(BURLINGTON, Vt.) — Authorities in Vermont are warning ice fishers to stay off the ice of a lake after three people died in the last week.
The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department told people on Tuesday not to go on the ice at Lake Champlain while the area experiences warm weather.
According to Vermont State Police, 62-year-old Wayne Alexander died after falling through the ice on the lake on Thursday.
Officials found Alexander in the lake around 9:30 p.m. that night, where he was wearing a flotation device.
He was pronounced dead at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, police said.
According to law enforcement officials, two brothers, John Fleury, 71, and Wayne Fleury, 88, were killed after their utility task vehicle broke through the ice on Saturday.
Organizers of the 43rd annual Islands Ice Fishing Derby canceled the event in a post on Facebook on Saturday at the urging of the local sheriff’s department because of the conditions of the ice.
The area near Lake Champlain, which is located between New York and Vermont, has experienced warmer temperatures in recent weeks, according to the U.S. National Weather Service Burlington.
Montpelier and St. Johnsbury recently recorded their warmest January on record, according to NWS Burlington.
(KYIV, Ukraine) — The video is only about a second long but it captures the killing of American medic volunteer Pete Reed and a Ukrainian woman he was treating in Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine which has been the target of a bloody Russian assault for months.
When watched frame-by-frame, the footage is revealing.
A low-flying missile can be seen hurtling toward Reed’s white van ambulance which was parked at the scene.
The images show that Reed was not killed by Russian shelling, as eyewitnesses had previously thought.
Military experts say the missile visible in the footage bears all the hallmarks of an anti-tank laser-guided missile. Reed’s colleagues say the video, together with firsthand witness accounts, show that the group of international medics was deliberately targeted.
“They were hunting us down,” said Erko Laidinen, a 35-year-old Estonian medic whose camera recorded the missile and the explosion.
When Laidinen’s team of medics arrived at the scene on Feb. 2 to treat a Ukrainian woman who had been injured by shelling, another team led by Reed was already there.
Less than 10 seconds later, the missile struck Reed’s white van.
At that moment Laidinen was still inside his team’s van ambulance, which he said was clearly marked with large medical-style crosses and was parked a short distance away.
The Estonian medic had turned his camera on a second before the explosion. Reed is clearly visible.
He is standing by his ambulance, alongside his fellow medics. Next to him was the woman he was about to treat.
Then a low-flying missile shoots in from right to left. ABC News has watched and verified the video.
“It was the worst two seconds of my life,” Laidinen said as he described the moment after the explosion.
He then heard one of his team members scream.
“I got relief,” he recalled. “It was not nice, but you could verify (his colleague) was alive.”
Laidinen said he and his colleagues, who were badly injured, quickly took cover inside a building. He believes the team of international medics were then repeatedly targeted by Russian forces, even after the initial missile attack.
His camera had crashed to the ground in the initial explosion, as Laidinen had exited his vehicle to take cover.
The camera’s image for the next 20 minutes is just black; however, it still recorded multiple nearby explosions which Laidinen believes were incoming Russian mortars.
Laidinen said he has additional dash cam footage that captures both the missile hitting Reed’s ambulance as well as a second missile being fired at a vehicle, which was being used to evacuate casualties from the scene.
That second missile, he said, missed its target and hit a nearby residential building.
The dash cam video has not yet been published but Laidinen said it has been handed over to Ukrainian police and war crimes prosecutors, as well as the Estonian and U.S. authorities.
“The low, flat trajectory” of the missile “and the fact that it was slow enough to be captured on video” suggest it was an anti-tank guided missile, according to Steve Ganyard, an ABC News contributor and a retired colonel. Ganyard has viewed the images.
Laidinen said it was obvious the team of international volunteers were medics working on the scene.
The cross on the back of Reed’s ambulance was covered with dirt but crosses were visible on the side and front of that van, as well as on all sides of Laidinen’s vehicle, he said.
As the video shows, Reed’s team was dressed in civilian clothing. Laidinen said one team member did have on a camouflage-type jacket.
It took Laidinen two days to retrieve his phone and watch the video back.
It then hit home “how dangerous it is” for a volunteer working near the front lines in Ukraine, he said.
“You can easily identify the missile in the picture,” he said.
There is no question for him that they were deliberately “targeted,” Laidinen insisted.
“It is laser guided. There is nothing to debate,” he said.
Laidinen said the Russian military would have known that a team of medics would have been responding to a civilian casualty on the scene.
“They waited for us. They knew we were coming, that we were responding,” he said. “It was a trap.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Monday fired the U.S. Capitol’s top manager after lawmakers in both parties called for the scandal-plagued architect’s ouster.
Brett Blanton, the architect of the Capitol, was terminated at Biden’s direction, a White House official confirmed.
The official said the administration did its due diligence in the case after a watchdog report revealed what it called multiple allegations of misuse of resources and misconduct in his role. The architect’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Blanton was appointed to the role by former President Donald Trump and took office in 2020. He is now leaving seven years before the end of his term.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle grew infuriated in recent days over the report alleging widespread wrongdoing in his role, including misusing official vehicles for personal purposes and improperly identifying himself as a law enforcement officer when he chased down the perpetrator of a hit-and-run near his home.
Blanton also admitted in a congressional hearing last week that he avoided coming to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the day a pro-Trump mob ransacked the Capitol, saying he thought it wouldn’t be “prudent” to be on the premises that day.
The Office of Inspector General found Blanton’s wife gave an unauthorized tour of the Capitol to what she called “patriots” in the days leading up to the 2020 election while the building was closed to the public.
“The Architect of the Capitol, Brett Blanton, no longer has my confidence to continue in his job. He should resign or President Biden should remove him immediately,” Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tweeted Monday before Blanton’s firing was reported.
It is not immediately clear who will replace Blanton on a temporary basis given that the role for his deputy is currently vacant. Mark Reed, the current chief of operations who is currently serving in an acting capacity, is next in line.
To replace Blanton permanently, a bicameral and bipartisan congressional commission of 14 lawmakers is convened to offer a list of suggestions. Biden will ultimately choose from that list.
(NEW YORK) — Two storm systems moving across the U.S. have placed 26 states, from California to Kentucky, under snow and wind alerts.
Winter storm watches and advisories are in effect for parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
Additionally, winter storm watches are also in effect for the central Rockies and into the Plains with heavy snow this week.
According to meteorologists, this week’s snow will reach more than a foot in parts of the Southwest and Northwest, including parts of Colorado, Oregon and Washington.
The first storm is expected to bring heavy rain from Dallas to Wichita on Tuesday morning, while there is also snow expected across the Pacific Northwest and Northern and Central Rockies.
By Tuesday evening, the storm will likely move into the upper Midwest to areas including St. Louis, Chicago and Minneapolis–Saint Paul, bringing with it rain and snow.
The second storm will likely move east on Wednesday and Thursday, delivering a threat for a severe weather outbreak across parts of the South to the Ohio Valley.
Millions of people from the Florida Panhandle to the Ohio Valley could see scattered severe weather on Thursday.
Americans living in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., will get a preview of spring as temperatures are expected to reach the mid-60s.
(NEW YORK) — A U-Haul driver is in custody after allegedly striking eight people in a “violent rampage” in multiple locations in Brooklyn, New York, on Monday, according to NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell.
Four people have been hospitalized, two in critical condition and two in serious condition, the commissioner said at a news conference.
Four others suffered minor injuries, Sewell said.
One of the eight injured was a police officer who tried to stop the driver, she said.
“We have seven different locations to process,” the commissioner said.
The driver was identified by police sources as 62-year-old Weng Sor. He allegedly screamed that he wanted to die as he sped off and led police on a brief chase, according to a law enforcement official and a local councilman.
He allegedly fled from Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood through Sunset Park before being apprehended a few miles away in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook, ending the 40-minute ordeal.
Police searched the truck and found nothing suspicious, sources said.
U-Haul said in a statement that the truck was rented for 30 days with a return date of March 3, and that the daily cost of the rental was paid in advance and on a valid contract.
“It was an in-town rental, meaning the equipment was supposed to be returned to the location from which it was dispatched,” U-Haul said. “Our customers provide valid identification/driver’s license, valid form of payment, and any additional forms of meaningful assurance our rental agents deem necessary to try to make certain our equipment will be returned in proper condition, and at the stipulated time and place. These criteria must be met before a transaction occurs.”
The company said it has no record of the suspect previously renting with U-Haul prior to this rental.
“U-Haul is working closely with law enforcement officials to meet their needs in this case. Any further details should come from law enforcement,” the company added.
There are no additional credible threats, according to the New York City mayor’s office.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she’s been briefed on the incident and that New York State Police are on the scene.
“I am praying for everyone who was injured today in Brooklyn,” Hochul tweeted. “Grateful for the swift response of @NYPDnews to apprehend the suspect and of our first responders to tend to those injured.”
(NEW YORK) — With the recent shootdowns of “high-altitude objects,” there’s heightened awareness about what’s flying in U.S. airspace, especially weather balloons.
As it turns out, the skies are crowded.
How many weather balloons are there?
On any given day, nearly 1800 weather balloons are launched across the world, including 92 here in the U.S. and U.S. territories, according to the National Weather Service.
Each flight lasts around two hours, during which a balloon drifts up to 125 miles and can reach an altitude of 100,000 feet.
How are weather balloons useful?
According to the NWS, weather balloons are a key tool in forecasting.
Each weather balloon has a device about the size of a shoebox attached to it called a radiosonde. The radiosonde measures pressure, temperature and relative humidity during its flight.
The radiosonde sends data down to monitoring stations every one to two seconds, which also allows researchers to track wind speed and the balloon’s location.
Who tracks weather balloons?
The radiosonde allows the researchers operating the weather balloon to track it. Regulations from the FAA require the balloon’s operator to record the position every two hours.
Operators are also required to “provide traffic advisories to all affected aircraft … specifying the balloon’s known or estimated position, direction of movement, and altitude.”
ABC News aviation analyst and veteran airline captain John Nance said a weather balloon might show up on a radar, but because it doesn’t contain a lot of metal, it is harder for the radar to spot.
“Something slow moving that has very little metal in it will pop up on a regular radar as just a little noise,” Nance said. “In other words you might see it on the sweep and you might not see it for a couple other sweeps and then another sweep [the weather balloon] might pop up again.”
Are weather balloons dangerous for planes?
Weather balloons do pass through the 31,000 – 41,000 commercial airplane cruising altitude range, but are not expected to hover at that range, according to Nance.
“If it’s up there at 60,000 feet or above, there’s really no worry about it conflicting with air traffic unless it starts coming down,” Nance said.
The object shot down Sunday over Lake Huron was said to be floating around 20,000 feet.
“That is definitely right in the middle of air traffic,” Nance said. “You do not want something like that hanging around.”
What happens to a weather balloon?
After about two hours, most weather balloons burst, according to the NWS. The weather balloon can expand to 20 feet in diameter when it reaches bursting altitude.
The radiosonde has a parachute, allowing it to fall back to Earth safely. Each radiosonde also has a mailing bag and instructions on how to return it.
According to the NWS, about 15,000 radiosondes get returned each year out of 75,000 sent out. The government fixes and reuses returned radiosondes, which saves money.
(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — There were more toxic chemicals aboard the train that derailed in Ohio than originally reported, new data shows.
State health officials were initially concerned about the presence of vinyl chloride, a highly volatile colorless gas produced for commercial uses, which spilled after about 50 cars on a Norfolk Southern Railroad train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3 while traveling from Illinois to Pennsylvania. Other toxins, like phosgene and hydrogen chloride, were emitted in large plumes of smoke during a controlled release and burn, prompting officials to issue mandatory evacuation orders in a one-mile radius of the crash site.
A list of the cars that were involved in the derailment and the products they were carrying released by Norfolk Southern reveal several more toxic chemicals that were released into the air and soil following the crash.
Among the substances were ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene were also in the rail cars that were derailed, the list shows.
Contact with ethylhexyl acrylate, a carcinogen, can cause burning and irritation of the skin and eyes, and inhalation can irritate the nose and throat, causing shortness of breath and coughing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Inhalation of isobutylene can cause dizziness and drowsiness as well, while exposure to ethylene glycol monobutyl ether can caused irritation in the eyes, skin, nose and throat, as well as hematuria, or blood in the urine, nervous system depression, headache and vomiting, according to the CDC.
The toxins that burned in the wreckage had the potential to be deadly if officials did not order evacuations in the region, experts told ABC News last week. However, once the controlled burn was complete, the only risk of coming in contact with the toxins was if they were embedded in the soil, which then had to be dug out, Kevin Crist, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and director of Ohio University’s Air Quality Center, told ABC News last week.
The evacuation orders for the residents in East Palestine were lifted on Wednesday after air and water samples that were collected in the region were deemed safe.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not detected any concerning levels of toxins in the air quality that can be attributed to the crash since the controlled burn was complete, the agency announced on Sunday.
“Residents may still smell odors from the site,” the EPA said, suggesting that those experiencing any symptoms call their medical provider.
The EPA has also screened 210 homes near the crash site and has not detected any levels of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride, the agency said. As of Sunday, 218 homes still needed to be screened.
A lawsuit filed by two residents of East Palestine on Feb. 9 called for the rail operator to pay for medical screenings and related care for anyone living within a 30-mile radius of the crash site, as well as undetermined damages, The Associated Press reported.
Some of the toxins spilled into the Ohio River near the northern panhandle of West Virginia, causing officials to shut down water production in the area and transfer to an alternate source of water supply, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice told reporters during a news conference on Feb. 8.
While Justice emphasized that “everything is fine here” due to the immediate action from agencies like the state’s Department of Environmental Protection and the National Guard, water utility company West Virginia American Water is continuing to enhance its water treatment process as a precaution, according to the AP.
The water utility installed a secondary intake on the Guyandotte River in the event that they need to switch to an alternate water source, the AP reported.
A town hall has been scheduled to take place on Wednesday at 7 p.m. to allow residents to ask questions about the effects of the derailment, East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway announced in a press release on Sunday.
(WASHINGTON) — As the U.S. military shoots unidentified objects out the sky at a surprisingly fast clip, President Joe Biden has remained largely silent about the most recent takedowns, balancing political headwinds with concerns over public safety and America’s relationship with China.
U.S. fighter jets took down three objects flying over Alaska, Canada and the waters off Michigan over three successive days starting Friday. Even just one shootdown would be considered unusual, let alone three.
While the Biden administration insists it is acting out of an abundance of caution — to protect national security, as well as civilian aircraft – the president is also facing criticism from Republicans and some Democrats about why it took so long to take down a Chinese balloon a week before.
“They do appear somewhat trigger-happy,” Rep. Mike Turner, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday in an interview with CNN. “Although this is certainly preferable to the permissive environment that they showed when the Chinese spy balloon was coming over some of our most sensitive sites.”
While officials from the White House and Pentagon have briefed reporters about the most recent shootdowns, Biden himself has said just one word publicly.
“Success,” he said Friday, in response to reporters’ shouted questions about the object the U.S. shot down in waters off Alaska.
He had no scheduled public events Monday.
The administration official who’s been the face of the response so far has been White House spokesman John Kirby, who made the dramatic announcement about Friday’s shootdown of an unidentified “high-altitude object” and who will appear at Monday’s press briefing.
In contrast with the shootdown of the Chinese balloon, which the Biden administration said had been spying on the United States, officials said they did not know the owner or purpose of the three other, much smaller objects shot down over the last few days.
Instead, U.S. officials said, the president had been concerned about the risk to civil aviation, considering they were all flying at altitudes where commercial planes fly. The Chinese balloon, officials said, had been spotted much higher.
Even Democrats have pushed for more information from the administration, including about why the U.S. had not known about the Chinese’s balloon surveillance program earlier.
“How did we miss them is a great question,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday during an interview on “The View,” adding he was supporting a bipartisan investigation to be led by Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat. “It’s a good question we need an answer to.”
In interviews last week with PBS Newshour and Noticias Telemundo, Biden defended the fact the U.S. had waited until the balloon was over water to shoot it down, saying he had ordered it taken out but that his military advisers said it was too dangerous to act over land.
Administration officials said that while the U.S. military had spotted the Chinese balloon when it first entered U.S. airspace over Alaska, Biden was only informed of its presence once it had traversed Canada and entered airspace over Montana. At that point, the White House said, he ordered it shot down.
“I just think that the idea that there was a dereliction of duty is I think is a – is a bizarre notion,” he told PBS Newshour. “China knows exactly that– what the deal is with us.”
Part of Biden’s reluctance to express more criticism could be rooted in the fact that the Chinese balloon appeared at an inopportune time for him.
Biden has made lower tensions with China and its leader, President Xi Jinping, a hallmark of his foreign policy.
Biden and Xi met in person for the first time as presidents three months ago, and they pledged to work together to better manage the competitive relationship between their two nations.
But the Chinese balloon saga led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel an upcoming visit to China, and communication between the U.S. and Chinese militaries has dropped off, too.
“I’m committed to work with China where we can advance American interests and benefit the world,” Biden said last week during his State of the Union address. “But make no mistake about it: As we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did.”
Yalonda M. James/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
(JACKSONVILLE, Fla.) — Thousands of books in Duval County schools in Florida are subject to review due to three state laws impacting certain subjects in education, including race, gender and sexual orientation, according to county officials.
The books are under review based on several laws that restrict classroom topics, including the Stop WOKE Act and the Parental Rights in Education law, which was called the “Don’t Say Gay” law by LGBTQ activists.
A report by the anti-censorship group PEN America claims specific titles under review include books about historical Black and Hispanic figures like Robert Clemente, a Puerto Rican baseball player who became a Major League Baseball icon despite facing racism and segregation in his career.
A book about Celia Cruz, a Cuban singer known as the “Queen of Salsa,” was also removed from shelves, PEN America found, as well as a book about Hank Aaron, a Black baseball player who holds the second-highest total of home runs in history and was outspoken against racial discrimination, was another removal.
A story about Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the court, was also reported to be under review by PEN America.
Duval County school officials have not yet responded to ABC News’ request for comment and have not confirmed which titles are under review.
House Bill 1467, which has also prompted book reviews, prohibits books that contain “pornographic” content or are “inappropriate.”
The “Stop WOKE” Act restricts lessons and training on race and diversity in schools and in the workplace, particularly anything that discusses privilege or oppression based on race. WOKE in the bill stands for “Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees.”
The Parental Rights in Education law states instruction on “sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,” according to the bill’s language.
According to Duval County officials, the Florida Department of Education is training “all Florida schools districts to ‘err on the side of caution’ in determining if a book is developmentally appropriate for student use.” The county joins at least one other in heavily scrutinizing its book collection based on state laws.
Manatee County schools are also set to “remove or cover all materials that have not been vetted” in classrooms, according to a copy of the guidance previously obtained by ABC News.
Across the country, schools and libraries are facing challenges to books, predominantly affecting titles written by or about people of color and LGBTQ people.
Florida’s comes amid a growing movement against certain lessons or discussions concerning marginalized groups in Florida classrooms.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration have also recently rejected an AP African American studies course because it is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,” according to state officials. His administration has also vowed to remove funding from diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education, as well as certain lessons on race.
(GAZIANTEP, Turkey) — The political fallout from last week’s massive earthquake in the Turkish-Syrian border has already begun, according to experts.
Over the weekend, Turkish officials announced arrests against building developers following an outcry from residents about poor building construction that led to more than 30,000 deaths in the country.
ABC News’ Ibtissem Guenfoud, who has been on location in Turkey since the hours after this quake, spoke with “Start Here” Monday about these developments.
START HERE: Ibtissem, what types of charges are we seeing here?
IBTISSEM GUENFOUD: Yes. So, Brad, at least two property developers have already been arrested at airports. Prosecutors are accusing them of trying to flee the country. Yavuz Karakus is a contractor of many of the collapsed buildings in Adiyaman, and that’s one of the cities near the epicenter of that earthquake that has seen some of the biggest, most shocking damage that our team has seen here on the ground. And he’s been arrested while he was trying, allegedly, to escape to Georgia. Another contractor was a contractor over a 14-story luxury apartment building in Hatay, another hard-hit area here in Turkey.
Many local outlets reported here that this contractor was also arrested while trying to flee the country.
You’re seeing here a lot of anger and frustration over building standards, although the quakes were powerful. Some experts have already come out saying that properly constructed buildings should have been able to stay standing. And we have spoken here to disaster responders, volunteers from AFAD, it’s a government disaster response organization, and they’re used to dealing with this type of event. They told us that the problem is in part with the lack of structural components. Indeed, we’ve seen ourselves the debris in Adiyaman, mainly. We’ve seen collapsed buildings. And you can clearly tell that it’s just bricks. They were just made of bricks. There was clearly no or very little structural fixative, no steel to reinforce the concrete. And these disaster responders also told us that when there is iron or steel to reinforce it, the diameter of that iron used is often too small to be effective.
So there is an issue here on the quality of the building components used, a quality that is below what is required by the law and by these codes that were supposed to ensure that in earthquake-prone regions those buildings could stand that type of event. And of course, these volunteers also pointed to the corruption, saying that some of these buildings simply shouldn’t be built so high, according to regulations. But bribes are often used to counter these restrictions.
START HERE: I’m trying to get a sense of is this the government, you know, saying these people are trying to flee the country, “We need to issue charges sooner than later?” Or is it the government realizing, “Hey, we’re politically vulnerable right now and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying people are angry right now, they’re going to start being angry at us if we don’t do something, let’s really focus on the contractors?”
GUENFOUD: Yes, absolutely. They are realizing that this is turning quickly into a situation that they have to manage. People are desperate, but they are getting angry now.
Many locals…told us that for the first few days, they were on their own trying to save their neighbors or their relatives on their own, digging through the rubble. And that frustration over the rescue efforts was for the first few days, very strong. And then now there’s another layer of frustration on top of that, because there’s this feeling that so many lives didn’t have to be lost or endangered. And in fact, there could have been help and now the authorities are cracking down on those developers.
In fact, this is a critical issue now, because we are only three months from presidential elections. President Erdogan visited some of those hard-hit areas and pledged to rebuild. These cities are, in fact, usually firmly in his party stronghold, but [with] this earthquake happening now, these calls against corruption are concerns for this government that might try to prove itself now. In fact, there are concerns now that Erdogan might even try to move the elections, blaming it on the need to focus on the recovery after this earthquake.
