(NEW YORK) — A major storm is hitting the West Coast with flood, high wind and heavy snow alerts in effect for California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Washington state.
More than 118,000 customers are without power in California.
Although the heaviest of the rain has ended, unsettled weather continues across California and a flood watch remains in effect.
A winter storm warning is in place for the mountains outside of Los Angeles, where up to a foot of snow is possible.
In California, winds gusts up to 132 mph were reported in Alpine Meadows and up to 60 mph at San Francisco International Airport.
Heavy rain will continue Thursday in California and then most of the state will catch a break on Friday before more rain arrives over the weekend and into early next week.
Winds in Los Angeles County gusted up to 87 mph and up to 63 mph on the Santa Barbara County coast.
The highest rainfall totals in California over the last 24 hours were 5 inches in Potter Valley, 3.98 inches in Valley Christian, 4.67 inches in Los Angeles County and 1.8 inches in Beverly Hills.
San Francisco picked up more than half of its annual rainfall in just 30 days.
Winter storm warnings are in effect for the Sierras, where there could be up to 4 feet of snow.
Heavy snow will continue to fall in the Sierras and mountains of Los Angeles later Thursday while snow will also be moving into the central Rockies.
Additional Atmospheric Rivers will move in this weekend and into next weekend. More rounds of flooding rain, winds and mountain snow are to be expected. The northern and central part of the state will likely get the brunt of it.
Elsewhere, there were 23 reported tornadoes across the South.
Seven tornadoes were confirmed in Illinois alone, making it the biggest tornado outbreak for the state since 1989.
To the north, up to 15 inches of snow fell in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, breaking a daily record and making it the snowiest start to January in five years.
With more than 45 inches of snow so far this season, this is the snowiest start to winter in almost 30 years at Minneapolis−Saint Paul International Airport.
(NEW YORK) — Ovidio Guzmán, a top leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, the notorious drug lord currently serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison, has been arrested by authorities in Mexico, the country’s secretary of defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, announced Thursday afternoon.
Guzmán was captured by Mexican armed forces in an overnight raid in a small town just outside the city of Culiacán, the capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa.
He was transported by military aircraft from Culiacán back to Mexico City late morning on Thursday. Officials said the operation had been in the works for more than six months.
The arrest was also confirmed to ABC News by a U.S. law enforcement official.
Ovidio Guzman has been charged since 2018 in Washington, D.C., with manufacturing or distributing for illegal importation into the United States substantial amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana.
A provisional warrant was issued for his arrest in 2019, according to Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary, Marcelo Ebrad.
“This is a request for provisional detention and then there is the extradition procedure,” Ebrad told reporters.
A U.S.-based attorney who has represented Guzman since 2019, Jeffrey Lichtman, declined to comment on the arrest.
Ebrad denied that U.S. agencies had participated or provided information that led to Guzmán’s arrest and also rumors that the arrest was a “gift” to President Joe Biden who is scheduled to visit Mexico next week.
“This operation was kept extremely confidential by the authorities in charge of doing so and there was no intermediation or political consultation. There is no link between the operation and the summit,” he told reporters.
Guzmán is allegedly a major trafficker of fentanyl and other drugs to the United States and has been helping to lead a now-fractured Sinaloa Cartel since his father’s extradition years ago.
Alleged cartel members have since besieged parts of the city, with burning vehicles set up as roadblocks in what appeared to be a failed attempt to impede authorities transporting Guzmán out of the city.
Mexico’s military reported numerous blockades across the city and said that armed men even attacked the city’s main airport.
An Aeromexico flight set to take off from Culiacán to Mexico City was struck by a stray bullet at the airport and did not take off as a result.
“This morning, a bullet impact was detected in the fuselage of an Embraer 190 plane that was ready to start flight AM165 on the Culiacan-Mexico City route, which was canceled for security reasons,” Aeromexico said in a statement. “The plane never started its takeoff run. After this accident, the company’s protocols were activated and the corresponding authorities were notified, with whom we will coordinate the investigations. Customers and collaborators are safe.”
Aeromexico later said it was temporarily suspending all operations at the airport.
This is not the first time the city has come under attack during a raid to capture Ovidio Guzmán.
In a now-infamous event in October 2019, nicknamed the Culiacanazo, authorities briefly detained Ovidio Guzmán at a home in Culiacán.
Word spread quickly, however, and heavily armed gunmen flooded the city, with massive shootouts taking place between cartel members and Mexican armed forces around the city.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered Ovidio Guzmán released in order to avoid more bloodshed — a major embarrassment for the government and one that is routinely held up as a prime example of the power criminal organizations continue to wield in Mexico.
Ovidio Guzmán is wanted on federal charges in the United States and could face extradition to the U.S. pending legal proceedings.
His father, El Chapo, is serving a life sentence in the U.S. after being convicted in 2019 of conducting a continuing criminal enterprise, including large-scale narcotics violations and a murder conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracies, unlawful use of a firearm and a money laundering conspiracy.
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira and Kirit Radia contributed to this report.
As previously reported, Ian Gillan’s wife, Bron, passed away in November at the age of 67, and now the Deep Purple rocker has shared a tribute to her on his personal website.
“My darling wife, Bron, died of heart failure on Saturday 19 November, 2022, in Exeter Hospital,” he writes. “It’s taken some weeks until I could find the words to dignify her publicly. Publicly, because our life together, (forty. wonderful, happy years), was mainly private.”
He adds, “But, I don’t think she’d mind if I said out loud that ‘I love you my sweet B, we are forever entwined. The wrench of bereavement is softened by your continued presence. Thank you for your love and guidance. See you later.’”
Gillan also shares that Bron was “was funny, beautiful, intelligent and strongly supportive to me and our daughter Grace, in our work,” adding, she “made a wonderful happy place for me and Grace, to come home to.”
As for the upcoming year, Gillan offers, “I’m getting my head together for the year of work ahead, for which I’m grateful (it helps) and excited. We are getting around a bit in this coming year, so I hope to see as many as possible of your smiling faces on the road, or in a bar somewhere.”
(WASHINGTON) — Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow announced Thursday that she will retire at the end of her term, opening up her seat in 2024 and moving her battleground state closer to the heart of the Senate map in two years, when her party will be on the defensive in retaining its narrow majority.
Stabenow, who was first elected to the chamber in 2000 and is a member of Democratic leadership, said in a statement that as she leaves office in January 2025, she will look to hand power to younger lawmakers while she returns to private life.
She said she intends to spend “precious time” with her family, including her 96-year-old mother.
“Inspired by a new generation of leaders, I have decided to pass the torch in the U.S. Senate. I am announcing today that I will not seek re-election and will leave the U.S. Senate at the end of my term on January 3, 2025,” she said.
Her announcement, which surprised Democrats from Lansing to Washington, spurred immediate speculation over who could run for her seat in a swing state where Democrats have seen recent successes after Donald Trump narrowly flipped it in the 2016 presidential election.
To run a replacement for Stabenow, Democrats boast a particularly deep bench in Michigan, including several incumbent federal and statewide officeholders.
Reps. Debbie Dingell, Dan Kildee, Elissa Slotkin and Haley Stevens, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, state Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, state Attorney General Dana Nessel and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow were all mentioned by observers as Democrats who could potentially launch a campaign to succeed Stabenow.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who had a double-digit win in last year’s midterms, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a former presidential candidate who moved his residency to Michigan, were also included in the rumor mill though both put out statements downplaying any interest in running for the Senate.
Democrats have recently enjoyed success in Michigan despite its battleground status, with Whitmer winning reelection and the party winning both chambers of the state legislature in November.
Still, Stabenow’s decision to retire is likely to complicate the party’s strategy in the 2024 congressional elections, when they face a daunting Senate map.
Beyond defending seats in swing states like Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Democrats will also need to hold onto seats in Montana, Ohio and West Virginia, all three of which typically elect Republicans.
In total, Democrats will have 23 Senate seats up for reelection compared to 10 for the GOP.
With a 51-49 Democratic advantage in the Senate, their current majority is two seats, given that Vice President Kamala Harris can break ties.
The fragility of that hold was put into sharper relief Thursday after Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., whose seat is also up in 2024, announced he had prostate cancer, though he said in a statement that he should be able to continue his work “with minimal disruption” and touted his prognosis.
In Michigan in particular, Stabenow, who’s held various offices since 1975, loomed large among her colleagues.
“We all thought she was running,” one former state legislator said in a text to ABC News. “She was unbeatable. A total beast in the state.”
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) contended that it would still be able to defend Michigan without Stabenow in the race.
“In 2022 Michigan Democrats won resounding statewide victories, and we are confident Democrats will hold this Senate seat in 2024,” DSCC spokesman David Bergstein said in a statement.
Among those Republicans who could launch a Senate bid in two years are former Rep. Peter Meijer, who lost his primary last year to a Trump-backed challenger; incoming Rep. John James, who previously lost two Senate bids; Tudor Dixon, who lost her challenge to Whitmer; former state Attorney General Bill Schuette and more.
“We are going to aggressively target this seat in 2024. This could be the first of many Senate Democrats who decide to retire rather than lose,” National Republican Senatorial Committee Communications Director Mike Berg said in a statement.
Republicans could face a messy primary depending who in their party runs for the Senate, given that some conservatives in the state are close allies of former President Donald Trump — and some, like Meijer, have vocally opposed him.
“Great opportunity. Tough state,” tweeted Steven Law, the head of Senate Leadership Fund, Senate Republicans’ top super PAC. “Needed: a candidate who can raise money, unite the party and appeal to GOP-leaning Independents.”
Netflix’s latest Knives Out film, Glass Onion, is sparking some renewed interest in The Beatles classic of the same name. Billboardreports that the White Album track, which plays over the credits of the hit flick Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, has seen a streaming bump since the film debuted on the streamer December 23.
During the week of December 23 to 29, The Beatles’ “Glass Onion” was streamed 160,000 times, up from 60,000 the previous week, an increase of 167%.
And that’s not the only song to get some help from the movie. David Bowie’s “Star,” which plays during a Kate Hudson dance sequence, saw a 60% increase, while the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” which is also in the flick, saw a 37% streaming increase.
Robert Plant admits it wasn’t easy to go on with his career after the end of Led Zeppelin, but credits his friends, including Phil Collins, with helping him move on.
“After [Led Zeppelin drummer] John [Bonham] passed away and there was no Led Zeppelin, there had to be a way to go,” Plant shares in a new interview with Vulture. “I floundered around a lot because until I was 32, I was in some kind of wild and absurd adventure.”
Plant says Led Zeppelin was “a lot to live up to.” As he struggled with his first solo album, 1982’s Pictures at Eleven, there were a lot of friends who gave him “support and strength,” including Collins, who appeared on five of the album’s tracks.
“Phil Collins especially was a driving force and had positive energy with the first record,” he says. “With Phil, it wasn’t so much advice as encouragement and consideration. He was taking no prisoners. He would only allow himself a short amount of time to come to the studio in Wales and make it work. Nobody was hiding behind the performance.”
Collins actually went on tour with Plant, telling the rocker he wanted to help because of his admiration for Bonham, who was his hero. Plant notes, “That was it. He said, ‘Anything I can do to help you to get back into fighting shape again, I’m here.’”
As this was all happening, Collins was dealing with his own successful solo career, with the 1981 single “In The Air Tonight.” Plant notes, “Yet he was still mixing and working with me while kicking off a particularly impressive and successful time. He’s a great spirit, a good man.”
Paramount+ has announced that Oscar winner Nicole Kidman has joined Zoe Saldaña and Laysla De Oliveira in Taylor Sheridan‘s spy series The Lioness.
According to the streaming service, the show from the Yellowstone and Tulsa King creator is “based on a real-life CIA program and follows Cruz Manuelos (De Oliveira), a rough-around-the-edges but passionate young Marine recruited to join the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organization from within.”
According to the streamer, Kidman will play CIA senior supervisor Kaitlyn Meade, “who has had a long career of playing the politics game. She must juggle the trappings of being a woman in the high-ranking intelligence community, a wife who longs for the attention she herself can’t even give, and a mentor to someone veering suspiciously close to the same rocky road she’s found herself on.”
For her part, Avatar series star Saldaña will play Joe, “the station chief of the Lioness program tasked with training, managing and leading her female undercover operatives.”
Kidman will also serve as an executive producer on the series.
NBC’s Saturday Night Live returns on January 21 with its first new show of 2023, and Sam Smith has the honor of being this year’s first musical guest.
Sam, whose new album Gloria comes out January 27, is returning to the show for the first time since 2017. During that appearance, they sang “Too Good at Goodbyes” and “Pray.” This will be Sam’s third appearance on the show overall; their first came in 2014, when they sang “Stay With Me” and “Lay Me Down.”
There’s no word on whether or not Kim Petras will join Sam if they decide to sing “Unholy.”
Aubrey Plaza, most recently seen in the second season of The White Lotus, will host.
Tony Bennett is celebrating his friendship with Lady Gaga by looking back at some of the fun times they had together.
Taking to Twitter on Thursday, the legendary singer shared a photo of him and Gaga dressed to the nines while engrossed in a game of pinball. Bennett is the one trying to beat the game as Gaga stands to the side and watches him play.
“Playing a little pinball with Lady Gaga backstage in Vegas in 2019!” the crooner captioned the post.
While it is unknown when the photo was taken, Gaga famously invited Bennett to perform during the debut of her Las Vegas Jazz & Piano residency at Park MGM in 2019. The two duetted on Frank Sinatra‘s “The Lady Is a Tramp” and Irving Berlin‘s “Cheek to Cheek.”
The two have collaborated on two duets albums, Cheek to Cheek and Love for Sale. They performed a final time together in 2021 for the CBS special One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga.
Bennett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, has since retired from performing.
