Category: U.S. News

JACKSON, Miss. — The fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy by a police officer responding to a shoplifting call has reignited long-standing tensions between law enforcement and Black residents in Senatobia, Mississippi, a town of roughly 8,000 people.

The child, Kohen Wiley, was killed Sunday after Senatobia officers were dispatched to a local Walmart regarding a shoplifting complaint. According to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, officers located two women and a child leaving the store, entering a vehicle, and driving away. The agency’s statement says officers tried to stop the car, but the driver allegedly steered toward the officers, nearly striking one of them. An officer then fired their weapon, and the vehicle fled the scene.

Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, told a different story. In a video shared on social media Wednesday by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, she said her friend was not driving toward the officers, stating that the officers were “all on the right side and she was driving towards the left.” Wiley also disputed the shoplifting allegation, saying she believes her friend had paid for the diapers in question.

Kohen’s death has drawn widespread outrage, including from Bernice King, daughter of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. In a statement posted to Instagram on Wednesday, King said: “We are treating items on a shelf as more valuable than a child. That is not just bad policing; it is a moral collapse.”

Policing expert Ian Adams, who teaches criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, said the officer should not have opened fire on the vehicle under any circumstances. “Modern policing knows that shooting into a moving vehicle is a very bad idea and one to be avoided at almost all costs,” Adams said, adding that “vehicles have other occupants, which is obviously a concern here in the current case.”

The shooting has drawn comparisons to the 2023 death of Ta’Kiya Young, a pregnant Black woman who was shot by police in a Columbus, Ohio, suburb following a shoplifting accusation. Authorities said Young accelerated her vehicle toward the officer who fired through her windshield, killing both her and her unborn daughter. The officer in that case was acquitted of criminal charges and cleared by a review board.

Civil rights advocates have also linked Kohen’s death to a broader pattern of Black Americans losing their lives in police encounters stemming from minor alleged offenses — including the 2020 murder of George Floyd, who died after police were called because he allegedly used a counterfeit $20 bill at a Minneapolis grocery store.

King wrote on Instagram: “In the name of ‘law and order,’ a child was killed and a family was shattered over items that could be restocked, written off, and replaced. Our charge is clear: until the sacredness of human life is the starting point of every police encounter, we must demand changes in training and work unrelentingly to reform policies around police accountability.”

Marquell Bridges, president and founder of the Building Bridges Coalition, has been assisting the Wiley family and said Kohen’s death was “just the breaking point” after years of what he described as troubling interactions between Black residents and local police.

Bridges pointed to a prior incident in which an officer threatened a woman named Breshari Faulkner with a Taser, pulled her from her vehicle, and arrested her during a dispute over a handicapped parking space in the same Walmart parking lot where Kohen was shot. Two years before that, in 2023, a Senatobia officer was fired for his role in the arrest of a 10-year-old Black boy who had urinated in a different parking lot. The boy’s family settled a federal lawsuit with the city earlier this year.

Civil rights attorney Carlos Moore, who has represented the 10-year-old boy and others accusing the department of misconduct, said: “There is a culture there that they are above the law — just because they wear a uniform.”

Senatobia police did not respond to requests for comment. The mayor and city aldermen also did not reply to messages seeking comment.

According to 2020 Census data, approximately 40% of the city’s population of around 8,300 is Black. The department did not respond to questions about its own racial makeup, but the mayor and a majority of the Board of Aldermen are white. According to the Tate Record, a local newspaper, the city has elected only three Black aldermen since it became a municipality in 1860.

The officer who fired the shot has been placed on administrative leave — a standard procedure — while the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation conducts its review. Investigators have said they will release video footage of the shooting once the inquiry is complete.

Kohen’s grandmother, Veronica Roberson, was present when he was born and frequently cared for him. She remembered him as a joyful child with “the prettiest smile you could ever imagine,” adding: “He just loved on me, and I loved on him. We loved each other.”

One of his favorite toys was a small lawnmower that blew bubbles when pushed. Roberson recalled sitting outside watching him play with it. “He really thought he was mowing my yard,” she said, laughing softly at the memory. “That baby was my world.”

In a dramatic change of direction, the legal team representing Luigi Mangione notified a New York judge Thursday that they are dropping their plans to pursue a psychiatric defense at his state murder trial in connection with the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The reversal came just one day after Mangione’s attorneys told Judge Gregory Carro they intended to argue that the 28-year-old Ivy League graduate was experiencing extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the December 4, 2024, shooting. A message requesting comment was left with a spokesperson for the defense team. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is handling the state prosecution, declined to respond.

Thursday was also the deadline for the defense to hand over supporting information to prosecutors backing the emotional disturbance claim. Additionally, a transcript from a closed-door hearing held June 3 on the matter was made public Thursday after Judge Carro ordered it unsealed.

Had Mangione followed through with the extreme emotional disturbance defense strategy, it would have amounted to an admission that he carried out the killing — while arguing that mitigating circumstances were at play. Such a defense would not have cleared him of responsibility but could have resulted in a reduced prison sentence.

Under New York law, if a jury accepts an extreme emotional disturbance defense, it must return a manslaughter conviction rather than a murder conviction. Manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, while a murder conviction can result in a life sentence.

In a letter sent to Judge Carro on Thursday, defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo stated that the defense “respectfully withdraws” its notice filed under New York’s psychiatric defense statute.

Mangione, 28, has entered not guilty pleas to both state and federal charges. His state trial is set to begin September 8, while his federal trial — which involves stalking charges — is scheduled to get underway October 13.

At Wednesday’s court hearing, Friedman Agnifilo objected to Carro’s decision to unseal materials connected to the psychiatric defense, warning it would be “prejudicial to his defense to the exact same facts” in the federal case, where an extreme emotional disturbance defense is not a permitted legal strategy.

It is important to note that an extreme emotional disturbance defense differs from a not guilty by reason of insanity plea. An insanity defense, if successful, could result in a defendant being sent to a psychiatric facility rather than prison.

Thompson, 50, was fatally shot as he approached a Manhattan hotel where UnitedHealth Group was holding its annual investor conference. Surveillance footage captured a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Investigators say the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” were found on the ammunition — a phrase associated with tactics insurers use to avoid paying out claims.

Mangione, who comes from a wealthy Maryland family and attended an Ivy League university, was taken into custody five days after the shooting at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, roughly 230 miles west of Manhattan.

At a hearing last month, Judge Carro ruled that a firearm and a notebook — both of which prosecutors say connect Mangione to the killing — will be admissible as evidence. The weapon, a 3D-printed pistol, is said by prosecutors to match the gun used in the shooting. The notebook reportedly contains references to wanting to “wack” a health insurance executive and describes a rebellion against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel.”

Investigators in Mississippi are looking into a police shooting that claimed the life of a one-year-old child and left an adult with serious injuries after officers fired on a vehicle in a parking lot.

The shooting took place during what authorities described as a shoplifting call. Officials have not yet released further details about the events leading up to the gunfire or the identities of those involved.

The incident is currently under investigation.

Salah Sarsour, the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee — Wisconsin’s largest mosque — has been released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after a federal judge intervened on Thursday.

U.S. District Court Judge James Patrick Hanlon ordered Sarsour’s release, writing in his ruling that Sarsour had raised a claim worthy of serious consideration. “Mr. Sarsour has raised a ‘substantial’ First Amendment (free speech) retaliation claim, which could render his detention unlawful,” the judge wrote. Judge Hanlon was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump during his first term in office.

The Islamic Society of Milwaukee describes Sarsour, 53, as a legal permanent resident who has lived in the United States for more than 30 years. He grew up in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The mosque had previously stated that Sarsour was “being targeted on the basis of his Palestinian and Muslim background, and his advocacy for Palestinian rights.”

Following his release, Sarsour spoke out defiantly. “I will never stop speaking for Palestine and humanity, wherever I am,” he said. “I am so relieved to be with my family.”

Sarsour’s legal team reported that he has type 2 diabetes and lost more than 30 pounds while in detention. He has no criminal record in the United States. Before immigrating, he was convicted as a teenager in an Israeli military court.

Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has noted that military courts in the West Bank — where Palestinians face trial for alleged offenses — carry a 96% conviction rate and have a documented history of obtaining confessions through torture.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, cited that past conviction, stating Sarsour was found guilty of throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli armed forces members. “There is no First Amendment right to fund terror organizations and lie on immigration forms,” DHS said Thursday. Sarsour has denied any support for extremist groups.

As part of the ruling, the judge ordered Sarsour to remain in Wisconsin while his case continues. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of several groups that had called for his release, praised the court’s decision.

The ruling comes as the Trump administration has taken an aggressive stance against pro-Palestinian voices in the U.S., pursuing deportations of foreign protesters, threatening to cut funding to universities where demonstrations occurred, and directing officials to review immigrants’ social media activity. Those efforts have repeatedly run into legal challenges in the courts.

President Trump has characterized pro-Palestinian advocacy as antisemitic and linked to extremism. However, advocates — including some Jewish organizations — argue the administration is wrongly treating criticism of Israel’s military actions in Gaza as antisemitism and equating support for Palestinian rights with backing for terrorism.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Education Department announced Thursday that it will lower interest rates on certain federal student loans, calling the move part of a broader effort to make higher education more affordable.

With millions of borrowers falling behind on payments, the Trump administration is offering a temporary 1% interest rate cut as a way to ease the burden for those struggling to keep up. Education Undersecretary Nicholas Kent described the change as a step toward “making student loan repayment easier than ever” and improving “the overall health of the federal student loan portfolio.”

However, the reduction comes with conditions — not every borrower will qualify, and those who want to take advantage of it will need to meet specific eligibility requirements.

Here is a breakdown of what the plan actually involves:

What the department announced: The official news release was headlined: “U.S. Department of Education Announces Student Loan Interest Rate Reduction.”

Who it actually applies to: The rate cut only covers a portion of borrowers — specifically those with federal Direct Loans issued after July 1, 2012, who are either already signed up for automatic payments or who enroll in them going forward.

Many borrowers will not see any immediate relief. To be eligible, they must first complete several steps, which may include signing up for auto pay and, in some cases, consolidating their loans.

Right now, only 40% of borrowers are enrolled in automatic payments. The department is hoping the interest rate reduction will encourage more people to sign up.

Close to 9 million student loan borrowers are currently in default — meaning they have gone at least nine months without making a payment. For those individuals to become eligible for the rate cut, they must first return to good standing, typically by consolidating their loans and then enrolling in a new repayment plan.

What the savings actually look like: Officials said borrowers enrolled in auto pay will be eligible for the 1% reduction starting July 1. But for those already using automatic payments, the real savings will be smaller. Those borrowers currently receive a 0.25% discount, so the new reduction only adds an additional 0.75% in savings.

The interest rate reduction is not permanent. It is set to expire on June 30, 2028.

The federal student loan portfolio has grown to nearly $1.7 trillion, with a large number of borrowers struggling to stay current. The rate cut is part of the administration’s effort to address rising delinquency and default rates.

As the Trump administration winds down repayment options introduced under the previous administration, the Education Department is rolling out its own alternatives, including an income-driven repayment plan. Officials noted that enrolling in automatic payments can also help borrowers stay eligible for those plans by reducing the risk of missed payments.

Two men are facing federal charges in the death of a 14-year-old South Dakota girl — including one whose life prison sentence was cut short by then-Gov. Kristi Noem just two years ago.

McKenna Wendel was reported missing on March 13. She was last seen alive in her hometown of Sioux Falls in the early hours of March 14. Five days later, on March 19, her body was discovered in a rural area outside Brookings — about an hour’s drive north of Sioux Falls.

Wendel’s uncle, Mark Milk, 51, also from Sioux Falls, now faces five criminal counts connected to her death. Milk had been serving a life sentence on a manslaughter conviction for nearly three decades when Noem commuted his sentence in February 2023.

According to her obituary, Wendel was raised by her grandparents, had a deep love for animals, and was remembered for her “vibrant personality and a zest for life.” She and her grandparents were members of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and frequently attended powwows together.

“She loved the singing and the beautiful sounds of the drums,” her obituary read.

Authorities announced the charges at a news conference held Thursday in Sioux City, Iowa, but kept many details under wraps to avoid compromising their ongoing investigation.

Among the charges Milk faces is possession with intent to deliver cocaine that caused Wendel’s death. He is also charged with transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, court documents show.

A second man, Jon Rogness, 38, of Brookings, is charged with conspiracy and acting as an accessory in what prosecutors allege was an effort to conceal the crimes. U.S. Attorney for northern Iowa Leif Olson explained at the news conference that the charges filed were the “most serious, readily provable” ones available, and that all of them originated in Iowa.

“This is a horrific case,” said FBI Special Agent Gene Kowel. “There are no cases that we investigate that are more heart-wrenching and more tragic than the ones that involve children or the death of a child.”

Neither man had legal representation listed in court records at the time of the announcement.

Court records show that Noem commuted Milk’s life sentence for a manslaughter conviction stemming from an October 1993 stabbing death in the city of Winner. Milk, who was 19 at the time, had been involved in a series of confrontations that ended with the death of Shawn Peneaux.

When Wendel’s body was found, Milk was already behind bars on unrelated allegations of driving under the influence and eluding police. His name surfaced publicly in connection with the case almost immediately, but prosecutors — who wrapped up their investigation in late May — did not formally link him to Wendel’s death until filing charges on Wednesday.

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley stated at a late March news conference that the decision to commute Milk’s sentence was entirely Noem’s call.

“It is fairly often that you see law enforcement oppose commutations,” Jackley said, declining to comment further on Noem’s decision. He also noted that the commutation documents were sealed and that even he had not been allowed to review them.

The Associated Press attempted to reach Noem for comment Thursday through NovaRed Mining, a Canadian company she recently joined in a “strategic advisory role.”

Noem, 54, is a Republican who served as South Dakota’s sole member of Congress from 2011 to 2019 and as governor from 2019 to 2025. She went on to serve as Homeland Security secretary before being fired in March by President Donald Trump amid criticism over her management of the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts and disaster response. Trump later praised her and named her special envoy for “The Shield of the Americas,” a new organization of Western Hemisphere nations focused on democracy and regional security.

An Uber driver who was transporting fans of Argentina’s soccer team to a World Cup game is among four people wounded in a string of shootings that swept through Kansas City, Missouri on Tuesday evening — attacks that also claimed one man’s life, according to police.

Authorities say a 22-year-old male suspect believed to be armed and dangerous had not been apprehended as of Thursday.

All five shootings took place between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, spread across a 5-mile corridor of the city. Three of those incidents happened on Interstates 70 and 670 as those highways pass through downtown Kansas City. Each of the shooting locations was at least 4 miles from Arrowhead Stadium, where Argentina defeated Algeria in its opening match.

Two Argentina supporters recounted the attack to the Argentine publication La Nación, saying a vehicle pulled up alongside their Uber and fired two shots, striking their driver in the leg. The passengers initially thought a tire had blown out before realizing the driver had been shot.

Following the incident, the two fans were taken to a police station to give their accounts of what happened. Officers then transported them to the stadium in patrol cars. Police Captain Jacob Becchina confirmed the Uber driver’s injuries were not life-threatening.

That shooting, along with two others on the interstates, happened as vehicles were heading eastbound — one originating from neighboring Kansas, police said. Additional shootings took place further east along Truman Road, a major city thoroughfare.

According to Becchina, three adults and one teenager were injured and all were taken to hospitals. Only one adult was reported to have life-threatening injuries.

Around 6:30 p.m., officers responded to a report of a car that had crashed into a utility pole along Truman Road, east of the other shooting scenes. Hospital staff treating the driver discovered what appeared to be a gunshot wound. He later died from his injuries.

“Victims all indicated they were driving down the highway or roadway when one or more shots were fired into their vehicles,” Becchina said in a written statement.

Becchina added that investigators believe the non-fatal shootings took place “in close succession,” moving from west to east, and are linked to a single suspect.

Police traced the suspect to a home in the suburb of Independence, roughly 2 miles east of where the fatal shooting victim was discovered, leading to a standoff. However, when officers entered the residence around 8 a.m. Wednesday, the suspect was gone.

Authorities in Kansas City, Kansas, across the state line, also have an outstanding warrant for the suspect related to an illegal firearm discharge that occurred on June 11, according to Nancy Chartrand, a spokesperson for that city’s police department.

Federal investigators say military GPS jamming was active across the region when a small medical transport plane slammed into a New Mexico mountainside last month — and while pilots had been warned in advance about the interference, four people lost their lives in the crash.

The pre-dawn accident occurred on May 14 in the rugged Capitan Mountains near Ruidoso. The impact triggered a wildfire that scorched the heavily forested area for weeks before it was fully contained on June 12, having burned 48.4 square miles — or 125.4 square kilometers — of terrain.

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report on the incident Wednesday, outlining the GPS difficulties the crew experienced. However, investigators say the definitive cause of the crash won’t be established until their final report is completed sometime next year.

Aviation professionals say the pilots had other options available to them and should have been able to land safely without GPS, either by using ground-based navigation systems or by flying visually. Still, GPS has become the go-to tool for pilots because of its exceptional precision.

Retired airline pilot John Cox, who now serves as CEO of Safety Operating Systems, said the GPS failure alone shouldn’t have been fatal. “The loss of GPS should not result in the loss of an airplane, so there’s got to be more to it than that,” he said.

According to the NTSB, when the crew of the plane — operated by Trans Aero MedEvac — began experiencing navigation difficulties, air traffic controllers stepped in and gave them directional headings to help align them for an approach using the airport’s instrument landing system. At least three other aircraft in the area reported similar GPS issues around the same time.

At one point, controllers even reached out to the military and had the jamming temporarily suspended. But shortly before the crash, the pilots radioed that they could see the airport and intended to land visually. Controllers then gave the military clearance to resume jamming.

Cox questioned why the crew flew into the mountain if they had visual contact with the runway. “If you can see the runway, you can see the mountain. Why would you fly into it?” he asked, noting that even with the new details, many questions remain unanswered.

The Federal Aviation Administration had published a Notice to Airmen ahead of time alerting pilots to the planned GPS signal jamming in the area. Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said the medevac crew should therefore have been ready to navigate using alternative systems.

Arroyo, a longtime former pilot for United Airlines, acknowledged why pilots prefer GPS in challenging terrain. “GPS can bring you in precisely with a margin of safety that’s required and bring you down for landing. But if you don’t have GPS, you can’t make that approach within those margins and you may drift outside using conventional navigation,” he explained.

He added that once the pilots chose to attempt a visual approach, they assumed full responsibility for avoiding any obstacles between them and the runway.

The NTSB reported that the aircraft descended to 9,400 feet — about 2,865 meters — as it neared the airport, then climbed several hundred feet before striking a mountainside at 9,950 feet, or roughly 3,000 meters. The point of impact was approximately 230 feet below the Capitan Mountains Summit Radio Facility.

Trans Aero MedEvac has been serving southeastern New Mexico and west Texas since 1966. The four victims were identified as pilots Keelan Clark and Ali Kawsara, both with Generation Jets, and flight nurses Jamie Novick and Sarah Clark, both with Trans Aero MedEvac. The plane had been traveling from Roswell Air Center to Sierra Blanca Regional Airport when it went down.

Ruidoso, a mountain community with a year-round population of under 8,000, sits at the foot of south-central New Mexico’s Sierra Blanca range, surrounded by Lincoln National Forest and remote, forested landscape.

A family trip to New York City to celebrate a teenager’s high school graduation ended in tragedy when an 18-year-old from India was killed during a Central Park carriage ride after the horse bolted from its driver.

Romanch Mahajan jumped from the carriage after his mother fell out, striking his head on the ground. His father, Deepak Mahajan, recounted the harrowing moments to The New York Times, saying his son was calling out for his mother just before the fatal fall. Mahajan said he, his wife, and their younger son suffered only minor injuries, though the carriage struck another horse-drawn vehicle before tipping over.

The family had arrived in New York from India on Monday — the same day Romanch learned he had been accepted to a university in Jaipur. After spending the day touring the city’s well-known attractions, they boarded a carriage ride to relax. The driver stepped off the carriage to take photos of the family when the accident happened moments later.

“This incident should be taken very seriously,” the father said. “It took my son’s dream away.”

The company that owned the carriage involved has suspended the driver indefinitely, and the horse will be permanently removed from service, according to the union that represents the industry.

Alexander Kemp, a vice president with Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents carriage drivers and owners, expressed shock at the outcome. “We’re absolutely gutted and stunned by this tragedy. We’ve never had a fatal accident like this before,” he said. “We have shuttered the stables and ceased operations today while we have extensive internal discussions of safety protocols and how they can be improved.”

The Central Park Conservancy, which oversees the 850-acre park, confirmed that Romanch’s death is believed to be the first human fatality tied to a horse carriage in the park’s more than 150-year history of offering such rides. The organization called for the industry to be suspended until stronger safety measures could be established, pointing out that eight horse-related incidents have occurred in Central Park over the past 13 months.

“If any other activity in the Park posed a comparable risk to visitors, it would be suspended immediately while steps were taken to address those dangers,” the conservancy said in a statement Thursday.

The conservancy had already entered the debate last year when it backed a long-standing bill that would ban horse carriages and help drivers transition to other employment. It argued the carriages pose a public safety risk in the increasingly crowded park, and noted that other major U.S. cities — including Chicago and San Antonio — have recently eliminated similar carriage operations.

New York City leaders responded swiftly to the teen’s death. City Council leaders announced they would hold a hearing next month on Ryder’s Law, the legislation backed by the conservancy.

“The time to act is now,” Council Speaker Julie Menin wrote on the social platform X.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani reaffirmed his commitment to ending the industry — a stance he took during his campaign last year — saying he would collaborate with the council, the industry, and animal welfare advocates to “deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all.”

Horse carriages, which run approximately $72 for the first 20 minutes, were not operating in the park Thursday. The Transport Workers Union, which has previously resisted efforts to phase out the industry, announced Thursday that it now supports newly introduced legislation that would create hitching posts throughout the park, allowing drivers to safely secure their horses — including at popular spots where tourists stop for photos.

The carriage industry has long been considered a charming piece of New York’s past, offering tourists a nostalgic experience while supporting hundreds of jobs for drivers and providing work opportunities for farm and racing horses. Critics, however, have argued the rides are both cruel to animals and hazardous to the public.

A 21-year-old man is facing serious criminal charges, including a hate crime, after admitting he set a cross ablaze in a Chicago park earlier this month, according to police.

Merlin Lu publicly acknowledged to a television station this week that he was behind the cross burning at Grant Park on June 9. Despite the admission, Lu maintained that his actions were meant as a protest against President Donald Trump — not as a racial symbol targeting Black people.

According to a police statement released Wednesday night, Lu has been charged with four felonies and four misdemeanors. Those charges include a hate crime and burning a cross with intent to intimidate.

Before his arrest, Lu spoke with WMAQ-TV, saying, “I understand why it was interpreted that way, and I apologize for that, but no, the intent was not there.”

He also told the station, “I did know about this historical relevance beforehand. But I didn’t know the severity, how racially motivated it may seem from what I did. Cause my protest has nothing to do with race, nothing to do with gender.”

Lu explained that his demonstration was directed at what he called the “ruling class” and Christian nationalists who support Trump.

As of Thursday, it was unclear whether Lu had legal representation. He was set to appear before a judge for a detention hearing.

In the spot where the burning cross once stood in the park, someone placed a large, multicolored glass fiber heart bearing the word “resilient.”

According to Lu’s LinkedIn profile, he has attended college in both Indiana and Chicago and was pursuing studies in chemistry.

New York’s LaGuardia Airport announced Thursday morning that a runway has been reopened following an overnight closure prompted by a pavement concern.

The airport revealed Wednesday that the runway would be taken out of service at 5 p.m. EDT after workers discovered a two-inch depression in the pavement next to the runway. The closure allowed crews to run additional tests, determine what caused the problem, and carry out any necessary stabilization work. By just after 6:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday, the airport confirmed the runway was back in operation.

This is the second time in under a month that LaGuardia has had to shut down a runway. Last month, a sinkhole on one of its runways forced a two-day closure at the heavily trafficked airport.

SANTA FE, N.M. — As the United States reaches its 250th anniversary, Native Americans are grappling with a milestone that carries a unique mix of grief, pride, and complicated patriotism — one rooted in centuries of struggle and survival.

The westward push of the 1800s brought devastating consequences for Indigenous peoples across the continent. Forced relocations, broken treaties, and aggressive policies aimed at erasing Native cultures left communities fractured and populations in steep decline. Survival itself was uncertain.

Yet amid that pressure, Lakota women — celebrated for their extraordinary beadwork — found a way to push back. By weaving American patriotic symbols into their creations, they were doing far more than adopting the imagery of the nation that was dismantling their way of life. It was a quiet form of defiance, a method of preserving their values when federal policies were tearing their communities apart.

Now, as the nation celebrates its semiquincentennial, museum exhibitions featuring that intricate beadwork are opening a window into that painful past. Alongside them, works by contemporary Native artists offer sharp commentary on political struggles that continue to this day.

Curators and tribal scholars argue that the Native American experience must be front and center in any honest accounting of U.S. history.

“The United States could not exist without Native history having been here first,” said Aaron Carapella, who is of Cherokee descent and creates maps of Indigenous territories. “There’s so many influences that Native people embedded into the fabric of what we call America.”

Carapella, a student of history, believes the Founding Fathers likely never anticipated that tribal nations would endure as sovereign entities. The expectation was that Indigenous peoples would be absorbed into the broader American population.

Instead, laws like the 1830 Indian Removal Act, signed by President Andrew Jackson, and the 1887 Dawes Act, enacted by President Grover Cleveland, drove forced relocations through brutal passages like the Trail of Tears. Millions of acres of tribal land were broken up and seized. Bounties were placed on Native people in Minnesota and the Southwest, while militias in California further stripped away tribal territories. Then came the boarding schools, where Native children were taken and stripped of their languages, cultures, and religious traditions.

Tribal leaders are clear: this is not distant history. Their communities are still living with the consequences of those policies today.

Currently, 575 tribes hold inherent sovereignty recognized by the U.S. government, with the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina added to that list in December. The government-to-government relationships between tribes and the United States are unlike arrangements most other nations have with their Indigenous populations.

N. Bruce Duthu, chair of Native American and Indigenous Studies at Dartmouth College and a member of the United Houma Nation, has spoken with Indigenous leaders around the world. He said leaders in places like Bolivia are often stunned to learn how much political power tribes in the U.S. have managed to build over the past half-century — influencing environmental policy and pushing through landmark legislation to hold non-tribal citizens accountable for crimes committed in Indian Country.

“The U.S. is routinely at the top of the heap in terms of a country that, despite all the flaws, at least now in the last 50 years or so, seems to have gotten it right,” Duthu said.

Native contributions to American identity run deep — from concepts of democracy shared with the Founding Fathers to the fierce warrior tradition that drove tribal nations to defend their lands against other tribes, foreign powers, and the federal government alike. That spirit of service endures: Native Americans serve in the U.S. military at one of the highest per-capita rates in the country.

At the heart of the “Stars, Stripes and First Americans” exhibit at New Mexico’s Museum of Indian Arts and Culture hangs a painting by Kee Yazzie called Diné Code Talker, honoring the Navajo Code Talkers whose language-based code proved unbreakable and helped turn the tide in critical World War II battles.

Danyelle Means, the museum’s executive director and a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, noted that other tribes also contributed code talkers, including the Choctaw Nation and Comanche, Kiowa, Hopi, Muscogee, Sioux, and Seminole recruits.

“Veterans are a huge part of celebration and ceremony within Native communities and are often revered and have their own societies within these communities,” Means said. “So it is something — that aspect of the U.S. and being a warrior for this country — that is very deep-seated in so many Native communities.”

In Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian is marking the 250th anniversary with an installation featuring two dresses that speak to Native heritage and the service of Native American women in the military. One is a Lakota beaded dress, likely made for a Fourth of July celebration roughly a century ago. The other is a modern jingle dress worn by members of the Native American Women Warriors, bearing a patch honoring Lori Piestewa — believed to be the first Native woman killed in combat on foreign soil. The Hopi soldier died from injuries after an ambush in Iraq in 2003.

Those military operations followed the September 11, 2001, attacks — a moment that Navajo artist Pauline Thomas described as frightening, knowing that more Native soldiers would soon be heading into harm’s way. The 73-year-old created a weaving after 9/11 that is now part of the New Mexico exhibition. For Thomas, her weavings capture moments in time while keeping Navajo traditions alive. Her 12-year-old granddaughter is already earning blue ribbons for her own weavings.

“I think it’s very, very important,” Thomas said from her hometown of Naschitti on the Navajo Nation. “I don’t want my people to lose their culture. I want them to learn more about their ancestors, where they came from.”

Jami Powell, curator of Indigenous art at Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum of Art and a citizen of the Osage Nation, uses the phrase “colonial entanglements” to describe the layered complexity of the relationship between the U.S. and tribal nations. She tells her students that the history rarely fits into neat categories of right and wrong.

“And it is OK to have feelings of ambivalence around these issues and the difficult histories that led to this current moment,” Powell said.

The Hood Museum is featuring Native artists’ work as part of its own 250th commemoration. Powell said the pieces are intentionally provocative, designed to push visitors to think not just about the past but about what the next two centuries might hold.

Making sure Native youth have a voice in shaping that future is the mission driving Tracy Canard Goodluck, executive director of the Center for Native American Youth. A member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and of Mvskoke Creek heritage, Goodluck said the depth of young Native voices was on full display in essays submitted for a recent competition centered on the 250th anniversary — essays touching on sovereignty, self-determination, and the bonds between people, land, and culture.

“They know who they are, where they come from, their identity, their culture, their history,” Goodluck said. “And we need to create pathways for them to be able to share that with everyone.”

CHICAGO — A massive crowd of guests gathered at a lakefront park in Chicago on Thursday for the grand opening dedication of the Obama Presidential Center, a sweeping campus combining architecture, nature, and art intended to serve as a gathering place for civic life and culture in honor of the nation’s 44th president.

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama were on hand to lead the ceremonial opening of the $850 million complex, which local historians describe as the largest single investment made in Chicago’s long-overlooked South Side in more than 100 years.

Funding for the project came entirely from private donations raised through the Obamas’ Chicago-based nonprofit, the Obama Foundation. The center opens its doors to the general public on Friday — which coincides with Juneteenth, the federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States.

The star-studded dedication ceremony featured performances from a lineup of major recording artists including Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Common, Christina Aguilera, Eddie Vedder, Bono, and the Roots.

While dignitaries and invited guests attended the formal dedication, additional ticketed attendees watched the proceedings on a large outdoor screen at a nearby park. The ceremony was also broadcast via a worldwide livestream.

The Obama Center spans 19.3 acres within the historic Jackson Park along the shores of Lake Michigan. The campus includes a playground, gardens, a concert hall, and a basketball court built to NBA specifications.

Much of the center highlights milestones in the civil rights movement and recognizes Obama’s historic role as the first Black politician elected president of the United States. The opening comes as his immediate successor, President Donald Trump, has moved to roll back civil liberties protections and diversity initiatives.

Valerie Jarrett, the longest-serving senior White House adviser during the Obama administration and the chief executive of the Obama Foundation, reflected on the significance of the moment. “At a time when there’s so much toxicity in the air, this kind of breathes new hope,” she said. “You can come here and be inspired and hope again.”

The word “hope” — a defining theme of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign — is prominently featured in a sculpture near the entrance to the main building, a clear signal of the legacy the Obamas hope the center will represent.

Organizers anticipate the center, most of which will be free to the public, will attract between 750,000 and one million visitors each year.

The focal point of the campus is an eight-story museum dedicated to Obama’s personal journey and his two terms in the White House, from 2009 to 2017. The museum’s irregularly shaped granite tower has received mixed reactions from architecture critics in a city celebrated for its bold building designs. The structure has already picked up the nickname “the Obamalisk,” though others say it resembles four hands joining together and reaching skyward.

A passage from what Obama has called his favorite speech — delivered in Selma, Alabama, on the 50th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” civil rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge — is inscribed in large block text wrapping around an upper section of the building’s exterior.

Other features of the campus include a Great Lawn designed for summer picnics and winter sledding; a new branch of the Chicago Public Library; a fruit and vegetable garden named for Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of 32nd U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a significant Democratic Party figure in her own right; an outdoor plaza honoring the late civil rights leader and U.S. lawmaker John Lewis, who led the original “Bloody Sunday” march; an athletic facility called Home Court; and a multimedia event space known as the Forum.

The campus also showcases 28 original works of art, along with a network of walkways and green spaces featuring 900 native trees that connect to surrounding parkland.

The site is built upon the framework of Jackson Park, originally designed by renowned landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in 1871 and later used as the grounds for the 1893 World’s Fair.

The architectural firm behind the Obama Center was led by Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, New York-based designers known for projects such as the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia and the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago.

NEW YORK (AP) — Jaelyn Chester is willing to do just about anything — wait tables, stock shelves, wash dishes, even scrub toilets. All she wants is for someone to give her a shot.

“I’ve been looking everywhere,” says the 17-year-old, who maintains straight A’s, plays varsity basketball and dreams of becoming an engineer. She has submitted dozens of applications throughout her community. “I’m not unemployed because I’m incompetent. I’m unemployed because nobody’s hiring.”

For generations of American young people, landing a summer job was practically a given. These days, it’s anything but.

Federal data shows that only about one in three teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 held a job last summer — a steep decline from a peak of roughly 60% back in the late 1970s. Gloomy forecasts from labor experts, combined with frustration pouring in from young people across the country, paint a bleak picture for this summer’s job market.

“The opportunities for workers at the start of the career ladder started to dry up,” says Nicole Bachaud, an economist with ZipRecruiter, noting that teens rank among the labor market’s “most marginalized groups.”

For Chester, being jobless isn’t just inconvenient — it threatens her entire summer. She’s worried about affording gas, missing out on concerts and potentially having to cancel a college-visit road trip to North Carolina with friends. So she keeps pushing.

She stashes copies of her resume in her car and has a tight 30-second pitch ready whenever she walks into a restaurant or store hoping to speak with a manager. She and her friends coach each other before heading out on job hunts, swapping advice and borrowing professional-looking outfits. Jobs that once seemed unappealing, like dishwashing, now look attractive.

“At this point,” says the teen from Lake Mary, Florida, “it would be hard to say no to anything.”

An analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas found that the number of jobs teens landed fell 25% last summer compared to the year before. The firm predicts that inflation, rising oil prices and cautious hiring practices will push that number even lower this year — potentially to the lowest teen summer employment total since the federal government started keeping track in 1948.

Teens most often find work in food service and retail, according to federal labor data. But Jaune Little, director of recruiting services at the human resources firm Insperity, says many entry-level positions have simply disappeared, and those that remain attract more experienced candidates.

“A lot of the entry-level roles that once existed simply do not any longer,” Little says. “Those that do exist are on leaner teams that have less ability and desire to develop and train someone. In many instances, they are prioritizing more skilled workers even if they are overqualified.”

Max Stephenson began her job search after graduating high school last year. The entire summer passed without a single offer. Once she enrolled at the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College, she landed a work-study position in the school cafeteria while continuing to search for something more stable.

Now that school is out again, the 19-year-old from Little Rock, Arkansas, finds herself back at square one.

She has lost count of how many applications she has sent out — somewhere between 50 and 100 — and can’t shake the feeling that her generation has it harder than those who came before.

“I thought it would be much easier than it’s been,” Stephenson says. “Old people say, ‘Just walk in there and give them a firm handshake.’ That doesn’t work so well now.”

A 2022 report from the Pew Research Center found that teen summer employment began falling during the early 2000s dot-com bubble and dropped further during and after the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. The report also found that white teens are more likely to be employed than teens of any other racial group.

Across all backgrounds, teens are voicing their frustrations on platforms like Reddit and TikTok, complaining about job listings that lead nowhere, managers who never respond and applications that disappear into a void.

Connor Vukelich knows that experience well. After turning 16, he applied to every employer he could find within 30 miles of his home near Vancouver, Washington. No one called back, and his friends were striking out too.

“There’s all these ‘We’re Hiring’ signs but no one’s actually hiring,” Vukelich says. “What’s going on? Why can’t any of us find jobs?”

With no offers coming in, Vukelich ended up helping out on his family’s lavender farm. That frustrating experience eventually inspired him — now 20 and studying at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University — to create Poppin’ Jobs, a job search website launched this year and designed specifically for teens and young adults in their 20s.

Vukelich believes artificial intelligence is taking away some jobs that teens might otherwise have filled, and that minimum wage increases in certain states have put first-time job seekers in direct competition with more seasoned workers.

“They don’t see the value in hiring someone without any experience,” he says of employers. “They’re not as willing to give someone that shot.”

Some teens do eventually break through after a long and discouraging search. Demie Njea, a 16-year-old from Lexington, Kentucky, began applying for jobs as soon as she turned 14 — the legal working age in her state. She started with fast food and retail applications, then expanded her search to include janitorial work, daycare positions and more.

Her first summer turned up nothing. Neither did her second. She estimates she submitted more than 100 applications in total and began to wonder if a first job would ever come.

Then, finally, an offer arrived. Njea landed a position at Sonic and couldn’t be happier. But when a friend who had just turned 15 started her own job search, Njea felt she had to be straight with her.

“I had to calmly put her down and say, ‘You’re not going to get it,’” Njea says. “It’s just not going to happen.”

Millions of Americans say they want to volunteer, and countless nonprofits are desperately searching for help. The challenge, according to the nonprofit organization Points of Light, is getting those two groups together effectively.

Points of Light — the organization established by former President George H.W. Bush to promote community service — is preparing to announce a sweeping new plan at its annual conference in Washington on June 22.

Jennifer Sirangelo, president and CEO of Points of Light, told The Associated Press that the group’s National Volunteer Strategy initiative marks the first phase of a $100 million effort to double the total number of volunteers in the United States to 150 million people by the year 2035.

“We believe that volunteering changes everything,” Sirangelo said. “It changes the people who serve. It uplifts the community. And we know that collectively it can change our society.”

She described the National Volunteer Strategy as Points of Light’s way of “building bridges, deepening empathy, and putting us on a path for having a more civil society where we can get along in a pluralistic environment.”

The rollout comes at a challenging moment for the volunteer sector. President Donald Trump’s administration eliminated much of AmeriCorps, the federal agency dedicated to national service and volunteerism, in 2025, wiping out thousands of jobs and forcing nonprofits to scramble for replacement workers and funding.

Those federal cuts compounded a drop in volunteerism that began during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving many charities short-staffed even as demand for their services grew. While volunteers started returning in 2023 — the most recent year with available U.S. Census Bureau data — the 28% of the population that gave their time is still below pre-pandemic levels.

Sirangelo said the ongoing recovery in volunteerism signals that now is the right moment to launch a bold new initiative. “So many people in the industry have applauded the effort and said, ‘I’ve been waiting for this for years,’” she said. “There has been enthusiastic engagement.”

Cathy Scott, vice president for social impact at The UPS Foundation, expressed enthusiasm for the initiative, pointing to her own organization’s track record. In 2011, The UPS Foundation set a goal for company employees to collectively volunteer 30 million hours by 2030 — a target they hit in April, a full four years early.

Through its partnership with Points of Light, UPS was able to measure how volunteering boosted employee retention and workplace pride. “We know that volunteerism increases well-being,” Scott said. “And we know that doing good is good for business.”

Scott added that volunteering is proving to be a powerful antidote to isolation among workers. “We’re finding that (volunteerism) is bringing employees out of loneliness,” she said. “It’s creating additional professional networks. It is increasing skill development and talent development. It’s giving them a purpose… And people want to be part of a purpose and also find their own purpose.”

Points of Light developed its National Volunteer Strategy after a year-long listening process that included two national surveys, 23 roundtables with leaders from corporate, cultural, faith, and government sectors, and guidance from a 40-member advisory council.

What emerged from that process, Sirangelo said, was a clear picture: interest in volunteering is strong, but the infrastructure connecting willing volunteers to the organizations that need them is weak. To address that gap, Points of Light plans to invest in the millions of volunteer managers working at nonprofits across the country.

“We will invest in them and their continued growth with tools and resources that help them be effective at building those transformative volunteer experiences,” she said, noting that these managers are critical to addressing needs in areas like hunger relief, youth development, and environmental work.

Part of the strategy also involves establishing a shared set of expectations — a kind of common framework — so that both volunteers and nonprofits have a clearer understanding of what they can expect from one another.

Sirangelo was careful to note that the National Volunteer Strategy is a starting point, not an endpoint. One area still under development is how to better reach and engage Gen Z and younger generations, who have not embraced traditional volunteering at the same rates as older generations.

Alex Edgar, youth engagement manager at the history education nonprofit Made by Us and a member of the Points of Light board of directors, said young people often don’t receive credit for the volunteer work they do. Edgar, 22, is also co-founder of Youth250 at Made By Us, an initiative connecting young Americans to the country’s upcoming 250th anniversary.

“There is a hunger for (nonprofits) to have more youth-focused things, but oftentimes these local volunteer action centers don’t have the staff or resources or best practices honestly to do that well,” Edgar said. “There is interest, there is energy around bringing young people in, in part, because people see how disconnected they are, how much they distrust our institutions.”

Edgar said he hopes Points of Light can help build a framework that shows young people the career opportunities available in the nonprofit world. “It is going to be incredibly beneficial for young people who are interested in service, but may not really see much of an ecosystem out there right now, especially given the changes in funding,” he said.

While experts acknowledge that economic and cultural hurdles still stand in the way of greater youth participation, Edgar remains optimistic. “For so many young people, we’re not 100% there yet in terms of showing them, ‘This is for you. This is something that we can do with you,’” he said. “But we have to start somewhere.”

When visitors walk through the new Obama Presidential Center Museum, one of the highlights drawing eyes is a collection of dresses worn by former First Lady Michelle Obama during her time in the White House.

The exhibit puts a spotlight on some of her most recognized fashion moments from her years as first lady. However, not every iconic outfit made the cut — at least one notable presidential gown is absent from the display.

Federal student loan borrowers are being put on notice: major changes to how those loans can be repaid and potentially forgiven are set to take effect on July 1.

The federal government is moving forward with significant updates to its student loan programs, which could affect the repayment plans and forgiveness options available to millions of borrowers across the country.

With the deadline just weeks away, borrowers are encouraged to review their current loan status and repayment arrangements to understand how the upcoming changes may affect them.

Chicago is gearing up for a historic moment as the Obama Presidential Center prepares to open its doors to the public this Friday.

Before the public opening, a high-profile dedication ceremony is planned for Thursday, bringing together musical guests and all of the living former presidents — with one notable exception.

Federal highway safety officials announced Thursday that Waymo is pulling back 3,871 of its self-driving robotaxis across the United States after discovering a software problem that could send the vehicles into closed freeway construction zones while continuing to travel at full speed.

The recall involves specific Fifth Generation Automated Driving Systems used in the company’s robotaxi fleet.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Waymo has already taken steps to limit where its vehicles can operate, specifically restricting them from driving on freeways while the issue is being addressed.

As a permanent fix, Waymo plans to roll out an updated software version for the Automated Driving System that will allow the vehicles to better identify their location and steer clear of construction zones. The update will be provided free of charge, the agency confirmed.

The business jet skidded sideways down a dark Texas highway, clipping one light pole after the next, a trail of orange sparks in its wake.

Tow truck driver Ivan Franco initially thought he was looking at a car accident from a distance. When he got closer, the reality was far more alarming — a plane, snapped in two, lying on its side with flames beginning to climb. Franco dug into his truck’s rescue kit and grabbed a sledgehammer along with three fire extinguishers, which he passed off to officers already arriving at the scene.

“At that moment, you don’t think much about what to do, because I knew the plane could explode since it was on fire,” Franco told The Associated Press in Spanish. “My idea was to try to break the windows because the pilots hadn’t come out yet.”

Franco was among a handful of motorists who came across the wreckage in Laredo, Texas, late Tuesday night and immediately jumped into action — putting themselves at serious risk to help those trapped inside escape while smoke filled the cabin.

Police also arrived rapidly, and officials said the combined effort between officers and civilian bystanders almost certainly prevented more deaths.

“The officers and the good Samaritans that went to the scene, our firefighters that responded — I do also want to commend each and every one of them,” Laredo Police Chief Mike Rodriguez said at a news conference Wednesday. He added that he directed staff to identify every civilian who helped at the scene.

According to the FAA, the Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet had taken off Tuesday evening from the Mexican resort city of San José del Cabo and was headed to Austin, Texas. The aircraft was operated by NetJets, a company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway that sells fractional ownership in private jets. NetJets issued a statement saying it was working with authorities.

The crash happened after the pilots declared a mechanical emergency and requested permission to land at a nearby airport. The main fuselage ended up draped across a concrete barrier, while the tail section broke away and landed on a lower stretch of road.

One passenger lost his life: Joshua Baer, a prominent figure in Texas’ technology and startup communities. Three teenage passengers and both pilots made it out alive, as did the driver of a truck that was struck by the plane during the crash. Authorities have not provided further details about the relationships among the passengers.

Crash investigators spent Wednesday sifting through the debris for answers about what went wrong.

The Laredo crash was the third notable aviation accident in the United States within just three days. On Monday, a B-52 went down during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California, killing all eight people on board. The day before that, 12 people died when a plane carrying skydivers crashed in Missouri.

Zayra Garza, an esthetician who was giving co-workers a ride home, was among the motorists who pulled over in Laredo after spotting the wreckage. She filmed the scene on her phone while her husband ran toward the plane to help.

“It looked like part of a movie. I was in shock,” Garza said. The fire was her biggest concern: “I was concerned that it could have just exploded at any time.”

Garza watched as people abandoned their vehicles to try to shatter the cockpit glass. Her video captures the aircraft’s door cracking open slightly from the inside as a voice screams “Help! Help! Help!” Rescuers can be seen straining to force the door open wider as three teenagers scramble out, followed closely by one pilot and then the other.

Franco, a 23-year-old Laredo resident, swung his sledgehammer furiously through thick, black smoke. Other bystanders attacked the windows with a shovel and tools pulled from their own vehicles.

Despite their efforts, the most they managed was to leave a web of small cracks in the cockpit window. Aircraft windshields are engineered with multiple layers of glass specifically designed to stay structurally intact even when the outer surface breaks — built to withstand bird strikes at cruising speed and extreme pressure at high altitude.

“They are basically bulletproof,” said retired airline pilot John Cox, who serves as CEO of Safety Operating Systems.

As smoke continued to thicken, police officers worked to reach the last person still inside — Baer — but were forced back, doubled over coughing from the fumes.

Firefighters equipped with oxygen masks were ultimately able to enter the aircraft.

Responders also pulled a dog from the wreckage. The animal was suffering from smoke inhalation and was handed over to animal control, with investigators expecting it to survive, according to Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department.

Five officers were treated for smoke inhalation. All five survivors of the crash were later discharged from the hospital.

As the jet came down on the northbound side of the highway, one of its wings struck a truck traveling in the opposite direction. That driver also survived, Baeza confirmed.

Social media has been flooded with praise for the bystanders who stopped to help, with many calling out their courage and selflessness.

Laredo Mayor Victor Treviño described the outcome as “nothing short of a miracle that this tragedy did not become a mass fatality event,” crediting both the late hour of the crash and the swift response of first responders.

Franco said that in those frantic moments, his only focus was getting people out. But he had to push through one powerful emotion to do it.

“You’re in constant fear,” he said. “You don’t know what situation you’re in.”

Former President Barack Obama is marking a major milestone with some high-profile help as his presidential museum in Chicago prepares to open its doors.

Thursday’s invitation-only dedication ceremony will feature performances from Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera and Bono. Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are also on the guest list.

Both Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama are expected to deliver remarks at the event. The celebration will be livestreamed for those unable to attend in person, and it launches a full weekend of activities surrounding the Obama Presidential Center, which will open to the general public on Juneteenth.

President Donald Trump is not listed among the announced attendees. He referred to the $850 million center as a “total disaster” in a February social media post.

Additional celebrities set to appear Thursday include Common, Jennifer Hudson, Eddie Vedder, John Legend, Marc Anthony and The Roots.

Valerie Jarrett, the Obama Foundation’s chief executive and a former top adviser to Obama, described the vision behind the event: “We hope to inspire people everywhere to believe in their power to bring change home.” She added that the ceremony “will reflect a spirit of inspiration and joy, with a big boost from the performers who are sharing their talent with us.”

Tens of thousands of people have already gotten an early look at the nearly 20-acre campus situated in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side, though general admission tickets are sold out through the end of October.

The center sits near the neighborhood where Obama once lived and launched his political career. It is expected to draw more than 1 million visitors each year. The campus is located adjacent to the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in the lakefront park, not far from the University of Chicago.

The sprawling complex features a towering museum dedicated to both the political legacy and personal life of the nation’s first Black president. Public amenities on the grounds include a branch of the Chicago Public Library, a playground, an athletic center, basketball courts and a picnic area with grills.

For months — and in some cases even longer — parents of children with disabilities have been waiting on the Education Department to act on their complaints involving bullying and discrimination at school.

Now, with the department handing off civil rights enforcement and special education oversight to other federal agencies, many of those parents and advocates are bracing for an already gridlocked process to get even worse.

“It’s to the point I don’t even check in anymore with the attorney,” said Nicole May, an Ohio mother who filed a complaint in spring 2024 with the department’s Office for Civil Rights. May alleged her teenage daughter was being bullied because of her hearing aids and was struggling in class because she couldn’t hear her teachers. More than two years after filing, her case still hasn’t been resolved.

Under changes announced Tuesday, the Department of Justice will assume responsibility for civil rights enforcement in schools, while the Department of Health and Human Services will take over special education. The moves are part of President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to dismantle the Education Department. Education Secretary Linda McMahon described the changes as a way to better serve families of children with disabilities.

Disability advocates pushed back, arguing that special education has no business being housed in a health department — an agency that tends to view disabilities as medical conditions to be managed rather than as differences in how children learn. The top Republican on the Senate education committee echoed those concerns, saying he would seek legislation to keep special education away from Health and Human Services.

For many families and advocates, though, the announcement was met more with exhausted resignation than outrage.

The Education Department’s civil rights office had long served as the final option for parents who believed their child was being discriminated against at school, with a requirement to review every complaint it received. Under the Trump administration, the backlog of unresolved cases has grown significantly while completed resolutions have declined. Attorneys say they are increasingly looking to other avenues to seek justice for their clients.

That response is a notable shift from a year ago, when parents and attorneys were alarmed by deep cuts to Education Department staff.

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services has shrunk by roughly one-third since 2024, and the Office for Civil Rights is now approximately 40% smaller. At the same time, the Department of Justice’s Education Opportunities Section has been cut in half, according to estimates from Justice Connection, a network of former department employees.

“I think a lot of people are mad, but they are like, ‘What are we going to do?’” said Emily Harvey, co-legal director at Disability Justice, formerly known as Disability Law Colorado, who has watched her cases sit idle.

When Trump took office, Harvey had a federal complaint pending alleging that some Colorado schools were unlawfully turning away students with disabilities who lived outside their attendance boundaries. She also has a case at the Department of Justice alleging that a school district south of Denver restrained and isolated disabled students hundreds of times, despite the fact that such measures are supposed to be used only in emergencies.

“I feel like they’re probably collecting dust on a virtual shelf somewhere,” Harvey said.

In response to the federal backlog, Harvey helped push for a new state law in Colorado that broadens the types of civil rights cases state education officials are permitted to pursue. That legislation, signed into law in May, allows the state to take on cases that would typically be handled at the federal level — including those involving allegations of discrimination and harassment.

Harvey said the federal civil rights office was never without flaws. “But I think it’s become even less help for people who are trying to resolve issues,” she said. Harvey previously worked as an Education Department civil rights attorney in 2020 and 2021.

Craig Haller, a special education advocate in the Boston area, said he has received no word on a complaint he submitted early last year to the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. Since the Trump administration began dismantling the department, he has relied more heavily on Massachusetts’s state system for handling special education disputes.

He recently used that system to assist a student whose high school failed to consider his special education plan before suspending him.

“I got it fixed for my client,” Haller said. But without the federal Office for Civil Rights, he added, “I can’t get it fixed systematically.”

While only Congress has the authority to formally close the Education Department, Secretary McMahon — a billionaire and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment — has signed 10 agreements transferring department functions to other federal agencies.

Those agreements have not yet resulted in fewer employees working on specific programs. However, the union representing department workers says staff have encountered problems with equipment and access at their new locations.

“It’s hard to describe how inefficient the implementation of the (agreements) has been,” said Rachel Gittleman, the union’s president.

Taken together, advocates for students with disabilities say the splintering of programs, enforcement, and oversight across multiple agencies raises serious questions about what will be overlooked or lost entirely.

Robyn Linscott, who directs education and family policy at The Arc of the United States, a prominent disability rights organization, recalled a three-hour listening session the Education Department held in January. Families, educators, and advocates described the obstacles they face in getting proper support and services. While they acknowledged the system has problems, not one parent called for moving special education oversight to Health and Human Services.

Even so, Linscott said she isn’t surprised the administration made the move.

“It has only been 24 hours, but I think we anticipated this move for over a year,” she said Wednesday.

In Congress, senators from both parties said they would work to block special education from being placed under Health and Human Services. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said he would “publicly commit” to joining forces with Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia on legislation to pressure the administration to reverse course. Cassidy, who lost a primary election this spring and has fewer than six months remaining in his Senate term, has a personal connection to the issue — his wife co-founded a network of charter schools serving students with dyslexia.

If special education must be moved, Cassidy said Wednesday, it should go to the Labor Department, which he argued is better equipped to support people with disabilities as they learn and enter the workforce.

Ultimately, what parents care about most is whether their children are receiving the services they need, said Rob Harris, an IEP advocate in Colorado. Families already spend enormous amounts of time trying to navigate systems that should be working in coordination but often aren’t. Harris has personal experience with those challenges — his 19-year-old daughter is blind.

“Families don’t experience the government through organizational charts,” Harris said. “We experience it through the services our children receive.”

A massive warehouse near downtown Los Angeles went up in flames Wednesday afternoon, darkening the skies over the area and forcing officials to issue shelter-in-place orders because of dangerous air quality concerns.

Crews from the Los Angeles Fire Department arrived at the scene around 2:30 p.m., where thick, dark smoke was rising over the Boyle Heights neighborhood. Video from local television stations captured flames consuming the roof of the large structure, which was outfitted with solar panels.

Shortly after the fire broke out, officials sent an emergency alert to the surrounding community warning of “hazardous materials nearby.” Residents were directed to shut all windows, doors, and vents, switch off air conditioning systems, and move themselves and their pets to an interior room of their home.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson Jennifer Middleton addressed concerns about the fire potentially burning through an ammonia line, saying that risk had “dissipated.” By late afternoon, the fire on the roof had been put out and crews were moving inside the building to evaluate conditions, according to Middleton.

The warehouse is identified online as a cold storage facility owned by Lineage Logistics, used for storing frozen and other temperature-sensitive products. The property spans 491,000 square feet — roughly 45,600 square meters — according to the company’s website. Lineage Logistics had not responded to a request for comment as of the time of this report.

A fire ripped across the roof of an enormous warehouse in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, spreading rapidly over the building’s solar panels and releasing heavy plumes of smoke and ammonia gas into the surrounding area.

The fire broke out at approximately 2:30 p.m. local time (2130 GMT) at a 500,000-square-foot Lineage company warehouse located in the city’s historic Boyle Heights neighborhood. Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore said the flames breached a pressurized ammonia line but were largely confined to the roof of the structure.

Everyone inside the burning building and neighboring structures was safely evacuated. Chief Moore confirmed that no injuries were reported as a result of the fire.

Firefighters who had initially climbed the building and entered the facility were ordered to pull back after the ammonia line was breached. Moore told reporters that ground crews also struggled to reach the burning rooftop using water streams from below.

In an uncommon decision, fire commanders brought in water-dropping helicopters, which made multiple aerial passes over the blaze and ultimately brought the fire under control, according to Moore.

The warehouse sits next to a major downtown freeway. Local authorities responded by issuing a shelter-in-place order, directing residents of nearby homes to remain indoors with their windows and doors shut and air conditioning turned off to reduce the risk of exposure to smoke and ammonia fumes.

Chief Moore noted that the smoke and ammonia gas were not considered dangerous to most people “unless they have respiratory issues or in direct contact with it.” He added that air quality monitoring downwind of the fire and checks on water runoff indicated no serious threat to the surrounding communities.

Legal experts say the man accused of killing a major health insurance company’s top executive will have a tough road ahead if he tries to convince a jury that he suffered a mental health breakdown when the crime occurred.

Luigi Mangione stands accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in front of a Midtown hotel in December 2024. His defense attorneys signaled Wednesday that they intend to pursue what is known as an “extreme emotional disturbance” defense — a legal strategy that, if successful, could allow jurors to reduce a murder charge down to manslaughter.

However, former Manhattan state prosecutor Gary Galperin says the alleged level of planning involved in the shooting — and the five-day manhunt during which Mangione reportedly concealed his identity — works directly against the idea that he lost control of himself.

“This is a strategic choice on his part to limit his exposure on conviction, and while legally viable, I think factually he has a high hurdle to convince a jury,” said Galperin, who now teaches at Cardozo School of Law.

Both Mangione’s legal team and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office declined to offer any comment on the case.

Mangione has entered a not guilty plea to state charges of murder, weapons violations, and forgery. His trial is currently set to begin in September.

The killing drew widespread condemnation from public officials but also sparked a broader national conversation about frustration with rising healthcare expenses and insurance company practices.

Under New York law, the extreme emotional disturbance defense differs from a traditional insanity defense. An insanity defense requires a formal psychiatric diagnosis and evidence that the defendant was unaware their actions were wrong. The emotional disturbance defense, by contrast, does not require the defendant to admit they committed the crime.

New York courts have accepted this defense in cases where defendants were overwhelmed by intense emotions like rage or grief, or where they responded to severe trauma. Courts have rejected it, however, when evidence shows that a defendant planned their actions and remained composed and deliberate throughout.

The judge overseeing the case will determine, before jury instructions are given, whether Mangione has presented enough evidence to allow jurors to consider the lesser manslaughter charge. A manslaughter conviction could spare Mangione from a potential life sentence.

Mangione reportedly struggled with chronic back pain, according to people who knew him and his social media activity. Prosecutors say they recovered a notebook in which he criticized the health insurance industry and wrote about killing an executive.

New York Law School professor Anna Cominsky noted that Mangione’s attorneys might try to frame the period surrounding the alleged shooting as a prolonged mental health crisis that was completely out of character for him.

“They could argue this isn’t normally what he did: sit around and talk about how corrupt the insurance industry is,” Cominsky said.

To succeed with this defense, Mangione would need to demonstrate not only that he was in a state of extreme emotional disturbance, but also that there was a “reasonable explanation or excuse” behind that disturbance.

Experts noted that widespread public resentment toward health insurance companies — particularly over claim denials — could make certain jurors more sympathetic to Mangione’s position. Still, they cautioned that bridging the gap between frustration with insurers and a full-blown homicidal breakdown may be too much to ask of a jury.

“Almost any one of us can relate to struggling with a health insurance company — who can’t cite an example?” Galperin said. “But then the question becomes: would it be reasonable for you to lose self-control and go out and do what he’s charged with doing?”

NEW YORK (AP) — An 18-year-old is dead after a horse pulling a carriage in New York City’s Central Park broke free from its driver and sent passengers tumbling to the ground on Wednesday, according to police.

The young man was one of four passengers riding in the horse-drawn carriage when the incident occurred just before 3 in the afternoon, according to the New York Police Department. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, while the three other passengers declined medical attention.

A representative from the Transport Workers Union, which represents workers in the carriage industry, revealed that the horse involved had only been working in the park for six weeks. According to Alexander Kemp, the administrative vice president of the union’s local chapter, the driver had gotten off the carriage to snap a photo of the passengers when the horse bolted.

“A driver is not supposed to leave the carriage to take photos — ever,” Kemp stated. “We support a full investigation.”

Video footage captured the horse racing through the park while two people appeared to leap from the moving four-wheeled carriage. A second video shows the cab tipping over after its wheels made contact with another carriage on the park’s heavily trafficked loop road.

The tragedy comes at a particularly sensitive time for Central Park’s horse-drawn carriage industry, which has operated for roughly 150 years but now faces increasing pressure from critics who argue the rides are cruel to animals and pose a risk to the public.

Wednesday’s fatal incident follows a separate horse-related tragedy just last week, when a horse collapsed and died in the same park.

The Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit organization that manages the park and publicly backed a carriage ban last summer, is now calling for the industry to be shut down entirely in light of the two back-to-back incidents.

“That this frightening situation is just days after the previous one underscores the dangers posed by horse carriages to Park visitors, carriage drivers, and the horses themselves,” the group said in a written statement. “We hope today’s injuries are the last we ever see.”

BALTIMORE — Federal prosecutors have brought a criminal charge against the chief engineer of the cargo ship at the center of the deadly 2024 collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, alleging he failed to report dangerous conditions on the vessel to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Karthikeyan Deenadayalan was charged Monday in U.S. District Court in Maryland with a single count of violating the federal Port and Waterways Safety Act. Attorneys representing Deenadayalan had not responded to a request for comment as of the time of this report.

Along with the criminal charge, prosecutors submitted notice of a “deferred prosecution agreement” to the court, though no details about the terms of the deal were released. Such agreements are commonly used when a defendant agrees to fulfill specific conditions — such as cooperating with investigators or paying restitution — in return for having the charges against them eventually dismissed.

According to court documents, Deenadayalan served as chief engineer of the container ship while it was docked at the Port of Baltimore in the days leading up to the fatal bridge strike. Prosecutors allege he knowingly failed to inform the U.S. Coast Guard that an improper fuel pump, lacking a backup system, was being used to run two of the ship’s generators.

The vessel, the Dali, was headed for Sri Lanka when it lost power twice within a four-minute window while departing the Port of Baltimore. That loss of power led to a steering failure, and the ship slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early morning hours of March 26, 2024. Investigators determined that a loose wire in a switchboard most likely triggered the initial power failure.

After the ship briefly regained power, trouble struck again. Prosecutors say the fuel pump powering the two generators was not designed to automatically restart following a blackout, which caused a second power loss. The Dali then collided with a support column of the bridge, killing six construction workers who were filling potholes on the structure at the time. The bridge, which first opened in 1977, carried millions of vehicles annually.

In May, the Singapore-based company that operated the ship and a former employee were indicted on criminal charges. Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., along with Chennai, India-based Synergy Maritime Pte Ltd. and former technical superintendent Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, 47, face charges including conspiracy, misconduct causing death, failure to promptly notify the U.S. Coast Guard of a hazardous condition, obstruction of the National Transportation Safety Board, and making false statements. A trial in that case has been set for October 2027.

Following the indictment, Synergy Marine expressed disappointment and accused the U.S. Justice Department of treating what it called an accident as a criminal matter. Nair’s attorney, David Gerger, offered a similar reaction in May, stating that his client “thinks about this accident every day, but he certainly did not cause it.”

In April, Maryland, Synergy Marine, and Grace Ocean Private Limited — the Singapore-based owner of the Dali — reached a $2.25 billion settlement. Grace Ocean has not faced any criminal charges in connection with the collapse.

Earlier this month, a federal judge agreed to delay a civil trial related to the disaster after a series of last-minute settlements resolved the majority of the remaining claims, including all pending claims tied to the deaths of the six construction workers. The unresolved claims that remain are largely focused on economic losses suffered by businesses and local governments, and none of the parties still involved had sought to proceed with the trial as originally scheduled.

A major new landmark has opened its doors in Chicago this week — the Obama Presidential Center. The facility is now welcoming visitors, but there is an important distinction to note: it does not hold the status of an official presidential library.

Despite sharing some similarities with traditional presidential libraries, the Obama Presidential Center stands apart in how it is classified. The opening marks a significant moment tied to the legacy of the former president.

Tens of thousands of American military veterans — more than 30,000 in total — are currently living without a home, and the people who work to help them are wrestling with a difficult question: what happens when government policy works against the very people it claims to protect?

The Trump Administration has put forward promises of new housing opportunities for veterans experiencing homelessness. However, at the same time, one of the president’s executive orders takes aim at homeless people more broadly — creating a tension that outreach workers say puts vulnerable veterans in a complicated position.

Those who work on the front lines of homeless veteran outreach are now weighing the potential consequences of policies that could force individuals to accept assistance rather than allowing them to seek help voluntarily.

As wildfires begin breaking out across the western part of the country, the U.S. Forest Service is asserting that it has a complete seasonal firefighting workforce in place for the summer ahead.

Despite the agency’s assurances about staffing levels, there are lingering concerns among observers about whether the government has done enough to be ready if major wildfires grow beyond control.

The declaration of full staffing marks a notable moment heading into what is traditionally the most dangerous time of year for wildfires in the western United States.

MIAMI — Every person being held at a remote immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades — widely known as “Alligator Alcatraz” — has been moved to other facilities, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The agency pointed to concerns about the ongoing hurricane season as the reason for the relocations.

The South Florida Detention Center had drawn sharply divided reactions since it opened 11 months ago. President Donald Trump publicly praised the facility, while lawyers, families, and human rights organizations repeatedly condemned what they described as the mistreatment of those held there.

DHS confirmed that all detainees at the Florida state-run facility had been transferred, but the agency did not disclose how many people were moved, where they were sent, or whether the facility would be shut down for good or only temporarily.

“For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities,” department spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a written statement.

Hurricane season runs from June through November. The detention facility originally opened on July 3, 2025 — a full month after the start of that year’s hurricane season — and continued operating through a season that ended without any storms hitting Florida. Shortly after the federal immigration agency’s announcement, the National Hurricane Center reported Wednesday that the first tropical storm of the 2026 hurricane season had developed off the coast of Texas.

People held at the facility described a range of troubling conditions, including difficulty reaching attorneys, worms found in food, toilets that failed to flush, floors flooded with sewage, and insects throughout the tents.

The facility was constructed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration in just a matter of days, surrounded by alligator-infested swampland in the Everglades. Trump visited the site on July 1, 2025, two days before it officially opened.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management, the primary state agency overseeing the facility’s operations, had not responded to a media request for comment as of Wednesday.

Advocacy groups had argued from the start that the tent-based facility was never a safe or humane place to hold people.

“Transferring people out of this cruel facility is an important step, but it does not erase the harm that has already been done,” said Amy Godshall, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who filed a lawsuit against both the state and federal government over detainees’ lack of access to legal representation. “The state and federal government must permanently close this facility and commit to never detaining people there again.”

DeSantis stated in May that the South Florida Detention Facility was always intended to be a temporary operation. He said the facility had processed and deported 22,000 detainees since it first opened.

Immigration advocates and attorneys said they began noticing an uptick in transfers over the past two weeks, during which time they lost contact with dozens of clients.

Katie Blankenship, an immigration attorney at Sanctuary of the South, said all 50 clients that she and fellow attorneys had been advising free of charge had been moved from “Alligator Alcatraz” to other facilities located in South Florida, California, Arizona, Louisiana, and Texas.

“They are all gone,” Blankenship said. She added that she received no official notification about the moves — instead, she pieced together what happened after clients failed to appear at scheduled hearings or missed phone calls. Using an official detainee search tool, she was able to track down her clients and confirm they had been relocated to other facilities.

Luigi Mangione is set to return to court Wednesday for a critical pretrial hearing as his state case moves forward.

Mangione is facing charges at both the state and federal levels stemming from the 2024 murder of an insurance company executive. Wednesday’s hearing is considered a key milestone in the state court proceedings ahead of what is expected to be a full trial.

SPOKANE, Wash. — Strong winds pushed a rapidly spreading wildfire into a residential neighborhood in eastern Washington on Tuesday, forcing approximately 1,500 people to flee their homes and leaving some houses engulfed in flames, fire officials announced Wednesday.

The exact number of homes destroyed in the Spokane area had not yet been confirmed. Fire officials were still working Wednesday to assess the full scope of the damage, according to Matthew Vinci, fire chief for Spokane County Fire District 9, who confirmed Tuesday that some structures had been consumed by the flames.

As of Wednesday, the evacuation order covering those 1,500 residents remained active, said Chandra Fox, deputy director for Spokane County Emergency Management.

“Our concern is for increased winds Wednesday afternoon,” Fox said.

The fire broke out shortly after noon on Tuesday and rapidly climbed a hillside before shifting winds redirected the flames toward a nearby neighborhood, according to fire district spokesman Robert Gray.

Firefighting crews from both Washington state and Idaho worked to battle the blaze on the ground and from the air, but the fire quickly expanded to 225 acres — roughly a third of a square mile. By Wednesday morning, it was reported at just 10% containment, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Nationally, more than 32,000 wildfires have scorched over 3,900 square miles across the United States so far this year, according to the fire center, which coordinates large-scale firefighting resources. That figure is considerably higher than the 10-year average of nearly 24,000 fires burning around 2,200 square miles by early June — even as fire activity has been relatively subdued in recent weeks.

Looking ahead, weather and fuel models tracked by the National Interagency Fire Center indicate elevated wildfire danger in several parts of the country in the coming weeks. Areas flagged as having critical conditions include parts of California, the Southwest, the Great Basin, and the Rocky Mountain region.

Military officials on Wednesday released the identities of all eight people who lost their lives when a B-52 bomber went down in a fiery crash earlier this week at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California.

According to an official statement, the victims were men ranging in age from 32 to 53. Among the eight were four active duty airmen, one reservist, and three civilians.

Col. Thomas Tauer, commander of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards, paid tribute to those lost, saying, “They were dedicated professionals, beloved family members and irreplaceable teammates.”

The runway where Monday’s crash took place remains closed, though other operations at the base have since resumed. Investigators have not yet pinpointed a cause, and officials warned the full inquiry could take as long as six months to wrap up.

The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress involved in the crash had been flying as part of a test mission connected to a program designed to extend the life of one of the oldest aircraft still serving in the U.S. military fleet. The bomber had been delivered to Edwards in December following upgrades to its radar system, which were carried out at a Boeing facility in San Antonio, Texas.

Luigi Mangione, the man charged with killing a major health insurance executive on a Manhattan street, intends to claim at trial that he was experiencing an “extreme emotional disturbance” when the shooting allegedly took place, according to a judge who revealed the defense strategy during a court hearing Wednesday.

Mangione stands accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown hotel in December 2024. The high-profile killing drew condemnation from public officials across the country, yet at the same time became a symbol of widespread American anger over soaring healthcare costs and health insurance industry practices.

In December 2024, Mangione entered a not guilty plea to state charges of murder, weapons violations, and forgery filed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. His state trial is scheduled to begin in September before Justice Gregory Carro in Manhattan.

Under New York law, a murder defendant may argue that extreme emotional disturbance prevented them from being fully responsible for their actions at the time of the killing. If that argument succeeds, a murder conviction can be reduced to manslaughter, which carries a substantially lighter sentence.

Thompson was the head of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance division. He was shot and killed in the early morning hours outside a hotel where he had been staying for an investor conference.

Graphic video of the shooting and a five-day manhunt for the suspected gunman turned the case into a major media story and social media phenomenon. Mangione was ultimately taken into custody in Pennsylvania.

In a separate legal matter, Mangione pleaded not guilty in April 2025 to federal charges of murder, weapons violations, and stalking brought by Manhattan federal prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett, who is presiding over that case, dismissed the murder and weapons charges in January due to legal technicalities in a ruling that surprised many legal observers. That dismissal removed the possibility of the death penalty, though Mangione could still face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted on the stalking charge.

Jury selection in the federal case is expected to begin in September, with opening statements in the trial set for November.

NEW YORK — A New York judge confirmed Wednesday that Luigi Mangione’s defense attorneys plan to argue he was suffering from a psychiatric condition at the time of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Judge Gregory Carro announced that Mangione’s legal team intends to demonstrate he was experiencing “extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the occurrence.” A successful psychiatric defense could result in Mangione being sent to a mental health treatment facility rather than serving time in prison.

Judge Carro’s announcement came approximately two weeks after he held a closed-door hearing on the matter, which was requested by the defense. He stated he will now unseal records connected to that private hearing and to the psychiatric defense strategy.

“The reasons for the sealing was to give the defense an opportunity to determine whether they were going forth with that defense and the nature of that defense,” Carro explained in court.

Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, raised concerns about making those records public, arguing it could damage her client’s position in his separate federal case.

“The reason why we asked for the sealing is that this defense is not available federally and Mr. Mangione is being prosecuted federally and this is prejudicial to his defense to the exact same facts,” Friedman Agnifilo said.

The ruling had originally been scheduled for Tuesday but was pushed back one day after prosecutors failed to notify Mangione’s jail that he was required in court. Mangione appeared Wednesday wearing a blue suit and a light-colored button-down shirt, seated between his attorneys. His state trial is scheduled to begin September 8.

Mangione, 28, has entered not guilty pleas to both state and federal charges in connection with the December 4, 2024 killing. A separate federal trial involving stalking charges is set to get underway October 13. A conviction in either case could result in a life sentence.

Thompson, 50, was shot and killed outside a Manhattan hotel where UnitedHealth Group was holding its annual investor conference. Surveillance footage captured a masked gunman firing at him from behind. Investigators say the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” were found on the ammunition — a phrase commonly associated with tactics insurers use to avoid paying out claims.

Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was taken into custody five days after the shooting at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, roughly 230 miles west of Manhattan. At a May 18 hearing, Judge Carro ruled that a firearm and a notebook recovered from Mangione could be used as evidence in the state trial.

Prosecutors say the weapon — a 3D-printed pistol — is consistent with the gun used to kill Thompson. The notebook reportedly contains references to wanting to “wack” a health insurance executive and expresses opposition to what it describes as “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel.”

Also on Wednesday, Judge Carro dismissed a charge related to a gun magazine that he had previously ruled inadmissible, after determining it was discovered during an initial search of Mangione’s backpack at the McDonald’s location.

Twenty-one people lost their lives in three separate aircraft crashes across the United States in a matter of days, with accidents occurring in Missouri, California, and Texas. Federal investigators are now working to determine what caused each of the deadly incidents.

A business jet carrying six people went down on a Texas highway late Tuesday night, killing one person. Eight people aboard a B-52 military bomber died Monday when the aircraft crashed during takeoff at a California air force base. And on Sunday, a small plane carrying skydivers crashed in Missouri, killing all 12 people on board.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating all three crashes, and officials say it is too early to draw conclusions about what went wrong in any of them.

Texas: Business Jet Crashes on Laredo Highway

A Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet was flying from Los Cabos International Airport in Mexico to Austin, Texas, when it came down on a highway near Laredo International Airport at approximately 10 p.m. local time Tuesday.

Dashcam video shared on social media captured the jet skidding down the roadway, striking a light pole before coming to a stop. Witnesses described the scene as surreal, comparing it to something out of a movie, as bystanders rushed from their vehicles in a desperate effort to free the six occupants while the plane burned.

Two people approached the burning aircraft armed with a sledgehammer and a shovel, using them to break through the cockpit glass and attempt to pry open the door. With the jet tipped on its side and nearly split in two, several passengers managed to climb out on their own. A firefighter used a small ladder to reach and rescue the final passenger, who appeared to be unconscious at the time. One person on the plane did not survive, and five police officers were taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation.

Laredo International Airport Director Gilberto Sanchez told a local television station that the plane appeared to have suffered a mechanical failure, though he offered no further details. NTSB investigators arrived at the scene on Wednesday.

California: B-52 Bomber Crashes at Edwards Air Force Base

A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress crashed Monday while taking off at Edwards Air Force Base, bursting into flames on the runway and killing all eight people on board. The aircraft had barely left the ground before it slammed back down approximately halfway along the runway.

Base officials said the bomber was participating in a test mission connected to a program designed to keep the aging aircraft — which first entered service in 1955 — operational for decades into the future. Both military personnel and government contractors were on board. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing confirmed that two of its employees were among those killed.

Aviation safety experts said early impressions pointed to a possible failure in either the flight controls or the engines, though investigators have not yet identified an official cause.

Col. James Hayes, the deputy commander for the 412 Test Wing, said the aircraft was supporting a radar modernization program. In 2025, Boeing had sent a B-52 to Edwards equipped with an upgraded radar system intended to keep the bomber flying through at least 2050. The B-52 has seen service in U.S. military conflicts ranging from Vietnam to Iran.

Authorities have not publicly released the names of those who died. However, Lauren Smith spoke to local television reporters and identified her husband, Jeromy Smith, a flight test engineer with the U.S. Department of Defense, as one of the victims.

Missouri: Skydiving Plane Crashes Near Butler

A pilot and 11 skydivers died Sunday when a single-engine Pacific Aerospace 750XL crashed shortly after departing a small airport in Butler, Missouri, located roughly 65 miles south of Kansas City.

The plane had reached only about 100 feet in altitude and appeared to be losing power when it made a sharp left turn and went down on what witnesses described as a clear, sunny day. Acting airport manager and Bates County Emergency Management Agency director Dennis Jacobs said it appeared the pilot was trying to clear a nearby highway and bring the plane down for a landing, but the aircraft stalled, nosedived, and caught fire in a field.

The passengers were described by family and friends as passionate and experienced skydivers. Among those killed was a skydiving instructor with more than 6,800 jumps to his name, a drummer from Kansas City-area bands who credited the sport with helping him achieve sobriety, and a grandfather who was jumping in honor of his sister who had died from cancer.

The turboprop, built in 2010, was operated by Skydive Kansas City out of Butler Memorial Airport, where flight tracking data from FlightRadar24.com shows it had arrived for the first time on June 5. Prior to that, the plane had been operating in Tennessee and Wisconsin for weeks at a time.

The NTSB said its investigation will examine all contributing factors, including the pilot’s experience with this specific aircraft model and any mechanical or structural issues with the plane itself.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from a pro-life high school student group, turning away the case without any comment from the justices.

The student club had sought to challenge a school policy that prevented them from posting flyers critical of Planned Parenthood on hallway walls. It’s worth noting that the group was permitted to hand the flyers directly to fellow students — the restriction applied only to putting them up on school walls.

Courts at the lower level had sided with the school, determining that allowing the club to display flyers on hallway walls would amount to what is legally defined as “government speech” — meaning the school itself would effectively be seen as endorsing the message.

With the Supreme Court’s decision not to intervene, those lower court rulings remain in place.

Illinois may have some of the most permissive abortion laws in the United States, but secretly administering abortion pills to a woman without her knowledge or consent remains a serious crime in the state.

Emerson Evans, 32, learned that lesson the hard way after being convicted of doing exactly that to his girlfriend. He will now spend seven years in prison for the offense.

The case is part of a broader pattern that has emerged since abortion medications became more widely accessible under the Biden administration. Authorities say a rising number of men have faced criminal charges for obtaining those drugs and using them to force women into unwanted abortions.

Fifty people have died inside U.S. immigration detention facilities since President Donald Trump launched his mass deportation effort in January 2025, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement records — and the rate at which detainees are dying has more than doubled compared to the previous 15 years.

A Reuters analysis of ICE data found that between 2009 and 2024, one detainee died for every 3,848 people held in immigration facilities, based on average daily population figures. Since Trump returned to the White House, that rate has surged to roughly one death per 1,630 detainees, based on preliminary figures through early June.

The data was obtained by the Deportation Data Project through a public records request and later processed by the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for reduced incarceration.

Three experts in detention-related deaths who reviewed ICE records and autopsies for Reuters said the climbing death rate and other findings raised serious questions about the level of supervision and medical care being provided at facilities whose populations have expanded dramatically under the Trump administration.

Detention numbers had already been rising in the final year of the Biden administration amid election-year pressure to increase enforcement. ICE was holding roughly 40,000 immigrants when Trump took office, up from a low of about 14,000 in February 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under Trump, that number climbed to a peak of approximately 70,000 in January during an aggressive crackdown in Minneapolis, before dropping back to about 57,000 by early June.

Of the 50 deaths, 21 were discovered only after the detainee was already deceased or unresponsive, ICE records show. That group included 10 suicides. Sanjay Basu, an associate physician at the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied ICE detention deaths and reviewed the data for Reuters, said those cases are particularly alarming because they may point to failures in both physical and mental health monitoring.

Heart attacks and cardiovascular-related problems accounted for 16 of the deaths. Medical experts said that pattern suggests possible shortcomings in initial health screenings and the management of chronic conditions.

Chanelle Diaz, an assistant professor of medicine at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, said the data and records indicate the agency is choosing to hold medically vulnerable individuals, producing what she called a “spike in preventable deaths.”

“The system is not designed for chronic-care management,” Diaz said, adding that at least two detainees who died had dementia and posed no threat to public safety.

The Department of Homeland Security declined to provide detailed records of the Trump-era deaths that Reuters reviewed. The agency said it remains committed to maintaining a “safe, secure and humane” environment in its detention facilities.

“Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay,” DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement.

Experts reviewing the Trump administration’s detention death reports said those documents contained less information than reports from prior administrations. Many were missing critical details such as the detainee’s medical history, current medications, and specifics about emergency responses.

Michele Heisler, medical director at the nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights, highlighted the case of Santos Reyes Banegas, a Honduran man who died at the Nassau County Correctional Center on Long Island, New York, last September. According to an ICE report, a nurse noted symptoms of alcohol withdrawal during his intake at 11:22 a.m. on September 17, 2025. About two hours later, a doctor observed tremors and prescribed withdrawal medications, though the report does not name the medications or confirm they were given. At 6:25 a.m. the next day, Reyes was found unresponsive in his cell and was pronounced dead 20 minutes later.

Heisler said prompt hospital treatment can dramatically reduce the dangers of alcohol withdrawal. “It raises the question of why wasn’t he immediately sent to an emergency department,” she said. DHS said the death is still under investigation but that “the preliminary cause appears to be liver failure complicated by alcoholism.” An investigation by the New York State attorney general’s office found that the officer on duty did not cause Reyes’ death.

Among those who died was Tuan Van Bui, a 55-year-old Vietnamese man who arrived on November 19 at the Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, Indiana — a repurposed maximum-security prison the Trump administration has nicknamed the “Speedway Slammer.” Bui had suffered a stroke in late 2023 and had been prescribed medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol after being detained. In February, he filed a federal court petition seeking his release, saying he relied on a cane to walk and that detention was making his health worse. In March, a physician diagnosed him with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

On April 1, Bui collapsed. Fellow detainees called out to a nearby guard for help. Ibrahim Ibrahim, an Iraqi detainee who had learned CPR while working as a military translator during the Iraq War, immediately began chest compressions. According to Ibrahim and two other detainees who spoke with Reuters, it took approximately 15 minutes for a guard to arrive, and medical staff did not appear until 10 minutes after that.

“By the time medical came, he was dead,” Ibrahim said in a phone interview.

Federal immigration detention standards require a four-minute response time for medical emergencies. When asked about the timeline in Bui’s case, DHS spokesperson Bis said staff “immediately initiated” life-saving measures and “immediately contacted emergency services personnel, who swiftly responded.” The ICE death report on Bui stated that detention staff began CPR, started defibrillation, and called emergency medical services before a supervising physician declared him dead around 6 p.m. The report made no mention of Ibrahim performing CPR first. The local coroner attributed Bui’s death to natural causes stemming from cardiovascular disease.

Bui’s stepdaughter, Ly Wang, said her family had been bracing for the possibility he would be deported to Vietnam. “The worst case scenario for us was that he was going to get deported,” she said, “not that he was going to die.”

In another case, staff at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania discovered the body of 32-year-old Chinese immigrant Chaofeng Ge hanging in a shower stall early on the morning of August 5. Ge had been transferred to the immigration facility less than a week earlier after spending seven months in a Pennsylvania county prison awaiting trial on fraud charges involving $154.62 in gift cards. His brother said through a translator that Ge had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in 2023 and had been working as a delivery driver in New York City.

Records from the county prison where Ge had been held show he attempted suicide by hanging on January 25 of last year. Emergency care was provided at a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center facility, which noted in a summary: “Patient should be monitored for suicidal ideation/plan.” Two days after that attempt, a social worker documented signs of depression and bipolar disorder, and a psychiatrist later prescribed an antipsychotic drug and an antidepressant.

Tom Weber, CEO of PrimeCare Medical, which provided medical services at the county prison, said his facility sent Ge’s records to ICE when he was transferred. Reuters was unable to independently confirm delivery of those records. ICE stated in a press release that Ge arrived at the immigration detention center without medical records from his prior incarceration, and that a nurse conducting his intake interview — through an interpreter — recorded that he had no prior medical or mental health conditions and placed him in the general population.

In a separate case, Mohammad Paktiawal, 41, a former Afghan special forces soldier who had been evacuated to the United States by the U.S. military during the Taliban’s 2021 takeover, was detained by ICE on March 13 in a Dallas suburb while driving five of his six children to school. That same day he was transferred to a hospital for chest pain and shortness of breath. The following morning, hospital staff noticed his tongue was swollen, administered an allergy medication, and began life-saving measures three minutes later, but he was pronounced dead.

Experts who reviewed the ICE records found no indication of a failure in emergency response in Paktiawal’s case. However, his brother Naseer Paktiawal said the family is still waiting for answers from ICE and the Dallas County medical examiner three months after his death. Paktiawal had applied for asylum and was the sole provider for his family, working at a local Afghan market, his brother said.

Paktiawal had been indicted in September on a felony charge of improperly using more than $200 in federal food stamps for business purposes. Two months later he was arrested for attempted theft of roughly $220 in groceries and then released. Under the Laken Riley Act, enacted shortly after Trump took office, ICE is required to detain anyone arrested for shoplifting and similar offenses — a policy that would have made Paktiawal a detention priority under the new rules.

In a press release confirming Paktiawal’s death on March 15, ICE highlighted his criminal record. The release read: “Criminal illegal alien from Afghanistan with previous arrests for fraud and theft passes away at Texas hospital.”

WASHINGTON — A sweeping new national poll reveals that most Americans hold the rights outlined in the country’s founding documents close to their hearts — but worry deeply that those freedoms are slipping away.

The survey, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found broad agreement across different groups of Americans that the right to vote, freedom of speech, and religious freedom are essential to what the United States stands for. However, fewer than one-third of those surveyed felt any of those rights were actually safe from threats today.

The poll was conducted April 16-20, before a recent Supreme Court decision that narrowed a portion of the Voting Rights Act. It paints a picture of a nation that still deeply values personal liberty but is increasingly anxious about the country’s direction — even as Americans prepare for a summer of celebrations marking the nation’s 250th birthday.

“Our idea of rights has been very consistent in this country until the last few years,” said Louise Rochon, 85, of Connecticut. “Now, they’re all under threat. Every single last one of them.”

Roughly 9 in 10 Americans said the right to vote is “extremely” or “very” important to the country’s identity. A similar share said the same about freedom of speech. About 8 in 10 said freedom of religion is central to American identity, while approximately 6 in 10 placed the right to keep and bear arms in that category.

Despite that widespread appreciation for these rights, many Americans feel they are in jeopardy. About two-thirds said voting rights are facing some level of threat — with around one-third calling it a “major threat” and about 3 in 10 describing it as a “minor threat.” Only about one-third said voting rights faced no threat at all.

Nearly half of Americans said freedom of speech is under major threat. About 3 in 10 said the same about gun rights and religious freedom.

Tracy Gonzales, an independent voter from San Antonio, Texas, said the country is going “down the drain.” She said Americans across the political spectrum have “thrown religion to the side at the moment” and allowed other civil liberties to erode amid heated debates over immigration and the economy.

“Given everything going on with our president, you really don’t have time to think of anything else,” said Gonzales, 37, referring to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdowns. “There are so many other crimes that are being committed and people that actually need help, and you’re focused on the ones that are trying to get it together.”

The poll also uncovered nuanced views among Black Americans — perspectives that are likely shaped, at least in part, by the country’s long history of denying voting rights and full citizenship to people of African descent.

Black Americans were less likely than white Americans to describe the right to vote as “extremely” or “very important” to American identity — about three-quarters held that view, compared to roughly 9 in 10 white Americans. At the same time, about 4 in 10 Black Americans said voting rights face a “major” threat today, a higher proportion than any other racial group surveyed.

“You cannot feel like you are a total and full part of the American experiment unless you have the right to vote,” said Antonio Williams, a school administrator in Dallas, Texas, who is Black. “And African Americans didn’t fully get to enjoy the right to vote until about 60 years ago, and I feel like it’s under threat right now.”

Younger adults and independents were less likely than the general public to view voting and free speech as central to American identity.

“My age group has grown up a lot more with social media as part of their existence in life and the microcosms that that creates in politics,” said Julian Goodwin-Ferris, 28, a professional dancer from New Jersey. “I think we feel more like our voice doesn’t matter as much because it feels like we’ve grown up with our rights sort of being more ignored.”

On partisan lines, Democrats and Republicans differed on which freedoms concerned them most. Democrats were more likely to see free speech as under major threat — about 6 in 10 Democrats felt that way, compared to about 4 in 10 independents and roughly one-third of Republicans.

When it comes to gun rights, about 8 in 10 Republicans said the right to bear arms is at least “very important” to the nation’s identity, compared to about 4 in 10 Democrats and half of independents. About 4 in 10 Republicans said gun rights are currently under threat — an increase compared to October 2025 — a shift not seen among Democrats or independents.

“We have the Bill of Rights for a reason,” said Nuri Simmons, a warehouse worker in New York and a registered Democrat. Simmons, 31, said threats to different rights “bleed into each other,” and while he is most worried about voting rights, he acknowledged others may prioritize different concerns.

“Like when people try to bring some gun control into it, I think some people look at that as an attack on their rights. I guess that all depends on your politics,” he said.

The AP-NORC poll surveyed 2,596 adults from April 16-20, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to represent the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

FBI Director Kash Patel revealed that federal agents stepped in to stop a plot aimed at attacking a UFC fighting event held at the White House on Sunday.

The director’s announcement highlighted a serious security threat that was disrupted before it could be carried out. The event, which took place at the nation’s executive residence, was the target of what authorities described as a coordinated plan.

A former Homeland Security official, Juliette Kayyem, spoke about the foiled plot and its implications for security at high-profile public events.

As the United States prepares to mark 250 years since its founding, the organization StoryCorps has launched an ambitious new project to document the voices and stories of people across the country.

The initiative, known as “Connect 250,” is focused on recording conversations between Americans as a way of capturing a snapshot of life in the nation at this historic milestone.

StoryCorps founder Dave Isay spoke with NPR’s Steve Inskeep about the project and what it hopes to achieve — building what amounts to a time capsule of American experiences told in the words of the people living them.

The U.S. military carried out an attack Tuesday on a vessel suspected of transporting illegal drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, resulting in one fatality and two survivors, as the Trump administration presses forward with its ongoing campaign against alleged drug traffickers in Latin America.

With this latest strike, the total number of people killed in U.S. military boat attacks has reached at least 208 since the Trump administration began going after those it labels “narcoterrorists” in early September.

U.S. Southern Command, consistent with how it has handled most of its announcements about strikes in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea, stated that the vessel was targeted along known drug smuggling routes. However, the military offered no evidence confirming the boat was actually carrying drugs. A video shared on X captured the boat moving through the water moments before the strike hit, sending it up in flames.

Southern Command stated that it “immediately notified U.S. Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivors.”

President Donald Trump has described the U.S. as being in “armed conflict” with Latin American cartels, arguing the strikes are a necessary step to cut off the drug supply flowing into the country and reduce deadly overdoses among Americans. Despite those claims, his administration has provided little supporting evidence that those killed were in fact “narcoterrorists.”

Critics have raised doubts about both the legal basis for the strikes and whether they are actually working, pointing out that fentanyl — the drug responsible for many fatal overdoses — is typically brought into the United States over land from Mexico, where it is manufactured using chemicals sourced from China and India.

The strikes have come under heavy scrutiny from some Democratic members of Congress and legal experts who study military law. The very first strike in early September raised particular alarms among certain lawmakers and military law scholars.

In that initial attack, nine people were killed, and two men who initially survived were holding onto the wreckage when the boat was struck a second time, killing them both. The White House confirmed the follow-up strike, defending it as an act of “self-defense” aimed at ensuring the vessel was fully destroyed and conducted within the laws of armed conflict.

However, some legal scholars argued that striking survivors a second time would have been unlawful regardless of whether an armed conflict was underway.

The Pentagon’s internal watchdog announced in May that it intends to examine whether the military followed a proper targeting framework when conducting the strikes. That review, however, is focused narrowly on what is known as the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle and does not address the broader question of whether the strikes were legal, according to the inspector general’s office.

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — A Long Island architect who led a secret double life as the Gilgo Beach serial killer is facing sentencing Wednesday after confessing in court to the murders of eight women.

Rex Heuermann, 62, of Massapequa Park, is expected to receive a life prison sentence when he appears before a judge in Riverhead, New York. Relatives of his victims are anticipated to deliver statements to the court.

Wednesday’s proceedings mark the conclusion of a remarkable investigation that unraveled one of New York’s most baffling cold cases — one that began with a string of seemingly unrelated disappearances of young women and later captured widespread public attention through true-crime documentaries, books, and podcasts after police began uncovering skeletal remains in the sandy brush along a coastal parkway.

Heuermann, who has largely stayed silent throughout numerous court appearances since his arrest in 2023, will have the opportunity to speak at Wednesday’s sentencing, though it remains unclear whether he will do so. His attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.

His ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, along with their two adult children, have indicated through their attorneys that they will not attend the sentencing, citing respect for the families of the victims.

In April, Heuermann pleaded guilty to charges of murdering seven women: Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, and Sandra Costilla. Though he was never formally charged in connection with an eighth death, he also admitted in court to killing Karen Vergata. Heuermann stated that he strangled his victims — many of whom were sex workers — and dismembered some of their bodies.

The majority of the women vanished between 2000 and 2010, with most of their remains discovered along a remote parkway near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach, roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Manhattan.

Two of the killings, however, occurred earlier. Costilla’s remains were recovered in 1993, more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) away in the Hamptons, while Vergata’s remains turned up in 1996 on Fire Island, over 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Gilgo Beach.

The case first came to public attention in 2010 when investigators discovered remains along Ocean Parkway while searching for a missing sex worker named Shannan Gilbert, whose death was ultimately ruled an accidental drowning.

The hunt for the killer of the other women stalled for years before a reinvigorated investigation in 2022 identified Heuermann as a potential suspect. Detectives connected him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing around the time one of the victims disappeared in 2010.

A critical break came when DNA recovered from a pizza crust Heuermann had thrown away in a Manhattan trash can was matched to genetic material extracted from badly degraded hair fragments found on the victims’ remains.

Investigators also built a case using cellphone and location tracking data that showed Heuermann had arranged meetings with some of the victims shortly before they went missing.

Following his arrest, prosecutors in 2024 uncovered what they called a “blueprint” for the murders buried in his computer files. Among the documents was a set of checklists with notes reminding him to minimize noise, clean the bodies, and eliminate evidence.

As a condition of his guilty plea, Heuermann has agreed to work with the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit to assist in identifying other serial killers.

Since his arrest in July 2023, Heuermann has been held at the county jail in Riverhead. He will eventually serve his sentence at a state prison yet to be determined.

According to Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon, who oversees the Riverhead jail, Heuermann has spent the past three years in a segregated cell, reading crime novels, receiving occasional visits from attorneys or family members, and briefly exchanging correspondence with the notorious “Happy Face Killer.”

When officers set out in 2010 searching for a missing woman along a barrier island parkway near New York’s Gilgo Beach, they made a grim discovery — human remains scattered in the brush. Almost immediately, investigators feared they were dealing with the work of a serial killer.

Over the following years, DNA testing and other investigative tools helped authorities identify the victims, and in some cases, connect those remains to other discoveries made on Long Island years before. That investigation ultimately led to the arrest of Rex Heuermann, who pleaded guilty to murdering seven women and acknowledged in open court that he had killed an eighth.

Below is a chronological account of how this case unfolded:

November 20, 1993: Two hunters come across the body of Sandra Costilla, 28, in a wooded area of North Sea, a hamlet located in the Hamptons. Costilla had been living in New York City at the time of her death.

April 20, 1996: Partial remains belonging to Karen Vergata, 34, are found on Fire Island, a barrier beach along the coast. Investigators would not learn her identity until 2022, when updated DNA technology allowed them to make a positive identification. Vergata had been involved in sex work when she disappeared.

June 28, 1997: The partial remains of a woman are found inside a plastic tub at a state park in West Hempstead, New York. Because of a tattoo found on her body, investigators give her the nickname “Peaches.” Her true identity goes unknown for years, until 2025 when police identify her as Tanya Jackson, a U.S. Army veteran who had been living in Brooklyn before she vanished.

September 2000: Partial skeletal remains of Valerie Mack, 24, who had been working as an escort in Philadelphia, are found in a wooded section of Manorville, New York. Her family last saw her in the spring or summer of that year in Port Republic, New Jersey.

July 26, 2003: Partial skeletal remains of Jessica Taylor, who was 20 years old when she disappeared and had been working as an escort, are discovered in a wooded area of Manorville.

July 9, 2007: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who had traveled to New York from her home in Norwich, Connecticut, to engage in sex work, is last heard from by a friend. She tells the friend she is leaving her hotel to meet a client. Investigators would later determine through cellphone records that her phone was last active on Long Island.

July 10, 2009: Melissa Barthelemy, 24, a sex worker, is last seen at her apartment in the Bronx. She tells a friend she is going to meet a man and expects to return by morning. Location data from her phone places her last known whereabouts on Long Island. Within days, someone begins using her phone to make taunting calls to members of her family.

May 1, 2010: Shannan Gilbert, a sex worker, vanishes from the barrier island community of Oak Beach, New York, after fleeing a client’s home and knocking frantically on a neighbor’s door. In a recorded 911 call, she tells the dispatcher that people are after her, though she can be heard refusing offers of help. Her pimp, the client, and the neighbor all report to police that she seemed disoriented and ran off into the night on her own.

June 6, 2010: Megan Waterman, 22, who had come to Long Island from Maine for sex work, is last seen at a motel in Hauppauge, New York.

September 2, 2010: Amber Lynn Costello, 27, is last seen leaving her West Babylon home to meet a sex work client. A male acquaintance later tells investigators he believed the client arrived in a Chevrolet Avalanche.

December 11, 2010: A police officer and his dog stumble upon human remains during a training exercise along Ocean Parkway. Authorities initially think they may have found Gilbert, but the remains are later identified as those of Barthelemy.

December 13, 2010: Police discover the bodies of Costello, Brainard-Barnes, and Waterman along the same quarter-mile section of Ocean Parkway where Barthelemy’s remains had been located.

December 14, 2010: Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer publicly announces the discovery of the bodies and suggests that a serial killer may be responsible. Police expand their search efforts while continuing to look for any trace of Gilbert.

March 29, 2011: Some of Taylor’s remains are found along Ocean Parkway.

April 4, 2011: More of Valerie Mack’s remains surface along Ocean Parkway. Close to those remains, investigators also discover the remains of a 2-year-old girl, later identified through DNA testing as Tatiana Dykes, the daughter of Tanya Jackson. Elsewhere along the parkway, the remains of an Asian male are found. Investigators estimate he died somewhere between five and ten years earlier and was likely in his late teens or early twenties. He has still not been identified.

April 11, 2011: Additional remains of Vergata are found along Ocean Parkway, several miles to the west of Gilgo Beach. More remains of Jackson are also discovered along the same beach parkway.

December 13, 2011: Gilbert’s skeletal remains are found in a tidal marsh near Oak Beach. Following an autopsy, Suffolk County Police conclude that she accidentally drowned.

January 2022: The Suffolk County district attorney forms a new task force specifically to investigate the Gilgo Beach killings.

July 13, 2023: Heuermann is taken into custody and charged with the murders of Costello, Waterman, and Barthelemy. Critical evidence includes cellphone location data showing Heuermann and the victims were in the same locations at overlapping times, as well as DNA traces recovered from the remains.

January 16, 2024: Heuermann faces an additional charge in the death of Brainard-Barnes. Prosecutors reveal that a hair recovered with her body is genetically consistent with a DNA sample taken from Heuermann’s wife.

May 20, 2024: Investigators conduct a new search of Heuermann’s home, a process that continues for nearly a week.

June 6, 2024: Heuermann is charged with the murders of Costilla and Taylor.

December 17, 2024: A sealed indictment is made public, charging Heuermann in connection with Mack’s death.

December 18, 2025: A Florida man named Andrew Dykes enters a not guilty plea to charges of killing Tanya Jackson and Tatiana Dykes. Investigators say Andrew Dykes was Tatiana’s father, and that DNA evidence connected him to the crime. Though this case ultimately had no connection to the other Gilgo Beach killings, authorities say the investigation benefited from the additional resources that had been directed toward the serial killer probe.

April 8, 2026: Heuermann pleads guilty to seven counts of murder for the killings of Barthelemy, Brainard-Barnes, Costello, Costilla, Mack, Taylor, and Waterman. He also admits in court that he was responsible for the death of Vergata.

June 17, 2026: A judge is scheduled to formally sentence Heuermann to prison for the murders.

A small plane came down on a highway in Laredo, Texas Tuesday night and burst into flames, triggering a frantic rescue effort as drivers abandoned their cars and trucks to help free those trapped inside the burning aircraft.

The crash happened shortly after 10 p.m., according to Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department. The roadway where the plane went down, Loop 20, was shut down in both directions following the incident. Baeza said there were no immediate reports of injuries among motorists on the highway.

Footage shared online shows the aircraft tipped on its side and wedged against a highway barrier, with flames visible.

Zayra Garza, an esthetician, happened to be driving her coworkers home when she came across the crash scene. She pulled out her phone and began recording as she approached, eventually stopping her vehicle across from the burning plane.

Garza watched as someone inside the cockpit desperately tried to break through the window to get out. Within moments, other drivers had gotten out of their vehicles and were attempting to smash the window open from the outside to help.

Garza’s husband jumped out to join the effort. She then watched as the plane’s door swung open. Three people who appeared to be teenagers came rushing out, followed by what looked to be the pilot. A crew member then struggled to pull another person from the wreckage — someone who appeared to be unconscious.

“It looked like part of a movie. I was in shock,” Garza said of the chaotic scene.

“What was worrying me was the fire,” she added. “I was concerned that it could have just exploded at any time.”

When historian Geoffrey Ward visits the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum for research, he says he gets swept up in the atmosphere of FDR himself — a sense of comfortable, cheerful clutter that shaped how Roosevelt presented himself to the world.

“It feels like you’re stepping back into his world,” Ward said of the Hyde Park, New York property that was once the Roosevelt family home. “The library and home collections reflect all his many interests — stamps, coins, birds he shot and had stuffed as a boy, model ships, children’s books, books about naval history, the pony-drawn sleigh he rode in as a child, and on and on.”

Since Roosevelt helped establish the modern presidential library system in the late 1930s, a nationwide network of museums and research centers has taken shape. These sites are overseen in part by the National Archives and Records Administration, known as NARA, but each carries its own distinct character. They range from the scenic Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in California’s Simi Valley to the small-town Herbert Hoover Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa, to the sprawling Obama Presidential Center, which opens its doors to the public on June 19 — Juneteenth — in Chicago.

Historian Douglas Brinkley, who says he has made a point of visiting every post-FDR presidential library, describes them as essential gathering places for lectures, research, school groups, and visitors from around the country.

“Each of the libraries have their own aura,” Brinkley said. “Roosevelt came up with a perfect idea by gifting his home in Hyde Park to the people of America, instead of having his papers stored in a warehouse in Virginia or Maryland. He started a tradition of having them go where the president lived.”

Each library reflects the personality and legacy of the president it honors. Brinkley and other historians point out that while the archival side of these libraries is managed by NARA, the museum portions are funded by private donors who may prefer to highlight a president’s achievements and downplay his shortcomings.

For example, the Hoover library’s website includes a page about the Great Depression that emphasizes how some of the policies later associated with Roosevelt — who defeated Hoover in a landslide — were originally proposed by Hoover. The Richard Nixon library, meanwhile, was the center of a prolonged dispute between museum administrators and the former president and his allies over everything from control of his records to how prominently the Watergate scandal, which led to Nixon’s resignation, should be featured.

Max Boot, who authored a 2024 biography of Reagan, drew a distinction between his experience using the Reagan archives versus visiting the museum itself. He said the late president’s official records were “administered by federal employees in an entirely professional and apolitical fashion. There is no attempt to hide anything.” The museum, however, “naturally focuses on Reagan’s achievements and shortchanges his failures.”

“It’s designed to present a positive portrait. Thus, volumes critical of Reagan are not sold in the library bookstore,” Boot said.

Historian Ted Widmer, who previously served as a speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, acknowledged that presidential libraries will inevitably put the best face on a presidency, but said there has been some movement toward greater openness in recent years.

He singled out the Lyndon Johnson library in Austin, Texas, for being willing to confront LBJ’s widely criticized decisions during the Vietnam War. In 2023, the library drew renewed attention to one of Johnson’s most controversial moments — his 1948 Senate campaign, now broadly believed to have involved election fraud — by posting recordings on its website of interviews conducted by Associated Press reporter James W. Mangan with a former Texas election judge who admitted to certifying fraudulent votes that helped Johnson win.

“It is hard to know if future libraries will continue that trend, in an era in which history is increasingly politicized and polarized,” Widmer said. “But it’s healthy for our democracy to encourage the study of history as it really happened — not a sanitized version.”

The Obama Presidential Center has faced its own share of criticism, both for its scale and its appearance. Writing in The Guardian, critic Oliver Wainwright described it this way: “The building has an ominous presence, its mostly windowless heft recalling a menacing sci-fi headquarters.” The center has also drawn scrutiny for the decision not to include a NARA facility on the grounds. A large portion of the former president’s records exist in digital form, a shift that historian Brinkley expects will only grow more common with future presidential libraries.

Up to one million visitors per year are expected at the center’s 20-acre campus. Highlights include a public library branch, a basketball court built to NBA standards, a fruit and vegetable garden, and a playground. Former President Barack Obama tested out one of the site’s tall metal slides during a visit in May.

“That was fantastic,” he said after sliding down, according to a video shared on the Obama Foundation’s social media. “I was a little tall for it.”

Obama was personally involved in shaping many of the center’s details, from the textured stonework on the museum’s 225-foot tower to a pair of high-backed reading chairs inside the library. One of his favorite features, though, is a set of charcoal grills that will be available for anyone to use. He first floated the idea at a community meeting in 2017, drawing warm laughter from the crowd.

“We don’t have any folks who grill here?” Obama said at the time. “I thought this was the South Side of Chicago.”

The U.S. military announced Tuesday that it attacked a vessel in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, killing one person while two others survived the strike.

The action is the most recent in a series of military strikes that human rights organizations describe as extrajudicial killings, while the Trump administration frames them as operations against what it calls “narco-terrorists.”

According to U.S. Southern Command, which posted the announcement on X, one male died in the strike and two males were pulled from the water alive. The U.S. Coast Guard was also notified to assist with search and rescue efforts.

Survivors of these strikes have been rare, making Tuesday’s incident unusual.

The Southern Command stated the targeted vessel was being operated by what it described as “Designated Terrorists Organizations” and was traveling along “known narco-trafficking routes.” However, the military did not name those organizations, identify the individuals involved, or provide supporting evidence for its claims.

Since September, U.S. military strikes on similar vessels have resulted in more than 200 deaths. President Donald Trump’s administration has defended the campaign as targeting boats suspected of carrying illegal drugs.

Legal experts and human rights advocates both inside the United States and around the world have raised serious concerns about whether these strikes are lawful. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both labeled the strikes unlawful extrajudicial killings.