(TAMPA, FL) — The former owner of a dog that was left tied to a post off a Florida highway in floodwaters ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall has been arrested for animal cruelty, officials announced Tuesday.
The dog was found up to its chest in floodwaters off Interstate 75 in Tampa on Oct. 9, as many residents were evacuating due to Milton, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
A state trooper rescued the dog, now known as Trooper, the department said. Florida Highway Patrol shared a video on social media last week of the dog tied to the post with the caption, “Do NOT do this to your pets please…”
The former owner of the dog — identified by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles as Giovanny Aldama Garcia, 23, of Ruskin, Florida — was arrested on Monday for aggravated animal cruelty, a felony.
State Attorney Suzy Lopez, whose office is prosecuting the case, also announced the arrest on Tuesday, saying, “We take this crime very seriously and this defendant will face the consequences of his actions.”
Aldama Garcia was released Tuesday on $2,500 cash bond, according to online jail records. ABC News’ attempts to reach him were unsuccessful. Online court records do not list any attorney information.
(PHOENIX, AZ) — A disabled Black man in Arizona faces multiple charges after a pair of Phoenix police officers punched him and shocked him with a stun gun. Tyron McAlpin, who is deaf and has cerebral palsy, faces charges of felony assault and resisting arrest.
The incident, which took place on Aug. 19, was captured on both surveillance video and police body-worn camera. The officers said they were investigating an assault at a nearby Circle K and McAlpin fit the description of the suspect given by a bystander. However, the original description of the suspect was for a white man who had been creating a disturbance in the store. They also claimed that McAlpin became combative and tried to run when they approached him.
McAlpin’s lawyers said the video shows otherwise.
In the video, police are seen pulling up to McAlpin and ordering him down to the ground. He doesn’t appear to immediately comply. The video then shows the officers punching him 10 times in the head and shocking him with a stun gun four times while yelling “Get your hands behind your back.” McAlpin’s attorney said he didn’t know what was going on and could not hear the commands.
A union for the department’s officers argues that people should know what to do if a police car comes up and uniformed officers approach and that the officers had to force McAlpin to comply not knowing he was deaf at the time. The union also said McAlpin took a fighting stance and bit the officers.
“After reviewing all evidence presented, Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Nick Saccone determined there was sufficient evidence for the felony charges against the suspect due to his actions against the officers,” Phoenix Law Enforcement Association President Darrell Kriplean said. A Maricopa County judge has ruled there was probable cause for the arrest and is cause for the charges.
The department said it stood behind the officers and suggested people avoid making judgments about the incident until all the evidence is reviewed rather than focusing entirely on an excerpt of the footage. The police department is investigating the arrest.
The incident came after the Department of Justice in June released a report concluding that the Phoenix Police Department engaged in civil rights violations including racial discrimination and bias against the disabled. Their investigation found “systemic problems” within the department’s policies, training, supervision and accountability systems that were “perpetuated” for years.
The DOJ opened its investigation in August 2021 after complaints about use of excessive force among Phoenix police. The department said it welcomed this inquiry to help them understand how they can better serve the community.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — For a second day this week, Vice President Kamala Harris is focusing on a key voting bloc that is a critical base for the Democratic Party: Black men.
On Tuesday, Harris will participate in an audio town hall event with Charlemagne tha God, host for the popular “The Breakfast Club” podcast. Also on Tuesday, the vice president is meeting with Black entrepreneurs in Detroit.
Her events come a day after her campaign rolled out a comprehensive plan — just three weeks until the election — to help Black men “get ahead” economically, which includes providing one million fully forgivable loans to Black entrepreneurs and an effort to invest in Black male teachers.
In an interview on “Roland Martin Unfiltered,” also released on Monday, Harris argued that economic policies that consider “historical barriers” facing Black people benefit all Americans.
“If you have public policy, and I’m talking about economic public policy specifically at this point, but if you have public policy that recognizes historical barriers and what we need to do then to overcome,” Harris said. “First, speak truth about them and then overcome them, that in the process of doing that, not only are you directly dealing with the injustices and the legal and procedural barriers that have been focused on Black folks, but by eliminating those barriers, everyone actually benefits, right?”
The focus on Black voters comes after former President Barack Obama sternly chided Black men over “excuses” to not vote for Harris while speaking to a group of Black at a campaign field office in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood last week.
“You have [Trump], who has consistently shown disregard, not just for the communities, but for you as a person, and you’re thinking about sitting out?” Obama asked. “And you’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses?”
Harris is polling ahead of Trump with Black voters who are registered to vote, 82-13%, according to the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll. That compares with 87-12% in the 2020 exit poll (a slight 5 points lower for Harris; no better for Trump). Black men are at 76-18% (compared with 79-19% four years ago), the poll found.
These differences from 2020 aren’t statistically significant, and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock said he agrees.
“I don’t buy this idea that there will be huge swaths of Black men voting for Donald Trump. That’s not going to happen. What I would urge folks to do is to show up, to understand that if you don’t vote, that is a vote for Donald Trump. That’s the concern.,” said Warnock on a Tuesday campaign call with reporters.
Part of the Harris campaign’s plan for Black men includes legalizing recreational marijuana nationwide. Such a move would “break down unjust legal barriers that hold Black men and other Americans back,” the campaign said in its release.
This takes the Biden administration’s current stance, which includes pardoning people convicted of marijuana possession, a step further. For Harris’ part, such a proposal is evidence of her evolving position. She has become more progressive since her time as attorney general of California when she was heavily criticized for aggressively prosecuting weed-related crimes.
Asked if she ever smoked by Charlamagne tha God back in 2019, Harris responded, “I have. And I inhaled — I did inhale. It was a long time ago. But, yes.”
She went on to clarify that she believes in legalizing the substance.
“I have had concerns, the full record, I have had concerns, which I think — first of all, let me just make this statement very clear, I believe we need to legalize marijuana,” she said. “Now, that being said — and this is not a ‘but,’ it is an ‘and’ — and we need to research, which is one of the reasons we need to legalize it. We need to move it on the schedule so that we can research the impact of weed on a developing brain. You know, that part of the brain that develops judgment, actually begins its growth at age 18 through age 24.”
Her answer garnered backlash due to her record prosecuting the substance, particularly given the racial disparities in punishment nationwide. Harris’ new proposal looks to correct those historical inequities.
But is it enough?
In addition to the new proposals, Harris has aggressively been campaigning in Black communities in the past week, stopping at several local Black-owned businesses and churches in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan as well as appearing on several media programs with predominately Black audiences.
In September, Harris told a group of Black reporters in a moderated conversation hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists that she was “working to earn the vote, not assuming I’m going to have it because I am Black.”
Her campaign launched a “Black Men Huddle” organizing call on Monday, which featured remarks from campaign senior officials Tony West, Brian Nelson, Quentin Fulks and Rep. Cedric Richmond. Later, there was a weekly event focused on Black men supporting Harris featuring actor Don Cheadle.
“What the vice president is doing is giving us the tools to be able to go and have meaningful, impactful conversations when Black men turn back around to us and say, ‘Well, what’s in it for me,’ I think that we have policy and tools like this that we can say exactly that,” said Fulks.
Doc Rivers, who interviewed Harris for his “ALL the SMOKE” podcast on Monday, said he agreed with Obama’s comments last week and pushed for Black men to cast their ballots.
“I agree 100% with President Obama — it’s unacceptable not to vote. When you look back at what your parents and your grandparents had to do to get the right to vote, that’s unacceptable for me,” said Rivers. “But there are Black men who out there that feel hopeless, they don’t believe a vote helps them in either way, and I’m here to tell them they’re wrong.”
ABC News interviewed Black men in Pittsburgh’s predominately Black Homewood Brushton neighborhood last Friday about their impressions of Harris and what she needed to do to get their vote.
Aquail Bey, a student at The Community College of Allegheny County and president of its veterans club, said Harris needs to meet them where they are and genuinely speak with them.
“She’s doing a good job right now, but I think she should have — go to places where they are, you know, meet them on their own terms, you know. Go to the neighborhoods where they are, go to the barber shops … ” Bey said. “Wherever the Black men are, go to where they are, speak to them a way that they understand.”
Aaron Stuckey said people shouldn’t assume Black men aren’t getting behind Harris.
“Just poll us instead of assuming that that’s where we’re not going,” he said.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday declined to say if he’s been in touch with Russian President Vladimir Putin since he left the White House but said it would have been smart if he had.
“Well, I don’t comment on that, but I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing,” Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait at the Chicago Economic Club. “If I’m friendly with people, if I have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
Trump’s interactions with Putin have been the source of speculation since journalist Bob Woodward’s book reported that the two have communicated multiple times since Trump left the presidency in early 2021.
Throughout his presidency, Trump praised Putin, including saying he believed Russian intelligence over the U.S. intelligence community with regard to Moscow’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.
Trump last week flatly denied during an interview with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl that the two leaders had recently been in touch.
“So, you haven’t spoken to him since you left the White House? Karl asked Trump. “No, I have not. That’s false.”
Despite repeatedly touting his close relationship with Putin in the Tuesday interview, Trump insisted he was tough on him, again saying he terminated the Nord Stream II pipeline.
“I said I don’t comment on those things,” Trump said when Micklethwait repeatedly followed up.
Trump also insisted that the 2020 election ended with a peaceful transition of power despite the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a pro-Trump mob on the U.S. Capitol.
“People were angry,” Trump said of the reaction to the election results before noting that he traveled home to Florida the day President Joe Biden was inaugurated.
“And it was love and peace. And some people went to the Capitol and a lot of strange things happened there. A lot of strange things with people being waved into the Capitol by police, with people screaming, ‘Go in,'” Trump said.
Looking forward to a possible second Trump administration, the former president defended his plans to slap significant tariffs on many imports, which critics have said will amount to a sales tax on American consumers.
Micklethwait opened up the conversation with a critique from multiple economists — a concern that his proposals for tax cuts would raise the national debt by trillions. Trump reiterated his claim that a major growth from his proposals would make up for the cuts, saying the auto industry and other factories will come back to the United States.
“We’re all about growth. We’re going to bring companies back to our country,” Trump said. “And we’re going to bring the companies back. We’re going to lower taxes still further for companies that are going to make their product in the USA.”
Trump claimed that he’s not going to allow foreign companies to sell a single car in the United States, throwing out self-admittedly random numbers for tariffs like “100%, 200% or 2,000%.”
“The higher the tariff, the more likely it is that the company will come into the United States and build a factory in the United States so it doesn’t have to pay the tariff,” Trump said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for the first time this cycle, will soon hit the campaign trail with former President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, according to a senior campaign official.
The vice presidential nominee will be out with his party’s former standard bearers this week and next week in an effort to push for early voting in battleground states, ABC News has exclusively learned.
The governor will first rally with Clinton in Durham, North Carolina, on Thursday — the first day of early voting in the critical battleground state. Next Tuesday, Walz will travel to Wisconsin, another battleground, with Obama for the start of early voting in that state.
The joint campaign blitzes come as the Harris-Walz ticket has deployed both former presidents — some of its strongest political assets — headed into the final stretch of the election cycle.
Obama hit the trail for the ticket starting on Oct. 10 and has additional stops planned in the run-up to Election Day, according to the campaign.
His first stop was in battleground Pennsylvania in the Pittsburgh area — a visit where he sternly chided Black men over “excuses” to not vote for Harris, saying he finds them sitting out or voting for former President Donald Trump “not acceptable.”
Obama will also independently hit the campaign trail in the Sun Belt this week, with stops on Friday in Arizona and on Saturday in Nevada — the first days of early voting in the state.
On Sunday and Monday, Clinton made his trail debut with travel across rural communities in Eastern and South Georgia to encourage Georgians to vote early.
Last night, on the eve of early in-person voting in the state, Clinton stumped for the Harris-Walz ticket in battleground Georgia, mounting the stakes of the election and the importance of voting.
“I want you to be happy, and I want you to know that I am here because I believe. I believe, based on my personal knowledge of the job and the candidates, that Kamala Harris will be a fine president,” he said.
“All we gotta do is show up. If we show up, we’ll win,” Clinton added.
The joint principal campaign events also come as Walz himself has made campaign stops related to early voting. The governor campaigned last week in Phoenix and Tucson on the first day of early voting in Arizona.
“I know you’ve started voting here in Arizona. It’s happening across the country. We can make a difference. And I think just the idea of having an administration building on these strong relationships, this is our opportunity to take this to the next level that we need to do,” Walz said at event with tribal leaders in Chandler, Arizona last Wednesday.
ABC News’ Selina Wang, Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
The Pentagon on Tuesday granted honorable discharges to more than 800 veterans who were separated from the U.S. military because of their sexual orientation during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which was in effect from February 1994 to September 2011.
More than 13,000 service members were kicked out under the policy, close to 2,000 of whom received less than fully honorable discharges, according to Christa Specht, head of legal policy at the DOD’s Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. After 2011, most of those who filed appeals were upgraded, but others might not have been aware this was an option.
Last year, the Defense Department began a proactive review of the remaining cases. The Pentagon announced Tuesday that its review has led to an upgrade for more than 800 veterans, without them having to appeal. This could affect the benefits they have access to.
“After a year of exceptional work, the Military Department Review Boards directed relief in 96.8% of the 851 cases that they proactively reviewed. What this means is that of the nearly 13,500 individuals who were administratively separated under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, and served long enough to receive a merit-based characterization of service, 96% now have an honorable discharge,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
The vast majority of those separated under the policy now have honorable discharges, according to Austin.
DADT was signed into law in 1993 under the administration of then-President Bill Clinton. In December 2010, then-President Barack Obama signed into law a repeal of the policy. It took effect in 2011.
A suspect remains at large after a shooting at a California college critically injured an employee, school police said.
The shooting occurred at the Center for Media and Design, a Santa Monica College satellite, in Santa Monica shortly before 10 p.m. local time, school police said.
The shooting was “a workplace violence incident, not a random act,” Santa Monica College Chief of Police Johnnie Adams said in a statement.
The employee was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, according to Adams.
The suspect remains at large, Adams said Tuesday.
The Santa Monica Police Department is leading the investigation into the shooting. The incident is believed to be isolated and “there is no information suggesting the suspect remains in Santa Monica or is a threat to the community,” the department said in a statement.
No additional details are being released on the suspect or victim at this time amid the ongoing investigation, a school spokesperson said.
All Santa Monica College campuses are closed on Tuesday “to prioritize the safety and well-being of our community,” Adams said.
“Santa Monica College remains committed to maintaining a safe environment for all employees and students,” he said.
The Santa Monica Police Department said it will be providing extra patrols around schools on Tuesday.
Former President Donald Trump’s town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, on Monday evening was interrupted twice by medical emergencies in a very warm Greater Philadelphia Expo Center and Fairgrounds before he pivoted — turning the concert into an impromptu concert where he stood on stage swaying to music for nearly 45 minutes.
There was a medical emergency that required an attendee to be placed on a stretcher about 30 minutes into the event. As the crowd started singing “God Bless America,” Trump requested that “Ave Maria” be played on the loudspeakers as medics tended to the man.
Moments later, there was a second medical emergency.
“The safety and well-being of President Trump’s supporters is always his top priority,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s campaign press secretary, said in a statement to ABC News after the event. “The two individuals who fainted were immediately given medical attention. As President Trump said tonight, they are great patriots,” Leavitt added.
Trump took four questions, before the first medical emergency occurred.
Following the medical emergencies, Trump requested that the doors be opened but he was advised that for security reasons that wasn’t possible. Both Trump and moderator South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem commented on the heat in the room.
“Open the doors. I wish we could open those doors to outside,” Trump said. “For security reasons, they can’t. But you know what I suggest? Open them. Because anybody comes through those doors, you know what’s going to happen to them.”
“Personally, I enjoy this. We lose weight, you know. No, you lose weight. We could do this — lose four or five pounds,” Trump quipped.
Trump then requested that “Ave Maria” be played again and remained on stage as more music was played.
He continued, “Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into a music fest. Who the hell wants to hear questions right? Isn’t that beautiful?”
The former president, adamant about playing his music, stood on stage for nearly 45 minutes swaying to several songs on his playlist as the crowd sang and danced along.
The crowd slowly dispersed, but many stayed for the entirety of the campaign event.
“To lighten the mood, President Trump turned the town hall into an impromptu concert and the crowd loved it,” Leavitt told ABC News, adding, “The room was full of joy.”
On Tuesday, Trump addressed the town hall on his social media platform, calling the event “so different.”
“It ended up being a GREAT EVENING!” Trump wrote on social media.
The Trump campaign has classified those who fell ill as “great patriots” and suggested, “the room was full of joy.”
Notably, with 22 days until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris was also in Pennsylvania on Monday evening stumping to voters in the critical battleground swing state whereas Trump largely dodged answering questions during the actual town hall portion of his event.
In a post on X early Tuesday morning, Harris reposted a video from her campaign’s Kamala HQ account of Trump swaying to music for nearly 45-minutes at his Oaks town hall on Monday, writing “Hope he’s okay.”
Following the concert, Trump made his way to the front row, signing red MAGA hats and 47 signs.
Trump’s movement was noteworthy as he hasn’t interacted with a large crowd to that extent since his attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Ninety-two people remain unaccounted for in hard-hit North Carolina in the wake of the “catastrophic disaster” left behind by Hurricane Helene, Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday.
The number will continue to fluctuate as new reports come in and other reports are resolved, Cooper said.
This comes as North Carolina continues to face “a persistent and dangerous flow of misinformation” about recovery efforts, the governor said.
“If you’re participating in spreading this stuff, stop it,” Cooper said. “Whatever your aim is, the people you are really hurting are those in western North Carolina who need help. The safety of our government and volunteer response workers, including FEMA, remains a top priority. “
The governor said he’s directed the state’s Department of Public Safety to “coordinate law enforcement assistance for FEMA and other responders who need it to help assure their safety and security, so people can keep getting the help that they desperately need.”
This weekend, a Bostic, North Carolina, man armed with a handgun and rifle was arrested for allegedly threatening to harm workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the state, authorities said.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell did not address the arrest at Tuesday’s news conference, but she said, “Over the weekend, out of an abundance of caution, we made operational changes to keep FEMA personnel safe, but none of the changes we made impacted ongoing search and rescue or other life safety operations.”
“It’s heartbreaking to see words or acts of hatred toward anyone, let alone federal responders who are here to help people in this critical time,” Criswell said.
“We are not going anywhere,” she said. “Misinformation will not deter us from our mission.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
As part of its ongoing investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz, the House Ethics Committee recently issued a subpoena for documents from a civil lawsuit brought by one of the Florida congressman’s longtime friends against several third parties, ABC News has learned.
The subpoena, which has not been previously reported, requests all documents related to Gaetz that are part of a lawsuit brought last year by Gaetz’s longtime friend, prominent Florida lobbyist Chris Dorworth, who alleged he was defamed by several third parties over the course of the yearslong sex trafficking probe into Gaetz, sources told ABC News.
The documents from the lawsuit, which include witness depositions and affidavits, could provide Congress with new details regarding allegations that have dogged Gaetz for years, including the allegation he had sex with a minor who was introduced to him by his onetime friend Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and is serving an 11-year prison sentence.
Gaetz has long denied any wrongdoing. Last year, following a yearslong investigation, the Justice Department declined to bring any charges against the congressman.
Last week, Gaetz stated that he would no longer voluntarily participate in the House Ethics probe, which he blasted as a “political payback exercise,” and said that he had recently learned that the committee had issued — but not yet served him — a subpoena for his testimony.
The Florida congressman also reiterated his denial that he ever had sex with a minor. “Your correspondence of September 4 asks whether I have engaged in sexual activity with any individual under 18. The answer to this question is unequivocally NO. You can apply this response to every version of this question, in every forum,” Gaetz said in a statement to the committee posted on social media.
Members of the House Ethics Committee declined to comment to ABC News. Representatives for Gaetz did not respond to a request for comment.
When reached for comment, Greenberg’s attorney, Fritz Scheller, told ABC News, “While I am reluctant to comment on a pending congressional investigation, Joel Greenberg’s position remains the same. He will fully cooperate with all congressional inquiries, whether by subpoena or not, and regardless of whether the cooperation occurs in the rain or on a train, with a fox or in a box. Yes, Mr. Greenberg will fully cooperate here or there, he will cooperate anywhere.”
Among the documents related to the civil lawsuit, according to court filings, is the deposition of the woman who Gaetz allegedly had sex with when she was a minor, as well as testimony from another woman who was a witness in the DOJ investigation, plus Dorworth’s deposition and an affidavit from Gaetz’s former girlfriend. Those documents could be turned over to Congress as part of its ongoing probe into related allegations.
The documents Congress is seeking stem from a lawsuit brought last year by Dorworth, who alleged that the onetime minor, identified in the lawsuit only as “A.B.,” and others, including Greenberg and his family, worked to defame him amid the Justice Department’s probe.
Gaetz, who was not a party in the suit, was scheduled to sit for his own deposition as a witness in the lawsuit prior to Dorworth dropping the suit in early September. Dorworth has a separate ongoing defamation lawsuit against the Greenbergs in state court.
It is unclear if and what documents have been handed over to Congress. And while many of the lawsuit’s documents, including depositions and sworn statements, remain sealed, recent public court filings shed some light on what alleged details could be included in the underlying documents requested by Congress.
One filing, Exhibit 23 in a motion for attorneys fees filed by attorneys representing the Greenbergs, details some of the allegations made during discovery in the lawsuit, including that Gaetz was allegedly among the guests at a July 2017 party that “A.B.,” who was 17 years old at the time, also attended. The filing states that according to a woman who attended the party, there was “alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy also known as molly, and marijuana” present, that there was “access to the bedrooms” for “sexual activities,” and that A.B. was seen naked at the gathering.
In July, the House Ethics Committee released a rare statement updating the status of its probe into Gaetz. The committee stated that it had stopped looking into certain claims, including whether the Florida congressman misused state identification records or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity, but that its investigation had found that other allegations “merit continued review.”
The committee said that it would continue to review claims that Gaetz “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use” and that he “sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
In Gaetz’s statement last week regarding the committee probe, he reiterated his denial of any wrongdoing while seemingly responding to a string of questions the committee issued to him earlier in the month.
In response to whether or not he had ever used illicit drugs, Gaetz stated, “I have not used drugs which are illegal, absent some law allowing use in a jurisdiction of the United States. I have not used ‘illicit’ drugs, which I consider to be drugs unlawful for medical or over-the-counter use everywhere in the United States.”
