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Senate to vote on Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the FBI

February 20, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Senate on Thursday will vote on Kash Patel’s controversial nomination to lead the FBI.

If confirmed, Patel will be the 18th Cabinet official approved by lawmakers since President Donald Trump’s inauguration one month ago.

Republicans have rallied around Patel, arguing he would bring reform to the nation’s top law enforcement agency they allege has been corrupted.

“Mr. Patel should be our next FBI director because the FBI has been infected by political bias and weaponized against the American people. Mr. Patel knows it, Mr. Patel exposed it, and Mr. Patel has been targeted for it,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said last week as the committee met to consider his nomination. The panel advanced Patel in a party-line vote.

Democrats, meanwhile, have objected to Patel up until the last minute. Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, held a press conference outside FBI headquarters on Thursday morning railing against Patel’s “bizarre political statements” on Jan. 6 to retribution.

He accused Republicans of “willfully ignoring red flags on Mr. Patel,” who he argued has “neither the experience, the judgment or the temperament” to be FBI chief for the next 10 years.

“Mr. Patel will be a political and national security disaster,” Durbin said.

Patel, 44, is a loyalist to the president and worked in a number of roles during Trump’s first administration, including acting deputy director of national intelligence.

Shortly after the November election, Trump indicated he would fire then-FBI Director Christopher Wray and tap Patel to take his place. Wray, first appointed by Trump in 2017, stepped down at the end of the Biden administration.

Patel has been a vocal critic of the FBI for years, and previously said he wanted to clean out the bureau’s headquarters in Washington as part of a mission to dismantle the so-called “deep state.”

He faced pointed questions from Democrats on those comments and more — including support for Jan. 6 rioters and quotes that appeared favorable to the “QAnon” conspiracy movement — during his confirmation hearings last month.

Patel sought to distance from some of his past rhetoric, and told lawmakers he would take “no retributive actions” despite his history of comments about targeting journalists and government employees.

Patel, if confirmed, will take over an agency facing uncertainty and turmoil amid firings and other key changes.

The Justice Department’s sought a list of potentially thousands of FBI employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases, ABC News previously reported, prompting agents to file a lawsuit to block the effort.

Ukraine should ‘tone it down,’ sign Trump mineral deal, Waltz says

February 20, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said Thursday that officials in Kyiv “need to tone it down” after a fierce back and forth between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy related to a potential deal to end Russia’s three-year-old invasion of its neighbor.

U.S.-Russia talks began this week in Saudi Arabia without Ukrainian participation, Kyiv’s exclusion prompting condemnation in Ukraine and across Europe as well as a vow from Zelenskyy that his country would not sign any deal agreed over its head. Zelenskyy also pushed back on a proposed deal that would give the U.S. access to hundreds of billions of dollars worth of minerals.

Responding to the discord, Waltz told Fox News that the Ukrainians “need to tone it down and take a hard look and sign that deal,” referring to the proposed minerals agreement.

“There’s obviously a lot of frustration here,” Waltz said after Wednesday’s war of words.

Seeking to explain the strong remarks from Trump and Vice President JD Vance, Waltz said, “We presented the Ukrainians really an incredible and historic opportunity to have the United States of America co-invest with Ukraine, invest in its economy, invest in its natural resources and really become a partner in Ukraine’s future in a way that’s sustainable, but also would be — I think — the best security guarantee they could ever hope for, much more than another pallet of ammunition.”

Trump on Wednesday attacked European allies and the Ukrainian leadership for having failed to end Russia’s war. The president went on to call Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections,” claiming — without providing evidence — that his Ukrainian counterpart’s public approval rating was as low as 4%.

Trump also wrote on Truth Social that Zelenskyy “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.”

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, suggested Trump is in a “disinformation space,” attributing at least some of the U.S. leader’s criticism to Russian disinformation campaigns.

Vance then warned that Zelenskyy’s approach to dealing with the Trump White House was “atrocious.”

In Moscow, meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday that Ukrainian officials had made “unacceptable and impermissible” remarks about foreign leaders “in recent months.”

“Rhetoric used by Zelenskyy and numerous other representatives of the Kyiv regime in general leaves much to be desired,” Putin’s spokesperson said.

The diplomatic spat was set against the backdrop of continued Russian strikes across Ukraine. On Thursday, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 14 missiles and 161 drones into the country in a massive overnight bombardment.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 80 of the drones launched in the latest Russian barrage, with another 78 lost in flight without causing any damage. The 14 missiles targeted energy infrastructure, the air force said, adding it would not reveal how many were intercepted.

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook that Russia conducted a “massive” missile and drone attack on “gas infrastructure.”

The aim of the “criminal attacks” was to “stop the production of gas, which is necessary to provide citizens’ household needs and centralized heating,” he said.

“While Russia continues to blatantly lie about not attacking civilian critical infrastructure, we are witnessing multiple missiles targeting Ukrainian gas mining facilities at once,” Galushchenko wrote.

“Such actions of the enemy prove only once again that Russia is trying to hurt ordinary Ukrainians, plunged into the cold in the middle of winter,” he added. “This is outright terrorism.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its strike targeted “gas and energy infrastructure facilities that ensure the operation of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine.”

“The strike’s objective has been achieved,” the ministry said. “All facilities have been hit.”

Russia’s long-range strikes into Ukraine have not eased despite the opening of talks aimed at ending Moscow’s three-year-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s latest salvo came with Trump’s Ukraine-Russia envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian leaders. Items of discussion are expected to include the proposed deal with the U.S. for access to the country’s mineral resources and the larger possible peace deal with Moscow.

On Thursday, Zelenskyy marked the anniversary of the culmination of Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan Revolution — in which pro-Western protesters overthrew Moscow-aligned President Viktor Yanukovych.

“It was in these days of 2014 that Russia chose war — it began the first steps towards the occupation of Crimea,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “While people were being killed in Kyiv, and people were defending their freedom, Putin decided to strike another blow.”

“Since then, the world has been living in a new reality, when Russia is trying to deceive everyone,” the president wrote. “And it is very important not to give in, to be together. It is very important to support those who defend freedom.”

Ukraine is continuing its own long-range campaign against Russian military and industrial infrastructure, especially targets linked to the country’s lucrative fossil fuel industry. Ukrainian security services have referred to the campaign as “drone sanctions.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that its forces shot down 13 Ukrainian drones over the previous 24 hours.

ABC News’ Nataliia Popova, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Fidel Pavlenko, Kelsey Walsh and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

Ukraine reels as Trump criticism echoes Russian disinformation campaign

February 20, 2025 by WDNY Radio

LONDON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said President Donald Trump is in a “disinformation space” as public recriminations between the two leaders deepened on Wednesday amid nascent talks to end Russia’s three-year-old full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

The series of attacks, Zelenskyy suggested, were informed in part by “disinformation,” which the Ukrainian president said “comes from Russia — and we have evidence.”

Trump called Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections,” claiming — without providing evidence — that his Ukrainian counterpart’s approval rating was as low as 4%. Trump also wrote on Truth Social that Zelenskyy “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”

Trump’s apparent push for new elections in Ukraine aligns with longstanding Kremlin talking points framing Zelenskyy as an “illegitimate” leader unsuitable for peace talks.

Ukraine’s latest presidential election was scheduled to be held in 2024, but was postponed due to Russia’s war on the country. Ukraine’s constitution stipulates that elections cannot be held under martial law, which was introduced within hours of Moscow’s February 2022 invasion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to weaponize the delay to undermine Kyiv. “You can negotiate with anyone, but because of his illegitimacy, he has no right to sign anything,” Putin said of Zelenskyy in January.

The country’s parliament and its speaker “remain the only legitimate authorities in Ukraine,” Putin declared in May 2024, the month that was supposed to mark the end of Zelenskyy’s term.

Trump’s broadside against Zelenskyy included a call for new elections, despite the ongoing war. “That’s not a Russia thing, that’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries also,” Trump said.

Dmitry Medvedev — Russia’s former president, prime minister and a longstanding top ally of Putin — was gleeful in his response to Trump’s most recent remarks.

“If you’d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US president, I would have laughed out loud,” Medvedev — who is now the deputy chairman of Russia’s security council — wrote on X. Trump, he added, “is 200 percent right,” describing Zelenskyy as a “bankrupt clown.”

Russia’s ambassador to the U.K., Andrei Kelin, also celebrated the U.S. pivot. “For the first time we have noticed that they are not simply saying that this is Russian propaganda and disinformation,” he told the BBC.

“They have listened and they hear what we’re saying,” Kelin said.

Trump suggested this week that Ukraine’s long-time desire to join NATO was a major cause for Russia’s 2022 invasion. The assertion won him more praise in Russia.

“He is the first, and so far, in my opinion, the only Western leader who has publicly and loudly said that one of the root causes of the Ukrainian situation was the impudent line of the previous administration to draw Ukraine into NATO,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told lawmakers.

Like Moscow, Trump and his domestic allies appear to be presenting Zelenskyy as a key impediment to peace.

Vice President JD Vance said the Ukrainian leader’s “badmouthing” of Trump was an “atrocious” way to interact with the administration.

“We obviously love the Ukrainian people,” he told the Daily Mail. “We admire the bravery of the soldiers, but we obviously think that this war needs to come to a rapid close.”

“That is the policy of the President of the United States,” Vance said. “It is not based on Russian disinformation. It’s based on the fact that Donald Trump, I think, knows a lot about geopolitics and has a very strong view, and has had a strong view for a very long time.”

Trump confidante Steve Bannon, meanwhile, told Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper he believed Zelenskyy is “finished.”

“Of course, if he decides to accept the terms of the agreement with Russia, he will be welcome, but he no longer has the power to dictate them,” Bannon said.

Russian officials, meanwhile, also framed Kyiv as the key impediment to peace.

“The Ukrainian side is practically ready to use any tool that will be aimed at stopping or preventing dialogue and preventing the search for a scenario for a political and diplomatic settlement,” Rodion Miroshnik, an ambassador-at-large for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, told state television on Thursday, as quoted by Russia’s state-run Tass news agency.

Several of Kyiv’s European partners, meanwhile, expressed deep concern over the the latest developments.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer “stressed the need for everyone to work together,” in a statement, expressing “his support for President Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader.” Starmer said it was “perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the U.K. did during World War II.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was “simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelenskyy democratic legitimacy.”

ABC News’ Molly Nagle and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.

Personal vaccine may reduce risk of pancreatic cancer returning after surgery, small study finds

February 20, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A personalized mRNA vaccine may reduce the risks of pancreatic cancer returning after surgery, according to a preliminary study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive cancers, with a typical survival rate of only about a year after the diagnosis according to the study.

While the findings are encouraging, the vaccine is still in early testing and will likely take years before it becomes widely available — assuming ongoing trials continue to show success, according to Dr. Vinod P. Balachandran, lead investigator of the trial and senior author of the study.

In this small, preliminary trial of 16 patients, half had a strong immune response to the vaccine. Most of these responders remained cancer-free for more than three years, much longer than those who didn’t respond.

The vaccine works by training specialized immune system cells, known as T cells, to recognize and attack the cancer.

Researchers couldn’t track tumor shrinkage because all patients had surgery to remove visible cancer before vaccination. However, they found that the vaccine produced long-lasting T cells that may keep fighting cancer for years.

“This is one way through which you can make lots of T cells, and you can make these T cells such that they can persist for a long time in patients and retain their function,” Balachandran said.

Balachandran said “to be able to get an immune response has been very challenging,” especially when an illness like pancreatic cancer typically does not respond to vaccines, which highlights the significance of these findings.

A larger trial is now underway to confirm the results. If successful, this approach could lead to new ways to treat or even prevent pancreatic and other advanced cancers.

Overall, Balachandran said this study can “provide some important clues on how you would be able to develop vaccines more broadly for other cancers.”

“Hopefully this information that we will learn from these clinical trials will give us information to know apply vaccines in other settings, such as primary prevention, meaning preventing cancers from occurring even before they occur, with vaccines or perhaps also using it to treat patients who have more advanced disease,” Balachandran said.

-Suhas Kochat, MD, contributed to this report

Russia launches ‘massive’ attack into Ukraine amid Trump-Zelenskyy dispute

February 20, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 14 missiles and 161 drones into the country in a massive overnight bombardment, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned against Russian deception in revived peace talks.

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook that Russia conducted a “massive” missile and drone attack on “gas infrastructure.”

The aim of the “criminal attacks” was to “stop the production of gas, which is necessary to provide citizens’ household needs and centralized heating,” he said.

“Such actions of the enemy prove only once again that Russia is trying to hurt ordinary Ukrainians, plunged into the cold in the middle of winter,” he added. “This is outright terrorism.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its strike targeted “gas and energy infrastructure facilities that ensure the operation of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine.”

“The strike’s objective has been achieved,” the ministry said. “All facilities have been hit.”

Russia’s long-range strikes into Ukraine have not eased despite the opening of talks with President Donald Trump’s administration aimed at ending Moscow’s three-year-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The talks began this week in Saudi Arabia without Ukrainian participation, Kyiv’s exclusion prompting condemnation in Ukraine and across Europe.

Such criticism appeared to irk Trump, who this week criticized European allies and the Ukrainian leadership for having failed to end Russia’s war. The president went on to call Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections,” claiming — without providing evidence — that his Ukrainian counterpart’s public approval rating was as low as 4%.

Trump also wrote on Truth Social that Zelenskyy “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.”

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, suggested Trump is in a “disinformation space,” attributing at least some of the U.S. leader’s criticism to Russian disinformation campaigns.

On Thursday, Zelenskyy marked the anniversary of the culmination of Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan Revolution — in which pro-Western protesters overthrew Moscow-aligned President Viktor Yanukovych.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that its forces shot down 13 Ukrainian drones over the previous 24 hours.

ABC News’ Nataliia Popova, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Fidel Pavlenko contributed to this report.

Bodies of 4 hostages, believed to include Bibas family, released by Hamas

February 20, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Hamas handed over four bodies to the Red Cross in Gaza on Thursday, in the latest return of deceased hostages as part of the group’s ceasefire deal with Israel.

Red Cross officials took custody of four black coffins during a ceremony in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. A Red Cross official and a Hamas commander appeared on a stage to sign documents as part of the handover. The coffins were also brought onto the stage.

A banner on the stage declared in both Arabic and English: “The Return of War = The Return of Your Prisoners in Coffins.”

In a joint statement, the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency said that, “According to information communicated by the Red Cross, four caskets of deceased hostages were transferred to them, and they are being taken to IDF and ISA forces in the Gaza Strip.”

An Israeli security official confirmed to ABC News that an IDF-held ceremony for the four deceased hostages took place in the IDF-controlled Gaza buffer zone before the coffins were brought across the border into Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement confirming Israel’s receipt of the bodies. “The families of the abductees have been informed and our hearts go out to them at this difficult time,” the statement said.

“The public is asked to respect the families’ privacy and refrain from spreading rumors and information that is not official and well-founded,” it added.

Israel and Hamas have confirmed the names of the four bodies that are set to be returned to Israel Thursday: Oded Lifshitz, a journalist and peace activist and Shiri Bibas and her two children — Ariel and Kfir Bibas. Once the bodies are back in Israel, the Israeli officials will conduct forensic analysis to confirm the identities of the bodies.

During the handover, Hamas released a statement that read in part, “To the families of Bibas and Lifshitz: We would have preferred your sons to return to you alive, but your army and government leaders chose to kill them instead of bringing them back.”

“They killed with them: 17,881 Palestinian children, in their criminal bombardment of the Gaza Strip, and we know that you know who is truly responsible for their departure,” the statement added. “You were the victim of a leadership that does not care about its children.”

Kfir Bibas was 8 1/2 months old when he was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 — the youngest of the 251 hostages taken on the day the group carried out its terror attack on Israel — the worst in the country’s history. In the ensuing war, more than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.

Oded Lifshitz’s wife, Yocheved, was among the first few hostages released during the first ceasefire agreement in November 2023. Sixty-nine hostages remain in Gaza after Thursday’s release.

“At this difficult time, our hearts go out to the grieving families,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

The Hostage Families Forum called for the second stage of the three-stage ceasefire to proceed, saying there is “no time to waste.” In the second phase of the ceasefire agreement — which should last 42 days — Israel is to completely withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip. Hamas and Israel also agreed to a permanent cessation of all military operations and hostilities before all remaining Israeli hostages, civilians and soldiers are released by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

“We received the heart-shattering news that Shiri Bibas, her children Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz are no longer with us. This news cuts like a knife through our hearts, the families’ hearts and the hearts of people all over the world,” the families of the hostages said in a statement Wednesday.

“We grieve not only for them, but for the other precious lives lost, including four more deceased hostages who will be returned next week,” families of hostages said.

Six other hostages are expected to be released on Saturday and four more bodies will be returned to Israel next week. The hostages who will be released on Saturday have been identified as Eliya Cohen, 27; Tal Shoham, 40; Omer Shem Tov, 22; Omer Wenkrat, 23; Hisham Al-Sayed, 36; and Avera Mengistu, 39, according to Israeli officials and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Negotiations to set the terms for the second phase of the ceasefire have not started, but mediators are pushing to have talks begin as soon as possible to allow enough time for discussion before the second phase is expected to begin (the first phase is expected to last 42 days), Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday. Hamas has accused Israel of avoiding negotiations and says it’s ready to negotiate.

Last week, Hamas threatened to not release hostages over the weekend, saying Israel was not holding up its end of the ceasefire by delaying the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza.

Hamas later said the exchange would take place as planned and released three hostages this past Saturday.

ABC News’ Jordana Miller contributed to this report.

Idaho college killings: Judge denies Bryan Kohberger request to exclude DNA evidence

February 20, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — In a major ruling, the judge overseeing the case of the man charged with killing four Idaho college students in 2022 has denied a request to exclude potentially key DNA and other evidence from his upcoming capital murder trial.

Lawyers for Bryan Kohberger had sought to suppress DNA evidence that was seen as a linchpin of prosecutors’ case against him — evidence they say directly links Kohberger to the crime scene. In addition, lawyers sought to exclude data obtained from various online accounts like Apple, Google and Amazon belonging to Kohberger; his apartment in Washington; and his parents’ Pennsylvania home.

Judge Steven Hippler, in a sweeping series of rulings on Wednesday, denied the defense requests, paving the way for prosecutors to present to a jury their case against the former criminology Ph.D. student.

The judge ruled Kohberger’s constitutional rights were not violated, and that police behaved properly. He said the evidence investigators obtained throughout the investigation, which led them to Kohberger, is not tainted and can be admitted at trial.

“The Court finds suppression is not warranted on any of these issues,” Hippler wrote.

Prosecutors allege that in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Kohberger, then a student at nearby Washington State University, broke into an off-campus home and stabbed four University of Idaho students to death: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.

After a six-week hunt, police zeroed in on Kohberger as the suspect, arresting him on Dec. 30, 2022, at his family’s home in Pennsylvania. He was indicted in May 2023 and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. At his arraignment, he declined to offer a plea, so the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

The trial is set for August. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

On the critical DNA evidence, the judge wrote Kohberger’s lawyers “failed to demonstrate his constitutional rights were” violated by detectives’ use of the controversial new technique known as investigative genetic genealogy, which involves building out a family tree to zero in on a suspect.

The use of genetic genealogy helped point investigators in the direction of their suspect, using the DNA taken from a button snap on the sheath of a knife found at the crime scene. That sample was critical, police said, in cracking the case and later was shown to be a “statistical match” for Kohberger, authorities said. The murder weapon — police believe it to be a knife — has not been found.

The judge also said authorities did not act improperly collecting trash from the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger’s parents, which yielded items with Kohberger’s father’s DNA that authorities said was confirmed to be a match with Kohberger’s cheek swab later.

The judge, setting out a detailed timeline, also cast aside the issues raised by Kohberger’s lawyers, who had argued the way he was arrested was unnecessarily aggressive.

“Law enforcement believed [Kohberger] was potentially destroying evidence from the vehicle that was related to the homicides” and they also knew he had a Glock handgun, “prompting a concern over officer safety,” the judge wrote.

That prompted them to descend on the home more swiftly and make the arrest “without incident in a bedroom,” the judge said.

While monitoring the home at 12:33 a.m. the night of his arrest, snipers “observed a kitchen light turn on and saw a taller, young, white male wearing a black hoodie standing near the glass sliding door leading out to the deck,” whom they were able to identify as Kohberger. About 20 minutes later the light came on in the garage and “lights flashed in the garage as if the vehicle was being locked or unlocked by a key fob.”

A few minutes later Kohberger “was seen in the kitchen of the home, this time wearing rubber gloves and handling a plastic baggie,” the judge wrote — adding, “It was 1:09 a.m. in the morning, a time when most people would not be removing items from their car with rubber gloves.”

Two Texas teenage girls in custody after FBI, police disrupt possible ‘mass casualty’ school plot

February 20, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(HOUSTON) — The FBI became aware on Tuesday of threats that were communicated involving two teenage girls, ages 15 and 16, plotting what the FBI called a “mass casualty attack” using pipe bombs and guns targeting Memorial High School in Harris County, Texas, according to law enforcement sources.

The threats were specific and deemed concerning enough that the FBI threat mitigation team moved quickly.

At around 2:45 p.m. (CST) the FBI called local law enforcement partners in Montgomery County, Harris County and Spring Branch Independent School District, who simultaneously worked to locate the girls.

By 3:15 p.m., just 30 minutes after the FBI call, both girls were located and in custody, law enforcement sources said.

“I got the call from the FBI agent that we worked very closely with, provided me with the information that they deemed credible, as did I, immediately located the student, found exactly where she was and went to the school, and that’s when we detained her and began our interview process,” Spring Branch ISDF Chief Larry Baimbridge told ABC News.

Baimbridge said in this case, the system worked.

“This is a perfect example of state and federal law enforcement working together. This is exactly how this information, I think, should be handled and I’m grateful to the FBI that got us information right away and we were able to act on it very quickly,” Baimbridge told ABC News.

“This planned attack wouldn’t have been stopped without exceptionally close partnerships between FBI Houston, Spring Branch ISD Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, and Houston Police Department,” FBI Houston spokesman Connor Hagan said in a statement.

“We were able to take troubling information we received, conduct a rapid investigation, turn our results over to trusted local law enforcement partners, and ultimately save lives of innocent students,” Hagan said. “This type of situation is exactly why the FBI exists.”

The 16-year-old girl who is a student at Memorial High School is being held on a charge of making a terroristic threat, Baimbridge said.

The other student, a 15-year-old, is in custody in Montgomery County on an unrelated charge, according to a Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office statement.

No firearms, bombs or bomb making materials were immediately recovered in Harris County, though the investigation is ongoing in both Harris and Montgomery Counties.

Last week, the FBI worked with police in Mooresville, Indiana to disrupt a possible mass shooting plot against a high school there after learning of threats posted online.

Said Hagan: “We have officers from dozens of local agencies embedded with our agents working these types of threats every day on our Threat Mitigation Team and other task forces. FBI agents and task force officers, who are federally deputized, are absolutely essential to keeping our communities safe.”

Andrew Lester dies while awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in shooting of teen Ralph Yarl

February 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(KANSAS) — Andrew Lester, the Kansas City man who pleaded guilty to felony assault in the second degree for the shooting of Ralph Yarl, has died while awaiting sentencing, Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson announced on Wednesday.

“We have learned of the passing of Andrew Lester and extend our sincere condolences to his family during this difficult time,” Thompson said. “While the legal proceedings have now concluded, we acknowledge that Mr. Lester did take responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty in this case. Our thoughts remain with both families affected by this tragic incident as they continue their healing process.”

Lester, 86, was set to go on trial this week for shooting Yarl, a Black teenager who mistakenly knocked on his door, but ahead of the trial, Lester entered a guilty plea on Friday for felony assault in the second degree.

He was expected to be sentenced in this case during a hearing on March 7.

Second-degree assault, a Class D felony, carries with it the sentencing possibility of up to seven years in prison, Thompson said at a press conference after Friday’s hearing.

Lester was initially charged with one count of felony assault in the first-degree and one count of armed criminal action, also a felony, in the shooting of Yarl, who mistakenly went to Lester’s Kansas City home after arriving at the wrong address to pick up his twin brothers from a play date on April 13, 2023.

Lester, who is white, shot Yarl in the head and right arm, saying he believed someone was trying to break into his house, according to a probable cause statement obtained by ABC News. He initially pleaded not guilty in 2023 and was released on a $200,000 bond.

Yarl was 16 at the time of the shooting and suffered a traumatic brain injury, according to his family.

Yarl’s family told ABC News in a statement Wednesday that “justice was never truly served.”

“The news of Andrew Lester’s passing brings a mix of emotions, but it does not bring justice,” Yarl’s family said.

“We remain committed to seeking a world where no child fears for their life because of their race, and no family has to endure what we have. Ralph’s story is far from over, and neither is our fight for justice,” the family added.

Yarl’s family previously told ABC News Live Prime’s Linsey Davis on Friday that they were not happy with the plea deal that Lester accepted.

“About two years ago, we knew Mr. Lester was guilty,” Yarl’s mother Cleo Nagbe told Davis on Friday. “We let him do what he wanted to do and waited two years after for him to show up and say, ‘I’m going to plead guilty to the lesser of the charges.’ So we’re sick of this. So let’s just move on and give this kid a chance to move on with his life and live on as a regular kid.”

Lester’s attorney, Steve Salmon, previously argued that his client’s mental and physical capacity was a factor in the case, postponing the initial trial date from Oct. 7, 2024 to Feb. 18, 2025. Salmon said the retired air mechanic had heart and memory issues, a broken hip and had lost over 50 pounds.

In November, the judge ruled that Lester was fit to stand trial after reviewing the results of a mental exam.

Yarl opened up about the shooting in an exclusive interview with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts in July 2023, where he reflected on his recovery and the harrowing experience.

“He points [the gun] at me … so I kinda, like, brace and I turn my head,” Yarl told Roberts. “Then it happened. And then I’m on the ground … and then I fall on the glass. The shattered glass. And then before I know it I’m running away shouting, ‘Help me, help me.'”

2 dead after small planes collide in Arizona

February 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(MARANA, Ariz.) — Two people were confirmed dead after two small planes collided midair at Marana Regional Airport in Arizona on Wednesday.

There were two people onboard each aircraft, a Lancair and a Cessna, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The aircrafts collided while upwind of runway 12, according to preliminary information from the National Transportation Safety Board.

“The Cessna landed uneventfully; the Lancair impacted terrain near runway 3 and a post-impact fire ensued,” according to the NTSB.

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

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