“This is a joyous day for Andrey, his wife, Alesya, and their two young children. After more than three years apart, this family is together again thanks to President [Donald] Trump,” RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement.
“We are also grateful to Secretary Rubio and his team, and to the Lithuanian government for their support,” Capus added.
Kuznechyk’s release comes a day after American schoolteacher Marc Fogel returned to the U.S. after being released from Russia.
Kuznechyk was initially sentenced in November 2021 to 10 days in jail on hooliganism charges, which he rejected at the time, according to RFE/RL.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(SAN DIEGO) — A fighter jet crashed into the San Diego Harbor on Wednesday, with the two pilots on board ejecting before being rescued by the Coast Guard, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue.
A Navy official didn’t confirm if one or two people were on the two-seat EA-18G Growler, but said the crew was successfully recovered.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — As bird flu continues to spread across the U.S., stores around the country are reporting a shortage of eggs amid soaring prices, high demand and supply limits.
More than 150 million poultry birds have been killed across all 50 states in an attempt to combat bird flu since 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The number of birds affected by the virus has been rising in recent months, with roughly 7 million affected in November, 18 million in December and 23 million in January, according to the latest figures from the USDA.
Over the last 30 days, 150 flocks were confirmed to test positive for bird flu, according to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Once a bird is infected, the only way to stop the virus from spreading further is to depopulate or cull the entire flock. It can take time for a flock to repopulate to lay eggs, affecting their price.
The Consumer Price Index, published Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed prices were 3% higher in January compared to a year ago. Prices for eggs increased 15.2% — the largest increase in egg prices since June 2015, according to the bureau.
As grocery stores and supermarkets limit the number of cartons of eggs that can be purchased, some people have resorted to stealing in order to get their hands on eggs.
Stores enforce purchase limits
Chains across the country have enforced limits on how many eggs customers can buy due to the high demand and shrinking supply.
“Due to ongoing issues with the supply of eggs, we are currently limiting egg purchases to one dozen per customer, per day, in all Trader Joe’s stores across the country,” a representative for Trader Joe’s confirmed to “Good Morning America” on Monday.
Other retailers, including Sprouts Farmers Market and Costco, have also implemented purchase limits on fresh eggs. Photos taken at Costco showed the warehouse giant limiting egg purchases to three per member.
This week, Lidl US announced it would also limit egg purchases to two per customer across all its stores.
“The following egg brands sold at Lidl US stores are currently limited to 2 per customer to ensure fair distribution: Green Valley, Simpson’s Eggs, and Puglisi’s Farm,” a Lidl US spokesperson said. “Specialty egg brands, including cage free, free range and organic, do not have limitations at this time at Lidl US.”
Despite concerns about the safety of eggs available in stores, experts say it’s highly unlikely to contract bird flu from commercially sold eggs.
Some turn to egg heists
Earlier this month, 100,000 organic eggs worth an estimated $40,000 were stolen from a facility in Green Castle, Pennsylvania.
Tom Flocco, CEO of Pete and Gerry’s Eggs, told “Good Morning America” in an exclusive interview last week that the company was going to boost security.
“I’ve worked in other industries before where things get stolen from factories,” Flocco said. “It happens. It’s terrible. I’m not happy about it, but it does happen. It could happen once; it could happen again. We are putting additional measures in place.”
Additionally, at Luna Park Café in Seattle, hundreds of dollars worth of eggs and other breakfast foods were stolen, according to the Seattle Police Department.
In the early morning hours on Feb. 5, two male suspects were caught on surveillance video entering a refrigerated shed at the restaurant, police said. The men stole 540 eggs worth $387, as well as bacon, ground beef, blueberries and liquid egg products, the SPD said.
A café employee said they saw one of the suspects return to the property, but he got back in the van and fled when he realized he’d been spotted, police said.
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud, Kelly McCarthy, Joshua Richardson and Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — As courts block parts of his agenda, President Donald Trump and his allies are ramping up criticism of judges and continuing to question judicial oversight of the executive branch.
While he’s said he would abide by their rulings — but also appeal them — he kept up the effort to undermine the authority of the courts on Wednesday, alleging in a social media post that a “highly political, activist judge” wanted to stop the work of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk’s aggressive and controversial cost-cutting effort has faced several lawsuits, one resulting in his team being temporarily restricted from accessing the Treasury Department’s vast federal payment system containing sensitive information of millions of Americans.
The court action prompted swift rebuke from Musk and Trump’s team. Vice President JD Vance went so far as to suggest judges “aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
“Maybe we have to look at the judges because I think that’s a very serious violation,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon alongside Musk, who defended his team’s work.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt continued to blast the courts at Wednesday’s press briefing, claiming “each injunction is an abuse of the rule of law and an attempt to thwart the will of the people.”
“We will comply with the law in the courts, but we will also continue to seek every legal remedy to ultimately overturn these radical injunctions and ensure President Trump’s policies can be enacted,” she said.
The escalating clash between the new administration and the courts has some legal experts sounding the alarm, and is prompting fears of a potential constitutional crisis.
“The entire premise of our constitutional system of limited government of checks and balances and separation of powers involves deference to judicial determinations of what the law says and complying with it. This goes back to the beginning of the republic,” said David Schultz, a constitutional law professor at Hamline University.
Ray Brescia, a professor at Albany Law School, called the theory being pushed by Trump allies that the executive branch should operate free of judicial checks “preposterous.”
“They are velociraptors testing the fence. They’re looking for holes. They’re looking for weaknesses. They’re checking to see where they can push the envelope,” Brescia said of the Trump administration. “I think for now, the system has largely held but we’ll see as these cases get to the appellate courts, and ultimately, many of them are likely to go to the Supreme Court.”
Much of Trump and Musk’s attempt to overhaul the federal government is being met with lawsuits, including the dismantling of USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as the buyout offer extended to tens of thousands of federal employees.
The key question is how Trump and his officials will respond as the court challenges progress.
In his first term, Trump amended his policies to comply with judicial rulings. One example was what Trump referred to as his “Muslim ban” restricting travel from several countries that have a majority Muslim population, which was rewritten several times before it passed muster with the Supreme Court.
“We thought that administration was so shocking and bending the rules on executive authority and so on, but it turns out to have been nothing compared to this one where it is seriously being discussed and contemplated whether or not the executive branch has a duty to follow the courts,” said Claire Finkelstein, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott asked Trump directly on Tuesday: “If a judge does block one of your policies, part of your agenda, will you abide by that ruling? Will you comply?”
“Well, I always abide by the courts and then I’ll have to appeal it. But then what he’s done is he slowed down the momentum,” the president responded.
If that were to ever change, however, it would be uncharted territory in the modern political era with no obvious recourse.
Judges can push back if the administration refuses to comply but their power is limited, experts said. They could hold the administration in contempt, and either impose fines or in extreme cases direct the U.S. Marshals Service to take individuals into custody.
There are complications, though. The U.S. Marshals Service falls under the Justice Department, which is unlikely to go after Trump officials.
“Presidential refusal to comply with court orders undermines the very concept of constitutional order and limited government our country is supposed to respect and if Trump were to refuse to comply, then we have a constitutional problem,” said Schultz.
The NYPD is searching for a man who allegedly tried to rape a woman in Brooklyn on Feb. 11, 2025. NYPD
(NEW YORK) — Authorities in New York City are searching for a man who allegedly impersonated a federal immigration enforcement agent before trying to rape a 51-year-old woman in broad daylight, according to police sources.
The victim was waiting for a cab outside a Brooklyn CityMD just before 11 a.m. Tuesday when the suspect approached and said he was an ICE agent and needed to talk to her, according to police sources.
The man allegedly forced her into a basement stairwell, punched her and tried to rape her, the NYPD said.
He took her phone, her purse and a chain before fleeing the scene, police said.
The woman suffered lacerations to her face, bruising and scratches, and was hospitalized in stable condition, police sad.
The suspect never showed any identification, according to police sources.
