2 service members killed near US-Mexico border in vehicle accident: NORTHCOM
(SAINT TERESA, NM) — Two service members were killed and another is in serious condition following a vehicle accident earlier Tuesday in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, the United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM) said in a statement.
Shortly before 9 a.m. “Three service members deployed in support of Joint Task Force Southern Border were involved in a vehicle accident,” NORTHCOM said.
Tuesday’s accident are the first fatalities associated with the United States military’s mission along the border with Mexico that have been disclosed.
More than 10,000 active duty service members have been authorized for the border mission.
The cause of the accident is under investigation, officials said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW JERSEY) — New Jersey Transit train engineers have officially commenced their strike, shutting down commuter trains and leaving hundreds of thousands of commuters scrambling to find other modes of transportation.
Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union had been threatening to go on strike unless NJ Transit officials and the union were able to agree on new contract terms and conditions for the workers who drive the trains.
A deal was close but not reached, according to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, resulting in all New Jersey Transit commuter trains and the MTA Metro-North West of Hudson service to stop running when the strike began at 12:01 a.m. on Friday.
Tom Haas, the general chairman for BLET, told ABC News on Friday that “it felt like” they were close to reaching a deal, but the two were “still several dollars apart and New Jersey Transit was unable to bridge that gap.”
“We are ready, willing and able to talk at any time,” Haas said. “Ultimately, it was New Jersey Transit that decided to walk away, which is unfortunate because we don’t want to be in this situation.”
BLET National Vice President James Louis said during a press conference on Friday that negotiations between the union and NJ Transit officials will not resume until Sunday.
“We hope this is not a long strike,” Louis said.
On Thursday, both sides met again for eleventh-hour negotiations to avert the strike, in addition to a meeting in Washington, D.C., on Monday with the National Mediation Board, but no resolution was reached.
During a press conference late Thursday evening, Murphy and NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri encouraged commuters to work from home on Friday.
“If you can work from home, certainly tomorrow, and you’re out there watching that would be a really good day to do so,” Murphy said.
Kolluri said Thursday evening there was an imminently achievable deal and negotiations weren’t a “lost cause.” They are expected to resume negotiations on Sunday morning, according to Kolluri.
After a New Jersey Transit board meeting on Wednesday, Kolluri told reporters he was “confident and optimistic” about their efforts to avert a strike.
“I am going to stay at the negotiating table as long as it takes,” Kolluri said. “If it takes two to tango, I think if we can all focus on the task at hand, which is to get a fair and affordable agreement, I think we can avert a strike.”
BLET National President Mark Wallace said during a press conference on May 9 that it’s been five years since train engineers working for NJ Transit have received a pay increase.
“Reasonable people would vote for an agreement that is fair,” Wallace said.
Haas said during the same news conference that engineers working for NJ Transit earn an average salary of $113,000 a year. If New Jersey Transit CEO Kris Kolluri agrees to an average salary of $170,000 a year for engineer operators, then “we got a deal,” Haas said.
“NJ TRANSIT locomotive engineers already have average total earnings of $135,000 annually, with the highest earners exceeding $200,000,” according to a statement on the New Jersey Transit website regarding negotiations with the BLET.
During a separate press conference on May 9, Kolluri responded to the union’s arguments, saying Haas previously agreed to a wage increase to $49.82 an hour but then later demanded even higher wages because he thought there was a “better pot at the end of the rainbow.”
“I cannot keep giving money left and right to solve a problem. It all comes down to, who is going to pay for this? Money does not grow on trees,” Kolluri said.
ABC News requests sent to NJ Transit and the BLET for comment regarding Wallace, Haas and Kolluri’s statements concerning pay increase claims did not receive a response.
NJ Transit states that if they were to accept BLET’s terms, it would cost both them and New Jersey taxpayers $1.363 billion between July 2025 and June 2030. Additionally, if BLET chooses to strike, the taxpayer cost of providing a limited alternative service via buses would be $4 million per day, NJ Transit claims.
NJ Transit officials have said the strike would “disrupt the lives of more than 350,000 commuters” and developed a contingency plan that includes adding “very limited capacity to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and contracting with private carriers to operate bus service” for commuters that typically rely on the trains.
But even with the expanded bus service, NJ Transit said that it “estimates that it can only carry approximately 20% of current rail customers” because the bus system doesn’t have the capacity to replace commuter rail service.
Xuan Sharon Di, associate professor of civil engineering and engineering mechanics at Columbia University, told ABC News before the strike began that it could be a “disaster” for the traffic in Manhattan due to the increased bus and car traffic into the city from commuters unable to take the train. There also will be the added penalty of commuters into Manhattan having to pay recently enacted congestion pricing.
“New Jersey Transit is the backbone for people who live in New Jersey to move around. This is actually shocking to me,” Di told ABC News of the prospect of a strike.
Steven Chien, civil and environmental engineering professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, said many of his colleagues use NJ Transit to commute and that a strike will “paralyze vital transportation arteries in our regions.”
(NEW YORK) — Over half of Puerto Rico had their electricity restored by Thursday evening following an island-wide blackout that left 1.4 million customers in the dark and disrupted service at hospitals, its international airport and hotels, according to the Associated Press.
The outage, which began Wednesday afternoon, also left more than 400,000 residents without water. By Thursday evening, power had been restored to 57% of customers, while water service resumed for 83% of the affected population, the AP reported.
The cause of the blackout remains under investigation as of Thursday.
LUMA Energy, the private company responsible for power transmission on the island, said in a statement that the massive outage appears to have been caused by a combination of factors, including a “failure in the protection system as initial trigger” and vegetation on a transmission line along the island’s northern coast.
“This sequence of failures triggered a chain of events that resulted in an island-wide outage,” LUMA said in the statement.
In a Wednesday X post, LUMA Energy said it could take two to three days to restore service to 90% of customers. It noted that the priority was restoring power to critical facilities like Centro Médico hospital in the capital San Juan.
Earlier in the day, LUMA Energy said the Palo Seco plant, just outside San Juan, came back online around 3 p.m., “which represents a key step toward system recovery.”Rep. Ritchie Torres criticized the ongoing power crisis in an Instagram post.
“The three million American citizens of Puerto Rico have long been denied affordable and reliable electricity — despite paying some of the highest utility rates in the United States,” Torres said. “Access to dependable power — a basic right most Americans take for granted — remains out of reach for millions on the island. As we speak, more than 400,000 Puerto Ricans are without electricity in the wealthiest nation on Earth. That is a national disgrace.”
The blackout is the latest in a series of significant power disruptions that have plagued the island in recent years, following the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017, which destroyed much of the power grid. The island’s aging power infrastructure has been a persistent source of frustration for residents, who face frequent outages and some of the highest electricity rates in the U.S.
In December, Puerto Rico experienced an island-wide blackout on New Year’s Eve when an underground power line failure plunged the island into darkness for two days.
Power outages have become so common in Puerto Rico that many residents have installed solar panels and batteries in their homes and businesses. The ongoing instability of the power grid has also led to protests, with many criticizing LUMA, which took over power transmission and distribution in 2021.
(PERRYSBURG, OHIO) — A 24-year-old Venezuelan man who was arrested for pretending to be a 16-year-old high school student in Ohio is now facing a detainer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Anthony Emmanuel Labrador Sierra was arrested on Monday after he posed as a teenager in January 2024, according to the City of Perrysburg Police.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer for Labrador on Tuesday, the DHS said.
“ICE lodged a retainer to ensure that this criminal illegal alien is removed from this community and is no longer able to prey on the students of Perrysburg High School,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, announced in a press release on Wednesday.
According to a police report, Labrador had contacted Perrysburg Schools in November 2023, wanting to enroll as a student, claiming that “he had been homeless and was an immigrant from Venezuela.”
He also told the school that he was a victim of human trafficking, police said.
When he met with the school to begin the enrollment process, Labrador presented a birth certificate from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with a birthdate of Dec. 2, 2007, police said. At the time, he told the school he was staying at an address in Toledo, and he started as a student on Jan. 19, 2024.
Kathy and Brad Melfred, who had housed exchange students in the past and had adoptive children, were contacted about Labrador. The Melfreds agreed to assist Labrador and he began residing with them on March 21, 2024, police said.
The couple was granted permanent guardianship over Labrador through the Wood County Common Pleas Court Juvenile Division and they also assisted him in getting a social security number and an Ohio driver’s license, police said.
Then on May 14, the Melfreds were contacted by a woman, Evelyn Camacho, who stated that Labrador was “actually a 24-year-old and he was the father of her child,” police said. Camacho sent the Melfreds a picture of Labrador’s driver’s license with a birthdate of March 27, 2001, along with Facebook pictures of her with Labrador and a small child, police said.
Police said they reached out to the United States Border Patrol for assistance in the investigation, who advised that Labrador had an actual birthdate of March 27, 2001, an expired work visa and was considered “an overstay in this country.”
Officials said his work visa expired the same year he reached out to Perrysburg Schools to enroll.
On Monday at 4:15 p.m., Labrador was arrested after he was located riding in a vehicle on Interstate 75 and was booked on forgery charges, police said in a statement.
Labrador was also a member of the junior varsity soccer and swim teams at the high school, and the district has reported the situation to the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
The suspect remains in custody at the Wood County Jail and his next court date is scheduled for May 29, according to jail records. It is unclear if Labrador has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
