(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — One person was found dead in their vehicle in California on Sunday morning, as a winter storm brought flooding and heavy snow to the state, a Sacramento Metro Fire spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.
A Sacramento Metro Fire spokesperson confirmed that the deceased was recovered from their flooded vehicle in the southernmost part of Sacramento County, near the city of Elk Grove.
The identity and cause of death of the deceased haven’t been confirmed pending a coroner’s examination, according to Sacramento Metro Fire.
The National Weather Service in Sacramento issued flash flood warnings for the area, urging drivers to stay off the road.
A levee break in several places caused the flooding in the area, Sacramento Metro Fire Captain and Public Information Officer Parker Wilbourn told ABC News.
The Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services ordered residents in Wilton to shelter in place earlier Saturday afternoon.
“Rising water has made roads impassable in the area,” the office said in an advisory.
According to Caltrans District 3, which maintains the state highway system in 11 northern California counties, a highway near Elk Grove has been closed because the Cosumnes River flooded.
Two more storms are expected for the next week in northern California, with the second storm scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, possibly causing flooding in the area, according to NWS Sacramento.
Over 5 inches of rain had fallen in downtown San Francisco on Saturday, setting a new daily record, the National Weather Service for the San Francisco Bay Area said.
The West Coast is being slammed with an atmospheric river, which usually brings heavy rain, wind and snow to areas that it flows through, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The NOAA describes atmospheric rivers as “rivers in the sky” because they’re somewhat long and narrow regions in the atmosphere that send most of the water vapor outside the tropics.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
(MOBILE, Ala.) — One person is dead and nine are injured following a shooting on New Year’s Eve in Mobile, Alabama.
The shooting happened around 11:14 p.m. local time on the 200 block of Dauphin Street, according to the Mobile Police Department.
When officers arrived, police found a deceased 24-year-old male. Nine other people suffered gunshot wounds, according to police.
The victims, ages 17 to 57, were transported to local hospitals with injuries ranging from non-life-threatening to severe. Police said two businesses were also struck by gunfire.
Police said Sunday that a man is now in custody in connection with the shooting. “The subject is receiving medical treatment and, upon release, will be transported to Metro Jail and charged with murder,” the Mobile Police Department said in a statement.
If you have information about the case, you can contact the Mobile Police Department at (251) 208-721.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma police are investigating a shooting just after midnight Sunday near New Year’s Eve festivities in Oklahoma City.
One man was killed and at least three individuals were injured in the shooting that erupted in a parking lot near Northwest 10th Street and North Hudson Avenue in the downtown area, according to ABC Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO-TV.
No arrests were announced.
ABC News’ Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.
Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images
(RIO DELL, Calif.) — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 shook Northern California on New Year’s Day, striking in the same area where a tremor killed two people and caused major damage less than two weeks ago, authorities said.
Sunday’s earthquake occurred at 10:35 a.m. and its epicenter was pinpointed nine miles east of Rio Dell in Humboldt County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage. Route 211 was temporarily closed as inspectors checked a bridge that crosses the Eel River in Humboldt County for damage, according to the California Department of Transportation.
The shaker caused a power outage in the Rio Dell area, about 245 miles north of San Francisco. The Pacific Gas & Electric Company reported that 500 to 4,999 utility customers are affected by the outage.
The quake struck 12 days after one hit the same area.
On Dec. 20, a powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the same area, killing two people, a 73-year-old and an 83-year-old, who died as “a result of medical emergencies occurring during and/or just following the earthquake,” officials said. The previous earthquake injured 17 people, knocked out power and water to the city of Rio Dell, caused a major water main break and shook several homes off their foundations, county officials said.
Gage Dupper, who was displaced by the earlier quake, which knocked his home off its foundation, told ABC San Francisco station KGO-TV that he’s been living as a “nomad.”
“Today was another pretty big one. Still feels like we are shaking to me. We just can’t catch a break it seems,” Dupper said.
He said he was working in Fortuna, next to Del Rio, when Sunday’s quake occurred.
“But even just here it felt like the ceiling was going to come down,” Dupper said. “We nearly lost our power here as well. I was in the middle of talking to a resident of the assisted living community I work for and you could just see the panic in their eyes when it started. She was just trying to pay her rent. It certainly tossed us around a bit.”
Miley Cyrus teased new music not long ago, and on New Year’s Eve, she made it official: A new single is on its way.
During her NBC special Miley’s New Year’s Eve party, the singer announced that the single, called “Flowers,” will arrive January 13, and also shared some clips of the song. The song is now available to pre-order and pre-save. There will also be more announcements this week on MileyCyrus.com.
“Flowers” will be Miley’s first solo single since 2020’s “Midnight Sky.”
Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party featured Miley co-hosting with Dolly Parton, performances by Sia, Latto, RaeSremmurd, FLETCHER and rocker David Byrne, and appearances by Paris Hilton and various Saturday Night Live stars. Fans were particularly impressed by Miley duet with FLETCHER on “Midnight Sky.”
Dolly and Miley kicked off the show with a cover of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts‘ “I Love Rock ‘n Roll,” and also duetted on Miley’s hit “Wrecking Ball” and Dolly’s classic, “I Will Always Love You.”
Miley also joined Sia and Paris Hilton to perform Paris’ signature song “Stars Are Blind,” and sang with David Byrne on a cover of David Bowie‘s “Let’s Dance,” among many other performances.
Jax had quite the New Year’s Eve: In addition to performing live in New York’s Times Square for an audience of millions, she also got engaged.
On her Instagram Story, Jax posted video and pictures of herself performing on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest Saturday night, as well as photos of herself flashing her engagement ring and kissing her boyfriend backstage. “It’s official. “We’re doin the damn thing,” she captioned the photo.
In another photo of herself showing off the ring, she wrote,”The one time I decided to get a purple sparkle manicure for no reason.”
Jax also posted a message from Chelsea Lascher, the pre-teen girl who Jax babysits; she’s the one who inspired the Jax to write “Victoria’s Secret.” Chelsea wrote, “I am so unbelievably happy for my best friends, you guys mean the world to me and you deserve this. I love you guys so much.”
In addition, Jax posted a photo on her Story of herself showing off her ring while posing with her fiancé, as well as New Year’s Rockin’ Eve co-host Liza Koshy and BTS member j-hope, another Rockin’ Eve performer.
It seems like Jax’s fiancé can take a hint: On December 27, she posted a TikTok documenting the moment when he surprised her with a puppy for Christmas. At one point in the video, he asks her to close her eyes to prepare for the surprise. She asks, “Is it an engagement ring?” When he says no, a disappointed Jax says, “Dang!”
(WASHINGTON) — The 118th Congress will see a number of historic “firsts” — the first woman and LGBTQ representative from Vermont, the first Latina representatives from Oregon and the first member of Generation Z, those born from 1997 to 2012.
That 25-year-old, Maxwell Frost, will be the youngest member of a legislative body where the average lawmaker is more than twice his age when he’s sworn in on Jan. 3 as a Democratic member representing Florida’s 10th Congressional District.
Frost’s first order of business may be finding a place to live in Washington.
While he’ll be going from driving Ubers to making $174,000 a year as a member of Congress, Frost said he’s struggled to find an apartment because of bad credit — and sat down with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent and “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl just after learning one of his applications had been rejected.
“It’s not cheap,” Frost told Karl in an exclusive interview at Capitol Hill institution Bullfeathers. “I’m dealing with it right now, getting denied from apartments, trying to figure out where to live because I have bad credit. I’m probably just going to have to, like, couch surf for a little bit.”
Frost is a newcomer to elected office but is no stranger to politics. He’s worked for 10 years as an advocate for increased gun regulation, including with March for Our Lives — the group formed by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas students following the Parkland, Florida, school mass shooting in 2018.
He credits the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre as the catalyst for his political activism. He said he remembers exactly where he was when he heard the news about that shooting in 2012 — with his friends at a restaurant before a high school jazz band concert.
“We looked up at the television screens and saw that somebody walked into an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, and murdered 20 children and six teachers and I remember at the show that night I was playing, [I] couldn’t think straight, kept looking at the exits,” Frost recalled to Karl. “I was very anxious. And it’s really what propelled me to come up here to the vigil and dedicate my life to fighting for a world where there’s no gun violence.”
In June, Frost confronted Gov. Ron Desantis, R-Fla., to act on gun violence during an event of his. Frost was escorted out by security and DeSantis told him, “Nobody wants to hear from you.” After the moment went viral, Frost featured the interaction in a campaign ad.
Frost told Karl he decided to show up to the event “in the spirit of direct action and protest.”
“This was about a week and a half after the Uvalde shooting [in Texas]. He hadn’t said a single word about ending gun violence,” Frost said. “And so, we came to him more with a plea and what I got in return was ‘nobody wants to hear from you’ — getting dragged out by security, having popcorn thrown at me and people yelling curse words and racial slurs.”
While he identifies as a progressive, Frost said would support President Joe Biden if Biden seeks reelection in 2024. Pressed by Karl if he would encourage the president to run again, Frost said he would.
“Joe Biden wasn’t my first choice in the primaries,” said Frost, who previously worked on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the work that the president’s done,” Frost added and pointed to the Inflation Reduction Act. “The whole package didn’t get passed but it sets a standard that a U.S. president said, ‘This is what the American people deserve,’ and now we can go out as progressives and moderates and as Democrats and say, ‘This is the president’s agenda, let’s get it passed,’ and I think that’s important.”
Frost said that while he understands the importance of compromise, he hopes to never lose sight of his “North Star.”
“I think we’re in this politics now where people are scared to talk about their North Star,” Frost said. “And I think it’s important that we not lose sight of that — health care for everybody, ending gun violence, combating the climate crisis. These things are really important. And even though we’re not going to get it next year, you can’t take a first step in a journey if you don’t know where you’re going.”
But Karl noted that “with Democrats you have a debate between those that want to take the incremental win and those that say, ‘No, we’ve got to hold out for something bigger.'”
“I think it’s less of an ideological battle and more of a battle of figuring out what are we talking about and what are we doing in this moment,” Frost responded. “It’s not that progressives and — it’s not that me, that I don’t believe in incremental change, right? I’ve been working in gun violence for 10 years. We just got some incremental change with the bipartisan gun safety package that was passed. It wasn’t everything that we need, but it’s a good first step to ensuring that we end gun violence.”
“I think it’s important to realize that it’s OK to ask for a lot. In fact, that’s why people have sent us here,” Frost added. “It doesn’t mean we’re not going to compromise for something else, but it means we shouldn’t show up at the debate already at the compromise.”
(WASHINGTON) — Arkansas’ Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday that the pro-Trump Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Capitol Hill “disqualifies” Donald Trump from winning the 2024 GOP nomination as he considers his own challenge to the former president.
“I do not believe that Donald Trump should be the next president of the United States. I think he’s had his opportunity there. I think Jan. 6 really disqualifies him for the future. And so, we move beyond that. And that’s what I want to be focused on,” Hutchinson, who will soon travel to the early primary state of Iowa, told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
Karl pressed Hutchinson on if that view meant he definitively wouldn’t support Trump should Trump emerge as the Republican nominee for the White House in two years.
Hutchinson demurred and only said he would consider the options out of what is likely to be a crowded field.
“I want to see what the alternatives are. And it’s premature, Jonathan, to get into what might happen in 2024. That issue will come up. But I want to see everything I can do to make sure there is the alternative and that Donald Trump is not the nominee of the party. That’s the first thing, and let’s figure out how to do that,” Hutchinson said.
His comments come after the House panel investigating the 2021 Capitol attack recently referred criminal charges for Trump and others to the Justice Department over their alleged roles in the violence, including what the committee said was Trump conspiring to defraud the U.S. and aiding the insurrectionists.
Trump has repeatedly said he did nothing wrong and accused the House committee of politically persecuting him.
Hutchinson has consistently said he does not think Trump should be the 2024 nominee but acknowledged in his “This Week” interview that the former president remains the “front-runner,” citing recent polling and his name recognition from his celebrity status and four years in the White House.
Still, Hutchinson said he disagrees with considerations by the party to insert a rule into 2024 primary debates binding presidential candidates to support the GOP’s ultimate nominee.
“I think it would be a mistake to do that. I think it’s obvious that you’ve got a divided party in the sense that you’ve got a base of loyal Trump supporters. But you’ve got what to me is even a larger majority of those that say, ‘We want to go a different direction,'” he said.
Hutchinson has strongly suggested that he’ll make a run of his own after Trump launched his third presidential campaign in November. But he told Karl that there was nothing to announce yet.
“Obviously, I’m going to Iowa later this month. I’m excited about that. But no decision has been made now. And we can’t make a decision until a little bit later. But I want to be a part of the solutions for America,” he said.
That vision of problem-solving, he said, was one way other conservatives could differentiate themselves from Trump in the lead-up to the 2024 race.
“He does not define the Republican Party. And we have to have other voices. … It’s an opportunity for other voices to rise that’s going to be problem-solving, commonsense conservatives. And they can shape the future of the Republican Party but also provide the right counterbalance to [President Joe] Biden’s failed policies. And, to me, that’s what we have to do in 2023,” Hutchinson said.
Looking ahead to other possible 2024 contenders, Hutchinson said that Trump — despite his continued popularity within the GOP — no longer had the appeal of being “new” on the political scene. He argued that Trump’s blend of “chaos” and “anger” could be a turnoff.
“That’s not a new thing anymore. And so I think people move away from it rather than embrace it,” he said.
“You need to have simply a message that’s authentic to yourself, a message that is problem-solving and say, ‘This is what we need to do as a country.’ And that, to me, is the right contrast,” he said.
Hutchinson, who served four years in the House before serving in other federal and state roles, also knocked Rep.-elect George Santos, R-N.Y., after it was revealed following Santos’ midterm election victory that he fabricated or embellished several parts of his resume and personal life.
“There has to be accountability for that. That is unacceptable. I don’t know whether you can go so far as to not seat him but certainly the Ethics Committee should deal with this, and he has to be held accountable for that,” Hutchinson said. “That’s unacceptable in politics. It breaches the trust between the electorate and their elected official.”
(NEW YORK) — An “unprovoked” machete attack on three New York City police officers near Times Square on New Year’s Eve is being investigated as a possible terrorist incident. The suspect is allegedly a 19-year-old man from Maine, whose online posts indicate recent Islamic radicalization, sources told ABC News.
Investigators are looking into whether the suspect came to the annual ball drop specifically to wage an attack on law enforcement, the sources said.
The incident occurred just after 10 p.m. on Saturday near West 52nd Street and 8th Avenue, outside the secure area that had been set up for New Year’s Eve celebrations, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell told reporters at a news conference at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital.
“Unprovoked, a 19-year-old male approached an officer and attempted to strike him over the head with a machete,” Sewell said. “The male then struck two additional officers in the head with the machete.”
One of the officers fired their weapon, striking the suspect in the shoulder, Sewell said. The suspect was taken into custody, she said.
The three injured officers were taken to Bellevue, Sewell said.
Suspect relatives reported concerns
While a motive remains under investigation, authorities are not ruling out the possibility that the suspect came to New York City specifically to attack police officers at the Times Square ball drop, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Multiple law enforcement sources identified the suspect as Trevor Bickford, 19, of Wells, Maine. He took an Amtrak train to New York City on Dec. 29, the sources said.
Federal and local law enforcement investigators are combing through the suspect’s online postings, which indicate recent extremist Islamic radicalization, the sources said.
Bickford has no prior arrests. His mother and aunt notified law enforcement in recent weeks about their concerns he was gravitating toward dangerous Islamist ideologies, the sources said. The report prompted the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force to look into the suspect, the law enforcement sources said.
The NYPD counterterrorism bureau is investigating the New Year’s Eve attack in conjunction with the FBI.
Should authorities determine the attack was motivated by an Islamist ideology, it would make it the first terror incident associated with New Year’s Eve in Times Square, authorities said.
Prior to New Year’s Eve, the NYPD noted in a pre-event assessment that throughout December “multiple pro-ISIS users disseminated extremist propaganda graphics broadly calling for attacks in advance of the New Year, advocating a wide range of low-tech tactics.” Islamist terror groups have long promoted knife attacks.
Both federal and local law enforcement stressed at Sunday morning’s news conference the attack appeared to be an isolated incident and there was no longer a threat.
Injured officers in stable condition
One of the injured officers, an eight-year veteran of the NYPD, suffered a laceration to the head, officials said. Another hurt officer had just graduated from the police academy on Friday, and as is traditionally the case, his first assignment was the New Year’s Eve detail in Times Square. The rookie officer was also struck in the head, resulting in a skull fracture and large laceration, officials said.
“We are really pleased by the response and how our officers handled this situation,” Mayor Eric Adams said. “All three of the officers are in stable conditions and there are no critical threats to New Yorkers at this time.”
FBI Assistant Director in Charge Mike Driscoll said the bureau’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is involved to “ascertain what is the nature of the attack.” He said that the FBI believes the attacker was acting alone.
The NYPD released an image of a weapon, saying it had been recovered at the scene. The weapon appeared to be a Gurkha knife, a type of curved blade, according to ABC News contributor Darrell M. Blocker, a retired CIA operative.
Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, said, “Let’s think about those family members here who are in shock right now, never thinking the first call of the year would be their son, their husband, their family member would be here in Bellevue Hospital.”
‘Everybody’s panicking’
Videos from the scene appeared to show revelers jogging through the rain as they were directed away from the scene by columns of police officers.
David Lyugovski, of California, told ABC News that he saw dozens of officers, some with guns drawn, running toward the scene of the incident.
“They’re all telling us to go towards the viewing area for the ball drop and everybody’s running, everybody’s panicking,” Lyugovski said.
Lyugovski and his brother-in-law, Andrew Dyachkin, of South Carolina, were in New York to watch the Times Square ball drop, they said in a joint video interview.
“Somebody’s yelling, ‘Calm down, calm down,’ because everybody’s on edge,” Dyachkin said. “Like, I’m sure in the back of all of our minds, now this could be a target for, you know, shooting.”
He added, “We thought someone is trying to shoot, you know, as many people as possible. Another mass shooting.”
One of the officers involved in the incident had graduated from the police academy on Friday, Sewell said.
Adams spoke at the officer’s graduation ceremony, he said.
“It just goes to show you, it could be your first day or it could be your last day, the actions that police officers must take every day are life-threatening situations,” Adams said.
ABC News’ Josh Margolin, Keith Harden, Patricio Chile and Mark Crudele contributed to this report.
Anita Pointer, founding member of the legendary sister act the Pointer Sisters, passed away Saturday at the age of 74, with her publicist noting she was “surrounded by family at the time of her death.”
“While we are deeply saddened by the loss of Anita, we are comforted in knowing she is now with her daughter, Jada and her sisters June and Bonnie and at peace,” read a statement from the family. “She was the one that kept all of us close and together for so long. Her love of our family will live on in each of us.”
The statement added, “Please respect our privacy during this period of grief and loss. Heaven is a more loving beautiful place with Anita there.”
Anita and her sisters Bonnie, June and Ruth formed the Pointer Sisters in 1969, and they released their self-titled debut album in 1973. In 1974 they won a Grammy for the track “Fairytale.” Between 1973 and 1985 they had 13 U.S. Top 20 hits including “I’m So Excited” and “Neutron Dance,” which both went to number three, as well as “Fire,” “He’s So Shy,” and “Slow Dance.” Their 1983 triple platinum album Break Out, earned them two more Grammy Awards for the songs “Jump” and “Automatic.”
The sisters also appeared on screen, making their feature film debut in Richard Pryor‘s 1976 film Car Wash, and they also made appearances on such TV shows as The Carol Burnett Show, Love Boat and more. They received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994, and have been honored with the Soul of America Music Awards and inducted into the Soul Train Hall of Fame.
Modest Mouse drummer Jeremiah Green has died at age 45 following a short battle with cancer.
In a statement posted to Instagram on New Year’s Eve, the “Float On” outfit writes, “Today we lost our dear friend Jeremiah. He laid down to rest and simply faded out.”
“Please appreciate all the love you give, get, have given, and will get,” the post continues. “Above all, Jeremiah was about love.”
News of Green’s passing comes after the musician’s mother announced on Christmas Day that her son was “battling stage 4 cancer.” In a statement on December 28, frontman Isaac Brock confirmed that Green had been diagnosed with cancer “a short while ago,” adding that Green’s treatment regiment “seems to be going smoothly and making a positive difference.”
Green was an original member of Modest Mouse, having co-founded the band with Brock and bassist Eric Judy in the early ’90s. He remained with the group ever since, save for a brief hiatus between 2003 and 2004.
The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who played with Modest Mouse between 2006 and 2008, tweeted, “The great Jeremiah Green. My friend, bandmate, and the most creative musician I ever met.”
