(CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y.) — Alexi Saenz, a high-ranking member of the MS-13 gang, pleaded guilty in federal court in Central Islip, New York, on Wednesday to racketeering charges stemming from eight murders.
He faces between 40 and 70 years in prison as part of a plea agreement, prosecutors said.
Among the deaths Saenz pleaded guilty to were those of two Long Island teenagers — 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas and 15-year-old Nisa Mickens — who were killed in Sept. 2016. Prosecutors said several gang members chased them down and attacked them with baseball bats and a machete.
Prosecutors said the teens’ murders arose from a series of disputes and an altercation Cuevas and her friends had with people associated with MS-13 at Brentwood High School. After the altercation, the gang members “vowed to seek revenge against Cuevas,” according to prosecutors.
Saenz, along with several other suspected MS-13 gang members, were arrested for the teens’ deaths in 2017. Charges against his brother, Jairo Saenz, who was also arrested at the time, remain pending.
“To say that Alexi Saenz’s hands are drenched in blood does not begin to describe the multiple killings and extreme mayhem he personally directed and committed in the span of one year in Suffolk County,” Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a press release Wednesday. “While those murders and violent crimes were intended to further the sordid mission of the MS-13, the defendant has failed miserably.”
Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty for the two Saenz brothers, but Attorney General Merrick Garland said in 2023 they would no longer do so.
The murders of the two girls garnered national attention, with then-President Donald Trump inviting their parents to the 2018 State of the Union.
“Here tonight are two fathers and two mothers: Evelyn Rodriguez, Freddy Cuevas, Elizabeth Alvarado, and Robert Mickens,” Trump said during his speech. “Their two teenage daughters — Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens — were close friends on Long Island. But in September 2016, on the eve of Nisa’s16th birthday, neither of them came home. These two precious girls were brutally murdered while walking together in their hometown. Six members of the savage gang MS-13 have been charged with Kayla and Nisa’s murders.”
Saenz was charged in connection to the murders of six other people, all of whom the MS-13 members suspected of being affiliated with rival gangs, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors described Saenz as a ringleader in these killings, frequently instructing fellow gang members to carry out the attack or giving the greenlight to do so.
Saenz was also charged in connection with three attempted murders, arson, narcotics trafficking and firearms offenses.
Suffolk County Police Department acting Commissioner Robert E. Waring called Saenz’s crimes “senseless and barbaric.”
“The murders of teenagers Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens shook our communities and reverberated around the nation,” Waring said. “My hope is that this guilty plea will give the victims’ families some closure while also demonstrating our commitment to dismantling these criminal enterprises.”
(CHICAGO) — A missing pastor was found dead in his car in the Des Plaines River, near Chicago, Tuesday night after he had been missing for a week, according to officials.
Warren Beard, 53, was last heard from on July 2 and was last seen in Joliet, Illinois, according to the Chicago Police Department. Beard was the assistant pastor at New Israelite Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago.
Video footage from July 2 shows Beard’s vehicle going through a gate and under a raised drawbridge before crashing into the river, Rockdale officials said at a press conference Tuesday. The vehicle was located underwater using sonar.
The road where the vehicle was seen was closed, according to officials.
Beard was found in the Des Plaines River approximately 150 yards west of Brandon Road in Rockdale, according to the Will County Coroner’s Office.
An autopsy to determine the final cause and manner is scheduled for Wednesday, but the results have not yet been publicly released.
“He was the greatest person, one of the greatest men I’ve ever met in my life, and this is painful,” New Israelite Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Chenier Alston told Chicago ABC station WLS. “We want answers. Words can’t even begin to describe how we feel.”
Illinois State Police is investigating the incident.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Alaska resigned Monday after an investigation revealed multiple and repeated instances of sexual misconduct and alleged sexual harassment in his office.
Former Judge Joshua Kindred, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump in 2019 to Alaska’s U.S. District Court and appointed the next year, “created a hostile work environment” that included several lewd comments and texts, and had an inappropriate sexual relationship with one of his law clerks, according to the findings of the probe by the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit.
The Judicial Council said in its report that Kindred, 46, had “no filter as to the topics he would discuss with the clerks.”
“He discussed his past dating life, his romantic preferences, his sex life, the law clerks’ boyfriends and dating lives, his divorce, his interest in and communications with potential romantic or sexual partners, and his disparaging opinions of his colleagues,” the report said.
The investigation, which began in November 2022, collected more than 700 text messages and interviews with several eyewitnesses, revealed several inappropriate comments by Kindred made to staffers that “lacked any connection to the clerks’ legitimate job duties and were often sexual in nature,” according to the report.
The council had asked Kindred to voluntarily resign as part of its probe. However, he may be impeached for his offenses, according to the report.
Kindred has not immediately commented about his resignation or the investigation. ABC News has attempted to reach out.
In one instance, the former judge told a clerk that an assistant U.S. attorney allegedly sent him nude photographs, according to the report.
“Judge Kindred was seeking advice from the clerk about what to do, and she told him ‘I am just a law clerk;’ she reported being ‘devastated,'” the Judicial Council said.
The report also detailed an inappropriate relationship Kindred had with one of his law clerks. The former judge sent hundreds of text messages to the clerk during an 11-month period that had nothing to do with her duties, according to the investigation.
“Judge Kindred also emphasized that this law clerk was an important and special presence in his life by making statements such as, ‘We are ride or die for life;’ ‘you’re legitimately one of my best friends and favorite human beings in the world,'” the report said.
On Oct. 3, 2022, a week after the clerk left Kindred’s office to start a new job as an assistant U.S. attorney, the former clerk met with Kindred for drinks, the report said.
Kindred allegedly later offered to give her a ride home, but said he needed to stop by his chambers. While in his chambers, Kindred allegedly kissed and grabbed her buttocks during the encounter, in which the law clerk “stated that she was intoxicated, and Judge Kindred was also likely intoxicated,” according to the report.
Kindred told investigators that the clerk invited him to drinks and that she was in love with him, according to the report, which also stated that “these denials were belied by documentary evidence and, as revealed later during Judge Kindred’s testimony to the Judicial Council, by Judge Kindred’s own admissions.”
On Oct. 7, 2022, the clerk and Kindred met again at a party, but the clerk left after Kindred kept asking her to sit with him on a couch, according to investigators.
Kindred texted the clerk asking to talk in person and they eventually went to an apartment belonging to the former judge’s friend that he claimed was an Airbnb, the report said.
The clerk claimed that when she arrived in the apartment, Kindred kept shouting to “come to the bedroom,” where he was lying on a bed, according to investigators. Per their report, the clerk told investigators the former judge performed a sex act on her.
Kindred told investigators he and the clerk had a conversation in the apartment but that they were not in bed and there were no sexual interactions, according to the report.
However, a text exchange between Kindred and the clerk had subtle references to a sexual encounter, investigators said.
“Judge Kindred could not provide an explanation for those text messages,” the report said.
“However, he emphasized: ‘I can’t reconcile them, but I’m telling you, we — all we did in that apartment that night was have a conversation. I don’t — I don’t remember the context of this, but I’ve not seen [this law clerk] naked, so that doesn’t make any sense to me. But again, I don’t — I don’t know.'”
According to the report, Kindred later admitted to the encounter during an oral argument in April with the Judicial Council after a special committee released its findings “only when specifically, and at times repeatedly, pressed with record evidence.”
(MARANA, Ariz.) — A 2-year-old girl has died after her father left her in a hot car in Arizona, where residents are enduring triple-digit temperatures, according to authorities.
The father was running errands with his daughter, and when he returned home Tuesday afternoon, he allegedly knowingly left the 2-year-old in the car, Marana Police Capt. Tim Brunenkant told ABC News.
He left the car running and the air conditioning on, Brunenkant said.
The dad went into the house, and when he returned to the car between 30 and 60 minutes later, the car was off, Brunenkant said.
The 2-year-old was unresponsive and the dad called 911, Brunenkant said. She was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said.
The temperature in Marana reached a scorching 111 degrees on Tuesday. Marana is just outside of Tucson, where an excessive heat warning has been issued.
Brunenkant called the death a “heat-related tragedy.”
No charges have been filed at this time but charges have not been ruled out, Brunenkant said Wednesday.
Interviews are underway and police are looking for surveillance video in the neighborhood, he said.
At least nine children have died in hot cars across the U.S. so far this year, according to national nonprofit KidsAndCars.org.
Since 1990, at least 1,093 children have died in hot cars — and about 88% of those kids are 3 years old or younger, according to KidsAndCars.org.
(WASHINGTON) — A bipartisan group of senators reached a deal on Wednesday to move forward with legislation that would ban stock trading by members of Congress.
The bill would ban lawmakers from buying and selling stocks 90 days after the measure is signed into law, according to a statement shared with ABC News.
The measure would also require elected officials, their spouses and dependent children to unload stock holdings and other related assets beginning in 2027.
The punishment for a failure to divest such holdings would be the monthly salary of the sanctioned official or 10% of the value of the assets at issue, whichever amount is greater, according to a summary of the legislation.
The measure also raises the penalty from $200 to $500 for failure to disclose stock holdings under a previous law that requires such information be made public.
The agreement was reached by Sen. Jon Ossof, D-Ga., Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.
“The public should be confident that federal elected officials are making decisions that are in the best interests of the American people, not their own personal finances,” Peters said in a statement on Wednesday.
Echoing that sentiment, Merkley urged his colleagues to support the measure.
“Members of Congress are elected to serve the public — not their stock portfolios,” Merkley said in a statement. “The whole Senate should pass this bill and do so soon.”
Polls show widespread support for stock trading limits on Capitol Hill.
More than three-quarters of Americans support a ban of stock trading by members of Congress, according to a poll conducted by left-leaning firm Data for Progress in 2022. A rightwing advocacy group Convention of States Action found the same result in a poll it conducted that year.
The measure will be taken up for consideration at a meeting of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on July 24.
“There is no reason why members of Congress ought to be profiting off of the information that only they get and the rest of the American people don’t get,” Hawley said in a statement. “This bill takes a giant step forward.”
(WASHINGTON) — New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has introduced articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
Ocasio-Cortez has long criticized multiple conservative members of the Supreme Court, but the rhetoric of impeachment was amped up in the wake of recent rulings, including the court’s decision on presidential immunity.
“The unchecked corruption crisis on the Supreme Court has now spiraled into a Constitutional crisis threatening American democracy writ large,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. “Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito’s pattern of refusal to recuse from consequential matters before the court in which they hold widely documented financial and personal entanglements constitutes a grave threat to American rule of law, the integrity of our democracy, and one of the clearest cases for which the tool of impeachment was designed.”
Ocasio-Cortez specifically criticized gifts Thomas received from his friend, billionaire Harlan Crow.
“Clarence Thomas, in his conduct as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors, by refusing to report the source, description, and value of gifts, and by failing to report of real estate property,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in the articles, going on to list gifts he did not reportedly reveal.
Thomas acknowledged in his latest annual financial report, released in June, that he had “inadvertently omitted” reimbursement for food and lodging expenses for the July 2019 travel.
The articles against Thomas, who was nominated to the Supreme Court by George H.W. Bush in 1991, also cites Thomas’ “refusal to recuse from matters concerning his spouse’s legal interest in cases before the court” and “refusal to recuse from matters involving his spouse’s financial interest in cases before the court.”
As far as Alito, who was nominated by George W. Bush in 2005, Ocasio-Cortez cites his “refusal to recuse from cases in which he had a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party in cases before the court” and “failure to disclose financial income, gifts and reimbursements, property interests, liabilities, and transactions, among other information.”
Several other justices, including Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor and John Roberts have also been criticized for monetary or personal ties to businesses and groups with cases before the court.
Congress has the authority to remove a federal judge for “‘treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” through a vote of impeachment by the House of Representatives and a trial and conviction by the Senate, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Article III of the Constitution adds that judges “shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour.”
A simple majority vote is required for the House to adopt the articles — 218 votes — for impeachment.
Right now, Republicans hold 219 seats and Democrats hold 213.
Only one Supreme Court justice has ever been impeached, according to the Federal Judicial Center.
Associate Justice Samuel Chase was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1804, “on charges of arbitrary and oppressive conduct of trials,” the center states. However, he was acquitted by the U.S. Senate in 1805 and remained on the bench.
(WASHINGTON) — With just days until former President Donald Trump is expected to reveal his vice presidential pick, on Wednesday he commented on the characteristics he likes about each candidate on his shortlist — while also highlighting some potential challenges.
Trump joined Fox News radio host Brian Kilmeade on his podcast on Wednesday morning where he discussed an array of topics including his thoughts on his top vice presidential contenders.
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum are considered to be the contenders to be Trump’s running mate, though advisers have repeatedly cautioned that Trump has discussed other options and they have denied knowing who his final pick will be.
After dispatches circulated about Trump’s reported disdain for facial hair, which campaign advisers poked fun at, Trump dismissed the idea that Vance’s facial hair would complicate his chances of earning the No. 2 spot.
“No,” Trump said laughing about the idea he had a problem with Vance’s appearance. “He looks like a young Abraham Lincoln,” he quipped.
Trump, however, did reveal that there were certain complications regarding Rubio and Burgum that are factoring into his decision-making process.
On Rubio, Trump acknowledged that it would be “complicated” picking him because they were from the same state, while saying it doesn’t necessarily mean that he was out of the running.
“No, but it does make it more complicated … There are people that don’t have that complication,” Trump said of the Florida senator, who introduced him at his rally in Doral, Florida Tuesday night.
Trump was referring to the 12th Amendment to the Constitution that states that presidential and vice presidential candidates running on the same ticket “shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves,” which would be applicable to Trump and Rubio, who reside in Palm Beach and Miami, respectively.
This means that if Trump selected Rubio as his running mate, the 30 crucial electors from Florida could not vote for both Trump and Rubio, while electors from other 49 states could.
On the podcast, Trump said the issue can be “fairly easily fixed,” but noted “it’s not like picking some people, where it’s very easy” and added that forgoing delegates from Florida would be “very risky.”
During an interview with NBC News’ Miami station Tuesday night, Trump suggested if Rubio isn’t picked as his vice president, “he certainly will” play a role in his possible second administration.
For Burgum, abortion has become an issue of focus as Trump weighs his decision. The North Dakota governor has backed one of the strictest laws in the country — signing a six-week state abortion ban last April. Trump indicated his signature could be a “little bit” of an issue as he moves forward with his selection.
“Well, it’s a little bit of an issue. It’s a pretty strong ban. You know, I think Doug is great, but it is a strong ban. He’s taken a very strong stance. Or the state has, I don’t know if it’s Doug, but the state has, so it’s an issue,” Trump said.
Campaign advisers have claimed Trump’s announcement will be known before the start of the Republican National Convention, which begins on Monday in Milwaukee. Though Trump has said he would much rather build suspense and wait until convention week.
“No, not tomorrow, I’ll make it close to the convention,” said Trump to Kilmeade when asked if he would reveal his pick on Thursday. “I would love to do it, the, you know, it used to be picked during the convention … it made the convention, frankly, more interesting”
One factor not in play, claimed Trump, was the consideration of a last-minute Democratic ticket switch up.
“I don’t think it does,” said Trump when asked if he was considering another candidate due to the fact that Vice President Kamala Harris might not be the vice presidential nominee — instead the presidential nominee — should Biden choose to step aside.
“Whether we plan for him or anyone else, the planning, I think it’s the same,” he added, projecting confidence regardless of the Democratic ticket.
“I think I’m pretty well set in my own mind, but you know, you got some good people, and I have changed a little bit, but you have, they’re all great — anyone would be fantastic.”
(SANTA FE, N.M.) — Prosecutors argued Alec Baldwin behaved recklessly and “violated the cardinal rules of firearm safety” during the filming of “Rust,” while the defense said the actor “committed no crime” in the “unspeakable tragedy,” during opening statements Wednesday in the manslaughter trial over the 2021 fatal on-set shooting.
Baldwin was practicing a cross-draw in a church on the Santa Fe set of the Western when the Colt .45 revolver fired a live round, fatally striking 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury on involuntary manslaughter in connection with Hutchins’ death earlier this year after prosecutors previously dropped the charge. He pleaded not guilty.
Baldwin committed ‘numerous breaches’ of firearm safety, state says
“The evidence will show, ladies and gentlemen, that like in many workplaces, there are people who act in a reckless manner and place other individuals in danger, and act without due regard for the safety of others,” prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson told jurors during her opening statement. “That, you will hear, was the defendant — Alexander Baldwin, the lead actor on this film.”
Johnson told jurors that while they will hear the revolver referred to as a “prop gun,” it is a real gun that experts will testify was in proper working order.
She told jurors they will hear about “numerous breaches” of firearm safety regarding Baldwin, from him using it as a pointer to cocking the hammer and putting his finger on the trigger when he was not supposed to do either.
While handling the firearm prior to the shooting, Baldwin “would do his own thing,” including having his finger on or around the trigger during two draws, Johnson said.
“The evidence will show that that third and fatal time, he takes it out once again, fast,” Johnson said. “He cocks the hammer, points it straight at Miss Hutchins and fires that gun, sending that live bullet right into Miss Hutchins’ body.”
Baldwin has maintained that he did not pull the trigger of the firearm, though the FBI’s forensic report determined the gun could not have been fired without pulling the trigger.
“After the shooting, the defendant began to claim he didn’t pull the trigger. The evidence will show, ladies and gentlemen, that’s not possible,” Johnson told jurors.
Live bullet on set ‘most critical issue,’ defense says
Defense attorney Alex Spiro told jurors the state will attempt to “tarnish” Baldwin but that the “most critical issue” in the case is how the live bullet got on set.
“On this set, there was a real bullet, something that should never be on a movie set, something which has nothing to do with making a movie,” Spiro told the jurors during his opening statement. “You will hear no evidence, not one word that Alec Baldwin had anything to do with that real bullet being brought onto that set.”
He said it was the armorer’s responsibility to ensure the firearm was safe, and that the loading of the live bullet had nothing to do with Baldwin.
“No one had any idea that this venomous, toxic element had been inserted into this magic they were creating,” Spiro said. “But it did. It entered that place. It killed an amazing person, it wounded another, and it changed lives forever.”
Spiro said when the gun was handed to Baldwin, “cold gun” was announced, indicating it was safe. When it fired, everyone on set was “shocked,” he said.
“Alec is startled. He immediately says, ‘I didn’t mean to shoot. I didn’t pull the trigger,'” Spiro said.
Spiro said that Baldwin didn’t pull the trigger but that on a movie set “you’re allowed to pull the trigger.” Even if the state could prove that Baldwin did intentionally pull the trigger, “that doesn’t make him guilty of homicide,” Spiro said.
“He did not know, or have any reason to know, that gun was loaded with a live bullet,” Spiro said. “That’s the key. That live bullet is the key. That is the lethal element.”
1st witness recounts response to shooting
Following opening arguments, the state called its first witness, officer Nicholas Lefleur, who was the first law enforcement officer to arrive in response to a 911 call reporting the on-set shooting.
Lefleur discussed his efforts to secure the scene at the Bonanza Creek Ranch and separate witnesses.
During footage from his lapel camera shown to the jury, Lefleur seeks out Baldwin — who is seen talking on his cellphone while still in costume — and says he understands the actor was in the room during the shooting.
“I was the one holding the gun, yeah,” Baldwin responds.
Prosecutor Kari Morrissey questioned Lefleur about several instances in which Baldwin was seen talking to other witnesses even though the officer asked him not to.
In his cross-examination, Spiro addressed that at no point during those instances did Lefleur tell the witnesses to separate.
Baldwin 2nd person to go on trial in shooting
The jury was selected on Tuesday. The trial is currently scheduled to go through July 19. That does not include deliberations.
Prosecutors were seeking to argue during the trial that, as a producer of the film, Baldwin bore responsibility for unsafe conditions on the set. However, during a pretrial hearing on Monday, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer denied using evidence of his role as a producer during the trial.
The judge also ruled that footage from the “Rust” set showing Baldwin’s handling of the firearm can be admitted into evidence in the trial, but that videos of him yelling or cussing at the crew to hurry up were not relevant in the case.
Baldwin, 66, is the second person to go on trial in connection with the fatal shooting.
The film’s armorer — 27-year-old Hannah Gutierrez — was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March. Prosecutors argued that she repeatedly failed to maintain proper firearm safety and brought several live rounds onto the set — including the one that killed Hutchins.
Her attorney told ABC News on Tuesday that they have been informed that she will be called to testify on Friday and plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment.
Marlowe Sommer denied last month the state’s request to use immunity to compel Gutierrez’s testimony during Baldwin’s trial. Prosecutors sought immunity so that Gutierrez’s testimony could not be used against her in her appeal. At a pretrial interview in May, Gutierrez asserted her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, prosecutors said.
Last year, David Halls, the film’s first assistant director who had conducted the safety check on the Colt .45 revolver prior to the shooting, accepted a plea deal in the case after being charged with negligent use of a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to six months unsupervised probation.
He could also be called to testify during the trial, court records show.
(NEW YORK) — The NASA astronauts who were aboard the first crewed flight into space on Boeing’s Starliner said they are “confident” the spacecraft can get them home safely.
Flight commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore, 61, a former U.S. Navy captain, and Sunita Williams, 58, a former Navy service member, have been aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for more than a month after Starliner experienced several mechanical issues, including helium leaks and a thruster issue.
“We’re absolutely confident,” WIlmore said Wednesday. He said the pair tested a “Safe Haven procedure,” sheltering inside Starliner in the event they needed to suddenly undock from the ISS, and the test went well.
“We’ve been through a lot of simulations…and I think where we are right now…I feel confident that if we had to, if there was a problem with the International Space Station, we could get in our spacecraft, we could undock, talk to our team and and figure out the best way to come home,” Williams added.
Wilmore and Williams lifted off on June 5 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and docked with the ISS on June 6.
The pair were initially expected to spend one week aboard the ISS evaluating the spacecraft and its systems and return June 14. However, Starliner’s mechanical issues left the astronauts stuck onboard the ISS with no set return date.
NASA has insisted Wilmore and Williams are safe while they remain onboard the ISS with the Expedition 71 crew. The agency has said the ISS has plenty of supplies in orbit, and the station’s schedule is relatively open through mid-August.
“We’re taking our time on the ground to go through all the data that we have before we decide on the return opportunity,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, said during a Wednesday afternoon press briefing. “We’re taking time to build confidence in the spacecraft to understand the thruster performance … and also totally understand the helium margins before we undock.”
NASA and Boeing say Wilmore and Williams are “integrated” with the Expedition 71 crew aboard the ISS and are helping the crew with station operations as needed, as well as completing “objectives” needed for NASA’s possible certification of Starliner.
“Since their arrival on June 6, Wilmore and Williams have completed half of all hands-on research time conducted aboard the space station, allowing their crewmates to prepare for the departure of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft,” NASA wrote in a recent update.
This week, teams at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico are performing ground tests of Starliner’s thruster, putting it through similar conditions the spacecraft experienced on its way to the ISS, according to an update on Boeing’s website.
The tests will replicate Starliner’s docking, when some of the thrusters failed, and what the thrusters will experience between when Starliner undocks from the ISS and touches down back on Earth.
“This testing is trying to replicate what the worst-case thruster saw inflight,” Mark Nappi, Boeing’s vice president of its Commercial Crew Program, said during the Wednesday afternoon news conference. “So far, we’ve not been able to replicate the temperatures that we saw in flight, so the team is off talking about that – as a matter of fact, right now – so that they can determine whether or not there’s a form of testing, or something in the test that we want to go change, so that we can replicate that situation.”
Stich said the tests, and taking one’s time with them, are not unusual for a new spacecraft, and because Starliner can be powered from the ISS, it allows the team to use the space station as temporary hangar. He added that he expects the tests to be completed by the end of this week or over the weekend.
Starliner had been plagued by issues even before launch. The flight test was originally tentatively scheduled for May 6, but was scrubbed after a problem with an oxygen valve on a rocket from United Launch Alliance, which manufactures and operates the rockets that launch Starliner spacecraft into orbit.
A new launch date was subsequently set for May 25, but then a small helium leak was discovered in the Starliner service module, which contains support systems and instruments for operating the spacecraft.
Those helium leaks and a thruster issue threatened to delay Starliner’s ISS docking, but it docked successfully. Five days after docking with the ISS, NASA and Boeing announced that the spacecraft was experiencing five “small” helium leaks, but added at the time that enough helium remained for the return mission.
(HOUSTON) — More than 1.3 million electrical customers in the Houston area remained without power Wednesday as sweltering temperatures set in following the destruction left by Hurricane Beryl.
As CenterPoint Energy, the main utility company in the area, warned “it will take days” to restore power to everyone, Harris County officials sought to calm residents suffering under hot, humid conditions.
Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early Monday, knocking down power lines, toppling trees onto homes, flooding streets, killing at least six people and leaving Houston, the fourth largest U.S. city with more than 2.3 million residents, under miserable conditions, officials said.
“I know that we’re all tired and frustrated. We’re hot. We are struggling to sleep and cool off and we absolutely have storm fatigue,” Judge Lina Hidalgo, the executive of Harris County, said at the start of a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Assessing the post-Beryl situation, Hidalgo reported long lines at the few gas stations that remain open, hospitals and senior living facilities without power, food dwindling at grocery stores, widespread damage caused by Beryl’s 97 mph wind gusts and 13 inches of rain in some areas.
On top of the damage exacted by Beryl, a heat advisory remains in effect in the Houston area, where the temperature is forecast to reach a high of 93 degrees on Wednesday. The National Weather Service said the heat index, which factors in low humidity, will make the Houston area feel more like 106 degrees.
“The main point here [is] I really want to encourage people not to panic. We can get through this,” said Hidalgo, adding that her home was without power.
But Paul Locke, CenterPoint Energy’s director of local government affairs, could only offer cold comfort to customers of the utility giant, saying, “It’s going to be days” before power is restored to everyone.
“I can’t give you a timeline, but it’s not going to be tomorrow,” Locke said.
About 12,000 linemen have been deployed to the field as CenterPoint continued Wednesday to assess damage to its electrical grid, the energy provider said.
When Beryl blew in on Monday, a total of 2.2 million CenterPoint Energy customers lost power, about 80% of those the utility serves, as the storm toppled powerlines and trees and ripped roofs off buildings, including part of the roof on NRG Stadium, home of the NFL’s Houston Texans, officials said.
Drawing comparisons to a severe storm in May that knocked out power to about 1 million CenterPoint Energy customers, Locke said it took 4 1/2 days to restore power to everyone in the wake of that storm.
“Now we’re at 2.2 million,” Locke said.
But CenterPoint Energy’s outage map showed Wednesday that repairs hadn’t started in many areas without power and that assessment of the damage was still ongoing.
Locke assured customers that the utility company was working as fast as possible to restore power, adding many members of the repair crews were without power, too.
“Nobody wants to sleep in a house that’s 85 degrees,” Locke said.
Compounding the problem, the Red Cross has been unable to set up shelters in Houston because of the lack of electricity, Hidalgo said.
Hidalgo also noted an emergency that occurred at the Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital in Houston at the onset of the hurricane, saying the facility, which she described as “one of the pillars” of the city’s health care system, lost power and could not get its back-up generator to work for several hours.
“It got so warm in the hospital that people’s lives were at risk,” Hidalgo said. “They had to shut down all operating rooms except for two, which meant even a lot of emergency operations were delayed.”
Hidalgo also said the storm prompted the closure of the Port of Houston, where much of the fuel for gas stations comes in. She said gas stations are relying on trucks to bring in fuel.
“So the ones that don’t have power, they can’t supply the fuel and the ones that do have fuel are seeing limitations because everyone is going there,” Hidalgo said.
She said that while some grocery stores reported running out of perishable items, “We’re not in a situation where we are going to run out of food or where it is just impossible for fuel to get to Harris County in the event of a serious emergency.”
Houston resident Joanne Posey was among numerous people without power on Wednesday picking up emergency supplies and water at a cooling station established at the LeRoy Crump Stadium in Houston.
“It’s hard, but you just keep the faith with sweat going down your face,” Posey told ABC Houston station KTRK, as she waited in her car to pick up supplies.
Susan Balderas of Houston was among those waiting in line at a gas station, telling KTRK that it was the second place she went to fill up her tank.
“I’ve taken my lunchtime today to find gas because in the area I live, a lot of power is still out,” Balderas said. “Gas stations are out. Long lines everywhere.”
President Joe Biden granted a federal emergency disaster declaration on Tuesday for 121 Texas counties affected by Beryl, which will speed up federal assistance to the area.
Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick is serving as governor in the absence of Gov. Greg Abbott, who is on an economic development mission in Asia. Patrick said he spoke to Biden on Tuesday and made the formal request for federal assistance after he toured the damaged areas.
In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Biden alleged that state officials in Texas slowed down the federal efforts by not putting in a formal request with the administration sooner.
“I don’t have any authority to do that without a specific request from the governor,” Biden told the Chronicle.
Patrick, a Republican, later accused Biden of making the storm recovery “a political issue.”
