(OKMULGEE, Okla.) — Police are searching for clues in the mysterious disappearance of four close friends in Oklahoma.
Mark Chastain, 32; Billy Chastain, 30; Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29, were last seen leaving one of their homes in Okmulgee around 8 p.m. Sunday reportedly riding bicycles, according to the Okmulgee Police Department.
Both of the Chastain men and Sparks were reported missing by one of their spouses during the overnight hours on Monday, police said. Stevens’ mother contacted authorities a few hours later to also report her son’s disappearance.
At this time, there is no evidence indicating violence or any foul play, officials said.
Police spent Tuesday and Wednesday interviewing potential witnesses, working to gather descriptions and canvassing areas to confirm reported sightings.
“These men are exhausted,” Police Chief Joe Prentice said in a Facebook post shared on Wednesday. “I am sending them home to get rested and we will start fresh tomorrow, unless something time sensitive comes in overnight.”
According to investigators, two of the men are believed to have cellphones with them, however, attempts to contact them go straight to voicemail.
Chastain’s cellphone was tracked to an area south of Okmulgee, but was turned off or lost power at some point. Officers checked the area, but found no sign of the men, police said.
Anyone with information regarding their whereabouts is urged to contact the Okmulgee Police Department.
(DALLAS) — A 25-year-old police officer was killed traveling to work for the start of his shift when he was hit by a driver going the wrong way on the highway.
The incident occurred close to midnight on Tuesday at approximately 11:48 p.m. when Jacob Arellano of the Dallas Police Department was driving to work going northbound on Spur 408 near Kiest Boulevard in Dallas, Texas, when the SUV he was driving was struck by a vehicle driving southbound in the same lane.
“Officer Arellano was driving in the middle of the three lanes when a sedan going southbound in the northbound lanes hit the off-duty officer’s vehicle head-on,” the Dallas Police Department said in a statement announcing the tragic accident on social media. “The crash caused the officer’s vehicle to go into the right lane where it was hit by a tractor trailer. The officer’s vehicle rolled several times and stopped on the right shoulder of Spur 408.”
Officer Arellano was immediately taken to a local hospital where he was listed in critical condition. He later died from his injuries. The unnamed suspect who struck Arellano was also taken to the hospital and was listed in serious condition following the crash.
The Dallas Police Department posted a video thanking the public for the support they have shown Arellano’s friends and family in the aftermath of his death as well as to all of those who worked with him on the force.
Following an initial investigation, the Dallas Police Department determined that the wrong way driver may have been intoxicated, authorities said. Police did not give any further information on their ongoing investigation or the current condition of the suspect involved in the crash.
Arellano had been a member of the Dallas Police Department since June of 2019 and worked in the Northwest Patrol Division. He is survived by his parents, girlfriend and infant child as well as his brother who also works as a Dallas Police Officer.
(BRISTOL, Conn.) — Two police officers have been shot and killed and one left with serious injuries in a shooting that took place overnight in Bristol, Connecticut.
Connecticut State Police personnel have been requested to assist the Bristol Police Department with an investigation of a shooting involving three police officers that reportedly took place on Redstone Hill Road, authorities said.
“There were 3 officers involved in this OIS. We are still working on gathering info & providing a press conference. Once we have a location & time we will update everyone. Please be patient as we are working with investors & all that are involved to gather accurate info,” Connecticut State Police said in a statement released on social media.
“We ask your thoughts and prayers be with the families, the officer and all those impacted,” Connecticut State Police said.
India is a central character in the new Apple TV+ series Shantaram, starring Charlie Hunnam and Shubham Saraf, which debuts Friday.
Hunnam tells ABC Audio they actually filmed in Bangkok, Thailand due to COVID-19 and they went to great lengths to make it feel like India, but it wasn’t easy.
“That really was one of the central challenges for us, was to, how are we going to shape the most important character in this show when we don’t have access to that character directly,” he says.
Thankfully, they were able to draw from the team’s experiences with the country.
“Chris Kennedy, my production designer, spent a lot of time there in the 80s and he knew it very well,” said show executive producer Steve Lightfoot. “He had the photographs he’d taken back then that he still had. And, you know, and then a lot of research. Two of my writers were from Mumbai. One of them grew up in Colaba in the eighties.”
And, all of that hard work paid off because Saraf says he “truly was transported” and “kind of forgot where [he] was” when he arrived.
As far as what the series is about, Shantaram is based on a popular book, and Lightfoot shares that for him, the story is mostly about redemption.
“I think all of us, at the end of the day want to, you know, look in the mirror and like the person we see,” he explains. “I think Lin, the lead character, is on a very heightened version of that… he’s done some pretty bad stuff that he’s trying to atone for and try and somehow come to terms with for himself.”
“I feel like that’s something we can all identify with on our own smaller scale,” he adds.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Atlanta 3, Philadelphia 0
San Diego 5, Dodgers 3
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PRESEASON
Cleveland 105, Atlanta 99
Philadelphia 99, Charlotte 94
Indiana 109, New York 100
Brooklyn 107, Milwaukee 97
Miami 120, New Orleans 103
Minnesota 118, LA Lakers 113
Sacramento 105, Phoenix 104
Denver 126, LA Clippers 115
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Boston 5, Washington 2
Carolina 4, Columbus 1
Montreal 4, Toronto 3
Colorado 5, Chicago 2
Anaheim 5, Seattle 4
Edmonton 5, Vancouver 3
(WASHINGTON) — A Treasury Department watchdog will probe whether Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis improperly used COVID-19 relief funding to pay for migrant flights, ABC News confirmed Wednesday.
In a letter obtained by ABC News, the agency’s inspector general’s office said it has audit work “planned,” based on DeSantis’ recent transport of undocumented immigrants to to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, among other places.
The letter was sent in response to members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation’s Sept. 16 request that Treasury look into DeSantis’ compliance with parameters placed on funding use from the Coronavirus Relief Fund established by the CARES Act and the Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, created under the American Rescue Plan Act. Politico first reported on the letter.
“We have already sought information from Florida about appropriate use of that fund,” Richard K. Delmar, deputy inspector general for the Treasury Department said in the letter, sent to Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and five Massachusetts Democratic House members.
“We plan to get this work underway as quickly as possible, consistent with meeting our other oversight mandates and priorities, both in pandemic recovery programs as well as the other Treasury programs and operations for which we have responsibility.”
DeSantis Communications Director Taryn Fenske said that the Florida Office of Policy and Budget spoke with the Treasury inspector general’s office “weeks ago” about using interest on the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. The budget office articulated to Treasury that “our use of this interest, as appropriated by the Florida Legislature, is permissible under the SLFRF Final Rule,” Fenske said.
“Reviews by Treasury are typical and, as stated by the OIG, are ‘part of its oversight responsibilities,'” she added.
Treasury’s Office of the Inspector General did not respond to multiple requests for comment from ABC News.
Florida state legislators earlier this year laid out in the state budget that $12 million in interest earned off COVID aid be used to pay for the transport of “unauthorized aliens from this state,” not that the state directly used the federal COVID funds. The DeSantis administration maintains that the $12 million put forth for migrant transportation was passed in June as part of the state’s budget.
“As you may know, in this past legislative session the Florida Legislature appropriated $12 million to implement a program to facilitate the transport of illegal immigrants from this state consistent with federal law. Florida’s immigration relocation program both targets human smugglers found in Florida and preempts others from entering,” Fenske told ABC News in September.
Treasury will “specifically confirm whether interest earned on (the) funds was utilized by Florida related to immigration activities, and if so, what conditions and limitations apply to such use,” according to the letter sent to members of Congress.
The Florida Department of Transportation disclosed in public records released by the state late Friday laid out that Vertol Systems, a charter airline company, was the vendor Florida hired to contract with airlines to fly the group of Venezuelans. Records show that the state paid the company $615,000 on Sept. 8, less than a week before the flights to Martha’s Vineyard, and another $950,000 on Sept. 19, a day before another reported flight carrying migrants to President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware, was canceled.
On Sept. 14, DeSantis’s administration chartered two planes carrying about 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, an island enclave off the coast of Massachusetts that is famed for its seasonal visitors like the Obamas.
Some of the migrants from Venezuela, including parents and children, said they thought they were being taken to communities with jobs for them and other resources, they or their attorneys later said. But local officials said they did not know about their arrival and scrambled to accommodate them.
Democrats have cast the migrant transports from Republican DeSantis as an inhumane political stunt.
Attorneys representing some of the migrants filed a class-action lawsuit in late September, claiming “material misrepresentations [were] made in furtherance of the unlawful scheme.” And a Florida lawmaker filed his own complaint on Sept. 22, arguing the state monies for the flights were illegally used.
The sheriff in San Antonio, Texas, has also opened an investigation, telling ABC News: “We have to determine what exactly happened — what was said, what was done, how were these people treated while they were here in my county? And if we can prove criminal intent, then we may be charging somebody with a crime.”
Markey responded on Wednesday to Treasury’s letter, noting that he hopes, on behalf of the migrants and Massachusetts residents who offered to help them upon their arrival, that the investigation “sheds light” on whether the Republican governor misused funds.
“I applaud the swift response from the Treasury’s Office of the Inspector General,” said Markey. “For the sake of the migrants who were lured onto charter planes under false pretenses, and for the commendable Commonwealth residents who rallied together to offer support, I hope that this investigation sheds light on whether Governor DeSantis misused funds that were intended for COVID relief for Floridians.”
Oren Sellstrom, the litigation director for Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston (LCR) told ABC News that his team welcomes news of the Treasury Department’s investigation and that he believes that at the end of their inquiry, they’ll find that DeSantis misused those funds intended for COVID relief to violate the rights of vulnerable migrants.
His team is representing many of the migrants that were flown to the Martha’s Vineyard and who are part of the class-action lawsuit against Florida officials. One of the claims in that lawsuit is that DeSantis misused those funds.
“I believe that they will find that federal funds were misused, that money that was intended for local governments to respond to a public health emergency, were instead spent to violate the constitutional rights of a very vulnerable population. That’s a misuse of federal funds and we fully expect that’s what the investigation will determine,” he said.
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel, Miles Cohen and Armando Garcia contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Will Americans see President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket again in 2024?
Biden, sitting down with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday night, said he won’t be making a decision on running for reelection until after the midterms — but insisted that he could defeat former President Donald Trump if they were to face off a second time.
“I believe I can beat Donald Trump again,” Biden said.
Biden, who turns 80 next month, said he intends on running for reelection. But polling has shown that many Democrats are looking elsewhere for a nominee.
The latest ABC News/Washington Post survey found just 35% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents favor Biden to be their candidate in 2024. More than half of these voters, 56%, want the party to pick someone else.
Questioned about concerns about his age, Biden said to look at his record and invited Tapper to join him for morning workouts.
“Name me a president in recent history who’s gotten as much done as I have in the first two years,” Biden said.
“It’s a matter of can you do the job,” he said. “I believe I can do the job.”
Trump also has been teasing another White House run, but has yet to formally declare his candidacy. In a head-to-head matchup, the ABC News poll found Biden and Trump to be essentially tied with 48% of Americans backing Biden and 46% backing Trump.
But first, Democrats have to make it through the midterms — a cycle historically unkind to the party in power. Forecasts from FiveThirtyEight show Republicans slightly favored to win back majority control of the House and Democrats slightly favored to maintain their advantage in the Senate.
Biden addressed hot-button topics like the economy and scrutiny of his son Hunter Biden in the interview with CNN.
Biden admits ‘slight’ recession is a possibility
Republicans have zeroed in on the administration’s handling of the economy, placing blame on Biden for the worst inflation in decades. Amid high prices, the Federal Reserve has implemented several interest rate hikes in hopes of bringing down costs but at the risk of causing a recession.
Biden at first downplayed recession fears, telling Tapper “no” when asked if Americans should prepare for a downturn. But then he slightly amended his answer, saying a recession is “possible.”
“Every six months they look down the next six months and say what’s going to happen. It hasn’t happened yet,” the president said. “I don’t think there will be a recession. If it is, it will be a very slight recession.”
Biden touted his administration’s work on the economy, citing the passage of the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act.
“It’s possible,” Biden said of a recession. “I don’t anticipate it.”
Biden responds to Hunter Biden reports
House Republicans are promising a congressional investigation of Hunter Biden if they retake the chamber this cycle.
Biden’s son is under scrutiny amid reports that federal prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to charge him with tax crimes and lying on a federal form when purchasing a gun. Sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News that federal agents believe there is enough to charge Hunter Biden with tax violations and with illegally obtaining a firearm.
The president came to his son’s defense, saying he’s “confident” Hunter Biden is being straightforward about what happened.
“First of all, I’m proud of my son,” Biden said. “This is a kid who got — not a kid, he’s a grown man — he got hooked on, like many families have had happened, hooked on drugs. He’s overcome that and established a new life.”
Biden continued, “I didn’t know anything about it, but turns out that when he made [the] application to purchase a gun, what happened was — I guess you get asked the question are you on drugs or use drugs, he said no. And he wrote about saying no in his book. I have great confidence in my son.”
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York rejected for a second time on Wednesday former President Donald Trump’s attempt to have the United States government be substituted for him as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll and refused to stop a deposition by Trump scheduled for next week.
“Completing those depositions — which already have been delayed for years — would impose no undue burden on Mr. Trump,” Judge Lewis Kaplan said. “The defendant should not be permitted to run the clock out on plaintiff’s attempt to gain a remedy for what allegedly was a serious wrong.”
Trump is scheduled to sit for a deposition Oct. 19.
“We are pleased that Judge Kaplan agreed with our position not to stay discovery in this case,” Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said.
Trump had asked to put the case on pause while a different court resolves a matter that could ultimately make it go away.
Trump claimed a decision last month by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that he was an employee of the federal government meant the United States could substitute for him as the defendant. The government cannot be sued for defamation.
Kaplan said Trump’s view was premature since the appellate court left open the question of whether Trump was acting within the scope of his employment when he denied Carroll’s rape claim and, allegedly, defamed her by degrading her appearance.
The 2nd Circuit asked the D.C. Court of Appeals, whose law governs the scope of conduct by government employees, to weigh in.
“How the question ultimately will be resolved remains unknown. In the meantime, substitution would be premature,” Kaplan said.
An attorney for Trump, Alina Habba, said in a statement, “We look forward to establishing on the record that this case is, and always has been, entirely without merit.”
(LONDON) — An American citizen has been killed fighting in Ukraine, a U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday.
The State Department spokesperson did not confirm the man’s identity, but the sister of Dane Partridge confirmed he was the victim. The State Department only verified that a U.S. citizen had recently been killed in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
ABC News spoke with Dane’s sister Jenny Partridge Corry by phone who confirmed the death.
ABC News’ Amantha Cherry contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Ukraine’s nuclear energy company has accused Russia of “kidnapping” a top official at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for the second time this month, amid growing concerns about the safety and security of the Russian-controlled facility.
Energoatom claimed that Russian forces kidnapped Valery Martynyuk, the deputy general director for human resources of the plant, on Monday and “are holding him in an unknown place.”
Earlier this month, Energoatom said that Russia had seized the director general of the plant, Ihor Murashov. He was released two days later and has not returned to the facility, officials said.
The Zaporizhzhia plant has been caught in the crossfire of the war nearly from the start. Shortly after invading neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian troops stormed the plant, strategically located on the banks of the Dnipro River in the country’s southeast. Russian forces gained control of the plant, though it continues to be run by Ukrainian staff as it supplies electricity to the country.
Experts and workers have raised alarms about the potential for a catastrophic nuclear disaster as it continues to come under shelling, and staff have reported that the conditions can be intimidating and stressful.
The alleged kidnappings come amid renewed tensions at the plant and increased attacks on the Zaporizhzhia region, where the plant is located. Zaporizhzhia is one of the four regions where Russia held sham “referendums” to annex the territory in violation of international laws.
On Oct. 5, the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin signed laws claiming the annexation of the regions, the Kremlin announced plans for its own personnel to supervise operations of the Zaporizhzhia plant. Energoatom chief Petro Kotin rejected the plan and said Ukraine will continue to operate the plant.
The staff at the facility have faced “enormous pressure,” including recent demands to sign a new employment contract with the Russian nuclear company Rosatom while Energoatom urges them not to, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
With the latest incident, Energoatom claimed in a statement on Telegram that “the Russians are trying to get the much-needed information about the personal affairs of Zaporizhzhia NPP employees in order to force Ukrainian personnel to work at Rosatom as soon as possible,” accusing the Russians of torturing staff.
Kotin has previously said he believes that Russia intends to switch power to Russian-controlled areas. If Russia is able to switch the grid to Russian-controlled areas, Ukraine could also lose a significant source of power. In August, Kotin told ABC News that nuclear power generated at the Zaporizhzhya plant supplies around 20% of Ukraine’s energy.
In demanding the release of Murashov, Kotin called on Russia to “stop immediately the acts of nuclear terrorism towards the management and personnel.”
Russia has not publicly commented on the kidnapping allegations.
The IAEA, which has staff at the plant, has also not commented on the latest kidnapping allegations, though it said Murashov’s detention had “an immediate and serious impact on decision-making in ensuring the safety and security of the plant.”
The group has also raised concerns about the ability of the staff to “fulfill their safety and security duties and have the capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure.”
The staff has been “subjected to unacceptable pressure, carrying out their crucial work tasks under increasingly difficult conditions with potentially severe consequences for nuclear safety and security,” the IAEA said.
The leaders of the Group of Seven industrial powers condemned Russia’s actions at the plant “and the pressure exerted on the personnel of the facility” in a joint statement on Tuesday.
The conditions at the plant, which include reports of staff working at gunpoint, undermine morale and the safety of the facility, said Nickolas Roth, senior director of nuclear materials security for the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
“It’s essential that there’ll be strong leaders at Zaporizhzhia who are willing to prioritize the safety and security of the facility, and I worry that by essentially terrorizing the senior management of this facility, that that has been undermined,” he told ABC News.
Ongoing shelling near the facility has disrupted its power supply in recent days and weeks. The kidnapping reports only add to the challenging conditions at the plant, Roth said.
“We need to not just protect the physical facility itself — the reactors, the spent fuel pools, the off-site power lines — but we have to protect the people there, as well,” he said. “This is not sustainable. You can’t operate a nuclear facility safely under these conditions.”
The reported kidnappings come amid continued calls for a security protection zone around the Russian-occupied facility — the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
Military attacks increase the risk of a nuclear accident if the plant’s external power lines are damaged, according to the IAEA.
“Now more than ever, during these extremely difficult times, a protection zone must be established around ZNPP,” Rafael Grossi, the IAEA’s director general, said in a statement Wednesday, as he met with Putin to discuss a demilitarized zone around the plant. “We can’t afford to lose more time. We must do everything in our power to help ensure that a nuclear accident does not happen during this tragic conflict.”
The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected any proposals to remove its troops, with a Russian Foreign Ministry official previously saying it would “make the plant even more vulnerable.”
