(LOUISVILLE) — Two people were killed and other four were injured in a shooting in Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday night.
Louisville Metro Police said they received a call at about 9 p.m. reporting multiple people had been shot at Chickasaw Park.
Two people were dead when police arrived at the scene, Deputy Chief Paul L. Humphrey said. Another four people were transported to University of Louisville Hospital, where one was in critical condition, Humphrey said.
The shooting comes days after a gunman opened fire at Old National Bank in Louisville, killing four people.
Mayor Craig Greenberg said on Saturday that “this is not who we are.”
He said that “the love and support and strength that we’ve seen all week long throughout the city continues to bring us together and move us towards a safer city, a stronger city and a healthier city.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Bruce Springsteen is being honored by his native New Jersey.
Governor Phil Murphy has declared The Boss’ birthday, September 23, will officially be known as Bruce Springsteen Day in the Garden State.
In announcing the news, Murphy noted, “Bruce Springsteen is one of the most iconic and influential musicians – and New Jerseyans – of all time, period.”
The declaration came a day after Springsteen and The E Street Band wrapped the first leg of their North American tour at New Jersey’s Prudential Center, with a set that featured two special songs.
Bruce opened the night with the Lucky Town track “Local Hero,” appropriate for a man playing his home state. The performance marked the first time he played the song on this tour, and the first time it’s been played since 2013.
Springsteen also added a cover of the Tom Waits classic “Jersey Girl,” another tour debut. Previously, Bruce hadn’t played the track with the E Street Band since 2016.
While the Prudential show was the final concert of this leg, Bruce will be back in the States for another set of shows kicking off August 9 and 10 in Chicago, with dates confirmed through December. But up next, he and the band head over to Europe for a run beginning April 28 in Barcelona, Spain.
(NEW YORK) — Maymah, a weightlifter and social media influencer who just goes by her first name, was part of Gymshark’s sports hijab launch in London.
When asked about what it’s like working out or weightlifting with a regular hijab, she says, “If I was doing something like running or skipping when there’s a lot of head movement, it could be quite annoying and it distracts you from your actual workout.”
So when her manager told her about Gymshark’s sports hijab, she immediately agreed to join their campaign.
The sports hijab is a one piece adjustable head scarf designed to stay in place, so that hijabis don’t have to wear a cap underneath their scarf and use pins.
Gymshark isn’t the first company to design a sports hijab. Ibtihaj Muhammad made history in 2016 as the first U.S. Olympic athlete to compete in a hijab made by Nike.
She says, “it was an opportunity, I think, to show Muslim women around the globe that there is no limits to what we’re capable of… and sport, I’ve always believed, is a place for everyone to exist.”
However, athleticwear isn’t the only challenge for Muslim athletes. Once a year, Muslims fast for the month of Ramadan – including athletes, even those who compete at elite levels.
“I competed for Team USA for about 11 years and Ramadan was just a part of, you know, life. And though it’s difficult, I do find fasting to be like riding a bike. And as an athlete you learn how to prepare your body for, you know, the month of Ramadan,” Ibtihaj shares.
Abstaining from food and drink isn’t the only challenge for her.
“If we as a community, society, made more of an effort to really understand why Muslims are fasting and really making more inclusive spaces, in a sense that especially young athletes feel comfortable talking about the fact that they’re fasting, making spaces more comfortable for athletes to even express that like, yes, not even water we can have water, I think would go a long way.”
Progress is being made, however. There’s now more Muslim representation in sports. From Ibtihaj on that grand stage in the Rio Olympics, to Adama Sanogo, a UConn basketball player who led his team to the NCAA Men’s Basketball championship while fasting, alongside fasting teammates Samson Johnson and Hassan Diarra.
There’s also some accommodation. The English Premiere League this year began pausing soccer matches for Muslim athletes to break their fasts.
“Growing up I can only think of a couple of athletes to even look up to as role models let alone now the situations and scenarios we see like the Premiere League example and like hockey player like Nazem Kadri that wins the Stanley Cup and decides, every player gets a day with the cup to celebrate with their friends and family, and he decides I’m going to bring this championship to my childhood mosque. And the Stanley Cup had never stepped foot in a mosque previous to that.” says Arda Ocal, one of the few Muslim sports anchors for ESPN.
He says there’s something to admire about Muslims who compete while fasting.
“The science of peak level athletics is fascinating to begin with and how they become champions etc but to add a layer to that, one that’s already grueling and challenging like fasting during Ramadan but then still competing at those highest levels, that’s remarkable.”
Muslim athletes have told him, it isn’t always easy, but…
“They like putting their bodies to the test in that way, to give them an extra layer of challenge. Continuing to compete and continuing to train while fasting gives them something to look forward to and they feel an immense sense of pride and accomplishment when they’re able to do that.”
To Arda, it’s about planting seeds for the next generation.
“If I’m inspiring one kid out there to say wow that name looks similar to mine or this person has the same faith as me or we’re from the same part of the world, maybe I can do this, I see myself in this person… that’s extremely important to me.”
(NEW YORK) — SpaceX is eyeing a Monday morning launch of its powerful Starship rocket — which is expected to eventually carry passengers to the moon and Mars.
The unmanned launch of the world’s largest rocket will mark the first flight test of a “fully integrated” Starship spacecraft and the so-called Super Heavy rocket, SpaceX said.
The 150-minute test window opens at 7 a.m. CT Monday, SpaceX said, while noting that the schedule is “dynamic and likely to change.” A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 45 minutes before liftoff.
The timing comes after the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday approved SpaceX’s launch of the nearly 400-foot-tall rocket from a remote site on the southernmost tip of Texas near Boca Chica Beach.
Following blastoff, the first stage of the super heavy rocket is expected to splash down about 20 miles off the coast of Boca Chica while the Starship vehicle orbits around the globe before splashing down off the coast of Hawaii.
The timing comes after the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday approved SpaceX’s launch of the nearly 400-foot-tall rocket from a remote site on the southernmost tip of Texas near Boca Chica Beach.
For this first flight test, SpaceX said it will not attempt a vertical landing of Starship or a catch of the booster.
SpaceX said this flight test will “inform and improve the probability of success in the future as SpaceX rapidly advances development of Starship,” which is designed to carry up to 100 people on long-duration, interplanetary flights.
NASA has already announced plans to use a Starship to put astronauts on the lunar surface in 2025.
ABC News’ Gina Sunseri contributed to this report.
(VIRGINIA) — Two men were shot and killed at a party in off-campus housing near James Madison University in Rockingham County, Virginia, according to police.
The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Department responded to a report of shots being fired at around midnight Saturday. When they arrived on scene, police determined that there had been a party and two males were shot.
Rescue units responded to the scene and both subjects were pronounced dead in the residence. Virginia State Police and JMU Police also responded to the scene.
Police identified the deceased as 22-year-old D’angleo Marquise Gracy and an unnamed 17-year-old male. Neither were students at JMU.
No suspects are in custody, but police said there is no known reason to believe there is an ongoing threat to the community.
“At this time the incident appears to be an isolated one that stemmed from an incident at the party. It is strongly believe there are individuals with specific information relating to this crime, and anyone who may have any information of any kind is encouraged to please contact the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office at (540) 564-3800,” Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson said in a press release.
A representative for JMU told ABC News that the residence where the shooting occurred was not JMU-owned property.
JMU President Jonathan Alger also released a statement in an email to the JMU community, according to university student newspaper The Breeze.
“Although they were not JMU students, they have connections with our local community and many across our campus will be impacted,” Alger wrote. “As a university, we believe in the importance of supporting one another during difficult times. We extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of these two individuals.”
The ongoing investigation is being handled by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office.
(MICHIGAN) — Nearly 100 probable cases of a rare fungal infection, including one fatal, have been linked to a Michigan paper mill.
Public Health Delta & Menominee Counties (PHDM) said 21 cases of blastomycosis have been confirmed while another 76 are suspected. All cases are in employees, contractors or visitors of the Escanaba Billerud Paper Mill on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Amid the outbreak, 12 people have been hospitalized and one person — a contractor who worked at the mill — has died due to blastomycosis, health officials said.
The department was notified about the first cases on Feb. 28 among workers with the mill.
“The health and safety of our Escanaba employees is our first priority,” Brian Peterson, vice president of operation at the mill, said in a statement. “Although the source of the infection has not been established, we continue to take this matter very seriously and are following recommendations from health and government officials.”
Public Health Officer Michael Snyder told ABC News the health department sees a few cases of the infection every year but rarely an outbreak of this magnitude.
Here’s what you need to know about blastomycosis and how it can be treated:
What is blastomycosis?
Blastomycosis is a fungal infection caused by a group of fungi known as Blastomyces.
“These are fungi that live in the environment as a mold and they make spores,” Dr. Teresa O’Meara, an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Michigan, told ABC News. “And what happens is that when people inhale too many of those spores, they can sort of set up and evade some of these innate immune responses and cause pneumonia and spread throughout the body.”
The fungi are found in the environment, mainly in moist soil and in decomposing organic material such as wood and leaves, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Most cases of the infection occur in the United States and Canada but are very rare, with the annual incidence being about one to two cases per 100,000 people, the CDC said.
In the U.S., O’Meara said blastomycosis is most common in eastern parts of the Midwest — including states like Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin — the Great Lakes region and Southwest.
“On average over the past five years, only 26 cases have been reported for the entire state of Michigan annually,” PHDM said in a release. “However, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a known risk area for blastomycosis infection.”
The infection is not transmitted from person to person or from animals to people and can only be contracted by breathing in the microscopic spores, often after activity that disrupts the soil or the decomposing material.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms can be wide-ranging, O’Meara said. Some patients are asymptomatic while others develop symptoms including coughing, fever, chest pain, muscle aches and fatigue.
Because symptoms resemble other types of infections, it can be hard to diagnose the illness in a person, O’Meara said.
“And so diagnosis is pretty hard, even in places where it’s endemic, just because it’s so rare,” she said.
O’Meara added that evidence suggests symptoms can appear anywhere from three weeks to three months after inhaling spores.
According to the CDC, the infection can spread from the lungs to other areas of the body, including the joints, bones, brain and spinal cord among those who are immunocompromised.
Which treatments are available?
Those infected with blastomycosis need to be treated with a prescription antifungal medication.
Those with mild to moderate cases can take a medication known as itraconazole, which stops the growth of fungi.
Patients with severe infections are usually given amphotericin B, an intravenous medication. Because it can have a wide range of side effects, it’s only given to critically ill patients or those who are immunocompromised.
Treatment can range from six months to a year and can depend on how severe a person’s infection is as well as the strength of their immune system.
“One of the really important problems I would like to highlight just for people to know is that we often think about antibiotic resistance as being a real problem,” O’Meara said. “But there’s actually dozens of classes of antibiotics and antifungals. There’s only three classes of antifungals available.”
She continued, “And so this is going to be a big problem going forward just because there are more and more fungal infections that are on the rise and we need to develop new antifungal treatments.”
Is blastomycosis deadly?
It is very rare for blastomycosis to result in death. According to the CDC, there have been 1,216 blastomycosis-related deaths between 1990 and 2010.
What’s more, the age-adjusted mortality rate is 0.21 per 1 million person-years, the federal health agency said.
How can I protect myself?
Because there is no vaccine and it is endemic in some environments, it may be hard to protect yourself against the fungus.
If you work in areas where the fungi is prevalent or you might disturb soil, O’Meara said you can consider wearing protective equipment.
If you think you’ve been exposed, get tested and — if positive — start antifungal treatment if needed.
(NEW YORK) — More than 26 million Americans from the Heartland into the South are under a severe weather threat Saturday.
Severe thunderstorms are possible from Illinois to Texas through the evening, affecting cities including Houston, New Orleans, St. Louis and Little Rock, Arkansas. Numerous severe thunderstorms are possible in a region along the Missouri and Arkansas border.
The primary hazards will be strong, potentially damaging wind gusts and large hail — though brief, isolated tornadoes cannot be ruled out. Frequent lightning is another concern.
The severe weather threat is expected to last from 4 to 10 p.m. ET, as a line of storms develops and moves through the threat area.
Areas of heavy rain and strong thunderstorms have started to sweep through parts of the northern Gulf Coast Saturday. A flood watch is in effect for cities including New Orleans and Biloxi, Mississippi. A severe thunderstorm watch is also in effect from New Orleans to Mobile, Alabama.
This storm system is forecast to continue to move up across the Great Lakes on Sunday, strengthening as it does so. A few scattered, strong thunderstorms could sweep through the central Appalachians into parts of the Southeast — all associated with the trailing cold front. Snow, strong winds and plummeting temperatures are also expected to target parts of the Upper Midwest.
A winter storm watch has been issued for much of Wisconsin and extending into extreme southeastern Minnesota and portions of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
As much as 4 to 6 inches of snow is possible in parts of Wisconsin by Sunday night into Monday morning, while a light snow accumulation of 1 to 4 inches is possible across parts of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Blowing snow will likely lower visibility in areas and could lead to travel impacts in the region.
(NEW YORK) — Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old junior enlisted airman with the Massachusetts Air National Guard, who has been charged as being behind the leak of classified U.S. military and U.S. intelligence documents had a high-level top security clearance that raises even more questions about why he had access to such documents in his work as an IT specialist.
The criminal complaint against Jack Teixeira released Friday disclosed that he possessed a high-level top secret clearance known as TS-SCI, Top Secret – Sensitive Compartmented Information, since 2021.
Teixeira worked as a full time active-duty Air National Guardsman at Otis Air National Guard Base, near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, as a “Cyber Transport Systems Journeyman” — essentially providing IT support for the 102nd Intelligence Wing.
Defense officials told ABC News that having a TS-SCI clearance is typical for Air Force personnel who in order to provide IT support might need access to classified spaces, computers and networks so they could do their jobs.
But the fact that you have a clearance does not mean you have access to everything at that level. That access is based on your “need to know” the information for your job.
That term refers to someone with a security clearance who is allowed to see certain levels of classified documents only if they “need to know” that information to carry out their jobs.
To service the computers and networks he worked on, Teixeira would’ve had access to highly sensitive networks, but if he wanted to access highly classified documents on that network for his job he could do so only if he had that clearance.
The “need to know” status is standard across the U.S. military and U.S. intelligence and means a top security clearance is not enough to be able to view specific intelligence documents.
The criminal complaint provides a description of how investigators used information from an unnamed U.S. government agency that “has access to logs of certain documents” to track how Teixeira allegedly used his clearance in February to look for a specific document that he later posted on a small Discord channel the following day.
Another logging system from another U.S. government agency that “can monitor certain searches conducted on its classified networks” indicated that Teixeira may have been concerned about the initial news reports that classified intelligence documents had begun to appear on Twitter and Telegram.
Teixeira on April 6 “used his government computer to search classified intelligence reporting for the word ‘leak,'” according to the complaint.
“The first public reporting regarding the Government Information appeared on or around April 6, 2023,” it added. “Accordingly, there is reason to believe that TEIXEIRA was searching for classified reporting regarding the U.S. Intelligence Community’s assessment of the identity of the individual who transmitted classified national defense information, to include the Government Document.”
Teixeira, who was arrested without incident at a residence in North Dighton, Massachusetts, on Thursday, has yet to enter a plea to the charges.
Social media sites filled with locals describing what they had just witnessed.
While these are usually the tell-tale signs of crisis, the small city of Harriman, Tennessee, witnessed a different kind of community-wide commotion on Wednesday when a local man’s pet emu escaped and prompted a slow-speed police chase to capture the giant bird.
“People were calling in that it was in their yard, and the first part of the morning, officers would go check and wouldn’t see him,” Harriman police chief Baron Tapp said. “And then somebody else would call and say, ‘Hey, the Emu is in my yard now’ or ‘It’s going over here over there.'”
“People were calling in that it was in their yard, and the first part of the morning, officers would go check and wouldn’t see him,” Harriman police chief Baron Tapp said. “And then somebody else would call and say, ‘Hey, the Emu is in my yard now’ or ‘It’s going over here over there.'”
The emu at the center of the commotion was MeeMoo of Harriman. Software programmer Harry McKinney helped hatch MeeMoo five years ago when a local hatchery’s incubator broke. McKinney described raising the emu on his 40-acre farm alongside sheep, turkeys, ducks, and other animals as a joy, or at least when MeeMoo stays in his enclosure.
He said that Wednesday’s escape began when MeeMoo hopped over his seven-foot enclosure fence.
“They have a flight or flight reflex, and he chose flight,” McKinney said. “He chose to run.”
Nearby residents tried to help spot MeeMoo, but after initial efforts failed, McKinney turned to social media for help locating the tall bird.
“The only thing we could do was put it on Facebook and just wait until somebody saw, and that did not disappoint,” McKinney said.
Steven McDaniel was planning on taking his dog for a car ride on Wednesday when he noticed the commotion in the normally quiet town.
“I went over, looked out, and there’s cop cars driving by at about three miles an hour,” he said.
McDaniel took out his phone to film and post a video of four police cruisers slowly driving behind the emu to capture the bird. The chase ended when the officers cornered MeeMoo near a local home surrounded by hedges. McKinney was enlisted to end the pursuit, calling his pet emu back to safety.
“I whistled, and he realized that dad was there,” he said. “And I went up, and I gave him a big hug.”
According to McKinney, the entire search took seven hours and stretched across 20 miles. No one was injured, and most residents appeared delighted by the affair, though some were slightly intimidated by confronting the five-foot tall bird.
“He just would hold its feathers like hold its wings straight out and come at you like ‘oh gosh, did it get mad or what,'” Tapp said about some of his officers’ encounters with MeeMoo.
While McKinney spoke affectionately about MeeMoo, he conceded that the emu could be intimidating.
“For us, he’s like a dog,” he said. “But for people that had never seen any emus before, it was a T-Rex coming down the sidewalk at them.”
Upon returning to his enclosure (now being reinforced with higher walls to prevent another escape), McKinney said MeeMoo immediately returned to his nest to care for his eggs. MeeMoo and his partner MeeMee are caring for multiple eggs, meaning that a new generation of emus might be antagonizing police in Harriman soon.
With video of the incident circulating widely on social media, many community members reacted with laughter and joy; even Tapp, whose police force had to confront the large bird, described the incident as a “good time” that brought the community together.
“We’ve had a lot of stuff going on here in Tennessee – the shootings in Nashville – we’ve had a couple of shootings here…,” McDaniel said. “It’s been a great thing for us as a community to be able to have a couple days [that bring] a smile on your face instead of just heartbreak.”
(NEW YORK) — A new financial disclosure report filed by Donald Trump shows that the former president has doubled his number of business holdings since leaving the White House.
The 101-page disclosure report, filed with the Federal Election Commission as part of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, details his personal wealth and income since January of 2022 and offers a first look at the state of his vast business interests since he returned to private life.
The report, which was filed weeks late even after Trump was given two 45-day extensions, shows that Trump has acquired hundreds of new assets — but it’s unclear exactly how the former president’s businesses have been faring because much of financial information is only reported in broad ranges, per FEC requirements.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, which has served as a destination spot for his supporters and allies, brought in over $5 million over the last 15 months according to the report. The club brought in more than $24 million in the final year of his presidency, according to his disclosure report from 2021.
The Trump Hotel at the Old Post Office in Washington, D.C., which also served as a popular spot for Trump’s allies during his presidency, also brought in more than $5 million last year in the months prior to its sale in May, per the filing.
Trump also reported bringing in over $5 million from each of his other major properties, including his golf clubs in Virginia, New Jersey, Palm Beach, and Scotland, as well as other signature properties in New York and Chicago, according to the filing.
The new filing also shows that Trump Media, one of Trump’s new ventures that includes his Truth Social platform, is worth between $5 million and $25 million — but that the business brought in no more than $201 over the past 15 months.
The disclosure report also shows Trump is still earning royalties from his books, including between $100,001 and $1 million from his 1987 book, “The Art of the Deal.”
